hmatt's blog

Wow.

I could barely watch an episode of Felix the cat.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/62741/felix-the-cat-compilation-7

First thing I noticed- the theme song isn’t what I expected. You know, “Felix the cat, the wonderful wonderful cat. Whenever he gets in a mix, he reaches into his bag of tricks…”

Well, this has some sort of new-age sort of a theme that tries to introduce all the characters… and it is so bad.

Plus the animation is TERRIBLE! I could do something better with motion or keynote. There are a few very Felix types of things that reminded me of his old cartoon, the whole- tail-detaches-and-becomes-something-else routine. And the series of non-sensical plots. In the first episode the bad guy is wearing some sort of a blue suit.. and hunting! What? Plus, I don’t know what age group they were aiming for, but Felix states the obvious all the time- “The tree is gone!” “I’ve been tricked”

Plus there were several seconds of just staring at nothing in particular. For about ten seconds we see a trunk jumping around (all two frames of animation btw). So incredibly terrible.

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I went shopping last night and bought some strawberries and bananas. So I had them and chocolate pebbles this morning. Oh, and I finally finished entering the names of all 192 hikes into a database on my iPhone.

As a side note, I’m going to have to contact headquarters during work tomorrow. Voice Over is unlike every other thing we teach on the Mac, and there doesn’t seem to be any training anywhere. If I’m going to basically start from scratch, I’d rather have a team or someone to send feedback to. *sigh*

I’ve been trying to do things to train myself and my life to the way I want it to be. How I want to be. How life can be.

Something I was thinking about on the way to work is how intimidated or worried, or self-conscious I can be.. and how unproductive that all really is.

I once heard that you should strive to excel at whatever job you are at. At first this seems counter-intuitive; shouldn’t you be saving your energy for things that really matter? Well I’ll bet people say that because it helps you get in the habit of being awesome. Getting burnt out is a real thing no doubt, but giving up or not trying are the other options.

Those aren’t good options.

The other night I went to a bar with some friends. The music was TERRIBLE and the transitions between each song were very forced.. The biggest thing I noticed about myself is how I didn’t really dance it out. When I hear swing music I’m in my element. I’ll take the girl and do all sorts of goofy dance steps. But when trying to dance in large group circles I get all self conscious.

On Saturday I was talking to David L, all about interests I have and how I envision my life.. what I wish it was like.
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Years ago I was into vlogging. I still am, and I’ve been trying to put new things out.. but I haven’t.. why? Mostly because I felt unsupported. I don’t know any other vlogging types or barely any other blogging types. So what do I need? A support group!

I want to meet other vloggers and be able to talk about the challenges and positives of vlogging. = )

The same thing holds true for blogging. I’m going to make a list of all the bloggers I know. I’ve done this in the past, but I believe they its called a blogroll. My current blogroll list is available on http://hmatt.com/blog/links/

Anyway, I’ve toyed with the idea of starting up a Meetup group.. but I’d rather just join something! The amount of effort to set up a meeting (and the cost) make me shy away.. but if I don’t do it where am I? I can’t just wait for someone else to do things all the time. If I want something done I’ll have to do it myself.

I’m adding this project for the month of April.. to have a vlogger/blogger meeting! I’ll have to do a lot of things to make this a reality. 1) pick a place that is big enough for people (and also small enough in case we don’t have many people show), 2) create some sort of atmosphere and plan to make everyone feel comfortable, 3) network and advertise so I can get to know if there are any other places I can go..

I tried looking for “los angeles vloggers” and old 2005 and 2006 posts came up…

although just looking at it again I found some geek meetings all about social media. A lot of them are competing with one another, but instead of focusing on making an ongoing series (or obligation). I’ll create some fun vlog challenges and topics to discuss. I’m not sure what I’m expecting.. but it would sure be nice to see what other people are up to.

Hmm.. what is it about me and getting all excited about things that are no longer in fad. It sure makes it difficult to find like-minded individuals! = /

I wonder though if these geek dinners are all about super intense stuff and if will be full of programmers or internet rockstars. Although- who cares really? I’m not about to be intimidated by other internet folk because they are more ‘internet popular’ than me. How will I be able to immerse myself in that type of culture if I’m always on the sidelines.

gee whiz.. I’m always on the search for “my people”.

A draft of my internet vlogging vision is available on http://hmatt.com/blog/vlogging/

That’s it for now I suppose.

Every trip on the metro home I feel my eyelids get heavy. By the time I came in my door I dropped everything and went to sleep.

That was at 7pm. Then I awoke at midnight.

I’ve been wasting the hours away reading online and watching the office on hulu.

Then I read this article on cbs – it was an interview about the financial crisis & the fed reserve.

Like a lot of people, I’m confused why the tax payers are throwing tons of money to bailout companies. The seemingly logical thing to do would be to let them fail and then move on. Then the counter argument begins.. if we did that then it would make other things collapse.

Quite true. So now we as the American people are left in a quagmire where we have to ‘save’ these banks that continue making bad choices and giving out bonuses.. it is all frustrating.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/12/60minutes/main4862191_page2.shtml

This article kind of lets some insight on how the Fed reserve has been battling this crisis. The end result is that they’ve been ‘printing money’. Which will cause a HUGE problem if things aren’t dismantled properly after we have some stability. Otherwise we’ll end up like some of those markets on the other side of the world. I remember hearing a story about the money (rubles?) being used to burn for heat because there was so much of it. An entire wheelbarrow of printed money was required for a loaf of bread.

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I wonder when the movie Atlas Shrugged will come out, it would be a very interesting topic to discuss with people. If you haven’t read this before it deals with a market in turmoil; a very timely piece.

Okay.. I have to be at work later today.. I’m still not tired again, but it is hard to force myself back to sleep. I spent 99 cents on an app that allows me to play rain sounds to get to sleep.. I’ll try that again I suppose.

I do miss those ‘healthy’ sounds. When it rains here I get kind of homesick and miss the green forests of the northwest..

but I’ll be so glad when it gets warm again. I’m growing very sick of being cold all the time.

Today I did some more editing for a talkies video.

Then I saw Steph on facebook. We went running together for a few hours and now I’m about to go to my acting class.

I remember when it used to hurt running, but now I can go and go until my arms get tired of swinging.

I guess sprinting to the metro all the time has built up endurance or something.

• Maple & brown sugar mini-wheats = too much sugar #

Gil has to move in.. with Matt

Man, I should have spent this morning working on my vlogs instead!!

I only have 59, but I’d rather be vlogging. (sounds like a bumper sticker)

So I went over to blip.tv because when I post videos on my site they stop showing up in itunes.. It is weird and I don’t exactly understand why except for some research I did on it a while back and there is some sort of a ftp binary file issue.. or something.
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Anyway, I love vlog videos..

especially this girl’s:

http://brigittedale.blip.tv/

She’s adorable, and I LOVE her expressions. Aww..

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Hmm, I’ve (can you make a contraction of “I have”?) a Shabat dinner to attend later tonight- so I’d better figure out the bus schedule there, but if I have time perhaps I’ll be able to make a video… of course it always is easier to think about than actually do.

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is “God is crying.” And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is “Probably because of something you did.”

–Jack Handey