William Matheson's Journal
Oct. 22nd, 2009
09:49 pm - Replay for Baseball
Here's how you do it:OK, first let's establish that the strike zone is not up for review. That would get ridiculous. Also "did he swing or not?" The fuzziness of that stuff is kind of part of baseball tradition anyway. Unless you want to take away the home plate umpire entirely and use a machine? Yeah, I don't think anybody but me would even entertain that notion for a nanosecond. [Well, actually, people are starting to talk about this now! We have the technology! It'd be cool to see what would happen if balls and strikes were even 95% consistent with the rules, and I don't think they're even close to that now. My hunch is that it would favour the batters.] And how can a machine call a pitcher for a balk? [The answer here is that the computers call balls and strikes, but the officials watch for the other, more qualitative stuff.]
Like the NFL: A challenge system! With limits - let's say each manager gets two.
Not like the NFL: Don't put the head umpire in a little booth behind a curtain.
Instead, like the NHL: The umpire calls a video review headquarters, where a special unit handles the review. Don't make the umpires watch screens - take it out of the ballpark entirely.
Also like the NHL, the general rule is: If not conclusive, the ruling on the field stands.
Also, the umpires should have the power to invoke a review if there are differing opinions among them.
Make a list of what's reviewable and what's not. Safe or out at bases absolutely must be included, as fair / foul will probably be, and home run / not already is.
People are saying it would make baseball games even longer, and while that is nominally true, I sincerely doubt you would see this system abused - it most likely won't even be used every game. Managers won't issue pointless challenges - they probably won't issue any unless a team employee watching the broadcast calls down and lets him know about something the umpires may have gotten wrong.
Now, what happens in cases where play continued / would have continued after the disputed call? This could get messy, but a careful set of rules could take care of most of the permutations. We already have a "ground rule double," where if a ball bounces into the stands off the field, it counts for two bases. Similarly, things could be judged as "that should have been a out / single / double / triple," whatever.
It won't be perfect, and there will still be mistakes. In fact, as it is in the NHL and any sports league, not every game is equally televised - or televised at all! For instance, the net cam in the NHL only comes out in certain games, IIRC. But more often than not, the right calls will be made.
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chipperMay. 16th, 2009
04:02 am - Play him off, keyboard cat.
I just discovered the keyboard cat meme today. Inspiration struck, and instead of going to sleep or working on precal, I mashed and uploaded this new epic, high-resolution masterpiece.
I may go back to this again someday - I only have Windows Movie Maker at the moment, as Premiere was taking up too much space on my computer. I'd like to time the impacts a little more accurately.
Inside the box is fellow CPA alumni Kevin Richter. I neither shot the original video nor witnessed this taking place, but I hear it was a real hit.
(Rocketboom has an interview with Brad O'Farrell, the person who made the original mashup. Failblog.org put out a few, too, like this.)
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tiredJan. 6th, 2009
12:46 am - New MacBook Wheel
Apple has unveiled a brand-new MacBook - the Wheel!
This makes the Air and the whole class of Netbooks go the way of the dodo.
amusedOct. 30th, 2008
06:44 pm - Obama, Zima, Peanuts
I heard Zima was being yanked, so I bought some tonight. I hadn't tried it before. It's OK. It's got a cool name and was a part of popular culture for a while (the item on this list that gets my attention was its mention on Babylon 5). [The problem with Babylon 5 is that it's so good that it spoiled my appetite for just about anything else on TV. These days I only bother to watch sports and news, which are the only things that need to be watched live.]
Now I'm trying a Smirnoff Ice, which is quite different here (and in the US) - it's a malt beverage (like Zima), not a vodka mix. It's got a "thicker" taste, and it's kind of like a weak chu-hi.
I was eating some peanuts today, and I was eating them in their shells. Unfortunately, the last one I popped in my mouth was kind of dirty, and it kind of left a filthy taste. Anyway, the shells are a good source of salt and fiber I suppose. =)
Finally, Obama aired his 27-minute ad this morning on three of the four major broadcast networks. It's uplifting and inspiring, if melodramatic. I almost would have preferred a straight-up 30-minute speech, and that was what I was kind of expecting - something like a Presidential address. (They did cut the closing of a rally in Florida [play the second video on that page] at the end of it, though.) In other news, the Phillies won the World Series. That's too bad, because I was hoping for weekend morning baseball, but it actually is OK because I may be going camping with the gang instead. No writing for me I guess!
Diversions:
1. In The Know: Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized? (The Onion - Video)
2. McCain Pollster: "Too Close to Call" (CQ Politics) - Putting the poll numbers aside, it's amazing how much McCain's crew hold their own supporters in contempt:
The race has moved significantly over the past week, closing to essentially tied on the last two-day roll. These gains are coming from sub-groups it should be possible to sustain over the next week, including:
- Non-college men;
- Rural voters, both men and women;
- Right-to-life voters; and most encouragingly;
- We are beginning to once again get over a 20% chunk of the vote among soft Democrats.
