Bonesnap

Diversity

I was told by a friend that I need to post more of ‘life’ type of a stories. This is my attempt to do that.

I have worked in IT all my life. During the internet bust several years back I found my self unemployed. I managed to land a job right away doing consulting work for a utility company in Connecticut. In summary, the utility company had installed some software that my previous employer had created.  Now, they needed some help with it.

The IT field is a melting pot for diversity. You will the encounter all types of races, religions, people.  Nothing prepared me for the diversity I’d encounter in Hartford, Connecticut.

I showed up  to the office to meet a young team lead named “Josh”.  I quickly learned that “Josh” was suffering from the most severe case of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). He was so off the charts that I later found out he was not allowed to have any products that had caffeine or sugar in them.

However, that wasn’t the ‘diverse’ part about Josh. You see, Josh had a tick. Josh would constantly rub his nose.  Not once a minute, not twice a minute, it was more in realm of 15-20 times a minute. I thought at first he just had a cold or maybe just had a booger that he couldn’t’ get out.

However, that wasn’t the case. I know this tick was harmless, think of how distracting it is when your team lead is showing a presentation and all you see is his hand rubbing his face all the time. I also, didn’t want to shake his hand.

Josh took me to meet the rest of the team. The next individual I met (can’t remember his name) was in control of the software that does the daily builds. Josh, introduced us and I started talking about the complex and asking what type of equipment they use, etc. The guy just looked at me like I was stupid. That was when Josh told me to that I needed to look him in the face.

This guy was deaf. I had to look him in the face because  he could read my lips. This again made meetings really hard. When everyone spoke they had to look him in the face so he could read. It was really awkward because I never just look at one person when I give status or speak in front of a group.

After finishing up with the deaf guy Josh took me to meet one other member of his team. I went around to a cubical where this guy was seated in a chair that was really high in the air. I didn’t pay much attention to it at first. Josh introduced us (I forgot his name too) and I went to shake his hand. They guy said “I don’t think you want to do that”.

That’s when I realized this guy had no hands. For that matter he had no arms. He programmed with his feet. He did everything with his feet. His chair was high off the ground so he could type on his desk with his feet.

So when we had a team meeting there was a guy who always rubbed his nose, a man taking notes with his feet, and another man who couldn’t hear and would look at you like a hawk if you spoke.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog and applications so here is a quick update. Like normal I have WAY too many irons in the fire. I wish I was a millionaire and could just hire folks to help me out.

Life is pretty funny, a lot of the things I like to do have no monetary value what so ever. Yet, they make me laugh and feel good. I think this is what an artist feels like since very few folks understand their work.  (btw…I’m not saying I’m artist by any measure)

I did manage to get my Diablo 3 and Star Craft 2 gadgets uploaded to windows live gallery. What sucks is I have no information when these games will ever come out. This reminds me that I need to check the drop date I posted in the gadgets! Other wise they will go off prematurely and I will have some unhappy people.

Pretty much since Modern Warfare 2 came out I don’t do a lot of anything. I know it’s pretty sad. However, I think I’ve burn myself out on it and last night I just watched a movie instead.

I have some short stories to finish up and also a few machinimas that I’ve been working on.  It’s just so hard to get motive after the holidays.  

In the past several months I’ve been working pretty heavy in Vegas Movie studio. I think I found a passion that I truly enjoy. Creating videos and editing them is something that I really enjoy. However, the software to support that habit is really expensive.

I finally got my hands on Riot Gear and Evolution from video co-pilot. I scored them off of eBay for a fraction of the retail price. In a nut shell Riot Gear is some stock footage and grundge type back drops you can use in your videos. It has some awesome ink bleeds and paint splatter marks.

Bad thing about Riot Gear is you have to chroma key it. It works for most of the stock footage but some of the bigger ink bleeds has shadows which make the video look kind of silly. I had seen examples on youtube about compositing tracks but I think that’s in the pro edition of Sony Vegas.

Evolution is better; all the motion stock footage is set up using an alpha channel so the transparencies are fluid. What really sucks is I was hyped about getting my hands on this software but I don’t have really a reason to use them.

I’ve been converting family vhs tapes to DVD and adding some stuff here and there. But I can’t exactly justify adding grudge textures and ink bleeds too little bobby’s birthing video now can I?

Hopefully with my next few machinimas I can create some kick ass intros.

My son really likes Call of Duty: World at War. I’m not such a big fan of the game myself. However, the zombie map packs are quite fun. The newest one was called Der Riese and it was released in September.

