Coolest thing I've seen all week: Google Earth.
3d maps of the planet (unfortunately, not in very high resolution for my house, but your results may vary).
Download it and play with it. It rocks.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Mo' music.
Quick one: here's the opening three minutes of music I did for a stop-motion version of Beowulf (4.2mb .mp3).
A bit rough, but I kind of like it. Wish I could afford a real orchestra.
Are any of you out there actually listening to these things I put up?
A bit rough, but I kind of like it. Wish I could afford a real orchestra.
Are any of you out there actually listening to these things I put up?
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Okay, so I think it's working...
Made the site (http://stouthouse.blogspot.com and http://www.stouthouse.org) true mirrors of each other... I think.
Let me know if there are any problems.
Edit: Didn't quite work, but at least the sites are somewhat synchronized now.
Let me know if there are any problems.
Edit: Didn't quite work, but at least the sites are somewhat synchronized now.
Hi, Joe!
Ever since my buddy Joe went to Las Vegas for a summer internship, I've been sending him pictures periodically of random people holding up signs that say "Hi, Joe!" because I'm weird like that.
And to show him that, despite his recent run of insanely good luck in life and love, he's still everybody's favorite guy.
Frickin' lucky bastid. Who says nice guys finish last?
Anyway, I'd like to encourage everyone to do the same. Shoot him your "random people holding 'Hi, Joe!' signs" pictures at joe.goble@gmail.com.
Yeah, I hooked him up with a gmail addy back in the day. What of it?
And to show him that, despite his recent run of insanely good luck in life and love, he's still everybody's favorite guy.
Frickin' lucky bastid. Who says nice guys finish last?
Anyway, I'd like to encourage everyone to do the same. Shoot him your "random people holding 'Hi, Joe!' signs" pictures at joe.goble@gmail.com.
Yeah, I hooked him up with a gmail addy back in the day. What of it?
Friday, June 24, 2005
Live music!
Oldies but goodies, from the hard drive at home:
We Never Know (2.1mb mp3)
Except the Smaller Size (1.3mb mp3)
A Night (2.8mb mp3)
These are live performances from my graduation recital back in 1998. Yes, I wrote 'em. Played piano, too. That's a slightly nervous Amanda Horton singing the soprano parts (don't blame her, I'd be nervous too if I had myself as an accompanist).
I've got this weird thing about setting Emily Dickinson poems to music... I was once called "Georgia Southern's leading feminist art song composer." Kinda ironic, really, given my history.
"A Night" is my favorite - it's Jake doing Sondheim.
We Never Know (2.1mb mp3)
Except the Smaller Size (1.3mb mp3)
A Night (2.8mb mp3)
These are live performances from my graduation recital back in 1998. Yes, I wrote 'em. Played piano, too. That's a slightly nervous Amanda Horton singing the soprano parts (don't blame her, I'd be nervous too if I had myself as an accompanist).
I've got this weird thing about setting Emily Dickinson poems to music... I was once called "Georgia Southern's leading feminist art song composer." Kinda ironic, really, given my history.
"A Night" is my favorite - it's Jake doing Sondheim.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Will I have to grow a moustache?
That's my little brother Ben on the right, wishing my dad a happy Father's Day in his own special way. If women are supposed to look like their mothers when they get older, does it work the same way for men?
If that's the case, am I screwed? Readers, comment on this - I know dad's one cool mofo, but I honestly have no frame of reference as to whether he's a good-looking guy or not.
Copyright Jake Hallman/all rights reserved
A wee Healy steals the show.
Fun moments as a photographer: watching the intern (pretty talented young writer, no joke), covering a drama camp at Georgia Southern University, start interviewing a youngster who just walks up and starts talking to her.
Intern: What's your name?
Kid: William.
Intern: Do you like playing a "swamp thing" in the play?
Kid: Yeah. It's fun.
Intern: Have you ever been in the newspaper before?
Kid: Not here.
Intern: What's your last name?
Kid: Healy.
Jake (elbowing Intern as recognition dawns in her eyes): That's the editor's middle son.
Copyright Jake Hallman/all rights reserved
Rabbits
More music: I got bored over Easter weekend. It's short - loop it loud.
