MAYORBOB of Plastic.com fame has decided to stop posting at least for awhile and go into deep lurker mode.
The community responds; here’s to MAYORBOB.
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Month: August 2004
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Dual Monitors
I was having some trouble at first, but now I have two monitors setup on my computer. If you don’t have a video card that supports two monitors, (ie. has two places to plug them in) then the first thing you need to do in order to get them working is to install a second video card. Originally I was using an onboard NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 video chipset. I installed a Cirrus Logic 5446 Compatible Graphics Adapter but couldn’t get it to work. I searched the net but didn’t have much luck finding the answer. It turns out the key to getting both monitors working is to change the BIOS / CMOS settings to look for your video card first, instead of just using the onboard video. It took me a couple of trys to find the setting that I needed.
I now have two monitors working and it’s great. It’s particularly handy to do New Media work having one monitor for tutorials and another to follow along with.
I hope this explanation of what I did helps someone else who is trying to do the same thing.
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Gmail Invites
I noticed the other day that I have 5 more gmail invitations to give away. Instead of holding a contest I am going to give them to friends that would like them. So if you mentioned to me recently that you are looking for an invitation, or if you never mentioned it but now realize how good gmail is, please let me know.
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Congratulations Jackie and Glen
My sister Jackie and her husband Glen delivered a baby boy today. Congratulations guys.
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Living La Vida Loca
Anna-Maria went to Banff again this weekend. I went to Devin Wallace’s bachelor party and played 16 player network Halo until 3 in the morning. Since none of them drink they weren’t getting any worse as the night progressed, but I can’t complain because I did pretty good anyway.
Yesterday I went kayaking down the Milk River. I also discovered that I can drive my Jeep for about at least 100km on the highway after the fuel light is on. I thought for sure I would run out of gas; I didn’t though.
So this brings me to Sunday. So far today I’ve watched a couple episodes of the Sopranos (season five is very good by the way) and I also did a couple of photoshop tutorials. Now I’m thinking about mowing the lawn. Yes, when Anna goes away, I live the crazy life.
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Another Backmasking Update
I’ve added the following songs to my backmasking page:
Imagine – John Lennon
Kiss, Kiss, Kiss – Yoko Ono
My Name Is… – Eminem
Pokemon Rap
As well I’ve made some minor changes to some of the older clips. Feel free to comment on my backmasking page here.
I read an article by Matt Haughey on possible ways of using BitTorrent to broadcast the Olympics.
It made me wonder if I will be able to find swimming torrents. So far my google searches have turned up nothing but I’m hoping that either something new will show up on Suprnova.org once the Olympics start, or perhaps someone reading this will be able to point me in the right direction.
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Moraine Lake
After finishing my four week stint as a New Media Movie Making Camp instructor at the University of Lethbridge, I’ve been keeping myself busy helping Anna-Maria with various odd jobs at her work and spending the weekend at Banff. We stopped at Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. The thing about those lakes, besides the fact that Lake Moraine used to be featured on the back of the Canadian $20 bill, is that they are both a very rich and almost unnatural shade of blue-green.
Notice the rich but almost unnatural blue-green tone.
The trip was a lot of fun with very little out of the ordinary happening. After a sad goodbye at the airport Anna-Maria and I headed back to Lethbridge and now she is in charge of another group from Japan and the fun activities get to start all over again.
There is a mother that is suing a Walt Disney World worker accused of groping her 13-year-old daughter while dressed as Tigger.
I asked Anna-Maria what she thought about the possibility it was an accident since she has actually tried on some of the Disney costumes.
She says that, “[While wearing the costume] your vision is greatly, greatly reduced. Furthermore, the suit is not just one layer. You have, generally, an under layer of padding followed up by a fur costume with large mittens on your hands that are often three times your regular hand size.
I tried out many costumes. One was a cat costume, the cat from Pinochio and the sleeves go almost all the way to the ground on them so your hands are covered.
Your feet are the same, you have shoes on followed up with a big fur boot, or depending on the costume a giant rubber shoe or boot.
Also it’s so hot in there you don’t function properly. You’re biggest concern is getting enough oxygen. Definitely not groping someone — although I could be wrong. But I don’t think you could even think about that in that costume. It’s like a pure mental exercise just to stand wearing the costume.
If it was one of the face characters, Santa Claus, Aladdin I could see it. But those other costumes are just unbearable.
I danced for half an hour in one and I was gasping for oxygen. Even when I just tried it on I began to sweat and breath heavily as if I had just run a marathon completely untrained.”
So when I asked her one more time if she thought the accused was truly innocent she replied, “Do you think a fat kid with asthma being chased by a pack of wild dogs could think about that? Because that’s what it’s like being in one of those costumes with parents and kids trying to run you down. You are in survival mode.”
About a second after publishing this post I discovered this AP News Story. It turns out “Tigger” was acquitted earlier today.
The acquittal came less than an hour following a three-day trial during which the defense attorney for Michael Chartrand donned a Tigger costume in an effort to show jurors how difficult it is to maneuver and see in the outfit.
[…]
Chartrand’s defense attorney has contended that the girl’s mother was merely after money and planned to sue Disney. The mother also claimed Tigger touched her breast during the visit to Disney World last February, although no criminal charges followed her allegation.
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New Media Camp
The University of Lethbridge New Media Movie Making Camp for July 2004 is done. I’m now an unemployed movie maker instructor / lifeguard. Actually I’m technically employed as a lifeguard but I’m not on the working schedule at present.
The camp itself was, in my opinion, a great success. I’ve become a better teacher and I believe the program will grow as word spreads about how fun it is to make your own movies. I wish I had the storage space and bandwidth required to show some of my favorite parts on this blog, but you’ll just have to take my word for it when I say that for kids averaging between 11 and 13 they made some mighty fine movies.
I came into the University today to finish up some things and to meet with my boss for a little review of the job. I’m getting a pretty good feeling about my chances of doing it again next year. Also next year they will likely try to stretch it out for an additional one or two weeks.
In the meantime aside from hanging out at the University I’ve been putting out ads for a new roommate, trying to get my student loans application filled out, working out in the pool, running errands, and mostly waiting for Anna-Maria to be done work so we can go home. :)