Hey, I haven’t been just ignoring this page, looking at the long list of things I have to do and not writing anything.
No, no. Perish the thought.
What I *have* been doing though is working on this presentation I gave to some people on behalf of Greater Lafayette Indivisible. I developed this first (and maybe not last) to give an intro to, but wide ranging, view of dis/misinformation, conspiracy theory, and media.
It was hard to chop it down to the length I did if only because each part feeds upon itself. It’s really hard to talk about any individual part of that and not talk about the systems which influence and govern its trajectory.
That’s all to say, it would be cool if you checked it out. I’m proud of what came of it, and I’m already thinking about how part two might look.
Hello, from the hyper-time sphere, where time is both accelerating and standing still.
Last time I posted (besides the boring nerd server post) was in April, and let’s say things have still been happening. Lots of things are still happening.
So let’s get this train wreck-a-rollin’
Improv
But all the venues are closed (or were, and still should be), how can anyone be doing the righteous work of improv comedy? Well, go to the online, like everything else in your world. “But, Matt, wouldn’t it be worse?” Oh, sweet summer child, of course it’s worse, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. And do it we have. We’ve has a few online shows, and they have been alright given the circumstances. It has, at the very least, allowed me to multitask on new levels. Managing downloading pictures to show, a live chat, music, sound effects, audio and visual cues, and also Im the occational prov. Well, it’s a lot.
Activism
You are not going to believe this, but activism stuff is still happening. I know, you’re like “Get right out of town, Matt.” First, no, I will not, and second, it’s true. Given the *gestures around to everything* there is still work that very needs to be done.
It seems like forever ago now, but I did host another candidate stream, found here:
That took a lot to put together, but I think it went smoother than the first. I’m the stream boy. I’m the one who streams. I should probably work on the naming a little.
We also got an opportunity to put together a short video to be played during the all digital Taste of Tippecanoe. I had four day to put it together, but I like how it turned out. I tried some editing techniques I’ve not done before. Editing video is so relaxing. Getting lost in the edit is like one of my favorite things ever. Pure zen.
Check that out here:
Tim and Matt Play
We are still going! A little more sporadic than we have been, and I’ve been dealing with just monumental tech issues for a solid month since updating to Windows 10 2004 (Beware!), but I’m hoping to get that figured out soon. It is only extremely frustrating. Come hang out with us Thursdays at 8:30-ish. We love interacting with friends in the chat.
Fighting Games
I don’t know exactly what sparked it, but I have been so into fighting games lately. Way more than I have in any other recent time. I haven’t had nearly enough time to play and practice them, but Street Fighter V, Killer Instinct, and Smash are pretty much all I play when I get a moment. Just caught the bug. I’m hoping to maybe get an actual solo game stream where I rotate stuff eventually, and they will definitely play a key role. If you ever want to play any of those, let me know.
Running
I can’t get enough of it, and I want to do more. The NYC marathon got cancelled (this is a good thing!), but the initial email said I was guaranteed next year as a resolution. The follow-up turned out that that is not the case. You are guaranteed an entry next year or one of the next two following years. That sucks ass. Here’s to hoping. Since I think all major marathons will be cancelled this year, if they already haven’t, and I wouldn’t do one anyway all things considered, I am thinking of planning my own personal one to run sometime when the weather is far from rightful. Is it fall yet?
Honestly, I’ve been up to so much and without much of, if any, a break. I am kind of fraying at the edges, but I am going to try to keep it together as best as I can. I hope you are all healthy and keeping it together the best you can, too.
In news of things I’ve been up to. I organized the Virtual Town Hall GLI put on for the IN-4 candidates.
This was me trying to further extend my video and live streaming skills to produce something I thought looked professional for no additional dollars.
This was my first foray into using After Effects to create motion graphics, and I did like how those turned out. I used Zoom as the video call platform and captured the display to put into OBS. I routed the audio all internally using software, and had volunteers timekeeping and gathering questions from Facebook to put into a live Google Doc. I also had fun with my green screen, though I am patiently waiting for my new lights to come in so I can get better contrast between me and the background so I can get the chroma key to work better.
I think it went pretty smoothly! There is of course things I’d like to improve upon. One, the creating of everything was extremely time intensive. All the OBS layouts and motion graphics take a lot of time to render out and assemble. I’d like to automate some of this if possible so I’m looking into setting up with NodeCG. It is going to be a lot of work up front, but should allow for much greater flexibility and automation in the long run. Long term goals here.