Importantly as well, our long identified target of "Walmart women" - those women without a college degree in households under $60,000 a year in income are also swinging back solidly in our direction.
Wow, the poor and un/under-educated are turning out in record numbers for you. (Subtext: because they're not yet equipped with the intellectual resources to know that you're lying to them.) Way to go, McCain!
I expected better.
goodSep. 30th, 2008
08:50 pm - My Turn with Your Turn
CBC invited the party leaders to come in and sit with Peter Mansbridge for an hour to answer questions sent in by citizens across the country.
Jack Layton came on two weeks ago:
Your Turn with Jack Layton
Instead of being more impressed with the NDP, I became more skeptical. Of course, I had just seen a CBC feature on his association with 9/11 "Truthers." To put it simply, I'm skeptical that he's skeptical enough. I don't want to vote for a party with a leader who's ready to indulge every codswallop coping mechanism for reality that comes along. And this makes me wonder about each and every one of his candidates, because they have chosen to follow him. So, no thanks. I'll wait for the second coming of Alexa.
I admit that I wasn't part of the Bush administration, nor am I Jewish. I am not willing to waste spend time refuting their individual claims - like Phil Plait has done for the claims that the USAmericans never went to the moon. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - the burden of proof should be on the conspiracy claimants. And these days, if they struck something truly compelling, it's not like they couldn't just expose everything on the internet, unless they were based in PRChina or something. (And they couldn't get away with the relatively banal act of lip-syncing. There is no government and media conspiracy - they're not that competent.)
Getting back to his appearance on Your Turn, I felt that some of his answers were simplistic. But his appearance is still morally superior to Harper's, whose representatives have announced that he will not be participating in the "Your Turn" format. (No, that would be giving his opponents legitimacy in their condescension.)
It's a slap in the face, really. Blue-sweatered fireside chats my a**. He's the same arrogant prod he's always been! And he runs the most secretive government in living memory. He's a one man show. The Liberals and others actually make decisions in caucus; he dictates. (After they win the election, though, I will enumerate several of his actions and initiatives of which I approve, just so it's not all doom and gloom. And it's not. We can live our lives just fine in spite of the present government.)
Elizabeth May appeared last night:
Your Turn with Elizabeth May
Elizabeth May is a sharp cookie. She's affable, honest, funny, and shrewd. No wonder Harper and Layton didn't want her in the debate. I don't really have much to say about her appearance last night except that she hit it out of the park - she's not a mindless ideologue, she's got cred, and she made, in my case, a timely appeal to disenfranchised Red Tories.
Given the overtures going both ways, I think people are justified in asking what there is to differentiate the Liberals and the Greens. Dion said in Halton: "The Greens, they are more radical than us. It's OK. [But we want to help people change gradually.] It is the Liberal way." And May is saying that Dion is a good "second choice."
Mercifully, May put the kibosh on talk of a merger. I think the populist, grassroots Reformers as well as the Progressive Conservatives were done a disservice by their merger. In the same way, I think any merger involving any two of the Liberal, NDP, and Green parties would be bad for democracy. We don't need more mergers - what we really need is electoral reform. I love Dion's witty remarks about preferential voting (they're in the Halton video, and also referenced here).
As always, I watch with interest...
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enthralledMar. 23rd, 2008
12:12 pm - Artifact
Artifact is now fully deployed on willmatheson.com and YouTube.
I had hoped to get it up on Google Video too, but Google Video was belligerent. The in-browser upload form wouldn't work at all, and the uploading program would work sometimes - but when it did work (about 50% of the time), the uploaded videos wouldn't appear in my account. I even made up a new Google account and tried doing everything again in the most proper ways, waited several hours, and it still didn't work. I've been trying to get Artifact and the Seven Years featurette onto Google Video since Thursday - Google Video has a higher potential for quality, since it will theoretically accept uploads that are both larger than 100MB and longer than ten minutes - but now I officially give up.
That being said, the movie is uploaded to willmatheson.com, where it's available for download. (Windows Media, 844Mb) There's also a 100Mb version, and downloads and YouTube windows of the other features - it's all at the new mini-website. You can even poke the download links into Windows Media Player if you'd prefer to stream them (use the "Open URL..." command), and this can shorten your wait time a little bit since you can watch the beginning before you finish downloading the end.
The downloadable versions are of much higher higher quality than their YouTube counterparts (they're barely distinguishable from the DVD versions), and they're highly recommended if you want to sit back and really enjoy the movie.
