Agitator Guy

Reading Time

2009-01-05T08:14:00.001-08:00

Now that I have the ebook and blog editor on my iPod I can sneak in a little read/write time here and there. Even so I can still see myself having to fight for every second.

While I was writing for the Comic Book Bin it was no different. During that time I would force the time into my schedule whether it worked or not. This created some problems with the family but they seemed to understand. Now it is a little different with the addition of two new members of the family Kal and Jig.

This time I'm going to try and exist in the margins. That's the plan initially anyway. The intention is that through writing a little here and there I will reveal the time where I am the most productive. Once identified I can focus and hopefully plan for that time of the day.

Lots of ambition going into this next phase. Here's to new beginings!

Posted with LifeCast

The Eagles

2009-01-04T18:48:00.001-08:00

Better then the band in times like these. The Eagles got down and dirty play-off style and came out alive. I haven't even watched a single game yet this year.

Posted with LifeCast

2009-01-04T14:16:00.001-08:00

Just thought I would take a little time to get this going. I've been meaning to start it up again for a while. I really need to shake the webs out.

Posted with LifeCast

Religious War is Cool!

2008-01-30T22:28:00.000-08:00

Face it religion is strange. It's about super powered ghosts and people with wings. When it's at it's best it's downright outrageous!

One of the coolest religions ever has to be Scientology. They not even afraid to hide the fact that their religion is a total scam. That why I have been loving the recent Scientology vs Anon war that has been going on the last few weeks. It gets better and better as time goes on.

You have to admit that this stuff is way cooler than anything on TV lately.

SlamDance Day One-Morning.

2008-01-17T15:18:00.000-08:00

The search for WiFi.

For some reason the ideas of kindness and sharing lost on area residents when it comes to open WiFi connections. Although I was able to detect well over twenty networks in the area, none of them welcomed my little MacBook from the condo complex.

Early in the afternoon we loaded up our back packs full of t-shirts and pamphlets and headed back downtown to check in with festival coordinators. The area if far more beautiful in the day light than it was last night when we arrived. We could see a few skiers that looked like little black dots on the side of the mountains all around us as we drove by dozens of million dollar homes.

The activity level on the main street had increased three fold from the night before. The narrow little streets were clogged with delivery vehicles, crowd control barriers and police officers. Not many people yet but you can tell that they are coming.

We went back to the Treasure Mountain Inn to get our all access passes and swag bags. Now to hit the town and see what we can see. At this point WiFi withdrawal is starting to set in pretty bad.

On The Ground in Park City

2008-01-17T14:33:00.001-08:00

Don, Amy and I arrived in Park City Utah last night for the Slamdance film festival. It was a 14 hours drive through some of the most beautiful areas of the mid-west.

Our first stop once we unloaded the rental car was the Treasure Mountain Inn on Main street. This building will act as the HQ for all of Slamdance.

Directly across the street we found a cool little place called the Wasatch Brew Pub. We sat down with a couple of the festival newspapers for a giant plate of nachos and a couple of their world famous Polygamy Porters. Great beer but we were so sleepy at this point.

Back on main street you could easily sense that something big was going to happen. there where at least half a dozen media trucks in and around the downtown area and lots of delivery trucks stocking up local stores and restaurants. Very exciting.

Back to bed in our super cool cowboy themed condo. Can't wait to see what the morning will bring. Oh and we haven't even watched any films yet.

Most Religious People Can Not Touch Tom Cruise!

2008-01-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

I will now declare that Tom Cruise is the holiest man in North America!

Faith is measured by the improbability of the belief and also by the individual devotion to that improbability. Mike Huckabee for example can be said to have a high level of faith because he believes that dinosaurs are imaginary and that someone is going to fly down from space and save him from having to run for a second term. As good as that is Huckabee looses points because his beliefs actually pay his bills and get him votes.

