Final Project - Basic Video

Here is the final version of my project for Basic Video:

Onomatopocussion

Body-Breath-Mind-Soul

I just copied a handout a yoga teacher gave me for a friend and thought I would put it here for the world to enjoy. The original had tons of xerox noise on it so I made a new version in illustrator.

The aspect of the chart to pay the most attention to is the breath. This metaphor of the breath linking the mind and the body is a powerful way of looking at ourselves as organisms and it would do everyone some good to recognize how important the breath really is.

enjoy

Experimental Media v06

I ended up adding sound anyways, I love tones, what can I say?

It is a bit shorter than I would like and I might expand on this for a future project but I thought it turned out alright. I enjoyed messing around with the mirror filter a lot and did a little masking as well. I ended up creating quite a few draft effects and transitions before settling on this one and arranging it like this. The effect I like the most, the strobing at the end, was achieved just by copying and pasting the short clips over and over next to each other. A very effective technique.


here it is:LINK

Experimental Media v05

Well I have gotten into using the mirror effect in final cut and it is looking pretty abstract, I will post a screen shot soon as I am working on this a psychology paper at the same time! Nothing like procrastination to give the brain a good squeeze.

Experimental Media Project v03

This is starting to head into playing with some transitional effects, I will see how far I get with this avenue...

Experimental Media Project v03

I have started to craft my project and I thinking I will deviate a bit from my original approach of synchronized "notes" of color, instead concentrating more on strictly the colors and how I can manipulate them in a way that reflects the medium of video.

Experimental Media Project v02

I have been thinking more about this assignment and have decided that an effective way to achieve this effect would be some type of MIDI synchronization method. If I can assign clips of different colors in the test pattern to MIDI notes, then I could write out a simple melody in MIDI and translate that to a really cool looking color test pattern sequence. I am not sure how to do this.

Experimental Media Project

I am currently taking a survey class in experimental media and have been charged with creating a piece of media myself. This is to be an exploration of the media which I choose to create it on.

My idea so far is to explore the medium of video. My project will be centered on the color test pattern:

The color test also commonly occurs with a test tone with which folks calibrate their systems. I am thinking about possibly playing with a melody constructed of these tones while also manipulating the appearance, hue, saturation, brightness, etc. of the individual color bars.

Pluto

Pulp Fiction: F*cking Short Version

I found this through looking at typography videos for my new Dynamic Type class.

This is the video that linked to it which is also very good:

Examples of Republican hypocrisy on moral values

The Damning List

Despite this wonderfully depressing link above, I am still supporting Ron Paul as our next Republican President.

Giant anti-ad stencil project

THIS looks like a really fun weekend project!

Best 5 Second Video on the Interweb

Morford

Sorry for the hiatus, spending much less time surfing this summer...

Mark Morford has another scorching hot treatise on the state of society over at the SF Gate - he discusses the scientific hurtle towards, "...advances that open so many cans of ethical and spiritual worms it shakes us to the very core of what we believe, of who we think we are and where we fit in and What It All Means...Hence, religion. This (at least partially) explains why so many are so eager to cling to religious dogma, to some sort of immovable, reliable framework of understanding, something that can help make sense of it all, even if making sense of it all involves shutting off your brain and killing your divine intuition and soaking up giant gobs of blind faith so you don't have to actually swim in those bloody murky confusing pools of ethics and meaning and actually thinking for yourself. Mmm, numb groupthink. It's what's for dinner."

Go read the rest!

Ping Pong Door

A conventional door connects rooms, this door connects people.

Folk Cover of Baby Got Back - Jon Coulton

This is an amazing folk-style cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back:

I’ve wanted to cover this song for a long time, because it is excellent - there’s a wonderful message in there for those of you who have big butts. In the proud tradition of many white Americans who came before me I hereby steal and white-ify this thick and juicy piece of black culture. Watch for my album “Jonathan Coulton Sings Songs by Black People.”

Enjoy

Cobra vs. A Little Baby

Apparently this is how they train kids to be snake charmers, the snake's mouth is sewn shut. The last few seconds are the most brutal.


Link

from BoingBoing

Best Frisbee

I bought the Aerobie Superdisc Ultra a couple summers ago and I found it to be an awesome frisbee but it was a bit wide/wobbly and would be caught by the wind very easily so I am going to go ahead and order one of these, the original Superdisc right now!



and for the nighttime fun:

Stoned Cop Dials 911 Fearing Overdose

From BoingBoing:

One Edward Sanchez, a police officer of Dearborn, Michigan met up with some serious karma recently. It seems that Ed confiscated some really good weed from some poor citizen and decided to throw the whole quarter ounce into some brownie batter with his wife.

Seems this was a tad more THC than the good officer had encountered previously, enough to claim that he was dying.

This mp3 of the 911 call is pure gold.

Make sure to listen until the end when he asks about the score of the Redwings game.

Peter, Bjorn, & John - Young Folks (f/ Victoria Bergsman)

Fun breakbeat folk


Straight to Youtube



Lyrics stolen from Top Hits Online

Lyrics:

if i told you things i did before

told you how i used to be

would you go along with someone like me

if you knew my story word for word

had all of my history

would you go along with someone like me



i did before and had my share

it didn't lead nowhere

i would go along with someone like you

it doesn't matter what you did

who you were hanging with

we could stick around and see this night through



and we don't care about the young folks

talkin' bout the young style

and we don't care about the old folks

talkin' 'bout the old style too

and we don't care about their own faults

talkin' 'bout our own style

all we care 'bout is talking

talking only me and you



usually when things has gone this far

people tend to disappear

no-one will surprise me unless you do



i can tell there's something goin' on

hours seems to disappear

everyone is leaving i'm still with you



it doesn't matter what we do

where we are going to

we can stick around and see this night through



and we don't care about the young folks

talkin' bout the young style

and we don't care about the old folks

talkin' 'bout the old style too

and we don't care about their own faults

talkin' 'bout our own style

all we care 'bout is talking

talking only me and you



and we don't care about the young folks

talkin' bout the young style

and we don't care about the old folks

talkin' 'bout the old style too

and we don't care about their own faults

talkin' 'bout our own style

all we care 'bout is talking

talking only me and you

talking only me and you



talking only me and you

talking only me and you

Wheatpaste + Stop Motion = Love

Link

from BoingBoing

Wheatpaste, learn to love it!

