Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Otter and I just rolled into Sioux Falls, one of the two "big cities" in South Dakota. Sioux Falls is really more like a big town than it is a city, though they do have an orpheum theater, specialty shops, galleries, and apparently an Andy Warhol exhibit is coming as I read off a billboard from the freeway.  Obviously, there is also a cafe with wifi and electricity which is where I am posting up in for an hour or two.

Scattered along I-90 west (in Southern Minnesota) are small windmill farms. Each windmill is equipped with a red light that blinks on and off every five or so seconds. These lights only come on at night (I'm assuming for aviation purpose). We were driving passed them at 1am on the freeway last night and it was erie to watch all 100 red lights blink in unison as if they were their own entities.

After my equipment charges I will take to the streets and attempt to strike up conversations with some locals about how influential social media is in their lives and if they've seen their communities change because of it. Meanwhile, Otter is at the park carving more feathers, and I think he's planning on selling some of them to shops and people later today, though he has plenty of cash from previous sales as he's demonstrated by filling the gas tank twice.

In other news: I proposed my project to Kickstarter and they approved it so with any luck I will be launching it in a few days. Kickstarter, I believe, has its own server, thus I will be able to upload some HD video (though I think I only get to upload one). I was hesitant about Kickstarter at first, but I figured it would be good for the project to get a little publicity.

Yesterday, before we left Chicago, I received a call from a man named Deepak who writes for a talent magazine. I was a little confused, but apparently he read one of my Craigslist ads on ride share (where I describe myself as a filmmaker working on a documentary and heading west) and wants to feature my endeavors in both film and travel in his magazine. It still sounds a little dicy to me, but their office is in Sacramento, a mere hour east of San Francisco which is the city I'm flying to Europe from. We are planning a meeting for the day before I leave for Europe. I don't really want to be a source of revenue for another business. I mean, that idea is a central aspect of my documentary, but I figured I can meet with him anyway and see what its like.

TIME ZONES! I entered a new time zone in Chicago! One hour behind the East Coast! Yesterday, Otter and I crossed the Mississippi River which means, as everyone who has ever traveled from the East coast to the West knows, that we are officially in the West!

I have uploaded a few photos of Flickr. My USB cable has not been working with my video camera so these photos are ones that I took with my computer, i.e; not the best photography. Here's the link anyhow:

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/toolsofthetradefilm/