Sigg

My wife gave me the most awesome water bottle this year for Christmas, a Sigg. John Folsom introduced me to them recently, and it turns out I love it. I’m way more motivated to drink water when it comes in a fancy aluminum (or plastic, if it’s Nalgene) bottle. I’d highly recommend.

Link catch-up

Looks like the RIAA is at it again. What is THIS all about?

I finally got my Hulu account today. What a great present for the new year, free episodes of Doogie Howser, MD.

Cool article (at least cool for people like me) on one of the programmers of Maya, the 3D program used in just about everything.

Anyone aware of the Apple Refurb store? You can get your Macs at a pretty great discount, but you have to check it first thing in the morning and be ready to pounce. I’ve been waiting for an old Shuffle. The headphones on my iPod died and rather than just replace them, I figured I’d add in a Shuffle and replace them with that… headphones and a new little toy to do this with.

Guitar Hero ???

I’ve very excited about the upcoming Crank it Up series… it’s going to be a lot of fun with plenty of room for some cool visuals. I’ve been submersing myself in Rock 101.1 radio the past week reigniting my passion for 1970s / 1980s classic guitar rock. Pour Some Sugar on Me, I say.

To fully embrace the theme, I borrowed a PS2 and Guitar Hero (and Guitar Hero III) + this little wireless controller). I gave it a spin last night. I’ll say this… I just don’t get it. Please don’t launch a DDoS on the AV Club, maybe I’m just not playing with the right people. It was fun, but I”m just not getting the huge draw.

Tell you what, maybe I should set it up at the office and you guys can come show me what the fuss is all about.

But I did love hearing Foghat’s Slowride…

Database help…

OK, any of you Über-genius-types out there wanna help the AV Club? I have an Access database I wrote in 2002 for my wife to store her recipes. Very effective at the time, but not so much now. I want to move it to the web, and I’d like to power it with wordpress.

What’s the easiest way to export an Access database and import it into wordpress? I can come out of Access in just about any format, and I’m assuming CSV (comma separate variable, but you already knew that, didn’t you) is the way to go. Would love to hear your ideas. Comment here or use the contact form.

logolounge.com 2007 trends

Logolounge.com posts a summary of its 2007 trends. Not that I advocate blindly following trends, but it’s important to see where things are going.

megapixels = good?

Saw these two articles within a few days of each other and found them worthy to share. It’s a common misnomer that more megapixels in a camera is a good thing, right? I mean, bigger is better, right? Not quite so. Read on (and when you’re done there, read on here)

I Am Legend

[this isn't a spoiler, but I'd wait on reading this post if you're going to see the movie]

I went to see I Am Legend last night with Matt. I was really psyched about it, and I’m not sure what to say about it now. Matt totally agrees. It wasn’t terrible, I’m not sure I’d recommend it. It’s strange. I’m glad I saw it, I won’t ever watch it again. It was eerie. It was suspenseful, it was humorous at times, and heart wrenching. The CG was breathtaking, and at the same time totally understated.

Funny, at one key part in the story four couples walked out of the theater. Seriously. I had to laugh a little. If you’ve seen it, you know which scene I’m talking about. (it was a touching, sad part)

Um, yeah. Maybe I should read the novel.

Kashmir visual

This is a great concept… a song-length as a backdrop for Led Zeppelin playing Kashmir. You have to imagine this as a part of the entire concert experience.

Now I want to build something on this scale. Beautiful.

Knight Rider teaser

Mike? Who’s Mike?

Christmas 2007 images

Does this look like a normal Christmas Eve church video screenshot to you?

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Well, now that the services are over, I’ll share with some some of the media snippets shown in service. The series title is “Out of this World.” I’d love to share more details, and I will later this week. But now it’s Christmas Eve and I’m ready to get myself into the holidays. G’night.

Out of this World open
Crank it up promo
Transition1 (a short piece to move from the counter to the first song)
Grand Finale (this is the final piece that capped off the service. By far, it’s been our largest production undertaking to date).

Elf cam

So, we had a little elvish silliness running before the service for Christmas Eve at NewSpring. Here’s a sampling. Go nuts.

If you’re like me…

If you’re like me, you’re probably just thinking about wrapping presents right now. And if you’re like me, you probably have no real concept of how to wrap a present. This may help.

Christmas services

Nothing new to report, not until the end of today… but here’s a photo of some very dedicated, very intense volunteers doing what they do with excellence. (photo taken by Wayne Richardson, yet another dedicated volunteer)

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Framestore fun

Framestore, a divine mograph group, put out a fun little holiday diversion. Please enjoy.

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We’re ready

All the pieces rendering by the stockings with care…

I’d thought I would cook up some clever Christmas rhyme to set up the fact that NewSpring Christmas services begin tomorrow, but I think my creativity may be tapped out for the week.

But tomorrow’s going to be a lot of fun. Come early, have some coffee at AWAKE (that’s where you’ll find me, or in the control booth)… you won’t believe this stuff.

Impactist | Typewriter

I love this piece, Typewriter, by the Impactist.

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Holiday prep

A bit busy these next few days. Today (Friday), I’m putting the finishing touches on some of the pieces our team’s been preparing for the Christmas Eve services. We’re quite literally building some of the largest pieces ever this year… but you’ll have to come to NS Sunday (regular times) or Monday (2:00 & 4:00) to see. You could watch it online, but it just won’t be the same.

See you all this weekend. Bring cookies! (I’m kidding, I’ve eaten enough cookies in the past week to satisfy a school full of 3rd graders for a decade). Good thing I joined a gym this week.

Garfield minus Garfield

This is brilliant, remove Garfield from his comic and they get even more interesting. Go read Garfield minus Garfield. (via echofaith)

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Signs of Christmas

Yeah, you can tell the media for Christmas Eve is going to be good when you start seeing signs like this.

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Yes and no.

Today, I’m pretty slammed. But I’ve been saving up a few Yes and No… enjoy this one.

Yes and No. As for the yes, it reminds me of a simpler time… complete with Wicket. As a sidenote, the strange little white creature always reminded me of my wife’s childhood dog, Aerial.