Flash, baby

After more than four years I finally decided to upgrade. Not a new computer, oh no. I’ll wait until I can afford a Mac. But I finally bumped up the miniscule RAM on my Toshiba to roughly a Gig and half (it was 512 MB before, believe it or not).

Yeah, 512 MB. Do you realize how long it takes to open InDesign CS4 when you’re running less than a gig under the hood? A long freaking time. How about 12 minutes to merge an eight photo panorama in Photoshop CS4. Yeah, life was dandy.

But now, sweet Jesus, I can download FLASH CS4!!That’s what I used back in Florida to make my Poynter project, and I’ve missed it ever since. Oh, how I’ve yearned for the succulent taste of action scripts and tweens, animations and motion paths.

Well, now I get to delve into it once more. Not just for fun, but for work! I’ve built the website template for my company’s book (I signed a confidentiality agreement, so no real news about it until it prints…), and I want to keep the site contained in our office – rather than pay a web programmer.

Thus I’ll be spending the better part of November with my other girlfriend, Lynda.com. There will also be a slew of Q’s I plan to sling at my Poynter fellows pertaining to web design and analytics. But in the meantime, here is what I’ve got for the template so far. Let me know what you think, but remember it will be way better in Flash, when the buttons highlight and boxes appear and the Polaroid pictures flip through.

Panoramic

Here is the photo I wanted to take the last time I was in Chicago. Phil and I spent over an hour looking for Garret’s famous popcorn, and after three failed attempts we asked for directions. However, the final destination brought us by this spot along the river, and even though it was mid-afternoon, I figured a decent night shot was to be had.

Anyway, I would like to discover a way in which I merged the photos together without bending the tops of buildings. But for now, I’m happy with this (as always, click the photo for a larger view).

Chicago (again)

Last week I went to Chi-town for the second time in just over a month. This time, however, it was with Holly and her family for their annual foundation meetings. But, seeing as how I’m not exactly in the family  yet (sans a June 26 wedding next year…), I spent most of the time checking out the town with my brother-in-law-to-be.

Needless to say, much of the time was devoted to pictures. And we had a blast taking some of them. What’s more, I got my tripod back!

Phil, Leia (Holly’s sister), Holly and I at the hotel.

Leia’s photo from the women’s bathroom of the Hancock Tower. Supposedly the city’s best view.

 
I’ll throw up another post where we spent a lot of time on photos such as this one.

 
Phil loved the camera.

 
Yeah, right. Like I ran the Chicago Marathon…

Phone Pic

This restaurant is off of Michigan Ave in Chicago… I almost peed I laughed so hard. I love my Asian friends!

Tobasco Pizza Commercial

I really had to make sure everyone I know sees this commercial by Tobasco, where they encourage you to put their hot sauce on pizza. If it’s not the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen, please let me know what is –- I’d love to know what’s creepier than this:

Cougars All-Access

When it comes to recording television on my computer, I am completely inept. And thus, for my Fox Sports Northwest acting debut, I just filmed the tv with Holly’s camera. What’s more, since my computer has been so incredibly slow lately, I was forced to piece together the three clips with Windows Movie Maker

Jake on Cougars All-Access from Jake Donahue on Vimeo.

Obama Mask: Linked

Remember this mask I made during the election last October? We also printed one for McCain on the other side of the page in The Sentinel.

Well, check out this page.

I really can’t complain about someone stealing my photo, as I often times link to other people’s photos. So I’m not even complaining. I just find it very interesting that a year later someone links to it. And they don’t even reference the photo in their blog post, either. It’s just a visual aide to a topic similar to that of the design.

Who let the monkey out?

On Saturday the lowly Washington State Cougars faced off in Autzen Stadium in Eugene against the Oregon Ducks – and it was a friggin’ bloodbath. Knowing this, I decided to be as big a WSU fan as I could – after all, the Cougs needed all the support they could get.

So, I threw on my cougar shirt, some red shorts and tied a Wazzu blanket on my back as a cape. Not owning a Cougar mask, I did the next best thing: dawn a gorilla mask!

As you can tell from the photo, I wasn’t pretty. But I scared the hell out of Puddles (the Ducks’ mascot). Look at the left eye on his costume. Notice anything funny? I know it’s hard to tell from the photo it’s upside down. Yeah, I can’t prove it, but I like to think I scared him enough it popped off because of me.

But my crowning achievement may have come in front of a camera. The crew from Fox Sports Northwest’s weekly show “Cougars All-Access” taped me yelling, “Don’t go anywhere! Cougars All-Access will be right back!” The show is on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

What’s more, I must have posed in front of at least 20 separate cameras as people kept asking for my picture. Everywhere Ben, Jeff and I walked, we were stared at. Or, maybe, they were looking at my mask.

But I was a celebrity. Even if it was only for one afternoon!

McDonalds Rap

I just saw this video on YouTube and now I can’t stop thinking about french fries … or a McChicken … or a Coca Cola … mmmmmmm …

Whether ketchup or mustard, it’s still funny!

Portland Panoramic

Even though I’ve been sick the past two days, I had an urge to go downtown tonight. Since I finally found a perfect spot to snap a photo of Portland’s downtown skyline, I wanted to take another shot.

Here is what I got last time when I found a dock next to OMSI (after a pretty big edit, of course) when my sister and her boyfriend came to visit last week:

Here is tonight’s shot:

Next time I hope to get to this spot earlier and stay longer. Of course, it will help to have a tripod and leave the shutter open longer when it’s dark, as that is the one photo I really want: Portland at night.

The only problem with this time of day is the large groups of people in row boats – apparently crew is quite large on the river. They ruined most of my photos today (not the one above, thankfully), so maybe next time I will try to make them look good in the frame.

We’ll see.