A Better Browsing Experience (Noscript)

The next extension that deserves your undevoted attention is Noscript. This extension will block potentially invasive and destructive JavaScript.

Most web developers these days use Javascript (little pieces of code) to give their webpages cool features like popup menus and embedded mp3 players. The problems come when someone figures out how to use Javascript to steal your personal information or otherwise breach the security of your personal computer. This is how many people get infected with spyware and malware and all that garbage.

So what does one do? Get Noscript.

A friendly chap named John Wilkerson has provided a video demonstrating exactly what this extension is all about.



I think he explains it pretty well but if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments or email me and I will do my best to help you out.

A Better Browsing Experience (Adblock)

Ok, so getting back into the vein of my little credo on top of the blog, I would now like to discuss using a couple Firefox extensions to make your browsing experience safer and less stressful.

First off, if you are using a different browser I highly recommend going here and getting Firefox.

Now I know that other browsers like Opera have a lot going for them as well but I have found time and again that the extensions and development community surrounding Firefox makes it the easiest and most convenient to use for day to day surfing.

Whenever I reinstall Firefox or put it on a new computer the first extension I grab is Adblock Plus. This marvelous extension saves me from seeing almost every single advertisement on the internet that I might have otherwise been forced to ignore. It used to take a little more finesse to get Adblock working for you because you would have to define all the ads you wanted to block, but a new day is upon us and when you restart Firefox a box will pop up asking if you would like to subscribe to a filter list. These lists are maintained regularly by people whose singular goal is to save you, the surfing populace, from the mental vampires of banner advertising. It will even take the ads off of previously mentioned Pandora.

So go now! Install Adblock Plus and start enjoying the web ad-free.

Acceptable in the 80s - Calvin Harris

Keyboard Waffles

Yearn to destroy your keyboard sometimes? Pretend your are consuming the thing outright with this novel waffle maker that spits out delicious keyboard-shaped breakfast. Find other nifty creations on the designer's website
.

Via Neatorama

D.A.N.C.E.

JUSTICE - D.A.N.C.E.
Uploaded by edbangerrecords

Freeway gets taken out by tanker explosion

Peter Gabriel Helps Launch 'We7' Free Music Service

I am not sure what the number 7 has to do with it but this new music service is apparently completely ad supported, with ads being "grafted" onto the beginning of the songs.

The real secret of We7 is our Web 2.0 based, 'pat.pending' MediaGraft engine

As its name suggests, MediaGraft uses intelligent recognition of user's choices and demographics to select, then 'graft' a highly pertinent audio or video advert onto each digital entertainment track selected.

The result is powerful 'Off-Web' promotional messages for advertisers, 'paid for' free music and video downloads for downloaders, and payments for music rights owners.

In its simplest form, MediaGraft provides a Web 2.0 "shopping cart" platform for music. The difference is, when the user checks out, there's nothing to pay! The user interacts with the system via an AJAX-based web interface to create a personal media schedule.

Ah well, at least it is something different even if an ad in front of my songs would not be acceptable for this pirate.

An interesting twist is this part:

We7 is creating a "TasteMaker community" of artists, band members, and fans who will review new bands and artists to determine whether they are good enough to be published. Support from numerous listeners will earn bands and artists the right to be downloaded from the site.

The TasteMaker function will launch in June and will allow visitors to choose to review songs. Reviewers can go to a page that will present five anonymous tracks. They will be able to give a numerical rating and write comments for We7 and the artist or band.

I wonder if you will just be able to delete the ads using something like Audacity.

Important PSA from Mr. T

Mr. T - Treat Your Mama Right

The Reagans - On Drugs

glumbert.com - The Reagans Speak Out On Drugs

You're Invading My Bubble!

A "sanctuary dress"

Bumping Flash

Apparently a new feature of action script for flash, sound synchro

check it

and here

can't wait till the ad people get a hold of it

Video Fun!

Seems I am on a youtube kick lately, eh?

May I take this moment to introduce the Greasemonkey Firefox Extension, and then immediately after that the Youtube Googler script for Greasemonkey. Basically Greasemonkey lets people write some code that will make a website do anything they want. This script makes youtube much nicer, with a bigger window and less clutter.

Food for browsing.



Couple classics you might have missed:

Ridiculous Internet Phenomena

I deem it worthy of four minutes of your life. Skip the first minute if you just want the song.

Steering Wheel? Out. Drive-by-wire? IN!

The cockpits of some passenger cars in the future will have neither a steering wheel nor pedals. Instead, what are known as sidesticks will become increasingly common - ergonomically shaped "levers" in the centre console and interior door panels which enable the driver to control all the movements of the vehicle. Steering will no longer be by means of a wheel, but by merely moving the sidestick to the left or right; acceleration and braking will no longer require pedals, but will be controlled by pushing the stick forward to accelerate as required or pulling it to the rear to brake. The driver will only indicate his intentions, after which high-performance computers interact with mechatronic actuators. Everything is done electronically via data links, hence the name of this technology: "drive-by-wire".

Can't freakin wait!

Coolest Yuppie/Boomer Toy Ever!

