This may be the best thing I’ve seen all year. I’m a little late to the party, but that only means I didn’t have to wait for each episode to post.

It’s basically a very well-made web series. Neil Patrick Harris stars, and part of me hopes HIMYM ends soon so he can make this a TV series.

If you have a Hulu account, you can check it out there for free. (If not, you can sign up. if you still need an invite, hit me up and I’ll send you one.) Otherwise, it’s available on iTunes for a modest fee.

Backstory: I was laid off last September, and my company called after my semester at school wanting me to come back. I’m only back for the summer, unless I can work part-time during school. I was asked to think about saying something at our company-wide meeting this morning about what I’ve been up to since leaving and coming back, and this is what I considered saying, if only to watch everyone’s reaction. It is dedicated to anyone who’s ever been laid off.

After spending three years of my life in a long-term, committed relationship with [the company], you told me you would like to see other people. It turned out this meant “instead of me”, not “in addition to me”. I was blind-sided, with no clue that we were in trouble, but I packed my belongings and moved out. I played the field, sought comfort in the arms of other companies, even flirted innocently at interviews, but it was never the same. I came to terms with it, healed, and even moved on with my life, content with who I was and what I had to offer someone should I be given the opportunity again.

Then it came: the drunken phone call, the idea of getting back together. We had some good times, right? said the voice on the other end of the line. We were great together, it could be like that again. No, it couldn’t. It could never be the same because I’m not the same person I was even those short months ago. Still, I admit, I was intrigued. I guess it’s true that you never completely heal from that kind of rejection; that part of you will always want what was taken away, if only because you needed to know that you were valuable, that you mattered to someone, somewhere. Enough, at least, that your phone is ringing out of the blue, and the voice on the other end sounds a little sorry, even sad at the way things turned out.

But I’m a different person now. I see now that your commitment to me was only an illusion, that the minute someone better came along, I would be tossed to the curb like so much garbage, and would have to start the healing process all over again. Not this time. Yes, I’ll come over. Yes, you can tell me about all the other people that walked these halls, and how they didn’t mean as much to you as I did, but I know how fickle you are, how quickly your affections wane. This time, though, I’m in control. I will determine my own destiny and plot my own exit, for out of the blue, while you snore away beside me, I will kiss your cheek, slip from beneath your warm covers, dress myself, and the last thing that will be heard from me is the distant click of a latch as I pull the door closed behind me. I’ll put on my shoes in your driveway, and spend the long walk home letting all my friends know that I’m changing my cellphone number.

Marketing campaign for laundry detergent in Thailand.

To demonstrate their product’s ability to remove tough stains, the makers of Breeze Excel washing detergent sent product samples wrapped in tshirts through the regular mail, with instructions to wash the shirts — significantly dirtied in transit — upon receipt.

(Via Kottke)

(Ed. note #1: On Saturday, Alisa left for an eight day trip to Ohio with the youth group she works with. It will be the longest we will have gone without seeing each other since she moved here. Today, I cope with her absence via the written (or typed, rather) word.)

After feeling sick almost all night, and sleep-deprived for close to two weeks, I called in sick this morning to work and slept until around lunchtime. Later this afternoon, I decided to make a trip to Target (no longer pronounced “Tar-jay”, the way it would be pronounced by a college freshman girl, but “TER-get”, like the Target Lady on SNL). I can’t remember the last time I went to Target by myself, so I picked up the phone to call the Girl.

(Ed. note #2: Alisa and I spent the first two years of our relationship on opposite sides of the continent. It was less than fun, except when we got to see each other, which was more than fun. Since then, she has moved here, and we get to spend a lot more time together.)

Before the phone had a chance to ring, I hung up, realizing that she would not be able to go to Target with me today. I was immediately reminded of hearing stories about amputees who, long after the limb has been removed, felt “ghost” pains and itches on their missing arm or leg. When something is part of you for so long, you miss it so much when it’s gone, that sometimes your brain fools you into thinking you haven’t lost it, maybe as a coping mechanism. Now, I know, she’ll be back very soon, and that so many more people have lost so much, and more permanently, but that won’t stop me from unconsciously picking up the phone to scratch an itch that isn’t there.

That sounded weird.

Wall-E Spotted in LA! from Blink on Vimeo.

Here’s my entry. See Shua’s Post.

