Festival’s Eve November 16, 2011
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What is...Faultline?
Greetings!
Back so soon? Yeah, I’ve got some more stuff to say.
WHAT OF IT.
I disappeared for the past few months mostly because of …school, I assume. I’ve been producing regional documentaries about the Cape area, as well as more After Effects projects, Maya, graphic designs, and several large projects for the annual Fault Line Film Festival here on campus.
The first priority, “HVZ” was unfortunately pushed back due to the festival. I had two new projects enter the scene at that point: Paul Stokes’ film drama “Achromatic” as well as my own animated short, “Terrible Tides”.
I’ll explain the story, planning, production process, etc. at a later date. For now, and for those of you not attending the gala tomorrow night, click on the links below to see the films:
Thanks, and enjoy!
-peace
-civ4freak
It’s Been a Long Time Comin’ November 14, 2011
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Greetings!
I apologize. Seems that I got so caught up I forgot to update my Lollapalooza experience this past August.
Rest assured, it – was – awesome.
There’s probably some crazy YouTube video you can find that has every single performance combined in a ridiculous 75 hour video or something, but of the moments I remember, you can find them right here (note: I did not make the following videos):
Ending with the single, most mind blowing concert experience of my life. But first let me follow up. Damian Marley’s (Bob’s son) setup was nearly cancelled after a brief rain storm swept through Grant Park, as it had been looking pretty cloudy and stormy all day. However, as the sun began to peek out again, that reggae rang out across the waves of fans, hipsters, hippies, Rastas, etc. I will never forget the setting sun , shining through a dense cloud of pot smoke, whilst an approriate rainbow appeared to the east over Lake Michigan. Talk about a surreal Marley experience!
I sat on a patch of grass for my girlfriend and her friend for pretty much 3 hours, with a horrible cellphone signal, all through a rainstorm with one umbrella for three, all through Marley’s show, just to get a good view for the following:
DEADMAU5
Just as the big closer for the festival was about to start, yet another rainstorm moved in. There was a bit of a delay I think – this storm was a bit stronger, and much colder than before. Definitely seemed like the delay was about to turn into a cancellation. And then out of the blackness of the stage, Joel went on with the show. I will never, ever, ever, ever forget that crazy rain, my decision to take the umbrella down and get totally soaked to the awesome intro/drop to one of my all time, favorite artists:
The cliche line rings true: “you just had to be there”
And the aftermath. Just envision this, in the dark, on the way out the train station after the Deadmau5 conclusion, haha.
Well, hope you enjoyed all that, if you actually watched one, two, or all of these links.
I highly recommend attending at some point in time, and definitely do it in Chicago!
Big thanks to my lady, Tink, for this special treat and memorable experience in our young years.
Peace!
-civ4freak
The Homestretch July 24, 2011
Posted by civ4freak in 1.Tags: silver lake sand dunes vacation sun deserts sunsets summer mears michigan coast line orchards fun family trip memories colorful deep peaceful
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Michigan
As suggested in the title, summer is winding down.
I only have a few more things to accomplish up here in the city. Aside from finishing my “dope” internship with Triple Threat Mentoring, there’s an online college course to finish, and lastly the grand, summer finale at Lollapalooza. The course ends one week from now, so essentially, this is my 168-hour dash to the end. After that, things only get better.
I’ve enjoyed my time here, but I’ll be honest: drama comes in different shapes and sizes. Some of the family occurrences up here have been less than stable. I won’t go into specifics, there’s too much to cover. I can only hope that things straighten out for the better before my leave.
So what to talk about? Well, for one, I have a whole hard-drive full of Michigan photos just waiting to be shared; two, more stories to accompany that; and three, a new video just released today!
Barely a precursor to the true excitement and beauty of the Silver Lake Sand Dunes. You can see the inspiration for this video HeRe. Eric Prydz is the bomb.
Tink and I took pictures-a-plenty between the both of us, so you’ll probably be able to find some of those up on her DeviantArt account, my DA, and my Flickr as well. Of the pictures I put up today, these bear memorable significance.
No time was wasted the next morning after our journey up. Nothing like starting of a vacation with a mile hike across barren sand and damp forests.
The dense, vast, and off-limits forest preserve at the lake.
The trail begins about a third of the way across the general dune area; areas with high pedestrian traffic. Few people, however, would bother to hike to the big lake. The trail’s sand doesn’t blow around too much, meaning that it’s hotter with blister potential. One portion also goes through a forest, which riddles the ground with sharp, dry pine needles. It’s not excruciatingly painful, but it smarts if you step wrong.