The B.R.P. Can-Am Spyder Grand Sport Roadster

...the Spyder, which the company says can reach 110 miles an hour, uses a 106-horsepower Rotax V-twin — the kind of engine found in sport motorcycles made by Aprilia — to drive the rear wheel.

The Spyder, which in most jurisdictions will require a motorcycle or three-wheeler driver’s license, will be introduced to dealers and the press on Friday in San Diego. There will be two transmission choices: with a five-speed manual, the price is $14,999; with a five-speed sequential gearbox that deletes the clutch lever from the handlebars, the price is $16,499. The prices include electric power steering, a reverse gear and antilock brakes.

The Spyder will go on sale this fall in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin and Virginia, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. By next January, nine more states will be added as well as France and Spain.

Lemon Jelly Time

A delightful music video from a delightful duo who go by Lemon Jelly



Thanks Andrea!

Sheer Nostalgia

Thanks Tara!

bureaucracy

Wikipedia defines the noun, Bureaucracy, as

a concept in sociology and political science referring to the way that the administrative execution and enforcement of legal rules are socially organized. This office organization is characterized by standardized procedure (rule-following), formal division of responsibility, hierarchy, and impersonal relationships.

I encountered a serious dose of this poisonous crap this Friday. I am the president of a student group at UWM called the Electronic Music Coalition. I was rightly chosen as the President because I actually go out and do work for the group to get things done. In order to ask for funding from the all powerful Student Association Committee (SAC), one must submit some standard paperwork including justification for all expenses and of course there needs to be eight copies of every piece of paper for the eight members of the committee. The hardest part about this is the dates - all of our funding requests for Fall had to be turned in this last Friday before 3:00pm. So being the procrastinator that I am I was laboring furiously in the computer lab at quarter to three, I printed everything I needed for the various requests I had and sprinted over to the copy center to make all of the copies for the not-quite-into-conservation-enough-to-share-some-paperwork committee, despite the jovial reminder to "Save A Tree" on the front page of the requests forms.

Now I knew I was cutting it close so I even ditched the last grant request at the copy center, knowing in the back of my head that I was way too close to the deadline already. So I smashed together what I hadn't been able to staple yet into a big ol' pile and ran, ran up the stairs to the third floor, passing other back-slapping members of different student groups on my way who shouted good luck and other nonsense as I sprinted past. I make it to the office and yank on the handle to find...

they had locked the door

They all see me standing outside the window with my pleading look but no one makes a move to open the door for me, even though I was there an hour earlier asking about what I needed to have done and it was QUITE obvious that I just needed to pass along my paperwork as every other group has done up to this point. Luckily someone else in the office had to leave so they opened the door for me and I walk in feeling nervous and triumphant and confused at the same time. Now here is the part where the loving, friendly young woman who works at the Student Organization RESOURCE center looks at me and says,


"Sorry, too late"

Now I don't remember exactly how the conversation went because all I could think of was this:

But basically my argument went something like:

PLEASE I JUST WORKED FOR HOURS AND SPENT TEN DOLLARS ON COPIES JUST TO GET THESE HERE FOR MY ENTIRE GROUPS SAKE AND TURNING ME AWAY WILL CAUSE HUGE AMOUNTS OF DEPRESSION AND AGONY

and her argument went:

despite the fact that I am the one who actually places the stamp on the paper, because of the big hand moving around this circle on my office wall a full 360 degrees before you got here, it really means that if I actually let you slide and accepted your requests I would get fired, stabbed, raped, and all my relatives would get cancer, maybe next semester!

Of course the proper words for tackling someone of such agonizing single mindedness failed me at the time, but if I could travel back to that point I would point out to her that WE AREN'T MACHINES YOU STUPID BITCH!

Maybe if we lived in a binary universe where all of our decisions were based on a 1 and a 0 this kind of encounter would make sense. But are we not men? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Do we not have rational thought processes that are capable of deciding when the rules are able to get bent by an extra thirty seconds of time?

This is the type of blunt trauma to the spirit that has the potential to discourage and disillusion someone entirely from trying to work within the system. Who knows? Maybe this is my wake-up call that is really telling me I should be out promoting concerts on my own and not trying to give the university a say or a cut. Don't get me wrong, I will certainly appeal this load of bull (and would appreciate any advice towards this end) but only time will tell, as is often the case, so stay tuned for some more belligerent updates.

A Blow to Life

Kurt Vonnegut died today. I am sure if you have made your way to this blog that you already know this. He was one of the most enjoyable authors I have had the pleasure to read. Cat's Cradle is an all time favorite and should be read by everyone. I still have a lot of catching up to do on his catalog. BoingBoing has a nice memorial compilation of some of his media, including this touching video with many great quotes and moments:



I can still remember one of my favorite lines from Breakfast of Champions about the man who pushed his daughter so hard to excel at competitive swimming: "'What kind of man would turn his daughter into an outboard motor?'"

Happy Easter

see also

Bills congress passed last week

Vicks treats toenail fungus?

From BoingBoing

Pictorial history of televisions

Laura Levine's Musician Photos

Home destroyed by Craigslist users

Bagel Storing Tip:



a blank cd spindle case



I think I might try and get this guy to come talk at UWM also

Happy Easter, don't support the greeting card industry, use crayons and a pen and 15 minutes of your day, hell! do it on the pot, they will never know!

I'm Drunk And Naked On MySpace!

