Although largely symbolic in its significance, it is notable to mention that a hugely-gaping parasite was recently removed from the scene... The individual who was intended to be largely the key holder and moderator for the web presence of our entire passive exposure venue opportunity... was hugely unpleasant, and highly distructive. She is gone. That's really all that matters except for one item: I certainly hope that the administration works to ensure a total-trainwreck disaster of this magnitude never happens again...
Now to turn the hate cannon on her enablers...
Friday, May 13, 2011
Monday, February 9, 2009
New Year and New Things...
Greetings, Spacepilots!
I want to launch with a few "neat" observations for the new year:
1. AVC (Any Video Converter) is a fantastic tool. I will incorporate a link here once I get over my enthusiasm. With so many subtleties (reads as inaccuracies) with hosted solutions and tools, it helps profoundly to have a conversion tool worth a damn.
http://www.any-video-converter.com/
Look for the free version. The full-on has an amazing extension list.
2. Epiphone Performer SG - The so-called mini-venetian jumbo is absolutely fantastic. Boasting a neck small enough to accomodate my tiny fingers, whilst still allowing unparalleled finger work (in such a neck). Amazing volume and tone. Can't recommend a string set yet for this acoustic-electric, but pending... Big thanks to my wife for this gift.
http://www.epiphone.com/news.asp?NewsID=1250
3. The Pentech Syntech mechanical pencils (made by Jakks Pacific) are still the greatest mechanical pencils I've ever owned (possibly used). I am so thankful to have found some through Amazon...
4. I've got some new music collaborations with Amazing Gil, Nathan Crowson, and (!) Silverspun. Eventually these will be featured on the Cleider myspacepage.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=441937293
5. I got a great old pub of an S.S. Van Dyne novel "The Dragon Murder Case" (or something) featuring Philo Vance (portrayed by "Nick Charles" William Powell in at least one cinematic gathering). Can't wait to get into that one.
6. Taking a fresh stab at my one-act adaptation of Eddie Campbell's Bachus. Should be interesting.
Well... I guess that's it for now. May come back in and hash out some additional good news! - k
I want to launch with a few "neat" observations for the new year:
1. AVC (Any Video Converter) is a fantastic tool. I will incorporate a link here once I get over my enthusiasm. With so many subtleties (reads as inaccuracies) with hosted solutions and tools, it helps profoundly to have a conversion tool worth a damn.
http://www.any-video-converter.com/
Look for the free version. The full-on has an amazing extension list.
2. Epiphone Performer SG - The so-called mini-venetian jumbo is absolutely fantastic. Boasting a neck small enough to accomodate my tiny fingers, whilst still allowing unparalleled finger work (in such a neck). Amazing volume and tone. Can't recommend a string set yet for this acoustic-electric, but pending... Big thanks to my wife for this gift.
http://www.epiphone.com/news.asp?NewsID=1250
3. The Pentech Syntech mechanical pencils (made by Jakks Pacific) are still the greatest mechanical pencils I've ever owned (possibly used). I am so thankful to have found some through Amazon...
4. I've got some new music collaborations with Amazing Gil, Nathan Crowson, and (!) Silverspun. Eventually these will be featured on the Cleider myspacepage.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=441937293
5. I got a great old pub of an S.S. Van Dyne novel "The Dragon Murder Case" (or something) featuring Philo Vance (portrayed by "Nick Charles" William Powell in at least one cinematic gathering). Can't wait to get into that one.
6. Taking a fresh stab at my one-act adaptation of Eddie Campbell's Bachus. Should be interesting.
Well... I guess that's it for now. May come back in and hash out some additional good news! - k
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
How do I define a competent applicant?
I have recently taken the opportunity to vent as regards new hires and technical/academic/creative job positions. A recent development is that humans are typically lacking the capacity to come off as genuine and/or caring. I don't give a sh*t if your resume includes the ability to see through walls if you lack the social capacity to convince me that you might actually give a damn about work outcomes. Yes, the suggestion that there is experience, talent, trainability... these are all key elements to creating a successful partnership, but without an acknowledgment of interest, how can you be trainable? Without the suggestion that you will make a point to work with existing structure, what good is any talent (real or imagined?)?
