Kitty

Awesome cat from Alex's house in the south bay. I used Ans's 55-250mm lens for this, and it rocks.

IMDB page update

Looks like my IMDB has now been updated with Transformers 2! Frickin' sweeeeeeet!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2867705/

Sincerely,
Mr. "Holy crap this is exciting"

Transformers 2 Box Office!!

This is awesome, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, Transformers 2 has tied with The Dark Night for 1st place in the "Fastest Movie to hit $200 Million" in the Domestic (USA) Box Office... in only 5 days! Amazing news.

The domestic total is estimated at just over $201M - it had an amazing opening weekend!! I saw it in IMAX over the weekend with my friends and MAN it is so good in IMAX. Devastator is mind-blowingly impressive!!

For more details check out BoxOfficeMojo's Transformers 2 page here.

Matt and I on the G4 site for Lucasfilm's Comic-Con Panel

G4 To Broadcast Lucasfilm's Comic-Con Panel

My buddy Matt and I are featured on this website video! Check out the article, and here's the embedded video below.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/696821/G4-To-Broadcast-Lucasfilms-Comic-Con-Panel.html

And check out the video here!

Video Games - E3 2009 - ComicCon

I'm in the credits for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen!

This is AMAZING NEWS.

Now that the movie is out I wanted to make it public to all my friends... I'm in the credits for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen!!!!!!!!

Keep an eye out for my name after the "Visual Effects by Industrial Light and Magic" title credit, under Research & Development!

This is really awesome. I've just about hit my 2-year anniversary of working at ILM, and over the past couple of years I've been doing some fantastically exciting software development as part of the Animation and Creature Pipeline Development team in the Research and Development department at ILM. It was a dream come true to start working at ILM, and it continues to be absolutely incredible to work with such a talented and brilliant group of engineers and artists. Transformers 2 was really exciting to have the opportunity to contribute to, especially because of some of the amazing achievements that Michael Bay lists here on his website.

I'll be posting lots more articles as they come up. The movie is AWESOME. I gotta catch it in IMAX too (if I can still get tickets for this weekend!). Ahhhhhh maaaaaaan it is so amazing!! The effects and sound and action will knock your frickin' socks off.

Transformers 2: Final Theatrical Trailer

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (Final Theatrical Trailer) from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Sci-Fi Wire article: "How the giant-robot F/X in Transformers 2 nearly broke ILM. Seriously"

Sci-Fi Wire article: "How the giant-robot F/X in Transformers 2 nearly broke ILM. Seriously"

http://scifiwire.com/2009/06/how-the-giant-robot-fx-in.php

Becca's Bday

A couple weekends back we hung out in Delores Park for Becca and Leah's combined birthdays. It was frickin' amazing, great food, great weather, awesome people... just glorious. A perfect weekend for a picnic (and drinking wine in the middle of the day) :)

Dave

Birthday girl

Leah always posing for the camera :)

Lucas homeys

"Hey, I wanna play too!"

Chillin' at lunch

Good times

BRufs: pensive edition. Either she's busy contemplating the social order of the universe... or she didn't know I was taking a photo. :)

No idea what is going on here

Posing for a photo like it's 1985

Another dog stealing our lunch

Sweet Delores Park awesomeness!

Video Blog: Bike riders along Cherry Creek

My first HD video from my Canon Rebel T1i camera. Took a break from biking on the sidewalk along cherry creek, south of downtown Denver.

(Press the "HD" button for HD Playback). Btw it looks better if you go to the actual YouTube site and press "HD" there - then you get full 720p resolution. Sweet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRjkdCOffTY

New Transformers2 TV Spots

These are AMAZING.

I just watched the 10 or so TV spots on Michael Bay's website for Transformers2.... oh maaaaaaaan!!!!!!! These are SO awesome.

These are 2 of my favourites:

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen "Drums" from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen "Bumblebee" from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Stats from Michael Bay's website

Thought this was pretty cool, some interesting stats from Michael Bay's website about Transformers2: http://www.michaelbay.com/newsblog/files/3e4c18d680b4b259ce0c3c8b0566ace4-521.html

iPhone 3.0 update, Google calendar sync

This is siiiiiiiiiiiiiick.

So I just downloaded iPhone OS 3.0 for my iPod Touch 2nd Gen and at first I thought, "well, I guess it's cool, the search seems kinda nice..." and then I started to see the hidden power of it.

