This Week In Quakertown – 3/26/08

Hello. Sorry I haven’t kept you up to date on the happenings of the Town of Quakers, but I joined a cult and had to swear off all contact with the outside world. Fortunately, when the spaceship landed to take everyone off to Blisstonia, I was on the can. So, I’m back.

In political news, the race for state senator for the 145th district is heating up. The incumbent, Paul Clymer (R), who’s held the office for 28 years (which is why I remember his name from growing up here) is generally held to be a bit of a twit and needs to be replaced.

Two Democrats are vying for his seat, Tom Peterson and Brian Kline. They both sound like fine upstanding Democrats (“woman’s right to choose!”, “gun control!”, etc.), but who really cares, right? I mean the real news is that for once the PA Presidential Primary may actually make a difference.

Our primary is on April 22, which is well after the candidates are chosen most of the time. But with Obama and Clinton so close, it’s actually worth it to go out and vote this time.

Oh, don’t tell anyone, but I voted in the CA primary, and I’m gonna vote in the PA one, too. Obama gets my vote twice (three times, if he gets the nomination). Unfortunately, Clinton is ahead 49% to 39% in the latest polls in PA. I’m really tempted to actually put up one of those political signs in my front yard. Crazy. First time I’ve ever liked a candidate enough to contemplate doing that.

Then we have an ad masquerading as an article. Must be a slow news week.

Speaking of the presidential race, ex-president Bill Clinton (Hillary’s husband) was campaigning for her in nearby Lehigh county. The only remarkable thing about the article is the “joke” he told when he entered the auditorium.

I’m not sure whether the reporter transcribed it wrong, or whether Bill actually said this, but I can’t parse it: “I want to tell you that there are a few 100 of your fellow citizens outside and I thanked them for coming out.”

If that’s a joke, I don’t get it. I’m not even sure what “a few 100 of your fellow citizens” even means. This is not the first time a politician’s speech has flummoxed me, but somehow I don’t think this is really what he said.

That’s all for now. Until next time, keep Quaker!

Cantina Hands

This is, without a doubt, the best use of this guy’s time. Matt, you need to link to this on our Star Wars page. You know, when it’s back up.

Sweet, Sweet Irony

This is just too good: PZ Myers got expelled from “Expelled”. The comments are long, but worth it.

I’d Buy That For A Dollar

Now that the iPhone SDK is available, I’m sure dozens of people are scrambling to write apps that will make them a fortune, five dollars at a time.

Well, the only idea I’ve had so far – that’s not exactly true, call it the one I want most – is a pdf reader. Really simple, at least for someone familiar with Cocoa and manipulating pdf files. Here’s what I want it to do:

• Provide storage for pdf files on the iPhone, and a way to easily sync them from iTunes, which already knows how to store them
• Provide a reader interface which allows for some choice of font size, at least, and some easy way to page through it (I’m not sure how well the finger flicks would work – they’re fine for web pages, but if you’re going to read long documents, maybe another control is warranted)
• Manual-bookmarking – some ability to bookmark a page or spot on a page to come back to later.
• Auto-bookmarking. This would work like podcasts – if I quit the pdf reader, or get a phone call or whatever, it should remember where I was in that file, and go there automatically next time I load it
• Optional: Maintain any pdf “playlists” I set up in iTunes, so I can categorized my pdf files (e.g. Fiction, Non-Fiction, Smut, etc.)

That’s basically it. I see this as a big win for the iPhone, though, for the following reason: It extends its “boredom killing” abilities.

That, I think has been the killer app of all mobile devices, from phones to PDAs to media players. Try to remember what you did BME* when you were in line for something, or filling up the gas tank, or on an airplane or whatever. You might have had to <gasp!> talk to someone, or interact with the world around you. But now, you just whip your your device-du-jour and play a game, or surf the internet, or play music, or listen to a podcast. Boredom has been banished, mostly.

This would make it even better – you could read eBooks on the airplane, or any other place where signal was insufficient, or you wanted to save battery life.

Right now, I have a series of eBooks sitting on my computer that I got from tor.com, and I don’t know if or when I’ll get to read them, because I don’t want to print them out, and I don’t feel like reading them on the computer. But if I had them in my pocket at all times, I’d definitely get through them.

