HD For Indies

UPDATED WEDNESDAY: see video at bottom, just so that I'm not the only one with that stuck in my head. Bonus round to whomever takes the time to make that a ringtone using the below methodology and emailing it to me - you'll get, umm, something cool for your trouble.

: )

How To: Create Custom iPhone Ringtones the Free and Apple Way

Won't work with your purchased music, but will from all your MP3s of ripped CDs.

Fun and FREE - I find it HIGHLY vexing that Apple/AT&T want you to pay to make a ringtone out of music you already own...

MORE IPHONE FUN:

Plus this handy other iPhone tip from The Editblog � OT: A nice iPhone discovery

"double click the home button from sleep mode and you will get an iPod controller at the top of the screen. It’s a controller complete with play/pause button, skip track buttons that can be held down for fast forward and rewind, a volume slider and the track title."


Schweet find, Scott!

-mike

BONUS: Most brainsticky song of late:



Hit me if you want me baby
I'll be on my iPhone...

Labels: iPhone, OT

Apple - Support - AppleCare Protection Plan for iPhone

Attention fellow iPhoners - you can buy AppleCare that will cover out to the end of your 2 year AT&T contract for an additional $69. Two years from date of purchase I think, or activation. In any case, ends when the contract does, NOT an extra year beyond from when you purchase it.

For more info, see the AppleCare FAQ, which makes frequent mention of the iPhone.

At one point, accidental damage was most definitely going to be in there as well, but it got yanked from the plan late in the game. Booooooooo, Apple.

Also, Bluetooth headsets are starting to ship out to customers.

Labels: iPhone, OT

CNN.com - Lady Bird Johnson passes at 94

This is WAY off topic, but personally relevant - Lady Bird Johnson, widow of former President Lyndon Johnson, passed away not an hour ago. She was at home and surrounded by family and friends - a more loving and gentle passing could not have been had.

People in the public eye are often called inspirational and a good role model, and to my cynical eye I often doubt it, ascribing it to power and placement and a good PR team and saying nice things about them. In short, I doubt (witness some of the recent national leadership).

Not so in this case.

If you aren't of a certain age (or from Texas), you may never have heard of her. But here in central Texas, she is Legend, and deeply beloved by ALL. She came from the humblest of beginnings, and distinguished herself not only by assisting her husband's political aspirations, but also on her own - the Highway Beautification Act was "her baby," and in Texas and beyond we can thank her for the seeding of wildflower seeds along highways - it is a beautiful legacy we get to enjoy every spring. She also was very active in Head Start, started the National Wildflower Research Center (later renamed for her, which she started when she was 70), and many other civic and social improvement projects.

As one of MANY examples, right here in Austin, the Town Lake Trail that I run every day (including today) was something that she spearheaded, something beautiful, and wonderful, and in touch with nature, right in the public heart of the city, a treasure for all and for all time. This is deeply indicative of Her Way.

To me, she was a gracious, kind and gentle soul, good to her family and friends, and she will be deeply missed, and her passing mourned heartfelt. A few years ago I attended an event at the LBJ Library and letters she had written over the years were read by her daughters and granddaughters. I was amazed at the eloquence and natural grace of her writing. Someone who knew her well said that anything she wrote was like reading a well crafted novel. Truly, a woman of vision, grace, energy, passion, kindness, empathy, and a deep, driving sense to do goodwill unto all around her.

I bring this up because she and her family have had a powerful, amazing, wonderful, beneficial impact on my own life, and I am deeply grateful. Odds are you wouldn't be reading this blog (because I wouldn't be writing it) if it weren't for her and her family.

Rest well, Lady Bird.

You have earned it.

You are loved.

-mike

Labels: OT

I very often update articles after posting them - so if something is of interest, check back. I've updated the Final Cut Studio 2.0.1 update article twice, both in significant ways, pointing out new features and discoveries from personal usage.

I updated that Top Ten audio workflow article with a long piece on single vs dual system sound, I updated the ProLost article on Redrock's new camera gadget with user submitted photos, etc.

So if something catches your eye, be sure to go back and look again. Or if you read regularly, every once in a while skim back over the week to see what you missed. I try to always note at the top in bold when it is updated (but I realize I did that 1 time out of 3 here, so I need to get better at it.)

-mike

Labels: blogs, OT

Short version for the attention span impaired:

1.) Get your name and home phone and/or email address engraved on any expensive iGadget you buy
2.) If lost, makes for an easy way to find you
3.) If stolen, makes it tougher to sell as easier to identify the true/original owner
4.) I wrote a fun little story that you might enjoy reading if you enjoy some of my sillier asides on the blog.

Long version:

So the other day I commented down in the bottom of the blogwad that somebody went into my garage (set back 50 feet from the street in a quiet neighborhood) and stole my mountain bike and then went into my car and stole an iPod.

The bike I fear is a goner (an indestructible 1991 Bridgestone MB-2 with lots of customizations and great memories, dammit), but I got a call from a stranger saying she'd found my iPod. Since I'd gone to the trouble to order it with my name and phone number engraved on the back, she called the number, met me at a gas station on her way home, and handed it over with a thanks and God Bless. Well, Big Thanks to Andrea for taking the time to do the right thing and call me - MUCH appreciated.

Secondly, that right there is why I won't be walking out of the Apple Store with an iPhone on Friday. YES, I'll almost certainly be ordering one, but I'm going to sit out First Geek To Touch week of doodling with it (and probably starting a related blog, and yes I reserved iphonehacker.com but will probably hold back doing anything with it). That alone will vastly increase my productivity that week.

But I'm going to order one with my name, email and home phone number engraved on it* - because if I hadn't done so, there's no way in hell I'd be holding my silver iPod Mini right now - I figure the bum who stole it either didn't have headphones, the battery ran out and they didn't have a way to charge, and/or they saw the name and number on the back and figured that'd be a hindrance to selling it at a pawn shop. Same thing likely to apply with the iPhone - there will be a zillion units virtually identical to look at. YES, there will be a database of serial numbers, but if the SIM is replaceable, no one will probably ever know. It'd be great if Apple & AT&T had some clever anti-theft detection network going, such that any phone reported stolen could be remotely shut down at a serial number level. But I haven't heard of such yet to date.