And that's the note I'd like to end on. Enjoy!
pleasedMar. 11th, 2008
12:12 am - Life After Y2K (2007)
I've just switched web hosts, so if you notice something wonky, drop me a line and let me know. I've gotten the e-mail accounts going, but only me and w_matheson and not the catch-all, so don't try to get too creative about contacting me until I sort that out. Like don't try heyithinkimetyoulastsummeratuniversitesa
Back in December while I was making web-friendly prints of Artifact (which I will be uploading within the next two weeks, after I get the supporting webpages ready to go), I figured I might as well make a new copy of Life After Y2K that could go on YouTube.
What I ended up doing was making a whole new cut. It's based on the already-extant MPEG, so the quality isn't on the same level as the Artifact transfer. However, given that ... egad ... the camera clock was recording what it thought was the current time to the camera for some of the scenes, and the fact that ANY edit of this movie would have to be based off the flattened final cut anyway, there's not a lot of point in digging through dusty boxes looking for a better copy and then finding or renting the equipment necessary to digitize it effectively.
Anyway, since I was directing, it counts as my first video (that certainly shows!) and I hope you find it a worthwhile diversion. Of course I didn't do this alone - it's quite unlike my later mini-movies where I worked autonomously. Calum MacLeod wrote a very funny script (that tragically wasn't filmed until after the Y2K he was prophesizing and/or lampooning), the actors had all kinds of great ideas, Ashlee Starratt found us clothes... the list goes on.
This video, and others, are also available for high-quality download at willmatheson.com.
tiredDec. 3rd, 2007
11:41 am - Artifact Teaser Trailer + NSCAD goodies
- A Russian outfit purchased LJ yesterday. No, seriously.
- I have new respect for the people who make trailers. This trailer was fun to make, but it took more than a day! On the plus side, between doing this and organizing the captured footage into a chronological assembly edit, navigating the two hours of raw footage is now easy for me.
- Tip: Make backups of your project file often. They're only a few megabytes, so don't worry about them taking up tons of space - all they really are is a list of your editing decisions. I very nearly learned this the hard way, as my computer crashed while the project file was being accessed (which is pretty much all the time when you're editing). When I rebooted, the file was corrupted. Adobe Premiere has a "Save a Copy..." command, and you'd better use it. If I hadn't, I would have lost three days' work! (I wouldn't have lost the footage, of course, just its organization.)
- I'll have a downloadable version of this trailer available on my website as soon as I can strongarm Cedrick. =) Meanwhile, it's also on Facebook, where it looks quite a bit better even though I uploaded the same file.
- OH! I totally forgot; here are some MP3s from my brief sojourn at NSCAD in 2005:
Bear Attack - 0:02:00 (My second Basic Sound project, made with the help of Pro Tools. The first project was a live mix that won't see the light of day. =)
Audiophilia - 2:42:13 (Our after-midnight end-of-term radio show at CKDU.)
tiredNov. 22nd, 2007
02:49 am - Artifact news, new articles on the Nova fiasco
Man. It’s only been twelve hours since I sent my computer away for a new screen and a new optical drive, and I miss it already. I have everything backed up onto my external hard drive, but having that is still not the same as having your own computer. I’m totally raring to edit Artifact now, but it’ll have to wait at least a week.
Yep, that all went well! I now have virtually everything from the Artifact shoots digitized. It was shot on Video 8, so finding a capable camera to bridge to a modern DV camcorder (used to digitize the video; the digital stream goes from the camcorder to my computer via Firewire) was no easy task. On a recommendation from the Multimedia guys back at NSCAD, I ended up going to the Centre for Art Tapes to rent theirs (for a very-reasonable $7, as nobody uses this technology anymore).
Then we had to find the source tapes. Mike had a whole box of Video 8 and Hi8 cassettes, and while we found one easily, the other three were a challenge. On the other hand, we took a fantastic journey down memory lane. You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff even if I told you! Mike has a museum’s-worth of footage in that box.
Of course, what you’re looking for is always in the last place you look, and we spent hours looking at Video 8 tapes from the mid-to-late 1990’s and 2000-01 before finding what we were looking for: Three Hi8 cassettes with the mastered versions of early Film and Video productions from Fall 1998. The cassettes probably came from Mr. Savage, and we had been recording on the space left on the tapes. These tapes were also being used for video yearbook purposes: “William Matheson’s ‘The Artifact’ will be continued on another tape. We now bring you some video yearbook footage of… indoor girl’s field hockey.”
The video itself is, well, OK. There are lots of little defects and idiosyncrasies here and there, and even some tracking lines. Still, it’s far better than the VHS final cut, and the original video is not cropped, and preserves the original stereo sound. It’s a lot livelier, and it’ll be fun to work with. Colour looks fantastic, too – Sony was making some really nice Hi8 units in the mid-to-late 1990s. Also, Mike made a lot of really good shots, and his work in getting this movie from script to screening in less than three weeks has been underappreciated.
