Responsibly Wild Blog

Since dropping DirecTv and going with the bunny ears our TV habits have changed considerably. A month ago when we were cooking we'd have an old episode of the The Office, Friends or How I Met Your Mother rolling in the background just for noise. Well since we don't have a Tivo stocked full of shows we now listen to the radio or nothing at all while in the kitchen. I can feel my brain detoxing. About the only time we passively turn on the tube is just to mellow out is while we're getting ready for bed, and what is the only show we have as a complete series on DVD? Friends. This group of New Yorkers and I have a love-hate relationship. I used to loathe it's cartoon, girly relationship set-up, but then after Marieta and I got together and I watched it merely by being around her. Quickly I realized Chandler is hilarious and overtime I warmed up to the rest as well. Still, after years of watching it, and getting tired of the same stupid yucks-yucks, I started to hate it

There used to be a time in my life where all I wanted to do was write and perform music, those days seem so foreign to me now but it used to define me. At the height of my rock journey I was performing in three different bands, spending every free moment listening to music, and every occupied moment day dreaming of rock superstardom. While those dreams are gone, and not greatly missed, I do miss being on stage and rocking out with good buds. As a fun way to re-live and remember the rush of rocking out I put together the above video " For the Record: A History of Eight Miles Out. " Today my musical endeavors are quite different; I write kids songs for a small childrens program  , I score documentaries , and write upbeat tunes for the travel show I produce . So while I may be out of the race, I haven't completely given up the game.

I am a huge Google fanboy. I use Youtube, Google Reader, Picasa, Maps, Analytics, Gmail, Calendar, Tasks, Bookmarks, Documents, Buzz, G+, and I have an Android phone. All that and most recently I started using Google Music - and like the rest of their products - gMusic just owns. Back in College I lived and breathed music. That's me dancing on stage at a Dismemberment Plan show right before they broke up. I went to more concerts, bought more cds and messed around with the "scene" more than any one person should. I was obsessed with finding cool new tunes and I didn't care what genre they fit into as long as they were awesome. To say those days have passed is an under statement. I haven't bought tickets to a concert in probably 5 years, I spend close to no time searching out new music, and me and the scene? Ha! Well there is no way Google Music can restore all of that but damn if it hasn't brought back my love for little known (at least to me) music

So I'm rewatching everyone's favorite Batman film " the Dark Knight ." It's always been hard for me to enjoy this film because I have a hard time letting go of the logical and practical when it comes to films that want us to take them seriously. The Dark Knight is neither logical or practical. It is cool but in no way could any of this crap have happened as the Joker planned. I could go over it or I could let another lover of all things logical tell you. Here is Gregg Easterbrook's one paragraph review written back in 2009: "During training camp, Jon Gruden canceled an August afternoon practice so the team could go see "The Dark Knight." That harks back to Gruden's youthful days -- let's blow off practice and go see a movie! The latest Batman installment is a hit, and well-made from a cinematography standpoint, but the Joker character was unrealism carried to an extreme, even by Hollywood's low standards. The Joker has hundreds of

More awesome fan posters on Posterspy.com For being the smartest man alive Eddie Morra is an idiot, or at least the people who wrote him are. If you haven't seen this film here's the quick and dirty; loser Eddie Morra is given a drug that gives him super smarts and he uses it to help some random company make millions, along the way some bad stuff happens. The problem with all that bad stuff is none of it needed to happen and I'm pretty sure a man with the IQ of Eddie Murra wouldn't have allowed any of it to occur or even take a path that presents them as possible. See the hook point in the movie is Eddie's first use of super drug NZT, he cleans his apartment, writes the first part of his novel and it wears off. So of course he's instantly hooked, and like all drug addicts, he goes to get more. As soon as he takes his next pill he should realize, "Damn, I have a supply issue here. I need to figure out how to either develop this myself or find out

