Norman's Video Art Place

Xmas Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 05:19:00 +0000

I treated myself to a few "gifts" this year and I just feel like sharing them with you all. In no particular order they are:

A new phone:

My first official gift was a Samsung Captivate I bought a few days before Xmas at Radio Shack. And let me tell you what it was a bargain. Considering that the phone generally goes for $199 (who are we kidding it's really $200, don't try to hide it by not charging the extra dollar) I felt it was a steal at $50. Now, I know that those that know me, are aware that I'm an Apple fan. However when you are short on money and you simply cannot afford those extra $150 then you compromise and join the android bandwagon for $50. After I've had the phone for a slightly longer time I'll update you on my opinions on Android and my phone in particular. Still let me tell you that things are going well, I like the phone overall and it's a pretty nifty piece of tech (a worthy upgrade from the Samsung Blackjack II I had before).

A clean (well somewhat cleaner) Gmail inbox

I've been procrastinating and I haven't processed my email as I should have. So I took some of my Xmas time and read/archived almost all of it.

A haircut

Aaahh... Yes we're close to New Year's so that means I need to face the 2011 with a new, fresh, positive, cleaner, organize way. What would represent all these things in a simple fashion? How can I do it? Simple. We get a weed whacker, and cut several pounds of hair out of my head. Actually I'm joking. We don't need a weed whacker anymore. That was for when I had my hair all the way down to my waist.

A pair of "new" shoes

In reality I didn't buy new shoes. My tastes on dress shoes tends to be a bit more expensive that what I can afford on cellphones. In other words if I were to buy shoes it would cost more than $50 bucks. But really, the dress shoes I had were fine, except for one tiny thing. The soles were falling off. So I went to a shoe repair place today and For a measly $11 I had them glued and stitched together. Plus, I had them shined.

So up to now these are the gifts I got for myself. I'm debating wether or not getting a pair of earbuds and a cover for my cellphone this season as well. Either way I'll update you (probably through Twitter) if I do get any extra stuff. I hope you all have some awesome holidays (here we still have until "las Octavitas" so the festivities are still going strong) and may the New Year bring you all the good things you deserve.

Why two blogs?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:08:00 +0000

One might wonder why I would be starting a Tumblr blog when I already have a Blogger one and a Twitter feed (not to mention Facebook). I feel that this might be a good opportunity to explore a shorter form of writing and posting (something between my blog/articles from Blogger and the status updates of Facebook and Twitter).

As for content, I'll try to keep it as place for more on personal or journal type stuff. Expect my musing on traffic, weather, school, etc to be there. If you want something related to art/tech/productivity I'll keep writing about these subjects on my Blogger site.

Rules of action

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:47:00 +0000

One of my favorites productivity blogs is ZenHabits by Leo Babauta. While I may not agree 100% in his views on minimalism, I feel that many of his points are valid and really helpful. Personally, I tend to find the most inspiration and help through his posts about action and procrastination. As a matter of fact I'm going to talk about a post he wrote called The little rules of action. I’ll run down these rules and talk about how they relate to my own life or what they mean to me.

1. Don’t overthink: Oh, How much I fall for this one. I have this tendency of trying to get down every minute detail of what I’m trying to do. And, what happens is that I don’t do anything. Too much preparation and analyzing get in my way of doing things.

2. Just start: Another biggie for me. I plan and think things through so much things don’t get truly started. I believe that I might be confusing the planning stage with the doing stage. In other words I feel that because I’m planning I feel that I’m really working on something. The solution to this is really to do start by doing something really small related to the task and this will get the ball rolling.

3. Forget perfection: “Forget perfectionism? But that’s the defining trait of a Norman.” Well this little trait is a double edge sword with the sharper edge pointed towards you and you have to deal with it carefully. Perfectionism doesn’t mean you do things perfectly it really means to over-plan, over-prepare things you do. The task might get done well, but that doesn’t mean that you could have gotten the same result by just starting with a little (actually a lot) less preparation.