The always spot-on Mark Morford takes on what it means to be part of the Generation Next with his column this week. Does it really matter that a wide swath of society is putting up for the whole world to see, every drunken body shot, every joint passed around at a party, EVERY SINGLE PICTURE from your cheap digital camera that you happily snapped away, not censoring in any way all the blurry, out of context, out of legality memories that will now become part of the information superhighway. Well the answer is mostly no, no it doesn't matter. He supposes that eventually people will get over it, stop caring completely about all the silly shit you did in college, even if there exists a permanent record like no generation before has been able to collect. I personally uncheck all the privacy boxes in facebook and myspace, leaving my online avatar only available to people that I at least loosely know from somewhere. Anyways enjoy the article because his writing is so much better than mine:

It is like watching ferrets finger-paint. It is like watching kittens with ADD chase flashlight beams. It is like reading only US Weekly and eating chocolate Pop-Tarts and masturbating with a brown Microsoft Zune. Interesting for a few minutes, then it's all oh my God my brain is seeping through my toes and everything hurts and please make it stop.

The Future of the Desktop Interface

This one is coming



This one is already here

Beatport

If you go to beatport you can do lots of things. One of them being create this player that you see on your right.

I realize that it doesn't show up completely (at least not at 1024x768 on my laptop)

I don't have time to fix this now (making it in the first place was blatant procrastination)

You don't lose any functionality from the slight bit that's cut off.

Please let me know if you have a suggestion on the genre or something but I generally find Minimal pleasing if I don't have something else on already.

If you want your own go to beatport and click on player generator on the left.

You can choose genre, types of songs, # of songs.

Sadly you can't change the color scheme.

Still pretty cool little Web 3.0 gadget.

Go The Internet

The Always Dependable to be Insanely Depressing Halliburton

Extended bonus scene from the new documentary 'Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers'

Ben Carter, a former Halliburton/KBR water purification specialist, discusses discovering Halliburton was providing dangerously contaminated water to troops, and the serious long-term implications.

I could see them providing some eye drops to this guy for the crying scene but this guy's life is water purification so if I were to follow a similar track this travesty certainly might bring me to tears.

from onegoodmove

Open-Source Cars - Soon to be C,mm,n

While the name reminds of Tom Everett Scott's decision to dub his pop group The Oneders, this new vehicle is so much more than a geeky name. The first open-source car, a product of the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment, named "C,mm,n" (say "common") has been introduced at AutoRAI in Amsterdam.

What is an open-source car? The entire vehicle’s genetic makeup (specifications, technical drawings, etc.) are available online to anyone, and the car’s creators hope that people will adapt it to their needs and wants, with the caveat that they must share their modifications with the rest of the community.

The c,mm,n was designed to fill the role of an environmentally-conscience family vehicle, its features include a hydrogen fuel cell and an advanced sat-nav system that incorporates traffic and parking availability.

C,mm,n's website is here, but English information is still lacking.

Another open-source contender, OScar, is said to be in the works, but is reportedly still at an early conceptual stage.

Don't worry Music! The public will save you!

Online music is in danger. In March, the Copyright Royalty Board announced a decision that could drastically impact the variety and diversity of music available on the Internet. All "webcasters," nonprofit and for-profit, small and large, face a massive hike in the royalties they pay every time they play a song. The exorbitant fees could put small, independent webcasters out of business and force the large webcasters to adopt the cookie-cutter model of traditional radio. The fees would be unsustainable for public radio webcasters who would be forced to significantly reduce the alternative and cultural programming they offer.

We need to stop the new charges before they go into effect. The Copyright Royalty Board isn't used hearing from the public, so your action can really make a difference. Sign the petition today.

Click here to learn more about Internet radio royalties.

Petition Text
Internet radio provides an outlet for new artists, independent performers and endless variety of musical genres that aren't available anywhere else. The recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to massively increase royalty rates for nonprofit and commercial "webcasters" is a mistake. We need fair rules that compensate artists and allow a wide range of noncommercial and independent outlets to flourish online.

As Internet radio listeners, we ask you to craft rules that:

*Make a clear distinction in rates paid by noncommercial, smaller commercial, and larger commercial webcasters, recognizing in particular the unique mission of public radio webcasters.
*Reinstate a reasonable flat rate for noncommercial and smaller commercial webcasters -- the proposed rates would cripple their operations.
*Establish a fee that is reasonable for larger commercial providers -- this rate hike would be disastrous for the diversity of their programming.

We urge you to act quickly to fix these rules and protect Internet radio.
Signed by:

[Your name]
[Your address]


Click here to sign the petition!

Party Time!

Well I am now relaxing in my apartment after living in the Student Union for a day. Why was I inhabiting the Union? Only because I threw a freaking concert tonight! Months of planning and hard work came to fruition this evening with over a hundred people in attendance to witness the awesomeness that is, The Flashbulb. This event, combined with the projects I have to get done for my classes, has been stressing me out like no other time I can remember. It payed off big time though.

Since this event went so smoothly there will be little to no resistance for a future event[s]. We made money off of the deal, which will go directly into our student group fund, allowing us to provide amenities like food next time (although props to Clayton for ordering pizza). We had our banner finish printing right in time for the show, giving us an awesome campus-awareness boost. We had an amazingly talented artist come and give many people their first real taste of something truly different.

Now I am tired and still have to pack for Mexico tomorrow (no posts for a little over a week).


But I am totally content and still riding the high of a job well done.

I am happy.

Goodnight.

Booooooooooooze

Well here I am again on Sunday night, thinking about what to post on.... My schedule is getting really crazy lately and I have had made very little time for the internet beyond basic communication. The fact that earlier this week I witnessed my seven thousand, six hundred and sixty fifth day on this planet and can thus go out and poison myself properly might have something to do with this.

The fact that the US Government makes so many businesses wait to make money off dumb kids with too much spending cash boggles the mind. According to Wikipedia, the USA is joined by a very few nations including Tunisia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ukraine, who make the youth wait past 18 years of age - you know, the age where they can get drafted to go murder people...


