Categories
video

Nerd TV

Personally I think they should have called it Geek TV but semantics aside Nerd TV has weekly one-hour interviews with some of the world’s greatest innovators in the field of computer science.

NerdTV is a new weekly online TV show from PBS.org technology columnist Robert X. Cringely. NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks — a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology. Guests like Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy or Apple computer inventor Steve Wozniak are household names if your household is nerdy enough, but as historical figures and geniuses in their own right, they have plenty to say to ALL of us. NerdTV is distributed under a Creative Commons license so viewers can legally share the shows with their friends and even edit their own versions. If not THE future of television, NerdTV represents A future of television for niche audiences that have deep interest in certain topics.

Episode 1 now available in MPEG 4 format, and here is the official Bit Torrent link.

Categories
Music

Plastic’s Perfect Album: The Follow-up

Two weeks ago I posted about Plastic.com’s story on the perfect album. Some guy has tabulated all the albums mentioned in the comments and placed them online.

Categories
Photography Sport

White Water Kayaking

My brother scanned some old photos he took of me kayaking down the Kananaskis white water and posted them on Flickr. I’m still cold.

Categories
Art

Mickey Mouse’s Suicide Attempts

A recently discovered old comic strip set from the 1930’s shows Mickey Mouse repeatedly attempting to end his own life when it appears Minnie has fallen for another mouse.
Update: Barnacle Press has removed the comics, here’s their explanation:

“Mickey Mouse is gone because, even though those strips were terrific, in the Public Domain, and easily the most popular material on the site, we didn’t really feel comfortable with the attention they garnered from sites that linked to them. We didn’t want to be known as the novelty site where you can see Mickey try to kill himself!”

You can still see a few of the pertinent frames here.

Below is the comic. Click for larger version:

Mickey Mouse Suicide

 

 

Categories
Music

The Perfect Album

I came across a thread on Plastic today about the perfect album.

“[The perfect album is one] in which every track is great, each one worthy of being a hit. An album with not a single song I would skip past and nothing mediocre or even average.

Here’s my list of perfect albums (I included soundtracks because though they are not really albums, when I listen to them I don’t hit the skip button once):

  • Radiohead :: Ok Computer (such a great album, though I have to admit I have been known to skip ‘Fitter Happier’ on occasion)
  • Weezer :: Blue Album
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Soundtrack
  • Counting Crows :: August and Everything After
  • Smashing Pumpkins :: Siamese Dream
  • Garden State Soundtrack
  • Barenaked Ladies :: Maroon (I don’t know why I just love this album)
  • Led Zeppelin :: Led Zeppelin IV

Any others that you think I missed?

Categories
life video

Golfing

I went golfing yesterday with my sister, Jackie, and her husband, Glen. I may not have mentioned it before, but Glen is actually a tremendously excellent golfer, (in case you couldn’t tell by his Titleist hat). He used to be a golf pro and still wins the occasional tournament. It was fun to have him there to watch him play and for him to give me some pointers.

I have to say, he was impressed with some of my moves too. In fact he claims that he has never before witnessed someone hit the ball of their own shin. So other than the shin incident, I didn’t think I was so terrible of a golfer for someone that had never golfed before. Here is a video of my powerful swing (2mb).

Categories
Art

The Artwork of JC Wong

Check out the amazing JC Wong’s webpage. He is a friend of mine that I met while working at GXM Studio in Malaysia. JC is an amazing artist.

Categories
Art

Do It Yourself Silk Screening Tutorial

Inspired by Kristy (girlx512)’s tutorial, I’ve decided to make my own brief tutorial on how to make a multi-coloured screen printed t-shirt.

