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.