Dolor's Rants

Energy Generation Part 3

2009-06-10T18:24:00.001-07:00

The big bugaboo in the energy equation is storing it. Our power plants can generate electricity 24x7, but we have no good way to store it. What we need is some device or material that can store massive amounts of energy safely, yet weighs little, can be recharged both quickly and many times over, is easy and cheap to manufacture and is safe for the environment. Today, the Holy Grail of energy is the cheap, light weight, and safe battery that can be used to power anything from cell phones to cars. Whomever comes up with the ultimate battery will be rich beyond all dreams of avarice.

Technorati tags: energy, storage, battery, electricity

del.icio.us tags: energy, storage, battery, electricity

The Moon - A Sign of Our Times

2009-01-10T20:13:00.001-08:00

I was reading through some Flickr discussions threads, yesterday, when I came across one started by someone who was having trouble with photographing a full moon. Intrigued, I grabbed my DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, went out onto the landing, and took some shots of the full moon that was overhead. I then took the camera back into the house, connected to my computer, downloaded the pictures to the computer, cropped and adjusted one of them using Photo Shop, then uploaded it to my flickr account. Once uploaded I was able to post the picture as part of a reply to the original post. All of this took less then ten minutes.

This is the definition, the sign you might say, of our times: instant gratification. Just a few years ago it would have taken me days or weeks to go from camera to printed image unless I had access to a darkroom, and even then it would have taken hours to develop, print, and scan the photo. What took weeks, days, or hours, now takes minutes.

This need for instant gratification permeates every aspect of our culture: food, entertainment, education, jobs, housing, investment; you name it, we want it now. Pick a problem our society is having and we can probably trace it to the need for instant gratification. The housing bubble--flip a house and make a bundle in 60 days. The credit crunch--I want a <place name of item here> and I don't want to save for it, so I buy it on credit even if I can't afford it. Kids are entering the job market with the expectation of starting at $100k/year. Students care more about passing then learning and have no compunction against cheating as long as they graduate on time.

I think that the current woes being faced by all of us are good things in that they are forcing us to slow down and think about things and about the future. Instead of thinking of just the now, we are being forced to think about tomorrow, next week, next month, and even next year. In the short run this will be very painful, but in the long run this will be a very good thing.

del.icio.us tags: photography, economy, psychology, finance

Technorati tags: photography, economy, psychology, finance

Did You Know? 3.0

2009-01-06T20:07:00.001-08:00

Call it the effect of globalization and the information age, or perhaps it should be called the effect of the march of technological age on humanity, but whatever you call it things today are changing a heck of a lot faster then they did when we were children. This film points out some frightening facts about what we are facing and what our children are facing on several fronts, two of which are education and information.

Education-

Early in the film the following statement is made:

"We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't exist using technologies that haven't been invented in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."

To me this means that we are currently teaching our kids the wrong stuff. Instead of frowning on general purpose Bachelor degrees, we should embrace the General Purpose Bachelor degree by teaching students how to survive in the current world and how to adapt to an ever (and quickly) changing present. Bachelor degrees should be much more generalized and students in those programs should learn a great deal more about life--balancing a checkbook, how to type, how to cook, how to learn, how to do research, how to survive in a job market that could radically change in a moment--while Master and Ph. D. should be specialized. This way anyone with a Bachelor's should be prepared to move into a Master's program then a Ph. D. program, and be able to change majors on a moments notice. The role of the bachelor degree becomes the paper and binding of the book while the advanced degrees become chapters.

Information-

From later in the film:

"The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study."

The problem is that our students aren't being taught how to effectively find information, nor are they inclined to even look for it if they do. Instead, many just spend their time looking for sources they can plagiarize. We need to start early and instill in our students the basic skills of finding information in the Internet era, the desire to find information (curiosity), and the ethics properly vet and use information.

Conclusion-

The world is evolving around us at a staggering pace. Since the early part of this Century we have seen the rise of Web 2.0 technologies including Blogging, social networking, Wikis, video sharing, photo sharing, and collaborative computing. Not all of us are keeping up, though. For example, the other day I read a post on Flickr.com where the poster stated that they had never heard of a blog, and when explained to them they wondered why anyone would want to blog! Yet this poster was fine with posting photos and collaborating with other Flickr users via discussion groups.

We need to better prepare our kids for today, which will give them half a chance to cope with tomorrow. We, on the other hand, really need to catch up with technology so that we have half a chance of keeping up with the rest of the world.