The main difference between this app and reading pdfs in Mobile Mail are that you can do it in Airplane Mode, and you can have bookmarks – both are crucial.

(Just doing a quick Google search for “iPhone pdf reader” uncovers, among a bunch of apps that require jailbreaking and some websites you can upload your pdfs to, this hack, which I may just start using for now. But I’d still rather have the full-fledged app.)

If no one else writes this app, I might just do it myself, but the only way to get it onto the phone is to pay the $99 to be an official developer. Who knows, do you think enough other people would pay $5 for this type of app that I could make my $99 back?

What iPhone apps would you like to see?

*BME: Before the Mobile Era

Being Cheap has its Price

Freakin’ “timing”. Seriously. The concept of “timing” and all the negatives that have followed it through out history!

This “super secret” project for NeoZAZ may end up being a missed opportunity for a great documentary on “bad timing”. 

With out turning this post into a novelette sized entry, here’s the highlights of the bad timing involved in this project. 

1. I wanted to film this on the HV20 I knew I was going to get; I waited for a great price break on the camera. I also was waiting for repayment of some cash owed to me by a friend.  Well, the price break came, and it was time to pull the Jesse James “Pay up Sucker” routine. Well, of course, the money wasn’t paid (and still hasn’t, but that’s another story.)
2. My awesome wife suggested that I go ahead and get the camera anyway since the guy that owes me money is good for it as far as we’re concerned, he’s just in a bad way at the moment. Great…oh s@!t, that day the price on the camera went up again!
3. Now the waiting game occurs. In the meantime, I’ll perfect the script. The best way I know how to do that is to let Dave read it and give me his notes – the best stuff I’ve produced has always been a collaborative effort with Dave – this is a good idea, I’m thinking, better send him the pilot.
4. Oh, yeah. Dave’s just a tad busy moving across the country right now and oh yeah, his wife is going to be out of the US for 6 months soon after he moves. Well, I’ll still send the script, but note that I am not expect him at all to read it until he’s settled – to ask otherwise would be “rude” (to say the least).
5. Whoa! Some time has passed the camera prices are dropping, time to watch them day by day hour by hour again.
6. A couple of weeks later, one of my favorite and trusted electronic on-line shops finally match that low price I saw months ago. Time to order.
7. Order placed, now to watch the UPS tracking number day by day hour by hour.
8. Meanwhile, we intended to film the entire first episode in a state park in Clermont FL. The area was perfect, secluded, nothing anyone else would general want to see – a perfect public area with little chance of interruption.
9. One of the cast drives past that area park on the way home everyday. One evening he was driving home and calls me. His exact words “You remember that scene we were going to film in the park?” “Yeah” I answer. “Was it going to take place on a burnt out planet by chance?” Turns out, that part of the park decided to do a controlled burn in that exact area (and surround areas) of where we we’re going to film.
10. The camera arrives. Holy crap, this thing is complicated. I tell the cast and crew I need at lest a week to figure this out, so lets set the date for March 16th for the first principle filming.
11. Co-Star Taylor announces he’s buying a house. Awesome news, it’s his first house, I’m really happy for him. Ahhhhh crap, he also announced he’s moving the weekend of March 15 th and 16th . Okay, let’s move filming to March 23rd.
12. Whoops. That’s my wife’s birthday. Oh yeah, there’s that Easter thing too. No problem, let’s move it to the 23rd.
13. Damn it! I just remember, Gregg – Star of the production, will be in Rockford, IL that weekend.
14. So, let’s try the 30th. So far, that’s a good date. We’ll just wait and see. 

So, if you’ve been paying attention to the sequence of events, you’ll see that this started with me trying to save a few hundred bucks. 

Is it all worth it? It’s a few hundred bucks, hell yeah! 

I guess that was a lot of information about nothing. But then again, I think that’s generally what blogs or for. Maybe next time there will be some real production news to report, but I’m not holding my breath.

I Smell A Taste Test

Those of you who didn’t grow up in the northeast might not know the wonders of Birch Beer, as it has been supplanted by Root Beer in most the the civilized world. In fact, most of your root-based beverages (Birch Beer, Root Beer, Sarsaparilla, etc.) are so similar that most of the country can’t be bothered to tell the difference, and thus your only choice is Barq’s vs. A&W (the correct answer is, of course, Barq’s).

