Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Saw this super sweet “Succulent Wheelbarrow” at Sal’s Paradise this morning. It looked like the work of Fluid Bloom and a quick text message to the owner confirmed that it was. I think it’s awesome that a flower shop can have a recognizable signature style.

With Mother’s Day (May 12) right around the corner I highly suggest checking out Fluid Bloom. They’re in downtown SLO on the corner of Chorro and Pismo and can be reached at 805.784.0415.

Support local!

- Jeff

This is a little beat I came up with on the Kaossilator 2 for my Kickstarter project, The Puzzle Painting. For the actual video I added a couple of silly sound effects that were also made with the Kaossilator 2.

I’m no musician, but I love these Korg products because they let me pretend to be one.

Also, “Kickstarter Beat” is free for your personal use under Creative Commons License. That means I allow you to download it for non-commercial use as long as you give me credit by linking to my site, www.jeffclaassen.com. I would be stoked to hear some of you use this with your own work…sing a song over it, tweak it a bit, mash it up and have fun with it. Oh yeah, and send me a link to it so I can check it out.

Thanks!
- Jeff

Hello Everybody!

In case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been you need not worry. I am alive. And my eyeballs are bleeding, but that’s only because I’ve been glued to the computer screen and the iPad screen. At the same time. I am finally learning how to use Adobe Premiere for editing videos. Learning this has been something I’ve wanted to do for awhile, but I was finally encouraged to take the leap once my friend, Brian, told me about lynda.com. If you don’t know about Lynda I highly suggest taking a look at it. It is basically a site with 100′s of courses you can take to learn all sorts of things from 3D animation to photography to web design and a plethora of other things. They have a free 7 day trail that I’m taking advantage of right now, but I would totally pay for the service. After all, knowledge is great. I’ve taught myself Photoshop and Dreamweaver through a book, but that’s nothing at all compared to watching training videos. The videos are way better. Also, Lynda has a great app, so if you have an iPad you can watch the video on that while running the program on your computer, which is working out great for me since I have a laptop and not one of those 300″ computer monitors. Anyway, the course I’m going through is comprised of about 7 hours of videos, but they take me a little longer to get through because I’m doing every step on my computer as I watch and I have to rewind a lot to catch all the steps. It’s a lot of information to learn in a short period of time, but the program is a lot less like a foreign language to me now.

So, that’s where I’ve been.
I’ll be back soon.

- Jeff

Coral and I just ate dinner at The Raven Cafe. We ate upstairs and outside and watched the sun go down. The grandparents have the kids and have given us the opportunity to have a date night while we’re here in Prescott. I guess the “date” part is over because we’ve moved inside, grabbed our computers from the car, ordered hot cocoa’s and I’m typing this post as Coral edits photos. We’re also sharing a blueberry mousse. Actually, I haven’t had a bite of it yet. Coral may or may not be hogging it. You be the judge. Ok, I just had a bite and Coral can have the rest of it. Anyway…

This place is awesome. Great food. Great drinks. Free wifi. If you ever find yourself in Prescott I suggest you put The Raven Cafe on your “places to check out” list.

Oh, they also play great music. What music you ask? Well, they’re playing Arcade Fire right now, which means I don’t even have to put on my headphones to rock my favorite Pandora station.

See ya!
- Jeff

This is awesome.

This came on my Kid Cudi Pandora station just now.

And my first thought was “thumbs down”, which I ended up not doing because I am totally down with hammer time. My second thought was, “So, there is only one song on the whole album?”

I can’t stop looking at these awesome photographs by Corrie White.

This one is probably my most favorite. She has a lot more to look at on her site Liquid Drop Art.

I feel so much better now. When I ran the mile last week it took 10 minutes, which I thought was pathetic. Last night I ran it in under 8. If I can get this down to the 7 minute range I’ll feel super fancy. Although, I should probably increase my run to more than just a mile.