There are some MAJOR awesome new features, like you turn the stock app sideways and get a whole new interface. Lots of other great stuff like that too. By far the awesomest thing I've seen (other than copy paste, which is GREAT and will be really useful... also pretty slick interface too)... is the push notification for Google Calendar. I didn't know this was possible... I've now got Push sync hooking up my Google Calendar to my iPod via Microsoft Exchange?!! Crazy. So what does this mean? Well, it's basically sorting out my calendar in the same way as the sync between my ToDo GTD app <-> Toodledo web service. So, like when I add todo items in ToDo, they then sync to my online account at Toodledo (and vice-versa). This is ideal so I can add stuff when I am online at work or something, and know that it will always reliably make it back to my iPod. The same now is true with my calendar. They also WAY UPGRADED the calendar. It is now WAY slicker than before, and a lot closer to the Google Calendar, which I love.

One of the main points of GTD is that you're supposed to really rely on your calendar... day/time-specific actions have to be on there and you are supposed to stick to those come rain or shine. It's very important to have "trust" in the items on your calendar, and now that I can have an "offline" version on my iPod that will re-sync itself to my Google Calendar whenver I'm on WiFi... oh man that is sweet. It's great that it's a SYNC too, so it's a 2-way communication... meaning I can make changes on either the App or on Google Calendar online and they will stay in sync with each other. Amazing!

So the bells and whistles are cool and all, but the really cool stuff in iPhone OS 3.0 is lurking under the surface... and it's name is "Push and Exchange Syncing!" Fancy business.

Also, copy paste is hottttttt.

Stephen Colbert in the White House

This is hilarious. This is Stephen Colbert recording the segment with Obama at the White House, so cool! This was shown last week on Colbert's show when he was actually recording from the Middle East. Pretty cool that Obama would do this, and the segment was really funny.

"Which DMB song are you" results

This was funny, I did a "Which DMB song are you" quiz on Facebook and the answer is pretty true-to-life, crazy!! I got "Ants Marching" which is funny, the description is a little too close for comfort :) (and I hope I don't "miss out on EVERYTHING that life outside of work has to offer"?!?!)

Funny though, I was on the fence about a few answers so I tried again and I got #41, that result is kinda close too, minus a few parts (and the introverted part, hehe)... anyway, very interesting!!

Ants Marching
You're a go-getter, a work-a-holic and you're dedicated to your work in life! You put 100% towards everything you take on. You're goal-oriented, success driven and motivated. You have little time for relationships since you're out there making a difference and getting yourself noticed in the professional world. Because of your life style, you take your chances, and put them away till' a quieter time. You miss out on everything that life outside work as to offer.

#41
You have been heartbroken before by friends, significant others, and other people you care about. All you ever want out of life is for people to be loyal to you and see you for who you are. You love to stay, play and love with all of your soul. You're a dreamer, and a wisher, and an introvert. You'll go in one way, and find your own way out with time. You're strong, determined, but easily hurt.

At the ball game :-)

Go Giants!

I'm a model, you know what I mean

Final photo class, pictures of me and other photo class students.

Photos by Mark James

Final photo class

Last week was our final photo class. Here are some of the best (and funniest) photos from the class. We had a couple of lighting setups and took turns posing as models and then taking photos.

And I've got a few here at the end of work at the Palace of Fine Arts at sunset. After taking photos there I missed my bus and then cabbed to Will's apartment for some crossbow Wii videogaming.

Charlie Rose: Dave Matthews interview

Haven't had a chance to watch this yet but I bet it's frickin' amazing.

New Facebook direct site, busy week

Facebook is handing out usernames tonight, so managed to score the necessary one: http://www.facebook.com/jutanclan
Booyah.

Man what a busy week. Life is great. Things are really busy at work but man it is totally freakin' amazing. Haven't blogged in a week!

Just graduated from Joel's photo class at work, which is sad (cause they rocked) but good (cause I feel like I've learned a lot)! I'll post some photos from the lighting lab we had during the last class... got a couple good ones in there I think.

Otherwise, all is good. Gonna spend some time chillin' this weekend, I need it. I had a very busy couple of weeks and I could really use some classic ferry building time. :)

Also this weekend I'm gonna spend some time finishing up the GTD book and then getting some HUGE amounts of todo stuff planned out, prioritized and added to my iPhone App which will get me on track for taking care of a bazillion things around the apartment.

Jimmy Fallon: Dave Matthews Band GPS

This is hilarious.

Photo class entry - "The Decisive Moment"

For Photo Class this week, we had to take a photo of "The Decisive Moment" - trying to capture something not staged and "in the moment". I caught the perfect shot in Denver this weekend, and it has a super hilarious story to go with it...



Hilarious story about this one: So, I was getting my settings right and taking a few shots of Union Station in downtown Denver. Then as I am taking a shot, I see one bus come by and another one coming the other way! "Sweet!" I say, as I get ready to take the shot (actually it came out pretty well - but I'm submitting another one). I thought I was being oh-so cool and ironic by taking a photo of 2 buses with a train station behind sadly emblazoned with a "Travel By Train!" tagline.

