Clapboard

September 16, 2019

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Didja miss me?

I know blogging for the sake of blogging is dead, but I still kinda like it, so I’m going to try it again.

Since my last update, I’ve traveled a lot of Europe, been to Petra and the Jordanian desert for the first time, visited Kiev and Chernobyl, and just dinged Executive Platinum on American Airlines. Wacky. I haven’t been home much, but that’s what this fall is for. I’m excited that it’s football season, angry at the Eagles for predictably sucking, and generally looking forward to the fall (as soon as South America is done).

What should I do in Lima for a day? When should I get back east? Will I ski a lot this winter? Camp? Make things? Hopefully yes to all of them and maybe I’ll even do some updates about them.

April 19, 2019

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What to say about the Notre Dame fire?

Travel

It’s been covered ad-nauseam already, both in traditional media and social, but I was on a boat during the event itself, and I feel like I want to acknowledge the event.

Everything on earth is temporary, and moments like this really serve to drive that fact home. On the plane home, I got to thinking just how many times I’ve seen the roof and spire of Notre Dame de Paris specifically, and it turns out the answer is “kind of a lot.” See what you can, make experiences and memories because all of a sudden, that thing you’ve been putting off for so long because you’ll get to it someday is impossible because the thing is gone. We were lucky with this fire, I know that, but it feels very close nonetheless.

More, as usual, after the break. pictures, too. Plenty of pictures

April 17, 2019

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I’m (was) on a boat

Tour

and was, indeed, as real as it got. I did a couple gigs on the Runaway to Paradise with Jon Bon Jovi cruise last weekend, and although I didn’t take any “real” pictures, I feel like there’s some merit in sharing the ones I took on my phone here.

If you follow me on instagram, you’ve already seen the alcohol ones, so those aren’t going here.

April 10, 2019

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1982ish

Pictures

As a family in maybe 1982 we visited Grandpa O and Edah at O’Haven in Upstate New York. I think this was the last time I saw him. My impression is that Edah took the photo of the family as it was at the time, but it may have been Grandpa O, I do not know. After the break I’ll put in all three pictures.

Someday, I need to figure out why I no longer get a “Read More” link because I suspect nobody really clicks through because you have to go to the top and click the post title. Let me look into it in the next couple weeks.

April 1, 2019

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No Sleep Till Sunset!

Vacation

Iceland. Land of glaciers, hot springs and geothermal pools. Green where its neighbor is icy, it’s a jewel in the North Atlantic. The area surrounding Reykjavík, the capital city, contains more than 2/3rds of the population of the entire country, all of whom could comfortably rent a 2-bed, 2-bath apartment in the Valley and we wouldn’t even notice a bump in the traffic.

Long, long ago, way back in the annals of history, I used to take trips places just for fun. Maybe I wasn’t the world traveler on my own dime that I have become on someone else’s, but I’m still proud of the trips I took and the choices I made to do it. It’s not often that I get out on the road for my own fun anymore, but this time, old pal Tim and I made it happen.

In that vein, I want to present to you a long-overdue, and thus quick, recap of a visit to Iceland I made 2 years ago, during the early summer of 2017. This is partially in honor of WoW air, the Iceland-based discount flyer whose cheap-ass fares brought a generation of people to Iceland and helped make the island nation the trendiest hotspot of the decade. While I may have missed the trend by a smidge, I still loved the trip.

March 30, 2019

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I want this graph paper

Random Updates

My dad used to bring it home from Boeing VERTOL in Philly, back when it was still just an outpost of one of many. Now, I have no idea where or how to find it, but I want some. I’ve wanted some for a long time, but until this morning, I didn’t know any existed in my life untainted and still essentially perfect.

I suppose I could have it printed and bound myself, but that wouldn’t really be perfect, would it? Anyway, if you know anything about this mysterious (and awesome) graph paper, please let me know. I’ll update here if I find anything myself.

March 30, 2019

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Stickerbook

Hobbies, Media

Just images of the sticker book I used to treasure as a very small child. Look for pictures of Michael Jackson, random 70’s football players and my favorite sticker ever, an oil-filled puffy butterfly.

March 24, 2019

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The Slow Scan

Pictures, Random Updates

It’s been time for a while now to start scanning some old imagery, writing and docs, both meaningful and trivial. I’m starting with more recent history, two 8x10s from two of our Halloween parties. I think there are pics here from those parties, but these are group shots that I came across in my slow attempt to Clean Shit Out.

After the break are two big ol’ pics, as expected.

September 14, 2018

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fly-time in the fall

Tour

Here i sit in the AA lounge, having been productive (kind of) in the last couple hours by cataloging my writing projects and re-familiarizing myself with them, and now I sip a glass of wine and await boarding time in a few minutes. I’m sure this is a weather delay based on the hurricane, so all things considered, it ain’t so bad. I’ll still totally sleep on the plane.

