The Life of Reidy

Most people who know me well know that I can not stand things to be messy, so I'm pretty much cleaning my rooms up every other chance I can get. Sometimes it can be a hassle though, especially if you are like me and have a very hectic and busy life. This may seem like something from the future, but now there's these awesome little robots out there that can actually make vacuuming fun again and leave your place clean without you barely having to lift a finger! I don't know how many of you have actually heard about the ROOMBA vacuums and Scuba Floor Robots, but are these little devices that seem to have minds of their own because you set them to clean up at specific times and they do the work for you, ultimately making for easier housework and very little hassle on your part. They have them at those neat little gadget stores in the mall sometimes, and not only are they highly effective in action, but these bad boys look like they just jumped out of the Jetsons or something. I'm sure eventually we'll just have one of those maids they had, along with any sort of future cleaning products these innovative companies might come up with. I'm always skeptical to think that the future will never quite look like the opening of Back To The Future Part 2, but then I see gadgets like this that leave me with quite a strong impression, so I start to think that maybe there is hope! Anyone else seen any cool, futuristic conviniences around these days?

I've been a fan of bit torrenting for quite sometime now, it pretty much is any internet downloader's dream if you can figure out how to utilize it to it's fullest potential. However I just read an article recently that tells me that my favorite torrent client, Azureus, is actually becoming more and more inferior because it uses Java. I remember back in the day when I first started web designing, Java was the big thing. It's funny how in just a few years such a technology can become so obsolete and replaced by newer, simplier things.

The article argued that Java is the root of the programs sluggish times as well as it's heavy traffic loads and compatiability issues, which are all very apparent. But I don't feel that there is an application that gets the job done better, despite all of the problems with Azureus. If anyone knows of anything, please let me know. I have a very open mind.

I have always had my dream business to manage a record store that was also a coffee house with a jam space all mixed into one. It would pretty much be the ideal place for any music junkie to hit up. Since it utilizes all three of the ideal places that these music lovers would go to, I would have some sort of tri-force seal as a logo on my business checks and of course for the store/coffee house/jame space signs itself, not to mention the t-shirts and other coll products I could whip out. The tri-force logo design is still in the visionary stages, it would have to be small enough, yet suggestive and effective for what the place's purpose is. Not to mention I have to make it look professional enough so people don't pass the place off as some sort of cheap business chachkas. The merchendising and advertising possibilities around my tri-force idea would be limitless, all I need to do now is think of a snazzy name for it, and obviously a fine location for this most excellent establishment to be. But hey, that's why these sort of things start out in the dream phases, right?

I'm still in the fence of deciding whether napping really is a good thing or not. Last night I was so beat an exhausted from a long day of work but I knew I have mroe homework and a rehersal to do, so I crashed for about an hour. I didn't actually sleep, and I don't think I actually felt any better then I did before. It was nice at the time to just stop thinking for a while and lie down, but I didn't truly feel any better until I actually slept for a good seven hours the whole night through. Now I feel like I am in tip-top shape, and it makes me wonder if I should ever bother napping again.

Long story short kids: a good night sleep is the only way to go. It's a shame that there aren't always enough hours in the day to do all that we have to do however, but there really is no denying it. It keeps our bodies healthy, active, and immune to those things that can really bring us down.

I'm telling you folks, there are some job interviews out there that can either be the easiest thing in the world or the toughest task you've ever faced. Most of the retail jobs I've interviewed for have been pretty simple because I'm an actor and I am used to simply advertising myself. However, when I go for an interview with these office related jobs that require me to express my skills and abilities it helps to have a few interviewing techniques under the belt so you don't get overwhelmed in the pressure of the moment. Because with jobs like that it's not always easy to keep organizing yourself in the office when you get task after task, and I know with my job everytime I come on for office hours there is just a pile of things in my inbox to take care of. So when you interview, you have to express that you can have those good organizational skills on top of the other things you do in an office setting, such as making copies or working on the internet. That's what I feel like you need to comvey in those interviews, it helps to go in with a good clear mind to show that you are not only just a cool person, but someone they want working around in their office. No pressure though, right?

Today in my film class, we really played around with the studio's chroma keys so we can do a most excellent weather and traffic report. It's a pretty fun tool to utuilize in film, but theres a lot of parameters to be worked out. First of all, we don't have a green screen so we have to use a blue curtain, and pull it back as tight as possible so that the wrinkles do not show up in the background. Secondly, the lighting is kind of nightmarish because we have to use a lot of extreme backlight on the blue curtain while at the same time keeping a nice even balance for the actor in from of it.

Then theres the problems with adjusting the gamma difference and making sure the actor appears and the background looks like it is actually there as opposed to being slightly faded. For example, Paul was doing some blue screen work today but he was wearing a blue hat, a sweatshirt with blue writing on it, and he has blue eyes. So basically, we could see through the letters on the shirt, his head looked like it was half cut off, and through his eyes you could see the background image. Kind of funny, but overall unproductive in terms of what we were trying to achieve.

It sure is a lot of work and detail, but hopefully the end product will justify the means.