FYI I own at connect 4

yea me and Hugo in SL were playing Connect 4 and once he started wanting to play for money, I won every game that point on, did I subconsciously hustle Hugo in connect 4?

last night I was trying a video trick which almost cause me to murder my video cards lol. Lets just say you really don't want to go tweaking around jacking with settings and get all click happy. An hour later I ended up just going into safe mode and restoring from my last checkpoint hah

We also have a contest we just started on the NSS page for those who are artiest and interested in it. its only 2 weeks long. That way for anyone who is a procrastinator we've all ready solved your deadline problem with it normally being to far away. Head to NaturalSelectionStudios.com for all the info.

We are also looking for web designers, because websites just isnt my thing, and we are getting to the point where we are looking to bring a solid NSS team together. We are doing a lot really, just one step at a time otherwise its overwhelming. So we'll see =)

I made this!

unexpected RedVSBlue special video at the UK Machinima Fest, footage we took from our camera =D

How refreshing...
Me and Jen went to the UK Machinima fest today, probably going back tomorrow. And I must say, it was great to actually meet such awesome Machinima artist face to face other than us. They had some great lectures, and presenters there, many of which we didn't even know would be there if someone didn't say something like "btw that guy over there is ____"

First off, I gotta say Burnie and Jason from Red Vs Blue (church and tucker also the writer and producer) were there and cool as hell, laid back and great to talk with. Jen was even bull shitting with em for about an hour which was funny as hell as they waited in between lectures and no one realized it was them but her. Will make sure if we do go back tomorrow to get a pick with the guys. Burnie signed it "I made this!", and Chris signed it "Bow Chicka Bow wow" which you'll get if you've seen the series. Its great though they really set the Machinima landmark for breaking the game film barriers with developers as Bungie and Microsoft welcomed them. Hell even when I turn on my 360 I see Red vs Blue options to buy Ep's and download it to your Xbox now lol when they use to be free.


There were legal lectures and advertisement lectures. General machinima ones and discussions, it was pretty fun, considering everyone there has made a machinima just about, and you can walk up to anyone saying "So what machinima have you made" and be familiar with it if you keep up on videos. It was funny though no one would of known the guy who made the first FRAPS was there until Paul said something. He was great to meet though, and remind him he has 30 bucks of mine.. lol

Course Paul Marino's was there and Hugh Handcock, Me and Paul talked a LOT through out the day and Hugh was busy, but wonderful guy to meet, and its great to hear about all the great work Hugh has put into opening the game developers eyes to Machinima and welcome those to their game to make videos and have copy write to what they film as its a huge problem. I joined on on a lecture him and a board were giving on it as we all had a great round table discussion. One of his quotes "A game developer hasn't made it big, until someone makes a machinima inside his platform" said while defending filming copy write laws in video games. We had another great conversation talking about (to sum it up) the competition in Machinima with "wanting to help friends/people, but hating them abusing your kindness for greed and running with it" which im glad we talked about among loads of other great conversations. Ill have to pick his book up but dunno where I can go to get it before tomorrow to have him sign it =) I like geek memorabilia now that I can place around the room with pride and happy to have met those who inspire me on some level.

OMG hah had talk about random. Theres a guy who runs the college sim in SL who was showing it off to people there. Well were the first to show up and we're just talking with the guy and what they're planning to do with it etc... well they goto one of the sims that the convection is streaming at. Sure enough as soon as I say "hah it would be funny if we saw moo here and geuis" and there they are in game hah. So we ganked the Mac book form the guy and started typing "Hey brb ill jump in front of the camera!" lol well heres the pic Jen took from the big screen at the convention.

Cant wait to go next year, it was really refreshing to attend this kind of event and I feel has helped guide me on where I'd like to go with our work. Considering its gotten us this far all ready. Next week were heading to the London Gaming Expo with Treebee and Sox from Second Life. Everything from Anime, video games, to table top and cards with the new stuff. Hopefully we'll have out NSS shirts in by that time =D

Whats awesome to realize too, is that we'll be just like them giving lectures at South hampton at the end of the month. So HOLLAR IF YOUR GOING!!!

