Peoplemon

So, I kind of stole these posters from Heroes, though I don't think they will mind too much. Basically, Peoplemon (pronounced people - mon) was originally a commercial we had to make for our media class in 8th grade. This was nearly 5 years ago!

I always liked the idea so a few years later, I made another trailer, and now, I made all these posters (or rather, I Photoshopped all these posters with my own friends faces).

First, Some early "Photoshop" magic from late 2006:

Now check out the trailer here:

Here's my latest and greatest:

Peoplemon: the time traveler

Peoplemon: The ninja

Peoplemon: the tough guy

Peoplemon: the telekenetic

Peoplemon: the Sister

Peoplemon: the speed demon

Peoplemon: The Weatherman

What do you think? Which one is your favorite? Sound off in the comments!

Apple is obsessed with BLUE! (and power)

Yet they don't like Blu-Ray?? Oh well.

Apple announced today the release of their new MacBook Pros featuring new Intel processors and a new I/O interface. (I/O, for those who don't know, are just ports on your computer like USB and HDMI.)

This isn't the first time Apple has invented completely new technology.
They invented firewire all the way back in 1995. THis was their first original I/O invention. They where also one of the first companies to support the USB standard, starting in around 1998. They were the first company to get rid of floppy disks (remember those? 1.5 mb of storage!!) and replace them with CD drives (circa 1998).

Apple has done more than that, however. They were the very first to utilize a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). although they did not invent these technologies, they where the first to get it right, put them together and was the first commercial success. This was in the early '80's.

Click to check out a quick look at Apple's
various GUI's over the years.

Click to check out Apple's history of Mice.

1994, they invented and popularized another input method for computers - the trackpad, which has been a standard feature in laptops since. Of course 1995 they brought us FireWire, And in 2001, they revolutionized the music industry with the first digital music player: the iPod. While they did not invent MP3 players, they were the first to get it right. 1,000 songs in your pocket was only the begging.

The current family of iPods (as of February 2011)

As if the mouse, trackpad, and clickwheel (iPod) weren't enough, Apple invented a new technology for a new device. The technology was Multi-Touch and the device was the iPhone. Why was this such a big deal? Check it out here.

Since Multi-Touch on the iPhone in 2007, that technology quickly spread to other Apple devices, like a new iPod and their latest trackpads and mice.

That brings us to today: The introduction of Apple's NEW I/O called Thunderbolt, and, like many Apple icons, is blue, and round.

What is thunderbolt? Thunderbolt replaces the likes of USB, FireWire, and even display I/O's like VGA, DVI, audio and HDMI! All in one port that's like a bajillion times faster!

And that is the main point to this post: Thunderbolt, and Apple's extreme liking of blue icons. Their latest smattering of computer will still include usb and firewire, as Thunderbolt is relatively new (yes, even in the computer industry, one day old is very new).

Check out some Thunderbolt stats below: 

Update: 3/4/11: Part 2

Day of Boredom (Happy President's Day!)

I left my dorm room a total of 13 times today. 10 times to help people into their rooms who got locked out, (I work for the Head Resident of the Dorms, so that's part of my job), 2 times for bathroom breaks, and one time to go the cafeteria to buy a delicious 12" sub. :)

So basically, I was in my room the entire day. So what was I doing? It all started with my frustration that my copy of Teen Titans season 3 arrived on Friday, but the mail place closed early, isn't open on Saturday or Sunday, and would not be closed Mondy (today) because of the holiday. Grrr.

I heard that Pokémon had started up its 14th (!!) season based off of the Black and White game coming in March. Now, I love the DS/Gameboy Pokémon games, though I haven't really cared about or watched the show since i was 11 or 12 (2002-2003) So its been a while. I searched for (and found) the first 3 episodes of season 14 on YouTube, and watched them all. (I was bored, ok!)

There are a few things that frighten me. Aside from the great animation, to my horror, I discovered that Ask (the main dude) is still 10 years old! Ash was 10 years old when the show first started. 14 years later, and he's still 10?? That means the show is older than the main protagonist! (Although, I can see why nintendo/pokemon would want to keep him younger. if he had aged normally, he would now be 24 years old-give or take.)

All three of my episodes had Team Rocket, yet again, trying to catch Pikachu. Seriously?They were doing this 14 years ago in every episode when the show first started, and they were still doing this 8 years ago when I stopped watching the show. (This was the main reason I stopped watching - because they did the same thing over and over and over again in 98% of all the episodes.) Pokemon may have more episodes (and movies) than the Simpsons, but if you've seen the first 40, you've seen them all, minus the new Pokemon.

The last disturbing thing, of which I will keep very brief, is the new theme song, which makes me embarrassed for all humanity. It's trash. and embarrassing. yikes.

Anyways, after the third episodes was done, that got me thinking into what new Pokemon I want to see that still don't exist. So i started writing my ideas down. I would like the 6th generation to be based off of the state of Washington, or just the general north west area. So that got me thinking, what kind of animals live there? That eventually got me to looking up what other people have done online, and that's how I spent my entire day; locked in my room glued to my computer and note pad.

My Favorites (that I drew):

A Tomahawk Pokemon.

A Lion fish Pokemon with a new type: Electric Poison
and a slew of 6 Sea Urchin Pokemon (3 male, 3 female)

A new line of 'digital' Pokemon, to complement Porygon and
Rotom. Based of off All-in-one Mac computers of the ages.

Jellyfish. Jelly-fish. There's a difference.

Way cool new fossil Pokemon!

Click here to see everything I drew/conceived.

Here are some of my favorite (That I did not draw):

I'm glad that I got all of my homework done on friday!

Photo Depth of Field

One of the Topics for Photo Journalism: Utilizing depth of field.

