El más allá del perro

ScriptFrenzy profiles have spaces for trailers & posters, etc. so I whipped out some ideas.

Machinima Lights, Camera … no Action

I hereby publicly promise myself I will use these (for the very first time) before the day is over.

I bought a couple tools for machinima making from the Second Life Marketplace a long time ago and still haven’t used them. I was too busy screwing around in-world, wasting time and money, doing stupid shizzle instead of productive poop.

I bought:

• Machinima Lights 5 Pack by Paul Duke
• MechanizedLife Camera Bundle (comes with the MachinimaCam HUD and FilterCam HUD)

Now I just need:

• iMac with at least 8GB RAM and swanky video card
• 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator

Script Frenzy begins April 1

J is excited.

In the upper-right corner of this blog is a wittle widget for tracking how much I’ve completed. Below is my new Facebook cover image.

I downloaded the latest version of Celtx for Mac and, as I said, I am quite excited.

Relatively Recent Stuff

The car Viola Liuzza was shot to death in while volunteering at the Selma Civil Rights March in Alabama.

I also made a stamp of Viola Liuzzo those lousy bitches at stamps.com refused to make. As soon as I find it, I’ll post it.

The entire cover is in color on the original. I just highlighted particular people for my Mom, Viola's sister.

I’m pretty sure I’ve posted videos here of 2-3 new songs.

 

A Murl and His Musicks

Sans Comedy Episode II

Sans Comedy Episode I

Alexandria Wallpaper

MLK Day Droid Wallpaper

Click for full size.

A Short story inspired by MLK and several movies and books and stuff

by Jay Sprout
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY, 2011
One rainy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day morning in Detroit, the priests of the McNamara Federal Temple got a wee bit soaked walking from the parking structure to their tall, featureless building. Featureless, that is, except for “Jay Loves Nikki” that had been carved into the sidewalk while the cement was still wet. Across Michigan Avenue, no one at the AT&T skyscraper bus stop noticed the payphone with the unraveled and broken handset had not yet been repaired. The handset, swaying in the wind like a grandfather clock’s pendulum, kept time counting the seconds until someone came to also fix the change-box that held only rust and a crumpled up cigarette box because it had long been ripped open like the pregnant women of Tiphsah. The payphone – in front of the AT &T building – had been in this condition for many, many years … much like the federal temple and priests it watched every weekday. On weekends, there were no priests, or other humans of any kind, for miles.

Meanwhile, out in the suburbs, the home-school moms and children grabbed their umbrellas. Maximus Sprout was especially excited because he didn’t have to ask permission to wear his rain boots. In every district, in every sad state of the disunion, the homeschooling families gathered for Martin Luther King Day outside their local public school district offices.

And just stood there. Staring. Peacefully assembled. Each stay at home parent and child held a candle under their umbrella for every child held down by the public school system. Like a midnight gathering of pro-lifers outside a prison protesting an execution, they sent their love-vibes inside hoping some hardened blue-meanie would stop lecturing a child on the “If … then” statement using meat and pudding as an example long enough to feel the love … and stop eating the children’s brains.

There were no signs, no chanting. This was not some whack-job church ruining a funeral, these were free men and women standing silent like Martin Luther King, like Ghandi, like Andy Kaufman in a bad mood.

Aragorn of Arathorn arrived at the McNamara Temple with the ghost-army of civil rights movement martyrs, lynched men and women, and slaves thrown overboard still wearing their chains.

This army of invincible, indomitable spirits – no longer susceptible to the physical world’s whips or even raindrops – stayed silent. Waiting for orders. The scabby priests inside muttered amongst themselves, “Can we have them arrested?”

“No,” the imprisoned oracle replied, “the handcuffs would only fall through their wrists you ignorant douchebags.”

“Can we tax them until they can’t afford to stay any longer?” one of them pleaded, bordering on hysterics and they all cheered but were quickly shocked into a sudden, terrified silence like bitch-slapped demons after the crucifixion of Christ.