Also, what are YOUR thoughts as to home # or email address? EDIT - there's room for all, see above. Home phone # is easily reverse lookup-able to find your address online, so can be a security threat there - I've heard never let a criminal find out your address, gives them a specific target. Plus, by definition they know you have substantial disposable income (you just spent 10X going rate for a cellphone, QED). BUT....home phone number is cake and easy for someone honest to call and say they found it. If you do email address, that's a little harder for somebody to go to the trouble to let you know they found it, it couldn't possibly be a long distance call...but they have to have an email address and go to the trouble to do so. (you could always invite them to send you an email on the phone...but no room to explain all that. Then they'd try it and love it and not want to give it back....) ; D

With so many exactly visually identical iPhones about to hit the market, it just strikes me as a really good idea - and don't even TRY to tell me these won't be one of the hottest things to steal this summer.

Oh - I'll betcha you can only get engraving done if you order it directly from Apple online, and not from AT&T (that's a guess).

So yeah, I'll be itching like a heroin addicts while my friends play with theirs and shout "No touchie!" over their crouched shoulders (Hmm, something like this, I wonder? Remember Mmmmm....iPrecious from when iPhone was announced?)

So long as I'm talking Off Topic, I wrote this fun little story about my friend finding her glasses, me finding my iPod, my friend Kitty, God, miracles, and Schrodinger's Cat. It is 97% true. If you like my goofy asides, you'll probably like this one - I had a lot of fun writing it.

* yes, they haven't announced that yet. But I Have My Sources.

Labels: iPhone, OT

I don't usually push for volunteer positions for other endeavors, but I'm on the Advisory Committee for this one, it is a GREAT cause, and I'd love to see them succeed. My bold for emphasis below.

The Mobile Film School is currently looking for Film Industry Production Crew to volunteer for an 8-day, total immersion documentary production workshop in Elgin, Texas.

The Mobile Film School is a local non-profit organization set up as a script-to-screen mobile studio designed to teach filmmaking and mentor students in rural and other underserved areas that have little or no access to film instruction and resources. We are currently collaborating with Elgin ISD to create a summer program in which high school students will participate in an intensive, 8-day documentary film workshop where they will produce a short documentary reflecting the Elgin community in some way through their storytelling.

WHERE: Elgin, Texas

WHEN: 8am – 9pm, Saturday, July 21-28, 2007

As this is on a volunteer basis, whatever time you may be available to help during this time frame (from as little as one day to the full 8 days) can be scheduled accordingly. All meals (3 meals per day) will be provided, and transportation arrangements can be made if needed.

The Mobile Film School is looking for the following volunteer positions:

Technical Assistants: We need volunteers that are proficient with all film equipment, such as MiniDV cameras and accessories, lighting, sound, and editing. TA’s will help manage the check in/check out of all equipment to students, general maintenance and troubleshooting issues on set, as well as lend students a helping hand with equipment during the shoot.

Production Assistants: We need volunteers to help manage production coordinating and general set operations during the workshop. General tasks may include coordinating of students, filming locations, equipment, craft services, and scheduling. PA’s will be needed to assist all staff, faculty and students in pre-production activities before the workshop, as well as all production activities during the workshop.

For more information on the Mobile Film School please visit our website at www.mobilefilmschool.org

Interested parties should contact:

Kristina Mann

The Mobile Film School

888-MFS-FILM (637-3456)

512.906.2420 office

kristina@mobilefilmschool.org


It is a good cause, it will probably be a lot of fun to work with kids with a ton of passion and energy, and you'd be doing a Good Thing. Ask around if you know anybody qualified. Maybe recent grads with some time on their hands?

-mike

Labels: OT

I've had two reports of Firefox difficulties again, and I noticed a traffic falloff the last couple of days - is the blog freezing up Firefox again? I noticed Amazon started changing out some of my book ads for generic "Buy Amazon Stuff" type ads (without my explicit consent, durn it), and I'm wondering if that is what is causing the difficulty.

If you are (or were, if you're reading this) a Firefox user and having trouble, please let me know, either via Comments link below or email me.

-mike, aka the management

MONDAY UPDATE - problem appears to be Amazon (again), I've contacted them, they are going to look into it, but I need to leave the site as is so they can troubleshoot unfortunately. Patience, please, while it gets fixed.

MONDAY AFTERNOON UPATE: HOW ABOUT NOW? I got an email from somebody say thanks it was fixed, and then I just checked it myself with my own and it seems to be working.

Labels: housekeeping, OT

an off the cuff observation, coupled with some other thoughts that weren't quite their own entries, and some miscellaneous ramblings, all pasted into one blog entry since I don't have time to develop these enough to stand on their own wobbly/ugly duck feet:

If you're lookin' for real news, there isn't any here, just some self-indulgent thoughts and sloppy writing. Perhaps somebody like Scott Kirsner can make some sense and order of these ideas (or perhaps already has, I'm weeks behind on his blog). In any case, if you're looking for some hard facts, move along, these most definitely aren't the droids you're looking for. OK, you've been warned.

The main premise - TV's fix for dwindling revenue seems to be to chase downmarket, while studios making feature films are trying to push upmarket to solve the same problem. (I then ramble all over those ideas like a drunk at a wedding.)

Can they both be right? Are they both wrong? One or the other? Some other possible variant? Is the answer 42, Douglas Adams?

Premise: ALL media producers are getting concerned about their future revenue potential as the ground shifts beneath their feet:

-Newspapers are concerned about dwindling subscriptions - will the web & TV be the future of news? Both are used to being free or advertising supported (or cable) - where will they go, what will they do? The benefits of newspapers (depth, easy transport, 12 hours to market) are dwindling as laptops & blogs & CNN continue to encroach. Their theoretical trump card, quality writing by professionals, continues to be not as well implemented as theory would indicate. Sigh. But I get their dilemma - it takes some serious TIME and effort to properly research a story and verify all your facts - and it is tough to either have the time, or be able to cost justify the time. A good, serious test & review takes me days to do - that's why I do so few of them anymore, and usually for a magazine, not for the blog (not enough income generated from the activity!)

-The broadcast networks, on the other hand, are concerned about dwindling ratings - I've been reading stories lately about lots of network affiliate stations getting sold off, as this is considered about as good as it is going to get. Cable TV draws away audiences, as does the Internet in general and video games for the younger & maler* skewed demographics.

* (and yes, I just molested a noun).