Watch the film, open your eyes, and learn, learn, learn!

Technorati tags: education, information, web 2.0, globalization, information revolution

del.icio.us tags: education, information, web 2.0, globalization, information revolution

Economic "Kick in the Pants" Stimulus

2008-11-09T08:51:00.001-08:00

I don't know about you but I am sick of "trickle down" economics and the idea that prosperity will eventually make it to those of us who work for a living. The idea is way to much like eating at the end of a conveyor belt--the pickings are thin down at the end of the line.

How about we try something real radical for an economic stimulus package, something that is direct, to the point, and really off the wall? How about we give ever American household a check for $25,000 tax-free? What would that do for the economy?

I did some calculations and I figure that this would cost us something like $3 billion, which will probably be what we will pay for the current AIG bailout, the current bank bailout, the future US automaker bailout, and the future US credit card lender bailout. But, unlike those bailouts, the money won't go to rewarding billionaire CEOs and multinational corporations, instead it will go directly into our pockets from whence it will go to pay-off bills, buy stuff, go into savings, and into investments. And it is big enough to make a real, honest-to-God difference!

So, forget about piddling checks for $100 here or a $1000 there. Instead, the government should go for broke and put a large chunk of money into the pockets of the people who need it most: the American People.

Write your government today and tell them that you want a Kick-in-the-Pants stimulus package and you want it now!

Technorati tags: government, economy, economic, stimulus, package, Obama, President, Democrats, republicans, money.

Disposable Society

2008-10-15T14:32:00.001-07:00

Our society has now evolved into one who's basic paradigm is made up production, consumption, and growth with little thought to disposal, reuse, and steady-state, thus it is unbalanced and prone to failure. This explains what is occurring at this moment with the world financial market.

Prior to the current Bursting of the Bubble everyone in the financial world was concerned with growth: growth in sales, growth in profit, growth in production, growth, growth, growth. Every book I have read on starting a business talks about the financial plan where you map out how the company grows over the next one, two, and five years. I have never seen a plan that talked about growing to a certain point then remaining at a specific rate of sales. Nor have I ever seen a plan that talks about obsolescence and recycling of products (unless the business is a recycling business.) Most businesses would seem to want to wash their hands of a product once it sells unless there is a way to make even more money after the sale, for example inkjet printers which could be given away for free when you factor in the profits that could be realized through sales of inkjet cartridges and paper.

Back in the day a house, or car, or stove were bought with the thought that they would be used for decades or more. A house was a place to live, raise children, and retire in. A car was bough and maintained with the thought that it had to last the owner for many years. Appliances were literally used until they disintegrated. Most items were bought based on quality and value for for the price. People were willing to wait and save up until they had enough money to buy things with cash.

Today, it is so very different. Houses are bought as investments that are fixed-up and sold within a few months. Cars are bought every couple of years as are appliances. Business has responded by making stuff that will last a short time but which can be manufactured by the millions. The disposable society is in running at full steam.

Can this paradigm last much longer? I doubt it. The amount of oil is finite as is water, trees, and most raw materials. On the flip side there is the problem of what to do with the trash generated. Landfills are in short supply and recycling is only in its infancy where it will remain unless someone comes with some really good ideas.

In my humble opinion, the current paradigm our society subscribes to can be summed up as:

Unlimited Growth
Unconstrained consumption
Disposable Mentality
Belief in unlimited resources

This is truly a recipe for disaster.

Technorati tags: business, economy, recycling, disaster, paradigm

del.icio.us tags: business, economy, recycling, disaster, paradigm

Nerinossa

2008-07-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

I just trashed a comment made by a Blogger user named "nerinossa" that consisted of a partial quote from the blog post they were commenting on. Nerinossa's Blogger profile is set to private so I can't contact them about the odd comment, so I did a web search on the name "nerinossa." What I found was similar comments--i.e. partial quotes from the commented blog--on about a half-dozen blogs. Is it just a case of nerinossa not knowing how to use the Blogger comment interface, is the interface malfunctioning, or is nerinossa some type of new spam bot being tested on us poor bloggers? Nerinossa, if you can hear me, let us know who and what you are.

A Patent Mess

2008-07-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

The current system of patents and copyrights is completely and utterly broken, and as such need to be abolished.

That's right folks, in this age of the Internet, digital media, rampant greed, and stifled creativity, we need to get rid of patents and copyrights completely and utterly. There is no fix, no repair, and certainly no tweak that can turn the current system into something even resembling fair or even usable, so I say we just get rid of both systems.

