Zipping Through the Redwoods

I've been doing the segway tours for so long now that when someone is nervous, I work with them to get comfortable with the machine so they have a great time but, quite frankly, I'd forgotten what it feels like to be nervous to try something new.

That is until I went ziplining with Sonoma Canopy Tours in Occidental with some friends from UCSB. I had to be talked into it but figured it's good to do things that scare you every now and then. I knew that it would be safe and my fear was not of falling off the line. I just don't enjoy being so high up in the air traveling at 30 mph!

The guides were funny and making jokes to put people at ease - it is a universal trait we share. After practicing on a line about 6 feet off the ground, we drove up to the starting point to zip out to the first of 7 tree platforms.

One guide, Jamie, goes out first so she can signal you when to break and pull you up to the tree and unhook you. The other guide, Zach, goes last because he's the one hooking you to the line and sending you on your way.

Zip 1 - scary because it's the first.

Zip 2 - scary because you zip to a redwood tree that sways and Zach jumps on the line when he comes over to make the

tree shake.

Zip 3 - scary because it's 319 feet long, 200 feet above the ground and has the biggest slack in the line so you'll go 30 miles per hour!

Zip 4 - easier because how can it be worse than the first three?

Zip 5 - scary because it's 800 feet long and you're told that if you don't build up enough momentum in the first half, you won't make it all the way to the end (but I did).

Zip 6 & 7 - FUN!

Just when I start having a good time, it's over and we have to repel 80 feet to get to the forest floor. The worst part was the anticipation and having to swing out over the platform so you would be facing the tree. Ah!

Would I do it again? Yes. Would I spend so much time nervous talking and shouting out swear words? No.

I spent all day trying to upload the videos but faced numerous problems I could not overcome. If you really want to see them, I can make it happen. Suffice to say it was scary then fabulous then scary then fabulous - but that's mostly because by then it was over.

If you're thinking of doing it - I say "do it"!

The Beat Goes On

Less "drums keep pounding rhythm to the brain" and more spending all my free time making movies.

This is now old news (because I still don't update this blog as often as I say I will) but the silent 3D short that I produced last year, The Magic Man, screened at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival! A bunch of Scary Cows went down for that film and others that were made as part of this group. Sadly, I was not one of them because I hear a good time was had by all.

Currently, I'm co-producing a film that was originally a sketch put on by a local group. It's called Ketheron's Bucket Mending & Hymen Emporium. Yep. You read it right. I've been working with the cast and am now looking for extras to film the next two Fridays. Hard to convince people to take a workday off (for the M-F among us) but it will be a fun time on set.

We're filming at the Long Branch Saloon & Farm in Half Moon Bay. It's a full-on street right out of the old west and it's going to look amazing! The trick is getting the cast and extras in

wardrobe appropriate for the setting. But I leave that to other people and I take care of things like returning dresses we don't want to theaters not that close to my house.

And the Bushman film. I've got to get my act together to enter that in other film festivals. Like Santa Barbara, for example. Why? Because I would love an excuse to visit Santa Barbara!

So, my movie beat goes on. My segway tour beat goes on. My Big City Improv beat goes on.

And yes, drums do keep pounding rhythm to the brain.

Love the Oceans? Help an Ocean Rower!

As many of you know, I've been following the adventures of Roz Savage, a British ocean rower and environmental campaigner who has rowed solo across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and is now in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

She blogs on a regular basis to let us all know of her progress. Sending these blogs over a satellite phone costs money, and that's just one component of her row. How does she do it? She does it with the help of people like me and you.

You can sponsor her for only $10/mile. 100% of the money goes to the row. When she rows your mile (or miles) she gives you a shout out on her blog! She rowed my miles today and I must say it's a very easy way for me to feel like I've helped her spread her environmental message.

All those warm fuzzy feelings and the opportunity to follow along on her ocean adventure? Don't miss out...