Needless to say, I'm pissed off at nothing tangible, and this too shall pass.
In other news, Paty got me a fantastic acoustic guitar. - jeb
Needless to say, I'm pissed off at nothing tangible, and this too shall pass.
In other news, Paty got me a fantastic acoustic guitar. - jeb
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The Sound Solution...
Greetings, Gang.
This is hopelessly premature, but I think I've stumbled upon THE recording solution of my dreams (est. some 20 years ago).
Digital recording has essentially been around that long, but devices have certainly been on the scene in the last 6 years that make most of my recent efforts redundant/rediculous. In my humble opinion, the following is THE ideal solution to 90% of needs I've encountered for sound:
1. PC running XP ~ 300
2. Alesis 8 channel direct USB mixer ~150
3. Decent mic (I'm using a Shure Beta') ~ 125
4. cables ~ 12
5. Adobe Audition (using an old, slimmed down version)... but wondering if (freeware) Audacity can do most of the reads... ~100
6. I run guitar sounds from my Ibanez ICX guitar through a Roland CUBE 30, and mike it (line-outs appear to be a conspiracy to drive people like me crazy... )
7. I use a freeware drum machine for placeholder percussion and other sounds.
I don't have it together yet, but it appears that multi-tracking is capable through the USB assignments in Audition. KFA.
AMAZING output... solutions I didn't think were possible... and very affordable. Don't know what else to say other than "wish I had this 5 years ago..." - k
This is hopelessly premature, but I think I've stumbled upon THE recording solution of my dreams (est. some 20 years ago).
Digital recording has essentially been around that long, but devices have certainly been on the scene in the last 6 years that make most of my recent efforts redundant/rediculous. In my humble opinion, the following is THE ideal solution to 90% of needs I've encountered for sound:
1. PC running XP ~ 300
2. Alesis 8 channel direct USB mixer ~150
3. Decent mic (I'm using a Shure Beta') ~ 125
4. cables ~ 12
5. Adobe Audition (using an old, slimmed down version)... but wondering if (freeware) Audacity can do most of the reads... ~100
6. I run guitar sounds from my Ibanez ICX guitar through a Roland CUBE 30, and mike it (line-outs appear to be a conspiracy to drive people like me crazy... )
7. I use a freeware drum machine for placeholder percussion and other sounds.
I don't have it together yet, but it appears that multi-tracking is capable through the USB assignments in Audition. KFA.
AMAZING output... solutions I didn't think were possible... and very affordable. Don't know what else to say other than "wish I had this 5 years ago..." - k
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Disc Ussions of TR2N
It's already out an about. The pop sequel they were never going to figure out how to pull off is going to happen. TRON 2 (or TR2N) hit the internet with a bamboozled celphone video that was both thrilling and interesting. The nostalgia about that film (for most fan-boys and girls I've chatted with) is tainted with what appears to be the subtext of "nobody gets this". The original TRON and the Broderick movie WARGAMES stand as the best elements of 80's compu-geekdom that reflect a culture that never really hit in the mainstream... and is almost as bizarre (dispite its recent setting) as ancient historical adaptations when realized on the silver screen for modern audiences. Fans of the original and/or this new effort need to track down a copy of the EXCELLENT donationware lightcycle game ARMAGETRON... and the original ROMS for DISCS OF TRON.
HERE's my knee-jerk scoresheet for this summers "blockbuster" fare:
HELLBOY 2, THE GOLDEN ARMY: 6 (Sweet-hearted, and amazing, but left the culture)
THE DARK KNIGHT: 9 (arguably the perfect comic adaptation... amazing cast...)
