Archive

And we’re back.

Published by -MiKe- on April 20, 2007 in Personal. 1 Comment

So, looks like summer decided to get off its fat ass and show up…

The first shot is from two weeks ago, but really, it looked the same up until last Friday. There was snow on the ground until just a few days ago…

Husson a few weeks ago...

And this one is of the exact same branch, at the same angle at the same focal length… This afternoon… It was like 70+ degrees out… Well, actually, I guess I was a little closer in the second shot, but whatever…

Oh what a beautiful day...

It is about damn time…

I have a SHIT ton of work to do this weekend. I have a business plan to write up by 5 this afternoon… Did you catch that? :-( I have a video to finish by April 10th… I have a video to shoot by next Tuesday. I have a research paper to write by Monday. I have commercial product shots to shoot by Tuesday. I have two sites to design by Monday. I am shooting the hypnotist this evening, and I need to set up at 8:30. And to top it ALLLLLL off, it is Jen and I’s 6 month. Well, it was the 16th, but we agreed to celebrate this weekend…

Wow… It seems like an awfull lot of work when I writ it out like that… Gah…

Tims are no good for rain…

Published by -MiKe- on April 16, 2007 in College. 1 Comment

If you know me, you’ll probably know I have a nice pair of red suede Timberlands that I just adore. You’d know this because I wear them alot, and they kind of look like a set of clown shoes…

Well, come to find, although such things are marketed by Timberland as “boots” they actually serve no such functionality at all. And when faced with even a mild shower, such as the one we are receiving today, they like to let your feet get in on the fun too.

Gah! Some weather. At least what we are getting now is more in tune with the whole “April showers bring May flowers” thing. Its just a bit cooler, and comes accompanied with a dash or two of snow…

So, I’m in Digital Imaging for the Web I right now… Some kind of crap class…

Shady Acres - full

Shady Acres - skyscraperShady Acres - squareOur last project was to design six animated gifs, and now we have to design two splash pages and three content pages for our final project. Our final project is to pick one of each and make a “functional” web page. I quote functional because I suppose its up for interpretation. If your idea of “functional” is a page that meets minimum design requirements for 1998, then your set to sit in this class…

Shady Acres - half

The pages we are to create are essentially just sliced up Photoshop documents, exported to HTML. Which is hokey-poky, HTML 1.0, table crap. And the kids in my class act like it’s the end of the world…

My company (fictional, and if there is any likeness to ANY site on the net, it’s an act of God) is Shady Acres, Assisted Living for old People. These flashy things are my animated gifs… Hope you have a seizure…

I already threw together the design I am going to use for my final project. You can find that here. As for my splash page, give me a minute… I am sure it won’t be hard…

I’m going to throw a few “templates” together in the next few moments, wish me luck… ;-)

I’m an RA!!

Published by -MiKe- on April 13, 2007 in College. 2 Comments

And there you have it. The end of the world as we know it.

April 13, 2007

Michael Mulligan
New England School of Communications
One College Circle
Bangor, ME 04401

Dear Michael,

Congratulations! you have been selected to flil a 2007-2008 Resident Assistant position. Your request for a hall and floor has been taken into consideration.

If you accept this position you must be available on the following dated. The dates listed below are required for this position.

  1. August 17th, 2007 - September 4th, 2007 for Resident Assistant Training and New Student Orientation.
  2. November 20, 2007 at 8pm you are able to leave for Thanksgiving Break.
  3. November 25, 2007 at 8am you are to return from Thanksgiving Break.
    * Unless scheduled for key duty on November 25, 2007 at 8am, you are to return November 24, 2007 by 8pm.
  4. December 22, 2007 at 8am you are able to leave for Winter Break.
  5. January 12, 2008 at 5pm you are to return from Winter Break.
  6. March 1, 2008 at 8am you are able to leave for Spring Break.
  7. March 15, 2008 at 5pm you are to return from Spring Break.
  8. May 11, 2008 at 8am you are able to leave for Summer Break.

Enclosed is a document to accept or decline this position, which must be completed and returned to the Student Life Office in 104 Peabody Hall no later than Monday, April 16, 2007 by 4pm.

Sincerely,

Fran Tracy
Director of Student Life

HA! Good RIDDANCE Old Town! After May 11th I will have no more to do with ye! No more driving back and forth, land-lords, utilities, unpaved driveways, disgusting roommates… Hallelujah!

