Of Everyday Occurrences

Getting Into Biking

simons1479 — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:40:09 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I decided I would get into biking. Like, seriously into biking. And this is why. Here in Iowa we have an event every July called RAGBRAI. It is a week long bicycle ride across the state. You go from river to river with nothing more than peddle power and beer. Jess’ mom has done this ride the last two years now and one of the overnight stops was just a few short miles South of where we live. We headed down to Altoona, Iowa and partook in the event that is RAGBRAI. I decided that I wanted to do it. That I COULD do it. I started looking around at some different models of bikes and think I’ve landed on one that will fit the bill nicely for what I need it to do. It is the Sirrus by Specialized. It’s a great bike and it looks and feels (I stopped by a local bike shop and had an abridged audition of it) great.

I plan on beginning my training yet this year. Primarily to get my body in shape. Then over the course of the Winter months and the Spring, I’ll work on getting my muscles conditioned for the event. There are an abundance of trails here in Central Iowa, so getting out and logging some miles shouldn’t be that tough. I just have to do it. I’ll keep you updated on my progress and get some photos up along the way. RAGBRAI 2012 here I come!

Super WiFi Anyone?

simons1479 — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:20:59 +0000

On the 27th, the IEEE published the standard for new wifi. Today we have 802.11n. Eventually, we will have the just published 802.22. With this, the transmitter and receiver can be up to 100km, or 62 miles, from each other and still work at 22Mb per channel. So exactly what does that mean? Well, if you work less than 60 miles from your home, which most of us do, you’ll be able to access and use your home internet connection to surf the web, transfer files, print documents, watch videos from your home server, etc. You get the idea. This could give way to some pretty interesting new gadgets. I’ll keep and eye on this and update as it evolves, but what would you use 62 mile range wifi for?

The Nelson Rain Train

simons1479 — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:03:37 +0000

In an attempt to keep my grass as lush and vibrant as I possibly can, the past few weeks have sent me on a search for a lawn sprinkler. I had no idea that there were so many different types of them. However, when I stumbled upon the Nelson Rain Train, my search had ended. This thing is sweet! You hook it up, set a speed either low or high, and turn the hose on. It then will travel along the path that you’ve set out for it by laying the hose in the yard, it just uses the hose like a track! I just turned on the water and went in the house, it did it’s thing while I was able to eat dinner, watch some TV, read part of a magazine and most importantly, not be outside and attend to it every 30 minutes. Awesome.

I know that you’re not supposed to water the lawn in the evenings, but I was just so damned excited to get this thing out there, especially with the dry, hot spell that we’re in the midst of. I’m going to lay it out again this weekend and let it run in the morning like you’re supposed to from now on.

If you’re looking for a sweet sprinkler that you can let do all the work for you and accurately water your yard, I think I just found it for you! The Nelson Rain Train is a great sprinkler. Buy recommendation: BUY!!!

Getting over my block

simons1479 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 19:33:28 +0000

The hardest thing I have encountered over the past week is that I sit down to write about something and I end up with nothing. My big problem is that I am not being able to tap into my inner creative writer, he’s just lying there dormant, waiting for someone or something to awake the sleeping giant. I’m forcing myself to come up with something and when that happens, unfortunately I end up with posts like this. So, I had an idea while I was swimming laps today. I am going to come up with my top fives. Movies, books, songs, apps etc, and each week I will deliver a new top five.

I know that by doing this it may seem a little high schoolish, but as of late I’m having a very hard time keeping my mind on task. I promise, by doing this my mind will get kicked back into shape and I will present you with some worthwhile material that will be both informative and entertaining. Well, at least one of those anyway.