Tom Cruise on the other hand believes that the frozen souls of poorly behaved space aliens infect the bodies of humans due to some strange intergalactic war (or something). He not only believes this stuff but he ends up paying millions of his own money for the privilege.

Check this video of him going on and on about "The Truth"

1 Million-Dollar Question: Are you a big enough douche to hand these out?

2008-01-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a cute little joke bill that someone working at Calgary clothing store received during his shift on Monday night. It must be made clear that the customer wasn't trying to pass it as real currency. He just though that the openly gay employee might enjoy this little novelty item.

You might not be able to tell from this image but around the rim on the back of the bill is a bit of reading material. A cheeky little paragraph that gets right to the point.

This is good:

The Million-dollar question: Will you go to Heaven? Here's a quick test. Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, or used God's name in vain? Jesus said, "Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgment Day? If you have done those things, God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer-at-heart. The Bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in Hell. That's not God's will. He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. Jesus took your punishment upon Himself. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Then he rose from the dead and defeated death. Please repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus, and God will grant you everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey it. www.livingwaters.com

The first thing you see when following the link is the smiling face of one of the biggest hucksters in business today Ray Comfort.

Reznor Want's to Put a Tax on Freedom!

2008-01-10T22:25:00.000-08:00

I almost shit when I read this.

Reznor goes on to say that he might favor an ISP tax as a means of ensuring that artists benefit when their songs are downloaded for free on file-sharing networks, after being leaked before their release on a physical CD.

"I think if there was an ISP tax of some sort, we can say to the consumer, 'All music is now available and able to be downloaded and put in your car and put in your iPod and put up you're a** if you want and it's $5 on your cable bill,'" Reznor told News.com.

Link (digitalmediawire)

All I can say is that I hope this is an out of context quote from a slimy reporter trying to put words in someone's mouth. This kind of thing really stings me.

This is like the time that I realized that Beck was a Scientologist. I loved his music so much it hurt me to find out he was such a freak. It might have removed a little bit of my ability to enjoy his music. As internal defense from the truth I now believe that Beck is into Scientology just as an avant-garde statement. "Look at me, I'm so cool I think there's the frozen souls of space aliens in my head"

Now I find out that Trent Reznor want to sit around collecting royalties from an ISP tax? Maybe he's just saying this so that some crazy libertarian will assassinate him there by boosting him to cultural god like status? I think it would be better for me to just stop reading news stories about people I respect.

Reefer to MMORPG Madness

2008-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a video that I made using the new iMovie '08. It doesn't exactly capture what I was going for. I put it together as a opening for my documentary project "WoW: The Addiction" I want to use a little public domain footage from propaganda films to illustrate my point of view on the addiction issue. I'll need to re-cut this clip with better timing and footage to communicate my point better.

You can see more of my preliminary work on the WoW: the Addiction website. I have also set it up as a project on FilmRiot http://filmriot.com/wow

Reaper Jr. on FilmRiot.com

2008-01-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

Cutting Loose

A horror / comedy short about Grimm Spencer (better know as "the soul collector") and his son Ben. When an icy mishap puts Grimm out of commision for a day, Ben steps in to take his place and quickly learns that running the family business is harder than he thought it would be. Things get complicated when he falls for Zoe, a troubled girl who just so happens to be on his hit list.

Sunny Day Jazz is a group of young filmmakers from London Ontario. Their previous projects include What Floor and The Payoff.

WoW: The Addiction

2008-01-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

I have used the power of my MacBook to quickly put together a temporary site for my first documentary project. It's tentatively named WoW: The Addiction and I'm hoping to start doing some major work on it in the spring.

The video above is a little test footage I gathered with my brother almost a year ago. I'm really looking forward to the learning experience that I'm sure this project will provide.

Here are links to the external resources I created for the project so far:

http://wowtheaddiction.com

and the FilmRiot project

http://filmriot.com/wow

FilmRiot Ad

2008-01-04T23:07:00.001-08:00

Here's a little ad that you might be seeing more of if you happen to live in Park City Utah.

