tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45310644337514201662012-01-31T12:22:04.826-05:00Not so much a blog as a resource. Okay, maybe it is a blog. New dresses and other stuff relating to atelier dropdeadcute, in Second Life.Azanoreply@blogger.comBlogger1791100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-38374526289665251472012-01-20T10:30:00.000-05:002012-01-20T10:30:28.141-05:00

Dateline: Confession Zone It's been a long time coming, but I really need to change the way I interact with the 'net. I also need to be generating more revenue, or else find a way to survive on nothing at all. Unless I find a way to upload my consciousness to the web, and hope civilization (and electric grids) will never collapse, one step in the process will be to start posting here more often,

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-79502736594560046112011-12-22T11:43:00.000-05:002011-12-22T11:43:50.549-05:00

Dateline: Blocky Mess In recent months a problem has emerged for some YouTube users. Usually it presents itself in the form of unexpected blocking artifacts in the video as YouTube renders it. The source of the problem appears to be related to changes YouTube made to increase efficiency of uploading and processing, by doing the work in parallel. I'm not sure of the details, but in essence this

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-19958324073205718602011-10-29T23:08:00.000-04:002011-10-29T23:08:06.026-04:00

Dateline: Direct to Video A fairly freakish Nor'easter hits the East Coast and takes out power in at least 200,000 New Jersey homes, but I manage to post this video anyway. Make of this what you will. Many trees and even more branches were falling all over roads, and presumably a lot of them took out powerlines too. Friends have been calling to see if I could store some of their stuff in my

Azanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-49578533454932497832011-10-07T23:04:00.000-04:002011-10-07T23:04:14.328-04:00

Dateline: Science Friday (NPR) It's as awesome as they said it was, especially the wax travelling up the wick.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-19100038340425860192011-07-07T17:20:00.000-04:002011-07-07T17:20:26.012-04:00

Dateline: "This link might upset you" Or maybe I just don't know how to do an invite? I've read they opened up the gates again sometime last night, but I only read that this morning. Some sources are calling it the "stealth roll-out." Not sure I buy that, but it's what they're saying. Three paragraphs and I haven't gotten to the point? What's this world coming to? We're talking about Google+,

Azanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-78207388656709072652011-07-06T09:15:00.001-04:002011-07-06T09:17:50.591-04:00

Dateline: Tallscreen Here's the net result of another round of YouTube frustration. I feel guilty now, and more than a little dirty that I persisted so much in trying to find a solution for the compression artifact problem this user was having, when the simpler solution was known to me. But I suppose I did persist in part because when I recommend Vimeo instead, I'm usually faced with the

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-73490571563310295372011-06-27T13:26:00.000-04:002011-06-27T13:26:35.346-04:00

Dateline: Puzzletown Someone told me that Blogger now hosts video and I found that hard to believe, but apparently it is true. Ain't freedom a kick in the pants? The video below is hosted directly from Blogger. Wonder how long this feature will last? Apparently some people think YouTube is the only host for videos. This should add  some new confusion. However, given the relatively low

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-29898034569460458572011-04-02T10:19:00.000-04:002011-04-02T10:19:25.771-04:00

Dateline: Pollen Town I was working on a really massive reflection about free will and determinism, but then I found this moment of Zen. Lord, I hope The Daily Show hasn't trademarked that phrase.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-10978734971112581302011-03-27T12:45:00.000-04:002011-03-27T12:45:07.450-04:00

Dateline: Attention Deficit Spending I've been bogged down in other, "serious" projects and then I realized that serious is not the way to go.  Blame the video below if you need to. This one needs to go viral, even if it spells the end of serious journalism. Is The Nation the next domino to fall? It's actually fairly clever, especially when one considers how lame these XtraNormal videos can

Azanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-61451071548803527312011-03-13T19:37:00.001-04:002011-03-13T19:43:12.657-04:00

Dateline: Wolframia Math Liberation: What does that mean? Conrad Wolfram, co-founder of Wolfram|Alpha, a really useful and fun math tool, makes a quick analysis of how, and perhaps why we're teaching math all wrong, at least within formal schools. Bad mathematicians and fuzzy thinking have largely taken math pedagogy hostage, but won't even declare what they want as ransom. Pedagogy. It's

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-31027306773309328842011-03-13T19:26:00.002-04:002011-03-13T19:41:42.255-04:00

A Serious Problem a photo by B Unis on Flickr.Things have been busy here lately and one of many things that has fallen by the wayside is keeping this blog up to date. While you'd probably expect me to be posting some long essay about politics or terrible events somewhere, and their bio-neurochemical significance, or something else fairly profound, instead I'm writing this, and then hoping to

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-85289942881203553772011-02-12T13:04:00.000-05:002011-02-12T13:04:54.216-05:00

Dateline: People & Power Looking behind the "leaderless" revolution. Mind you, I am not endorsing this perspective as the whole story, just more of it.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-16676170066486775732011-01-04T11:34:00.008-05:002011-01-04T17:02:26.529-05:00

Dateline: Planet Grow-a-Pair Relieving Capt. Honors of his, by all credible accounts, excellent command aboard the USS Enterprise is a travesty, and perhaps a sign of the rot within the upper echelons of military leadership, to cower before what seems to me to be a very clearly political stunt, perhaps intended to damage the Commander-in-Chief, but surely a decision that is unwise and

Azanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-80250762239915921312011-01-03T04:01:00.002-05:002011-01-03T04:03:43.082-05:00

Dateline: Just BecauseI liked it.

Bretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02837203952452519316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-40800528135830781842010-12-23T19:09:00.001-05:002010-12-23T19:09:00.079-05:00

Dateline: Tweetyville Well, maybe this isn't coming from Tweetyville so much? I've been busy working on longer projects lately, mostly trying to finish work on two scripts, Violetta's Dream and the play I presently call A Stranger Here Myself, for lack of a better title. Violetta's Dream is more or less ready to be staged, or at least dramaturgified to death, or so several strangers have told

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-28272985161857717552010-11-17T22:12:00.000-05:002010-11-17T22:12:32.342-05:00

Dateline: FORA.tvland The ADHD "epidemic" and public education reform. Just why does this epidemic have such an orderly mapping to it? And how did Delaware get so filled with distractions?

Bretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02837203952452519316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-29159134517109474872010-10-01T07:23:00.002-04:002010-10-01T07:27:41.982-04:00

Sort of like how the more you know about sex, the scarier it is and the less you're likely to engage in it without thinking first.in reference to: "A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-26067619694459581832010-09-04T22:03:00.000-04:002010-09-04T22:03:11.199-04:00

Dateline: Nosferatu in 2010 This is all the more stunning when you go to Vimeo and read how it was done. I confess I just don't have that kind of patience, or maybe it's the planning skills needed to make something like this work. It's magic. Nosferatu on an Off Night from deniz berkin on Vimeo.

Azanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-6274081635018878472010-08-29T00:22:00.005-04:002010-08-30T14:26:23.719-04:00

Dateline: My Vimeo Home Stunning and something YouTube might support in another 4 years, if bogus 4K doesn't do it for them. The video below is not mine, mainly because I've been spending far too much time self-destructing. Now that my eyesight is probably going, maybe it's time for a change? Moving Portraits from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo. I think the answer to the original question, "Wny do I

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-13182013308115658162010-08-28T19:34:00.000-04:002010-08-28T19:34:55.146-04:00

Dateline: Whydowelovepainville or Is it just me?

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-24423299163575964322010-08-25T19:26:00.001-04:002010-08-25T19:26:13.491-04:00

This might be the cure. Or the curse.in reference to: "but when asked precise questions from physicists Steve Carlip and John Baez regarding mathematical details in the papers, failed to convince any other participants that these papers had any real scientific value. New York Times reporter George Johnson described reading through the debate as "like watching someone trying to nail Jell-O to a

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-38499303823805886932010-08-25T15:12:00.001-04:002010-08-25T15:43:47.434-04:00

INT. - ART VIDEO HELL I'm looking back at this video over a year since I released it to see what I've learned, or what observations I can draw that have some chance of being anything but trite and obvious. If you choose to view the video, please watch it in HD. You may want to seek out the mirrored version that probably works better in Vimeo, and which also contains more direct links to the

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-81967095409807013472010-08-22T05:58:00.031-04:002010-09-03T11:39:02.971-04:00

Dateline: YouTube Bug Reporting & Tech Issues How to get specific help when a video goes bad. The first thing you may want to do is look at (and possibly share) a MediaInfo report on the file you uploaded.  The MediaInfo utility is free, open source and, once installed can offer a concise but detailed technical overview of your uploaded video.  It can also provide details about other types of

Azanoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-61184490442385178942010-08-18T10:12:00.004-04:002010-08-18T10:53:46.311-04:00

Just read the biography of Adolphe Sax... definitely Belgian, not so sure about the "imperialist" part, but it might be true. No wonder Belgian jazz is such a controversial subject. Not to mention all the things he developed that turned into the modern marching band much, much later. in reference to: "(The Communists frowned on the bass and the electric guitar, but they severely disapproved of

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-21730498248554551772010-08-18T09:50:00.005-04:002010-08-23T00:22:51.776-04:00

It's too depressing for words, seeing the US backing away from actual freedom of religion. Maureen Dowd is right this time... the terrorists seem to have won. in reference to: "Some critics have said the ultimate victory for Osama and the 9/11 hijackers would be to allow a mosque to be built near ground zero. Actually, the ultimate victory for Osama and the 9/11 hijackers is the moral timidity

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-40757887169598813972010-08-09T20:34:00.000-04:002010-08-09T20:34:18.286-04:00

Dateline: Moscow burning What a difference editorial prejudice can make.  Both of these pictures are associated with stories on the record death rate in Moscow, thanks to summer heat and wildfire smog. Unhappy news.  This pic appears with the Huffington Post rendition of the standard AP story. Happy news.  This pastoral image nicely  crops out the sky and accompanies a TerenceNeilan story

