Archive for March, 2009

I love it when someone who is creatively inclined takes pieces of technology and makes something super creative.  Theresa Andersson is that super creative.  What she does is uses music effects pedals normally used for guitarists and other musicians to get a certain sound that they need or need to loop while they play something else.  My brother does the same sort of thing(minus looping sounds) with the effects pedals he uses for his band Arcadia. This technology had only been perfected with great quality within the past decade or so, but Theresa takes this one step further and creates her own band with full instruments, all by herself!   Just think about this for a second, without this kind of technology today she would not have found her voice or sound!  That’s incredible!  She has such a creative mind that I’ve literally soaked up all her music that’s online for the past hour!  I love this!

Her myspace page is over at www.myspace.com/theresaanderssonmusic where you can hear her music, but you really have to watch the videos she has of her performing her music to really get the hawesomeness of what she does.  I have a video below of what I assume was a live concert she did.  It’s a long video over 22 minutes, but if you are creative like me, you will soak up those 22 minutes to watch something really hawesome!

My question to you is after watching that video, what kind of technology do you use to be creative?  Are you creative with that technology?  Leave a comment and let me know.

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Hello all once again. Didn’t I tell ya that I had a BSG surprise for you all? Well one of them is after the Battlestar Finale party on Friday night, my good friends Matt and Nat from BSGCast.com were there to shoot an episode of fan reactions to the series finale; which just happen to have yours truly as well as other awesome guests including, Melissa TheTelevixen, (Friend of the Show)Rambling Russel Hale, Tamika, and Tim.

Thanks to Melissa for putting on an amazing event which made my day that much better, and thanks to Matt and Nat for letting me be a part of the show!

So say we all!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

-Host/Producer/Web Master for thisweekingeek.net

[Posted originally @ http://thisweekingeek.net]

This marks the first of what I hope will be of many posts bringing you the latest and coolest in TV.  The name “Jump The Shark” obviously is a Television staple in history, look it up on google to find out it’s meaning.  Let’s just say it literally involves a shark, the Fonz, and Water-skiing.  I wish I was kidding.  LOL  This blog will be hosted by Steve “Snowball” Saylor and possibly others of the TWiG Crew.  We are planning some roundtable shows, some weekly updates on the newest episodes of TV, and some cool interviews, and so much more!  So stay tuned!

So say we all folks, so say we all.

Tonight (Friday Mar 20th 2009 to be exact), marked an end of a “Five Year Journey” (four seasons over five years) for myself personally and in regards to one of my favorite shows on Television.  I’m talking about the series finale of Sci-Fi(now Syfy)’s Battlestar Galactica.

I have been a fan of this series since it began as a mini-series, however I only got into the show when it was first released as a miniseries/1st Season DVD set.  I remember getting it for Christmas/Birthday one year (can’t remember which, my birthday is so close to Christmas anyways), and I couldn’t stop watching it.  At first the miniseries didn’t impress me to say “OMG THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVAR” but it did prompt me to really want to watch more, and as soon as I watched the “pilot” episode “33″ I was hooked line and sinker.

Tonight marked the end of the series, in a two hour(three hours if you count “Daybreak Part 1″ last week) finale.  I have to say, without going into spoilers, the finale had everything I was looking for;  action, drama, character closure, and a great story to answer most of the remaining questions left to answer.  Of course there were a few surprises and a few “huh?’ moments, however overall, this was the best finale I could expect from the talents of Ronald D. Moore and crew.

As I sat and watched with friends in Toronto at a finale “Frak Party” I had fun just sitting there watching a show that we all loved and enjoyed as the mood of the whole place was fantastic.  We were all speechless at times, cheered at the great stuff, laughed at the funny stuff, and I think there might have been a tear shed or two(hey, I had salt in my eye! …  Shut up!).

At any rate, overall great finale.  I have a few nitpicks (Pigeons?!  Really?!), but nothing to cry to Caprica about.  I give the series finale an A-

Now for those who can’t get enough BSG, I have two surprises in store for you all soon.  One should be posted in a day or two, the other you will have to wait until April, but if this works out, you fans of BSG will definitely want to stay tuned.

