Not so sure about the New man part, but I do do my own ironing, can cook and sometimes can bee seen wearing pink.
I am however certain that I have a new mac. oh yeah at last. The new office one is great but I quite often have to put in extra hours to do production and am just not prepared to stay in the office until 9pm after I have done a full day already.
The new office one also made me realize just how slow the old laptop was.

It’s allot of money to spend but at least now I can read to or play with my children in between crunching video or soundslides.
best thing about it is the magnetic power cable, lets hope that will save me from crashing it to the floor and ending up with costly repairs. I did that twice with the old one. ( anybody wanna buy a dented and slow 5 year old G4 powerbook?)

Sarah is back. My long time colleague is back after her 2nd baby. We are really pleased she has returned on 2 days a week.
Full of enthusiasm and a ‘can do’ attitude I am hoping some of her good spirit will rub off and we can all get a bit of a lift from her return.
Her job has changed a considerably since she left and some great opportunities now present themselves to her in the form of multimedia for the web.
Her first go at producing a soundslide for the remembrance service in the center of town yesterday was truly a great job. 20mins of ‘how to’ and she flew at the task producing an excellent show. I am put to shame by her photoshop skill and eye.
See her show here (here)

I can’t recall the last time I wasn’t working on this Sunday of the year. I’ve always felt it a very big part of my role in the community to cover the Croydon, or other, events.
This year however I am on a day off and, after swimming, went down to the Brighton memorial to join the many hundreds also paying their respects.

Despite the parade and ceremony hardly being a patch on the Croydon one (which is really good) it was very touching and, for once not being able to hide behind the lens, I spent time thinking of those that have sacrificed and those that continue every day to do their bit.

As I hugged my children I looked around to see other dads doing the same. I thought of those in Afghanistan and Iraq who cannot be holding their children today and those who may never hold them again.

you can see last years Croydon parade (here)

I don’t claim to have any knowledge of football and that pretty much suits me but I did smirk at one of my jobs earlier in the week. 3 Fulham football club 1st team players paid a visit to a youth club to give some football tips and to be interviewed by the children for a video they are making. In the question and answer session after the kick about one of the boys asked ” where did you get your hat?” and another, “how much did it cost?”  See, you always gotta take care of your headgear!

While I’m thinking about what is on your head I am producing a video for one of my photographers and wondering WHERE his head was when he was shooting this piece! pan left, pan right, zoom in, zoom out,wiggle it all about! haha it’s early days but I do wish I had asked him to hold the shots for just a little bit to help me edit.

Having birthday fun with Little Sitbonzo tomorrow as she turns 10. Boy, do I feel old.

shh. keep your voice down but little bonzo *2 and I are just about to sneak out to pick up the very surprise birthday present for little bonzo *1 who turns 10 at the end of the week.
Bonzo *1 has been wanting a cat for the last 2 years and we had to wait until the dog grew up a little before we got her one.
The heating is working, the lens thingy is ordered pumkins were carved and sweets scoffed, I’m not having to stand on a cold touchline this afternoon. Life is good.

Just before the start of my very long weekend off I worked late last night to get the hat video produced ready for the big Friday rush of viewers to the Advertiser site.
Along with most of the other shows I have produced this week it will probably live only on the Sitbonzo pages and the Advertiser video page which dosn’t get quite as many views as the main news pages but we are developing quite a following.

The heating man unfortunately couldn’t finish the replacement of our boiler! Its freezing cold in the house so it is lucky I am/was planning on staying in bed as long as is possible. Todays itinery says otherwise. Including making pankakes, pumpkin carving, driving little Sitbonzo’s to various classes including trampoline, cricket and swimming. Followed by some afternoon house tydying, trip into town to look for an adapter for my new video camera lens thingy followed by a little light trick or treating. My children will NOT be doing unplesant tricks.

So, I’m off until late shift Tuesday with a bit of London to Brighton veteran cars on Sunday morning. cool a rama. bon chance.

Being a youth in the 80’s my clubbing days were filled with sitting on the floor doing rowing and drinking vast amounts of expensive beer.
skip forward to tonight and it was a far more sophisticated scene. I did’nt sit down once and didnt feel too much of an old boy that was until a very pretty young woman introduced herself as a friend of mines daughter!
Paul and I were of course shooting pics for the Miss Croydon Advertiser competition at HUB nightclub.
A great turnout despite the advert on the Advertiser web front page reading ” Free entry into HUB on Friday night if you enter Miss Croydon Advertiser”

If you had your picture took, thanks very much.

