memories.

we all have them, and this is mine.  habits of the every day are often forgotten, we go into auto pilot and forget to oberve our surroundings.  this morning, i broke that habit.

Hiatus

I’m making sure all my online spaces say the same message:

http://sites.google.com/site/oakenstaat/

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGreatOak07

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23filmw09

#filmw09 is on hiatus. I have no other projects lined up at this time. I’m on full break.

give yourself a chance

we can all dream.

Twitbubble, find love in 140 characters or less.

140 characters (the maximum amount allotted by Twitter in a single tweet) may seem like a tiny amount of information, but it can reveal a lot more than you think.  Making an impact with very few words is a difficult task, but can be a good challenge, just like the dating world. If you think you can get your E.E. Cummings on, take a trip inside BUBBLE, Twitter’s online dating application.

Twitbubble’s bio makes some high claims, “New Ways to Meet Potential Dates! Revolution in Match making. Hottest destination for Social dating.”  This may seem odd, lame, or even bizarre to some (I know it did to me, at first), but we have to think about this is as an advancement.  There were many skeptics about sites like eharmony and chemistry, but these sites have yielded outstanding results and have matched people who may have never had the chance had it not been for service sites like these.  Twitbubble is just another version of these dating sites, but slimmed down to 140 characters.  This diet on conversation is by no means a restriction.  Just like we have used hashtags and j.mp links in our own accounts, those using Twitbubble can share these same features with one another to reveal even more about themselves to their tweeting lover.

Twitter’s application, Twitbubble, may be onto something here.  With anything, it is up to the users to make it happen.  The site, or application alone, will not get the songbirds singing.  By the looks of all the user generated applications and input on twitter, I am sure the Twitbubble application will become more popular and may even match some soulmates.  Tweet, Tweet.

-Good afternoon, Vitamin D

lowt

the protest.

Here is my final edit for this week’s digital photo project: Protest.

Taken in Moorestown, NJ.

On Statistics & Accomplishment… On Purpose… On Pyramids.

Angela Duckworth, the Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences, explains “Why Achievement Isn’t Normal” in the following 90-second video:

Note the last line:

It is not enough to be very very talented, or very very self-disciplined, or very very determined. To be an outlier in human accomplishment, one must be, at the very least, all of these.

Accomplishment for the sake of accomplishment holds no value for me, as a human or a filmmaker. In accomplishing a goal, I aim to act in accordance with a self-designed Purpose — a reason or philosophy for accomplishing. This Purpose is the base triangle upon which I must place the side triangles of Talent, Discipline, and Determination. If I place these correctly, then I am able to balance myself at the top of the pyramid; when balanced at the top, I have full control over myself and my environment to enact the goals based on my Purpose. But if my Purpose is lopsided, ill-formed, or if it crumbles while I’m building the sides, then I have to start over again. That time is lost; therefore, having a sound Purpose is the most important part in every attempt.

Having said that, I have lost track of the number of times that I have attempted to accomplish without a sound Purpose. It’s difficult. Difficult to design, to build, to maintain while building the sides.

With my latest attempt at filming, in Winter 2009/2010, I finally have a sound Purpose. It exists in multiple dimensions — characters, script, music, and so on — and it is unified in each dimension. This early in October, the side walls are skeletal backbones that have to be fleshed out. I have talent, discipline, and determination, but I’m still adapting them to my purpose so that each works harmoniously with the overall structure. When I stand at the top of the completed structure in early January to produce my film, it has to support me so that I can stand balanced as I control myself and my environment to create the film the way I envisioned it. One way to picture this is to imagine that I’m drawing on a canvas with a brush at the top of the pyramid. If I’m not perfectly supported by the pyramid — if it shakes or quakes — then my brush strokes are going to be badly misplaced as I try to regain my footing.

The goal isn’t to become an outlier. The goal is to tell a story, and to do that I’ve got to make the best film that I can make. The best film is the one that is created with sound purpose, talent, discipline, and determination. If the resultant film is an outlier on the graph of all of my achievements, then I can infer that have served my Purpose, which is the only accomplishment that is worthwhile.

Where The Wild Things Are!

Spike Jonze is a genius, in the film making world as well as the photography world, here is his latest work: Where The Wild Things Are, set to release on October 16.  I think I have waited all of my childhood to see this movie.

behind the Protest.

