ChasingLilly.net

We are a very ambitious bunch. We meaning: Will McCarry, Billy Bacci, Jimmy McGrath, and myself. Collectively, we have been part of five separate bands over the last four years, not to mention our own personal side-projects. But all that has finally come together. We have finally settled on the name ‘Violent Blue‘. Not only that, but we also have our first song up over on our Facebook page to prove it! Titled “Polaroid” it’s the first track we’ve released off our upcoming Yeah. Right. EP. Go check it out, become a fan, and give us your thoughts!

Some readers may remember that we were running under the tentative band name “Chasing Lilly” for the past few months. In fact, that’s the reason this site is named what it is (despite being a cool LOST reference, of course). We’ll get the EP out sometime this summer, and expect us to be playing some shows as well. We’ll keep ya posted!

So far we only have a Facebook page, but we’ll be getting a Myspace music page up soon as well. Jimmy was cool enough to make a video for the Polaroid song using pictures from our travels over the past year. Clever… using pictures to show a song titled “Polaroid”… intentional? Probably not. Ah well, check that out below as well:

In other news, we had to make a short educational video this week for Digital Storytelling class using only free-to-use videos from the Prelinger archive on the Internet Archive. We chose the topic of “phishing” and agreed that my group would write a short script and record voice-overs, and I would edit the whole film together. The video below is the culmination of this effort. You’ll notice the voice overs are rather blown out volume-wise, but the bad audio, combined with the guys at times funny-sounding voice I figured were worth keeping and funny by itself. Enjoy:

You may be wondering where my digital story is? You know, that one about me being a character from LOST actually in the show blogging about it? Along with video? Well I’ve run into some big roadblocks with that idea, and may be forced to take up my secondary idea. Don’t worry, it still deals with LOST, just not in the same way. We’ll see, though. Keep watching the blog.



Lastly, we’d like to apologize for not being able to upload last week’s Dark Territory LOST Podcast. For those three of you who listen to it, we are sorry. If it will allow us to without problems, we’ll sill try uploading it. We’ll also have a podcast for this week’s Richard Alpert-centric LOST episode, “Ab Aeterno” (which means “from the beginning” or “from eternity” in Latin). That’s all for now!



Happy Trails,
Sam.

This post is a few days late, but it is here none the less! With such a specific title, there’s not much to explain in this post other than that I did another screencast tutorial. Although a few things have already been shown in class, it is worth going over again. Pretty much what you will learn is the basics of how I record audio from Skype, edit it in Audacity, and host it, all for our weekly LOST podcast.

I do have to apologize for the seeming quickness of the tutorial, YouTube now only allows 10 minute videos so I had to be fast. Also for the general annoyingness of my voice in a few segments. Enjoy, though! Rate it, leave some comments, etc!

Websites used:

Other tutorial page: http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/22-free-podcast-hosting.htm

Skype recorder used: Pamela Call Recorder

Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org

Ourmedia: http://ourmedia.org

FeedBurner: http://feedburner.com

The Dark Territory LOST Podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TDTLostPodcast



Happy Trails and Namaste,

Sam.

So this post will serve a dual purpose. One is about the assignment we were given, the other is a general update as to what’s happening on this here blog. First comes the assignment.
We are to make a Flickr account, follow @DailyShoot on Twitter, and complete the tasks tweeted to us for the next four days. Also we have to integrate some sort of Flickr plugin on our sites. Since I already had a Flickr account, I just started completing the Daily Shoot tasks, which you can see below (links to Flickr page)

So as to what’s going on here at the site? Well, quite a bit! First off, I’d like to thank everyone who’s commented on all my posts, though especially the comments about ideas pertaining to this upcoming LOST-themed project I’m doing. All of your texts, comments, and audible conversations have been great! I think I know what I’m going to be mainly doing for this project, though I’m still working out the kinks in the story (can’t reveal too much, this is LOST, after all!)

Speaking of LOST, you can subscribe to our weekly LOST podcast using whatever application you want from the RSS here. Alternatively if you have iTunes, you can simply subscribe to our podcast by clicking here (then ‘Subscribe’, of course). Thanks for the support, guys, and for taking this crazy ride with us through this final season of this great show! Of course, if you missed this last week’s episode check it out here.