Anyhow, well past my bedtime as I am taking little Sitbonzo *1 swimming at 7-30am!

Office move went well and nice Mr IT supped up the new Mac G5 to a spanking 6 gigs of ram. ( for non computer people that is about as fast as as very fast thing.)

Sunday morning sees me just leaving for a shift. Its been difficult lately to commision good freelance photographers so I have to get things covered somehow.

Talking of getting things covered, Its the naked bike ride this afternoon at queens park. To raise awareness of green issues. Its really pretty chilly today so I’m not entireley sure how much awareness they will be able to raise.
I want to offer moral support, so may just show that by restricting my clothes.

I will just wear a nice warn and toasty fleace, coat socks and warm trousers.
I will NOT wear a nice warm wooly hat and gloves.

By the way. Monday sees us shooting MISS CROYDON portraits at Picture Partnership’s studio’s Peal Road Croydon. If you are or know anybody that fancies coming down please let them know. Its free and may be quite fun. I will also be wearing clothes for that shoot too.

Phew. It’s been a while. Packing and throwing so much stuff from our office. The move is on Friday and we are pretty much there. Nice IT man has delivered the Mac G5 but has also put a notice on the Bonzo cave which says ‘multimedia suite’ !
I like to think of myself as less of a ’suite’ kinda guy and more of a 3* backpacking photojournalist so, that is going to have to be ‘modified’ at my earliest opportunity.
I am very seriously thinking of buying a camp bed as poor old mac (laptop) is once again giving me grief crunching three videos and 2 soundslides.
Fergus has shot 2 really strong Soundslides and I am trying to code them so they can go onto the Advertiser video page.

Crunching continues… The Black history month project is coming along slowly with copy and paste from computer to external hard disk. Takes more time but I may have some good news at last.
You may have seen we are due to be moving office soon. A new multimedia suite ( the bonzo cave) is being built and the nice Mr IT director is giving me a spare MacG5 with some grunt. ( insert big smiley)

Off again shortly to the Afro Caribbean Centre for some dominos and have to pick up some rum on the way.

I shot some video at the new office which you can see (here)

Grr. I really do need to get something sorted out for my computer woes. Danny isn’t going to be pleased when he gets to the office today. The hours worth of video he shot yesterday at the AfroCaribean cultural centre is still on the camera!
I told him I would do the edit but unfortunatly, despite me wiping pretty much everything off my machine.. you guessed it.
COMPUTER SAYS NO!

Sorry Dan, you are going to have to crunch it on your machine.

maybe video shot to be crunched on this little mac will only be able to be 15-20mins.

Hollywood is calling. I can imagine the phone ringing now. ‘Amber the counting dog” they are SHOUTING…. ” We WANT Amber the magic counting dog!”

I jest but, cute animal videos get big audiences on youtube.
Amber was in fact, a very sweet little poodle and can indeed do magic.
Watch the video to find out how good she really is!

It was an assignment for our sister paper the Surrey Mirror. Their newsdesk, quite rightly, decided that a video shot on a reporters mobile phone really wasn’t quite up to their usual high standards. I grabbed my passport and wellington boots for the long trek deep into the rural idil that is Redhill.

Quality or Quantity?
It’s a subject that is discussed much in the field of newspaper video and multimedia at the moment.
There are those, like me, that think that if a job is worth doing then it’s worth doing well.
There are, unfortunatly, those that think that if you throw content up that is badly shot and edited and there is enough of it then, it will do the trick.
Howard Owens is a well know Web comentator who believes this is the way forward. (howardowens.com) I strongly disagree.

If you take a newspaper with a good reputation for good stills photography and journalism and just write or shoot substandard the readers will be dissatisfied and may leave without letting us know they are unhappy.
There are many UK newspapers crashing their video service with badly shot, edited and presented multimedia due to the Owens way of thinking.

I really and passionately believe that whatever we do as publishers, be it online or in print it needs to be done well.

Bon weekend.

:-)

There is a movement around, I forget what it is called, but the ethos is to just do a kind act once a week without expecting any payback of any kind.
I once bought some ice cream for some ladies sitting outside their shop on a hot day. They were very surprised and very happy. It cost me a pound but it was worth a fortune.

