Happy Ice Day!

Well, I've started to get back to my old shenanigans of declaring every day some kind of holiday. I've been drinking a whole lot of water with ice lately, so I declared today a Day of Ice

I learned also that there was once an emperor so crazy as to have ice brought down from mountains.

Bethany: And Emperor Nero would send servants up mountains to get ice for his form of ice cream :3

So this begins the first of probably-several incidental random celebratory days.

I've gone ahead and created a calendar that anybody with a google account can subscribe to. If you've got suggestions for a celebration, feel free to send me a message through the message-sending implement of your choice.

Wicked Avenue Rent Express-- The Extreme Acid Jazz-Polka Musical.

If you could create a musical, and/or your life (or your ideal life) were a musical, what would it be called, and what kind of music would it have?

My musical (maybe not my ideal life, but my ideal musical. :P) would be called Wicked Avenue Rent Express , and would have the subtitle "The Extreme Acid Jazz-Polka Musical." It would basically be about junkie wizards and witches who live in a cheap, run-down apartment building in New York, Oz. They'd also conduct train (or trainwreck) races -- in which magic, talking, quite-snarky trains race around quite uselessly. (because it's somewhat dangerous to ride the train, given how fast they go.)

I'm actually not yet sure what the musical of my life would be though. I need to work on that a bit.

It should be a bit obvious what I've been listening to recently.

Also, I've been reading the Gregory Maguire novel "Wicked" subtitled "The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West." It's very good. I've actually got the sequel here too, a Yanni CD, and the first LoTR novel. I intend to catch up on some reading and whatnot. I found out too that I can place holds online, and (in theory, though I've yet to test it) have them make their way to a specific branch of the Mohave County Library System. In this way, I intend to make fairly regular trips to the now-walking-distance Valle Vista MCLD location. Summer of Reading! Yaay!

It's also worth noting that I recently discovered the "Indoor Walking Machine" aka the treadmill. Quite a nifty device, which I'm taking advantage of by using it. I found that after an hour or so, I can work up quite a sweat on it, which is cool because I think that means it's helping me achieve my lofty goals of losing the "Freshman Thirty" (Come on, you can't think I've been denying the fact that I'm a bit chunkier than I was at the start of the school year.) The Treadmill also (niftily enough) can be attached to an audio device (such as my iPod) to provide a form of entertainment (midis converted to MP3s by iTunes) while I'm walking (but not actually leaving the house.)

My goal is to return to the weight I was before I started at NAU. Unfortunately, even if I do, it may not do me any good, as I'll just be back at NAU again next fall, probably following the same eating patterns. Though, I do admit... my food intake patterns probably didn't hurt my GPA, so for now I'm not complaining too bitterly.

No more PowerBook?

What a fitting revenge of the machine. Officially "almost one year" after I got it, my PowerBook G3 seems to be officially dead. For everybody who placed bets, let's just say that you were all wrong. The culprit happens to be the IDE controller. I'm not sure whether or not this is something that will just smooth over somehow, or if my PowerBook G3 will be crippled in that respect for the rest of its days with me.

I knew it would die, I did not know it would die this quickly. I don't know if it needs to be said, but I'll say it anyway. I am considering getting a Mac Portable to use for note taking and novel-writing. Nice, simple machine with weapon status, and really long battery life.

I am kind of sad that the PowerBook G3 can't remain useful the way it was before. Last fall, it had awesome battery life, wireless networking, good storage, and was generally usable as my main computer. It was originally acquired as a stopgap machine, purely because it had a display that worked, but I found that even after getting my iMac, I did somewhat like having a mobile computer.

How ironic that after two (or more?) years of posting on this blog (whose title is "Life:: Strapped to a Desk" for those of you reading this from any other websites,) I am now for the first time, actually without a fully mobile computer.

Writing a New Novel.

Just a quick note to let everybody know that I have restructured the Gotschland map to be more suitable for some of the changes I want to make to it.