Also you may notice the sidebar not only has a Twitter feed, but also my Flickr RSS showing a few of my latest photos. In other plugin news, I would urge ALL of you who haven’t already done so to go check out the plugin WPtouch from Brave New Code! It’s a great, easy-to-use plugin that turns your website/blog into a portable theme. Basically how it works is it recognizes if the viewer is accessing your page on a handheld device (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc) and if so, it shows a version of your site specially made for faster portable use. It shows your stories in an iPod-like fashion and even allows the reader to comment on or tweet your articles, email them, or even message you right from their device. And the best thing is: it’s super easy to customize! You can change the themes, decide what shows up, and more. If you can’t tell, I like it and highly suggest it to everyone.

As always, more to come!



Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.

I’ve honestly been thinking quite a bit about what my digital story should be. I’ve gone through probably six different ideas over the past few days, everything from an idea based on a fictional story I wrote a while back to even videos having to do with certain events in my life. But then I got to thinking about what we were told last class and how much time I spent creating my site theme. Then I remembered how last class Jim Groom talked specifically about my site and podcast as being part of a sort of digital story of it’s own, and how my being an obsessed LOST-fanatic is one of those things that also keeps the internet great (thanks for making my addiction almost seem cool ). And it’s true, I’ve spent so much time over the last six years with my friends and family discussing and watching LOST.



So I came to the conclusion… why not make a digital story which is LOST-related?



I thought about what would be the best way to do this, and I eventually came to this idea. I could over the next nine to ten weeks be one of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 and communicate everything that I personally experience up until a certain point in the series. I would probably take on the persona of an unknown survivor who isn’t shown much on the show, so that I could put my own spin on how I see things. This would limit me to how far into the series’ story I could delve, as in Season Five episode two all the non-main-characters and extras were killed by flaming arrows. But I could sustain a full story for this long (heck, I’ve been following it for six years, why not!?).



My main thought on how I could do this would be through blog posts I write as this made-up character. Maybe I could have some updates on Twitter as to what’s happening on the Island at that moment. Or maybe, in true LOST fashion, I could make some short “Flashback” videos of this character and post them to my blog and/or YouTube to overview how the character got to the Island and other back story. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like it, and the more it sounds almost like an interactive work of fan-fiction!



Of course, any comments or ideas would be great and very helpful!



Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.

As the post name states, the assignment is to take one of your favorite movies and display the entire films within a series of six pictures without any words. I juggled around some ideas before deciding on the film below. My favorite film, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, would be almost impossible to condense into six frames, especially without the back story of the other two films. I also almost chose the Pixar movie Up, but eventually decided on a different film. But this isn’t just any film! This film is “Air Force One” with Harrison Ford, one of the best action films ever made, in my humble opinion.

So there you go! I hope you completely understand all the intricacies of the plot! If you don’t then you are dense.

Happy Trails and Namaste,

Sam.

I am to post five images to my blog and sequence them so they tell a story.

According to the guidelines on the Flickr group “Tell a story in 5 frames” I cannot use words in the story, only pictures. However, I CAN name the story. Alright, here goes…

The title of this story is… No One Can Resist Ice Cream

I based the above off some pictures of my very good friend who goes to VMI. It is meant to track his deep emotions over a period of time (could be minutes, could be years) until he is finally introduced to ice cream. As you can tell, it appears as though he likes helado. That is all.



Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.

Our assignment is to find an example of digital storytelling and blog about it. That’s not too hard, digital storytelling is everywhere. Almost everyone who will read this is currently writing a digital story of their own! Even things such as our Facebook photo albums can be considered a “digital story” of kinds.

The specific example of digital storytelling I’m going to present today is a clip I found a while back on YouTube which really stuck with me. It’s from the film When the Wind Blows from 1986. The scene depicts the Bloggs’ couple as a nuclear bomb strikes near their house. It’s a very interesting scene which combines hand-drawn animation, computer graphics, and (from what I can tell) about a second of real footage. Perhaps most moving is a short, hand-drawn, dreamlike mini-scene which goes through much of the couple’s life. In my opinion it’s a very different and interesting example of digital storytelling.

Now then. All that stuff I just said and you saw is certainly interesting. I mean, HEY it’s homework, of COURSE it interesting! But honestly, it pales in comparison to the importance of the next statement that I am about to make: As of this moment, there is exactly 24 hours left until the final season of LOST premieres on ABC. Yes, laugh at me if ya want, but I am totally stoked!

Yeah I’m a loser. So anyways In honor of the beginning of the end of the world, I decided I’d put up what can be considered yet ANOTHER example of digital storytelling. I know, I can tell you’re supa’ excited! This example is actually of a normal Italian family which is brought together to reenact the entire story of LOST in under five minutes… So enjoy:

That is all.
Namaste and Happy Trails,
Sam.