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-91976580075772526312010-08-08T08:13:00.001-04:002010-08-08T08:17:36.623-04:00

Dateline: How to End a Civilization?  I realize life is conflict but sometimes it's so funny and seemingly pointless that you either start to cry or the lure of mysticism starts to take over, tempting you to forsake the rational and just wallow in the mystical and the strange. It's funny how two people, one deeply critical of Abū Ḥāmed Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (aka Al-Ghazali) and the

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-50765821719052998992010-08-05T15:22:00.000-04:002010-08-05T15:22:18.397-04:00

Dateline: dropdeadcute Embrace your pixellation. This dress design takes advantage of the new alpha layers to create an impossibly tight wasp waist... so tight in fact that strain and dancing may sever the spine, but in a hypnotizing manner. In addition to the necessary alpha top and bottom layers (one integrated layer), and prims for implausible corsetry, a series of camisole designs are

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-9157083560046669842010-07-31T19:36:00.000-04:002010-07-31T19:36:04.021-04:00

Dateline: Dr. Sketchy's Bored of ho-hum life-drawing courses? Here's the obvious intermeshing of neo-burlesque and art instruction, though I wasn't clear about the instruction part. Still, if you follow the link to the site, it begins to become clear, though doing this in Second Life, particularly when the grid seems to be falling to pieces does make me wonder why I'm not taking a train into

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-18582392987285660642010-07-29T08:10:00.000-04:002010-07-29T08:10:04.857-04:00

Dateline: BioShocksville Thinking about expanding into the land of nightmares. Here's something that might be a source of inspiration, or at least a cause of disturbing dreams. Things are moving more and more retro every day. And then there are the MadMen Barbies, also available from the same site. Not really disturbing in quite the same way, but you may get an idea where my brain is going,

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-3912294005257623012010-07-28T07:18:00.002-04:002010-07-28T07:21:12.472-04:00

This will be the story to watch in the coming days and weeks. Of course, the fact that the US is quickly going broke over the costs of its adventures could well be the deciding factor that finally brings this particular disaster to a close, or at least to the beginning of the end.in reference to: "Already being compared to the Pentagon Papers, which blew the lid off the conspiracy of secrecy and

Azanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-15588328335553227422010-07-28T07:00:00.002-04:002010-07-28T07:20:03.075-04:00

Who'da thunk, but the Library of Congress, in its oversight of the Copyright Office, has concluded that Steve Jobs can't be your nanny after all, though apparently he can still be a total jerk -- it's one of those things guaranteed in the Constitution. In other news, documentary filmmakers and teachers (and presumably others protected by "fair use" doctrine) can legally break DVD copy-protection

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-49874677520200220632010-07-27T20:24:00.000-04:002010-07-27T20:24:08.585-04:00

Dateline: Huineng, SecondLife -- New items arriving; part of the "Plaidness Collection." Now available via SecondLife Marketplace and XStreet, as well as in-world from dropdeadcute. A flirty summer dress in a classic, breezy style. Introducing the Plaidness Collection, this particular item appears in a color palette reminiscent of those hard chalky mints that grandmother kept in the candy

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-3585369567265639122010-07-26T17:56:00.000-04:002010-07-26T17:56:56.405-04:00

Dateline: Huineng, SecondLife Getting back into it... hopefully, there will be even more new items coming in the near future. Now available via Marketplace, from dropdeadcute. Flirty summer dress in a classic, breezy style. Introducing, the Plaidness Collection, this item carries the happy color combinations of a favorite multi-layered dessert, the creamy parfait. Check out our vendors in

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-20636353015759297002010-07-23T19:58:00.000-04:002010-07-23T19:58:00.453-04:00

... but then so is the Gulf. Songs (and recordings) about oil, dinosaurs and how we got from Earth Day to Dearth Day. Some of it may be funny, but I could also be losing perspective. As always, things you've probably heard and others I'm almost sure you haven't. Aza - 6 to 8 SLT (That's 9pm-11pm Eastern time). Available in SecondLife at The Velvet or by Shoutcast.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-9654538806650539082010-07-23T09:55:00.002-04:002010-07-23T09:59:48.687-04:00

Here's a music video that follows in the best folk tradition. I'm thinking tonight's show at the Velvet will be a collection of songs and folk responses to the disaster in the Gulf.in reference to: "The disaster in the gulf is destroying the oceans, killing off the ecosystem and threatens humans as well. In this song, a just response to the disaster results in people tossing the big oil puppet

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-39638615009370491762010-07-22T12:13:00.001-04:002010-07-22T12:13:38.137-04:00

Maybe there was also a Icehenge and an Airhenge? I think we've found M. Night Shaymalan's next script or at least its inspiration.in reference to: "Like Stonehenge itself, the structure's precise purpose remains a mystery. But it's one of an expanding number of discoveries being made around the site – something experts say is helping to show that Stonehenge was once much more than just a cluster

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-83813742979902561732010-07-17T14:51:00.002-04:002010-07-22T11:12:14.811-04:00

