Almost Famous

Well as many people already know, I had a pretty eventful week as far as camera work goes. Last Thursday night, Boise State played Oregon in the biggest football game of the year for BSU. I was working for BSU doing bronco vision, which is the in stadium cameras that show replays & live action on the big screen. After the game, I just happened to catch the now infamous Blount punch. The funny thing is that, I didn't see it happen, I was just following the head coach since it looked like something was going on. The guys in the truck running replay noticed that I caught the punch on tape and told the director about it. He decided to replay it over and over again on the big screen until the crowd saw it and started booing Oregon. ESPN has access to our cameras and ended up using my shot during their post game coverage and during sports center. How cool is that, I made sports center and no one even knows it!

I thought I'd share the video in case you haven't seen it yet. In this clip, my shot starts around the 29 second mark.

Change is good

I just realized something...classes for Boise State start tomorrow. I can't even explain how much of a relief it is to not be feeling the stress of school right now. I have WAY TOO MUCH stress right now, so it is nice to not have to worry about that.

Reunion

We just got back from another family reunion, this time at Alturus Lake here in Idaho. The area around the lake has the Sawtooth Mountains which in my opinion are the coolest mountains I have ever seen. We went to Church Sunday morning in Stanley which is about 30 mins north of the lake. The front of the Chapel has windows that gives this view of the mountains. I couldn't help but try to capture the amazing view.



For some reason, I have become obsessed with Panoramic shots lately. There is something about trying to capture the scene as your eye naturally sees it that intrigues me.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of why they are called the Sawtooth Mountains so here is one someone else took to give you an idea of why I think they are so amazing.

I lost count

I find that I am an odd person. I love things that are predictable. When I go to a restaurant, I find myself ordering the same thing. On the other hand, I love change. If I had more money, & didn't feel like I would be wasting money on something that wasn't as good, I'd eat different things in restaurants. (I'm not afraid to try new things; I eat Sushi, that should count for something.)

Well, I guess you have noticed that I like mix up the look of the blog. I have lost count on how many different versions I have gown through in the year and a half since I started this thing. I'm just going to call this Plumber 7.0. Things have defiantly changed on the blog. I mean, just look at the format, it is different than anything I have tried before. Who knows how long this will last, but for now, I am liking it.

Am I the only dumb person?

So last night I stayed up until 2 am watching an infomercial for P90X. The dumb thing is that I am already doing P90x workouts. There wasn't anything for me to buy. Oh well, sleep is over rated.

Compare & Contrast

In my last post I was talking about the amazing differences between Photoshop CS3 & CS4. I decided to show what I was talking about. Here is the original Pano I made with CS3. It is really obvious that I wasn't watching what I was doing when I shot it since every picture has a different exposure.


Now once again, here is the same thing. The only difference is the newer version of Photoshop.


It's pretty amazing what that program can do. I still can't get over how it was able to fix all my different exposures to make it look like one continuous picture.

Photoshop is amazing

I just got back from a week long trip to Canada. Just over eight years ago, I proposed to Melinda by a waterfall in Waterton. Every time we are up there, we make a trip to Waterton since it is a special place for us. I decided this time to try and take a panoramic shot over the lake from Just outside the Prince of Whales hotel. I love taking pano's but for some reason I wasn't thinking when I took the eight pictures to be stitched together in Photoshop to make the final pano shot. I remembered to make sure that each picture had overlap, but I forgot to set the exposure to be the same. Needless to say that when we got home that evening to my grandparents house I was a little bugged that my pano looked horrible. I ended up spending about an hour trying to fix the exposure on each picture to try to get them to match. I was finally able to get 6 of them to look ok and made a pano out of that. This morning I remembered that Photoshop CS4 is supposed to be better at merging all the pictures together than CS3 which is what I had on my laptop. I decided to try it again. I was amazed that I was able to use all eight pictures this time and you can't see the seems. I can't believe that it was able to adjust for my wrong exposures to make it look like one continuous picture. Anyways, I thought I'd sahre it here. The original picture is over 3 feet long at full resolution. Just click on the picture to see a little bit bigger version.

