Phaiku.com Video Podcast

I am pleased to announce the new Phaiku.com Video Podcast is available:



http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=315516990 (launches in iTunes)

Each episode is a 20 - 30 second video featuring a Picture, Music & accompanying Haiku from Phaiku.com

http://www.phaiku.com

First Episode Preview:

My Article Featured on Intent.com

My article "Life Lessons from a 2 Year Old" is one of the featured stories on Intent.com today: http://www.intent.com

Original post: "7 Life Lessons from a 2 Year Old"

New Phaiku: "Top Bell Tower Bongs"

New Phaiku: "Top Bell Tower Bongs"

My Latest Project: "Sunshine Pie"

"Sunshine Pie"

* "How to Enjoy Sunshine" is a blog dedicated to achieving the continuous feeling of "It's great to be alive!" by enlightening everyday moments, such as enjoying a cup of coffee.

The Objective

All too often, we give all of our positive attention to the big moments in life, like a big presentation or that all important interview.

As we are constantly looking toward the future, our little, everyday moments, like enjoying a cup of coffee, get pushed aside with thoughts like "I don't have time for this" or "I really should be doing something more important".

But our lives are made up of so many more little moments than big moments. Probably around 98% more. So by losing out on the everyday moments, we are losing out on 98% of our lives.

So by exploring & shining some sun on these little, everyday moments, one by one, we can all find a slice of everyday enlightenment.

Please subscribe to the email or RSS feed on the site :)

"Sunshine Pie"

My New Haiku & Photography Website Project

Phaiku.com

The Concept

I created Phaiku.com as a means to showcase personal photography in an interesting style. The word "Phaiku" is a combination of the words Picture & Haiku. It is simply a photograph with an attached Haiku.

I believe that by attaching a poem to a photo, all of a sudden, the photo takes on a new energy. It takes on a purpose and is given a new dimension to which people can relate & invest themselves.

Through Phaiku.com, my personal goal is to bring a brief smile to a long face or a moment of stillness to a rushing world. I hope you find whatever you are looking for in the phaiku of phaiku.com :)

The Inspiration

One day, as I was reading a Japanese Green Tea bottle, and I noticed a simple haiku written on the side. In that moment it occurred to me- it would be pretty cool to combine a haiku with a photograph!... And wha-la... Picture Haiku was created! In other words, "P"Haiku.

The Photographs

So far, I have posted some photos from vacations or outings. I snapped these shots in moments of personal inspiration. True gems.

The Haikus

In 6th grade Reading class, we had the assignment of writing haikus and posting them on the walls around the classroom. I still remember that day well. So when I noticed the haiku printed on the Japanese Green Tea bottle, it brought me back to that moment, and I rediscovered my fondness for the simple, yet dynamic, 5-7-5 syllable format haiku.

Phaiku.com

"The Pheasant": First Animated Short - Circa 1994

In my 10th grade English class, we had an assignment to write a paper about anything we were passionate about & put together a presentation to give to the class.

I knew at that moment exactly what I subject I wanted to write about, Animation! I wanted to know how the pros did it! I wanted to learn the path! And for my presentation...I believed, like I believed, like I believed that I could actually produce an animated cartoon! And the best part, I had a built in audience!!!

A few weeks prior, our English teacher told us a personal story about hitting a pheasant. As I was thinking about a storyline for my cartoon presentation, it immediately clicked that our English teacher’s pheasant story would make the perfect cartoon. Everyone in the class was familiar with the story already and best of all it made fun of the teacher!!!

So pinning drawings to my bedroom wall, and setting up my father's camcorder on a tripod, I carefully filmed each frame by recording each drawing for one second each, and repeating the process until all drawings were in perfect sequence.

I recruited by little sister to be the voice of my English teacher (Looking back, what a great acting job my sister put together!)

After merging the audio and the video, I had in my very proud hands, my very first cartoon on a shiny new VHS tape.

That presentation day came, and I thought of it as a mini premier for this film I had worked so hard to put together. I wheeled in the school’s VCR/TV unit for that 8am English class. With my fellow classmates excited to watch the presentation, I nervously hit the bulky play button on the VCR. The cartoon rolled.

