8/1/07
7/27/07
6/28/07
Spike "I Try" Jonze
This is the first image released/leaked from Spike Jonze's film adaptation of "Where The Wild Things Are". This film's potential is off the charts. Spike and Dave Eggers co-wrote the screenplay. One of my favorite directors working with one of my favorite authors. Good stuff.
Pro Queue'r
My initial reaction to this guy was two fold:
1. what a freakin' loser
2. he's awesome for taking his shirt off
Then it hit me that this guy set out to do SOMETHING and he appears to be good at it. I'm always disappointed when I catch myself criticizing someone for doing something. Makes me feel super lame. It's bad enough that I don't put myself out there and TRY...but it's disgusting to sit back and make fun of people that are trying. regardless of who or what.
Good for you sweaty, delusional, shirtless-in-front-of-the-Fifth-Avenue-Apple-Store Queueman. I admire your bravery and commitment.
1. what a freakin' loser
2. he's awesome for taking his shirt off
Then it hit me that this guy set out to do SOMETHING and he appears to be good at it. I'm always disappointed when I catch myself criticizing someone for doing something. Makes me feel super lame. It's bad enough that I don't put myself out there and TRY...but it's disgusting to sit back and make fun of people that are trying. regardless of who or what.
Good for you sweaty, delusional, shirtless-in-front-of-the-Fifth-Avenue-Apple-Store Queueman. I admire your bravery and commitment.
6/22/07
6/19/07
6/14/07
6/9/07
5/16/07
Time +1 = Santa
When working in a 3D application, one needs to effortlessly consider spatial and temporal relationships in order to be successful.
lots of people can draw or design. understanding composition, layout, form and color theory isn't tricky at all. it's the relationship of these "scripts" in Z space and over time that sends people into the brick wall.
In a way, an artistic understanding of xyz +1 has been my career. Now there's talk of a hidden extra dimension. temporal. and I'm assuming spatial. my excitement upon reading this news certainly sent me beyond the 3rd dimension! (zing!) I guess I'm going to be going through a bunch of tutorials soon! (zing! zing!)
Anyway, I just love all this stuff. I've grown to find comfort in knowing we don't have a fucking clue about...well, anything at all. OK, we have a clue. But do we really? I don't have to know because I won't know. Not anytime soon.
Besides, what we know changes. Think of all the brilliant equations we follow as Truth that will one day be completely disregarded and considered whimsical nonsense. Sketches on a cave wall.
Science and knowledge is not a constant. Not even close. But it's the closest thing we have in my opinion. Tomorrow is coming and it's going to make today look like yesterday. When you step back and take a good SlaughterHouseFive look at things, we're right in the middle. Or beginning. Or end. If it's all happening at the same time, there is no beginning or end. Just now. And now. And right now as well. And also now again. But then as well. And also there's the thing that is happening now.
But me, I don't really buy it. Not discrediting it, I just prefer to think linearly. Or at least in a circle. Or an expanding and compressing linear type thing. I like to think that way because that is the world that I SEE. A fire has a beginning and an end. A tree begins and ends. Seemingly. But what I KNOW tells me the atoms that make up the fire may very well move on to make a tree and then maybe a human and then when the human expires maybe one of those atoms helps form a t-shirt that has a picture of a tree on fire.
Another dimension would really make things interesting. man, I hope we start getting into such things before I die. I want to fill that Thing. The Thing that some fill with religion or imagination. I just can't do that anymore. In a way, I'd love to fill the Thing with religion or spirituality again. It was awesome. But for some reason, once I crossed the line, there's no going back to that resource. Like my respect for Santa before and after the moment I asked my mom if he was real. I can't tell if it's because I've lost Imagination/hope or that I've gained Imagination/reason. Another dimension would be like seeing a new magic trick or something. And I haven't seen a magic trick since I found out that it was my uncle with a fake white beard and red suit.
lots of people can draw or design. understanding composition, layout, form and color theory isn't tricky at all. it's the relationship of these "scripts" in Z space and over time that sends people into the brick wall.
In a way, an artistic understanding of xyz +1 has been my career. Now there's talk of a hidden extra dimension. temporal. and I'm assuming spatial. my excitement upon reading this news certainly sent me beyond the 3rd dimension! (zing!) I guess I'm going to be going through a bunch of tutorials soon! (zing! zing!)
Anyway, I just love all this stuff. I've grown to find comfort in knowing we don't have a fucking clue about...well, anything at all. OK, we have a clue. But do we really? I don't have to know because I won't know. Not anytime soon.
Besides, what we know changes. Think of all the brilliant equations we follow as Truth that will one day be completely disregarded and considered whimsical nonsense. Sketches on a cave wall.
Science and knowledge is not a constant. Not even close. But it's the closest thing we have in my opinion. Tomorrow is coming and it's going to make today look like yesterday. When you step back and take a good SlaughterHouseFive look at things, we're right in the middle. Or beginning. Or end. If it's all happening at the same time, there is no beginning or end. Just now. And now. And right now as well. And also now again. But then as well. And also there's the thing that is happening now.
But me, I don't really buy it. Not discrediting it, I just prefer to think linearly. Or at least in a circle. Or an expanding and compressing linear type thing. I like to think that way because that is the world that I SEE. A fire has a beginning and an end. A tree begins and ends. Seemingly. But what I KNOW tells me the atoms that make up the fire may very well move on to make a tree and then maybe a human and then when the human expires maybe one of those atoms helps form a t-shirt that has a picture of a tree on fire.
Another dimension would really make things interesting. man, I hope we start getting into such things before I die. I want to fill that Thing. The Thing that some fill with religion or imagination. I just can't do that anymore. In a way, I'd love to fill the Thing with religion or spirituality again. It was awesome. But for some reason, once I crossed the line, there's no going back to that resource. Like my respect for Santa before and after the moment I asked my mom if he was real. I can't tell if it's because I've lost Imagination/hope or that I've gained Imagination/reason. Another dimension would be like seeing a new magic trick or something. And I haven't seen a magic trick since I found out that it was my uncle with a fake white beard and red suit.
5/15/07
5/2/07
Iron Man Advanced Suit
my blog doesn't get too personal. I'll spew political or religious jibber jabber here and there, but for the most part it's just whatever and whatever and whatever."Thank You For Smoking" nailed it:
Michael Jordan plays basketball, Charles Manson kills people, I post pictures of Iron Man and Transformers.
Here's the first pic of Iron Man's suit in the upcoming feature film. I do what I do cause it's what I do.
5/1/07
Aint theist
PBS is airing a 3 part series on atheism...may 4 i believe. i'm a little disturbed/worried because I can't find it in my local programming schedule. If NC or my area isn't airing it, that's bologna.
4/28/07
4/27/07
Clone War
Rendering again. Plenty of time to digg around. Found an article that briefly covers the 5 biggest neuroscience developments in the past X years.
One of the discoveries looks at brain damage and how the condition of your brain may influence your morality. My attraction to neuroscience (and just about anything science recently) is largely due to my ongoing struggle with my own brain. It be jacked up. Many factors are involved, brain damage being one of them.
93-94 was not a good year for my noggin. I was knocked out twice that year. The first time it was pretty standard. Wake up groggy, headache, sleep, headache the next day, sleep, all better.
5 months later I slipped on an icy driveway and hit my head on the pavement. This one was more serious. It's actually something I don't remember. Nor am I able to recall a significant time before and after. Pretty much everything I know about this I learned from my family.**
So anyway, I fall and somehow land on my head. My sister was at a neighbors house talking to some friends when she noticed me laying in the snow. She ran over to find me unconscious and face down in a puddle of water. They rolled me over and I regained consciousness after about a minute.