Damn you Bungie! why must you be so sexy

Alright so even though now I have more time, I still havnt posted for a while.. why? well this should answer it ---->

First day it was for sale the BX on base bought 450 copy's, of course with them all being sold. Halo 3 made 300 million in the first 24 hours WORLDWIDE, thats more most box office movies. Glad to see being a gaming dork is now the cool thing when our kind have been doing it for years.

Ive been working on the music video here and there but nothing to hardcore. Some big upcoming projects that we're just waiting for starting dates on and really just having fun with video, cant wait to do the Southampton lecture with Jen, its pretty wicked. Also if anyone's going to the London Gaming Expo next week hit me up cause we're going!

Went to Ely a lot this weekend to pick up furniture a TSGT is getting rid of cause he's PCSing, the stuff is just about brand new and solid wood all over. He's getting married so she has all the furniture that can fit in the house. We can get rid of our TMO furniture now =D yay! and have big adult furniture!

Anyways back on Halo 3 hah, me and Jen beat it together a few days after we bought it. pretty bad ass, but ever since we've been doing the multilayer which everyone knows is fun as hell. Jen was getting owned by 12 year olds, love watching her play its pretty funny =D Also got her the Karaoke game for Xbox that wouldn't play on the 360 so I had to bust out the first xbox. After we played it for about 5 hours it died... after 3 years lol out of the blue, no reason, and I got the red light of doom. If its free ill send it in, but I still need to find some download if there is one to play it on the 360. Sucks though, that Xbox was the first system I ever bought with money I made at Target lol

Time to make green screen my bitch!

First off a big thank you to the NSS extras helping out with the sim size set we did this weekend =D was loads of fun and im glad you guys found it awesome too

So I'm finally off 12's at work, and 8's now feel like work is only 2 hours long. Anyways, point is now I have time to finally hang out more, and work on videos! Instead of coming home from work or class and passing out.

I've been working on a pretty bad ass video recently that im putting a lot of work into it, mostly just having fun with green screen. I love film and editing, its my passion and people have said they can see it in my videos, which is awesome =). And if i can make money doing it thats even better, because it's paid for my monster of a computer that allows me no restrictions and other audio equipment I'd like to become more proficient at, and use it along side of my videos more often.

Another thing is I'll be writing in my blog more now that I have the time. Me and Jen have this entire month booked and its sexy as hell, jam packed of traveling the UK for a Machinima fest, the lecture at Southhampton we've been asked to give, even a little gaming at the London Expo Center. If anyone is headed that way we'd love to meet fellow gamers from SL!

Being in the middle during a new era

Its crazy, what got me started was an email I just received. But we really are in the middle of everything going down. When me and Jen joined Second Life the most people online were 1,000 at one time, and maybe 200k residents. Now its over 9 million accounts (many alts) with 30-40k on at any time.

Theres stores all over, people making money in a video game cause they don't have a real life job, and countless stories about the little man finding his nitch in second life and coming out ahead. fortune 500 companies paying people like us to build them advertisement in the world, professors teaching, and charaties like the walk for breast cancer, and others like the Boomer Esiason video we did for Cystic Fibrosis. And here we are, smack dab in the middle of it.

The email was from Harold again, regarding the South Hampton lecture. Someone cannot show for a spot that was before or after NSS's, so he's giving me and Jen a full hour, and would like us to be there considering our topic, and how it would be much better in person than via internet distorting the content. Anyways, still have to talk it over with Jen on how we'll do this considering before it was just me and a mire 30 mins , but it will be a fully paid for trip, and only 3 and 1/2 hours away.