-The response? The trend seems to be, in part, more cheaper television - a few years ago it was reality TV - it was cheap to produce, didn't need high production value, didn't need stars (certainly not expensive ones, except for the hosts that became stars), and could be cranked out by the bucketful. Now the trend is towards game shows - I just saw an ad for Friday night primetime bingo - as the Wicked Witch said, "What a world, what a world...." Or for competition shows, which seem to have been milked dry - witness A&E getting down to hair & interior design as competition shows. Power yawn. But again - the weekly talent is either hosts (usually non-major cost), the weekly talent is free, and the production value doesn't have to be too terribly high. See footnote (1).

-Studios & theaters are concerned about dwindling box office - it has already been the case for YEARS that DVD income tops theatrical release income - most theatrical releases are a break-even at best, and profits don't occur until DVD time. Most studio films cost roughly $60M to produce, with another roughly $30M in marketing & advertising costs. Yowza. But cable TV, DVDs (which seem to be getting rented more than bought these days - anybody got any hard numbers to back up that supposition?), high def home theaters are snacking away on the studio's piece of the entertainment pie, as well as video games and the Internet now vie for our evening and weekend attention.

So what are they doing? Making fewer, bigger movies that play to the angle you can't get at home - the SPECTACLE. Movies that you WANT to see in a darkened room, with 300 strangers, on a really big honkin' screen with really beefy noise - a fully concussive, immersive experience. Disney has come right out and said that they're doing it (fewer more expensive at least), blaming it on an inabilty to manage that many quality feature projects. Really? I'd think you'd just hire some more six figure execs to oversee projects. If talent is scarce, steal'em from competition by offering them more money. $300K/year isn't much as compared to nearly $100M/feature. Is the issue really managing projects, or that it is harder to impress folks nowadays?

-The counter argument? Sometimes movies can be made that go low market, and they'll work - witness Borat and Jackass: The Movie. Both scathingly funny, relatively cheap to produce (Borat shot on Varicam, BTW - see? It IS an HD for Indies post! ......................................NOT!) But risky - both coulda flopped bigtime, and while production costs were low, they didn't exactly skimp on the marketing of those two films - regardless of production costs, if studios want to push a film, it is still big money to do so. Keep in mind - the typical marketing budget of a mainstream studio film is enough to produce 1-3 (or more) modest but decent indie films. So even if a distributor picks up YOUR movie for $2M, if they're shooting for wide theatrical release, they're going to spend MANY times that marketing the film - and they'd be expecting to make an ROI on that money. Of course, you'd be lucky as hell if they were going for wide release with your $2M acquied movie, but that's another post entirely.

At the same time though, some broadcast & cable networks are going upmarket too - look at the cost & production value that goes into Lost, for instance. (footnote 2). They spend a fortune on that sucker, especially in the early episodes. That first one with the crash was lower end feature quality, but on a TV budget. I continue to read about how TV VFX work is done SO fast, under SO much pressure. It clearly isn't as good as feature film work, and they don't try anything nearly as complex (think about Davy Jones in Pirates 3), but strictly in terms of results/dollar/production hour, it is pretty damned impressive. Alias was another example of this a few years back, and Battlestar Galactica has done a nice job of Looking Big on a not huge budget (thanks to cheap & fast 3D hardware/software - curious to see an inflation adjusted analysis of original Battlestar Galactica episodes as compared to today's). There have also been some damned impressive mini-series, but not lately - remember Band of Brothers? Wow. There are some - Planet Earth on Discovery HD was damned impresive as well, but in a different way.

In any case, a lot of this is just gut feel and supposition, I don't have hard data and analysis to back it up. I pretty much just watch Comedy Central (Daily Show junkie), SciFi, my too many HBOs for my own good, and the HD channels (I'm still too impressed with good looking HD, hopefully I'll get over it and recover some of my life back). In any case, clearly not enough contemporary mainstream TV to claim any of this with any authority, this is just my feel of the situation.

Thanks for reading my ramblings here, this is has been another episode of Sloppy Blogging. If you have facts to prove or disprove any of my gut suppositions in here, feel free to Comment away using the link below the end of the article. If you want to chastise me for my meandering and sloppy writing, send it to our ever vigillant complaint department. We'll get back to you real soon now, promise. :D

Footnote (1) BIG FAT FOOTNOTE, PERHAPS SHOULD BE ITS OWN ENTRY: As a side note, I think it says interesting things about us as a country/culture - we fully acknowledge and admit we, as a Society, want Fame & Money - the national infatuation with Reality TV a few years ago was simply the nation having a discourse with itself on the subject of Just How Far Will You Go For Fame Or Money? I kinda enjoyed the physical challenge bits on Fear Factor - balance on a beam above the water and grab the flags, challenging your inner fear of heights, or race the clock for....something.

There was, at least, a healthy challenge to that - strive to do something scary to yourself, and achieve some bit of physical prowess. I can connect with that on a personal level - the first time I finished a multi-pitch ascent (rock climbing up several hundred feet, up the Black Cliffs in Cannibal Gulch in Donner Pass, and can YOU think of a scarier name for a place to climb outdoors first?), or the first time I finished a marathon (I burst out into tears, and I'm REALLY not the type to do that - I didn't cry when I crashed a bicycle at 50mph, or fractured my elbow, or....hell, anything physical).

Anyway, there was a robustness, a sincerity, a physio-spiritual quest to those challenges. Some of the challenges seemed too much to me, eliciting such a primal fear that it seemed dangerous to suggest anyone try it - the cylindrical water tank with clear plexiglass horizontal dividers with a random hole in it - swim down this one-way-only pachinko trap while holding your breath, then navigate your way out - I could just feel the drowning terror in my lungs just thinking about it. That seemed too much, too unhealthy - or maybe it is my own severe fear of drowning, and I'm not so afraid of heights.

Then there was The Eating Of Goat Balls, and All Such Similar Activities. As any Klingon can tell you with a straight (but wrinkly) face, That Hath No Honor. So reality TV was just us watching ourselves, either literally or figuratively (which Survivor do YOU most associate yourself with?), carefully quantifying with lab test care just how far we'd go to be America's Next Top Schpootie Doo or to win $50,000. Personally, I wouldn't eat goat balls for $50K, not even if you told me I was the only one competing and here's the check, ready to go.

It all boiled down to this - how much are you willing to abase yourself? You're willing to do WHAT? Kewl, we're gonna film that - just sign this release in case you die, or have a permanently mentally damaging shiver/hissy fit from being covered in cockroaches, slugs, mealworms and/or snakes up to your eyeballs, preferably all at the same time. And how many shows did they shoot before they realized they needed goggles, nose pinchers, AND earplugs? Eww ickie grody yick Yick YICK HURL. Oh, and do you have huge boobies? Great, we'll book you next week, wear this tight low cut top.

