Weekend recap...

Wow, what a great weekend. I’m not surprised that it went so fast, I was having so much fun all weekend long.

Friday, Matt and I relaxed at home. We practiced more on perfecting our pizza. What would pizza be without beer?...and the Sopranos?....and some Beatles? We ended up watching the last episode on our Sopranos disk (from Netflix), and then watched another hour of the Beatles documentary. If you like the Beatles and have never seen this documentary, you should. It is 8 hours long, and it packs all of the Beatles goodness in!

Saturday, I woke up and felt like baking a little. I made some blueberry-orange muffins and then made some chocolate-chocolate chip muffins. Matt worked on his reel, but was able to pull himself away for some tasting.

Saturday night we met up with a couple of our friends, Erin and Dean, at an Indian restaurant in Clifton. We ordered the veg dinner for two and they ordered the non-veg dinner for two. There also ordered a nice bottle of white wine for all of us to drink. There was a lot of food, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

After dinner, we stepped over to the Esquire theater, with all intentions of watching Other Peoples Lives, but we were a bit late and probably would have missed 20 minutes. We were able to get tickets for Pan’s Labyrinth. Although Erin is not too keen on movies with insects and violence, she was a really good sport!

After the movie we went next door to a coffee shop named Sitwell’s – think it might be owned by Sally’s father (from Arrested Development). We each had a warming, and mighty alcoholic coffee/cocoa. It was a cool little shop – and we had good conversations.
I liked the Clifton area. Even though it was really cold, there are a lot of things to do within a short proximity.

Sunday, was low-key. We hung around the house until about 3pm, and then went shopping for some odds and ends. We came back with Chinese food, and watched Little Women - or I watched it and Matt watched some :)
He had some more work to do on his reel, so he left part way through.

All in all, I had a very relaxing enjoyable weekend.

Cliff Pickover and Immortality

Cliff Pickover's newest book begins, "Last night, I dreamed I was eating Truman Capote's brain. It tasted like black licorice, but smelled of blood."

I discovered Pickover when he was interviewed by George Norry, the host of Coast to Coast AM. First understand that Coast interviewees range from people who channel the ghost of JFK to the shrieking rants of conspiracy theorists. Most Coast guests have very unconvincing credentials and are a questionable lot, to put it lightly. So, when this mad scientist appeared one on the show one rainy summer evening, talking about similarities in DMT drug experiences experiences, time travel paradoxes, and comparisons between sushi and the native language of Hopi Indians, I didn't pay any more attention than the round-table discussions of the shape of alien eyes. Keep in mind I'm not trying to diminish how interesting these topics can be (though nearly all are patently false they sure are fun to listen to), it's just that they are as common on Coast to Coast as Brittany Spear's recent haircut is on more mainstream news shows.

Partially due to time, but mostly due to lack of interest, I never listen to a Coast interview twice. However, over the next few weeks, I found myself returning to that interview again. It was basically three hours of a very articulate person concisely describing fascinating thought-experiments that act as a kind of catalyst for thinking about the world in new ways. I did a little research and found that Pickover has published over 30 books and has real credentials to back up his science ideas. He received his Ph. D. from Yale in molecular biophysics and biochemistry.

On a whim I bought his then newest book, "Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves" and have never looked back. As Mandy will tell you, it's not something to lightly attempt reading if you are suffer from any form of A.D.D. Most of the topics are covered in two or three paragraphs and whose thematic connections are loose and ever-changing. It's like reading a book that was created by using the linking, cross-indexing architecture of HTML to organize a jumble of loosely related subject material.

I'm mid-way through his latest book. "A Beginner's Guide to Immortality." It's structured in a much more linear fashion than "Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves" complete with chapters and everything! It still wildly surges from dissections of the works of Capote to the esoteric genius of John Parsons creating surprising neural linkage in it's wake. As an aside, Parsons is the man, who, in the 1950s, was most responsible for creating the NASA space program, solid-fuel rockets, and the founding of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was also certifiably insane.

If you're in the mood for some strange, mind-expanding reading, you can't go wrong with Pickover. A good quote from Wired sums him up well, "Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clark thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both."

Lunar Eclipse a' comin!

This Saturday, March 3rd, you will be able to see a total lunar eclipse. These aren’t particularly rare (the next one is in August), but they are interesting to see. Unlike a solar eclipse you won’t see one celestial body completely cover or “eclipse” another. The moon will pass through Earth’s shadow, causing it to change to a reddish brown color in the Eastern Time Zone. Unfortunately, it will be at moonrise, so it won’t be amazingly dark, and given that we live in the mid-west, clear skies are also rare.

However, if the skies are clear and you are so inclined, the moon will begin to move into the outer shadow (the penumbra) of the earth starting at 4:30. It will enter totality or the darkest part of the shadow (called the umbra) at 5:44 and float through it for about an hour and 15 mins. At 6:20, the moon will be at mid-umbra which is the time the moon will look the darkest, reddist, browniest of the eclipse. From 6:20-8:12 the moon will start moving out of the Earth’s shadow until it looks all nice and regular at the end.

Here is an amazingly bad video explanation of the eclipse. Note how the astronomer never looks up from the cue cards she is reading and the full shot of her with a red lighting her head and none of her body. I've said it before and I'll say it again: NASA cannot make space videos look good no matter how hard they try.



It’s great example of how the laws that govern things gravity causing my coffee mug to roll off my desk and splash me this morning are the same laws that cause the earth, sun, and moon to move through the cosmos. It's also a great example of shoddy government-sponsored video explanations.

Yummy dinner!!

Last night, Matt and I made our dinner fabulous by improvising. We started off with agreeing to make the roasted garlic and eggplant soup that we like so well. After scrounging around in the kitchen, we found that we did not have many of the ingredients. That’s when we threw the cookbook to the floor, rolled up our sleeves and started creating. Although we do not have a name for it, yet, I will let you in on what we did…

Ingredients
Garlic – whole clove
Eggplant
Onion – chopped
Tomatoes – large can
Artichokes – canned and slightly drained
Tofu – ground “meat” type
Pasta – elbow, penne, etc.
Feta w/basil

We started off by roasting a whole clove of garlic. If you have never done this before, you must do it! It is so easy and wonderful. The basic idea is to take a bulb of garlic and cut the top of the skin, just so you can see the cloves inside. Pour a small amount of olive oil into the bulb. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Take a small piece of tin foil and wrap the garlic in it, leaving a small opening at the top. 375 degrees for about 30 min

We also roasted a whole eggplant. In order to do this, there are a couple of things that need to be done before popping it in the oven. First, thinly slice the eggplant, sprinkle with salt and arrange on and cover with paper towels. Place something heavy on top of the eggplant to draw the excess water out of them. Approximately 15 minutes later you may liberally coat the eggplant and place on a cookie sheet. 375 degrees for 15 – 20 min

Cook onions in a large pan with a little olive oil. Add can of tomatoes and ground tofu. Cook pasta in separate pan, and transfer when al dente.

Remove eggplant and garlic and let cool slightly. Add eggplant, garlic (can be squeezed right out of the bulb!), and can of artichokes with ½ of the liquid to food processor and blend thoroughly.

