Synthetic Shadiness - "Installment": 8 Years Later

During December 1999 & January 2000, I along with my brother, Matthew, & friend, Ryan Wimberley, produced an electronica album under the collective name Synthetic Shadiness. Individually, we had three pseudonyms: I was JetaTek, Matthew was Crazy Shady, & Ryan was Cain.

After making the album, we even went through the process of getting 100 copies pressed, and assembled the resulting discs in jewel cases with album artwork (see adjacent...hey, it was the 90's). We sold the album for $8 a pop, and were pretty successful in unloading all of them through sales at our high school & at a couple of raves in New Orleans.

A couple of weeks ago I was sorting through my iTunes library and ran across the ripped MP3s from our album. Surprisingly, I felt the songs aged pretty well. You wouldn't mistake them for Grammy winning tracks, but they're definitely a couple of notches above a toddler banging on a Casio keyboard.

I thought I'd share the album with those of you who may be interested in giving it a listen. There were originally 18 songs on the album, but I've added a bonus track of a remix I did back in April 2004 as my semester final project in the Computer Music course at Tulane.

The download link is below. Just unzip and enjoy!

Synthetic Shadiness - Installment

Muxtape Compilation Of My Current Running Music

Like many, I really enjoy running with music. Although I circulate the tunes on my iPod fairly regularly, there's a core set of tracks that I find myself consistently reloading to keep me motivated while running the trails here in The Woodlands.

A few months back I read a post on the Houston Chronicle's TechBlog about Muxtape. Basically, it lets you create a web-based mixtape to share with friends. You can't download the songs, but you can listen to the tracks in their entirety.

Since I get pretty jazzed about the music I'm listening to at any given time, I thought Muxtape would lend itself fairly well to sharing my current tastes with others. So click the link the below to listen to the compilation of songs I use to keep the adrenaline flowing.

http://justonwestern.muxtape.com/

Why My Next Computer Will Be A Mac

How I Got To This Point

I typically buy a computer every 2 to 3 years. This has been the case since I got my first Pentium 60 MHz machine running Windows 3.11 during the fall of 1994.

In the late 1990s, I never really considered a Macintosh computer as a potential purchase. From what I knew of them, they were typically expensive, had a limited selection of software, and the only individuals I knew who used them could best be described as inhabiting the fringes of society. These beliefs were only reinforced when I worked at CompUSA in 2000. The Apple section was relegated to the back corner of the store and to say it was sparsely populated with customers would be an overstatement.

When I started undergraduate studies in the Fall of 2000, my bias towards Windows-based PCs only grew stronger. It wasn't so much a loyalty to Microsoft, as it was realizing that I had the most freedoms and fewest restrictions using a Windows machine. I didn't have to worry about computer peripherals or a piece of software critical to my Computer Science curriculum not working with my machine, because hey, everything was Windows compatible. In fact, the social miscreants in my dorm who did have Macs would often drop by my room and ask to borrow my computer for a few minutes since they ran into "something" that wasn't Mac compatible.

Beginning in the Spring of 2005, my resistance to purchasing Apple products began to wain. I was at Keesler Air Force Base on the Gulf Coast, and my trusty Diamond Rio 500 64MB MP3 player kicked the bucket after 5 years. The first generation iPod Shuffle had been released a few months earlier, and after seeing a 1GB version on sale at a nearby Circuit City, I decided to join the legions of iPod toting fans. I only needed it for when I ran, so the lack of screen didn't bother me. And picking up an MP3 player for a hundred bucks and change was much different than laying out a couple of thousand for a computer.

In September of 2005, I bought a new BMW 3 Series. Despite being chocked full of technology (on-board navigation, 2 optical disc drives, automatic everything), it didn't have one key feature that I had grown VERY accustomed to in my VW Jetta: MP3 CD capability. As someone who listens primarily to electronic music, I needed a way to get my 2 to 4 hour long DJ sets onto my car stereo, and splitting a file over 4 CDs just wasn't something I was interested in undertaking. Enter the 60GB iPod Photo.

