On On Demand Video, on and on.

On the iPod: "Alec Eiffel" - The Pixies

Now, I fully understand that online video is becoming more and more niche oriented. There have been a ton of YouTube knockoffs springing up like weeds across the net. One that Al Tompkins over at Poynter, tipped me off to is GodTube.

Now, I have no problem with Christians or anyone else who practices a religion in the least. I applaud certain forms of evangelism and even plan on making my support. My very best friend and his new bride are two people who I think do it right.

My problem with services like GodTube is the tactics under which these "evangelists" are presenting their case. They're being no better than those terrible heavy metal bands with their slick media presentations. People, especially the people online video sites are aimed at, are impressionable. And this site is full of videos that bash homosexuality, evolutionary theory and free thinking. While some of these clips present some interesting theory, they go no further than scratching the surface and presenting guilt laden trickery to sway the minds of the weak.

My biggest problem is the lack of logic that goes into these arguments. Even evangelists, priests, and other clergy should have some sort of basic training in discourse. Wouldn't it be better to show both sides and then pick apart? Wouldn't that make your argument seem stronger. Instead of filibustering on about how homosexuality is immoral or say that you can't understand how a human can evolve from a primate, so it can't possibly be true, make an argument. Give me some proof. At the very least, back it up with some real premise. And for Christ's sake (pun, very much intended) back it with something other than, The Bible "says so." Take the time to support this almighty faith you have. I'll respect you more for it. Have blind faith, but have the reason to back it.

John Brownlee over at Wired, presents a well-stated vision of some of the problems with this site. I tend to agree with him for the most part. I haven't had the time to fully explore GodTube yet, but plan to out of my newly renewed interest in faith, religion and theology. Look for a full report in a few days.

I'm digging for fire.

On the iPod: "Do You Remember?" - Jack Johnson

A user (a Texas A&M Computer Science major named Cole) instant messaged me last night and conducted an informal interview. One of his questions was as to why my bio page was so thin.

Well, I suppose that's because I've done my best to try and keep this page as business as possible, despite the occasional rambling about my engagement, wedding planning or my thoughts on books and film. While it was something I once enjoyed, I don't really care to be the center of attention too much these days.

But since Cole asked me an interesting mix of computer geek and art/music/culture geek questions, I'll go ahead and make that public. Cole and I conducted this little chat via Google Talk yesterday. Here's the transcript, which he graciously allowed me to repost. Thanks for the interesting conversation Cole. Note: Spelling has been corrected, grammar has not.

Cole: Hi Dan. I'm a computer science major in Texas (Texas A&M actually). We're doing this project on CSS in my Web design class and I came across your page thanks to a template you posted in an open source forum. I'm using your personal site as one of five in my case study.

Me: Hi Cole. That's a pretty big compliment, since design is more of a hobby of mine. My job is really content management and programming related.

Cole: Yeah, I saw that on your bio page. I like the design of your site though because it's simple. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me about the site, and some of the things that interest you?

Me: That sort of depends. I'm not big on sharing too much about me.

Cole: Well, I have a theory that a Web designer's personal page is heavily influenced by the media they use and by the Web sites they visit. Would you be willing to answer some questions about that?

Me: Doesn't sound like it will be overly painful. Fire away.

Cole: Awesome. It's pretty apparent that you like music. A lot of different music. Can you give me a top five CDs?

Me: That's like asking me which of my children (not that I have any) I would kill first, but I'll make an effort. (1.) "Pet Sounds" – The Beach Boys, (2.) "A Rush of Blood to the Head" – Coldplay, (3.) "The Moon My Saddle" – Chamberlain, (4.) "Jersey's Best Dancers" – Lifetime, (5.) "World Waits" – Jeremy Enigk/"Aja" – Steely Dan.

Cole: Same kind of list, but with movies.

Me: The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, A Waking Life, Tape, Kill Bill Vol. 2, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Stagecoach, Melvin Goes to Dinner, The Burbs.

Cole: The Burbs?

Me: Tom Hanks man... his best work ever. Forget Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Big... The Burbs is fantastic.

Cole: Never heard of it.

Me: That's unfortunate. Go get it.

Cole: Any books stand out?

Me: I read non-fiction mostly. Mostly philosophy books by Immanuel Kant, Aristotle. Lately I've been delving back into medieval philosophy though. My fiance can tell you I have an obsession with Thomas Hobbes at the moment, mostly because I think his argument for the State of Nature has a lot of validity to the present state of our world. She'll also probably tell you that she hates whenever I utter the words state of nature.

Cole: Any fiction?

Me: Vonnegut... Salinger, probably all of those insightful writers that most post graduates read to feel liberated, edgy and angry at the world around them. I wasn't all that different than a lot of other upper middle class suburban kids trying to "find the meaning of it all." I was really big into poetics in high school and my first year of college. Frost, Ginsberg, the beats. I was your typical wannabe trendy, arts guy.

