New opening for Novy Mirror

I did a little more work on the Novy MIRror opening and I think this one looks even better. (I also got rid of some pesky copyrighted images...) What do you think?

A Dalek in Phoenix

This afternoon, I went down to the Phoenix Art Museum to see a short film collection by Greg Benson and Kim Evey of Mediocre Films out of LA. I went to get some inspiration for my video company that opens next week. Spend some time poking around their web site. They have done some very funny shorts.

Cool thing was, as I was walking to the theatre, I passed the courtyard where a band was playing. This band had a Dalek. Here's proof.



I have no idea who these guys were or why they have a Dalek. However, by the time I left, the band had been exterminated and the Dalek was gone.

Sneak Preview - NOVY MIRror Opening Sequence

I mentioned in at least one previous blog post that I intend to start a video podcast. I'm posting below the special-effects-loaded possible opening sequence for the video podcast. Interested in feedback.



The music is an original score and performance, both copyright me, all rights reserved.

Personal Web Site Revamp

Check out my new home page. I decided to move to another server with much more generous disk space and band width allowances. That will let me do some things I wasn't able to do on extremezone. There will eventually two major additions. One, I'll be adding PHPBB bulletin board software. Two, I'll be adding a video podcast in the next month or two.

Since I changed servers, I also decided to jettison the html code I was using since the frames caused every link to open in a window technically still inside my web site. That is why the title never changed from my home page. That problem is gone.

The URL is still the same. Take a look at www.ricknovy.com and let me know what you think of the new layout.

Cat Woof?

I love that I can snap a quick photo with my cell phone. Otherwise, I couldn't share this great candid shot with you.

Lemonade

One can only drink so much lemonade.

Challenge - My Grass is Greener?

I received a broadcast tweet from Alethea Kontis claiming her grass is greener than "yours." I think it's about a tie, but I should note that I haven't had rain in a month and only turned the irrigation back on yesterday. What she doesn't know is that I overseed rye grass in the fall. (Challenge me in January.) Right now it's starting to transition back to the warm weather Bermuda grass, which is basically ugly, but is pretty much the only thing that can grow during a Phoenix summer. So, while Alethea's grass is emerging from winter, mine is dying due to spring.

Still, I think today the green-ness is a tie.

Here is Alethea's lawn.



Here is mine.





I think it's a tie, what do you think?

Sale - The Pillars of Europa

It's only fitting. I had a story appear in the last online edition of The Martian Wave. I just got word that my story, "The Pillars of Europa" will appear in the first print edition of the same magazine. It is my fourth sale overall to TMW.

I need to generate some more short fiction inventory.

Kumquats

My little kumquat tree is loaded with fruit. This bugger doesn't come up to my waist.



Kumquats are the ideal citrus fruit for lazy people. You eat them skin and all. No peeling, no mess.

Last Year - Bad Time to Invest in Lunar Real Estate

How to Drive a Pinto (Bean)

I forgot this story went live at The Fifth Di... on March 1st. "How to Drive a Pinto (Bean)." See it here.

In Business

I received notice today from the Arizona Corporation Commission that my LLC now exists. I also registered my domain name www.cactuswrenvideo.com. I'll be whipping the web site into shape over the next few weeks before I officially open for business on April 1st.

My "Sit Ubu Sit"

If you have been following this blog, you know that I was a victim of Reduction in Force back in January. My experience over the first month of unemployment was one of frustration and hopelessness in terms of finding another engineering job anytime soon.

In parallel to job search, I decided to start a business. I'll get into the details of what I'm trying to accomplish later, but for now, I will say that it involves video. Today, I went down to the Arizona Corporation Commission and applied to form Cactus Wren Video Productions, LLC.

After lunch, I went out to the desert and filmed a bunch of footage of saguaro cacti as well as some of cactus wrens. From that trip, I managed to get the still photo I plan to use for my web site header, as well as the leader/trailer for the video that will eventually go on the Cactus Wren web site and other places.

I plan to start a video podcast in the near future. That effort will also be produced by Cactus Wren.

I decided to post the video trailer here to show it off a bit. The version I uploaded is in Quciktime format. for whatever reason, the resolution doesn't translate very well from post-production into Quicktime. I'm quickly learning that I don't care for quicktime format. When I produce a video in flash format, it looks great--better resolution, larger viewing window, and smaller file size. When I do the video podcast, I intend to post it in flash format.

Here it is--what do you think?




Incidentally, the birds you hear are not the birds in the clip. Unfortunately, it was quite windy this afternoon. Despite the fact that the birds were active (as you can see), all you could hear on the sound track is the roar of the wind against the camera's microphone. I cut the audio from a clip I shot last week and attached it to this one, giving the same effect as what I heard in the field, only sans the wind.