In other news, Elohsa has linked my remix of their song "Overflowing" on their site.
In other news, Elohsa has linked my remix of their song "Overflowing" on their site.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Here's something I find useful.
Been to ourmedia.org? Free hosting forever for your multimedia files - that's your multimedia files, not your illicit .mp3 collection or... er... interesting movies.
I've got a ton of unfinished, close-to-finished and abandoned work on the hard drive at home. In addition to being a nifty offsite backup, I think I'll start making them accessible to all of yas.
To start with, here's the (unfinished) 'Boro theme (1 meg or so .mp3) - the inimitable Brady was going to create either a TV show, short film, feature movie, music video, graphic novel, screenplay, weekly entertainment newspaper, radio drama or improvisational theater piece, depending on when and where you spoke with him about a year ago.
Seems like nothing panned out for him, but somewhere in the process I did a little music at his request. It's rough, but kind of catchy, with a serious Ren and Stimpy influence.
Oh, and lest I forget - here's some of my old stuff. Ignore the picture of me in vinyl pants.
I've got a ton of unfinished, close-to-finished and abandoned work on the hard drive at home. In addition to being a nifty offsite backup, I think I'll start making them accessible to all of yas.
To start with, here's the (unfinished) 'Boro theme (1 meg or so .mp3) - the inimitable Brady was going to create either a TV show, short film, feature movie, music video, graphic novel, screenplay, weekly entertainment newspaper, radio drama or improvisational theater piece, depending on when and where you spoke with him about a year ago.
Seems like nothing panned out for him, but somewhere in the process I did a little music at his request. It's rough, but kind of catchy, with a serious Ren and Stimpy influence.
Oh, and lest I forget - here's some of my old stuff. Ignore the picture of me in vinyl pants.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
I'm an old, average gamer, it seems.
(yet another column)
I looked forward to interviewing Matthew Gibson of Portal. You can read the big story here, but, at the tender age of 18 he was one of 13 finalists who beat out more than 36,000 competitors to compete for the title of...
Wait for it...
Wait...
"Pokemon Emerald Ultimate Frontier Battle Brain."
No kidding. Thing is, Matthew's living proof of a way the entertainment world is changing. Chances are that if you're over 30 you picture video games as "kid stuff."
You're wrong. I used to think that at 28 I was a relative oddity - sitting at home I have, almost in order, an Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, N64, Dreamcast, GameCube and Playstation 2.
The Genesis died long ago, and I won't have any more Microsoft in the house than is necessary.
The thing is, all my friends also have PS2s, Xboxes or Gamecubes at their houses. And they're getting ancient like me. I grew up making the transition from Atari's Pac-Man, Pitfall and (may God have mercy on my soul) E.T. to the NES' Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers 2 in middle school.
High school brought the Sega cocktail of Sonic the Hedgehog, Starflight and Street Fighter II. My college years were consumed by a heady mix of Final Fantasy VII on Playstation and Goldeneye (and later Perfect Dark) on N64.
Now it's Mortal Kombat: Deception and GTA: San Andreas on the PS2 and my long-running and continuing addiction to Counter-Strike and Star Wars Galaxies on my home PC.
What's the point of the list? I actually remember each of these titles vividly, down to the most minute detail. I can recall the thrill of lasting for the entire 20 minutes on Pitfall. I can play the final music from SMB2 on piano.
I nearly cried when Aerith kicked the bucket in Final Fantasy, and some of the best times of my college career were spent at Bermuda Run's apartment L2 having the Brennaman boyz hand me my tail in Goldeneye.
They were defining moments for me, like when Grandma saw "Gone with the Wind" or when my father caught Three Dog Night at the Flame. Lots of my brain's "happy place" is filled with video games.
I'm not alone, either, though I thought I was for the longest time. Turns out that average age of video game players is 29, and the average buyer is 36 according to a study put out last year.
I'm not going to fight it any more. Video games are perfectly cool - and the gaming population is only going to get older with me.