Time for change

Well, I started this thing over a year ago as a sort of social experiment. I quickly had followers from countries all around the world. Earlier this year, I decided to make it more private because I wasn't interested in seeing who would see this thing from around the world. My original thought for the blog was to share my random thoughts. Over the last year, that has happened once in awhile, but this has never reached blog that I wanted it to be. I have found that it is hard to make constant updates even though I do have random thoughts on a daily basis. I just never seem to be by a computer when I have them. That is one of the reasons it has been 3 weeks since I have updated this thing. I started thinking about it and decided that it was time for a change. Change isn't always bad, it's just change. I am going to keep this blog for anything I feel like witting a "post" for but I have created a twitter account to handle my random thoughts. If you are like me, you might be thinking why would I care what you are doing? I discovered that I can update twitter easily from my cell phone and it is limited on the characters. It is perfect for me. I'm not planning on sharing all the details of my life, but who knows, you might find something interesting.

So if you are feeling brave, click on the follow me picture to go to my twitter page. And now starts a new adventure.

More 3d training

Just for fun

I thought I'd play around with photoshop tonight and came up with this picture. I thought it was pretty cool.

I still find it amazing all of the things you can create with computers.

Twas the night before........

A day that I thought would never come will be here tomorrow. Tomorrow I graduate! I have been thinking a lot about graduation for the past month. It has just been one more thing. You would think that for all the hard work and all the long years that went towards getting this thing that I would feel something. Well today, I was looking at the Boise State web page looking over last min things I need to do for commencement tomorrow. On the page, they had a slide show of all the graduates from last year. I found myself being drawn in to watch. It was funny, I started watching it because I wanted to get an idea of what to wear, but as I was watching it, those feelings that haven't been there all of the sudden hit. I'll admit that I found myself tearing up realizing what has happened and what is happening. It really caught me off guard. (Just thinking about it right now is bringing back those feelings). I'm interested in how I'll respond tomorrow as I walk across that stage, doing my last thing as a student of Boise State University. College has been a big part of my life for a very very very very very long time. I'm not sure I know how to act knowing that there isn't for school to attend next semester. It has been a long road, & I feel like I am stuck at an intersection, with new adventures awaiting no matter what way I turn.

I just wanted to say thanks. Even if you don't know it, if you are one of the people reading this you have inspired me in some way. I really do think this has been a team effort.

If for some reason you want to watch me walk across the stage tomorrow, the ceremony is from 10-12 mountain time. You can watch it online if you have real player. Here is the link to the live video if you do feel the need to watch. http://academics.boisestate.edu/provost/commencement/live-web-broadcast/

More learning

Here is one more video that I made on Friday when I was playing around with 3D.

Wow

I was pretty shocked to see that a video I uploaded to YouTube almost a year ago has just gone over 20,000 views. Not bad if I say so myself. Here it is one more time.




Update:
Since youtube is now offering HD videos, I remade the video in HD because I never liked the quality of the original.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTP-Eyje-lw

What I learned today

I decided to spend the day learning some new stuff that would be beneficial to a career. I have been playing around using a 3D animation program and created this flowing water. I thought it turned out pretty cool for my first try. The video is in High Definition, so if you have a slower connection it might take a minute to load up.

Flight of the bumble bee

So I have all sorts of theories on the flight of insects. The other day I was walking back to my car from a class and noticed a bee flying around me. I just kept walking but it could easily fly faster than I could walk. This got me thinking, if a bee can fly faster than I can walk, & I was walking pretty fast, how fast can a bee fly? I was wondering this in terms of the bee, not humans. I mean to us, a bee may be able to fly 20mph or something, but what does that translate to according to its size? The have to be flying at 100mph plus. Anyways, just a random thought I thought I'd share.

I love wifi

I just wanted to say that I love wireless internet! I am currently sitting outside on campus in the grass typing this on my laptop. It is nice to enjoy the 80 degree temp while getting some work done!

