Saturday, February 27, 2010

Japanese Summer Festival

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Okay, Japanese culture might not be everyone's cup of green tea, but for Big Passy it is a unique and treasured delight. And remember, these are the guys and girls who brought big breakthroughs to the shores of our western world. (The awesome Nintendo WII, Sony PS3, fresh sushi and burning hot saki immediately come to mind as my personal favorites!).

So for everyone's cultural enlightenment, this blog post contains some very unique and colorful Japanese songs and dances.


February in Melbourne certainly has seen a lot of summer festivals. The final one we are covering here at Passy World is the "Japanese Summer Festival". This was held at the "Docklands", which is a fairly new waterfront area they have developed here in the city of Melbourne.

This was the first time I have been to Docklands. I must say that I was not very impressed. The whole development is just all this modern concrete and plastic fabricated into some kind of barren fake opulence, lacking dramatically in gardens or any natural charm whatsoever.

Give me Hawthorn or St Kilda, or further down the coast where I live anyday!

There are some photos of Docklands at the start of the slideshow below.
So take a look
and judge for yourself.

Melbourne's weather wasn't too "summery" at all, but at least it didn't rain. In fact it was still warm enough to wear some shorts.

The following Wondershare Slideshow contains some photos taken at the Japanese Summer Festival on February 27th 2010. When you get through the whole show, the last picture should be of Japanese women dancing with hats. If you missed any pictures then click on the big arrow in the center when the slideshow ends.

Note that we can click on the bottom of the slideshow on the "Manual Play" option at any time. We can then advance through the photos one by one at our own pace. This allows us to stop for longer on the photos that we really like, and quickly bypass the ones that we are not interested in.

(Push the Play button arrow below if the slideshow is not already running).



If you would like to see the above slideshow full size, then click on this link: http://www.passyworld.com/passyHTMLs/JapaneseFestival.html

In between woofing down delicious wasabi coated sushi, we also took a few short videos of the main entertainment on offer.

With the lack of bright sunlight, the videos have not turned out quite as clear as we had hoped, even though they have been encoded from .MOV files into high quality as "On2 VP6 700kbps" FLV's. I am suspecting that the Lumix ZS3 camera prefers bright sunlight to cloudy conditions. (Don't we all!) This is probably not that surprising, as my previous Sony camera was exactly the same.

The first video is of the "Bon Odori" Japanese Summer Dance.

This dance had at least a hundred people moving around a giant circle. It was impressive to watch, especially the intricacy of the more experienced dancer's hand and arm movements.




This next video is of the "Yosokoi" dance, performed by young Japanese school students from Melbourne.

The Yosakoi Dance was started after WWII in the city of Kochi in 1954. It is a modern rendition of Awa Odori, a traditional summer dance. Yosakoi-style dancing has subsequently spread throughout much of Japan.




The next video is of Big Passy's all time favourite Japanese dance: The awesome "Nanchu Soran". This dance really rocks, and with the JBL speaker system at the festival really blasting the sound out with crystal clarity, it was a high energy topping experience.

The movements of the dancers reflect the actions of Japanese fishermen hauling in their nets.... (which looks like skillful demanding work).

Here is a bit about the dance's history
(from http://mutsudaiko.org/nanchusoran.html).


What is Nanchu Soran?

The Wakkanai South Junior High School (alias "Nanchu") in Wakkanai City, Hokkaido was a junior high school known to people as a school that became rough over 20 years ago, and deep division formed between the teachers and students. However, teachers and the students made up a new Soran dance by bringing together the powerful "Soran Bushi" song of Mr. Takio Ito who presented the concept of the folk song to a certain teacher, with the hope that it would help to make the division disappear some day.

The slogan of Nanchu, from its graduating students to its lower classmen is "The mind is adjusted to one, and I will aim at the top of Japan.” With this spirit and much hard work, the students and their teachers went on to win the Prime Minister’s grand prize at the 10th Japanese Folk Song dance competition.

After winning the competition, the story of Nanchu and their Soran dance was aired on Tokyo television and many people were moved by their story. From the broadcast many people found that power of the dance speaks to the heart and it extends in the soul.