Similar to the speed limit, the drinking age is only where it stands right now because the federal government has told all the states that they must use the standards of 55 mph and 21 years old or they won't get federal funding to fix their roads.

Similar to the War on Drugs, the War on Drunken College Freshmen has the singular effect of sending the death-from-misuse rate through the roof. Anyone who seriously thinks that instilling the fear of punishment on an 18 year old instead of providing a safe environment for experimentation needs to learn about positive reinforcement vs punishment and have a drink.

My favorite place to burn a paycheck

A store I feel truly priveleged to live near:

American Science & Surplus

- their manifesto -

Here at American Science & Surplus we are fascinated by discovery and invention. And we are dedicated to having fun along the way.
We offer an eclectic range of products, many with a science or educational tilt to them, others simply handy or amusing. Value is important, and whenever we can, we carry surplus at prices well below retail. We love closeouts, inventory overruns, mis-manufactures, and items whose time has not come.

A word of caution: When a surplus item is gone, it is gone. So if you see something you love, best get it now since we may not have it tomorrow. When we can't find surplus, we may carry regular merchandise which we think those interested in learning and tinkering will find appealing, but only if we feel it is good quality at a fair price. Littered in and around this stuff are whimsical things that we carry because, well, because we like them. And we hope you will too.

And its right here

Cool Tools

Cool Tools!

Could this site have a more perfect name? I dare say not but would love some counter-arguments. Kevin Kelly must see the most broad spectrum of consumer goods of any blogger, and his job is to sift for gold in a sea of worthless items. The items are usually quite inexpensive but very high end items can be found there too. Two recent items are an $8 sweater stone and a $5000 dollar home automation system.

From the header of the site:

Cool tools really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. I am chiefly interested in stuff that is extraordinary, better than similar products, little-known, and reliably useful for an individual or small group.

The collection by now is quite large so if you are thinking about doing a project or making a purchase, do a search there to make sure there isn't a perfect solution you might have missed.

Cool

Get Ready!

Here come some posts!

The Myth of Talent

Scott Young has written an awesome short post about The Myth of Talent. This prevalent thought in our society that unless you find yourself already pretty able to do certain things well, you will never be able to master them. I think the most obvious case of this myth is the amount of mathophobia that has been present in our society for quite some time.

You hear quite often, "I am not a math person". What the hell does this mean? Personally, I cringe when I hear this. Yet another person has obviously been suckered in by the myth that if they had sat down and practiced the hell out of their long division and had a teacher that taught the theory as well as wrote memorization, they would still come out of it knowing just as much math as they currently do. This is nonsense!

There are many scientific studies to this effect. This one has a great quote that I will share from Anders Ericsson, the professor of psychology at Florida State University in Tallahassee, "...it isn't magic, and it isn't born. It happens because some critical things line up so that a person of good intelligence can put in the sustained, focused effort it takes to achieve extraordinary mastery. These people don't necessarily have an especially high IQ, but they almost always have very supportive environments, and they almost always have important mentors. And the one thing they always have is this incredible investment of effort."

This myth of talent has implications far beyond mere math skills. It seems that this subject really cuts the population into two groups: those who believe that they can achieve anything they want to, and those who think their lot in life is set and just go through the motions. Now I strongly place myself in the first group because this is a genuine belief of mine that I could master any skill or subject with enough honest practice. The hard part is committing yourself to putting in the hours, every week, needed to excel at something.

Enjoying Music Online

Wow do I love Pandora! No I am not talking about the Swedish dance queen, Pandora, nor the Mexican trio, Pandora, seen to the right.

From their FAQ:

Q: What is Pandora?

Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you enjoy music you already know, and to help you discover new music you'll love.

It's powered by the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken, the Music Genome Project: a crazy project started back in early 2000 to capture the complex musical DNA of songs using a large team of highly-trained musicians.

Just tell us one of your favorite songs or artists and we'll launch a streaming station to explore that part of the musical universe.

This service is beautiful and effortless as it serves up an entire genres' worth of tasty tunes that you can specify and switch with the click of the button. No more hunting for that amazing playlist you made last year or relying on the random feature of your favorite media player to satisfy your eclectic tastes. Just type in the artist you want to hear and Pandora serves up unlimited hours of music similar in style.

Now you would think that this type of service might turn up a lot of duds within the genre, which can happen, but it has wonderful customization options that can tell it that you dislike a song and it will factor that into what it plays from then on (on that station at least). You can also tell it which songs rock and these will come up more often along with similar songs.

The free version will allow you all the features of the paid version just with advertising on the actual page but I haven't seen a single ad yet thanks to AdBlock Plus.

You can also capture every song on Pandora (along with other nifty features) with the handy Pandora's Jar. Pandora's Jar also works with the similar service, Last.fm which I have yet to explore. If you are looking strictly for great Electronica, another source is the consistently good, Proton Radio.

A few of my favorite stations on Pandora?

• Bonobo
• Cut Chemist
• Bebel Gilberto
• Ulrich Schnauss
• Make Love (by Daft Punk)
• Chemical Brothers

Some songs I have discovered and liked so much that I bookmarked them:

• Heat The Pot by Dreadzone
• Life, Rain, Fall by TM Juke
• Beat The Clock by Bob Sinclair
• Something In My Eye by Corduroy
• F*** Me On The Dancefloor by Disco D Ft. Princess Superstar
• Facing The Sun by Teebee, Maldini & Vegas
• Transmission by Replica
  
  
  Where do you find music?

Absurdism as a rule

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

- Dr. Seuss

I can't remember where I found this quote, but it really rings true with me. Around 11th grade I had a gradual shift in my life whereby I realized how much better off I was when I embraced the weirdest thoughts that flooded my brain. Before this point in my life I had been far too wrapped up in trying to act normal. I think it was mostly about wanting to have sex with the "hot" girls.

