I'll post "Big Duck" this evening...

So here I am doing the work of 3 today... fortunately I have the time. As for Big Duck, that's the photoshop project I was goofing off with last night. I needed something to practice pen tool selections and I found the photos from the lake earlier this summer. I was thinking of making "Lindy-zilla" but that would just be mean... although very funny. Maybe I will do that one :)

Anyway, crazy week, stressful at times, but this is nothing compared to what is coming in the next week. The much talked about HUGE project hits next week. I'm a little worried about how it going to fit in the busy week, but I'm certain it will work within the time given. and a little outside the time given. Needless to say I probably won't be posting much.

So I walk into the office today...

To say this week is busy is an understatement. It's one of those deals when everything just comes crashing down all at once. And this morning was no exception. There was a complete power outage from 7:30 to 9:15. Now there are a few things that can be done in these situations. But working for a dot com... yeah it's a HUGE deal! We host ALOT of websites. Not to mention all the video equipment is computer based... so wild excitement there.
I'll probably have more to say this weekend when I have time to think.

On a future of being Uncle Ben

I've been spending some time today looking across the blogsphere looking for references to being an uncle... I'm in trouble. I think this could end up being one of the biggest blessings of my life so far. I can't wait to see Eli. Will he look like Becca or Curtis? Will he live up to his "active" reputation? What is he going to do when I show up to the party? I wonder what changing diapers will be like? What kind of nicknames will he inspire... right now I leaning toward dweeb. How can I spoil him, and lovingly annoy becca and curtis?
I have a tough act to follow. Though I've only seen them a hand full of times in my like my dad's brothers left an impression of what great uncles should be.

take care ya'll

Martinsville tomorrow.

Ah the new projects!!!

I've been spending most of the day do far developing work for the HD projects. I'm very excited about this it's simply HUGE!!! However all of the effects that they are showing on the storyboards are effects that I've been working on for the last year. I want to get started on this so bad!!! This could be big for me.

Movie night!!!

So it's been a while since the last one... Just letting you know that dispite it's haters, I watched The Weather Man.... and I liked it alot. It's an imperfect movie, with a story and an ending I could apprecaite. I don't expect many to like it, it's another hard one.

Okay, So I admit it I'm hooked....

What started as flipping through the radio stations and finding a catchy tune has turned into a favorite style. Yup that's right, artists like Alison Krause, Dierks Bentley (GREAT NEW ALBUM BTW!) and Montgomery Gentry, are right up there with Klay Scott, Ani DiFranco, Jars of Clay, Sarah Masen, Paul Van Dyk, and BT. Shouts to the people who showed me around this stuff, you peoples know who you are :)

Ambition, the next stage...

As I've written before I had a vision of where I wanted to be in 5 years the moment I left high school. And here I am. It wasn't the route I was asking for but I got here eventually. Now I've been carefully considering where I want to be in the next five years. When I'm 30... ish! Anyway, There have been many crazy ideas flying around in my head, career changes, life changes, and of course little change. So here it is for what it's worth. Mind you this is just brainstorming, but the original plan was too. And if God wants to change it he can, He knows more about this kind of stuff than I do...

Career, this was the driving force behind the first five years. Alot of people were saying I was crazy for pursuing video production. To the point of one of my youth pastors joking about me working as a camera man for a Channel 8 for the rest of my life. In stage two career is still important, but I don't think it'll be the driving force... more on that one later.
ANYWAY, I want to get involved in missions. Now, before you all get that vision of me in a pith helmet braving the wilds of Africa let me explain. I want to use my abilities to get the message out about what's going on in the mission fields around the world. I mean God gave me this passion for a reason. If that makes any sense. Now my big question is, how does one make a living doing something like this? Than again that isn't important right now. What is important is asking if this is a wise move and if so how to take the first steps.

This is just the beginning, and there is alot more to it. I'll continue to post on thi topic as it comes up.

!?

I applogize for the following rant.


