If you haven’t heard yet, I’m heading to Zambia for week. You may be wondering, “What’s he going to do in Zambia I wonder?” I’ll try and answer that question for you real quick. I’ll be flying over there on business for APU. Our job is to film a company that a couple alumni setup, and tell the story. For example, last year we sent 2 people to South Africa to do the same thing for our satellite campus, and this is the final product:

Just to sweeten the pot, the company was actually co-founded by one of my roommates from college, so I get to spend the week catching up while doing some amazing work with some amazing people. The name of the company is Zambikes and you can read all about their company on their website here. In short, I’m heading over to Zambia, via South Africa, with our resident creative director and our filmographer of choice to tell a story, and hopefully we will tell it well.

Just thought I’d put this out there. Had writer’s block for a while and this song materialized out of nothing which was pretty exciting for me. Plus, I got to try out the internal microphone on my new Apogee One which is pretty legit. I love writing songs like this because I can almost here the drums, piano, and bass in my head and it pumps me up Anyway, here is the video. I say that this is my secret website page but that’s just because I only get a couple visitors, so it’s practically a secret. I also posted a PDF of the lyrics and music below. Thanks for listening! Maybe some famously awesome musicians I know like Mark Stuckey or Eric Shouse can help me track this on my comp…

All for Love Chord Chart and Lyrics

Lately I’ve been trying a new app for my iPhone called Gowalla. Basically, whenever you visit a location, whether it’s Jack in the Box, the place you work, the gas station, or a movie theater, you pull up the app and check in. Based on your GPS location, the application will auto populate several establishments in your immediate vicinity, and if your spot doesn’t appear, you have the option to add it to the database. If you’ve ever used four square, it’s pretty much the same concept. The application allows you to share your location updates via Twitter and Facebook, and also find and accept friends within the application itself.

As you check in you acquire stamps and pins which are stored in your passport, a virtual conglomeration of all the places you have visited. You also collect rewards along the way. All in all, this is a well made app, nice to look at, easy to use, and worth the time. It’s not like you don’t pull your phone out every time you go somewhere anyway…

So for 2010, let’s see how many places I can log.

Go to the Gowalla Website

Since I’ve been playing around with Chrome since they finally released a Mac version, I’ve see a couple impressive things. Almost all the initial issues I had with the browser have been resolved. In looking for ways to spruce up the look, I came across the new Artist Themes Experience. The thing that I really liked was how they utilized the youtube page. Different than your typical page, both the video elements and the normal static elements work together to show off there new product. It’s easier to see than describe, so take a look.

While you may have originally thought this post was about the themes, it’s actually more about the use of the youtube interface to illustrate integration. Working for a higher education institution, I would love to be able to use our page at a level like this. I guess we’ll see what the future holds…

I’ve talked about this application before but I think its worth dedicating a whole post to it on its own. Quicksilver is a product made by Blacktree and it’s here to make our lives easier. This program is created for a Mac though, so PC users, you’ll have to just go pick one of those up.

How It Works

Similar to spotlight, Quicksilver allows you to quickly search your computer for something and then execute an action on that something. In my case, I like things clean and simple so I am not a big fan of having a hundred different things in my dock. For this reason, Quicksilver is amazing. You have the ability to set the keyboard shortcut. For me, I chose command + space. You might have to change your shortcut for spotlight if you choose do the same, but I felt as though that was the easiest combination to be able to perform quickly and easily without looking.

After you have set the keyboard command, you are ready to go. No matter what application you are in, you can always use that shortcut to call up the Quicksilver screen. As soon as it appears, start typing the name of the application you are looking for and as soon as it appears, hit enter to open. The default action on the application is set  ”open,” but there are other options. The app is also equipped with auto-complete you won’t necessarily need to type in the whole app name.

I love anything that makes the normal things at work easier and faster, and this is definitely one of those things. Long time user, no complaints here. I’ve also added a screen shot of what my settings look like. Basically, Quicksilver starts when my computer starts, doesn’t sit in the dock and just sits in the background waiting eagerly to be used without ever making a peep. Good work Blacktree, good work.

Download Quicksilver Here

[Don't worry, no spoilers here] Ok, so after a whole lot of hype, both good and bad, I went and saw Avatar. Keeping in mind that I heard about this movie a while ago, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Lately, thanks to the new Star Trek, I’ve been liking the sci-fi action genre a lot more. Of course Star Wars will always hold a special place in my heart, but this is a new found love.

Really, there are almost no good reasons not to see it. I saw it in 2D (mainly because the glasses still bug me for 3D movies), but I also talked to a lot of people that saw it in 3D. The consensus has been just about unanimous: The visual effects are surreal, the colors are out of this world, and the story is, eh. It’s not that the story line is terrible, it’s just a little predictable and is just a little bit overshadowed by the visual effects. Here are some comments I’ve consolidated (they shall remain anonymous):

story=no
movie=yes yes yes

The hype is too high… Good movie, but not earth-shattering or industry-changing. It’s just taking special effects to a higher level than ever before. The villains in particular should certainly have been more complex.