The order had come.

The translucent army began walking around the building. The mortals at the bus stop across the street checked their watches and continued reading The Metro Times.

Inside the Federal Temple, the federal employees shrieked in terror just like Proverbs 28:1 says at the beginning of True Grit.

“This MUST be illegal!”

“What?” the oracle asked, glad for today’s reprieve against her daily dose of ten dozen rapes by scabby old guys.

“Walking … around …” the panicking bureaucrats said, trying to use complete sentences.

At the end of the fifth day, the priests breathed a sigh of relief. They knew it was the end of their 40 hour work week and the Army of Apparitions would depart so they could all go home for the weekend which was really a good thing because the cafeteria had run out of food and they were now fighting over the contents of the vending machines.

On Saturday, the sixth day, while Aragorn continued to lead the risen, glorified and peacefully gathered spirits below, the federal employees called a press conference to announce a new union for protestors so conscience-having citizens need no t protest on weekends. Journalists from the Metro Times nodded their heads in agreement. Journalists from The Detroit Agenda Alternative Newsweekly stood outside at the bus stop, unable to decide who to support.

JANUARY 23, 2011: NO REST FOR THE WICKED
On the seventh day, Sunday, the starving and outraged federal employees looked to their director, Steve King, for some hope.

“It is the Sabbath,” he said, confident that his warehouse of biblical knowledge would comfort those he oppressed, “these religious idiots will rest today so you can all go home and … do whatever it is you do.”

But outside, they army began to move around the building.

Inside, those sentenced to this siege of spirits waited for the daily event to end.

Outside, the army continued around a second time. A third. A fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

Outside, the bus finally arrived and Joshua got off.

“Break out your harps,” he commanded.

“Now you’re talking,” a young boy said.

“Sorry, David, not that kind of harp.”

The thousands of others pulled the $3 Hohner harmonicas they’d purchased at the Cracker Barrel gift shop from their pockets.

“Oh shit,” Steve King said, “I remember this from Sunday School.”

JANUARY 24, 2011
The next day, the broken payphone in front of the AT&T building looked at the park where the Federal Building used to be in envy. During the night, the Ministry of Truth removed the rubble so that by morning, the local newspapers could report the 37th anniversary of the park’s groundbreaking.

The homeschooling wives were gathered around the radio listening to Glenn Beck rant about the conspiracy to hide the existence of the McNamara Building from history while they all sighed and wished their husbands were more like him.

“He can write on my white board anytime,” Nikki Sprout giggled.

“We should all plan a trip to D.C.” said another inspired mom.

“Hey, I was just reading 2 Kings in my D.R.I.V.E.N. class,” a third mom piped in, “and I have a great idea for a field trip to the capital building.”

HEAVEN, MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY, SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE
“They demolished the sacred gavel of Pelosi and tore down the Capital Building,” Nikki Sprout read to the 2 billion children she’d adopted, “and people have used it for a latrine to this day.” (2 Kings 10:27)

Black Sabbath Droid X Custom Wallpaper

Re-sized version of what I made for my desktop wallpaper.

Click thumbnail above for:

• 960 x 854
• 265 ppi

Full Size Ready for Droid X Linux Wallpaper

If you want it, here it is at the necessary dimensions and resolution:

Just in case: The above is a thumbnail. Clicking it takes you to the full-size.

Making Awesome Droid X Wallpaper

Preface

My wife couldn’t resist the Buy One Droid X Get One Free offer at the local mall so I now have my own little Droid that I love even though it seems they spent considerable effort making it as unlike the iPhone as possible. Whereas any idiot can pick up an iPod or iPhone and figure everything out intuitively, this particular idiot has had to google instructions for every darn thing I’ve wanted to do.

Two matters of the most urgent urgency were, of course, creating my own ringtones and wallpaper (I’ve since happily learned you can also create your own icons!).