Now, I know its not going to be a walk in the park, but I think I can handle it. I have found through past experience that the more I am challenged, the better I do. It’s when I am not challenged that I fall to the wayside. We’ll see.

Really, this is going to be such a great opportunity. I am excited beyond words.

Eviction, and how it affects you…

Published by -MiKe- on April 12, 2007 in Personal. 0 Comments

You know it’s been a slow set of days when you get serious responses to photos like this:
Happy lunch

So, I narrowly missed getting evicted today…

Hows that for catching your attention?

Evidently I was quite literally “A day late and a dollar short.” Seven days and three-hundred dollars, to be exact. But I’m all set now, for those of you who care, with no ill effects. On this note I would like to inform you of the consequences of being evicted. I, myself, was not fully aware of such matters. However, it was rather nice of my landlord to provide me a paper with an easy to understand list:

1. Eviction Court: This will be humiliating, and a matter public record.
2. Dispossession: This also will be humiliating, and a matter of public record.
3. Judgments: This too will be humiliating, and a matter of public record.

I will tell you, the pamphlet was quite helpful and informative, I practically feel like I was there…

Actually, we were all served (Caleb, Danny and I) an eviction notice, and come to find it was primarily Danny’s fault, such a nice change. However, I am sure I didn’t help the matter.

God I have to get out of this house…

For more about work, school and the unraveling of modern society, read on…

Continue reading ‘Eviction, and how it affects you…’

Embedding Music in your Blog…

Published by -MiKe- on April 7, 2007 in Blogging and Design. 5 Comments

You may have noticed -no steam shovel- has a bit of a sound-track now. Not just that same damn song, over and over. Some variety…

It took some time, but my quest for embedded blog music has come to an end with FineTune. Check the MORE link for more on the topic, and why I chose them over the competition…

For a good long while I have been looking in to embedded music for blogs to no real avail… I found a good number of embedded solutions, but none seemed to work the way I wanted them to.

Below you will find a few of our options, not really in any order, as well as a description and the pros and cons of each. As you may know, I hate paying for things, so all of these are free, and most importantly, legal. I believe I am about done adding content to this, so there shouldn’t be any more updates unless anyone has anything I should add to the subject.

In this post I will take a look at divShare, FineTune, last.fm, Radio.Blog.Club, Music Video Base, Sonific, the Streampad Widget and the Traditional Embed method for adding music to your blog…

[Note: Now updated with iMeem!]

Continue reading ‘Embedding Music in your Blog…’

A Thought on Raising the Dead…

Published by -MiKe- on April 5, 2007 in Blogging, College and Design. 1 Comment

Is there a particular method to coming back from the dead? I like to think not. First, it’s a fantastical occurrence (doesn’t happen… often…), and thing like that don’t really have methods. And second, when I wake up from a bad dream, as I would venture to assume death seams, I sit square up in my bed ready for action… I don’t just lay there in a lazy stupor, like I do most mornings…

This in mind, I suppose running right back in to blogging after over a months hiatus is similar to hastily frying up some eggs at 2am after waking with a start from a truly terrifying dream… Or something like that…

I’m game… I’m back from the dead… I just want readers.

In a similar vein, it seems as though winter has risen from the ashes as well. I woke this morning to find just about a foot of snow covering everything. Not something I like to see five days in to April, or in April at all for that matter. What the hell is going on? And I hear rumors of more on the way… Not a happy camper.

So I took pictures… :-D

Isn't it Supposed to be SPRING!?

2007-04-05 at 10-11-36.jpg2007-04-05 at 10-13-14.jpg2007-04-05 at 10-41-18.jpg2007-04-05 at 10-41-36.jpg2007-04-05 at 10-43-08.jpg2007-04-05 at 10-47-16.jpg2007-04-05 at 13-51-46.jpg

Meg AllisonSteve ByrneOn another note, more of my posters got approved during the Student Government Social Committee meeting this afternoon. Now Pam has no excuse to not use them.

Also, come to find out, she doesn’t really like anybody, and nobody really likes her.

Glad to hear I’m not the only one…

Monte Zucker - Passing of a Legend

Published by -MiKe- on April 4, 2007 in General and Photography. 0 Comments

Those of you who are photographers may or may not know the name. I didn’t until just the other day… A day late and a dollar short.