After arriving at Lake Michigan, shown above, it’s a roughly 2-mile hike to the outlet.
Personally, I would say that I spent more time on the sand than on water. Not really a bad thing. The wildlife has much to offer.
Later in the week we took a hike to another memorable spot: Southern Vista. This tower dune/hill embankment is the highest in the southern region of the dunes. And it wasn’t extremely easy to scale. The top, however, is something to behold.
Towering above the vastness
Simply an awesome panorama. Speaking of which, click here, here, and heRe to see some real panoramas of the vista lookout on Flickr ( just click the magnifying glass on the upper right above the pic to see it in full view on Flickr).
What else? How about sailing?
Awfully good day to sail.
Don’t forget the crazy sunsets (lots up on Flickr!).
Courtesy of Tink
Can’t forget water activities. Unfortunately, there weren’t too many tubing photos. I am not in possession of those at the moment.
Steve-o doin' it Pro
Jet skiing, pleasure cruising, running the dogs, so many to mention. One of the best unforgettable moments started out rather serious. See below.
See it?
Towards the center of the picture, you might be able to make the outline of a green snake…a big one too. This sucker was perched upon some driftwood right next to the MacWoods Dune Ride road. We carefully made our way around it, giving a good measure of 20 feet between us and the reptile. Once a safe distance, I threw some wood, rocks, sticks at it. Turns out, it was one of those wooden, augmented toy snakes. The kind you can flick with your wrist and it’ll look like the real thing. Let’s just say that after the fact, we played a few pranks of our own with the relatives.
Baby catfish D spotted with the naked eye
If you’ve never been to Michigan, I’d highly recommend it. Too often I think the state is shunned for the turmoil of Detroit. Please, get a better perspective and go take a road trip up the western Route 31. There’s not only sand dunes, but orchards upon orchards and winery wazoo. Lake Michigan coast lines, untouched forests, local wildlife, bike trails, etc. you’ll never get bored…as long as you like the outdoors.
Wind erosion up-top the dunes
And last but not least, some classic dune jumping for the scrap books.
Courtesy Tink
No audio version this time, didn’t really have time to record anything. Too much fun.
As I mentioned before, you can find tons of photos not shown up on the Flickr account and various DeviantArt links. Adding me as a friend on Facebook also helps, lots up there too.
I’ll definitely write a future post after Lollapalooza, and perhaps one or two in-between here and there.
In the meantime, thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the Twitter, YouTube, and Curmudgeon time after time!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
-civ4freak
Tastes ‘n’ Stuff July 5, 2011
Posted by civ4freak in Watev....Tags: chicago, city, fourth, July, of, pictures, summer, Taste, weekend
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It was a long day.
As the above photograph suggests, this post is about another day downtown. However, I typed up some pent up frustration in the below section. If you don’t wish to hear me be a “curmudgeon”, please skip forward to the next section, with more relevant subject matter.
What? It’s not like I’m gonna just delete my complaints. AME drives me crazy. Plain and simple.
——————————————————————————-
(The following is a typed excerpt from this past Tuesday)
This is pure torture.
I’m sitting here (guess where), once again, attempting to upload some files for work, study, and do some quizzes.
Oh wait.
In order to get this podcast up to the FTP in time, I need it to stop TIMING OUT. And in order to do that, I guess I need a smaller file. And for that, I need to completely render the whole hour-long episode AGAIN in a lower quality encoder setting. Usually my higher quality render takes five hours to put out a good sized 600MB file. This shouldn’t be an issue, normally. The lower quality version is a good backup since it takes less time and space to render. I dont go this route if i can afford not to. My clients deserve the best quality possible, time permitting.
However, if really bad reggae music constantly makes the Starbucks router commit suicide, I can’t really do anything now can I?
Unbelievable. An hour and thirty minutes ago I started a render with a ETA of 8 minutes, which is currently 36:59. Until ten minutes ago, the render bar progressed forward, but the ETA kept GOING UP. What?! Whenever I start a session with AME (Adobe Media Encoder), Im prepared to bend over backwards, kill Windows explorer, shut off my Wifi, disable my desktop, sacrifice a baby goat- ANYTHING TO MAKE THIS THING ENCODE FASTER!!!!
Holy crap I am agitated.
Thankfully, the ETA just reversed itself a few minutes ago, and is slowly decreasing.
