Tag Archives: Awesome

Au Revoir San Francisco, I’m Moving to San Diego

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So right now I’m vacationing with my family in the Florida Keys. The following week I fly to New York City to go to WeWork Summer Camp and visit Keith and the Girl. I then fly directly to Texas for work meetings and get this, on August 31 I move to San Diego.

San Diego California Embarcadero Marina ParkThat’s right. I’m giving up the cold blanket of fog for the warm sunshine of America’s Finest City. Starting September 1, all things going as planned, I’ll be moved into my new home and starting work a couple of days later.

If you feel taken aback by this news rest assured you’re not alone. Three weeks ago I’d never have even thought twice about moving to San Diego. I’d never even been to San Diego! Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an incredible job opportunity opened up. I jokingly responded something like, “Oh if only I lived in San Diego!” and then boom, two weeks later I’m in San Diego on interview six or eleven (depending on how we’re counting). Continue reading →

Leap Motion + Fleksy is Genius Typing in the Air

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A post showed up on Engadget this morning that caught my eye.

Laser projected virtual keyboards? So 2004. These days, tech firms are dreaming up completely invisible typewriters, or at least Syntellia is. By marrying a Leap Motion sensor with its own Fleksy predictive keyboard, the company has created a system that seems to let you type on thin air

01-LeapMotion-Logo

Yet another crazy-cool thing coming out of SXSW this year. You might say I predicted this. Last week I wrote posts about each of these companies and how I was excited about the work they are doing. I ended my Leap Motion post remarking on the promising future the miniscule device has. I suggested it could read sign language and allow people with arthritis to control computers without the joint pain, to control of a television without a remote.

Fleksy_LogoThen, in my Fleksy post I suggested ways Fleksy could make the move out of touchscreen devices and incorporated into computers. I wrote specifically how it could be used to speed up typing and allow a dramatic increase in accuracy.

But what I neglected to put together was what would happen if Fleksy worked with Leap Motion. Well, turns out they were already thinking about this and have announced Fleksy integration with Leap Motion, and it’s pretty brilliant. Imagine controlling your AppleTV with the Leap Motion, swiping in the air through videos and songs. When it came time to do a search in the Netflix app, you’d have the ability to simply type in the air using Fleksy integration instead of the traditional, and painfully slow, method of input with the AppleTV onscreen keyboard.

I’m not sure if I’m a genius for thinking abstractly of these two ideas or dense for not thinking of combining the two. Either way I’m even more looking forward to the delivery of my Leap Motion. Apple being the silo that it is, we might have to work with some XMBC hackers to get the above integration working but it would be worth it.

Gallery Show Reception Recap

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Saturday was the reception for my very first gallery show and thanks to you guys, it was not only a huge success but also a total blast.  I wanted to thank all of you who have supported me in my photographic ventures through purchasing prints, commenting on photos here and on my photoblog, sharing my photos with your friends and even helping me select the photos for the show!

Thanks to the Perlow-Stevens Gallery for hosting my photography and Sycamore restaurant for providing all the delicious food.

Thanks to Sam who had the forethought to make it a Facebook event.  You’d think that I’d be all over that since, well, I kinda do that sort of stuff for a living haha.  Well I forgot and was pleasantly surprised to see that Sam had already setup a Facebook Event and invited dozens of people!

Sam and I hung out at the photolab for a while before dropping some stuff off at my apartment and heading to the show. We played with some old photography equipment at my place, Sam has the 50mm f/1.8 pancake lens I’ve always wanted!  Took this image with it.

It had some back focus issues with my Nikon D80 but worked pretty darn good with my Nikon D700.  Ultimately I’ll stick with my 50mm f/1.8, that is until I move up to the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G which is an incredible lens, albeit a bit pricy compared to the 50mm f1.8

A ton of people showed up at the gallery to check out the new work by Patty Oblack, Cat Tesla, Elaine Fleck, Susan Bostwick, Joel Sager, Michael Bauermeister, Derrick Breidenthal and of course, ME!

One of my photography class besties came out too, actually almost all of them!

Leah brought her camera and was kind enough to take a few pics of the reception. I’ll hope I can get them from her today and share them on the blog. Until then, here’s one of Leah checking out her shots and a couple of mine.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to support me, drink some wine and eat some delicious food. 😀  Oh and don’t forget, the show continues through May 15 so if you didn’t get a chance to see it yet, there is still time!

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Perlow-Stevens Gallery Show

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I posted a few months ago about the potential for me to have my very first gallery show.  There was a HUGE outpour of support here on the blog, on Facebook, on Twitter and beyond.  So first off, thanks for all the help, the suggestions on what to submit and what to leave out.  Your thoughts were incredibly helpful to me.