So, when I saw one of my collegues walking to work yesterday from her new place about a mile from the office, I thought she may appreciate the small folding bike I have laying in the back of my garage. I need to pop to the florist to get some ribbon just to make it look the part.

Please Anna, don’t fall off it!

:-)

I’ve been at home for a few days with a gout attack. Trying to put my time to good use I have been trying to learn Final Cut (video editing software) It’s harder than you may think as I can’t even connect the camera!
I also desperately need to free up some space on the hard drive. ( did I mention my Mac is sick?) I stumbled across this old picture from 1990 which relates nicely to my post of a few days ago.
(old post)

My buddy Andy is pointing to the spot where we got duffed up a second time on our travels. On this occasion the ‘bandits’ had been europeans traveling on motorbikes on the same road as us. They were cutting us up and being aggressive too. Further down the road we found them under a truck, one of their heads sadly some distance away from the rest of their body. At the time we called it bad Karma.

Designated driver here was good to his word and stayed dry at the tapas joint. Its nice to have such good friends that don’t take offense when you tell them where to stuff the idea of splitting the £40 Scotch and £30 beer tab 3 ways when you have spent all evening on coca cola!

Unfortunatly, drinking buddies decided it was a great plan to go back to my brothers place for some more ‘conversation’ No longer designated driver, I was forcibly made to drink red wine until 1.30am by which time I was proper drunk.

I have a hangover and a major headache. Just got back from shooting the healthy living conference at Fairfield halls and did slink around hoping to be unobtrusive.

I know I’m going to get it in the neck when Mrs Sitbonzo finds out I’m not going to be rolling down the drive later this evening but it IS my brother’s birthday tomorrow!

I got a call a while ago from him giving vague venue and time. I’m quite impressed that both my friends and I can still react at such short notice to an invitation to party.

Its deadline tomorrow so not to much beer for me, in fact I think I may be the designated driver so maybe no beer!

It’s strange how relationships go. One moment you are trusting and loyal the next thing you need to sit down, take a breath and re evaluate your values and opinions.

There have been some pretty strong voices raised over the course of the past few days which have left me wondering just where the heavy handled club falls into other peoples communication tool bag.

I was once smacked hard in the chest with the butt of rifle belonging to an angry Indian soldier. We were crossing the border into Kashmir. Out of the blue the group held us up, making unresonable demands on me and my traveling companions and refused to negotiate. They too left unsatisfied.

It’s possibly been one of the most demanding weeks. Training, early morning drugs busts, really busy days, followed by trying to make sense of a hard to edit video.
Getting in at 7am and leaving at 10pm. I’ve not eaten in 24 hours and not seen my kids since Sunday.
I am unwashed, unshaven and generally unpleasant. At least one of the new reporters was growled at earlier on today.

Managed to delete the whole of last weeks archive of photos and my card full of images from today.

I gotta get home now! Need to get some shut eye before another busy day tomorrow.

Spent the day locked up in the board room in training. It’s not so bad, but I do suffer if I can’t get outside.

I was very flattered late last week to be contacted by award winning international journalist and multimedia Guru David Dunkley Gyimah (David’s site)

He spent some time with us in November 2007 making a piece about multimedia in newsrooms around the world. We, the lowly Croydon Advertiser, mixing it with the Telegraph and Al jazeera ( we’re at the end)
(view video)

He also later blogged about us when we were messing about for a lighting forum we have all learned a lot from
(strobist.com)

its long (11mins) , and if you are not into photography, a bit dull after about 2mins but there is some prize winning messing about in there.
(Silly video)

Click here to see the finished
results from the lighting set ups.

The slightly badly written job sheet said. “Portrait of James and Armagnac. The restaurant is under new management.”
I dutifully turned up at 10am, on time and smiling as usual. One of the waiters unlocked the front door and I asked for James and Armagnac. Oh, and just how do I pronounce his name? He looked a little perplexed. Waiting for them to arrive I busied myself with setting up my lights for a portrait.
Not until I asked what time Mr Armagnac would arrive did I realise we were talking about the places fine selection of french Brandy.

bon weekend mon amis (SEE NEW VIDEO BELOW)

how do you get 39 filing cabinet draws into about 10?