"But wait! What about people making copies of my work or using my ideas without my permission?" you say with paranoiac fear? "So what?" I reply with calm aplomb. The current system doesn't protect you from that happening. It only gives you recourse if it does happen and you find out about it. The real problem lies in the enforcement of the system and the abuses of the system:

DRM - Digital Rights Management assumes that everyone is a crook who is out to steal music. Based on that assumption, the rights holders feel free to use whatever means necessary to stop that abuse including loading root-kits on computer hard drives and making it mandatory that users use "certain" players to play particular music (e.g. iTunes.) All these methods do is cheese-off the consumer which only exacerbates the problem of lack of sales.
Patent Trolls - Patent trolls are companies that buy-up vague patents for the express purpose of enforcing outrageous licensing fees under the threat of patent court litigation. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, there are several hundred patents that cover e-commerce and surfing the Internet. That's right folks, you could be infringing on someones patent if you surf the Internet!
Music Clearances - Let's say you want to use a certain piece of music as the lead-in to your podcast. Do you know how many different licenses you need to obtain from the copyright holders--performer, publisher, writer, lyricist, owners, etc.--before you can legally play the piece, even a short clip of it? The mind boggles at the complexity.

We just need to stop the insanity and this can only be done by getting rid of patents and copyrights. Writing, sculpture, and music are art and should be treated as such. Patents were originally designed to allow for innovation. Today, both concepts have been corrupted to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Congress needs to stop the insanity by abolishing both patents and copyrights. We need to pull the plug and we need to do it now.

Tags: patents, copyrights

Energy Generation Part 2

2008-07-11T12:40:00.001-07:00

I like to think that we have four primary methods of converting energy: chemical, physical, solar and nuclear, each of which has one or more attributes that make it less then desirable:

Chemical - conversion of chemical energy into kinetic, thermal, or electrical energy. Problems include pollution and the limited supply of fuel. Recently, sugar-based ethanol has been in the news as an alternative to oil. Even though ethanol is a renewable resource, it still causes pollution, it only contains half the energy density of gasoline, and the jury is still out over whether or not it can be produced for less energy then it stores. Another contender is the fuel cell. Fuel cells, on the other hand produce no pollution, but one wonders whether the production of fuel (hydrogen) is efficient enough to be offset by the output (a problem similar to that faced by ethanol.) One other thing that we must keep in mind: fossil fuels are used to produce more then just energy. Plastics, fertilizers, paint and a variety of other materials are produced from oil, natural gas, and coal, so running out of fossil fuels means much more then having to find a new energy fuel.

Physical - Wind and hydroelectric fit into this category. Wind turbines only generate when the wind blows and hydroelectric can damage downstream ecosystems.

Solar - conversion of sunlight into electricity either directly--as with solar cells--or indirectly--as with solar-powered boilers. These only work when the sun shines.

Nuclear - conversion, either direct or indirect, of mass (through fission or fusion) into electricity or thermal energy or both. That's right folks, conversion of mass into energy and you can see it at your nearest nuke plant. The biggest problem with nuclear is what to do with the highly toxic and long-lived waste.

This is what we have and and they all have problems. We need to fix the problems or come up with a new and better method of converting energy. Unfortunately, time is running out. Are we smart enough and have the will to find a better way?

Technorati tags: energy crisis, petroleum, nuclear energy, solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectric, ethanol

Energy - Generation Part 1

2008-07-11T11:59:00.001-07:00

According to the Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy, the total amount of mass and energy in the universe is a constant. In other words you can convert mass into energy or energy into mass, but you cannot destroy or create either. Thus, when we talk about energy generation, we are actually talking about converting one form of energy into another, for example: stored chemical energy into electricity.

The problem with the current paradigm is that we are converting a lot of non-renewable chemical energy, in the form of oil, into a lot of wasted electrical and kinetic energy (by which I mean moving vehicles.)

The planet Earth is being bathed in massive amounts of energy in the form of sunlight. Millennia ago this sunlight was converted into oil, natural gas, and coal, but this conversion process has stopped and we are "burning" through our available supplies at a frightening rate. No matter if we find more reserves of fossil fuels, or if we find more efficient ways of converting them, the problem remains that there is only so much fossil fuel on this planet and no new reserves of it are being created.

