(no longer updated)

I've got a new blog, so I won't be using Livejournal anymore.

http://www.ericingrum.com
Follow Eric Ingrum at the blogspot.

It's ad free! It's got an RSS feed, tags, and all my old LJ entries. I won't be updating here anymore, so go bookmark that thing.

One down, eighty three to go.


Download Video

Technical Notes:
Codec: H.264 Mp4 (Two Pass)
FPS: 29.97 Upconverted
Video Bitrate: 1500 kbps
Audio Bitrate: 160 kbps
Resolution: 640x352


So, a few other things while I'm at it. This was a clip that was up on the old TBMChicago. This version has better sound, a much higher resolution (bordered 320x240 vs croped 640x352), is 16x9 widescreen, is longer (the full clip, not just part), and is presented watermark free.

I decided to go with the title card at the end. It's brief and non invasive. I don't think anyone will mind it. This way if the video shows up on youtube (as I'm sure it will), people will know where to get it. Actually, maybe I'll just put it up on youtube.

It's not up on TBMChicago yet. I might tweak a few things before it goes up. Also, I'd like to put the full show up (three recordings) and not just this one.

Outside of missing out on James Randi, Michael Shermer, Penn Jillette and Teller, AND the Mythbusters . . . Matt Stone and Trey Parker are also lecturing at TAM this year. I'm starting to think not going to Vegas next week was a stupid decision, even if it meant going by myself. Argh.

In other news, I'm still working on the videos. For those of you interested in the title card thing, I think I'm going to put title cards at the END of the video rather than the beginning. I'm still thinking I might just not put title cards in at all. That's always an option too.

Or how about this - the videos that are available on other sites (for instance, the Steve Jones videos) will be available title card free, and videos we've gathered from users that required any kind of editing will have cards briefly at the end.

I guess I'm still not sure about this.

I'm going back over the old videos that are on TBMChicago now as well to reformat them for the newer, higher quality ipod standard. I think all those lo-res videos are going to be removed from the site.

Here's an update on the TBM videos . . . the following have all been set up for mixing:

2006-03-13 Launchpad Alburquerque Play Dead
2006-03-13 Launchpad Alburquerque Intro Blue
2006-03-13 Launchpad Alburquerque Horror Show
2006-03-13 Launchpad Alburquerque Broken
2006-03-09 El Corazon Seattle To Die For
2006-03-09 El Corazon Seattle Horror Show
2005-12-29 The Nation DC The Dream
2005-07-02 The Dungeon Oshawa Blue
2004-11-12 Whitehouse II Niles Lovers End
2004-11-12 Whitehouse II Niles Broken
2004-11-12 Whitehouse II Niles Blue

And these have been finalized:

2002-05-31 The Kathedral, Toronton ON Broken (Clip)
2002-09-22 The Reverb, Toronto ON Video Kid (Classic Version)
2004-07-31 The 360, Toronto ON Broken
2004-07-31 The 360, Toronto ON Holiday
2004-07-31 The 360, Toronto ON Lover's End
2004-07-31 The 360, Toronto ON Violet
2005-08-14 Mera Luna, Germany Lover's End
OTHERS 2005-06-04 We Are the Fucking Line
OTHERS 2005-07-02 Chibi Doesn't Smoke
OTHERS 2005-07-02 You're Not Dead (They Close at Six)
OTHERS Bass Brutality

Several of those will never see the light of day - most likely Chibi Doesn't Smoke, Bass Brutality, and maybe Mera Luna. Any of the videos not listed just haven't been qued up for work yet. I'll get to them when I finish the first batch.

In other news, I saw Children of Men yesterday and it was amazing. Also, I think I have plans for tomorrow night. Let's hope that's amazing too.

I almost had a heart attack today.



I went to edit some more TBM videos, only to find that they were all gone. After hours of searching, I managed to hunt them all down. I need to give a copy of these videos to someone so I don't even lose them. Who could I entrust my 10GB of TBM videos too . . . hmmm . . .

