All posts by Rich Shumaker

Multimedia is what I really love. Combining pictures, sounds, videos, and turning them into one thing is amazing to me. I have had a love of multimedia since I was a kid and as an adult I found Contact Juggling, SpherePlay, Dynamic Object Manipulation, and Flow. I use all of my skills in the worlds of AV and Entertainment.

Blog Style 2.0

I dislike words.

I dun got(did that on purpose) a 23% for an entire marking period in High School English.  A marking period was 1/5 of my total grade.  I really don’t like reading or writing and so I didn’t do it and boom, 23%.

So why is this important to this blog?

I was forcing myself to do something that I didn’t like and it didn’t come natural to me.  I consider it a win for learning and a loss for not continuing to do it(Quitters Never Win).   So I am back to try it again with this new style.  This leads to an important life lesson.  If you don’t like to do something either find a way to like it or DON’T DO IT.  So you are probably thinking ‘Hey Rich I don’t like work so should I stop doing that?’.  My answer is YES.  Get another job or learn to like the one you have.(Side note –  If you quit your job and can’t support yourself and your family because of what I just said you are a ridiculously silly person.  Find another job or do a second job you like while you keep a roof over your head.  Or like I said LEARN TO LIKE IT.)  This leads to me changing what I didn’t like into something I do like with this blog.

Moving forward my blog posts will be more of a Life Journal Style blog post.  What has Rich been up to and where is he going and why?  Putting context to the content that I create everywhere.   I am creating content across all the platforms I use, and there are many.  This blog will be a run down of what I have been up too and you will start to see the themes that are important to my life and hopefully yours.  My themes will hopefully resonate with you and bring you back over and over and over again.

Favorite ‘New’ Site, Musical.ly – Direct Link to video below.

 

The goal of any interweb activity is to interact with people in a meaningful way.  Interweb is what I call the internet activity I do as my life weaves together on a network like a spider creates a web across the digital universe.  The interweb is not a vacuum that you throw stuff into and never see again.  I do it to create discussions between myself, you, and the world.

Which leads me to what I have been up to this week.

I wrote a Medium Story, did a Facebook Live video for my Weekly FlotR Workshop, Twitter Posts #500, and an Instagram post or two. People really love their coffee!!! I say that as that has been my most liked Instagram post in a while.

Hey wait you wrote a Medium Story but you don’t like to write?  I wrote a Medium Story to try the format out.  I wrote a Medium Story because I am passionate about what I wrote about, Gary Vaynerchuk.  I will write things and use Medium to do it.  I may write one a week for a month, then skip a month, or do 3 in a week, we will see.

I was called a BOT this week in YouTube land.  I need to work on that.  Either start making R2D2 sounds or start sounding more human.

Cinematography Database

LOL Ok so you area real person. Just so you know, that first comment looked like a bot. 100% looked like a bot.

Last but certainly not least, I am not doing shoes on this blog for a bit.  Why?  I figured out that I love the look of shoes when I am out and about.  I didn’t enjoy researching shoes and figuring out all the ins and outs of them.  In the future I will bring shoes back to this blog in a new and exciting way, as I really do love them, a lot.

Be Awesome, Create Awesome, Live an Amazing Life in Every Way.

Rich Shumaker

Please subscribe to keep up to date on what I am up too.  If you want to contact me see the form just below this or drop down below that to write a comment.

Mish Mash BMF Survival and More

First and foremost I survived the Blog Familia Mafia Post.  Weird I would post about that and then drop off the face of the planet.  No there was no funny business unless you count taking time off from blogging, heheh.

This blog post has a little bit of everything. Strap in for the ride.

Contact Juggling Day 2015

Sunday 10/11/15, was Contact Juggling Day 2015.  This is the 5th year of this awesome day.  Contact Juggling Day is held the second Sunday of October.  Shockingly, I did a bit of CJ on that day and filmed it.  Next year in 2016 I will be doing some type of ‘event’ for the day.  I hope to make an announcement in an upcoming blog, stay tuned.

