I AM NOT DEAD...YET

I am not dead if anyone was wondering...again on hiatus because school takes up too much time. Hopefully I'll be back shortly if I don't forget I have a blog.

Feathered Dinosaur Draw-A-Thon Update!

If you haven't sent your request for an Illustrated Feathered Dinosaur (extinct or not), you should do it now!

Because now if you do so, you will be entered into a random giveaway...woohoo free stuff!!

"Now, if you participant in the Feathered Dinosaur Drawathon, you will be entered into a random drawing. At the end, I will pick a person at random, and they will win a free print of the feathered dinosaur of your choice. (Just choose any of the dinosaurs I have drawn for this project.)" Sometimes, I am a fish

                                                     SO GO DO IT!!

The Feathered Dinosaur Draw-A-Thon

Do you have a favorite feathered dinosaur and would love to see it illustrated by an awesome artist?

Visit Adam's blog, Sometimes, I am a fish or you can send it via Twitter to @Piscasaurus with #FeatheredDino in the subject.

"Yes, for the next 30 days, (That's from today, til October 21,) I will be drawing any feathered dinosaur, extinct or otherwise, that you request! Just post your request here, in the comments section. Or, if you have a twitter, send a feathered dinosaur of your choice to @Piscasaurus, with #FeatheredDino in the subject. At the end of the month, I shall post all of them up at once. "

 Its only 30 days, so be sure to send him your request NOW!  I already did!

 

Susan Boyle + Depeche Mode = Speechless

Oh dear, I am morbidly curious and yet completely disturbed on the news of this...

Susan Boyle will be making covers of the overly covered Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" and possibly Tears for Fears "Mad World" says Tom from his Waveformless blog. I love the title to his post "Where is Your God NOW?, haha...I agree with a No on this one. Though out of sheer curiosity I will definitely have to watch this.

You can also check out Side-Line Music Magazines post where they title it "Susan Boyle covers Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy the Silence' - horror oh horror"

You can only wonder...

Update: Susan Boyle is a very talented singer and this is by no means a post to bring her down in any sort of way. I'm a big Depeche Mode fan and I'm sure she will do fine but knowing the songs she can do, these songs wouldn't give her voice justice. Just saying...

Irradiation

First project for New Media: Video Installation class was to be an abstract video. I chose to use a video I took with my poor quality phone of my ceiling fan and brought it into Adobe After Effects CS5. I can't quite tell you what I did from there because this was my first time using this software so I pushed a bunch of buttons and put a lot of effects. Then I brought it into Adobe Premiere CS5 to work out the timing, audio, and video editing.

I enjoyed my first video but during our first critique I was told that it was too simple and that the sound needs to be changed. Also my idea of it just being a ceiling fan didn't sit well with anyone. I do not think in an abstract way so it drives me a little crazy when these sorts of projects are given. But oh well...I changed it. For the sound I found a place that gives free sounds and found a drone sound than I recorded it playing using Photobooth and just edited out the video in Premiere while adding some effects as well.

I've been told its creepy and someone commented on youtube the beginning verse of the Twilight Zone XD....love it!

Here it is:

The Mentor Robots + Life + Blog Update

Hello everyone, Sorry I've been on a tad of a hiatus from the blog realm. Classes started, my brother's wedding, and a bunch of stressful stuff in between has kept me away. I will try my bring this blog back up from the grave once again. One special project that I would like to bring up is a side project I've been helping with for the past few months. My robotics teacher (Mr. Henry) called upon some of his loyal servants...I mean students and some professional mentors to help design two robots.

These robots are specifically designed to be teaching robots for new mentors arising in San Antonio. This will be very handy for demos, classes, or possibly for sponsor meetings. Most teams in San Antonio need their robots for the competition and because of the price of the equipment, they can be very hesitant when lending out their hunk of metal on wheels. So these will be very handy for many purposes. Mr. Henry has a few sponsorships already on hand so we are well on our way to building.

We started with an already built robot that students had built for a past game. Our first job was to tear it apart...WOOHOO!! We kept the chassis intact since it was just easier that way. Than we had to take apart the gear boxes, which my friend Rudy did since he is a pro, and took apart the wheels to take out some spacers that weren't needed. Anywho we have had 3 meetings so far and will continue till it is built.

I promise to document a little more than I have been and hopefully I can get some footage in photos or video before we get too far in the process. This will give me the experience I need since I plan on applying for the AmeriCorps VISTA Program with F.I.R.S.T., I'll explain more about that later, to help me be able to learn how to make a robot from the ground up.

I also need to ask if I can use some of the other mentors names on here as well, that wouldn't be good if I did and they weren't happy about it.

Anywho I will be adding a few more movie reviews, some posts about some work I'm doing in my classes, and a possible new blog dedicated to me reviewing TED Talks...maybe. I don't know yet. We will see...

STAY TUNED!

SA BEST Kick Off is near!!!!

San Antonio BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) robotics competition kick off will be arriving shortly, September 3 to be exact. The kick off is where they will show what the game is about and what they have to accomplish in the competition. F.I.R.S.T. Robotics also has a kick off (in January) but this competition is based locally.

 
"The SA BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) competition is a contest held annually to inspire and interest students in the fields of science and engineering. With guidance from adult mentors, local teams of students design and build a remote controlled machine to accomplish a specific task. The students are given a box of raw materials from which to build the machine and 6 weeks to design and construct it. The task of the robot is kept secret until Kick-off Day, when all the teams are told what the robot is required to do.  On Competition Day, all schools will compete head-on with each other in a thrilling science-fair-turned-sports-event.  Several teams advance to the regional Texas Best competition and compete with the BEST robots from other areas. More information on the BEST concept is available."

I have only mentored once for SA BEST when I was in high school, but I didn't know much about it and than continued to be consumed with F.I.R.S.T. My good friend Rudy (also a F.I.R.S.T. mentor) has been mentoring for SA BEST for many years and is mentoring two teams this year. So I figured I would try and bring this competition to light so if someone out there stumbles upon it, maybe I can get an "ooooo" reaction out of you. Seriously though, this is a very neat competition.

Check out their website here at SA BEST!

Here is the 2011 Game Teaser that you can also find on their website: