Michael's Weblog: October 2005 Archives

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October 31, 2005

The Poles Are Up

The poles are up and the building begins. Watch it all happen by clicking on the picture below.

I guess that means Homecoming is this weekend. I best start finalizing my departure plans. See most of you there!

Posted by mhader at 2:04 PM

October 23, 2005

More Rama

I spent some time on the Tigerama project yesterday. I've been trying to find all the posters. I'm still missing two of them. If someone that has them can take a picture/scan and send it to me that would be awesome. Four of the five that I have are simply from pictures I've taken. If you have a better digital copy then me, please send it. Here's what I did yesterday:

http://mhader.com/clemson/tigerama.php

None of the media files are online yet, but the links for the files of what I have are. No link means I don't have it (the 1996 RealVideo clip is still an issue). I want to find all of the titles of the skits before posting them.

In gaming news, the two games that would make me actually consider paying for a PSP come out this week. I was a bit disappointed to learn that "SSX on Tour" is also coming to the PS2. And it's cheaper. It's ten dollars more to play it on the 4.3" handheld screen when I could play the ps2 version on a 24" screen. When the prices for the games I want start going down to $20 perhaps I'll look into the system. Either that or when they add massive onboard storage and/or the ability to use regular memory sticks.

Posted by mhader at 6:46 PM | Comments (1)

October 22, 2005

Gilgamesh and his Deodorant

My freshman year of high school I was involved in a group video project for my English/Social Studies block classes. We were tasked to pick a subject, I believe from our readings--although it's been so long I don't remember the guidelines, and produce a satire. My group decided on The Epic of Gilgamesh (Google search). Our satire was entitled "Gilgamesh and the Search for the Everlasting Deodorant".

I've wanted a digital copy for a while so I decided I'd hook the VCR to the computer. I believe I have the only copy of it and I'd hate for something to happen to this 15 minute cinematic masterpiece. For your viewing pleasure, I present you with Group "5"'s "Gilgamesh and the Search for the Everlasting Deodorant" (35 MB, wmv) (I wouldn't be upset if you didn't watch it)

"Gilgamesh..." was filmed mostly on Sullivan's Island and at Palmetto Islands County Park (link). There was also a short scene in my neighbors backyard.

The video was shot on an 8mm tape. For editing I had a VCR and the camera. There was a lot of dubbing back and forth between the two resulting in a very low quality picture. I had intended to re-cut the whole thing from it's source material, but we ended up presenting our video earlier than expected. I was unable to produce a final higher quality cut and take out that last 'fight' scene, which at the very least should have come after the credits. Speaking of the credits, my name is spelled Michael

Posted by mhader at 12:05 PM | Comments (2)

October 18, 2005

Flying Shovels

I spent about an hour or so looking through old CDR's the other day trying to find all of the Tigerama skits from my years at Clemson (yes, I have too much free time). For those who don't know, Tigerama is a big pep rally held the night before the homecoming game. Groups (tends to be mostly greek organizations) enter a themed-skit competition. All of the audio is pre-recorded. I wasn't much for the acting and voice work, but I did help put the audio together. I'm considering posting the audio on my website once I figure out the best way to do it. It's quite entertaining to listen to them and not cringe. Cringing comes from hearing every skit a million and a half times in the space of a couple weeks..not from the skit being bad. It's been so long since I've heard them that I don't remember every line and sound effect. This has proved to be an experiment in a) how badly organized my history of computers/cdr's is, and b) how bad my memory is (I'm not talking about RAM). I found files all over the place and it's been a pain trying to figure out which year some are..as well as if it's the tryouts or the final skit. I think I've got it all right.

Here's what I've found so far:

PSA - Tigerama 1996 Final video - The audio is real-audio-highly-condensed bad. Hopefully I can figure out a way to easily rip the sound from the video. Although I'd rather find the wav/mp3...or even cassette.

PSA - Tigerama 1997 Final - title?