August 29, 2018

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Craigslist Charges Now?

Rants

Yeah, no. What’s everyone using now that, after 20 years, CL is no longer an option for communicating with your fellow locals for gigs, sales and ideas?

May 18, 2018

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New Things Are Coming

Random Updates

It’s been too long, Clapboard. I’m coming back to creating things, even if it’s just long, breathless rants about nothing. Time to get creating again, and putting words on paper (figuratively) is the best way to get started. No specific plans, but it’s happening, folks.

February 8, 2018

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Sometimes I make things!

Construction, Media

After the break, I’m sticking in a weird 5.5-minute video about re-upholstering chairs that I shot yesterday and edited today. I haven’t been as successful as I’d like to be with the whole creativity thing this winter, although I have been better. Then again, I could hardly have been worse.

Anyway, I re-covered my dining chairs and they’re glorious. This project has been sitting for… 2+ years? Jesus. I may not be the world’s best upholsterer (but man, that’s a fun word to type), but it’s not hard enough that I fucked it up, either. In the process, I took a lot of pictures and used my old GoPro to make a time lapse (time lapses being the primary use for GoPros since most of us who bought them are fat and lazy), and now I’m presenting it for your enjoyment. Or teasing. Because my voiceover skills really need some damn work. Or a script. Probably both.

Okay, enough of this. Click the title and tell me what you think!

January 20, 2018

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more shelf buildin’!

Construction, Hardware

I needed something better for the office so i could add a keyboard slide underneath the main surface where I used to have the inkjet printer. It’s been years since I’ve had a color printer, which is something I’m going to be remedying sometime this year (albeit for photo printing and probably with color laser, as long as that’s still an option).
Anyway…

i uploaded these from my phone but never wrote the post, so this is a WEE bit behind (like a year?) but such is life.

January 12, 2018

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Car crap

Cornucopia, Hardware

I may be the auto industry’s version of a basic bitch. Rains for one day, i run out and buy new wipers for both cars.

Also, when some poor sap was trying to valet for me the other day, I noticed that my center brake light was out, so I bought a new bulb for that, too. The last lightbulb (on the top right here) lasted 15 years, so if that trend holds true, that photo holds 45 years of lighting right there. Impressive. Also impressive is how easy that thing is to change. I forget sometimes that there are a handful of things in this world designed by humans for humans and it’s always nice to find them.

Anyway, my wipers really needed replacing, so I did it. I feel like I’ve been a little better recently about doing the little things like that when they need doing, because for so long it’s just been me ignoring things while the world slowly cracks apart around my ears. So I climb out, bit by bit, back into a world where I actually do something about the things that break, about the things I can fix and, more broadly, the things that I want. Let’s keep it up.

see? like, really, really needed replacing.

Also, my jeep had a dead battery yesterday, so I stuck the charger on it and let electrons trickle in all night. I’m about to go try to start it. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for good luck. I don’t wanna replace a battery. But thank god for chargers. At least I can get it started (probably) if it’s absolutely necessary.

December 7, 2017

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I need to be more careful with my things

Hardware, Rants

At some point in the last month or so, I apparently broke the filter on my main lens. Sucks, right? Yeah, we’ll, that filter was stuck today when I discovered it as I went to use my camera. I tried, and it wouldn’t budge. I used grippy rubber, and it just laughed at me. I grunted and screamed, heaved and hung my head. That filter would. Not. Fucking. Move.

More after the jump.

December 6, 2017

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Unexpected busy-ness

Random Updates

Unexpected business?

Yeah, so that’s good.

The holidays are always busy, expensive and fraught with uncertainty, and this year isn’t any different, it turns out. No steady work? No problem – there’s always something going on, and sometimes the shit even pays. I might not get a paying job in December, but then again, the month is young and life is crazy. By way of example, it’s the 6th and today is my first day “off” of the month, and by Friday, I’m back to running about again. Better take advantage while I can!

Videogames, content creation and sleep. Those are the goals.

November 7, 2017

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Assassin’s Creed Origins doesn’t work on the new system

Uncategorized

What a rip off! Everyone else can get their ACO working (of course there were a TON of launch-week problems, now mostly buried by Google’s “helpful” algorithm), but I can’t. I’ve reduced cores, run the “Gaming Mode” option on my CPU’s configurator designed to make poorly-programmed games run, and disabled the second video card, unlinked all my monitors except my main AND even tried 1080p on my main monitor, all to no avail.

I posted about it on the Steam forums here on the off chance that anyone is interested, and I’ll update if I ever find a solution.

October 27, 2017

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Destroyer 4.0

Gaming, Hardware

For the first time in years (5+?!) I’m completely rebuilding my computer, and this is that story. I’ve decided to live-blog the process somewhat, because I take pictures with my phone as I go and it’s fun to make the updates while i wait for something or try to come to a decision. Part way through, it turns from a live-blog to an after-action report written not from my phone, but from the finished computer, so the verb tense situation is all kinds of messy.