Even though I have close to 1TB of music, there is still something liberating about being able to carry around hundreds of your favorite albums on a very portable device. While I could fit about 10 albums on an individual MP3 CD, it was still cumbersome to jump around between artists, albums, and genres if they happened not to be grouped on a single disc. The large capacity iPod solved this inconvenience. However, had it not been for my car's lack of MP3 CD capability, I probably wouldn't have realized just how convenient the iPod solution was in comparison. (As an aside, I was finally able to get MP3 CD capability via a software update at the dealership last week...I guess 2 years late is better than never.)

So now you're thinking, "Ok, Juston's just describing a classic case of the 'iPod Halo Effect' I've read about," right? Well not exactly. Granted, having exposure to the 2 iPods probably helped mildly deteriorate the psychological disinclination towards Apple products that I'd developed over a decade. But it hardly garnered enough of my mindshare to make me run out and buy a Mac.

What owning the iPods did manage to do was pique my interest enough in the company to follow their new product announcements more closely. And in January of 2006 they announced the transition of their computers to Intel processors. Initially, I didn't think a hardware announcement would have such a significant impact on the way I viewed the computer industry, but in retrospect, this news was huge.

Over the next year, I saw the release of Boot Camp which would allow users to load Windows on their Intel-based Mac and boot into that OS if they needed to run a Windows application. Also released was a virtualization program called Parallels Desktop which let users run Windows as a virtual machine within the Mac OS. Now I didn't have to worry about compatibility issues. This is when I truly began to consider buying an Apple Computer.

Most people recognize there's still probably a big gap between considering a purchase and actually making a purchase, especially when we're talking about a product that potentially costs several thousand dollars. So let me explain why I am ready to make my purchase of a MacBook Pro next month.

It Just Doesn't Make Sense NOT To Buy A Mac Now

In a word: Flexibility. What's ironic here is that prior to the Intel switch, flexibility was perhaps the biggest detractor from purchasing a Mac. And now I consider it to be the biggest selling point.

After I realized that I could run Windows on a Mac, I became curious as to what I couldn't run on Windows. As it turns out, there's a whole world of software developers out there that develop applications exclusively for the Mac OS. While I always knew this, I never had the reason to explore the creations of these "social miscreants" (to use my own probably ill-conceived words from earlier) until I became curious about the Mac platform. Sure, most times there are equivalent programs for Windows that can accomplish the same function. But this is a very utilitarian approach to take. What I've discovered is that (more often than not) the Mac specific programs solve the problem in a much more elegant, visually pleasing, and artistically inspired manner. I'm talking everything from somewhat unnecessary widgets to the more business savvy Numbers spreadsheet program.

Perhaps you skeptics are thinking, "Well that's kind of a right-brained conceptualization of computers. He's just enamored by the eye candy that Apple is known for parading out to their brain-washed cult of zealots." I would propose, however, that much of the eye candy is in fact indicative of something very left-brained: attention to detail. Why just make something functional when you can make it functional AND beautiful? To me that demonstrates an underlying analytical mindset that believes you should focus on all aspects of the computing experience. Function and design are not mutually exclusive, and I think many individuals had just grown to believe they were.

I'm not implying that Mac developers have a total monopoly on artistically inspired yet functional applications. But now, there's such a lower barrier of entry to trying out and using their applications than existed 2 years ago. The reality is that you can now run every Windows application available on a Mac, in addition to all the Mac specific software that exists. Your pool of available software just increased significantly, and you can cherry pick which applications you like best. I might like to run Firefox in Windows and Photoshop in OS X. If I have a Mac, I can easily do that. With a Windows-based computer, this is close to impossible. (I say "close" because there are some technically adept computer users who have managed to load OS X on a PC, but the steps involved are overtly cumbersome and technically illegal.)

For me, the increased flexibility of a Mac was what ultimately influenced my decision to take the plunge. But the usual justifications of increased stability, more frequent OS feature updates, and Apple's noted panache for industrial design really just make the choice even more obvious.

Apparently I'm not the only one whose come to this conclusion, either. Apple's marketshare has (almost) steadily increased over the past 2 years. And amongst "power users" I'd say adoption has been even faster with deeper penetration. While heuristic at best, I like to use the example of what I witnessed in Manhattan. I went to the monthly Google Speaker Series lectures/discussions at Google's Manhattan headquarters from April to June of this year. During one of the presentations, Google's Open Source Program Manager, Chris DiBona, asked audience members to raise their hand if they were a Mac user. Over 50% of the people in attendance raised their hands.

