Tearing Our Eyes Out: What the "Springs" Have in Common

Blogging as Connected Writing- POST 2

Protestors in Iran during the Arab Spring

 I watched an animated video by Evegny Morozov called “The Internet in Society” that addresses how the internet may not help the cause of democracy. There were many things that struck me about this video, but in particular I was chilled by Morozov’s lecture point that currently in Iran, authorities are using the documents left online from the protests as evidence to crack down on the creators (bloggers, posters) and as tools to find the protesters depicted by re-posting pictures of individuals and encouraging people to turn them in.

It reminded me of Milan Kundera’s book/film "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" which takes place during the Prague Spring of 1968 when the Soviet Union and most members of the Warsaw Pact occupied Czechoslovakia to squelch liberal reforms that were taking place at the time. Kundera is Czech and lived in Prague during these historic events. A liberal communist and a patriot, he was deeply committed to Czech communist reforms along with other leaders such as Václav Havel.

Tereza, one of Milan's main characters in the book, is a photographer struggling for inspiration and is deeply moved by protesters in the streets when the occupation begins. In frenzy, she shoots roll after roll of film and in the chaos, hands her exposed film to someone claiming to be a foreign journalist. The photographs are powerful- I have posted actual photos taken during this time period. With the exception of some suicides and incidents of self-immolation, protests were non-violent and there was no military resistance whatsoever.


Later in the story, Tereza is taken to a place where hoards of people are being interrogated in a large, open space by the occupiers. Scattered throughout the room, light boxes display the images she captured. The people in her photos are the people being interrogated. In Tereza's photographs, each person is caught in a heroic and passionate movement or act of protest. In the room, the same people are beaten, injured, small and terrified.

 
Earlier in the film a public statement is made by Tereza’s husband Tomas (who seems to portray Kundera in his youth) asserting that despite lack of prior knowledge, people should be held accountable for the outcomes of their actions. He draws a metaphor that Czechs pandering to the Soviets should eventually claw their eyes out just as Oedipus did when their naïveté eventually and inevitably falls away.

 
When Tereza realizes the film she shot is being used as evidence, her hands fly to her eyes in horror of what her camera lens has revealed and the consequences her art has sown.

I still cannot look at the images from the Prague Spring of 1968 without getting tears in my eyes and an ache in my heart for the courage and obvious sense of mass betrayal and despair the Czechs collectively felt at the time of the occupation. When I look at Iranian protest photographs such as the women at the top of the page, I wonder if they are still alive. I wonder if any of the bloggers/posters in Iran or other countries like it, are feeling a sense of deep guilt or despair as a result of their online activism being used as evidence to punish those who dared to protest- that is of course, if these individuals themselves survived the subsequent response to their initial courage.

The media may change, but the tactics of oppressive regimes never do.

Ricky Gervais Says Television is Dead…

Blogger as Intelligent Filter- POST 1

… and that YouTube is the world’s largest broadcaster.

On The Daily Show April 17^th, Ricky Gervais announced that he has started the Ricky Gervais Channel on YouTube. Jon Stewart seemed somewhat surprised that such an enormously gifted talent as Gervais would throw down with the idiocy of cats getting sprayed with coke and Ricky’s answer was that he would sign that cat up and take 90% of his earnings. 

Some of my favorite clips on Ricky's YouTube channel are the pilot titled "Ricky Gervais Teaches English" and the "Idiot Abroad" series where Ricky and friends seem to relentlessly pick on their friend and straight man Karl. Ricky offers pilots and gets feedback on them from his audience which replaces the old, expensive and time-consuming process of playing bits in front of live audiences to craft and hone content such as was the creative process of many film makers and comedians, like the Marx Brothers for instance. He is completely in control of the content so he can take feedback directly from his audience and change or discontinue as he chooses without contracts or movie studios getting in the way. 