What is "!?" ?
I've typed it out on numerous occasions.
is it a sound?
an emotion?
I mean I can tell you what :) is
just like I can tell you what :( is
or even what :\ is.
but what on earth is !?
I can even tell you what (_|_) is
but the truth is that somehow !? is universally understood.
I mean it doesn't work with any other punctuation
.?
,!
;.
meaningless, all meaning less, but !? speaks volumes

!?

WARNING VIDEO GEEK BLOG...

The journey of a thousand miles sometimes very badly. True statement... and today I started a technical journey that will hopefully take me into HD land. If it ends badly... we won't talk about that.

First things first... I was wrong about rendering. I used to think that an uncompressed video file was as good as it got... WRONG!!! There is one thing better and larger... it's called a an image sequence. no need to explain that one, it's obvious enough. And when dealing with Progressive HD formats the results are amazing! I cannot speak of how cool this technique is. It's truely digital film.

HD Adventure to be continued...

MORE CHANGES!?

Yea I've decided to change my e-mail account. There are alot of reasons for this, mostly this site and effective networking. I no longer need .mac's features. I never realised how involved this process is! Considering I've only done this once before. It's even further conmplicated by e-bill pay and e-commerce. I'll officialy be launching the new address and AIM accounts on October 18th. So stay tuned for that. It will be g-mail

in speaking of google...

So is Google scarring anyone yet? What's up with the youTube deal? I don't really get it, and I work in video. What about copyright? There are plenty of conflict point between the two libraries. Most regarding the fact that Google has a pay service that hold content that is free for the most part out of youTube. Which brings up another question that's been rolling around in my little head.... can copyright be used as a back door for censorship?

Now, being the self proclaimed white-protestant-conservative-Midwestern-male there are some who would think that I'd be all for censorship. After all, "we need to protect our sacred leader from all forms of dissent" Bull5h17! For the millionth time. Everyone should have the right to say what they want. They just have to be willing to accept the consequences. Censorship is not being disagreed with, or the people acting on that disagreement. If people act in an illegal way then it is up to our court system to deal with . Censorship IS a power move. In government it's the removal of life, liberty, or property in response to ideas it finds inappropriate, without due process of law. If it is done within due process it's immediately under the scrutiny of the first amendment.

Here's a question though. If I'm leaking state secrets in an attempt to expose corruption, what takes the higher priority? This is something that has traditionally been taken on by the press. However, if the so-called corruption is merely a convieninet re-assembling of facts. Then what is it? I wish we could trust the press, I really do. But they always seem hell-bent on some agenda. Whether or not I agree with the agenda or not (An example of this is my firm dislike of Bill O'Reily)... It's wrong. My ideal news source would just be a comprehensive ticker of complete facts about what's going on in the world. But that's not going to happen. I thought google news was a good source, but there have been a number of cases recently that stories have been buried. weird huh?

Organic reveals and such...

Okay I've really got some cool visual effects I've been kicking around. Mostly the simple till you think about it kind. It's been exciting days... except for the undeniable fact that my car "Kitsune" battery ain't holding a charge. I'm not too happy about this, considering it means forking over even more money into a car I can't wait to get rid of. So, I biked to work today. yeah, with construction as it is there is no direct route to my house anymore. That means either taking 70th which sucks or taking State to Hawley which sucks too. So the thrills @ work have been balancing the pain in the ass with the car.

see ya'll later,

I'm back... I dont think I've ever built an effect this distracting... I've been working on my daily work, but I can't seem to tear myself away from working on "Organic Reveal". So what is it? Watch the video for Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" and take a look at the growing ink sploch thing. That's the kinda thing I'm working on :) It's too spiffy.

MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY!!!

Okay so this post has little to do with monday, other than the fact it was written on a monday. Anyway, so here I am on lunch break eating my soup about to go on a few rants. BUT FIRST, a moment of self reflection.

I love the stressful moments. Sure I may complain about them in public, but deep down inside nothig gets me going like a short deadline on an impossible project. On to the rants...