This was crazy

So I was driving home from school today and saw a girl get hit by a car. Yes, I said I saw a girl get hit by a car. Luckily the girl wasn't seriously hurt, but it was still crazy. I felt really bad for the driver of the car, it was not her fault at all. I couldn't stop thinking how fast things can change in life. It really put things into perspective. Here is to making everyday count.

You know it is time to.....

Recently, I have been coming to the realization of many things. Do you ever feel like something has hit you with a ton of bricks? I mean, it is something so obvious that there is no denying it? Tonight was one of those nights. I have been really busy over the last year or so and haven't had much time for physical activity. Needless to say, I have gained a pound or two. I have been wanting to live healthier and loose a couple of those extra pounds. Here was the ton of bricks moment. I was sitting on the toilet and the seat cracked in half. Yep that's right, completely through on one side. I know I am not that big, but those bricks still do hurt. How can I deny it now?

New video

I thought I'd share a promo video that I just created for the Quigley family website.

Paper due

Ok, I admit that I like most technologies. In many ways they make our lives easier. In many ways they make our lives harder.

I am working on a paper that is due tomorrow about the democratic role of the media in the war in Iraq. Sounds intriguing doesn't it. Yeah me too, that is why I am writing this instead of the paper. This is where the problem of technology comes into play. We have to have typed papers, no exceptions. That means I have to sit down at the computer and write it. However, as we all know, the Internet can be very distracting. It is way too easy to start checking email which leads to something else. Then you remember that you wanted to look into something else so you look that up. Before long, an hour has passed and you have only written 2 paragraphs.

As I was watching conference this weekend, they had a special on Elder Worthlin's life. They said that he had a typewriter in his office that he would type on 3x5 cards every day before dawn. I remember thinking when I saw that, that that (yes I just used 3 that's in a row) was amazing. How cool would it be to have a typewriter? I have only had to type a couple of papers in my life on one and know that they can be a pain too. I just think that some technology enhances our lives in some ways while messing it up in others. Oh well, maybe I can get back to my paper now.

Update:
Another thing that I do like when it comes to papers is sleeping on them. No not literally but figuratively. Even though I am not a morning person, I tend to write my best after I go to bed thinking about it and then wake up at 5am to finish writing it. Something about that process helps me think more clearly.

Just one more thing

As I get ever closer to being old, I keep noticing things that are changing with me. Yesterday it was starburst. I was sitting in the library, doing some research for a paper on democracy and the media when I remembered that I had a brand new pack of starburst in my bag. I don't remember the last time I bought starburst. I had this pack because Melinda bought this box of 2 million starbursts or something for the youth. Needless to say, she had a couple left over. Anyways back to the story. As I sat there in the library, I kept opening one piece after another. It was probably less than a couple of minutes but I ate the entire thing. As a kid, this was no big deal but I noticed yesterday that I couldn't handle the sugar. It was gross. Being completely disgusted in eating the whole thing I started thinking about starbusrt themselves. What the heck is that? It is like sugar fruit flavored wax. Weird stuff. Who comes up with this stuff? Anyways, my body can't handle a pack of starburst anymore. It made me pretty sick. Since when did I get sick eating a pack of starburst? What is next......sugar free jello?

Fun with Photoshop

I found these the other day. Don't you just love Photoshop? I have to admit, the roller coaster one is my favorite.

I thought these were pretty cool. It is amazing what you can do with photoshop and other programs.

Amazing

I know I have talked about it before, but I am really getting into photography. I think it is amazing what people can do. This picture is an example of HDR that I talked about awhile ago.

The basis of HDR is that it combines 3 or more pictures taken at the same time to get dynamic color range. Pretty cool stuff. Just do a google search for HDR photos and you will find some amazing stuff!

Bored?

I found this game today. The idea is that you get 1 click and you have to make as many of the dots intersect with the dot you clicked. I know it might not make sense reading, but try it and you will figure it out. I passed all 12 levels and got a final score of 260. Can you beat it?

If you do try the game, post your score in the comments.