I worry that none of this is good for my PC. With 75% of my 4GB RAM in use, along with 100% CPU usage, for hours on end, spells bad things. I feel, that overheating is inevitable. The vent is so hot, I use it to warm up coffee.
(As of today, July 6th, the inevitable did happen. Overheated and died…luckily came back after a cool-down. Searching for a fix as of now.)
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Taste of Chicago & The Magnificent Mile
Sorry for the first half. Frustrations must be freed.
On a lighter note, I have some pictures of the Taste of Chicago which my girlfriend and I attended this past Friday. Because I’m sacrificing all my memory to the laptop at the moment, I’ve been typing this post on my iTouch; and because of that, some of the pictures I insert might look different than usual.
We started off the day with breakfast at the Original Pancake House, shown below. I think Tink had some sourdough pancakes. My bacon waffle was pretty good too. To be honest though, I feel like this place is a tourist trap. The food looked like something I could find at Ihop…nothing extremely outstanding. If i visit again, I’ll be sure to try their signature Apple Clobber (?) pancakes.
Since we had walked up State St. to just a bit north of the Water Tower Plaza, we also visited several stores along the return trip down Michigan Avenue…which coincidentally had a wrong-way driver/pedestrian accident we avoided.
Check out the setup at the Apple store…like a daily, mini expo or something. Not sure if that’s entirely necessary…
The Taste!
Don’t know what she’s doing with that pawpaw hand…lol.
Underneath the Bean, once again.
I have a ton more pictures up on my MediaFire account, but that will have to wait.
They had called for an extremely hot Friday, but then the hail moved in, west of the city. Some famous greenhouse was apparently destroyed, but downtown consisted of strong winds and wicked looking clouds. After making our way down Michigan Ave., past John Hancock Tower, and the Bean, we decided to take a pre-preemptive visit to the taste.
A word of advice:
Never ever ever go to the taste when Temp>85 degrees. Luckily, our first Taste visit was about 73ish degrees and perfect. Not too many people, reasonable lines, and great weather. And the food was pretty good too. I wouldn’t go on my own again, but if a friend spread an invitation, then sure thing.
Oh yes.
Overall, I’m glad I went on a good day…but don’t really anticipate returning. Too many people.
Also, this will probably be my last post, unless I find time next week.
Will have tons of photos of Michigan soon!
Thanks for reading.
Cheers!
-Civ4Freak
Pre-Palooza July 3, 2011
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Thought it was time to start mentioning: i going to lollapalooza
Yep. I think it’s sometime in early August, here in Chicago, Grant Park, great stuff.
Among the artists I can’t wait to hear:
This new smash-hit from Skrillex, only released three weeks ago.
And the rest.
Yep.
In other news, went to the Taste of Chicago – twice, actually. I’ll have pictures of that up on Wednesday if I can manage.
I don’t think Starbucks is going to be open tomorrow…then again, it’s a possibility they don’t give a damn.
I’ve also been surfing SoundCloud recently, and have developed a habit of listening to endless hours of amateur electronic music in hopes of finding a prodigy artist. Someone to freshen up my playlist a bit.
Starting today, I’ll post a song or two from some promising artists I’ve found. I’ll admit that a lot of users are awful, but I certainly believe that some don’t receive enough attention for their talent.
Today’s SoundCloud Sunday artist: sYnesis
Enjoy! Check in often!
Cheers!
-Civ4Freak
Yeahhh… July 2, 2011
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I’ve got about ten minutes left in Starbucks, and I’m in a rough spot with my online college course, so yeahhh…
Got a bit screwed today. But at least it was lots of fun, earlier today.
Two days earlier, I had recorded a short audio post that described my abscence and coming events. That, however, ran out of time too. Instead, I’ll just write up a quick update.
Went to the city again, this time with Courtne-
STOP TELLING ME THAT YOU CLOSE IN TEN MINUTES I GETTHEIDEA!!!!!
…which was fun.
I’ll post any pictures I can grab and write about that.
Kk, bai love u.
Cheers!
-Civ4freak
Minecraft Gravel Glitch June 25, 2011
Posted by civ4freak in Watev....Tags: blocks, dirt, game, glitch, gravel, lava, mine, minecraft, needed, no, pick, plate, pressure, stone, to, video
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Not really an official, thoroughly worked-on post here, just something random I discovered during some brief downtime.
Apparently, you don’t have to mine gravel blocks one by one in Minecraft. Placing a stone pressure plate underneath an area of soon-to-fall gravel blocks automatically harvests them, no pick needed!
