Juggling Mike

Have you ever visited stuckincustoms.com? He does HDR shots, and they are all absolutely fantastic. I am amazed every time I visit his site. Checking out his tutorial, I noticed a section on single image HDR processing. I found that very interesting since I have many RAW files, but not so many set up for HDR (3 shots or more at different shutter speeds). I decided to give it a shot, and I was quite pleased with the results. I’m sure I could do a lot better if I had planned on doing HDR from the start, but I’ll take what I got.

This is a night shot of a bridge in Luxembourg.

It is not perfect, but also my first try.
Expect to see a lot more photos from me this summer!

No Comments »

Aw hell YES! Beyond Good and Evil was an awesome game!
Apparently the trailer was done with an in-game engine as well.
I can’t wait!

1 Comment »

This is hilarious.

No Comments »

I felt like it was time to play around with Photoshop some more.

This was taken in Baden-Baden, Germany last year.
I was on top of some castle ruins, juggling some chestnuts I had found.
They were a good alternative to my juggling balls since they were quite compact.

No Comments »

Just felt like sharing what I made for supper tonight. I essentially wanted to get rid of a bunch of vegetables before they go bad, and I was inspired by what a friend was going to make over the weekend, so I made a garlic vegetable pasta.

I started by roasting some garlic cloves on the bbq (wrapped in aluminum foil). A little later I added two brochettes which held red and yellow peppers and mushrooms covered in tahini. I let those roast for a bit alongside the garlic on low heat.

Next I chopped up two medium yellow onions and crushed some more cloves of garlic. I added olive oil in a pan and sautéed the mushrooms and the extra garlic. I got the veggies and garlic from the bbq and cut them up to smaller pieces. The garlic had overcooked a bit (had gotten hard), but I cut them up anyways as they were still damn tasty. I added all the veggies in the pan and sautéed the whole thing with a bit more olive oil. Next, I chopped some fresh parley and mixed that in with the veggies. A little salt and pepper, and I was almost done. I poured all the veggie goodness into a pot that contained cooked multigrain spaghetti and mixed it all up.

It was ridiculously easy to make and tastes incredible. The roasted veggies and garlic add a nice touch that blends well with the parsley and the rest of the ingredients.

1 Comment »

If you saw the “Canada on Strike” South Park episode, you probably started telling your friends that they are not your buddy. You know what I mean if you saw the episode. I highly reccomend you check it out, it is one of the best episodes out there.

Here is a remix music video based on the episode. I love it!

No Comments »

Youtube is an expression outlet available to the mass public. Everybody can use it to showcase whatever they want to everybody else in the world (who has a decent internet connection). You can spend hours browsing through all the videos available. This service created a new kind of star; not quite hollywood, but interesting to watch nonetheless. Some people have had their videos watched millions of times, which is probably more than some movies that has the theatres.

I made a post about internet memes before, and this sort of ties into that one. The regular media is using these internet stars to help promote their own material, or to just make fun of them. There was a South Park episode not too long ago which featured several youtube stars. The Barenaked Ladies also did a video and Weezer just released their video with a bunch of stars as well. I was really impressed by the Weezer video, so I have embedded it below. Also, check after the break for the BNL video and a clip from the South Park episode.

Continue Reading »

No Comments »

Have you ever used Google Streets? It came out last year, but for those not familiar with the concept, it allows you to visualize the streets through Google Maps. In short, they equipped several cameras on top of vehicles and these cameras take pictures as the car drives around town. Then those pictures are seamed together to give you a 360 degree view around the car. You can get a first person view of an entire city, which is pretty much awesome.

In the process of checking if the system will support Canadian cities, I found out that a company called Immersive Media has already done several cities. In fact, their technology was used initially for Google Streets. What is awesome about their technology is that they have fully immersive videos. Imagine a video in which you can use your mouse to rotate the view you want to see. It is really impressive and an awesome idea of what Google Streets could evolve into. They have a lot of demo videos on their website (I recommend you check out the surfing and the whales videos), but I have embedded one after the break which is a street view of Montreal! It is not a long ride, but it passes through an area I walk by every morning to get to work.
Continue Reading »

No Comments »

What would the world be without music? It cleanses our cranial membranes with its melodious notes. It is an infectious beat which affects everybody from babies to the elderly. Look at people next time you go outside. You will most likely see at least one person jamming their songs into their ears. I bring my mp3 player with me nearly everywhere I go. Depending on the song, it will relax or motivate me to keep on moving.

I like all sorts of music and I change the type depending on my current personality and mood. Most of the time, you can find me listening to more ambient chillout tunes. Other times I let my brain mosh with ska and punk music. When I am angry, I pump the techno and heavy stuff.

Even without headphones, you can find music everywhere. Listen to the tunes the birds whistle as you pass by. The splatter of rain gives off a droning effect. Music is everywhere! And now, you can listen to some music directly from this site! I placed a little last.fm widget at the bottom of my menu bar on the right. It will cycle through various chillout tunes and will free your mind. The position of the widget is not ideal, but it will do for now. Enjoy!

No Comments »

Today, I saw my grandmother for the last time. She past away last week and today was the funeral. I took a 13 hour train ride to join my family in New Brunswick. It has been a long and taxing day for everybody. I was a pallbearer with 5 other cousins, and other cousins spoke or helped with the sermon. One cousin wrote an incredible eulogy which hit me right in the heart. My grandmother was 91 years old and she was a wonderful person.

Nowadays, it is getting harder and harder to get everybody together for a family reunion. We all live in various provinces and with jobs, school, and family, it is not always easy to get everybody together in one place. Today, nearly the entire family was there, which means there were a lot of people. My grandmother was pregnant 20 times. She had 4 miscarriages, has lost two children, which means that she currently has 14 children of various ages. There are close to 30 grandchildren, and about 25 great grandchildren. Add up all those people, including their spouses, and you can have quite the large group. This family tree is thanks to 2 people primarly; my grandmother and grandfather. Impressive huh?

So while today we have lost the world’s best grandmother, and for me an end of that generation, there will be more and more children that will be born continuing this great family of mine. I’m incredibly proud of the people I am related to, and while I am saddened by the departure of my grandmother, I was happy to see my cousin’s children running around and having fun. More are on the way, and while they will never meet their great grandmother, she will continue to live in our hearts.

R.I.P. Grandma, thanks for the love and the cookies.

2 Comments »