risky business indeed
Oct 27, 2008 online humor
Just saw this commercial for the new Guitar Hero World Tour game and I loved it. It’s a parody of a famous movie scene starring sports stars Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps, A-Rod and Tony Hawk.
Searched YouTube and thankfully, someone has already posted it for your viewing pleasure. Hope it makes you laugh, too.
Tags: a-rod, funny ads, Guitar Hero, kobe bryant, michael phelps, tony hawk, youtube
core values worth adapting
Oct 26, 2008 life
Today I decided to clear up my Twitter backlog of people who’ve recently linked to my T-feed. You know, visit their Twitter page and see if it’s spam or a real person who actually has something to say besides “sign up for my mlm affiliate…blah blah blah.” I try to follow everyone who follows me, but some people are obviously just signing up for a lot of people to push a product and I’d rather not be a part of that, ya know?
Anyways, in doing so, I came across Troy Worman’s blog and he had a post about Zappos.com’s core values from an article in Success Magazine. They are, according to company head honcho Tony Hsieh:
- Deliver wow through service.
- Embrace and drive change.
- Create fun and a little weirdness.
- Be adventurous, creative and open-minded.
- Pursue growth and learning.
- Build open and honest relationships with communication.
- Build a positive team and family spirit.
- Do more with less.
- Be passionate and determined.
- Be humble.
Reading through them, I realized that while he applied them to his business, most could be adapted to personal use as well. I’d like to think I already do. LOLÂ But I thought it was worth a reprint, in case the list might resonate with anyone else.
BTW, Troy turned 43 yesterday, so Happy Birthday Troy! 
Tags: lists, personal development, success, Tony Hsieh, values, zappo.com
This may slow me down a bit
Oct 20, 2008 life
Well, thanks to getting my hand smashed between two tables at the store, I’m now sporting some new arm bling…
Pretty snazzy, eh?
Of course, even though it happened at work, I still had to wait until after my shift to go get it xrayed. Since it was a weekend, I had to go the emergency room. Had 3 xrays done, then was told swelling was still too bad to get clear shot of some bones, so the dr gave me the arm splint and a sling, some percocet and sent me on my merry way with a referral to an orthopedic dr.
Yes, the dr gave me a narcotic pain pill, then handed me the keys to my car. Think about this for a minute…
The drowsiness effects hit me hard as I neared Disney and the rest is a blur. I remember deciding that, since I had to pick up Rhon in 2 hrs, it might be safer to just wait in the castmember parking lot. A wise choice since I had barely pulled into a parking space when I passed out. I awoke when Rhon got to the car. Nice to know that one can sleep in a car with all the windows down without being disturbed at Disney, eh?
So I’m trying to write but since I can only use my left hand, it’s been slow going. Not to mention the fiberglass part of the splint has reached the itchy-scratchy phase. And my poor puppy is so distraught. She keeps curling up around my arm and trying to kiss my fingers. For two days she’s barely left my side.
I’m hoping I can get in to see the specialist asap and that my hand injury isn’t serious. This one handed hunt & peck is driving me insane.
Tags: arm injury, splint
my soul asylum video shoot…
Oct 18, 2008 life, music, work
The year was 1989. I was living in Wisconsin and working in one of those tourist recording studio places in Wisconsin Dells called “On Stage”. You know…where you go in, pay your $20 and get a recording of you doing audio or video karaoke to take home.
Well, management had gotten a call saying this band from Minneapolis was shooting a video nearby and could they come by and use the green screen room to shoot parts of their video. The manager said yes and recommended me as the best of their video operators.
And this is how I came to shoot parts of the Soul Asylum video for the song “Easy Street.”
The band and their entourage came in and briefed me on the storyline for the video and told me they wanted me to go wild with the green screen stuff. “Just change the backgrounds at will and try to get crazy close-ups and stuff,” was the direction I got from the video director. So that’s exactly what I did.