The supplies you will need include:
Materials

  • prewashed tshirt
  • a 5-10 inch embroidery hoop (having more than one means you can prepare all the screens for all colours before you start)
  • sheer curtain material, nylons, or tulle (I used the sheer curtains)
  • Non Water soluable Glue (I used Mod Podge)
  • screen printing ink or acrylic paint + fabric medium (I used paint and medium)
  • paint brush with stiff bristles (optional but recommended)
  • a design, either drawn freehand or printed from a computer

Directions:

  1. Find or create your design. This can be done either on the computer or as a drawing. The image should be high in contrast and not too detailed. Pretty much any design that you can paint, you can make. Make sure your design fits inside the embroidery hoop. It should be small enough to leave at least one inch from the edge of the hoop. I think a smaller hoop is better if you have a tiny design because the screen will be tighter, but even though it was unnecessary for me to use such a large embroidery hoop with my design, it still worked fine.
    Photoshopping T-Shirt DesignI created my image in photoshop and printed it the size I wanted it to appear on the shirt.

    Sheer Curtain MaterialStretch the sheer curtain into the embroidery hoop and tighten it. It should be as tight as you can make it without wrecking the hoop or tearing the fabric. The embroidery hoop can then be tightened to hold the screen in place.
  2. Place the hoop on top of your image sheer curtain side down.
  3. Tracing the Design

    Using a pencil, pen, or felt, trace the image onto the screen. The outline should be clear so that you know where to fill in the glue. Accuracy becomes more important if you are adding more than one colour on your shirt.

  4. Mod Podging the ScreenMod Podge all the areas where you don’t want the first colour to go through. I used an old paint brush but spreading it using just your fingers works even though it takes longer to dry. Also remember, when you apply the Mod Podge, to avoid gluing it to your workspace the screen should not be touching anything. Flip it over so that the side with the sheer curtain is up. At this point you have the option to use tape or other adhesive materials to cover/clog the larger areas, but if you want to make more than one shirt with the same screen, it needs to be washable.
  5. For single coloured shirts skip this step. Repeat steps 1 – 5 on a second screen. This time leave the areas open for your second colour. It’s okay to overlap colours a little bit, but depending on what look you are going for, try to be as accurate as possible.
  6. Mix Acryllic With Fabric Medium

    Since I didn’t have screen printing ink, I had to mix the acrylic paint with fabric medium. The type I used needs to be mixed in a 2 to 1 — paint to fabric medium — ratio, but read the label just in case. Think about how much paint you will need to cover the entire screen because if you don’t mix enough the first time, you may have to mix more and the consistency might change. I ended up having to mix more for this t-shirt but it turned out okay anyway.

  7. Screen Printing

    Make sure you remembered to pre-wash your shirt. It’s a waste of time, effort, and materials if the shirt shrinks after the screen printing is done. Position the embroidery hoop and screen against the shirt where you want the image to be printed. Once you have it placed in the correct spot, apply the paint by dabbing the brush up and down in a stippling motion. I put a piece of paper inside the shirt to prevent the paint from going onto the back side.

  8. Remove the screen and give the shirt time to dry.
  9. Repeat steps 7 – 9 using the second embroidery hoop and applying the second colour. Line the second embroidery hoop up as carefully as possible to match the first colour’s position. A little overlap is okay if you are going for that look.
  10. The instructions on the bottle of fabric medium recommend ironing the image before washing as well washing inside out.

    Here is the final look of the design:

    Palm Tree T-Shirt Design


  11. The screen can be used over, so if you want to reuse it don’t forget to wash it out before the paint dries.
My New Shirt

Here I am wearing my new t-shirt in my parents back yard. I couldn’t quite wait and as a result it was still a little wet when I put it on. I think if I were to make this shirt again, I would put the logo a little more to the wearer’s left. It seems a little too high and close to the centre for my liking.

Categories
Art

Malaysia – Day 17

National Air Cargo

Today we shot a video for National Air Cargo (the Malaysian division) and I got to be an extra.

I posed as a customer asking questions about the company.

Later in the day I worked on some proposals for channel V and checked out some cool New Media related sites (the first three are portfolio based, the last one has AfterEffects tips):

Got any good ones for me to check out? Leave them in the comments.

Five days after I posted these links, Patrick O’Brien (AKA Transfatty) was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease). He decided to make a movie about it.

Categories
video

Hitchhiker Trailer

It’s an, as of yet, unreleased Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trailer. Looks cool.

(Via Waxy)

Update: To this day, I’ve never actually watched the movie but I love the books.