If you know the answer please let me know.
Due to some reorganisation, our old files of prints needs to be radically condensed then scanned. Its a bit of a mammoth task and one we are cracking into today. We need to be a little covert as each print is known personally by our librarian and will be sadly missed.

actually picking up the video camera for the first time in ages later this afternoon.

Sometime the jobs for a local paper photographer are pretty mundane. After all, It cant all be ‘run n gun’ can it!
Yesterday’s first day back at work was one of those worthy days which are good PR for the paper. We are after all, in the community for the community and for the people involved, it was a big event for them.
However, it can sometimes be difficult to interpret some jobs into interesting images.
Some jobs are just Non Visual Assignments.
1) exterior of shop
2) crane delivers classroom (2hours after I arrived)
3) plaque unveiling
4) lifeboats give talk to townswomens guild in church hall
5) tennis player (good job)
6) meeting at town hall

Not much to get your teeth into there and that sometimes happens. Mind you, It may help on assignments, if we know who we are supposed to be interviewing or, what they look like.
I’m sure the people walking past us, security and the reporter from the other local paper were impressed that we were there in force but, In 40mins I took 3 photographs so did feel a bit like a trophy bride.

hmmm. lets see what today brings.

the bad weather held off just long enough to make this weekend on the Isle of Wight great. Sunny and quiet. Surfing and plenty of good times with the little sitbonzo’s including how to make fire, cut marshmallow sticks and answer one of the all important questions in life……
do the white marshmallows taste different to the pink ones?

Still can’t decide. Better have some more.

So, in true rock star fashion there has been a bit of a mix up. Neil and the other band dudes did their practice but (forgot!!) to tell me where and when. I don’t think I am too much of a dictator behind the camera but I may have scared these good ol boys.
you can catch them at the Hare and Hounds, Preston Circus, Brighton at about 10pm Friday.

Mrs Sitbonzo booked the ferry to the island so the BonzoBus is now loaded and waiting to take us on the road. Bit of a misfire but she is pulling strongly ( the bus that is.) This may well be the last major road trip before she visits the tin doctor.

Fingers crossed for better weather than last time.
p.s. thanks for your feedback about the Knife videos.

What have I done? As we dropped the little sitbonzos off to swimming club we were spotted by some old friends so we stopped for a drink a chat and a plate of nachos. Turns out Neil is getting the band back on the road for a one off gig.( sounds more like the Blues Brothers) Now, I’ve never seen them play, but the playlist sounds good. They’re doing a charity gig in Brighton on Friday night. ( no, Its not to raise money for the penguin)

I’ll be in the Isle of Wight so wont be able to go but, did mention I need some video practice and tomorrow nights rehersal does sound like it could be some fun although I AM supposed to be taking some time off!
I have a plan. get mrs sitbonzo to drop me off, Drink beer and play at being video guy. Any blur / crap shots will magic into creative interpretation. edit quick and dirty and job will be a youtube success. oh yes the simple plans are the best, ones that involve getting drunk and doing fun stuff are better. Now, where did i leave the rest of my smoke grenades.

mmm wonder if Carrie Fisher will turn up.

The alarm clock goes off every day at 5.30am. Those days that I’m not off to work I turn it off. But, it turns out I don’t need an alarm clock because my body does a pretty good job of waking me up itself.
Voila. 6am bank holiday and I am wide awake. I’ve been wandering about, working on my plans for world domination and looking on ebay. I wonder what time I can wake up the kids? should I put in a bid for a 1980 Mercedes 450sl?

Eventually finished the ‘Knife crime’ videos by midnight Thursday. The late hour due to the last showing to web editor spotting that 2 of the stills in the middle of one of the shows were not the right boy. That meant a 2 hour remake of the whole thing.

I’m dissapointed not to have had much feedback but, I guess I’ve also not had any complaints. viewings are standing at just under 700.

Holidays this week, the last for a while, maybe we’ll try the Isle of Wight again. Weather still doesn’t look great. Meeting with the Grand Fromage on Tuesday. Can’t decide to turn up to the meeting in the campervan and Hawian shirt. Probably best not to.