Watch the video below to see how:
So yeah, weird. This also might work with other materials that are influenced by gravity: sand.
Pretty uneventful day.
Back to the online courses.
Cheers!
-Civ4Freak
Free Lunch June 23, 2011
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Eternal Renovation
Greetings!
Once again, I’ve had a very eventful weekend – consisting of the good and the bad.
Among the good, I was able to work in a visit to downtown Chicago, and eat lunch with some friends from lower Illinois. I think it’s been three years since I last walked State Street. After the fact, I believe my excursion was necessary to my sanity. Walkin’ the streets on a cool, Windy City day sure beats walking to the mail box in sweat-drenched STL.
This posts comes in both the audio version and visual version. Unfortunately my walk up Michigan Avenue didn’t record the first time, so the recording posted here is a bit out of sync with the sights shown in the visuals.
Enjoy mis amigos!
Greenish tint due to train window.
Seems that at one point, Chicago had a devilish area code phone number.
Still don't know the name of this place...you can find a link to the original DA picture below.
As mentioned in the audio, I stumbled upon this familiar sight from an earlier picture I had taken years ago. You can find that picture HERE on Deviant Art.
La Salle Street. Prominent in Christopher Nolan's 2008 summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight. This is probably the length of street where they flipped the semi.
I refer to this as the Atari Building, for obvious reasons. I think, however, the actual name is associated to the Chase bank corporation.
Somehow, in Chicago, gnomes and Puerto Ricans are related...
Last time I visited, the "Trump Tower" was still under construction. Today, it stands completed...and with a quick Google search, the official name is Trump International Hotel & Tower...don't forget that last bit. A Google image search, however, results in all sorts of weird lookin' skyscrapers. According to lore from a few years ago, I think Donald Trump actually ran out of money trying to build this...idk?
Click HERE to see a full panorama of The Bean at Millennium Park.
Everybody on Facebook does this...I fit in now.
All I saw around Michigan Ave. were people wearing Puerto Rican flags and yelling/shouting about how great it is. 51st State of the U.S.? Puerto Rican Cubs player? National Puerto Rico day??? I have no idea.
Michigan Avenue fading to the endless suburbs. Taken just before I headed out to the Wit.
Ended up seeing the musical "Wicked" here three years ago...didn't know it was that close by.
Easily one of the coolest places I visited on Saturday. Text below this picture explains why.
Click HERE for a full panorama of the Richard Daley Plaza.
The following pictures are a “then-and-now” comparison of certain key points in the plaza. The plaza is well-known for it’s famous appearance in The Blues Brothers film. Observe below.
P.O.V. from the Bluesmobile. Notice the Picasso sculpture, Chicago City Hall, and Daley Building, also in my panorama.
Jake & Elwood high-tailing it out.
Compare to the photo & link below this one. Also, ignore the stupid DVD ripper watermark at the top left.
Entrance to Chicago City Hall, 2011.
Full panorama for Chicago City Hall can be found HERE.
Statue Shot #1
Now.
Statue Shot #2
Now.
Neato! Moving on.
Ogilvie Transportation Center...way back home.
A cauldron of cumulonimbus clouds brewing back west. Lucky to beat this one.
Fin.
Yep. That’s it!
Thanks for reading. If you’re not satisfied, however, you can click Here HERE HeRE HeeR and HEAr to read some very old posts about my previous downtown experiences.
Again, a very special thanks to Mr. Fox for the free lunch. Sure tops the day!
Lastly, follow my lunch friendos on Twitter: @athoele & @bohnen500
Enjoy, and cheers!
-Civ4freak
Check Out My New Stuff June 19, 2011
Posted by civ4freak in Watev....add a comment
Whoa.
Typing this on my iTouch, offline at the moment.
If this actually saves, and automatically posts later, I might end up using this every day. Just type up daily posts off the top of my head, no sitting down with effort. Don’t know if pictures can link, or if hyperlinks work on here.
We’ll see. That concludes my test.
Cheers!
-civ4freak
The People of Starbucks June 16, 2011
Posted by civ4freak in Uncategorized.Tags: all, beans, brew, chicago, chicagoland, coffee, comeback, corporate, customer, employee, frappuccino, free, help, in, internet, latte, lord, mocha, overplayed, recession, reggae, review, setback, starbucks, tacticts, trapped, us, wifi
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The Haagen Daz of Coffeely Perfection
Wow.
