Education

I completed my Associates Degree of Applied Sciences in Instrumentation and graduated on May 12, 2011 with a 3.907 GPA. As most people know, education does not end with graduation. I’m currently pursuing a few courses that will help in my current line of work, Process Control, in September.
I’ve also decided to get back into the art of creating, designing, editing, modifying media for consumption on the web and beyond. I’m participating in online training courses to build my knowledge of the capabilities and restrictions of certain media tools.
My decision to begin this endeavor began a few months ago, when Mom asked me to help her build a web site for her new photography business. I helped her find a designer, and she found a company to help her design a logo. When she got her finished products, they were good… perfect for what she needs. My decision was based on the fact that I knew I could do just as good, if not better, work. Add that to the extra income I could potentially make from it, I just needed to figure out a way to learn those skills with the greatest efficiency.
A friend of mine who is currently doing work in media directed me to a site that has hundreds of hours of online video tutorials for a cheap monthly rate. I’m currently in a 7-day trial period, but what I’ve learned in just the past three days is incredible. I’m not going to name them until I have at least finished one full course (over 15 hours of video in itself).
I’m going to do a little work to the root page of the site for some testing, and possibly create some wordpress (blog) themes to see how well they’re used, and what people think of my work before I start trying to sell anything. I believe I have a good eye for what looks good, and it has always disturbed me to find that I couldn’t find the exact look I wanted without paying for it. Apparently, that’s because you get what you pay for. Not a new concept for me, but not a concept I thought of getting on the other side of until now.
The best thing about getting into this type of business, is that I can build it on my own from the ground up, and not really risk anything but time, unless you factor in that it is all about furthering my education. Time must be a factor when increasing knowledge.

Tom Cruise on Scientology

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0&rel=1]

The next clip is a parody of the above video that I found pretty funny and disturbing. <a href=”http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3f716ffebe”>the parody video Tom Cruise WANTS you to see!</a> on <a href=”http://www.funnyordie.com/”>FunnyOrDie.com</a>

eBay Scammer on Judge Judy

This stupid girl still thinks that she is justified in her actions because of a stupid technicality. What a moron!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJDK6ctRjqw&rel=1]

Journeyman Petition

Journeyman is apparently still up in the air. NBC aired episode 11 tonight, and they are planning to air episodes 12 & 13 next week. Those are the last two episodes filmed to date.
NBC has asked for three more scripts, but they have not signed for any more episodes.
Please sign This Petition to keep Journeyman on the air.
If you haven’t seen it, please view the episodes on their website. They only have the last 4-6 episodes posted, but it’s fairly easy to catch up. It’s a great story so far. I hope you enjoy it. If you really want to see the first few episodes, I’ve still got them saved on my DVR so maybe we can work it out so you can see them. Let me know if you’d like to.

Chuck & Journeyman

I believe that NBC is currently my favorite television network.  I started tuning in on Monday nights to watch Heroes, but I’ve fallen into the desire to watch the shows that surround it.
Chuck is a fun show.  I can predict a lot of what’s going to happen, but the premise of the show is awesome.  There’s a few technical details that they really messed up on, such as the dead hard drive incident in the first episode, but I find myself watching anyway.
Journeyman, I believe I’ve stated already, has even better circumstances.  They have really impressed me with the thought that goes into this show.  I’d have to say that this is my favorite between the two.
I’ve heard, however, that Journeyman hasn’t been getting the ratings that NBC was expecting, so it might not make it.  They need to give it more time… it’s got staying power.  Apparently Chuck’s getting OK enough ratings to keep it on the air, but I’m sure that if they switched the two time-slots that Journeyman would have better ratings.  I know that’s probably hard to do with a show as complicated as Journeyman, but I’m sure it’s just the time-slot.

Texas Rice Festival

It was fun.  I had a good time.  The food was great.
I have something else to talk about, but I don’t feel I can do it without serious repercussions.
I hate it when something is going on that I can’t write about, because I really need a way to vent.  Oh, well…

Sopranos Finale

I know it’s a little late, but I felt this since a few days after the finale.  I haven’t posted it yet because I haven’t … typed it until now.
There’s been a lot of talk by a lot of loud people about how much disappointment they felt from the finale.  I don’t understand how so many people who have little to no creative cell can criticize a show you’ve been raving about for years.  Sure, there’ve been a few lame seasons, but if they were really all that lame, why’d you keep watching?
I admit, there were a few seasons that didn’t meet the expectations that were created in the first few.  I kept watching because I saw that there was a story being laid out before me.  It is not the writers of ANY show to make “everyone” happy.  If it ended the way that everyone wanted or expected it to happen, what would have been the point of anyone purchasing a subscription to HBO and tuning in?
The last episode had me on the edge of my seat feeling like I was about to have a panic attack.  I realized later, that Mr. Chase was giving me the same feeling that Tony Soprano always has.  Tony Soprano started having panic attacks because he never knows when the end is going to happen.  Watching Meadow try to park made my panic mode rise even higher.
The good part of watching the finale is that I get to go on living my life without wondering how Sopranos is going to continue.  The bad thing for Tony Soprano is that he has to live the rest of his life in a near state of panic.  The suspense will not end until it happens.
Beautiful work, Mr. Chase.

