Beat that box! Beath that box! Beat that box!

Naturally 7 has truly outdone themselves this time. They decided to put on a show where they attempt to emulate an entire band, complete with bass guitar, snare drum, bass drum, high-hats, keyboard, synthesizers, vocalists, and a whole mess of instruments that I don't even know the names for!

If you're unfamiliar with Naturally 7, simply do what I did and search youtube for them. They're a group of african-american men with a god-given gift. The gift of music and rhythm and an incredibly natural soul/flow to their music. They work as one unit, and the amount of time they must have put into perfecting their outstanding creations is immense. They do large performances in theatres, as well as impromptu performances in the most unusual locations. The weirdest place I've seen them perform? In a subway! Yep, they actually rode the subway, and began performing "I can feel it" during the ride, with all the passengers in awe at the showmanship of all 7 members.

Check out the subway video here.

This all just goes to show, you don't need fancy instruments or years of lessons in each respective discipline. All you need is a love for music, and a voice-box.

Well, at least I'm not a digital dummy.

12 billion. That's how many texts are sent worldwide, every single day. Considering there's only 6 billion people on Earth, and many of those people are living below the poverty line in Africa, India, and many parts of Europe... double the world's population in text messages is really astonishing.

What's more astonishing is the fact that people are being drawn in to the notion that these things are a part of our being. Some people actually treat their phones like their babies. Need proof? There's a blackberry case that attaches to a baby stroller. Yes, you can now walk your precious month old baby down the street, whilst you're texting and not paying any attention to your surroundings at all! Sounds too good to be true, I know. But, here's the sad part. It is true, and to an even greater extent than aforementioned. There was an experiment done with students at a major university, where a clown on a unicycle pedalled  his way around campus. The test was to determine whether or not students would see. Not talk to, not make comments about, but merely see a brightly coloured, unicycling, wobbly clown going right past them. Needless to say, the students on cellphones did not see the clown. Back to the previous baby stroller issue: if using a cell phone prevents noticing a brightly coloured entertainer, then what's to stop this cell phone use preventing someone from noticing and incoming car or bicyclist... headed straight for their baby. It's a gruesome thought, but it's a necessary one, and it raises the question... are we digital dummies?

In this article from CBC, they asked that question, and so much more.

Using technology, or should I say, abusing technology, has become an epidemic. Work hours have stretched from working 47 hours a week, to over 70 hours a week. This has in turn, caused an increase in stress, which has a whole slough of negative side effects. Cell phone usage has also been linked to decrease in job and life satisfaction, as well as an increase in marital/relationship quarrels. But it's not just cell phones that are the major players in this digital addiction. It's also computers. One man stated that he spent "probably 8 hours a day. maybe 12 to be honest", hours using a computer. With 24 hours in one day, that's half the day spent on your butt doing... whatever you want on the computer. One kid became so addicted to his computer, that he spent literally days on end, without much movement at all. This prolonged inactivity caused a bloodclot in his leg, and he had to have his leg amputated. He was lucky he didn't lose more than his leg in the incident.

This could have been completely prevented by limiting the usage of his technology. I, for one, am taking the article's message to heart. I spend way too much time staring at a computer screen, and not enough outside, or doing things other than being on Facebook, or surfing the internet. Despite what many (including me) thought about information gathering online, it's not as good as it's made out to be. Getting information through prolonged computer usage requires quite a bit of shifting from one piece of information to the next. Our brains don't have time to concentrate fully on any one thing, and therefore we lose the ability to give any substantial amount of focus into our activity at hand.

The solution? Stop being digital dummies. Use your cell phone quickly to do what you need to do, but don't sacrifice safety. Use the computer for your school work, or information gathering, but then leave and go take a break. Read a book. Do anything other than staring into a screen of brain-altering information.

Don't be a digital dummy.

The Body Cures EVERYTHING!

Seriously though, it does! Well, almost everything, according to this article from Men's Health.

This article covers most minor ailments and even some things that are just helpful to know about your body and it's healing/restorative properties. It's a good read, and not just for men, but women too! Some of the points covered include how to hold your breathe for longer underwater, how to stop a brainfreeze immediately, how to not fall whilst drunk (not that anyone under 19 drinks), how to prevent peeing, how to clear your stuffed nose (very interesting), and... my favourite... how to shut down your friend's muscular resistance.

