Yesterday, Facebook launched Facebook Stories where you can share your Facebook story. Your story can be an individual one or an experience with several people, but nevertheless it’s (assumed) a good story that you can choose to share on stories.facebook.com. (Keep in mind that Facebook reserves the right to use your story in any way they choose, short of exploiting you via your submitted content. Just FYI.) But yeah, it’s great! lol
I shared mine today and hope that you will too. Click the stories link (above) to add your story. You can read what I wrote or click the image below the quote.
I am an enlisted Future Soldier preparing to leave for Army Basic Combat Training in August 2010. Shortly after enlisting I felt a bit disconnected on my new journey into the military. But after creating a Facebook page I have been able to connect, share ideas and get feedback from people in the same shoes, so to speak and has made my experience so much more unique. Thanks! http://facebook.com/godavidstrong
Here is Mark Zuckerberg speaking on the new release.
I have been quite busy preparing for a rather important and big change in my life. I will get right to the point and move on from there: I enlisted into the Army Reserve in February of this year and I will be leaving for Army Basic Combat training in early August. So obviously that means that this blog will be silent, once again, for a period of about four months give or take. You probably won’t see a solid post from me until some time after mid-December. But I hope that I’ll be able to get to a computer, if not my own computer to say what’s up. My Facebook and Army Journal will be the most reliable sources of news from me.
“David, why did you join the Army?!”
Frankly it’s a very long story that you are welcome to learn about in the video at the bottom of this post. For now I thought I’d just come forward on here and let people know that may happen to frequently pop by my blog every so often. I welcome you to follow my journey and perhaps keep an eye out for what I’ll be up to as I go from “Civilian to Soldier”. I go by my full name David Moore and an alias: godavidstrong (Go David Strong as in the Army slogan to go “Army Strong”). If you really want to know more or speak with me for any other reason, you’re more than welcome to email me at godavidstrong@gmail.com.
For now you can still expect more posts from me between now and August.
I think this Droid X commercial ad is awesome! Honestly, I’ve never really been impressed with Apple’s subtle, dry ads. I may stand alone on this as my fellow Appple fanboys and girls gasp and suck the air off the planet. But behold, it’s true. I’m rarely impressed by ads Apple puts out. Droid on the other hand is totally awesome!
With the awesome reception that Smule has received for Ocarino, Zypher and Magic Piano to name a few, it’s no surprise to see more companies pop up with their own virtual instruments. Jordan Ruddess (below) launched a virtual musical instrument company called Wizdom Music (MorphWiz), that develops apps for the iPhone and iPad and has released one called MorphWiz, which has become very popular since it’s initial release.
This is a product that is packed with very diverse tone manipulation features that demonstrate it’s purpose, providing one with a modern musical instrument in a new form; the virtual instrument. For example, you can change the sound wave velocity, adjust the finger vibrato, adjust the attack, set the scale, adjust sound delay, record performances on the mobile device, just to name a few of the details within this app. Frankly, a classically trained musician or composer would have to be impressed and get a total kick out of using MorphWiz.
Here is Ruddess playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on an iPad:
While granted electronic instruments isn’t a new concept, the difference lies in the elimination of a kinesthetic manipulation of physical keys, strings, holes, or what have you, apart form tapping, swiping, and pinching a glass surface. More importantly, these virtual instruments are now more widely available and attractive to a diverse consumer base of mostly non-musicians. The great thing about apps like MorphWiz is that advanced music theory knowledge isn’t really required to indulge in instant music making–assuming of course one shelled out the money for any one or all of the Apple touch platforms.
MorphWiz is a both an expressive musical instrument and an exciting visual experience. Created by Jordan Rudess and Kevin Chartier, MorphWiz is enjoyable for beginners and seasoned musicians alike. It contains over 50 presets programmed by the wizard himself, Jordan Rudess, to allow for an instantly musical experience from the moment the application is first opened. For more experienced users, a wide array of synthesis, effects, and visual options allow the instrument to be precisely configured to the user’s tastes.
I counted 82 presets to be exact, among which my favorites were “Aliens R Us”, “An Asian Way” with it’s cool pentatonic (five tone) scale and fancy sounds, and lastly “Space Tilt”. There were more, but that would amount to a very long list. Here are some screen shots below of the apps user interface.
I had a chance to play around with MorphWiz prior to writing this post thanks to Jordan’s publicist, Christopher Buttner, president of PRThatRocks.com. I will likely do a video review of the app later this week along with some other apps I want to review. MorphWiz costs $9.99 in the app store and you can download it here.
Brief info about Jordan Ruddess
Jordan Rudess is the keyboardest for the successful rockband Dream Theater, who are currently touring and opening for Iron Maiden. Check them out on their site and myspace page. By the way, I like their song “Wither”. Check it below the photo.
I received my copy of Sidney Lo’s book “Taking Pictures of People Who Take Pictures of Themselves” and I am very happy about it (I blogged about this earlier here). I love good photography and I love street fashion, and it just so happens that there is a lot of great fashion (of my taste) in his book. Just fyi, I purchased this book at $40 with the first $50 that this blog has brought in for me. I mean I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from PayPal about the amount of ad revenue I’d earned. So buying Sidney’s book was a nice treat to myself.
Before I go any further, one might ask how this is relevant content for this blog. It’s probably a stretch, but Hulu.com is an awesome blend of web technology, social media and televised content in light of the growing demand for great DIY video content on the web. To see people pooling and recruiting talent discovered online is fascinating. This is a prime example of web culture. Don’t you agree? Move right along…
This is a bit late, but The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers debuted on Hulu.com on July 7th. Just prior to the debut Paul Dateh recently announced on his blog that his music will be featured in the 10th Chapter “I Seen A Man”. Keep a lookout for this. I happen to like Paul’s music and think you should check it out. His sound and combined talents are certainly unique and worth good attention.
Coming back to The LXD, I watched the first episode and…it’s different. It’s a unique blend of Heroes meets America’s Best Dance Crew. If you’ve seen any part of the first season of Heroes, then you will clearly get that vibe from The LXD. It’s very interesting. Check it out in the link above.
Visit Paul’s website, pauldateh.com and also watch this cool mashup he put out back in May. This video is so awesome! It gives me goosebumps, in a good way!! Also you just wanna get up and cut a rug, had me dancin’ in my seat at my computer. lol
Here are some screen shots below of the apps user interface.
