Sliding in Style

And as the Canadian winter rolls on, my British saloon continues to chill. 

For the most part my Jaguar XJ8 has performed beautifully and been driven in all winter conditions, despite numerous wide-eyed reactions for my decision to do so.  However, the car hasn't gone without its share of maintenance to keep things ship-shape. New premium tires, the battery, radiator hoses, the water pump and the thermostat were all replaced over the last several months to keep things running smoothly and in premium condition.

As my first year of Jaguar ownership continues I often feel like there aren't enough excuses to talk about it, emphasize my euphoria, or share the quirks of the experience (like trying to charge a dead battery that's in a trunk that requires electricity to open). But then what are blogs for?  

While a Jag is certainly not the most agile or ideal winter vehicle, it's still been a blast to drive.  No doubt, I'm still anxious to get back to cruising on clear streets and having my car stay clean for more than an afternoon.  

I shot an experimental test video with my Flip HD cam while driving my Jaguar around town just a couple weeks ago.  Check it out HERE and don't be surprised when my car makes a few more cameos after the ice thaws.

Elliot: All of the Fake Stuff

For my final 4th year film project I created a mockumentary short titled, Elliot.  It was about a struggling author named Warren Elliot trying to make it into a prestigous writing guild after numerous rejections.

One of the really enjoyable parts of the process was getting to create a series of campy documentation to make Elliot's journey even more colorful.  From newspaper articles to book covers to notes and magazine excerpts, everything was made to be fairly tongue and cheek.  The blatently photoshopped childhood photographs emphasize this even further. To read more on my Elliot film school project and to view it CLICK HERE.

Wireless Weekend

It all started with a Netflix account.

Early last week I took the plunge and signed up for Netflix to check out some of the documentaries they had available.  As a guy who hasn't bothered to get cable, Netflix seemed like an affordable and diverse enough option that would actually save me money by curbing my DVD purchases when I'm looking for something new to watch.  So far so good.

On Friday I decided that it was time to go pick up a wireless router as it had become cumbersome trying to curl up in front of the computer to watch videos.  This was a relatively inexpensive upgrade that started the snowball rolling.  

With the wireless installed I quickly added Netflix to my Wii to sit back and enjoy.  *Sigh.  I'm not the kind of guy who needs to see everything in Blu ray quality and I'm not quick to adapt to trends that don't suit my needs (it took this long to get wireless after all) however, the quality of Netflix on the Wii sucks.  It's essentially like taking a YouTube video and blowing it up to your full screen.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Wii for gaming and wasting an hour with friends, but it was certainly no consolation for taking the cable-less route.

Saturday came along and I knew what I had to do.  I was off to the store and picked up a fancy new Blu ray player with built-in wifi and a 320GB PS3, because well . . . sometimes it just feels good to reward yourself - and after wrapping a 6 month stretch of balancing numerous edits between two jobs and putting a good chunk of change into a retirement fund, I felt I had lots of justification to buy a few toys.

Netflix has since been hooked up through the PS3, which is sharp and with it's 1080p looks noticeably better than what the Wii is capable of.  The Blu ray is also nice for checking out YouTube now, however, I have my fingers crossed that they'll be releasing the app for Netflix through Samsung in Canada soon enough that I can have it playing through my existing surround sound setup.

For now both toys will undoubtedly continue to get a lot of use, and my Netflix subscription has already paid for itself with amount I've watched. In short, the wireless weekend was a blast!