Somehow, we have to find an efficient, clean, and environmentally friendly way of converting the sunlight hitting the Earth into a clean and environmentally friendly form of energy that can be used to light buildings, run cars, and do all of the other tasks that fossil fuels perform for us on a daily basis.

Are we smart enough and have the will to come up with a solution?

Technorati tags: energy crisis, petroleum

Energy System - Paradigm

2008-06-19T20:12:00.001-07:00

The first thing we need to do is look at energy as a system and not just fuel. Our system has four parts:

Generation
Storage
Transmission
Utilization

Generation - conversion of fuel into some type of usable energy. This could be the generation of electricity, conversion of stored energy into motion (burning gasoline to make a car go, for example), or conversion of fuel into heat ( gas furnace, for example. The main thing is that you are changing stored energy into something usable.

Storage - if you are not going to immediately use the energy you have generated, then you need to store it. Batteries, lakes and basements filled with drums of water are examples.

Transmission - If you are not generating the energy near the point of use then you will have to get the energy from generator to point of use. Power lines, hydraulic hoses, and fan belts are examples.

Utilization - once you have the energy, how are you going to use it? how much of it is used to do the job and how much is wasted or used elsewhere in the system.

The main point to take away from this is that the energy crisis isn't just fuel. It is a problem with the whole system and to cure the crisis we have to develop/invent a new and better system.

Technorati tags: energy crisis, paradigm, system, energy

Energy - Introduction

2008-06-19T19:43:00.001-07:00

If you haven't noticed yet, I use this blog to work-out ideas that the wife and I come up with when we go on road trips. Today's rant has to do with the Energy Paradigm and the need to radically shift it.

The current paradigm is centered on the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy in the form of electricity or some type of motion (e.g. cars, trucks, planes, ships, etc.) Fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, are great for vehicles because they are stable, full of energy, and relatively easy to refine from crude oil. Coal, on the other hand, is better suited for stationary conversion into electricity.

What about wind, nuclear, solar, or biofuels? Wind and solar are great for generating electricity in that you are feeding off an existing, renewable source of energy. The problem, though, is that the availability is erratic, and there is no way to effectively us it for directly powering vehicles. Nuclear is fraught with problems due to toxic waste products and biofuels need to be tweaked more so that the net energy produced is consistently positive (more energy produced then used to produce.)

Why not just stick with fossil fuels? Two words: finite supply. There is a finite supply of oil and coal on this planet and once it is gone, it is gone. The same is true for coal. Another problem is the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Already we are at 2% global concentration and the number is rising. Eventually, it will reach 4% at which point some scientist speculate all hell will break loose.

So, what is a group of highly motivated, highly intelligent Americans to do? We need to develop an energy system (yes, system) that is as easy to use as petrochemical, limitless as solar, doesn't produce carbon dioxide (like fossil fuels do) or toxic waste products (like nuclear does), and which can be used to power houses, cars, factories, and everything else that we use energy for.

Are we up to the challenge?

Technorati tags: energy, fossil fuels, nuclear energy, solar, wind

Our Sputnik and Our JFK

2008-06-19T19:24:00.001-07:00

Sputnik put the fear of God (and the Russians) in us when it launched on October 4, 1957. On that day NASA and the space race were born.

On May 25, 1961, John F. Kennedy challenged America to "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him back safely to the earth.". On July 20, 1969, this task was accomplished when we landed two men on the moon and returned them and their companion safely to earth in Apollo 11.

How did we do this? In such a short span of years we went from sending a chimp into sub-orbit to having men walk on the moon. How could we accomplish this Herculean feat?

Inspiration and good old American Spunk. We, as a people, rose to the challenge. JFK said: "make it happen" and NASA engineers, the cream of the crop, got the job done.

Today, our Sputnik is the energy crisis and its evil sibling, global warming. Our Herculean task? Developing a source of energy that is plentiful, clean, renewable, and not based on carbon. The big question: who will be our JFK? Who will inspire us to reach the greatness as we did with the space race?

And will we be able to meet that challenge?

Technorati tags: energy, JFK, Kennedy, NASA, Space Race, Sputnik, oil, crisis

Risotto

2008-05-28T19:10:00.001-07:00

Anyone who watches Hell's Kitchen (I have seen every episode) knows that Chef Ramsey has certain basic dishes that he expects the chefs to be able to make with their eyes closed--risotto, beef Wellington, and chocolate souffle--yet every season it seems that not one chef can do any of these. It is as if none of the seasons 2-4 chefs ever watched season 1.