Only "regained" isn't entirely accurate. After my sister rolled me out of the water, the Alex that slipped on the ice didn't wake up. He was gone. A new and slightly altered Alex woke up.
They had to carry me home because I couldn't/wouldn't walk. I was awake but completely out of it. Once inside, I began to really freak my family out. I did nothing but ball up in a chair and cry and repeat over and over, "I make bad grades. I'm a bad person, I make bad grades."*** Over and over and over. And apparently, I wasn't just crying, it was more like inconsolable "my child just died" crying. They called my dad at work and asked him to come home immediately. My family had seen me cry before, but this was different, I had lost control and they couldn't reason with me at all.
They took me to hospital (notice I left "the" out of "the hospital"...I'm cool-British like that) and I had some MRI's and what not. By this point, I think I had calmed down, no longer screaming and crying. The MRI's showed no signs of serious injury and the docs told my parents I had a concussion and everything should be fine.
Again, I have zero memory of the weeks that followed my head trauma, so I don't have much detail here, but everyone in my family agrees that after that day I clearly wasn't the same person. I was irritable, easily confused and disconnected. They felt that in general I always seemed slightly dazed. I thought, and was told, that my brain was bruised and things like confusion and clouded thought would go away.
Well, turns out that stuff never went away. Things were just going to be different.
Aside from personality change, I needed a new set of tools to navigate memory. I noticed that much myself. Before the accident, information felt "sticky". Things were in sync. I processed input without thinking about how I'm going to store it.
After my head trauma, sometimes things went in and immediately disappeared forever. Comprehension became slippery, even the things I wanted to retain. I noticed that I had to add an extra step into the whole process. Once I placed something in my head, I had to immediately double check to see if it was still there...even though I just put it in there. I had a black hole swirling around in my head.
I remember being able to actually sense when things were slipping into the black hole. Sometimes it would happen while I was in a discussion. I wouldn't be able to recall what was just being said and there wasn't anything that I could do to bring it back. I constantly found myself without a clue. It felt like walking down a well-lit hallway and making an accidental turn into a pitch black room. In complete darkness, I'd fumble around looking for a light switch, but it was pointless. There are rooms in my mind that no longer have a light switch and will remain dark.
The transition wasn't so easy. It was hard accepting the fact that I'm an inferior version of myself. I feel like a clone. Or a bad photocopy. Not as good as the original.
I feel bad for my family. I know it was sad for them. I could tell they missed the old Alex. Heck, I missed the old Alex. They had to learn to accept this new guy. Some guy that just showed up one day and replaced the person they had lived with and loved for 17 years.
Looking at the spectrum, it's not that bad. I could have been brain dead or forever disabled. My family and I could have dealt with something much worse.
Yeah, brains. Friggin' fragile.
** Hey fam, if some of this is off or I'm leaving some things out, write me and let me know so I can modify or add.
*** True. I was barely hanging on in AP Chemistry. I literally had never studied before I moved to NJ so I was struggling with the transition from NC public schools. The bump on the head was the final straw and I dropped down to regular Chemistry.
"Once technology manipulates ethics, ethics can no longer judge technology. Nor can human nature discredit the mentality that shapes human nature. In a utilitarian world, what's neurologically fit is utilitarianism."
One of the discoveries looks at brain damage and how the condition of your brain may influence your morality. My attraction to neuroscience (and just about anything science recently) is largely due to my ongoing struggle with my own brain. It be jacked up. Many factors are involved, brain damage being one of them.
93-94 was not a good year for my noggin. I was knocked out twice that year. The first time it was pretty standard. Wake up groggy, headache, sleep, headache the next day, sleep, all better.
5 months later I slipped on an icy driveway and hit my head on the pavement. This one was more serious. It's actually something I don't remember. Nor am I able to recall a significant time before and after. Pretty much everything I know about this I learned from my family.**
So anyway, I fall and somehow land on my head. My sister was at a neighbors house talking to some friends when she noticed me laying in the snow. She ran over to find me unconscious and face down in a puddle of water. They rolled me over and I regained consciousness after about a minute.
Only "regained" isn't entirely accurate. After my sister rolled me out of the water, the Alex that slipped on the ice didn't wake up. He was gone. A new and slightly altered Alex woke up.
They had to carry me home because I couldn't/wouldn't walk. I was awake but completely out of it. Once inside, I began to really freak my family out. I did nothing but ball up in a chair and cry and repeat over and over, "I make bad grades. I'm a bad person, I make bad grades."*** Over and over and over. And apparently, I wasn't just crying, it was more like inconsolable "my child just died" crying. They called my dad at work and asked him to come home immediately. My family had seen me cry before, but this was different, I had lost control and they couldn't reason with me at all.
They took me to hospital (notice I left "the" out of "the hospital"...I'm cool-British like that) and I had some MRI's and what not. By this point, I think I had calmed down, no longer screaming and crying. The MRI's showed no signs of serious injury and the docs told my parents I had a concussion and everything should be fine.
Again, I have zero memory of the weeks that followed my head trauma, so I don't have much detail here, but everyone in my family agrees that after that day I clearly wasn't the same person. I was irritable, easily confused and disconnected. They felt that in general I always seemed slightly dazed. I thought, and was told, that my brain was bruised and things like confusion and clouded thought would go away.
Well, turns out that stuff never went away. Things were just going to be different.
Aside from personality change, I needed a new set of tools to navigate memory. I noticed that much myself. Before the accident, information felt "sticky". Things were in sync. I processed input without thinking about how I'm going to store it.
After my head trauma, sometimes things went in and immediately disappeared forever. Comprehension became slippery, even the things I wanted to retain. I noticed that I had to add an extra step into the whole process. Once I placed something in my head, I had to immediately double check to see if it was still there...even though I just put it in there. I had a black hole swirling around in my head.
I remember being able to actually sense when things were slipping into the black hole. Sometimes it would happen while I was in a discussion. I wouldn't be able to recall what was just being said and there wasn't anything that I could do to bring it back. I constantly found myself without a clue. It felt like walking down a well-lit hallway and making an accidental turn into a pitch black room. In complete darkness, I'd fumble around looking for a light switch, but it was pointless. There are rooms in my mind that no longer have a light switch and will remain dark.
The transition wasn't so easy. It was hard accepting the fact that I'm an inferior version of myself. I feel like a clone. Or a bad photocopy. Not as good as the original.
I feel bad for my family. I know it was sad for them. I could tell they missed the old Alex. Heck, I missed the old Alex. They had to learn to accept this new guy. Some guy that just showed up one day and replaced the person they had lived with and loved for 17 years.
Looking at the spectrum, it's not that bad. I could have been brain dead or forever disabled. My family and I could have dealt with something much worse.
Yeah, brains. Friggin' fragile.
** Hey fam, if some of this is off or I'm leaving some things out, write me and let me know so I can modify or add.
*** True. I was barely hanging on in AP Chemistry. I literally had never studied before I moved to NJ so I was struggling with the transition from NC public schools. The bump on the head was the final straw and I dropped down to regular Chemistry.
"Once technology manipulates ethics, ethics can no longer judge technology. Nor can human nature discredit the mentality that shapes human nature. In a utilitarian world, what's neurologically fit is utilitarianism."
