The Toy Story 3 trailer is out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNMpa5yBf5o
Looks good so far, although I was surprised about the inclusion of a few scenes in the trailer. While it is not the first poop joke in a Pixar movie (Nemo's "we're swimming in our own- 'Shhhhhhhh'!" comes to mind), the "Lincoln Logs" joke is the first time Pixar used bathroom humor in a trailer. Not really a fan.
I do enjoy the "Nice Ass(cot)" line though, Pixar occasionally uses this joke pattern of saying something benign that sounds like a dirtier word (see the "sshhhhhh!" line above). Still odd to see it in the trailer.
Finally, I didn't care for the "secret meeting" shot that (possibly) gives away the villains in the movie. It would have come much more of a surprise if that hint was not shown. Then again, it may be an intentional misdirection.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Christmas Photos: pt 6
On Christmas day we traveled to my parents house where the children opened even more presents. The gum drop tree received plenty of attention from the toddlers. The girls put on their homemade princess dresses created by their Nana while daddy and Elliot put on their new matching outfits (which Elliot promptly outgrew the following week). And, of course, the dogs enjoyed the attention and action, and there were plenty of Christmas dinner leftovers for everyone!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Jay's Playlist: The Eagles
Welcome to my playlist, where I discuss the music which is currently entertaining me. Below you will find a video, press play to begin the song and then read my feelings on the album.
Today's playlist is music by the Eagles:
Unlike every previous selection for Jay's Playlist, this music is not rare/niche/unknown. I doubt anyone reading this blog has never heard of The Eagles (or at least heard one of their songs without knowing it was them). The fact that "Their Greatest Hits" was the top selling album of all time for 33 years (until surpassed by Thriller immediately after Michael Jackson's death) supports this assertion. Although I find it fascinating that The Eagles' most famous song (arguably), Hotel California isn't even on their top selling album.
Normally I write why I love the music being played, but since 42 million of you already own the album, there's not much else I can add other than this small anecdote: I never really knew who The Eagles were until I was in high school, yet I grew up listening to this album as a child because my mother played it in the house all the time. It wasn't until I heard these songs played on the radio (not long after their reunion in the 90's) and labeled as "The Eagles" that I realized I had listened them my entire life.
An interesting take on Hotel California:
Today's playlist is music by the Eagles:
Unlike every previous selection for Jay's Playlist, this music is not rare/niche/unknown. I doubt anyone reading this blog has never heard of The Eagles (or at least heard one of their songs without knowing it was them). The fact that "Their Greatest Hits" was the top selling album of all time for 33 years (until surpassed by Thriller immediately after Michael Jackson's death) supports this assertion. Although I find it fascinating that The Eagles' most famous song (arguably), Hotel California isn't even on their top selling album.
Normally I write why I love the music being played, but since 42 million of you already own the album, there's not much else I can add other than this small anecdote: I never really knew who The Eagles were until I was in high school, yet I grew up listening to this album as a child because my mother played it in the house all the time. It wasn't until I heard these songs played on the radio (not long after their reunion in the 90's) and labeled as "The Eagles" that I realized I had listened them my entire life.
An interesting take on Hotel California:
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Random Facts
Time for another "random" entry, this one involves odd facts!
I read a lot and enjoy books with interesting information. Since one book may contain many great facts, you may read this and say "he just took that from 'x' book!" to which I say "yes I did, glad you read it!". To everyone else who didn't know these facts, enjoy!
(also, time has a way of clarifying all info, so if I find out later that a fact is incorrect I will strike it from the list)
There is more actual lemon juice in Pledge Lemon Cleaner than in Country Time Lemonade
The weight of the "heads" side of the penny is slightly heavier than the "tails" side. The weight is small enough that the 50/50 chance of heads/tails is really 1001/999
Airplane exhaust temporarily lowers ground temperatures by reflecting sunlight. Ground temperatures increased during the 3 days after 9/11 when no planes flew.
