This time, it’s an open scenario for what I want to be sent to me. No length limit, no questions to be answered, no context.

I don’t care if you use your iPhone, or your laptop cam or a digital camera or a full on video camera.

I just want video of moments in time. Your time.

You can email them directly to me, got80s@gmail.com or you can upload to the site of your choice (Yfrog, Youtube, Vimeo, Twitvid, Facebook Drop.io) and comment or send me the link via twitter.

The only thing I ask is that it be submitted to me by Saturday evening at the latest. (multiple submissions are welcome)

Example;

My teacher gave us an assignment, go out, interview 3 people, ask them a few questions and then we’ll edit them together in class. I checked out a camera from the school lab. I took the camera to work, thinking, I’ll get a few coworkers to interview….

Before I even sit down to record the first interview I realize the camera takes tape, which of course I don’t have lying around. I end up getting too busy to even think about leaving work to get the tape, much less interviewing anyone at this point. So…

That got me thinking..

Why do I have to go out and pick people to ask the questions? Why not just get some people w/a webcam and a Youtube account to answer those interview questions? And I’ll just download and edit together the videos!

Action

That’s where you guys come in, you know, the ones I asked on Twitter yesterday if you had a webcam and a Youtube account? I got a lot of responses, with most saying that they did have a webcam and a Youtube account.

So fire up those webcams and record your responses to these questions:

(yes, I know they are random, there is a method to the madness)

Question #1
What do you think about James Cameron, the director? Did you like his movies? Why? (ex Avatar, Titanic.)

Question #2
What do you think of the blogger Perez Hilton and his rise to fame, is it a deserved fame?

Question #3
What is your most hated movie and why?

Visual How-To

Just in case you aren’t sure how to upload a video to Youtube, I’ve included screen caps below on where the buttons are in the interface. They make it really easy to just record right in the browser!

When You’re Done Recording

Please leave the links to the videos you record in the comments, or DM me on Twitter the link.

I also wanted to say a big Thank You! in advance to those who participate.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2517/3893829249_6811a7a77b_o.png

This photo shows one of the many attempts to corral the kids into a family portrait.

I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter who’s kid it is, they are going to be hard to handle come nap time (which is about the time we ended up doing the shoot), bad timing.

Of course sometimes you nail a great shot that just leaves you giggling and it just shows the children as they really are.

I’ll share the edited ones when they are done of course.

I’m now convinced that taking photos of children at play is the best way to get a great shot.

Take this set for example, I just whipped out my camera at my nieces birthday party that was at a local gymnastics center. I had no intention of taking photos but the colors at the place were so vibrant I couldn’t resist.

I'm not the princess you think I am

I'm stuck, seriously..

They Call Him George

You can see the rest here on my myspace

To be fair, I have had the time to crop and bump up some colors on these photos since I used them for my final project (last minute idea). Now if I can keep my interest up in photography whenever the new semester starts I’ll be heading in the right direction. Sometimes school just takes over all my free time and I can’t make room for the really fun stuff.

Till the next blog, comment away..

I had a temporary period where my Creative Zen died on me and I had to hear the world around me minus my personal soundtrack. Never realized how uber-boring and quiet it can be on campus and in my cube at work. I quickly made with the spending of money that I didn’t have and broke my longtime tradition of buying Creative players and got a Microsoft Zune 2.0. I emphasize the V2 because V1 was an absolute EPIC FAIL. Except for the awesomeness of sharing songs which was dubbed squirting .  I have to say aside from some little uber-tech speak problems, the player is quite usable.

I’m in the market for a new cell phone and the new iPhone looks promising but the plans are just wayyyy out of my $$$ range. Plus I’m with T-mobile and currently contract free so if I’m ever booted out the door at my temp job and times get tough I can drop my phone without paying an arm and leg. Phones contract free are freaking expensive and to be quite honest they all just suck. I text and call, maybe use the web once in a blue moon on my phone. I’d like to get a “qwerty” phone because I do 90% texting and 10% calling. I just can’t find one that I like, that I can afford. I think they consulted Barbie when making the latest Blackberry because the keys are so small I can’t even use it. I’ve gotten so frustrated by trying to find a phone that I like that I’ve almost just given up and said fuck’em all together. For now my phone is getting some glue since it’s all sorts of cracked.

I’m listening to music like crazy lately. Found a bunch of new artists and some old ones that dropped new albums. You can see what I’ve been into by checking out my Last.fm account, friend me if you are on it. They are still working on making the Zune work with it (they=hackers). Matt got me into The Office, of which I’ve now seen every episode. I myself revisited Weeds and found that I can’t miss an episode now and nor can Matt. Aside from that, nothing in the glorious world of TV has pulled me in.