Add food processed items to large pan, and heat through. Serve topped with feta.

Yummy!!

Gifts

Mandy's uncle, a very talented artist and craftsman, built us an end table for a belated wedding gift. I have included a couple pictures of the table below. It's an amazing gift on two levels: One is the fine craftsmanship and working of the table, the other is the fact that he thought to make it. From the pictures, you can tell that no small amount of effort was put into creating the table. It's artificial aging, woodworking, masonry, and wax finish are very high quality. He even used blends of woods and finish so it would match our couches (a detail I completely missed until it was brought to my attention). Mandy and I have personally set glasses of water of it to verify it provides the necessary functions a table should.

Gifts are always nice, but we feel they are especially effective in conveying love and gratitude when they are made, rather than purchased. The construction of a gift is a literal rendering of a person's feelings. Living in Kentucky, he was unable to attend the wedding, but he wanted to show his love and respect, so he crafted this table. The gesture was deeply moving for both Mandy and I, considering our general stance towards gift giving and for me in particular, considering an entire half of my extended family felt it unnecessary to even attend the wedding.

The many gifts we have received throughout the years, purchased or otherwise, are a powerful reminder that we live blessed lives, filled with an abundance of wonderful friends and family we feel deeply honored to know and love. I don't think we say thanks enough, so here it is: Thanks!

Happy now?

Body Massage

(Who wants a body massage?)

We're only a few weeks away from the whole "set our clocks to a different time for no good reason" experience. It's funny to see Microsoft having to patch Outlook to accommodate the change in the day we reset our clocks. I like to watch Microsoft scramble around, fixing bugs that would've been discovered months ago had they adopted an open development model. There's something really interesting about how people love to see the big and powerful make mistakes. Maybe it's out of spite or jealousy, but it seems like all the infotainment pap I see in newsstands, websites, and TVs is heavily geared towards this impulse. Every time I see some formerly "important" movie star, athlete, or politician get roasted by the press, I feel a little twinge of justice, like there's some powerful universal force grinding them beneath its thumb. It all makes me smile and pump my fist vigorously towards the heavens with shouts of, "Git er' done!" and knee-slaps a plenty. For example:

It's interesting to wonder why people are so enamored with this kind of information. Is it because people are innately shallow or because our culture teaches us to be this way?

Top Ten Differences Between Living in Michigan and Ohio

Chad asked for this list the second week we moved down here. I've finally gotten around to writing it. I hope it satisfies.

10. Interpretation of risk associated with weather.

In Ohio, 3 inches of snow is considered a state emergency. They actually preemptively close schools: This means they close school before it snows. The fear of snow, not actual inclement weather, causes schools to close. Where I grew up, if there were fewer than five buses stuck in ditches, school was open. Here, ever city has an alter whereupon children are sacrificed to Frostzor the Cold One, in hopes of keeping His icy will at bay.

9. Driving skills of the populace.

It is amazing, but Ohio drivers really are worse than Michigan drivers, perhaps worse than any other drivers on the planet, universe, and all of creation. Maybe even beyond that. And by bad, I mean driving through red lights, cars and people flipping through the air, bursting into flames, driving over grandmothers, and welding hunks of metal to their bumpers to inflict as much damage possible. Driving around in Ohio is like driving around the Mad Max universe in a Ford Pinto with Mel Gibson riding shotgun, spitting random racial slurs and vodka; like some kind of Australian post-apoplectic wasteland of Mohawk sporting cannibals crashing 10-ton death machines shaped like giant phalluses into each other. And remember that midget with the boomerang that cuts off that one dude's fingers in Mad Max 1? That was awesome.

8. Perceived risks of imbibing alcoholic beverages on the Sabbath.

In the area of Ohio where we live, people have this strange notion that purchasing alcohol on Sundays does not constitute and unpardonable sin—punishable only by death. There are no public executions of heathens caught purchasing flasks of devil juice on the holy day. It's so boring without the weekly beheadings. On the other hand, Hamilites don't appear to be stuck in some romantic view of the world c. 1500AD like Grandville is. That Ye Olde Timey feel is gone. Many fewer corpses and piles of feces line the streets of Hamilton, so I guess that's a plus. The surfs of Grandville really ought to petition Lord Hemingsford to ask favor of His Majesty the King to lift the ban on the purchase of alcoholic spirits on Sundays and join the real world.

7. Usage of Chili

Nearly every food is coated with chili. From spaghetti to hot-dogs, it's rare to go into any restaurant that doesn't provide the option of having your entree coated with a steaming pile of meaty chili. There are more Skylines (a local chili chain) than McDonalds in most places.

6. The quantity and quality of Indian restaurants

Indian restaurant are all over the place down here. Some come in the tradition of American tex-mex restaurents where the food served is based on how an American who has never traveled more than two states away would think the food should taste like. Most restaurants, however, serve dishes we've never seen in other Indian restaurants. Not that a lower frequency of a given food item appearing in different restaurants makes it any more authentic or anything. It just tastes good.

5. The quantity and quality of jobs

The Western Michigan job market sucks. Not much more to say, really. It just sucks. Southeast Ohio? Not so much.

4. Comparative lack of microbreweries

Explain this to me: Why would a city like Cincinnati (the very bread and butter of the mid-West) not have more than one microbrewery? Sure there were the riots in 2001 that destroyed downtown, and the rampant murders in Over-the-Rhine, and the gas-crazed Mad Max cannibals driving around town, but what does that have to do with beer? I can see basic infrastructure like roads, sanitary drinking water, electricity, and civil order flying out the window when the Sickness killed half the population and left the other half blind and insane, but the beer? Come on Cincinnati. Get your act together.

3. Different geological topography

It's really windy and hilly here.

2. Different stance on recycling

You may think it's strange that this would come in second, but it's really unnerving. We grew up in Michigan, one of only two states in the union that pays its citizens $0.10 to bring back their beverage containers. We also grew up in a primarily Dutch (read frugal, penny-pinching misers) community where the value of ten cents was not something to scoff at. There is a strong, pervasive belief among our parents that somehow returning 20 cans would give us enough money to fill our gas tanks. I can remember how, on countless occasions, my father would hand me a bag of stinking cans, smile and say, "There you go! That ought to fill up the old tank."

So, in Michigan, throwing away a can is akin to throwing away cold, hard cash. And not only that, but magic cash that, despite only having the appearance of $2.00, will somehow fill up your gas tank.

In Ohio, there are is no payment-for-recycling program. You either seek out a recycling plant, pay to have your cans picked up, or just toss them in the trash. Fighting the hard coded compulsion to wash out, line up, and bag those cans is taking its toll. It's a daily struggle.

1. The importance of organized sports

In the days of ancient Greece, everything revolved around the Olympics. People would stop warring, everyone's safe travel was insured, and the next four-year calendar was named after the winner of the chariot race. It's much like that here. When we first arrived, people would drive up next to us at lights and scream, "Hoo Day!" and drive off laughing. It wasn't until much later we realized that this is the war cry of Bangles fans. Elderly, white-haired grandmothers walk around with temporary Bangles tattoos on their foreheads and babies are dressed in the team's colors. It's very disconcerting.