This one's really cool.

Simply ask your friend to raise his arm to his side, with his palm facing down. Now, take two of your fingers and push down on his wrist. His arm will not move. Now, ask him to place one foot on a platform a few inches off the ground, and raise his arm again. This time, when you push down, his arm will fall like a house of cards. How? Well, he's on a platform, and his brain knows it. The brain senses that his body is at an angle, and that his spine is vulnerable, which partially shuts down his body's resistance in order to prevent a spinal injury. But what it really does is make you look like you have superhuman strength... or makes your friend look like a little girly-man!

Let's squish our fruits together!

Check this out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnY59mDJ1gg&feature=channel

If you've never heard of Improv Everywhere, you have now! This is a group of everyday people, not necessarily actors or singers, they can be volunteers from the New York area, and they go around doing spontaneous acts of hilarity. Why? Just to mess with people's heads and get a few good laughs out of them while they're at it!

In this creation, the good folks at Improv Everywhere assembled a team of about 6 singers, and planted them at strategic spots in a grocery store. Once the song came on the intercom (a musical instrumental piece, since the singers provided the vocals) they sprung into action. It started with one man singing about his "lonely fruit", and eventually spiraled into a musical about "squishing fruits together", consisting of numerous singers dancing, singing, and waving fruit in the air, whilst all the customers in the fruit and vegetable aisle were left in awe. Sounds corny (pardon the pun), but it worked out beautifully! The camera work was superb, with numerous cameras placed around the event in order to capture the faces of not just the singers, but also the unsuspecting grocery store shoppers. The main camera was a front-on view of the whole cast singing, and it made for something truly magical. It definitely brought a smile to my face! :)

The Mental Everest

In this article by Harrison Solow, she describes, in detail, how the "dream and you will achieve" philosophy taught to the youth is actually a bunch of bull.

She states that even the youth in "our universities are filled with people who have dreams but no plans, desires but no talent, talent but no work ethic..." Her claim is that parents have drilled the idea that to succeed in life, you must have a dream, and simply follow it. This "you can do anything you dream of" approach to parenting perturbs her to no end. Harrison goes on to explain how the only true way to achieve your dreams in life is to do it through sacrifice, dedication, and actual work towards attaining your dream. Whether that dream is becoming a rock-star, professional athlete, movie star, or businessman, the same rules apply. You'd have to give up time spending hours practicing your instrument, or working out in the gym, or taking acting lessons, or studying your craft. Even then, only those who put in the most work will actually make it. Her point is that the younger generation is now starting to develop a "think and get" attitude, whereas the appropriate attitude to have is a "do and get" disposition.

In my opinion, she's very right, and still very wrong. She brings up some good points about having to work towards your dreams. I know, better than anyone, about that, because of the thousands of hours I've put into the gym, working towards my goals. And therein lies the major flaw in her argument. "Dreams" are something you literally dream of, or, in her sense, aspire to become. "Goals" are something entirely different. Goals are something that inherently includes some sense of work, or path, in order to achieve. Dreams do not. Dreams can be just that, dreams; something mental, and if it is mental, it will remain that way until you change your thinking and consider it your goal.

That's my opinion anyway. I have numerous goals in life. I want to be physically fit and dominant, and so I will continue to work out throughout my entire life. I want to surround myself with the best people I can, so I make sure that I have good friends, and I do. Most of all, I want to be successful. It's not a dream of mine, because my dreams consist of me flying around in my own imaginary dreamland. Instead, this is a goal. And I will work to achieve it.

Independent Project Proposal

Proposal Questions

What communications technology skills will you be using in this project?

I will be using communications technology skills that I have learned and developed from last year to the present. These include my camera-work, film editing, Rotoscoping, picture editing (using Photoshop), and all video-related skills at my disposal.

How will this project be significantly different from the current projects listed? Make direct comparisons.