Randy Jackson

“Yo, Dawg, check it out… that was good, I mean, I’m not jumpin’ up and down or anything, but that was pretty good… a little pitchy in the middle there, but ya know what I mean?…”
Has anyone ever heard the following phrase out of Randy’s mouth? “…I’m jumpin’ up and down…”
Has anyone ever seen Randy Jackson jumping up and down? I’d love to see I guess I’d like to see proof that there’s a point to his usual comments.
I couldn’t find a compilation of that phrase on YouTube for some weird reason, but I did find this one. It’s pretty funny.
Randy, if you never jump up and down, stop telling us that you’re not doing it. For crying out loud, I hear you say that at least twice a night, and I can almost predict when it’s about to stumble out of your mouth. Build up your vocabulary and come up with a few different phrases that have the same basic meaning.
You know what’d be funny? Say it to all but one of them next week. Make sure they all know that you’re not jumping up and down. Maybe they can’t see you very well because of the lights. Then the following week, jump up and down for all but one of them. I insist that you actually stand and jump up and down for them. It’d be an interesting experiment to see if the one person you don’t jump up and down for is eliminated that week.
Heck, if you’re going to overuse the phrase, at least have some fun with it.

Online Television Shows

News Corp. and NBC Universal have signed a deal to create a web site, or ‘YouTube Killer’, that they will use to allow users to view selected television shows free of charge.  This is one step I have been looking forward to for some time.  They have already posted a number of television shows that will be on the site, such as 24, Heroes, House, and The Simpsons.  I highly doubt that they will be available until the day after they’ve aired, but to have a centralized location for all of the content will give them an edge.
I wouldn’t doubt that whatever bandwidth they expect to get in the first few weeks of start up will be too little.  If they surprise me there, it only makes the experience that much better.  Although, streaming content has been around for a while, so we may have some people with experience on the launch team.
They have also stated that movies will be available on the site for free, including the Bourne Movies (Identity & Supremacy), Borat, and The Devil Wears Prada.
Post-launch plans are to acquire access to more content once the site has been established.  The site will be ad-supported… I’ve found myself at a loss for words.  The best part is that they will be launching the site this summer.
Many of these shows have been available online already.  However, to watch 24, you’d have to go to fox.com and go to their myspace page to be able to view the content.  If you wanted to watch Heroes, you’d have to go to nbc.com and find it in the videos section.  Once all of the networks have taken the plunge to create centralized viewing sites, the problems with unauthorized media distribution will take a natural plunge.  When I only have to visit 2 or 3 sites that each have easily accessible content, the networks should be able to make more money than they ever could have on television, and therefore be able to produce better/more content.
One more thing before I shut up… they’re going to allow you to insert the media from their site on your myspace or other web pages.  This apparently means that the advertising will be embedded in the content.  ABC does this with the content they have.  They include 4 commercials in each episode of Lost.  I don’t know about the other shows, but I’m fairly sure they do the same with them.
On ABC, you can watch a 42 minute show with 18 minutes of commercials in 1 hour.  On their web site, you can watch a 42 minute show with 2-3 minutes of commercials in 45 minutes.  CBS has 5 commercials on each 42 minute show, but the time to watch it is about the same.  If they’d just release the content with the same amount of commercials for free on iTunes, they could make a killing on that advertising income.
This announcement is exciting news for me.  I’ve been looking forward to this type of announcement from one of the major networks for a few years now.  I can’t wait to test it out… wouldn’t it be neat if they just went with a content provider that’s already in development, like Joost?

Commercials During the “Big Game”

I’ll have to say that the game ended just how I figured it would, even though I didn’t expect the game to start that way. I’m glad Peyton got the MVP award as well… he’s worked hard for a long time for it.
Now is time to get to the main point of last night. Where were all the commercials? I was expecting much more. There were only four companies that stuck out, and those weren’t all that much. Budweiser was expected and it looked like they spent some money on the game, but they didn’t spend as much in production of the ads. It wasn’t as special as it used to be. Pepsi had their spot while Coca-Cola had a bigger spot. GoDaddy.com looked like they had the most thought out commercial of all, and even that wasn’t that great.
Many people look forward to the advertisements during the “Big Game“, but it looks like the time for commercials has actually been devalued. If the cost of commercials goes down next year, I wouldn’t be surprised. The only thing I could suggest is that CBS require those who purchase commercial time slots during the “Big Game” to have new original material. If they don’t, the amount CBS charges for time will have to decrease. Once that happens, the “Big Game” experience will never be the same, because there will not be anyone to pay for the huge production that goes into the event.