Peter Evans is pretty awesome.

(And his website ain't bad either.)

(Lower right is the final.)

I am in the footage cave!

I'm making a film!

Everything, By Everyone is a film about the Internet. In large part, it’s the story of a website called Newgrounds and the online cultural trends it helped create and drive over the last decade or so. It's also the story of how the web became fun as well as functional and a tool for creative people of all kinds.

Watch my teaser trailer!

I'm also trying to raise some dough for the next stage of post production (and a little more production).

So Bob and I went out for the Kildare's $1000 best costume prize this year, both of us dusting off kickass costumes from Halloween 2005. I pulled the Batsuit out of the mothballs, slapped on a new coat of rubber to the steel chest and head piece, added knee pads and new boots and pants, restocked the utility belt and I was good to go. Tim and I get to the bar at 7pm. I put on the mask in the parking lot, taking several minutes to get the zipper together under my chin due to the lack of a mirror. Then the zipper gets to the top and promptly breaks off. Great. This means I'm trapped in my mask until the judging, because if I take the mask off I won't be able to get it back on. Delightful. The judging is at 12:30am. After adding a bit of padding around the eyes to help with vision issues, I'm more or less set to wait it out. The head sweat issue was largely mitigated by wearing a black head stocking skull cap.
Now let's be clear, Bob and I had this thing in the bag until about 11pm. But we did not win. Here's who won and my critiques thereof:
3rd place- A Ghostbuster. Ok, I dressed up as a Ghostbuster myself in 2004, so I know what it takes. I've got nothing against this guy, he had the hat and everything. But here's the thing, a Ghostbuster outfit is all about the backpack, and what I know that the judges probably didn't is that there are entire internet groups dedicated to making those backpacks. They are insane. They have the actual schematics. They'll sell you parts. It's its own little industry. I've seen more replica proton packs than you shake a stick at and they were all identical because they use the blueprints. For mine, I built one out of cardboard and stuff from the dollar store and it looked sharp but it was clearly an interpretation as opposed to a literal translation. So this guy put in the time to build it and he bought a flight suit. It's work, but not particularly creative.
2nd place- A guy in a cardboard outhouse. Um. OK? Personally I'm not a fan of this type of thing. I'm also not a fan of "funny" costumes over awesome ones. But more importantly the craft on this thing was really low. If you're going to build this giant pain in the ass thing that you have to lug around and that inconveniences everyone around you, at least make it awesome. This was a cardboard box painted blue with silver edges. That was the other thing that didn't make sense to me. He's wearing a construction worker outfit inside, the helmet, the vest. And the box is painted blue, so you're thinking "Oh, it's a portajon at a construction site." But then he put an old-timey chimney on it. Dumb. Big ≠ Awesome.
1st place- Ok. This guy had us beat. It was an Optimus Prime costume. The guy was short, the craft was a bit low. But this guy clearly spent a ton of time making this thing out of cardboard boxes and duct tape and when he crouched down he actually became the truck. When he walked in I knew it was over. No shame in being bested by such a worthy competitor. (But those other guys... Meh.)
In retrospect, Bob and I should have walked around more and watched the World Series less. The judges had no idea that my armor was made of actual steel coated with black rubber and that my utility belt was filled with working gadgets, Batarangs™ and fun-sized Snickers. They couldn't see Dia's seamstressing of the fact that Bob had a tray of real burgers at the table with him for his Burger King outfit. Or that he had to shave his legs to get in the tights.
Oh well, there's always next year... for which I'm already planning.
http://www.kildarespub.com/

Boy, have I made embarrassingly few blog posts of late...
But I'm working on a film. More info @ Everything-By-Everyone.com

And you'll probably want to follow me here for awhile.

"Joe the plumber" is clearly an operative.
I don't know if anyone else saw or noticed this, but on Katie Couric's debate analysis webcast (for the third presidential debate), they got the regular-guy plumber whom McCain mentioned repeatedly on the phone. After hemming and hawing just enough to establish himself as "undecided" he proceeded to lay into Obama, saying we still don't know where Obama stands on the issues and basically reciting a bunch of McCain's talking points. It's either a huge coincidence or very very clever of the GOP. I wonder if we've heard the last of him...