But the thing I found most hilarious and intriguing is that Ricky also talked about his Twitter Feed. Like myself, I have heard a lot of classmates express confusion about how to use Twitter as an element of a successful social media campaign. Ricky is a master. He often turns Twitter in on itself as a tool to analyze and comment on the social media and the people that use it. For example, he offered to donate 10,000 pounds to a charity if no one re-tweeted his offer. Thousands of people re-tweeted. He clarified to NOT re-tweet and again, thousands of people re-tweeted his offer of charity.  “Do you really think I have to think about a Tweet?” Gervais asked. He pulled this stunt in the car on his way to The Daily Show. 

Still from Ricky's new film, Derek

He often re-tweets his followers- especially the hecklers who did not fully think about what they were tweeting. It is the easiest comedy writing that ever was- he has abundant content without writing a word himself! Everything is free, engaging and entertaining. And at the same time, he is linking to Australian reviews of his new  film, Derek. Sounds like Gervais has taken some points from Meerman Scott. Did I mention that there are also links to Ricky's Web page and Blog? It's a social media 360 and a really good example to all of us of how one man has used social media to create interest and engagement, entertain, and above all, promote himself in a way that makes us want to observe and participate.

Since an element of truth is the essence of quality humor, comedians often make the best teachers. I signed up to follow Ricky on Twitter not only because I know he’ll make me laugh. I know that his pranks, re-tweets and interaction with his followers will give me valuable insight into social media- and we'll have lots of fun along the way.

Why do people live in Minnesota?

Florida.  It was a dream.  I thought it was what I wanted so I stood on the property facing the canal, Palma Sola Bay behind me, the sun in my face and a vision of the family home we would build, stamped my feet and shouted "Sold!"  That was ten years ago.  Our daughter, Abby was 16 years old.

My husband and I met with a local builder and put the plan on paper.  It would be important to build high enough to take advantage of the coastal views.  Abby's room would need to have some consideration for her active lifestyle and to encourage her cousins to visit.  The garages would be on the north side of the house, not visible from the street, and when we walked in the front door, all we would see is water; first the pool, then the canal.  We would design guest quarters so everyone would have privacy.  And I would have a killer kitchen because I love to cook.  Then the bomb dropped. I was part of a reduction in force - in other words, I lost my job.  

I was born and raised in Minnesota.  There were times when I thought I was the only one who stayed here.  My co-workers and some friends were adventurous and moved for jobs or for better weather, or for a love.  My parents were both still alive and one of my sisters and her family lived here.  My niece and nephew, well, let's just say I adore them.  

Aubrey Jean turns 5!

Wyatt with his favorite Grandpa

In all of the excitement, the excitement of chasing a dream, one that was not well thought out, I forgot about what was really important: Aubrey and Wyatt, Abby, Justin, Jane, Wayne, Kevin, Kristin, Maren, Henry. 

Not to mention I was spending money I didn't have, shouldn't spend if I did, and felt kind of sick every time I thought of leaving everything I have ever held dear.  Then I thought, well, I can hold on the land and build after my parents pass away.  My parents passed away and I still didn't take any action.  Our daughter married, gave us two wonderful grandchildren.  My niece and nephew each gave birth to their first children. 

Maren Jane and Henry Robert with their Valentine cakes

On my father's birthday this year, March 23, I received an offer on the property and we close in May.   

So much for my dream to build a beautiful home on the water in Florida and live happily ever after.  The lesson learned is that, for me anyway, the Lord works in mysterious ways.  My mother used to say that all of the time.  With the offer coming in on Dad's birthday, I figure they worked on this one together.  

Looks like I'll be stocking up on mosquito repellent and maybe get a new shovel.  

Green Screen

More than a few folks seemed interested in the green screen our group used in our video on Sat. It's super easy todo and a perfect diy project that cost me less than fifteen bucks, but I had the lights and stands already so it might cost you a bit more. I used fabric cuz it's less expensive and more durable than using poster board and I can transport it anywhere. Another common diy green screen is just painting a wall, but try and move that to a location.

