Why I Don’t Trust Wikileaks

It’s the old saying about the pot and the kettle.

I defer to former soldier A. J. Martinez who just so happened to write two  blog posts that should stand as beacons of journalistic integrity:

Analysis of Wikileaks’ Collateral Murder Video

Transparency and Ignorance

My summary of Cablegate in two tweets:

* I can’t find an entrance to Wikileaks anywhere…and I couldn’t care less. (1)

* Not a case of “The Man” against “The Whistleblower.” It’s a case of “The Man” against “The Man.” #wikileaks “Who watches the watchmen?” (2)

Concluding thought: Will Wikileaks supporters be singing the same tune when Wikileaks or some copycat group starts hacking and releasing their own private information that could be incriminating when taken out of context and interpreted by an uninformed and often ignorant populace? Oh, stop complaining-the people have  a right to know!

Cooking With Chef Mike, Garlic Course 1: Garlic Soup

For the next two months I will be linking a recipe a week from Cooking With Chef Mike, a series of vids I did for Liza’s Kitchen. The first few will be a review for some of you. We have all the courses consolidated on a new youtube account (lovelizasvideo) thus the re-release for the initial few.

First recipe: Garlic Soup.

For more info on Liza’s Kitchen visit LoveLizas.com.

New Short Film

My newest screenplay Kids Get in Free is up on plotbot.com.

It’s marred by many a formatting error and typo, so consider it a very early draft.

Would love to hear your thoughts and input!

http://www.plotbot.com/screenplays/kids_get_in_free/screenplay

Does Facebook Own My Friends?

Techcrunch broke this story earlier today that some enterprising soul has created a Chrome extension allowing you to export your Facebook friends’ email addresses to your gmail account.

I thought that sounded like a great idea, so I went right on ahead and installed the extension and set to exporting, but the disclaimer popped up reminding me that this extension was not endorsed by FB or Google, and if I wanted to go through with the export I needed to click the little box saying that I agreed to Facebook’s Terms of Service…

So I did.

I have a bunch of FB friends, so I did a few rounds because the extension only managed about 100 friends each go-around.

Then I read in the comments section of Techcrunch’s post that FB’s Terms of Service says this:

“You will not collect users’ content or information, or otherwise access Facebook, using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without our permission.”

I am no lawyer, but it seems to me that this is exactly what the extension is doing, but I had already run it numerous times, so we’ll see if FB takes any action.

Personally, I don’t like fudging rules even if I think they are stupid, so I went back and deleted the exported e-mail addresses.

So, my questions to you: what do you think about the extension? Too far? Just right? And what will FB’s next move be?

My Attempt to Prove That Video Game Adaptations Need Not Suck

Required listening for this post: Ninja Gaiden Medley by The Minibosses (open in a new tab).

Movies adapted from video games suck.

For a very long time I’ve wanted to start a project that proved that this does not have to be the case. Today, I’m taking my first baby step in that direction.

The other day I was listening to the above track by Minibosses, a rock band that adapts old Nintendo game soundtracks into head-bobbing medleys, and though it was not the first time I saw a cinematic scene in my head to that tune, it was the first time that it took a more concrete form, and at that moment I decided to go for it and do a mock trailer for a Ninja Gaiden film (that didn’t exist).

So, where else to go for inspiration, but Youtube? There I found the introductory cut-scene from the original game, and voila, the source for my trailer was laid out for me: 

So I set off to adapt the rough 8 bit cinematic into a rough screenplay, which can be read, commented upon, and even edited here: http://www.plotbot.com/screenplays/ninja_gaiden_trailer/screenplay

Feel free to comment, edit, whatever, or if you think my interpretation sucks, write your own.

I have access to a Canon 7d for shooting the finished product, or would be happy to see anyone else take ownership if they have something better to shoot with, but I think this would fun and maybe might turn a few heads.

Video Game films don’t need to be stupid. Let’s prove it.

Hot Keys

I wrote this as an expression of the frustration I’ve felt with certain programs boasting steep learning curves.

The Breastplate of Self-Righteousness

Jay Rosen, the co-host of the phenomenal podcast Rebooting the News has most likely already thought of this, but an event today made it real for me, so I thought I would share. Yes, it’s rambling and sometimes incoherent, so please only watch if you have seven minutes:

Female Directors

A while back a little meme went around on Facebook asking you to list your top 15 directors and tag 15 friends to see who they would pick. I took the bait, and I think it was a constructive exercise because I was introduced to a number of directors I would have otherwise overlooked because I either had forgotten them or had never heard of them.

A friend of mine from high school who has great movie taste chimed in, and after rattling off a list of keepers,  she was surprised upon looking over her list that it did not feature any female directors.

I just saw this story on Hollywood Reporter that raises the point that women directors don’t make the money men do. They bring up the obvious comparison between Bigelow and Cameron: Bigelow’s Hurt Locker only made 16.8 million (someone fact check that please-it sounds impossible), while Avatar (or as my friend not-so-lovingly refers to it-Avaturd) made over 2 billion.

My question for you is this: What great women directors do you admire enough to include in your top fifteen?

I think Bigelow may well end up on my list, but I’m just waiting for something else other than Hurt Locker to tip the scales, because as much as I liked that film, there are just too many other films that trump it for me. I’ve heard wonderful things about this year’s “Little Indie That Could” Winter’s Bone, directed by Debra Granik, but I live in Panama City, FL so I will have to take a rain-check on that one until Oscar season.

Until then-I have Netflix. So catch me up to speed.

Female directors: go.

Workforce Optimization Lessons From the Lemonade Stand

This is a project I did for Financial Management Solutions, Inc. out of Atlanta. The company provides systems that help Financial Institutions optimize productivity.

To learn more about FMSI, check out their website:

http://fmsivantagepoint.wordpress.com/

 

My Contribution to the Cigar Guy Meme

If you haven’t heard about this, Know Your Meme will catch you up to speed: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/smiling-cigar-guy-tiger-woods-ryder-cup

UPDATE (10/7/2010) – So I was mistaken when making the above video. He’s not wearing a turban…It’s a red wig. More and more this is looking like a hoax. Ahh, the internet.

Well, I might as well keep the Cigar Guy Rap current, so here goes:

UPDATE:

The Cigar Guy Rap has been featured on URLesque: http://www.urlesque.com/2010/10/08/cigar-guy-update-turban-is-a-wig/

UPDATE (10/09/2010) :

The Cigar Guy Rap has been featured on Golf.com: http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2010/10/the-hunt-for-cigar-guy-continues.html

Also, Golf and Sports writer Stephanie Wei named a post after a few of Cigar Man’s exploits from the rap: http://www.weiunderpar.com/post/cigar-guy-races-centaurs-rides-kangaroos-across-alaska