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May 15th, 2008
07:31 am - Feeling weird about the podcast
Last Sunday I did an episode of CTS2 that was based on a physics paper that dealt from a scientific angle the philosophical concept that we live in a virtual reality. It's an intriguing concept, especially in the context of the Sims and developments in the Sims 3 and how the sims that aren't being played will carry on with their lives while the player goes on with his/hers. In a nutshell, a primitive virtual reality.
At times, I felt like I was going over the heads of the audience and that I found the topic much more interesting than they did. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm never quite comfortable with doing something badly and will beat myself up for doing a substandard job, albeit with the best of intentions.
So if anybody that listens to the podcast AND reads this journal, drop me a line and leave me some feedback. Preferably by e-mail, but voicemail is okay, too. The number is at the end of the episode.
Current Mood: hand-wrenching
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May 6th, 2008
08:01 am - David Lynch on the iPhone
Current Mood: HA!
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May 5th, 2008
07:47 am - Iron Man
Penny and I went to see Iron Man on Saturday. It was great! There was a reference that I didn't catch until just before they literally handed it to us. It was really well done and a good translation of the character. Robert Downey Jr did fantastic with it, and Gweneth Paltrow does well enough with what is given to her. Terrence Howard kind of falls into the background as James Rhodes, but I think that's more of the writing than his performance. His really good scene comes midway through the movie when Tony calls him from inside the armor.
If I say much more, I'm going to spoil it. But finally, a super-hero gave us a extra scene after the trailers that a good treat for the fanboys. I haven't really read alot of Super-Heroes, expecially Iron Man over the past decade, but this really excited me.
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April 21st, 2008
06:21 am - Expelled...expelled?
Friday at work we discussed the opening of the film Expelled, a documentary-style film looking at the controversy surrounding Intelligent Design and blatant propaganda for the Intelligent Design movement. For those of you not familiar with Intelligent Design, it's the latest form of creationism, a theory that has been ruled by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional and it tries to criticize evolution on scientific terms, and to date, failing miserably.
Anyway, Expelled's producers hoped for a fantastic opening weekend near the top of the box office charts based primarily on support among Christians and that it was opening on over 1,000 screens, quite impressive for an independent documentary. However the response was less than hoped. One article I read gave the screen breakdowns but I crunched the numbers myself and came to the following conclusion.
The numbers, according to movies.yahoo.com, have Expelled grossing $3, 153,000 on 1052 theaters, or $2997 per theater. Now lets assume that there are 10 showings over the weekend, 4 on Saturday and Sunday, 2 on Friday, and you get an average gross of $299.70 per showing. Assuming the average ticket price is $10. More in some cities, less in some smaller cities' for matinees, and you get an average audience size for a showing of Expelled of thirty people. Not shabby, but not impressive enough to brag about.
Comparisons:
Sicko: $4.4 million in 441 theaters, or 99 people per showing.
Fahrenheit 9/11: $23.9 million in 868 theaters, or 275 people per showing
Forbidden Kingdom: $20,870,000 in 3151 theaters, or 44 people per showing and allowing for an average of 15 showings over the weekend.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall: $17,348,000 in 2798 theaters, or 41 per showing, likewise allowing for an average of 15 showings over the weekend.
So, when creationists have to play by the same rules as everyone else (actually I judged the boxed office champs this weekend by stricter criteria), they don't do as well as they believe they can. I was also curious about the other documentary opening this weekend and how it did by comparison. Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden? opened in 102 theaters and grossed $143,299, for an average of 14 people per showing.
Expelled did okay, but nowhere as good as their supporters said they were going to do.
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April 13th, 2008
10:58 am - FILE YOUR GODDAM TAXES!
Tuesday is April 15, and in order for you to get a check from the government for several hundred dollars, you have to file your tax return by April 15. Even if you can't pay (file for an extension), you have to file taxes in order to get the stimulus rebate! Yes, I know that the stimulus probably won't work. Yes, I know that you have other stuff to do. Still this is several hundred dollars that they want to send to you anyway. If you don't file your taxes by April 15, I don't want to hear you bitching when you don't get a check.
Besides, it's the fucking law. Don't argue with me.
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April 9th, 2008
06:22 pm - Damn, It doesn't feel like that long.
Last night I took some time to go in my studio and draw. Thinking back on how long it's been since I actually drew, I was surprised at how good it felt to actually put some ink on paper, to try and block a scene and work on perspective, to figure out proportions. Hell even erasing mistakes felt good.