Well. The back of this project is broken. Come to think of it, most of me is broken too. I’ve definitely got a cold coming, probably due to having the door to the edit cave closed, with the air con on for 2 days straight.
1 more video to encode then all 5 need to be uploaded to Vimeo and the Advertiser video hosting service. I guess that will take about 3 hours so, if I’m lucky I will be able to put this all up later this evening. If you have an RSS feed you will know as soon as they get posted.
I warn you though it may be tough viewing.

Mrs Sitbonzo has been very understanding but, I left her a message telling that for the 4th night in a row she will be home alone ( with the BonzoBrats of course )
Holiday next week
Oh yeah, My mac is sad.

Man. I’ve been pulling all kinds of tricks to try to get this all to come together. I’ve got an external hard drive that is almost full and a mac that is rather frail. A colleagues Macbook with a DVD burner but no power lead!
Got thrown out of the office at 10 last night and got back here at 730 again. Still, I’ve produced the 5 videos as best I can and now just have to encode them and get them up onto various hosting sites. I guess I may be pulling another late one but these shows need to be live for the paper coming out tomorrow.
Updates later.

I’ve been sitting here since 7.30 this morning trying to import the near on 3 hours of video from last nights meeting. This mac is DEAD I am sure. The Wing Wang hard disk is just not big enough and the processor too slow.
Its now just after 1pm and I am seriously thinking of just tossing it out of the window. Did I say that my Mac needed replacing?

I’ve just borrowed one of the freelance photographers machines and am actually sitting open mouthed gawping at it as it is capturing the video in real time as opposed to the 1/4 speed mine will do with small clips. Hells Teeth!

gggrrrrr. Well, at least this will let me get the video on my machine so as I can start to edit.

Appy dayz!

2.30 update.. Curses….. new machine video not compatible with old machine video. I wonder if I am going to spend the night in the office? no. I’m not kidding.

We have a really important meeting planned for after work today. It will, I think, prove to be a very interesting piece for the paper.
I have been asked to capture it on video.
All the video pieces I have produced so far are the kind of thing that is possible to re shoot or dump. Tonight is different and I am determined to get it right.
Learning anything new is a challenge and this video malarkey is actually quite a bit harder than I ever imagined. Still, all these light pieces I have been making, like the new Inspect A Gadget, all help me to learn storytelling with moving pictures.
Its funny, after all these years as a committed stills shooter, I really look forward to picking up the video camera.

Yet another youth killed on the streets of Croydon this morning. We cover a lot of crime on our patch but it seems the rise in ultra violent attacks are on the increase. It really makes me sad to think how many people are affected by this tragic waste of life. The solution? Who knows but the liberal in me is being sorely tested.

I covered the police operation at the scene in stills and video and did my first ever voice over. Up within 2 hours of arriving on scene. Also, today I have produced the Grease piece which I will crunch overnight.
Off home to cuddle my children.

Teenager stabbed to death in Croydon brawl.

Be safe

A fun but busy day with the first of what I hope will become a regular feature. ‘Inspect A gadget’
Let me know what you think and, do tell, what is your best / worst gadget?
Had a good afternoon with Andy Pag who is setting off tomorrow on a drive to Athens with 10 other cars powered entirely by either vegetable oil or bio-diesel made from used chip fat. I’ll be in the office tomorrow producing the video. Go team kebab!

But, if it were this much fun I may be tempted to try! ( you need your sound on)

My late shift sees me back to crunching video. My poor mac placed next to the fan to try and keep it cool. Did I mention I am patiently waiting for the Mac gods to swoop down and deliver me one that can process a 4min video in less than 2 hours?

I’m no too unhappy to be sitting here. Little sitbonzo *1 was in such a foul mood yesterday on her return from a 4 day brownie camp that I did at one point think about sleeping in the garage.

ho hum. just another 1hour 50mins to wait. What to have for dinner?

bon voyage.

I don’t ‘do’ weddings as a rule. Too much pressure. I’ve done my sisters, My best friend and One other a long time ago.

However, having seen ‘the man’ in Oxford today I think it will have to be considered.
I could always sell my beloved camper and buy a…… well. Old style, mint Fiat 500, old mint Merc 450sl or countlless other classic cars. But, after nearly 6 years, she (Betty) has become part of the family. Lil Sitbonzo *1 would probably kill me. She is 9, owns half of the bus, and asks me every time we go for a drive when she will be able to take her turn at the wheel.