Good Luck

New favorite show

Since I am so busy right now, I do not have much time for TV. I'll admit that watching some TV helps me to relax. The only 2 shows that I watch on TV right now are 24 & the office. I have written about both of them before, but each of them offer something different and I love watching them. I have recently started to watch online at hulu.com a show called Arrested Development. This show only lasted 3 seasons on fox a few years ago. I did watch it a lot when it was actually on the air, but I would miss some episodes and then it would be hard to catch all the inside jokes. A few weeks ago, I started watching it again from the beginning. I'll just say that it is probably the funniest show I have ever seen. It is a very smart show. If you haven't seen the show before, or you are like me and saw it in bits and pieces when it was on the air, check it out....it is hilarious!

update:
If you are wondering what my wife is talking about in her comment:

Useless knowledge

Do you ever feel like you know way too much about a topic than you should or want to? I am feeling that way with web design. I am working on redesigning the BSU communication department's website, & I was hired by a friend to design one for their business. I don't know...I feel like I have learned so much about something I could care less about. Yeah I know that it is a skill that is marketable to companies, but if you really hate it, is it worth having that skill? I have absolutely 0 desire to do this for a living in anyway.

Since I am full of this useless knowledge, I thought I'd share a few things that I have learned.

• Content Management Systems are the way to go for updating anything
• The free wordpress stinks. You are so limited in what you can do.
• Wordpress that you have to install is very cool...you can do anything with it.
• www.byethost.com offers hosting for $2.99 for unlimited storage

Now incase you are asking why I shared these few things, I just wanted you to have a little of the useless knowledge that I have. Isn't it great?

What is the color of your energy?

You've got to trust your instinct
And let go of regret
You've got to bet on yourself now start
'Cause that's your best bet

I know this post may seem completely Random, but I have been All Mixed Up lately, but From Chaos comes clarity.

Either you have a clue what I am talking about, or not. If so...have a happy day!

Does this seem crazy?

Walmart Sushi

My font

http://www.yourfonts.com/

What is the deal with the temp?

Ever since I lived in Brazil, I have loved the heat out side. If it is over 100, I'm happy. However, I hate the heat inside. Anything over 70 & I am uncomfortable. Yesterday I started having a thought that for some reason I think about at least a couple of times a month; why do we accept different temperatures for indoors & outdoors? For example for the last few days, it has been in the 50's here. If it was 50 in your house you would be freezing, but outside it felt so warm. On the other hand 50 degrees in the fall after the heat of summer feels really cold. I guess what I am trying to say is why do our bodies accept different temps in different situations as ideal? So weird.

What a week!

They said in all of my orientations for the Special Olympics, that it would change your life. I think they were right. It has been an amazing experience. I have met many famous people this week, but that doesn't compare at all to being with these athletes.

Since my last post, I have been hanging out at speed skating. It is amazing to see these guys go. It is interesting, when someone falls, they actually get more applause for getting up than the person that won the race. It really isn't about winning, but just getting out there & trying. I have had the opportunity to be able to hang out with team Canada a lot this week. We decided to film the awards ceremonies from the stands, so I got to be with the Canadians. We instantly created a bond. It has been fun seeing them compete this week. I know them all by name and have found myself cheering louder for them than any other team including the Americans. It has been fun to get to know them & become friends. I think that is something that I am going to miss the most, hanging out with team Canada.

It is really hard to express it in words. I hope that if you had the opportunity to attend you did. If you didn't, there is still a little time tomorrow.

Special Olympics

For anyone that doesn't know, I will be spending the entire week filming the Special Olympics world games that just started here in Boise. I am doing it through school for college credit, but it actually has a cool purpose. The Special Olympics goal is to have us film every single athlete so that video of them can be uploaded to the Special Olympics website so family & friends from around the world can see them compete. I thought it was a really neat idea.

Anyways, yesterday I had to go for a few hours to film Floor Hockey. I was pretty surprised that shortly after getting there I filmed Johnny Knoxville playing. If you don't know who he is, he has basically became famous for doing really dumb stuff and hurting himself. The reason he was there was because a few years ago he was the star of the movie "The Ringer". If you don't know about that movie, the basic plot was that he started off pretending that he should be in the Special Olympics so he could get money but realized that they were athletes and became their friends. Anyways, I guess from filming that movie he has grown to love the athletes and participated in a celebrity match of floor hockey yesterday. Since I was filming it, he came over to me & I got to meet him. I was actually surprised at how nice he was.