I zoomed in. I zoomed out. I even spent a take with the huge camera off the tripod, carrying it around to get some super weird angles. All in all, we did about 10-12 run-throughs of the song before the band called it quits. They all sat and watched them, thanked me for my “really great creative shots,” and then left to go have a late dinner.
Now, keep in mind, this is before the song “Runaway Train” made them uber-famous, so I was just like, “um…yeah…thanks!” LOL
I have never seen the finished product until a post I read at another blog this week about the band made me curious to see if it had ever been released. I first found it at youtube, and I was amazed at how much of my work made it into the video.
The shots of them in the plain room with all of the glass walls were shot by their video crew, but everything shot against the green screen with the crazy backgrounds is my work. Cool, eh? I also recognized the circus stuff as being shot at Circus World museum in Baraboo, which was like 10 blocks from my gramma’s house and the first place I ever worked in my life (as a magician’s assistant, if you must know).
Unfortunately, Universal had disabled embedding the youtube video elsewhere (boo hiss!). But digging further, I found it again at Yahoo! music, which does allow embedding (yay to yahoo!).
So without further ado, I present the video for Soul Asylum’s “Easy Street”:
[Edit: OMG!! I just watched it again and realized there's a spot at around 3:10 in the video where the camera swings around from the Dave and the band and you can see me at the camera for like a second. Sweet!]
Tags: Circus World, easy street, shot by me, soul asylum, video, videography, Wisconsin Dells
sister hazel @ epcot
Oct 17, 2008 music, Orlando, photography
Tuesday night Rhonda and I went to Epcot. We were gonna try to catch some of the Food & Wine stuff, but we were running late and just decided to head over to the American pavillion to catch Sister Hazel. It was the second of their two-night gig at Epcot, and as usual, they were excellent live.
Most people know them from their first big hit, “All For You,” but they have such a great catalog of songs to choose from, that even with three sets, they had to leave certain songs out of each set. Unfortunately, that meant I only got to hear my favorite song, “Happy,” in the last set and it was the second to last song of the night.
The first set we listened to from the back of the amphitheater. The second set, we were seated fourth row on the right and the third set, we sat fourth row on the left side. I like to move around for each set to get a different perspective as I take photos. I ended up with over 200 photos, thanks to my newish 2GB card for the camera, but I only posted like 35 of what I considered to be the best over at my Flickr account.
It turned out to be a nice night for an outdoor concert. Now that we’re in October, the Florida nights are nice with temps in the upper 60s/lower 70s and there was a mild breeze coming of the lagoon.
It was also nice to get out of the apartment and get to enjoy a cheap night out without it having to be work-related. We’ve both been working so much lately that it was a nice break to just sit and enjoy the music of a great band outdoors. And we timed it just right so we missed the crush of people escaping Epcot after Illuminations. We ended up in the parking lot as Illuminations’ fireworks went off at the same time that Wishes did at Magic Kingdom. That was pretty to watch the whole sky light up in either direction.
Anyways, here are some of my fave Sister Hazel photos for the night:
Tags: "Walt Disney World", Epcot, sister hazel
The Fuel My Blog Friday Five
Oct 17, 2008 quizzes and memes
Just a quick meme courtesy of Fuel My Blog:
Who (in your opinion) were/are the best…
- Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley? Elvis barely edges out Frank. Overall I love Elvis’ music, but for Xmas, it’s gotta be Frank.
- Barry Manilow or Cliff Richard? Barry – he wrote the songs that made… oh, nevermind
- The Beatles or The Rolling Stones? Again, The Beatles barely edge out the Stones, but I was named after the Beatles’ song so they get the win
- Donnie Osmond or Michael Jackson? Musically, Michael esp with the Jackson 5. Personally, I think Michael needs severe help, so Donny would get the win there.
- Britney Spears or Amy Winehouse? Britney’s music is more danceable, Amy has the better voice (when not all coked out). Both are decent trainwrecks, but Brit is a bit more unpredictable.
Tags: Fuel My Blog, music meme
Michelle Snow. Journalist. Photographer. Web Designer. Graphic Designer. Traveler. Geekgirl. Browncoat. Musicologist.
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