Is it navel gazing or is it crucial to understanding how some people become addicted to the platform known as Second Life. More comment when I've had time to read this in a more rested state. in reference to: "Second Life is a world Second Life is a platform.The first embraces the complexities of human behavior and experience - including culture - implicitly; the second focuses on human

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-2035832175668744772010-07-17T10:59:00.002-04:002010-07-17T11:15:30.896-04:00

Sadly, it's still not all that clear. And it seems to reinforce a sense that (generic) music publishing rights collecting societies will try to collect a pound of flesh wherever they can find one undefended. Then again, we live in a really imperfect world, and the alternative might be worse. Keep telling yourself that and maybe your grandchildren will be the ones who finally have to take the

Azanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-46660591096558822852010-07-13T18:38:00.001-04:002010-07-22T12:35:39.952-04:00

For a long time, and with good cause, people have been complaining there's no way to contact YouTube about issues with video playback. It's a bit too early to say just how well this one will work, but in recent weeks they did add several items, from diagnostic tools to a link for reporting playback issue to the 'face' of videos themselves. I know I'm hoping these will work, or at least work a

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-80239332418634213502010-07-10T19:49:00.000-04:002010-07-10T19:49:07.610-04:00

This is the part with the funny embedded video, that should have no embedded video. Please don't judge too harshly. Publishing this for a friend. The audio is sort of creepy, and you can probably figure this trick out if you just look at the page source code. The key seems to be the width and height. Nothing to see here, move along.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-55751871226059773282010-07-07T20:15:00.004-04:002010-07-07T20:15:00.884-04:00

Yesterday we discussed AI at Socrates' Cafe. It did not go well with accusations back and forth about our robot kinsmen. But at least now you can get insurance for that.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-23802311033162731732010-07-05T20:35:00.001-04:002010-07-05T20:52:37.284-04:00

I know you really can't expect to, and definitely not from a blog that almost nobody reads, but I so want to see this one become more popular than lolcats, at least at the moment. Maybe the "feral shoes" tag will catch on, though? Original photo by Björn Lindström aka bkhl on Flickr. I don't think there's really much more I can say about this, other than go out there and shoot some "feral

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-81143609204534955702010-07-01T11:38:00.000-04:002010-07-01T11:38:56.426-04:00

This is my bit of camera prOn, for the day. I really should be blogging these a lot more if I had much sense. At this point it seems like my Flickr descriptions are becoming my blog. In the interest of efficiency, I'll adapt today's blather from what I've already said today over there. @dailyshoot #ds228. Construction seems to be perpetual: streets, sidewalks, buildings. Make a photo of

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-86179502843353614412010-06-22T13:46:00.001-04:002010-06-22T13:49:53.568-04:00

I'm about ready to start my recovery. Saturday from 6pm to nearly 10pm I was invited to shoot a live action roleplay game, sponsored by the Wayfinder Experience... a summer camp that my daughters fell in love with last summer, and which my eldest begins staff training for in less than a week. Here are some selected images from the event, though I feel like I do need to take some extra care

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-44701560921006916162010-06-17T22:00:00.004-04:002010-06-17T22:00:01.651-04:00

This image was shot as a response to a DailyShoot assignment about "unfinished" things. It seemed appropriate at the time. You might need to view it a bit smaller on some screens? The 'net is giving me headaches. I was thinking about writing some big essay on this, but now that I've started, it seems pretentious and unnecessary. Please keep in mind, this image is from a memorial theatre,

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-3260851187925225812010-06-17T10:53:00.001-04:002010-06-17T10:54:34.051-04:00

For some reason, maybe a lack of readers, maybe fatalism, maybe the repredeprerecession, I've really fallen off from posting new entries here, even though I've been doing a lot of new stuff. This one may be lame, but it was fun. In any case, I've been self-censoring too much lately, and dedicating more time than makes sense to debugging one of the biggest, buggiest sites out there. It's

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-42515948194958266512010-06-09T14:22:00.004-04:002010-06-09T15:48:50.782-04:00

Eel plays peekaboo with the oil gusher. That's my take right now. Just in case someone thinks the following picture might be in poor taste. A little more below the fold. My DailyShoot for the day.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-17331519995672172292010-05-21T03:55:00.002-04:002010-05-21T04:07:37.383-04:00

There's something terrible about digital, both in general and specific. I think for the very first time I actually looked at this one in full scale. You probably won't notice the haunting artifacts unless you look very closely, or you're one of those permitted to see the full scale image. Anyway... That's it. I'm procrastinating and pushing myself to a strange exhaustion, probably because

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-59287894787034553862010-05-16T11:14:00.004-04:002010-05-17T10:37:35.565-04:00

Can they or can't they be embedded? This post is an attempt to test whether such videos can be embedded. This second video is embedded from a different channel, one that is no longer tied into the Google account that handles this blog. I'm starting to suspect that problems with embedding may be related to the settings that the owner might have chosen. After all, the YouTube EDIT pages

Azanoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-69035087491271392762010-05-09T04:15:00.002-04:002010-05-09T04:19:13.462-04:00