 

Making the screen

If you have a way to hang your screen and light it, it will cost ya about $12. If you are starting from scratch this will cost ya up to $60 depending on what you have at your disposal.

The stuff for this diy is from Joann Fabrics and Home Depot:
green or blue fabric
    two 10' x 4' pieces of fleece, $5 ea. on sale
    hem tape, $3.99
a way to hang it 
    one 1/2" x 10' piece of metal conduit, $1.79 
    three connectors, $4.25 ea.
2 lights
    two shop lights, $9.00 ea.
    two 150 watt daylight balances bulbs, $7.00 ea.
2 light stands
    two boards 1"x 2"x 8', $0.75 ea.
    two coffee cans, free
    quikcret, $2

I purchased two 10' x 4' pieces of fleece fabric on sale from Joanne Fabrics for just under $10. I used fleece cuz it doesn't wrinkle as much as cotton or the like. Wrinkles equals shadows that will cause you no end of trouble in post production. Believe me when I say you'll be happy not to have to iron your screen.

Green and blue are used in the movie industry cuz it's not a primary color our skin tone, making it really easy to pull out of a video clip. Yellows and reds will cause problems when you remove it from the clip.  In theory you can use any color, but in practice it is another story entirely. So stick to green or blue.

I didn't take an pics of my build process, but these guys did in case you need the visuals.

Green Fleece, PVC stand

Use the hem tape to attach the two pieces of fleece together. It's a hot glue, just place the tape between two pieces of fabric, run a hot iron over it and they are joined. Ta-Da! I put fleece together lengthwise to make a 10' long by 8' high green screen. I also used the tape to form a 3" loop along the 10' length to run my hanger through.

On to the hanger, I used a 1/2" x 10' piece of metal conduit as a hanger, $1.50 from Home Depot. PVC or even a wooden dowel will bend for this big of a screen, if yours is small they are very useable as hanger material. I cut the conduit into four sections (Home Depot will cut it you) and I used 3 connectors, at $4.25ea., to be able to put 'em back together. Cutting up the conduit makes it way easier to transport and gives some versatility in set up as well.

Coffee can light stands

I have a nice photography rig and I used a few light stands to hold up the screen durning filming. If you don't have that and staying with the diy theme, you can two use a 1"x 2"x 8' board, $0.75ea, stuck in a coffee can with some quikcret, $2. Two bucks of quikcret will buy you more than you need. Dump the Quikcret in the coffee can and add water and wait a few minutes and put the board in the center. Now you have screen stands.

If you want to  see the stands in action you can watch this vid.


Now that you have the screen and it's hung, you gotta light it separate from the subject (person). Home depot to the rescue again, I use two shop lights, $9 and 150 watt daylight bulb in ea. In our filming I clipped them to chairs. When you film, make sure that these lights hit the screen evenly with no hot spots.

Ideally the person will be lit separately, stoplights can be used for this also. But this really isn't the place for a diy in my opinion. You can use shop lights, but I would purchase diffuser paper to soften the lights. Soft light is generally more flattering.

I used my fancy lights, (read:expensive). Checkout the diagram to see a simple setup. The person is lit separate so that the green can be pulled out easier. If you have the space, you can use ambient light and not light the person separate, but be prepared for a lot of fiddling in post production to fix color.

The screen is hung, the person is lit. Shoot to your hearts content. Now on to the post production.

Remove the green in post production

This is the easiest part, it is three clicks and moving two sliders. I use Adobe After Effects, if you don't have it you can get a free 30 day trail.
In After Effects go to Effect, then keying and then click Keylight(1.2). That's one click.

Then in the effects panel click the eyedropper next to Screen Colour, two clicks.

Your cursor is now the eye dropper icon, click the green in the video. Poof!

Green is gone in three clicks. Easy peasy.