Also, I'm now writing a new novel. Well, I think what I'm writing now will end up being a bit more like a textbook, but it's the beginning of what will eventually be a novel, or collection of short stories. I'm not entirely sure yet.

I am mostly doing this because I found an interesting (far from finished, though) app that's specifically for novel writing. It is only available on the Mac, (which is fine with me) and it's got a few nice additions such as a full screen mode that doesn't waste 75% of my monitor, and a database function that lets me easily keep track of the characters I've introduced, and store information about them.

At any rate - Gotschland, Ahoy! (not Chips Ahoy! - unfortunately.)

Visit to Mom's

I just got back from visiting Mom's house. It was better than over Thanksgiving, but I had difficulties in getting to my 68k Macs. Apparently a whole lot more stuff has been added to the garage, as well as the office, making neither location suitable for playing with old Macs. Additionally, it was very difficult to get to the Macs.

Luckily, I was able to find my 17" VGA monitor, the displaced PC133 memory (128mb sticks from the Dell/500, apparently) and the SGI Octane. I didn't, however, seem to be able to find my Powermac G3. Unfortunate, but I am sure it'll show up. That, or I'll use the Dell/933 as my main Mom's-House computer.

While I was there, I found out that Intel uses really cool codenames for their processors. Examples include Deschutes, Banias, Dothan, Cedar Mill, Conroe, Merom, Merced (boy do I remember the Merced!) , among others. (Prescott isn't that great, but I suppose I have to say "whoo for prescott!" because I have friends from that particular location. -- At any rate, I intend to give my unnamed computers names from a selection of Intel codenames. I may even give one to my iMac.

Schlangenbeschwoerer, however, is still a very tempting hostname for the iMac. Truthfully, who can resist something like "Snake Charmer?" It is currently named PRAGMA-II after the PowerBook G4 it officially replaces. (The PowerBook G3 being considered a stopgap machine, and now filling a different usage slot.)

Also, I really like Initial D music now. The Eurobeat stuff they use is nothing short of excellent. I will probably use this stuff for NaNo Writing Music this coming November.

Gentoo Linux

Hey everybody! I am just writing this to let you know I am running Gentoo Linux on my PowerBook G3. It's working well enough that I am even comfortable using it unplugged, although I have yet to find out exactly how I am going to monitor the life of my battery or batteries.

One of the things I'm interested in is whether or not Linux can really manage the power very well. Naturally, it's not of the greatest concern right now, but I will be interested and concerned when it comes to me using the machine for school, taking notes for classes. Next semester, I have a lot of classes in a row, so it'll be me with my backpack and my notebook computer for probably eight hours straight. I suppose it won't really be a huge problem if the other battery were working, I used to be able to get ten or more hours of use without any problems in my dual-battery setup.

Another thing I am concerned with is whether or not wireless will work properly. I'm sure I can make it work but it's another thing I have to figure out *before* the next school year starts, elsewise I will end up using Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X 10.3 again. (While that's not so bad, I do think I'd like to give
this operating environment a proper chance.)

I must say though, that I do quite like xfce4. Everything works properly, and nothing is too glitzy to be functional. OpenOffice, Xchat and Firefox2 can all be open and running quite well without many issues.

Timber Inn

Well, I said I would, and I am.

Last Wednesday, Megan and I went to Timber Inn, the sit-down burger/fries/shake joint. It was pretty good, and as an added benefit, it has transfers and I was only a few minutes late for my photo final. :D I think I'll have to eat at the Timber Inn more often next year, if it's still there.

CS3!

I bought some Adobe CS3 apps today. I now have the Adobe CS3 Design Standard suite, as well as the independent Dreamweaver CS3 kit. I bought them instead of Design Premium because the NAU Bookstore didn't have Design Premium for Mac in stock.

So far, the applications all look and work great. Several improvements have been made in Illustrator, and so far, inDesign, Photoshop and Dreamweaver all work as expected. I am also working on the next generation of my Dana/CLW249 website, which will hopefully start coming together this summer. I intend to include more of my photography and a few other things in the new website. I will eventually start moving my old Dana/CLW249 content over too.