Weekend Update

This past weekend was a good one. Friday Mandy and I went to eat at the amazing local Mexican restaurant "Taqueria Mercado" then headed home to watch "Born Into Brothels" which was also very good. Hot Mexican food, good microbrew beer, and an award-winning documentary comprise the very essence of rest and relaxation for me.

Saturday we went to the humane society and walked some dogs in the snow. We didn't walk or see any that stole our hearts the ways others have, but they were so hyper and happy to be out in the snow we still had fun. There was one cocker named Julie that was hilarious. She had this little frozen beard that made her look like a tiny billy goat. She would burrow under the snow and run around beneath it; a moving mound of snow (a la Bugs Bunny) was all we could see. Good times.

Saturday night we went out with some friends to go bowling. Mandy won a game and I won a game, which is amazing considering how terribly we play. Not that our friends played a comparatively poor game, quite the contrary. We all played horribly, Mandy and I just played very slightly less horribly than the others. To illustrate how poorly we played I offer this example: In one game we all barley broke 100.

After bowling we drove to a Micro Center (?) a few miles down I-275 to see if they had a Wii to purchase—we wanted to continue bowling, we just wanted to do it on our TV. This Micro Center is a Home Depot-sized store that only sells geek equipment. Imagine those large bulk bins at Meijer or CostCo that are filled with jelly beans and oatmeal, now imagine the bins filled with hard drives and you'll start to get the idea. Sadly they did not have any Wii's for sale, so we left empty-handed.

The cool part was the drive. Our friends, Dean the Machine and Erin, own a Prius. The Prius is one of those new-fangled electric/gas hybrid cars you keep seeing and wanting but never getting around to buying. It was really cool to see how the system worked, to watch the little in-dash display of the motor charging the battery, and to have it all explained by the driver. It was like a trip into Tomorrow Land at Disney World. The coolest thing about the car is how quiet it is. When we pulled into parking lots, the gas engine would literally shut off as the car switched to the electric motor and would become totally silent. It was really cool. It's a like a geek gadget you can drive.

After the Micro Center, we went to eat at a local Peruvian restaurant. We ordered fried chicken things, green potato things, and volcanically hot dipping sauce things. It was good, though overpriced considering the portion sizes. Afterwards, then all headed home to hang out and talk.

Sunday we met a couple friends for breakfast at a local Waffle house. One of them, Steven, returned my copy of World of Warcraft I gave him to try the 10-day trail declaring he had bought a retail copy and the expansion pack. Yet another example of how giving things away can be a part of a very robust business plan. Even if I don't play, I can deny that 8 million subscribers can't be wrong.

The rest of the day Mandy worked on taxes and I worked on my reel. It was productive and fun!

Mo Mac

The Mac Pro arrived last week. The benevolent aspect of the universe shined its glorious light upon me as, within ten minutes of each other: As I was notified that the Mac was waiting at the leasing office I was also told that we were being told to go home early because it had begun to snow outside. To appease the snow deity that took pity on me, I ceremoniously left a plate of cheese and barbeque sauce on my doorstep. Thank you Snow Buddah! Well, technically the Buddah isn't a diety, and since I am now a full-fledged member the MaCult, I guess Snow Steve Jobs would be the more appropriate deity to leave snacks for.

I can't say too much about the experience of actually using the Mac above the rote routine of installing any piece of hardware. There was a hefty amount of unwrapping, plugging, unplugging, and swearing to be done. In the end, however, I can say that the actual OS X user interface (UI) is so far above and beyond the Windows XP experience as to not even be worth comparing. I hear the new Windows Vista UI "Aero" is pretty, but that's about it. Amazingly, the MacOS UI is not only very nice to look at it, but it's also very intuitive. Things just seem to be where you'd naturally expect them to be. The most used options are the easiest to find, and even the more technical options of a given application are simple and highly adaptable. I'll report more on using the software as I have exposure to it, but for now, I'm very excited about the prospect of exploration.

The hardware layout, I can say with certainty, is brilliant. I installed a new, off-brand 320GB hard drive I purchased through TigerDirect for $79 (which is a about 1/4 the cost of buying the same sized drive through Mac). After the nearly 2 hour installation of Final Cut Pro Studio 5.1 (it comes on 6 full DVDs), I decided to give installing the hard drive I had purchased a week back a shot. To physically install the hard drive involved the following:

1. Remove side panel via a lever on the back of the case.
2. Pull out a hard drive sleeve.
3. Screw the hard drive to the sleeve with four screws
4. Push the sleeve back in place
5. Replace the side panel.

That's it. When I booted the computer, it brought me to a disk maintenance app that took, literally, 3 clicks to clear and format the drive to be used. The entire process took less than five minutes. Mac are expensive, don't get me wrong. I would go so far as to say they are prohibitively expensive for the average web surfer and word processor. However, now that Apple is adapting Intel architecture, these costs will, as my third-party hard drive experience demonstrates, come down over time. Video cards, which, traditionally, have had the largest cost gap between Mac and PC, are starting to be released cross-platform, and all new Macs are adopting the PCI-E architecture.

Snow, Editing, and Primier

The weather has been shite down here. There hasn't really been a ton of snow, it just keeps going from melting to freezing, so there's 4-5 inches of ice covering everything. The upshot of the crap weather is we were able to stay home on Tuesday. This provided me with some time to work on my reel. I ripped copies of Stalemate and Le Denoument, and started picking clips that I like. My goal is to have all my clips picked and my structure laid down by the end of this weekend. Next week will be working on the After Effects sequences. It's coming along really well now that I have all the applications I need to put together.

(Our neighbor's car)

Last weekend was fun. We headed down to Grand Rapids Thursday night and stayed until Sunday. Friday we hung out, went to lunch, and saw the world premier of Chad's film "Little Thumb." I have much, much more to say about the premier and the movie, but I'm still reflecting on it, so I guess everyone will have to wait with bated breath for that post. Afterward, we hung out with friends at Grand Rapids Brewing Company and caught up with friends and family. It was great. It summarized some of the things I miss about GR: Good friends, family, and micro-brew beer. There's only 2 micro-breweries withing driving distance of Cincinnati. What's up with that?

(The drunkards.)

Saturday we slept in, ran some errands, and hung out with Team Forton to un-celebrate Zach's big birthday. It was great to hang with the gang again. We sat around, joked, caught up, laughed at really bad tv, and had a smashing time. We always have such a good time over there.

(Angie preparing to eat William)

About 6 o'clock we prepared dinner at Mandy's parent's house and sat down to watch Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and sat by the warm fire. The strangeness of Fear and Loathing aside, I think everyone had a good time. We drink some white wine, ate good food, and partook of the warm and friendly company.

Sunday we ate a quick breakfast and headed out. We made it home around 7:00PM and got some Chinese take-out from a local wok. It was a really good weekend.

