July 2, 2010
Dear Diary, Random Thoughts
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I like Flattr. I like the idea of it: Flatter people with a click that is the digital equivalent of a coin ringing in a tip-jar. And for some reason it became customary to blog about how much you made past month. You get tipped, and you tip yourself. It’s social. No surprise: It’s from Sweden. They compare it to having a piece of birthday cake and giving a slice to everybody you want to flatter. The more people you flattr, the smaller the slices get. At the end of the month it’s payday: Everyone on Flattr empties their jars and counts the coins. There are people who had an income of more than 500 €, the are many more people who had about 10 € by the end of the day. And now I am going to spill the beans myself.
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I like Flattr. I like the idea of it: Flatter people with a click that is the digital equivalent of a coin ringing in a tip-jar. And for some reason it became customary to blog about how much you made past month. You get tipped, and you tip yourself. It's social. No surprise: It's from Sweden. They compare it to having a piece of birthday cake and giving a slice to everybody you want to flatter. The more people you flattr, the smaller the slices get. At the end of the month it's payday: Everyone on Flattr empties their jars and counts the coins. There are people who had an income of more than 500 €, the are many more people who had about 10 € by the end of the day. And now I am going to spill the beans myself.
I made 1.07 €. Plus taxes.
For a Web 2.0 thingie that's still in beta I'm rather surprised by that. In fact I made 90% of that the first day after I signed up with Flattr. The rest of the month was spent by posting creative stuff I did to Flattr, hoping some people would enjoy my music,
May 8, 2009
Animation, CGI & Rendering, Compositing, Lectures, Random Thoughts, Reports, Technology, filmmaking, games, people, photography, ranting, retro, video
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7:30 am and somebody walks downstairs. Good morning to me. My program for today was mostly about tracking and motion capturing and heavy duty compositing. You might have guessed: It was the day of Benjamin Button.
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7:30 am and somebody walks downstairs. Good morning to me. My program for today was mostly about tracking and motion capturing and heavy duty compositing. You might have guessed: It was the day of Benjamin Button.
After enjoying the breakfast a little too long I was rushing down Königsstraße in my car so I would make it to Pixar's RenderMan presentation. I already knew what it was going to be considering last year ("The Über-Sprite", the rocket, the fast-rendering motion blur) but Pixar is rather generous in handing out posters and presents and I wanted me to get another teapot for my collection [1. ...that consists so far of one Ratatouille-themeded teapot.]. I was too late, the room bursting with people. Obviously, word had spread that you get presents. People can be so greedy. I asked if I could make a reservation for the afternoon but it was in vain.
There I was standing, lacking a teapot and a clue of what I wanted to see instead. I headed to the biggest hall and ended up in "PhotoReal Faci
March 10, 2009
Random Thoughts, Seph Carissa / texx sound, ranting
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I couldn’t sleep and so I snuggled up with my guitar, below is the result. In fact there even are lyrics but they are too personal to appear here.
texx sound – Rain into Ice. 2009.
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I couldn't sleep and so I snuggled up with my guitar, below is the result. In fact there even are lyrics but they are too personal to appear here.
texx sound - Rain into Ice. 2009.
[audio:http://philstrahl.com/downloads/audio/2009/texx_sound_-_she_turns_rain_into_ice.mp3]
December 25, 2008
Dear Diary, Random Thoughts
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Since I’ve been back in Graz I’ve already been way too often my favorite café, the Café Promenade (now you know where the name of this blog is loosely derived from.) And the longer I come here, the more and more I learn about people, their everyday struggles, experiences and enjoyments that make us all human.
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Since I've been back in Graz I've already been way too often my favorite café, the Café Promenade (now you know where the name of this blog is loosely derived from.) And the longer I come here, the more and more I learn about people, their everyday struggles, experiences and enjoyments that make us all human.
At the moment of writing this paragraph I am witnessing the ongoing torture of a young couple not far away from my table. They have been sitting here for over an hour and although I am not able or willing to follow every sentence it is clear that she embarrassed him during a Christmas celebration and he was about to break up with her. Every time she muttered a word with her broken voice he jumps at her "what?!". She bursts into tears, he softened and pronounced the matter closed, only to dig it up all over again, she in tears again -- it's horrible to watch. In the end both agreed that "it never happened" and after another hour both were laughing again.