As I watched everyone's reactions, my eyes glowed as classmates chuckled and smiled at all the best parts. They were really into it!

I hit the red stop button and my classmates immediately roared with cheers! One student, Ali, loudly exclaimed that she wanted me to play it again! So I rewound the tape and hit play for the encore!

I was amazed that later that day, classmates were stopping me in the halls to tell me how much they loved the cartoon!

Now, for the first time since 1994, "The Pheasant" will be publicly released!

Barack Obama Political Cartoon: "Once-in-a-Lifetime-Leader"

The idea for this sketch came to me as I was listening to one of Barack Obama’s victory speeches on CNN, and I truly started to appreciate Barack Obama’s powerful leadership capability. These speeches were certainly much, much more than eloquent words. His passion and genuineness shined though with every commanding sentence. I knew at that moment, Barack Obama truly has the gift to unify this nation.



Barack Obama’s jam-packed rallies reminded me of movie scenes where a legendary leader would stand on the battlefield in front of his army of thousands, and through his powerful message of hope, would inspire his people to believe.



I pictured Barack Obama 2500 years ago leading the Spartans, or 2000 years ago commanding Caesar’s army, or 800 years ago calling for Freedom in Scotland. All of these images rang true to me. I could imagine Barack Obama as each of those Leaders in History.



So a few weeks later, when Gov. Bill Richardson endorsed Obama as a “Once-in-a-Lifetime-Leader”, I completely understood & agreed, and thought to myself that his remark would perfectly sum up the sketch I had in my head.



Full Obama Iowa Victory Speech Video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yqoFwZUp5vc

Gov. Bill Richardson Endorsement Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y62jhStuawA

Aquatica - SeaWorld's Waterpark - February 2008

This is the Dolphin tank (yes, those are dolphins!) at Aquatica, SeaWorld's new waterpark in Orlando, FL. I had an opportunity to visit this park last weekend.

During high school, I worked at another Anheuser-Busch Waterpark, Sesame Place, outside of Philadelphia. So getting back into the waterslide mindset was like a blast from the past. I recalled the old "professional slider" techniques...like removing any t-shirts that can slow you down, and arching your back so your butt doesn't drag on the slide.



This video shows the clear, see-thru, water slide tube that slides underwater through this dolphin tank. The clear part is very short and rushes by very quickly.

After being in the dark part of the slide for a while, your eyes have a hard time adjusting once you do hit the clear part.

As you can see in the video, these are the 2 waterslides (side by side tubes) that pass through the pool.

Most of the dolphin tank (where the dolphins swim) is on the left sie of the 2 tubes, so anyone sliding on the right tube can't see the dolphins because the other tube is in the way. So when you are standing at the top of the water slide, I highly recommend the left side (that's the side that can see the dolphin's while you are passing through the pool.)

"Fired Up & Ready to Go" - Obama Cartoon

Episode Title: "Fired Up & Ready to Go"



This short clip is my commentary on the new, emerging political strategies. As a somewhat young person, I think it is great that Barack is finding new avenues to get out his message to younger voters. Barack really seems to be leading the way in terms of establishing an *authentic* internet campaign.

I was reading an online article the other day about how Obama was able to secure voters across many young demographics by sending text messages to potential voters. Immediately, I thought that would be a great topic for an animated clip, using my characters from Captain Corporate America!

Then a few days later, I was watching a news program and they were explaining how Barack was really getting through to young people by offering special Obama ringtones for their cell phones. I thought that concept would be even better using my characters! So putting together a quick animation and adding a short sound byte, I managed to produce this clip animated clip. Enjoy!

(Update March 3, 2008)

There have been some people say "I don't get it." So I wanted to take a moment and say a few more words about the cartoon:

It is just a simple observation that Obama has been very successful in getting younger voters excited about the political process.

Due to Barack's website, many young voters are mixing politics into their social lives...enough to download Barack's voice as a ringtone. That's pretty much the gist of it!

(End of Update)

Below you will find the .jpg image version (Click on the image to get the sharing information):