IRON MAN: 9 (the adaptation that couldn't go right... went right)
SPEED RACER: 4 (so many amazing victories on this one, and it still doesn't know WTF is up)
INDIANA JONES and the CRYSTAL SKULL: 7 (my favorite sequel to RAIDERS... though all my friends are sick)
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH: 5 (I almost didn't like this, but it is very sweet-hearted)
X-FILES 2, I WANNA BELIEVE: N/A
THE INCREDIBLE HULK: N/A
THE WILL SMITH MOVIE: N/A
2009 Notables:
THE WATCHMEN
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS
HERE's my knee-jerk scoresheet for this summers "blockbuster" fare:
HELLBOY 2, THE GOLDEN ARMY: 6 (Sweet-hearted, and amazing, but left the culture)
THE DARK KNIGHT: 9 (arguably the perfect comic adaptation... amazing cast...)
IRON MAN: 9 (the adaptation that couldn't go right... went right)
SPEED RACER: 4 (so many amazing victories on this one, and it still doesn't know WTF is up)
INDIANA JONES and the CRYSTAL SKULL: 7 (my favorite sequel to RAIDERS... though all my friends are sick)
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH: 5 (I almost didn't like this, but it is very sweet-hearted)
X-FILES 2, I WANNA BELIEVE: N/A
THE INCREDIBLE HULK: N/A
THE WILL SMITH MOVIE: N/A
2009 Notables:
THE WATCHMEN
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Of Iron and Wheels...
What a fantastic Summer for popcorn films...! This Summer 2008 is truly going to be heralded by someone as the ultimate for action fans.
Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight, X-Files 2, Speed Racer, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Indiana Jones 4, wow.
Before I rant, I should say that two of these properties, Iron Man, and Speed Racer, are rediculously near and dear to my childhood... so to be fair, I should lack anything resembling objectivity in the following lines of text...
I still can't get my mind around how excellent Iron Man is and how Stark (Downey jr.) nailed it. I was encouraged by the casting, but was beyond comfortable with what I took as the inevitable disappointment of another dud from a comic premise that the executives simply wouldn't get. Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, yes Spider-Man (which I mostly consider the McDonalds of action movies), all grossly undershot the mark. Nobody could have seen Hellboy and The Incredibles and turned out a movie like Fantastic Flop.
In contrast to IM, and to drive my point home, look at Speed Racer. I absolutely HATE to parrot critics of these films, but did the Waschshsshowski Brothers even see the original 60's cartoon? Were they fans? This is a property that could have been brilliantly pulled off in no less than 3 completely different directions, and yet we got nada. It actually has a plot of sorts (and one consistent with the source material), it is well cast, it very excellently sets up Racer X, it provides a peculiar team race accross the elements (which should have been awesome), and I did enjoy some moments, but I can safely say that I won't see this movie ever again. (!) The action is bizarrely unwatchable and as pointless as watching your kid brother play slot cars with himself. Did the bros even see the cartoon???
Was that really supposed to be SNAKE OILER from the CAR ACROBATIC TEAM???
In short, there is no way that IM could have turned out as great as it is, and there is no way that SR could have turned out as lame as it is. I'm baffled, but optimistic... it certainly appears that some of our savvy generation are getting their elements plugged into current media.
Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight, X-Files 2, Speed Racer, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Indiana Jones 4, wow.
Before I rant, I should say that two of these properties, Iron Man, and Speed Racer, are rediculously near and dear to my childhood... so to be fair, I should lack anything resembling objectivity in the following lines of text...
I still can't get my mind around how excellent Iron Man is and how Stark (Downey jr.) nailed it. I was encouraged by the casting, but was beyond comfortable with what I took as the inevitable disappointment of another dud from a comic premise that the executives simply wouldn't get. Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, yes Spider-Man (which I mostly consider the McDonalds of action movies), all grossly undershot the mark. Nobody could have seen Hellboy and The Incredibles and turned out a movie like Fantastic Flop.
In contrast to IM, and to drive my point home, look at Speed Racer. I absolutely HATE to parrot critics of these films, but did the Waschshsshowski Brothers even see the original 60's cartoon? Were they fans? This is a property that could have been brilliantly pulled off in no less than 3 completely different directions, and yet we got nada. It actually has a plot of sorts (and one consistent with the source material), it is well cast, it very excellently sets up Racer X, it provides a peculiar team race accross the elements (which should have been awesome), and I did enjoy some moments, but I can safely say that I won't see this movie ever again. (!) The action is bizarrely unwatchable and as pointless as watching your kid brother play slot cars with himself. Did the bros even see the cartoon???