Why have I been so lazy in drawing? Well, I've been doing that Sims 2 podcast thing, and I've been doing pretty good with it to. Last week, I broke Talkshoe's Top 50 in downloads, but I had to put up 6 episodes, albeit 5 of them were really short episodes. For the next two weeks, I'm experimenting with just one episode and seeing where those rankings go.
So, why the sudden drawing guilt? I watched a DVD of the TED conference, and really felt inspired to do something and to challenge myself to do it better than I have been. So I'm going to try and draw again tonight, and hopefully within the next couple of days, have something to post on the web site. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm kinda digging it, but feel bad that it's just my podcasting friends that are following me.
Current Music: news
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March 26th, 2008
09:41 pm - I should really be doing other things.
Wanted to do a post talking about my favorite artists, but just can't bring myself to do it this late in the evening. I wanna just hit the sack. I should also be working on my web site, because I'm behind on show notes.
Fuck it, I'll do it in the morning.
Current Music: Kitty - Presidents of the USA
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March 19th, 2008
10:17 am - Okay, this is awesome.
Just discovered this morning the awesomeness that is Musicovery. A great online music player that groups music together by mood and genre much better than last FM, and when you register and select enough favorite songs can really get a good selection of songs that you'll like. Try it out. It's awesome and even presents the choices in a neat little map.
Awesome.
Current Music: Beatles. Come Together.
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March 17th, 2008
08:48 pm - Okay, I'm through slacking...
It came to my attention that a certain convention near me will have a special guest that I'd love to hear speak. I really don't want to go through the rigmarole to attend this show as an normal attendee, and Because I haven't drawn anything for a year comic-wise, I'm not in a position to get in on their Artist's Alley.
So, that being said, I'm going to start drawing comics a bit more regular-like and as proof, here's something roughed out over the weekend, the next Jet-Pack Jenny strip:
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March 16th, 2008
08:05 am - What a night.
Georgia was rocked yesterday by storms and tornadoes. Apparrently, a late night tornado took out a major power supply line and put most of Savannah and Chatham County into the dark for hours. The thing about a brick house (MIGHTY! MIGHTY!) is that it holds onto the heat pretty well and gets pretty warm, so sleeping became very hard to do. When the power first went out, I decided to venture out and I saw a major storm on its way and that power was out all over the city. Got the flashlights out, and put batteries in the portable radio. about midnight, we got a Tornado warning and did was we were told and took to the (supposedly) safest part of the house, the hallway and bathroom. We sat there with the dogs until 12:45 and listened to the radio and the rain. Then we went to bed. Well, I drew a little by flashlight first. Then at 1:45, the power came back on.
All in all, in was the most surreal experience I've had yet in the house. There's a few things that I need to do in the event that this happens again. Namely, stock some water. With the power out all over the county, the community well that we get our water from didn't work and we had no water until this morning. I also need to put screens on a couple of windows, so we can open them in case the power goes out in the summer.
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March 12th, 2008
02:38 pm - Wow. Fucking Wow.
Just for shits n'giggles I checked the talkshoe ratings for most downloaded, and lo and behold, I find that I'm number 92 for last week. I broke the top 100! The numbers aren't all that high given what professional podcasts do (SGU does 10,000), but still, I broke Talkshoe's Top 100. Now to fully empliment my plan to take over talkshoe. BWAHHAHAHA.
Actually, for the week before, I was #100 so everyone could see what my downloads were.
There are just a few podcasts that I'd love to surpass, but I'll not mention them as they leave a BIG FOOTprint about EVERYTHING OPeRAtic witH the LAW. OFten the ATTRACTION of attention gives them an advantage. Too many times, THE SECRET to being happy is knowing when to ignore those that annoy you.
I'm so fucking happy to break the top 100.
Current Location: shhhh
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/wink.gif) giggly
Current Music: Infedel Guy
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February 24th, 2008
06:47 pm - A Year? You've gotta be shittin' me!
I dawned on me last night that it's been almost a year since I went to a convention. It's also been a year since I did any substantive drawing. Both points make me feel a little less than proud about myself, but only one do I feel any guilt over.
The convention thing is a money issue. Trying desperately to get out from under some debt has me forsaking the convention circuit. I've been paying attention to some blogs and I'm certain that some of you know what I mean. I really miss it but I don't feel guilty about it (except for missing some old friends)because there is the one factor that I do feel guilty about.
