Last days are strange

I find myself on a bus at two in the morning. The top half is filled with students chanting and clapping. A saxophone plays. The people who got on the bus with me had glanced upwards but stuck to the main floor. I went upstairs. Stomps, shouts, tamborine. Mardi Gras come to London...

Video lighting tips

Now let's go a bit technical (but not too technical) and delve into the world of lighting. Saying that, let's assume that you don't have any additional lights and you're only working with natural light.

Video tips: Beginning, middle, end

I often make fast and off the cuff videos. So I thought I'd send my next few blog posts giving some tips and tricks. It won't be everything (as that would be endless) but should be easy to understand for the beginner mobile filmmaker.

My brush with The End of History

I took myself over to ThursdayClub with the expectation of having a drink and a catch up. Little did I know I'd be experiencing my first brush with The End of History.

This strange creation by the genius if not slightly warped minds of the boys at BrewDog is, I believe, the strongest beer in the world at 55%. Yes, that's right. 55%. But that's not what makes it unique. It's the fact that it was housed in a squirrel that boggled my mind.

Changing the rules: a short short overview

When I taught script writing, I often had students who had never written a script before who came in and wanted to do everything differently. I've always been that way too. Wanting to change the rules and do it my own way.

What I've come to learn is that it is important to figure out the rules first. There are always things you can learn from what currently works. At that point, you can see how you can make what may have worked before, into something that works better now. Just don't forget that sometimes why something is set out the way it is, is because that way works best for users. You have to find out what needs to change, why and who for. If it's to improve the user experience, then let's go for it. If it's just to make it easier for you, you should perhaps look further into what you want to change and why.

The most excellent Mexican

No, I'm not talking about Gael Garcia Bernal though he is most excellent. Today my flatmate Trish and I made a Mexican meal that would make the entire population of the UK fall to their knees in joyous rapture. Well. That might be an exaggeration. But I'm sticking to it.

Why I've fallen in love with Craig Ferguson

When I was home in Canada at Christmas, every night at 11 pm, my parents would watch Craig Ferguson on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson." For me it was a first. There is a robot (made by the boys from Mythbusters) who likes to answer most questions with "Balls" and a dancing horse Secretariat who drops by from time to time. Everyone (including people at home if my mom is anthing to go by) dances along.

Twitter: Podium vs Network

This is the first in a Saturday blog series #usguysblogs where a group of writers/thinkers/ponders/people write on one subject. Today's question is "Twitter: Network vs. Podium"

I've always likened Twitter to a cocktail party. There are some people who lurk in the corners. There are others who only talk about themselves incessantly without listening to anyone else.

Take your deck.ly and shove it

Yep. I said it. Please. For gods sake everyone. Stop using the twitlonger/deck.ly/extenderthingy on Twitter. It's annoying.

And by annoying, I mean that by using this added "functionality" you are actually destroying the functionality and flow of the tool itself. Twitter allows you to get the message in one hit. It's not very consumable if you have to click away to an external browser to read the whole message. Twitter is 140 characters. 20 characters less then a standard text. It's not hard to do.

I love Tweetdeck. I use it everyday and love to support a British company. I big it up when I can. But why deck.ly? If it was purely a URL shortner (like I set up for giffgaff (giff.ly) or setting up for myself (heather.ly)), I'd be OK. I'd think it was cute. But to encourage this browser/ app mess? Ugh.

Yes twitter is not for everyone. If you want to send a more detailed message, guess what? Take it off Twitter. You've got Facebook and email and even text messaging. Just because we can send huge text messages doesn't mean the same needs to apply to Twitter. Maybe we could build it up and send 1000 word essay form tweets. But how about we just call it hotmail then?

If you want to violate the constraints of Twitter it's OK but do it elsewhere. If you really need to DM me a message longer than 140 characters, then we shouldn't be tweeting about it.

So keep it out of my stream. I mean it.

(PS. I was going to tweet this, but realised it was too long. Some people may have used deck.ly but I POSTED IT ON MY BLOG. Rant over.)