The CD Cover Meme:

1. quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

3. flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

I think I lucked out big time on the band name and album name. They work so well together. The picture is completely random, and was only photoshopped to crop. Original here.

I said this to a friend, and thought it was worth posting here.

“What I learned is that to be fully creative you have to be fearless, and corporate America chokes out creativity because it’s completely and inseparably rooted in fear.”

(For those who don’t know, I started back at college on Monday after 11 years away, 3 days after my 30th birthday.)

Things I have now that I didn’t have when I went to college the first time:

• A car.
• A computer.
• A girlfriend.
• Lots of close friends.
• My own place to live.
• Something resembling a work ethic.
• An occasional respect for authority. (Occasional.)
• Eleven years of additional life experience.
• Eleven years of additional work experience.
• Around one hundred pounds of additional fat.
• A clue.
• A major.
• Soul-crippling cynicism.

Things I had then that I don’t have now:

• A debilitating need to be liked.
• A pony tail.

So who had a bunch of people visiting his site and dropped the ball on updating them with Cloverfield news? I did. Big time. I could make excuses, and some of them might even be valid, but I’ll spare you. Enjoy the movie on Friday.

While many of you read this for news on 1-18-08, this is still my personal blog, so I’d like to post a video of my band from a showcase we did a couple of weeks ago. I’m the guitar player.

Aaaaaaaand we’re back! Finally, some new information! Not a lot of info, but it’s new, andthat has to count for something, right? This article from AICN.

This message pretty much speaks for itself.

While, clearly, this involves a touch of supposition and inference…the implication makes a lot of sense given JJ Abrams’ level of overall Geekiness.

“I was at ADAPT2007 in Montreal today (a fair where high-profile people come and speak about their work on movies, games and television) and Phil Tippett’s (from Star Wars, Starship Troppers and Robocop fame to name a few) Tippet Studios are working on a very big hush-hush project with J.J. Abrams which he wouldn’t name.

Since he mostly does creatures, could it be something for that untitled JJ movie coming soon? Considering Tippett’s track record for creature design and animation, I think we’ll be in for a treat!”

I love Tippett’s work & really hope this pans out. Wonder if this means we’ll get a hybrid of effects types as opposed to entirely CGI? Could be a lot of fun; this often garners the best results & completely matches the “old fashioned monster movie” nature of the film we’ve been hearing allusions to.

http://www.tippett.com/

(Youtube link here)

Thanks to reader Matt Jarbo, we have exclusive footage of J.J. at Comic-Con. (Warning: Language)

He also tells me he procured a 35mm print of the trailer, so now we can all be jealous together, if only because it’s destined to be a collectors’ item.

PROGRESSION, my company’s latest product, is pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever been involved with.

PROGRESSION features thousands of real electric and acoustic guitar samples from Neil Zaza, and electric bass and drums samples from Grammy® Award winners Victor Wooten and Roy “FutureMan” Wooten. Guitar and bass amp simulators are included, and VST-hosting capability enables you to use your own effects plug-ins, and amp modelers to give you complete control over the guitar tone. You can quickly enter guitar tablature or standard notation with your keyboard and mouse - or you can play your music on a MIDI guitar or MIDI keyboard and PROGRESSION notates your performance for you. Make changes to the guitar tablature and the notation automatically updates, and vice-versa.

* Real sound samples from guitarist Neil Zaza and Grammy® award winners Victor and Roy “Futureman” Wooten
* Features acoustic and electric guitar, electric and upright bass, drum kit, grand and electric piano, and clavinet
* Tablature and notation entry via keyboard and mouse or MIDI guitar or keyboard input
* Easy edit feature: click and drag, note audition, and simple deletion
* Real-time dynamic linking between tab and notation staves
* Allows tab and notation for additional stringed instruments like banjo and mandolin, and alternate tunings
* Interactive chord library
* Lead sheet capability
* Real-time tempo control with NTempo feature
* Integrated audio mixer with volume, panning, and mute/solo controls
* Built-in guitar and bass amp simulator
* VST hosting capability
* MIDI file import and export
* Wav file export

read more | digg story

More from AICN:

Maybe it’s just me, but I think of all the rumored names are interesting, but for some reason I like just calling it CLOVERFIELD.

Looks like Harry might have been on to something in his post here because I was sent the below poster from a pretty high-level spy.