Buried Alive In Your Own Skull
Is life as we know it quantitative? This article suggests something equally interesting and frightening.
4/25/07
Dear K-T, Thanks for the Good Times. Love, Man
"For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."
Not that I needed to read this news to make me feel more comfortable believing there are lifeforms throughout the universe and not just our small little planet. I'm not 99% sure, it's an easy 100% probability. With BILLIONS of suns out there, why would anyone assume Earth is the only place to be for some hot hot intelligent life action?
I do acknowledge the fragile creation and existence of life. Especially life as we know it. Just us being here now is pure dumb luck. A very specific series of events over the last 4 billion years results in a 4 limbed, 5 fingered being capable of relatively complex communication creating and interpreting a collection of pixels.
Over time, we're going to find Earth-like planets, but the chances of finding anything close to human is damn near zero. One can look at timely meteor strikes alone and see how they had a major role in the status of Earth's current tenants. We're a product of our planets individualism and unique history.
And that's pretty damn cool. If you want or need to feel special, there you go.
Chances are I won't live long enough to witness anything close to us discovering other beings in the universe. If humans don't destory themselves and survive other natural extinction events, we'll eventually run into neighbors. I'd love to know what they look like, their history, their behavior. Would we be able to communicate with them? Would we even be able to acknowledge each other?
Hopefully W. Bush won't be around, he'd probably react with fear and we all know how he and his boys deal with fear. Ba-boom! You know, JFK was kickass. He and his crew faced fear and managed it with intelligence and wisdom. They had pictures of nukes pointed directly at the US, capable of severely crippling the US, wiping out the East Coast. The threat was real, not speculative. And he still didn't primitively react with preemptive violence. What a beautiful time in history.
Anyway, back to aliens. Too many variables, no way to know what goes on outside our very isolated existence. I'd love to be around for such intergalactic discoveries, but that's more than likely a long time from now and if I somehow lived that long I'd probably be too tired to care.
Not that I needed to read this news to make me feel more comfortable believing there are lifeforms throughout the universe and not just our small little planet. I'm not 99% sure, it's an easy 100% probability. With BILLIONS of suns out there, why would anyone assume Earth is the only place to be for some hot hot intelligent life action?
I do acknowledge the fragile creation and existence of life. Especially life as we know it. Just us being here now is pure dumb luck. A very specific series of events over the last 4 billion years results in a 4 limbed, 5 fingered being capable of relatively complex communication creating and interpreting a collection of pixels.
Over time, we're going to find Earth-like planets, but the chances of finding anything close to human is damn near zero. One can look at timely meteor strikes alone and see how they had a major role in the status of Earth's current tenants. We're a product of our planets individualism and unique history.
And that's pretty damn cool. If you want or need to feel special, there you go.
Chances are I won't live long enough to witness anything close to us discovering other beings in the universe. If humans don't destory themselves and survive other natural extinction events, we'll eventually run into neighbors. I'd love to know what they look like, their history, their behavior. Would we be able to communicate with them? Would we even be able to acknowledge each other?
Hopefully W. Bush won't be around, he'd probably react with fear and we all know how he and his boys deal with fear. Ba-boom! You know, JFK was kickass. He and his crew faced fear and managed it with intelligence and wisdom. They had pictures of nukes pointed directly at the US, capable of severely crippling the US, wiping out the East Coast. The threat was real, not speculative. And he still didn't primitively react with preemptive violence. What a beautiful time in history.
Anyway, back to aliens. Too many variables, no way to know what goes on outside our very isolated existence. I'd love to be around for such intergalactic discoveries, but that's more than likely a long time from now and if I somehow lived that long I'd probably be too tired to care.
4/24/07
Real Men Love the Rocketeer
I'm rendering, so I'm killing some time here.
Disney's The Rocketeer is one of the greatest movies ever. Here's a link that backs me up. Matter of fact, I'm going to add to my previous post.
If you're not down with The Rocketeer and Transformers, I'm not down with you. And Ironman. Rocketeer, Transformers and Ironman. And Spiderman...and John Carpenter's The Thing...and Big Trouble in Little China. If you're not down with The Rocketeer, Transformers, Ironman, Spiderman, The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China, I'm not down with you.
Disney's The Rocketeer is one of the greatest movies ever. Here's a link that backs me up. Matter of fact, I'm going to add to my previous post.
If you're not down with The Rocketeer and Transformers, I'm not down with you. And Ironman. Rocketeer, Transformers and Ironman. And Spiderman...and John Carpenter's The Thing...and Big Trouble in Little China. If you're not down with The Rocketeer, Transformers, Ironman, Spiderman, The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China, I'm not down with you.
OP Saves the Day
I was very close to deleting this blog today. It probably would have happened if it weren't for a client interruption that side tracked me. When I finished with my client, I went back to the interweb to pull the plug on this sucka. But like a good Digger, upon opening my browser i went straight to my Digg RSS feed first thing. That's when I saw this pic of Optimus Prime and couldn't help but throw him up.
I know, I know...you don't care about OP. you and Clooney. Whatever. Optimus is The PeePee. If you're not down with Transformers, I'm not down with you (throws up Transformers gang sign)
I know, I know...you don't care about OP. you and Clooney. Whatever. Optimus is The PeePee. If you're not down with Transformers, I'm not down with you (throws up Transformers gang sign)
4/12/07
Point/Counterpoint
I've been giggling at the thought of an old Onion debate between a Humidifier and a Dehumidifier:
Arguement for Party A: "What We Need is More Moisture"
Arguement for Party B: "Moisture Must Be Eliminated"
Arguement for Party A: "What We Need is More Moisture"
Arguement for Party B: "Moisture Must Be Eliminated"
4/3/07
Batman!
George "killer tomato" Clooney is in town shooting Leatherheads. A few days ago they set up their production office, edit suite and screening room down the hall from me.
Apparently today was Mr. Clooney's first day in his new temp office/screening room. I didn't leave my room the entire day, so I didn't pass him on the way to the bathroom or anything...which means I still can't tell people that I TOTALLY KNOW GEORGE.
I did, however, leave a post-it note on his desk on my way out.
Apparently today was Mr. Clooney's first day in his new temp office/screening room. I didn't leave my room the entire day, so I didn't pass him on the way to the bathroom or anything...which means I still can't tell people that I TOTALLY KNOW GEORGE.
I did, however, leave a post-it note on his desk on my way out.
3/31/07
Extreme Breastfeeding
My brother's ex-fiance, Jessice, once said that if your kid is old enough to make their own snack it's probably time to stop breastfeeding. The woman in this video has the same philosophy, she just replaces "make their own snack" with "study algebra".
Universcale
Universcale is a flash based application that essentially allows you to hold a nanoparticle in your left hand and the Orion Nebula in your right hand.
Super cool. It's a flash app, so yeah, you need the flash plug-in.
Super cool. It's a flash app, so yeah, you need the flash plug-in.
3/28/07
best idea ever. One doesn't really need to sneak around with apple juice and milk, so I wouldn't have much use for them, but I'm still impressed.
3/27/07
Mean ol' Chevy
The glorious digg.com sent me to this list of celebrities banned from hosting or appearing on SNL.