I like the diversity of events taking p
December 19, 2008
CGI & Rendering, Compositing, Computing, Dear Diary, Random Thoughts, Reports
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On Wednesday it was the day I had been waiting for since August. It wasn’t a spectacular day for many other people and by god not one of the best days in Germany’s TV-film era. It was one of those days the people in Germany, Switzerland and Austria were sitting in front of their TVs, eventually watching Die Patin on RTL. What’s so special about this mediocre adaptation on a random day? Ten shots of this movie were composited by yours truly.
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On Wednesday it was the day I had been waiting for since August. It wasn't a spectacular day for many other people and by god not one of the best days in Germany's TV-film era. It was one of those days the people in Germany, Switzerland and Austria were sitting in front of their TVs, eventually watching Die Patin on RTL. What's so special about this mediocre adaptation on a random day? Ten shots of this movie were composited by yours truly.
I am such insanely narcissistic that I always remember the days when one of my works is unleashed in any form of mass media. I remember the day when I set up the first version of this blog (which was almost three years ago now), the day one of my songs was pressed (not burnt, suckers!) on a CD as a part of the MfG - Magazin für Gestaltung (along with some compositing works).
And that day, the 17th of December 2008, ten shots I had composited at my time at rise|fx. And, I tell ya, TV is forgiving! I suppose I could have saved at least 5 hours work on each
December 13, 2008
Dear Diary, Random Thoughts, Reports
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It is long after 1 pm, I am sitting with my notebook full of Hello Kitty stickers in my bed and wonder why I just can’t fall asleep. I am up for a good thirty hours right now and although I feel a certain numbness in my neocortex I don’t manage to transform this into some healthy REM sleep. Here’s what I tried to get me some of that.
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It is long after 1 pm, I am sitting with my notebook full of Hello Kitty stickers in my bed and wonder why I just can't fall asleep. I am up for a good thirty hours right now and although I feel a certain numbness in my neocortex I don't manage to transform this into some healthy REM sleep. Here's what I tried to get me some of that.
It's not a lack of activity for sure. I went for an early morning walk taking photos with my Mamiya RB67, then got to the post office, did some major grocery shopping, attended a lecture, made some music, had Paul, a friend and colleague from the FH over for more than seven hours and the last six hours I really got busy in tiring me up -- obviously in vain.
I tried drinking some warm milk with honey, then some cold milk, then eating something, watching TV, watching Napoleon Dynamite, watching Napoleon Dynamite again, this time with Director's commentary, cleaning up my room, playing acoustic guitar (which usually has the same effect as a lullaby to a six-month-old), ate
October 31, 2008
Compositing, Dear Diary, Random Thoughts, Reports, ranting
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It was the first day that brought the smell of winter. Along with it two emails from Amazon tumbled into my mailbox, asking me whether my wishlist is ready for Christmas (it’s not). Today also is Halloween here in Berlin. On my way home from work the streets were filled with drunken people, costumed people, drunken people in costumes and punks (who I count to the latter group as well). People were carrying around pumpkins, I saw a guy carrying a ribcage around that looked shockingly real and giggling girls wearing pointed hats. Only one misguided blonde was wearing a Father Christmas Hat. That was my day…
EDIT: Thanks to some Russian Malscript the rest of this post has gone into nirvana. And there was so much more ranting going on…
It was the first day that brought the smell of winter. Along with it two emails from Amazon tumbled into my mailbox, asking me whether my wishlist is ready for Christmas (it's not). Today also is Halloween here in Berlin. On my way home from work the streets were filled with drunken people, costumed people, drunken people in costumes and punks (who I count to the latter group as well). People were carrying around pumpkins, I saw a guy carrying a ribcage around that looked shockingly real and giggling girls wearing pointed hats. Only one misguided blonde was wearing a Father Christmas Hat. That was my day...
EDIT: Thanks to some Russian Malscript the rest of this post has gone into nirvana. And there was so much more ranting going on...
