AndrePope.com

Sunday marked the first meeting of the Grand Strand Bloggers. I use this term lightly cause its not just bloggers but podcasters and video casters as well. It was a good meeting, an introduction of sorts to people with a similar interest but who manifest their talents in different ways. We went over a lot varying topics none of which had too much to do with nerd talk. It was a great initial meeting with more soon to follow.

For more on the coverage check out Evil Genius.

Posted by Andre at 10:02 PM | Permalink

Text messaging is fricking crazy. I don't understand how kids can constantly text each other every min of the day or for that matter why they need too. I can understand why my step brother does it and why all his friends do it. They're deaf.

Now I know that I am getting older and that I will never be able to understand the "why" of things, but I can see a pretty cool marketing idea aimed at something that I will never full understand. Check out Reactee. These guys have a pretty cool idea that I could see myself sporting if I was a pansy ass unwilling to walk up to somebody and say nice t'shirt. Basically you get a custom printed t'shrit with your message and a keyword text. When somebody identifies with your slogan text text your keyword to the phone number and get a pre-recorded text message of your choice sent back to them. You then get a report of all the phone number that text you. While I can see this being used for all sorts of lame ass pick up lines, I do think this could be put to all kinds of interesting marketing ploys. You could do all kinds of "bait and switch" themes such as "See My Boobs" with a reply "Only if you buy me a Budweiser." You could also apply this idea to all kinds of niche groups and play the "long tail affect" for only people who "get it."

I think the idea is strong, it just depends on which part of the public picks it up and runs with it.

Posted by Andre at 11:32 PM | Permalink

The Wii is great. Nintendo got it right as far as I am concerned. Forgoing the graphics war between the 360 and PS3, the Wii looked more at playability - which to me equals fun.

I have had mine for a few weeks now and until this very night haven't bought a single thing for it. This is due to all the cool features that come standard on the Wii. Four interactive sports games come with the console as well as interactive Wii channels. These include a news and weather feed, an internet channel that connects wirlessly via an Opera web browser, a voting channel, a Mii channel and a photo sharing channel. These channels add hours and hours of enjoyment at no extra cost.

However, one of the reasons I purchased the Wii in the first place was to download and play old school games.

The Wii's online shopping channel is set up simple and affectively. Heidi and I loaded up with Wii points ($20 = 2000 wii points) and went shopping. Broke up into 5 categories by system type (NES, SNES, N64, Turbo Graphics and Sega Gennis) Heidi knew she wanted to get Mario Kart from the N64. This ran us 1000 Points ($10). While I went for the Mario for SNES featuring Yoshi for 800 pts. You can also purchase hardware form the store but since Heidi and I wanted o play right away we went over to Best Buy and purchased the Old School controller for $20. We were off and playing in no time.

The Wii has lived up to the hype and then some.

Posted by Andre at 11:11 PM | Permalink

My friend Tony had a pretty cool idea combining art with skate decks. I had the means through a few friends and clients to give it a try. So Tony and I teamed up to see how far we can take the idea. This is what we have come up with thus far.

The idea:
To do laser engraved artwork on the bottom of a skateboard deck. This is not an original idea by any means but it is an idea that we wanted to see if we could do together based on our resources.

Resources:
Artist: Tony Price is taking of this end of it all.
Supply Line: I talked with one of of our clients and got us hooked up with a line of blank Candian Maple Wood skateboard decks.
Production: One of 803 Labs clients in Rock Hill (Bryson Engraving Plus) does an awesome job of laser engraving plaques and trophees. He said he would be down to help out as well.

Tony has sent me the first test graphic and I sent it off to Bryson Engraving. This is what came back.