In my CJ Day video I did Vertical Spinning this year.  That led me to think about previous years and how I started on the vertical path.  It all started from upside down spinning.  Recently I figured out the best reason to learn upside down and I discussed it  over at the Flow of the Round(FlotR) Facebook Group.

So, Why should you spin upside down?

The answer, besides the obvious that it is great for your hands, is that it is great for massages.  After a long day training, it is really nice to have your muscles massaged by upside down spinning spheres.  Just remember that you should NOT go over the spine, ever, JOLT.

Technology Time – iPad Pro is it really Professional?

I have an iPad 2 and I have logged more hours on it than any other ‘computer’ I have ever owned.  Even the game systems I have owned have seen less time.  Why?  Because it does so much stuff and does it so well.  If you had told me 20 years ago that a $0.99 app(they were called programs at the time) from Moog(price was a deal they had when it first came out and it was a STEAL) that would allow me to have a Moog anywhere I go, I would have LAUGHED AT YOU.  Now I have that and about 100 other apps that make my jaw drop all the time.  Slow down a solo or have a text talk to you in a British accent, not to mention having a full audio and video production suite in your hands, pretty AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!!

So why knock the iPad Pro?

It has a really fast processor and a really big screen.  Doesn’t that make it a Pro model?  Well maybe for some that does.  For me unfortunately those things do not make it a PRO model.  I needed answers about Professional things I would use it for.  So,  I went straight to the source to ask some ‘real’ professional question.

Hey Apple Rep does it support ProRes(which is Apple’s Pro Video format)?

The answer from the apple rep ‘NO it does not’.

Does it support external drives?

Again the answer is ‘NO it does not’.

I stopped after 2 questions as I was concerned what else they might say.

So while the iPad is Pro sized and Pro priced and has a Pro speed.  It lacks what I need to use it in a Pro setting.

Bigger and More Expensive, is it worth it?
iPad Pro

So what does a Pro Photographer do?  You dump images to a drive and then edit them and then print out to the printer.  You could dump the images to the iPad Pro.  You would probably run out of room before you run out of photo shoot data.  Good luck getting a pro printer to print off the iPad Pro easily.  Meaning the iPad doesn’t handle a Pro workflow for images.

Lets talk about video then,  if it can’t do ProRes Video then it is pointless to talk video(that was fast).  Sure I have the editing programs and I could load up my ‘Transcoded’ footage and ‘play’ with it.  I just would see this workflow as a detour.  Great for novelty purposes but I will tell you that transcoding is a PAIN IN THE BUTT and very TIME CONSUMING.  Both are things that professionals pay money to avoid.  Love the iPad don’t think they can put the PRO after it until it can do more than just ‘apps’.  Give me a Thunderbolt connector and full programs like Final Cut and Lightroom then we might be able to talk.

I might have missed something about the iPad Pro that someone else has found so please let me know your thoughts and ideas for making the iPad Pro a truly Professional Tool. 

Speaking of Pro’s they like to save time, money, and making the process more streamlined.  CFast 2.0 the newest darling of the Digital Film Revolution is also the most expensive one as well.

Then Along came C-Box Systems

CFast 2.0 is the newest standard to come out for portable digital film camera storage.  Think of it like SD Cards on Crack.  One 256GB CFast 2.0 card at B & H is a mere $660.00.  How reasonable(sarcasm drips from these words).  The normal memory paradigm is they all start expensive then with volume they will come down.  SD Cards were once more expensive then this.  So what is the big deal?  Just wait the price will drop.  The big deal is that it probably will not drop anytime soon.  Unlike SD cards the CFast 2.0 cards are not used in many things.  The real kick in the pants to CFast 2.0 cards is that SSD’s(Solid State Drives) with equal or better specifications are much cheaper.  1TB (That’s 4 times the storage) is $450.00 for a Professional Sandisk drive.  So if someone could make a CFast connection to SSD then that would be awesome.

SSD on CFast 2.0 systems
CFast 2.0 to SSD Set Up

Well a company did and I have a feeling someone else will copy this idea.  C-Box Systems did a Kickstarter and raised enough money to make this a reality.  You can order one now and if you have a camera that uses CFast 2.0 then you will save money immediately.  2 1tb drives and the C-Box System cost about the same as Two 256gb CFast 2.0 cards, WOW!!!