Take care, and SO SAY WE ALL!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

Host/Producer/Web Master for thisweekingeek.net

One of the great things about Podcamp, especially about the one in Toronto, is that even though it’s a free event, it takes sponsors to make it run.  Podcamp Toronto has grown thanks to the help of the organizers able to put on an awesome event, but it’s the Sponsors that help them make that event awesome.  I know the one that I always go to in Toronto since it’s inception couldn’t have come close to the awesome event that it was without them.  So first of all for all the companies that sponsored Podcamp Toronto 1 2 and 3, you rock, and I like rocks!

At any rate, one of those sponsors was WHIR, Web Host Industry Review, and they are an awesome company that I hear good things about all the time.  One of those great things is WHIR TV, which interviews people in the Web space and finds out what makes them, or their companies tick.  It’s fascinating!  Now granted, I have two friends who work with WHIR TV, but that doesn’t stop me from saying they run an awesome show, and I hope they don’t stop.

So to say it was an honour (that’s the Canadian version of honor, which is far more awesome), to be interviewed on my thoughts about Podcamp Toronto 2009, it is a huge deal for me.

They recently posted the video of the event over at http://thewhir.com/tv, but I have embeded the video for you below.  What’s cool about this video is I get the last word about Podcamp Toronto, so watch until the very end!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Hello all,

I’ve been wanting to talk about this for the past week, but haven’t been able to wrap my thoughts on the subject matter until now.

There was a post made by a prominent radio show host here in Toronto at Q107 FM which he talks about Twitter.  If you would like to read the post, you can go to http://bit.ly/q107twitter.  This host is not a fan of twitter and doesn’t quite understand it as much as myself, not as an expert, but as a Twitter veteran.  Sometimes it’s hard for those of us on Twitter to understand as well that there are people who don’t understand it and sometimes can mock the site as well as those of us on it.

At any rate, read the post, then watch this quick video I made to get my thoughts out there.

Now what do you think?  What do you use Twitter for?  What is it about Twitter that you like the most?  Comment on the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c1TLvYYKnc or by posting your comment below.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Hello all once again in Snowball-Land where we don’t need a government bailout. 

Things are moving into place lately in my life that are not only life changing, but possibly career changing.  I have always had a passion for being creative, and working in media.  I know that is my long-term goal, but situations have changed that I didn’t expect.  I originally thought this was a bad thing, however with the help of a really good friend, I have learned to take what I thought was a bad thing, and turn it into a good thing.

I know I’m being super vague about all this, and I’m doing it on purpose.  Some more will be explained soon, but for now I just needed to get an idea out there that I’ve been learning alot about.

Direction and focus.

The trouble with being creative is that you have all these ideas and creative projects that you start, but somewhere down the line, you either loose focus, or you have another idea that is much better and you move towards that.  I will admit, I have had this problem many times.  I can’t help it.  it’s not that I don’t want to finish what I started, it’s just I have so many creative passions, that sometimes it’s hard to choose one direction and focus in on it.

It is hard.  I’m beiong completely honest.

I have had focus on long-term, but sometimes my short term goals change so rapidly that I can’t seem to focus on what I wanted to do in the first place.  It’s like you see a loved one across a large crowd that is moving in one direction, and you must go through that crowd to reach the other side.  The current wants you to move one way while you struggle to fight it to go across.  The crowd is the creative mind at work, it’s flowing in a general direction, but not exactly where you want it to go.  As well each individual person is an idea you have that wants to draw you away from you goal. What you need to do is fight the crowd and focus on that goal to get you out of that crowd.  Because then you can take a look at your ideas that are moving and see where they can go.  You have, in a way, a view from where the crowd started to where it’s finished and you can tell what is something you should lead into next, or just let the idea move along.

Now I’m not saying to abandon all your creative ideas.  You can save them for later, it just doesn’t work exactly with the analogy I described.

What is holding you back creatively in your life?  What is your longterm goal and what are you trying to do to focus on getting to that goal?

Let me know your thoughts.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve