Aug
03
2010
7

A Quick Update from the Sheraton Denver…

I’ve spent the last 48 hours poring over all sorts of prepaid cell phone plans and devices, and I finally walked into Wal-Mart to buy something.
I was contemplating either the AT&T GoPhone™ or a T-Mobile Prepaid phone, both of which offered GSM, reasonably coverage, reasonable rates for International horsing around, etc etc.
The Wal-Mart I went to didn’t have the $30 AT&T phone I wanted (with camera for $30 including $15 credit) so I opted for the T-Mobile equivalent for $29.99. It only came with $3.34 worth of credit (exactly 10 minutes of airtime) but I think overall it will be fine, since I didn’t have to pay extra for a fancier phone, and the rates are far more reasonable with T-Mobile (for my purposes anyway: random photo tweeting and texting about.)
Once I got back to the hotel and online, activation was a cinch, although it didn’t seem to activate the “data” portion (for MMS and “My Account” features, etc.) until a few hour later.
I actually really like this phone, despite its cheap feel. (Just placing it on the table sounds like it’s totally hollow–hilarious!)
The display is awful, and the VGA camera is sufficient for my needs.
Anyway, having a good time blasting around the states. Stay tuned to the Twitter feed (or Facebook if you are so kind to be my friend there) for the latest on our little voyage!
Written by jolephoto in: Personal
Jul
31
2010
0

Road Trip 2010

How we’re going to pull this one off in 13 days I have no clue, but stay tuned for updates!

(We start off in Edmonton)

Written by jolephoto in: Personal
Jul
29
2010
0

Camp Fun

Having lots of fun at camp…

(Random sunset photoshoot at the beach…)

Written by jolephoto in: Personal
Jul
03
2010
3

It’s the OreoBook!

I ordered a dead Black MacBook off eBay for a little under $200 a little while ago, and it finally arrived. I was hoping to do the following:
  • Replace my very blemished LCD backlight with a new display. The bits of standoff that broke over the years got ground into the back of the screen, creating some nasty dark spots on the screen. Since the Blackbook supposedly just got some rain on it, the display should have been fine. (It wasn’t)
  • Replace the plastic bits that are very pwn’d from 4 years of use
  • Replace the optical drive in my MacBook which has issues reading low-grade CD-Rs of all things (DVDs it’s been fine with oddly enough…)
  • Score another battery
  • Score another power adapter
  • Create an OreoBook

I wish there was a new MacBook Pro in that box…

Ah the BlackBook…

“What’s left of the power adapter”


Read more…

Written by jolephoto in: Personal
Jun
25
2010
3

jolemobile

Now you can spot me anywhere around town!

Service call!?

Milk crate is super practical.



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Written by jolephoto in: Personal
Jun
13
2010
0

Duck Podcast: Episode 13 (in HD!)

You may have already noticed, but the Duck Podcast has returned from it’s rather long hiatus, and it’s back with attitude! Or… High Def! Be sure to check out all the action on the official Duck Podcast website, http://duck.jole.ca.
Also, I’ve padded my YouTube account with old goodies from jolevideo, and some new stuff from my video archive. Be sure to check it out. I’ve been contemplating whether to promote jolevideo or just kill it off in favour of YouTube, since ol’ Google has certainly made progress with the popular video service over the past few years. I’ll be keeping both in service, but YouTube will be the primary public distribution area, with jolevideo being reserved for rejected videos.

Written by jolephoto in: Duck Podcast,Personal
Jun
06
2010
0

Production: Livin’ Inside Out

Ok, so I wouldn’t exactly call this a major production in any way, but just like any show it had it’s share of interesting challenges.
The sunday school kids put on a musical at my church, and did a pretty awesome job at it. First Baptist has a great little stage in the basement as part of Jubilee Hall, but almost never gets used. A year or two ago we upgraded the sound system with a fresh amp (which I now know was kind of overkill) and the Mackie DFX•12 shown here. I wasn’t sure it was going to get used much, but the capacity would be there if a band or larger event were to ever take place. Livin’ Inside Out was clearly that event.
I imported the wireless systems from upstairs for the event, and had two of the kids wearing the lapels, which worked surprisingly well. If there isn’t much intensive dancing or anything lapels obviously work just fine. The third guy held a handheld since that’s what we had in stock. A few other soloists simply stepped up to the SM58s I setup at the front as required. (Blocking in this show was not very complex.)
At first it was tough to get the system free of feedback when using the lapels, but I soon realized that it was really just exactly 1kHz that kept ringing back, probably from the design of the room. As soon as I cut that frequency in the 5-band built-in EQ, there were no issues.
DSC_9751

QLab is always ready to go. The accompaniment CD was L/R Karaoke/Singing, so I plugged in the right channel into a stereo return which would send it mono to both L/R main mix. The disc was also “tracked” to allow jumping to particular measures in a song for rehearsal purposes, which meant a bit of manual time setup for the various cues so that they ran contiguously. I think there were still a few jerky points that iTunes Gapless Playback would have smoothened more effectively, but QLab let me focus on mixing the show and not pausing the track list before the next song.


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Written by jolephoto in: Personal,Tech Theatre
Jun
03
2010
0

Production: ASLC 2010

Every year a high school in Alberta hosts the Alberta Student Leadership Conference (ASLC) that brings together students in leadership from across the province together to network and learn. I’ve been hearing about it for the past year before I even graduated, but this month the whole thing came together in what ended up being a technical bonanza.
There were three major events that required servicing: the Opening Ceremonies, the Dance later the same day, and the Closing Ceremonies. The first two were serviced by Stardust Events along with volunteers from the Harry Ainlay Tech Team, and of course me, jole.ca Technical Services. The Closing Ceremonies were held at the Myer Horowitz theatre, and was run mostly by the tech team and I, with some help from the house tech there. In all it was a pretty fun time with lots of new experiences with new people, albeit somewhat tiring and certainly stressful.
Opening

It’s the GrandMA! Bill from Stardust cues up lighting during rehearsal for the opening ceremonies. They had about four lighting stands along with a large lighting bar lighting the show, entirely composed of intelligent fixtures, both LED and traditional. Controlling the whole rig was the GrandMA Lite.


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Written by jolephoto in: Personal,Tech Theatre
May
16
2010
0

Whiteboard of the Week – 17

Hurray! I remembered to publish one this week!

In this Whiteboard…
  • “Tag” (Rebecca)
  • The TI-34 (Rebecca)
  • “The Game (Rebecca)
  • A monster truck (Misha)
  • A Turtle (R)
  • A battle involving underwater canoes (Misha)
  • A TurkeyGoose™
  • Wild Kevin fighting Wild Misha, with Joel appearing to throw Pokeballs at them. (Misha…who else?)
  • An’s Pencil (An)
  • A cliff (\/)

Written by jolephoto in: Personal,Whiteboard of the Week
May
10
2010
0

Need Web, Tech or IT? Check out jole.ca/cv!

I think the title pretty much sums it up. I’m looking for some work this summer, so if you have a WordPress project that needs doing, or maybe you just a good tech support guy, I’m your guy!

I put together a little page summarizing some of my previous experiences and activities, but I’m always up for a new challenge.
Check it out here: http://jole.ca/cv !
For this page, I used Fancybox which I will probably install across the board as my replacement for Lightbox. It’s a bit more compatible and the close button is way more obvious. Thanks Trevor! Also, this page will likely be the basis for a new web design for jole.ca, depending on whether or not I get some work :P
Written by jolephoto in: Personal
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