Since the broadcast many other teachers in elementary, junior and senior high schools have introduced the Soran dance into their classes as part of their physical education programs.

The spirit of Nanchu and its charm on people keeps increasing in the whole of Japan, and has even extended to foreign countries, including Australia.




The final video shows a very short segment of a very colorful Japanese Hat Dance. I am not sure of the history or significance of this particular dance. The soundtrack has a very unique vocal style indeed. But I suppose to the Japanese, the vocalist on this soundtrack is as soulful as Aretha Franklin is to us folks in the west.




That's about it for the Japanese Festival.
What a wonderful hot wasabi experience it was!


Over the next few weeks we are planning to get back to doing the usual computer "How To" posts, as well as some guitar items that several people have been asking for.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Friday, February 26, 2010

Mordialloc Jazz Festival - Part 3

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This third and final post covering the Big Bands Sunset Festival is all about the Mordialloc Jazz Orchestra ("MOJO"). This time we went along with some friends to the MOJO Blues Brothers Tribute show. They played just about every song from the movie, and it was a perfect warm beachside evening. This was definitely the high point in the whole Jazz Festival series.

The following Wondershare Slideshow contains some photos of the Mojo Band taken at the Big Band Sunsets Festival on February 20th 2010. When you get through the whole show, the last picture should be of the crowd watching the band. If you missed any pictures then click on the big arrow in the center when the slideshow ends.

Note that we can click on the bottom of the slideshow on the "Manual Play" option at any time. We can then advance through the photos one by one at our own pace. This allows us to stop for longer on the photos that we really like, and quickly bypass the ones that we are not interested in.

In Manual mode: Use the Prev and Next buttons to move through groups of photos at a time, then click the specific photo around the edge that you want to view.

(Push the Play button arrow below if the slideshow is not already running).



If you would like to see the above slideshow full size, then click on this link: http://www.passyworld.com/passyHTMLs/MojoJazz2.html


Here is a short 1 minute clip of Mojo playing some big band music as part of their first set (before they do any Blues Brothers numbers):



Here is another short video taken during the first set.

It covers part of a Trombone solo during a Big Band number:



These videos were all taken with the Panasonic Lumix ZS3 compact digital camera. We used the wind noise reduction setting, and it all seems to have worked reasonably well.

Here is a video of part of my friend's trumpet solo during the Big Band set:



Finally, here is a short clip covering part of Mojo's Blues Brothers tribute set.

We did also take a few other clips, but they either had wind or crowd noise in them, or some dancing dude sticking their big melon head right in front of the camera at the exact wrong moment!

Lesson Learned: Shoot ten times as many mini movies as what you think you will need.



So that's it for Passy World's coverage of the 2010 Big Band Sunsets Festival. There is one more concert on Saturday Feb 28th, but unfortunately it looks like Big Passy won't be able to make it due to a prior engagement.

Definitely Mojo Jazz is something to pencil in for attending in February 2011.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Rapping up a Friday Funny

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This week's Friday Funny is all about funny rap songs.

Let's begin with an old favorite from one of the funniest guys on YouTube: Weird Al Yankovic




Big Passy loves writing rap rhymes like this little beasty one:

Hey I'm Passy and I'm da nerd
The webs I make are real superb.
I know dudes like 'em from the number of hits
They view my stuff they're in love with it.

I like to get my axe and play
Anything loud in a rythmic way.
It gives me what I take for a ride
My good vibes make the homeys smile.

Okay, maybe I'll stick to nerding.

Here is a very deep and meaningful rap tune (not!) with a little too much use of naughty words that all had to be bleeped out:



In this life you need to stick to what you're good at. If you got literary skills for rapping rhymes, then best not to attempt anything too numeric - as per these examples from the "Street Census" blog:

"Thirty-two grams raw, chop it in half, get sixteen, double it times three. We got forty-eight, which mean a whole lot of cream Divide the profit by four, subtract it by eight We back to sixteen..."
-Foxy Brown ("Affirmative Action")

This is bad mathematics... don't try it at home!

"I can double my density from three-sixty degrees to seven-twenty instantly."
-Canibus ("Funk Master Flex Freestyle")

Obviously, Canibus slept through mathematics class the day they covered units of measurement.

