My latest musical venture, in which I grab my mandolin, a couple friends, and record whatever comes out. If this catches on (and, I mean, why not?) I might pull a live show sometime. Check it: http://myspace.com/dhfschool
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Defense Helicopter Flying School
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The Cat & I
There is a cat in the house.
My siblings have, I suspect, all been at one point or another, SPCA activists in the disguise of pre-teens (with the exception of the sister, who will no doubt violently tell me that she has surpassed the “pre”). In my lifetime, our household has held three dogs, two cats, half a million guppies, seven goldfish, a turtle, three rats, and an abundance of small children. When we go to the zoo, I no longer view the scene as an attraction, but rather a twisted form of family reunion. Now that we quietly enjoy “the mountain life” as it were, we are discovered by Heather, the neighborhood cat.
When you’re allergic to cats, it’s not just the dander -whatever that actually is- that gets to you, and this is quickly realized. Cats exude a sort of presence, or a feline aura. In just the same way that dogs present a sense of “Hi there, I’m going to sniff you because I want to be your best friend in all the world,” cats do not. Cats ascend that simple aura, and it becomes a presence of “kill.” Between myself and the cat are three doors, a flight of stairs, and not a single way for its elusive “dander” to reach me. Before I even knew of its specific presence, I felt my unintentional enemy. A twitch of the eye, a catch in the throat, symptoms that can only otherwise be brought on by the ending of
Pretty Womanthe Firefly series, revealing the presence of the imminent.This phenomenon is not entirely unlike the Captain America movie. Not bad, per se, however entirely un-good. It arrives without warning, gives very little indication of what its residence will entail, and takes a rather long time to end its plague.
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I have just watched the final episode of David Tennant as the Doctor. As sad as it makes me to see him and Davies go, the sight of a new Doctor always gets me excited for a new year.
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Chapter 1: Overture
For, oh… maybe eight to ten months now, I have gone literally everywhere with a tiny moleskine sketchbook in my back pocket. I’ve used it to doodle on in my downtime, take notes, revise code, etc. Now that my most recent one is virtually full, I have decided to start documenting them into chapters of my life. My 2009 sketchbook is titled “Chapter 1: Overture” and you can see it on my flickr account.
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In Which Christmas Proceeds as Normal
Every year for Christmas (and most every year for my birthday), for as long as I can remember, my grandmother has given me some form of clock.
I do not know why this is.
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Orange & Blue
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Avatar
Reality and I have never been best friends. We hang out in the same circles, sure, but its Facebook friend request will eternally sit their, neither accepted nor entirely ignored. It may be said that if nothing else, suspension of disbelief is my personal specialty. This is where Avatar and I find space to meet in the middle. As a film, its entire purpose is to create a visual experience (both digitally, in IMAX and a whole three dimensions) and it has been amply advertised as such. It claims -quite profusely- to “change how we watch movies” and indeed does- I have never before worn ridiculous yellow glasses for that long in my life. Eyewear aside, it did indeed create an incredibly appealing visual experience. The twenty years of work put into making the CGI as realistic as possible paid off. There were truthfully only a few moments through the movie that I stopped and remembered that there was any CGI at all. From the alien world to the aliens themselves, it was all entirely believable. So much so to the point that I forgave the cookie-cutter, environmentalist story.
Here’s the rub. You guys know me, I’m really not a movie-reviewing kind of person, but this movie frankly brings up a controversial enough issue to make it worth it. This movie is made to be scarily realistic, and it is indeed scary. Scary, as in there were viewers around me nary older than six or seven enjoying he movie alongside me. It worries me that parents are taking their children to PG13 (and only just barely scraping the top of that rating) simply because it’s “animated.” The whole point of this movie was to make you forget it was animated, by adding as much alien semi-nudity, language, and realistic gore as possible. It was, yes a fantasy/science-fiction tale, but not one that you should take your children to. What Cameron’s aiming to do in Avatar is the same thing that happened to the Lumiere Brothers’ Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, during which the audience jumped out of their seats and ran, because they thought the train would hit the theater. Cameron is creating a form of digital filmmaking that is not only challenging cinematographers and directors to move from thinking, “How can I adjust how the shot looks?” to “How can I adjust how reality looks?”As an aspiring filmmaker, I’m pressed to wonder what this will do to my education in two, three years from now. As a cinematographer, will I be moving a virtual camera through imaginary space? Call me old-fashioned, but that really doesn’t appeal to me. This is the start, I fear, of the film version of painting vs. photoshop. Digital cameramen may one day be able to create more visually stunning shots than the real world can offer (as in photoshop), but the question is- will the charm of the old ways still be there?
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Un Peu Maladroit (“A Little Awkward”)
A film for my Intro to Film Studies class, in which we had to make a short film in the style of a director. My team chose Francois Truffaut (400 Blows, Day for Night), and here’s the cut we made for class. A brief behind the scenes and a yet further, more final cut to come next semester.
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Prof. Oak or: How I Learned to Pick Up My DS And Love the Charizard
Press B to Run, she tells me, and I’m off to have my own adventure. Five PokeBalls in hand, I brave the tall grass and whip my mudkip into keen physical shape. By level ten, I have beaten my rival to tears, and am slightly disappointed that the law of “lose all your pokemon, go directly to Pokecenter (Do not pass go, do not collect $200)” seems to apply only to my digital self. As my wingull complains for attention, and I realize exactly how long it has been since I have felt the tug of the catching. That is to say, I discovered the twang of heartstrings directly proportionate to the time since I last played Pokemon Emerald.
A harmless endeavour, filled with child-like whimsy and a penchant for wasted time, the thrill of combating small, brightly-colored individuals has once again entered my life.It started innocently enough- a pointless meander through un-mowed lawns and unkempt forests, pestered all the while by small children warning me of the dangers that lurk there. My virtual mother ignorant to my whereabouts (my digital self probably preferred it that way). A flashing screen and some cartoon violence, performed in jest so as to test the waters. I was rewarded for my delinquency with a super-powered pet of my very own- an unassuming aquatic animal, to name whatever I wish and hold in my pocket against its will. Paving my own road of good intentions, I had naively been thrust into the underbelly of the pokemon trainer world. Left to my own devices, I began seeking out ways of keeping myself and my companions alive, and soon set myself to the goal of being able to come out on top if and when the treecko dung hit the fan. Being soon introduced to the Pokemart, a legal but shady institution, my companions and I quickly became used to the taste of potions and ethers on our tongues, and steeled ourselves against the cold winter and set our sites on the gyms.
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Sam the Sniper meets Computer Zombie
Sam the Sniper, the first in a series of intrepid zombie hunters to come to Pennington Hall, encounters a fierce -however quickly dispatched- foe: the computer zombie. Remaining still until the last moment, the computer zombie is one easily provoked and can prove to be quite fatal. Sniper Sam goes in for a good look at the creature, but elimination from a distance is usually recommended. (First in what may become a series of Penn 2 Zombies, distributed as the weekends vary in boredom. Filmed on a Canon Powershot and edited in iMovie. Score “composed” of sorts in GarageBand. Put together in about three hours with no idea where we were going with it.)
Peff is discussing.
Peff 10:53 pm on January 9, 2010 Permalink
http://www.cracked.com/article/226_6-adorable-cat-behaviors-with-shockingly-evil-explanations/
I feel that you need to read this.