As I mentioned long ago, I’m taking 2 summer classes. The film one is almost done and the Digital Photography class is almost useless. The best part is the tax write off for the Canon Rebel I had to buy for the class. I’m still on Flickr and uploading most of my homework alongside regular photos, so if you are interested head on over and check it out. If you want to just track everything I do online you can join me on FriendFeed or just subscribe to my feed. I read a lot of articles and hear a lot of music online and sometimes recommend something to read. FriendFeed is a timeline of all of my online activities, including this blog. I live under the reality that Privacy is Dead so I willingly jack myself into the net and let it know my thoughts.

In the real world, stuff has happened.

There’s been two new additions to the family since I last blogged. Matt’s sister had her baby boy Jacob and his sister-in-law just had her boy Ian. I’m kinda over babies, I mean seriously, I’m now an uncle 12x’s over. Not to mention my friends got into the whole baby thing (Will/Bethany). I’m just excited that I’m baby free, they’re cute, but they are quite the handful. Plus, I’m a smidge ADD and tend to get into something that’s new and then get bored with it. That might be problematic if Matt and I adopted. I mean you can’t in all good sense return a baby. They don’t come with receipts do they?

Every semester as I approach my much anticipated graduation I find myself struggling to believe that registration and financial aid could get any more complicated. Yet, it is apparently setup to be just that. This summer, my first summer attempting to take classes at UTD I’ve found that the school said “Fuck You” by releasing the summer schedules. I guess no adult who is in the workforce cares to get an education, or at least it would seem UTD thinks so. I was only able to locate one class to take for the summer. Which I’m glad I’m getting into it and all, but I had to jump through hoops to get it. First off, it had prerequisites that I’ve not yet been able to take, so I had to email the teacher and get her approval to take the course. Then, after the approval I had to get my adviser to remove the prerequisite block off my ID so that I could actually register for the course. So, awesome, yeah I got into the course. Of course the bullshit doesn’t end there..

Next comes the M.C. Escher inspired maze called Financial Aid for college. Apparently since I am only taking a meager 3 hours of classes for the summer (11 weeks 5-10pm on Mondays) I do not get to have any financial aid. I wouldn’t bitch if it were actually free money but it’s not! I actually have to pay back the so called financial aid after graduation. So why in the world can I not get a loan? The class, one class, is going to cost me $1500, plus, the supplies for the class will cost me $700. After looking over the schedules for the Dallas Community Colleges for the summer I’ve also found one other course and at $150 bucks it’s a fucking bargain! I’m not even going to bother to get aid for that class. They say I can not get a loan because I’m not attending six credit hours at UTD. Why should I be penalized because they lack in their offerings to working students???

I just wish that for once someone would simplify the process instead of making it more and more complicated each year. My only idea for now is to win the lottery and then I could be one of those elusive “daytime students”.

I’m going to be taking photos for my Black & White photography class (really? photos?) and I’m brainstorming on an idea and figured I’d reach out to my social network people to get your feedback.

I’m trying to take photographs of actions that require two people to do them but there will only be one person doing the action. It’s meaning is to convey a sense of loneliness and or longing for someone to do that action with.

I’m trying to think of what actions can I photograph? That’s where you all come in. Leave me a comment telling me what you think could be a good idea for an action that requires two persons. I have some ideas but would like to have as many as possible so I’ll have some backups.

Of course financial reasons are keeping us at the house. Matt just bought a pretty new car that has a pretty monthly payment and an increased insurance costs. He got a Hyundai Elantra 2008, his first brand spanking new car. It’s super cute and is a charcoal gray. Yes. I’m jealous. But I still have love for my Honda (which just passed the 100k mile mark!) I did 55k of that since October of 2005!

I also got us a pretty new thing too.. a freaking sweet 42″ LCD HDTV with Wifi & LAN connections along with a bevy of input jacks on the back. It’s pretty obscene in our bedroom. I’m thinking the living room might be a better setup at a later date. For now having it in the bedroom hooked up to my newly finished HTPC makes me really happy. I’m thinking Photoshop @ 42 inches is just gonna be friggin awesome!

On the school front, I’m still behind. Taking 3 classes was just a bad idea. With all the Kim dying and recently and completely unexpected near death of Matt’s dad (getting better now), school just took a backseat. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t gotten some really cool stuff done in at least my photography class. My desktop that I made all crispy the day after Kim’s death is finally back and running so I can finally scan some of my work and share it with you via my Flickr account. Expect some of that later this week. For now it’s off to work tasks!

 Also as a side note: Due to all the insanity in my home life and the setbacks it caused in school I can’t justify a trip down to Austin for my Faux Bday so expect a cancellation notice soon. I’ve gotta get caught up and that is going to take all the energy I have. Perhaps I’ll just come down to get shit-faced after the semester is up? Anyone in for a “what a fucked up year” party in A-town come May?

After a few years of being in school I’ve learned that being a night student requires advanced planning for registration if you wanna get the classes you really want.