Fair Warning: this post is LONG. Click through with care.

After the break, I breakdown the parts and process, as well as the thought process behind this build. Problems, pictures, commentary, ideas, asides and failures all lie ahead.

August 22, 2017

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The sun kind of went away!

Pictures

So there was this thing called a solar eclipse yesterday. The hype and my travel schedule almost burned me out, but at the last minute I put together three ND filters and a holder and went up to a parking spot on Mulholland to take a couple pictures. It didn’t occlude enough to really see with the naked eye and my filters aren’t dark enough to make the sun look like a cool red fireball, but there are some interesting ones here nonetheless.

I’ll just post ’em sans additional comment after the break, and you can tell me what you think in the comments. Per usual.

Also, Hi! I know it’s been awhile.

June 9, 2017

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I hate post production

Movies

Okay, I don’t hate it, but man, it can be tedious and frustrating. Frustrating because my computer, good as it is, decides randomly to fail to analyze frames for Warp Stabilization in After Effects, but only randomly. If it fails once, it might succeed next time, the 3rd or maybe the 5th try. It might also just work the way you expect it to, but only sometimes. Tedious because when it DOES work, then I have to go through and remove 100’s of sync points by click-and-dragging around my actors every few frames and then waiting for the recalibration. It’s taking me 90+ minutes to do this 27-second shot, which, admittedly, is a long shot, but still, more than 90 minutes.

The good thing about post production is that you CAN do all this stuff. If I’m anal retentive and crazy enough, I really can smooth out the shaky footage I shot with my glidecam (the BMPC4K is just too damn heavy for it AND for my damn weak arms) and make it look way better. And I’m learning all sorts of tips and tricks to make the stuff look a ton better in the final edit, so go me.

That all said, I have another mini-shoot scheduled tonight, so that’s good. one way or the other, I’ll be finished with this by then…

May 25, 2017

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As always, it’s been too long

Random Updates

Life’s been weird the last six months. I’ve done a lot of thinking about travel, some actual travel (including my first cruise?) and some shooting recently. Let’s see if I can keep the new shooting trend going, because between gigs, I definitely want to be shooting more, and doing something about it (and learning a lot in the process) is actually really fun. More writing to come, too.

December 25, 2016

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Merry Christmas!

Uncategorized

Hey guys!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good day!

November 12, 2016

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South Africa’s Wine Country

Food & Wine, Travel, Vacation

southafrica_wine_35 Back in May of 2013, I visited South Africa’s wine country an hour or so north of Cape Town for a couple days and loved it. As you can see by the pictures below, I couldn’t get enough of the mist atop the mountains on morning 1. The views were breathtaking and the weather was perfect.

Pictures and such after the break!

November 11, 2016

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Places I’ve Been

Travel

Here’s a test of a “places I’ve been” map. It’s not complete, but to match with the “bucket list” post, I think I have to have a list of places I’ve visited. Blue is work-only, violet is vacation, touring, travel – something with actual, meaningful time spent in-country. If you click on a country with a description, you might be rewarded with a link to a post about that country.

The map is, as always, after the break.

Late-breaking addition: this is my 15ooth post.

November 10, 2016

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Budapest

Travel, Vacation

europe2015_351 From bizarre museums to beautiful baths, Budapest really had a lot to offer. Again, more than a year later, I’m thinking about the things I didn’t photograph and wishing I had, which is strange for someone who takes so many pictures. But nothing of our weird AirBnB accommodations, nothing of the baths (which was, I believe, against the rules anyway), and nothing of any of the places we ate, which, while not spectacular, were at least enjoyable and unique.

I loved walking up to the Buda Castle – so much to explore, and going up and coming back down different ways was a real treat. And we certainly met our step goals! The rain held off long enough that we stayed dry, too, which was true pretty much across the board for our trip. Lucky us!

What to say about the Notre Dame fire?

Destroyer 4.0

Travel Bucket List - Version 1α

Catching Shooting Stars

a thing i do

Pics of Wine

places i go

Travel

a thing i do

Shoot Movies

where i am

Home Cookin'

Didja miss me?

What to say about the Notre Dame fire?

I’m (was) on a boat

1982ish

No Sleep Till Sunset!

I want this graph paper

Stickerbook

The Slow Scan

fly-time in the fall

Craigslist Charges Now?

New Things Are Coming

Sometimes I make things!

more shelf buildin’!

Car crap

I need to be more careful with my things

Unexpected busy-ness

Assassin’s Creed Origins doesn’t work on the new system

Destroyer 4.0

The sun kind of went away!

I hate post production

As always, it’s been too long

Merry Christmas!

South Africa’s Wine Country

Places I’ve Been

Late-breaking addition: this is my 15ooth post.

Budapest