Peter Vieira
Wow, you're reading this? Thanks! If you're into RC cars and I seem vaguely familiar, it's because I spent over 25 years writing and editing RC car news, reviews, and tech articles in print and online. What else, what else ... I have a degree in Film Studies (useless), most of a degree in Graphic Design (useful), and I'm married to a wonderful woman with horrible taste in men. Thanks to her, we have a terrific daughter who just earned her Journalism degree and is way, waaay more together that I was at her age. Or right now.
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I’m very jealous of the RC track plans. Our lot is too small for anything but a very small collection of rocks (maybe 4×8′) I plan to install soon for backyard crawling.
I’d really like something more suitable for really scale accurate looking driving scenes for my scale-trail rigs (think Headquake videos), but that won’t happen unless we move.
Enjoy your new space!
Those RC tracks in the yard are so damn cool, can’t wait to see how it turns out!
I thought Griffin’s disemboweled Corvette door was a disemboweled boombox. Now that I relook at the picture more closely, it makes more sense. And A. Barth’s first take on the intro is totally how I read it. I’m glad we both jumped to the same conclusion. And I am glad we both jumped to the wrong one. What a great gig. Griffin, I hope you appreciate what you’ve got.
An eon ago, I was shooting B/W stills on ISO 400 Tri-X and then video on unforgiving 16mm Ektachrome and horribly unforgiving High Speed 400 Ektachrome. And then 70 pounds of 3/4 inch Sony U-matic tape and three-tube SD video camera gear. I was down to a ~20 pound Sony BVW-300 Betacam SP by the time I moved on into TV newsroom IT. That was the shit back then. But it was still SD.
My iPhone shoots better stills and videos than the 10s (100s?) of thousands of dollars’ worth of gear I was using back then. And my back is paying me back now for the stuff I did when I was doing that back then. The iPhone doesn’t have the reach of my lenses then, but it shoots wider than anything in my arsenal in the day. To do the stuff you do now, we had to rent a Pentax lipstick camera, interface it with a portable tape deck and gaffer it so it wouldn’t all fall off whatever we were trying to shoot POV. And then we still had to edit it tape-to-tape. Now you can use a GoPro, pull the card and just stick it in a computer.
Mark, take heed of the comments on DT’s efforts to restore order in his localverse. I don’t know who you will be inviting over to the new/old estate, but there may some ‘splaining to do. For the unindoctrinated, I’m sure they will laugh hard when you show them.
Best to you all!
Did anyone else read the intro and think that Griffin had left The Autopian? 😮 I mean, yeah, it would be a weird way to announce it, but still.
Maybe it’s just me. In fact, I hope it is. Never mind. 🙂
I thought the same.
I also briefly thought that. Glad it isn’t the case.
Me too, also happy that he has not.
It scared me when I first saw the headline in my feed! Glad he’s sticking around.
About three times a week I like to say “now you’ve really done it” to DT and leave the Slack channel just to inspire fear and some poor-natured silliness to our daily lives. But I always come grovelling back
I have a big hill covered in rocks in my backyard. I really need to finally get around to building an RC rock crawler. I had a heavily modded Clodbuster back in the day that could basically climb anything. I would go modern this time around though.
Nice tracks! That reminds me. I should dig out my Maxx, fix it, scalp some grass and make a proper approach for the ramps I’ve had sitting around. Small ramp for the Bigfoot since it blows shock caps on jumps further than 3 feet down and big ramp for the Maxx to launch it to the moon.
I’d double check your terms of employment. Dear leader may insist that your miniature RC world is a perfect scale model of Jasonia.
Or at least give the VW working taillights.
That is a nice size backyard with some mature trees, great place for a RC track!
Being single and young, moving is just part of life for a lot of us. Get a significant other though, and things change significantly. I used to move on a weekend with a couple of pickup runs, but once attached, it became using the largest moving van I could rent. Enjoy the ease while you can.
I move a lot. I’ve been in my current place for 7 years, and that’s the longest I’ve lived in a single dwelling in my 40+ years of adult life. Moving frequently helps a person cull the unimportant things in life. Next time I move, I’m taking clothing, kitchenware, and tools. The rest goes into the trash and I’ll buy new when I get there.
Likewise. In my 8 years in California, I lived in ….9 different places. In Texas where I was born, I’m up to 11 I believe it is now. Then there’s the two years I traveled and stayed in about 15 different states and 3 provinces. And I’m in my mid-40’s. Live light; move often!
Eugh. I moved to a different country 16 months ago and nearly died, then moved again (across town) 13 months later, and I’m never moving again. We downsized significantly for each move and it still sucked.
Our little Griffin is growing up and getting his own place! I’m so proud!
Last time we moved, we had been in our old house for 18 years. By the time we we transporting our final load, it was 3am, and I seriously considered opening the back door of the box truck, opening the garage door, and just backing up to it quickly, then slamming on the brakes and letting momentum do the unloading.
*Back on my own! I had my own place actually when I moved to LA (where I met David!), but I was still super new to the city and was honestly super lonely. In my (and many others’) opinion, LA can be a very hostile and unwelcoming city, and being here as a new guy with no friends at the time was very isolating. Moved in with three friends, LOVED it and everyone else in the complex, and two roommates had significant others who eventually moved in (don’t tell my landlord), which I loved a little less cuz six people was a lot.
But now that I’m back on my own and with friends and opportunity all around, having my own place again is LOVELY!
One of the best aspects of living in a major city is the balance of autonomy and engagement that comes with a big social sphere. You get to set your own threshold of interaction. Want to hang out with friends? Cool, they’re around.
Need to be by yourself and find focus? There’s nothing more liberating than being able to walk three blocks away from home in basic anonymity.
CONGRATS!
Great it’s a happy move for you, Griffin.
Last month was my last move on my own. Whatever it costs, I’m hiring someone next time. I still had young guy college brain that I could do it on my own and it suuuuuuuucked.
I’m feeling that way in real time, I can’t lie
Moving does indeed, suck. After having lived in the same place for nearly 30 years, the only way I plan to move out is feet first.
Mark, a most awesome backyard! Please occasionally post RC videos!
I can’t express how much I liked the Billy Joel references. If I only had the words to tell you.
Mark, your back yard is awesome! Will you get some RC graders and bulldozers for maintenance?
Man, RC earth moving is a whole scene https://youtu.be/PW1fffn8I_c?si=gbaowPoA1zyOAVrY
I didn’t know they came in such a large scale. Impressive!