on location

Vacationing for a week (mostly) on DIY soylent

This entry is part 35 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

This week I’m down in Arches National Park helping my dad do a nighttime photography workshop. Mostly my job consists of running around and setting up lights and carrying stuff (though I did press the shutter for him a few times when he was light painting, I joke that I’m going to claim copyright on those ones).

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A week of DIYWe’re living out of a hotel room which has made for some interesting logistical issues. I brought a week worth of People Chow and a bunch of blender bottles but I still need to wash the containers. Before I left, my wife told me to bring along a small container of dish soap and I wish I would have done that along with a scrub brush. Instead I’ve had to use washcloths and whatever soap I can source. Soap is absolutely necessary because of the oil. Hot water will get much of the residue but you need something to get the oil off and only soap will do it.

As expected, eating soylent has been (except for needing to wash the containers) exceptionally convenient. It’s also forced my dad to stick to his diet since I’m not eating fast food with him (though I did make an exception and had biscuits and gravy with the workshop group this morning =). I’ve found that the kind of hiking we’ve been doing works fine with soylent, I’ve been mixing up enough containers to last me however long we’re going to be out and either mix it with a bunch of ice or refrigerate it for a few hours to get it cold enough to last. Tonight we’re going to be going up to Delicate Arch just before sunset and staying until around midnight so I’ll drink a blender bottle of people chow around 4:00pm and bring one up with me to drink while waiting for the sky to get dark enough.

This experience has been good for an additional reason: next month I’m going to be going to San Francisco for 7 days for the DreamForce conference. I’m planning to pack about 8 days worth (just in case), a little in a carry-on and the rest in a checked bag. I’m also going to bring a little soap and a brush =)

By |2016-10-13T07:28:30-06:00September 17th, 2014|Preparation, On Tour, Soylent|Comments Off on Vacationing for a week (mostly) on DIY soylent
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More on-location action shots with soylent

This entry is part 27 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

I’ve kinda got a thing going with “soylent at x location” action shots. It all started with soylent at Delicate Arch and I now present:

soylent at the concert

soylent at the concert

soylent while camping

soylent while camping

soylent at the lake

soylent at the lake

It’s particularly suitable for camping since all you need is some water. No need to keep it cold until you mix it up and it takes less than a minute (normally) to mix up a meal.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:33-06:00July 30th, 2014|On Tour, Soylent|Comments Off on More on-location action shots with soylent
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soylent at the Amusement Park

This entry is part 24 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

As part of my continuing effort to take pictures of soylent (still DIY, people chow to be specific) at notable locations around Utah I now present soylent at Lagoon:

Soylent at the Amusement Park

I just happened to get both “Colossus” and “Wicked” with riders about to go over the initial drop. This was a triumph, I’m making a note here: “huge success”…. wait… sorry too much time with GladOS.

We brought lunch and dinner in a cooler. Preparing the food for the kids took about 30 minutes. Dumping two half cups each into two blender bottles for my lunch and dinner took 2 minutes, mostly because the blender ball was missing and I had to look for it; I was also filling up a water cooler so I would have something to drink and mix up my soylent. Lagoon is unique among just about every entertainment location I’ve ever heard of in that: outside food and/or drink IS PERMITTED. In fact a large portion of the park is pavilions with picnic tables for people to eat their food they’ve brought in coolers. Personally I’m reticent to bring my stuff into the park and just leave it sitting around for a few hours so We left ours in the car and at lunch time we ate in the walkway that goes through the old wooden roller coaster.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:33-06:00July 12th, 2014|On Tour, Soylent|Comments Off on soylent at the Amusement Park
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soylent at the dance recital

This entry is part 19 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

A few months ago I posted an image of me downing some DIY soylent at Delicate Arch. Now I present to you: DIY soylent at the dance recital.

soylent at dance recital

 

I do the dance video for a local studio called Wasatch Arts Center, mainly because my kids are in it. We had to get there and set up and I was the only one that had time for dinner. I threw some People Chow into a blender bottle and DONE! Every once in a while when there wasn’t much action going on I could give it a (quiet) shake and drink my dinner. Score another for the sheer convenience of (s)oylent, be it the official or DIY.

Inevitably we’ll end up discussing it so: I usually record from the sound/lighting/projection booth because

  1. It’s a better angle
  2. No little kids are running around bumping stuff (including my own)
  3. No body is standing up blocking me
  4. No one is talking
  5. Power outlets!

I run to cameras and then cut between them in post. My main one is a HDV Canon XH-A1 that still records to tapes though whenever I’m stationary like this I hook it up directly to a laptop via firewire and record to disk instead. Secondary is a HF-100 that does a passable job ab being the fallback when the main camera footage is too shaky or (as has happened before) something goes wrong with the feed from the main camera and it’s the only source I have. The HF-100 does record AVCHD to SD cards so at least there’s no prolonged “press play and capture” going on. For editing I use Sony Vegas Pro and I’m currently a version or two behind because my plugins aren’t available on version 13 (I think, haven’t checked in a few months).

By |2016-10-13T07:28:33-06:00June 19th, 2014|Soylent, On Tour|1 Comment
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