Viacom 100,000 Take Downs

A few weeks back, I posted two video segments Chad and I made for a friend's bachelor party. The video segments were straight-up parody (which is protected speech), not-for-profit, and terribly funny. If you scroll back to these two posts you'll find that the videos no longer work. The reason they don't, is because Viacom sent 100,000 cease and desist letters to YouTube. YouTube promptly removed all of the alleged offending content, without verifying if any of the content actually broke their rules. Chad's videos were removed as a result of the take down.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF.Org) is attempting to gather examples of clips that were unnecessarily removed. So far, several cases have been reported including a home video of people eating a restaurant--obviously having nothing to do with Viacom. They have put together a simple a video to pass around to people who may have been affected by the take down. I include the video at the bottom of the post, in the hopes that Chad follows up with them. Our work is both parody and a form of fair use falling under the "mash-up" style of expression which is increasing in popularity.

Click here for more info on the issue.

Mac is arrive.

Hopefully, by the time I get home, my Mac will have arrived. My hope is that I will be posting this via Safari or Firefox 2.0 running on OS X.

The demo is coming along as well as it can while waiting on the computer I'm going to use to finish the composition. I've been scanning through a ton of music I found at Archive.org. Some of the music has the most liberal Creative Commons copyright, the share-alike, derivatives-friendly, no commercial use license. The problem is, most of the tracks aren't really conducive to a fast-paced promotion piece. The vast majority of the tracks released under the license I need are generally ephemeral ambient music. I need beats and lots of variation so I can transition between clips, using the audio as a cue or to help keep a sense of pacing as a flip between shots that often have nothing in common.

In other news, Mandy and I are preparing for the long crossing. There is good reason to believe that this trip is going to be slow-going due to inclement weather. We're still planning to leave Thursday after work, but when we arrive in GR is anyone's guess. Accuweather calls for clear but cold down here and snowy up North. Since there is an escalating possibility of getting stranded up North, we're bringing the cats.

Cooking and Waiting

We had a fun potluck last night. Some work friends came over and we all shared food. Most of the people were Indian women, so the food was amazing and diverse. Mandy and I made egg fried rice with veggies, some basmati rice, cinnamon bread, and focaccia bread with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella. They made idly with coconut chutney, tandoori chicken, golab jamun (little deep-fried donuts in a single sugar syrup), onion pakoras, and Kentucky Fried Chicken... yes, KFC. It was cool to hang out with everyone and swap stories about cultural differences, movie likes, and recipes.

I've received by new monitor, Final Cut Studio 5.1 software, and 320GB-friggen-hard-drive for $79. The only thing that's missing is the Mac. The tracking number was last updated on February 1st and it places the date of arrival here around February 7th, but I think it will show up before that--hopefully tomorrow.

I've been hard at work on my demo reel. I created a cool 10 second intro clip and another 8 second conclusion clip. I started splitting the scenes out that I want to use, but with a Mac on the way, and having to convert everything from MPEG2 to Quicktime when it arrives, I've been dragging my heels. I figure one long weekend push will get into a form that I wouldn't mind showing to potential employers. Taking Josh's advice, I'm going to put just the video clip, my resume, contact info up on a basic .html page while I work on the more in-depth flash site that will showcase my writings, photography, and audio work.

After the reel is done, I'm going to move full-force into working on Mandy's parent's cross-country bike trip video diary. I'm going import that footage, break into sizable chunks, and figure out how to pace it based on notes that Casey left me. I think that's going to be fun since it will give me an opportunity to relearn FCP, Soundtrack, and Motion - the Mac apps I haven't really been playing with since I left school.

This week we're packing up and getting ready to head North to see the premier of Chad's documentary "Little Thumb" and to see our nephew, Zach, for his fourth birthday. I'm really anxious to see Chad's film. He's been working on it for a over a year. I've seen various drafts of the outline, shot some of the footage, and debated the theme over many a pint. It's always so gratifying to see people accomplish the goals they set for themselves. Woot!

Um... wtf?

After some research, I found out this clip is from a Werner Herzog film which sort of breaks my heart. I was totally convinced it came straight from hell.

Herzog is a famous, and amazingly talented, filmmaker who specializes in documentaries. I found the clip on the amazing video filter site Videosift.com. When I started watching it I was initially confused. The confusion quickly gave way to an intense feeling of anxiety which just as quickly became laughter. As many a constant reader has commented on how I find something about tiny people very, uh, alluring. I post this clip, however, not because it contains a tiny German midget laughing at a camel doing situps, but because the scene is so bizarre, so totally absurd it has to been to seen to be believed.

Here it is: The strangest clip I've ever found on the internet. You have to play it through to the end to hear the midget nearly die from laughing so hard.

The funniest comment I've seen about this was from videosift when someone wrote, "Does this mean I'm going to die in seven days after seeing this?"

Strange

Friday, Mandy and I went out to dinner with a couple friends. At a cooking party last weekend I noticed that they had a copy of a "Born Into Brothels" a supposedly stirring documentary about children in India who are, evidently, born into brothels. I left the copy at their house, so we met up to pick it up. At dinner we were discussing religion and the topic of people going door-to-door to witness to strangers came up. There was much discussion about how to deal with these people. I brought up the fact that I had never once, in my life, had one of these people come to my door. Ever. No one believed me, but it was true. I had never seen them before.

The next morning two guys from a local Baptist church dropped by our apartment inquiring about
the status of our souls. I politely declined their advances and returned to the breakfast table where we discussed how it odd it was that we had just been discussing the same thing the night before.

This is my long, protracted way of explaining much purchase of a Mac. I've spent most of my life dissing the Mac. Mac's are for people who don't understand computers and want a simple / expensive path to digital enlightenment. It figured that if you had to spend 30% more to not have to know anything about IRQs, IDE Channels, and how hack your registry to get a program to work, you didn't deserve the computer. I still stand by this argument. The only difference is, I've discovered a cadre of Mac users who are quite adept as IT professionals. Many, like myself, are lapsed Microsoft people--people who have become so fed up with MS's desire to destroy the enabling forces of the internet, privacy, and self-determination, that they've gone to the only real competitor there is. The many people I know who use Macs as their primary computer also have version of Linux or Windows running on other drives, they're also primarily IT professionals who are sick of their computers crashing, data getting lost, and configuration problems.

While I doubt I'll be running Linux on my Mac anytime soon, I will be running the Final Cut Pro Production suite. This is a professional video editing and compositing suite built to take advantage of the dual 64-bit processors the new Intel Macs (Mac Pro Series) are sporting. I may go into more detail about the frustrations I've had trying to get MPEG2, Quicktime, and MP4 codecs to convert correctly in another post. The main point is, I need a machine that will edit and edit well. This will do that.

Alas, I have a Mac heading my way. I've joined the cult. The only difference between this cult and others is instead of shaving my head, I have to buy hair gel.

(P.S. I will post pictures of me buying the Mac as soon as I can get the memory card to work.)

Millions React to MindSplint Death

This past weekend, I had to pull the plug. The patient had long been neglected. It was feeble, unconscious, and contributing nothing to society but web moss. It went peacefully. A few twitches and a long exhale of bits and bloops and it died.

MindSplint was a side-project of Chad and mine for about two years. We posted reviews... and that was about it. There was no real upkeep of the site and no concerted effort to get new visitors. Hell, we hardly paid attention to basic grammatical rules when writing. It was more an exercise in learning how to articulate our film ideas in a written form. The lack of follow-up and free time with which to see movies ultimately led to its demise. It was fun while it lasted, but I've gotten tired of paying $7.00 a month for a site that really only entertained its authors.