When this summer is over, I will have had so much fun, and so much anti-fun, that I think my time here will have equaled out to zero. Somehow, the opposites cancel each other, leaving me with a dreadfully fun and horribly exciting experience in Chicago that was awful, yet at the same time, amazing and unlike any other June-July-August I’ve ever had.
I guess this is part of growing up and doing…adult things.
Check out this wicked awesome sound I discovered while making pancakes. There’s a large spike in the audio, indicating a loud noise, so turn your speakers down, but not by too much. The sound that immediately follows the spike is the good part:
Whoa, a new NOIZEEEE
And yes, I continued to do this for about 15 minutes.
My life, is something. That’s for sure.
In fact, my breakfast-cooking knowledge is no better than that of three years ago. Click HERE to read my previous breakfast post from my last Chicago gambado.
Anyways, I’ve come to resort to Starbucks WiFi in the past few days. Many thanks to whoever spearheaded that idea. Free WiFi is awesome. So awesome in fact, I can sit here from 9AM to 9PM, without getting up, playing my favorite polka songs, clicking like a madman non-stop, agitate customers, drink endless cups of coffee, every day, every week, all summer long!
Maybe then, they’ll decide to hire me – which is another funny bit. I applied for Starbucks…while sitting in Starbucks. Online, since that’s the only way they let you apply. So far, that’s really paid off.
However, they don’t know me by name just yet. Which leads me to a whole different topic.
During my time here, I’ve come to observe that certain daily customers and staff interact in peculiar ways.
1. Everybody knows Everybody
This should be a given for any employee-customer relationship. I’ve seen this apparent at small shops back home. Those stores, however, are small. Chicagoland is in no way small. Smackdab right next to Roosevelt Road, a Starbucks isn’t exactly a place that sees familiar traffic either. Somehow, they do. The People of Starbucks know everybody and anybody who’s working a shift. Vice versa is true of the employees, or “bartistas” as I should call them (the official name for fastfood-coffee employees).
If money comes around, I might test this theory by purchasing a vanilla latte every day until they ask my name, and try to get to know me. I’d give it, 20 purchases before they do? More? Less?
2. Everybody trusts Everybody
Maybe I’m a bit paranoid about my laptop and electronic possessions. But I would not – could not, should not – leave my belongings alone whilst I ran outside for a quick smoke. I’ve noticed this behavior with a few customers, even during the shops’ busy hours. In fact…there’s an unattended MacBook on the table next to me.
That sure is a nice computer you got there…be a pity if I made pancakes with it…
What? You think I’d actually use a Mac for recreation?!?
Okay, but seriously, with the new OS coming, I don’t give enough credit. Read about it HERE.
3. Repetitive Reggae
I don’t hate Bob Marley. In fact, I’ve got two albums of his greatest hits mixed with my Tropical Playlist on Itunes. But so far, after three days of Starbucks WiFi, I’ve heard the same 20 songs again…and again…and again…and agaiYA-MAN!!! If I hear “Stir It Up” or “Buffalo Soldier” or “I Shot the Sheriff” one more time, I might actually end up shooting someone. If there’s one thing you don’t do with precariously perceived reggae music, you DON’T play it on repeat for a week straight in a coffee-lovers environment. I don’t care if it’s summer, which somehow allows you to play a “summer” playlist full of reggae-jammin’. You just DON’T. Think of all the other great summer-time, coffee related artists you’ll be missing out on!
…I can’t actually think of any, but I’ll get back to you on that.
4. No Purchase Necessary…grrrrrrrrrrrrr
No purchase? So I can just walk in and use the Internet? Okay!
Well how about if I start conducting daily video conferences? Bring my own lunch? I think so!
Maybe I’ll open a lemonade stand in here while I’m at it.
5. Your Coffee Isn’t Even Good
Pssshhtt, I’m kidding. I don’t think many things on this earth can compare to a limited edition Grande Coconut Mocha Frappuccino.
The quality is indeed phenomenal. Hence your prices. Hence you recent profit losses. Hence your recent layoffs. Hence your recently self-published book which you can buy at the counter proclaiming how you’ve defeated this “setback”.
Or perhaps, your $20 lattes aren’t actually worth $5. A lot can be learned from F.A.O Schwarz.
Read HERE for a more lighthearted post about this topic. 
Well, that’s it. Thanks for reading. I’m slowly accumulating more pictures/audio samples for the next post, which will pretty much cover my past travels and stuff I’ve been doing in Chicagoland.
Cheers!
-civ4freak