Stunning insight into the US's continuing blindness when it comes to graduating from an Oil drenched economy to something with a future.in reference to: ""They then went on: "The right is correct – it’s all about money – but they could not be more incorrect in their interpretation of the money." "I asked "What do you mean?" They continued: "Make no mistake about it, the world is going green.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-27041932888558135922010-04-13T14:09:00.002-04:002010-04-13T14:13:19.246-04:00

Hoping to make some kind of Wayfinder video this summer. This was the preview of a very low-intensity version based solely on stills from a LARP activity that was part of ECRS Winter Workshop for 2009-2010. Please note that I consider this one, if it's not already obvious, a poorly edited version, done far too quickly. I'm doing this in part to test embedding and some new YouTube features,

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-12218533441639221462010-04-02T01:07:00.022-04:002010-04-05T13:38:49.183-04:00

This is one of those incidents where something happened over 30 years ago, and the punch line only comes now. I wouldn't be writing this for the public eye normally, but in this case, the death of Cassia is something that has had resonance throughout the plus-thirty years that followed. In many ways it has been central to my attitudes, especially regarding art and painting -- but also has

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-41731593722228609322010-02-15T02:19:00.000-05:002010-02-15T02:19:08.646-05:00

Here's a first take on a remix. It's been awhile since I've done one of these, and this one is still pretty rough. Desperate times call for... Sarapocalypse (Remix) from B Unis on Vimeo. Let me know what you think. Looking for a different mode of political commentary, and hoping to find something that works. I might even start speaking at some point. It's been a few very strange years of

Azanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-50097678439546649092010-01-09T22:14:00.002-05:002010-01-09T22:29:22.641-05:00

[NOTE: this essay appears in somewhat different form at DeviantArt.com.  In part it was a byproduct of working on the following image, not included as part of the Journal entry there.  Additional thumbnail images appear in the Journal entry as well.] Vampiric Steampunk by *ebbixx on deviantART "Realism" (I use that word ironically) has always been a bit of a challenge for me. Those who

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-38737241751826407232010-01-02T11:35:00.005-05:002010-01-03T21:11:16.298-05:00

And I mean that in more ways than one. Here's a slideshow of a few collages from the event. More when I have the time and energy to put them together. All photos are also available in individual form. They are also, it should be obvious, available in much higher resolution and quality. Most of what's presented here is strictly based on raw, unprocessed images whereas I usually try to spend

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-46324624577478776082009-12-23T01:55:00.001-05:002009-12-23T01:57:36.628-05:00

Just got the lens I should have had years ago, so this is a very fresh shot, processed over the past 24 hours or so. We didn't get slammed by snow nearly as badly as Philly did, but we are closer to the Shore. Though not by that much. Winter bones by *ebbixx on deviantART There's nothing much else here to see, except for another, somewhat less stunning shot. Solitary lunacy by *ebbixx on

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-80702876497158690872009-11-30T16:27:00.001-05:002009-11-30T16:29:21.072-05:00

Part of this post relates to censorship, something we're so great at we do it to ourselves. Or maybe not. The Smothers Brothers seem so innocuous to us now and yet, where do we find something this hard hitting except on underexposed YouTube channels that, if current trends continue, will be no more in a few more months. In the following Fresh Air program, David Bianculli plays the never-aired

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-83576338805064614042009-11-15T16:18:00.006-05:002009-11-16T17:09:56.218-05:00

Follow the link. See the movie. I've seen it. Now I'm living it. What is that? Doubt. Too bad the version I'm living now is much more poorly written. And it doesn't have Meryl Streep. Here's the bad copy of the trailer from YouTube. I know it's probably asking too much, but please see the movie as a whole before you think you know anything. And if you watch the trailer, just watch

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-78218478654102433142009-11-13T17:43:00.002-05:002009-11-13T17:48:32.689-05:00

Tonight's show (starting at 9:30 Eastern) is all about fear. Appropriate for Friday the 13th, especially when my daughter told me earlier about the people killing themselves in anticipation of 2012 (the year, not the movie). Tune in on my stream or find me at the Velvet, in Second Life. Stills on a related note: Freezeframe of the Apocalypse by *ebbixx on deviantART Nothing actually

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-81080941817427650262009-10-11T13:43:00.000-04:002009-10-11T13:43:06.156-04:00

Anthony Hopkins directed it, hoping (at least what he says in the commentary) to provoke a reaction, to get some people to question the form of the movie itself, or at least step back and look at what they are doing, both with their lives and with the art of film. At least that's my impression of what he said. Unless you are a Hopkins fanatic you probably did not see this movie in theatrical

Azanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-77269538111094093922009-10-08T07:07:00.001-04:002009-10-08T07:07:29.155-04:00

Simply because our experience and mechanics may be central to how we experience the universe, does it follow that the universe itself takes any particular notice of us, this particular form of sentience?Does it exclude or preclude other kinds of sentience, for instance, some sort of hive mind built up of much more diffuse operations in the universe at large. If they were going on around us,

Azanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-819444167994904722009-10-06T14:26:00.001-04:002009-10-06T14:27:22.462-04:00

