2007-04-24

PHO281 Project Finished!

Today I finally got my PHO281 project finished. I'm sure it would have been much less stressful overall if I had done it earlier, but I actually saw people who were still printing today, and after looking at them, it turns out my prints looked better than I originally thought anyway, which made me happy, but sorry for the people who will have to get their prints done and mat the photos so quickly.

Today was also my first time using the dry mount press method, I really like it compared to the old method - it's cleaner overall, there is less X-acto involved, and the prints coming out looking much cleaner.

I can't wait to be done with PHO281, though I suppose PHO285 will possibly just as bad. Ohwell, I suppose that as a photo major, I must go on.

2007-04-18

An apparently bad week.

I know everybody has them. which is one of the reasons I try not to write notes all the time that consist simply of things like "I had such a bad week, I mean nothing to the world at large, and I hate all my classes." This week, however, is an exception. I think that I'm having a really bad week, especially by the very sensitive standards of some of the people whose lives I read up on.

So instead of taking more pictures for my PHO281 portfolio, or being in the darkroom developing that film, or working harder on the rewrite of my JLS131 news story, I'm going to write an angsty blog post slash Facebook note. I figure since everybody else does it, I am allowed, eh?

Hmm.... Actually, I think the worst part of this week is that Sunday my roommate tore apart his side of the room, thinking his parents were going to bring the stuf he doesn't need home. So it's difficult to move around my side of the room.

Oh, there's also the bit where the NAULive reporter asked me to do something Yesterday at night, which was subsequently rescheduled to Thursday night. So I've got the biggest and hardest to move camera sitting here in my room. Even though NAULive is not running this week, I hope I don't get in trouble for having it so long.

Other than that, I am significantly behind on my photo project. My fault, but I have a feeling I'll be able to make it in time... I just need to pray that the two rolls I took today, plus some of my previous exposures will work for the project, which is architecture on campus, of which I've got a lot of photos. I've heard that some of the other teachers have allowed their students to do some digital pictures on a CD. I can assure you that if I were doing that, my project would basically be awesome. Ohwell.

I'm sure that I need to mention something about always forgetting to do the extra credit in the classes for which I direly need it. This lack of ability to remember task lists is surely the fault of the world.

Well, that's it for my angsty blog post I suppose. I need to go back down and switch my laundry to the dryer machine.

2007-04-16

NAB!

The National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow and other related events is happening this week, and I'm here to provide some reactions.

Apple's announcements are obviously very interesting to me, so I'll start there.
Final Cut Studio 2.

That is pretty much it. - well, that and Final Cut Server, along with Apple's new Codec ProRES 422 and the special i/o device for that codec, AJA's new io-HD, which looks like it was actually designed by Apple.

The RED Digital Cinema Camera is apparently finished. It looks cool and it's really inexpensive for what it is. The base unit is $17,500 - which is about as much as you'd pay for a high end XDCAM or Panasonic P2 camera, but this camera's got an actual 12-megapixel more-than-4k resolution sensor, and can record an uncompressed full resolution signal. If this, in combination with "inexpensive" computer editing gear and software like the MacPro Final Cut Studio, isn't basically the best thing ever to happen to digital cinema, I'm not sure what is.

This could even bring cinema-quality shooting to Electronic News Gathering, or to more independent filmmakers. I'd love to use one at some point in time, it seems like a reasonable size, and the image quality from it must be AMAZING.

In other news, Sony is apparently expanding its XDCAM lineup to include a new prosumer product that will apparently be able to record onto a new 8 or 16 gig flash medium. With two 16 gig cards, recording times are apparently about 120 minutes. I am interested in seeing it for sure, it looks like Sony is trying to bring the XDCAM to the places Panasonic's P2 system is already at, but with better recording times.

Oh - one final note regarding Apple's announcements of the past week. No Leopard means no 64-bit Final Cut Pro, and no 64-bit Final Cut means limited addressing space for users dealing with redcode and other high-def files. I can't wait to see how Final Cut flies on systems with 8 or more gigs of ram, once we get Leopard and 64-bit Final Cut.

2007-04-13

The Scheduling Gods have smiled upon me.

I like my schedule for next semester. I start every day with German 102 at 10:20 a.m. and end, at the latest, at 4:00 to 6:30 is VC251.

  • GER102 - MTuWTh 10:20-11:00
  • PHO285 - TuTh 12:45-2:00
  • BIO100 - TuTh 2:20-3:35
  • BIO100L - W 1:50-3:50
  • VC251 - TuTh - 4:00-6:30
It's 17 cerdits total, but I won't be doing NAULive and the classes are arranged in a nice way, I'll end up doing homework on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

2007-04-07

Apparently I am old enough, or I seem enough like an old coot to be called grandpa on the Internet. I was having a discussion in #68kmla on FreeNode about web browsers and Mac OS 9, and somebody actually called me grandpa. Needless to say, I was quite surprised. It wasn't as offensive as it was surprising, and it certainly made me realize that as far as computers and technology go, I have been around for a lot of it.