I even have the effects editing by Chris Spencer. I wasn’t worried about doing the people appearing and vanishing again (that’s a now-easy crossfade, although at the time it actually amazed people that we had the capability to do it) – I’m actually going to do it from scratch anyway and use different kinds of appearances and vanishings for different situations. I was worried about the fireball sequence (documented here), but I worry no more – I have it.
Here’s a little bit of what you can expect in the new Artifact:
- Shorter running time. Entire subplots are at risk of being severely trimmed if not outrightly cut. If something makes me cringe but isn’t funny or at least bitterly ironic, it’ll be tossed. The goal here will be to preserve and showcase the best of the film, which means dodging enough of the confusing material to be watchable. (The original cut will remain available.) I don’t think I’m going to be changing much, though – after the re-release, no one will have to say “Brooke shot first.”
- All the benefits of non-linear editing, which are too numerous to list. (Editing the entire feature on computer wasn’t feasible at the time – in that era, the height of technology was Premiere on a G3 with puny disc space – if you had ten gigs to play with, it was considered a blessing.)
- A musical “score,” as was originally intended. At the time of the original production I did not possess the intended CDs, just some downloaded MP3s that I had no way to get off my computer since we were without a burner or high-speed internet at the time. (Man, those were the dark ages.)
- Fullscreen presentation with stereo sound. The original cut was mastered on VHS, essentially in mono, with added letterboxes – portions of the image were cropped to create a widescreen presentation. We had this in mind when we were shooting, and the letterboxes mercifully excised a lot of garbage that ended up in our frame. But the shots seem to come to life in fullscreen, and there’s a lot of visual information available that adds to the school atmosphere. By going with fullscreen (keep in mind it was shot in fullscreen), things will have a more casual look, and I’m okay with that. The change will introduce new problems that I'll have to work around, so when you see 24-esque split-screen scenes, it’ll be because I’m trying to crop out things that shouldn’t be in the frame!
So stay tuned for news on the new Artifact, coming to Internet and DVD sometime in early 2008.
* * *
Japan approaches, like some sort of crippled ghoul or zombie that slowly and inexorably creeps up your driveway, approaching the abandoned mansion that you’ve holed yourself up in to survive the onslaught. Don’t get me wrong; I’m excited to be going to Japan. I’m only vaguely apprehensive. By all indications, this will be a terrific situation, but that first day at the school is still going to be a doozy. I mean, getting dropped into a new country and then attending some sort of “camp” (like in CWY) is one thing. Getting dropped into a new country and reporting for work the next day is something else!
R. at SMU invited me and a future co-worker to lunch next week, where we’ll, among other things, sign our contracts. After the Nova “schools” fiasco, I’ll be happy to be putting ink to paper before some freshly-unemployed ESL teacher beats me to my own job.
And, just in case you thought these two stories didn’t have anything to do with each other, Ashlee Starratt, who plays a lead role in Artifact, was interviewed in the Daily News – she moved to Japan and worked for Nova, but they paid her only about as much as we paid her to be in The Artifact. =)
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nostalgicNov. 18th, 2007
05:52 am - All About Halifax
A very funny and very quotable video by local sketch group Picnicface, All About Halifax.
amusedJul. 20th, 2007
03:32 am - new bookcases + holy grail + B5:LotR (ha-ha - no, NOT a crossover!) + writing in French + tee times
In an attempt to get ahead of the ever-burgeoning piles of stuff that accumulate in my room, I am putting together new bookcases! I started with a small, three-shelf unit, but now I need the seven-foot tall five-shelf as well. Where are they going? In my room? Don’t be silly. There’s absolutely no more room in here for shelves. No, they’re going out in the hall. I suppose eventually, like an unstoppable, irresistible ooze, I’ll just take over the entire upstairs. But what I actually want to do is get ready to leave, and I can’t leave with my affairs in such disarray.
I enjoyed Holy Grail. I don’t want to get into why (though I probably will anyway), because it was sort of a guilty pleasure all-round. It’s not what I would call a flawless masterpiece, but it probably wouldn’t be so endearing if it were. It’s also odd in that it improves with repeated viewings. I fell ridiculous typing this – this movie is itself a holy grail of the nerd world, and I feel like I’m writing a review for breathing or for water.
Still, the movie starts to unravel after Arthur meets the Knights who Say "Ni," and the ending seems like a bit of a cop-out. (HAHAHA, GET IT?!) But even before the end, there’s a lot to like. Some of my favourite bits, which I will identify with brevity to avoid spoiling things too much:
- The opening scene.
- The songs of Robin’s minstrel, and his entire solo encounter.
- When Galahad is rescued from certain temptation.
- The first encounter with the French. (“Fetchez la vache!” “Quoi?” “Fetchez la vache!”)
- Camelot. (I suggest watching this part with subtitles. Also available in Lego.)