I must have thought that if I bought an Abercrombie hoodie and, and..... what? I can't even remember what the hell I thought I was fitting into and how I was going about it, but it was smooth sailing once I realized that I could be weird as hell and there were other people that really got a kick out of the bizarre as well (including some different hot girls!). Lately it seems that examples of amazing absurdity can be seen more and more frequently in the pop culture sphere. 


Take for example two new shows on the notoriously wierd Adult Swim line-up on Cartoon Network, Tim & Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! and Saul of the Mole Men. 

You can watch the episodes that aired tonight on Adult Swim's Fix.

My favorite segment from the premiere episode that aired last week can be found on the indispensable YouTube below:





What is the most absurd thing you have seen lately?

How to Change Anybody (Part 1)

Can people ever truly change? I think so.

I just started listening to the audio book version of How to Change Anybody by one David J Lieberman. I almost finished the first of three CDs before the sound card in my laptop apparently reached the culmination of its lifetime of destitute servitude, slaving away inside this ugly plastic case that Dell has been kind enough to provide for the world.

Lieberman starts off with the statement that anyone can change their beliefs. He breaks someone's character down into beliefs and values. Our beliefs are used to justify our past and to rationalize our current behavior. Values can be broken down into mean values and end values, with the mean values being those that eventually lead to the end values. So if someone's end value is happiness, their mean value might be money, it might be power, but as long as it can be identified, it can be changed. All one needs to do is reshape the belief that connects these two values together. This can happen naturally when someone makes a lot of money and realizes that this alone, has not lead to the predicted end value of happiness or respect. He doesn't elaborate on this too much, but instead goes right into the situation specific tactics for changing someone's behavior.

The first area he tackles is morals. If someone lacks a strong moral compass, it can severely hinder progress and development in life. The more insightful of these tactics was the image consistency and raising the bar strategies. Image consistency refers to the situation of someone attributing positive qualities to us, which we then try and maintain in their eyes for as long as possible. He uses the example of a man who gets praised mightily by a distant relative who has come to visit, even if he never raises a finger to help his close family. This effect seems to be magnified the shorter the relationship has lasted. When I heard that, my mind did one of those gears clicking into place things where I felt like I had seen some very concrete examples of that in my own life.

(quick metaphysical digression, I am also reading Alan Watts' The Supreme Identity, wherein he writes that, “...just as one cannot reach the sky by climbing, so the metaphysical infinity is not attainable through degrees of analogical knowledge. This is why it is always more exact to say that intellectual knowledge is realized rather than attained, because the word 'realization' implies the discovery of something already present or given. The sky appears to be above us, but we are in fact living in its midst (emphasis mine).”)

The raising the bar strategy refers to the act of praising someone lavishly instead of chastising them when they do something wrong. Only after you have given sufficient praise should you then inform them that the behavior that they were using is unacceptable, that way you are criticizing the behavior and not the person. This seems very legitimate considering how poorly most people take even the lightest criticism.

Lieberman also tackles the issue of loyalty and how to inspire it in your coworkers, friends, and customers. He first advises that if you have someone who shows disdain or negativity, that you bring him or her to you side by entrusting them with a small, but singular responsibility and provide them with a measure of power. Once you raise someone else up to be a compatriot instead of a servant, they will start to fight your battles for you.

His most powerful advice in this section on loyalty basically advises that loyalty will come if people believe they are a part of greatness. This gets achieved by letting out the greatness in your heart and demonstrating that you are willing to do what is right even if there is an easier path available. He used the example of a CEO coming down and picking up trash off the workroom floor inspiring the workers to do the same and even more. Another example he used was if you are playing a card game and someone gets accused of cheating against you, if you defend them instead of only arguing for your side, people will see that you are taking a position that is unfavorable to you and this will command much more trust and loyalty.

This is getting pretty long so I think I will make this Part 1 of this review/synopsis. Join me next time!

Uncertainty & Hope in the 21st Century

Hey Folks, here is what I was working on this weekend instead of another blog post. An essay I submitted for a scholarship through the UW system. You can read about the scholarship here .

As the world hurtles full speed ahead into the 21st century we humans face crippling uncertainty. Potential college students think they will secure for themselves a life of gainful employment by choosing a specific track and fastidiously maintaining a high grade point average. The truth is that we are entering into a period of instability that hasn't been seen since before the first World War. Rampant globalization has led to a surge in outsourcing labor, the rise of the decentralized workplace, and the depreciation of the dollar. These complex developments have left countless citizens facing unemployment. This uncertain cultural situation brought on by such developments will necessitate an evolution in thought within the populace. No longer will a dogged approach to one’s labor niche be enough to guarantee even a modest, comfortable lifestyle. The soon-to-be-twenty-something undergraduate population faces a decision: either to dip into one's store of creativity and serve up something of genuine value or drown in a sea of banality, struggling to work as hard as possible while producing superficial, ultimately unimportant work.

A well-rounded liberal arts education may be the only defense against this type of instability. More and more students are realizing the need for a diverse education in today's world. A liberal arts path offers the chance for significant personal development not only in knowledge, but also in efficiency and novelty of thought. This naturally leads to a development of the most marketable trait for the future: adaptability. The ability to change to fit circumstances, to learn new skills quickly, will be of paramount importance in the shaky years ahead. Those who have realized this fact are commonly shunning the status quo of the 20th century, favoring instead new models of entrepreneurship harnessing the freedom, cost effectiveness, and speed afforded, for example, by the worldwide web.

