http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1unqhyVP3b4

My first split-screen movie idea was to do a fake duet and I figured I’d try to shoot it while my wife and son were out of town. I was also going to take the opportunity to cut my hair. But then I thought … why not try to combine those projects?

So I tried to come up with an idea that could leverage off the fact that I would look dramatically different in the two versions. And this is what I came up with. A few things I learned on this one:

• putting on make-up is hard!
• acting with an imaginary version of yourself is really hard
• it’s very nerve-wracking to have your two versions separated by a haircut because you can’t go back and reshoot the first one

http://youtu.be/UWtFsaqP9ug

A few months ago, I implemented the custom dice feature for my dice app, Mach Dice. It was intended for board game and role playing game enthusiasts to create custom dice for their games. But I thought there might be an audience for casual people to turn their photos into die without having to deal with the complexities of dice formulas, multiple boards, etc. And so the idea for Photo Dice was born.

You’d think it’d be an easy task to reduce a complicated app into something simpler, but quite a bit of thought went into deciding exactly what to leave out and how to make things more elegant.

If you’ve got an iOS device, check it out! It’s free on the iTunes store. (Note: there’s currently a bug with the In-App Purchase to remove ads but a fix has been submitted to Apple.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpLooeOzNdo

I have a bunch of ideas for short films. The problem is that it’s hard to find people willing to work on them. Also, it’s nearly impossible to find time to work on them what with a full time job, part time iPhone development hobby, and a kid. But then I got a hold of some editing software and had an idea, or three…

Some fun facts about the video:

• it’s a parody of Gottye’s video, Somebody That I Used to Know
• fingerpaint works well as body paint as it spreads well and is non-toxic
• but it still stings if it gets in your eyes

And yes, I am actually naked in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeqqETDnzHw

I’ve actually jumped off the cliff at South Point, Hawaii once before. It was over a decade ago during my first trip to Big Island. But back then I didn’t have a video camera.

I remember it being pretty terrifying back then, too. But even scarier? The climb back out of the water on a rickety, rusty ladder.

Also, we can use a bit of physics (x = x0 + v0 * t + 0.5 * a * t * t) to estimate how high the cliff is. In the video (which is 29.97 frames per second), I’m in freefall for roughly 44 frames or 1.468 seconds. So then the cliff is about 34.67 feet high.

Furthermore, we can calculate the speed at impact to be roughly 32.2 miles an hour. And I’ll tell you: at over 30 mph, water packs quite a punch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMafIsB0_G0

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I’m sorry we couldn’t be with you this year but here’s a cute video from Dyson to make up for it.

Saturday was May 5, which is widely celebrated in the US and parts of Mexico as Cinqo de Mayo (loosely translated as “Excuse to Drink Day”). But it’s also Kodomo No Hi in Japan (“Children’s Day”).

It’s a day set aside to celebrate the joys of children but mostly, it’s an excuse to put kids in cute Japanese outfits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLMh9UDyT3M
I got a chance to see an early screening of The Avengers and it was a blast! Here are just a few of the fun scenes from it (using only toys and no dialog to prevent spoilers).

This morning, we spotted a wasp inside the house. Tracy’s policy on wasps is, “live and let live … unless they come into the house, in which case their ass is mine.”

Except that I actually had to kill this one. And okay, sure, it looks innocuous enough in this picture but when you’re actually there, with only a few millimeters of cheap plastic between you and a godless killing machine … it’s terrifying.

Well, I’ll spare you the gruesome details but I will say that at the end, I felt sorry for the wasp. She couldn’t help what she was. But neither could I let her report back to the nest how she had gotten into our home.