So there you have it. As I see it, the Mac is simply the best deal going right now. I've emphatically recommended the Mac to friends who have sought my advice over the past year, and I'd say I've influenced six people to go with a MacBook or MacBook Pro who were on the fence when it came to a laptop decision.

After much analyzing (as demonstrated in this blog post), I myself will be taking the plunge in October as soon as Leopard comes preinstalled on the MacBook Pros. Once I get it and have completed all the installations/configurations of my various applications, I'll post here for those of you interested in specific programs.

JW / NOLA Memory Map (Google Maps Mash-Up)

I spent about 4 hours this morning using the new tools on Google Maps to create a Google Maps / Flickr mash-up geographically showcasing some of my more memorable events in New Orleans. It's still a work in progress, but it's got about 30+ place markers so far. You can check it out here:

JW / NOLA Memory Map

- JW

A Jazzy Evening Out In Dover

About 3 weeks ago, my favorite jazz artist, John Axson Ellis, was in Philadelphia for a performance. Unfortunately, this coincided with our Air Show weekend, so Ashley & I weren't able to get up to Philly for the show. Last night, however, we were able to get our jazz fix locally, as the Air Force Reserve Full Spectrum jazz band did a free performance here in Dover at the Schwartz Center downtown.

We decided to make a date night out the occasion, going first to Smither's for cocktails and appetizers. I had also received an invitation to a cocktail hour on the third floor of the Schwartz Center prior to the show, so we checked that out, too, before taking our seats.

The show lasted about an hour and a half. While the vast majority of the songs were jazz numbers, the band did throw in a smattering of patriotic tunes and oldies tracks to keep the interest of those in the audience who weren't jazz aficionados. I especially enjoyed the contributions of one particular saxophonist, who really had a New Orleans' flair about him.

After the show was complete, we walked down Loockerman to The Dirty Beggar. I'd heard good things about the establishment, with it having a reputation as one of the more upscale bars in Dover. Ashley got a great Mojito, while I opted for a Maker's Mark on the rocks. When we were done, we stopped in to Angelo's Pizza Restaurant just before closing time and grabbed a couple of pepperoni rolls to go.

Overall, a really fun Friday night outing reminiscent of our excursions in the French Quarter back in college. Nothing like some good music and good beverages to keep the heart young.

- JW

Nintendo's 21st Anniversary Celebration

Last Wednesday, October 18, 2006, was the 21st anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System's release in America. With the NES representing such a large portion of my childhood entertainment, I couldn't let the event pass uncelebrated...especially with the little console finally old enough to drink!

Ashley & I put together a Nintendo-themed party for the occasion, complete with emulator action of ROMS from all the old classics I used to own and 5 hours of hand-picked video game music remixes I found online last summer. We ordered several pizzas from Dominoes (just like back in the '80s!), and Ashley whipped up two Mario adult beverages: Mario's Dream & Princess' Pink Martini.

While we had Mario Kart Double Dash & Mario Dance Dance Revolution hooked up in the basement, the run away successes of the evening were the original Bases Loaded and Tecmo Bowl running on my laptop upstairs. Despite the poor graphics, some games are just classics. And of course, Super Mario Bros seemed to have sentimental value for everyone who picked up a controller.

We asked attendees to dress in video game or '80s themed attire. The clear-cut winner of the night was Amber, who dressed as Mario for the occasion, complete with white gloves and mustache. Be sure to look for her in the photos.

So happy 21st, NES. You'll always hold a special place in my heart and those of most of the children from the 1980s!

Now for the digital memories. Check out the photoset on Flickr and two clips now up on YouTube.

- JW

Fordham Brewery's Oktoberfest 2006

This weekend we checked out the local brewery which was holding its first annual Oktoberfest celebration. The price was $20 for two meals and 3 drink tickets, so we got there shortly after kickoff to get the most bang for our buck.

Overall a really fun afternoon. The weather was beautiful, clocking in around 45 degrees with sunny, blue skies. They had a horseshoe pit setup, so we parked our folding chairs nearby and played several rounds of horseshoes while drinking beer and listening to the local bands.

The festival wasn't nearly as big as the Oktoberfest we went to in Newark, DE, last year, but the closer proximity more than made up for the smaller scale. We also went on a brewery tour while we were there. The whole operation is run by two full time employees and then a small contingent of volunteers who lend their services for free beer and pizza.

