Nicknames Aren't My Thing

I'm not a very nicknamey person. I rarely ever coin a nickname for any of my friends, and nicknames given to me by other people don't stick and soon go out of use. If your name is Carl, I call you Carl; it never crosses my mind to start calling you The Stomp. I'm not against nicknames. I just can't get the hang of them.

My older sister used to call me Norny. I have been called Guppie, Glucose, and Rockstar, among others names. Some people still call me Zac Efron.

This week's video is self-explanatory. I believe we all do crazy things in front of the mirror, whether we admit to it or not. I admit to it unabashedly. In the video, I get carried away talking to myself and giving myself wacky nicknames. All of these nicknames were thought up on the spot; what came to my mind, I said. I had to splice it together to make it rapid and more interesting.

Here is a comprehensive list of the names used in the video:

Sleepyhead

Wet Face

Dump Breath

Nappy Noggin

The Gopher

Suaveness Itself

The Special One

Gratuitous Hotness

Monkey's Uncle

History

History Adams

A Distraction

The Masked Offender

The Official Jive

A Mystery for the Ages

Twiddle Thumbs

The Eccentric Baboon

The Playful Platypus

A Rambunctious and Wily Man

Harpoon Eyes

A Mystical Potion

The Uppity Doormat

A Way of Life

Toothbrush Smith

Diabolical

Petty Lampshade Thief

The Brute to End All Brutes

A Drop in the Bucket

Swifty

Muffin Nose

The Glorious Little Handkerchief Waver

The Ostentatious Cactus

Beet Red Barnum

Toothy Timerson

Midnight Ripcord

The Dark Side of Neptune

A Wallaby's Best Friend

Giggles

The Serendipitous Segue

Scrip Scrap

Back Pocket Brigadier

Swoop of the Eagle

The Successful Graft

A Mayan Wonder

A Sweet Surprise

A Political Fudgesicle

Mateo Mateo

Brick-a-Brack the Towel Rack

The Sagacious Sow

The Fated Swan

Hospital Hugo

AstroNOT

A Woven Blanket

Cretaceous Capsaicin

The Cat's Bark

Heckler of Dancelantis

The Reason Why

A Mistletoe Wish

Shah

Mickle-Mickle-Mickle

The Underside of a Barnacle

The Slithering Mosquito

Custodian of the Illuminati Dollhouse

Thunder Breath

Frank

The Scourge of the Land

The Scourge

Scourglicious

Ebenezer Scourge

The Good, the Bad, and the Scourge

The Scourge of the East

The Scourge of the Bathroom

Skiggity Scourge

King Scourge the Fourth

Scourageous

The Low-Fat Scourge

Street Scourgin'

The Scourge That Made You Blink

Sweet and Scourge

A Residual Scourge

Scourge on the Wall

Vitamin Scourge

Whew, that's a lot of nicknames. Fortunately, I don't have to go by all of them. Maybe I'll pick a new one from this list each month as my nickname of the month. People would get so confused.

Confused friend: "Wait, I thought you were Scourageous ..."

Me: "That was last month. Now I'm The Uppity Doormat."

Confused friend: "Can I just call you The Ridiculous Nickname?"

Me: "No."

Whoa! *dun DUN!*

DIY DOF

Do it yourself depth of field adapter.

There are many articles online detailing how to craft these, such as http://www.ehow.com/how_4748289_build-mm-depth-field-adapter.html

I've seen some examples of cheap DOF adapters on YouTube, and I wanted to try my own. I snagged a 35mm lens from my grandmother, who just happened to have one attached to a vintage-looking camera stashed away in her closet. I used a scrap of plastic grocery bag as my screen on which to project the image that comes through the lens. A few cardboard tubes and some duct tape later, I have a working prototype. It isn't very good quality, mind you, but this project for me was more of a proof of concept rather than a performance rig. I'm happy that I could achieve the results I did with only household materials.

The idea is to use a 35mm lens in front of a digital video camera to give the video a filmier look and feel and more depth of field (DOF). The lens inverts the image onto a screen (usually ground glass, but thin plastic in my case) which the camera is focused on. Since the image is recorded upside down, it must be flipped in post-production.

I had to perfectly space the lens from the grocery bag for the image to be clear. I kept shaving off bits from the end of the cardboard tube until it was exactly the right size. The tube is too narrow; a bright circle appears in the center of the image and the periphery is dark.

I rigged up a simple wooden base to steady the contraption. It looks pretty silly. I had fun making it. I had even more fun not spending hundreds of dollars.

Until next time,

Jordan