Instagram Ruins Romance

Instagram is a great way to stay connected!  It is the Twitter of the photography world!  You express what you are feeling in photos and not words!

This cell phone app allows you to edit your pictures with an amazing amount of filters and different settings!  It is perfect for someone who is not educated in photography or a photographer that does not have all of his or her cameras with them!

The only issue that I have is that this app takes the Romance out of phototgraphy.  Meaning; it take 35 seconds to create a beautiful HDR like image through Instagram, but when you were to actually make an HDR you may have to work on it for a couple of hours.  It takes the fun and the skill out of the process of making art.

"Why fuck a woman with a vibrator when you have a dick."  -Billy Walsh

The Famous Speak In TED Talks

TED stands for Technology, Education, and Design.  This website posts great speeches about these topics.  Scanning through the TED Talks Website for people I knew...These were a few of the interesting speeches!

http://www.ted.com/talks/how_simple_ideas_lead_to_scientific_discoveries.html
Adam Savage from Myth Busters

http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html
The late Steve Jobs CEO of Apple and Pixar

http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs.html
Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs

http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_ebert_remaking_my_voice.html
Roger Ebert film critic

http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates.html
Bill Gates of Microsoft

http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_bird_s_one_man_orchestra_of_the_imagination.html
Andrew Bird musician

http://www.ted.com/talks/james_cameron_before_avatar_a_curious_boy.html
James Cameron director

http://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_s_new_thinking_on_the_climate_crisis.html
Al Gore former Vice President

http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_hawking_asks_big_questions_about_the_universe.html
Stephen Hawking God hater

http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html
J.J. Abrams director

http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_of_wired_on_tech_s_long_tail.html
Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_on_our_place_in_the_cosmos.html
David Deutsch much more interesting than Stephen Hawking

I implore that everyone check out these speeches!

Prometheus; Viral Marketing

Over the past few years I have been getting into researching different things.  I like reading a lot about the study of numbers in relation to life, Numerology.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology  I have also been reading a lot of things by Nostradamus.  I guess I kind of get obsessed with things sometimes.  Obsessed in the way where I pound Red Bulls all night, forget to shave, and shower...What's a shower?  I am surprised that I was able to keep a girl friend through my college years because of all of this.

The biggest thing I went into researching was the film Cloverfield.  Now most of you will just remember this as the film that started the "shaky camera" craze or the film with that huge monster that attacked New York.  I saw it from the beginning.  The trailer was shown on TV, it was short and there was no name given to the film.  From there I started looking into it.  There were about 20 websites that opened up talking about the film before it started.  Websites that filled the viewer in on the story and why things were happening.  The main characters had www.myspace.com accounts running until the film started.  Even after the film started there were things hidden within that you could research.  There is still a rumor for the second film!  This is all besides the point though...

Now I am single, bored at work, and besides doing some photography I have no real motivation to be social or move my life forward.  I saw this.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQgnnsqysZE&feature=related  That was the trailer for the new film Prometheus.  It appears to be the prequel to the Alien movies that came out starting in the 70's.  My obsession did not start here.  It started after I was watching a bunch of TED Talks shows online.  (I implore everyone to look into these web shows.)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7gspHxZiI&feature=relmfu  This one was clearly a mock show but it was very vague.  Talking about how man has become so much over the years.  Discovering and creating; from fire to becoming the "Gods" with recent technology.  At the end the man gave his name, I put it into http://www.google.com/ and the obsession started.  For all of you that may be interested, Google "Weyland" and enjoy the journey!

NCAA Men's Tournament

On my best bracket, seen here http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/entry?entryID=49583, I finished in the top 88.00%!  I finished in 771,041st place, which sounds awful...But all of these people had around 10 brackets each, so it was not that bad!

The best bracket, seen here http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/entry?entryID=970323, finished at 100.00%.  This person only missed a few games.