4. Don’t mistake motion for action: Like I said in “Just start”, Confusing the planning stage with the action stage is a problem of mine. Felling worried about the project, planning things over and over, does not get the project at hand done.

5. Focus on the important actions: Sometimes you might be worried as to were to start, sometimes choosing to do the most important thing first is the way to go.

6. Move slowly, consciously: You’ve chosen your task. But how to work on it? Well, if you move deliberately and slowly you’ll probably get the task done without unnecessary mistakes. Like the Puertorican saying goes: Dress me slowly that I'm in a hurry.

7. Take small steps: You’ve chosen your task (the most important one), you know you want to work on it slowly, but how to start? Well, starting out small seems to help. If you need to write a paper for college then maybe writing the introduction or reading it over will help.

8. Negative thinking gets you nowhere: Ahhh the I-can’t-do-this-it’s-too-difficult syndrome we meet again. Think about all the time you are wasting by having all those doubts and second thoughts. Instead eliminate those thoughts by thinking positively and starting the task at hand as fast as possible.

9 - 12. Meetings, talking, planning, reading (about it) are not action: I combined 9 through 12 because they deal with the same idea. Confusing certain aspects of a project with actually doing it. An example of this would be creating a blog post. Meeting and talking with someone about the fact that I want to write the blog post is not the action required. Planning how to write the blog post is not the action needed. And reading about writing a blog is not the action required either. To write a blog post you need to write.

13. Sometimes, inaction is better: Now this is revolutionary! But think about it. Sometimes the feeling of accomplishing something (or anything) gets in the way of asking ourselves wether or not the task or project is really necessary.

[via Zenhabits]

Video of the week: Kiwi

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:24:00 +0000

Oh my... this is a sad one, isn’t it.

Video by Dony Permedi

But what amazes me the most is what wasn’t shown. That little kiwi spent I don’t know how much time of his life putting all those trees on the side of the mountain, all by himself. And even if the author doesn’t show it you can just imagine what else he tried before he decided to go through with this route. It really is inspiring to see animations like this one.

In terms of the video itself, I particularly like how the perspective of the scene changes when he falls. You really do believe he is flying. There might be aspect of the animation that might not be perfect (like the texture or the lighting) but I find great that he chose to focus on what I feel are the more important aspects of this video which were the animation and the music.

For more information there's an interview at ISFAT.com with the author of Kiwi!, Dony Permedi.

Mac app: Marsedit

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:26:00 +0000

I’m mac fan. I admit it. I love how things work on a mac. I like how simple it is to do what I want to do and how simple it is to understand. Another thing I love are all the Mac applications that are around. The Mac developer community is a large one and I love the work that they do. So I’ve decided to start a blog section to showcase some of my favorite mac applications.

MarsEdit

On my first attempt to write a blog I went with using the blogger back-end for creating and managing the blog. Not a terrible experience but I found that organizing my ideas was a bit of a hassle. So when I returned to blogging later on I decided to see if there was any piece of software that would help me. After trying several I ended up with MarsEdit.

I loved that because it wasn’t WYSIWYG it forced me learn a bit of HTML and to think about the code that needs to be used to manage images. Another of the selling points was its preview option After tweaking the blogger template and putting it on MarsEdit I was able to see clearly how the layout of the post would look like before posting it on the blog.

However I would say that the main advantage to using MarsEdit over the Blogger back-end is managing your posts without having to reload thae page ever time you want to change or create new posts. I also find that using the preview option in MarsEdit is more accurate than the one Blogger has.

If anyone has tried any other Mac blog editor out there they want to recommend, I would love to hear about them.

Reminisce

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:25:00 +0000

Today we have another video made from my college days. This one was done using a combination of Cinema 4D for the 3D animation and After Effects for the motion graphics effects of the still images.

Reminisce tries to explore the experience of how an individual can go through their lives remembering a particular moment throughout their lives. Sometimes there are circumstances or objects in our way that can trigger these memories and bring us back to that moment.

Journaling and Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:33:00 +0000

Photo by pigstubs.