I like boobies* at least as much as the next 18-35 year old single male (wait, DRAT, I'm not one anymore, let's face it, I'm 39 in a coupla weeks), but that really put the icing on the Lowest Common Denominator Cake, and in a sickly, overly factory sugared way, not the fun way.

* (and I use that word on purpose in this context, as demeaning as I'd imagine the show producers would say/think it, to ram home how Not Cool their approach was)

Footnote (2) Talking about Lost, I loved that show at first, but it suffers from the same syndrome that befalls all my favorite shows (The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex & the City, The X Files, etc.) - after having a successful show because they set up an interesting challenge and started to make progress resolving those conflicts, once they started getting successful, they had to freeze any real character growth or change or development - because while they managed to hit the magical hit formula, if they changed something they might break the spell - so Tony Soprano meandered away from the interesting plotline of mobster with a conscience having panic attacks. 4 women trying to find love & happiness in New York is fun and interesting, 8 years later they're all still single? (And so am I?) That's f*****g depressing, change the channel.

The X Files posited some fascinating questions when they turned the corner from what I think of as the Old Testament (anything goes, lots of strange stuff happening) to the New Testament (One Grand Unified Theory of aliens green & grey, impending genetic attack, black oil, etc.) - once they embarked on the fascinating quest of It's All Real & Here, they could NEVER answer and resolve it - because they'd have to end the show. How interesting would it have been for The Big World Showdown to have occurred, Sculley & Mulder right in the thick of it, resolve it, and then move on? Coulda been fascinating, but they'd never risk it (nor could they afford to produce it fiscally).

Lost is, by definition, lost & hosed now - the show is so successful, they can NEVER get off the island. They've been stringing us out for so long (SPOILER ALERT), they had to show flashFORWARDS not flashbacks at the season ender of life after the island the other night, and I'm still trying to figure out what it all meant, and what was "real" in their fictional world. But I shouldn't - I thought deeply about the meaning of the shark with the Darma Project logo on its tail in an early episode, until I realized the only reason it was there was because the writers thought it was "just neat-o to throw that in." THEY don't know what's happening next episode, I strongly suspect, their job is to just to write an episode that makes you wonder what's going to hapen next week. The Big Picture? What Is The Island? What does it all mean? I don't think they know either, and that's what's galling. Think of all the false lead plot threads that have never been resolved (big scary monster stomping around the jungle & stealing people? Hullo? Did the Smoke Monster eat you or scare you off?).Feh. I was prepared to blow it off, but durnit, they made it interesting again...but only by coming up with NEW challenges, characters, etc. (Note we didn't know/care about Ben until HOW far into the show?) I wonder how many episodes he was signed on for when he first appeared, or if the writers knew his character arc/trajectory? Hmm. But without a sense that SOMEBODY has a Cool & Glorious Grand Unifying Theory of the island to drop on us, thus explaining all to us, slackjawed with amazement at the clever, subtle, sublime, ultimately simple bitchingness of it....I don't think it'll be worth watching indefinitely.

I'm also alarmed at how many cop/solve-it shows are on TV - Law & Order & CSI spinoffs, oh my. But that's another thread entirely. Are we THAT obsessed with having to turn to fictional justice served, since it is so hard to find in reality? I watch these from time to time as well, either in primetime or on the cable reruns*. Note what products are being advertised during those shows. Think about who that means they are marketing it to. Feel perturbed, regardless of whether you are in the target demographic.

* (I think you can watch those one of those two shows non-stop from 4pm till 3am if you have enough cable channels)

-on a related note, I used to like The West Wing until 9/11 - then the real world was more interesing yet far scarier than anything they could do on there. They lost their reason to be when the real West Wing switched from {omit my deeply personal political viewpoint} to having to try to deal with truly important issues instead of minor, day to day stuff, and then {omit personal/political perspective on wisdom/success/how insightful approach taken}.

OK, I should stop now, it is far after 1am and I started this at 10pm thinking it would take 15 minutes to get my thoughts out, hahhahahaaaaa, and this is getting into shades of David Foster Wallace (a personal hero, but this trait may not be a good one to emulate)

If you got this far,

a.) thank you, and

b.) my condolences.

As Dennis Miller said, "Stop me before I subreference again."

Too late.

-m

Labels: OT, think

my local apple store has 2 copies of FCS2 upgrade in stock, and they won't hold one, even for me.

(edit - no, I didn't really try to play the "But-but-but....I'm SPECIAL...[sniff]" card)

Insert driving video game.

3, 2, 1....GO!!!!!!!

and I'm off....

-m

UPDATE

The Fun Part:

Music To Exceed The Posted Speed Limit By, By More Than A Little Bit, from the playlist labelled doitdoitgogogo (aka Finish Da Race for the last few miles of a footrace):

Track 15: Underworld - Cowgirl ("Everything everything everything....I'm invisible...")

Track 16: Snatch Soundtrack - Hernando's Hideaway - good castanet action - I can't believe iTunes doesn't have this!

Track 17: Moulin Rouge Soundtrack - Lady Marmalade - it's nice when life times out such that the engine is hitting the high note at the same time as Christina Aguillera. My baby hit a high note around 8000 rpm's, I dunno what the Khz was for Christina. I did like the symmetry of those two pure, high, clean notes in perfect, crisp synchronicity.

....aaaaaaand shift. :D

Track 18: Fight Club Soundtrack - Stealing Fat This one lives on another playlist, truly and literally entitled "Music to Conspire To Take Over The World By"

....and that was enough to get me to the mall in rush hour traffic.

Result?

....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand denied.

Drat.

The Not So Fun Part

YES they have Final Cut Studio 2.

YES they have an upgrade box.

YES I called ahead and specifically asked if it was the one for Final Cut Studio, NOT Final Cut Pro.

YES they said they had that.

Upon arrival and inspection, GEE, it is the $699 one that upgrades BOTH Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio.

NO, I do NOT want to pay an extra $200 more than I need to.

They called the one other store (WAaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy on the other side of town in Friday rush hour traffic) and they had the same thing, so no need to spend 2 hours driving.

