Author: James

Posted on

Run….run like the wind!

Run girl run

I am so proud of my wife. She completed the NYC Marathon last Sunday in a little over 3 and a half hours. I have to give her a hand because she trained hard all summer to get into shape. Personally I don’t know how she did it. Running 26 miles at that pace would probably force me to sleep for a couple of weeks. However my girl ran the race and still got up the next morning and went off to work with a spring in her step. It was her second time running in the NYC marathon. The last time that she did it was 11 years and two kids ago. The amazing thing is that she ran a faster pace this time than she did 11 years earlier.

Posted on

Family Night Out: Knick Game!!!

Knicks vs. the Sixers
One of the benefits of having a cousin who has Knicks season tickets is that every once and awhile he can’t use them and is generous enough to pass them over to me. That is what happened this week. My cousin C called me up and asked me if I wanted to take the family to the Knicks game against the 76ers. Luckily none of the fam had any previous plans that evening so it was clear sailing. I had taken my son to his first couple of games earlier this year. Needless to say, he loved it. However this was the first time that the whole fam would Continue reading “Family Night Out: Knick Game!!!”

Posted on

NYC Blender Conference

This weekend I attended the first NYC Blender conference at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. The two day conference brought together some of the best Blender artists on the East Coast. For those that don’t know, Blender is free open source 3D animation program that can be used for everything from modeling and animating, to creating interactive 3D applications. Blender is available on all the major operating systems and is similar in scope and depth to other high-end 3D software such as Softimage|XSI, Cinema 4D, 3d Studio Max and Maya. Continue reading “NYC Blender Conference”

Posted on

MS Bike Tour: I thought I was in better shape

msbikerace1.jpg

I participated in the MS Bike tour yesterday and rode under the LaGuardia banner. I got to the start line a few minutes late so I didn’t get a chance to hook up with the rest of the team from LaGuardia. As a result I rode the whole length of the course by myself. I didn’t mind too much since I had the iPod loaded with Jay Z, Biggie, and some ole’ school Run/DMC. Still it wasn’t the same as the previous bike tour. You see, Ski and I did the race last year. We had a great time despite the fact that I had to bail out at the thirty mile mark because I was so outta shape. I figured that I wouldn’t have any problems this year since I had been Continue reading “MS Bike Tour: I thought I was in better shape”

Posted on

Used Macs: eBay to da’ rescue

Tita's emac

Since we got back from overseas the kids have been bugging me to get them new computers for their rooms. They still were using an old eMachines PC that I had given them back when they shared a room together. That unit had seen better days and the kids had recently taken to co-opting my desktop for their gaming and homework. I felt that I had to assert myself and put a stop to that practice since it was starting to seriously cut into my World of Warcraft time.

The kids had fallen in love with my MacBook Pro laptop, Winona, over the summer and kept hinting at me to get them Apples. Because they now had separate rooms, they of course wanted separate machines. Since the new iMacs and Macbooks start at about 1100 dollars, I decided that I was going to have to search around and buy them used or refurbished if the kids were gonna get their wish. Continue reading “Used Macs: eBay to da’ rescue”

Posted on

Halo 3 mania! WTF?

Halo 3 Launch

I was out riding my bike yesterday and rode past a Game Stop store on the night that Halo 3 was set to launch. I was out at about 9pm and was amazed at the number of people that were lined up at this little out of the way store. The line as down the block at 9pm. It was a good 3 hours before the game was set to go on sale and people were damn near around the block. There probably wasn’t a single person on the line under 25. Continue reading “Halo 3 mania! WTF?”

Posted on

The best part about my job!

picture with my students
One of the benefits of teaching at a large urban community college is that I get a chance to help a diverse group of young men and women chart the course of their professional lives. I am blessed to be able to watch them mature and grow as digital professionals. I bring this all up because today was graduation day and a number of my best students graduated today.

Posted on

There can be only one!

As I was shopping with the kids to pick out their Halloween costumes I came across some props that were perfect for the Highlander fan film that I have been planning for years. For all of the non-geeks reading this, Highlander is the story of a race of immortal beings that are forced to face off against one another in sword battles to the death until only one of them remains. The problem with shooting a Highlander fan film is that you have to use swords.

While finding real samurai swords is a fairly simple process in NYC, you are extremely likely to maim or kill your actors if you aren’t careful. That is why I got positively giddy about finding a set of realistic looking plastic swords that should look good on film.

Samurai sword Duel Swords Broadsword Duel Half moon blades

Continue reading “There can be only one!”

Posted on

Star Wars Fan Film: Jedi costuming pre-production

Jonas Xavier: Jedi Knight

In order to combat my post European vacation and 9/11 anniversary blues, I figured that I should move straight ahead and start the preparation for filming my Star Wars fan film, Dark Vengeance. The film takes place during the time before the events in Episode I (The Phantom Menace) and tells the story of a Jedi Knight by the name of Jonas Xavier. I won’t go into all the details now. Suffice it to say that the story is a basic “Jedi meets Sith and they battle to the death” type of story. Continue reading “Star Wars Fan Film: Jedi costuming pre-production”