I often frequent the site of Ken Rockwell, an esteemed photographer, and evidently a man who doesn’t merely adjust his depth of field, but changes space-time. He is very knowledgeable in the ways of photography, and tells things how they are, without all the measurbation everyone else gets caught up in.

I was on his site the other day when I noticed a fleeting obituary.

… Monte Zucker, the world’s most famous wedding and portrait photographer, passed away from pancreatic cancer on March 15th at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. He was 77.

I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Monte Zucker until I read this, and I didn’t, at first, realize how much of a loss this really was.

Monte Zucker is an AMAZING wedding and portrait photographer from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s not that his photos are fantastic (they are much more), but that he is such an amazing teacher. Within moments on his website I learned more about posing for portrait photography than I have all year at NESCOM. Yes, it is Bridal portraiture, but the concepts are pretty much universal, and to a growing photographer, invaluable.

His death is a huge loss to the photography industry, both for the loss of all the wonderful images he could have taken, and for the loss of his wealth of knowledge for all the aspiring photographers of the world. If you are interested in the what knowledge he left behind for the lost of us, his educational videos are still for sale here. However, I would expect there would be a delay in processing and shipping while his family mourns his passing.

A true lesson as to the frailty of life, and speed and ferocity with which it can be taken away still stands on his site with his listing of class schedules:

Seems as if some serious health issues may cause a slight change of my schedule. As of now, I’m planning to go through with most of my plans for this year and next year.

Doctors today confirmed that I have a form of pancreatic/lymphatic cancer. I will begin treatments December 11th. The prognosis is that I have 9-12 months to live. Plenty of time to get things in order.

My goal is to teach my Las Vegas/WPPI class, and to teach once more in my home town, the Washington, DC area. I am also going to do everything in my power to teach the class in France.

Anything after that I’ll just have to wait and see.

Monte Zucker passed away on March 15, 2007, at a young 77 years in his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

From his website:

The Passing of a Legend
Monte Zucker: 1929-2007

Celebration of the Life of Monte Zucker
Sunday, April 22, 2007, 1-4 pm

It had to snow…

Published by -MiKe- on April 3, 2007 in Personal. 0 Comments

It’s freakin’ APRIL! Gah… It’s been nearly shorts-weather for the past week, few weeks, and now its just as white outside as February… Ew… It’s not even cold enough! It’s still kind of warm out…

Whatever.

I feel I owe you, dear reader, an apology.

It seems my “update” yesterday was more of a rant than an honest, all encompassing, update. And I am sorry…

Sure, some bad stuff has gone down, but things have been on the up ‘n up too. And here’s where I get to boast…

Continue reading ‘It had to snow…’

The long awaited…

Published by -MiKe- on April 2, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

So, it seems the powers-that-be find an update is in order. So an update they’ll get.

Hello dear reader, its been a long time since I’ve seen you last… The clock’s gone by, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock…

No, I didn’t die over the past few, long, weeks. I did, however, come very close one day. And since I really don’t know where to start, I’ll start with the most interesting.

I got into a car accident a few weeks back. Kind of sort of beat the hell out of Jen’s car too.

I was heading back to school one morning in Jen’s car (Jen in tow), when I, for some reason, decided it would be a wonderful idea to rear-end a Ridgeline… Well… Not so much.

Continue reading ‘The long awaited…’

Some sort of V-Day…

Published by -MiKe- on February 15, 2007 in Personal. 2 Comments

Well yesterday sure was a grab bag of emotions and confusion…

Where do I begin? I began the day with a dash of frustration and about two teaspoons of guilt and anger each. I had tried breaking into Apartment 2’s wifi for a good few hours the evening before, to no avail, and some hardware I had bought specifically for the job neither worked on my Mac, or wanted my Mac to work.

Money wasted.

Money, come to find out, I didn’t have, as I was a good $6 in the hole, even after a $200 check. So thats no good. As it turns out, NSF (No Sufficient Funds) fees can pile up quick. In total, I think I was responsible for about $40 (these were a few really small checks), and the NSF fees accounted for almost $180 of debt. Thats absurd, and to top it off, despite waking to a formidable blizzard, my Approaches to Literature teacher decided she wanted to hold the only class of the day… So there’s your frustration and anger, all balled up inside of my first few hours of the day.

Luckily the rest of the day went considerably better. Including obnoxious balloons, flowers, chocolates, bottles of water, chocolate syrup, lace and American Idol… Not all in that particular order. Read on…

Continue reading ‘Some sort of V-Day…’