Posts Tagged ‘Bored’
I Judge Books By Their Cover
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
I judge a book by its cover. After years of being warned not to, I find it the second best reason to know whether or not a book is worth reading. First being friends or family recommending it. Third would be having a teacher tell you to read it. Fourth would be seeing it on the Daily Show or some other show where the author speaks. Reasons three and four can easily be trumped by one, and often are negated by two.
Covers Waiting to be Judged
When judging a book by its cover, don’t stop with the front. The back holds some valuable information as well. On audacious days check that cute little flap on the inside for a change of pace. The price listed in there has some immediate impact, sure sucks for those Canadians, but that is hardly a lasting deterrent.
After years of reading books I don’t understand the big fuss. Judging a book by its cover (though often the back or inside) is where a description of a book comes into play. Except for reasons one and four I don’t understand why one shouldn’t judge a book based on this merit. There are even quotes from others, and while I understand the editing process that goes into these quote decisions and therefore skip over them, I’m sure that holds a little power of decision for some.
The cover art comes in handy too. If I don’t trust this person’s judgment choosing a simple photo how can I trust the rest of what they’re about to try and make me consume. The art is there in order for you to save your reading energy for the inside where there are 399 more pages words.
If the cover is bad and you still have an unexplainable urge to read the thing, buy it in hardcover and take off the dustcover whose existence makes no sense to anyone anyways.
Tags: Blog, Books, Bored, Rambling, reading
Posted in Blog, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Photoshop
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
Photoshop is an interesting program. Just for fun I’ve been playing around with it. Skipping over the graphic design and animation classes in school means I’m behind most people in skill.
Limited hours spent staring at the pixels and my eyes are already going cross. It is becoming clear why all computer geeks sport glasses. Or maybe it’s that they previously had glasses and that is drawing them into computer based majors. Chicken or the egg?
Their bespectacled selves may be way more proficient in making Photoshop do what Photoshop was designed to do. But when I get distracted or screw up an image I make a really good zombie-devil scene with some asteroid action. Michael Bay inspires me.
*A sample of the awesomeness that is failed Photoshop drawings will be provided as soon as the world is ready to see them.
Tags: Blog, Bored
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
Sharing About TShirts
Friday, November 13th, 2009
We’ve all secretly designed shirts.. on napkins, in CAD, for the company softball team, for that high school club you refuse to admit to have been a part of.
Working on a film in Chicago we had a crew that for some reason or another spewed out ideas for t-shirts at an alarming rate. Most weren’t good, but any idea is seen as great during hour 16 of a work day. That’s the beauty of it.
The best shirt idea stemmed from the dealings with a producer who refused to call and Production Assistant (read: pee-on) by name. Instead he used PA as a derogatory term for whoever happened to be standing closest. So all Pas, myself included, were going to wear in:
Note that the name on the back was not allowed to be our own. That way, if this producer decided to try and use our names he’d be outing himself as having no clue who we were to the rest of the crew. They wouldn’t have fired all of us at the same time… we hoped.
Another shirt actually got made from an offhanded comment I made to a gaffer working for ESPN with me one day. We were talking about students who were “too emo to be emo” and their t-shirts. Turns out he owned a silkscreen company to occupy his spare time, and a week later some of these showed up in the mail (It’s wrinkly, that’s what happens when you pull a shirt out of a gym bag for a picture)
Another shirt I would totally wear if someone would produce it (after making it look good of course)…
After shopping around for a new road bike I realize the phrase may be a little off base. Maybe something like “Cheaper then a lifetime of therapy” would be a more accurate price point.
And although this isn’t a shirt, I’d sport this bumper sticker on my car somewhere.
It’s supposed to be a bit of a slap in the face. People often act stupid towards one another without thinking. Though I think Yield to Life goes for a bit of a different public image then the sticker represents. Still. I’m excited to see how the organization moves forward and in the mean time I’m going to think about what I’d do if I were them.
Last time I got bored on hiatus the web site was made (see the footer of the site for proof). This time, I’m playing with PhotoShop.