I am looking forward to many cool experiences this week. If you are in or near Boise, I would encourage you to attend an event. Almost all events are free. If you are interested, here is a link to the events schedule.

So frustrating!

Well if you have been to this blog in the last week you might have noticed something different. I like to find cool templates to use for my blog. Normally, I upload the pictures to my own account, but with the last change I got lazy. Well, being lazy was not good because the person that had the images in a photobucket account went over their bandwidth. For me this meant that all the images on my site could not be viewed, & it was next to impossible to read anything. I have been too busy this week to do anything about it until now. Hopefully this new look will work out.

The end is in sight....

Well, maybe it isn't yet, but it will be in 4 months. This crazy thing called college is finally drawing to a close. I only started back in 97 so that isn't too bad right? Needless to say, it has been a very long journey to get to this point. I am very excited to never have to go to school again.

I decided to go out with a bang. Well, that isn't complete true either. Let's just say that factors out of my control, like department scheduling of classes has made this one interesting. I am taking 24 credits this semester. The most I had taken before was 22 but that was like 100 years ago or something. Seriously, look at paragraph 1 if you don't believe me. Anyways, I will be really busy. Luckily 10 of those credits are easy things so it really isn't that bad as far as work goes.

While I had a few extra moments I just wanted to thank my wife. This semester is going to be a challenge for our family. She is amazing. I don't know how we are going to get through everything and get schedules coordinated, but if anyone can do it, she can.

Going to college defiantly is a team effort. Yes, I have been playing this game way too long, but I have had the opportunity to have many people on my team. Thanks for all your support!!!!

Yes, I'm out of prison

Sunday I went to prison. Yes I really did. The funny thing about it was that right before I left, I decided to update my facebook account to say that I was off to prison. Needless to say, I have received many confused emails and comments about that. That was the point. I wanted to make people think "what"? Anyways, if you have read anything on my facebook page since Sunday, my wife keeps making comments like I am hilarious or something. I think she was embarrassed and didn't want people thinking I was in trouble or something. Always trying to ruin my fun. I thought the whole thing was funny, and have enjoyed people wondering what was going on.

SO here is the story. About 2 months ago, Melinda & I had to give talks in Church. We have been in our current ward for just over 5 years and somehow we got away with never giving a talk. I know....how does that happen. Needless to say, the powers that be in the ward felt the same way when we both mentioned it in our talks. A couple of weeks later, the Elders quorum president had to ask me something. He wanted me to fill out all this paperwork for a background check so that I could go speak in the prisons. So yes, I was in prison on Sunday, & yes I did get out. Is it so wrong to leave out all the details until now?

Anyways, I went into the experience not knowing what to expect. I had never been to prison or jail before. By the time we got through all of the security and arrived at the Chapel I started to become really surprised. The first meeting, there was about 30-40 inmates that were there. Before the service even started, about 75% of them came up to each of us that were there and shook our hands and told us thank you for being there. After we gave our talks the same thing happened, they thanked each one of us for coming. After the first service, we went up the road to a private prison & did the same thing over again. Once again, before and afterwards, the inmates came to shake our hands & say thank you.

I actually really enjoyed this experience. The inmates were extremely humble and eager to learn. It constantly reminded me of my mission when we would be teaching investigators about the gospel. You just don't find that same excitement in a normal ward. The spirit was very strong there too. I was amazed by that.

So that is my prison story. I went and was released. Did you really think I did something to end up in there? I don't know how common this practice of visiting prisons is, but I would highly recommend it to anyone that might be asked to do it. I'll never forget the experience!