About 1 minute later, I'm getting ready to take another bus-in-front-of-train-station photo, and I hear a "coming in front of you" from stage left. Thinking nothing of it (and presuming it was a jogger), I say "No worries" and slowly look up... and it's a guy on an absurdly large 1800's frickin' pennyfarthing biking by?!?!?! What the?!??!?! I snap 2 photos as quick as I can, and the 2nd one (this one) he ends up right in the 1/3rd. I chose that position to take photos of Union Station because I liked all the repeating shapes and the angle, the blue sky and matching orange lettering... but the biggest surprise was the really old-school bike. I snapped the photos and then burst out laughing. As I walked away... I was thinking to myself... "wow... I sure didn't see THAT coming... talk about a decisive moment!"

I think it's so absurdly weird and hilarious that he biked by JUST as I was taking my photo and aiming for some random, unexpected moment like this. This was such a lucky moment, I wasn't even going to walk that way through downtown! A few minutes before I was waiting for a bus to go the other way, and decided to wander more and take a couple photos from the front of the building... and look where it took me!

A Day in Denver: Biking, Architecture, and awesome

Although we arrived back in Denver late (like 8:30pm) and I hadn't eaten dinner yet, I REALLY wanted to try out the hotel's rooftop pool (which closed at 10pm). So I headed up there to scope it out. The view was so cool I ran back to my room, threw on my bathing suit and ran back up there. I dove right into the pool, and did a few laps, enjoyed the scenery... and then 5 minutes later grabbed a towel and dripped my way on the elevator back to my floor, joking with everyone on the elevator. :) Good choice to check out the pool, definitely! Then took off for some steak dinner at a restaurant that Ted Turner owns called, creatively, "Ted's Steaks". It was great.

Sunday I took it a bit easier, though I still fit in a LOT. I started the day by buying another memory card for my camera (grand total over 2 days? 841 photos!) and then to the Tattered Cover, a cool old bookstore. I got a ridiculously good cherry pie there. Then adventured around, took a bunch of photos, and found out that 1/2 of Denver bikes around town on the weekend. There was a Starbucks with literally 300 bikes parked around it, and attached to an REI outdoor store with people rock climbing inside. I went straight up to the customer service dude and asked him where I could rent a bike. He pointed me down the street somewhere, and I ended up renting a "cruiser bike", and cruised along city bike paths along South Platte River. Then I went around Confluence Park, and biked all the way down the Cherry Creek Trail from Confluence Park to the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

I biked back to the bike rental place, and spent the rest of the day taking more photos before heading back to the airport and back to San Francisco. What a great weekend!

A few details:

Confluence Park: Denver was founded at this site; today, kayaks can be seen in the man-made rapids of the park. Nearby is My Brother’s Bar, the only bar still operating that was once frequented by Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and others from the Beat Generation. Elitch Gardens Theme Park, the Downtown Aquarium, the Children’s Museum and INVESCO Field at Mile High are all located along the bike path.

and about Cherry Creek Trail:

Cherry Creek Bike Path
This paved trail begins where Denver was first founded and runs along the creek for more than 40 miles to Franktown. It is one of the most popular bike/hike/jogging trails in Denver and one of the prettiest. Parts of it comprise the Front Range Trail, an off-road bike path that will eventually stretch the entire north-south length of Colorado, from the Wyoming border to New Mexico.

Hotel rooftop pool at night

I had dinner on Larimer St in the "LoDo" (Lower Downtown) district

Steak

Horse carriage outside of... The Cheesecake Factory?!

View from my room during the day

The Brown Palace, a really old hotel in Denver

Inside the Brown Palace

Funniest public washrooms ever

This pie was SO GOOD

At the Tattered Cover book store

Tattered Cover sign

More old buildings in LoDo

This old building is now a bar and restaurant

Legendary "Rockmount" cowboy shirts

Inside Rockmount Store

Sweet hats

Shirts

These were really cool

Union Station

Ice House

A family of mennonites arriving in Denver

Inside the train station, a lone mennonite girl and boy off on a train trip

Skateboarders

Busses and Union Station

This is my "decisive moment" photo entry for Photo Class! Another post about this photo will follow this posting.

Structures

Crazy bridge

Loved the architecture in Colorado

Sweet bridge and bike paths

Amazing places to bike

People enjoying the nice weather

Biking along Cherry Creek

Sweet "Cruiser Bike" that I rented

Being artsy (and taking a break from biking)

More bikers

"Obama Stadium" again

Sweet clouds all the time

And finally... the FANCIEST McDONALDS I've ever been into. Flatscreen TVs, news and stock updates, relaxing music playing, scenes of Colorado playing on some of the TVs, sweet furniture, couches/lounge... just insane! Colorado, you are awesome.