I have also determined that I would at some point like to get a Wacom tablet and start getting into doing some stuff with Illustrator. Brandy even mentioned that it wouldn't be too difficult for me to get into doing a webcomic if I really wanted to, if I were to do fairly simple and/or stylized people, so I may just have to bust out the pen and some paper to get some practice with that.

I also downloaded and installed the cool free font bonus, and I am currently partaking in 30-days of free training from lynda.com, another registration gift from Adobe. Both are pretty interesting, I do like the font, and I will probably use it somewhere, for something. The lynda.com training is interesting too. They've got training on just about everything, and I intend to use it to improve the way I use these Creative Suite apps. Plus, I've been learning loads of cool tips from the Adobe Creative Suite podcast, which is now covering mainly CS3.

Needless to say, I will have a lot to do this summer, a lot of which includes the Creative Suite.

I love grammar.

I admit it. I'm a horrible grammar nerd.

I had fun making this diagram. I will probably do more complicated ones later on.

100th post.

I've been sitting here for a few weeks, since I saw that my blog postcount was in the 90s, and I've been thinking about what I should make my 100th post about.

At first I was thinking of doing something about Megan, but I had second thoughts about that because I was unsure of whether or not I really wanted to do anything epic and long about that whole situation.

I was also thinking of doing something computer related, but that would involve me finding something pretty much epic to write about.

I was thinking about doing a reflection on my Freshman year of college, and while that's a pretty good idea, I don't know what I'd say - I've been recording my thoughts on it all year, and I will probably be able to do an even better overview in the next few weeks when it's actually all over. (Thank Goodness, too!)

I could also write about the 68kMLA and its downtime. It came back up today, and I still haven't added it back to my bookmarks bar. I also haven't completely decided whether or not I want to make my hiatus "official." I am fairly certain I am going to do so, however.

I also could write about my struggles in finding something to do this summer - the Summer RA job fell through, so I am definitely going to go home to Kingman. I am unsure about the video thing though, there was also talk about a pool job, and I'm sure there are other opportunities for employment over the summer.

Of course, it looks like instead, my 100th post is actually about the things my 100th post is not about. The only thing I haven't written about is how the 100th post is not about my experimental film.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.)

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.

DV Recording

I've got a really cool toy to play with this weekend. It's a Canon GL2 in what I think is basically the most awesome configuration ever. It's got an MA-300 Microphone adapter, and two dynamic mics (One lav and one hand held), plus the appropriate (long enough) XLR cables.

I am going to use it on Sunday to film a pilot episode of a talk show for UTV62.

Until then, I've got Camera+1 sitting here in my room, so I've decided to do a few things with it.

The first thing I shot with it here in the dorm was actually a screen capture of the old Toshiba laptop (aka TWL) booting IBM OS/2 Warp 3 and loading one of the IBM Works applications. The screen cap worked fairly well and it made me realize exactly how slow that old laptop is.

After screen capping the Toshiba, I decided I'd try a different method just for fun. The GL2 has an S-Video input and when the camera is in VCR mode, it can do analogue input for recording to the DV tape, or for recording straight to computer. So I got out my trusty new S-Video cable and the PowerBook G3, and did a few OS X screen captures in the camera's VCR mode. This was definitely interesting because it was essentially a perfect example of Mac OS X's failings in a low-resolution setting. The default size for everything is basically awful when outputting at 720x480.

Bored with screen capturing, I performed what I think is the most important and interesting of the tests - a direct comparison between the DV and Video8 formats, and of course the Sony HandyCam I've got and the Canon GL2.

For the comparison, I set both cameras up at about the same height on tripods, each in a different enough location so that I could look back and forth to make it seem more like a legitimate multi-cam shoot. I then got the dynamic hand held mic and the Canon Mic Adapter. I decided I wanted a direct comparison of the audio as well as the video quality, so I actually took the headphone output of the GL2 and attached it to the Microphone input of the HandyCam. I pressed record on both cameras, sat down and just talked about the setup for a few moments.