Like last year I made brackets with some family and friends!  I won it all again for the second year in a row with it all coming down to the last game!  http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/group?groupID=3904

**My March Streak For The Cash was just awful.  I had a few good runs, but only ended up going 57-57-00.  April is looking good so far!**

Streak For The Cash (February)

Every month for the past two years I have been playing a free online fantasy sports game through www.espn.com called the Streak For The Cash!  The goal is to get as many wins in a row as you can.  The game gives you a prop and you have to pick the winner, props may very in style.  The player with the best streak wins $50,000!  If a player makes it to 27 wins then they have a chance to play for the bigger stash of money!
New This Month:
"Beat The Messenger"
If you can collect more wins than this one man in one month then you have the chance to win even more money!  The wins do not have to be in a row.
February 2012 Stats:
http://streak.espn.go.com/en/entryStats?entryID=3600880
58 Wins
55 Losses
3 Ties
.513% Win
5 Longest Win Streak
7 Longest Lose Streak
World Soccer Best Sport with 24-14-01 (.632%)

Group Stats:
http://streak.espn.go.com/en/group?groupID=176355
I won with the most overall wins in the month!

The Messenger got to 87 wins where I had 58 so I will not be entered into the drawing for more money.
Overall it was a better than usual month for me!  I stopped playing early to take a break and to preserve my stats to solidify my win for the month!  There was even a pick for the Ground Hog earlier this month!  Finally, my Soccer skills keep getting better!

Every Time I Die: Ex-Lives

One of my favorite bands will be releasing their next album on 03.06.2012!  They waited until the Spring just because they have always dropped new albums in the Autumn.  ETID has come a long way since they dropped "Last Night In Town" which was their first full length album ("The Burial Plot Bidding War" sucks so bad as an EP I don't even consider it part of their library).  Now over ten years later they are only getting better and clearly maturing as they go along!

New Video:  "Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1gi_aOe334

(LIVE)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVcNhamWROk&feature=related

New Video #2 (LIVE): "Typical Miracle"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx2eGXKoHGE&feature=related

Track List and Cover Art
http://www.songlyrics.com/every-time-i-die/ex-lives/

Gridiron Playoff Challenge Results

So the end of the Superbowl means two things.  First, that I am going to be pissed that the Giants won for a while and second, the Gridiron Playoff Challenge has come to an end.

This game lets you create a Fantasy Team each week of the playoffs.  You have to follow the money that the game starts you with and how much a players stock goes up and down through the playoffs.  After you pick your team for the Divisional Round your team locks.  Meaning you have to guess who will be playing in the Superbowl.  It was actually a ton of fun to play this year!

My team: Scoregasm
http://games.espn.go.com/gridiron-playoff-challenge/en/entry?entryID=270434

My stats:
438 total points!
In the top 77.80% of all ESPN players!
My overall rank was 78,812!

My group against my family!
http://games.espn.go.com/gridiron-playoff-challenge/en/group?groupID=15100&selGrp=15100&entryID=270434
I ended up winning by two points by not picking the best players!  It was by far one of the closest Fantasy games that I have ever played!

Streak For The Cash (January)

Every month for the past two years I have been playing a free online fantasy sports game through www.espn.com called the Streak For The Cash!  The goal is to get as many wins in a row as you can.  The game gives you a prop and you have to pick the winner, props may very in style.  The player with the best streak wins $50,000!  If a player makes it to 27 wins then they have a chance to play for the bigger stash of money!

January 2012 Stats:
http://streak.espn.go.com/en/entryStats?entryID=3600880
52 Wins
47 Losses
3 Ties
.525% Win
7 Longest Win Streak
6 Longest Lose Streak
World Soccer Best Sport with 21-13-03 (.618%)

Group Stats:
http://streak.espn.go.com/en/group?groupID=176355
I won with the largest win streak and the best win percentage!

Overall it was a better than usual month for me!  I stopped playing early to take a break and to preserve my stats to solidify my win for the month!

In The New Year...

So my goal is to get back to some writing in this new year!  Sorry for the lack of something to say...