Canon PowerShot SD600

I got it as a gift!

NOW WITH MORE COLIN! SEE LINK INSIDE FOR DETAILS!

Thanks Mom, Dad, and Papa. Thanks Kate, for the carrying case. Thanks Peter, for Hellsing Ultimate, which I also enjoyed, but has nothing to do with the camera.

It’s a digital camera, and I like it. It’s pretty small, has all the features I wanted, and can even take little videos and stuff. Having a little camera is great, because I don’t have to carry my bulky SLR everywhere, I can just have it in my pocket, which allows me to get photos like this:

And then you get to look at them!

I’m not going to go into detail of the technical specs of the camera and whatever.

CONCEPT: 5/5 – Giving me a camera is like giving Picaso a brush! Okay, so it’s more like giving a donkey a cart, but hey, maybe that donkey will grow up to pull the biggest cart in the world..?

INNOVATION: 2/5 – Everyone got a digital camera for Christmas this year.

SATISFACTION: 4/5 – Picture quality is high, but I’m one of those people who always want’s that perfect resolution with also perfect clarity. One day.

EXECUTION: 4/5 – Well built, Canon, I am happy with the design!

FUN FACTOR: 4/5- Being able to take pictures whenever I want is pretty fun. Walking around with expensive electronics in Surrey/New West isn’t. Are the rumours true?!?!

OVERALL: 8/10 – Pretty happy with it! I like taking pictures.

Emo Photos

How to show your true self with a digital camera, step by step

If you’ve ever wanted a picture that captures how you really feel inside, something that may be too complicated for words and needs to be seen, here’s how to take your own emo photos. I learned this from a friend today; previously I was not able to express myself in this way.

1. Get a digital camera.
2. Find a setting that’s not too cliche, but still ‘indie’.
3. Take a picture from above your head, at a 45 degree angle from the front of your nose. (a friend can make this easier)
4. Look into the camera and take the picture.

Extra points for: Asymetrical hair, the amount of the colour black in the photo, how high up you can look without moving your head.

Things to watch out for: Don’t take the picture in a mirror. If necessary, use the mirror to look in the viewfinder and take the picture that way. Seriously, this isn’t a joke people. How hard is this to figure out.

Examples:

WRONG.

Almost there… Not looking into the camera, and the angle is wrong. Also, you’re in a washroom. Are those your parent’s towels?

Done! Note the look of yearning to be free, and the Goonies poster.

CONCEPT: 2/5 – You can’t express your feelings with images! That makes no sense! Better stick to your blogging.

INNOVATION: 1/5 – myspace.com

SATISFACTION: 3/5 – It’s not really that bad of an angle to take a picture at, especially if you’re tall. It’ll let people see what the top of your head looks like (they are wondering).

EXECUTION: 4/5 – Stick to these simple rules and you’ll do fine.

FUN FACTOR: 4/5 – Can be pretty fun. Get a bunch of friends together and spend the evening taking mopey pictures of each other and laughing.

OVERALL: 3/10 – If you’re under 15 or over 25, this is inappropriate behaviour. Actually, no one is exempt.

Three Music Videos by Röyksopp

They are a group

What Else is There

This has been stuck in my head for a few days. Besides being a great song, the video is interesting to watch. The first time through I didn’t know what was happening, and was apprehensive because the mood is dreary and ethereal. Every frame is mostly blackness, and strange disconnected imagery of growing fibers, houses ripping from their foundations, a storm, and the woods at night create a haunting feeling of the otherworldly. The visuals fit the tone of the song perfectly, and the swells are met with equal visual swells; debris wildly flying, hairs raising, and faster cuts.

Remind Me

I can’t think of another video that’s simultaneously made me feel like part of a bigger picture and destroyed most of the wonder in the world. It makes you feel small, but at the same time necessary. The video causes thought as to the systems that run our everyday lives. While revealing a relatively small portion of how water is treated after you flush, and what corn flakes are made out of, it entices the viewer to think more critically about how these systems are formed, and their place in the order of society. What may seem like random action to you can be graphed, and charted, and are being so by people you’ve never met. Shout out to a 26 year old guy I know in Victoria for linking to this on his site months ago.

Eple

Just fun to watch. For a while at least. I found I got dizzy, and then a bit bored. The video isn’t repetitive, per say, but the concept gets old fairly quickly. The song is repetative, and you may have heard it before. Maybe while sitting in a trendy Cafe. After hearing this so many times every time I go to a Moxies, Earls, or other Hip Joint, I’m tired of the song itself (which I associate with overly done up waitresses) but I’d never seen the video before today. Enjoy!