Concerning the types of beer they had on tap for the event, it was a selection of 4 different brews. There was a light Lager, the Oktoberfest seasonal, a red-colored Tavern brew, and an ultra dark Oyster blend. My favorite was the Oktoberfest, which had the most balanced flavor of the four brews.

As usual, I took many photos and a selection of video clips. You can check out the 72 photos on Flickr, and 6 videos on YouTube.

- JW

Dover AFB's Air Show 2006

As fate would have it, I lucked out this weekend and only had to work Saturday morning for the Air Show. This let me catch some college football on Saturday afternoon (stupid Arkansas), and then be a spectator for the Sunday portion of the Air Show.

With this my first time attending an Air Show, I really went in with few expectations. I'd seen the movie Tarnished Angels (based on William Faulkner's novel Pylon), but that was about the extent of my exposure to aerial acrobatics. The event was actually pretty entertaining and definitely a departure from our typical weekend fare.

I'd say the highlights were:

- Seeing an F-18 cause a Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud by nearing the sound barrier
- Going inside the cargo bay of a C-17
- Watching the Aeroshell Team leave the crowd of nearly 50,000 in a cloud of smoke
- Witnessing the Thunderbirds' performance...made me think of the Team America theme song

As promised, I've put the photos and video clips from the event online. You can check out the 85 photos on Flickr or watch the 11 videos on YouTube.

- JW

Trying To Warm Up My Writing Motivation

I need to crank out a couple of essays for my grad school application today, so I'm starting with a blog post to get my writing juices flowing.

Earlier this week, Dover AFB held their annual MILCON (Military Construction) briefing at the Sheraton downtown. Like last year, I was tasked with making sure the A/V needs were met. Unlike last year, the morning setup didn't exactly go swimmingly.

This briefing was supposed to serve as the debut for a new touch-screen equipped podium, whose construction stemmed from feedback received after last year's MILCON brief. The idea was if the briefer had the slides in front of him, then he wouldn't have to turn around to make sure he was speaking to the right data. Easy enough.

After arriving at the Sheraton at 6:00AM to make sure the Airmen weren't hitting any configuration roadblocks, I realized it was going to be one of those days. The laptop was communicating fine with the podium, but the projectors just didn't seem to see a signal. We tried 3 different laptops, but none seemed to be recognized by the Sheraton's A/V rack. The morning supervisor wasn't exactly a technical expert, either, claiming that only Dell laptops would interface with their system. Heh.

Long story short, the patch panel on the floor had to be power-cycled and then everything worked fine. When the Sheraton's A/V Guru finally showed up at 7:00AM, though, he spent 30 minutes redoing everything the Airmen had already tried before finally agreeing to attempt a reboot of his A/V rack. The breakfast was supposed to start at 7:15AM, but didn't have everything fully functional until about 7:30AM. The event organizers were accommodating, though, and the 15-minute delay didn't represent a show-stopper.

The bad news was that because of the technical hiccups, we didn't have time to reconnect the new podium, so alas the touch-screen goodness would have to wait until the next big event.

I debuted the October 2006 version of Dover's Wing Mission Video after the Colonel's briefing. This was a project I'd been working on for the past month or so. It went over quite well, and I ended up personally receiving kudos from both Senator Joseph Biden and Senator Tom Carper after the event was finished. Yeah, the same Joe Biden whom I took pleasure in making listen to my electronica music during last year's MILCON briefing. :-) Speaking of which, you can view last year's video at the following location:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5228757400096725005&q=Dover+Air+Force+Base

I'll get around to uploading the 2006 version within the next couple of weeks.

I'm off of work today because I have to work both Saturday & Sunday at the Air Show that Dover AFB is hosting this weekend. I heard a couple of the Thunderbirds flying in earlier this morning, so things seem to be ramping up in preparation. Even now, I don't know exactly what role I'll be playing at the event this weekend, but I have a feeling it'll entail running random errands for the Colonel as things pop up.

Well, time to get moving on those essays. Be on the lookout next week for some pictures from the Air Show.

JustonWestern.com Goes Live

While my initial plan was to hold off launching JustonWestern.com until I had every area complete, I realized that I'd been paying $9.99 a month since March 2005, and really hadn't done anything with the domain. So after finishing up with my GMAT yesterday, and looking for a new project to undertake instead of studying everyday, I figured I would put the framework of JustonWestern.com on the server.

