Expressing Opinions

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How long have you been blogging everyday? Are you running short of topics or feeling like you have dry spell going? Maybe you should check out Imagination Prompt Generator to stimulate those thoughts.

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Below is a trailer for a documentary on Nerdcore Rappers. They rap about comic books, role playing, and video games, while preaching the gospel about nerd empowerment. Check it out.

On the Wired blog network Listening Post: Documentary Nerdcore For Life Examines the Good, Bad and Geeky

Doing his anthropology through interviews with nerdcore rappers like MC Router, MC Lars, Beefy, mc chris, YTCracker, Monzy, MC Plus+ and High-C, Lamoureux traces the genre from its origins on laptops coast-to-coast to full-on movement trying to find its identity (and then try to explain it to everyone else).

“I got so far in –- up to my neck –- in nerdcore beef and drama,” the director says. “I got on [a nerdcore] message board to promote the film and people responded with ‘Screw that movie, you didn’t ask me to be in it.’ It’s just absurd.”

Nerdcore Rappers? I think I need to look into this. The film will be shown at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle next month.

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Salad Fingers and rusty spoons.

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During a recent trip I was introduced to Salad Fingers. I think Salad Fingers is a bit avant garde, but nonetheless entertaining. Here is a short clip.

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I recently purchased a video camera. As I continued my journey into the consumer dizzying electronics world I realized the choices are mind numbing, thus it would be easy to fall prey to impulse buying. These are just a few of the questions I asked myself during the process of buying a camera.

• What am I going to use it for?
• Who is my audience?
• Where will I primarily use it.. indoor, outdoors, or both?
• What kind of video camera do I really need?
• Do I want a camera which uses tape or has a hard drive to store the video?
• What is the difference?
• Is it practical to buy an HD (High Definition) camera?
• What will it take to produce a quality dvd to share with friends and family?
• How much do I really want to spend and how much am I willing to spend?

After a significant amount of research and reading hundreds of owner reviews I chose the highly rated Sony DCR-HC96 standard definition Mini DV tape camera. Here is the reasons which lead me to my final choice.

• Excellent low light ability.
• High quality video.
• Large CCD chip which makes the above possible.
• Mini DV tape has better image quality than hard drive cameras.
• Easier and less expensive to produce a DVD in standard definition.
• Blu-Ray burners are still expensive.
• HD camera are still improving and I do not want to invest the amount of money it would take to get a quality HD camera at this time.
• I got a great deal online and the Sony DCR-HC96 with the accessories of wide angle lens attachment, lens filter, wireless external bluetooth mic, battery, and film cost less the an HD camera.

Those are a few of my reasons for making the purchase I made. Did I make the right decision? Currently I am in Hawaii for two weeks and thus far the video I have taken has been excellent. The wireless mic has been wonderful for capturing dialog on the windy coastline and the wide angle lens has made the scenes stunning. I am definitely happy with my choice.

I can see where HD is appealing, but for now I am not ready to make the investment I need to make to produce quality HD home movies. With that said, I do look forward to the upgrade in the future.

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I have used Adobe Photoshop for a long time. Many friends have shown interest, but in the end they do not want to spend the money or deal with the learning curve. Now it looks like Adobe is starting Web-based Photoshop Express, available for free with 2 gigabytes of storage at www.photoshop.com/express.

The MyPhotos page of Photoshop Express, a Web-based application for editing and sharing photos. (Image from Adobe)

Only time will tell how it stacks up with other services available on the web, but it is nice to see another choice available from a reputable company. You can read a full review of the application at Webware.

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Are you interested in getting your creative works published? Today I came across an a news piece on Reuters about getting your writings, movies, music, or photographs published and selling them online.

I checked out three sites:

• Blurb.com
• CreateSpace.com
• Lulu.com

These sites seemed to be very reasonably priced in joining, setup cost, and publishing. All have their pricing clearly stated and all three have a marketing plan. However, CreateSpace uses Amazon if you are inclined to use a more traditional web source.

The bottom line is if you are creative and interested in getting published, it would be worth reading the Reuters article and checking out these sites.

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