PSA - Tigerama 1998 Final - title?
PSA - Tigerama 1998 tryout
PSA - Tigerama 1999 Final - Millennium Bowl
PSA - Tigerama 1999 possibly the tryout
PSA - Tigerama 2000 Final - title?
PSA - Tigerama 2000 tryout
PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2001 Final - Dukes of the ACC
PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2001 Final video- Dukes of the ACC (taken by Ben and myself with I believe 3 mavicas)
PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2001 tryout
PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2002 Final - A Clemson Carol
PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2002 tryout

In the process of writing this entry I found the '96 and '97 skits so I actually have something from every year. I find it sad that I can't remember the titles of some. I'd be more than happy to receive missing files/information/scripts. I wouldn't mind the video for all of them, but I have a feeling that means going to the VHS tapes at the center..which is 4 hours away from my computer.

mdu

On the CDR's I looked through I also found a bunch of random pictures. A few I didn't have on my computer. Others were able to replace some of the corrupted pictures I had on the computer. I'll eventually get more pictures online. I think I want to get my dorm room photos next. Unfortunately I have very few pictures because digital cameras were hard to come by then. So if I lived with you or you visited the room and you took pictures, let me know.. :)

I had an interesting trip to the airport to pick up my mother (whom just got back from a 2 week cruise in Eastern Canada) last night. Just after getting up to speed (65 is the limit) on I-526 I found a shovel barreling down the road towards me. There was a small dump truck used for landscaping hauling some sort of small earth mover that I had followed onto the interstate. I was staying a bit behind him because I didn't want another crack in my windshield from flying debris (not that I've gotten it fixed yet so I guess it wouldn't matter too much). All of the sudden a shovel just seemed to slowly rise out of the top of the truck and then quickly fell towards the road. Luckily there were no cars right next to the truck. I, as well as the two cars behind me, had to slam on our breaks not knowing where the shovel was headed, other than our general direction. Luckily it hit the pavement and flew off the road. So if anyone needs a shovel, it's probably still sitting on the side of 526 just before the bridge out of Mt Pleasant.

Posted by mhader at 9:17 PM | Comments (2)

October 11, 2005

Demo 101

A large section of the Pearman Bridge was dropped into the river this morning in some rather inclement weather.

Clicking on the picture should pop up a new window with video. I encoded WCIV's coverage of the demolition into .wmv assuming most of my readers should be able to view that. Plus the encoder comes with windows and it makes the file a manageable size (it's about 2.4 MB).

I didn't take any pictures because I didn't have the best vantage point. I put my membership to good use and went to the Aquarium to get as close as I could. It was very foggy and raining this morning so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see from Patriots Point. And wouldn't you know it, there were actually ships at the port between the bridge and the aquarium. So all of us in the Maritime Center vicinity had to look through the cranes and around the ships. I would have had a great view if they had been demoing the Charleston side of the bridge.

The birds under the bridge and the owl I was standing next to didn't seem to like the blast too much. It was amazing that the sound took as long as it did to get to me considering how close I was. Even in the video above (which was about halfway between the aquarium and bridge), there is quite a delay to the sound of the explosion.

I imagine there will be some great pictures at http://oldcooperriverbridge.org/ soon. This site is another reason to not bother taking my own pictures..because his are amazing..

Posted by mhader at 1:11 PM | Comments (5)

October 10, 2005

Comfortable?

Posted by mhader at 11:07 PM | Comments (1)

October 2, 2005

I Swallowed A Bug

Well, it's nearing the Christmas season again. You know what that means! Yup, time to buy Michael stuff. I've been working on a more eye-pleasing Big List for the last week or so. I've even updated some of the content. I'll do my best to get it online by the nights end. It works great in Firefox, decent in Opera, and horribly in IE. It actually worked very well in Opera until I tweaked it to make in bearable in IE. Most importantly however, through the magic of CSS it prints nicely in all browsers. I've decided not to worry much about the IE compatibility for this page. It's not pretty, but it works the way it is. If I can dig up some more magic code (which is what it took to get it where it is now), perhaps I'll make it look better in the future (although I have no desire to go back and make the images blend in better). Check out the link to the list on the left. To get the best visual experience out of it, don't use IE.

Oh, and I didn't really swallow a bug--and I doubt Summer did either.