Doing such a shoot is definitely interesting, I am certainly happy to have a comparison done, and I can't wait until Monday when I can start to capture the tapes to hard disc. I'll have to capture at the comm building, and then bring the footage back to my iMac on the iPod or something.

At any rate... I certainly can't wait to do the actual talk show shoot, but I am concerned because I received a phone call today (after the EM checkout desk closed) saying that for the show, three cameras and a minimum of three microphones (two lav if possible) will be needed, so I hope the now-wimpy one camera, one lav and one hand-held will be acceptable.

If we were allowed to shoot S-VHS, I'd run out and buy another S-VHS tape and shoot with two or three of the big 3-chip S-VHS cams, but I don't think NAULive has enough tripods for that, unfortunately.

Hiatus from the 68kMLA

Some of you might know that I've been an active member of the 68kMLA online community... almost forever. I'm working to change that, or at the very least, reduce my own urge to visit that community. I am officially announcing here that I am on hiatus from the 68kMLA.

Suffice it to say that I have been frustrated with the changes in the general attitude of that community, and basically, I've come to the conclusion that it's is pathetic for me to place so much importance in an online community. It's great that I'm committed to something, but that community has proven time and again that I really need to find something better to do with the majority of the time I spend at my computer.

So what am I to do?

I think I may start by blogging more often, a lot of stuff happens in my life that I'm just sure the whole world needs/wants to know about. (Yeah - as if.) It is also a good process of self documentation, and I am sure there is something about my actual writing skills it will help.

I also might actually work more on my experimental film, whatever it is and whenever I actually intend to do something about it. I really want to get some stuff done for that so I can have an actual product, something I can say "I made this and it's not just random recordings, and it's not for NAULive"

I could also work on my classes more, I've got loads of work for a lot of my classes I need to do, and not being at the 68kMLA would definitely be a good inspiration to actually do work.

Well, we'll see how long my hiatus from the 68kMLA lasts. I may force myself to stay gone long enough to actually do the experimental film.

Adobe CS3

Well, after a year or more of anticipating, and 4 months of using Photoshop CS3 Beta, Adobe has finally announced the availability, pricing, and some of the features of the new lineup of CS3 products. About time!

Not only have the usual suspects been updated, (Photoshop, inDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, Flash, Dreamweaver) but Adobe is also including PremierePro, Encore, and the new SoundBooth app in this madness of new apps.

The additional applications is leading to a restructuring of the family, there are now Standard and Premium packages in "Design" and "Web" variants, as well as a Premium Production package for audio/video, and an all-encompassing "Master Collection."

The restructuring of the family is cool, it ensures that creative professionals are paying just for what they need, not apps they'll never use. Thusly, Dreamweaver and Flash aren't included in the Standard Design bundle, which is intended for print designers.

Unfortunately, the restructuring means that Educational pricing is very confusing now. All of the bundles are available, and the prices to get approximately what was available in the old CS2.3 bundle are a bit outrageous.

To get both Dreamweaver and inDesign, which I want to do, will cost $200 more than it would have under the CS2 structure. I would need to buy the Premium Design package to do that. The bad thing about that is that the Premium Design package is $599 whereas the old CS2.3 was $399. (Educational Pricing)

I'm excited that all of this is coming out, but it makes me a bit sad that it costs so much more to get the same functionality I would have had with the older suite. For a hot moment I was actually tempted just to buy CS 2.3. I wouldn't get Flash, and performance would basically be awful, but I would have a legal version of the apps I want.

I think my solution may end up somewhere in the middle, I will probably try to get my hands on one of the standard packages, and either "acquire" the pieces I think of as missing, or use the old Dreamweaver and Flash MX I've got, either on the PowerBook G3, or I'll just bite the proverbial bullet and use Rosetta.

Of course, we'll see if the parentals approve any kind of AdobeCS related shenanigans at all, especially since I also might have designs upon the next version of Apple's operating system, Leopard.