Essentials for Creating Droid X Wallpaper:

• Dimensions are 960 x 854
• Resolution is 265 ppi

Important Consideration for Creating Awesome Droid X Wallpaper:
As you slide to your “screens” going left and right, you see different portions of the image (that’s why it’s closer to a square than a rectangle) which can make for some awesome effects and illusions. Here’s what I mean … this is the full view of the image I created for my wallpaper:

While searching for a way to rid my new and beloved Droid X of garbage like the Blockbuster app (rant about the evil that is Blockbuster forthcoming) I learned the Droid X is based on Linux and just had to do something Linuxy.

Here’s what you see in each “screen” – 5 columns of ~ 160 px each.

Left two swipes

Left one swipe

Center (Home)

Right one swipe

Right two swipes

Obviously, there’s no cool effect or illusion here … I was going for something quick and cool rather than thoughtful and amazing (which I’ll leave to you).

Putting Custom Wallpaper Onto Droid X

1. I emailed myself the image from my computer.
2. I downloaded the image to the Droid – I don’t think it matters where – and chose “Set As” from the menu (which is ridiculously hard to find – you press the menu button on the damn device itself which I had no reason to suspect was context sensitive!) and choose “Wallpaper.”

Trivia: Besides Tux and the Matrix wallpaper, the icons are for Inkscape, Gimp, Scribus and SeaMonkey. This makes me wonder if they have little Droid apps like the pretty darn nifty Adobe Ideas app for the iPod/iPhone …

Holy Crap! I had to open iTunes to look up the name of that little Adobe app and found out there’s also a little Photoshop Express app! Golly gee whiz I hope both are available on the Droid. Maybe not, though … given there’s no Linux version of Adobe stuff which … makes me optimistic about Gimp and whatnot …

Flipping Photo Booth Videos and Images

Step by step directions to stop Photobooth flipping images and videos.

When I got my new MacBookPro a few months ago, I quickly noticed pictures taken with Photobooth were flipped horizontally so all the text in any photo was mirrored.

Of course, you can flip it in Photoshop easily enough but that becomes a pain in the butt after the first few hundred times. You can also flip a selected photo right in Photobooth via Edit > Flip Photo but that’s still irritating.

BTW, you can easily flip video in Final Cut Express/Pro and/or QuickTimePro as well. I haven’t checked iMovie because, well, I’m a grown up now.

Apparently, Apple explains this by saying when using the iSight camera for chatting and whatnot, the person on the other end sees you normal but you see a mirror image of yourself so you can remove broccoli from your teeth more easily or some such nonsense.

Flip all new Photobooth images by default by selecting Edit > Auto Flip New Photos. Flipping all new videos, however, is a bit trickier.

Here’s the fix which requires you dig into the App itself. Fear not – this isn’t as intimidating or scary as the Terminal or even RegEdit. First, install XCode which I believe comes with the free developers tools.

These are the steps I followed (with my own comments inserted):

1. Backup Photo Booth as a safety. [I didn't – this is easy and there are no potential hazards anyway]
   
2. In Quartz Composer, open the Effect.qtz file (Photo Booth.app/Contents/Resources/Effect.qtz). [I found out the long and hard way you need to change the ownership of these folders and files for any changes you make to get saved – even if you're the admin]
   
3. Locate the left-most “Flip” patch. Select it and click the Patch Parameters gear.
4. Uncheck the “Flip” box.
5. Save Effect.qtz.
6. Launch Photo Booth and go. (Quick, easy, and painless, no?)

PW X

Now that I have all my proper movie-making ingredients, I thought back on this endeavor and tried to find the winning video but can’t find anything about it. Nothing on Gibson’s youtube channel and nothing on their site. The deadline for requesting a list of winners via SASE was April 31, 2010 so I can’t even do that. I wonder if anybody even entered … I wondered back then if I would win by default because I might be the only entrant.