Cole: Does that mean you didn't play a lot of sports?

Me: No, actually, I love sports, both playing and watching. I may have been that guy in the coffee house talking up girls with my guitar, but I was also the guy who played every intramural college sport I could get involved in. I also coached soccer for a while. I believe I was really good at one point. I'm a bit more stationary these days, but I do love sports.

Cole: Are you playing any right now?

Me: Does walking my dog count? Ha, no I'm not at the moment. I've been looking at getting back into drop-in hockey, roller hockey, and I'll do a lot of camping/hiking and paddling this summer if I follow through on my plans.

Cole: Outdoorsy then?

Me: Absolutely, I love being outside. I'm big on camping, paddling rivers, in canoes or kayaks. I spent a lot of my summers in northern Michigan, fishing, hiking and getting into trouble. My brother does extreme outdoor sports. I'm much more laid back about it. I enjoy recreational top-rope climbing, some sport climbing, fishing and paddling.

Cole: What are some web sites you visit a lot?

Me: Pingmag.jp is a big one for me. I also visit designobserver.com, typofile.com and a lot of newspaper web sites.

Cole: Any other media we should know about?

Me: Actually, I dig video games too, though I don't play them nearly as much as I did in high school or college. I haven't gone so far as to get an X-Box 360 or a PS3. But I do play my PS2 from time to time. I also have an old Sega Genesis and an original NES that get dusted off from time to time.

Cole: What games specifically?

Me: I play a lot of sports games. Boxing, Hockey, Football and Track and Field. I also like some war strategy stuff. I'm a big fan of the Metal Gear series. Anything that's semi-tactical, I really enjoy.

Cole: Thanks a lot. I'll send you a copy of my report when I'm done.

Me: My pleasure.

Goodnight Mr. Vonnegut

On the iPod: "Borderline" - Madonna

Last night, one of my favorite authors died. The work of Kurt Vonnegut, helped shape my course as a journalist. When I first started reading his work in my freshman year of high school, I was impressionable. I fell in love with his style. My first Vonnegut novel was the odd, but intriguing Cat's Cradle, of which I happen to have a first-edition, hardcover copy.

His 1973 work, Breakfast of Champions, has long been one of my favorite works in American Literature, though not regarded as his best work, it has always been my favorite piece of his work.

I can also speak volumes about how good I think Slaughterhouse Five is, but won't go into all that here. I will say that I've learned a lot of my descriptive styles in both my speech and my writing from that particular book. How can you argue with lines like

"The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the zipper on the fly of God Almighty,"

Those of you who have had the displeasure of reading sample chapters from my fiction, might notice that I tend to write descriptive passages like the above frequently.
Rest easy Mr. Vonnegut. Thanks for the inspiration.

Chinese photography, Ruhe?

On the iPod: "About Her" - Malcolm McLaren

Another night, another waking flood of design ideas and research. I'm now almost convinced that ...hush... needs to go away and I need to come up with a new idea for a design shop. I've only branded two sites under the ...hush... label, and it wouldn't be that difficult to go back in and switch it up.

Right now, I'm very partial to the Ruhe Design Co. concept, but my biggest issue with that is the fact that not everyone can speak, or pronounce German words like I can (Roo – he).

I think it speaks to my design style. Very simple, calm and quiet. I don't get really crazy, I loathe using flash for anything other than video or slideshow presentations. Not to mention, it rolls off the tongue nicely if you ask me.

On a completely unrelated note, I was surfing PingMag last night and came across this interesting interview with a Chinese photoblogger.

He had a lot of interesting things to say about the evolution of the relatively tiny art scene in Shanghai and a country as large as China. As you'll see in the interview, some of the photography is quite incredible and a lot of the concepts are unique and deep.

Best part of the interview is that it seems to really focus on the fact that most Chinese artists are really trying to break the mold and not just rely on using the Maoist pop-art that dominates their culture. Many of these artists are relying on a punk mentality, pushing the edges and boundaries of traditional Chinese ideas and ideals.

It's worth the read.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a wiki to develop. Also, I spelled Ruhe wrong originally in the post below. Thank you anonymous for pointing it out.

should i ...hush... up?

On the iPod: "Again and Again" - The Bird and the Bee

Last night I couldn't sleep. I kept digging through old records and designing on my laptop. I'm convinced that I need to properly brand ...hush... The reason I've never done so in the past is because there are already a lot of other hush things out there.

There is Hush records, which puts out some fantastic music from the likes of Kind of Like Spitting, Norfolk and Western and the ohh so popular The Decemberists. Then, there is hush restaurant in Laguna Beach, CA. And who can forget this piece of crap solo artist, or this, piece of crap rapper, who just happens to be from Detroit.