Lesson to Learn - nice enough people, but they do not know what the frickazoid razzle frazzle mumfaluff they are talking about. Remember, they are making Mall Wages.

NOW I remember that this is exactly what I went through a year or two ago with a prior upgrade, a false start run up to the mall for...the wrong version.

IF you face a similar predicament, THE WAY to fix it - when you call ahead, tell them to tell you the price on the box - the Final Cut STUDIO upgrade is $499, the Final Cut Pro upgrade is $699.

I want it, but not $200 for 4 days want it bad.

Harrumph.

I Am Jack's Impotent Rage.

I bought a book on iLife '06 so my parents maybe won't call me with, shall we say, BASIC questions quite so often just to make the trip not QUITE such a loss. I then realized it was 5:30pm (I left the house around 5) on a Friday and I'd be fighting all the other salmon upstream, so decided to check out what movies they had in the mall. The thought of Shrek 3 ("On Four Screens!) makes my skin peel, so I went to see The Invisible. Ehh - wait to rent it, or even for Cinemax to carry it.

Back in the car, the perfect denouement music was queued up for me - Fight Club Soundtrack - What Is Fight Club?" - truly music to brood and mull and conspire to take over the world by.

And When I Am King, false answers on software in stock shall be dealt with....harshly....where'd I put that lye?

Only kidding when thinking about telling mall employees, in a calm,perfectly perfunctory chipper tone: "This is a chemical burn. This will hurt more than anything in your life."

...aaaaaaaand pour....

....or maybe I just need a hug to deal with my disappointment...





I'm Tyler behind the wheel (or at least _I_ think so), but I Am Jack's Bitter Disappointment sitting at home in front of machine NOT running the new toyz I know are out there...

-Cornelius

Labels: Apple, FCP, Final Cut, OT

Just got back from seeing The Lives of Others.

WOW, what a moving, beautiful, richly complex film. If you haven't heard of it, it is about East Germany in the 80s and how Stasi watched over the populace with a staff of 100,000 and 200,000 informants working for them. The first half of the film I kept being scared by how much our own country is headed in that direction, and the second half was so wrapped up in the story and characters I didn't worry about the world politics anymore.

The story is in part that of the Stasi man set to watch over and listen in on the lives of a playright and his girlfriend. He starts to gradually bend then break the rules about how he should and should not perform his duties was particularly meaningful to me at this particular point in time. A man who sits in a room, alone, paying attention to information coming in over wires, and types up reports about it for unknown others to read....gee, no, I don't see how that bears any relation to my own life in any way...

The story is deeply moving, and I highly recommend any and everyone go see it. After watching the film with its claustrophobic, paranoid social environment for two hours, I didn't realize how tense I was until a character sitting in a basement steaming open letters for the East German secret service is told The Wall has come down...and he just gets up and leaves, simple as that. Suddenly, I could breathe deeply again, my chin lifted, my heart soared.

As theatrical experiences go, it should be noted I saw it at The Dobie, the only arthouse theater near campus for UT-Austin (50,000 undergrads). They are one of the original arthouse theaters in Austin in my lifetime. I was telling my friend BJ (who came to Austin to attend UT in the 90s) as we were grabbing a slice of pizza at Niki's outside the theater that I blacked out in Niki's once - heat prostration from riding my bike up to campus in the August Texas heat. Anyway, the Dobie isn't great as a theater - non-stadium seating (which makes subtitled movies all the more challenging, even though I'm 6 foot 4), smallish screens, goofy projection (last film I saw there they ran all the trailers with the aspect ratio wrong). But they do run some fantastic movies, such as this one. After a while you forget that you're reading the subtitles (leaning back and forth to read around somebody's head), and just get pulled completely into the experience. Sitting there quietly as the credits rolled (almost everyone else remained seated as well, basking in the warm cathartic glow), it reminded me of what's best about the theatrical experience, sharing an experience with a good friend and a group of people.

---------

On the other hand...

Last night I stayed up late since Netflix delivered an HD DVD to me...John Carpenter's The Thing [HD DVD] (and YES, I'm cheezy enough to put a link to my online store in an article, so THERE! ; ) ). For some reason, I just LOVE this movie - it came out when I was just barely a teenager, I don't recall who snuck me into it when I was too young, but it just blew me away with its audacity, open ended scariness, and of course, badass special effects.

If you haven't seen it before, it is a cult classic amongst Scary Creature movies. The set pieces were excellent - a small group of men, isolated from the world in Antarctica, faced with a frightening unknown. What made it so good was the unknown aspect - a creature that could mimic anyone or any thing, and turn into anything it had ever been at any point. Seeing it in high def was a treat (and YES, Beer Makes It Better) - freeze framing when Norris' neck stretches out all green and gooey, the Crawling Head, the Dog Thing, all the good stuff. HD pays off BIG time for stuff like this - I don't think I'd freeze framed my way though since I watched it on VHS who knows how many years ago. There's TONS of supplemental materials on it, and I realized I've had a mistaken understanding of the plot mechanics for about 20 years - for those who care (spoiler alert), I'd always ASSUMED, ever since I very first saw it, that the Big Thing at the end was the Dog Thing that crawled off into the ceiling earlier in the film, and had been quietly groing and getting bigger ever since. I assumed that Blair, after walking off with his fingers hooked into Garry's face (GREAT sound design on that bit, implied all kinds of horribleness going on without showing a thing, or rather a Thing), simply got out of the way, and communicated with now bigger Dog Thing (that looked like a big roach that crawled into the ceiling) to go get MacReady now. NOPE! Turns out I never noticed that the Thing that pops up out of the floor, with the huge horrible teeth IS Blair! (This movie takes considerable liberties with conservation of mass). If you look closely (and HD allows for plenty of that), you can see to the left of the giant teeth is Blair's face - the giant mouth has grown out the left side of Blair's head, but you can still see Blair's mouth and eye. This is even more horrible and alien - you can see how The Thing has repurposed Blair's flesh in a way that shows contempt or lack of concern for Blair's somatic intactness - an invasion of Blair's wholeness - even moments after Blair looked fully human (but was really an alien copy of Blair). Psychologically, this makes The Thing even creepier and scarier to me, and makes me respect the efforts Rob Bottin put into not just the creature design but the creature concept/philosophy. Wrap that in with the dark, unknown ending, and you've got a total winner in my book (for this genre).