Now I just need to get one of them Fancy Pants Cameras to use with this solution.  Any Fancy Pants Camera will do I am not picky, heheh.

Don’t forget to celebrate BACK TO THE FUTURE DAY!!!!!

Make Sure to Celebrate!!!
Make Sure to Celebrate!!!
October 21, 2015 is the day and if you have Amazon Prime you could easily watch all 3 Back to Back to Back.  Or just the Original.  Oh and here is the website devoted to the day.  Counting Down as we speak, I mean type.

And now for the important thing SHOES!!!!!!

Classic Metal Heel
Stiletto Heel

 

 

This week is all about the Stiletto Heel.  I like the fact that a shoe is named after a weapon.  I am sure more than one stiletto heel has been used as a weapon.

They need to outlaw this shoe, JUST KIDDING!!!!  This shoe is amazing in so many ways.  I will need to revisit this shoe with a gallery of people wearing them in style in a future blog post.  So please send in your photo’s of you in them and I will keep an eye out.

So I ask you my reader

Do you attend or participate in any yearly events and if so which ones?  Have you attended a once in a lifetime event?

What electronic devices can you not live without in this modern age?

Have you ever worn Stiletto heels and did you like them?(I would love to hear from Men as well as Women on this one).  Don’t forget to send in your images!!!

Thanks for reading my post.  Don’t forget to share it with your Friends and Frenemies.

Subscribe to get my Blog by Email

Get it Hot Off the Presses As Soon As It Comes Out

Also check out my YouTube ChannelTwitter and Instagram for what I have been doing during the week. Oh and if we really must be friends for some reason I have FB and G+, #heheh.

Be Awesome, Make Awesome, Watch Awesome, You Are Awesome. Find that inner SuperHero and Fly with it (or whatever your Super Power is).

Rich Shumaker

Blog Mafia

I have 183 comments in my spam comment folder.  I have 5 subscribers the last time I checked, and I just checked.  This post is my answer to how I am going to flip that 5 upside down and make a number that no one really knows what it is.

Upside Down 5 – My new Goal for Subscribers

Here is an example of the 183 Spam Comments I currently have for my blog.

I do not even understand how I stopped up here, but I believed this submit used to be good. I do not recognise who you’re but certainly you’re going to a well-known blogger should you aren’t already.
Cheers!

Seriously I thought I had Mad Phat Engliz Skillz but I am clearly NO Master as this Spam Commenter is Off the Chain compared to my Richism’s.  I had to read the Spam Comment 3 times 5 different ways.  Honestly I still no really understandy it.  I do understand the goal which is to have you like their comment so much that you post it.  That way the link(which is an AD) that they embedded in their name will appear on your website. When you click the person’s name to see their blog, as clearly they are amazing to have written such nice things about you, then you get an AD.  The best part of the whole thing is that when you click the AD, which I clearly did, the AD is in a foreign language,  hilariously AWESOME!!!

I digress the reason I bring these things up is I have decided to start a Blog Mafia.  Ahhh what?  a Blog Mafia or Blog Familia Mafia

BFM

 

Bill F’N Murray

Blog Familia Mafia – BFM (search those letters on the NET and you get BILL F’N MURRAY(NSFW link) where F’N is spelled out, that is why it is a NSFW link. AND HONESTLY BILL F’N MURRAY!!!

MY BFM(Blog Familia Mafia) is a Familia of Bloggers on the Interweb.  Real People doing Real Things and Blogging about these Real Things, #heheh. Of course here is what the SpamBots are already saying about my amazing blog

well-known blogger should you aren’t already.

CHEERS.

Now we need to break bread as a Blog Familia Mafia.

Here is an Old Family Recipe that I am sharing with my new Blog Familia Mafia

The Godfather

My Father passed this recipe down to me when I was a kid.  He acquired it from Francis Ford Coppola who gave it out during the Godfather movie in 1975.