This project will be different than the current projects listed because it is a combination of all three project rotation categories, with my own personal modifications made to each. This project will utilize the best parts of each category. The video aspect will be taken to a new extent by combining action with a documentary style creating. The animation aspect will be altered by incorporating drawn-in figures of actual people who aren’t originally included in the filming. This has not been done before in this class and is a major aspect of the project that I’m looking forward to. The last category, the HT-Week-end review will be altered by using the sports aspect to a great extent. The majority of the project will be sports-based, with a focus on HT Football. This is being combined with the documentary-style of what it means to lose two years in a row to the same team in the finals, and also what work must be done to succeed, and what football means to me specifically. All of this is interlaced with bits of highlights from previous games, as well as the championship game. Finally, the scenes pertaining to what football means to me, and what it feels like to lose, will be edited to create artificial, cartoon-style people who are interacting with a real person. This is completely unique in it’s own right because not only are fake-people being created, but they are actually moving and interacting with the real people in the video. The most ambitious part of this will be a scene where it is literally me against an entire team of rotoscoped, hand-drawn players. However, to go one step further, I am going to attempt to do this scene in one continuous shot, very similar to the Nike Football – Leave Nothing commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55BZ2gSsSmY

What technology is needed to complete this project?

The technology needed will include: a video camera, tripod, editing software, Photoshop, and a creative mind.

What kind of preparation work is needed for this project? Include research

I’ll need to obtain videos of all the football games from this year, as well as use my own collection of film to find the best view of the plays as possible. In addition, I will need to find 5^th year football players who are open to being interviewed about their football careers at Holy Trinity.

What is the scope of the project?

The scope of this project is extremely large, mainly due to the numerous scenes being shot, in addition to the rotoscoped football team being drawn in.

How many people are needed to meet the scope of the project?

About 5 or 6 people are needed to meet the scope of this project. One to film me for certain parts, about 3 or 4 people to interview about their football careers, and then myself.

Describe pre-production work needed to prepare for this project.

I’ll need to create a storyboard, a script, a treatment, and then make sure to complete all of my preparation work mentioned above, as well as get the costumes/wardrobe sorted out.

What will you do during production?

During production I will complete all of the interviews first, followed by the rest of the filming of off-season training for me. After the filming is complete, I’ll need to combine that with the footage of the football season from this year.

What kinds of things will you be doing in post-production?

In post production, I will be editing the entire video, as well as photo shopping a filmstrip and adding numerous special effects to the video.

What will the final product look and sound like when it is done? Describe with regard to scope, difficulty, output medium (print or screen, with or without sound)

The final product will look very cut and clean. The interviews will be well put-together, but short and to the point, so as not to bore the audience. The music in the background will consist of “Fly” by Ludovico Einaudi, as well as “Requiem for a dream” by Clint Mansell. Both of these are very inspirational songs, the first one being a bit slower, and the second one being faster/more upbeat and suited to action scenes. Therefore, the first song will make up the beginning of the video, which will be slower and include the interviews, while the second half of the video will consist of the action scenes and the more upbeat song.

The most difficult, time-consuming aspect of this project will inevitably be the rotoscoping of me against a whole team of football players who aren’t even really there in the first place. This portion will take weeks, so I need the filming to be done fairly shortly to accompany this portion of the project.

The last effect I’m going to incorporate is the contrast of the video. I want to introduce a few effects to give this video impressive lighting and contrast, to give it a “300”-esque look to it. Very rich, deep colours, almost exaggerated, which will give the video, especially the action scenes, an impressive, unique look.

Very Important: Describe criteria in which the project can be evaluated? For each criterion you have to answer the question,

“What make this a well done _____________?”

Visual Effects: How well have the visual effects been utilized in this video? Is the rotoscoping well executed?

Camera-Work: Are the scenes well filmed and crisp (no blurriness)? Does the video incorporate many angles and utilize them in an attractive, eye-catching way?

Audio Quality: Are the voices clear (no excessive background noise)? Does the music selection fit the theme and flow of the video?

The World Premiere: Black-Forrest Gump

The final video, "Black-Forrest Gump", is complete!

The sound's a little rough and peaks at some points, but that's because of the microphone we used to record it. The video's also a bit scratchy at some points, which is entirely due to the conversion software I used changing the frame rate and therefore having to blend some parts, leaving streaks of pixels throughout the video. It doesn't take away the overall message/feeling of the movie, and we're both still very pleased with the end result.

It ended up being significantly longer than planned, but you can't rush genius film-making, right?

The video is 8 minutes long, and 1.7GB in memory, so the whole video wouldn't upload onto my blog. I have it saved onto my USB so I can show the video from there.