After seeing the board first hand and talking with Bryson Engraving these are the ideas to get more depth, texture and coolness to the boards:

1) Work with 8 bit gray scale images. The laser picks up tonal values and knows to burn more or less depending on the darkness of the original image.
2) The more intricate the better. On the little curly cues at the bottom next to CBA turned out really cool. They are small and precise.
3) Working with a plain wood board would look much better.
4) Big blocks of 100% black look odd. Break up space with gray scale values or more detail in the images.
5) Text looks great, Due to the concave of the board on the sides the lettering (or anything in the image as well) it looks a little sallower. This is due to the fact that the laser can not read on a z axis. It is still basing it on the original starting point on the board.

So now it is back to the drawing board for Tony.

Stayed tuned for the next batch.



Posted by Andre at 10:47 PM | Permalink

So I took last week to catch up on some long overdue movie watching at my house as well as at the theater. Let's recap!

1) Ocean's 13 - def a go look see. My least favorite of the three but still good. The best part is the opening and closing title sequences. Ode to the past movie making and titles. I guess the reason I didn't like this as much was character bonding with the crowd. It just goes right into the heist. I guess you had the first two movies to get to know the boys. oh well, its still worth a watch.

2) Surf's Up - Loved this film. Animated well, good soundtrack, and enough insider surfer stuff to keep it moving along. Filmed like a surf documentary with commentary makes this animated film stick out from the sea of others. I know I have a soft spot for surf movies in general but this was different enough for the whole family to like.

3) Knocked Up - Really damn funny and charming at the same time.This is the one film you need to see. Everybody is talking about it and you should be too. If you are in a relationship you will either appreciate what you two have together or see why you really hate the other. Go see it!

4) Fantastic Four 2 - As good as the first. Basic in design as far as movie plot goes this movie delivers on the popcorn ability. Go see it in a digital theater, the opening space scene is why they made digital theaters in the first place.

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5) Pool Hall Junkies - A good watch. The lead guy (Mars Callahan) is a Ben Aflac. Christopher Walken was great in the movie. Pick it up for a good Thursday night movie.

6) I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Clive Owen plays a retired disillusioned ex-mob type guy who shows back up on the day his brother commits suicide. A watchable film from England. Just don't expect a happy ending or any closer for that matter. However I love Clive Owen so it is worth a peek.

7) Lion Heart - Jean Claude Van Damn wrote and produced this masterpiece. Need I say more?

8) Tigerland - Directed by Joel Schumacher staring Colin Farrell this was the most overlooked film of 2000. The last stop before Vietnam -- Tigerland.

9) Torque - Its like Fast & The Furious on Bikes except it has Ice Cube. Freaking Awesome!

Posted by Andre at 09:55 PM | Permalink

So I know I am supposed to post more on Costa Rica, but I am sitting on my new couch in my newly furnished house watching my new tv. Its really nice to be able to do this from home while enjoying all of my new comforts (such as cable tv) of home.

I have never been a big fan of tv but I can see how it can easily become part of your daily life. So is the case for this very afternoon. I sat down to pay bills to find out that the one and only Road House was on. (I know I am getting old when I just want to watch Swayze and Juan Claude movies). I quickly burned an hour and a half catching up with James Dalton and crowd. After which I flipped some channels to find out that I missed the first hour of the VH1 Hip Hop honors 2006. But thanks to my new cable I was able to start the program from the begining without missing a single act. The 2006 Honors are really good paying tribute to both East & West coast. I recommend swinging over to VH1 to check out online clips of the Beastie Boys and Rakim.

PS I promise to post more about Costa Rica. If you want to check out the new house dwellings please stop by the House Warming on Sunday from 5-9. Yes you are all invited.

Posted by Andre at 11:09 PM | Permalink

Well I am back and boy was it fun. Nothing can campare to getting away form it all for a little while. Costa Rica is still a little like a third world country but with a lot of progression. So being cut away from it all for a week was just what I needed. We saw and did a lot but at the same time did absoutly nothing. It was fantastic.

I will post more soon. Until then Pura Vida!

Posted by Andre at 11:43 AM | Permalink