Stripped promo.

This time, we decided to try something a little different. The series is called “Stripped,” and its thesis is what does Jesus look like when you strip away the man-made religion? It’s a heavier, serious concept that proved challenging to define with visuals. But I’m happy with the first version of the visuals we ran this Sunday.

View Stripped Promo (Quicktime, 6MB)

And if Quicktime isn’t your thing, you can watch the youtube version.

Thanks to Ben (for the hands), John (for technical support), and Will (for the brilliant camera work) on this one.

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Hipster is clean

Hipster is clean

Originally uploaded by avclub.

This weekend, I took some time to reorganize my much-neglected hipster PDA, the core of my productivity system. I’ve been so chaotic and busy for the past few months… a whirlwind really… and I’d let this tool slip. It’s a good thing I spent some time with it. I found some action items that direly need to be completed, but had just slipped to the bottom of the pile.

Now I have my action items neatly defined, clearly written, and I even found a better pen to write with (goodbye, G2′s, hello Bic Z4). I’m a happy camper again.

Gardner’s online

My son Gardner starts his blog today. I’m not sure what to think, but I’m pretty certain he’ll embrace it.

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Trapcode Form

Trapcode Form, I think I found my Christmas present.

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Offf promo

I love pieces like this, with their speed ramps and jump cuts and pretty muted color grading. The Offf conference is held in NYC.

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Reed Fish

Tonight, I watched the rest of I’m Reed Fish (blog), a nice little indie flick from Netflix. Enjoyable.

another reason to love Behance

*** NOTE: this post was written several weeks back and included a link to the originating article. It appears something’s awry with the link and it linked to a non-appropriate site now. It’s been removed, but if you’re reading this via a feed reader, please disregard the link. Apologies. ***

Some quotes on Behance’s thoughts on meetings. Let’s make our time together useful. Something should come from a meeting, or we don’t need to bother.

Meetings are useless unless they result in action, says the business consultants at Behance – so they’ve got a few guidelines for avoiding dead end time-wasting meetings. First:

Beware of “Posting Meetings.” A meeting to “share updates” should actually be a voice-mail or an e-mail. Rule of thumb: if you leave a meeting without action steps, then question the value of the meeting (especially if it is recurring).

What happens after everyone leaves the conference room is the true indicator of whether or not a meeting is worth it. So Behance advises participants to quickly list their next actions at the end of the meeting aloud for clarity and accountability.

I think I’m going to start doing this in meetings I’m a part of. Even if I’m not running the gathering, it’s important to define why I’m spending the time, and assigning actions (if only for myself) after it is over.

Glumbert for the wii

I’m not sure what this has to do with the Wii, but it’s creative and flows well. I’m sure there’s an idea in there somewhere I can use.

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Access Mac menu from keyboard

This is the shortcut I’ve been looking for. Shortcut-heavy-former-Windows-now-Mac-users, you’ll appreciate this tip from Lifehacker.

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Fun Clemson party

Yesterday, Meg and I took our beautiful two to a birthday party. Initially, we figured we’d just drop the present off and head on. The kids were feeling a little under the weather and we figured they wouldn’t feel like playing much. Then, we caught site of the tons of kids, the blow up toys, and… yes… the Clemson tiger. We hung out for just a little while longer (Gardner compelled us).

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And just when you thought the blows couldn’t get lower…

This was sent by way by Jared, IT technical guru extraordinaire. I love how I can categorize this as both “tech” and “entertainment.”

Twitter cookbook

I don’t have much of late to divulge. I promise I’ll slow down to catch up with you all tomorrow. But in this brief second, let me share an ultimate use for Twitter… twitter cookbook.

Yes, it’s twitter sized recipes packed into little nuggets to share via Twitter. Eat your heart out, Rachel Ray and your 30 minute meals. These bad boys come condensed to 140 characters. Some examples, ripped from their recent posts include:

Teriyaki Fillets: marinate 1lb tempeh or salmon w 2T tamari&mirin&brn sugar/1t oil&garlic&ginger&paprika >1h. Baste/grill ~20m

Muffins: fold egg/1c bran/.5c pumpkin puree/3T milk&oil w 1c flour/3T sugar/.5T bkg powder/.25t soda/cinnamon/cardamom/nutmeg. 25m@350F; ~6

Salad: mix 1 thinly sliced fennel, 3T lemon juice/olive oil. Add fruit of 1 blood orange/pomegranate; salt/pepper. Plate w shaved pecorino.

Yes and No.

Why do the yeses always have a Star Wars flavor, I’m not sure.

Yes and No.

Vector? What? (and a holiday tease)

I was explaining to my wife’s uncle the difference between raster and vector graphics today via email and found this definition / article on wikipedia. It’s worthy of a scan if you’re unsure of the difference; especially worthwhile if you’re working with a designer.

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Also, I’ll tease this now… I’m planning something pretty fun and exciting around the holidays here at the AV Club. For it to work however, it will take some coordination and a lot of input from you guys. If you know me, you know I’m a huge holiday fan. It may not be cool, but I don’t care… I love to be festive. So this year should be fun. Stay tuned as I work through the details (and modify the AV Club to make room for it).

Got your interest up? Good.

In another sidenote, I made a discovery today. I think I’ve settled on the NewSpring counter music for the Christmas season. I’ve been stressing over this just a bit as last year’s choice generated such a positive reaction (read the comment, I received around 30 emails that were similar). But it came to be today. We’re in good shape for this year. Yeah!

Writer’s strike, The Office perspective

Here’s a little spot from the writer’s strike picket lines with some of The Office cast. It explains some things.

Jen Stark

I’m enraptured by the beautiful work of Jen Stark (via WWFT). I’m becoming increasingly interested in hand crafted art and using it in the digital realm. These pieces are stunning.

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OpenDNS

I set up OpenDNS tonight for my home network. I was having trouble with my Charter internet, and it was recommended to me to look into another DNS service. It’s too early to tell, but I think this may repair the flaky issues we’ve been having.

The other cool bonus, I can now filter adult content sites from the router level. That makes me feel better, especially with small children in the house who know very well how to randomly type on a keyboard. Gardner’s starting to play online (mostly Playhouse Disney), but I’ve been concerned he’d accidentally stumble on something he shouldn’t. As long as he doesn’t figure out how to change to Charter’s default DNS, I think we’re good.

My question to you, the AV Club tech community at large… is there any major downside to using an alternative DNS service? Is there any inherent spam / malware / security risks to using another service?

Smashing Magazine font list (again)

There they go again, Smashing Magazine’s recommending good free fonts, this time for professional design output. Always worth of a scan.

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HBO Voyeur trailer

I love this piece. The sparse pace and score are perfect; we should strive to be as compelling a trailer as this at NewSpring.

Heroes – S01E07 *** Soilers ahead ***

Last night’s Heroes was one of the season’s defining episodes in my opinion. Now we’ve seen this season’s big plot… how to prevent the virus. And we’ve unearthed our mortal foe (loved you as Sark, look forward to you as Adam).

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I’m not a huge fan of Parkman’s dad. He looks evil and tortured at the same time, and I end up feeling sorry for him, and annoyed by his alternate reality trick. It’s confusing at best.

It’s interesting that Hiro unintentionally caused the catastrophic events in present day. He’s the nicest, benign character and yet caused the biggest effect.

A few questions I have:

- Has Bennet gone completely mad?
- Is the company good, bad?
- What really happened to DL?
- What will Silar’s role be? I predict he and Adam will face off. Silar has the power, Adam has the one ability Silar doesn’t. Will someone defect to the “good” side?
- When will Peter finally learn to use his powers?