NASCAR...
Okay so I'm a litte new to all this stuff, and though I try to proove some knowledge, I'm always proven wrong. But despite that the end of sunday's race was one of the most interesting I've see..yeah yeah I know that's not saying much. But either way, I've got to give credit to Dale Jr. for keeping his composure in front of the camera... something that couldn't be said for some of the drivers. That alone earns him a place among my faves.

WORLD EVENTS...
So North Korea went and did it. Just in time for Shinzo Abe...interesting how THIS will all play out. As I've said before I'd rather have Japan do the dirty work if it comes that. I just don't trust China. I do feel bad for the people of North Korea for what they are about to go through whether it's diplomatic or military action.

THE GREEN BAY PACKERS...
Favre's beginning to look a lot like Majkowski....

Work stuff...
AGH!!!! BRAND SPANKIN' NEW CONCEPTS TO LEARN!!!!! I LOVE THIS JOB!!!!!

guns and stuff

this was my weapon of choice for the afternoon (.40 H&K USP)

Well yesterday the parents came down...mostly for my sister's baby shower. However Curtis, my dad, and I went out shooting. It was a little pricey, but a good time nontheless. Not thought or complaints for now. I will be posting again later today...

Ah this is what I went to school for!!!

Okay so it's a sucky edit, but if it works, it'll be one of the most satasfying edits I've made in a long time... It involves a number of effects, Line 21 data, IRE levels, and some non-traditional technique. It's one of those moments where I hate my job so much I love it.

More later

AGH!!!!

I'm getting really frustrated with work...little errors that aren't getting caught till too late!! Tomorrow I've got to fix a doozie. Agent pic on a 2 week old show. I know how I'm going to have to do it. It just sick and wrong. Oh yeah and the skin update for this site is going to have to wait... My FTP is down!

Just finished watching Oh Brother, Where art Thou.... good movie. One of my favorites...great music.

Don't you just hate it when the people you know are going through crap and you can't do anything about it... I mean you can't even listen... I can try to be optimistic but that usually ends bad. I can try to encourage but that just gets me in trouble. All the things that work for me don't work for anyone else.

Whatthehellman!

So, what is it about Washington that renders people unable to keep their pants up? I always felt that general corruption was a way of life there, but dang... a new level of disrespect has been achieved. So what if he was a republican, I'm sure Democrats are just as bad. Only, like their hero Bill Clinton, they are better at covering it up, or not. Enough about that.

It's Thursday, a very light work day. I've got a number of side projects I need to work on. And there are the BIG 3. I'd love to get to work on the big three, but those are team projects, and the team hasn't moved yet. I've already done enough damage by venturing out on my own and getting stuff done. What do you think the CG project is?

I didn't do movie night last night, because I had a request to host a few matches of Battlefield. I love this game, especially it's mods. The guys, bobos and stretchmarks, seemed to have a good time, but I can't wait to get the dedicated game server up and running. Up to this point, my computer has been the only one that can host these things. So if anyone wants to play I usually get the call.

I'm sure I'll post some more stuff later...

Material and Bones

How long has it been since I last enjoyed goofing off with a 3D modeler!? Last night I was up late...again. working with and newer 3D tool called MODO. It's disturbingly easy to use considering it's made by the rouge designers of Lightwave. However unless one is going to go all out 3D has only minor application today's production landscape. I could see it as a tool for making digital sets or for design elements. But character animation has advanced to a point where if can't do it well, you can't do it. This is an exciting tool though. Awesome layout and design!

With all the video/design stuff aside, I'm finding my self in need of something new. Video is good and all, but I need a new outlet, or experience or something. I'm sinking into the sea of pixels :) Maybe I've been focusing on the tech side too much. This last weekend I gave my "pretty pictures move" speech, and she came back with something I've forgotten. She added ...and inspire. All my work for the past three years has been video for experimentation and my own reasons... when was the last time I aimed to inspire? I mean I'm finally at a point where I can do something like that. What would that project be? Would it be a short film? Uber cool graphics deal? The tools and the skills are there. all I need is the vision.