But not only does Pennsylvania have Root Beer, Birch Beer, Root Beer, Sarsaparilla and Cream soda (just off the top of my head) – and many brands of each – but I just found something totally unknown to me: clear Birch Beer.

The Birch Beer I’m familiar with is brown. Well, the good stuff usually has a purplish tint to it, but it’s close. Today, I saw a single brand, A-Treat (it’s a cheap, local brand, but really yummy) has both brown and clear versions of Birch Beer, unless there was some labeling accident at the factory.

Behold (sorry about the fuzzy iPhone photo quality):

Not only are they both A-Treat Birch Beer, they’re both “Dutch Style” – as if there were any other. Has anyone seen clear Birch Beer before?

Next thing you know, they’ll have clear Pepsi.

Sweet, sweet 24p

For a few years now I wanted to make the jump from a consumer “point and shoot” camcorder to pro-sumer or possible profession “egad, look at all these features” camcorder.

The main thing hold me back from making this jump was about $4000+.

But then came the Canon HV20. A consumer camcorder by nature, but with the sole of pro-sumer camcorder hidden within all its wondrous features.

The HV20 is marketed mainly as a HD camera, much like the Sony HDR-HC7 and the JVC GZHD3, and it truly is an HD camera – its native setting is for 1080i with a capture resolution 1440px x 1080px. But, the HV20 has a few bells and whistles these other cameras don’t that swayed my decision:

1. External Stereo Microphone Input
2. (Better yet) External Stereo Headphone output
3. Standard non-proprietary Accessory shoe (That was aimed at you – Sony!)
4. Standard 43mm External Lens Thread (more to come on that in the future)
5. Last, but not least (in fact, most importantly) 24p!

Briefly, and semi-accurately, 24p is the film standard capture rate of 23.97 frames per second. As opposed to normal consumer camcorder capture rates of 29.97 frames per seconds, 24p gives the final footage that true “film look” lacking in other consumer camcorders. There’s a much longer, detailed, and incredibly boring explanation, but that’s the bottom line. 24p looks like film, not 24p doesn’t.

So, now that reasons for wanting this particular camera have been established, let me make up, er, list some reason why I should get it:

1. NeoZAZ needs to take the next step in its productions (Uh, sure – sounds good)
2. I’m buying into a production company that uses extremely high end equipment and having an HD camcorder as back in an emergency wouldn’t hurt (that’s legit)
3. The HV20 is no longer in production as the HV30 has been released and seeing as the only difference in the HV30 is that included 30p – a feature I’ve no interest in there’s no reason to buy, might as well buy the HV20 while the price is dropping to deplete inventory (Seriously legit reason)
4. Finally, it has the base line features I want (and would probably only ever actually know how to use) in a professional camera – and professional camera being at $4000 more than I paid for the HV20 and raise about $1000 more per model upgrade.

But as always when trying to get more than you paid for comes with a price. Luckily, this “price” is not monetary. The HV20 is still a consumer grade camcorder. Thus, all the controls at your finger tips are “point and shoot” in nature and user friendly. Meaning – all the things that I want this camera for are well hidden within its menus, sub-menus, external toggle switches that unlock more menus and submenus, and – well, you get the point. But, they are there. Even the 24p setting isn’t the easiest setting to find unless you’re really determined to find it. But again, it’s there, I found it and I’m loving it. The more I tweak the more I hope beyond hope the firmware doesn’t decided to spontaneously erase itself the next time I pick up the camera.

Perhaps the biggest draw back to the HV20, but not a deal breaker (obviously since I bought one) is that since it’s a consumer grade camcorder, it’s designed to hook up to an HDTV and start playing, not capture to a computer and edit into a feature length film. Because of that, the HV20 doesn’t something really annoying with the 24p footage, yet understandable from a consumer stand point – the final footage is converted with in the camera (which is actually pretty impressive) into 18 progressive frames with 12 interlaced frame inside a 60i stream – making it a 29.97 frame rate for playing directly on NTSC televisions. As annoying as that is, a software set for removing the “pulldown” is available (for free, thankfully) and the footage can be returned to its true 24p format. This in turn just about doubles capture portion of the workflow. So is it worth it? My best answer is I refer to “why to buy” reason number 4 where I point out the thousands of dollars I didn’t spend by buying this model.