3/20/07
3/19/07
3/14/07
3/13/07
Spiderman vs. Venom
I'm looking forward to watching Spidey take on Venom in Spiderman 3. But the hoopla surrounding this photo may be a bit presumptuous. I think it's a fake. Or at the very least, it's not a screen capture from the insanely talented fellas at Sony. Spidey looks just fine, my issues are with Venom. He's rendered with an odd combination of Photoshop Blur Filter (which has to be the most used filter with the casual amateur Photoshoping crowd) and straight up simple brush strokes to clean up any washed out highlights. Also, the area surrounding Venom's head looks "off". Not only does it look like it was hand manipulated, but it looks like it is more blurred than his feet. The top of his head is the major offender. Is that some kind of smudge brush or something? Doesn't appear to be a clean composite from a professional. Tisk tisk.
I'm not buying it. Something is very wrong. Photo-realism isn't my strength, but I'm positive that, at the very least, you will not see this exact frame in theaters.
I'm not buying it. Something is very wrong. Photo-realism isn't my strength, but I'm positive that, at the very least, you will not see this exact frame in theaters.
Speak of the Devil
Too bad today isn't Thursday, I could have written "Hey, today is turning into Not-So-Theistic Thursday!"
OK then.
The timing of this news with my religious tangent post below is noteworthy.
excerpt:
"Only 45 percent of Americans said they would vote for a "generally well-qualified" atheist, according to a February Gallup Poll, ranking them lowest on a list that included Mormons (72 percent), candidates on their third marriage (67 percent) and homosexuals (55 percent).
The Washington-based coalition, which lobbies on behalf of atheists, humanists and other nontheists, said that "few if any elected officials, even at the lowest level, would self-identify as a nontheist" in response to its survey. The coalition eventually offered $1,000 to the person who could identify the highest-level atheist, agnostic, humanist "or any other kind of nontheist" in public office."
OK then.
The timing of this news with my religious tangent post below is noteworthy.
excerpt:
"Only 45 percent of Americans said they would vote for a "generally well-qualified" atheist, according to a February Gallup Poll, ranking them lowest on a list that included Mormons (72 percent), candidates on their third marriage (67 percent) and homosexuals (55 percent).
The Washington-based coalition, which lobbies on behalf of atheists, humanists and other nontheists, said that "few if any elected officials, even at the lowest level, would self-identify as a nontheist" in response to its survey. The coalition eventually offered $1,000 to the person who could identify the highest-level atheist, agnostic, humanist "or any other kind of nontheist" in public office."
Truth
found this at Boing.
"NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft was about a million miles from Earth last month when it photographed the Moon passing in front of the sun."
Isn't this wild? It has been color-corrected and what not, but wow. And it may even be completely fake, who knows.
Either way, while watching this video, I was reminded that I know very little about my own being. Everything that exists is essentially undiscovered territory.
That's an exciting concept, no? It is accompanied by thousands of delicious questions. If I could shrink inward to infinity plus one, where would I be? If I could travel to the end of space as we know it and then traveled 100 billion trillion zillion times even farther, would I end up back where I started? Is there really curvature in space and time? Who knows. I certainly don't, but I'm not a big fan of space/time curvature. Playing with time or any nonlinear temporal tampering is so beyond my comprehension that I can't enjoy it at all...even superficially at the science NON-fictional level. Time travel...ugh.
Back to being in awe of massive concepts. I can barely wrestle with the scale of our existence and the space we share. The numbers are staggering. Like our existence on Earth. If you hold your arms out to your side as if to say "I love you this much", the distance between your left and right middle fingertips represent the current theoretical lifespan of Earth. If you take a fingernail file and run it over your middle fingernail just once, you will wipe out the entire existence of mankind. I love that example. It's my favorite out of the many.
When the questions and numbers become overwhelming, I'm reminded of my Christian upbringing. As a kid, I LOVED church. It was a great time. I loved the friendships, atmosphere and activities at my church, and I enjoyed the comfortable feeling I got from believing in the love of a god/Jesus. But as I got older, the desire to ask questions and seek truth in myself, my world and my beliefs caused my body to swell. The walls of the religious room in which I was living didn't budge. I continued to expand and I could see I would soon reach the walls. Then what? Would I stop expanding to fit within my container?
Over and over, answers became all too similar. Regardless of who I asked:
"There's no point in thinking about that kind of thing, only God knows the answer to that"
"That's a question designed by the devil...he wants you to think about those things"
"You really aren't asking these questions in search of an answer"
Eventually I chose to get rid of the walls. Ultimately it had very little to do with the lack of sustainable answers and the whole "don't look behind the curtain" issue. If I needed answers, I certainly wouldn't turn to science, science has few answers. I don't need answers. I just need truth and the sincerity of raw examination. At the very least, the scientific process strives for truth. Magic just doesn't do it for me anymore.
Those walls were crumbling anyway, all I needed was to experience NYC/Chicago, to get perspective outside the Bible Belt and hang out with people not affiliated with the compound. If it weren't for my years away, I may have floated in the grey waters that a few of my friends like to swim. Insert The River Denial joke here. Either way, I'm thankful I did a little rehabin' because that room was crampin' my style, yo. Now I've got a pretty good view of things and I'm able to enjoy every single day. Life is short, delicate and quite finite.
Then again, I know very little. So who knows, maybe there is a personal god that listens to and answers prayers and somehow participates in our lives. Maybe there is a heaven and hell where the fortunate are happy and the unfortunate are on fire FOREVER (echo echo echo).
I must admit that if such things do exist, that sucks for the majority of folks born into non-Christian countries. It's much easier to make it into heaven if you're born in America and The Bible Belt compared to, let's say, northern China or North Korea or the Middle East. I wasted a great seat, in a way.
Who knows. I know very little, but I do know that this video is pretty cool. Stupid religious tangent. It's too late now, but I want to get back on the science topic. Hopefully soon.
"NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft was about a million miles from Earth last month when it photographed the Moon passing in front of the sun."
Isn't this wild? It has been color-corrected and what not, but wow. And it may even be completely fake, who knows.
Either way, while watching this video, I was reminded that I know very little about my own being. Everything that exists is essentially undiscovered territory.
That's an exciting concept, no? It is accompanied by thousands of delicious questions. If I could shrink inward to infinity plus one, where would I be? If I could travel to the end of space as we know it and then traveled 100 billion trillion zillion times even farther, would I end up back where I started? Is there really curvature in space and time? Who knows. I certainly don't, but I'm not a big fan of space/time curvature. Playing with time or any nonlinear temporal tampering is so beyond my comprehension that I can't enjoy it at all...even superficially at the science NON-fictional level. Time travel...ugh.
Back to being in awe of massive concepts. I can barely wrestle with the scale of our existence and the space we share. The numbers are staggering. Like our existence on Earth. If you hold your arms out to your side as if to say "I love you this much", the distance between your left and right middle fingertips represent the current theoretical lifespan of Earth. If you take a fingernail file and run it over your middle fingernail just once, you will wipe out the entire existence of mankind. I love that example. It's my favorite out of the many.
When the questions and numbers become overwhelming, I'm reminded of my Christian upbringing. As a kid, I LOVED church. It was a great time. I loved the friendships, atmosphere and activities at my church, and I enjoyed the comfortable feeling I got from believing in the love of a god/Jesus. But as I got older, the desire to ask questions and seek truth in myself, my world and my beliefs caused my body to swell. The walls of the religious room in which I was living didn't budge. I continued to expand and I could see I would soon reach the walls. Then what? Would I stop expanding to fit within my container?