I spent a little time developing a roll-out schedule for the different areas of the site. I'm hoping by actually marking these down on Google Calendar, it will motivate me to continue with the development. If I stick to the schedule, I'll be rolling out new areas every 2 to 3 weeks. This seems a little more manageable than the daunting project of building the entire site for a grand opening style launch.

Right now the huge content areas consist of my photos on Flickr and my videos on Google Video. Eventually, I'm going to have all the media also hosted on my site, but to start off I've just linked to versions on the third party sites. Flickr & Google Video also make commenting on individual pictures & videos really easy, so there's a benefit of having them there, too.

The jury's still out on the usefulness of having a Forum on my site. Granted, I could just ask people to post feedback about my site either here on Blogger, or over on MySpace, but I've always had a special place in my heart for the traditional style of bulletin boards like vBulletin & phpBB. I'm hopeful the Forum turns out to be another useful way of communicating with friends and family.

As I say on my front page, I envision the site ultimately growing into something of a digital media locker. I plan on having all the websites I've built over the years (like NOLAED, my EAHS school website, & my very first "homepage" back from 1997) eventually hosted on JustonWestern.com. In addition, I'll want to get various papers I've written in school and music I've produced posted to the site. As you can see, it will become fairly comprehensive, and I want to make sure I give each new area the attention it deserves.

So begins a new project. I'll post here each time a new area goes live.

Photos from Wilmington Blue Rocks Game

Just a quick post to make note of the photos I took at the Wilmington Blue Rocks game last Thursday night. Mr. Celery made many an appearance as the Blue Rocks went on to a 6 - 0 victory. Check out the photo set on Flickr here:

http://flickr.com/photos/justonwestern/sets/72157594253453115/

First Round of Book Purchases for 2006

One of my new year resolutions was to read more, and different things from what I normally read, such as blogs, online news stories, and periodicals. So after speaking to friends & family, I developed a list of roughly 60 books that I'm going to start working over the next year to year and a half.

The first wave of books came in from Amazon.com this week:

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman;
Why New Orleans Matters - Tom Piazza;
Armed Forces Guide To Personal Financial Planning - Maj Trybula & Lt Col Hewitt;
A History of the American People - Paul Johnson;
Fantastic Voyage - Ray Kurzweil;
The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil;

They represent a nice smattering of interests, from pop culture, to computers, to New Orleans, to history. I figured I should at least vary things up so I don't get bored with the subject matter. At any rate, I'm going to do a little more reading now...

And Into 2006 We Go...

Since I got the week off from work this week, I thought it might be a good time to revive the old blog. After Katrina hit back in August, I felt like the last 4 months of 2005 were a blur. Between gearing up for two big inspections at work and getting sent to Maxwell AFB in Alabama for 7 weeks for ASBC, it seemed like "free time" was at a minimum. On the bright side, I did get to do a lot of traveling around the southeast while at ASBC. In retrospect, 2005 was probably the most eventful year in my life thus far. Just to recap some highlights, (kind of chronologically):

- Got to see my favorite football team, Auburn, finish an undefeated season in what I would consider my hometown, New Orleans, at the 2005 Nokia Sugar Bowl. It took on even greater significance to me knowing it was the last football game played in the Superdome.

- Had my bachelor party in New Orleans. My groomsmen, Freddie & Brian, really put together a memorable experience for me, complete with a set of commemorative pint glasses adorned with my open-mouthed visage.

- Got married to Ashley in a magical wedding in New Orleans. From the rehearsal dinner at The Columns Hotel, to the ceremony at St. Rita, and the reception at the House of Broel, I don't think it could have been scripted any better.

- Went on a honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean, visiting Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, & Mexico. It was my first time out of the US in over 15 years, and one of the best weeks of my life.

- Moved to Dover, DE to start my first real job: Communications Officer in the United States Air Force. With almost a year under my belt now, I can honestly say I'm having a lot of fun being a 2d Lt.

- Started a new life with Ashley, finally living together after 4 years of doing the long distance relationship. While merging households can be challenging, we seemed to pull it off pretty well, and ended up with a fun first apartment.