"MindSplint" Link on the left-hand navigation bar will ultimately lead to, the MindSplint Archive. Nothing is really pressing me to repost the reviews. If anyone would actually be interested in reading them, I'll post them. Otherwise, it'll continue to link to closed graphic it now links to.

(R.I.P. MindSplint - 2005-2007)

Are you looking at my MONEY???

If you've ever wondered why Esquire and I greet each other with, "Hi Bingo." This video will explain it.

I first saw this movie many years back, before Mandy and I started dating. She and Esquire had bought a slew of cool electronic gizmos to replace the ones her ex had stolen from her house. I had just arrived angry from a fight I had just had with my ex-girlfriend over the phone. To have something to play in her new DVD-player, she purchased disk called the "Computer Animation Showcase." It contained the following the CGI short. That night has gone down as some sort of myth or legend from the amount conversations we've had about the different pieces showcased in it.

Bingo The Clowno'

Hoping for the life after Number 5

I am not too familiar with death. In fact, I have been blessed to have most of my family still alive. The inevitable fact is that we will all die, and I understand this, it is a lot harder to deal with that fact when someone that you love dies.

My cousin Andy died tragically just before Thanksgiving. As children, I remember Andy fondly. Although we were not “best friends” I do remember looking up to him and having a lot of fun with him. As an adult, I was not close to him or his family. I feel badly about that, but there is no way to go back and change time. The whirlwind of emotions that I am now facing were spurred on by the death of my cousin, but being as we were not very close, many of the emotions were connected to the fact that I had not dealt entirely with the loss of my friend from the year before.

The thing that is usually not brought up at the funeral is the different “stages” of grief the family and friends generally experience. On the other hand, a phrase you hear a lot is time heals all wounds. This may be true, but I have found that “time” is relative to the person.

Many experts agree that there are five stages most people have when handling grief. It seems I am no exception to this….

1. Denial – During this time I found myself trying not to keep my mind focused on other tasks at hand, as well as thinking in the back of my mind that it was not real. My brain would argue with itself about the reality of my friend being dead. Sometimes it seemed like I was an outsider to the conversations that happened inside my own head. This numb, imagined world was not a place where I wanted to live. The only way I was able to leave this fantasy realm was to understand that he was not in away on vacation, but was, in fact, dead. This resolution brought more tears with it…
2. Anger - Someone I worked with suggested that I be ready for the time when my anger would start. I assured them that there would be no way that I would be mad that the person died. How could I? Needless to say, there was a good couple of months were I was VERY mad….to the point were I was furious. I have dealt with my anger and luckily have moved on.
3. Bargaining – I feel that I am currently in this stage. I had a dream the other night where I found my friend sitting on some bleachers. I said hi to him and he ignored me. When I attempted to give him a hug he crossed his arms in front of himself. I began to cry and ask him why he won’t give me a hug. I remember begging him through my tears, pleading that I would do anything that he wanted me to if only he would hug me. My husband was also in the dream and I remember him trying to console me by telling me that James could not talk to me now. I woke up crying.
4. Depression – I am not here yet. I have past experience with depression in my life, and this definitely one stage that I am not looking forward to.
5. Acceptance – I am not here yet. This stage will probably be the easiest to deal with and hopefully the quickest one.

Based on everything I’ve read, I feel I have passed through three of the five stages. It has been a rough journey so far, and I am sure there is more to come. The best I can do is hope for the end of #5 and my life afterward.

Ode To Camelot and Pratt

Here is a short video I edited two Christmases ago. After the South Carolina job fell through, Mandy and I lived at her parents for a short period while we vainly searched for a job in Grand Rapids and held nightly pity parties for ourselves. It was during that time that I became antsy for a quick video project to work on to calm my nerves and stay in practice. I had an old tape of a Camelot party that had been short two to three years earlier (so, from today, we're talking maybe 5-6 years ago). The total length of the tape was, at most, 30 minutes. It was also horribly shot (due to the intoxication of the various camera operators), the quality of the camera, and the completely uncooperative people attending the party.

I post it because there is substantial footage of our good friend Mr. Pratt, who died of a drug overdose about 4 years after this was shot. Mandy and I are still trying to completely get over his death, and it feels somewhat cathartic to post this video and present the world of Camelot to friends and family.

It was an amazing period of both of our lives. It could be argued that I grew up more in the two years I lived there then all of the time leading up to it. I think everyone has a period in their lives that they look back on as the pinnacle of self-determination and growth. When everything we think we know about the world gets torn apart and has to reconsidered. Camelot (the name of the street we lived on) was a microcosm of partying, film-making, studying, barbecuing, and angst. Everyone I know who lived there or visited often remembers it fondly, but always with the caveat that, "That sure was fun. Man, I'm glad that I've grown up since then."

Camelot

"The world certainly is full of things." -King of All Cosmos

I have a profound love for Japanese pop-culture craziness. One of the most beloved sites I have ever happened across is Engrish.com. The image below is just one of many, many examples of hilarity.

(There is indeed)

The Dark Tower Trailer

Here's a mock trailer I made for the Dark Tower books by Stephen King. I had been thinking of how to approach a trailer for the books for a long time. There were a couple of other choice scenes I would've liked to have included, but I couldn't get my hands on them. All in all, I think it came together well.

The Dark Trailer

Behind the Music: Tyler Berrington Pt. 2

As promised, here is the part 2 of the Behind the Music: Forbidden Love. If I recall correctly, this part was done by Chad before he brought me into the fold. After watching, and laughing, we decided to do two more parts to make it a full 30 minutes VH1 parody (well, 22 minutes with commercials). However, like many of our projects, it remains 2/3rds of the way complete. Perhaps, someday, we'll find a free weekend and complete the whole thing.

I'm also posting these two parts to announce that I've changed the link from Chad's woefully unkempt Opa Documentary Blog to his YouTube site. He updates his YouTube channel "Epsilon Ltd." often. I'll periodically post links and embed videos to remind people to check it out on occasion.

Forbidden Love

Behind the Music: Tyler Berrington Pt. 1

This is Part 1 of a project Chad and I worked on years back. It was premiered at Tyler B's bachelor party and has been the bane of the guests of many future gatherings. It is here presented in two parts: The Beginning and Forbidden Love. The Beginning weighs in at around 8 minutes and is certain to be appreciated by people who have at least met Ty. I think, even now, it holds up well against later projects.

I will post Part 2: Forbidden Love tomorrow.

The Beginning

New Blogger (finally)

We finally transfered over to the new blogger. I won't bore anyone with the details of the transition, but our testing skills finally some practical real world application. The good folks of Blogger ended up doing some switch throwing on their end to get us uprighted again, and here we are. I'm going to try to keep this more up-to-date now that the transition nastiness is behind us.

To keep everyone in the know, I'm going to list off some doin's that done transpired that should have resulted in blog posts had we been able to:

1. Mandy is working for a different consulting company and is currently on assignment at a way-big company. The work is semi-interesting, but her consulting company is da bomb. She got a pay bump to jump.