You can watch the extensive Extras and see looooooooong interviews with all the key people on the film - there's a great explosive story about the Norris chest burster scene. Watching some of their earlier concept art, you can see how close they came to making something that would have been utterly forgettable as an 80s creature flick. Bottin's design work, and Carpenter's willingness to let this then 22 year old kid go nuts and run with the idea, really gave the film legs (and 6 or 8 giant, bloody, wriggly, roach/king crab looking ones) to scamper into horror history with.

But in a COMPLETELY different way than Lives of Others, this was another way to enjoy a movie - at home, big screen, high res, freeze frame, pause for a beer break, and then an hour of supplmental materials.

Geek awesomeness, high propeller beanie RPMs.

-----------

Edit: I had this next bit after the Lives of Others segment, but to go to The Thing after this seemed really wrong, so I moved it. If it weren't 1:30am, I'd find a better way to break this into multiple posts or make it segue better, but whatever, if I don't hit publish in the next 30 seconds it'll never be read by anyone but me (that's of dubious value anyway). Yes, I realize my tone is see-sawing all over the place...sue me..

Earlier in the day (before Lives of Others), BJ and I had gone to lunch (the topic of an HD for Indies logo came up, he's a designer), and he'd been mentioning the oddnesses and restrictions of the world we live in - it was 11:30 on a Sunday morning, and they had company coming (he's married with two of the most adorable kids I know, Pearl* & Wren). BJ wanted to buy a bottle of wine, but Sunday morning is when you're supposed to be in church, so alcohol can't be sold in Texas. Just a small part of the state saying what they think is proper behavior. I commented that I recently had thoughts on church as an agnostic - I ran a 10K a few weekends ago, and I was remembering after the race, I walked back around to watch the finish line for my friend (an ex-girlfriend I'm still good friends with). While waiting, I watched others finishing the race. I tremendously enjoy the sense of community the racing crowd has - we've all gotten up early on a weekend to do something good for ourselves, that challenges ourselves to discover what we are capable of, to compete more with ourselves than others (at least at my level, the pros finish twice as fast as I do now). But a little competitive spirit can be a great thing - the finish of this race involved coming around a corner and then you could suddenly see the finish banner a short sprint ahead - it is truly amazing how big a physiological/psychological difference actually seeing the finish line can make - a HUGE burst of energy you didn't know you had. "Evil" (the guy who does the race announcements at all of these) was playing "We Are Family" and as the refrain was singing "I got all my sisters with me", two women in their 30s round the corner, one sees the finish line, glances at her friend, her friend catches the look and smiles back, and they both take off with all they've got left for the finish line. They finish at about the same time and slow to a walk, exhausted...but laughing and happy and throwing an arm over the other. That simple moment of joy, of sharing, of challenge, of completion, of sisterhood was suddenly the most beautiful thing I'd seen in weeks and weeks...and I realized THAT is my church - my place where I bond with my community, I try to better myself, we give back to the community (these things are all always fundraisers for a good cause), and it achieves everything church was supposed to do but so rarely did for me when I attended. I sat there tired, exhausted, chewing a half bagel and drinking some lesser Gatorade knockoff, and started to tear up, realizing how GOOD this moment was in every possible way.

For all the tech, for all gizmos, for all the latest & greatest NAB whatnot...it is all fluff. These moments are most important. Notice them in your own life however they reach you (running, church, music, whatever it is for you), and make sure you get enough of it - because that is LIFE.

--------------

* I'll always think of Pearl as the Girl Born With The Broken Heart - BJ was in San Francisco when she was born, and I was elsewhere, and the fragile, beautiful child that she was when born had a heart defect - so she was immediately whisked into intensive care, and had heart surgery shortly after she was born. But they fixed it, and she is All Better Now. It will always strike me as amazing and deeply symbolic that this small, perfect, smiling child has a scar on her chest, but it will forever be faint and stretched out long and skinny - it was created when she was at her tiniest, freshest, youngest, most healable. It strikes me as painful and wrong to ponder a universe where it was correct to blemish her fresh, perfect, newborn skin with the cold unyielding, unsympathetic steel of a scalpel (I get goosebumps even as I write this) - yet it was the right thing to do, for now she walks and laughs and runs and creeps down the stairs after bedtime with made up stories of a tummy ache so she can be up late and see what Daddy is up to with his friends. She is all that is bright and fresh and right and wonderful in the world in my eyes. She gives me Hope, that most valuable thing of all. Nothing is more important in life. Nothing. Go see Lives of Others and you'll know what I mean.

Labels: OT

I'm messing around with a bunch of setup stuff for the site - so ads and graphic elements and stuff may be popping up in weird places until I get it all sorted out and tested on the various browsers, etc.

UPDATE THURSDAY: I'm aware load times have gone up with the new banner ads, and I'm also aware Firefox users are having no joy. I'm working on it...

Pardon my mess...


-mike

Labels: housekeeping, OT

Coupla thing have happened last coupla days worth mentioning. Except for the Tim League stuff (2nd story), none of this is filmmaking related whatsoever, so skip it if not into it.

ITEM 1 - an idea so bad, it's good...or is it?

So...last night I'd signed up weeks before to go to an event - the Town Lake Trail Foundation was sponsoring a Cruise 'N Schmooze around Town Lake. Town Lake is actually a dammed river that runs through the heart of Austin, and the Trail runs around it, and I run around the Trail - I jog (used to RUN, sniff, sob, 10 pounds ago, old f*rt that I'm becoming) on it several times a week, lately just the 4 mile loop. Gubmint being gubmint, they don't take very good care of this civic treasure to there's a private entity that helps to maintain it. My Mom was on the committee that set the thing up decades ago, and she's still on the Advisory Committee for it now (she's great that way). So I chipped in for a membership and signed up for and paid for this fundraising shindig. On the Day Of (last night), I decided to walk down to the boat dock as I hadn't run that day - get a little exercise in. I was hungry and in a hurry, and decided to pop into Home Slice to grab a quick slice on the way. No slices at that hour, but ordered a Calzone instead. So much for my low cholesterol food plan. Might as well have a Peroni beer with it. Saw the manager, whose name I can never recall (the most strikingly attractive woman I see about town on a semi-regular basis , brief sigh), said howdy, and was on my way.

Got down the to the docks scant moments too late - I could see the paddlewheeler, lit nicely under the night sky and by the lights under the bridge...already backed out, turned, and heading downriver. Drat.