It’s snowing and snowing and snowing here in Fredericksburg today, and according to the weather, it’s supposed to continue blowing cold flour everywhere for the next few hours still! So, I figured this was as good a time as any to put up the information I said I would on the new theme.

A few people have been asking me to explain how I made the theme, and I saw questions on other class blogs about how to change the images. As such I made a short tutorial over viewing both things. But not just any tutorial. I figured I’d make it my first video tutorial. Plus, it’s just easier to explain if you can see it. So enjoy!

Note: If anyone else has a different and/or easier way, please post it in the comments here or on the YouTube video! This is just how I figured it out on my own, but I’d love to see any other ideas!

Those sharp-eyed followers of this blog (yeah yeah, hi mom) will likely have noticed by now that I have uploaded a new theme for the site! As much as I loved the incredibly inventive basic themes, I wanted an aesthetically appealing theme that mirrored both my deep interests as well as my creativity.



Actually no. That’s a complete lie. Fact #1: While I had originally wanted something different, our class was actually virtually ordered to change from the basic theme. Fact #2: Those of you who know me likely know that I am a HUGE fan of the show “LOST” on ABC. In fact at this very moment I am completely stoked for the premiere of the new (and final) season! *cough* on February 2nd at 8 PM EST, if you were wondering *cough* Thus combining these two facts, I naturally went to check out the themes that were available under the “Appearance” tab.

But alas, there were no premade LOST-related themes. Beyond that I couldn’t find more than two themes that looked like me. So I made the long trek across the internets to the shrine of Google. But alas, once again my searching proved fruitless, for there were no [free] LOST themes to be found. So… to make a long story short I decided to make my own theme, and have spent the past two nights staying up till 3 AM, slaving away in the dungeons of Photoshop. I hope you like it!

If I remember correctly from class, we were supposed to not only change our theme, but post about HOW we changed it and/or why we chose what we did. I gotta admit, I’m a little too lazy to do that right now… BUT I think I’m gonna put up a semi-tutorial-type-thing to let the other people in the class (and AROUND THE GLOBE) know not so much how I specifically made each element, but how they can edit it themselves pretty easily. Although I think someone in the class already posted on the topic, so maybe not…

Well I guess we’ll both have to wait and see! Anyways…

Happy Trails,

Sam.

I have to be honest, when I was listening to Gardner Campbell give his talk to our class on skype I was rather jarred. Half of me was thinking “Uh… what?” while the other half was thinking “Oh, wow! I’ve never thought of it like that!” So I just sat there taking notes. Perhaps I was tired, perhaps his recently read paper hadn’t sunk in yet, the world will never know. But the more I looked at my notes, the more I began to understand the concepts he was trying to put forth.

One of his most poignant concepts, at least to me, came when Gardner (talking about Alan Kay) said that “a computer is an instrument whose music is ideas.” What a powerful image, that a computer can not only play literal tunes of music, but that it can help you create and realize your ideas and dreams. It can help create life-changing relationships, it’s possibilities are endless!

His second point that stuck out to me was that computers aren’t just for crunching numbers or for huge corporations but that people can use them to create solely for themselves. I know I do! I have always been interested in computers and networking. I have been blogging for years on (at last count) six separate blog accounts on different topics. I have been filming movies and graphically editing them on my computer for years as well. I am also a musician who edits my music on the computer. In the last case, the computer is literally an instrument in some cases. And that’s not even to talk about my Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter habits!

Perhaps the  most meaningful idea to me is that of a digital identity. As Campbell rightly states the usual idea of “digital identity” (making sure you are the right person to be, for instance, accessing your bank records) needs to go out the window. We can’t just sit around saying “well, I’ve learned enough about computers, now I’m gonna sit back and watch other peoples’ identities form.” As Campbell said “If the computer makes music, we must all be musicians.”

At the same time, though, who we are, what exactly our digital identity is, is meaningless without some sense of community. Campbell said that a domain is simply a “utility unless it comes to the next stage” and I completely agree. It’s like a snapshot of what sort of person we are and what we are interested in, what drives us. We are both creating and publishing ourselves in a way.

This was a big thing for me. While I have been creating, filming, blogging, and playing music for years, for some reason I never thought of the computer in this way. Or perhaps rather, couldn’t find a way to express what I was feeling. We all need to create our own digital identities and begin “mastering the language that has enormous expressive powers that is our selves.”