Digital Christmas

Sent to me by my beautiful mother in law:

Getting in the Christmas Mood

My good buddy Dr. Todd sent this to me to get me in the Christmas spirit.

...It did just that, and so much more.

Its entertaining on so many levels, I highy suggest giving it a listen. *Just listen, looking away from the screen if you want to enjoy the music, if you want to smile while listening, watch these guys get their rock on.

The Swiss Santa

The Swiss Santa doesn't use reindeer, he uses a fighter jet.

Google Earth...Skydivng

Disneyworld Trip

Today is a day of mixed emotions (and irony). The final arrangements are being made this morning for our Disneyworld trip that we won from Southwest Airlines last year for our entry to their home video contest to answer the question "What would you do for $100?" (As they marketed their $100 in savings by not paying bag fees...)

Trip for 4 to Disneyworld Orlando, Florida
Rental Car
Hotel
4 day park hopper tickets
Airfare (for all 6 of us actually ;)

Here was our entry for anyone who missed it last year, or for anyone that wants to enjoy it again:




Also, this morning I received word, that Robbins Barstow passed away. He is the grandfather of home video production. A real pioneer to amateur videography. He is noted for many great home video memories, but one most notably, was a Disneyland vacation his family won in 1956.
Enjoy:



I hope we can record our trip as well as he did, to keep the spirit of home movies alive as one door closes, another opens.

-A special thanks goes out to the fantastic people at Southwest Airlines...that really, truly put people first. They don't just say that. They actually go beyond the call of duty, always.

Iphone vs. Android vs. Blackberry

 

Great Costume

At least the Great Wall worked out...

I stumbled upon this exibit the other day...and it left an impression on me. ...That impression was short lived. Or rather, it has changed. My awe, turned into Awww.


For any of you that have ever taken on a project, put your heart and soul into it, only to watch it fail... This story is for you.

Lets say, you are a conceptual artist named Ai Weiwei... and lets pretend for a minute, that you decide you want to make a magnificent art piece.... You want it spectacular, and durable enough to walk on. So you set out to do just that.

The idea:
To carpet a HUGE room, with sunflower seeds. It would be like walking in gravel, the sound, the feel under your shoes... But, it would be sunflower seeds! It would be amazing!

The problem:
Sunflower seeds will crush underfoot, leaving cracked shells and mess everywhere.

The solution:
Employ an entire town, whose only activity has been making and selling porcelain for over 1000 years. Have them cast 100 Million (100,000,000) Sunflower seeds out of porcelain. Then painstakingly hand paint each one. How you might ask?!

"Harnessing traditional craft skills, each seed was moulded, fired, and painted with three or four individual brush strokes, often by women taking the objects home to work on them. 1,600 people were involved in the process."




This "Process" took 2 years to complete. The result was unveiled last week in the main hall of Tate Modern. Everything came out perfectly, and it was quite a feat. Here are some pictures of the exhibit. You should read on before booking your trip to China to walk accross this bed of seeds though.... It will be gone in the next couple of days...



The museum is frantically cleaning up this mess... Apparently, walking on ceramic seeds causes them to give off "noxious ceramic dust".


Great idea...Bad execution. At least the poor Chinese workers that build the Great Wall can rest in peace knowing the wall is standing strong. And until it offends an extra terrestrial, for blocking their view of the dirt... I'm sure we'll get to enjoy that painstakingly glorious piece of Chinese art for many years to come.

I can't change a tire in 4 minutes...

The New Image...

iPad Band

Every instrument you hear in this video, was a "Virtual Instrument". Every sound, came from an iPad (except the vocals).

Here are the apps these guys used:

Real Drums

Pro Keys

Baby Scratch

Guitar Mania

All available in the app store.

Comfy Seat

Who needs a recliner when you can get perfectly comfortable sitting like this?

Rubix Head

iPhone 4 Reception Issues

You may have heard of the iPhone 4 "Reception issues". If you haven't... I might ask if you heard there was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or if you knew America is currently fighting in a war in Afghanistan? This issue of the long anticipated iPhone, has wildly been blown out of proportion. The phone is not perfect, sure there is room for improvement, but it's really not all that bad. I love the phone. With that being said. I couldn't help but poke fun at some of the people that expected more. If you want a cell phone that never drops calls... don't get one through AT&T. If the device works 'well enough' as a phone, but blows most point and shoot cameras out of the water, has more calculator apps than ASU's engineering school, and can play games as well as the wii...then why give it a hard time for dropping a call or two. Sure I would have liked to see an improvement from my iPhone 3GS... But everything else improved. They are just trapped on a crappy network.

However, if Apple decided to put function above form in an effort to overcome the flawed network where they reside (AT&T)...Then the new iPhone4 might have looked something like this:

I created this image from scratch. It is not real (before you ask)... it is a completely computer generated model.

Available at Amazon: $13.57

Fast Kid

iPhone 4 - it will be mine...

Geographical Irony

My 8 year old pointed this out to me.

I Dare You...

Bob, our project manager here at work, calls a Friday morning meeting each week where we update him on our status of the reporting and progress reports. In this meeting, Bob usually brings donuts, and a trinket gift of some sort. He walks around the room as the meeting opens, reaches into a bag, and pulls out a little something for each of us. Its always themed. A few weeks ago, it was Hotwheels cars.