Do one of Jesus riding a panther.

Thankyou, StumbleUpon, for directing me to this unbelievable artistic video.

There's this guy, who goes by the youtube name "spacepainter", and he has almost 200 videos of him doing fast spray-paint artwork. And by fast, I mean FAST! Watch it for youself, he paints a beautiful moon/pyramid landscape in less than one minute. This isn't just some finger painting chicken scratch either. This is a legitimate, "I'm a professional and this is my life" sort of painting, and it's done by using just spray paint, and a few stencils and paste-ons. Still, the speed, fluidity, and skill that this guy uses to paint these things is, like his paintings, out of this world.

I certainly wouldn't mind buying one of these.

Skip the morning coffee and pick up this phone instead!

Imagine the following scenario. Your friend asks you to borrow a dollar, but doesn't tell you what it's for. You, being such a nice friend, give your old pal a dollar. He runs into a store, and comes out 5 minutes later with a brand new cell phone, and get this... he's not on any plan. Impossible? No, he could very well have just stolen the phone!

But he didn't. In fact, there's a new phone, the OT-209 by Alcatel out of England, which is offered for only 99 pence. How is this possible? Well, even after reading these articles, I'm not entirely sure how it is that this company can make a profit from this. That is, unless hundreds of thousands of people buy these phones, and then tell their friends to buy it too, just in time for Christmas. And apparently, that's exactly what the company is aiming to do.

They teamed up with Virgin Mobile, to offer this phone for less than a pound, on no fixed-term contract, and you only have to pay 10 pounds to start making all your calls and texts from it, with no additional fees at all. The Alcatel Executive Chairman, Charles Dunstone, says "You have to remember at Christmas the one question we get asked the most in our stores is 'what's your cheapest phone?' and at 99p this is the lowest its ever been."

The phone is aimed at first-time users, cash-strapped citizens, and people looking for a good, cheap backup phone. It's only offered in England at the moment, but this idea seems intriguing to me, and it just might make it's way across the ocean soon enough.

1000 text messages: $100
60 minutes of talk-time: $15
Getting a new phone: Priceless


... well... technically it's 99 pence... and then you add in the 10 pounds of talk time soooo... yeah.

Give me bonus marks or give me... four hours of my life I'll never get back.

Yesterday, I'm sitting at home, icing my leg, and thinking to myself... "gee, I should probably start piecing together bits and pieces of the movie that we filmed so far." So, I turn on my computer, plug in my USB, and open up Premier, only to find... THAT THE FILES WON'T WORK.

Apparently, Premiere has it out for me. It won't open my .mpeg files from my Sony HandyCam DC-100 Camcorder. Or more specifically, it won't play the sound. Same deal though, right? You can't properly understand a video without sound, so I figured it was kind of important. So, now problem-solving-Declan shows himself. How do I get this sound to work? Codec error? Most likely. But I have a pirated version of Premiere (*sshhhhhh) so I can't get updates for the Codec files. What else could it be? OF COURSE! The file type. Maybe I should convert the file type to an .mp4.

So now it's been about 30 minutes of cursing at the computer for not loading the sound on my videos. But I had to move on. I download and open up a free trial version of AVS-Video Converter software (legally obtained of course) and converted the videos.

There was a watermark on the damn videos.

I can't hand in a project with a watermark, so I had to go download ANOTHER pirated program (again, *ssshhhh) of AVS-Video Converter. Now it's been well over an hour and a half of downloading, re-downloading, and installing programs to my computer. FINALLY, I get the program to work. I convert the videos to .mp4, import it into Premiere, and... they don't work.

If you can't see where this is going, I took the same approach as last time, and re-converted the videos to about 4 or 5 other formats, none of them working of course, since, as hinted at earlier, Premiere is the devil. Finally, I give in. Maybe I can convert it from an original .mpeg, to another type of .mpeg. It sounded stupid, but then again, I'd tried everything else, and I was pushing close to 4 hours at this point of looking up a solution for my problem on google.

I convert it to another .mpeg file. I put it into Premiere. It works.

Give me bonus marks or give me death.

Storyboard - Black Forrest Gump

Treatment - Black-Forrest Gump

Black-Forrest Gump

Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA

Story Outline:

BLACK-FORREST SITTING ON BENCH

Black-Forrest is sitting on a bench with a stranger. He offers her some chicken, and starts telling her about his life. At this point, she’s uninterested.