If there is still green in your background, there are two sliders to adjust in the effect panel to clean it up. Check out this tutorial to see it in action.

Three clicks and blamo green is gone

Most other editing software makes it as easy as this, just google how to green screen in the software of choice.

After you remove the green screen from your video, you can place your subject in front of anything you can imagine. Google "free stock images" for a nice background or make/use your own. I also used free stock music btw.

Light is the key for any special effect to be believable. So if your main light on the subject is coming from the left, then make the background light come from the left. Lighting is something we all know intuitively and we all know when it is wrong.

Fake brick wall, yup fake

I created my background with this in mind, see the bright "light" in the upper left corner? It actually flickers in the final video. And there is a dark area in the lower right.

Look up at a wall right now, really, there are bright areas and dark areas. Your new background should too. People make entire carers from lighting stuff, so keep in mind this is a way simplified intro to light.

The blue lines are guides in AF

This is the democratization of media at it's finest. For little money you can implement some really amazing effects.

You don't have to limit this to a giant screen either, think of what you could do by holding a green piece of poster board, or wearing a green shirt?

To do any of this a few years ago, you'd of needed access to a very spendy studio, an even spendier professional and spendier still software. If you have any questions, I'm happy to share what has been shared with me.

My New Sink

Last spring I decided it was time to get a new kitchen sink.

Wait, wait, don't stop reading! I have a point. :)

I had been spending a lot of time on Houzz, a social network centered around home design, interior design, and landscape design. It's complex, but somewhat comparable to Pinterest (if Pinterest allowed people to organize their selected pics into blog posts).

Mostly I was on there because it was more fun than reading textbooks and because I crave visual inspiration, and it was definitely time to get some stuff around my house figured out.

I've always hated a lot about my kitchen. But I won't bore you with my gripes about it...  With the discovery that there were leaks around my sink, I figured it was clear that the place to start was with a new sink.  Lucky for me, one of my best friends is a plumber and is on a "Will work for a homemade dinner" status with me.

Due to my excessive amount of visual consumption on Houzz, I had discovered I wanted an apron-front (AKA farm-house style) sink.

Exhibit A:

Doesn't this sink just ooze wholesomeness?

Clearly, this was the sink for me. Perfect for washing all those veggies I was going to grow in my garden. (Hope springs eternal. I suck at gardening.)

But then... I discovered apron front sinks come in copper! Holy shlamoley, coolest thing ever!

Exhibit B:

(Sorry it's a little fuzzy.)

Hammered copper. Can I get an "Oh yes please!"?

(Attribution note: both pics copied and pasted from this site.)

So after I did a bunch of research about how to care for a copper sink and this and that and I had one all picked out, I started to think about the movement to keep copper mining out of northern MN. As you can probably guess, I'm opposed to hazardous mining in the Boundary Waters, anywhere near them, or anywhere near me and my loved ones in general.

I'm also opposed to them anywhere, which means I really can't buy copper from...well, anywhere? (Curses in head loudly.)
Plus, if I were OK with allowing the pollution to happen elsewhere (again, I'm totally not, but just for conversation's sake), then I'd likely be purchasing a sink 'made' in China.  There is a concern about copper from China having lead mixed in to reduce cost/price. I'm definitely not cool with washing my food and dishes in lead-water.

Back to the drawing board, I guess.

"But hey, that's OK!" Voice-in-head told me. "There's so many awesome sinks out there! I'll get one that's, you know, eco-friendly. That's cool."

In keeping with the themes of 'used adds character,' 'distressed is beautiful,' and 'farmhouse-chic,' I managed to find a perfect sink, for free.

My new sink was second-hand, so there were no problems from toxic mining methods.  Does it get more eco-friendly than that?
My new sink was aged and distressed, with character that only comes with age.
My new sink was a perfect fit for the hole in my countertop, which meant I didn't have to go buy a new counter, either.
You may have already guessed it, but I kept the sink I already had.