Thank you, CNN, for perfectly illustrating why and how American News sucks:

I mean, honestly, WTF.

More politics.
Sorry. My blog isn't an inherently political place, but this has been on my mind a lot recently. So there's Hillary and Barack going at it for the nomination. I like Obama and I think he can win in Novenber. But I keep hearing about how educated people vote for Obama and uneducated people vote for Clinton. And we look at this fact very objectively and carefully and him and haw and analyze. But what I find missing from the analysis is as follows: Nobody seems to be willing to say or even suggest that maybe... just maybe... educated people make better decisions than uneducated people? So if the most educated, well-informed, intelligent among us want Obama... shouldn't that be some kind of sign?? Shouldn't that be a selling point as opposed to something to mock on late night tv? And it doesn't mean a college education, it just means a decent working knowledge of the issues you're forming an opinion about.
But then it eventually comes down to this Elitist vs. Regular Guy bit. "I want the President to be a regular guy like me, that I can have a beer with." Well, we just had that. For eight years. I won't say that they were the worst eight years in American history, but they were really, really bad. And 80% of the country now seems to think so.
I don't want a president who's like me because I'm not qualified to be president. Neither is any regular guy. Jon Stewart said it best when he said "Doesn't 'elite' mean 'good'? Is that no longer something we're looking for in a President?... If you don't actually think you're better than us, then what the fuck are you doing? ... [N]ot only do I want an elite president, I want someone who is embarrassingly superior to me." Obviously, passing an IQ test or something can't be a prerequisite to vote in this country, (that truly would be elitist... and frankly Orwellien) (maybe take the citizenship test?) but self education is a responsibility that too many people aren't willing to accept.

So, am I an elitist now?
elitist |əˈlētist; āˈlētist| noun
a person who believes that a system or society should be ruled or dominated by an elite.
• a person who believes that they belong to an elite : designers are a bunch of elitists who don't live in the real world.

Well, I am a designer...
But I would actually alter that definition to "a person who believes that a system or society should [not only] be ruled or dominated by an elite [but who has no interest in, particular knowledge of, or reverence for the common man.]
The resentment we have in this country surrounding the term 'elite' is that it implies you don't give a shit about anyone below you. Sir Copperbottom III sips tea in his mansion while people starve to death outside the gates. But most of our politicians aren't really like that (fewer Democrats) even the jerks. Obama isn't like that and ultimately neither are Clinton or McCain. Actually caring about people is how Clinton, Bill got elected in the first place. Obama cares as much if not more, but they've got the name recognition and he's not as good one on one maybe?

I don't have an ending for this. Rant over.

Political

Obama is right.
I'm a small town Pennsylvanian and I am indeed "bitter" about my government. Because it sucks. Jan '09 can't get here fast enough.

I am single handedly taking on all the stupidity on the entire internet.
This guy is an idiot.
A Plea to Mandi Hamlin
First read that. Now, regarding the TSA nipple piercing lady:
Are you kidding me?? She was clearly harassed. I can see stopping her, I can see making her take out her piercings. But the fact that they didn't make her take out her belly button piercing, says that this was just a disgusting joke. You need an argument that doesn't consist of "Sept 11th Sept 11th Sept 11th" If they want to keep us safe, where are the armed air marshals that are supposed to be on all the planes?

http://www.hotcuprecords.com/

is the new hotness. And my newest website. (In progress)

Blast From the Past
Found Object Lamp

Ask yourself: Do you want the world to change or do you want it to stay the same?

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When did a 'mailing list' become an 'E-mail Blast'?
Stupidest rebranding ever.

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This is everything that's wrong with our culture.
Well, maybe not everything, but a lot of it.

Godzillafield
So I just saw the new J.J. Abrams monster movie. Here's a scene from the film:

Yulenog on iTunes
All three of them. Rock on.