- Went to two Air Force training schools: Expeditionary Communication Officer Training (ECOT) at Keesler AFB, MS from March - April, and then Air & Space Basic Course (ASBC) at Maxwell AFB, AL from October - December.

- Traveled to New York City six times, Washington DC twice, and Philadelphia twice. Since getting close to the big east coast cities was my reason for choosing Dover AFB, I certainly have gotten entertainment value out of this assignment.

- Got to take a ride in C-5 Galaxy with Ashley for a refueling flight off the coast of Long Island. For me, it really solidified the importance of what we do at Dover, and it was just too cool being in the cockpit when the C-5 linked up with the KC-10 refueler.

- Planned a bachelor party in Atlantic City for a fellow Comm Lt here at Dover. Between renting a NASCAR-themed Silverado stretch limo, and watching this guy get the lap dance of a lifetime from Superwoman, it was generally agreed that said party was a smashing success.

- Bought two new cars: an Aquarius Blue 2005 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible in July and a Sparkling Graphite 2006 BMW 325i in September. Needless to say, both Ashley & I enjoy taking the long way to work now.

- Watched my favorite city brought to its knees by Hurricane Katrina, live on cable TV. Being 20 hours away left me feeling helpless, so all I knew how to do was watch everything I could on TV and find everything I could online.

As 2006 begins, I'm looking forward to the new events and challenges coming up. Our big base-wide inspection starts next week, so work will be very intense for about 2 weeks. We're moving into a townhouse next month, which means we're going to have to prep for transition again. And we've got another trip to NYC planned for March with Freddie & his fiancee, Kadee. So the first quarter of 2006 seems to already be planned out.

I aim to keep the Western World blog updated regularly this year (I guess you could say it's kind of a New Years resolution), so check back periodically. You can always chastise me if I don't stick to my word. ;-)

Apprehensively Awaiting Hurricane Katrina's Landfall In New Orleans

I've been nervous all day watching the news reports about New Orleans' apparent impending doom. Many news reports are already calling this the storm of the century, and it's going to hit the worst possible location: New Orleans. I really hope I have a city to go back to. :-( Here's one article that won't let me sleep easy tonight:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800780.html

Lt Western on an Antenna Site Survey

Condor.jpg
Originally uploaded by Juston Western.

Hello from 75 feet above Dover AFB in a Condor bucket truck crane.

Looking Forward To The Weekend

With the end of the (military) fiscal year approaching, things have been crazy around the office this week due to my "additional duty" as the Billing Official for the Comm Resource Advisor. I enjoyed my accounting classes in college, but having 5 Excel spreadsheets open (each with about 8 - 12 tabs) and a desk full of financial printouts and multiple calculators has lost any appeal it may have had.

On the bright side, though, it's been a big week for software, with Google Desktop 2, Google Talk, & TiVo Desktop 2.2 all launching. I've had a little time to play around with all 3, but I'm really looking forward to testing them out this weekend.

I think I'm also ready to break down and buy a few more hard drives. At my current rate of downloading at least 1GB of music a week (with the Essential Mix, John Digweed's Kiss 100 shows, Hernan Cattaneo's Metrodance shows, and other live mixes from Mercury Nation & djmixes2k), my 700GB of storage is zapped. I'm looking to buy 1 or 2 320GB hard drives from Newegg.com, & another spindle of 100 DVD+R's.

One more day of work this week looms on the horizon, and it's expected to be just as busy as the previous four days, so it's time to get some rest.

Oh The Unintended Irony

On Thursday I got a thank you note via base mail from the Wing Commander thanking me for my work on the Dover Wing Mission Video. If you'll remember, it was debuted last Monday at the annual MILCON briefing, and I was somewhat amused that the soundtrack to the video (all electronica) was going to be listened to by Senator Biden, who was co-sponsor of the RAVE Act (see my previous post for all the details). Well, upon reading that note, I couldn't help but audibly chuckle after seeing his word choice. Read the scan of the note above to see what I mean. :-)

Wing Mission Video at MILCON & Getting a Coin

The briefing at the Sheraton for MILCON went well on Monday. I got to the hotel at about 5:45AM to work with Milt on setting up the laptop and making sure that Col Cox’s slides and my video were working smoothly. As planned, each worked perfectly. After the presentation of the Wing Mission Video, there was a rather boisterous round of applause, so it’s good to see my creative work flies with the public at large.