It was almost a poem. In the mood I'm in today I'm tempted to use the text as lyrics for a song.  For now, though, I think I'll just try to immortalize it here, in this least immortal of places.  Is my literary executor going to hate me or what? Details on the Word Galaxy appear at: http://oostendorp.net/wordgalaxy.html

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-17776271513953540152009-10-01T02:08:00.000-04:002009-10-01T02:08:51.482-04:00

This was a rush job. Back to school time seems to do that. Star Wars Uncut - Sc 362 from B Unis on Vimeo. Not much else to say about this, though some viewers elsewhere thought this was a political statement. It took me several days to see that. Yes, I seem to be slowing down.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-8300978065389498602009-09-23T01:06:00.016-04:002009-09-23T15:55:53.774-04:00

This is just an attempt to explore some options that may exist with YouTube's embedded players. The following player has been defined as 560x200. But any other set of dimensions should also be possible. This is an extension of the post made recently, speculating about the reasons for the appearance of the viewers on YouTube itself. I have to wonder... at least I have wondered for quite awhile

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-90029307619082810452009-09-21T00:37:00.022-04:002009-09-21T13:55:40.302-04:00

This video is presented as an example of an odd, and possibly unsupported YouTube feature. Recently, in the past few days, an ultrawide player appeared on YouTube, at least for some types of videos. The aspect ratio was around 2.35:1, instead of the 16:9 aspect ratio introduced back in December 2008. Hopefully this embedded video illustrates this new format, but what's really interesting is

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-88385746416693687622009-09-06T14:24:00.002-04:002009-09-06T17:39:39.429-04:00

Band season is beginning and I'm starting to slow down my updates to things like this blog. Here's an attempt to integrate the two. Rough cut material from the preview/rehearsal at the end of marching band camp. The program this year is adapted from Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Here's the first video shot from any kind of altitude above the field. Modest's Pics - Take 3

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-90032817573321246262009-08-29T22:08:00.003-04:002009-08-29T22:18:53.522-04:00

Here's the first entry (of mine) for the "Star Wars Uncut" project on Vimeo. This version is not actually the entry, since it was decided, in order to keep access available to all sorts of videomakers, to use a 4:3 ratio that anyone can conform their video to. This version was shot and edited in the original aspect ratio used in the movie itself. The 4:3 pan & scan version that is the "

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-879037466972448212009-08-18T13:28:00.002-04:002009-08-18T13:30:22.588-04:00

Kurt Nishimura's video interpretation of the Decemberists' "O Valencia"I'd love to find a better source version of this for embedding.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-41389646460718528812009-08-02T04:17:00.012-04:002009-08-03T03:15:26.437-04:00

The following video is an impressive piece in that it breathes new life and thought into a bit of liturgy that has in many ways become a sort of comforting cliché. Or at least that's how I've always thought about it. Then again, my flirtation with Catholicism ended, at the latest, in my early 20s.For the most part, though, this piece speaks for itself, though composer Tim Silva's notes do

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-39590666910088055642009-07-30T14:55:00.012-04:002009-08-03T03:06:46.426-04:00

For the past few days, the thumbnail server code that tells an embedded player which thumbnails to show seems to think you can nest a jpeg inside another jpeg. If you're here, or on any other site with embedded YouTube videos, for that matter, the player still works but the screen appears blank and black. Just hit the play button on the second player below to confirm that. This bug is

Azanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-47890001904188449542009-07-17T11:27:00.005-04:002009-07-17T12:08:34.848-04:00

Since I didn't get to play this set for the NAMI Benefit, I've taken it to its psycho extreme. Here for your delectation or avoidance is a set that is sort of a tribute to WOBC-FM (Oberlin College Radio) as it was from 1977 to 1979. Except possibly a little stranger. And since the benefit is over, I decided not to stick entirely to a playlist that could have been heard in '79. Contrary to my

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-41411976205160817232009-07-17T00:31:00.005-04:002009-07-17T00:54:51.341-04:00

This video is a response to two movies I saw recently, movies that are in many ways connected to one another. The movies are Dušan Makavejev's SWEET MOVIE and Pier Paolo Pasolini's SALÒ. Hard movies to love, and in the case of SALÒ, a movie some seem to believe was partly responsible for Pasolini's brutal murder, not long after its release. SWEET MOVIE also led to its share of sorrow for some

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-65015558296236110722009-07-08T18:16:00.008-04:002009-07-08T18:47:25.021-04:00

A new product after long last, inspired by a late night conversation at the Velvet. I've spent so very long doing nothing but DJing, and refamiliarizing myself with Blender felt sort of like getting a few gentle love bites from these guys. Unfortunately it's not a dress or other outfit, but I suppose you could wear them if you choose. They're available at my Second Life store,

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-86292197275361056692009-07-04T04:24:00.007-04:002009-07-04T04:41:01.315-04:00

It was a fairly dead night. Or maybe my set drove them away. Anthems, sin and singing. Not necessarily in that order. I think I might be losing my touch, or it could just be that so many were away for the holiday weekend.Those who were there (a few of my usual "stalkers" and someone new from Brittany) were appreciative, but probably also tired. And the numbers just weren't there for a huge

Azanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-9512616549092143832009-07-01T10:17:00.003-04:002009-07-01T10:22:01.969-04:00

Started out subbing for one and wound up playing from 10pm until around 2 am. Everyone was there and we barely talked about Michael Jackson at all. The playlist appears below the "fold." It started out being about babies and yoga and then the requests started.Playlist:1. Ben Folds Five - Satan Is My Master (1:33)2. Flobots - Anne Braden (4:21)3. Le Tigre - Phanta (3:14)4. Stuart Davis - 8 Days

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-76005538487763088102009-06-27T07:00:00.004-04:002009-06-27T07:06:47.797-04:00

Somehow I came to the conclusion during this set that we are in the middle of the Rapture, and that it's not quite the Rapture some might have been expecting. Playlist after the jump. My theory had something to do with Purim and how God's a real joker, assuming He's anything at all. It started out as something very different, but I'd been offline for the internet meltdown that came from the

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-91385784380363682712009-06-13T10:40:00.003-04:002009-06-13T10:57:27.053-04:00

Playlist from my Friday set at the Velvet. This set was structured (roughly) around the tradition order of songs during an evening Shabbat service, culminating with the recitation of the Kaddish (the haunting Hebrew prayer for the dead). If James von Brunn dies, consider it Kaddish for him as well. 1. Lion King - Can you feel the love tonight? [Hebrew] (3:00)2. Rasputina - Hunter's Kiss (4:14)3

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-6238264141939114582009-06-09T13:25:00.003-04:002009-07-04T04:43:01.628-04:00

It's not your typical fan video. More like a meditation on mortality. I could try to explain, but does explaining really get you anywhere? RIP, Kwai Chang Caine.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-47345737050711370372009-06-05T09:30:00.003-04:002009-06-05T09:30:00.951-04:00

Deep in the Connecticut woods, in a land filled with the great mystics and the casino aborigines, there lived that most controversial of groups, the fearless seal wranglers known as the Riders of the Purple Squid. To this day, a controversy rages, at least in certain quarters, over whether their mode of transport was ethical, or as truly cruel and evil as some of the protesters claimed that it

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-18940772949471333992009-06-04T12:45:00.001-04:002009-06-04T21:58:23.579-04:00

This overview of editors and converters started out as a reply in the YouTube Help Forums. I've adapted it here to try to give an overview of some of the options, and the pros and cons, when it comes to looking at the many, many choices available for dealing with video, especially converting standard definition camcorder (or DV) video to the AVC/H.264-based formats that have become the

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-33812300169626963042009-06-02T13:04:00.010-04:002009-06-08T10:50:38.160-04:00

[This post is under review: Expect revisions soon (or not). Specifically, I spotted some issues in my test video that have me questioning some assumptions I've made so far. More detail will be added, once I've sorted out just how significant the effect of these discoveries may be on the issue at hand, getting smooth, high frame rate playback under HQ35 encoding and the related issue of getting

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-25563912583776724622009-05-26T13:28:00.002-04:002009-05-26T14:06:48.510-04:00

(adapted from a posting on vimeo, in the group The Pictures Don't Move)I want to profile an interesting independent filmmaker here, James Benning. I first heard about Benning from a vimeo user, Made for Full Screen. Benning fascinates me first of all for at least one of his films that I haven't seen, but that I wish I could find and view, in part because it happens to tie into my own family

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-80992556539939365712009-05-26T11:57:00.009-04:002009-06-08T21:00:53.581-04:00

All of me that I'm ready to share. Okay, maybe not all. But all my Yooby Yoobness. Okay, maybe not all. How about the most recent 49 public videos I've uploaded to this channel?This might be a better example, from a channel with very few videos:This one doubles for the moment as a demo of database latency (see video below). I just deleted one of the videos from the channel in the second

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-11466913737265081002009-05-26T09:45:00.005-04:002009-05-26T12:02:09.490-04:00

William of Ockham was a Franciscan. Okay, so he was excommunicated for opposing the authority of the Pope. But he did invent this nifty device that we continue to use to this day. Here's some links you might want to read:William of Ockham was, like, the John Wayne of late medieval philosophers.There's a video surprise after the jump.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-1617777424155763882009-04-29T12:40:00.006-04:002009-04-30T01:39:01.180-04:00

There have been a fair number of threads in YouTube Forums lately complaining about the fairly sudden disappearance of M2TS upload capability. For those who think I may have coughed and hit 4 random keys back there, M2TS stands for MPEG Transport Stream. It's commonly the container format used by many HDV and AVCHD cameras today when video is captured from the camera and moved to local disc for

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-47510408478447604912009-04-21T09:51:00.009-04:002009-05-18T21:12:12.503-04:00

Testing an issue with playlists and favorites. This is an embedded list of 20 videos taken from my favorites. I've since pared it down to 16 videos, eliminating private videos and those that appear to not permit external embedding.This is the part above the jump.And this comes after. This is a video uploaded from a cellphone. (Or recorded on a cellphone, transferred to a PC, and then uploaded

