[tweakmonkey]

I've "worked" every day since I arrived, averaging about 11-12 hours each day. Even Saturday/Sunday.

This week was mostly preparation for my arrival. Most of my time has been spent studying labor rates, cleaning, organizing my office and lots of boring stuff. One day I disassembled an old school 65" HDTV because it was in my office and needed to be in the dumpster. I ended up using a Sawzall and sledgehammer toward the end because taking it apart gently just wasn't an option. Now it's a huge pile of lumber in a dumpster.

I found a house to live in here as I mentioned in the other post and will post pictures some time later this week. It's a really neat place, but I'm still not even close to set up there yet.

Today I actually spent a lot of time moving a fridge into my house from the shop and a couch/chair thing that didn't belong in there anymore anyway. Oh, and I got a new notebook, which I'll talk about in another thread.

But of course, the good stuff is the CARS. I am working for Shark Werks, a great little company that takes Porsche 996, 997, and Cayman/Boxsters to the limits, upgrading the suspensions, brakes, exhausts, turbos, computer software, and that sort of thing. The shop's owners are both extremely cool dudes, and one of them you may have heard of before (Alex Ross of Sharky Extreme / Voodoo Extreme). The shop cars are a beautiful white Cayman S, an off-white 800 horsepower 996 Turbo, and a 997 GT3 RS (bright green!). There's also a very nice 914 and always tons of others being worked on for customers. The cars are all so beautiful that I'm afraid I'll eventually grow numb to their exoticness.

I did some filming and editing of various cars this week, but didn't have a lot of time to post much of it up. I've gone for so many rides in fast cars, too! Here's a video I filmed and help edit yesterday of a customer car:
http://videos.g33kd.net/sharkwerks_e...bi_640_480.wmv

It's also on Youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDCocMU9T5M

Once I get my station setup I plan to use better equipment and my own computer (which means none of that Windows Movie Maker shite)

To see lots of things the shop did before I arrived go here:
YouTube - sharkwerks's Videos

Tomorrow we're going to a "secret" race track for the day to get footage for a secret TV show. I'll post updates later, but we're excited that the cars will be featured on TV!

Anyway I wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive and all that, just very very busy (working till 10 PM etc) doing this whole thing, especially right now. I'll be checking my PMs and e-mails regularly, but I have limited time to access the forums right now until my office is setup.

[krod]

Holy crap tweakmonkey. I remember reading Sharky selling his site to go tune Porsches years ago. Small world huh? He still contributes to cpu mag yeah? Good for you man.

[tweakmonkey]

Yeah, all of that is true! Alex and his wife have been friends of mine for years. They are wonderful people and I feel very fortunate to know them.

[randomtask]

cool job!

[mistawiskas]

You really had it handed to you on a silver platter this time Dan. I'm sop happy for you. This is the dream opportunity of a lifetime. you lucky dawg you!

[tweakmonkey]

On my last update I was just about to go to Infineon Raceway (Sears Point) for a TV show shoot of the Porsches (I think it was April 29th). The event was pretty cool. A professional driver (drift champion, X-games Rally Gold winner, stunt driver) took Alex around the track at really high speeds in the GT3 RS. I was filming track-side at one of the quicker turns, but it was windy as hell out. I haven't had a chance to edit the video yet, but when the show's live I'll be sure to tell you where you can watch it.




Additionally, for the same show, I got to hang my arm out the window of a car and film three green GT3 RSs on the street for a couple hours. The camera was a Sony HVRZ1U HDV (The Sony HVR-Z1U HDV Camera) and I had it dangling a few inches from the rushing pavement at some times. Pretty scary for a camera of this value... When this video is edited up, there's a chance I'll even get credits on the TV show!

Earlier in the week, I had to get some footage of the shop's Cayman S, to show off the Remus exhaust and other mods, so we took it out and played around with a standard def camera. Since this video I've already learned a ton about cameras (and now that I'm using the Sony, there's much more control over what/how is actually being shot). I promise many cooler videos in the future, I'm barely even getting started...

Here's the video once I edited it up (still using Windows Movie Maker, Avid training begins this week ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6_cxbxq1k

Over the weekend, we went near Bakersfield, CA for another magazine shoot. On the drive I got plenty of pics and footage, but nothing is edited up yet. We took three cars: a customer's 700 HP 997 turbo (the GT street car shown in the last post I made a week or two ago), the shop's 850 HP 996 Turbo, and the shop's green GT3 RS (same car from the TV show above). I was only out there for about 24 hours and it was pretty intense, but it was a lot of fun hanging out with random British photographers and writers. The guys were hilarious, and the photographer was amazingly talented. He wanted us to find a dark industrial area, so I showed him what Bakersfield had to offer (an oil refinery in the middle of the desert). His pictures came out amazing. I don't have them here yet, but again, I will update with videos/pictures of the trip and tell which magazine to pick up if you want to read the story.

Other than that, I've been answering phones, ordering parts, and trying to learn as much about these cars as possible. I still have a ton to learn before I will feel prepared to handle much here, but it's been a great experience.

PS - still working 11, 12, 13 hour days 6 days/week. It's strange being so busy!

[sims]

Dan, you have no idea how jealous I am of you right now, you’re basically leading my dream life.

Do you have any higher rez pictures (ideally widescreen) of the pictures you took? They would make a nice background

Did you actually buy a house out their or are you just renting currently? Did you bring the talon out with you?

Keep us updated as often as possible!

[gB dAvId x]

I hope they're paying you hourly

[sims]

I would do that job for free as long as they gave me a place to live and food to eat.

[Torx]

i agree, i'd be happy to do that for free..

but damn.. sweet gig you got going

[tweakmonkey]

Originally Posted by sims

Dan, you have no idea how jealous I am of you right now, you’re basically leading my dream life.

Do you have any higher rez pictures (ideally widescreen) of the pictures you took? They would make a nice background

Did you actually buy a house out their or are you just renting currently? Did you bring the talon out with you?

Keep us updated as often as possible!

Hehe, I know! That's what I said, too..

I have hundreds of pictures I've snapped. Once I get a chance to pull them from USB I'll run them by 'the boss' and see which ones are okay to share... then I'll let you pick through them. There are some *great* ones - far better than these. I'm starting to learn about still cameras, too, but haven't had a chance to flex there... for now it's just been video.

I'm just renting a house for now. It's pricey, but very nice. Maybe this weekend I can snap a few pics to show you guys.

And yes, I brought the Talon with me. I adjusted my rear suspension today in my driveway and have been driving it to work every day. I only live 2 miles from the shop, but might begin riding my bike just for exercise since I've been too pressed for time to get any real exercise.

[tweakmonkey]

Originally Posted by gB dAvId x

I hope they're paying you hourly

Originally Posted by sims

I would do that job for free as long as they gave me a place to live and food to eat.

That's what I said, too! I won't get into specifics, but right now I'm basically working in exchange for the training, food, and housing costs... and that's FINE by me. Until I can demonstrate the real value I'm adding to the business (e.g. doing my own installations and sales) it's hard to determine where I fit in... but I told them before I came down "Look, I'd do this for free if you were in Bellingham" ... the bay area's obviously just too expensive to do that.

Originally Posted by Torx

i agree, i'd be happy to do that for free..

but damn.. sweet gig you got going

Thanks man. I'm loving it.

[krod]

Okay no more "how lucky you are posts", you just plain suck.