"My paragraph alone is worth five mics (uh-huh) A twelve song LP, that's thirty-six mics (uh-huh)"
- Redman "5 Boroughs"

Uh-huh.. da huh... how does five go into 12 or 36?


And now a great rap for all the computer gamers out there.
(The sound quality is suspect, but the concept is brilliant).




Now here is what we might refer to as extreme "Rappling On":

"Now you know that I'm the Queen of Miami All that loud talkin lyin save that sh*t for your mammy Sounds like "blah, blah blah, blah bla blah-bla" I'm like uh-huh (uh-huh) okay (okay) Whassup (whassup) SHUT UP!"
-Trina ("Here We Go")

Some rappers aren't exactly known for their mastery of the universe:

"Thirty-eight revolve like the sun around the Earth."
-Jay-Z, ("It's Hot")

Jay-Z probably has head spins whenever he tries to remember anything from his high school Science classes!


Here is a funny send up of Soulja boy, made by some Jewish dudes called "Kosha Boy" :



And while we're parodying Soulja Boy, how about this cute little version by good old Alvin and the Chipmunks:




Soul to Soul and Gangsta to Gangsta

It's bye from Passy the original prankster.
So that's a rap, and the end of this funny.

Have a great weekend just spending up money.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Excel 2007 Charts and Graphs

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This post is all about Making Charts and Graphs in Excel 2007.

Here at Passy World we have scoured the web and identified some great slide shows and Free Online Tutorials. These will soon turn you into an Excel Charts Wizard.

First of all there is plenty of good help for Excel at various Microsoft pages, such as the one shown below. This page has an excellent five and a half minute demo video on how to make charts and graphs from spreadsheet data.

Here is an iframe into that web page. (Which works in Firefox, but usually does not work in Internet Explorer..... Go Figure..).

Click on "Play Demo" link in the bottom right hand corner of the iframe below. Your web browser should open a new window and then load and play the Excel Charts "How To" video.




Alternatively, you can click the link below to open the Microsoft page in a new window:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/ha102004991033.aspx

Here is a great beginners slideshow about Excel Charts from Slideshare.

(Note that we can click on the "Full" icon at the bottom to go full screen, and then simply press the Escape key to return to this Blog page).



Here is a more detailed Slideshare on creating a basic comparison series Bar Graph in Excel:


Here is a twenty seven slide presentation all about making Excel Graphs:



Online Tutorials for Excel 2007 Charts

There is a very basic online tutorial about using Excel 2007 to make a basic bar graph here:

http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/excel2007s3p2.html


There is a more detailed online Tutorial about making Graphs at the following web page:

http://www.baycongroup.com/excel2007/04_excel.htm

So get into those Excel Graphs for your mathematics classes!

Finally, here is an Excel 2007 graph of how the PW Online Survey results are looking so far:

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IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE SO ALREADY, THEN DO OUR ONE CLICK SURVEY AT THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS WEB PAGE. JUST CLICK ONE OPTION IN, AND THEN CLICK THE "VOTE" BUTTON.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Mordialloc Jazz Festival - Part 2

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Combo La Revelacion are a Latin jazz band that play the kind of music that we really like here at Passy World. We had not seen the band live for a couple of years, and so it was a real treat to see them yesterday at the Mordialloc Jazz Festival.

The following Wondershare Slideshow contains 30 photos taken at the Big Band Sunsets Festival on February 20th 2010. When you get through the whole show, the last picture should be of some chairs and people sitting around. If you missed any pictures then click on the big arrow in the center when the slideshow ends.

Note that we can click on the bottom of the slideshow on the "Manual Play" option at any time. We can then advance through the photos one by one at our own pace. This allows us to stop for longer on the photos that we really like, and quickly bypass the ones that we are not interested in.

(Push the middle of screen Play button arrow below if the slideshow is not already running).




