LEEEROYY! / Gibson x LeRoy Jenkins

Delicious instrument, a 10 foot statue at Bloomingdales.

More_Here

Around The World 2009 Alive_Re-edit

My favourite electronica song, remixed in 2009 by some fellow Torontonians!

The Mansion DJ's put this remix together, mad respects.

I'm addicted again, might have to change my ringtone to this version.

Grab it here -> Around The World 2009 Alive_Re-edit

Source: Voulesrandom

CD's Aren't Dead Yet

BeoSound 9000.

Bang & Olufsen, very modern, but has a taste of the old.

You can also stream music through WiFi from your computer to the stereo.

Comme.Des.Garcon.slash.Spring.09

Some of these looks are 150% Seager's style, he's a real Premier danseur noble.

Comme's one of my favourite designers, I only know one person wearing his stuff right now, my boy Liam.

I really like the outlined seams and pockets on some of the pieces. The last jacket is my favourite, I'd actually wear that.

See More: GQ

Spring/09/Snapshot/Jap

Left   T-Shirt slash Empire, pants slash DURKL, sneakers slash Reebok, stall 

slash HIMMY, BB CAP slash NEW ERA

Right    Parker slash BEAUTY & YOUTH, pants slash FAT, sneakers slash Puma, back slash PORTER, hat slash FAT, Glasses slash Ray-Ban

Looks like Alfred!

T-Shirt slash ALTERNATIVE APPAREL, DENIM slash LEVI'S, shoes slash CONVERSE, clock slash HAMILTON, belt slash HTC

Not too sure about the denim shorts, but loving the shoes.

T-Shirt slash Soft Machine, pants slash Core Fighter, sneakers slash Nike, Accessories slash Gabor

Travel the world in style, overalls will make a comeback, dope.

JK nylon sneakers slash NEW: Z, JIPPUPAKA slash few, overalls slash LMR, Travel Bags slash BURTON, hunting slash flaph, glasses slash Ralph Lauren

source: Cool Trans

Fun Something to do with iPod Touch or iPhone #1

I recently got an iPod touch for christmas, so I've had the chance to play around with it.  I'm the type of person that likes to get the absolute full usage out of everything I have, I use every feature of every item I have, it's like OCD as Ryan would say.

I'm going to throw out some tips and tricks that I've found with my iPod Touch, that both touch and iPhone users can try out.

Today I'll show you guys VNC, a really cool application that takes 4.5/10 knowledge with computers (if that makes sense).

Now unfortunately I don't have my camera yet, that's next week.  So I'll just have to explain and see if I can find some pictures on the web.

What does VNC stand for first of all?

Virtual Network Computing

Ok.. So what the hell does it do?

It's like a remote for computers, where you can see the screen of the computer and control it! It's really cool actually, almost as cool as me.

What are you trying to tell me Nick? That I can control my computer using my iPod Touch slash iPhone? You're nucking futs.

Alright but really, you just need to download an app from the app store on itunes slash your app store on your ipod or iphone.

Jaadu VNC is a crazy app that I use, but it's like 30 bucks on the App store.  Unless you have a jailbroken itouch slash iphone.

Otherwise you'll want to grab something like MochaVNC or any other VNC app that shows up in the app store.  They all do the same thing.

Next if your on a mac, you need to set up your network sharing settings.

Step 1: Go to your System Preferences

Step 2: Go to Sharing

Step 3: Click the check mark beside "Remote Management"

Step 4: Your VNC server is now up and running

Step 5: You need a password or else you won't be able to connect (to most VNC clients) navigate to Computer settings (it's in the same window!)

Step 6: Put your password into the password box

Step 7: Open up your VNC client on your iPod touch slash iPhone,

if you are using Jaadu VNC click the + button beside Servers and input the information needed.  For your address that means your local IP.  That's going to be a number like 192.168.123.# (the last number is what will differ for each person).  To find this number on a mac just go to your system preferences again and select network

You'll see the ip address where mine is in this screenshot

Put that address in, put your password in.

