New ORU stuff?!

Wow, what a chapel today.

President Roberts is cleaning house. Good. I like him more for that.

On subjects more interesting to me...
He said he wants to revamp the Communication Arts Department, start a film major, and bring back the medical school. Awesome!

I obviously really like the comm arts stuff, especially the film major, but I don't know if I would do film if it was offered. But it certainly intrigues me.

Anyway, just a quick post.

Oh, this was created at 1:07 pm on the 28th but won't be posted till later because for some reason, Blogger thinks this blog is spam. But rest assured, I am real. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Thanks!

More Joost?

Here are some Joost screenshots to get you a little more interested.

Joost & JoostSwap

Hey all! I just found out about Joost about a week ago, and I stumbled across JoostSwap. Those of you that know what Joost is, you want to check out JoostSwap. Those of you who don't know what Joost is... you are out of the loop. Sign off the internet and spend the rest of your days in an old library. No really though, check out Joost.

It's an awesomely new idea and I don't want to give much awa so just check it out! There is a waiting period for new people on Joost, so put your info in and see if they give you call!

So look for the link to both in my links section to your right. Hurry up, check 'em out!

Apartment Hunting

About two weeks ago, I looked at some apartments, four of them to be exact. I thought they were ok, but one really stood out. I went over to Josh's apartment to share my findings with him and also see if he had any info on other apartments.

I told him that I was planning on going to some other apartments, and he pretty much told me what his thoughts on them were. He just did this whole apartment search and looked at all of them too. I really narrowed my field down, to 2.

Both are 2 bedroom 1 bath. Both are close to ORU and friends. Both are in similar price ranges (one is just a little higher). Although, the one that costs a little more is a little bigger (100 sq. ft.).

Jenni like one more than the other, which is good because I like that one better too. We mostly like it because it has a lot of room, a large living room, a wood burning fireplace, and it's a gated community. There are many other perks, but these are the main ones.

So we pretty much settled on one place, assuming that we are staying in Tulsa (stay tuned for big update...). I some job interviews coming up that could prove promising.

So that's the latest on our apartment search. Maybe I'll post some pictures...

Have some advice? Leave a comment!

**UPDATE***
On the bar on the right of the screen, at the bottom, is a thing called a Flickr photo badge. Click on it and it will take you to all the pics from our apartment.

Skype Me!

I downloaded Skype this summer, but never used it. I just didn't really know about it, just thought it was neat, but then I forgot about it. I mean, I know you needed a microphone to talk to people, but I didn't know if it was free or what else was involved. Anyway, just the other day, I thought I would give it a try.

So I pulled it up on my computer, logged in and proceeded to check it out. I then realized I needed some sort of microphone and I saw on skype.com they have a starter kit. It's super basic. Right before bluetooth headsets came out/got cheap, you know how people had those one earbud thing with a microphone hanging from their ear? Well it's one of those.

I saw online that Radio Shack had them, so I went and picked one up. Only $4. Nice. It even came with some free skype minutes. Anyway, I plugged it in (microphone and headphone ports) and did a test call. It worked!

Then I did some investigating on the site... Skype to Skype is free. Skype to regular phones is not. You can pay 21 cents per call or $30 per year for unlimited calls to the US and Canada. $30/year?! Wow.

I certainly see this possibly replacing a home phone... Also, you don't even have to be at your computer when you use Skype to call people. You can buy a home phone looking skype phone that acts as a regular phone but it calls using skype. They aren't that cheap, but they seem to be built of good quality and design and think of the money you are saving on phone bills!

Oh, I think you can plug your existing telephony phone into a convertor to make it "skypable." Check on that.

But the thing I want the most, and you can see it's the latest edition to my Froogle wishlist (see links on sidebar), is the Netgear WiFi Skype phone. Let me first say, it's not a cell phone replacement. Anywhere you go, with free wifi, you can call from this cell-type looking phone using skype. If you get the $30/year deal, you can talk forever!

At a hotel, don't want to use your cell minutes... use your wifi skype phone! At Panera? Skype! Qdoba? Skype! You get the idea.

So, anyone using skype? Anyone with thoughts about using skype? I'm looking for some "skype friends" so if you are on there, let me know. I have one. He is from Norway. But he lives next door. Doesn't really count...

Ok, check it out and tell me what you think!

Lightwave 3D

Here is a sample of some stuff I have been working on... Keep in mind, I'm just starting out.

Netflix vs. Blockbuster

I'm doing the 2 week free trial of Netflix. So far so good. I added movies to my queue yesterday, and they came today. Very nice! I am on the 4 DVD's at a time. I just recently did the 2 week free trial for Blockbuster and I really enjoyed that. Blockbuster is trying to convert Netflix people with their new "Total Access" program.

Just like Netflix, you rent online, DVD's are delivered in the mail, but when you are done, you can mail them back, or bring them to Blockbuster in exchange for any movie right then and there. Netflix needs to combat that... and in the next 6 months, they will. Between now and 6 mo. from now, Netflix will offer "View Now." It's a kind of "movie surfing." You can watch any movie they have, streaming from the site.