You are more likely to die walking home while drunk than you are driving drunk. You are less likely kill someone else though.
Every President with a beard was a Republican
Bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline
The origin of the work "testimony" comes from Ancient Rome where it was customary for a man to put their hand on their testicles while taking an oath
The shorthand "X-mas" was created by the Catholic Church to save on printing costs in the 15th century. the "X" is the Greek letter "Chi" which is used to spell "Christ"
The standard backseat seatbelt passes every Federal standard required for car seats for children 3 and over and does not affect safety percentages at all when compared car seats. The "50% safer" percentage touted on car seats is when car seat usage is compared to children wearing no belt at all.
I read a lot and enjoy books with interesting information. Since one book may contain many great facts, you may read this and say "he just took that from 'x' book!" to which I say "yes I did, glad you read it!". To everyone else who didn't know these facts, enjoy!
(also, time has a way of clarifying all info, so if I find out later that a fact is incorrect I will strike it from the list)
There is more actual lemon juice in Pledge Lemon Cleaner than in Country Time Lemonade
The weight of the "heads" side of the penny is slightly heavier than the "tails" side. The weight is small enough that the 50/50 chance of heads/tails is really 1001/999
Airplane exhaust temporarily lowers ground temperatures by reflecting sunlight. Ground temperatures increased during the 3 days after 9/11 when no planes flew.
You are more likely to die walking home while drunk than you are driving drunk. You are less likely kill someone else though.
Every President with a beard was a Republican
Bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline
The origin of the work "testimony" comes from Ancient Rome where it was customary for a man to put their hand on their testicles while taking an oath
The shorthand "X-mas" was created by the Catholic Church to save on printing costs in the 15th century. the "X" is the Greek letter "Chi" which is used to spell "Christ"
The standard backseat seatbelt passes every Federal standard required for car seats for children 3 and over and does not affect safety percentages at all when compared car seats. The "50% safer" percentage touted on car seats is when car seat usage is compared to children wearing no belt at all.
Friday, February 5, 2010
State of the Passions: Music
Recently this blog turned 150 days old. I began this blog with a goal of bettering myself incrementally each day:
Piano: As noted before, I don't get to play much since I don't have a piano at my residence. But when I travel to my parents house I have access to a nice grand piano. But my time at my parents house is usually spent preoccupied with other important tasks. :)
I did (re)learn a song to perform for Raeleigh which was one my stated goals. I also uploaded and announced my Christmas arrangement that I created a few years ago. And one of the highlights of Christmas was (loosely) performing the entire "The Snowman" score for Raeleigh while reading the story to her. I'm working on a few other pieces to perform for the family and hope to have more at least another video in the next 150 days. Although considering my time spent at the house will be even smaller than the past 150 days that may not be possible. But I will try! In the mean time, I will continue to post my favorite piano music and collect new sheet music for the day I once again have access to a piano!
Guitar: Without the luxury of a piano I've had to put my musical urges into another instrument: the guitar! Since beginning this blog I have completed the tabbing of one of my favorite guitar pieces (of which my 12 year search failed to find sheet music). I am still learning the piece and likely will for a while but hope to have it performable in a few months. I've also completed tabbing (and learning) another easier piece which is just a fun little TV medley which I will either post my performance or just link to the original that I tabbed from.
More importantly, I finally went to a guitar store to get a "checkup" of my guitar. In the 13 years of owning a guitar (albeit I took a break for about 11 of them) I have never done that and either relied on others to change the strings or just lived without. I now have a capo, new strings, a clean neck (now free of 13 years worth of finger oil buildup, ech!), a thumb pick, and an actual music book to learn from! The fresh guitar emboldened me to finally record one of the earliest pieces I learned which in tern emboldened my to practice up my other pieces to eventually record as well. Finally. I began tabbing another piece, although this one is easier since it is from sheet music rather than an audio file, which I hope to document my learning process from beginning to end.