Full Moon Fanaticism

The Difference Between Men and Women

Mars Antes Venus

Friendship

Mars and Venus In the Bedroom

Mars and Venus In the Bathroom

Still Kill Part 1

After 20 years without picking up a guitar, I’m re-learning to play and hope to start writing songs again soon. Also, obviously, I’ve started making videos again … I’m pretty proud of this one.

All My New Stuff

I’m using MPEG Stream Clip with Flip4Mac Pro to convert some WMVs to DV so I can edit them in my (insert me doing a super happy dance) copy of FCE on my new MacBook Pro. I’m such a happy guy.

PW IX

Some of the stuff I shot at the office isn’t bad … that concept might just work … so well, in fact, that the stuff I shot at home might seem out of place …

I did some editing last night and was happy. Still nothing I wanna show anyone … I just want to be able to say I finished what I started … it’s been a while.

I’m taking a day off from this silliness.

I Am Covered With Sweat (PW VIII)

I taped almost everything I wanted to today. Hopefully it won’t look as stupid as it might.

I asked one of the other guys in the training department to help me shoot something. After I explained the shot he asked what the symbolism was. I told him the truth: there isn’t any.

I am reminded of how Tom Petty explained the video for “Running Down A Dream.” He said, “I like nonsense.”

So little time. So few resources.

The good news is Jeff is giving me his old eMac which means I’ll have a CD burner at home again!

Pretty Woman VII

*sigh*

Jeff remembered he has a previous engagement and when I told my wife I was taping Saturday, she was like, “Oh no you’re not – I have plans.”

So I taped some stuff last night and will tape some more stuff of some last-ditch effort ideas and … just submit it.

My life is so sad.

Pretty Woman VI

Jeff’s wife did eventually decide, apparently reluctantly, to act but I don’t have time to find my second actress so I brain-scrambled some other ideas and ran one by Jeff over lunch which he’s willing to try. And I think it might be better than the original idea.

If he’s free Saturday, we’ll do it then – he’ll catch some footage with his HD camera as well. If he’s not free … it’ll be a long day for me but I’m definitely gonna give it a shot. I believe in this idea.

I’m watching This Is It while I work today – it is SO inspirational. I even have another idea for a personal music video thingy rumbling around in my head for after the contest.

Jeff came to my desk to grab me for lunch today and noticed I was listening to Michael Jackson – which I almost always am – and said, “I thought you’d be listening to Roy.”

True story: I am so thick-headed I thought, “Why would he think I’m listening to Roy Orbison?”

Pretty Woman 5

Barbies?

I gotta do something to feel like I’m doing something. My impression from the (very vague) rules of the contest is you can submit multiple submissions.

My stop-motion cast.

Pretty Woman IV

Neither female twas invited is interested. That means neither my wife, nor my actor’s wife. I may have to completely rewrite this thing. That’s okay. Madre was made in less than a week and I have almost two whole weeks left for this. I will turn something, anything in – even if it’s bottom-level animation – just to say I did it. I’d rather win, though. Perhaps I should brainstorm with my actor.

The good news is/was that the local Harley Davidson dealership is willing to let us film inside and outside as well as provide a couple stunt men.

Orby Dorby Track List

I’m making my standard Roy Orbison mix for a couple friends. For me, his voice is matched only by Meat Loaf for songs of love and heartbreak.

I think his most beautiful song was one of his last – “Not Alone Any More” with the Traveling Wilburys. If I made a video for “She’s A Mystery To Me” it would probably be a lot like the “Billie Jean” video (and the video would probably be more appropriate!).

I find the video for “You Got It” (one of his very best songs) to be very disappointing.

Pretty Woman 3

Been outlining and storyboarding. The idea is evolving beautifully. I asked my first choice for an actor if he’d be interested and he really likes the story concept.

Song length 2:58

Important dates:

• Submission deadline 11:59 PM February 8, 2010
• Voting ends 11:59PM on March 9, 2010
• winner notified within 30 days after March 9, 2010

Who are the judges doing the voting? Is there a panel of people at Gibson or is it the general public? It would help me make the best video possible if I knew who my audience will be.