Something enexpected

First let me give a little background. My two year old son Miles has this thing where we ask him a question about something, and he makes us list off things to answer it. About three or four months ago I had one of these questions. Every morning when the kids wake up I ask them if they had sweet dreams. On this particular day, I asked Miles what he dreamed about. He wasn't willing to give up that info so easy. I ended up listing everything I could think of. Literally anything that came to my mind I asked if he dreamed about it. It seemed like I was getting nowhere until I said the sun. He immediately said yes. Everyday since then when I have asked he what he dreamed about he said the sun. I wasn't aware that there was even that much to dream about the sun but apparently there is. Anyways, this morning when I asked him what he dreamed about, out of nowhere he said RAINBOWS. Where did that come from?

As I'm sure that anyone that has kids knows that they can be very entertaining. I think Melinda & I are finding ourselves laughing at random things they do many times a day.

finally

Well almost a year ago I posted a little rant about my favorite show 24. Anyways, I wasn't happy that I had to wait 18 months before I could see a new episode. I am very happy that the wait is over. It is off to a good start. Something interesting about this season is that because of the writers strike, the season has actually finished filming. This is a first for 24. In the past they are shooting while earlier episodes are on the air. They never know the complete story until the end since they make it up as they go. Not having the audience to fall back on to make changes to the story it will be interesting. The cast seems to be really excited about it. If you missed some episodes, you can always watch them here.

Raw Music

I think anyone that knows me well, knows that I love music. I love finding new artists and listening to all types of music..well except country. I think I would like country if the singers learned how to hit a note and not search for it by hitting every other note around it until they get the right one. Back to the point. A couple of months ago I came across "rawsession" on youtube. What it is a place where they record up and coming artists in very high quality so others can get to know them. Something that I think is cool is that many of the artists do covers of current popular songs.

Dirty Heads was the first band I saw on rawsession. I was actually surprised when I saw them on there because I already knew them and saw them in concert over a year ago. I thought I'd share their version of Coldplay's Viva la Vida. I really like this version, it is very different than the original.




The other guy I really like on there is a guy named Rome. I have tried to find more info on him but all I have been able to find is a site where you can book him for your party or something. Anyways I think he has a really cool voice & I actually like this version better than the original.



Anyways, rawsession is pretty cool & you should check it out if you want to hear some new music & artists.

The deodorant curse

I don't know if it is common or not, but for me choosing a deodorant is tough. It isn't because I can't find one I like because I can. It is because when I do find one I like, it seems like it gets discontinued soon after. I don't know why I can't find a deodorant that I like that stays on the market. Anyways, the reason I was even thinking about this is because I love when I get or switch deodorant to a new scent. For the first few days I can smell it on me no matter what & it is something that I like. I recently switched deodorants and have been enjoying the new scent but today it disappeared. Why is it that we get used to smells? It's not like the scent is gone, I just don't smell it anymore unless I am putting it on. We even get used to bad smells after awhile.

It has been awhile....

I have learned a few things about blogging over the last year. I think the main thing is that I always have something that comes to my mind every day that I would like to write about, but I am never near a computer at that time to do it. By the time I get around to it, I have already forgotten all about it. Oh well.

I have been thinking about my blog a lot lately. I have been thinking about what I want it to be. I think I will be changing what I put in it as posts. My original goal was to use it as a test for a class, to see how many people would visit my blog. I ended up having people from all over the world visit without having to do much. It was interesting to see where people were from that were reading. I am no longer interested in this. I think I am going to stop being so general in my posts and make it more personal. What does more personal mean exactly? I don't know, I guess I'll see as time goes on.

I did see something yesterday that caught my attention. Growing up in the 80's I remember almost everyone having a Nintendo. It seemed like my family was the only one that didn't have one. It actually wasn't so bad since I could go over to anyone's house to play it if I wanted. Anyways back to the present. As I have said before, I now have a Nintendo Wii. I love playing it. The funny thing that I read was that for over 20 years, Super Mario Brothers was the best selling game of all time. This week it was passed by Wii Sports which has now sold 40.2 million copies. Yes Wii Sports comes with a Wii so you buy it whether or not you wanted it. I think Mario came with Nintendo also if I'm not mistaken. The funny thing to me is that I remember almost everyone having a Nintendo growing up. I know very few people that have a Wii. It seems strange to me that something that is so hard to even find has passed the original Nintendo. Oh well. Here is an article about it if you are interested.