The exponential surge in technological innovation, exemplified by the Internet, will continue unabated - and the ways in which this changes traditional business models have only begun to manifest. We have already seen the emergence of literal overnight success that was unthinkable only two decades ago. The web has created an environment that disposes with the need to fund expensive marketing strategies. The market of today has seen the replacement of traditional advertising, instead harnessing the power of word-of-mouth communication inherent in the blogging and social networking in which nearly every youth in America now engages. The potential for rapid growth allowed within this new explosive information age has yet to be fully understood but it is easily observed in many examples including Myspace, Youtube, and Google. As technology continues to evolve, it will be reliably proven time and again that money can be scooped up out of the river of wealth simply by focusing on creative output and effective marketing.

Traditional barriers to success like socio-economic status, race, and gender are dissolving in the absence of skilled, enthusiastic young minds. If one can manage to overcome the oppressive sense of laziness and ennui frequently burdening the youth of today, there is an entire new world of possibilities available with new innovations able to spring to life in a fraction of the time it would have taken at any other period in history. Sadly this technology has become a double-edged sword. With it has come a flood of information and perspective, but it seems to possess just as torrential an effect at leaving folks in a daze; gawking at their own inability to inspect more closely all of the various interesting things happening every day. It is now nearly impossible to keep up with a learning curve growing exponentially steeper; the more one learns, the more one finds to learn about. There must therefore be a paradigm shift in the way a liberal arts education gets utilized. As Robert Heinlein said, “specialization is for insects”. Students of the liberal arts need to resist emphasis on specialization. We must connect disparate ideas and refine our thinking so as to be able to stand out as creative free thinkers not only in today's overly crowded job market, but also in the connected world of the future.

The options available for my generation are less than fluid, but we must not forget to assiduously consider the generations to come. I want my children to receive the liberal arts education afforded to me. I want my children to grow up able to draw their own conclusions, able to get the facts and the fiction and be able to tell which is which: a son who will look me in the eyes and disagree with the conviction of someone who has considered the options, a daughter who will have access to the vast knowledge of humankind past and present, to knowledge of the true variety of experience available on this planet. A liberal arts education teaches this critical thought through stimulating minds with fresh and ancient ideas alike; ideas which build a critical, fruitful mind that capitalizes on every situation and recognizes failure as the opportunity it provides and not the momentary consequences it delivers. A liberal arts education acts as a springboard into the pool of the human spirit, a foundation upon which the fertile soil of young minds may grow and nourish any number of careers, hobbies, and passions. Ironically, a liberal arts education prepares us precisely for the uncertain future we face by stimulating knowledge in a diverse array of fields; because every thought, every idea absorbed may one day factor into a paramount decision.

Open Source, DIY, & Face Yoga

Face Yoga? Hell yes! I have participated in this my entire life as I am a frequent yawner and eye-widener. I also discovered the eye exercises mentioned here years ago and have tried to incorporate them into my life. Basically, the advice I read said to look into the most extreme diagonal corners of your vision alternating opposite sides; so:
up to your right, down to your left, up to your left, down to your right. It also recommended holding an object or just using your hand for something to focus on in those corners of your sight for even greater benefit.

I used to drive down 10 miles of highway every single day when I was going to high school and when I was bored I would sometimes practice the focus technique by focusing on something on the horizon and then focusing on the dirt or bug brains on my windshield. Doing this back and forth for a while will make your eyes slightly sore and may distract you from the road so don't blame me if you hit granny going to get her mail while strengthening your vision!

Another thing to look at for improving vision is the controversial Bates Method endorsed by the amazing Aldous Huxley.

On the Open Source Front:

Paris LOVES the open source! They are giving away 175,000 USB Drives loaded with open source software like firefox and openoffice (I assume, it doesn't specify the office suite)

Princeton library joins Google Books project
While Google definitely has some ulterior motives to many of their projects, I can't help but love them for trying to digitize every piece of literature ever. The addition of the Princeton Library will add thousands of pieces of knowledge to the fingertips of anyone with an internet connection.

I would also like to point out how much I endorse the new Do It Yourself (DIY) movement taking place thanks to the likes of people like MAKE & Instructables. A cool DIY item I found today is Make Your Own Febreeze!

I love Febreeze for its skip-the-washing-machine-when-all-that's-nasty-is-cig-smell abilities.

More on Open Source

I suppose I should bring some more clarity to the philosophy of open source that I claim to loosely base this blog on.

This might be best achieved by some examples:

You can't talk about open source without mentioning Linux. Linux remains one of the few alternatives to Microsoft and Apple in the desktop environment. From Wikipedia, "Its underlying source code is available for anyone to use, modify, and redistribute freely, and in some instances the entire operating system consists of free/open source software." Linux has been the territory of only the nerdiest geeks for a long time but the emergence of user-friendly packaged distributions like Ubuntu has led to Linux becoming a viable alternative for the average computer user fed up with proprietary nonsense.

If you want to do something on a computer there is almost always going to be an open source solution already developed for exactly that purpose. Someone named Jason has compiled an awesome list of open source software for replacing windows software.

Some of my fav's

Firefox (web browser)

OpenOffice (Office Suite)
Completely replaces and can handle all powerpoint, spreadsheet, and word processing tasks with ease and greater compatibility.

Gaim (Instant Messenger)
Chat on any service - AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN, Jabber, ICQ - with this multi-platform, tabbed IM client.

Don't think that this is just limited to computer software though. An amazing humanitarian cause can reap huge benefits from this model. The Open Architecture Network is one such cause. According to this article,

The Open Architecture Network is a collaborative database which Architecture for Humanity hopes will make it easy for architects, designers and engineers from around the world to freely share their work, evaluate and modify existing solutions, and collaborate around new approaches. Think of it as the Wikipedia of humanitarian design, the first big step towards open source design.

With a coalition of sponsors and partners, including Sun, Architecture for Humanity built and is starting to test a system designed to be not just a repository of good ideas, but a tool for collaboration and research. Users will be able, Cameron says, to search existing ideas based on a number of criteria (such as, say, "housing, affordable, tropical, community-designed, passive solar, bamboo materials) and the ratings of other users.