That should be all you need to do.  Then you are good to go, try it out you can see your entire screen on the ipod/iphone and you can control it through WiFi.

If you're on a PC (ie. Windows users) you'll need to download a program to run a VNC server off your PC, not as easy as a mac but still pretty darn easy.  Just download a program like TightVNC

Once you download that TightVNC, just open up CMD, which you can do by going to the Run.. option at the start menu, and type in "ipconfig" without the parentheses and look for the 192.168.123.# and that's what you need to put into the TightVNC program.

If you need further help with that just leave a comment and I'll go into more detail.

Anyways, this is great for lazy people who need to respond to an instant message and don't want to get off the couch while watching arrested development.  Not that I do that or anything.  It's great though.

Happy Yorkers, Finally Start Studying Again

York University is Canada's third-largest university. This is the longest-running strike in any English-speaking Canadian university in history.

Today a 12-week strike has finally ended.  I believe this was the longest strike ever for York University.  I have some friends studying at York University, Krystle and Joel have been stressing about this whole strike issue and so have many many other students.

Students have been out of school since Nov. 6 when about 3,400 contract faculty, teaching and graduate assistants walked off the job, in hopes of negotiating a new contract that offers improved job security and benefits.

The Government of Canada has finally stepped in, and finally did what was needed to be done, could've been done sooner.

The vote passed at around 10:15 a.m. with only eight members out of 61 voting against the bill. The new law will be given Royal Assent by 4 p.m.

"Ontario wants us to move forward now," Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty said shortly after the bill passed its third reading. "The arbitrator will move quickly and work with parties in the best possible way and students are going back to the classroom."

Of course this did upset those who were protesting, but I think with all the damage they've caused, they ought to just step off their high horses and take their pay for what it is.  Especially in this time of economic crisis.

This isn't all fun and games for students though, yes they get the semester that they payed for, but they also have to cram, cram and cram some more.

For some students, the strike has already done some significant damage to their year.

Reading week has been cancelled, the winter semester is being compressed and the school year is expected to be extended past April.

Many students who depend on the Ontario Student Assistant Program will have to apply for additional loans to pay for extended accomodations. The Liberals have said those loans will be made available to students.

Overall this strike was just not good.  There is no better way to say it, a waste of money and time.  This will also make Canada look bad for our reputation in education and again, our Government has managed to make fools of themselves.  I cannot wait until we get some sort of Barack Obama Prime Minister.  That will be the day.

Here's some comments I liked on this story:

Michelle
I hope Ontario remembers next election just who did and did not work to get strikers back to work to protect third parties from damages at both York and in the ATU strike in Ottawa. The NDP clearly are willing to throw third party victims under the proverbial wheels of the bus in order to give unions the upperhand in so called "fair" negotiations.
I have voted NDP a few times in my life but never, ever again. I will not forget.

Pete
I understand the process of collective bargaining, but I find it disgusting that in this day of economic crisis, that unions hold companies (or in this case students) to ransome. These people need to get a grip on reality and understand that there can be no such thing as job security anymore. They should consider themselves lucky to even have a job. I remember back in the 80's when Ronald Reagan fired striking air trafic controllers, and replaced them with people who DID want to work. A similar thing should happen when unions try such bullying approach, and never mind collective bargaining. Once a contract has ended, and employer can then replace with whoever they feel can do a better job.

Lois from Ontario
I have a son who is a TA at a different university and NDP, and a son who is a student at York. To my total surprise my TA son does not support the actions of the union. He said for the current TA's to ask for job security is to deprive future graduating students of the opportunity to work while they too study for their MA's and PHD's. From my point of view 50,000 people have suffered over union selfishness and the mentality that the best interests of current members supercede all other considerations and the rights of anyone else involved. And these are supposed to be educated people? Shame on all of them.

Keith in Brampton
McGuinty is right about one thing - the students HAVE been remarkably patient.

Back when I attended university, WE would have been actively picketing both sides from the start and - by this point - would probably have had more than a few violent encounters. trashed cars, even burned buildings.