Around the start of this year I started to get into journaling. And I have to say that It has been a great experience, specially now that I’m blogging somewhat more consistently as well (lets forget this gap during April and May please). I feel that both blogging and writing a journal are great complements to each other. On this post I will tell you a bit about how I approach writing for the two mediums.

In my Journal, I direct my writing to future readers. And while I haven’t yet done so, I know that one day I will re-read these journal entries. Therefore, in a way, I am directing what I write to this future Norman that is going to read what’s on the journal. Personally, I feel that writing a journal is much more personal than writing for a blog, so don't expect to read stuff like "what-I-did-yesterday-was" on my blog. I reserve that stuff for my journal.

The way I view writing on my the blog is more focused on other viewers other than myself. Even though what I write is about my views and ideas, I write so that others may think about or learn from what I've written. For me blogging is more about sharing with others than writing about what I've done.

The line between journaling and blogging is little blurry for me because my writing medium for blogging and journaling are both computer programs. I use ViJournal as my journal and a combination of Marsedit and Macjournal for my blog and blog drafts respectively.

For me the distinction between the two mediums is the audience. In my journal I write for myself, either to vent of to write about personal stuff. Blogging for me is more about the public in general, about others. My blog is my space where I share with others about my interests and work.

Details

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:28:00 +0000

Here we are, with another video from Norman Perez's archive of artwork. This time we have "Details" a video that combines still images with 3D animation.

In this video I tried to present the sensation that when we are surrounded by an excess of information we lose sight of the details around us. The video starts with a single object in view and with the music sounding clear. However, as the view moves and shows more of the surrounding area, the music becomes more cacophonous and a stream of abstract objects overwhelms the scene.

Tagline change

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:28:00 +0000

I found out that I never explained the reasoning behind my tagline. Art/Animation, Philosophy/Ideologies, Technology/Web are the three sets of topics that I’ve decided to make my blog about. While I may have decided to concentrate on these subjects for my blog, the decision is not set in stone

On that account, I’ve found that I need to change the tagline for my blog. I’ve seen that I have rarely, if ever, touched the subjects of philosophy or ideologies on my blogs or even on my drafts for posts. Even though its a topic that interests me, I’ve found very little to write about them.

However I have noticed that some topics that I would like deal with more are those of productivity and purpose. For me these two topics are very related as I see that too be truly productive one needs to have their purpose clear.

I think the underlying reason for this change is due to what I read about most often. While I while I may be interested in philosophy I don’t read so much about it in comparison with what I do read about purpose and productivity (for example Lifehacker is one of my favorite sites).

In conclusion! This blog’s tagline will no longer be Art/Animation, Philosophy/Ideologies, Technology/Web.

It will now be:

Art/Animation, Purpose/Productivity, Technology/Web

Video of the week: Runner

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:40:00 +0000

From BLR_VFX’s vimeo site:

Exploit yourself is a Spec commercial inspired by NIKE.

Directed by Carl Erik Rinsch, Expliot yourself talks about your own limits. The commercial was produced in Big Lazy Robot Visual Effects studio from february to may.

Our wish was to show off the nerve and spark and freshness of the city with the strength and power of modern sport competition, all in a whole 3d environment.

‘Exploit Yourself’ talks about pushing your limits just for the sake of it.

Who said life at the city was placid?

The Runner -Exploit yourself- from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.

Personally I love how they combined the concepts of parkour and technology in this video. It’s as though you need to be a robot to have the agility and strength necessary to be do the moves you see.

I also find interesting that they never show the runner’s face. For me it adds a sense of mystery. It makes you ask questions like: who is the robot running from? Or if whether or not the runner is even a robot or maybe a cyborg? Actually the making-of video has sketches that show it’s face (robot face for all intents and purposes), but still the question of who is this character is still there.