I even vividly remember in November or December 1999, being in a CompUSA with my parents pointing out the various pieces of Apple software that would be cool as christmas gifts. Mac OS 9 was new then, and surely enough, Mac OS 9 and AppleWorks 5 were under the Christmas tree that year.

[cory5412] IE5 and wamcom can be okay, I've just had a lot of bad luck over the years.
[patrickool93] Ok Grand pa. back to bed ;)
[multifinder17] lol @ Patrickool93

2007-04-05

My Protest of Shoes

Well, It's finally come to it. I have either gone hopping crazy-mad, or am about to offer a new and interesting critique of humanity. Unfortunately, I have none of Ryan's potentially world-changing wisdom today. Only a personal narrative about my barefoot campus adventure and today's frustration with footwear. So we must here conclude that I've gone hopping crazy-mad.

Recently I decided my shoes were aging abnormally fast. In high school, I was able to keep a pair of shoes for a very long time, often two or three years before they were actually unwearable, and usually I finally ditched a pair of shoes when I outgrew them - not when they died or had holes in the soles. However, here at NAU, I either walk differently, walk significantly more often, or some other type of walking that has caused my shoes to die within six months.

I decided that until I can get new shoes, I would wear my sandals around. It's springtime - therefore nice enough outside to do so, and it'll be a cool change in theory. Unfortunately, what I didn't think about was the fact that those sandals are always difficult to wear for long, especially if I don't wear socks with them, such as in a situation where I've just been in the shower with them and I do not feel like having wet socks all day long.

Yesterday this became apparent when after my German class, I went to NAULive and did some photog work for Tuesday's show with Jessica, one of the anchors. It was, of course - difficult to keep up while walking around. I had the double-problem of having brought the large JVC DV-500 ENG/EFP camera, along with the huge tripod. Add to that, I was wearing The Sandals Of Doom. The shoots ended up turning out okay, I was (as I often am) awkward and slow throughout the process, forgetting about certain settings, even switching the camera into full auto mode at a certain point, and not being sure how to switch it back.

Back at the Comm Building and Studio A, I ended up leaving my shoes behind the camera I was operating for today's NAULive, affording me the opportunity to stand around for an hour and a half without shoes on. The show went well, but I could still feel the pain. (Yes, I am whining. At least it's not about video acquisition formats, or a comprehensive, 8-page complaint about the speed of my computer, or about mobile computers.)

(This is where the whining stops and the explaining starts.) I ended up just walking home barefoot, my feet were already in pretty extreme pain, what could make it worse? I actually discovered that walking home barefoot was probably the best idea, I went from the comm building to the union and then from the union to Reilly (using the pedway by Cowden and Tinsley) barefoot, and found that although I walked slower, it wasn't really that bad. It was better than worsening the blisters or killing another good pair of socks.

Today I ended up just wearing the boots that I wore when it was snowing, I realized just how slow I've been walking, as a result of the shoes/sandals being evil. It was an amazing difference actually. I will definitely not get that type of shoes again anytime soon. (and by anytime soon, I mean this weekend when my mother comes for a visit.)

2007-04-02

No Talk Show Pilot?

Well, many of you may know that I was dedicating my Sunday to two things.
  1. Sitting at my computer next to the phone all day long, waiting for Courtney from NAULive to call.
  2. Recording the pilot episode of Courtney's talk show for UTV62.
Unfortunately, my least favorite of those things happened for 14 full hours - I didn't leave my room all day except for one 45 minute breakfast run at 10:30 a.m. The thing I actually wanted to do, record the pilot, did not happen. I spent most of my day sending e-mails to Courtney, and I never got a reply.

Naturally, I did have fun with the GL2 the other evening, I'll put the results of my 2-cam videoblog shoot online next weekend sometime, after I've captured the results from both cameras and edited them, including some of my brand new Motion opening graphics, and of course, my Soundtrack Pro themesong for the videoblog. (I may need or want to rework the Motion opening sequence, but I've basically got what I want.)

The second naturally in my post is something UTV62 related. I am naturally going to have a discussion with Courtney about showing up and calling people. I don't know if I made this clear to her, but I cannot call cell phones because they are usually long distance, so if I want to talk to somebody whose number isn't on-campus or local, I need to wait for them to wait for them to call me, or I need to e-mail them. This is bad when people who I need to contact never call me or check their e-mail.

I hate to say it, but I am extremely frustrated because I had multitudinous opportunities today to go hang out with other friends (I'm still sorry, Megan!) and get food - instead I sat here all day waiting for the highlight of my weekend, and nothing happened other than me browsing some websites about old macs, and chatting the day away. Oh, I did COM200 and GER102 homework as well.