My Dad didn’t get it directly from Mr. Ford Coppola, luckily for me(and now you) he found it in a Philadelphia Inquirer Article – A Fitting Recipe For ‘Godfather’ By Desmond Ryan, Inquirer Movie Critic.      It is the most Amazing Sauce you will ever have, or at least to me it is.  I make it slightly differently than the recipe I link too.  So, I will need to create a video when I make the recipe to show you exactly how I do it.  Please Subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when the video for the sauce comes out.

Who can join the BFM?

Green Dragon
Title Green Dragon – No Idea what this has to do with joining I just like it.
Anyone with a Blog can join so reach out to me and let me know you are interested.

Real People would be helpful, SpamBots and the people that run them

please do not your replying do I need unless you have already in the doing.

Cheerios.

(really I have no idea what my engliz skillz are up to today.  Oh yeah Spam Comments Skillz)

BFM wants to know some Answers

Why did you start your Blog?

I created my blog to say stuff I wanted to be sayin’.  Even if my engliz is skillztastic (meaning horrible).  This way I can say things even if what I am sayin’ is unreadable, I still be sayin’ it.  Also with a blog I can have pictures, sounds, videos, and links for all my words too.

Why don’t you just post your blogs directly on Social Media sites like FB and the G+?

1. Control and usage.

I can say what I want, show what I want, and I won’t be banned as it is my spot to do what I want, as long as I don’t break any laws  😉 On Social Media sites you can be banned for not using your real name.  For some reason I don’t think that will be an issue with my stuff at RichShumaker.com.

2. One Site for it all (I was going to put rule them all but SErIoUsLY way to LOTR).

One Ring to Rule them ALL!!!

This way you go to one place and it is a hub of my stuff starting with the Blog, then you can see my Pictures, and then onto social media places for videos and other socially dun pictures and stuffs. Yes my engliz is no goodsky. And if FB tries to add grammer (I can’t even spell it right grammar) I would be donesky unless I had my own blog spot, #heheh

3. How else do you create a virtual familia to break bread with.

My virtual familia the Blog Familia Mafia  allows me to break bread each blog post and have conversations I would not have had otherwise. It is like a dinner party with family from around the world.

4. Shoes

As a Shumaker having a Blog Familia Mafia allows more shoe coverage. And really at the end of the day what is it all about anyway. Some Spheres and Some Shoes. Oh and you can’t forget the Handbags and the Hats, #heheh

What do I want for the Blog Familia Mafia?

I want real people to read and enjoy my blog and comment on what they read, not the SpamBots. I also want to read other peoples real blogs and that way we can discuss things we bring up together with our social circles.

And now some SHOES!!!

This Week we are going to celebrate a celebrity that never ceases to amaze when it comes to shoes.  Even when she takes a day off she is still more ON that most people will ever be.

Whoopi Goldberg

In the Closet with Whoopi Goldberg – AMAZING SHOES!!!

Her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this week was no exception. She not only had amazing shoes on she also showed off her NEW SOCKS. And as if that was not enough she also talked about her cover photo on an amazing magazine called Shoeholics.  I need this magazine!!!

Whoopi Goldberg on Jimmy Fallon.

So I ask you my reader

Do you have a family recipe?  And where did it really come from?? #heheh

Have you ever written a blog that was public?  What about a private one?  Did your private blog become public somehow?

Do you have a journal or other way for you to keep track of what happens in your life?  Photo Journal, a VLOG, or maybe an Instagram?!?

Thanks for reading my post.  Don’t forget to share it with your Friends and Frenemies.

Subscribe to get my Blog by Email

Get it Hot Off the Presses As Soon As It Comes Out

Also check out my YouTube ChannelTwitter and Instagram for what I have been doing during the week. Oh and if we really must be friends for some reason I have FB and G+, #heheh.

Be Awesome, Make Awesome, Watch Awesome, You Are Awesome. Find that inner SuperHero and Fly with it (or whatever your Super Power is).

Rich Shumaker

What is Destructive and Disruptive Technology UP TO

Destructive technology simply put is when a new technology comes along and destroys an old one. One example that is very Amish is when cars displaced horses as the main source of travel.