Finally, the one "goal" I failed to do over the past few months was posting links to my favorite fan guitar videos. Not only does this action make my goal creating content for this blog everyday a little easier but it reminds me of my influences. The only downside is a lot of the pieces I am learning/tabbing are the same ones I enjoy online, and since the original performers will always out perform me I am hesitant to post them first. That's something I will have to get over fast.
This blog will document my passions, progress, and random musings so at the end of the day I can look back and see that, while I have not reached everything I have hoped for, I am further than when I started. And tomorrow is always another day on the road to a new Jay.I then laid out My Passions in my second post. So where I am 150 days later, specifically Music?
Piano: As noted before, I don't get to play much since I don't have a piano at my residence. But when I travel to my parents house I have access to a nice grand piano. But my time at my parents house is usually spent preoccupied with other important tasks. :)
I did (re)learn a song to perform for Raeleigh which was one my stated goals. I also uploaded and announced my Christmas arrangement that I created a few years ago. And one of the highlights of Christmas was (loosely) performing the entire "The Snowman" score for Raeleigh while reading the story to her. I'm working on a few other pieces to perform for the family and hope to have more at least another video in the next 150 days. Although considering my time spent at the house will be even smaller than the past 150 days that may not be possible. But I will try! In the mean time, I will continue to post my favorite piano music and collect new sheet music for the day I once again have access to a piano!
Guitar: Without the luxury of a piano I've had to put my musical urges into another instrument: the guitar! Since beginning this blog I have completed the tabbing of one of my favorite guitar pieces (of which my 12 year search failed to find sheet music). I am still learning the piece and likely will for a while but hope to have it performable in a few months. I've also completed tabbing (and learning) another easier piece which is just a fun little TV medley which I will either post my performance or just link to the original that I tabbed from.
More importantly, I finally went to a guitar store to get a "checkup" of my guitar. In the 13 years of owning a guitar (albeit I took a break for about 11 of them) I have never done that and either relied on others to change the strings or just lived without. I now have a capo, new strings, a clean neck (now free of 13 years worth of finger oil buildup, ech!), a thumb pick, and an actual music book to learn from! The fresh guitar emboldened me to finally record one of the earliest pieces I learned which in tern emboldened my to practice up my other pieces to eventually record as well. Finally. I began tabbing another piece, although this one is easier since it is from sheet music rather than an audio file, which I hope to document my learning process from beginning to end.
Finally, the one "goal" I failed to do over the past few months was posting links to my favorite fan guitar videos. Not only does this action make my goal creating content for this blog everyday a little easier but it reminds me of my influences. The only downside is a lot of the pieces I am learning/tabbing are the same ones I enjoy online, and since the original performers will always out perform me I am hesitant to post them first. That's something I will have to get over fast.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Oscar shorts
The Oscar nominations were announced this week and I definitely have my opinion of the "Best Movie" and "Best Animated Movie" nominations (more on that later though). But with all the hoopla about animated movies and dramas, the one animation category people forget about is the animated short film section. The mainstream audience (heck, even most animators) hasn't seen any of the films nominated and usually doesn't care about them. But if you are here then you likely know me and so it is my job to educate you (and myself) on the nominations so you can root for the one you deem "best". I am rooting for the Wallace and Gromit film ("Matter of Loaf and Death") and if you were a betting person you would too: A Nick Park film has never* lost the Oscar when nominated for either short or feature animation.
Watch French Roast.
Watch Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty.
Watch The Lady and the Reaper.
Watch A Matter of Loaf and Death.
Watch Logorama.
(as seen on Cartoon Brew)
*Well, technically the first Wallace and Gromit film lost to Creature Comforts, but that was also a Nick Park film so he defeated himself.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Breezy
One of the very first pieces (definitely the first video game piece) I learned when I started playing the guitar was a piece called "Breezy" from Final Fantasy VIII. At the time I learned it from the MIDI (before Tabs were common online) which worked out great because the composer, Nobuo Uematsu, undoubtedly composed this on the guitar and input it into the game through a synthesizer (if he hadn't, strings would not match up as easily as they do).