As you can see, there are very few, if any, problems that don't benefit from an open source design! Got any counter examples? Post 'em in the comments.

Introduction to BitTorrent Technology

Since many of my blog post ideas would involve referencing it, I thought I would write up an introduction to BitTorrent technology.

According to bittorrent.com, BitTorrent is a peer-assisted, digital content delivery platform that provides the fastest, most efficient means of distributing, discovering, and consuming large, high-quality files on the Web.

This is mostly marketing terminology for the purpose of giving business men erections.

Let me take you back in time.

Around the end of 8th grade I was still watching MTV whenever I could go to someone's house with cable (the cable co. stopped service a mile from our house). One day, while consuming this amazing array of advertising, I saw a beautiful woman interviewing some forgotten recording artist about his opinion on Napster. Well upon hearing this buzzword I searched for it on the web that very night and thus was my introduction to illegal file sharing borne.



Mind you my parents' computer was still crawling along the web with a 28.8 kbps phone line connection until only a couple years ago. So, slowly I started collecting a large mass of single, low-quality mp3 files through the magic of Napster.

Napster didn't remain the single content provider for long before Morpheus showed up, and then there was Kazaa, and more recently Limewire has been the client of choice for those seeking to plug in a search term for their favorite pop ditty and get immediate (if greatly varying in quality) results.

Now we are back in the present again and Limewire still commands a lot of loyal users, but those who are serious about their music (or movies, games, software, porn) know that bittorrent is the only way to fly (or trade files).

Here is the man who created bittorrent just for reference.



Now in order to use this amazing service, one simply needs a bittorrent client program, a tracker website, and an internet connection.

Here is a cute graphic from the bittorrent.com site

Now the way it works is: the content (music) is on someone else's computer, they use software to create a very small .torrent file, this file then goes up on a tracker page (the delivery), when you download the .torrent file, it lets your client software see where those files are on that other person's computer and it proceeds to download them promptly onto your hard drive(the device).

The best client software in my opinion is: µTorrent (or Transmission for those Mac users)

There are many popular tracker pages out there to choose from, if you want to search many at once you can use Torrentz, if you are more in the browsing mood I recommend The Pirate Bay

Haven't figured it out yet? OK so click “download utorrent” in the right corner of this page and install it on your computer.

Go find that latest episode of Grey's Anatomy on The Pirate Bay:LINK
and click “download this torrent” in green.

(Quick side-note, you will probably need this to play these video files as Windows Media Player or Quicktime will usually not work)

Don't click “Save As” just click “Open” and your torrent software should pop up saying, “Where do you want to save this?” Just choose a folder on your computer where you will remember and hit start and once the status bar fills up you can go and watch your precious Grey's Anatomy with a pint of Ben & Jerry's at any hour and without commercial interruption!

Now I kind of lost track of that original topic of superior music downloads that I mentioned earlier so let me just catch up real quick with this:

So you forgot to backup your data and just lost your entire music collection? Don't think you will have to re-search for every one of those precious Enya songs on Limewire, no! Because bittorrent trackers will often have people compiling every cd an artist has ever made into a discography torrent. Please, before you shed any more tears on your keyboard, go here and download those 5 Enya albums, run a hot bath, light some candles, put itunes on repeat, and never leave the house again!

I read

lots and lots of web pages daily. It is an addiction that I have a hard time figuring out if I even want to shake or not. One of the tools that has made this slightly easier and (maybe) less time consuming is Google Reader. This is what is known as an RSS reader. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary and basically acts as an index for a web page's content. So when you see that little orange icon () in the corner of most web pages, it means that you can subscribe to that web page using a reader program, therefore letting you know when someone has updated a web page without having to check up on it every five minutes. You can even get notified of new content straight up "You've Got Mail" style.

Bloglines is a very popular alternative to Google.

You can do a wide variety of things with RSS.

Some of the blogs I subscribe to on Google Reader include:

Lifehacker (RSS)
Instructables (RSS)
MAKE Magazine (RSS)
Craigslist Free Section (RSS)
Cool Tools (RSS)
I Will Teach You to Be Rich (RSS)

OS Introduction

Hello

I suppose I might as well let people know who the hell is writing this so I now present to you, my faithful, faceless audience, a scratch on the surface of my being.

My name is Nicholas Alexander Teeple. I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in the Jewish Hospital but I lived in Covington, KY until we moved to Wisconsin in 1995. The thing I remember most about living in Covington was our amazing view of the Cincinnati skyline from our porch (I will try and find a picture of this next time I visit my parents). This view would be most memorable every labor day when one of the largest fireworks shows in the country would take place on the Ohio river. My younger brother and I would sit in our tree house listening to the synchronized music on the local rock station and be completely at peace with each other, our daily squabbles silenced by an oppressive sense of awe and wonder. These are some of my most vivid images of childhood.

Fast forward to the present (for now). I will be 21 in March, I go to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, I am currently enrolled in an English course with blogging as its focus. Now I have a surefire way to motivate myself to keep blogging; an arbitrary letter grade!

The title of this blog indicates the type of content with which I would like to fill it. Namely, detailed processes or methods I employ in surviving on this planet in a relatively efficient and comfortable manner. I identify strongly with the philosophy of Open Source. I want to deliver my methods to the world with the hope that my words will help another human being in some way and conversely, that someone will comment on my blog with an illuminating revision to my methods of madness.

To reiterate: Please respond to my words with constructive criticism no matter how minute. The human mind has an amazing capacity for drawing new conclusions and possibilities from the smallest hint or wink of a idea and there is no telling what impact we may have on one another.