I think that anyone who plans to audition for Hell's Kitchen should watch seasons 1-4, and definitely practice the risotto, the Beef Wellington, and the Chocolate Souffle.

Technorati tags: Hell's Kitchen, cooking, preparation, practice

Beware the Wind

2008-05-28T18:43:00.001-07:00

I just read an article that reports that we are fast approaching a record for number of tornadoes for a given year with at least 110 deaths and over 1100 tornadoes so far. Just over a year ago the town of Greensburg, Kansas, was obliterated by an EF5 tornado. As I write this the eastern half of New Mexico (19 counties) is under a tornado watch. Living above ground is becoming an iffy proposition.

This brings up an interesting question: why aren't we building more homes underground, especially in areas that are prone to tornado hits. For example, why are they not rebuilding Greensburg and other tornado-ravaged towns with sub-surface or semi-sub-surface buildings? Why resort to hiding in a bathtub or running out to a storm shelter (assuming you have one) when you have only minutes worth of warning? Yes, many affected houses have basements, but many do not, and keep in mind that a number of people killed in Greensburg, and in recent events, were hiding in basements.

To my way of thinking it makes no sense to engineer a house to withstand debris hits in the 200-300 mph range when you can just put the whole house out of the firing line. Why withstand when you can avoid.

Any town that is facing the arduous task of rebuilding after a tornado hit should realistically look at building below grade. Building below grade improves the house owners chances of avoiding rebuilding in the future while saving lives in the present.

Technorati tags: tornado, wind, housing, rebuilding, disaster

Petrol 2

2008-05-22T19:11:00.001-07:00

We all realize that petroleum is a limited resource, right?

Just checking.

Technorati tags: Petroleum, economics, business

Losing our way

2008-05-22T19:08:00.001-07:00

I think our current problems started when:

Houses went from being homes to investments.
Companies went from making money by manufacturing things that they patented to making money enforcing the patents that they had bought.
People started making buying decisions based soley upon price.
Minimum wage was confused with living wage.
People stopped learning about how the economy works.
The price of a car is less then the cost to make it.
Workers want high wages yet want to pay the lowest possible price for goods.
We decided to move manufacturing offshore, decided to become a service-based economy, yet have no idea what good service actually means.

We can do so much better. We need another Sputnik.

Technorati tags: economy, sputnik, woes

Petrol

2008-05-22T18:54:00.001-07:00

Today oil closed at slightly more then $130 a barrel and everyone is worried about the effect it will have on the price of gasoline. Unfortunately, there are other things that we should be worried about:

Plastics.
Anything made from plastics.
Surgery (think of all those plastic tubes they stick in you).
Lubricants.
Anything manufactured using machines that use lubricants.
Fertilizer.
Food.
Roads.
Electricity.
Airline tickets.
Bus fares due to fuel costs, parts costs and lubricant costs.
Shipping costs due to fuel costs, parts costs and lubricant costs.
Packaging costs (what do you think Styrofoam peanuts are made from?
Paint.
Printed materials (presses need lubricants.)

The list goes on and on.

Petroleum is used for far more things then just fuel, and when petroleum costs more so does anything it is used for.

Technorati tags: petrolum, oil, price, manufacturing, reality

Brain Pump

2008-04-28T18:58:00.001-07:00

For the last ten months I have been working as a computer programmer/team leader and I have to say that I have never worked my brain harder. I mean that from the bottom of my heart, my brain has been pumped from day one and the process is not likely to slacken anytime soon. It is as if I sit down at my desk and a brain turbo kicks in and doesn't kick off until nine hours later.

On the surface, what I do sounds simple: I maintain existing human-machine interface (HMI) displays and develop new HMI displays on an as-needed basis. What is stimulating is that some of the software is over a decade old, some of it has be written by literally dozens of programmers over the years, and some of it has not been used until now. That's right, decade-old software that hasn't seen the light of day. This is a scientific programmer's dream: figure out what is wrong and fix it in time for the next roll-out--brain stimulation at Warp Factor 10.

More importantly is the human side of the equation--my coworkers. In my humble opinion, I work with some of the most talented and experienced programmers on this planet. Collectively, they probably have a couple of centuries or more of work experience and many of them have been working at this job for twenty years or more. The neat thing is that to a person they are happy to help you with any problem you have.

