Daily show back 1-7-08?

According to the Hollywood Reporter Colbert and Daily Show will be back on the air January 7th.

YES!

Amazing Choreographed Fight Scene

It's amazing how fast they move here. I wish the video was of higher quality.

Sorry to inform you

I'm sorry to inform you, but Christmas has been cancelled this year.
Photo via Gizmodo, courtesy of (to them) Michael Sibbernsen

Black Star Rising - Photography Students Are Being Taught
-- But What Are They Really Learning Today?
Black Star Rising - Photography Students Are Being Taught -- But What Are They Really Learning Today?

Here in the UK we have an extraordinary situation: we seemingly have more students at university studying photography at degree level than we have actual working photographers. And at a time when commercial photography is drying up, we have created a conveyor belt system for churning out a stream of supposed "graduates" who have not been exposed to any of the realities of the commerical world and whose work has never been exposed to any really rigorous criticism.

I would like to say that my photography professor was not mean, but certainly was no pushover. In fact, I think I barely passed that class. But I learned a whole hell of a lot and continue to enjoy photography as a pass-time.

Facebook | Status Updates

Facebook has made the IS in your status updates optional. Way to go FACEBOOK.

I Think I Know...

Remember when computers took up whole rooms? Yeah, neither do I. The first computer my family had was about the same size, case-wise, as the one it has now. Stronger, faster, more memory, more space, all on the inside. It's always been about getting things to move faster than they are, up until now.
Now we are getting smaller, weaker, but more portable laptops. Of course laptops are generally slower and less expandable than desktops but they too have always been moving forward in terms of power and speed. But this new breed, like the eeePC by Asus and the upcoming Everex Cloudbook have much smaller screens (7 inches) smaller hard drives (only a couple of gigs for the eeePC) and no optical (cd/dvd) drive. They are small, portable, and cheap enough to get a new one ever other year as needed. They are the type of laptop I would buy my niece or would take with me backpacking through Europe.
I don't want to call them disposable because of the price, but I would be willing to take risks with a new eeepc that I would not have taken with a new 12 inch Powerbook, which was the last computer than I bought all those years ago. Of course these laptops would not be my primary computer, but a supplemental one, which I guess is the point here. Now if only I can get my hands on one.

Flickr now has photo editing

Read about it here.

Flickr storys

So I found this article on digg about 6 horror stories from Flickr. Some of them are truly bad, like someone hacking your account and deleting all your photos. One, however, seems like fun and would be a good challenge/competition to have with some friends.

She’s Copying Me!
We’ve all heard the story of the freaky roommate who starts dressing like you, talking like you, tries to muscle in on your friends and generally freaks you out.

Kristi Bogel had that experience on Flickr.

Each time she posted a new photo, someone she knew would post an image that looked almost exactly the same.

After the fourth time her photos sparked something that was more like imitation than inspiration, she asked other Flickr members what she could do. Responses ranged from nothing through Report Abuse to “put up pictures of her boyfriend and her house.”

It could just have been a bit of a teenage tiff, but definitely not the sort of person you want to rent an apartment with.

Again it would be bad but I can see this idea turning into a fun game.

Quick question:

Why is Leopard more expensive with the education discount than Tiger was?
Leopard is $116 while Tiger was $69 the week it came out. I know I'm just being a whiny baby but I was kinda looking forward to getting it for cheap. I guess I will just have to wait until I can afford a mac mini.

new skill set

I think I need to start drawing more, mainly because I can't. This is pretty much the extent of my abilities.

Yes, it's a dinosaur attacking a city. Now, creatively I'm not to worried about it. What's not to like? Skill-wise though it can use some work, and right now I'm just going to stick with the "practice makes better" method. I don't want to be Picasso, I just want to draw a face and have someone recognize it as a (human) face.

Movies and Stuff

I am a journalism and Mass Com major, and a film studies minor, which means I write a whole bunch and watch movies - preferably at the same time. but how do I do this and write decent papers/get the info I need from the movie/maintain my sanity? Easy. I either write non-essential things (like this blog) or watch familiar movies.
OR, if I'm really lucky, the movie is the topic of the paper.
If only I can get this to happen more...,oh, wait, I will be, as I am taking 3 film classes next semester. I'm not really sure it will be a good thing or a bad thing.

Of Movies and Comics

XKCD is possibly the geekiest comic out there, and with good reason - you need to be pretty geeky to get all the jokes, and there are some that I am sure I have missed. Take today's comic as an expample. The comic references Richard Stallman (the author of the GNU General Public License)Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing, music piracy and The Princess Bride.There's a pretty good write up on Randall Munroe, the creator of the comic, over at Wired.
Also people should check out the Persepolis movie trailer. It looks like a great story.

The Asheville Brew N' View

Yep, I love this place.
I did not, however, know that the beer is considered vegan, but that does not change how much I love this place. Ordering a pizza and drinks while watching a movie on a super big screen (for cheap!) makes it feel like you are in your own private home theater. It's just a great experience all around, unless you are Liz and can't stand 300.

From the Youtube description:

Who doesn't love pizza and beer? Throw in some arcade action and a state-of-the-art cinema and you've got a recipe for some serious family fun.

In this episode, Yvonne Smith, the Traveling Vegetarian, brings us inside Asheville, NC's most entertaining veggie-friendly restaurant, Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company. They feature 24 vegetarian pizza toppings including soy cheese and tofu, and have a wide variety of gourmet sandwiches and munchies you won't want to miss.

I'm finally liking Heroes again. Last night's episode was tight and well done. Also, they should get other Star Trek people to be the parents of the other characters (George Takei plays the father of Hiro and Nichelle Nichols plays the mother of DL, and yes, I had to look those names up).

Writer's strike

I would like to say that I 100% support the writer's guild in their quest for fair compensation. I would also like to say that I hope they get back to work soon, as I am sure that the strike is not being easy on any one of them.

That, and I miss The Daily Show.

Phase, the ipod game

I have a brand new favorite all time video game, and it's on my iPod.
OK, so it's not my new all time favorite, but it is pretty damn cool.
Made by the same company that does Guitar Hero, Phase is pretty much the same, only you can use the songs on the ipod for the tracks in the game.
When you add a song to the Phase playlist in iTunes it analyzes it and makes a course for the game that turns out to be pretty accurate for tempo and note changes.
To actually play the game you use the back, middle and forward buttons for "notes" and for "sweeps" you use the touch sensitive track pad to move back and forth across the three "note" lines.

I've been playing this game all afternoon instead of writing papers. Man it's fun, and I don't even play Guitar Hero.

Oh, and it only works on ipods that do video

I'm writing a paper on Fraggle Rock.

Why? I'm not really sure, but I do know that I'm not taking this class for a grade.

A bit more professional

and a bit more adult. I will work on this more later