On to B5 – Legend of the Rangers looked pretty promising, although so did Andromeda! With some money and TLC, it could have become a respectable series. It also would have provided work for a lot of Canadian actors! However, what we will get soon is Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, a direct-to-DVD series. This suits me fine, because I watch most of my non-sports TV on DVD anyway.
(Question. If the Liandra is a 20-year-old Minbari ship that predates the Earth-Minbari War (and therefore also first contact with humans if you don't count you-know-who), then why oh why are the beds in its medical ward horizontal? Minbari believe sleeping in the horizontal to be tempting death, and sleep using oblique-angled beds. Even the (much newer and much more advanced) White Stars had angled beds; this is just an old Minbari picket ship!)
I started writing a little short story in French, and I’ll share it when I’m finished, but don’t expect les grandes choses de moi, rappelez je suis un débutant cependant avec le français! The thing about writing in French is that it takes so much effort and time that I am loath to revise what I write, especially if one change necessitates other changes. I’m like, “Noooo! My beautiful, carefully constructed, grammatically correct French sentence! And now it’s redundant!” Perhaps after more courses and experience I will be compelled to throw away my beginner’s hat, I won’t obsess over every sentence, and I won’t expect a cookie every time I say or write something correctly.
Wow, some folks have already teed off at Carnoustie! Tiger Woods is teeing off at… WHAT?! 5:09am Atlantic!? OK, TV coverage won’t be starting until 10:30 Atlantic, but that will be soon enough, and I’ve got to put together that second bookshelf, so it’s off to bed… later, peoples!
(You know who's not playing? Jean Van de Velde! Can you imagine? He won a European tour event in 2006, although the particular event he won is described as having, "one of the smallest prize funds on the tour (€700,000 in 2007), and few of the tour's top players take part." But still! Now, if I ever sponsor a PGA tournament, I know who's getting my discretionary exemption!)
(Also on the 18th, yesterday, Sergio Garcia pulled off one the best-looking pars I've ever seen after his second shot found the bunker (and at a tricky spot, too!), on his way to his 65. He used driver off the tee, although it was his second shot that was the problem, not the first. How anyone could ever even think of using driver on that hole now is beyond my imagination.)
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dorkyMay. 11th, 2007
08:46 am - SMUDS photos + Explore logistics
One of these days I’m going to have to learn to keep my mouth shut. There was a dearth of readily-available SMUDS (Saint Mary’s University Drama Society) photos from way back in the early 2000s, and since I had the yearbooks in question and access to a scanner, I volunteered to take on the task of scanning, editing, and uploading photos.
I hasten to add, that was before I knew I was going to be hopping into a dimensional rift and pretending that I speak French for a month and change.
Anyway, all SMUDSers and interested parties can check out the photos on Facebook – these are the special public links, so you don’t even have to have a Facebook account to view them! (Hi, Jaymee!) (The name of the production(s) that year is(are) in parentheses.)
SMUDS 2000-01 (The Crucible)
SMUDS 2001-02 (Psycho Beach Party)
SMUDS 2002-03 (Blue Window, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet))
SMUDS 2003-04 (The Breakfast Club, Murder for One)
Have fun!
Ordinarily I’d go to bed now (it is already 7:40am), but this may be my last chance to blog for a very, very long time. But first, I wanted to share these clips with you. The Onion has just started releasing news videos, and at first I was sceptical of the idea, but don’t worry – it’s still the Onion, through and through. Here are three clips that have captivated my attention:
Gap Unveils New 'For Kids By Kids' Clothing Line
In The Know: Do You Remember Life Before The Segway?
A Friend's Cancer: Good For Your Health?
I had the house to myself earlier this week. On Wednesday, I marked this occasion by locking myself out. It took me about an hour to devise and execute a way to get back in without breaking anything. Among other things, it helped make me super late in meeting up with Jaymee, but she wasn’t mad: “Locking yourself out isn’t inconsiderate of you; it’s just stupid!!” Ha-ha. I also got to see her Chinchillas; they’re interesting critters.
I also finally came to the front of the library queue for Season 4 of Monk, which I’ve now been watching, and I’ve made it (almost) all the way though. I had been waiting to borrow it since October, so that added a little excitement to it. I also got Season 2 of Enterprise, but I’m going to have to return it having watched nothing. I’ll have to get back in line, with 77 people ahead of me. For some reason anything Star Trek or WWE-related takes an eternity to come through. I’m 72nd in line for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (out of 281), and if each branch gets three or four copies, I should have it in my hands lickety split! They’ve got 37 copies lined up so far.
Ah, here comes home care for Paul. I’m definitely up too late. I wanted to do some laundry this morning.
Speaking of logistics, there are lots – lots of rules, lots of things I need to bring, lots of things I need to do before I leave – all of that.