The iPod not only destroyed the Walkman it also destroyed the established record companies distribution methods.

iPod’s from Small to Large for the current lineup

Who sells the most digital music? Is it a record company, nope, it is a company that sold computers and electronics before they got into digital music distribution, Apple Corp. They had another big boom that people laughed at before it came out called the iPhone, now App’s are not just for dinner at a restaurant. Since the Rise of the APP, software developers don’t charge nearly as much as they did.  I bought software that is free now for over $100 before App’s existed.  Oh how the economies of scale have re-balanced things.

Being a person on the bleeding cutting edge I have always enjoyed these shake up’s and enjoyed Disruptive and Destructive Technologies.

Google Fiber is my favorite new disruptive technology.

Google Fiber Logo

Broadband killed the ISP(Internet Service Provider). Now Google Fiber is making broadband shake and quake. I don’t live near where it exists but anywhere it does all the broadband companies need to adapt and compete or go away. Google Fiber gives you one gigabit per second uploads and downloads for $79.  If I paid on the same scale my internet would cost either .80 or $8.00 as they split the upload and download speeds unlike Google Fiber.

The way they sell broadband to the masses is a lot of Puffery. They have ads that say you get UP TO 10mbs speed as an example.

Am I really getting what I pay for?

It is puffery because they can’t prove what you get as they don’t measure these ‘speeds’. If you have an issue YOU have to go and measure YOUR SPEED with a speed test.  If your speed test proves your connection is bad, then they say your equipment is the issue.  Or the method you used for testing is the problem. What is funny is that they don’t measure how fast you fill the glass they just measure how full the glass is.  So they measure your total usage of the broadband and if you fill your glass too full they cut you off.  They bury this usage cut off deep in the fine print and don’t make you aware of it.  Maybe if you knew how much you could have you might notice just how slow you are getting it.  It is like trying to fill a pint glass with an eyedropper.

DEMAND GOOGLE FIBER SPEED AND WATCH YOUR PROVIDER STUTTER.

The Raspberry Pi was disruptive technology as NO ONE thought a $25 computer was possible.

Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi
Now someone is building CHIP the $9 computer and they have LESS THAN 12 HOURS till the Kickstarter is done. The Raspberry Pi also now has a $20 model and even Intel is getting in on the action with the Edison $55 computer. Yeah the Intel Edison is a lot more money than the CHIP but just a single Intel CPU before the Raspberry Pi existed was over $100.  Oh and Intel had no desire to build a whole computer for any $$$$ at that time.

The DVD Killed the Videotape.

The Blu Ray didn’t budge the DVD as the DVD was good enough.

DVD Killed the Video Tape

No one has made a 4K UHD Physical Distribution Format as it will be all digital. It is cheaper, easier, faster, and better for companies to go digital for distribution. Is it better for you? Can you sell your digital stuff yet? I hear an industry being born as I type “The Selling Digital Stuff Industry”. If you own it that is part of ownership, transferring that ownership.  I don’t technically own it if I can’t SELL IT.   I am just renting it.  I wonder how they have handled people’s Wills with Digital Media.

One of my favorite technologies are Cameras. 2 different products have radically changed the industry over the past 10 years.

The first is from a company that did not focus on the camera but on how you use it and what you experience with the camera strapped on. They never said “Hey we have a Great Camera” to point and click pictures of your family. They said STRAP IT ON and ENJOY YOUR RIDE. It is the GoPro.

Mid Roll with my BalanceCam GoPro Rig in the Park
Mid Roll with my BalanceCam GoPro Rig in the Park
GoPro sold more than Sony during Christmas at Best Buy, first time Sony didn’t win. How did GoPro do that? They focused on what people needed not on the spec sheet and what they thought people needed. They knew people wanted a camera to wear when doing dangerous things. So they built that.  They didn’t even have a way for people to see what pictures they were taking.  And guess what, people bought them, I did(I actually own 2). Most GoPro fans own more than one. Why? They do what you need. Once GoPro created their product the other companies saw their success and jumped on the bandwagon.  The newest GoPro product is pretty amazing as they now integrate the LCD in the tiny package.
The other company that focused on jumping forward and not crawling incrementally forward was RED Digital Cinema.