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-51150048674661825242009-04-08T11:22:00.006-04:002009-05-30T12:45:05.698-04:00

For those just tuning in, in about the past month or so, various problems have shown up for many people, most dramatically, the tendency of HQ videos -- those that have been encoded to YouTube's Format 35 (&fmt=35) -- to play back at roughly half their intended, uploaded frame rate. So far there's been no real word on what's going on with the High Quality format. I do have it on reliable

Azanoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-66729804897333538712009-04-08T11:10:00.003-04:002009-04-15T13:45:19.288-04:00

Here's footage of the beluga whales at the Mystic Aquarium (Mystic, CT) taken on April 4. Nada. Sorry. SRSLY

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-61110390771253677092009-03-27T01:25:00.003-04:002009-03-31T14:53:39.660-04:00

Mostly testing the new flavors of fail and not so fail... Another one:What does 48fps look like and does it address or prevent frame drop in YouTube?If I were sensible I wouldn't torture this blog so.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-17391991711321963452009-03-16T16:42:00.004-04:002009-03-16T17:11:45.915-04:00

This vimeo channel is amazing. I think I may need to give up.The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill from Panman Productions on Vimeo.rogersmithlife.companmanproductions.tumblr.comBritish artist Banksy transformed a Greenwich Village store into an animal art display. The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill was open for a limited time in October of 2008. There are many more art-related videos

Azanoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-50677950200278391782009-03-15T22:42:00.003-04:002009-03-16T17:09:41.468-04:00

Very Interesting, but it is long. And I'm not entirely sure it's balanced, as a lot of the situations described seem overblown, or limited to penny stock exchanges rather than indicative of a the wider threat that seems to be painted here.The most extreme case study given, after all, involves someone "cornering" the market (with in excess of 100% of total shares) in a company that, based on its

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-32760039659135817952009-03-14T22:43:00.005-04:002009-03-16T17:00:43.424-04:00

I decided to take my "doctored" summary of the Stewart v. Cramer bloodbath and turn it into a video commentary. This was the result. The Game (Commentary) from Toomb Paine on Vimeo.I've replaced the YouTube version here with a more updated vimeo version, containing substantial if possibly subtle-to-some changes. Since I can update my vimeo channel's videos this seemed like the best choice here

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-35677116662625066672009-03-13T00:53:00.005-04:002009-04-11T11:27:30.611-04:00

Explanation to follow... basically, this is a playlist of test videos meant to explore the issues surrounding HQ rendering on YouTube, especially when the video trying to get HQ rendering happens to be in a 16:9 aspect ratio.I'll try to explain more if I learn more.Not much more is known just yet... I might pull out some individual videos here to discuss why they were rendered and what they were

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-72976143646625714822009-03-10T14:31:00.004-04:002009-04-15T14:01:20.596-04:00

So instead of going outside and giggling at my fellow humans, thus taking my life into my hands, I opted instead to add this playlist to the blog. Videos of comic Amy Sedaris are in the first viewers, and a playlist of Bill Bailey videos appears lower down.There may be another one below the fold.For testing purposes:

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-18514233995840786692009-02-28T06:05:00.005-05:002009-02-28T06:23:58.561-05:00

Don't believe me? Photocred: Lolo.moar funny picturesOr:moar funny picturesSrsly. Tiem foah sleap n stuff.

Azanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-32191777073281377832009-02-24T15:40:00.002-05:002009-02-24T15:44:07.462-05:00

Take a look. There's more like it in his YouTube channel.To promote or not to promote, is that the question? It's a cruel world, but it has been for as long as I can remember.Not that this helps with promotion, since hardly anyone visits this blog, but it does give the general idea.

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-79968314599125573472009-02-12T00:53:00.004-05:002009-02-12T12:26:19.951-05:00

This story is about barbeque. Well, maybe not. More likely its about the way post-modern businesses change standards at a whim. Like Apple and it's madly mutating USB-2 fergawdsakes connectors for each new "generation" of the iPod nano. Used to be when a "generation" took roughly 25 years. Now, apparently, it's more like 9 months. That's a gestation period, not a generation. And Apple's

Azanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-36801863974027700062009-02-11T06:33:00.004-05:002009-07-18T04:16:59.310-04:00

Maybe that should have read, "Why shared You Tube accounts are a truly bad idea." Get your comments in soon, this one could be going into revision.And, whether you know it or not, you always need an outside perspective. Go away! I'm getting dressed here!

Azanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4531064433751420166.post-55146280965613913992009-02-11T06:16:00.002-05:002009-02-11T06:26:02.873-05:00

Flip Mino Camcorder with Personalized Design - Available only at www.theflip.com. Check out this unique Flip Mino design. The Flip Mino camcorder combines remarkable video quality in a pocket-sized package. Now personalizable - create yourView >>This is probably going to break things. Maybe not. More about this camera later. It seems to be the soul of individual video making, the subject I've

Azanoreply@blogger.com0