I can do Bahmitvahs kiddies parties and portraits

I suppose I could ask for a raise or wait to see the Christmas bonus???

When I left you last dear reader we were into a long day of soundslide production.
It was a long boring slog but had to be done. When almost finished the BATPHONE started ringing.
MASSIVE EXPLOSION Whitehorse Road Thornton Heath.
I jumped in the car and sped out.
My friends, expecting to meet me at 6pm were calling. ‘ you s’posed to finish at 5.30pm?’ yeas but it’s news fellas. I’ll meet you at the pub.

Great night with my oldest buddies but, they forced me to drink too much and then eat a truly excellent Chinese meal ( to celebrate the Olympics)

Friend *1 reccomeded listening to a guy called Dan Le Sac. and I pass you a link to two
utube videos which i think are very interesting.

Off to Oxford on Monday to take the van to the metal surgeon. She needs a facelift.

Massive explosion
http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/latestnews/South-Norwood-homes-evacuated-broken-gas-main/article-258879-detail/article.html
and while nearby, go this story too!
http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/latestnews/Young-man-splits-head-open-Thornton-Heath-pools/article-258859-detail/article.html

11pm cat starts making a noise to go out
1am cat sits outside window making a noise to come in
4am cat jumps on my head wanting to go out
6am cat comes in and makes a racket for food
6.30am I go to work!
7.30am I get to work and start production on 13 After Dark soundslides.
12.30pm I am on Afterdark soundslide number 6

later today aprox 6.30pm pick up my best buddy to go to the pub. ahhh I deserve it. If I am taking your photograph tomorrow I may be a bit groggy

yo yo daddy mac! no no, not a new mac but a good meeting with the chief. I love going into meetings with some really strong ideas and a receptive audience, when you know you are both talking sense and get some good things discussed and sorted out. Those kind of meetings really make life alot easier.
so would a new mac by the way!

Ian Stratton is still at mission control working on the site but I am sure there will be some cool things going on soon. I hope one of the next things is a coments section as long as it dosent get filled with spam which is what happened before.

I made the mistake of telling the little sitbonzo’s about the kittens i photographed today and had quite a long and pleading discussion with them explaining again why we can’t get one. The facts are that our lakeland terrier would be more than likely rip it apart before it had a chance to use the litter tray. One of our cats already traumatised by a close and not so productive meeting, moved in with the neighbour.

————————————————

4th August 2008. Stand by your beds. the chief is back.

Well, It was a long day. Thanks to the guys on the desk, not too stressful but, no new mac and my 80-200mm lens is still in the menders. The 300mm lens is also still broken in the safe! grr.

However, when I got home, the delivery I have been waiting for had arrived. 2 new filters for the video camera. Cool. Unfortunataly, the skylight (to protect the lens) wont combine with the lens hood ( to protect the lens) doh, thanks Sony or B&W I don’t know who to call a Klutz.

I got some comments from you lot and thanks for those. I do need more so please keep them coming. I also managed to cheer up the Editor with some good feedback which is always nice.

3rd August 2008. oh err Mrs. Did you enjoy your bit of camping?

It’s got to that time of the holliday that always comes. The Sunday before the return to work!
We did a few days on the Island but were sad that our usual campsite had been taken over. £5 per night now magically £25+vat? We ditched idea that and stayed in Auntie Penny’s garden. Not quite as intimate as it sounds as Auntie Penny owns a pretty big chunk of the coast near Ventnor. Lots of bunnies and some cattle in the next field kept both the kids and the dog happy. The rain meant we came home a bit soggy. Everything in the washing machine now for mammoth ironing session this afternoon.

I’m kinda looking forward to getting back to work and cracking on with this new video adventure. I do hope the request for a beefy mac (not the golden arches kind) has gone through but in the meantime I will have to continue with this one, sitting next to the aircon to keep the processor from frying.

my list of video ideas is short so I really would appreciate any input you care to make.
so far I have:
the cost of bottled water both to pocket and planet.
some kind of ‘interesting’ cooking show.
Ian S’s look at a once famous theatre, now a bit shabby.
fuel ( early stages)

I think Ian Stratton ( web guru) has been working on a new look for the sitbonzo site so I hope to be able to sit down with him sometime this week to have a look at what he has done so far. the early look I got last week was pretty cool.

This picture kinda sums how my time in the camper feels to me.