But pictures speak louder than words, so maybe these “moving pictures” will better answer that question.

Here’s a few pieces of footage to compare. The first is the native HD settings. The second is the same footage re-shot in 24p – both from the HV20. Enjoy! (then 2 more I quick whipped together shortly after writing this up):

This Week in Quakertown – 3/7/08

Jack Cremo Jr. donates 31st gallon of blood (not really)

Having donated several gallons of blood myself, I must give props to Jack Cremo for donating over 30 gallons in his lifetime. He was prevented from donating a full 31 gallons because of a bout with prostate cancer. Just one pint shy of 31 gallons, Rosemary Leyland of the Red Cross donated the final pint in his name.

Church Has Comfy Chairs in the Foyer

Yup.

Volunteer Doctors Care for Uninsured

The best thing about this article is that one of the doctors is named Dr. Pagan. That is one of the coolest names ever. Reminds me of my friend Bill Moore who had a friend in college named Travis Doom. Travis got his PHd, just so he could be Dr. Doom. I think he had a cat named Impending, as well.

Quakertown High School Jazz Band Competes in Area Events

Attains “superior” rating, and Best Trombone Section.

I played trombone from fifth through 8th grade. (Flashback time – go get a beer) After that, I quit, for a couple reasons. 1) I didn’t like the new band director (the old band director, Mr. Rusin, was a blast, and he ended up playing piano in a local restaurant for a while), and 2) By that time I became aware that being in the band was not helping my social status at all. And while I wouldn’t say I was extremely conscious of that sort of thing, I did try to avoid some things that marked me as a Geek. Which is unfortunate, because looking back on it, I wish I had stuck with it for a while and become a better musician, even if it was on the trombone.

(The only reason I picked the trombone is the school had some extras lying around, so I wouldn’t have to buy one. I really wanted to play drums.)

In fact, now that I think about it, I was such a geek in high school that being in band couldn’t have hurt me in any way, and at least I would have probably made some more friends in the band. As it was, I:

• was smart
• read a lot
• played D&D
• was not good at sports
• didn’t drink or party
• was about fifty pounds overweight

So, we’re talking the bottom of the social strata here. The only folks below me were the guys who sniffed glue and smelled like urine all the time.

Sorry there’s no news about the strip club this week. I’ll try to find out what’s going on with it for next week.

Welcome, Matt

I’d like to formally welcome Matt to NeoZAZ, the Blog. And, well, it’s only fitting that he’s here, since he came up with the name “NeoZAZ” back when we started making movies together. Besides, at least for me, I’m always more creative with him around, so I’m hoping that having him contribute to this blog will encourage me to contribute more as well.

On that topic, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. My only excuse for that is that I moved, bought a house, started a new job, and just shipped my wife off to Belgium for six months. Now that everything has calmed down a bit, I hope to get back into posting more often.

Ideally, this blog will fold into the new-new-new redesigned NeoZAZ website, and it’ll be one-stop-shopping for all your Star Wars/Star Trek/HitchHiker’s-themed knock-offs and parodies.

In the meantime, here’s another LOLCat for your amusement:

Who Am I?

Not the philosophical discussion the title may have promised. Rather, a quick post to introduce myself to everyone that doesn’t know me and wonders why I’m intruding on Dave’s blog.

Long story short: I’m Matt. I’m the other half of NeoZAZ. I used to be the “East Coast half of NeoZAZ” but now that Dave’s back in PA, I guess I’m now the Southeast half of NeoZAZ. Orlando to be specific.

So the other philosophical sounding question of “Why Am I Here?” Now that Dave is in the same time zone, and mere 2 hour flight away, we’re sorting picking up where we left off about 16 years ago… or at least planning to.

I’ve started with overhauling NeoZAZ.com, and in an effort to keep my own personal motivation going I started my own Blog at 3AM to post changes, progress, news, etc. Since then Dave offered that I post that information on “Neozaz, The Blog” rather than us maintaining 2 separate sources of information.

So that’s what I’m doing… or will be doing. Or am doing now, I guess.

Short story that kinda ran long short: That’s who I am and what I’m doing here. You’ll probably find in the future that Dave will post way more information that I do, and that his articles are much easier to read with proper grammar and spelling.