This year I swapped my degree plan from Public Administration to what I really like to do, which is Arts and Technology (ATEC). While I love this degree way more, it’s made finding classes extremely hard. The school has all the classes, but very few are offered in the evening.

For next semester, I’m doing two classes at my main college and one at the local community college (online). Keep in mind, these are actually required courses.

The Literature of Fantasy and Sci-fi:
The tradition of the fantastic narrative from classical through modern literature. Consideration of fantasy and/or science fiction as genres melding entertainment and speculation. Works of fantasy may include The Golden Ass, Dracula, and One Hundred Years of Solitude. Writers of science fiction may include Mary Shelley, Poe, Hawthorne, Wells, Clarke, Heinlein, and LeGuin.

Black & White Photography:
Investigation of the photographic process and an examination of the various levels on which meaning is constructed, including selection of subject matter, concern for aesthetics, and socio-cultural context. Instruction in camera techniques will emphasize 35mm photography. Darkroom processes may include traditional or experimental photographic printing methods.

Understanding Film:
Explores artistic, philosophical, political, and psychological dimensions of the motion-picture experience. This course analyzes visual language, cinematic codes, and the ways that films can embody or criticize popular ideas and attitudes. Emphasis may be on film analysis, film compared to the other arts, the functions of art, films as artifacts, the relationship between the filmmakers and the film, the filmmakers and society, or theories of film production and reception.

While the classes will be extremely fun and something that will keep my interest. I know that they will also be really hard.

My biggest issues is with the Black & White Photography class. It just feels incredibly wrong and dirty to pick up a 35mm camera again after shooting with a digital for 5 years now. Thankfully with everyone going digital, the prices on 35mm SLR’s have dropped dramatically. I just got me a Canon EOS Rebel 2000 w/28-200 Lens on eBay for around $100. We’ll see if I’m any good with a 35mm during the holidays. It’s gonna be hard to remember that I actually have to pay to get them developed.

Basically I was supposed to move multiple images into one and “meld them”. Well, lately I’ve been listening to a lot of heavy metal and stuff like Necropolis: The Dialogic Project by DJ Spooky so it heavily influenced the image. That and my love of the Feast of Fools podcast also helped because it’s where 2 of the images came from. (thanks SAL-E)

This isn’t the final image, still need a few touch ups but it’s pretty close… (tell me what you think)

Here’s the original images….

Part of my organization is buying these bins for the trunk of my car from the new Target in town.

They were only 15 a piece and make excellent clothing & towel holders, so they get to hold my workout clothes and my after workout clothes. Along with the clothing holders I also use my small cooler to keep my bottled waters cooled and ready to use. Another item on my list of things I needed is a smaller mp3 player to make me a bit more mobile at the gym. While I love my Creative Zen:M, it’s just not light enough to strap on my arm. So, to continue my jewish like tendencies when it comes to money and to satisfy my love of technology I got me the Creative Zen Stone. Same principle of the iPod Shuffle but half the price. And going along with the other Creative players it can connect to any computer and have songs transferred on and off the unit w/o installing software.

Now I just have to pick my workout songs. I’ve already figured out that I like Rock and Rock-like techno and Death Metal as my workout music. Yeah I know, calm, collected little me loves the Death Metal. Recently I found this CD by a band called Justice via one of my many podcasts I listen to and after some searching on the hype machine I found this track that is a remixed version of one of the Justice tracks called “Stress” done by a Tokyo DJ.

If you search the hype machine you can find the tracks for many artists and if your a Firefox + DownloadHelper user you can yoink them off the media player for your own personal use .

So far I’m down 7 lbs from my start of my “diet”. I’m moving to have my scale say 15 or less % body fat and I’d be happy at 170 lbs. I’m keeping track of my weight publicly on my skinnyr log. As you can see last semester stress eating and just overall bad eating caused an increase in my weight. I’m trying to figure out how to carry extra food around since I don’t get out of class till 10pm I can’t wait to eat and fast food no matter what form is still bad.

16 Days..that’s all that’s left of my glorious summer!!!!

After that, it’s back to the grindstone of drive to work/ drive to workout/ drive to school/ drive home. My days will start @ 5 am and end around 11 pm. I rarely say it out loud but Texas Fucking Sucks! Nothing is actually close to each other, no decent public transportation exist, causing me to spend upwards of 2 hours or more a day on the road.

Oh well, at least Austin City Limits is coming up in September. I get to have a few days off from work and enjoy some great music. My big problem with that right now is that there are 2 days where bands are playing at the same time causing me to really have to debate who I want to see. I mean how can I choose between Arcade Fire & The White Stripes??? Both are phenomenal artists and both are said to be amazing to see live.

And speaking of concerts, next up on my schedule is Rufus Wainwright and Neko Case August 10th. Smashing Pumpkins in November..Tori Amos after that..It’s a busy concert year for me!

Well it’s about time I get back to my insanely busy job. Here’s Rufus Wainwright singing My Phone’s on Vibrate For You….