STS Blog

What do I spend my Christmas Money on? Installment 4

// December 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

You read, right?  You’re reading this now.  Do you still indulge in the occasional fiction novel, hoping to lose yourself in a fantastic world full of strange creature, swashbuckling adventure, sorcery?

I love George R R Martin’s series,  A Song of Ice and Fire.  The depth of character development and his intricately detailed world really bring the story to life.

So, maybe it is time to bring a little bit of the written word back into your world.  This is a simple request, buy a book.  Go browse through the aisles of your local book store and read the story summaries.  You might find something that strikes your fancy.

I for one want to eventually get my hands on one of Amazon’s Kindle devices.  That’s a little ways and a few hundred dollars down the road, though.  For the time being, I’ll enjoy my shelves full of those aforementioned other worlds, following armies into the fray and flying through the sky on the back of dragons!

What do I spend my Christmas Money on? Installment 3

// December 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

Merry Christmas!

Courtesy of newson6.com:

Snow Storm in Oklahoma

Well, we saw our fair share of snow come down yesterday night (New Years Eve, in my back yard I measured about 8 inches non-drift).  My wife and I started off down one of the main roads to try and get to our Uncle’s house for a Christmas get-together.  Sadly, with visibility cut down to about 100 yards and the horizontal wind/snow, we had to abort our trek a mere 3 miles (yet about 30 minutes) into the journey.  Hopefully we’ll get to make up the missed family time come Sunday.

While I was out there shoveling this morning, I realized how valuable some of the items I had at my disposal were:

1) A cheap Beanie Hat.  The one I have is from Walmart but I couldn’t find it on their website.  It was only $1USD, the best winter buck I ever spent.

2) A pair of Snow Gloves.  You can find them for even less from other discount stores but these from Overstock are a great price/quality ratio.

3) An Ice Scraper.  I cite this one specifically because it HAS A SNOW PLOW!  I didn’t know this simple addition existed.  When I saw it I had a “Well, Duh!” moment.  It prevents the spray from scraping ice from getting all over your sleeves/gloves/etc.  So simple yet so helpful!  It might not be worth spending $20 on the high end but we found one for my wife’s car that was near the $5 mark with the guard.  Great stuff!

4) We had a soft snow fall so a broom really helped out here.  I was able to brush off the top 4 inches just by trekking back and forth whipping the thing around.

So from a practicality standpoint, you may benefit from investing $40 or so in some really useful “winter gear”.

Merry Christmas!

What do I spend my Christmas Money on? Installment 2

// December 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

If you just can’t wait to turn on the Weather Channel or click the link I just provided and type in your zip code to find out your current conditions, your money might best be spent on a Davis Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station.  If that isn’t enough of a mouthful, the price will get you the rest of the way (*cough*).  For instant wind speeds, temperature and a gamut of other neat little feature, the just under $400 USD price tag shouldn’t make anyone balk (*cough again*).

In seriousness, for the kids out there who love the “hands on”, weather still isn’t out of the question.  Sites like discover-this.com have kits geared toward all types of different applications including understanding and measuring weather which are much more reasonably priced and will, while not providing instant gratification, teach your children (and you, if you’re like me) a bit about Meteorology.

Oh and by the way.  Am I the only geek who gets a goose-bump fit about this?

May the force be with you.  Merry Christmas!

May Baby!

// December 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

It’s a BOY!

So far.

We had our ultrasound last week and my boy, Keiran Robert, was obliging enough to reveal his boyhood to us!  Of course, the doctor covered her tracks with an aptly placed “You see what I see, but I don’t think it’s the umbilical cord, unless it’s wrapped down under his legs.”

Thanks doc.  Love ya but, vague much?  For now we’re planning boy-hood accordingly.  My wife has picked Sherwin-Williams Ionian (we paid less than that) for the wall color of the nursery and my parents are in town helping us choose furniture this Christmas.  It’s exciting and terrifying all at the same time for me as a new father (more exciting though

I’ll take pictures as the room progresses and keep everyone updated moving forward.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Feasting in the US of A

// December 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

Our friend, the gobble head.  Turkeys, which were first domesticated in Mexico  and Central America and later brought to Europe because of their quality meat are a staple of U.S. holidays in the fourth quarter of the year.

The phrase “Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner” incites thoughts of stuffed birds garnished on a silver platter surrounded by delicious dishes such as Candied Yams, seasoned stuffing, fruit salad and green bean casserole.  If your family is anything like mine, there is the hustle and bustle of hurried adults trying to navigate around playful, sometimes screaming, children.  Precariously perched on their outstretched hands are paper plates piled with pieces of perfectly parsed tom (whew).

Setting aside the controversial origins of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner, The consumption of turkey in the United States is staggering.

According to the United States Census Bureau, citizens of the United States (as of 2007) consume an average of 13.8 lbs of Turkey per year.  Considering that an average-small turkey, bone, meat and all weighs in about 13 lbs.  Each of the 304,000,000 people in the US is devouring the equivalent of an entire bird (bone and all!) each year!