Posted by mhader at 2:45 PM | Comments (1)


menu:
mhader.com blog gallery jeep the list hrc shots links about	Michael's Weblog « September 2005 \| Main \| November 2005 » October 31, 2005 The Poles Are Up The poles are up and the building begins. Watch it all happen by clicking on the picture below. I guess that means Homecoming is this weekend. I best start finalizing my departure plans. See most of you there! Posted by mhader at 2:04 PM October 23, 2005 More Rama I spent some time on the Tigerama project yesterday. I've been trying to find all the posters. I'm still missing two of them. If someone that has them can take a picture/scan and send it to me that would be awesome. Four of the five that I have are simply from pictures I've taken. If you have a better digital copy then me, please send it. Here's what I did yesterday: http://mhader.com/clemson/tigerama.php None of the media files are online yet, but the links for the files of what I have are. No link means I don't have it (the 1996 RealVideo clip is still an issue). I want to find all of the titles of the skits before posting them. In gaming news, the two games that would make me actually consider paying for a PSP come out this week. I was a bit disappointed to learn that "SSX on Tour" is also coming to the PS2. And it's cheaper. It's ten dollars more to play it on the 4.3" handheld screen when I could play the ps2 version on a 24" screen. When the prices for the games I want start going down to $20 perhaps I'll look into the system. Either that or when they add massive onboard storage and/or the ability to use regular memory sticks. Posted by mhader at 6:46 PM \| Comments (1) October 22, 2005 Gilgamesh and his Deodorant My freshman year of high school I was involved in a group video project for my English/Social Studies block classes. We were tasked to pick a subject, I believe from our readings--although it's been so long I don't remember the guidelines, and produce a satire. My group decided on The Epic of Gilgamesh (Google search). Our satire was entitled "Gilgamesh and the Search for the Everlasting Deodorant". I've wanted a digital copy for a while so I decided I'd hook the VCR to the computer. I believe I have the only copy of it and I'd hate for something to happen to this 15 minute cinematic masterpiece. For your viewing pleasure, I present you with Group "5"'s "Gilgamesh and the Search for the Everlasting Deodorant" (35 MB, wmv) (I wouldn't be upset if you didn't watch it) "Gilgamesh..." was filmed mostly on Sullivan's Island and at Palmetto Islands County Park (link). There was also a short scene in my neighbors backyard. The video was shot on an 8mm tape. For editing I had a VCR and the camera. There was a lot of dubbing back and forth between the two resulting in a very low quality picture. I had intended to re-cut the whole thing from it's source material, but we ended up presenting our video earlier than expected. I was unable to produce a final higher quality cut and take out that last 'fight' scene, which at the very least should have come after the credits. Speaking of the credits, my name is spelled Michael Posted by mhader at 12:05 PM \| Comments (2) October 18, 2005 Flying Shovels I spent about an hour or so looking through old CDR's the other day trying to find all of the Tigerama skits from my years at Clemson (yes, I have too much free time). For those who don't know, Tigerama is a big pep rally held the night before the homecoming game. Groups (tends to be mostly greek organizations) enter a themed-skit competition. All of the audio is pre-recorded. I wasn't much for the acting and voice work, but I did help put the audio together. I'm considering posting the audio on my website once I figure out the best way to do it. It's quite entertaining to listen to them and not cringe. Cringing comes from hearing every skit a million and a half times in the space of a couple weeks..not from the skit being bad. It's been so long since I've heard them that I don't remember every line and sound effect. This has proved to be an experiment in a) how badly organized my history of computers/cdr's is, and b) how bad my memory is (I'm not talking about RAM). I found files all over the place and it's been a pain trying to figure out which year some are..as well as if it's the tryouts or the final skit. I think I've got it all right. Here's what I've found so far: PSA - Tigerama 1996 Final video - The audio is real-audio-highly-condensed bad. Hopefully I can figure out a way to easily rip the sound from the video. Although I'd rather find the wav/mp3...or even cassette. PSA - Tigerama 1997 Final - title? PSA - Tigerama 1998 Final - title? PSA - Tigerama 1998 tryout PSA - Tigerama 1999 Final - Millennium Bowl PSA - Tigerama 1999 possibly the tryout PSA - Tigerama 2000 Final - title? PSA - Tigerama 2000 tryout PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2001 Final - Dukes of the ACC PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2001 Final video- Dukes of the ACC (taken by Ben and myself with I believe 3 mavicas) PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2001 tryout PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2002 Final - A Clemson Carol PSA/BCM - Tigerama 2002 tryout In the process of writing this entry I found the '96 and '97 skits so I actually have something from every year. I find it sad that I can't remember the titles of some. I'd be more than happy to receive missing files/information/scripts. I wouldn't mind the video for all of them, but I have a feeling that means going to the VHS tapes at the center..which is 4 hours away from my computer. mdu On the CDR's I looked through I also found a bunch of random pictures. A few I didn't have on my computer. Others were able to replace some of the corrupted pictures I had on the computer. I'll eventually get more pictures online. I think I want to get my dorm room photos next. Unfortunately I have very few pictures because digital cameras were hard to come by then. So if I lived with you or you visited the room and you took pictures, let me know.. :) I had an interesting trip to the airport to pick up my mother (whom just got back from a 2 week cruise in Eastern Canada) last night. Just after getting up to speed (65 is the limit) on I-526 I found a shovel barreling down the road towards me. There was a small dump truck used for landscaping hauling some sort of small earth mover that I had followed onto the interstate. I was staying a bit behind him because I didn't want another crack in my windshield from flying debris (not that I've gotten it fixed yet so I guess it wouldn't matter too much). All of the sudden a shovel just seemed to slowly rise out of the top of the truck and then quickly fell towards the road. Luckily there were no cars right next to the truck. I, as well as the two cars behind me, had to slam on our breaks not knowing where the shovel was headed, other than our general direction. Luckily it hit the pavement and flew off the road. So if anyone needs a shovel, it's probably still sitting on the side of 526 just before the bridge out of Mt Pleasant. Posted by mhader at 9:17 PM \| Comments (2) October 11, 2005 Demo 101 A large section of the Pearman Bridge was dropped into the river this morning in some rather inclement weather. Clicking on the picture should pop up a new window with video. I encoded WCIV's coverage of the demolition into .wmv assuming most of my readers should be able to view that. Plus the encoder comes with windows and it makes the file a manageable size (it's about 2.4 MB). I didn't take any pictures because I didn't have the best vantage point. I put my membership to good use and went to the Aquarium to get as close as I could. It was very foggy and raining this morning so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see from Patriots Point. And wouldn't you know it, there were actually ships at the port between the bridge and the aquarium. So all of us in the Maritime Center vicinity had to look through the cranes and around the ships. I would have had a great view if they had been demoing the Charleston side of the bridge. The birds under the bridge and the owl I was standing next to didn't seem to like the blast too much. It was amazing that the sound took as long as it did to get to me considering how close I was. Even in the video above (which was about halfway between the aquarium and bridge), there is quite a delay to the sound of the explosion. I imagine there will be some great pictures at http://oldcooperriverbridge.org/ soon. This site is another reason to not bother taking my own pictures..because his are amazing.. Posted by mhader at 1:11 PM \| Comments (5) October 10, 2005 Comfortable? Posted by mhader at 11:07 PM \| Comments (1) October 2, 2005 I Swallowed A Bug Well, it's nearing the Christmas season again. You know what that means! Yup, time to buy Michael stuff. I've been working on a more eye-pleasing Big List for the last week or so. I've even updated some of the content. I'll do my best to get it online by the nights end. It works great in Firefox, decent in Opera, and horribly in IE. It actually worked very well in Opera until I tweaked it to make in bearable in IE. Most importantly however, through the magic of CSS it prints nicely in all browsers. I've decided not to worry much about the IE compatibility for this page. It's not pretty, but it works the way it is. If I can dig up some more magic code (which is what it took to get it where it is now), perhaps I'll make it look better in the future (although I have no desire to go back and make the images blend in better). Check out the link to the list on the left. To get the best visual experience out of it, don't use IE. Oh, and I didn't really swallow a bug--and I doubt Summer did either. Posted by mhader at 2:45 PM \| Comments (1)