My entire life, I've hated genres. I guess I still sort of do. I didn't like the idea that you could classify a band's music, especially growing into music with the "post-numetal era" of the late 90s when alternative split itself into 108 different kinds of music.

But today, as I tried to navigate through my iTunes library and find the right kind of "feel" of music, I got stuck. And then I realized I NEED genres - otherwise it becomes really hard to play random music with a certain feeling.

The implementation really came when Andi sent me some Bitter:Sweet songs, and I decided my "electronic" genre had grown too large. I needed a way to separate hard electronic from soft. I needed a way to tell my iPod I want to listen to Sneaker Pimps, not Prodigy.

Of all the names thrown around for the soft stuff - electropop, british acid rap, downtempo, bristol sound, etc - I really like Trip-Hop. It's very to the point, and it's kinda fun to say. It makes me smile. I'm going to go with that.

With the harder stuff, it's not such an easy task. It used to be easier - Hardcore! But then shitty post-punk "emo" music came around to take up that word. Sorry, eat it emo kid, hardcore music BLOWS. Anyways, back to my point. Some people started calling it hardcore techno, but I've always been of the group that thought the word techno immediately said you didn't know what you were talking about. Techno is what your dad calls electronic music.

So . . . fuck, what now.

Bigbeat and chemicalbreaks are fairly common, but I don't really like either of those. Nothing really rolls of my tongue the way tip-hop did. The struggle continues.

Then I also have a problem separating musical eras of a band. I hate calling the Deftones' earlier stuff alternative metal and the later experimental rock. I don't like that some Bjork songs can go from trip-hop to bigbeat on a single album (Say, Post: Army of Me to Hyper-Ballad).

And what about the stuff that's inbetween? Where does that go? This is actually really difficult. I mean, if I put it in the bigbeat stuff (ew, I still hate that name) it could really ruin the mood. Imagine going from Baby's Got a Temper or Spitfire to Alice in Videoland's Going Down. That would totally kill the mood. On the other hand, Going Down showing up in a lounge flavored Sneaker Pimps kind of mix would probably be a total mood killer too. Crap.

And what the fuck is The Postal Service?

This is actually really difficult. I might spend all day contemplating these things. Any help would be muchly appreciated.

Everything's finalized. I'm moving out.

I've already signed the lease. Actually, I probably signed it a month ago or something. I'm moving south to a college town. I don't intend to come back here for any reason. I've been done with this place for so long.

It's no secret I hate it here. I've been trying to do everything I can to make it more manageable, but nothing will ever change. Ever since high school my residence here has been a complete waste.

My time here is limited.

In preparation of this podcast I'm working on, I've started reading some libertarian blogs. Here's an article I picked up on Reason.com's Hit and Run, one of my favorites. Seriously, you should read it daily. It's fucking amazing. Anyways:

December 29, 2006 -- Does the City Council have too much free time?

Why, banish the thought.

Along with pit bulls.

And a lot of other stuff.

As the new year approaches, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. wants to ban pit bulls - those snarly pups known for having the occasional toddler for lunch, and other depredations.

Banning things, or trying to, is what the council does best.

Here's the list from 2006.

* Trans-fats.

* Aluminum baseball bats.

* The purchase of tobacco by 18- to 20-year-olds.

* Foie gras.

* Pedicabs in parks.

* New fast-food restaurants (but only in poor neighborhoods).

* Lobbyists from the floor of council chambers.

* Lobbying city agencies after working at the same agency.

* Vehicles in Central and Prospect parks.

* Cell phones in upscale restaurants.

* The sale of pork products made in a processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., because of a unionization dispute.

* Mail-order pharmaceutical plans.

* Candy-flavored cigarettes.

* Gas-station operators adjusting prices more than once daily.

* Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

* Wal-Mart.

Some of these are just silly. (Candy-flavored cigarettes?)

Others are egregious: Outlawing Wal-Mart is tantamount to picking the pockets of New Yorkers who really can't afford it.