If you would like to see the above slideshow full size, then click on this link: http://www.passyworld.com/passyHTMLs/ComboMordy.html
If you would like to get your own copy of "Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory Deluxe" (for just under $60 US) then click the following link:
http://www.flash-gallery-software.com/purchase-flash-gallery.html


Combo La Revelacion consists of the following musicians:

  • Jorge Aguilar - bass, lead vocal
  • Moises Aguilar - bongos , backing vocals
  • Claudia Camargo - backing vocals
  • Miguel Aravena - timbales
  • Nick Ralph - congas
  • Dave C. Lane - trumpet
  • Alex Parlas - trumpet
  • Matt Hamilton - trombone
  • Andrew Werner - trombone
  • Mary Jo Kelly - Keyboard

For more information about the band visit their website:
http://www.combolarevelacion.com/index.htm

Here are a couple of one minute videos we managed to take of the band. We used the Panasonic ZS3 Lumix compact camera, and Adobe CS3 Flash Encoder to reduce their size to 500 x 281 pixels for this blog post.

Because the outdoor concert was so close to the beach, there was the problem of wind noise. We tried
out the wind reduction setting on the Lumix camera, and it did help considerably. A tripod probably would have helped as well, but Passy was too lazy to cart one around with him.




This clip has a bit of wind noise in it, even with the auto reduction turned on.
However it gives a a quick idea of the type of cool music that CLR play.





Combo La Revelacion are definitely worth catching live for some real toe tapping, percussion clapping, funky Latin jazz grooving.

See their website for information about upcoming gigs.


Also stay tuned for the third and final part of the Mordialloc Jazz Festival in an upcoming post.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Friday Funny Ventriloquists

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Image Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com

It's amazing what funny stuff can be found, simply by spending a few minutes on YouTube.com. So that's what we did for this week's Friday Funny.

We ended up finding a whole bunch of interesting Ventriloquist
comedy clips.

Now the guys and girls that do this kind of comedy not only have to be great at developing material, but they have to do it for more than one character. Then they have to deliver it in a realistic scenario, as only a skillful ventriloquist can.

At Passy World we have chosen what we consider to be a leading sample of the best Ventriloquists on the Net.


First up we have Jeff Dunham. He is a highly skilled Canadian ventriloquist who has several characters that he works with. Some of his material is a little risky, but also really funny.

Here is a short skit about cell phones and other things with Jeff's cheeky monkey character named "Peanut":



And in the following clip we again have Jeff Dunham. However this time he is iwth his southern redneck character "Bubba J":



Finally in our abridged Jeff Dunham series, his character of "Walter" the grumpy old dude:



Jeff has a number of other great characters, so check them out on YouTube some time.


Next up we have Legoland California's resident ventriloquist Kevin Johnson. In this clip he kicks off "Ventriloquist Week" on The Late show with David Letterman:



Nina Conti and her Monkey are also a brilliant combination. Her lips never move at all, and you can't see her neck pulsating either. Yet the monkey speaks brilliantly and naturally, as in this example:




Okay this last video isn't of a ventriloquist. However, it's a bit of an old favorite here at Passy World, and so we just had to include it:



That's it for another working week, hope yours was a good one, and let's now throw over to the weekend.

Also remember to roll your mouse over to doing our one click survey if you haven't already: YOU CAN FIND OUR ONE CLICK SURVEY AT THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS WEB PAGE. JUST CLICK ONE OPTION IN, AND THEN CLICK THE "VOTE" BUTTON.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Hammer On Guitar Notes

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Image Source: Http://lifehacker.com

Today we're going to learn all about "Hammer Ons".

No... Not the indestructible MC Hammer, Hammerhead sharks, Hammer drills, nor the hammers from the Pink Floyd movie, or the legendary Jan Hammer hammering out a brilliant keyboard riff.

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But today is all about a special way of playing guitar notes on the guitar fretboard. We bang down the second note onto the target fret, (instead of picking it), and we call this banging action a "hammer on".

A "Hammer On" is denoted by the letter 'h' in downloaded Tabs. The 'h' will always appear right before the note that's to be hammered. In real tablature the hammer on is noted with an arc that is above the two notes.

|-------------| 1st String
|---7-h-9-----| 2nd String
|-------------| 3rd String
|-------------| 4th String
|-------------| 5th String
|-------------| 6th String

A hammer on involves two or more notes, but we only pick the string once. Using the example above; here is how it works. Your 1st finger presses down on the 7th fret, you pick the string, your 3rd finger hammers down on the 9th fret, you also continue to press down on the 7th fret with your first finger.