Tags: Blog, Bored, creative, cycling
Posted in Blog | 1 Comment »
Hiatus (aka break from filming and work)
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Hiatus is a weird thing. It gets looked forward to as much as Christmas, but when it arrives there is no tree with presents. It is a little confusing going from working 60-85 hour weeks to having 60-85 extra hours of free time.
My time is being used catching up on important things: Seeing friends I’ve been neglecting for months, backing up my laptop, cleaning my closet, etc. I’m also unashamedly catching up with unimportant things: Organizing years worth of photos, going to the beach, catching up on TV and movies, etc. 
That last one is a staple. Hiatus is basically storing up sleep for the second half of our season the way a bear stores up food for hibernation. To start out I figured I’d catch up on some TV I’ve been meaning to watch since it aired. Dexter is up first, followed closely by Weeds. Well I think followed closely by Weeds, if it is still good and didn’t turn south after season one.
Figured I’d try and sit through some movies too. After recently re-watching Idoicracy (2006), seeing all Mike Judge films seemed like an easy enough list. Then I realized all I had left was Extract (2009) which has come and gone in theaters and isn’t yet at Netflix. Looking for another manageable canon to conquer, I landed at watching all Cohen Brothers movies. I have enjoyed the six I’ve seen, eight more to check out. Last night we finished number seven with Miller’s Crossing (1990) and I realized maybe I’ve seen all the good ones. A little nervous for the rest.
However it turns out, hiatus is a time to get a lot of stuff done. Not necessarily a time to be productive. Enjoy.
Tags: Bored, Hiatus, movies, Sleep
Posted in Blog | 1 Comment »
Times When Sarcasm Has Proven to be Less then Appreciated (Part III)
Sunday, August 9th, 2009
PART THREE: AIRPORT SECURITY CHECKS
Airport security guards take their job seriously. I am not saying their jobs aren’t serious, I’m just pointing out that they do take their jobs very seriously. And they have guns instead of tasers. This never has stopped me from being me.
Long before 2001 my stuff and I have been searched regularly by airport security. Taking golf clubs to Arizona? Terrorist sticks. Only taking a backpack, and you’re taking it as a carryon? Terrori… Security does put forth a valiant effort of checking bags, but seem to be dumbfounded by the straps on backpacking packs. They gave up. One-way ticket to Russia? Terrorist to another country, still going to dig through everything you’ve got, we’ll try not to break your framing.
Being checked so regularly means that I am quite comfortable with airport security, and forget that they can take me into far away rooms to do whatever they’d do to me. My plans to sleep through an early flight out of NYC meant I was pre-coffee on no sleep with the sun rising. My bags were opened and checked at security, fine. Turning on every one of my electronic devices that I was carrying on board, whatever. Refusing to take a photo with me when you checked that my camera was indeed a camera, lame.
When I asked for the photo I should have assumed they’d check me further. I know the whole spiel, and practiced while waiting for a female guard to come touch my back and stomach (riskay!). I’d put most of my other stuff back on, which I’m pretty sure is against regulation. My belt set off her wand, and instead of revealing the buckle under my oversized hoodie I mentioned in my sleep deprived state that I’d forgotten my doctor’s certificate for my iron lung. Now I truly forgot I had a belt on, and she seemed to be as zoned as I was. I was trying to brighten her morning with something amusing while I remembered that I had a belt on. I did go on to remember I had my belt back on, but during that time she became highly alerted and jumped into a string of thoughts on what steps needed to be taken about my iron lung. Talking to some guys, needing clearance, and some other stuff that I stopped listening to because I was more worried about the snickering guy behind me blowing my cover meaning I would actually have some serious issues to deal with.
It was supposed to make her laugh after starting work at the crack of dawn; instead it freaked everyone out. I “remembered” my belt and assured her that if the iron lung didn’t set off the metal detector that I would be fine for the flight. I didn’t really realize what I potentially had done until a couple people came up to me laughing about it at the gate. I made my flight and was asleep before takeoff.
Tags: Blog, Bored, NYC, Travel
Posted in Blog | 2 Comments »