Harry had it slightly off… it’s Furious and not Ferocious, but pretty damn close, yeah? We already know there are “Monstrous” versions of the poster going around.

Food for thought…

But if you want more, check this out! The film is shooting in New York currently, under the name CHEESE. That working title wasn’t enough to shake off our loyal NY spies.

Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to astute commenter “Serpentish” (Serpentine?), we now have the MySpace pages of those at the party. I think it’s safe to say these are official and credible, mostly due to the people present in the pictures on the homepage and the MySpace pages.

First up, old Rob himself. Okay, so what have we learned from looking at his MySpace page? Well, his name is Robby Hawkins. He’s from Minneapolis. He’s wearing the same shirt in a lot of his pictures, and one of his friends even comments about the ever-present shirt. Here it is, grey with the word Adios and two skeletons praying.

The other guy in the picture is Rob’s older brother, JJ, or Jason. He is listed in Rob’s friend list as “Hawk”. Here is his page. Nothing earth-shattering here, except that he mentions Slusho in his blog and is believed to be the on wearing the Slusho t-shirt in the trailer. He’s dating a girl named Lilly, according to his picture page. Let’s check her page out.

Lilly Ford’s MySpace. Okay, she works at Penguin Publishing, interesting. Anyone want to call Penguin and ask for Lilly Ford? She’s from Toronto. Not much else here.

Back to Rob’s page. It appears Rob has all of the same friends as his brother and his brother’s girlfriend. One of them is Jamie Lascano. Lascano? Yes, it does look familiar. She’s the one who wrote on the back of the picture she’s featured in on the 1-18-08.com page (see previous post). Not much here either, but if you look back on Rob’s page, she left the most recent comment, a picture of a boombox through a car windshield.

The image is hosted on a Photobucket account registered to Sarah Nettleute. I tried logging into her account using words associated with the movie, but to no avail.

Back to MySpace. Rob’s first friend is named Beth McIntyre. She likes Kylie Minogue, has all the same friends as Rob and JJ and Jamie and Lilly.

Next up is “HUD”, or Hudson Platt. He likes comics. He appears to be Rob’s roommate. And of course, he only knows the same people Rob does.

Finally, Marlena Diamond. She works at Atlas Talent Agency.

Feel free to research more and post comments. For what it’s worth, I messaged many of them asking what happens on 1-18.

Please don’t interpret the lack of posts as a waning interest on my part, only as the well of information dries up. But as astute commenters Nittiman and Kirk noted, a new feature (or perhaps an old one we missed) has been revealed on the website. When moving the images around on the site, a quick mouse movement allows the picture to flip to reveal the back of the “photo”. Aside from the awesome Flashwork needed to make this happen, a couple of messages from Rob’s well-wishers are revealed. Only two of the pictures have anything on the back, the other pictures are blank.

Keeping a close eye on this…

Also from AICN.

JJ Abrams takes the stage. “I want a monster movie. I want a great monster movie, have wanted it for so long. We need our own monster, for our own movie. I want something that is just insane and intense.”

He told a story about visiting Japan with his son and seeing Godzilla all over the place. That’s when he thought that what we needed was our very own monster icon, in the same type as Godzilla, but something original and our own.

The real trailer, real poster in the coming months.

From AICN:

Hey folks, Harry here…. I’m on the 101 north of San Francisco headed for Eureka, Ca to settle in tonight - and while driving, I had a bit of a Eureka moment with a spy revealing that the below MONSTROUS poster is the first of 3 teaser posters that will lead to the TITLE reveal poster. First we’ll have “MONSTROUS” - next we will have “BARBAROUS” - then we will have “FEROCIOUS” - To me - these phrases are not even spoilers - but if you’re like me - if MONSTROUS is a headless Statue of Liberty - what images go with BARBAROUS and FEROCIOUS? — The title? Well, I don’t want to spoil it, so you should go ask, Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin!

You mean Colossus?

***UPDATE***
I did a little research and it appears that the sonnet engraved on a plaque at the base of the Statue is called “The New Colossus” (Hmmm.)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus, 1883

The above is apparently the first official teaser poster for Cloverfield, and it is as astute readers will note, very similar to the “Montrous” image we saw a week or two ago. Click here for the Entertainment Weekly story, and check out the next newstand issue for the full story.