Digging Deep on the Holiday Break

2008-01-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

The internet practically shuts down during the holiday season every year. Most of the time I don't mind but it's been a little different this time around. Since we recently relocated to the West we didn't have to do any traveling this year. I ended up having to count on the web for a little more of my entertainment during my down time. With most of my social network contacts to busy to post anything I've had to look a little deeper to get my fill.

Here are a few of the things that I've looked into:

For the most part I have spent time keeping up to date on the Benazir Bhutto assassination. This included reading about her and her party on Wikipedia. I have to admit I'm no further along understanding what really happened. I can only be glad that I'm not forced to have an opinion on the issue like some of the citizens of Pakistan are.

I have started reading my copy of "The God Delusion" recently. Between chapters I have been doing a little independent research on the subject. I have a hard time seeing faults in Dawkin's arguments because I was already sold on the idea before I picked the book up. What I'm looking for is a convincing position from the other side of the issue. The problem with that has been that in order for the counter arguments to seem convincing you have to already believe in supernatural creates to an extent.

Steal This Film I and II. A couple of fantastic documentaries on the issue of copyright and what it means to society. Both freely available and well worth the trip to Pirate Bay.

Zeitgeist: The Movie. This is a documentary about how scary it could be to live in this world. It depicts Christianity as a mechanism for slavery, 911 as a government conspiracy and the American reserve as a dark overlord. I think there is at least a partial truth in everything presented in this piece at the very least.

I also spent a bit of time researching Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. He is attempting to become the first Mormon candidate. He delivered a speech which has been titled the "Faith in America Address" outlining his feelings about religions role in government. It's not exactly what I would call a great direction for the global super power.

That's about it. Not exactly what I would call a thrill ride but it keep me sharp during the time when mist people over stuff and drink themselves into hibernation.

Batman! Finally!

2007-12-22T22:05:00.000-08:00

I am a sucker for a man in black tights!

The Tipping Point

2007-12-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I'll have more to say about it in a later post but wanted to capture my initial thoughts.

Already it has profoundly changed the way I think about how to handle the marketing of my business to the public. I know now it's not a matter of reaching the largest number of people with my message. I'll get the most bang out of my modest marketing dollars by targeting a small very specific group. Seems obvious but it really isn't.

If I get a chance today I will be mapping out my strategy to reach reach 150 filmmaker and 150 film lovers. Will it pay-off? We're about to find out.

Hugo Chavez Reopens Cuban Oil Refinery

2007-12-22T10:12:00.000-08:00

Here's an amazing story out of Latin America.

New Classic Christmas Cartoon

2007-12-21T22:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry Rudolf, you suck!

Give the Man a Crack Pipe

2007-12-21T21:58:00.000-08:00

I read a story today about how the municipal government in Ottawa has decided to continue to fund a crack pipe program. The program is designed to provide clean crack pipes to fellow citizens that care to partake a little more than most. Ensuring (in some cases) that the less responsible folk are only destroying their own brains and not spreading one or more incurable diseases around.

At first I almost filed the story in the "Here We Go Again: Wild Spending" file but I began to warm up to the idea as I read on. I actually believe that it's important for a society to be constantly thinking of ways to relieve the suffering of it's hopeless souls. A blanket here, a little warm food and a clean crack pipe there it's the very least we can do. Give them a sign that no one has turned their back on them.

So that's fine about the spending but there was a far more interesting side to the story. I began almost instantly thinking about what went into the design and construction of a government issue crack pipe?

At first I can imagine that there must have been years or research. Followed by a series of prototypes and testing. The next step would be contract bidding. Dozens of Canadian manufactures clamoring to be the winner of the crack pipe contract. Once the highest priced most inefficient manufacturer was chosen I can imagine the work was swiftly outsource to a Chinese factory.