Path to enlightenment 3D

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:14:00 +0000

Another old video of mine. This one was part of a rather large project I worked on. The story behind this video started when I took a Asian History of Art class. There I learned that one of the most important structures of the Buddhist religion are stupas (reliquaries the are used in part of their practices). I was fascinated by them, specially by the fact that by their mere shape one could make out so many symbols and meanings. I was also fascinated by how it was incorporated into their rituals such as the one were they circumambulate (walk) around the structure.

After taking this class, I decided that I would build a video-installation that would interpret some of the symbols present in the stupa. The first part of the project was to create this video that would later be projected on an installation I would build.

The structure one see at first is a Tibetan style stupa. And, each set of images one sees on the inside of the structure is supposed to represent what each layer on a stupa symbolizes.

Mindmapping

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:01:00 +0000

Diagram by Philippe Boukobza

One of my techniques for writing notes in classes was to create diagrams. Other times I would still write them in sentences but I would connect them to other sections of my notes using lines or marks. I never thought that there would be a computer program that would get close to how I worked but I've found that there are quite few mindmapping programs that get pretty close. Mindmapping is a fancy word for diagrams where there is a central word or idea that is connected to other related ones. Essentially you end up with a large branching diagram that looks like the root of a tree.

The program I'm using now is called MindNode (the free version) and it's been an great experience working with it. It works just like a the mindmapping process I explained above and it's is mainly promoted for its use as a brainstorming tool. However the way I use it is more structured and less spontaneous. Still, in certain circumstances, creating diagrams like these feels a lot more natural to me than writing outlines or using prose. For example when looking to learn how to procrastinate less I created a mindmap of the reasons and possible solutions to my procrastination problem.

I feel that using mindmaps is a great alternative for people looking to organize and better understand their ideas.

Video of the week: Jasper Morello

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:48:00 +0000

This isn't what we would call a normal youtube video (spending more than 4 minutes watching a video is an investment these days). But for this week's video I decided to present you the whole animated short: The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

Directed by Anthony Lucas

This short was nominated for an Oscar and I think it deserve this honor since it had a great story while at the same time uaing a unique way to present it through the use of silhouettes. I feel that the use of silhouettes let you identify with the characters more easily plus it adds to the mystery of the story.

My reasons for the Ipad

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:29:00 +0000

Around a month ago I posted an entry about my favorite E-readers and at the time I didn't write anything about this Ipad thing Apple is going to release simply because I didn't know about it. And let this be clear: I knew about the rumors (who didn't know about them if they followed tech news) but I wasn't convinced; I've been burned before by these apple rumors. However my expectation of these rumors being false were proven wrong and Apple released their mythical tablet: the Ipad.

I decided to wait before writing this article to overcome my excitement and to read the arguments against the iPad. And there have been lots. Personally I want to tell you folks why I think the product fits me. It may not necessarily be a perfect product or even a successful one when it comes out, but I feel it fits my lifestyle and I want to tell you why.

I feel that the Ipad really does fit somewhere between your main computer and your phone. I don't think it should or that it can even replace your main computer. However it may replace your secondary computer (laptop, netbook) or one of your additional gadgets (E-reader, MP3 player). For me it would be a good replacement of my aging laptop. These days I've been using it to play games on it, but waiting 10 minutes to start playing Civilization is just annoying. I think that the iphone games that are available and the ones that might come out for the iPad will be good enough and have the right price for me to relax during the day without breaking the bank. I won't be able to play Windows games, I know, but that's ok since I couldn't play any of the newer ones on my old laptop anyway.

Another use I might have for it is to show my artwork to people. It's a bit annoying to carry your stuff in a thumb-drive and have to pray that the person has quicktime on their computer or play them from my website and wait for the video to download. I feel that this way it would be like having a portable portfolio for my work. I could use an iPhone to carry these videos but then I would not have the screen size the iPad has to better showcase my work.

Now, I know that there's a lack of flash in the iPad/iPhone world but I don't see the point. I don't go to that many sites were the content is flash based, like in Hulu or Newgrounds. And the other sites I go to pretty much only use it on ads. Personally, I feel that unless there is a need to make the site entirely on flash, it should be used as little as possible on a site. So with web-surfing habits like mine where I don't absolutely need flash I can live with what the iPad offers for the browsing I do.