Over and over, answers became all too similar. Regardless of who I asked:
"There's no point in thinking about that kind of thing, only God knows the answer to that"
"That's a question designed by the devil...he wants you to think about those things"
"You really aren't asking these questions in search of an answer"
Eventually I chose to get rid of the walls. Ultimately it had very little to do with the lack of sustainable answers and the whole "don't look behind the curtain" issue. If I needed answers, I certainly wouldn't turn to science, science has few answers. I don't need answers. I just need truth and the sincerity of raw examination. At the very least, the scientific process strives for truth. Magic just doesn't do it for me anymore.
Those walls were crumbling anyway, all I needed was to experience NYC/Chicago, to get perspective outside the Bible Belt and hang out with people not affiliated with the compound. If it weren't for my years away, I may have floated in the grey waters that a few of my friends like to swim. Insert The River Denial joke here. Either way, I'm thankful I did a little rehabin' because that room was crampin' my style, yo. Now I've got a pretty good view of things and I'm able to enjoy every single day. Life is short, delicate and quite finite.
Then again, I know very little. So who knows, maybe there is a personal god that listens to and answers prayers and somehow participates in our lives. Maybe there is a heaven and hell where the fortunate are happy and the unfortunate are on fire FOREVER (echo echo echo).
I must admit that if such things do exist, that sucks for the majority of folks born into non-Christian countries. It's much easier to make it into heaven if you're born in America and The Bible Belt compared to, let's say, northern China or North Korea or the Middle East. I wasted a great seat, in a way.
Who knows. I know very little, but I do know that this video is pretty cool. Stupid religious tangent. It's too late now, but I want to get back on the science topic. Hopefully soon.
3/10/07
TED2007-Ted Sargent
I have a very basic yet genuine interest in nanotechnology. It's hard not to get excited about something that is so obviously a major leap forward in the progression of homosapien tools.
One of the major players in the nano world is Ted Sargent. I guess you could say he's a big fish in a very very very very very very very tiny little pond. hahahahaha! Man, that's an awesome joke.
Congratulations Ted Sargent, you made my list of influential TED2007 participants.
One of the major players in the nano world is Ted Sargent. I guess you could say he's a big fish in a very very very very very very very tiny little pond. hahahahaha! Man, that's an awesome joke.
Congratulations Ted Sargent, you made my list of influential TED2007 participants.
3/9/07
3/8/07
John Maeda
In honor of TED, I'm going to highlight a few of the participants that have influenced me in the past few years. I'll start with:
John Maeda
Pure designer/artist. When I create art or design something, I'm using tools that were designed by someone else. I know a little scripting, but even scripts within compositing and 3D programs are limited in the same way GUI interaction is limited. It all operates in a world built by other people. Similar to me playing in a sandbox. I may be able to build the coolest sand castle ever, but I'm limited to the walls of the sandbox and the sand that is in the sandbox.
John Maeda and his crew at MIT create sandboxes and the sand that goes in them. THEN they play.
It's the purest form of next-gen creativity.
John Maeda
Pure designer/artist. When I create art or design something, I'm using tools that were designed by someone else. I know a little scripting, but even scripts within compositing and 3D programs are limited in the same way GUI interaction is limited. It all operates in a world built by other people. Similar to me playing in a sandbox. I may be able to build the coolest sand castle ever, but I'm limited to the walls of the sandbox and the sand that is in the sandbox.
John Maeda and his crew at MIT create sandboxes and the sand that goes in them. THEN they play.
It's the purest form of next-gen creativity.
Future Ted
If I could go anywhere in the world right now, I would go hang out with TED.
It's like Woodstock or Bonnaroo, but with smart people. I kid, I'm jealous of Bonnarooians. I would have gone to Bonnaroo a few years ago, but things didn't work out. Another time, another place...another stoned weekend. Ah...
But yes, TED. Badass brains getting together, talking, sharing and making things better. Lateral thinkers, cell biologists, graphic designers, urban planners, politicians, nanotechnologists, musicians, evolutionary biologists/psychologists, architects...goddamnit, people who make things happen.
I'd just love to be in the middle of such progressive thinking and energy.
It's like Woodstock or Bonnaroo, but with smart people. I kid, I'm jealous of Bonnarooians. I would have gone to Bonnaroo a few years ago, but things didn't work out. Another time, another place...another stoned weekend. Ah...
But yes, TED. Badass brains getting together, talking, sharing and making things better. Lateral thinkers, cell biologists, graphic designers, urban planners, politicians, nanotechnologists, musicians, evolutionary biologists/psychologists, architects...goddamnit, people who make things happen.
I'd just love to be in the middle of such progressive thinking and energy.
Mi Casa Picasa
Do you have more than one image file stored on your computer? If so, you must download this program.
It simplifies importing and organizes all your images and video files.
Plus, you get a 1 Gb online web album...free.
Google is unstoppable. It's rumored that next year Google will release a beta version of "Ghesus". Apparently it's going to be, like, 10 times better than the Jesus people have been using for the past 2,000 years.
It simplifies importing and organizes all your images and video files.
Plus, you get a 1 Gb online web album...free.
Google is unstoppable. It's rumored that next year Google will release a beta version of "Ghesus". Apparently it's going to be, like, 10 times better than the Jesus people have been using for the past 2,000 years.
3/6/07
3/5/07
3/4/07
Submission
I started messing around this morning. I used Zamzar to download and convert a youTube video. I took this clip into Windows Movie Maker (I'm going to reinstall my copy of After Effects for future videos), created a few simple slates (text on solid color background), cut it up a little and threw some music on top. Took the experiment to the next level by creating a youTube account and posting this to youTube. This is my best work ever. It's going on the demo reel.
Also, Matt Hughes is a badass.
Also, Matt Hughes is a badass.
3/2/07
Hexic is the New Flour
iVillage is teaming up with game giant EA to go after the growing "casual gamer" market.
This is very good news because the Casual Gamer is quickly becoming the Female Gamer. Why do I care? Because my wife is female. This means she could-possibly-soon-maybe become a...(emotional pause)
Gamer.
Actually, the future may already be here. Lately Christy and I have developed an interest in Hexic HD. With two children asleep upstairs, your party options are limited. Before children, we usually occupied this time by getting high and taste-testing things like raw flour straight from the bag.
Now's it's Hexic and gosh-darnit, it's just as much fun as raw flour. It's satisfying to watch The Office together and then, instead of flipping the channels to some garbage, getting into a TAG TEAM marathon round of Hexic. Helping/annoying each other by pointing out strategies, cheeky high-fives after some daft-cunning bomb demolition and a shared sense of accomplishment when we somehow summon the elusive black pearl. It's true, couples who play together, stay together.
Things aren't perfect yet. Right now, it's impossible to spend even 30 minutes alone with the XBOX 360 without guilt. I feel guilty because I know my wife would be fine if I came home tonight and told her I wanted to return the "white devil". She's not 100% sold on it and the time I spend with it.
I hate this feeling. I feel like I have a mistress. And I'm beginning to feel that my wife thinks of my 360 as exactly that, a homewreckin tramp. But I want peace between the two. Now that I've introduced them to one another, I want my wife to accept my mistress and rid herself of any animosity towards our relationship. I want to turn what appears to be an extramarital affair into a loving, mutual three-way. I want Christy to be comfortable with my mistress living in our house and spending time with our children.
Damn, that turned out to be a really poor choice for a metaphor, but I think I made my point.
This is very good news because the Casual Gamer is quickly becoming the Female Gamer. Why do I care? Because my wife is female. This means she could-possibly-soon-maybe become a...(emotional pause)
Gamer.