Five years later the first Government sponsored crack pipe hits the street. It cost .10 cents to build, and Ottawa pays $30 a piece. Crack heads are generally pleased by the performance of the device. It ranks much higher than the pop can but slightly below the safe pin and Bic pen tube.

Christian Values Take a the Backseat When Defending Christmas

2007-12-21T10:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a heart warming story from our nations capital. Ottawa school threatened after Christmas song cuts.

An elementary school in Ottawa was flooded with hateful and threatening e-mails and phone calls after media reports that it had removed the word "Christmas" from a song to be performed at its Christmas concert. link

Nothing special in the story really other than a few exceptional citizens spreading Christmas cheer. It's the type of thing that has become typical in the "War on Christmas" that has been going on for a few years.

The greatest thing (for me) about this battle is that it's a war where the enemies of society seem to be defeating themselves. Every time they claim that their right to celebrate has been threatened, and every time they say Canada is a Christian Country they loose ground. The defenders of freedom (the government in this case) sit back from their side of the fortifications watching the enemy bleed from the feet.

I must admit I'm really only into the kinds of stories that show people reacting of behaving badly. I'm a bit of a sensationalist in that regard. In this case however I would like to hear a little more about the motivations of the attackers. What are their demands? What do they care so deeply about that they would verbally assault a school teacher?

Could it be that they believe that tradition should always outweigh progress? Perhaps they think publicly funded institutions should play favorites? I'm going to dig a bit into this because I really can't make sense of it.

What ever the callers motivations were I would loved to have heard the actual phone call. Lets imagine for a second that we were right there with the teacher as she answered the phone.

"Howdy, my name is Jack Johnson. Why my little Peggy just come home an toll me you dun changed the words to that there song Silver Bells! That true?" and so on.

Have a very Merry Tuesday!

God and Lesbian Atheletes, A Match Made in Heaven

2007-12-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

While I was cruising a Christian news site reading a little sports related humor I got a better offer from the other big G.

"Meet Lesbian Athletes For dating, workout partners, friends, roommates, and more"

I wonder what the "more" means? Late night bible readings? Sexy white t-shirt baptisms? Does God only want me to meet Athletic Lesbians? What's wrong with average build lesbians or even heavy set lesbians?

None of it really mattered anyway. When I followed the link I couldn't find any lesbians that wanted to meet me. They were mostly uncomfortable about my nonathletic build sexual orientation.

Religious Peanut butter, Funny on so Many Levels!

2007-12-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

YouTube is such a wonderful place. I found this while looking for something else:

The best thing about it is I can't tell if it's a joke or not. I want to say it's not because of the completely dry manner in which it's shot. Never an out of context wink or reaction. Here is a group of people that can dress themselves, drive a car to the studio and operate cameras. From all outward appearances they are delivering a subject that they believe is true. It's unfathomable but it appears as though they are completely convinced.

If it's done as a piece of performance art I'd say it's brilliantly done. I am struggling with the implications of it being real and I'd have to say that it's a pretty impressive feat for any single piece. I have to believe it's fake because of my faith in man but I'm forced to believe it's real because of the delivery. A piece like this leaves me begging for more but the artist(s) was so complete in her work that she never left a trace of herself.

So in closing Bravo you unseen genius or Fuck us, there's actually people who believe this shit!

Which Came First, The Cavendish or the Man Who Made It?

2007-12-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

I recently watched this classic YouTube gem for the first time last night:

If you haven't seen it before you might have to watch it a couple time to get the joke. Of course the joke is that these guys are being serious. Well serious in the same way that a used car sales man is when he tells you "This is the best deal in town". They're not specifically lying but they are providing somewhat misleading data to get you to arrive at their preferred conclusion.

One of my favorite things about the video is Cameron's reactions to the data his friend is giving . It's classic douche bag. The whole thing reeks of a sales pitch. Reminds me of an infomercial.

Calgary is my New Home!

