This is absolutely
a 21st Century story. I cannot be alone in this, but
it may still seem strange to others who don't live
online as I do. I consider myself good friend with
someone I have never met. I am intimately
familiar with his life, I've known him for over 10
years... never met. Talked on the phone maybe one or
two times in the decade. Nearly all communications
have been through instant messages. I knew him in his
teens, watched him get married, watched him have
children. But again, never met.
So sit back and
let me tell you a tale...
In 2000,
I was started an NBA Fantasy League. In typical
"me-fashion" I went overboard, did every stat by hand
all year, made logos for everybody and ran the website
for the fun of it. People threw in $10 or $20 and I
gave it all to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the end of the
season. The most fun was honestly making the
logos:
The
following year I replaced 5 players, which meant 5
more logos...
I knew everyone
except for the bakalaka dude. It was this 16 year old
kid who saw my post about the league on an ign.com
message board. Because of The Journey, he felt
comfortable enough sending me $20 to be in the league
and a few months later bought some minicases from me.
Wow, this is like a Journey Time
Capsule...
Bakalaka (actual
name sis Andrew) was MiniCaser #41 and he simply liked
The Journey and always kept up. I mean, always. At
every turn, he would write me... and in turn tell me
what was going on in his life. I remember him
getting married at 19 and laughing because
I couldn't say shit about it. I remember
his first baby... and now he just had his third. It's
remarkable how connected you can be to, basically, a
story on your computer screen.
More than
anything, the past 5 years he has been my goto
tech-geek. Knows all the latest cameras, buys them,
rents them, plays with them. He made this little short
awhile back about his life that I just kinda fell in
love with:
I feel like
I know that kid. :-)
OK, so WHY am
I writing this and repeating ad nauseum that
I haven't met him? Because his unbelieveable wife
is letting him fly out for two days to shoot the
wedding. I just bought his ticket and I am
deliriously happy. Obviously happy to meet him after
ten years, but of course... he's exactly who
I would want to shoot the wedding. He has a Red
One and a Scarlet on the way for the video geeks out
there that know what that means. "The Social Network"
was shot on a Red. I'm more than thrilled it's
going to be shooting my wedding. Even more thrilling
is it's exactly what I wanted - NOT a
wedding photographer, but someone who I could
work with throughout the day and then at the end of
the night get all the files immediately so
I could get put a 15 minute version of the
wedding online by the end of the year. Whew.
But seriously, all
techincal shit aside, I just can't wait to spend
some time with him. LIttle known fact, he's the reason
I did the Four Square league. He made a little movie
about it, I saw it - thought that was awesome and
painted one in my backyard... the rest is history.
And, you'd better believe we'll be playing foursquare
the night before the wedding. Rain or shine.
:)
So, Andrew...
thanks for everything. I'm happy to cement you into
The Journey as #1193. You've been a huge help (dude
has actually shipped me HD cameras for free just
to help out when they've broken) and I just
consider you a good friend. Too bad you live in Texas,
so glad you're spending this very, very special day
with me.