- I’m permitted to bring my notebook, but there’ll be no internet access in the rooms themselves. I’m permitted to use the notebook for, say, a private journal (in English, even!), but that must be done at night with my bedroom door closed. If the door is open, and someone sees me typing in English, it could be a warning. (If you get too many warnings for speaking, reading, or listening to music in English, you will be removed from the program.) I’m also intending to do my assignments on the notebook, as my handwriting is terrible in both official languages. I’ll bring a keydrive and hope someone somewhere has a printer.
- Cell phone use is not permitted in the rooms, and is only permitted in a select few areas (more for language reasons than for disturbance reasons, I imagine – it’s not like I can hold a conversation in French with all of my friends who might call, for instance). Therefore, I won’t be answering my cell phone from Saturday May 12th to Saturday June 16th. I may change my voice mail to indicate this (you’ll be able to leave a message, and at some later point I will be able to get back to you), but I hate to lose the Prisoner homage.
- Gee, I really hope they get RDS (roughly the French-language arm of TSN) at Sainte-Anne. (SMU has it in the Gorsebrook; they’ve used it to show Huskies football games when they’re playing against a team in the QUFL (this happens a few times a year, as our own conference, the AUS, only has four teams).) If they don’t have RDS, we’ll still be able to watch the NHL playoffs – but on CBC, without sound. That would be a drag, to say the least. Does anyone know if Radio-Canada carries the finals?
- Among the trinkets I picked up today while shopping with Paul: a new camera bag (my old one has a very unsightly tear down its side, exposing the insulation), a softball glove to call my very own (I’m totally excited about that; I’ve been learning about baseball and softball for a few years now, and I’m totally psyched), a 15-pack of gum* (I don’t need that much for a month, but we’ll be a long, long way from the types of stores where you can buy things in any quantity, so it doesn’t hurt to be prepared), and last but not least, SPF 50 spray-on sunscreen. Why SPF 50? Because I still burn with 30 unless I reapply it every two hours. Maybe with 50 I’ll have two and a half hours.
* - No, not 15 pieces. I mean 15 packs.
Okay, I’m going to go put in a load of laundry, watch Monk, hang it out on the line, watch Monk, have a shower, clean out the hall... gotta go!
Your e-Pal,
~ Will
awakeApr. 13th, 2007
04:14 pm - Il fait beau dans l'métro
Today I'm chasing down forms, applications, and the like - then I'll take Paul out for groceries.
Before I forget, though, I want to call your attention to this wonderful example of Montreal kitch. I love Montreal kitch, and Canadian kitch in general - but Montreal is the centre of the universe for all things kitchy, especially if we're talking about the 60's and 70's, back when Montreal was almost a global city.
Il fait beau dans l'métro. ("It's beautiful in the metro.") (YouTube)
Things to love:
1. The guy in the plaid shirt who gives that smile standing between the doors of the car - doesn't he look like Dr. Bartlett?
2. The way the bus driver interjects ("et dans l'autobus!") ("and on the bus!") at different points in the song.
Can you imagine an ad like that for Metro Transit? ("It's so nice on the 80...")
Related: Trip to Montréal, April 2006, with many examples of good food, good times, and lots of kitch.
amusedApr. 11th, 2007
02:01 am - Premiere Pro 2 question
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why in Final Cut Express you can just tack on a keyframe and start adjusting the audio levels with your mouse and the changes stick, but in Premiere Pro 2 you do that (of course you have to Ctrl+click to get a new keyframe, not just click, but oh well), great, but then you hit the spacebar to play your timeline and *nothing changes* with the audio levels? How do I make my changes to the audio levels mean anything? I'm probably forgetting something important.
I'm finding the adjustment from Final Cut to Premiere a little bit jarring; I liked how in Final Cut everything just sort of gelled together, and I figured all video editing software would be like that. Case in point: if you want to razor at your current point in the timeline, you just take up the razor, move it to your line thingy, and it makes the cut right on the line. In general, Final Cut has a beautiful snapping system. But if you want to do this in Premiere you have to hit Ctrl+K. Now that I know it, there's not so much of a problem, but Final Cut's way was far more intuitive.
I'm starting to think I should have bought that MacBook after all. =)
Your e-Pal,
~ Will
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confusedMar. 31st, 2007
03:15 am - notes from night #7 + mouse! + new video
A+. We killed. Tomorrow can be even greater, but we killed tonight. I’m--
INTERJECTION: Well, our new cat, Dexter, just found a mouse. A wee little house mouse. (Aunt Shirley, do NOT click that link!) I would say “caught,” but that would imply some kind of persistent restraint. He was playing catch-and-release with him all over the house, much to Mom’s chagrin.
She took the open end of a beer mug and clomped it down on top; I fetched a piece of cardboard and the mouse was out of the house in minutes.