Actually, the future may already be here. Lately Christy and I have developed an interest in Hexic HD. With two children asleep upstairs, your party options are limited. Before children, we usually occupied this time by getting high and taste-testing things like raw flour straight from the bag.
Now's it's Hexic and gosh-darnit, it's just as much fun as raw flour. It's satisfying to watch The Office together and then, instead of flipping the channels to some garbage, getting into a TAG TEAM marathon round of Hexic. Helping/annoying each other by pointing out strategies, cheeky high-fives after some daft-cunning bomb demolition and a shared sense of accomplishment when we somehow summon the elusive black pearl. It's true, couples who play together, stay together.
Things aren't perfect yet. Right now, it's impossible to spend even 30 minutes alone with the XBOX 360 without guilt. I feel guilty because I know my wife would be fine if I came home tonight and told her I wanted to return the "white devil". She's not 100% sold on it and the time I spend with it.
I hate this feeling. I feel like I have a mistress. And I'm beginning to feel that my wife thinks of my 360 as exactly that, a homewreckin tramp. But I want peace between the two. Now that I've introduced them to one another, I want my wife to accept my mistress and rid herself of any animosity towards our relationship. I want to turn what appears to be an extramarital affair into a loving, mutual three-way. I want Christy to be comfortable with my mistress living in our house and spending time with our children.
Damn, that turned out to be a really poor choice for a metaphor, but I think I made my point.
Bush's Nuclear Va-Jay-Jay
I hope this is the beginning. I give them tons of credit just for trying this. At least they have an interest in correcting a disturbing trend of lowest common denominator facilitating. The majority of this country wants lots of things, but that doesn't mean it's good for them. Just because your kid wants candy doesn't mean you should give them the candy.
Let the tabloids follow Britney, Bennifer and whoever. I'll admit, there are times (becoming quite rare though) that I have an interest in rolling around in the mud with such things, but I don't want it mixed in with my daily news.
"Bush Kicks The Environment in the Balls"
"North Korea in Talks to 'Un-Nuke' Themselves"
"Britney Shows Va-Jay-Jay Then Shaves Head"
ugh.
Let the tabloids follow Britney, Bennifer and whoever. I'll admit, there are times (becoming quite rare though) that I have an interest in rolling around in the mud with such things, but I don't want it mixed in with my daily news.
"Bush Kicks The Environment in the Balls"
"North Korea in Talks to 'Un-Nuke' Themselves"
"Britney Shows Va-Jay-Jay Then Shaves Head"
ugh.
The Departed Screenplay
Warner Bros. released the screenplay for The Departed.
I just paged through it. I prefer the "screenplay rat" over the "final-cut rat".
I want to see this movie again. I've read it is even better the second time around. This is surprising because I enjoyed the tension in the first and second acts. I didn't know anything about Internal Affairs, the Hong Kong film on which The Departed was based, so I was on edge at each turn. Most mainstream films are ridiculously predictable. Even though this had the exterior of a typical double-cross-undercover-cop movie, it was clear from the first 10 minutes it was doing its own thing.
Good film. Rat included.
I just paged through it. I prefer the "screenplay rat" over the "final-cut rat".
I want to see this movie again. I've read it is even better the second time around. This is surprising because I enjoyed the tension in the first and second acts. I didn't know anything about Internal Affairs, the Hong Kong film on which The Departed was based, so I was on edge at each turn. Most mainstream films are ridiculously predictable. Even though this had the exterior of a typical double-cross-undercover-cop movie, it was clear from the first 10 minutes it was doing its own thing.
Good film. Rat included.
3/1/07
RAd Reebok Tron Shoes
These came up on Digg. Perfect for a sunday light cycle ride or just casually tossing a glowing disc-frisbee in the park.
2/27/07
2/26/07
Thanks for the Good Times
Jan Ullrich announced his retirement from cycling today.
Bummer. He was my favorite rider and one of the reasons why I got into cycling. Just like my wish for Brett Favre, I hoped Jan would go out on top. In yellow. I think he was due.
My first experience with procycling was watching his epic battle against Lance in the 2003 Tour de France. Matter of fact, my first memory of that race is watching him time trial. Prior to that, I had no interest in bike racing. Zero. But, for some reason one day I decided to stop flipping channels and watch some guys racing bikes on OLN. (There's a good chance I was high and thought that cycling might be cool when high)
I didn't know it at the time, but that Tour was going to be known as one of the best ever. It had it all. Crashes, controversy, time trial bonks, spectator interference, equipment malfunction and a photo finish. Jan finished one minute behind Lance. The closest margin of victory for Lance in his Tour career.
It must have been heartbreaking for Jan. To give it everything you've got and still come up short...yet again. Jan finished the Tour in 2nd place five times in his career. In a world without Lance, Jan would be the celebrated multi-Tour winning star of the show. Instead, he sat in a distant second. Completely unknown to most Americans. Lance owes Jan. Lance trained to beat Jan. It wasn't his only motivation, but Lance knew that he had to stay in top form to stay ahead. Unfortunately for Jan, Lance was usually in top form.
Don't get me wrong, Lance deserved all of his accolades and wins. He earned the Mellow Johnny every single year.
But...
Jan was my boy. I understood him. He was the gifted athlete with questionable work ethic and ambition. He had a hard time restricting his diet. He liked to party and he liked his recreational drugs. Unlike Lance, he was human.
Just now, as I'm typing all this, I realize I have a deeper connection with Jan. It was his struggle to better Lance. I grew up with a Lance. My brother has always been faster, more coordinated and more agile. I could not beat him. He simply was the superior athlete. Eventually I accepted this fact and began to celebrate his talent. I'm proud of my brother. The memories of him beating me in foot races, thoughts that once troubled me, make me smile. I'm proud of the guy.
I wonder how Jan dealt with all those 2nd place finishes behind Lance? I know he remained respectful. Did he ever accept that he couldn't beat Lance and that Lance was the better athlete? If so, was he at peace with this realization?
I hope so.
I like to think that one day Jan and Lance will fondly recall their battles and consider them the good ol' days. Hopefully one day they'll share a table in the back of a pub and trade stories over a pint. Maybe 30 years from now their 2003 showdown will seem like a foot race in their grandparents front yard.
Bummer. He was my favorite rider and one of the reasons why I got into cycling. Just like my wish for Brett Favre, I hoped Jan would go out on top. In yellow. I think he was due.
My first experience with procycling was watching his epic battle against Lance in the 2003 Tour de France. Matter of fact, my first memory of that race is watching him time trial. Prior to that, I had no interest in bike racing. Zero. But, for some reason one day I decided to stop flipping channels and watch some guys racing bikes on OLN. (There's a good chance I was high and thought that cycling might be cool when high)
I didn't know it at the time, but that Tour was going to be known as one of the best ever. It had it all. Crashes, controversy, time trial bonks, spectator interference, equipment malfunction and a photo finish. Jan finished one minute behind Lance. The closest margin of victory for Lance in his Tour career.
It must have been heartbreaking for Jan. To give it everything you've got and still come up short...yet again. Jan finished the Tour in 2nd place five times in his career. In a world without Lance, Jan would be the celebrated multi-Tour winning star of the show. Instead, he sat in a distant second. Completely unknown to most Americans. Lance owes Jan. Lance trained to beat Jan. It wasn't his only motivation, but Lance knew that he had to stay in top form to stay ahead. Unfortunately for Jan, Lance was usually in top form.
Don't get me wrong, Lance deserved all of his accolades and wins. He earned the Mellow Johnny every single year.