FLASHBACK TO BEING CHASED BY A CAR

Black-Forrest runs by the whole frame, screaming. Immediately followed by a chasing car with music blasting out the windows.

STRANGER LEAVES THEN RETURNS

The stranger doesn’t care about his stories, so she pretends that her bus is coming and leaves... She returns shortly, out of boredom, and listens to another story.

FLASHBACK TO MAMA DYING

Stranger shows genuine interest in this story. Then Forrest relates it to his rapping career, which made him millions of dollars.

FLASHBACK TO B-GUMP RAPPING

Stranger can’t believe that she’s sitting beside the actual B-Gump! She asks why he’s here. He tells him that he’s waiting for the number 7 bus to Oakville, to go to house number 1282... until she tells him that he’s in Oakville... and 1282 is right behind him.

FORREST GOES TO JENNY’S HOUSE

Heart-felt meeting by the two re-united lovers. Jenny tells Black-Forrest that they have a son, Buble... but he died. He was hit by a bus, which turns out to be the number 7 bus to Oakville. Buble was on his way to visit them.

BURIAL FOR BUBLE

After burying Buble, Black-Forrest and Jenny have many years together into their old age.

BLACK-FORREST AND JENNY BOTH DIE

They both died while sitting in a chair, doing nothing... they were just really old.

The end.

Brainstorming - Black-Forrest Gump

Office Video - Individual Brainstorming Sheet

TGJ3M

Situation:

Black-Forrest Gump is on his way to his former wife’s (Jenny) house. To get there, he’s waiting for the bus to come, by sitting on a bench and waiting. While waiting, he discusses various events in his life, and how they affected him, to the girl who sits beside him. This makes for an interesting tale of development, and an inside look at what made Forrest Gump’s life so special.

Investigation:

Main Character:

1. Black-Forrest Gump

2. Girl on bench

3. Jenny

Reason for going to Jenny’s house:

1.      He got a letter from Jenny, asking him to come over.

2.      He still loves Jenny, and always did.

Exploits:

1. Sitting on bench.

2. Flashbacks to various scenes (Car chasing Black-Forrest) (Rolling around, instead of “running” around)

3. Meeting up with Jenny again.

Finally, an invisibility cloak!

Apparently, Harry Potter wasn't just blowing smoke when he donned his invisibility cloak.

That's right, it exists.

Well, not yet... but scientists are getting closer every passing moment. They've discovered a new "Matematerial" that can actually manipulate light to the point of the material acting as an invisibility screen. It's not perfect yet, but, the scientists are trying to perfect the way to make these materials harness light better. The material basically absorbs light, then internally bounces it around until the desired point of release. This release makes whatever light that was on one side of the invisibility screen, visible on the other side. In other words... once they have this material all sorted out, and you wrap it around someone... they will, for all intensive purposes, be invisible.

Imagine the possibilities! People could be... well someone could be watching me right now, and I wouldn't even know it... hmmm now this idea is sounding just plain creepy. I certainly wouldn't want the general public to get their hands on this, as cool as it would be to have an invisibility cloak. The number of crimes and general unlawful acts that would be committed with these things is too great to count, so here's what I think:

Once finishes, this invisibility cloak should only be used for scientific, military, and law-enforcement purposes. That way, random people off the street won't be magically disappearing as they walk off the street, and our country will be safer with our soldiers using the cloak. The police could use it to sneak up on a criminal during a hostage situation, or really for any dangerous mission.

Or you could do what I'd do and walk around as a floating head all day... up to you.

I can totally do that...

Check out this amazing video of people doing amazing things.

It's a five minute video of people defying the laws of physics, and doing things that, in my mind, didn't seem possible. It's basically a cut-up of everything extreme that you can think of. Skateboarding, bicycling, jumping, running, diving, and even some things that you wouldn't normally think of (like extreme stair-walking). The audio track is an upbeat techno song, which really adds to the environment of the video being all about craziness, speed, and dare-devilish stunts. After seeing this, all of my goals and achievements suddenly seem less extreme.

So remember, if you ever feel like witnessing something that shouldn't be possible... watch this video and your mind will successfully be blown.

I feel like belly-flopping into a shallow pool of water from 40 feet high.