OKay so here's the deal...

June 4th was the day of my last post. Much has happened in that time, most notably being Sarah. Yes, I have a girlfriend, and oh the stories I want to tell, but they are not quite fit for public consumption :) I just love her madly, and I'll leave it at that.


As for another continuing drama on this blog: Iraq.
I'm convinced that Washington has lost it's mind, again. I can't believe that Bush thinks he can rally support for our presence in Iraq by linking it to Bin Ladin. I couldn't really care less about him. About 3 years ago Iraq became less about the war on terror and more about the nation of Iraq. I wanted to see this end in a better life for it's people. Why do we not hear news from Iraq about the state of it's people unless they end up dead? Is it that it's going well or is it that things are going bad? I'm tired of car bombs and militias. I wish we could see life in Iraq for all it's people urban, rural, rich and poor. Democrats and Republicans don't give a shit about people, they just want to get re-elected.

WOW is this a new post?

Have I really been away for so long? There has been so much happening since my last post:
Trips to Phoenix and New York City, more stress and worry, more joy and hope, this is life isn't it? My political views are shifting to something a little more "agressively non-partisan". More on that later... and then there is Sarah. Probably the biggest surprise of my life in the past year :) So I hope to reach post number 200 by the start of July, but I need to get to work now so bye!!!

Of opportunities and unknowns

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I've been kind of distracted recently.


That is what life is, isn't it?
When left on my own I often fall into the lie that there will be a point where evaything just gels and life becomes stable and predictable. Then something, or more frequently a whole lot of somethings happen and everything I've planned gets thrown out. It's during these times that I begin to feel a bit lost, but they always come around eventually, and my life ends up being better for it. So in this latest bout of clear skys with very strong winds I'll try to keep my head and I'll keep ya'll posted.

Ben

Tiesto...Elements of life...

Interesting new album, I've been listening to it since this morning. It's very much on the lines of Armin vanBuuren's-Shivers. The stand out tracks are Elements of Life- another techno classical hybrid much like AvB's Serenity but more cohesive, Break my Fall feat BT- Oh yeah, BT assists here, reminds me alot of Force of Gravity. Sweet Things feat Charlotte Martin- Great trance vocals here oddly enough the instrumentation sounds more like BT than the BT Track.

All in all it's an okay album, vary much the traditional Trance sound. Something to dance to and good background music. Not very good for litenting to on it's own.

More later...

Future Project begins now....

Our church is having a worship night soon. We are centering around music this time, and I'd like to make a video. I've got some great ideas brewing right now. One has a soundtrack made up of a mash-up of BT and Rob Bell. What will be on screen is still up in the air, I don't want it to be too simplistic, but I've found that sometimes simple is powerful. And that's what I want this to be, powerful. I'd like it to be a call to worship.

LINKIN PARK

So yes, the new Linkin Park album, Minutes to Midnight, is on the way!!! So maybe I'm the last fan to hear about this, but you know. Head over to your favorite online music store to check out the new single!

Oh yeah, Mars Hill... They do have a podcast available on iTunes now, check that out too. It's great to come into work on monday and listen to some truth.

Green Screen Ideas...

And the ideas keep pouring in. I'm telling you, Green Wall is probably the bet thing to happen to me creatively since learning After Effects. For my next trick I'll be walking "through" the wall into a room created in 3ds Max. This is all too much fun! Anyway

Also on the music side of things... We have a new Tiesto album coming out soon!!!! It sounds like it'll be in the territory of Above and Beyond's progressive trance pop thing, check out the sample on iTunes!!!! Purists will probably hate it, but really, what trance fan isn't for something new and different?
Release date is April 10th, this may be worthy of buying the CD :)

Well, I thought it would also be fun to post another project I was working on a months ago. Still quite cool, In case you were wondering about the Post-It notes, that's more or less the "secret sauce" that makes it all work. I have two other VFX projects lined up soon I will be posting them as I they are completed.

here it is

lah dee dah

I've just had one of those moments where I do something I've been trying to avoid and finding a little bit of myself in the process. Let me explain:
For the longest time I've been trying to avoid the film style visual effects thing. It's something that I've wanted to do, but I've never really wanted to see how far that "rabbit hole" goes. Well, last night I took my first step, literally. As in stepping through the stargate. I placed my self in a scene of SG-1, and in all honesty it's one of the most natural technical projects that I've ever taken on. Once I get the thing on YouTube I'll post it on this blog. I need more ideas though, I'd like to start dabbling in this even more.

Yagi is sick!?

So yagi is sick right now :( It's come down with Bsoditis. Too bad really, looks like a re-install/reformat is in order right now...

In other news...
Spring is back! Well actually it's more like summer, but I'm not complaining. It's quite nice really. And the best news is that the A/C in my office area is working again! If it isn't raining I may just go out for a walk or something.

