Phil DeFranco Road Trip comes to Arizona! 5/29/09

So Phil DeFranco (sxephil on Youtube) arrived in Phoenix Arizona yesterday (5/29/09) and I was lucky enough to meet him and his lovely lady, Lindsey.

About 50+ people showed up at 5pm outside Chase Stadium. We all gathered together, made a line, and Phil went down the line greeting and visiting with everyone there until around 6:30pm when around half of us who had purchased tickets that Phil reserved beforehand went into the stadium and watched the D-backs vs Braves game.

I was lucky enough to sit right next to the man, the myth, the legend and chill with Phil, Lindsay and the 30 or so DeFranco fans who came to watch the game. We watched the Braves comes back from a loss the day before to beat the D-backs handily. (Yay for Lindsay!)

I'm not a vlogger myself (yet) so I decided I would record the entire event for everyone in pictures. I took pics of everyone who met Phil as well as a few of my own candids. In total, I managed to take nearly 150 photos that evening (but only going to post a fraction of those here).

Good times were had by all. As a special treat, I was fortunate enough to give the duo a ride back to their hotel. You honestly couldn't ask for 2 more humble and down-to-earth people. Phil was honestly interested in chatting with everyone who was there and I'm sure his jaw ached afterwards from smiling the entire evening. As for Lindsay, she's just a downright beautiful and sweet person.

So without further adieu, onto the pictures!


Giving Phil a piggy-back ride outside Chase Stadium before the game.


Posing with the lovely Lindsay outside Chase Stadium before the game while the evil Arizona sun in the background tries desperately to bleed out the image.


Hanging with Phil DeFranco and Lindsay after the game at Chase Stadium in Phx AZ.


Inside Chase stadium during the D-backs vs Braves game. Best seat in the house IMO - sat next to Phil and Lindsay during the game. These two cats are crazy-cool!


"Yeah I got an awesome girlfriend - whatevs." - DeFranco Road Trip - Phx AZ


Lindsay is bursting with joy as the Braves come back from a defeat the day before to beat the D-backs on their home-turf.

Tranquil Discord

Title: "Tranquil Discord I"
Year: 2007
Medium: Digital photography, Photoshop post-production
Equipment: Sony Cybershot DSC-P200, 7.2 megapixel
Dimensions: 2300x3000 (600x800 shown)
Copyright: © Jason Kerwin, All Rights Reserved.

Photo Notes: Taken in my backyard mid-September 2007.

Photoshop Notes: Edited out a couple irritating lamp posts on the horizon and brought out the hues with a combination of contrast/saturation filters.





Title: "Tranquil Discord II"
Year: 2007
Medium: Digital photography, Photoshop post-production
Equipment: Sony Cybershot DSC-P200, 7.2 megapixel
Dimensions: 3000x2300 (800x600 shown)
Copyright: © Jason Kerwin, All Rights Reserved.

Photo Notes: Taken in my backyard mid-September 2007.

Photoshop Notes: Edited out a couple irritating lamp posts on the horizon and brought out the hues with a combination of contrast/saturation filters.

September Gold

Title: "September Gold I"
Year: 2007
Medium: Digital photography, Photoshop post-production
Equipment: Sony Cybershot DSC-P200, 7.2 megapixel
Dimensions: 3000x2300 (800x600 shown)
Copyright: © Jason Kerwin, All Rights Reserved.

Photo Notes: Taken in my backyard mid-September 2007.

Photoshop Notes: Edited out a couple irritating lamp posts on the horizon and brought out the hues with a combination of contrast/saturation filters.



Title: "September Gold II"
Year: 2007
Medium: Digital photography, Photoshop post-production
Equipment: Sony Cybershot DSC-P200, 7.2 megapixel
Dimensions: 2300x3000 (600x800 shown)
Copyright: © Jason Kerwin, All Rights Reserved.

Photo Notes: Taken in my backyard mid-September 2007.

Photoshop Notes: Edited out a couple irritating lamp posts on the horizon and brought out the hues with a combination of contrast/saturation filters.

I'm a Halo fan, and damn proud of it!

Let's get something out of the way first - I'm a Halo fan and I have been ever since the first Halo on the original Xbox. I'll be the first to admit when I heard about Halo for the first time on the Xbox I was a skeptic. In fact, I somewhat begrudgingly agreed to play the game with my friend Mike (Spiff) even though I had my doubts about the quality of an FPS on a console. (What? No mouse and keyboard? sheesh!)

It wasn't until the second and third levels of the original Halo that it all began to click into place for me. My first experience with Halo was doing co-op. I fondly remember our first co-op sessions with the game. My initial draw to the game at the time was the ability to play alongside my friend cooperatively, united in a singular effort against our foe.


Later on, as we advanced, so too did the story of the Covenant, the Forerunners, the Flood, the secret of the Halo installation, and Master Chief himself. Here was an FPS with an actual story! (And there was much rejoicing.)


Halo multi-player gave birth to what we coined in our little circle of friends as, the "Halopalooza" - a day-long event held at someone's house with as many Xboxes, copies of Halo, TV's and gamers we can muster. We try to hold these monster events a couple times a year and they are a complete blast! There's nothing like sitting across from your friend and seeing his expression while you snipe him from across the map or beat him down with the butt-end of your rifle. (Oh sweet game violence... you are like a cup of awesome in a sea of infinite win.)


In 2004, Halo 2 was released and it improved on Halo 1 in nearly every way. Better maps, better visuals, better weapons, better multiplayer options, vehicle-jacking, and some would argue, a better story. I personally liked how Bungie developed the story and enriched the Halo-verse with the introduction of the Arbiter (the doomed holy warrior of the enemy faction). This of course is much debated online, but I rather enjoyed seeing the interstellar war from the opposing perspective and the strife present within the ranks of the Covenant.