I'm not one to condone violence, but frankly I think the students were WAAAY too passive. Even now, I think they should blockade the university until they have cheques in hand refunding 100% of their tuition, plus a free year's education.

Source: CTV

Markham Film Festival

I love film, I know you all love film. Here in Markham we've never had an actual film festival, so it's quite exciting that there is one happening this coming weekend! Thanks to the dedicated and creative students on the Markham Teen Arts Council, there will be a 24 hour film challenge.

My buddy Tony Dinh is running this event with the council, he's got great talent with film making, but unfortunately he won't be competing. His awesomeness will still be present at this weekend's Film Festival, 2/1/09 at 7:00PM.

There's also a promo video! Can't miss this,

Here's how to get there:

For more info visit, www.markhamteenarts.com

Never Liked Indian Slums So Much

Nominated for 10 Oscars. Another 42 wins & 37 nominations

Today I downloaded a low quality version of the award-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire", I burned it to a dvd and threw it up on the TV. I have got to say, that movie is unreal. I am going to see it this weekend at the theatres, that's how much I liked it (I'm extremely lazy so this is kind of.. really out of my way) I highly recommend you go and see this while it is in the theatre and trust me it's a good movie. Seemed to have a great balance of suspense, romance, mystery, humor, etc. I loved it.

Slumdog Millionaire Trailer from Amardeep Kaleka on Vimeo.

Obama-Mania

Barack is a real rockstar, first african american president, I'm sure you've already heard and seen enough. For some people though it's just still not enough!

Try a tattoo of the Hawaiian big man,

Lucky Londoners

It's a dream of mine to visit and live in London, England. Next year I might get the chance to do an exchange and study in a castle in England. If you are in London right now, I'm not only jealous that you live there for all the glory of London being London, but I'm also jealous that you get a show with the Killers and Coldplay! Straight up unfair.

Get your tickets here, freaking UK..

Love is Noise

I've heard Bittersweet Symphony about, well I don't know a bazillion times. It still plays on the radio a lot, a real one hit wonder. Even made a cool mix with Jay Z's "Dirt Off Your Shoulders". Recently though I came across this song on last.fm, I'm feeling it.

The Verve from Brooke Jury on Vimeo.

iLife '09 is here!

I'm personally a big mac-fan, I love my macbook, serves me very well. I recently used iMovie 6 HD to make my stop motion film and it was quite easy and seamless.

Now I have to say that the iMovie '08 is not a piece of software I have ever liked, unfortunately they didn't change many of the things that make iMovie '08 an extremely difficult program to use, in my opinion. I have used Adobe Premiere (almost all versions of AP) and I have used Final Cut Pro. I could do a lot on both and I found it easier to use those than the iLife '08 movie editing program known as iMovie '08. I have read that they added some really great features that actually might make it worthwhile to sit down and watch a tutorial on how the timeline is set up and such.

iWeb '09, I'm not too sure I care about that either, I mean I haven't used iWeb to its full potential so please, don't burn me for saying this. I think if you're really going to make a web site or start a blog, whatever it is you want to do on the web, iWeb is really cool to try because of the effects, but there are much more powerful programs and easier methods. I'm not against iWeb though, I liked it.

Garageband '09, YES! Good job Apple, I love garageband, and the addition of adding interactive lessons for guitar and piano, mm that's fresh. Ok so I don't need basic lessons for guitar, I can move around nicely along the fret board, but I've got these long fingers and I have an old school piano in my basement. It's fairly under-used. For that reason I can't wait to try the new garageband and see how well these lessons work. Now as for the other new feature they talk about on the Apple site, the new guitar features. Which means effects and virtual pedals. This is great, I'd love to use them! But they say "Just plug in an electric guitar and play", frankly steve, no. I cannot simply stick the 1/4" guitar jack into the nice little confusing 1/8" line in jack. That doesn't work for me.