Click on that link and listen to that terrible "Miss Music," where they ruin that bad ass Mr. Mister song "Broken Wings" by sampling the whole track. I swear, if he ruins "Kyrie," I'm going to start a riot.

Now, I've always used the ellipses with my branding of ...hush... but as of now, I've been toying with the idea of re-naming, re-branding and becoming my own Limited Liability Company. So I'm curious. What are your thoughts on ...hush...? Do you think it's too much a throwback to my "indie" wannabe days. What might be a better name for my company? At this point, I think it better to re-brand and rename now. Because I'm sure I'll be a juggernaut in design in no time.

I'll be putting up those race car designs I talked about a while back, along with some potential names and logos for the new, whatever-I-might call this would be company.

Edit:



This is one idea, Ruhe Design Co.

Ruhe is the German word for peaceful. The fonts used are "The Sans Semi Light" (Capitals) 620 spacing on top, 880 on the bottom. The bottom font is Sans Semi Light normal.

I guess we're really doing it.

On the iPod: "Black and White Town" - The Doves

So. I suppose that I know have to get married for sure. The wife-to-be created a wedding page on theknot.com. It's officially, official now.

The templates the knot offers seem to be heavily bride-focused, catering to the pastel pinks, oranges and greens that dominate the MySpace set. I haven't seen all of the templates just yet, but I think the finance picked a decent template, even if I'm not a huge fan of vertical stripes.

We also put the deposit down on our wedding site and are fairly confident that we have a few other pieces decided. Thankfully, we get to be a little dormant for a while in regard to the planning, allowing her to focus on her studies and finish up her last three months of medical school before she returns home to the Mitten for rotations.

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that my fiancé is in medical school. I'd have to look back through previous posts.

At any rate, here's what's been determined for sure:

• The Date: June 1, 2008


• The Location: Waldenwoods (Heartland, MI)


• The Format: Non-religious and outdoors

Anyway, I have more rants to talk about. For my fellow wine fans, I have three new wines I reviewed over the weekend. See the wine journal to your right.

On iPod Shuffle

On the iPod: "Grave's Disease" - Matt Pond PA

I'm testing two products today, first is the "Turbo" blend from Burger King. Despite it's claim to be turbo charged with caffeine, I'm not entirely convinced it's all that different from their "regular" blend. Now don't get me wrong, it's not terrible coffee, but I don't get the turbo factor, nor do I find it to be particularly eye opening. I've always been more of a Tim Horton's coffee guy.

The second, and more exciting, is the iPod Suffle. I got one with a gift card that was about to expire. It took two days to get here. I got the orange to match with my Firefox laptop bag. So far, I love it. I put about 190 songs on it last night. My only real gripe is with how long it takes to "sync" the iPod with iTunes. It's frustrating that it takes so long to move the songs from the library to the iPod and that it seems to hang the software.


What I really love is the size of the thing. It's really light, clips to clothing, etc. It eliminates the annoying scratches that are on my older and larger iPod and it's incredibly portable. I normally run my iPod on shuffle anyway, so it's perfect. I can see myself working out, shoveling snow and walking around the office with this iPod. I think my big dog will be used more for organizing and long flights at this point. I'm really happy with the quick $78 purchase.

The anticipation has got me blue

On the iPod: "Expo '86" - Death Cab For Cutie

They say if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't be speaking at all, hence the silence the last few days. But I'll brake it momentarily to talk about my best friend's wedding (no, not the movie). My buddy Andy got married on Saturday to his lovely (and absolutely perfect for him) new bride Amy.

It was a fine afternoon. I stood in the wedding party and also acted as chauffer from the church to the reception and reception to hotel. Andy and Amy had the sort of wedding I would hope to have. They shared these intimate moments. There were whispers, smiles and touches that made me wish I was acting in the capacity of photographer. While I think their photographer did a fine job, I would have been stealing those private little moments, because those private little moments are what are burned into my thoughts of that day.

And seeing those moments made me realize what a special talent and gift photography really is. There are all these basic rules that need be followed, but at the same time, the process is totally subjective. I find it fascinating to learn about why a shooter might decide to open up to f 2.8 in a bright light setting or why depth of field is so distorted for a certain shot.

For me, (and this probably comes from dating a woman for the better part of three years who shot in this fashion) full frame photography is incredibly impressive. So few shooters do it well. In fact, many books seem to avoid teaching good full-frame shooting practices. They focus more on developing the shot into the rule of thirds as opposed to finding the way to best use the negative space.

Maybe digital is slowly killing off the need to shoot in full frame, which I think is a shame. You can really get the most out of your shots, digital or otherwise, when you know how to properly frame a moment. It requires the shooter to be more thoughtful, more creative – to be an artist. So many "photographers" today aren't artists. They know how to make a picture, but not how to work in the medium of photography. So many of today's shooters seem to be better with Photoshop and not so great with the camera itself.