Back in the Saddle

I’ve been back in school now for five weeks, and it has been hectic! I had a whole laundry list of things to do this semester, but so far the majority of said list has been overruled by schoolwork. I guess that’s what happens in college; but I do plan to get to them… eventually. The Adventures of Captain Bitter and the Bitter Boat is a prime example of what I’m talking about. Eric and I are working on a new episode right now, but it’s sort of at a stand-still from the business of our schoolwork. But come hell or high water, it will be broadcast! Mark my words!

The shiny new Android phone came out yesterday and I was pretty excited about it. It wasn’t so much the phone that I was over the moon about, but more the operating system. Google has really outdone itself this time.

A couple of days ago, I found a few flyers hung up around campus with a QR code on it. How cool is that! It turned out to hold a link to a digital media art group here at school. So naturally, I made a code in response to theirs and posted it on their bulletin board .

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

At Year’s End

This school year has just ended for me and I feel like I’ve changed, but for the better. This year, I became more involved in the radio station, co-wrote and helped produce a radio “comedy”, met some new people, made new friends, and hosted a dance party just last Friday. Next year, I’ll be the News Director for The Fuse and I’m really excited to start that.

The summer is going to be pretty busy for me. I’m going to, of course, be working at Wal-Mart but I’m also going to be honing my skills as a DJ. In between those two things will be the usual randomness of summer and the trip to Douglas Lake in Michigan that I am so looking forward to.

And the movies! Ahhh I cannot wait for the movies this summer. There are going to be so many of them. By the way, if you get the chance today, listen to The Adventures of Captain Bitter and the Bitter Boat at 6:30 p.m. (Indiana Time). It’s the radio comedy I mentioned earlier and I’m very proud of it! You can listen on 105.5 Fuse FM if you’re in the Huntington area, or online at wqhu.net. Let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Dirk

Untitled 2

I must admit, I’ve been pretty bad about coming up with witty titles for these posts lately. That being said, while I’ve been sitting here in this fluorescent-lit production room, I felt compelled to blog today.

There are a lot of great movies coming out this summer, but the one I’m most excited about right now (besides Get Smart, Wall-E, and Iron Man) is Speed Racer

I think the reason I’m so excited about this movie is its visual effects. The whole thing looks like a riot of color.

Lately, I’ve been in a mood to fiddle around with computers. My family just recently bought a brand new PC, so naturally, I didn’t want the old one to go to waste. I’m trying out a rather new flavor of Ubuntu Linux called “gOS” (which I believe stands for “good Operating System”

As you can see, it really resembles Mac OSX Leopard in its dock style. I think that’s why I like it so much lol. In reality though, I’ve never really interacted with an open source OS, so this is very much a learning experience for me. (Not to mention, it gives me an excuse to make some upgrades on an old PC! haha)

That’s all for now.

I came across an article in the New York Times yesterday that was talking about these space invader scarves that had a special code knit into them called a Quick Response or “QR” code. It’s kind of like a traditional bar code, but unlike traditional UPCs that read only horizontally, the QR codes can read vertically as well as horizontally which means it can store more information.

Here’s what one looks like:

The cool thing about these is that you can read them with just your cell phone. A company called Kaywa has a site where you can download the reader for your phone and also generate a QR code of your own. That’s where I made the code above. (If you don’t have a reader for your phone, it says “if you can read this, you’re pretty cool!”) The cool thing about these codes is that your phone can scan them and get ring tones, wallpaper, or even mp3s.

On another note, I can’t wait for summer to be here. Enough of this ridiculous cold! And The Office is coming back next Thursday… woohooo! I’m so glad to see that show back on the air.

Much Ado About Nothing

The new Wall-E trailer came out today. I cannot wait until it comes out! The movie looks amazing visually and the plot looks like it’ll be a great one. Could it be Pixar’s best movie yet? I think it very well could be.

Oh, and here is a little video goodness. A friend of mine and I are creating a radio comedy and we put together this featurette for a class to promote it. The show is called “The Adventures of Captain Bitter and the Bitter Boat.” Enjoy!

 

 

Biting the Bullet

I’ve really done a lousy job of blogging lately and I need to get back into the swing of things so here it goes…

A few days ago, a friend of mine showed me an article that a frend of mine showed me that showed Robert Downey Jr. as a black man. WTF!? Here’s a picture:

Is that crazy or what!? Talk about a great makeup job. I’ve heard about the controversy surrounding Downey Jr. playing the role of a black man, but since I know literally nothing about this movie, I’m going to hold my tongue for now.

Ah, that’s better. A decent blog post. I feel better now.

Fantastic

I think this is the best thing I’ve seen all day. Maybe all week. Enjoy!  

Across the Universe

I saw the movie “Across the Universe” the day it was released and was absolutely blown away. It’s easily one of the best on-screen musicals I have ever watched. The visuals were stunning and the singing was phenomenal. Anyway, I read an article today that stated NASA is going to celebrate its 50th anniversary (and also the anniversary of the Beatles writing this song) by beaming the hit Beatles song “Across the Universe” directly at the North Star on Feb, 4th. How cool is that! Coincidentally, the event falls on the day before the movie “Across the Universe” is released. 

 

It appears the planets really have aligned for this one .

 

Dirk 

MacBook Air (among other things)

With the Macworld Expo now in full swing, Apple C.E.O. released the brand new addition to the MacBook line, the MacBook Air. The Air is supposedly the the thinnest notebook on the market; its dimensions are really impressive:

Height:
0.16-0.76 inch (0.4-1.94 cm)
Width:
12.8 inches (32.5 cm)
Depth:
8.94 inches (22.7 cm)
Weight:
3.0 pounds (1.36 kg)¹

The one thing that surprised me is that the Air is not equipped with an optical drive. However, a separate optical drive can be purchased which plugs into the USB port. And it can supposedly connect to another computer’s (be it Mac or PC) optical drive over a wireless network. I’ll have to see it in action before I’m totally sold on the notion. Overall, it seems like another solid addition to the Apple lineup; and I just might start saving my pennies for this one.

Jobs also announced movie rentals on iTunes. I believe they range in price from two to five dollars. The concept of digitally renting movies may have to sit with me for awhile; I’m not entirely sure how well it will go, but I suppose time will tell.

Cheers,

Dirk