When somebody asks me if I watched "Survivor," I'm going to tell them the truth. No, I wasn't watching the History Channel, I was working out the intricacies of Nightwolf's second style-branching combo to whoop up on people in Kombat.
I looked forward to interviewing Matthew Gibson of Portal. You can read the big story here, but, at the tender age of 18 he was one of 13 finalists who beat out more than 36,000 competitors to compete for the title of...
Wait for it...
Wait...
"Pokemon Emerald Ultimate Frontier Battle Brain."
No kidding. Thing is, Matthew's living proof of a way the entertainment world is changing. Chances are that if you're over 30 you picture video games as "kid stuff."
You're wrong. I used to think that at 28 I was a relative oddity - sitting at home I have, almost in order, an Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, N64, Dreamcast, GameCube and Playstation 2.
The Genesis died long ago, and I won't have any more Microsoft in the house than is necessary.
The thing is, all my friends also have PS2s, Xboxes or Gamecubes at their houses. And they're getting ancient like me. I grew up making the transition from Atari's Pac-Man, Pitfall and (may God have mercy on my soul) E.T. to the NES' Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers 2 in middle school.
High school brought the Sega cocktail of Sonic the Hedgehog, Starflight and Street Fighter II. My college years were consumed by a heady mix of Final Fantasy VII on Playstation and Goldeneye (and later Perfect Dark) on N64.
Now it's Mortal Kombat: Deception and GTA: San Andreas on the PS2 and my long-running and continuing addiction to Counter-Strike and Star Wars Galaxies on my home PC.
What's the point of the list? I actually remember each of these titles vividly, down to the most minute detail. I can recall the thrill of lasting for the entire 20 minutes on Pitfall. I can play the final music from SMB2 on piano.
I nearly cried when Aerith kicked the bucket in Final Fantasy, and some of the best times of my college career were spent at Bermuda Run's apartment L2 having the Brennaman boyz hand me my tail in Goldeneye.
They were defining moments for me, like when Grandma saw "Gone with the Wind" or when my father caught Three Dog Night at the Flame. Lots of my brain's "happy place" is filled with video games.
I'm not alone, either, though I thought I was for the longest time. Turns out that average age of video game players is 29, and the average buyer is 36 according to a study put out last year.
I'm not going to fight it any more. Video games are perfectly cool - and the gaming population is only going to get older with me.
When somebody asks me if I watched "Survivor," I'm going to tell them the truth. No, I wasn't watching the History Channel, I was working out the intricacies of Nightwolf's second style-branching combo to whoop up on people in Kombat.
Bush and the British
(I realized that I haven't been posting my columns... Here goes!)
(oh, and this is another one of the "Faceoff" columns - click for Holli's opposing view)
What will it take? What will finally make President Bush have to own up to lying to get us into a war? What will it take for those who support him unquestioningly to start thinking a little bit about their man?
Maybe a White House tape, a la Nixon, with Bush admitting his administration was going to go to war, no matter what reasons they had to make up? Not a "smoking gun" memo from the head of British Intelligence, that's for sure.
Not that war with Iraq was a surprise. It's been a matter of record for years now that Bush and company were bucking for war with Iraq before he was even elected. When he ignored warnings from his predecessor's staff and dropped the ball on Osama bin Laden, it was a simple matter to tie in the unplanned War on Terror (no, I'm not suggesting a 9-11 conspiracy) with existing plans to topple Saddam Hussein.
And what of that British memo, the one that's the minutes of a July, 2002 meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his security advisors? It plainly states that the Bush administration had decided to go to war, and was "fixing the intelligence and facts" to support that decision.
That's from our staunchest ally, folks. Blair met with Bush at his Crawford, Texas ranch, and was told, in no uncertain terms, that we were going in. Weapons inspectors or no. Hussein complies with the U.N. or no. We're Americans, and we're going to kick some butt!
Except that 1,500 of our finest have paid with their lives. The revelations that our own inspectors called off the search after not finding any weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the stated (and false) rationale for going to war, registered barely a blip in the news.
Being wrong is one thing - not that the president's ever apologized for a the huge error, or any error for that matter. Making up a threat from whole cloth is an entirely different matter, one that more and more people are finding just as impeachable as lying about oral sex.
