Wednesday, February 9, 2011

We've Got No Fields, But...

It is commonly known that prior to the 20th century, the only reason anyone ever had children was to help harvest the fields.  From the age of 2 until they were married at the age of 15, children earned their keep and paid back their debt for being birthed by working for free, plus room and board, on the family's farm.

Since the industrial revolution, people have discovered other reasons to have children, most of which are great.  Some folks are content with these modern reasons.  Others have held on to modern, philosophical reasons for procreating but still sought to discover the modern day equivalent to "harvesting the fields."  Today, I announce, that I have found it (though there may be others).

I love my girls, and would love them unconditionally even if they couldn't or wouldn't ever provide me with any practical return for my love.  That's just how it is.  That said, if they COULD and WOULD, say, help daddy cut his hair and, while doing so, provide him with blog fodder?  Score!

After some technical difficulties (see the post from 2/2), I THINK I should be able get the video posted here OK.  I am relieved about this, because my next step would have been to upload thousands of consecutive still screen shots, then have you print them out at home and assemble them into a flip book.  I'm glad it didn't come to that.

A few disclaimers/things to look for:
1)  I'm still working on connecting video posts from my computer to YouTube to WPFF in the most efficient way possible while still maintaining the best picture.  I doubt I have achieved the pinnacle of these goals, so I hope that future video posts may be more clear.  It's also conceivable that in tinkering with this process, the video may either be temporarily removed from this post or simply not play.  We'll see.  Just be warned.

2)  No child labor laws were broken in the making of this video.

3)  I know it's long.  I did a LOT of cutting and trimming (more than half of the original video is on the e-cutting room floor), and finally just said, "OK, I gotta get this posted, long or otherwise."  Faster, better, editing is another goal of mine.

4)  The part where words pop up on the screen is just a text of what I was saying at the time, added for effect.  It's really small and hard to read.  Sorry.  Something else I hope to get better at.

5)  My girl asks a lot of questions, but notice the one particular one that she asks--unprompted--that is the same one that every person is asked every time they get their hair cut.  She's a natural.




That's all for now.  See you Friday.

-THP

3 comments:

  1. You are a brave man. And Alex did a great job!

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  2. Yes, props to Alex for sure (and Beth for some minor touch ups later). Also, I just noticed that I wrote in point 3: "I know it's long. I did a LOT of cutting and trimming." Re: the video, not the hair. No pun intended, I assure you.

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  3. I loved that you were wearing your ?'s Group shirt! :) Alex did a great job! I was rolling at her questions and her comments throughout the video. Her question of "Is that better?" was so fitting. A brave, brave man you are!

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