Well, Avatar was definitely very impressive!  Also definitely very predictable.  But very impressive.

So, here is my recommendation: It’s definitely worth seeing, and if you can, see it in 3D. I know 3D televisions are coming soon, but realistically, you’re probably better off seeing it in the theater since we probably all won’t be running to the store to buy our new screens and digital 3D copies of Avatar anytime real soon…unless you can wait, a while.

A long, long time ago, I talked about a freelance website called crowdspring. The idea behind the site is that small business, companies, and individuals post projects they need completed. They give all the essential details, what they need, maybe an few existing examples, and the rest is up to the world really. People, like me, look through the posted projects, whether it be html, logos, t-shirt designs, or a couple dozen other things, and post their rendition of how they see the job. The poster then chooses the one they like best, and you get paid.

Lately, I’ve been trying to increase my abilities in certain areas, among those is creative direction. Crowdspring is perfect for this. I get to practice a little, figure out how clients may interact with me, identify their real needs, and put forth what I think is the solution to their needs.

Above you can see my latest post (which is actually my first real submission). If you’d be so kind, and you probably are if you are reading this since only my friends read it apparantely, feel free to vote in the “love it” section for my creative. It just might win them over

Lately I’ve noticed a trend…my free time is diminishing. When I say free time, what I mean is my blog scanning, rss sorting, book reading free time. Thankfully we have the internet and I have found various ways to make things simpler and easier, while getting everything done and then some. What I have now come to appreciate is audio. NOT to be confused with music. Here’s how it breaks down:

1) I have a 30 minute commute which is about an hour a day in the car by myself (Not bad, especially for Southern California)

2) I am capable of multi-tasking (Amazing, I know)

3) Because I can multi-task, I often do, and as a result it’s pretty hard to sit down and solely dedicate myself to just reading or something.

What this all means: I’m into audio. After a couple of recommendations, I’ve started listening to a couple podcasts that I think are great; entertaining for anyone interested in technology and application. My favorite at the moment is TWIT, otherwise known as This Week in Tech. The host of the show, Leo Laporte, is intriguing, has a great personality, and assembles an amazing collection of people together to talk about the technological developments over the past week. From Facebook and Farmville to the latest and greatest cell phone, they cover it all.

Another thing that has totally caught my attention is Audible.com. I recently did a book review on Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents, which I downloaded from Audible. It was amazing. Not only the book, but also the format. Being able to do my normal work while listening to a book in the background is incredibly fulfilling. Audible runs plans similar to the gym; monthly payments a lot you certain credits towards book downloads in .mp3 format. For less than $25 a month, you could potentially be reading 2 new books. The books aren’t your average books either. The company now has 60,000+ titles including new releases, classics, subscriptions, and more. It may be just me, but I think reading an extra 24 books a year could be fairly beneficial to your brain. What I’ve done is downloaded the books, loaded them onto my iPhone, and listened to them in my car while I’m driving. A typical book at 7-8 hours would be finished in one week for me. I’m not sure the last time I could say I finished a book that size in one week while still living my normal life. One of the best things for me is that it means more time with my family at home.

My Advice: Get yourself audio’d. Podcasts I listen to or am looking at:

TWIT

The Tech Guy

Buzz Out Loud

Mac Geek Lab

Mac Break Weekly

Over the past couple months, I have been through a few blogs layouts while remodeling this URL. Well, it’s finally done, for the moment. In doing so, I lost quite a few blogs, but happened to have this file of a couple hundred posts I had made over the past couple years. I went through them (laughing at myself) and came up with some of my favorites. Mostly because they’re just funny to me, but what better way to kick off a new era with a look at some past highlights? Please feel free to comment. Its the comments that make this stuff good.

3) Most Interesting Man in the World (Maybe the best ad campaign of 2009, and definitely funny enough to blog about. Let’s keep adding to it)

2) Monday Morning Pick-Me-Up (Traditional youtube creativity. You can do anything with a computer and an idea)

1) Darth Vader Being A Jerk (Just classic and worth revisiting…over, and over, and over again)

And now its time for the long awaited District 9 movie review (Don’t worry, no spoilers here).

So, after seeing the much anticipated movie, I left completely satisfied. Except for one minor hole in the plot, I thought the story was excellent, the acting was spot on, and the plot was engaging. If you replaced the aliens with actual people from the human race, you probably would have thought and felt very similar emotions. The directors did a great job giving the aliens rights as beings (and also taking those rights away in sub-human, segragant manners).

Even more scary is how real it all felt, the reality of the events that happened within South Africa. You can’t help but notice the entire movie is a metaphor for a fairly big event in South African history, I’ll let you figure that one out. Outside of it being satisfying, the movie grows on you. A day or two after, you find yourself wanted to see it again because you find yourself forgetting some of the details.

Anyway, I would recommend you see this movie. The exception is this:

1) Don’t see this with anyone who would make fun of aliens, it will just ruin the movie for you and likely bias your judgment.