2. I am still working for the same consulting company, but on a different assignment. Interestingly enough, I jumped to her vacant seat when she left for her new gig. It seems the fate of good ex-Quixtar testers is to end up working on a Cincinnati Financial contract at some point in their career, and I'm not exception. I got a pay bump not to jump.

3. We just returned from a extended trip to our homeland. We left Port Royal by steamboat on the 1st of May, 'rounded the Cape of the Tempest come late Spring. Boarding a mighty air zeppelin, we were deep in the jungle primeval of the Amazon by mid-summer's eve. All in all it was a harrowing journey filled with adventure, mayhem, and a little romance. It was great to catch up with friends and family and share in a little holiday cheer. Holiday cheer can come in the form of watching the resurrected ghosts of James Brown and Gerald R. Ford pound the hell out of each other in a Playstation 2 game, and in the case of one late family holiday party, it did.

4. Christmas was great, but where the feck is the snow? Something is amiss... Maybe Art Bell is right.

Thanks again to everyone for the great gifts, good times, and especially to the Sterk family for opening their home to Mandy and I for nearly two weeks.

Happy 2007!

The Asimo Falls

When I first saw this little robot walk up and down a staircase, to be honest, I was a little freaked out. It's creepy how it walks. It looks so natural. Watch the whole thing - it's only a minute and a half long. It's worth it.

Pointless Product #3

It's number 3, I think. Here's what Homer has to say about it. This one is lifted straight off of BoingBoing (which, in turn, was linked from the Modern Mechanix blog), but it was so damn funny I had to put something up about it.

(February 1939 - The 2nd funniest thing is the writing of maybe as "may be" I love it!)

There are two scenarios I see here. In one, you are a squinty punk who pulls the trip on a fire alarm that ensnares you until a cop twirling a baton and sporting an Irish accent approaches saying, "Toy! Toy! What's all this then?" In the other, the same cop enters the burnt ruins of a building, twirling a baton, only to find a charred corpse dangling from the fire alarm, "Toy! Toy!" He says, "What's all this then?" Can't see much of a difference.

If there's a chance that a device can be used for something wrong, then a few people wrongly trapped isn't such a small price to pay. It's amazing that this logic still persists in most consumer electronics today.

Thanks!

It's been a good weekend to give thanks. The weather was absolutely fantastic. Thursday and Friday we hung out around the apartment cooking, burning DVDs, drinking wine, playing with the cats, watching movies, and smoochin'. It was great to have some time where we have nothing planned, to figure out when and what we want to do.

Last weekend, I took Mandy to Glenlaurel Inn in the Hocking Hills of Ohio. This is the south-eastern edge of Ohio, about 2 and a half hours from where we live. The drive was amazingly fun, especially the last 45 minutes. For this short period, the road goes nuts. It's like driving through the Scottish Highlands, or so I'd guess it would be like. The weekend was great. We ate a 7-course dinner in their wonderful inn and enjoyed an evening of fireside talks and hottub bubblings. This area of Ohio is really interesting.

Years and years ago, my mom, Vickie (my friend Ian's mom), and myself marched up the "Shale Trail." A trail that runs up a flat limerock riverbed that runs about 25 miles. We fought hordes of mosquitos, biting flies, and biting snakes, but eventually made it to the delta at it's end. It was one of the more exciting experiences of my young life: Carying my gear on my back as I waded through miles of Ohio river for three days, I learned a lot about what a person can endure - which, in turn, helped me survive my Austin biking trip.

(Shot at Glenlaurel, in the Hocking Hills of Ohio)

Saturday we cleaned up after the cooking adventure the night before, made breakfast, and headed out. The day was beautiful - sunny, in the lower 70s. We headed downtown Cinci to Zoo. The Cincinnati Zoo is usually counted among the top three zoos in the US. While some of the exhibits had been shut down for the winter ("Sorry! Edgar the Lemur is resting!") the crowd was really small and parking was very decent. The zoo runs a Holiday Festival of Lights thing where they decks the cages and plants with Christmas lights. And, seriously, put a baby Jesus in the petting zoo barn. Alas, we headed out before they charged us an extra $10 to see baby Jesus all aglow with blinking lights. As we left, we noticed the crowd to get in was enormous.

(Damn. Makes me want to watch the amazing King Kong again)

We headed from that side of town to Mount Adams to check out the area. Mt. Adams is a kind of cross between college hanging out and yuppie hobnobbin'. There all kinds of restaurants that contain words like "Bistro" and bars with buzzing neon palm trees. We went to a fantastic Thai restaurant called "Teak." We split an order of spicy tuna and spider sushi rolls, then had a plate of "Spicy Thai Chicken" and a small carafe of sake. It was all amazing and really reasonably priced. I can imagine that this area of town would be great fun in the summer, when the daylight is longer, and the nights are warm. The views from this high vista overlooking the Ohio River, Cincinnati Downtown, and parts of Newport on the Levvy are amazing. We're planning on spending more quality time in this area of town.

(The sushi is oddly transparent)

On our way home, down southbound I-75, we passed the exit to the Cincinnati zoo. It was backed up for miles. I guess we got out of there at the right time...

The Wedding DVD is complete. Finally. After playing around with "Roxio Easy CD Creator 9" and having endless problems, I decided to look into Adobe Encore 2 - a pro tool used for authoring. It's quite a bit more complex, but it is so much more deep in terms of functionality that I'm glad I took some time to learn the basics. When I decide to take the plunge into Mac or PC for hardcore editing, I know I'll be sticking with this tool. We are just printing off labels, cutting, and placing. It's down to rote reproduction, which is a nice change from having to learn new programs to accomplish specific task.

The main thing I learned doing this is: DVD authoring is one of the most annoying things I've ever come across in my 10+ year A/V history. From incompatible codecs to menu linking to DVD player incompatibility, it's a ton of work.

The thing I've come to respect most from doing this: Chad. He's done half a dozen of these films. Not only that, but they were for people he didn't necessarily care that much about. It goes to show the depth of his professionalism when he can go through the 100+ hours it takes to produce a DVD and do them so well, even though he wasn't necessarily emotionally invested is astounding to me. I have a little more understanding as to why he politely brushed me off when I would nag him about starting a wedding DVD production company.

Steady Progress

I've been making steady progress towards finishing the wedding video. The DVD printer, ink-jet printable DVD blanks, and jewel cases have all arrived. I have gotten as far as opening the boxes to verify all the items are the ones I've ordered, but I have yet to install the printer and try it out on a few disks and paper. That will come with the wondrous, swiftly approaching four-day holiday weekend. I hope to have the DVDs mastered by Friday and packaged by Sunday. That will allow me to clear the 100GB+ of video files off my computer and onto my Lacie drive, freeing me to work on my reel and the video diary of Sue and Casey's cross-country trip.

Special thanks to Mr. Chad for helping me choose a printer and such. The model is Epson Stylus Photo R340 Inkjet Printer. It's a 6-tone printer designed for printing photos and discs. I'm sure I'll be bugging him for suggestions and help on many other video and printing related questions. Expect many shout-outs in the coming months.

