billyd.net

Exclusive Preview of the Cloverfield Sequel People don’t...

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:16:00 -0400

Exclusive Preview of the Cloverfield Sequel

People don’t know this but my uncle is directing the untitled Cloverfield sequel. Despite the rumors, it’s actually a prequel that takes place 9 years before the original. It stars my little cousin Tyler, and was shot in J. J. Abrams’ hometown of Pacific Palisades, CA.

I’ve managed to steal an exclusive scene from the film, which I’ve embedded above. Enjoy.

“Sure stranger, you can mug me. But you’re going to have...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:49:00 -0400

“Sure stranger, you can mug me. But you’re going to have to untangle me first, and I’m VERY ticklish.”

(photo by cdevroe)

Unsent Pretentious Emails, Part I

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:30:18 -0400

I was cleaning out some old stuff in my email’s drafts folder when I realized something: I’m about two ounces of confidence away from being a total asshole. Which is right around where you want to be as far as I’m concerned.

I found this email that I wrote to an old professor of mine. I was assigned to write a ten page paper, which is normally nothing worth getting worked up about. The difference in this situation was that I was assigned to write a ten page paper with a partner, which is about zero ounces away from being full-blown retarded.

So I wrote the following email to my professor:

As of this afternoon I’ve received nearly 30 emails from students looking for partners for the media critique project. I’ve yet to respond to any them, but if I want to find someone to work with, I’ll either have to send my own spammy email blast to the entire class, or bite someone else’s bait. I’m very hesitant to do this because it is my firm belief that good writing—especially writing that’s as opinion-driven as a critique is—has a strong singular voice. There are many accomplished writing duos in the world of non-fiction and academia, but these are generally like-minded people who have spent long periods of time developing a unified and cohesive thesis, not students who met after one of them emailed their entire class to say, “yo i need a writing partner for class i don’t care what film you wanna do its whatevs to me lol.”

I’m sure this is an assignment you’ve been doing this way for a long time, and I’m sure plenty of quality papers have been produced in previous classes. Unfortunately, as someone who has been involved with far too many “group” projects, I have this bit of behind-the scenes insight to share with you: the majority of those papers were written by one person.

The first example paper you posted, for instance, contains technical errors that are consistent throughout the entire paper, suggesting that it was mostly constructed by one individual. In American English we always put commas and periods inside quotation marks, without exception. Either that paper was written by one person, or it was written by two British people. Similar examples can be found throughout the rest of the paper. For instance, both the MLA and APA style guides say to italicize film titles. Some older versions the MLA guidelines say it is okay to italicize or underline movie titles, but neither MLA or APA say it’s acceptable to put a film title in quotations, let alone put it in quotations and italicize it. This error is made consistently throughout the paper, and is one that I cannot attribute to both the authors being limey bastards.

I’m super protective of creative work that gets handed in with my name on it, and I know I’ll inevitably end up writing—or, at best, rewriting—the majority of whatever I were to work on with a partner. Since I live an 80-minute train ride away from campus, I’d really prefer to not have to deal with all the minutiae of coordinating a bunch of group work that I’d just end up doing the majority of myself. I realize that the assignment says we must have a partner, but is there any way I could bypass the BS and take sole credit for my work? Either way I’m going to be writing it on my own.

With love,

William Lawrence Disney

The email was never sent, and I ended up finding a partner. The paper sucked but we got an A anyways, because my teacher’s a big dummy.

Viddler Business profile: Gamervision I’m happy to...

Fri, 21 May 2010 19:15:00 -0400

Viddler Business profile: Gamervision

I’m happy to say that I’ll be starting full-time at Viddler on Monday. One of the more exciting projects I’ll be doing involves hopping around to make video profiles of their various business customers. Embeded/linked above is the first video in this series—a profile of Gamervision—that I put together with the help of Jordan Oplinger. Super fun group of people over there at Gamervision. Excited to see who will be next.

Viddler: “I Love You” - Cementerio de San...

Fri, 21 May 2010 18:35:00 -0400

Viddler: “I Love You” - Cementerio de San Juan

Just got back from a lovely trip to Puerto Rico with Caitlin. The co-op she was assigned to for student teaching has a house there, and we were graciously invited to stay at it. We left just two days after I graduated, ‘cause I don’t take days off, I just take off in planes. Yamtalkinbout?

Anyways, this video pretty much sums up our relationship.

I’m gunning for you, tits mcgee. (Game link via...

Fri, 07 May 2010 14:02:15 -0400

I’m gunning for you, tits mcgee. (Game link via puffalump.)

Viddler: Push It Continuing my obsession with...

Fri, 07 May 2010 04:40:00 -0400

Viddler: Push It

Continuing my obsession with pregnancy, I wrote this skit and did the stage direction for it as part of Temple Smash. Temple Smash is a student-produced variety show that’s shot and broadcast live in front of a studio audience. Be sure to check out the whole episode—hosted by Tyler Grady—at templesmash.com.