Each week in Digital Photo there is a one word topic idea assigned for our class’s weekly project.  This week’s topic was protest,  tried some ideas out at my local skatepark.  Here is some footage of Ryan Miller ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/39932761@N08/ ) and I rolling around on a rainy Saturday afternoon…

agitation.

Don’t hold what I am about to say against me, please.  It may shock you, it make piss you off, it may mean nothing at all to you, but just hear me out.  I have fallen in love.  I repeat: I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE.  My judgement clouded, blood rushing, clammy palms, dry mouth; this thing is straight up punch-drunk love.

Now, my woman possesses no curves.  In fact, she’s composed of ninety degree angles.  She doesn’t have that poppin’ lip gloss, or the fliest Juicy bag.  She doesn’t even have UGG(the last sound these sheep make) boots wrapping her feet in mid July.  I don’t go to the mall, movies, zoo, dinner, family outings, or any other cute couple activities with my lover.  We hold hands down alleyways, underneath society in the subways, in bare fields during  hours the sun would not even dare blink an eye; we are adventurers.  She is a confusing one, this broad.  Squinting her eyes in shadows and opening wide in the rays of the sun, fogging my vision as well as my conscience.  Sometimes I have to tape her mouth shut [this is not, by any means, a form of foreplay], or she’ll fall to the floor.

Now, I know what you are thinking at the present time: this story is beautiful, made of pure magic, that we in fact must live in a castle in the hills of Scotland, well, rest assured: this story turns tragic.  Unrequited love is the culprit to my pathetic form.  This broad takes me for granted.  Every cent spent on her, even moment thinking about her, plans moved to accommodate her unpredictable mood swings.  The worst part is, I’m not her only lover.  I am one of many.  A fly on the wall in this auditorium of affair.  Even worse than the worst part is, I can’t give her up.  She’s been embedded into my core.  Trapped between muscles and tendons and bones and skin and sorrow and joy and magic.  I can’t shake this curse, I can’t focus.

My heart has been torn and lies scattered on the darkroom floor.  Exposed to the light, but not developed.

If you have seen her, please contact me:

lowt@thisisnotanemailaddress.gov

this call is urgent, i must put the pieces back.

Goodnight and Love Long,

many thanks.

-lowt

TwitStalk: The Latest Twitter Application

The definition of stalking is as follows from dictionary.com. “The act or course of stalking quarry, prey or the like”.

Now typically when a definition includes the word it is attempting to define in its definition I don’t like to use it but I made an exception in this case. Today my professor decided to give us a blog prompt that includes looking at a person on twitter that we are following and taking a look at who they follow to see how that reflects on who the original person we’re twittering (i hope I used that correctly) as a person. Confused? So was I until I made a very simple connection. This assignment, in its most basic form, is stalking. So Ive made a new twitter application: TwitStalk.

This is how it begins. I chose Eugine Eugine “Mirman to follow on Twitter. A short background on Eugine Mirman is that he plays a building manager in the show “Flight of the Concords” on HBO (Which by the way is FANTASTIC and I highly recommend you to see). Anyway, so I chose Eugine Mirman as my first TwitStalk victim.

To start I went to his home page and studied all the people he followed. Here are some of those people: Danny DeVito, SubPop Records, Comedy Exchange, Al Gore, Al Yankovic, Barrie Mirman, Ilya Mirman and so on. So what have I deduced from the 80 or so people that he follows? Well here’s an impression of who Eugene Mirman is thanks to the stalker techniques I picked up from TwitStalk.

Eugene Mirman is a guy who really loves his career so he follows a lot of stuff that correlates with that like the comedy exchange where he performs at a lot and SubPop Records that helps produces his comedy CD’s (to know this kind of information you must religiously follow a person’s tweets…this is quite easy for stalkers with TwitStalk). Also, Mirman is big on following people he finds to not only be entertaining but people he looks up to as well like Danny DeVito and Al Gore. Finally I was surprised to see how many people he was following were family members. Not only was he following them but he also was communicating with them and they seem really close. What I gathered through my stalking process was that Eugene Mirman is big on family, comedy and life. He loves what he does and you can tell that because he follows the things that make him the most happy in life. Comedians, friends and family.

So the next time you’re looking to learn all you can about a person you know nothing about or have never met and don’t want to be an actual creeper or actual stalker. Use TwitStalk. It gives you the same results as normal stalking except without the restraining orders, long nights, jail cells and dark clothing. A win win situation in my book.

Oh and for your enjoyment: This is Eugene Mirman. Enjoy!