Hillary 1984

Unless you've been under a rock for the past few days (or just don't care) you know exactly what this post is about, so I'll spare you the gory details.

I love this story, being a video geek myself. I love the idea of indie political videos duking it out on YouTube in this upcoming election! I hope the web will become the new arena of ideas here, where the mainstream media has no control and Fiengold-McCain cannot sensor. I know I've been mulling some ideas over myself for my entry. To the conservative creatives out there: USE THIS OPPORTUNITY!!!! Show the country once and for all that the Left does not own the arts. Put your ideals of limited government, individual opportunity, and responsibility out there. Do it with the highest quality you can achieve with the greatest care. Move beyond mash-ups, do something entirely original. If this plays out how I hope it does, this is going to be good.

And more toys...

So, here's the deal.
I've had some rather major financial shifts recently, and I've been finding myself with a little more "loose change" recently. Unfortunately I've been using this to buy more toys. Although they are fairly classy, and fit well into my rule of a few nice things, minimal crap. I still think I can make better use of the money. I've even started thinking about long-term investing. ACK! That really would be a "grown-up" moment. Putting money in something that doesn't depreciate easily. Scary thought.

New toys...

I just got the Adobe software upgrades on my editing workstation yesterday. I'm so excited, the creative options are honestly limitless now. Just the new addition of Illustrator alone is enough to help my creative ability (it's my primary thumbnailing software). Then there is After Effects 7 (oh yes, the sweetness.) There are a few others, but they arent quite as important. Photoshop is essentially my "Swiss Army Knife" there isn't a day that goes by where I don't use it @ least once.
Stayed up late last night...crap.

NORMAL...

Before I go on with this rant I need to take a sec for a "Music Moment"
MUTE MATH!!!
Check this band out. For those who remember they used to a Christian band called "Earthsuit".
After 6 years they have come back. The sound is certainly unique, here's the comparison I've come up with.
Imagine BT, with a little Radiohead, some of dcTalk's pop sound, and a little Sting.
worth the download on iTunes...

This morning was wonderful.... Who knew that waking up @ 5:45am would feel so good. Recently, I've been trying to stay up later and wake up later. It doesn't do it for me. I find myself feeling more tired when I wake up. I tend to sleep till 7:00 or 7:30, and I feel even more tired even though I've slept longer. Then there is the added bonus of the 6:00am workout. For me, there is nothing like a 1/2 hour on the eliptical in the morning to get me going. The bad news is in order to pull this schedule off I get VERY cranky @ 10:30 pm or so, a state I've called pumpkin. I don't mind it all that much, but those around me can clearly tell the difference. So, hopefully I can get back into this routine, it fits my life a little better :) I hope to add some lifting again, once my first set of cardio/endurance goals have been met. That will happen in two weeks. Heh heh, lifting for endurance, I love that part. I want to bike around Milwaukee again.

end random rant.

St. Patrick's Day

Sometimes I do miss the old classroom St. Patty's. You know, when it was all green and shamrocks. But a single pint Guinness on tap is a nice trade.

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a note....

I'm moody, depressed, and I hate myself
...flashbacks to teenhood.

LATER THAT DAY...I am feeling better now, but I think it's important to keep this post around for a while. It's honest. It's how I've been feeling abit more than I like recently. I wish I knew why. It hasn't been a horrible month. In fact it's been pretty good. Im just having really hard time shaking this attitude.

Yet another note on the Iraq War...

I've been reading alot recently on the overall desire to "end the war." It's got me thinking what does it mean to end a war? Is a total troop pull out the end of the war? If we leave is the war really over? If we leave Iraq who would be the winner? If we turn our back on this conflict does it still exist? This new kind of war really really sucks. There can be no signed declaration of surrender, there can be no real victory either. Modern war can no longer be waged on a political state. It's a battle of ideals, and this new kind of warfare is dependent on who has more resolve. Negotiations have a way of putting a band-aid on things, but as we've seen time and time again they will break down, because those who have the big titles have no power over those who do the fighting. What we have in Iraq is the ultimate example of the meaning of the separation of church and state. I have very little problem with Islamic morality being written in thier laws, the problems come when the sectarian lines blind the government to the reality.
We don't need to look too far back in our own history to get an idea of what's going on. What we are seeing appears to be kinda similar to the Protestant/Catholic conflicts that ravaged Europe for centuries. And the echoes of those conflict continue to this day.
What am I saying? The Iraq war is just one part of a much larger conflict, and packing up and leaving will not make it go away. I'm not sure if the war will "come to our shores". But I do think it will affect our allies in Europe in ways we cannot predict yet.

Please ignore the previous post...

It's amazing how sometimes the obvious truth is just sitting right there in front of me. And how it's usually a word that reveals it. I'm having a difficult time committing to things right now. My usual policy of wait for it has been turning in to an excuse to do nothing. I am in fact getting lazy. As it appears, I've forgotten how to type.