Interestingly, Mom postulates that I may have brought this mouse into the house with me. From a place that has house mice. From PEI, in my suitcase. You laugh, but it’s very possible. I vividly remember when we moved a bunch of Mom’s stuff here to Bedford; we were infested with cluster flies for weeks! Oh, do I have cluster (or “shingle fly”) stories… and so do a zillion other Islanders. Anyway, that house mouse has been expatriated to Nova Scotia, and here he’ll stay until something eats him.
Okay, back to the play.
- We had a huge audience (our biggest yet, over 100 people), and, what’s more, a receptive huge audience. They enjoyed themselves and they showed it, and that just helps us along even further.
- We killed on the letter scene. They laughed in places I had no idea anyone would laugh at. Robe scene and jail scenes went well, too. I was pleased. Since this is the last night of performing for some, it’s all the more important to give them our best efforts and make it the best show it can be.
- For Act 5, practically half of the cast advised me to “just belt it out.” So I did. And they laughed this time! (And it’s not really supposed to be funny, but we’ll take what we get.) Last line was so-so. It’s different every time I say it; unfortunately, my best rendition so far was in Dr. Katz’s office during a meeting with (the director) Glenn!
- At the end of the show, people commented about how “likeable” I was. That’s not a good sign. I’m going to see if I can give the performance of my life tomorrow. Goal: Get booed the hell out of me on the curtain call.
It’s all the more amazing that I had a decent night, what with all the other crap flinging around right now. One thing in particular was that our little blonde haired friend came to see the show tonight. And she sat in the front row! I couldn’t believe it. She didn’t cause trouble, but back in the dressing room it came out that most of the things she was telling me throughout our pretend relationship were lies, and lies built on top of lies to sustain the credibility of older lies. Augh. My sense of trust for people in general is going pfbttt. I know there are some truly trustworthy people out there, though. I think I know a few who might even be reading this. =)
A lot of people noticed that I was off my feed tonight before the show. Much like my character Malvolio, I don’t suffer “fools” (or, more to the point, what I perceive as foolishness) very well. (And like my character, I have a propensity to make a fool of myself in these defensive posturings.) I was harsh, impatient, and borderline argumentative. I got sick and tired of the crowds in the makeup room and the crappy music and etc.. etc.. and then someone in the crew came aboard me (we cleared the air about it, though)… I was about ready to explode. Fortunately, I didn’t. I channelled my rage and frustration appropriately, and we had a good show! (And Simon drove me home, another major bonus.)
If anyone’s interested, I’ve uploaded two backstage preparation videos from our second night (March 21st). [ 1 - ONE 2 - TWO - the sound is out of sync on YouTube, hence the willmatheson.com availability]
Boy, all this effort in keeping my digital and anologue lives in sync is exhausting me! One more night to go! I probably wouldn’t have blogged after every show, were it not for my old pal ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
castusalbuscor who cheerfully remarked, “You blog after every show!” And so I must. =)
Your e-Pal,
~ Will
tiredJan. 27th, 2007
02:31 am - William Matheson's "The Artifact"
In case anyone's interested, the "epic" 2000 masterpiece thing then dubbed "William Matheson's 'The Artifact'" is now available on both willmatheson.com (where you can even save it and keep it, if you like) and on YouTube (in the director's account).
It shows its age and it needs to have about 45 minutes cut out of it, but recent advances in both bandwidth and video codecs have prevented this from becoming a lost classic. =) Michael Kidson was going to do a Pop-Up Video-like lampoon of the numerous errors in continuity and sound design (anyone want to count the number of times they hear me talking on the track?), which would have been pretty cool. He did, however, write this:
THIS IS YOUR ONE WARNING!
This is a very cheap, very bad movie, and should not be downloaded by anyone ever.
If you get brave and decide to watch this, I am in no way responsible for
1. concussions
2. broken bones
3. Insanity
4. Death
5. Spontaneous combustion
6. Strange dreams
7. Blindness
8. Detatched retinas
Enjoy, and blame Will.
That about says it. (You can also see pictures of the cast and from the production here.)
accomplishedDec. 9th, 2006
06:45 pm - willmatheson.com update
Made a few minor updates to willmatheson.com this evening - the big thing you haven't seen already is the Life After Y2K video, which is now available for download.
accomplishedOct. 2nd, 2006
08:46 pm - the October classic
Okay, where was I?
If you were in Dartmouth during rush hour and spotted a giant blue Chevy Silverado 2500HD with a big “2004” sticker on the windshield and ridiculous rainbow steamers trailing from the antenna, that was me. Damn, that was a big truck. 4 doors, 4-wheel drive. No trouble getting it around town, though – it took off and stopped about as well as you could possibly expect. Apparently it had over 300 horsepower. I also found the brakes (an important consideration) easy and effective. It’s actually easier to stop than the car.
After evaluating the truck for Dad (on PEI) and calling him about it, I had a bit of a headache – whatever cleaning chemical they used in it, it was harsh. I’m still reeling a bit.