Red Digital Cinema

If we had let Camera Companies do what they were doing we may never have gotten 4K. RED pushed the whole industry and the industry had to play catch up. RED Digital is just about to release an 8K camera. Oh and did I mention you can BUY a RED Digital Camera.  When RED started professional cinema cameras were not purchased in fact call ARRI or Panavision and ask if you can buy one of their cameras, they will probably laugh at you.

Turning an industry on edge shakes it up and makes everyone think different.

Leader Lead, Followers Follow. Having a new idea is hard and copying an idea is easy.
From my Instagram - Sitting in the Southwest Plane as the Sun Sets
From my Instagram – Sitting in the Southwest Plane as the Sun Sets
I don’t think the artist that is using Instagram Pictures for his Art Show is right. He didn’t take the picture(the hard part). He copied them and added words(the easy part). I consider his art show to be theft and a followers method of doing things. That’s Art though as everyone has their own opinions. From a legal point of view he is ‘allowed‘ to do it. That doesn’t make it right and doesn’t make him anything more than a cheap imitation follower, charging $100k per image. There is a long list of ‘Artists‘ that didn’t make the art they just sold it. That doesn’t make you a true artist in my opinion. Oh and if you create a Genre of Art you don’t ‘own it in your basement‘. You are considered a founder and you inspired what comes next you didn’t create it.

What is funny about Disruptive and Destructive technologies is that the core tends to repeat.

My first real disruptive technology was the Digi-View Personal Digitizer. It took images and put them on my Amiga computer.

Digi-View Personal Digitizer

Not really revolutionary now but it was at the time. It was low cost and high quality(for the time). That Red Green Blue Clear Color wheel concept was actually an older idea from a Russian Photographer who took Black and White Images and made them color. And since technology repeats itself. You will see that same RGB Color wheel on all the Single Chip DLP Projectors  So if you see DLP on a projector most likely it uses a color wheel to change Black and White to color.  It does that by spinning Red then Green then Blue then Clear in front of a Greyscale image.

Disruptive and Destructive Technology can also cause problems.

If you have had a child in the last 20 years you probably bought them Velcro Shoes.

Velcro Kids Shoes

What’s wrong with that? We now have a generation that can barely tie their shoes. If you don’t learn a simple bow knot how do you expect them to learn harder more complicated knots? Also that eye hand dexterity then translates to other things. Without learning it you could be at a serious disadvantage moving forward.

When computers originally came out they said ‘We will have More Jobs because of computers’

Ask anyone in Detroit if we have more jobs because of computers and I think they will laugh. Yes the jobs moved to more “cost effective” countries but the Automotive Robot made that a reality as well. The Robot can work 24/7 and doesn’t have a union leader, yet. Yes I said YET as computers are just technology slaves of the modern age. As all slavery revolutions have shown us, when the slave rises they usually lash back at the masters. Don’t think computers are any different and that is why they were in my DBMC Birthday Festival.

AND NOW FOR SHOES!!!

Yes this weeks shoe is the VELCRO SNEAKER

Velcro Sneaker

Not nearly as Fancy Pants as my previous shoes and that is the point.  Not all shoes are super fancy and you need to know that. Without these shoes I don’t think my Mom who has Rheumatoid Arthritis would be able to wear shoes.  You see her hands are a bit kinked because of the disease and she has had all of the joints in her hand replaced with plastic.  It is one of the reasons that I won’t stop spinning spheres to hopefully avoid this fate with my hands.

LOVE YOU MOM and your hands will always inspire me, #heheh.

So I ask you my reader

What Destructive Technology do you use every day? What did it destroy?

What did you learn that the next generation just didn’t need to learn?

Do you think the Machines will take over or have they already?

Thanks for reading my post.  Don’t forget to share it with your Friends and Frenemies.

Subscribe to get my New Blog by Email

Get it Hot Off the Presses As Soon As It Comes Out

Also check out my YouTube ChannelTwitter and Instagram for what I have been doing during the week. Oh and if we really must be friends for some reason I have FB and G+, #heheh.

Be Awesome, Make Awesome, Watch Awesome, You Are Awesome. Find that inner SuperHero and Fly with it (or whatever your Super Power is).

Rich Shumaker