Guess what, I got the show!  It’s up right now at the Perlow-Stevens Gallery and it looks great, can I say that?  Seriously though, everyone I’ve talked to has said great things about it and apparently a few people have shown interest in buying a few of the prints, which I would of course welcome!

Here is a preview of what you’ll see when you go there.  Of course everything looks different in a gallery setting.  I have always felt my images look best big and have printed each photo 20×30 inches with a four in matte mounted on archival board and put in beautiful, white Nielsen frames.  All put together they are 28×38 inch, white frames, white matte and mostly white images.  The lighting mixed with the choices on the matte and frames really helps the colors pop.

I had a great little evening last week with several friends, Chase, Sam, David, Korrie, Laura, Eric, Justin R, Sydney and a few others all joined me at Top Ten Wines for drinks to celebrate the opening of my show. Turns out it was Ping Pong Night at Top Ten, which was kind of fun to watch haha. Drunk people playing ping pong, ahem, table tennis, is always a fun venture.  It’s the reason Google added a drunk-test to Gmail for those of us who have sent unfortunate emails while under the influence… LoL  They really take it serious, brackets and all!

Perhaps the funniest part of the night were these photos captured by Sam or David, I can’t even remember, of Chase.  Make up your own story, I’ll provide the series of images…

There will be an official opening for my show, as well as a few other artists  this Saturday.  The reception is on April 10th, 6:00-9:00p.  I hear there will be free booze and food so you really have no excuse not to come!

Don’t forget you can follow the Perlow-Stevens Gallery on Twitter @PSGallery.  You can use the hashtag #PSGS and/or an @reply to them if you visit my exhibition with your thoughts.

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The Final Critique

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I’ve never enjoyed a course subject as much as those in the photography portion of my degree. I’ve made so many amazing friends through the course, learned so much about photography, improved my skills in ways I cannot even measure and built relationships that I expect to last a life time.

Leah (@tigersluvpepper), Katie, Justin Rodier, the Maggies, Sarah, Kelly, Maggie, Allison, Nick, Paul… These are just a few of the incredible photographers, friends and course mates I’ve enjoyed in this series of classes.

Of course, none of this would have happened if it weren’t for our Professor, Joe Johnson. His elephantine knowledge about photography, philosophic look on life and love for the subject he teaches becomes more and more evident semester after semester.

Rarely do you find a professor who shows as much interests in his students as he does in his own work.

The close of this semester saw the graduation of several of my peers in the class. Some I’ve enjoyed the company of for years, others just a single semester. After our final critique a handful of us headed to Uprise Bakery/Ragtag Cinema Cafe for drinks, conversation and a chance to make our final goodbyes.

It was a brilliant feeling meeting up outside of class. We told stories previously untold, shared our plans for the future and enjoyed what would be the last few hours together for some of us.

While I will miss many of my classmates who have moved on to bigger and better things, I’m just as excited to join up with the rest of the class in January when we start back up.

Thanks for making this such a memorable semester.

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Ferris Beuller Would be Proud

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One of those Kennedy/Lincoln situations.

In Ferris Beuller‘s day off, Ferris faked his health as an excuse for a day off.  Barack Obama is being blamed for using the healthcare crisis to draw away attention from the war and economic problems.

Ferris Beuller was from Chicago. Barack Obama was Chicago senator.

Ferris Beuller borrowed his friend’s dad’s car, convincing him there was no other way.  Barack Obama convinced Congress et al. that we needed to borrow money and buy out General Motors.

Ferrish Beuller was an incredible speaker that ultimately always got what he wanted.  Barack Obama (see Ferris Beuller).

So what do we have here?  Like a scene out of Ferris Beuller’s Day Off when Ferris runs through a Chicago parade getting the entire city in on his song and dance.  Well, Barack Obama is pushing for a more socialized health care system, not unlike Canada, the UK and France‘s systems, for America while simultaneously trying to win the 2016 Olympics for Chicago, which of course would bring a lot of song and dance to the city.

Follow me?

So here’s the two coming together.  A French Canadian, university (UQAM) gathers 172 of their communication students to perform a massive lip-sync of an American hip-hop group, The Black Eyed Peas, in a style ripped from the venerable 1986 film.  They did the entire thing in two hour and fifteen minutes and as you’ll see below, it’s pretty freaking incredible.

Moral of the story?  We need socialized healthcare, the 2016 Olympics and more mass-lip-sync performances.

Not too proud of my Americanism to say… I’d kill to be a French Canadian going to l’Université du Québec à Montréal!

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