A big thanks to my actors and all the lovely Temple Smash people who make that thing happen. It was a total blast to be part of.

Viddler: MeToday 5/6/10: Graduating, Ranting, and...

Thu, 06 May 2010 22:32:00 -0400

Viddler: MeToday 5/6/10: Graduating, Ranting, and Panting

I’m slowly trying to revive the art of the MeToday over at Viddler. You should join in, it’s fun stuff.

My iMac hiccuped twice towards the end of this recording. Don’t worry though, I’m sure you didn’t miss anything important. Or did you? I guess you’ll never know.

I forgot how charming eBay can be. (Click to enlarge.)

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:11:00 -0400

I forgot how charming eBay can be. (Click to enlarge.)

Oh, you play guitar? You think you’re so cool,...

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:48:00 -0500

Oh, you play guitar? You think you’re so cool, don’t you? Well when was the last time you pooped out something white? Better yet, when’s the last time you pooped out something white that was hard, spherical, and had an unborn baby in it?

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Finches win.

via jrk

Viddler: Proper Snow Running Technique With the horrible...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:25:00 -0500

Viddler: Proper Snow Running Technique

With the horrible road conditions, this is how I got to my classes today.

paulscheer: WEATHERMAN FREAKS OUT about this weekend’s...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:41:00 -0500

paulscheer:

WEATHERMAN FREAKS OUT about this weekend’s Snowstorm

(Via HuffPo)

I’ve watched the video forecasts on AccuWeather.com before, and I’ve always wondered how the on-camera personalities stay entertained. They clearly just stand in front of a green screen and do a bajillion cities in a row. That has to get extremely boring after a few takes, right? Well, my friends, meteorologist Jim Kosek has found the cure for that boredom: pure insanity.

The Rhyme-As-Reason Effect

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:17:00 -0500

Drake Bennett on “cognitive fluency”:

Matthew McGlone, a psychologist at the University of Texas, has found that auditory cues can shape people’s perception of truth. McGlone did a study in which he presented subjects with a series of unfamiliar aphorisms either in rhyming or nonrhyming form: “Woes unite foes,” for example, versus “Woes unite enemies.” He found that people tended to see the rhyming ones as more accurate than the nonrhyming ones, despite the fact that, substantively, the two were identical.

(via Give Me Something To Read)

Oh, fun! Let me try:

Fallacy: People only liked E.T. because he ate Reese’s Pieces. If he was into eating poop, it’d be a totally different story.

Truth: E.T. had our sympathy because he liked our Reese’s Pieces. Things would happen differently if he liked to eat our feces.

I’m convinced.

Sorry to ruin the surprise, sweetheart.

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:20:58 -0500

Sorry to ruin the surprise, sweetheart.

Just for clarification, the following lyrics are the chorus,...

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:53:00 -0500

Just for clarification, the following lyrics are the chorus, right?

Yo don’t eat up my burrito!
Yo don’t eat up my taquito!
Yo don’t eat up my Dorito!

azizisbored:

If I see a chubby little kid in the YouTube still frame, you best believe that shit is getting reblogged.

nickkroll:

someone: hey nick, what would most likely make your brain explode?
me: oh, probably that Mini Daddy video.
robhuebel:

(via Robyn Von Swank)

twentynot2000.com You have less than 2 days to get this right,...

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:02:13 -0500

twentynot2000.com

You have less than 2 days to get this right, people. After that, no excuses.
(via Jamie Lottering)

A friendly reminder to any of my friends who might be driving in...

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:40:00 -0500

A friendly reminder to any of my friends who might be driving in the next few days. A reminder to bring a video camera, that is.

Oh and be careful. That too.

misseffieb: Worst. Infographic. Ever. I swear this is real....

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:23:27 -0500

misseffieb:

Worst. Infographic. Ever. I swear this is real. For shame, AccuWeather.com

(click for “story”)

Thanks EffingBoring, I was actually just looking for the perfect map to add to my on-going snowpocalypse MMS thread.

rocketboom: Student brings typewriter to class This made my...

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:14:47 -0500

rocketboom:

Student brings typewriter to class

This made my week of finals a little brighter. Perfectly executed, too.

This is my lady. I love her with all my heart. There are...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:23:00 -0500

This is my lady. I love her with all my heart. There are things about us that are different. Very different. But I love her for the person she is. We don’t love each other based on our respective tastes (I don’t mean actual, physical taste, I mean culture-wise, asshole), or because of each other’s accomplishments. We admire each other, we learn from each other, and we are constantly trying to make each other’s day brighter. That’s been the formula for my sanity and joviality for the past seven and a half years, and hopefully it will remain that way for a long time to come.

I’ve lucked out in so many ways, but all I want to say is this:
Don’t spend your life looking for a girl/guy that likes The Smiths as much as you do. Spend it finding a person whom you can make smile, and whose smile radiates waves that exterminate the suck in your life.