a poem by Joe J Thomas
Sunlight moves to the Earth
Water moves from root to stem to leaf
Livestock move to graze.
Food is transported from farm to store to table.
Motion is life
And yet
When there is no motion, calm
Silence
Space
As the blank spaces define the letters on the page
The pauses say as much as the words
Stillness is essential
Balance is key
April 2nd, 1975. I was 11 years old, and my Mom got us tickets to see Leonard Nimoy speak at a nearby community college. I was a fan of Star Trek, and of Mr. Nimoy’s work, so… Whoa! How cool is that!
After his talk, he took questions, and I stood in line.
When my turn came, I had a simple one: “Can I have your autograph?”
After a short chuckle he motioned for me to come over to the podium.
He signed, and I walked back to my seat.
With a pen. Oh, it was my Mom’s pen, but a bit of confusion happened and things moved on.
… but it did get written up in the article below: (click for full size)
Fast forward to 2013. Although I never did get to see Mr. Nimoy in person again, I did get the chance to work with him. It turns out we’re both in the “Star Trek Online” game. He is Mr. Spock, of course, and I am a Klingon named Ch’Gren.
Pretty cool…
Almost as good as when I took his pen 😉
LLAP,
Joe
My wife and I recently got 2 new Pixel phones from Google. The phones are pretty amazing, and have lots of hands-free features thanks to Google’s assistant. It’s only gonna get better. Information, texting, dialing, directions, translation (both verbal and visual signs), etc.
The other really amazing thing about them that’s been a bit under-reported is “Project Fi”. It’s Google’s cellular service. The pricing’s good, but what’s really interesting is the technology behind it.
Rather than being tied to a single carrier, Project Fi’s sim card can connect to multiple carriers. US Cellular, T-Mobile and Sprint are in the US, and there are foreign carriers too. Even though the networks use different tech for phone calls, that doesn’t matter. Project Fi treats all calls as data, and only uses the 4g and 3g networks (and WiFi when available). Fi automatically switches to the best carrier or wifi signal. Call quality is excellent and all of the switching is seamlessly handled behind the scenes.
For pricing, unlimited calls and texts are $20 per month for the first line, and $15 per month for additional phones on the same plan. Data is $10 per GB each month for each phone. When you setup the plan you choose how much data you’d like. The service is charged in advance for the next month with no long-term contract. If you haven’t used all the data by the end of the month, Google refunds the unused portion. Or if you used more, it just charges you for the extra at the same $10/GB rate. Very simple.
Right now there are only a limited number of phone models that are supported on Project Fi. If you choose a Pixel, you can either pay full price up front, or pay in monthly installments interest free.
Since this is just a cursory overview (and details may have changed), I suggest you visit the following links for more detailed information:
Animation, music, business, poetry and utter nonsense…
How do I come up with a new Joe’s Dump post most every Monday?
I use a Creativity Farm!
Whenever I have an idea for Joe’s Dump, I jot down a short title and a few notes in a Google doc. These are the “Seeds” on my farm.
I use a Google doc because it lets me edit my ideas on my phone, tablet or computer. When the muse inspires, I’m ready.
Next, I cultivate the Seeds by choosing a promising one and giving it my time and focus. This is like sunlight and water. The promising Seeds then grow into mature Plants, ready for posting to the blog!
Of course, along the way, some weeding must also be done. Not all ideas will bear fruit.
Once I’ve posted the finished crop, it’s moved to another Google doc for archive.
Here are just a few samples from my current batch of Seeds (who knows which will grow?):
If you’ve got the time and inclination, maybe you can start your own Creativity Farm!
What do you do to keep your creativity flowing?
Ever wonder who you’ve worked with in the entertainment biz? If you’re on IMdB, then the Oracle of Bacon can tell you that and much more…
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
It all begins with Kevin Bacon. The idea is that everyone on the planet is somehow only six steps away from Kevin Bacon. For example, if I know Kevin Bacon, I’m one step away. If I know someone who knows Kevin Bacon, I’m two steps away… and so on. By the time you get to six steps away, that’s a lot of people – maybe even everyone on Earth!
The Oracle of Bacon
The Oracle of Bacon web site finds the shortest connection between any two people listed on IMdB. The default is Kevin Bacon and whoever you type in. As an example, my Bacon Number is 2. I’ve worked with someone who’s worked with Kevin Bacon. But the site has some other very useful tools…
3 Ways To Use The Oracle of Bacon
The default is Kevin Bacon, which will tell you your Bacon Number. But you can find the link between any two actors.
This gives you a full list of everyone connected to you (or anyone else in IMdB).
Here’s where you can find the total number of connections to an actor sorted by the number of connections.
Be sure to play around with the advanced search options. They’ll let you include things like video games and TV series.
Once you’ve found your Bacon Number, be sure to post it in the comments below.
Have fun!
Joe
Henderson is a cheesy beefcake of a man. If you haven’t met him yet, he’s a loose-cannon cop with the intelligence of a small soap dish. I’ve been providing his voice for Pendant Productions for a little over 3 years now, and since Season 3 is coming on March 22, I thought something special was in order.
I always wondered what Henderson would look like in real life, and recently, I purchased some new software called “Poser” that can create realistic 3-D human models. Time for a test run!
Virtual Henderson Project: The Process:
The modeling software does have a learning curve to it. This may be less if you’re actually a graphics person or an animator, but for me it was about medium level of difficulty.
After creating the model, the next step is rendering. For still images, it’s not too bad. A few minutes for each one. The animation, however, took a looooonnnnggg time on my computer. Since I wasn’t going to buy a new computer just for this project, I decided to limit the animated portion to 5 seconds. That’s 150 frames (at 30 fps), and each frame took about 4 minutes, so, yeah, long time.
The rest of the video is still shots that I pan up, down, or sideways in the video editing software (I use Sony Vegas).
For the whole project, I’d guess I spent about 30-40 hours.
Bonus! Here’s the blooper reel from Henderson and Havner Season 2:
…and Links to Everything Else Mentioned:
Enjoy!
Joe
Here at Joe’s Dump, we’ve got a lot of music going on…
So, to help keep it all organized and handy, we’ve added a new Music Menu Item (at the top of every page)
A few of the articles you’ll find there include:
… Plus: Personal Profiles, Politics, Parodies, and plenty more!!!
Music Trivia Two-fer
This week, I’ve also got two trivia stories about some surprising back-stories to popular songs.
First up: You Don’t Bring Me Flowers (duet by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand)
Did you know that this famous duet came from a radio program director’s divorce?
Neil Diamond recorded the song first in 1977 as a solo, followed by Barbra Streisand’s solo version in 1978. This is where WAKY-AM/Louisville KY program director, Gary Guthrie, comes in. He spliced together a duet version as a parting present to his wife after their divorce. His version became so popular that the record label got Diamond and Streisand to record an official version that was released in the fall of 1978!
(Click here to read the full story on Wikipedia)
… and here’s Gary Guthrie’s mixed version on American Top 40:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmjKMiBShVk
And second: Mike Sammes – the backup singer for Olivia Newton John’s “Let Me Be There”
The bass part in “Let Me Be There” by Olivia Newton John is so prominent, I’d almost classify the song as a duet. Out of curiosity, I checked into who the bass singer was. His name was Mike Sammes, and his credits are amazing. He also sang backup on The Beatles “I Am The Walrus”, and for the TV show “Supercar”.
(Click here to read Mike Sammes full bio on Wikipedia)
… and here’s “Let Me Be There” for your listening pleasure:
Enjoy!
Joe
Acupuncture. I’d always been curious, but never tried it.
After a glowing recommendation by a family friend, my wife and I decided to go see how it worked for us.
This particular acupuncturist also treated with traditional Chinese herbal medication. And she only spoke Mandarin. Fortunately, my wife is fluent in Mandarin.
On the first visit I was asked a series of wellness questions (via my wife translating). About my sleep, food, energy, etc. She then had me lie down and put needles in my feet, chest, wrists, neck and head. So far, so good. Only a few of the needles stung. About 30 minutes later, she came and removed the needles. Next, she treated my wife.
She prescribed some herbs for me to drink in warm water, twice a day for a week. She also scheduled 5 more treatments over the next 6 days! Okay, so that surprised me. Based on the miraculous stories I’d heard from our family friend, nobody ever seemed to require more than 3 treatments. But I decided to give it a fair chance.
The herbs tasted horrible. Like drinking a mud smoothie. Twice a day. For a week.
My wife didn’t have to go back for a week. So each time I went, I’d show up, get treated with needles, and go. Since I don’t speak Mandarin, it made the visits awkward at best.
I ended up going two more times. To be honest, the table that I had to lie on was more painful than the needles. But after 3 days of needles and herbs, I was done. I definitely wasn’t noticing any positive effects, and in fact felt a little more pain than when I started. Probably from that table.
I stopped taking the herbs for the same reasons. No noticeable effects. Plus, I had no idea what was in them. Enough!
Lessons learned:
So, for me, the jury is still out on acupuncture and herbal medicine. It seems to work for some people. But this time it just didn’t seem to do much for me.
Earlier this week, I saw a picture of someone who had their face and body covered in tattoos.
My reactions were many and varied. How did they find work? (they are a tattoo artist, btw) Did they get a lot of questions? Were they comfortable showing something so personal to the world? Was it painful?
Then I realized that in many ways, I have my own inner tattoos.
The most obvious one is acting. Whenever I’m in the booth or onstage, I’m displaying something very personal. Often times a lot of work and pain went into creating it. And when others find out what I do, there are always questions.
Maybe the only difference is that my tattoos are not on the outside. Just hidden beneath the surface.
I think we all have inner tattoos. And some are brave enough to get the real thing.
Hope all your uniqueness shines through 😉
Take care,
JoeActor
Hey gang!
While making my last song parody video (“The Hell of Diets“), I used a special video trick to make my head float:
Since I don’t own a Green Screen, I had to come up with another way.
Okay, rewind… “Green Screen? What the heck is that, Joe?”
Glad you asked! In simple terms, the actor is shot on a set that is all one color (usually green, but sometimes blue), then in the video production, the green is replaced with any other picture or video. The effect in video software is called “Chroma Key”. I’ve used Green Screen in my animation projects, such as the “Ban Ki-moon Tune!” – here’s a peek:
No Green Screen? No Problem!
I realized that all I really needed was a way to ensure my face was lighted much brighter than the rest of the shot. Then I could use the Chroma Keyer in Sony’s Movie Studio software to remove everything else (the darker parts of the image).
Here are the steps (click on any image for a larger view):
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