I'm back to days now, so ill probably be blogging more again. Course papers turned in so now its just studying. Think i'll try and dish out another fun video we've been working on for the hell of it while I continue to wait on Second Life to release Wind Light and begin filming the series.

Quick update

Jen was bugging me that its been a while since I blogged, even though we live together she's still a blog whore =P haha.

So we've released a BUNCH of videos this week, one business, several weddings, and editing a product video right now, while arranging filming for a music video Jen and I are doing. ALSO this weekend I finally took the time and posed all the products I built in Second life, on Second Life Exchange which can be viewed HERE

Also writing a case study analysis for class right now and getting ready for the midterm exam. But yea ill tap bloggers booty more often like I use to =D

jesus people!

Ugh I hate researching editing techniques, let alone when other people use and abuse them shamelessly! IE: the program Crazy Talk, a post editing facial animation program, many people are now using it in SL very n00bly, mostly cause they think it can only edit pictures to animate in film, even to the point of creating an entire "talk show" with these pictures. People are abusing the power it has, instead they're making a video every 5 minuets with it and act like its "The most awesome thing ever known to man since inventing sex". heres a better example for those not femiliar with the program and post editing techniques, its like taking a computer... or a person with the IQ of a billion, and use it/them to hammer an nail into a piece of wood for your kids tree house. These people take something new and use it for the most primal ability's it has, no i'm not saying I know everything and produce the best work cause I sure as hell don't. But at least I attempt to improve with all the work i do and explore new ideas rather than be the guy in 2007 who still rolls around the first stone wheel a caveman made cause it was just so freacken awesome! Who's telling these people they're good. if your a friend than done lie and tell them the truth.


That got me thinking, YouTube is another good example. You have people who spend months on brilliant projects, or teach "do it yourself" videos to those with out educations, comedy videos and parody's that take creativity. Than you have the other 80% of the videos on Youtube, people whining for 10 minuets about their day looking for sympathy, drunks posting a rant like they're the smartest SOB in the world and had an epiphany, or some ignorant who-diddy making a discriminatory remark to someones work.

Man I love how society works.

In case of doubt, make it sound convincing.

Class went great, I still need to pick up my book since now I know where they sell em at. Teachers pretty cool and a very happy guy, seems like this class will go just fine as long as I keep up on the reading and everything. We have two case studies we need to do papers for the course, which just reminds me how horrid my grammar and spelling is. Dunno why but its never been my strong point, that and math. Not to add I love writing, I just suck at it lol.

I'm doing more research on some topics for the series, which is coming out pretty good, looks like ill be writing the series first before filming a single episode, right now its looking at around 8 total for the first series. I dunno if I could hold off not showing someone and waiting to release them all. Jen did tell me about a machinima contest this dude is holding in SL, not really sure what to submit for it because I have a buncha little comedy videos I'd like to do, but serious/action or emotional videos seem to always win it. Depending though, cause I had about an hour of free time at work so far and I wrote a really funny video idea, but its a real life video regarding second life. Which would be a big hit, especially since one people did a video making fun of SL also in real life situations. We'll have to ask the guy if it needs to be a "in SL" filmed video. Hey in the end though its all about having fun and making a great video that makes people feel good. It would be nice to participate in a film contest though since I havnt before.

Redick hasn't gotten back to me since I emailed em back, bummer cause I was hoping to hear from em. It was like 2 weeks before I even realised I got an email from him too though lol. Reminds me I'm pretty hooked on watching random Youtube videos from time to time now. There are some people now I enjoy watching Vlog that have some witty humor. Course the majority of Youtube is full of rubbish so its hard sometimes to weed them out.

Well back to reading the goods! later days

Give me liberty! or give me Fiddle Faddle!!