Almost 13 years ago I went to Philmont Scout Ranch with a group of my friends. My Dad and I brought along a video camera. We shot close to 4 hours of footage... and a lot of it was unwatchable. After a few years of letting those tapes collect dust I finally decided to edit it down so I could give my friends the video we shot instead of 4 hours of rambling video. So two years ago I chopped it up, got it all complete and did nothing with it. I wanted to screen it with all the guys collected. Sadly there wasn't a time that worked for everybody that summer and  I put the project on hold. Well I'm tired of waiting for the right moment. I've posted the entire thing on youtube . 98 minutes. I loved that adventure and hope to go back some day if one of my children get the outdoors bug. If you want to grab a bag of popcorn and watch... here you go! Philmont Teaser Philmont Trailer Philmont | 1998 Expedition of Troop 78 If you would like a DVD copy of our Philmont adv

Before you read this post, watch this documentary trailer. I see a lot of films. Most I see in my personal time are good, the films I see for work can be a coin flip, and sometimes I see a film that is straight up inspiring; such is the case with To Catch a Dollar . To Catch a Dollar  details the work of Grameen Bank , a non-profit microloan institution that started in Bangladesh 34 years ago and recently has founds it way to the states. It's an amazing idea. Something my Dad turned me onto this past Thanksgiving with Kiva.org , another microloan operation that utilizes the generosity of websurfers to fund loans. This is Hannah Wairimu Waruir, a Kenyan woman I recently helped  buy a dairy cow, chaff cutter and animal feed  through a Kiva loan: Kiva ask lenders for $25 loans to help borrowers reach their loan goal; Hannah's was $925. Eventually I'll get my 25 bucks back, I can cash out, or re-lend. Lenders can make as many $25 loans as they want. I think it

Web Czar. Doesn't that just sound awesome? I like it more than Webmaster because its silly, unique, and I most definitely not a master of anything. I am however responsible for the redesign of CRI's website. When I started at CRI I said I would rework the CRI website to have more content and be more interactive. The original website was just a video player and two links... It was sad. Well my first redesign certainly had more content but not truly interactive. Well CRIWMPENNU.org v3.0 (now thankfully shrunked down to CRItv.org) is a great step into the interactive world. There's commenting, rating, searching, blogs, polls, RSS feeds, the feasibility to update on a daily basis. I really dig it. I have only tackled the CRI Weekly News portion of the website but soon enough I will be giving the same work over on One Day Getaway, the Kids Show, Oskaloosa Sports Pulse, and Oskaloosa Today. All in good time buddies, all in good time.

This year I have picked up a new responsibility at work; Co-Producing the CRI travel show " One Day Getaway " with the show's host A.J. Hodgeman (of PB & AJ fame). I'm pretty excited. Last June, I started Co-Producing on a interim basis while the show's former producer, Jacob Rosdail, was working on a documentary project that will air next month on Iowa Public Television.  In the 7 month window where I was filling in we went to Principal Park, Dubuque, Adventureland, Winterset, and filmed a special Halloween episode. This year we've already got a Marshalltown episode in the bag and over the weekend we ran up to Cedar Falls to film. I'm pretty excited for all of our plans. For the show I've written a ton of original tunes, come up with some silly bits, and most recently re-did all of the graphics for the show. There's a new intro & outro, lower third identifier graphics, and transitions. Check em out: We also have a plan to start

Goodbye Duckies, t'was a fun holiday season. The presents, the yums, the family... I love the holiday season. Maybe my favorite part of the year ending is year in review shows. We did one at work for news stories and one for our movie reviews; the 2010 CRI Film Review Extravaganza . I'm pretty proud of the Extravaganza, I made all the graphics and wrote a good portion of the script. The sad part about it is we only review movies that come to Oskaloosa's Penn Centre Theater. So considering I can't review everything for CRI, I decided to take to the Blogosphere with my favorites of the year. So without further adieu... P@'s Top 10 Films of 2010 (that I've seen) #1 - Black Swan Such a head trip. Loved the acting, the cinematography, the twists... Darren Aronofsky returned to what I deem his "General Sherman" style of direction (in the civil war Sherman pretty much won the war by destroying every little thing in his path