CONCEPT: 4/5 – The concept of all these videos is very good and suiting of the music.

INNOVATION: 4/5 – Creativity pours out of each video, except Eple which is a concept I’ve seen several times before.

SATISFACTION: 3/5 – Each video is entertaining across multiple watches. You’re sure to miss something the first time.

EXECUTION: 5/5 – Production value is top notch.

FUN FACTOR: 2/5 – Most of the videos draw on uncomfortable thoughts to get their message across. They’re not a lot of fun, but not overly soul crushing either.

OVERALL: 7/10 – Well crafted art.

[Edit: I screwed up one of the links while editing, requiring a re-edit]

3D-Stereogram Tetris

Magic Eye mixed with Tetrominoes

Someone gone made a stereogram version of everyone’s favourite blocks-in-a-well game, Tetris. This seems to me to be a bad idea, but a great concept. I’ll explain in the first ever PROS vs CONS post!

PROS:

1. It’s Tetris, the most played video game of all time.
2. It’s creative.
3. It’s art.

CONS:

1. It’s a stereogram. No one actually likes Magic Eye. I mean, maybe in 1996, but as I mentioned earlier, Time Travel is not possible.
2. Tetris can be frustrating, no need to make it moreso.
3. Not everyone can even see stereograms, especially moving ones depicting gameplay.
4. Eye strain is not a thing I tend to associate with a good time.
5. During play, my eyes tend to focus back on the screen when I move them. It’s hard to maintain the 3D image when there’s movement.
6. The gameplay isn’t even all there. The blocks are not entirely visible when they first appear at the top of the screen, so the player has to wait for them to scroll down once or twice to see what the block actually is, and pressing down (to try to alleviate the problem) immediately lands the block. This is typically what the UP button is used for in other Tetris games, but UP is instead used for rotate. Huh?

Fortunately, I can see stereograms fairly easily and consistantly, and had a go at playing. I enjoyed one user’s comment that the boss wouldn’t know that you were playing a video game if he saw this on your screen at work. Well, perhaps YOUR boss is completely computer illiterate, but most people understand that if you’re only using the arrow keys and are staring vacantly at a blurry picture of nothing you’re probably not working.

CONCEPT: 3/5 -Not bad as a show of skill, but lacking as a game.

INNOVATION: 4/5 – I’ve never seen a moving, much less interactive, stereogram before.

SATISFACTION: 2/5 – The gameplay is all garbled, but being able to see what I’m doing is rewarding.

EXECUTION: 3/5 – Far from perfect, some of the 3D effects stray outwards from the blocks, and the controls and gameplay quirks bring it down.

FUN FACTOR: 2/5 – Less fun than normal type tetris.

OVERALL: 6/10 – A nice idea executed a bit too roughly to score higher.

Blue LED Lights

Strings of lights made of blue light emiting diodes

These are lights people put up all over the place at Christmas. A few years ago they were invented for the first time and everyone thought it would be great to buy a bunch and put them all over the place. Their particularly distracting properties made them prime for storefronts and commercial applications, while their energy saving nature made them attractive to businesses as well. So up they went, all over town, and soon up they’ll go again.

I’m not against saving power, I heavily endorse it, but there’s something about the lights that doesn’t sit right with me. I don’t know why I said that with an air of mystery, I know exactly what it is. The combination of the lights brightness coupled with their particular hue makes them hard for me to see. My eyes can’t focus on them, and they turn into bright splotchy star shaped blue lazer bolts and confuse and disorient me. Others claim not to see this effect, others still agree with me, and still others can see the effect but are not bothered by it. The most concerning thing is that looking at the lights makes me feel like my eyes aren’t working properly. By straining very hard I can bring them in to focus, but it’s like someone trying to see a Magic Eye for the first time, and everything else goes blurry.

I can only come to one conclusion, Blue LEDs don’t exist on this plane. They are not lights, but a window into another dimension where our laws of physics don’t apply.

CONCEPT: 4/5 – Yes, let’s save the environment and spruce up an otherwise drab season.

INNOVATION: 2/5 – Before these things there were just regular type lights, which were good and all, but these ones are apparenly better. Of course, reinventing something isn’t nearly as revolutionary as inventing something in the first place.

SATISFACTION: 2/5 – Not being able to properly observe them makes me feel weird.

EXECUTION: 3/5 – They do the job, but again, not as well as I’d like.

FUN FACTOR: 1/5 – Not very.

OVERALL: 5/10 – Points for long life and less electricity, but problematic in other areas.