However one of the things I constantly do on the web is read articles through my RSS reader (I'm a fan of NetNewsWire). So with the Ipad and already available RSS readers for the iPhone I can read my articles without having to constantly use my Imac. Plus with the iBooks app they plan to roll out I can also get into reading ebooks on it as well.

Overall My reasons for considering purchasing the iPad are its gaming platform capabilities, using it as a portfolio and for reading my RSS feeds. However, since the product hasn't been released yet, I have no concrete way of knowing wether it can do these things adequately. I'll have to wait until I know for sure but I look forward to testing the device and putting it through its paces.

High Rise Fly: flyby

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:09:00 +0000

A long time ago (meaning last year) I posted an entry about a video I did called The High Rise Fly. Well today I uploaded the flyby of that video. For those who don't know a flyby is video that show different angles or details of a 3D model that is going to be used on a future animation. One of the things you can see is that the original model was a bit more skinnier than the one used on the animation. I thought that making it curvier would make the creature look a bit more organic.

Video of the week: Fallen Art

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:55:00 +0000

Fallen Art is another one of the videos I saw during my time at the univeristy. Made in 2004 the 3D graphics do seem to age a bit but that isn't what's so captivating here. For me, the story that unfolds during these 5 minutes is what i've found astounding. I personally love the end where the process repeats itself (frog croaking included) showing how the disturbing process of creating continues even though the video ends.

By Tomek Baginski

When I watch these characters make art it reminds me of the supposed limits of art. One can believe that mediums like stop motion have to have some specific characteristics (clay models and such) but here we see how the characters take this medium and stretch the way it gets done. Though macabre, it doesn't mean that emotion can be obtained from such things.

Pics of cats and plants

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:25:00 +0000

Continuing my attempt of catch up up on my flickr uploads here are more samples of what I uploaded. This time I uploaded two different sets. Hopefully this will make the catching up process faster... ... I doubt it.

The first set is from the first photographs I took of the cats we own at our place. The one at the top of the post is Lucy, officially my brother's cat though she seems to follow me than anyone else here. She's a demanding one always wanting me to pet her brush her or feed her. Our other cat is Lucky (see the naming trend?) is my brother's girlfriend's cat. He's the more playful of the two, however his form of fun involves bitting you, so it's not our form of fun. He's also the older and "bigger" -cough-fat-cough- of the two.

The second set is from my photos at the Franklin Park Conservatory. If I'm not mistaken this are from my first visit to the conservatory (to any conservatory for that matter). I found interesting that they have different sections for different environments. They had a Pacific climate area, a desert one, which is were I took this macro photo of a cactus, and several others. They also had areas outside the building where one could go to. At that time of the year they had their Bonsai collection outside. For me Bonsai are that type of plant that I always try to grow but can't seem to keep them alive for long, so I really like being able to see some that haven't been touch by my "black-thumb".

I've been to the conservatory many times after that one time. Hopefully I'll be uploading soon more of the photos I've taken, including some pretty nifty shots I took of their butterfly collection.

Video of the Week: Procrastination

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:50:00 +0000

Keeping with the theme of procrastination this week's video explains deals with how one can identify it. I first saw this video in one of my digital imaging classes when our professor showed it to the class; it was part inspiration for us, part reminder to not procrastinate on our projects.

By Johnny Kelly

According to the artist, the video was a study into Procrastination and of how "sometimes the only way to get something done is to do two dozen other things first". An aspect of the video that I find very effective is how the varying styles are used to each distinguish each way we can put things off. My favorite scene is the organizing-your-socks part because one day without noticing (and mind you, I had watched this video already) I was procrastinating by pairing the socks in my drawer.