This September lightning is set to strike a third time when Bungie will deliver to eager gamers another truly epic masterpiece, Halo 3. A swarm of media is popping up on the net and creating nothing short of a frenzy surrounding this game. Can 1 MILLION pre-orders be wrong? Halo 2 smashed day-1 sales records when it topped $125 million dollars. Microsoft hopes Halo 3 will break even those records. In fact, they're hoping it will eclipse the opening weekend sales record of the most successful feature film in the history of the silver screen - Spiderman 3 ($151 million dollars in it's opening weekend).


Gamers around the world (whether they support Halo 3 or not) hope this and other titles like it will continue to prove to the general public that videogames are a valid form of entertainment and not to be taken lightly.

Here's a selection of links to help sate your thirst for all that is Halo 3 until 12:01 AM, September 25th.

Links:

• Bungie.net - Bungie's own website with weekly updates, screenshots, podcasts and more!
• Halo3.com - The official website of Halo 3 - complete with wallpapers, content, and other items of interest in the Halo-verse.
• Halowiki.net - A fan-created database centered mainly around information available in the Halo 3 beta and other recent announcements.

My first-ever lightning photos

Title: "Monsoon Lightning I"
Year: 2007
Medium: Digital photography, Photoshop post-production
Equipment: Sony Cybershot DSC-P200, 7.2 megapixel
Dimensions: 3000x2300 (800x600 shown)
Copyright: © Jason Kerwin, All Rights Reserved.

Photo Notes: Taken in my backyard over the course of approx 2 hours. I took nearly 200 pics and these were the best two of the bunch.

Photoshop Notes: Edited out a couple irritating lamp posts on the horizon. Added a "bloom effect" layer on top of the main photo layer (overlay, 50% opacity, gaussian blur radius 9.0 pixels).




Title: "Monsoon Lightning II"
Year: 2007
Medium: Digital photography, Photoshop post-production
Equipment: Sony Cybershot DSC-P200, 7.2 megapixel
Dimensions: 3000x2300 (800x600 shown)
Copyright: © Jason Kerwin, All Rights Reserved.

Photo Notes: Taken in my backyard over the course of approx 2 hours. I took nearly 200 pics and these were the best two of the bunch.

Photoshop Notes: Edited out a couple irritating lamp posts on the horizon. Added a "bloom effect" layer on top of the main photo layer (overlay, 50% opacity, gaussian blur radius 9.0 pixels).

Heavenly Conflagration

Title: "Heavenly Conflagration"
Year: 2007
Medium: Digital photography, Photoshop post-production
Equipment: Sony Cybershot DSC-P200, 7.2 megapixel
Dimensions: 3000x2300 (800x600 shown)
Copyright: © Jason Kerwin, All Rights Reserved.

Photo Notes: Taken in my backyard during a monsoon-filled sky in August 2007.

Photoshop Notes: Edited out a couple irritating lamp posts on the horizon of the photo and brought out the orange and red hues with a combination of contrast/saturation filters. Added a "bloom effect" layer on top of the main photo layer (overlay, 50% opacity, gaussian blur radius 9.0 pixels) to give it a subtle glow.

Where has the innovation gone Sony?

Let me start out by saying I'm not an Xbox fanboy. I like games for games' sake. I've long been a supporter of Sony because they made a solid console and supported it with a constant stream of quality software. I want to see Sony succeed with the Playstation 3 because competition is healthy in the industry. I've also owned just about every console and have no qualms purchasing each new console generation if there's good reason to do so.

This latest generation of consoles has seen some surprising moves from Sony's PR department as well as a somewhat overall lack of innovation. With the exception of pushing Blu-Ray hard, Sony feels more like a flock of sheep than a shepherd in this round of the great console war. Let's take a look at some of the warning signs.

• Just before the release of the console (and not too long after Nintendo announced its plans for a motion-sensitive controller) Sony decided to drop the "shock" from their award winning "dual shocK" controller in favor of a motion-sensitive controller of their own. Yay for innovation.
  
• The recent decision to drop the emotion engine chip in favor of a software solution which is a less supportive method of backwards compatibility. To mask this obvious downgrade in machinery, they added 20 gb to the HD and added $100 to the price tag. Am I missing something here?
  
• Xbox 360 game achievements have given new life to the replayability of titles. It's been rumored that beginning in 2008 PS3 games will also employ an achievements system. Once again it's Sony ingenuity to the rescue!
  
• Most recently, Sony is rumored to be working on a "Gamercard" system similar to Microsoft's Live Gamertag. Why they didn't think it was important to setup a online multiplayer structure from the beginning like Microsoft has done, I have no idea. I'm seeing a theme here, are you?
  
• Finally, there's the Sony PR department. From the whole non-price drop $100-off fiasco from this year's E3, to the often brainless rantings of Kutagari regarding how the PS3 would be received by the gaming public, it just seems like Sony's not listening to the pulse of what gamers want this generation.

I've been on the fence for some time now as to whether or not I should get a PS3. Alot of my concerns are detailed in this thread at GameDays. I want to like the Playstation 3. I really, really do.

My buddy Mike brought his Playstation 3 over to my house today so I could get a feel for the system. I gotta say, I wasn't terribly impressed. In fact, I'm thinking more and more of waiting to purchase one when prices comes down. Sony has dried up the exclusivity of all but a few titles (they aren't focused on obtaining exclusive content) and if a multi-platform game comes out, I'm going to want to play it on a system that all my friends own - an Xbox 360.

Sony, you're not giving me many reasons to *WANT* the Playstation 3.

Feel free to discuss this post at GameDays.