I did just find this though, http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/08/06.1.shtml

A nice little cord to shut me up.

iPhoto '09, alright I think this might be my favourite. Have you heard what they put into this clean cut little piece of software? Face recognition, yeah that's ballin'. What's more ballin' for those Facebook photo junkies? Well even if haven't recognized somebody's face and "tagged" them in iPhoto, Facebook will help you out. Apparently if somebody tags one of your photos that you don't already have in your iPhoto library, the tag will sync with your iPhoto library and automatically tag the photos for you. That's pretty sweet. Another great feature in my opinion is the new photo slideshows, I recently hooked up my MacBook to my HDTV (I know I'm kind of a geek), and I wanted to watch a photo slideshow in some high resolution crazy iphoto slideshows. Yeah, iPhoto '08 is not so great for slideshows, I can't get the freaking song I want to play work, and it's about as exciting as watching my cat drink from the tap. Hopefully they make it easier to use, their examples look bomb.

That's a little preview of the just-released iLife '09 slash review of my dusty old iLife '08.

If you've got a mac I'm sure you've already been to this page numerous times, but here's where you can order it or upgrade to iLife '09 http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB966?mco=MzA3MDc5Mg

For those of you who are similar to me, a broke ass student. You can wait for hours trying to download the torrent which last time I checked had 19,000+ people trying to download it at once. That link is here: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4679908/iLife__09_Install_DVD.dmg

Warning: I don't condone downloading this software, support Apple by purchasing the iLife software if you can!

Wow, incredible friday anyone?

I am in the middle of doing work so I'll just re-post something I wrote on a coldplay site and I'll elaborate more tomorrow about this amazing event..

Here's a video I recently directed and edited with a team for a contest in Canada, to win technology for our high school's history department. It was quite random how this video came about, but we spent more than two months just stripping down one big complicated video. We then found ourselves having two hour-long philosophical discussions about technology, with it's pros and cons.

The goal of the contest is to show how you use technology in your classroom, also how technology affects your life and the lives of those around you. My friend Amanda and I spent two and a half weeks working diligently everyday to complete this video, we are going to find out the results of the contest this Friday.

I'm sharing it with you all because, honestly we all agreed and many who have seen the video have told me that the song really completes it. The song is a mix between life in technicolor and life in technicolor II, I just used the first part of life in technicolor from Viva la Vida and the whole song of Life in Technicolor II, my new favorite song which I hum everywhere I go.

Feel free to leave your opinions on how much you hated it, or if you liked it, and what messages did you interpret from it?

Here's the video on youtube, please watch it in HD, it's hard to see it when it's normal quality. If you don't know what I mean there's a little link at the bottom right of the video player which says "Watch in HD".

Here's the description of the video from youtube,

HTML Code:

Markville Secondary School History Departments' submission to Canada's 21st Century Interactive Classroom Contest.

Camera: Nikon D70

Entire video consists of around 2,287 photos.

Actors/Actresses:

Amanda Perkins
Samantha Hutchinson
Kirsten Andersen
Nick Francis
Rachel Laird
Mark Melnyk
Rob Cotey

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG2EM_tZPDI

and also on vimeo:

http://www.vimeo.com/2565637 (this ones instantly HD)

Update to the video results.. About 50 minutes ago we just got a call from Mindshare Learning report, our two teachers, myself and the team all sitting in our history classroom waiting for the results to come in at 1:00pm EST. My heart was beating about 500bpm, I was pretty pumped, I can safely say the same for the rest of the team who were desperately waiting for some sort of update to the contest.

The phone rang and who was it, the mindshare learning head, he started talking about the contest and how they collected all the video submissions for the entire 3 rounds of the contest and decided to choose the overall number 1 video.

"Mr. Melnyk you and your team were by far the top submission we recieved."

I screamed, everybody screamed.

We won and we are now the proud winners of $10,000 dollars worth of technology for our History department at Markville Secondary School in Markham.

Look for the video and reaction on CTV AM, over the next week, I'll update if anything else happens.

I really hope that Coldplay somehow comes across the video! Their music was inspiring and fresh. I love Life in Technicolor II for the video and I wouldn't change it for the world.

So yeah.. Super pumped! Thanks everybody for your encouraging comments.