Don P. Hooper

Over the past several days, I’ve found myself extremely stressed. Headaches/Migranes and just being a downright miserable mood. I’ll spare you the reasons.

But, at about 9:30pm on Sept 24, I made a decision that would end up changing the course of my week. I decided to head out to the city (NYC) to attend the Halo 3 Launch Party at BestBuy.

I have to admit, just getting ready and leaving home with Halo on the brain diverted my attention from the difficult moments of the past week.

Once I got to Best Buy, the pure excitement of everyone gathered peacefully outside BestBuy and cheering in unity for Halo 3 just boosted my spirit. The whole time I’m text messaging my friends Brian and Sean with real time updates from the party. Brian, one of the members of my Halo team, was also getting ready for the latest release by camping out at his video game store in New Jersey. Exciting times.

By 11:45 my nephew arrived at the Gamestop we reserved our copies of Halo 3 at. And, by 2am, my entire family was online playing Halo. Well, that is to say, my brother, nephew and myself.

Good times. Good times.

Halo 3 is on the horizon. This is how the real gamers prepare.

For the second year in a row Coomacka Island took center stage at Kings Plaza shopping mall in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, NY. This year’s appearance, on Sept. 22, was drastically smaller than last year. Mall traffic was down because of the weather. Also, we didn’t have a PA system like in 2006. So, we were unable to do other activities like contests and music.

The smaller crowd lent to a more informal reading with the children, but without the mic and speaker setup it was difficult to attract the larger audience like last year. The reading went very well, and the children all enjoyed it “Anansi Jr. and the Mango Truck.” The smaller setup also gave us an opportunity to talk more with parents and other people about Coomacka Island.

I try not to say the word regret, because it is a word that makes you get trapped to much in the past. But, I do feel in the future it will be necessary to lock-in a PA system at any public book reading. Without it, the ambiant sounds of the location tends to drown out the reading.

Anyway, back to writing. Later.

I just had to share this video.

Well this manuscript rejection letter was more of a rejection email. Actually, it was precisely a rejection email, and not the form letter you typically receive in the mail. I received it early this morning, so I can only assume someone woke up, got into work, and said, “Hmmmm, what should I do today? I know! I’m going to send out a rejection email.”

Something about the conciseness of the wording is unusually cold, or maybe it was the “PS” at the end of the email. Whatever the case, it made me laugh, so I thought I’d share the following – from a publisher who shall remain anonymous.

Email:

Many thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, this one didn’t work for us. It’s not suited to our present needs.

Sincerely,
The Editors

PS: Your submission has been recycled.

Please do not reply to this email.

As I sit here waiting for one of my latest video projects to render in Final Cut, I’m slowly realizing I need a new mac. The key word here is “slowly.” You see nothing’s wrong with my current machine. This PowerBook G4 has been a work horse for the past few years, and has never let me down.

Problem is… when it comes to rendering video it’s just not cutting it anymore. The bigger the project the more computing power I need. And, right now I need a lot. Now, for everything else it’s still great. The PowerBook still handles ProTools like a champion. But, video is just a whole other story.

One problem is that the RAM on the 12″ PowerBook only goes to 1GB. Yeah, I know… I should have got the 15″, but oh well. At the time, I wasn’t doing so much video work. Problem two is that I’m still working with firewire 400. I need to step up to at least firewire 800 with a RAID setup. Because even if I get a new laptop, I’ll still have a serious problem when it comes to working with HD footage on anything less than firewire 800. Problem three, a laptop just doesn’t have the computing power of a desktop with multiple processors. Problem four, all of this costs money.

Oh well, enough complaining. Maybe, if the stars align right, Steve Jobs will read my blog and send me a fully loaded desktop with all the accoutrements. Here’s hoping.

And, I leave you with this Cassius quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Wednesday Sept. 12 at 9:30. Appearing with Blackout!

Tickets are $5

The UCB Theatre is located at:
307 W. 26th St.
New York, NY

The Sunny-Side Up Players: Amey Goerlich, Don P. Hooper, Angie Martin, DC Pierson, Katie Schorr, Ari Scott, Nathan Shelkey, and Michael Short.

Troupe Director: Timothy Michael Cooper

After two weeks of guerilla video shoots, we’ve wrapped production. Overall, it went very smoothly. Well, relatively smoothly. There was one incident a couple of weeks ago with the police on an outside shoot.

Seems a pedestrian, taxi cab driver, had an issue with us shooting in public. Without going into details, he stopped traffic hailed down two police cars and told them to arrest us. Luckily, all the police officers involved in the situation realized the taxi driver was not in his right frame of mind and ordered the driver to stop obstructing traffic.

Long story short we were free to go. Phew. What a relief.

Anyway, now we’re switching to editing mode. Which may be another month of work. So, on the production side, we’ll be focused on meetings with networks to pitch show ideas.

And, for now, I’m back to focusing on my writing. Well, that’s until Halo 3 comes out at least.

If knowledge is power, then why do so few seek it?

So, it’s my second week running two production studios. Well, only one production house really, but two offices. It’s fun and hectic at the same time. I’m always up for a challenge. Everyday is a different adventure: from stopping traffic while filming on a Manhattan street corner, to working with millionaires on random projects.

I have to laugh when people walk into the main office and think that the audio studio is my setup. Wish it was, but that will have to wait for another day. I have enough on my plate. And, I really have been neglecting my manuscript.

Luckily, the senior sound designer comes back next week, so I’ll have some freedom back. Anyway, let me get back to editing. Time doesn’t stop, nor do I.