Was that really supposed to be SNAKE OILER from the CAR ACROBATIC TEAM???
In short, there is no way that IM could have turned out as great as it is, and there is no way that SR could have turned out as lame as it is. I'm baffled, but optimistic... it certainly appears that some of our savvy generation are getting their elements plugged into current media.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
A Rose by Any Other Name... Could be as Deadly...
Greetings.
I just heard a spiel on N.P.R. regarding an apparently lauded-as-genius modification of E. coli to include pleasant wintergreen and bannana smells (the latter to serve as a cue that the colony growth cycle has been completed. Over the course of the superficial interview, the experimenters acknowledge that, to their knowledge, these smells have never been associated with these organisms. A bunch of carnival music later, and the story is over.
I make no secret that my enthusiasm for genetic manipulation is only in very specific pursuit areas. I have also openly acknowledged that N.P.R. treatments are often hopelessly superficial to the point of making commentary unacceptable. That having been said, I'd like to make the following points anyway:
1. The response the "scientists" who were asked about their impression of their own work was that they don't feel omnipotent but see themselves as "engineers".
2. The "scientists" don't seem to care about the awesome responsibility of keeping under-wraps a sweet-smelling E. coli strain. A huge implicit reason mammals come equiped with sniffers is to undo and avoid the presence of bacterial strains... what now?
3. Manipulation for the sake of manipulation or cleverness is (continues to be) a pretty hateful stroke in the face of a dividing line that is keeping patients away from stem-cell research. Is anybody even watching the $#%%%# movie? These flippant tasks make those concerned about scientific morality and ethics circle their wagons.
In short, after all the pointlessly glowing bunnies and the pointless articles attempting to justify the existence of glowing bunnies, and the reality that all these high-profile hijinks are using what essentially constitutes ancient methodologies (in the molecular scheme of things) by the point of these gimmicky actions (and thus are pointlessly pointless in terms of anything but the ramifications of what could come if the experimental organisms aren't kept under lock and key), nothing has changed. I hope somebody got a masters project out of the stale methodology recap., but I'm not impressed. Should I be?
I just heard a spiel on N.P.R. regarding an apparently lauded-as-genius modification of E. coli to include pleasant wintergreen and bannana smells (the latter to serve as a cue that the colony growth cycle has been completed. Over the course of the superficial interview, the experimenters acknowledge that, to their knowledge, these smells have never been associated with these organisms. A bunch of carnival music later, and the story is over.
I make no secret that my enthusiasm for genetic manipulation is only in very specific pursuit areas. I have also openly acknowledged that N.P.R. treatments are often hopelessly superficial to the point of making commentary unacceptable. That having been said, I'd like to make the following points anyway:
1. The response the "scientists" who were asked about their impression of their own work was that they don't feel omnipotent but see themselves as "engineers".
2. The "scientists" don't seem to care about the awesome responsibility of keeping under-wraps a sweet-smelling E. coli strain. A huge implicit reason mammals come equiped with sniffers is to undo and avoid the presence of bacterial strains... what now?
3. Manipulation for the sake of manipulation or cleverness is (continues to be) a pretty hateful stroke in the face of a dividing line that is keeping patients away from stem-cell research. Is anybody even watching the $#%%%# movie? These flippant tasks make those concerned about scientific morality and ethics circle their wagons.
In short, after all the pointlessly glowing bunnies and the pointless articles attempting to justify the existence of glowing bunnies, and the reality that all these high-profile hijinks are using what essentially constitutes ancient methodologies (in the molecular scheme of things) by the point of these gimmicky actions (and thus are pointlessly pointless in terms of anything but the ramifications of what could come if the experimental organisms aren't kept under lock and key), nothing has changed. I hope somebody got a masters project out of the stale methodology recap., but I'm not impressed. Should I be?
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