---Later That Day---
During Lunch I was thinking about how much I miss traditional photography. You know, the kind with film? Sure, I was never able to get a perfect negative, but there's something about doing work I the dark room that I kinda miss. Point and click photo correction has nothing on contrast filters an exposure time :) So yeah, it's been a contemplative week. It's also been a weird as far as sleep... Usually I can wake up without an alarm with no problems. This morning I woke up @ 7:50!!! BTW that's really really late for me. The dream wasn't even all that good :P
I need to stop staying up so late. Things are changing fast. Is this what normal is like? And as always, "I need a woman (lol)".

Pnuma, Psuche, & Zoe

So last night I was intending to dive into the world of life after death and the problem of hell and all that sort of stuff. But I got side tracked first, by the usage and meanings of the Greek words that are translated in English as "life" This was really mind-blowing stuff how these words are being used.
Then I got sidetracked again by a friend who needed some help with a paper on the 2000 election. Of course her questions were twisted in favor of "Saint Gore". All that was really needed was some fact checking. I'm still surprised that despite being in a poli sci class that they haven't handed out copies of our founding documents. I mean can you understand the concepts of Due Process and Equal Protection without reading about them in their original context?

College is truly a strange place. As far as I've heard.

----Later that Day----
Waiting for the computer to finish importing Closed Captioning Data...

So once again it's that time of week, time to select a movie. The rules are known... only one "I have never seen it before". I have some reccomendations, but I've been feeling like a Harrison Ford/Jack Ryan movie. I miss those things! I think Patriot Games is the only one I've not seen. So that's on the list.
I also have The Gods Must Be Crazy II and Lonesome Jim (another 20-something angst film) on there too.

Today went well... had something to do @ every point. It looks like we'll be getting our dedicated homeshow/video content server soon! Looking forward to that. But I really want to get the green light to begin work on the October/November graphics projects. Every day that goes by adds to the stress level down the road.

So yeah <---- I have alot of blogs titled that

The importance of ya'll...I'm a fan of the second person plural. It's a shame it hasn't been standardized in the English language. I still think English sucks as a language too. It's so difficult to say what you mean.

So it's another morning and I'm eating my usual eggs in one form or another (Now, it's eggs in toast). I don't eat breakfast cereals... it's weird, I know, I just don't anymore. I haven't since I moved out here. There are some habit that you strive for, others that just happen.

I have to go to work today...thrill, the weekends are far too short these days. Maybe i should wake up earlier so I can actually enjoy the morning before work. You know, do a little reading, have some tea. But that would also mean getting to bed earlier...phooey! I don't get enough sleep.

A good friend of mine noted that I've been staying up later these days... it's true, I have been. The old pumpkin is dead, and there are reasonable causes. Primarily I have alot on my mind these days. Alot of potential energy going into this winter/fall.

---Later that day---
I never thought a single show could ever take so much brain power!!!! I spent most of the day de-kinking my new process for creating on-screen graphics. It's been in the works for a few months, but this is the second week in applying it to actual projects. This is just the beginning of the next set of projects. This is going to be a crazy couple of weeks. You know I'm going to love it though ;P

HEY! I havn't done a playlist post for a while!
here we go...

Fave Albums recently:

Above & Beyond: Tri-State <---The best Trance album this year!!!
Montgomery Gentry: Something to Be Proud Of (best of) <---Latest country addiction
Jars of Clay: Good Monsters <---Creative christian music...go fig!
Gaelic Storm: Bring yer Wellies <---very primium music
Chris Thile: How to Grow A Woman From the Ground <--- Awesome Bluegrass/Roots
Ani DiFranco: Puddle Dive <--- Old but still amazing (my favorite from her)
Bleach: Space <--- One of my favorite Christian rock albums period.