Dealing with procrastination

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:27:00 +0000

Procrastination: to put off intentionally and habitually

Photo by A-Wix

One of the things I've had to battle constantly in my life is procrastination. I hate it, yet I seem to fall into its trap every time. I believe that the reason for Procrastination, at the very least for me, is fear and perfectionism. I procrastinate because I am afraid of doing things wrong or doing them too slow. Other times simply wish to avoid the work because I'm unsure of how to do it. I simply want it to be perfect.

When I procrastinate it takes the form of me trying to get in a position of trying to do the work perfectly. I say to myself: "If I were more focused or more prepared I would be able to do this more efficiently". So I do things like read more about the subject or I leave the project for another time when I might be more ready or in the mood. Of course this doesn't work; I'm merely postponing the inevitable.

Some of the way I've found to work and avoid procrastinating is by accepting my mistakes as part of the work. I need to realize that while I may do some things well, what I do wrong is part of how I do things. For example I've had to come to accept that my posts will not always be completely perfect, that while I could always find a better way to phrase something, the way I currently write is my style, it is who I am. And while I must always better myself, it does not mean that I have to do thing perfectly the first time, "mistakes" are part of the process.

Some of the places I've found help has been through productivity sites like Lifehacker, Zen habits, and even Psychology Today. I believe that Procrastination is something that won't simply go away, however if I exercise my discipline and accept my work as it currently is I'll be able to do work without procrastinating as much.

Video of the week: Click

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:59:00 +0000

Here we have the start of what I hope will be ongoing section on my blog. On it, I'll be presenting videos that I find have interesting concepts or are just plain awesome. For this week I have for you the video Click:

I guess most people have played with Lego at some point in their lives so the relationship of creating something new and Lego must be pretty obvious to all. But still, I find the miniature factory of ideas just great. And, as someone who has gone through an art education, I can relate to how ideas click when trying to find solutions to your projects.

Hempfest pics

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:26:00 +0000

Of the many things I'm dusting off internet-wise, one of them is my Flickr account. I had a particularly tough time choosing were to continue uploading since its been a while since I uploaded anything to it. I decided to keep things in a chronological order and start by uploading some of my older photographs.

These photos are from the 2006 Hempfest at OSU. I took them for my introduction to photography class back when I was still learning photography (I feel that I still am, for that matter). This was the first time I went to the Hempfest at OSU and it was rather interesting experience, I mainly liked it for the people you see there. There were all sorts of folks hanging out, from students passing by, to activists, to even a Glassblower making pipes.

After that year I've pretty much gone to all the following Hempfests afterwards. And, I still find it a good opportunity to practice my photography skills.

Ebook Readers Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:25:00 +0000

Photo by librarianbyday / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I love books therefore I was really intrigued by the slew of ebook readers that came out on CES this past week. However, since I'm a slow reader, they have to be really worth it for my to consider buying one.

My interest in them got piqued when on a trip to a mall a while ago I saw a kiosk were they were selling Sony Ereaders. Until then I hadn't seen an E-ink display for a good length of time. I was impressed and started to do a bit more research. At first there were only three good contenders, the Kindle, the Nook, and the Sony Touch reader. However, after CES I got a bit lost (so many new shiny readers... which to choose?), but thanks to a Gizmodo article I'm back on track on which ones I'm interested in.

Here's a list of the ones I feel fit me and are actually viable gadgets. How does one of them fit me more than others? First the price can't be too exorbitant, then it has to fit would fit in my reading experience of looking up stuff in the internet about what I'm reading. And in terms of product viability: It means I'm not going to count prototypes or new technologies that are not commercially viable yet.

1. The Entourage Edge

I know the roundup called it dead on arrival, but hear me out. The technology for a LCD/E-ink is still just enough away for a product like this one to be practical. Having both types of screen on the product seem like a good mid-point while waiting for such technology.

The Entourage Edge is essentially a two screen netbook/reader combo. On one of the screens you have an E-ink display for reading ebooks and on the other you have an LCD that acts a computer which lets you browse the web. Plus the content from one screen can interact with the other, for example you can move an image from the E-ink side to the LCD to watch it in color. With features like this I can accept its $500 price tag. However the one area it might fail is on its size/weight. It doesn't look to big to me (when compared to a laptop) but I'll have to grab it with my own hands until i know for sure if its too large or heavy for reading.

