visual madness

I’ve been trying to sell my old PC for a while, but to no avail – the last time I tried on Craigslist I was met by an army of scammers, so since then I’ve kind of kept it all boxed up and useless in the corner.

As of late, though, I’ve been reading a lot about Linux through some of the tech blogs I visit, and so I figured that now would be as good of a time as any to give it a shot – if nothing else than just to get rid of Windows once and for all and make the world a better place in the process.

After downloading and burning the Ubuntu 8.10 .iso off of the Ubuntu website, all it took was half an hour to erase the Windows partition and replace it with the Linux OS, and after fiddling around with it for about a day I was fascinated by how clean and versatile it was, contrary to my preassumptions. » Read the rest of this entry «

I’ve known Swedish magician Jonas Haglund for approximately 5 years now, and in addition to being an extremely insightful and entertaining personality, he’s also one of my favorite flourish video artists to watch. Not just because he’s got a devastatingly smooth and off-hand style, but also because his videos are about 130% more creative than most of the ones you see online today. Considering the fact that most of his videos are filmed in his bedroom with nothing more than a static webcam, that’s quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself.

As of late, Jonas has been re-uploading some of his older videos onto his Youtube page. In addition to serving as a generous helping of nostalgia, it’s also a charming reminder of what can be done with a deck of cards, a camera, and the limitless possibilities of one’s imagination.

Here are a few of my favorites: » Read the rest of this entry «

I’ve had this album in my iTunes library for a while, but it wasn’t until this morning that I finally got down to listening to it. The first thing I thought when I heard it was ‘what a waste of cereal’, because by then my jaw was lying on the floor in sheer awe-struck paralysis.

A review I read for it on Amazon sums it up perfectly: “The Flight of the Knife is like everything you’ve heard before, and nothing you’ve heard before.” » Read the rest of this entry «

Not unlike a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, ever since I read what I now consider to be one the greatest books of all time, I’ve been eagerly trying to push it on to everyone I know. So far I’ve gotten almost all my good friends and even my sister to read it, and their reactions have been pretty much unanimous: it’s a stunning piece of work.

So with the film coming out in little over than three months away, I’ve been rushing to get more people to read it before they watch the movie, so that way they’ll be able to get the full experience of having their minds raped by graphic novel brilliance for the first time.

Alas, as fate would have it, there’s been one person as of late who’s has proven to be a bit of a hard sell. This Negative Nancy comes in the form of Allan Hagen, a fellow magician and flourisher from Norway who is also a very skilled and knowledgeable cinematographer to boot. Long story short, I’ve been egging him on to read the book for ages, but even after months and months of my constant annoyance he still hasn’t even gotten down to getting himself a copy of the book. Apparently him being a film nut meant he wasn’t much of a reader – but then again, graphic novels are just like storyboards, aren’t they? » Read the rest of this entry «