I haven't been drawing like I should. The podcast takes up more time than it probably should. I tend to pay a lot of attention to the quality of the show I put together. I feel like I should do it weekly, but even then, it stresses me to devote time to one good show a week. Now, because I do a show about a video game, I need to spend time playing the damn thing, and since I do a show about customizing, I need to spend time trying to be creative with the game. You'd think that maybe going bi-weekly would make time for drawing, but I took a week off and haven't drawn for squat. I need to step it up.
So I'm gonna try to step it up. Feel free to notify me of any meme's that come up.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) frustrated
Current Music: Storm Large - Thank God
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February 19th, 2008
05:50 am - Fantastic Four?
The team of Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, and Paul Neary have taken over on Fantastic Four and I find myself , for the first time, picking up Fantastic Four, and it really didn't let me down. While I don't care for Hitch's Ben Grimm, his Mr. Fantastic is awesome and has more character in his face than anytime I've ever seen him. Millar knows what kind of scenes Hitch does best and gives them to him. I don't know that I care for the costume redesigns, but at least they don't look like unitards, which is how most artists have drawn them. I really like the look of this book, but Paul Mounts doesn't quite mesh with Hitch the way that Laura Martin does. Too much local color.
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February 18th, 2008
09:13 am - Sharing some Sims 2 stuff
Last night in the aftershow to my podcast, I discovered this awesome video for the ending of American Beauty, done with the Sims 2 moviemaker. Really awesome, and the car is the part that looks really impressive to me towards the middle.
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February 16th, 2008
11:21 am - As promised...
I haven't gotten this posted to the website yet, as the redesign of the web site is in the way, a little, but you livejournal readers are getting the first look.
Current Music: Ani DeFranco
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February 12th, 2008
10:33 pm - iTunes Meme
Instructions: Open up your iTunes and fill out this survey, no matter how embarrassing the responses might be.
How many songs total: 3033
How many hours or days of music: 8 days, 4 hours, 36 minutes
Most recently played: Gay Bar - Electric Six
Most played: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Sugababes
Most recently added: Authenticity - Harvey Danger
Sort by song title:
First Song: ABC - Jackson 5
Last Song: 99 Luftballoons - Nena
Sort by time:
Shortest Song: R2D2f (beeping)
Longest Song: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly
Sort by album:
First album: ABBA
Last album: 50 First Dates Soundtrack
First song that comes up on Shuffle: Back In Black - ACDC
Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death - 0
Life - 54
Love - 193
Hate - 7
You - 381
Sex - 32
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February 10th, 2008
08:30 pm
Listening to iTunes while audacity is exporting an MP3, and scared at how wrong some of my track listings are. That's what I get for using some downloads from idiots that think every 70s song is by the Doobie Brothers and every 80s song is by INXS or Depeche Mode.
ANYWAY (which Penny is sick of hearing me say), Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" came on and I'm amazed that I still like this song. Because this is the Internet and I can share my insanity, here is the video to said song:
Current Location: almost done with JPJ strip.
Current Music: Are you not reading? Harvey Danger, bitches!
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February 5th, 2008
05:59 am - Guess what's coming?
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February 4th, 2008
07:43 pm - Taxes and other good news.
Just did our federal taxes and depending on one company, we're getting back at least $1600. All that will immediately go towards paying off Rooms to Go for the beautiful bedroom furniture that Vivi ruined almost a year ago during the start of her chewing phase. No word on State taxes, since they're really dependent upon Federal and those aren't in stone yet.
Podcast wise, I dealt with my little crisis (LJ friends are the only ones who read about so don't feel bad if you don't remember me talking about it.) by plugging a couple of reason-based podcasts, namely the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe and Skepticality. Also the numbers came in for the month of January and I topped over 1,500 downloads. One episode topped over 200 downloads, which are small potatoes in the vast scheme of things, especially considering how many downloads some larger podcasts get, but hell, I don't know 200 people, so that's pretty damn good.
Actually going to draw tonight and maybe, and I'm stressing maybe, I'll get a Jet-Pack Jenny strip finished.
Current Music: Shape of My Heart - Sting
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February 2nd, 2008
10:13 pm - Because it's an Internet thing.
THE CHALLENGE:
1. Put your iTunes on random.
2. Find photos of the first 25 artists/bands that come up (no repeats and no cheating).
3. Have people guess who the artists/bands are.
4. Paste this in yours and do it too, so I can waste time guessing as well.
( Read more... )
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jdstanford's journal