Ironically, Senator Biden had to follow the Wing Mission Video. The most peculiar part, however, is that he was actually tapping his foot to the music during the Underworld tracks. Could Mr. RAVE Act himself potentially be a closet Underworld fan? The more likely answer is that he had a few too many cups of coffee that morning and would’ve been keeping beat with a washing machine had it been in the room.

It was interesting hearing Sen. Biden, Sen. Carper, & Congressman Castle speak. One thing I will say about Delawarians: they are just as passionate about their state as Texans. Admittedly, most politicians have love for their state, but these guys eat, drink, & sleep Delaware. I was also told at the briefing that Sen. Biden is considering running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. I don’t think I’d vote for the guy, but it’ll be neat to say I ate breakfast about 10 feet away from him when he was “only a Senator”.

This morning on my way to work, I got a call from Maj West letting me know that my presence had been requested at the Wing Standup Meeting scheduled for 8:00AM. At first I thought they wanted me there to take inputs and feedback on the video from all the group & squadron commanders (which would have been less than pleasant trying to consolidate 25 opinions into a revised product). Quite the opposite was the case, however. Col Cox asked that I come so that he could recognize me in front of the base leaders and give me a Commanders Coin.

So that was a welcome, albeit unexpected, reward for working on this project so much over the past 3 weeks. Truth be told, the project was tedious, but entertaining and educational, too. I had the opportunity to learn a new software tool, and I’ll probably end up creating a few slideshow videos for my website because of this experience.

For those of you who may not have seen it, you can view the Dover AFB Wing Mission Video at this location. If you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to install Google Video Player on your computer to view it.

"Mildly 'Sticking It To The Man' " OR "Monday's Fun With Sen. Biden (Mr. RAVE Act)"

First to bring you up to speed...

I got tasked about two weeks ago with creating a "Wing Mission Video" for Dover AFB. Apparently our new Wing Commander was stationed at Charleston AFB before coming here, and they kept one of these videos on file to show to VIP's, newcomers to base, & state/local leaders at briefings.

Since we don't have any real "video" footage from Dover, and they weren't willing to buy me a video camera to run around with for a few weeks (boooo!), I told them that I could do a “glorified PowerPoint presentation”, using Windows Movie Maker and including photos from base spliced together (with pans & zooms) along with some stock video clips of C-5's and Night Vision Goggle stuff.

They said that was what they had in mind anyway, so I went to work gathering photos. At the first meeting I asked if there were any musical requests, but I was just told to make it tasteful (i.e. no gangsta rap or death metal). Other than that, the Wing Commander told me I could essentially use whatever songs I wanted.

Well, after foraging through my music collection (who knew I had so many electronica MP3's?!) I settled on a 6 minute medley of clips from the following songs:

Underworld - Dark & Long
Leftfield - Song of Life
Orbital - Lush
Underworld - Pearl's Girl
Sasha - Xpander
Underworld - Two Months Off
Underworld - Cowgirl

Aside from the fact I'm apparently on a huge Underworld kick this week, it's obviously not your typical background music for military-related events/slideshows/videos/whatever. But I showed our Wing Commander a draft of the video earlier this week, and the only suggestions he had were for photo tweaks & additions. He said the music was fine with him, and rather "upbeat".

At the end of the meeting, he told me that the first official showing of the video would be at a meeting next week downtown in Dover, where all the state & local big shots will be in attendance...to include, that's right, Mr. RAVE Act himself, Senator Joseph Biden. For those of you who may have forgotten, check out this link from EMDEF.

Now I'm not disillusioned: I know the RAVE Act was not legislation proposed out of Sen. Biden's disdain for electronica. But I'm going out a limb here, and I'd say maybe, just maybe, that we're not going to find any Ministry of Sound albums in his car CD changer. And by the witty name of his now-defunct bill, I'd say that in his mind, drug use & raves are inextricably linked.

So maybe it's just a passive-aggressive streak in me, but I'll take some amount of pleasure in pushing the play button in Windows Media Player on Monday morning and treating the most honorable senator from Delaware to 5 minutes and 52 seconds of "RAVE music" set to military photos. :-)

Saturday Night at the Drive-In Movie

Image_11.jpg
Originally uploaded by Juston Western.

Hello from the drive-in movies in Felton, DE! A little slice of Americana.