I stopped in at C’s on the way back because I’m hardly ever in the SE part of Bedford, which you basically have to drive through to get back to my area if you’re coming up on the Dartmouth side. I drove into Ridgevale and parked in front of their house. I rang the bell, then someone else pulled up in front of the house. They were looking for C. as well, but for different reasons: I was there to pick up some books that I originally lent to Joe, they had tattoos, cut-off sleeves, and called C. with a Palm Treo - they were likely there to pick up something of a different sort, if you gather what I mean here. They seemed like nice guys, but I was happy to get back in the car and lock the doors. (No one was home.)
Okay, rolling back the clock a bit, there was the matter of The Concert. I was going to skip the whole thing entirely and spend the evening on schoolwork, but then I happened to catch Sarah’s blog mentioning that she lived near the commons and was going to watch it from her deck. So I called her and asked if I could come over. It was great to see her again after such a long time. They have a really nice place, and they had the foresight to set up a tarp before the rain really started pouring. We sat in a tight circle of chairs and heard most everything, except that the wind started pulling the tarp off its station towards the end of the Rolling Stones, so we then retreated inside. Also, I happened to miss Sloan, who were opening, and I would have liked to have heard them, though I did hear Alice Cooper loud and clear.
I should mention that Metro Transit had special bus service set up, which I used thinking that traffic and parking would make driving prohibitive. As it turned out, though, I could have easily parked on Cornwallis Street near Sarah’s. Then again, if it wasn’t raining it’s unlikely that I could have been so lucky.
After spending Saturday night (but no money, thankfully) on the concert, I had a ton of catching up to do, including a small presentation and a paper. The presentation, concerning Joseph’s origins and role in Wuthering Heights, was a lot more coherent in my head than it came out orally. I actually froze dead in my tracks a few times. Nobody laughed at my small jokes. I guess it needed more work.
The following evening, I stayed on campus long into the night working on a Posthumanism paper. I got to know the fellow next to me – Ali, who hails from UAE and speaks six languages. What an advantage! Nice guy, too.
While I was fiddling with the paper, I uploaded a few of my videos to YouTube. So now you have more options than ever before… I think I’ll put Life After Y2K up there sometime soon as well. It’s not nearly as polished as the two NSCAD pieces, but it’s corny enough to be worth a look.
I can’t wait until December, when I’ll have the time and means to work on my website again…
And between all this, somehow, I watched the entire second season of Monk. You need to see this show. It’s the funniest thing on TV today, and easy to find in the USA – it’s USA Network’s signature show. It was airing on ASN here in the Maritimes, but I haven’t found it in its usual Sunday night spot. It doesn’t really matter that much because I’m watching the series on library DVDs anyway, and I need Sunday nights to study. Live TV (with commercials – YUCK!) is so Stone Age.
[Here's a review from The New Yorker that almost perfectly illustrates the brilliance of Monk.]
This brings us up to this past weekend. Catherine and I were going to get together and do nerdy things like drink wine, play video games, and watch DVDs, but she got sick that day. I went hither and yon through my phone list, in that I-just-got-out-of-the-shower-and-now-the
And that just about brings us up to date. Time for a snack and then it’s back to the books. I find it is slightly better than working, so I can’t complain.
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hungryJul. 1st, 2005
07:48 pm - willmatheson.com updates!
Hi everyone!
I finally updated willmatheson.com! Yes! Me!
So now the "Wrong Planet" video is up... and there are links available to the other videos, such as "Boredom" and the Canadian Idol clip.
And, best of all, I finished a new photo series. So now everything from pre-departure in Edmonton in late November '04 through until just a few days ago is completely documented and in the can. Highlights include:
- Edmonton, as I said
- Pictures from Poland
- Pictures from PEI
- Pictures from a few parties and gatherings around here
Dig in! Watch "Wrong Planet" - I think you'll like it.
Cheers,
- Will
geekyJun. 27th, 2005
09:44 pm - hey-o everybody
Hi, everyone!
Word has it that my going away party will be on Saturday evening (July 2nd) at Maxwell's Plum (an English pub) downtown. That's 1600 Grafton Street, at the corner of Sackville Street. Time: probably any time after eight, when Ryan and I will be warming stools. But you can come whenever you want. And, if we end up wanting to go to a club later, we can. For more information feel free to call my cell, 877-WILL (9455), at any time on Saturday afternoon, and I'll hook you up with any late-breaking details, or you can find out where we are if you want to come late, like after twelve or something.
By "going away party" I really mean "an excuse to get together and drink." If you're reading this, your presence would be appreciated. See you there!
(Catherine had once suggested a "coming-back" party, which would be great except that I'm always coming back at shitty times like Christmas or New Year's or March Exams. We'll have to stick with this format, me thinks!)
( the best laid plans... )
So, after all my yapping about this video, do you want to see it? Happy to oblige. Come back in a bit and I'll push you a link.
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