The map pack far surpasses any of the other ones. The developers added in numerous weapons and upgrades, teleporters, the works.

However, one issue you will run into after a few rounds is the one hit kill zombie. If you do not have any items that bolster your health any hit from a zombie will kill you.

My son calls it’s the “Chuck Norris” slap. So, I made a quick little movie one night because I thought it was funny.

Tell me what you think.

Machinima – Part 1

Been a while since I’ve posted. The holidays are close and I have some spare time. Here’s what I’ve been up too. The new Call of Duty came out respectfully called: Modern Warfare 2.

The graphics and game play are out of this world. It is truly one of the best sequels I have ever seen. However, I haven’t been playing much of it. I’ve spent most my time doing some Machinima.

What is Machinima you might ask? Well, in my view it’s just making movies with video games. If you check out Machinima.com you will see what I’m talking about. The more hardcore Machinima fans out there can give a better understanding and explanation than me. Still, bottom line, making films using video game or computer game footage.

I started this new hobby several months ago by shear accident. I was playing a game called Dead Space.  It’s an awesome game where you play as a sole survivor on a monster infested space ship. Truly, one of the best games I’ve played. Only issue I had was the main character is a little bland.

After Dead Space I started playing some Nazi Zombies from Call of Duty: World at War. The zombie map pack Shi No Numa introduced a Marine character called: Dempsey.

Needless to say, this guy is the most vibrate and colorful character I’ve ever encountered in an Xbox game. So, I thought, man, the guy of Dead Space needs to be more like Dempsey. I started messing around with trying to capture video from the Xbox to the computer (which is another article it’s self). It took me some time to figure out how to do it. After, solving that issue I started editing the footage.

Here is my first ever machinima:

Now, I was happy with that little creation. I decided wouldn’t it be fun to pick out a few more characters and do the same thing with them? I have played Dead Rising and Halo in the past. The main character of Dead Rising is little stupid where as Master Chief from Halo is really anal. With a little video editing I came up with these two gems.

 Dead Rising Machinima

Halo Machinima

My film making has advanced past the rudimentary method of just coping one game play voice to another. In future post I’ll show some more of my work and go over how to capture and edit your own machinima.

I used to be an avid comic book collector (I know it explains a lot). However, due to the constant increase in price the limited availability of the comics I liked; I just quit collecting. Before I quit collection though comics took a fantastic turn for the better.

Anti-Heroes like the Punisher, Wolverine, Spawn, and Venom were top selling comics where the good wholesome characters like Captain America, Superman, and Thor.

I’m not sure the ‘exact’ reason why but my thoughts were the more ‘mature content’ comics were appealing to the older crowds. This is a fine.

For example let’s look at the whole ‘Batman’ franchise. The ‘Batman’ franchise was stagnating and after the George Clooney and Arnold installment, it was just about dead. The Batman: Begins was released and the whole franchise was reborn!

However, what a few folks know is that the exact same thing happened to the Batman Comics. Batman was having poor sales for D.C. So, D.C. brought in Frank Miller (300, Sin City) to do a rehash of Batman. Miller created Batman: Year one which was a complete reboot of Batman and revitalized the whole Batman comic. Batman: Begins was based on Frank Miller’s Batman: Year one yet Miller gets’ very little credit.

Now, for vampires. In my opinion one of the best comic book heroes to grace the big screen is Blade: The Vampire Hunter. In the comics he was part of group of vampire hunters then spun off into his own series.

I loved the whole Blade movie series. He was bad ass and vampires were bad ass. Even in the comics all the vampires were bad ass. Looking back at previous movies and books all references to Vampires would strike fear into the souls of mortal men (with the exception of Love at First Bite).

Now, Vampires are a bunch of pussies. I think it all started with the movie ‘Twilight’. It was fucking stupid. The vampires were a bunch of pretty boys who looked like ‘gold’ in the sun light? This book series/movies were clearly marketed toward young girls. The movie was terrible and now the sequel is coming out. Which will most likely make werewolves into pansies next (that will be another article).

Next came TrueBlood. Everyone was telling me, ‘YOU GOTTA WATCH IT!’ I should have made a mental note of ‘who’ was telling me to watch it which was middle age women.

So, I buy the series (big fucking mistake) and force myself to watch this. I can’t stand this series. Again, it made vamps into some type of public oddity that no one is afraid of. If I get started on railing this show I’ll never shut up so I’ll stop here on it.

Now vampires diaries are coming to TV, every new book out I see at Barns and Noble is some young teen vampire story.

What a way to destroy an icon.