The forecasted total from sales receipts in 2009?  $3.8 billion USD.  This number exceeds the total sales receipts of peanuts for an entire year!  Maybe domesticated US elephants should start eating Turkey?

Lets keep up the trend, guys!  Make sure to keep extra room in that stomach.  Perhaps, have a second one installed!

Don’t forget all of those delicious leftover turkey recipes like Leftover Turkey and Stuffing Casserole and Creamy Turkey Pie.  Nom nom.  Enjoy your birds and their adornments and most importantly,

Merry Christmas!

What do I spend my Christmas Money on? Installment 1

// December 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

Looking for something to spend that pile of holiday money on?  Instead of pouring it into surgary confections or action figures, take the next step.

oOo

Stare at the above center circle.  Train your focus.  Stare at the screen and slowly hone your concentration to the point at which the object begins to move.  It takes a fair amount of stubbornness to make it work, but eventually it may start to vibrate.

Not working?  Perhaps this test is not for you.  Perhaps instead, you are more apt to succeed when focusing that attention on a Force Trainer.  This device uses a basic EEG device to “read brainwaves”.  This apparently translates your concentration directly to an increase in RPM of a fan at the bottom of the tube.  In turn, this causes the ball to rise.  A great way to spend ~$100 USD?  I dunno.

On the slightly higher end of the pricey spectrum is the Emotiv Systems new headset, EPOC.  It only recently publically released (like, Monday) so reviews are limited but the promise of the device to detect emotion and facial expression and translate them into games is exciting.  It comes with a piece of software which can translate these items into keystrokes as well as getting you used to how the expressions affect the game.

All in all, a mind control Christmas!  I can’t want to try out my new Jedi powers on my uncle Bud.  Dude, that beer is so mine.

Have fun during the holidays!  More to come in Installment 2, but browse through the above, especially through Emotiv’s website, and keep an eye out for a review reference from here.

Merry Christmas!

Holidays!

// December 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

The parents are in town from out west!  We’re all revved up and have everything purchased for the holiday season.  It got me to thinking about the origins of some of our traditions.  In the next few days I plan on posting a bit of the research I’ve done.  Keep your eyes peeled, I’m back!

Codecs suck

// September 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Entertainment, Filmmaking, Thoughts, Uncategorized

So,

I finish editing the video together and low and behold, it won’t compile.

I should have seen it coming considering that every time I split a video, a new FFDShow icon would appear in the systray.  It gets to about 30% and fails due to “disk space” (nope) or “some other error” (….??…..)

So I uninstalled the ffdshow codec and installed the newest DivX full pack.  Got to 75% this time.  I think the answer is ditching Movie Maker.  The problem is, it’s free and I don’t have the budget for anything really decent.

I may give it a go again though.  Maybe having ffdshow in there dorked up the project.  Will let ya know.  This weekend I’m going to tackle it again.

Script!

// September 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Entertainment, Filmmaking, Thoughts

It’s a script for a 3-5 minute short film, but it’s my first completion.

The formatting isn’t really correct but I’m proud of it never the less.  I have another idea in mind too for my next one !

By the way, since filming is done I’m going to start editing tonight.  Hopefully I’ll have something to post soon.

Right Click Me, Save As…The Accident

Movie Learning

// September 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Entertainment, Filmmaking, Thoughts

Well I finished filming for my short film last night.  I’ll start putting up clips and bits of the script this week.  I wanted to know that I could finish before I started tossing things out there.

I’ve learned many lessons about filmography from this little endeavor.  First and foremost, I’ve learned that I need to take a class for this if I’m going to continue to write and participate in the industry.

Lighting : Wow.  It’s such a key element in film but such an art to compose a scene with correct lighting.  I filmed some outside only to find out that the professionals light then stop down in post production.  Indoors, I tried to add angled light sources as best I could but my budget is such ($0) that I had to use what was available, lamps and such.  I have a lot to learn.

Camera : I’m using a cheap HD Sanyo handheld.  I chose it because 1) It’s digital, 2) I can adjust white balance, aperture/exposure and a few other factors.  However, it only autofocuses.  I always heard this can be a problem but didn’t realize how much of one.  Had to do some takes several times just to compensate for this.  There will still be some focus issues in the final product too, thanks to my lack of lighting knowledge outdoors at night.  Other than those things, the picture is fair.  I’ll invest in a “real, film quality” camera when I am able to.  I believe then I will be known as a “prosumer” instead of “consumer”.

Audio : Ugh.  I need a directional microphone.  Another cost issue.  As it stands, I re-recorded most of the noises/lines and will do what I can to clean it all up.

Summary : I only scratched the surface of the things I need to learn but I’m glad I did this project.  I have a great respect for all of the Indie film folks out there who produce such quality work.

Update soon!