2. nook

My second favorite reader is still the nook. I tried it out at a Barnes & Noble and I loved it. The size is just right. The prize seems reasonable. The text look gorgeous. However, the time it took to load a single ebook was just horribly long. The page turns weren't too much of a bother to me, but waiting almost a minute to start reading is too much. I've heard that this is something they can fix on a software update, they're already on version 1.1, so my hope is still up that the reading experience will get better.

3. Alex reader - Sony Touch - Kindle.

In third place we have a three way tossup. First comes the Spring Design Alex Reader, Its very similar to the Nook however the bottom LCD screen can be used to browse the web and use android apps. In essence it would make it a smaller, lighter version of the entourage edge. However it's seems to be more expensive than the Nook (cheaper than the Edge though) and it will, hopefully, be on sale on February. Second comes the Sony touch, it has the right prize, the right size and I don't mind that it doesn't have 3G. But, I feel that the screen has too much glare for reading. That leave me with the Kindle, again good prize and it seems to be loved by everyone (most gifted product at Amazon during the holidays). Still, I can't seem to get over the fact that so much of the device is devoted to a keyboard and you don't have touchscreen technology on it to navigate.

Well, for me this is all wishful thinking. The products might be interesting but I'll have to be able to afford one of these before I get too serious. Wait a minute, I'm already too serious, I wrote an entire post about them!

Norman Perez Portfolio

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:14:00 +0000

For those of you who have read this blog, you might have noticed the date jump due to the lack of updates. Well one of the things that I should be mentioning after all this time is that I finally have my portfolio site up. It took a lot of effort to iron out all the details from changing fonts to re-rendering videos into new formats, and lots more. Nevertheless it got done.

Apart from using the template I talked about in a previous post for the design of the site, I also used a few Joomla components to organize the portfolio section itself. It essentially lets my to just upload the photos or videos along with a description without having to to work on the HTML code itself of the site. However, organizing all the thumbnails necessary was still a bit of a pain.

As it stands right now there are two main sections in the portfolio area: one for still images and another for my video work. One of the things I like about my site right now is that thanks to the component I used I was able to add a Multibox overlay for the entries without a lot of work. So the visitor should be able to have a gallery like experience with the images and videos I have posted. However I'm hoping that people have Quicktime installed so that they may be able to watch the videos on the site without having to go to my Blip.tv site to watch the flash version.

Also, all of you observant ones might have noticed that I have a new link at the top of the site. So now you can go from the blog to my portfolio site by simply going though the link. And, with the link I have set up on the portfolio site you can come back as well. One of the things I'm trying to with this is to try and have a way that if anyone goes to any one of the sites were I have content they have a way to go to the other ones.

Possibly my most favorite artwork

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:34:00 +0000

I first watched this video when I was still studying at OSU in my computer animation class. And after almost 3 years, I can still say that this is still say this os one of my most favorite and inspirational works that I have ever seen.

The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

One of the things that I find so amazing about it is that the first time that I saw it, I was learning about 3D animation and motion graphics. And through the years, as I learned more and more about the different design programs I use I would find new things in it that I didn't notice before.

Portfolio website: Progress update!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:07:00 +0000

The portfolio website is coming along. I underestimated the time it would take to write about my work. But I think it's better to make it the best quality possible before uploading the site to the web-host. One of the things I'm glad is that I'm working with Joomla CMS to make it. I'm still new to web-design but the program is letting dabble into more aspects of the site little by little.

Just like with this blog, I'm starting with a template. I'm planning on using one from portfoliodesign.org. But even though I'm working using a template it doesn't mean it comes just like you want it and that everything is done for you. Up to right now I've had issues with the navigation bar, fonts, and the layout of different elements into the site. However most of these problems have been solved by a combination of consulting their forum and mainly dabbling around with the files. Trial and Error is nothing to be afraid of.