Well, I'd been debating how good of an idea this might be - 2 hours on a boat with a bunch of earnest, well intentioned....who? If it were all my parents generation, the Greatest Generation...I'd have to dive overboard and swim for shore before too long. They're great and all, but the moment they find out you might know how to fix their email...I'm sure you know how that goes. What if they (organizers) were going to lecture AT us about trail preservation? Or pitch us to help them do stuff? Probably not, but the mere thought gave me the shivers.

So there I am, standing on shore 1 beer later and 2 minutes too late...drat it. Kinda. I felt a little relieved about not being trapped on a boat if it wasn't going to be fun. It was an entirely pleasant night, that perfect Austin spring weather with cool evenings, not too humid, and the mosquitoes aren't out in Diving Squadron of Death mode yet (maybe they are all still in flight school training....{R. Lee Ermey]:"Listen up you maggots!" [Cracking puberty laden voice]:"Uh, sir, we're larvae..." [R. Lee again]: "SHUT UP or I'll smack you so hard you'll never fly..." ....but I digress).

Anyway, cut to perfect evening, I'm suddenly rudderless, so to speak. And boatless, and planless.

So I start walking home, thinking about what to do with myself for the evening. I'd had a very productive day and had given myself permission to doof off for the evening, and now my plans were blown. Walking back out from under the 1st street bridge, past RunTex (THE running shoe store in Austin), I see an alternative....and I literally bust out laughing just thinking about it.

So instead of cruising around the quiet night on a paddleboat on beautiful Town Lake at night with a bunch of fellow earnest liberal runner types and/or classic Austin hippies (I feel entitled to say that as I had a ponytail for 15 years, see here), I pondered something else, something entirely different:

I wonder what it would be like to walk in to that Hooters across the street and order beer and Fried Things and just be a total Dood (Dewd? Dayyuuud?) for an hour or two?

The perverse joy of this thought made me literally laugh out loud. Could I do that? Could I pull a sociological 180, bailing on the Nice Folks and walking into the Pit of Despair, aka Hooters? Could I pull that off and not be entirely self concious? Hooters is SO not my scene, is antithetical to All I Stand For, and yet....the wretchedness of the idea, the complete ideological flip flop just struck me as the right kind of horridly bad but incredibly funny idea that Just....Might....Work.

So what did I do? I called Melissa (girlfriend from a year+ ago) and told her my idea, because I knew she'd get why it was so funny, and she burst out laughing too at the thought - so I knew I was on the right track. We talked on the phone as I walked home, me giving her an audio tour of all the new things on trendy/spendy South Congress since last she'd spent much time down there.

Thus I was saved from Hooters by an ex girlfriend.

ITEM 2 - Why Austin rocks, Reason 1138:

So I got back from a long meeting today, and had an email from Lyrae - I typically don't see Lyrae for big chunks of time and then see her and her beau Neil tons for brief periods of time at the Austin film festivals - SXSW, Austin Film Festival, and now Fantastic Fest. Anyway, Lyrae forwarded me an email from Tim League, who started and runs the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Austin - the by-god-damn-coolest movie watching experience I know of (read up on it, Google, etc. - got picked as one of the best moviegoing experiences in America, and deservedly so). Tim had just received a new 17 foot inflatable screen, and was going to test it - in a backyard. So after a run around Town Lake (see? I try to be healthy...), I headed over there after dark..and wow, what a perfect deal:
-big house with big back yard
-huge, overarching live oaks creating a canopy overhead
-perfect, bug free weather
-pleasant, cool evening
-and oh yeah - A SEVENTEEN FOOT MOVIE SCREEN MOUNTED ABOUT 7 FEET HIGH!
-and big speakers too

This reminded me of what my friends BJ & Carrie did in San Francisco when they lived there - they lived up on Potrero Hill and lived next to a rarity - the lot uphill from them (the corner lot) was empty - no building at all. So he bought a business prentation projector for cheap from some failed dotcom (as you do), got an amp and a single speaker, set up on the sloped hill by his house, and projected movies onto the side of his house at night when the mood struck him. Neighbors would walk up and were welcome to sit down and join them, and in time they got a schedule going with themes and everything. Even a popcorn maker. A perfect neighborhood activity.

They eventually dubbed this Walk In Movies, and did it for 5 or 6 years, then turned it over to friends when they moved back to Austin. If you live in the area, check it out.

Anyway, back to Tim in Austin - he was doing this really as just a test to see how his new toy worked (they have Rolling Roadshows, Google that + Alamo Drafthouse), and were looking at screener DVDs for this fall's Fantastic Fest (I [heart] Stabby). We'd watch a movie for a while, then Tim would stop it and poll the audience whether to finish it or move on to another. I watched most of a pretty cool flying Ninjas movie, but then that got shelved to move on - next up was a hilariously just-good-enough-to-be-good-bad short set in the world of...G.I. Joe. With live actors. Howlingly funny, as they took themselves pretty seriously doing it. After that, an oddball German (Russian?) movie about a couple about to get into trouble, but I had to jet, I was starving. After a beer and some Cheetos there (oops again on the health factor), I couldn't resist the magnetic draw of Dirty's for a bacon cheeseburger and shake (feh - bag the diet - this stuff tastes guuuuuuuuud). You just KNOW you're getting all your sinful goodness in it when they hand over the paper bag and the grease is ALREADY soaking through the wax paper and darkening the brown paper bag.

Aww, Yeeeeeah.

Sometimes, it is just REALLY nice to live in Austin and know some cool folks (or folks who know cool folks).

Hallelujah.

-mike

And yes, Comments are disabled for a reason. :D

UPDATE - this morning Tim sent me this pic he took last night. Click for larger view.


You can rent that sucker (why it was bought) - see details here:

Alamo Drafthouse Austin Venue Rental - Backyard Parties

I'm thinkin' Almost Forty birthday party Movie Madness.

Lyrae then emailed after reading the post to say:

Mike-

Nice blog today.

It was cool that you showed up last night. There was something that you missed at the beginning that was the best show of the night, but it is already booked for the festival so you can see it there. It was a Korean (maybe Japanese) anime piece about a future society that has overpopulated and basically got buried in its own excrement. However, scientists find a way to turn the poop into fuel and now the most valued citizens in the society are the once that produce the most shit. Very satirical, creative and the action scene animation is kick ass!

Don't feel bad that you didn't stay for the last film though. Bad. Way too over the top just for the sake of being over the top. Also, did not care about the boyfriend as he just turns into more and more of an ass as things go on. And they should have edited. Went on WAY to long.