2007-12-20T16:38:00.000-08:00

I've reached a very important point in my personal life today. I took me by complete surprise. To make clear what I'm talking about I'll have to give a bit of background.

About 7 or 8 months ago I lost my job at a factory in the small Ontario town of St Thomas. St Thomas is the type of place where you're either working at a soul crushing factory or a minimum wage fast food place. None of the options available to me seemed particularly inviting so I was faced with making a big decision.

Prior to getting fired FilmRiot had been spun off of Cambrian House and it was starting to gain momentum. I had always dreamed of being able to move out west and work at the company that I had helped to create but I needed the support of my family to make it happen.

I begged, I pleaded, I created tonnes of worst case scenarios, I made a deal with the devil and finally my wife said yes. In fact it was much easier then I thought, a little too easy as it would turn out.

As the day of the big move got closer and closer I could see that my wife was having second thoughts. It was clear that she had made the decision a little too quickly and that she wasn't fully prepared for the stress that a cross country move would bring. She started missing Ontario before we left and she began to dread the event completely.

Needless to say the actual move did not go off without a hitch. Lots of our worldly possessions got cut at the last second and travel plans changed going into the last few days. To top it off we ended up at an apartment that we had to be out of within three months.

For as hard as she tried to keep a stiff upper lip my wife was negatively effected by the whole process. Separation from friends and family weighed on her immediately as she tried to get her barrings in a city much larger than she was used to. She felt isolated and I was much too busy at the time to ease the pain for her.

Her anxiety began to manifest as an underlining hatred for everything that represented the difference between this life and the life we lived in Ontario. I do mean everything. License plates were ugly, back allies were disgusting, the weather was unbearable. All I could do was tactfully remind her that we hadn't moved to a different planet but I felt totally useless to her during this time.

Three months later. You'd think that I'd be telling you at this point that she gathered the kids and hopped on a plane back to South Western Ontario, but no. I walked in the house today to smiling faces and holiday cheer. My wife acknowledged for the first time out loud that Alberta is a beautiful province and we're extremely lucky to have the chance to live here. She wasn't exactly screaming it from the roof tops but it was something. Beyond just knowing it she now feels that our family has a future here. That's a pretty wonderful state of mind to be in where ever you are.

Monster Cops on FilmRiot

2007-12-17T12:54:00.001-08:00

Although I promise not to make this blog 100% about FilmRiot, I will be blogging about interesting projects when they come up.

Monster Cops: Shadow Company

Here's a bit from their project profile:

It's a mockumentary look into the world of a secret government agency dedicated to killing monsters called Shadow Company. It's The Office meets Ghostbusters. It's Reno 911 meets The Blair Witch.
Plot Outline: Shadow Company is the secret government agency dedicated to protecting the human world from the hidden world of monsters. As Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies lurk in the darkness, it's up to these elite officers to defend us from the creatures of the night. Witness the horror, the action, the comedy and the surprisingly endearing moments in the lives of the Monster Cops.

The trailer is a lot of fun. I find their budget requirements to be a bit aggressive for what we're going to be able to provide initially but I do trust their ability to deliver. I'm sure things can be scaled and normalized once our full version has released.

Blogged with Flock

FilmRiot.com Goes Live!

2007-12-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time coming but finally FilmRiot has been released to the public.

There's lots of bugs and general ugliness going on with the site right now but we're hard at work getting things ready for V1.0. We're considering the current offering a public beta launch. As it sits users can set up a user account, publish a project profile and browse our directory of users and projects. There is also a few communication tools that are up and running. Users can comment on almost everything as well as private message each other.

This release is a huge deal for me personally. So far this has been a journey that began with me posting a simple idea to the Cambrian House Idea Warz tournament. Since last November it has lead me and my little family 3500 kms across the country and to a few events and meetings that I previously only dreamed about.

The best part of all is that we're far from done. We're set to go to the Slamdance film festival in a little over a months time. More connection, more stories and best of all more features and functionality to the product. I can't wait!