"Liberal media" indeed. I think I may be the only one, and I confine my views to this page. And before you start calling Soundoff and saying "Clinton thought Saddam had smallpox, too!" keep in mind this - he never sent us to war against them. Nobody came home in a flag-draped coffin.
The biggest irony of it all? The war may have put the capacity for WMDs in the hands of "evil-doers." According to Friday's news reports, there are sites in Iraq that had machinery that could be used for WMDs that now don't. They're empty, looted.
"My Bush, right or wrong"-ers, hush up. This isn't proof that Iraq had WMDs. Let's do some thinking and analysis (y'know, what should have been done pre-war).
The stuff was under U.N. seal. The Iraqis weren't touching it. Unfortunately, U.S. forces didn't secure these sites.
Worst case scenario: this equipment is now in the free and clear, being used for Very Bad Things. Best (and hopefully most likely) case: it's been broken into scrap to pay for a meal for some starving Iraqi.
But all that happens in the real world, where the "waning" Iraqi insurgency has killed 80 U.S. soldiers and 700 of their countrymen last month. Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, a Republican said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is misleading the public about the insurgency's strength, by the way.
Repeating lies doesn't make them true, except maybe in the fantasy land that much of the country's descended into.
(oh, and this is another one of the "Faceoff" columns - click for Holli's opposing view)
What will it take? What will finally make President Bush have to own up to lying to get us into a war? What will it take for those who support him unquestioningly to start thinking a little bit about their man?
Maybe a White House tape, a la Nixon, with Bush admitting his administration was going to go to war, no matter what reasons they had to make up? Not a "smoking gun" memo from the head of British Intelligence, that's for sure.
Not that war with Iraq was a surprise. It's been a matter of record for years now that Bush and company were bucking for war with Iraq before he was even elected. When he ignored warnings from his predecessor's staff and dropped the ball on Osama bin Laden, it was a simple matter to tie in the unplanned War on Terror (no, I'm not suggesting a 9-11 conspiracy) with existing plans to topple Saddam Hussein.
And what of that British memo, the one that's the minutes of a July, 2002 meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his security advisors? It plainly states that the Bush administration had decided to go to war, and was "fixing the intelligence and facts" to support that decision.
That's from our staunchest ally, folks. Blair met with Bush at his Crawford, Texas ranch, and was told, in no uncertain terms, that we were going in. Weapons inspectors or no. Hussein complies with the U.N. or no. We're Americans, and we're going to kick some butt!
Except that 1,500 of our finest have paid with their lives. The revelations that our own inspectors called off the search after not finding any weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the stated (and false) rationale for going to war, registered barely a blip in the news.
Being wrong is one thing - not that the president's ever apologized for a the huge error, or any error for that matter. Making up a threat from whole cloth is an entirely different matter, one that more and more people are finding just as impeachable as lying about oral sex.
"Liberal media" indeed. I think I may be the only one, and I confine my views to this page. And before you start calling Soundoff and saying "Clinton thought Saddam had smallpox, too!" keep in mind this - he never sent us to war against them. Nobody came home in a flag-draped coffin.
The biggest irony of it all? The war may have put the capacity for WMDs in the hands of "evil-doers." According to Friday's news reports, there are sites in Iraq that had machinery that could be used for WMDs that now don't. They're empty, looted.
"My Bush, right or wrong"-ers, hush up. This isn't proof that Iraq had WMDs. Let's do some thinking and analysis (y'know, what should have been done pre-war).
The stuff was under U.N. seal. The Iraqis weren't touching it. Unfortunately, U.S. forces didn't secure these sites.
Worst case scenario: this equipment is now in the free and clear, being used for Very Bad Things. Best (and hopefully most likely) case: it's been broken into scrap to pay for a meal for some starving Iraqi.
But all that happens in the real world, where the "waning" Iraqi insurgency has killed 80 U.S. soldiers and 700 of their countrymen last month. Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, a Republican said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is misleading the public about the insurgency's strength, by the way.
Repeating lies doesn't make them true, except maybe in the fantasy land that much of the country's descended into.
Friday, June 03, 2005
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