Kind of missed the best part at the end of the night (about 11:20) when we all stood around talking about what we had seen. That is always one of my favorite parts with that group.

-Lyrae

Labels: OT

I'd kinda known these landmarks were coming up, but it is fun when they sneak up on you. I was checking stats today and noticed I'd crossed a couple of big fat landmarks:

I started this site in March of 2004. On September 9, 2004, I started using AdSense in part to track traffic easily - since then, I've had over 3 million pageviews on HD for Indies. Wow, that seems like a big number to me for such a niche site. We've come a long way, baby, indeed.

I installed a "unique daily visitor" counter about a year later on August 8, 2005, and even since then, I've had over 1.5 million unique daily visitors to the site since then.

So the actual, go-back-to-Day-Zero numbers are markedly higher, that's just the stats I have on hand. Traffic has been increasing, last month about 200,000 pageviews.

Oh, and in the last month or three I posted my 3000th post, this is number 3160 or so (counting saved drafts you folks have never seen).

Thanks to all for reading the site, and please continue to do so! If you feel like making a donation to help keep the site going, there's a PayPal link in the top right corner if you haven't done so already. Consider it the tip jar.

: )

-mike

Labels: OT

...off Planet Internet that is. I'm disconnecting the Interweb Tubes from my veins and going out the airlock.

I'm heading out to my sister's ranch for Easter, and last report had it snowing out there!

I hope I can find a hill to sled on with my nephew - MUCH better than pixel spelunking...

No phones, no Internet, no cell coverage....a Bit Detox...aaaahhhhh.......

See you folks in a few days...the dogs are armed, the alarm is fed, etc...

-m

Labels: OT

Google Press Center: Press Release:

"'Dark porcelain' project offers self-installed plumbing-based Internet access"

Favorite April Fool this year, Google has a sense of humor. Check out the press release above and the How It Works & the FAQ.

-mike

PS - I especially like the "PHD" & pens in the lab coat of the sewer diver

UPDATE: Evidently they've been at this kind of thing for a while, check out:
Google Press Center: Press Release: "the launch of Google Romance%u2122, a new product that offers users both a psychographic matchmaking service and all-expenses-paid dates for couples who agree to experience contextually relevant advertising throughout the course of their evening."

with bonus 404 message: "wasn't that amusing and harmless and mostly in good taste and not all psychologically damaging under various and sundry aspects of contemporary tort law, please don't sue us"

-mike

Labels: OT

....so I jump in my car to go get a late lunch at Freebird's Burrito down on Too-Trendy-For-Its-Own-Pants South Congress.

The girl working the register sees me wearing my latest NurdBoy shirt:


click on any of these pics for a higher res view

....and she asked "Do you have a camera like that?"

and I paused and said "Almost...but it's interesting that you ask that, since my job involves moviemaking and I've been running a site for three years..." (yadda yadda, fade scene).

So I'm driving home and remembering that I have these two old cameras. As I'm thinking about this, detouring around the street work in my neighborhood down the street by the creek, a possum waddles its way across the road - man I love the town where you've got critters 90 seconds from the trendy shop/restaurant/gallery neighborhood.

So I got home and opened up the cabinet where I keep them - I have two 8mm cameras that I rescued from garage sales in the family years ago - they are Curtis owned cameras, but from which side of the family or which generation I don't know.

Here's the first one, a "Cine-Kodak 8 Model 25":





But the real jewel is this one, a Univex 8 from Universal Camera Corporation. I just ADORE the art deco-ness of it:


and the exposure table with light conditions printed on the side:



Here it is with the little flip-up viewfinder deployed:



More & higher res pics of the cameras here.

So this got me thinking:

1.) HEY! Could I shoot something on this, and if I did, could I get the footage developed and telecined anywhere? Can anybody help me on this? Where could I get these things serviced? Esp. the Univex...

2.) Wouldn't it be fun to shoot a little short movie on one of these, and post it with all my toys, Just Because I Can?

3.) HEY! There's footage in there! What's on it? I have no idea if there's shot footage in there, if there is, it DECADES old. Has the camera been opened? Has it been ruined? No idea. Unlikely there's anything good on there, but if there IS...man I'd love to see it!

So I think that should be one of my little projects just for fun - if anybody out there knows an appropriate place to get an ancient camera opened up, pull the film & develop it if its good, and where can I get more film for these and get it developed/telecined?

I'd LOVE to shoot a short something on it - it'd be Rad Retro to shoot NAB coverage on this thing.

HUGE GRIN thinking of that - who wouldn't LOVE to get interviewed with that (recording sound on little pocket audio recorder).

So if you know anything about where I could develop & telecine truly ancient film, please email me.

...and who wants to make a little short movie some weekend on this with me in Austin?

More & higher res pics of the cameras here.

We live in such a digital, of-the-moment age, and obviously I'm boy-of-the-instant, that's-so-six-minutes-ago tech oriented, it'd be fun to go tech spelunking back to the image capturing Pleistocene era, just to see what delights could be found. It is such cheekily delightfully low tech but organic - look how tiny the lenses are! I SO want to shoot something on these.

-mike

PS - and I'm out the door with VIP tix to the Grindhouse premiere with Rodriguez and Tarantino in attendance, then off the the party thereafter where I hope to "accidentally" bump into Rodriguez and talk to him about Red One's imminent arrival. Yes, I suck. Bwahahahahaa......

:D

Labels: 8mm, cameras, OT

What started as an observation about the movie Zodiac grew and meandered into a meditation on our life's purpose and how we get there.

Whether you consider it interesting mental fodder for thought & discussion or meandering self aggrandizing bad personal blogging of the worst nature I'll leave up to you.

It is so off topic of our usual conversations I'm putting it over on my .mac page. The usual readers that I email with and know will probably like it (or at least tolerate it); newcomers coming to this site for HD info (or from Google "HD pron" searches) would consider it ripe for comment flaming - so Comments are off for this one. Anyone with something real to say, who doesn't just want to take a crack at me via Anonymous postings, you know how to get in touch with me.

Here's the link.

-mike

Labels: OT

Scones Recipe

Somebody bugged me about this again, so here is that recipe for the really good blueberry scones, the big (serves 12) and small (for 2) versions.

Enjoy, and thanks to Ruth Kaufman for sharing Teh Luv!

-mike

Labels: off topic, OT