So my first guitar video upload shall be "Breezy":
This is playing from my 1998 memory, so I'm sure a few of the notes/patterns are slightly different than the original tune (12 years will do that to your muscle memory).
You can listen the original version from the game here:
Finally, this will probably be the only guitar video I do in a single, unedited take. The simple piece is barely a minute long and only uses 4 strings yet it took me nearly 30 minutes to play it well enough to post online (even then it has little mistakes). It also didn't help that during the middle of one of my best performances my neighbor decided take a shower and the mic picked up the water flowing through the pipes. I'm sure the more complex pieces I perform in the future will consist of multiple takes edited together which means the video may need an image slideshow to hide the transitions :)
So my first guitar video upload shall be "Breezy":
This is playing from my 1998 memory, so I'm sure a few of the notes/patterns are slightly different than the original tune (12 years will do that to your muscle memory).
You can listen the original version from the game here:
Finally, this will probably be the only guitar video I do in a single, unedited take. The simple piece is barely a minute long and only uses 4 strings yet it took me nearly 30 minutes to play it well enough to post online (even then it has little mistakes). It also didn't help that during the middle of one of my best performances my neighbor decided take a shower and the mic picked up the water flowing through the pipes. I'm sure the more complex pieces I perform in the future will consist of multiple takes edited together which means the video may need an image slideshow to hide the transitions :)
Monday, February 1, 2010
But is it art? pt 2
More photos that may or may not be classified as "artistic". Even more interesting is I actually adjusted one photo using software to give it a more of an artistic look. Yes, I know this is quite common, but for me it is a step backwards and forwards (or sideways?). I earned a degree over five years of college sitting in front of Photoshop manipulating photos into art. But I never took time to care about what the photos looked like before I opened in Photoshop. Whenever I shot photos, I always assumed I would "fix it in post" and therefore didn't bother with composing the photo with the camera. When I got my dSLR a few months ago, I stopped using Photoshop entirely and wanted to create interesting photos with the camera as opposed to manipulation. Now that time has passed, I am ready to (slowly) begin using Photoshop to accent the photos...
Random Videos of Hilarity
Time for another collection of random, humorous videos!
I hate clowns (thanks to Stephen King's It and Spielberg's Poltergeist), and I'm sure these kids will grow up to be no different (if it was real):
Anyone who has played Tetris knows this is EXACTLY what happens. At least you now have someone to blame.
The punchline is true and heartwarming
I was a few years too old to get into the Power Rangers phenomenon, but I did watch the first episode when it premiered and remember thinking it was odd that the colors they assigned each teen were "coincidentally" related to their race. This spoof shows the creator's true colors (it is also funny that the "high end" TV effects of the 90's can now be so easily recreated by college students):
This one is cute, but not funny until you find out what the title of the video is:
"The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog", yay for Typing 101!
Also, not funny per se, but amazing. This is a video of a cat playing the piano. Someone then wrote an orchestral accompaniment and conducted an orchestra to play along with the video:
Finally, honesty in a childrens song:
I hate clowns (thanks to Stephen King's It and Spielberg's Poltergeist), and I'm sure these kids will grow up to be no different (if it was real):
Anyone who has played Tetris knows this is EXACTLY what happens. At least you now have someone to blame.
The punchline is true and heartwarming
I was a few years too old to get into the Power Rangers phenomenon, but I did watch the first episode when it premiered and remember thinking it was odd that the colors they assigned each teen were "coincidentally" related to their race. This spoof shows the creator's true colors (it is also funny that the "high end" TV effects of the 90's can now be so easily recreated by college students):
This one is cute, but not funny until you find out what the title of the video is:
"The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog", yay for Typing 101!
Also, not funny per se, but amazing. This is a video of a cat playing the piano. Someone then wrote an orchestral accompaniment and conducted an orchestra to play along with the video:
Finally, honesty in a childrens song:
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