But...
Jan was my boy. I understood him. He was the gifted athlete with questionable work ethic and ambition. He had a hard time restricting his diet. He liked to party and he liked his recreational drugs. Unlike Lance, he was human.
Just now, as I'm typing all this, I realize I have a deeper connection with Jan. It was his struggle to better Lance. I grew up with a Lance. My brother has always been faster, more coordinated and more agile. I could not beat him. He simply was the superior athlete. Eventually I accepted this fact and began to celebrate his talent. I'm proud of my brother. The memories of him beating me in foot races, thoughts that once troubled me, make me smile. I'm proud of the guy.
I wonder how Jan dealt with all those 2nd place finishes behind Lance? I know he remained respectful. Did he ever accept that he couldn't beat Lance and that Lance was the better athlete? If so, was he at peace with this realization?
I hope so.
I like to think that one day Jan and Lance will fondly recall their battles and consider them the good ol' days. Hopefully one day they'll share a table in the back of a pub and trade stories over a pint. Maybe 30 years from now their 2003 showdown will seem like a foot race in their grandparents front yard.
25 Reasons to Smoke Marijauna
it may not be 100% valid, but this article deserves a "right on, brotha!". Goooooo Pot!
2/23/07
I visually effected the hell out of that movie
I should win Best Actor this year. I don't know who is nominated, but I feel confident that my portrayal of a competent visual effects supervisor was the performance of the year.
At the very least, being asked to act as VFX sup on The Ultimate Gift kept the streak alive. The streak of professional situations where I'm terribly under-qualified and must pretend I actually know what I'm doing.
It's not easy, but I'm getting pretty good at it. My technique is to act like I'm too busy being smart to stop and explain the nonsense that just came out of my mouth. Also, when on set, I carry measuring tape and measure every damn thing I can find. Lens to X, X to Y, Y to lens. I perfected this technique while in Spain shooting an Exxon commercial. I knew even less back then, so that's a pretty good story. When I run out of things to measure, I walk up to the DP and ask him to verify his light setup, lens and focal distance and then pretend to understand his response.
Bam. Visual effects supervisor. Played by a designer.
I'm sure I'd have to dig a little deeper to get away with this tomfoolery on the set of Star Wars, but it was enough for our little film.
At the very least, being asked to act as VFX sup on The Ultimate Gift kept the streak alive. The streak of professional situations where I'm terribly under-qualified and must pretend I actually know what I'm doing.
It's not easy, but I'm getting pretty good at it. My technique is to act like I'm too busy being smart to stop and explain the nonsense that just came out of my mouth. Also, when on set, I carry measuring tape and measure every damn thing I can find. Lens to X, X to Y, Y to lens. I perfected this technique while in Spain shooting an Exxon commercial. I knew even less back then, so that's a pretty good story. When I run out of things to measure, I walk up to the DP and ask him to verify his light setup, lens and focal distance and then pretend to understand his response.
Bam. Visual effects supervisor. Played by a designer.
I'm sure I'd have to dig a little deeper to get away with this tomfoolery on the set of Star Wars, but it was enough for our little film.
2/22/07
The Abigail Breslin Gift
Due to the Best Supporting Actress Oscar attention Abigail Breslin has been receiving, we've decided to change the name of our film to The Abigail Breslin Gift.
The old working title, The Ultimate Gift, just didn't have that "Abby Punch".
We also considered:
-The Ultimate Abigail
-Abigail Breslin Dances
-Little Miss Sunshine 2: The Ultimate Gift
It will be in theaters March 9th with the new and improved Abigail Cut. Not only did we extend every single scene in which she appears and add a dance scene at the end, but we actually let her sit down in Final Cut Pro and re-edit the film herself. It took me weeks to understand FCP, but Abby sits down with the manual and a cup of coffee and within 2 hours she's blazing through the film slipping this and splicing that.
The idea to bring everyone back and reshoot the ending came pretty easy. Obviously it works. People like to watch that kid dance. The tricky part was the rewrite. Her character dies at the end of our film, so the first thing we needed to do was cut that shit out. She can't dance if she's dead. I know what you're thinking.
Weekend at Bernie's.
Way ahead of you. We thought of that, but we weren't convinced it would work. We flew Abigail back to Charlotte the next day to shoot some tests. Two huge issues came up:
1) James Garner and Brian Dennehy refused to participate.
2) It's not funny when dead children dance.
Moral was pretty low at this point. We needed an idea fast. Soon Abigail was going to be unavailable for the reshoot considering every director wants to work with her now. We knew we needed her in a dance scene and we knew we needed her alive in that dance scene.
Eventually the idea came to us and things flowed pretty smoothly after that. Within 2 weeks we had assembled the primary actors for one day of reshoots. Everyone ended up really happy. Abby gave final approval on the edit and we sent the film up to Canada for processing with DELUXE.
You may be curious to know more about the new ending. I don't want to give it away, you'll have to buy a ticket and see for yourself.
I will say this...you've never seen "Ice, Ice Baby" like this before!
The old working title, The Ultimate Gift, just didn't have that "Abby Punch".
We also considered:
-The Ultimate Abigail
-Abigail Breslin Dances
-Little Miss Sunshine 2: The Ultimate Gift
It will be in theaters March 9th with the new and improved Abigail Cut. Not only did we extend every single scene in which she appears and add a dance scene at the end, but we actually let her sit down in Final Cut Pro and re-edit the film herself. It took me weeks to understand FCP, but Abby sits down with the manual and a cup of coffee and within 2 hours she's blazing through the film slipping this and splicing that.
The idea to bring everyone back and reshoot the ending came pretty easy. Obviously it works. People like to watch that kid dance. The tricky part was the rewrite. Her character dies at the end of our film, so the first thing we needed to do was cut that shit out. She can't dance if she's dead. I know what you're thinking.
Weekend at Bernie's.
Way ahead of you. We thought of that, but we weren't convinced it would work. We flew Abigail back to Charlotte the next day to shoot some tests. Two huge issues came up:
1) James Garner and Brian Dennehy refused to participate.
2) It's not funny when dead children dance.
Moral was pretty low at this point. We needed an idea fast. Soon Abigail was going to be unavailable for the reshoot considering every director wants to work with her now. We knew we needed her in a dance scene and we knew we needed her alive in that dance scene.
Eventually the idea came to us and things flowed pretty smoothly after that. Within 2 weeks we had assembled the primary actors for one day of reshoots. Everyone ended up really happy. Abby gave final approval on the edit and we sent the film up to Canada for processing with DELUXE.
You may be curious to know more about the new ending. I don't want to give it away, you'll have to buy a ticket and see for yourself.
I will say this...you've never seen "Ice, Ice Baby" like this before!
2/21/07
Cake for Matt Damon
I was a little surprised this morning when I saw Yahoo's main page featured a story on one of our current projects.
Running the Sahara is a documentary we're producing along with Matt Damon's Live Planet. It follows 3 ultra-marathon runners as they attempt to run coast-to-coast across the entire Sahara Desert.
The reality of such a superhuman effort is hard to absorb. Kinda like hearing the amount of money that goes into the Iraq War. It wasn't until someone told me it breaks down to something like $140,000 a minute that I was able to stop and think about it.
So if you want to stop and think about what these guys set out to do, look at one week. That's 14 marathons a week.
-2 marathons a day.
-Everyday.
-100 days straight.
-In the friggin desert.
-Matt Damon is doing the VO.