I'm still debating on whether or not to start investing in a Mac and legit software to run on it. The advantages to building a PC are numerous: I can make a computer that is much faster than a Mac for 1/4 the price. They're much easier to upgrade, they run all types of software, and can play games. The downside is I can't run Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack, Pro Tools, Motion, or Adobe products that don't have half of their features stripped out just so they can work on a Windows platform. The other problem is I so fucking hate Microsoft that I'm willing to spend more money just to avoid having to install Vista on any computer I own. Granted, Apple isn't exactly championing consumer rights, but at least they aren't trying to cram the trusted computer architecture down people's throats... yet. The Direct X 10 stuff I've seen does look awful purdy, but if it comes at the expense of owning my computer vs. leasing it Microsoft, I'll have to look elsewhere for my gaming fun.

The thing that sucks most about having to pick one is the same problem with the current state of politics in America: I'm stuck between one of two options that are so close they might as well be the same. Sure, I could go with the Green Party or Ubuntu and be really proud of myself, but neither will help me get a decent editing suite up and running.

That's it from this side. Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Intensity

Been back for a while now. We've been making lots of fantastic food recently. A friend of Mandy's made us some authentic Indian ghee (clarified butter) and we've been making crazy-good food with it.

This past weekend we basically hung out, cleaned the apartment, cooked, and bummed around. This past Saturday we made shrimp and chicken tendori and watched Serenity again, damn good movie that it is. Mandy just completed My Sister's Keeper and claims it's a fantastic book. I'm still plowing through The World Is Flat and catching up with the last two editions of Discover Magazine.

I finally decided to put a bit of initiative behind some film ideas and start on a couple outlines. I bought a DVD printer, 100 count inkjet printable DVDs, and 100 jewel cases. I will have the wedding video completed by the end of Thanksgiving and my demo reel designed and storyboarded by Christmas. My goal is to have the 100% of the footage shot by mid-January and the site and demo material publicly available by February 1st. I think with some sound planning and Mandy's watchful gaze keeping me in check, I will be able make this deadline. I can't wait. When that's all said and done, I can start applying for all of these wondrous post-production jobs I keep seeing.

There is a Christmas letter being sent out to people with limited access to the blog dealing directly with our stance on gift-giving this holiday season (hint: It's the same as last year). There is a permanent link to the Christmas letter on the left navigation of the blog. It's imaginatively labeled "Christmas Letter." I've also added a long-overdue link to Seeking With Jon, a great blog maintained by a good friend who writes about laboriously plowing through Seminary at the prestigious Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I know he'd appreciate you checking it out and laying down some sweet-ass comments.

That's pretty much it from this side. As nice as it may have been to be in GR these past few weekends, it's been awesome to hang out around here, just the two of us, for a weekend and do nothing.

"The universe loves a drama, you know; and ladies and gentlemen... this is the show."
-Paul Simon

I don't feel like dancin...

No sir, no dancin' for me.

A quick call out to everyone who attended Mandy's party this past Saturday. It was great to see everyone and spend some time hanging out. I know Mandy had a great time and was happy so many people came out to celebrate.

After traveling for three weekends straight, we're going be sticking around here until around Christmas. We will be back for Christmas for about a week and a half when we do come up. We're still trying to determine the holiday schedule, but there's plenty of time before we head back up.

Been listening to lots of really good music recently. Angie and Mark mentioned a CD by a band called the Scissor Sisters called "Ta-Da!". It's insanely catchy, disco-pop sounding music. It's really odd and cool. I've also been listening to a CD I keep hearing on a local radio station called "TV On The Radio." It's also amazing, but in a more subtle and less, uh, flamboyant way. Good stuff all around.

P.S. The subject is wrong. I actually do feel like dancing, both Rummy and DeVos are out.

Cory Doctorow is the Man

This was working when I tried a test post. I hope the actual post shows a video and not a bunch of useless code.

I love this guy. Point of fact, I would totally consider having his children, if he were so willing. His writings (both fiction and non) have been inspiring me to interpret the world through a completely different lens. Mayhaps this internal change will translate to a film, internet, or writing project of some sort. I love it.

Le Denouement Wins!

This was a good weekend. We headed out of town Thursday afternoon and spent the weekend hanging out with friends and having a genuinely good time. It was a jam-packed weekend that really underlines how little time there is in a day when you try fit everyone in. For those we didn't get a chance to see, we'll be back down next weekend for Mandy's big 30th party, and we're looking really forward to catching up with everyone.

The big rush of the weekend came Friday when we all attended the 7th 24 Hour Film Festival. The top ten films (out of 21 entries) were selected and shown in the enormous theater 1 at Studio 28. For anyone who doesn't know, Theater 1 is the large house in the state of Michigan, seating over 800 people. It's also acts as a kind of Mecca for film geeks (specifically sci-fi geeks). It draws people for all over the state for opening night screenings of films. I've seen more movies in this theater than I can remember, dating back to my earliest movie-going childhood memories. I love this theater.

When you submit a film for the competition, the acadeny doesn't tell anyone whether their film made it to the top ten cut. You have to go to the theater and see if yours was selected. The films are shown in random order, with judges comments between each piece. Until your film shows, you sit in anxious anticipation, hoping the next piece to play is yours.

Ours was shown last. Oh man. When they started screen 8 and 9, I figured we were doomed. Then, after the title card "Film 10" faded out and I saw Mr. Croissant's name appear, I felt such a rush of elation. Everyone cheered and the whole of Theater sat in rapt silence as Jean-Baptiste's brilliance unfolded before us. They even showed me and my friend's little documentary about the film afterward - it was totally gratifying.

So, it was a blast to see something I helped create appear on the enormous screen. It something else altogether to win an award and be asked by my peers to stand before the mighty screen and say a few things on everyone's behalf. It was a very surreal / wonderful moment.

Sadly, director Jean-Baptiste Croissant wouldn't attend the screening, saying something about film festivals being too "Bourgeois." I accepted the award on his behalf, and if things go well, I should be able to reach him at autumn residence in Quebec, Canada. Ah, I love Skype and how it allows me to make free calls. I'll try to record the call and post it. It's one thing thing to see his films, it's another thing altogether to hear the genius speak.

I've included the video at the bottom of the post. It doesn't really do Mr. Baptiste's film justice to see it YouTubeized - but you should get the gist.

Le Denouement

Singularity - A discussion with Jean-Baptiste Croissant

This past weekend, I had a discussion with famed film director Jean-Baptiste Croissant. While is most famous for the cult film "Le denouement", he is less known for his studies in economics, religion, and philosophy. We struck a chord with the idea of technology changing culture and I mentioned both Chris Andersen's "The Long Tail" and a concept called "The Singularity" that is getting picked up primarily by the speculative fiction crowd. I only mentioned these ideas in passing because A) My voice was so destroyed that I could barley speak and B) I don't know enough about either to carry on a meaningful discussion with a person of such intellect (he was reviewed in the Morlin Monthly!). I bring it up now because in the few days following the discussion, I have come across it again and again. I thought I would post some helpful links for anyone, famed director or not, to look into it if they're interested. I think the idea has some merit, but I'm cautious to jump on the "The singularity will be the greatest thing ever!" bandwagon, despite how much my geek-nerves might tingle at the prospect of augmenting my brain with crazy super-computers.