The leak was actually from the faucet (which plumber-friend explained was indeed beyond repair and I needed a new one). The other area causing a leak was a small gap between the counter and the wall which just needed repairing.

So I got a new faucet (so I guess it wasn't totally free, but I would have needed a new faucet even if I bought a brand-new sink).  No more leaking, plus it totally changed the mood in my kitchen.

I now look at my kind of ugly sink and counter with pride instead of loathing because I chose to have them there. They are also now a symbol to me of a truly conscious style of consumerism - going beyond green-washed products that are really the same old form of "Buy buy buy" and getting back to the mentality of the people who originally owned those old, beautiful farmhouse-style sinks:

Make-do and mend.

Part of Britain's WWII rationing efforts - Make-Do and Mend. Pic boosted from Ecouterre but widely available.

Gaming Communities – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

Briefly...
Online gaming has reached a point of no return. Its popularity has been on a steady incline since the early 2000’s, when personal computers began appearing in households across the country. The result has meant the addition of online gaming communities.

The Good

Online gaming communities are just as they sound – a collection of people, young and old, that gather to discuss, play, and manage games. They are a social networking congregation where players of similar interest can compete and play games together, through an online networking platform. Many of these communities employ technologies such as online forums, voice-communication software, and interactive video communication software.

It is truly a glorious event and something that many gamers hold dear to their lives, investing hours and hours in these communities, building reputations, and forming their own personality around clans, groups, and friends. It is but one of many ways in which social media has developed in the post 90’s era where such communities were unheard of!

The Bad

However, with the good comes the bad. As one would have guessed, this diverse array of personalities can clash despite the greater fact that they enjoy the same games. Clan and group division can lead to conflict, and conflict can ultimately lead to the separation of a community. The lunch-room effect comes into play and sooner or later, a lack of trust and disagreement floods the community.

The Ugly

With no-where to turn and no resolve to such division, bad become ugly, and a gaming community can crumble and burn becoming nothing but a distant memory of times well had.

The integrity of a gaming community can be restored, through effective leadership and a clear, calm conscious. Bad times can be compensated with the reminder of a time when there was no division, no disagreement, and no hatred. It should be a leader’s role in reminding the player of that time. All that is needed are a few examples of why the player is there.

A Resolution

A once flourishing community can be recovered. You have to be willing to accept others whom you disagree with, for who they are. At the end of the day, they are still your brother or sister in a community of people who share the same feelings for a game as you do.

Finding Nemo's Secret

Disney's Finding Nemo is a charming story about a daddy clownfish trying to find his son that was scooped up by a scuba diver.

The story doesn't go on to explain how Disney really didn't do their research before creating this film. When they developed 'The Lion King' the team took a trip to Kenya to research the African landscape and animals as part of the creative process.

Budgets must have dropped because the ocean habitat and the species in this movie are quite off base from nature's way. 

Clownfish were an interesting choice as lead characters. It meant having to hide a deep secret about their species lifestyle. Clownfish are transgender and are all born as boys. When a pair of boys hook up to become a breeding pair - one fish (the larger male) from the pair must transform into a female. This means eating a lot more food and growing 3 times the size of the original male clownfish. 

(Having worked with clownfish in a research setting in Australia I had to be careful when moving bins of breeding pairs pictured above. The transport would often stress them out. If the female became too stressed she would rip the male into floating pieces.)

If the female of the pair dies (like Nemo's mom does) the remaining fish will morph into a female and...What I am getting at here, is that Nemo's dad would have turned female after Mom's passing and Nemo would have been his new male mate. 

(No it wouldn't matter what egg batch he was from)

The movie also made it seem that there was a lot of stress around the clownfish anemone/household so that leads me to believe that 'Dad morphed Female' would have ripped Nemo up instead of searching for his irresponsible mate. 

Clownfish are so "funny"?