Birthday Celebrations!

simons1479 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:27:32 +0000

Over the 4th, Jess and I traveled up to the Northwest corner of Iowa to see my folks. They have a house just outside of Vermillion, SD, which is about 40 minutes or so North of Sioux City where they live. Not only did we celebrate the birth of our nation, but Jess’ birthday was on the 5th. So we celebrated TWO birthdays. She and I took a couple of extra days off and returned back to work just yesterday. Things were pretty busy around the office yesterday so I haven’t had time to grab any of my photos from the weekend, but I’ll be getting to that today and getting them up. So stay tuned for those.

Interview Time

simons1479 — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:49:05 +0000

I’m getting ready to head into an interview session for a large scale social media initiative for our agency, check it out here. I’m involved in producing what will soon become a weekly live broadcast. For now, however, we’re starting with a combination of live bumpers and a taped segment. The goal is to run everything live and archive the broadcast. By then being able to move the format to a mobile set, there’s no stopping what were going to be able to do with this platform. There are some pretty big ideas on the horizon.

Today I am the interview subject. I’ve always been better behind the camera, but we’ll see how this works out. : ) What we’re doing initially is interviewing people from the agency. Our goal is that you are able to then connect with people you feel like you already know, rather than just sending emails or trading voicemails.

The block of writers

simons1479 — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:27:59 +0000

So today I have been racking my brain on what I should write about and it seemed that every single time I sat down and started blankly at the little flashing cursor, I became intimidated by its taunting and ran away with my tail between my legs. I’ve been in a little funk all day and nothing has struck me enough to sit down and do some research and formulate a complete, educated thought about it. So you get this. This brief rambling of me not saying a single thing. However, it is me writing. : ) That I guess is part of the goal, right? What do you do when you are at an impasse in your writing?

Today the brainstorming process begins

simons1479 — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:43:22 +0000

Now that I have my rolls of Ektachrome, the process begins of what to shoot. I have a hard time with just pushing the shutter and seeing what happens. I like to have a game plan in mind when I hit it. Keeping in mind that I only have six minutes that I can shoot, I’d like it to be a really concise short film. Possibly something on the edge of experimental, but some of those films in that category really weird me out, so not too experimental. I mentioned before that I’m going to be up in Northwest Iowa around all of the flooding, so doing something with that could be cool. But again, I really want it to be story driven, not just a b-roll package. Stay tuned as I’ll be documenting my progress throughout.

Can Michelle Bachmann not hear or does she choose to sound stupid?

simons1479 — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:37:04 +0000

I realize that politicians usually take the long way around when answering a question, however I sure as hell do NOT want this woman sitting behind a desk in the oval office. You? Chris Wallace was on to something with the ‘flake’ question.

This morning, Michelle Bachmann was on the Today show. She did an interview with Matt Lauer, check it out here. Please pay special attention to Matt’s first question. He’s very clear and direct. Michelle Bachmann’s answer on the other hand had nothing to do with what he asked. In fact, the only thing the question and the answer had in common was that they both said ‘Iowa’. So, what do you think, flake?

Super8mm Filmmaking

simons1479 — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:01:36 +0000

Recently I purchased a couple rolls of Kodak’s Ektachrome 100D to run through my Super8mm camera. I have been shooting film for a long time now and have recently decided that I need to do more work with it. Now, I’ve never shot the 100D before so we’ll see what happens. I wanted to get a couple of rolls and shoot them to see how grainy the stock is, how it scans and how, if any, it would degrade and soften as it’s edited and then converted to HD.

My folks live up in Northwest Iowa. Currently there is an insane amount of flooding happening up there, to the likes of which hasn’t been seen in many, many years. I’m going to shoot this stock up there this weekend when Jess and I take a trip up for the weekend. Then next week I’ll get them sent off and processed and scanned and get some test footage put up.

Ultimately, I’d like to use either Super8mm or even 16mm on my next project, whatever that project may be, if the format allows it. Shooting on film is simply so much more elegant and romantic than HD. And HD finish is OK, but if you can shoot on film it simply takes the project to the next level.

Your thoughts? Do you shoot HD or are you shooting film? Why? Stay tuned for the test footage and my thoughts on it.