Which is how I scored this sweet '71 Maverick Grabber:

On a later date, I received this Stingray:

Today, the theme was little bath toys.
Which is where I got this dolphin:

Always random, and I'm not sure what the point is. But they make for great decoration in my 'cube'.
"Dr. Todd" works in the cubicle next to mine. He's about my age, and a PhD. We tell jokes to each other, and bust each others chops, all day. This morning, before our project update meeting, Dr. Todd said,
"What would you do if I said, 'I like turtles...' during my status update at the meeting today?"
I always accept his off the wall challenges, because he never follows through. So I responded with,
"I'll give you 5 bucks."

This is the point in our conversation where we get back to work and nothing is ever said about our bet again. Because they are always so off the wall, neither of us actually thinks the other is serious.

...Today was a game changer.

Let me rewind now, to 6 months ago, when I sent this video to Dr. Todd:

...This recollection of previous conversation is typical, because Dr. Todd has a huge brain.... He remembers everything. These random comments about things 6 months or a year ago, are not uncommon. So his comment about wanting to say "I like turtles..." would in fact be hilarious...to him and I. None of the other PhD's, engineers, project managers, or upper management would be amused.... But Dr. Todd and I would have thought this random humor would be priceless.

Fastforward back to this morning's meeting...

As the distribution of trinkets completed, Bob had each one of us report on our progress. A dozen or so of us reported, and the attention turned to Dr. Todd for his updates on the reporting. He started his comments as follows: "First of all, I'd just like to thank Bob for today's toy... Because, I like turtles." He held his toy in one hand, proudly displaying it for us all to see. ...you guessed it... A TURTLE!
Then he glared in my direction and gave me a smug look and a grin. Then carried on with his report.

I couldn't believe it. What are the odds, someone could say "I like turtles..." During a meeting of this caliber, and not look like a complete fool?!
I couldn't contain myself... I interrupted as Bob tried to continue with the meeting,

"Did you seriously give him a turtle?!" I exclaimed.
The meeting carried on... Leaving me to look like the fool.

Bravo, Dr. Todd, you bested me this time. You'll get yours...I'll get you for this.

...Until then. Here's your $5.

(I know what you are thinking...they had to have conspired this ahead of time. Let me say, Bob is much to serious of a guy to be willing to participate in our shenanigans. I'm positive he had nothing to do with this. And Dr. Todd mentioned saying his quote, long before Bob had even shown up today, so I know he had no idea what the trinkets were, and once more... had no idea which one he would receive randomly from the bag. This was a complete, random act. And I'm not sure, it could happen again in a million years.)

Performance

Saw this performance vehicle while mothers day shopping.

(in all seriousness... This is someone that likely squeezes the last drop of toothpaste out of the tube before throwing it away. Not a bad personality trait in this economy).

Coolness Level

The following Photos will be rated on the coolness scale.
(1=Not Cool ...10=Rad to the 9th degree)

6

11

1 ...actually ...because of the look on his face... I give it a 3


7.2

Mad Scientist

Some of my dearest friends, refer to the personality I take on during my late night projects as, "The Mad Scientist".

Last night, I tucked my 2 boys into bed about 9:00 pm, and asked them to be more careful leaving their legos out on the floor at night. I told them they'd be real sorry if they stepped on those barefoot and in the dark. I gently pushed a large pile of yellow and white pieces away from their walkway, tucked them in, and shut the light out. They proceeded to put on their headband LED lights that they wear when the read in the dark. I went to bed.

This morning, at 6:00 am, I found this outside my door. Apparently, they take after their dad, and had a little midnight Mad Scientist session.

My Little Pony

Look at that gigantic baby!

Photo Caption:
Four-year-old Garrett Mullen watches three-day-old pinto stallion named Einstein in Barnstead, N.H., Sunday, April 25,2010. The diminutive horse born in New Hampshire could lay claim to the world record for lightweight foal. The pinto stallion named Einstein weighed just 6 pounds and measured 14 inches in height when he was born Friday in Barnstead, N.H. Those proportions fit a human baby just about right but are downright tiny for horse, even a miniature breed like Einstein.

So that's how it works...

WOW!

Holy cow!

I can't believe it!

...Is that Paul Blart, Mall Cop, in the background?

Delectable

I'm not a fan of sushi. But cheese and crackers? ...bring it!

My wife pulled out some cheese and crackers, and a bunch of
confections and condiments. I built this little pie and thought it
was amazing, so I made about 20 more.
Ingredients from bottom to top:
-Ritz Cracker
-slice of sharp cheddar cheese
-a piece of deli pastrami
-a circle of mustard
-a jalepenio slice
-topped with a green olive

Eat in one bite (like sushi, but less disgusting)

Delish.

CubeeCrafts

Cooper and I put this together last night. It's called a CubeeCraft. You print out one of their predesigned 'paperdolls' (onto cardstock...typing paper is too thin to work with). Then just cut it out with a Xacto knife, and assemble... No glue or tape needed. Here is the one we used, if you want to print it:
There are many more patterns on there...just about every character you can think of.
They are all free to download, and you can google CubeeCraft for more that other people have made available for download. They are all FREE. So enjoy.

2010 Consumer Electronics Show

Candy Store:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Addraw Project 365

I decided to start a Project 365 blog.
I am trying to make it more art focused.

View it here:
ADDraw 365

Timelapse Transformer