So everything went as planned this weekend, including my face off with the entertainment center I started to build a month ago, I agree it looks much better put together than a pile of wood I hid in the corner, as if it were a mark of shame. We filmed 2 off 3 weddings as one was called off. And this one chick we've done 2 wedding videos for in the last year wanted a 3ed one done, I think she just hooks up with pimps in SL and uses em until they realise they arnt getting any RL booty from her pixels. Ill be editing the 2ed when i get home, I finished filming before coming to work. Oh and I start class today =D

This weekend too was the mark of my 2 years in the Air Force, and Jen pulled a little sneaky sneaky gift with help from our buddy Rico. He did some awesome Photoshop work on her pictures, its cool to know Rico for so long and see him improve with each little detail. So that was awesome cause Ive never had anyone do any kind of personal gift for me before. Besides of course the awesome Jen videos she's surprised me with, of all our pictures over time and SL goodness.

Now HERE is where I bust out the game talk about a new xbox 360 game I picked up

Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars

This game was released 5 months ago, and now I can see exactly how Starcraft 2 will be when it does come out, based off the game play videos blizzard's released it looks almost exactly like it, just on earth. Considering Blizzard doesn't release any game until is absolutely ready - its probably going to be into 2008. Well I beat the game in 2 days as the "good guys" for maybe 10 hours total, and still have the bad guys side to play. I suck against the computer on medium difficulty so the hell im going to start going on xbox live lol. Review wise, loads of replay value since its all about PvP, cant wait to play on live, and the graphics are bad ass. Im sure there are lag problems on Xbox live considering how many units are in game at one time. But C&C3 is straight up bad ass if you were any kind of Warcraft 1-2-3, or Starcraft fan.

While googling pictures I came across an interview with Rob Pardo, vice president of game design at Blizzard Entertainment, which some things I all ready knew such as the mindset of blizzard when developing. But he goes into a lot more specifics which I think is a really awesome way of approaching a project. Especially how they develop based off the interest of the teams developing rather than say "we want this game, and this is the deadline". If they feel a game is going in the wrong direction, they'll scrap 1/2 the game, and reroute it. Cant say how many ideas Ive scrapped before because they were going in the wrong direction or I just wasn't feeling it. Its hard to go back on that project and think about it a different way to create it sometimes.

cant wait to go home and get some sleep. Im glad class is only 2 days a week otherwise I don't know how I would get anything else done project wise, work or NSS. I all ready started building the green screen set for a fun music video I wanna do, its a new green screen idea ill be pulling off. Ive been slacking with fun videos, so since I'm getting back into SL more now a days im feeling em. Not to mention Rico and some other Buddy's are more in SL now too so I get to hang with em, for a little while we were all in different games.

When Sept comes around we'll be on 12's at work, 4 days working 3 days off. which is pretty sweet, me and Jen can plan some real trips now with constant 3 day weekends. And we'll be setting weekends every month that we will not be doing any weddings for business videos for company's, That way we can hit up crazy amounts of traveling.

Later days!

Do you wanna die or something?

What the hell are people thinking when you drive in England, have a road 11 feet wide for each direction, pitch black at night! and they leave their bright's on with oncoming traffic. Yea its obviously dark, but when you blind the other driver constantly you minus well just say "Hey Mr. hit me with your car". Whats even worse is when you have some big stupid American truck no one needs like an F350 driving at you,where its so tall off the ground even with out brights on it blinds you, not to add how wide the damn thing is. There's is NO reason in England to be owning a big ass truck like that, its either a car - or a freacken big ass tractor for REAL work. Not to haul their groceries around when its the weekend.

That's all I really had to rant about since I just got done driving to work and I deal with it every day. You always have those people who don't turn their brights off when you do, so I always turn mine back on at em, like "TAKE THAT MR. RUDE!". So we have a 3 day weekend this week, sucks I didn't know that earlier otherwise I would of said no to the 3 weddings we have. I'll have to get a heads up on when the next one is, its some BS day off too that some brass guy said "Hey you know what, I really don't wanna work 5 days next week, 3 day weekend it is!!" They had em ALL the time at Tinker, then again I haven't been here that long yet. Cant believe on the 22ed I would have been in the Air Force for 2 years now. Its officially the longest job I've ever been at with out quitting or getting fired lol.