The main thing is that this environment is collaborative to the extreme. In my past jobs I have had to deal with a lot of ego, much of which was extremely destructive to the working environment. My current environment, on the other hand, is the opposite extreme in that it is incredibly collaborative. The difference between the two types of environment is mind boggling in the extreme.

I like coming home exhausted with by brain pumped. I think that this country would be much better off if more of its industry and research was done such that the workers came home feeling like I do.

Technorati tags: working, jobs, programming, collaboration, career

Cure All

2008-04-28T18:37:00.001-07:00

Ah, it feels good to write another rant. I write these things because I have something to get off of my chest and a blog is a great way to do that and share my insights with the world.

Today's rant has to do with canned corn--that's right, canned corn-- and how it is a metaphor for curiosity and learning.

Have you ever picked up a can of corn and wondered how it was made? Who planted the corn in the first place? How was it picked? How did it get to the factory? How did it get into the can? How did it end up in your hand?

The above paragraph basically describes how my brain works at any given moment. This is why I am a fan of shows like "How It's Made", "Modern Marvels", "Ax Men", "Deadliest Catch", and the classic "Secret Life of Machines". These series, and others like them, filled a need of mine, a need to know how and why things worked the way they do.

I think that we, humanity, is starting to lose this curiosity. I think that it is being crushed by factors such as trying to get ahead, keeping our heads above water, making financial headway, instant messaging, e-mail, coping, $4/gallon gasoline, terrorism, and 24-hour workdays. In other words, we are spending too much time surviving and not enough time wondering.

Somehow, we need to start look outside of ourselves and start asking questions about the world around us. Perhaps, while asking questions about our world we may learn about each other's lives, each other's cultures, and each other, and in the process, we may learn how to get along and not kill each other.

Remember, the journey on the Road to Enlightenment starts with a single question.

Technorati tags: Zen, enlightenment, curiosity, opinion, observation, question

Three More Videos

2008-02-19T19:16:00.001-08:00

Making these short, episodic series is a very fun and rewarding experience. I hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoy making them.

YouTube - Fishing in the Stream of Consciousness - Episode 2

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Episode 5

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Episode 4

Technorati Tags: web series, shorts, commentary

Bookselling

2008-02-17T17:13:00.001-08:00

A recent blog post by Brian Cassidy (via a Book Patrol post) has a neophyte bookseller reminiscing about his first year by posting 18 things he has learned about bookselling over the first year in business. After failing in the business in a year and a half, I have two simple observations:

Run away!
Run very far away!

To paraphrase the Bard: "Bitterness is a dish best served amongst friends..."

Technorati Tags: bookselling business

More from the Minds of Jo and Frank

2008-02-08T19:56:00.001-08:00

It is truly amazing what you can do with an inexpensive MiniDV camera with a FireWire connection:

YouTube - Fishing in the Stream of Consciousness - Intro

YouTube - Commentary on Management - Introduction

Technorati Tags: YouTube, Commentary, web series, management, business, stream of consciousness

The Videos Keep on Coming!

2008-02-06T20:29:00.001-08:00

Jo and I are indulging my hobby of filmmaking by making a Web series about planning our daughter's Wedding. Here are the next two installments:

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Episode 2

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Episode 3

It is truly what you can create using a minimum of hardware and software. We hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoy making them.

Technorati Tags: wedding, planning, bride, parents

The Last Few Weeks in Review

2008-01-31T20:33:00.001-08:00

Work is crazy busy but I love every minute of it. On the home front I have cut a new video which is the introductory episode of one of three short episodic series that Jo and I are producing:

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Introduction

My entry for the "Trailer for The Nines" contest has experienced a sudden explosion of interest. In the last two weeks it went from 600 views to over 12,000 at last count:

YouTube - Trailer for The Nines

Lastly, a career-related firm has expressed interest in using my video resume on an upcoming broadcast show segment. I will keep you posted:

YouTube - Video Resume - Technical

Technorati Tags: video, resume, trailer, the nines, talk show

West Coast Swing

2007-12-28T15:26:00.001-08:00

My daughter, Stevie Youngand her dance partner, Will Carlton, have put together several instructional West Coast Swing DVDs. Their latest, Jack & Jill Tips & Tricks has an interesting section, Tips, where they discuss fashion, hygiene, and decorum as they pertain to the world of West Coast Swing dance competitions. Below is a clip from the DVD that I turned into a sort of public service announcement. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together.

del.icio.us Tags: west, coast, swing, dance

Technorati Tags: west, coast, swing, dance