Last night James and Evy wanted to run with me and I thought running through the streets of SLO with a 10 and 12 year old wasn’t the smartest idea, so we drove to the Cal Poly track. Personally, I like running on the track. I wouldn’t say I like it more than running on the street, but it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s certainly the way to run if you’re taking a couple of kids with you that run slower than you do.

Oh yeah, this time my calf muscles didn’t hurt at all. I can actually walk today as opposed to the old man hobble I was doing after my last run.

See ya!
- Jeff

It’s been a few years since I went running. As in, on purpose and for “fun”. The last time I went running it took me eight minutes to run one mile. That wasn’t too bad, I thought.

Last night I decided to go for a little run. I wanted to see how long it would take me to run one mile. Here’s how that turned out.

Yes, ten minutes. That’s pathetic! I’m at the age now where I can begin proclamations with “twenty years ago” and it doesn’t mean I was in diapers. It actually means I was a teenager. Here, I’ll do it now for emphasis. Twenty years ago I could run a mile in seven minutes. There is a vague hazy memory in my brain trying to tell me that I might have run a mile in six minutes and forty seconds, but I have no way to verify this.

Why did I decide to go running? It’s easy exercise. Easy in the way that it’s free to do and you can literally walk out your front door and start running. And that’s exactly what I did. Also, I’ve become obsessed with my feet since picking up a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. I’ve worn them just about every day since buying them two and half weeks ago and I figured it’s time to put them to use in the way they were intended. Plus, the Nike Running app turns running into a game. And games are fun.

In my foot research I’ve learned that I’m a heel striker. Most of us are, actually. Being a heel striker is bad because it causes bad posture as well as back pain. Take a look at these videos for a better understanding between heel striking and forefoot striking.

Heel Strike
This YouTube user doesn’t allow embedding of his videos so use this link to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuBLkKnNKm4&feature=share&list=ULwuBLkKnNKm4

Forefoot Strike
Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2C90lGgAxY&feature=share&list=ULi2C90lGgAxY

Since wearing the Vibram’s as my every day shoe I’ve been consciously avoiding walking as a heel striker. Within two days of walking as a forefoot striker I could feel my calf muscles getting a little workout. They were a little sore. Nothing uncomfortable, but I could feel that I was now using muscles that normally don’t get much use. That’s good, I thought, use those muscles. Last night was my first run and I made sure to land on my forefoot and my calf muscles have been sore all day today. ALL DAY. Even now, twenty eight hours later. Keep in mind, I only ran for ten minutes.

What does all this mean? I think it means my body misses high school P.E. After all, it’s been twenty years.

Last November I wrote a 50,000 word novel. That’s 1,667 words a day for the entire month. Sadly, I haven’t done anything with it yet. In fact, I haven’t even read it. There have been a few attempts, but I hold back because as soon as I start reading I want to start editing and fine tuning and doing all of those things to make it a completed work. Anyway, writing a novel was something I had wanted to do for a long time and Nanowrimo was the perfect thing to help me accomplish that goal.

As November approached this year I couldn’t help but think of all those hours I spent drinking hot cocoa and typing in a secluded corner of a coffee shop or the early morning writing sessions at home while everybody was still sleeping or typing a couple of paragraphs on my phone sitting in the parked car while Coral navigated through the grocery store with a four month old baby strapped into a frontpack. There was a part of me that almost wanted to do it all over again, but I couldn’t allow myself to start that kind of project while my first novel has yet to be edited and finished. That would just be silly. However, I realized that I now associate this month with writing (duh) as well as setting and accomplishing a goal.

Elliott, one year ago.

Although I am not participating in Nanowrimo this year I came up with my own goal for the month. Write one blog post a day for the entire month. That’s thirty blog posts. I should have mentioned this goal before November started so some of you could join in on the fun with me. I haven’t set up any rules for this goal. It’s just to simply post at least one thing every day.

I hope you enjoy the ride.
See you tomorrow!
- Jeff