All in all, though, what the council needs is a ban on bills banning things.

Unless it wants to ban . . . itself.

On a related topic, everyone's been complaining lately that congress wants more days off. Personally I couldn't agree with congress more - a "do nothing" congress should be music to everyone's ears. You force people to sit around in a room and evaluate laws long enough, eventually they'll just start fighting over useless laws. I think congress should work three days a week, and I think laws should have expiration dates. It's time to end career politicians.

Once again, more freedom is always better.

The new Rodriguez/Tarantino film.

Click for hi-res.

I just got Xbox Live. I'm on a Canadian Gears of War team. God, I love the internet.

Just a reminder: There is no God.

That shouldn't stop you from having a good time, though. Hope everyone has a great day and gets lots of fun stuff.

So, I mentioned I was selling items on Amazon.com, and somehow I wandered over to the reviews for KJV edition of the Bible. I realize that sentence is funny enough on it's own, but wait - it gets better.

You HAVE to read some of these reviews. They're fucking pricless.


Click Here for Reviews.

Just incase you're not convinced, the titles of the first three reviews alone are:

Good for a Laugh
A Book to Avoid
and my favorite,
How about some coherent character development?

Bookmark that link. Next time you're losing faith in humanity, head right on over for redemption.

I saw Carla the other night. We went shopping and then had dinner. I'm supposed to see here again tonight. I hope that pans out, because Shannon wanted to hang out, and I hate to tell her no and then get like, stood up or something.

Selling my DVDs on eBay didn't work, so I put them all on Amazon. They've been selling like crazy. By the end of the week, I won't own a single DVD. Next thing to go up are the books. Then I have to start getting rid of these other things.

I finally invited Chrissy over to watch Hard Candy. She'll probably say no. I hope not, though. I've been trying to ask her for a while, but like, I don't know . . . She still sorta scares me I guess. We're sorta becoming friends again though, and I really like that.

Everybody's been home, and that's been really nice. I haven't seen enough of Andi or Annie-Marie lately however.

And Paul was supposed to call me this week so Lauren, Brynn, himself and I could all get together. I hope that's still happening.

And if, by any chance, Heather's reading this . . . don't forget:



Please fix this.
And play Gears with me.

Add Me on Xbox Live!

00:23:59:59

I have so much to do before tomorrow. Splinter Cell, Halo, and the Ramones' start themes all come out tomorrow, thanks to some new designers who came to call the last minute. Thank god. AwesomeStart might not get updated for some time, or maybe it'll be updated remotely.

I'm going down south for a while. I'm not really too happy about being in the south, but maybe it's not so bad. After all, Texas was a fun trip (hi Joe!) and this isn't nearly as far down. I'm starting a new life. Everything begins tomorrow, I think.

Or I'm going to fall on my face. I don't know. I'm so afraid to fail, but fuck, that's never stopped me before. I'll have someone to fail with.

I'll pulling all my cash out of the bank. The bonds come in later this week. This is really it. I have no idea where we're going, but we're going. We're just going to pick somewhere and move there.

After hundreds of entries over the years about running away, I'm really doing it.

I hope you hear from me again sometime.
-Eric Ingrum

For a twenty year old boy with no teachers, no classes, no enemies, and no boss, my life is infinitely complicated.

I need to get out of here. I need to go, so bad.

But I'm not even sure if that's going to help anymore.

iTunes 7 comes with two new views:





As a person who enjoys both music and pictures, I'm obviously excited.

Today, Apple also announced their entry into the home theater market. Awesome.

More Freedom is always better.

As promised, here's the batch of Final Fantasy themes now online:


Click: Final Fantasy IV


Click: Final Fantasy V


Click: Final Fantasy VI


Click: Final Fantasy VII


Click: Final Fantasy VIII


Click: Final Fantasy IX


Click: Final Fantasy X


Click: Final Fantasy XI


Click: FF Dirge of Cerberus

You can customize all the links and make it your homepage. If you get lost (or just don't get it) there's also an FAQ.