I like that idea. I can either watch the whole thing, or just see parts of movies to see if I really want to rent that movie! If you are on the $10 a month plan, you get 10 hours of video to watch... if you are on the $18... get the idea? Are you on either plan? Let me know what you think. Why do you like the one you chose?

Misc.

Just today, I really started to miss this past summer. I had a really nice summer, probably the best ever I think. What I just started missing the most about it was working with the ORU Math & Science Academy. The people I worked for this summer were putting together a video highlight reel for the kids to purchase and I was shooting video for it. I pretty much just followed the kids everywhere with a camera and shot all the stuff they did. From building rockets, to eating at Sonic, to everything!

I also acted more like one of the counselors because I would take the kids back to their rooms (the dorms) make sure they get ready for dinner, and then bring them back downstairs. Then I got recruited to drive one of the ORU vans to take the kids to the Tulsa Air & Space Museum. Little did the people in charge know that I actually wanted to come, and I got in free! Since I followed them everywhere, and helped, they paid my way for dinner, the museum... everything! I also drove them to an observatory in Mounds, OK. It was so much fun! I miss those kids!

Ok, onto a new topic. After mountain biking class this past Saturday, as Cassidy and I were leaving, I saw this sweet Volvo! If the owner is reading this, please don't be mad I posted pictures, you just have an awesome car and I wanted to show it off. It gave me some ideas for the van... what giant sticker can I put on the hood...











































Moving on again...

Some people have already made the transition. I was looking for a phone number on my friends phone and found this. It made me smile.















This is my view on my way to work. I think I mentioned this before, but I'll say it again just in case... downtown Tulsa is like a beginners New York City. It gives you a little taste of the city life, but it's not packed or busy at all like NYC.

Too much cologne...

Ok, if I am outside, walking behind you, about 25 feet back, and your cologne is overpowering me from there... yeah, you might have a tad too much cologne. You know who you are...

*PS. It is better than b.o. though...

99 Days Until My Wedding!

I can't believe it! 99 days! I'm finally out of the triple digits! I'm still not sure what I'm going to do in the way of a job and apartment... but it will get worked out.

Jenni and I would like to stay in Tulsa for our first few years. She could be near the little girls she watches, workout at the ORU aerobic center... and I could hang out with Josh and Cassidy if he stays for med school...

But we actually kind of like it out here! I want to travel more in Oklahoma too. Down in southern OK, there are some decent mountains/hills. I heard there are some good places to mountain bike down there too! Also, there a lot of lakes in OK. Jenni and are big into travelling and we love to go camping too.

Oh, with the van, it will be perfect for camping! That van is going to be the coolest! I'm gonna put some of my euro style oval stickers on the back. I have a bunch of cool stickers I want to put on it. But I gotta think of other stuff to do to make it cool... any ideas?

Well, that's about it right now, I'll try and post again later!

My [soon to be] new whip!

Hey all!

It's final. I'm one step closer to being a bona fide adult. Yep, I'm getting a minivan. I pretty much got a choice between the Subaru and the van, and after discussion with my fiancee, we have decided to go with the van.

I'll have to get into details later, but it's just better overall. Here is a picture to commemorate this momentus occasion.

Is it film or is it reality?

As I sit, digitizing a few hours of video, I notice that it look gorgeous. It looks this good because it was originally shot on film. Yes, 35mm, 24 frames... It looks really amazing! I mean, it's just a public service announcement commercial, but the film makes it look so good! Crazy good quality, shallow depth of field...

It's almost as if film is some magical media format that makes images look better than reality!

The talent (actor) is ok looking, but it's the lighting on his face, the framing, the shallow depth of field, and the power that only 24 frames can create.

It looked just like the movies! Now, people have been trying to recreate the look of film on their video cameras for a long time. Oh, I also want to mention that I was digitizing this from DigiBeta. It was transferred from film to DigiBeta to handle better.

But anyway, many camcorders now offer either a "film mode" or 24p (24 frames per second progressive instead of interlaced). Video is usually 60i, which looks pretty different. There are techniques you can do to make video look like film, such as shooting in 24p, lighting it like film, using a shallow depth of field... A good way to obtain shallow dof if you have a regular camcorder is back up from the subject and zoom all the way in.

I've even heard of people putting some panty hose stretched over the lens to soften the image. Or you could bring the footage into Adobe After Effects, put two duplicate layers, one with upper field interlacing first, the other with lower field, then blend the opacity, add noise/grain, and adjust the gamma.

But there are tons of different ways to reproduce the film look and it's best to just toy around with it. I'm thinking of doing some tests when I get some free time, so stay tuned for some video of that. Also, I made a homemade steadicam last year and did some tests with it. Maybe I'll post that if I can find it...

Take care!

Why I haven't posted in a little while...

Sorry! I really have some good stuff to post, but I don't see a post in your future... maybe till Thursday... We'll see!