What do you think?

Giant fern plant.

Cute Cacti

Zoomed in - Using good composition

Caution: Sharp!

Tiny orange tree!

Parrot! (or some other kind of bird)

Which one is your favorite? Sound off in the comments!

Grenades = Happiness

Fun fact about me: I actually read. A lot. just not so much with theta giant 800 page newels. Most of this reading takes place on the internet, on various technology and video game sites like Engadget.com, IGN.com, New York Times (nyt.com), YouTube.com (oh wait a sec...), and Bungie.net. These don't count, you say? Save it for my lawyer.

Unfortunately, Some of these sites are blocked from my school's campus servers most of the time, which means I have less time to read everything I's want to. Unfair? Sure, but whatever, I guess I'm supposed to be doing homework or something, and not reading. Oh well.

Today, I actually did get a change to completely catch up with pretty much everything, including Bungie.net. Don't know who Bungie is? I forgive you. Don't know what Halo is? YOU'RE DEAD TO ME! I'll save my love for that game for some other time; I have something else to say today. 

Recently, Bungie has been hosting weekly events calling all Halo fans to participate in what they call "Bungie All Stars." This is where fans can submit screenshots or other artwork for a contest (of sorts) based on certain criteria for that week. Bungie will then post the best submissions onto their next website update. 6 weeks into the "All Stars", I finally had the opportunity to read the criteria and also have time to make something fantastic!

For week 6, the criteria were as follows:
"Using Halo assets or your own original art, create a forum avatar measuring 90 x 90 pixels"
We all had until February 17th (today) to submit our results. I went to work.

The first thing that came to mind was the classic "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" phrase. Hmmmmm. How could this apply to the halo universe? What keeps the Covenant (the bad guys) away?

Oh, of course! GRENADES! Here's an initial concept sketch:

The whole page.

Close-up. Original slogan was "On 'Nade at a Time"
Do you think that's Better? Worse?

About half way through the creation process, I decided to screen capture it, so show progress and my process of making my Halo avatar. Check out the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXvlGFS9Qbo

And here's the final product. What do yo think?

Photo Composition

Today in my Photojournalism class, we worked on composition. What do you think?

WEEKEND CULTURAL ENRICHMENT #5: "The Art of Japan"

According to Wikipedia, Japanese art "covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art. It also has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BC, to the present."


The Japanese culture is rich with this stuff, so I thought it only appropriate to have it be this week's Theme. Are you familiar with the picture below? You should be.

'The Great Wave' by Katsushika Hokusai

Hokusai is probably Japan's best known artist. Living from about 1760 to 1849, he left over 30,000 different works of art, which ranged from woodblock prints, picture books, silk paintings, and even travel illustrations. His favorite thing to paint? You guessed it: the water. Water in motion was the best, especially waves. The white of the foam breaking into claws at the top, and how the massive wave formed the perfect yin to the yang of empty space below, all to come crashing down and start over. That's the inspiration behind the most influential Japanese painting in the world.


Japan has more than just paintings, however. To completely fulfill your weekend's dose of cultural enrichment, we're going to talk about other forms of media as well.


Movie: Castle in the Sky
If there would be only one thing Japanese art is famous for, it would be the anime, and Hayao Miyazaki is king. QUICK TANGENT ON MIYAZAKI: He's the world's prominent anime artist and a critically acclaimed movie maker. My favorite Miyazaki movie? Castle in the Sky!!

5 Second plot synopsis: a boy and a girl named Pazu and Sheeta find each other and team up to find a lost city floating in the sky.


So why should you watch this movie? It has beautiful animation, and, not to mention, an epic plot, epic robots, epic sky battles, epic chases, the single most epic trumpet solo ever in a movie, an epic pirate mom, and -- oh yea -- an epic floating city in the sky!! Need I say more? GO WATCH IT. 


TV show: Pokémon


In case you have been loving under a rock for the past 15 years, Pokémon is a world wide phenomenon. 

What started as a simple bug-collecting hobby of a young boy in Japan in the '60's and '70's grew to be a multi-million dollar franchise. Mainly consisting of the Anime TV show and video games spanning five generations, Pokémon also includes several movie spin-offs, manga, trading cards, toys, and books. Yes, you should watch the show, but only a few episodes, if you can muster it. The TV show is primarily for kids, and the same darn thing happens over and over again. Ash is training to become the world's greatest Pokémon master, and struggles with that while Team Rocket tries to poké-nap his Pikachu, only to fail and "blast off again!".

Despite the claims of many people saying the Pokémon is a fad, it's lasted this long, and because its been a worldwide phenomenon, it's sure to stick around for a while longer. Just ask any kid with the current video games. What started as a mere 151 Pokémon to catch, the latest 5th generation has brought that total up to 649! Gotta catch-em all, right Ash??

Pokémon games at-a-glance. click picture for more info.

Book:
I have no idea! Do yourself the honors of Google-searching manga and origami books. :)


Music:
Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Japanese music either, but check out this techno video anyway:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAhYa9QvYi4 

Game:
It's got to be Pokémon, right? WRONG. This weeks video game is called Muramasa: The Demon Blade.

Why was this game chosen? What does it have to do with "The Art of Japan?" Everything. Most games these days rely on incredible graphics and insane realism. Well, this Wii-exclusive title has both of those things, yet non of those things. Why? because none of the graphics in this game are computer generated. They are all hand-painted in the classic Japanese style. Certainly a computer was used to put it all together and give the game life, but absolutely none of it was made with the assistance of technology.

So while this may be one of Wii's most beautiful game, it also is all about story, depicting classic Japanese tales and myths. 

Want more:

Watch a video review of the game HERE.

Watch some additional gameplay footage HERE.