I just read a new study on yawning and why its contagious, coming up with a couple different theories. Which I can tell them right now are all wrong because I was yawning just reading the article (and I don't mean that as a corney joke) but even just typing the word "yawn" made me want to. Thus making me come to my conclusion, the word "yawn" it self was created by some kind of devil who thought it would be funny to give mankind a word to make them all react the same way when they hear it, opening their mouths like a puffer fish and sucking up air. I think its genious, wtg!

BaZammm.... yea couldnt think of a title

Well damn Bill to hell cause he got me hooked on Stargate Atlantas. I've all ready watched the first 3 seasons, and now stuck on a cliff hanger until the 4th is on TV.

Got a phone call about the Xbox elite I put on reserve a long time ago and picked that puppy up, unfortunately just about every online store doesn't ship 360 games to the UK. So I'm having to ship everything to the parents only for them to ship to me, which will STILL be cheaper than buying any of it in the UK, especially malls like in Cambridge.

Its official too, I am 11 credits away from my associates degree, and than I can start working on my bachelors. Either way I'm in no rush, considering the first 2 years of any multimedia school I goto I'm really not going to learn much and be insanely bored. So Jen and I will still be running the business while I take a couple classes just so I don't loose out on the free schooling and degrees. Its funny how schooling was one of the big reasons why I joined, yet Ive had more film & business experience that most multimedia students. Jen's been helping me out a ton with customers and other company's, since then Ive been able to focus more on other projects I'm wanting to do, and hit a class here and their. Running your own business from scratch and making a name for your self (3 years now) isn't easy, so its really cool not having to give it up for other activities and still have it pay for better equipment. I don't think we'll ever be as "hard core" business pushing group as it could get, because that would straight up just be a pain in the ass and would never be fun to do.

We'll we have a 3 day weekend this week, I have a wedding to edit tonight, and 3 to film this week. I should be able to get some good writing time in for the first Episode.

What kind of Micky Mouse operation are you guys running

Some crazy UK sign we saw while driving, mind you it was a 1 lane road on each side, so it was a bit odd...
Reads "Oncoming vehicles in middle of road"

Wow so I normally hate meeting or talking with people I went to school with, mostly because- well to keep it short, they all suck. But I got an email from a buddy of mine in school named Redick (however the hell its spelled, if that's spelled right than it was just a lucky guess), I use to help him out a little with a video he was doing in highschool. Anyways, the guy tough me the basics of Vegas, but he mostly did 3d graphics and effects. If it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't have been all into NSS and video game filming. It does remind me though that I need to pick up some tutorial videos (aka torrent) about new toys/software/tricks out there, and how to perfect some things. ALSO reminds me that his ass got me INTO torrents in the first place. Which one could call another hobby of mine now =P

So I finished the outline, ending with several pages and a finished product I'm really happy with, me and Jen have been working out the final details, and if i have some free time, i'll begin writing the first episode =) all ready wrote out several outlines for the other episodes. Which they have me so excited it makes me want to quit the air force, run to Mexico, and continue to create this series full time =D but that would be very practical now would it... heh In any case we have days with a lot of down time, so a couple times a week I'll be able to spend several hours focusing on it while at work =P

I think we have some weddings this weekend to film, we'll probably just head to Norwich on Sunday for that huge ass market that's O-So-popular in England. and STILL need to post all our other England pictures on flicker, but they still don't like UK account numbers, nothing but sinners and seal killers work for that company.