A simple synopsis from SSS:

"For over a hundred thousand years, the evolved human brain has held a privileged place in the expanse of cognition. Within this century, science may move humanity beyond its boundary of intelligence. This possibility, the singularity, may be a critical event in history, and deserves thoughtful consideration."

1. First, the actual '93 white paper by Vernor Vinge wherein he lays out the idea.
2. The Stanford Singularity Summit (SSS) where top writers, journalists, and hackers gather to discuss the idea.
3. An interview with Cory Doctorow (amazing author of Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom) at the conference.
4. "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls" a great short story / audio podcast featured on EscapePod arguing the pros and cons of the idea (with great commentary by Steve Eley)
5. The Transhumanist Manifesto (reformated into a FAQ) published on the 'World Transhumanist Association' website.
6. And of course, for full-disclosure, a collection of articles that are highly skeptical of the idea.

(On the shoot with Mr. Croissant himself)

This American Life - PODCAST

Ever since my good friend Josh turned me on to This American Life, I've been trying to convince people to listen in. TAL is an amazing National Public Radio show that, each week, takes a basic theme and tells mini-documentary style stories based on that theme. It's gripping, funny, and incredibly well produced. Being a big fan of documentary, I've gone out of my way to see quite a bit of what's out there. So, I can tell you from experience that This American Life ranks as one of very, very best.

Today they announced that the shows are going to be released free, in podcast form. Each one is about an hour in length and makes for some of the most compelling listening around. If you're at all interested in audio documentary or compelling real-life stories, I would highly recommend subscribing to the feed and listening to some of the episodes.

Here's a link with more information and official press release.

Special K 's new cereal sucks!

I need to eat breakfast everyday, this is just a very obvious thing for me. The other thing that I need is a good source of protein in the morning - to give me an extra boost. Some people rely on coffee, for me it's breakfast.

If you know me, you know that I love cereal. I know I've got a good kind of cereal when it tastes great in a bowl with some Silk (or milk). I know I've got a great kind of cereal when you can eat it dry, right from the box. I eat all kinds of cereal, and I will try anything once...thus what leads to my rant.

It seems that Special K has a new cereal called Special K Protein Plus. Special K, which I like to eat, with added protein - needless to say I was sold. I was very eager to try some this morning when I woke up. As I poured it from the box, I grabbed a couple of flakes, popped them in my mouth and began to chew. BLEEEHHHH!!! I stared down at the bowl for a couple of seconds. It doesn't look like Special K, but I finally resolved that this was just a cereal that I would not be able to eat for a snack in the middle of the day.

I poured the Silk on and dove it. Oh my!!! Yuck!!! What is this cardboard, no flavor, hard as a brick cereal suckiness that I have in my mouth. GROSS!!!! I am thoroughly disgusted now, but as I no longer have time to get anything else I dumped some honey on it and choked it down.

This post is not only about me ranting, or having the opportunity to use the work suckiness. In fact, I wanted to get this out on the internet with the hopes that no one else would be subjected to such a horror of a breakfast.

Maintenance

Two quick things:

1. I never posted the link to the Jaron Lanier article in Discover I mentioned in the Sept 25th post. It's a good summary of what I was saying (or trying to say) about the reductionist trend in culture, espeically surrounding geeks. It's also an argument against the idea that we can reduce all human interaction, thought, and existence to information, so that it will neatly follow the classical world. I like the article because I mostly agree with him, and it has a cool wit about it. Check it out.

2. I was listening to Coast to Coast this afternoon while testing an application. A subject was consciousness so they had an anestiaologist for a guest. In the fourth hour, when they take calls, a listener had this to say about a recent Roger Waters concert. I agree that there was a communal feeling about the event, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it was the single most amazing experienece ever. I just thought it coincedntal and interesting. Here's the clip.

(I love that the artist drew Homer with only three fingers)

What is there to explain?

(It's obviously Christopher Walken floating in outer space.)

Oh by the way...

Which one's Pink?

I can finally check off a major item on my list of "Life's To-Dos." Friday night I saw Pink Floyd lead man Roger Waters perform, among other things, the entirety of The Dark Side of the Moon. The weather turned cold and rainy as the weekend approached and it was raining and in the low 50s when we got into Chicago. Mandy and I went to a local sushi bar and had a great dinner while we waited for the concert to start and the rest of our friends (Chad, Megan, and Josh). The rain stopped and a very cold breeze started up as we headed out to the concert area, parked, and waited by the gate. When everyone else showed up, we headed in, found a spot high up on a hill and beheld the genius of Floyd play the greats.

It was really surreal. I've been to a bunch of concerts (I actually saw REM and Wilco at the same venue with my sister, bro-in-law, Josh, and Jon several years back) and I can say I've been to a concert quite like this. For starters, the concert was outdoors and it was freezing. Up to this point I've been fortunant enough to be holding lawn seat tickets on days when it was sunny and warm. This was freezing. Second, and most important, is the concerts I go to are always being held by people who are still actively creating music. When I go to see The Lips, Coldplay, or Sigur Ros it's because they've recently come out with a new album and they're touring to help support it. Even a Steely Dan concert Jon and I attended was performed to support the album "Two Against Nature" (which won the Grammy for album of the year). Steely Dan was a band that was around during Floyd's prime, but they're still producing music. I've never been to a show where the exclusive purpose of attending is to hear the studio versions of the songs that are, in most cases, decades old. To his credit, Waters did perform a new song, but it seemed really out of place. He wasn't fooling anyone, let along himself. Everyone was there to hear Pink Floyd songs and that was it.

I'm glad I saw him, but in a strange way it wasn't because of the music. In fact it's difficult for me to even hear the music. I've heard Dark Side so many times, both for personal pleasure and for business (I used to run laser light shows), it's difficult for me to even hear the music anymore. I've heard it so many times that it blends into the ambiance as a kind of sonic background radiation.

The concert experience was an affirmation of love for the man who helped create the albums that first opened my eyes to wonders of music. Before I fell in love with Pink Floyd, I never really enjoyed music. I tolerated or laughed at it, but I never "got it." I never could get why anyone would want to venture into different genres or look forward to album releases - ideas that are now so prominent in my life, it would be hard for young me and old me to have a meaningful conversation about music. I primarily listened to Weird Al and the Moody Blues and loathed the radio.

For me and many others, The Dark Side of the Moon was the album that finally gave me a reason to explore music. Pink Floyd stands, and will forever stand, on a musical plateau not great than, but apart from other bands. While my interests have changed, and I have found bands that are, in different ways, better my respect for the band remains untouched. They will always be the greatest band, not because the music is better, but because of the profound effect they made on my life.

Despite the cold and the distance from the stage, it felt good to pay my respects to the man who played a large part in shaping my musical interests. And judging from the thousands of people joining me on the cold hilltop, I wasn't alone.

("The time has come, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say...")

Don't forget Beck and The Killers have new CDs coming out on Tuesday!