Hopefully that last line feels out of place. Sadly, it was the only thing I saw. "Sweet, I can't wait to tell Christy that I'm working with Matt Damon"...then I imagined my family having his family over for dinner and cake.
These guys are running across the fucking sahara desert and I'm thinking about Matt Damon reading lines in a VO booth. (To be fair, Matt is doing more than reading lines. He cares about the issues in Africa and hopes this documentary raises awareness.)
Even more pathetic was my recent reaction to hearing they actually succeeded. I was in a meeting discussing schedule and upcoming projects. My executive producer told me that I'm on project X for the end of Jan. Then in early Feb it's on to this and that, etc.
"Oh, also, you've got Running the Sahara coming up. That should have an extensive amount of graphics, so go ahead and start thinking about how you'd like to approach things."
My response was "is that going to overlap the other project? I hope not because it will probably require an unhealthy amount of client feedback and approval. I won't have the time to divide resources between Sahara and project X."
And that was it. Nothing remotely close to "That's amazing. I can't believe they fucking did that!" I walked out of the meeting and went on with my day.
It wasn't until I read the Yahoo article this morning that the reality of their adventure hit me. Why didn't I connect with the story before? Is my company going to stop for 5 seconds to give props to these guys?
Now if they died while attempting this run, things would be much different. Plenty of attention. A somber meeting and announcement, moments of silence...and then a meeting the following morning to discuss how we'd revamp the tone of the documentary.
Running the Sahara is a documentary we're producing along with Matt Damon's Live Planet. It follows 3 ultra-marathon runners as they attempt to run coast-to-coast across the entire Sahara Desert.
The reality of such a superhuman effort is hard to absorb. Kinda like hearing the amount of money that goes into the Iraq War. It wasn't until someone told me it breaks down to something like $140,000 a minute that I was able to stop and think about it.
So if you want to stop and think about what these guys set out to do, look at one week. That's 14 marathons a week.
-2 marathons a day.
-Everyday.
-100 days straight.
-In the friggin desert.
-Matt Damon is doing the VO.
Hopefully that last line feels out of place. Sadly, it was the only thing I saw. "Sweet, I can't wait to tell Christy that I'm working with Matt Damon"...then I imagined my family having his family over for dinner and cake.
These guys are running across the fucking sahara desert and I'm thinking about Matt Damon reading lines in a VO booth. (To be fair, Matt is doing more than reading lines. He cares about the issues in Africa and hopes this documentary raises awareness.)
Even more pathetic was my recent reaction to hearing they actually succeeded. I was in a meeting discussing schedule and upcoming projects. My executive producer told me that I'm on project X for the end of Jan. Then in early Feb it's on to this and that, etc.
"Oh, also, you've got Running the Sahara coming up. That should have an extensive amount of graphics, so go ahead and start thinking about how you'd like to approach things."
My response was "is that going to overlap the other project? I hope not because it will probably require an unhealthy amount of client feedback and approval. I won't have the time to divide resources between Sahara and project X."
And that was it. Nothing remotely close to "That's amazing. I can't believe they fucking did that!" I walked out of the meeting and went on with my day.
It wasn't until I read the Yahoo article this morning that the reality of their adventure hit me. Why didn't I connect with the story before? Is my company going to stop for 5 seconds to give props to these guys?
Now if they died while attempting this run, things would be much different. Plenty of attention. A somber meeting and announcement, moments of silence...and then a meeting the following morning to discuss how we'd revamp the tone of the documentary.
2/18/07
skillz
here's an excerpt from her bio:
In her free time, Stephanie enjoys skydiving, go-karting, and playing with her dog Batman. She also serves as a tutor for homeless children with the School on Wheels program in Indianapolis.
don't blame Hot Rod
what the hell was their problem? I was ten years old for christ's sake. just a boy. i BELIEVED in him. he was real. we played together everyday. when he wasn't flying around my house or helping me wrangle ants in my driveway, he was the guardian posed on my dresser. the kind of badass pose that only a robot disguised as an 18-wheeler can pull off. more badass than any Joe, furry-underpants-wearing-Greyskull-guy, cat or shelled reptile. and certainly more badass than any of the characters on other deception based shows. check out the other guys in action:
wow. anyway.
fundamentally, Optimus Prime anchored the show. He was the leader of the good guys. His character was obviously the father figure, watching over his troops and his fans. to this day, his image is the most widely used Transformer image.
so, the question remains. what the hell was their problem? you make a movie of a really popular kids TV show and then kill the main character during the first act. 10-year old fanboys were not prepared for this:
are you kidding me? you don't make a My Little Pony movie and kill the fucking pony. and i'm pretty sure Kermit survived The Muppets take Manhattan.
I was devastated. after the movie my friends and I took advantage of the arcade games in the lobby of the theater. under normal circumstances, the arcade gave me great joy. but this was PPD, Post-Prime-Death. i tried to play Tron, but it was no use. i had lost my will to live...in the virtual world. LightCycles went in straight lines, tanks refused to fire and i could only sit and watch my character inch up towards the multicolored MCP blocks.
it's funny now, but I went home and cried while I held my Optimus Prime toy. my buddy was dead, man. it was sad. through tears i spoke to him like it was the last time we were going to talk. i'm not being dramatic here, this was genuine mourning.
things just weren't the same after that. he was the only Transformers toy I owed. i no longer felt connected to the show. innocence was lost. the magic was exposed. without Prime, they were just a bunch of delusional appliances with personality disorders and violent tendencies.
now i know his death was motivated by greed. consumerism killed the O.P. gotta make way for new toys. I'm not going to get into all that. but I kid you not, if I ever meet the guy who wrote that movie, or the toy executives that thought it would be a good idea to kill Optimus Prime, I'll speak for that ten year old kid. then again, i hope such a confrontation doesn't occur. there's a good chance i'd start crying again and that would only make things awkward.
wow. anyway.
fundamentally, Optimus Prime anchored the show. He was the leader of the good guys. His character was obviously the father figure, watching over his troops and his fans. to this day, his image is the most widely used Transformer image.
so, the question remains. what the hell was their problem? you make a movie of a really popular kids TV show and then kill the main character during the first act. 10-year old fanboys were not prepared for this:
are you kidding me? you don't make a My Little Pony movie and kill the fucking pony. and i'm pretty sure Kermit survived The Muppets take Manhattan.
I was devastated. after the movie my friends and I took advantage of the arcade games in the lobby of the theater. under normal circumstances, the arcade gave me great joy. but this was PPD, Post-Prime-Death. i tried to play Tron, but it was no use. i had lost my will to live...in the virtual world. LightCycles went in straight lines, tanks refused to fire and i could only sit and watch my character inch up towards the multicolored MCP blocks.
it's funny now, but I went home and cried while I held my Optimus Prime toy. my buddy was dead, man. it was sad. through tears i spoke to him like it was the last time we were going to talk. i'm not being dramatic here, this was genuine mourning.
things just weren't the same after that. he was the only Transformers toy I owed. i no longer felt connected to the show. innocence was lost. the magic was exposed. without Prime, they were just a bunch of delusional appliances with personality disorders and violent tendencies.
now i know his death was motivated by greed. consumerism killed the O.P. gotta make way for new toys. I'm not going to get into all that. but I kid you not, if I ever meet the guy who wrote that movie, or the toy executives that thought it would be a good idea to kill Optimus Prime, I'll speak for that ten year old kid. then again, i hope such a confrontation doesn't occur. there's a good chance i'd start crying again and that would only make things awkward.
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