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By Richard Hamilton, July 23, 2009 12:30 pm

There was a quick post at Outspoken Media yesterday called, “The Power of the Unexpected” … good stuff. Here are a few blurbs (and an awesome video clip) from it.

“That’s what happens when you do something people aren’t expecting. When you don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the pomp and circumstance of it all. When you finally stop taking yourself so seriously. When you embrace the moment, remember what life used to feel like and go for it.”

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By Richard Hamilton, June 8, 2009 12:36 pm

I present to you, BooneOakley.com. That’s right. Their site is a YouTube vid. Check it out.

Reasons why this concept rocks:
1-Its Low Overhead: There are no hosting costs. No content maintenance. YouTube is free. They are only paying for a domain registration and redirect. If you go to BooneOakley.com, it takes you to this YouTube video.
2-Its Versatility: The content is completely portable. I just embedded their entire web content onto my website.
3-Its Appropriately Creative: A lot of sites don’t match the product. Looking throughWatching their featured work, I realized this is not the first creative project BooneOakley has produced. Their stuff is different.

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By Richard Hamilton, January 6, 2009 10:16 pm

I read through this year’s Golden Globe nominations…they stink. I feel confidently saying most awards are given to worthless films and trendy actors. So, here are my picks from 2008.

Best Drama: Seven Pounds

Best Superhero Flick: Iron Man
(Honorable Mention: The Incredible Hulk)

Best Action Film: Quantum of Solace

Best Documentary: Helvetica (I know it came out it 2007, but I didn’t find out about it until last year.)

Best Animated Film: WALL-E

Best Comedy: An American Carol

Best Sequel: The Dark Knight

Internet Release: The Echo

Best Actor: Heath Ledger

Best Actress: Natalie Portman (what can I say…I’m a sucker.)

Best Director: Jon Favreau

Most Visually Exciting: The Dark Knight

Best Film: Iron Man

Worst Film: Wanted

Most Personally Disappointing: A tie between The Clone Wars and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Film I Was Most Surprised I Liked: The Incredible Hulk

(I thought about writing a explanation/defense for each selection, but decided instead to let them speak for themselves.)

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By Richard Hamilton, September 30, 2008 5:10 pm

I know this has been out for a while and this is the first time I have mentioned it, but I guess I missed it. It seems a lot of people did. About a year ago, Amazon.com released the Kindle, an electronic book reader. This seems to be their response to the IPod. You buy the gear from them and they get return business from downloads. Unfortunately for Amazon, the Kindle didn’t seem to get much traction.

Let me offer some suggestions as to why.

First, the target market is small. I read. A lot. Recently, I saw a cracked.com video joking the Amazon Kindle (more specifically, those who would find it useful) because few people struggle with how handle all the books they are currently reading. Sure, this device can store 200 books/newspapers/blogs, but who is carrying around that much reading material? Personally, I would love to cut back on the amount of books I am toting around, but not many people suffer my affliction.

Second, the price point is too high. Amazon recently dropped the price to $359. What a steal. The 32 gig iTouch is only $399. Did I mention that the Kindle is an electronic book and not a multi-media device? Plus, you’re paying $10+ a pop for the books.

Third, most people would rather listen than read. We seem to be post-literate in many ways. (Maybe I should cut back on the words myself…oh well). Why download a readable version when I can grab it from iTunes and listen to it?

So, does the Kindle have a place in the market? I don’t know. I haven’t taken one out for a spin yet. I could see how this would be useful to me, but I’m not ready to drop that much just yet. Maybe the second release will be a little sleeker and be a little more affordable. One thing the Kindle does have working in its favor, you don’t need to subscribe to a service to use the Wi-Fi.

If anyone out there has any hands on experience with the Kindle, I’d love to hear from you.

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By Richard Hamilton, July 9, 2008 3:12 pm

Of all the big movies out in theaters right now, you may be asking why I am reviewing a Disney flick that is out on DVD. Well. Mainly because I haven’t seen Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones, or Get Smart. These are all on my list, but between my 4 month old, the job search and doing a week of camp, I haven’t been to the theater in a long time. I have been watching a lot of rented movies since we don’t have cable anymore (long story).

So, back to National Treasure 2.

If I were to say I was disappointed, that would imply I had high expectations. I should probably lead with the fact that I don’t like Nicholas Cage. Somehow, he seems to land great roles in great films, but I’m not a fan. The writing was flat. The plot was predictable. The story was weird.

That being said. If you liked National Treasure, you probably like National Treasure 2. It was a fun way to waste 124 minutes.

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By Richard Hamilton, March 19, 2007 10:32 pm

Last fall I came home and turned on my television to find that my networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX) were no longer on my Dish package. In their place was a message from the CEO of my provider, reassuring the public and giving up instructions on how to help remedy this issue. When someone has a mini-dish, they may receive networks from another area. The networks sued the dish providers, claiming that this is illegal distribution of their product. Our civil servants in Congress were working hard to pass a bill to remedy this disservice to the American public.

The implications began to dawn on me: no 24, Lost, The Office. It would have to find a place other than my home to watch my OSU Buckeyes play in the national championship game (I wish I had missed the game altogether.)

So I did something I had never done before: I called my representative and senator and urged them strongly to remedy this situation as quickly as possible.

Several thoughts dawned on me later.

How sad is it with all the things that should motivate me to apply pressure to political leaders, the only thing that ousted me from my apathy were the loss of four channels on my TV.

As disturbing as that may be, I vote every election and many people don’t even do that. The 2006-midterm elections marked a rise in voter turnout because just over 40% of registered voters voted. That number doesn’t even include those who are not even registered. It is always a mistake to rely on the government for anything, but it is an arena where we can influence what takes place in our country and around the world.

Equally as disappointing was the trivial nature of the things that motivate me. I didn’t call anyone about foreign policy, civil rights, disaster and hunger relief, or even the war on terror, because those things are only a mild irritant to a selfish person like myself. It was only when my routine was interrupted as I spurred to action.

I know there are many people like me, but justifying my apathy does not change it.