Crazy too on Aug 22ed it will mark my 2 years being in the Air force, and I now have 4 more years in England. I some how went from a 4 year enlisted person, to a 6 year. I should of just signed up for 6 if I knew they were going to send my ass to England, #2 on my dream sheet, Japan was actually #1. Looking back now I'm happy though, cause traveling all over Europe is retardedly cheap. IE - a round trip taking Ryan Air to Rome cost 2 people 50-100 pounds total (100-200USD) And depending if they have a special, it can cost 2 POUNDS, you just pay the tax lol (one of the little crazy specials they do a couple times a month), France cost about 20 pounds for 2 people round trip (40USD). So next 3 day weekend =D BLAMMM Might have to hit up our good friend YadNi who is a translator we met online, he's all about meeting up and hanging out with us. Meeting online friends in RL seems to be Jen's and I's thing =P lol

I wasnt awear! that the Wa-Chu-Chu! Were biters!!!!

Me and Jen at one of the many Norwich churches =)

Jabbed my finger pretty hard last night while we were changing out a trunnion collar, so now i can move it about 90 degrees, that's about it. So of course since that happened I get in a writing mood, Ive been writing a HUGE outline for the series Ive been wanting to work forever now, and now I'm blogging :) YOU CANT STOP ME SPRAINED FINGER!

Weeee so YUP its confirmed, me and the guy from South Hampton University will be setting up a direct link and working out the live video and audio feed, and the event will be some time in Oct. Its pretty wicked, I'll even be able to do a Q&A with the viewers, and will run 20 minuets total. They're even keeping the video, and posting it on their site, AND Itunes, which of course we'll be putting it up on the NSS site.

We'll we have a buncha weddings this month, and I'm going to go back and continue to write up the series outline. Cant wait to work these videos out instead of always just talking about it, and filming little things here and there for it. I did however Began designing the video for work that I'm doing. Basically I'm recreating sections of the base and flight line, and we'll be filming skits related to work which will be shown at the RAF Mildenhall knuckle buster awards, and probably passed around. So i made different kinds of squadron shirts, even chick shirts/panties for more jokes we've though up. Even took a bunch of pictures today at work for textures, and layout design. Needless to say I didnt get much sleep last night lol. Its gonna be wicked =D

*sniffle*

Newegg!! you've let me down! and you don't ship to the UK. Well last night Jens computer gave her a big "fuck off" and completely shut down on her, refusing to turn back on. I mean granted the power supply couldn't dish out enough power for the video card and processor alone and would shut off randomly, might of been a clue. But this time it didn't come back lol, sooo after spending about an hour looking at how cheap all the old computer goods were on newegg.com, and seeing my 3k USD computer is now worth 2.3k (which thats just how the computer industry rolls), the search ends in me realising that they dont even ship to the UK.....

So hey if anyone knows of a good place to buy computer parts from just hollar! Our buddy Anthony helped me build mine last time 6 months ago, he's pretty busy now to help but could of at least shown em the order to get a second opinion. In any case, good thing we bought the laptop last year.

London YaY! & a cool email i got

Its crazy to be in one of the oldest and largest towns in the world, that has so much history you can throw a stone and hit something that was involved with some huge event. I mean hell the towns been around pre 15th century, they've seen the plague, wars, and own one of the worlds largest underground railroad systems, how that relates I dont know.

This trip was brought to you by Tom Tom, man I love that thing. After getting 9 kinds of lost in Norwich I knew it was time. So we took the tube to London from Red bridge and walked around a lot, took a buncha pictures, and even cruised around on the double decker sight seeing boat. We still have a LOT to do there and experience, no rush though I mean we will be living in the UK for four years. Most of the pictures will be on our flicker account once i get that set up, Flicker seem not to like UK bank accounts.

Check this out, I've also been asked to give a speech at a multimedia fair in October via web cam conference or going to their university in South Hampshire which is a 3 hour drive. All to discuss Machinima, my experience with real world and virtual world filming, to an audience that would like to understand more about the concept. I just responded to him last night, I think it would be cool as hell though, especially to do some Q & A though because its not like I'm doing a speech on the history of potato's, I'm doing it about something I enjoy talking about and have more knowledge of than anyone. So we'll see, cant wait!