To play a Hammer On:
  • Place your first finger on the 7th fret of the 2nd string.
  • Pick the second string.
  • Continue to hold down the 7th fret; bang your 3rd finger onto the 9th fret.

If we play another note after the hammer on, we can play a triplet like this:

|---------7---| 1st String
|---7-h-9-----| 2nd String
|-------------| 3rd String
|-------------| 4th String
|-------------| 5th String
|-------------| 6th String

Moving pictures are worth many thousand words, and so here are some really good video clips about how to play Hammer Ons.

First up is a good beginners lesson on hammer ons from Jody Worell:





Here is a more detailed beginner's lesson about Hammer Ons:




Now here is what we can get to by using a heap of hammer on triplets, with open strings. This is not easy to do and will take a lot of practice, but it sure sounds good when the dude plays it in front of the backing track. For some strange reason, this YouTube video can occasionally be painfully slow to load in.




Finally, one for the heavy metal guys, where they can use hammer ons to play scales on the low strings inbetween chords. This is called doing "hammer on legato scale riffs". This will take quite a bit of practice, but it sure sounds good once it's all working:



Also be sure to hammer on to doing our once click survey if you haven't already: YOU CAN FIND OUR ONE CLICK SURVEY AT THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS WEB PAGE. JUST CLICK ONE OPTION IN, AND THEN CLICK THE "VOTE" BUTTON.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Massaging Up a Friday Funny

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Image Source: http://www.swapmeetdave.com

Remember our two feline friends: "Neo" and "Morpheous" from the December Friday Funny:
http://passyworldofict.blogspot.com/2009/12/firday-funny-for-cool-cats.html

Well Tank's been downloading some massage classes for them, matrix style. They are now a couple of really cool and relaxed furry friends indeed.

The idea of getting a massage is to apply pressure to reduce tension and stressors, but somehow this dude might be over-doing it.

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Image Source: http://www.fullermassage.com

This week at Passy World we have decided to look at the lighter side of Massage. Not the red light kind they have in Amsterdam, but "Therapeutic Massage". The kind of massaging you might get at a holistic health center or the Physiotherapist.

Big Passy, being the reckless adventurous kind, has needed quite a few sports medicine massages in his time, for various mishaps and their ensuing aches and pains.

Here's a really cute video of "Neo" after the download of the European Masseuse program:



So this massage stuff looks pretty good right?
Well how about your very own free online massage lesson from a pair of Gorillas?
- WARNING: Do not try this at Home




Whenever you finish a course, (that you have invested a lot into), then its only right that you should try and get yourself the best job possible.

And upon Graduation from Massage school, who knows you could even get a great job like this one:





So if you are into the business of therepeutic massages, then you might want to go through this little check list:

You Know You Might be a Massage Therapist if...
  • Your iron-grip handshake could make Chuck Norris cry.
  • You're combing the seashore and you find a massage in a bottle.
  • Your favorite Kung Fu movie is "Flying Fists of Relaxation."
  • You format your documents with pressure points.
  • You get on someone's very last nerve. And that's a good thing.
  • When it's "time to knuckle down," boy, do you mean it.
  • Your uncle throws his back out. And you throw it back in.
  • You relax more shoulders before 6 p.m. than most people do in their entire lives.
  • You're the strongest muscle relaxer available without a prescription.
  • You never rub people "the wrong way."
  • You have a padded kitchen table. With a nose hole.
  • Your voicemail is completely full - too many massages.
  • You never rip open your birthday presents. You squeeze them open.
Source: http://www.rasmussen.edu/programs/fun-massage-therapy.asp


How about a "full service massage" (No it's not what you're thinking) :



Or if that one was perhaps a bit too expensive and painful to endure, then how about a cheap "no thrills" Eastern European full service massage:





Now if you thought you'd seen it all, then what about the idea of paying around $100 US to get a Snake Massage in the Holy Land!

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Image Source: http://images.forbestraveler.com

At Ada Barak's spa in northern Israel, slithering reptiles don't give deep-tissue massages.

Barak figured out several years ago that heavy king and corn snakes produce a relaxing kneading sensation. For several years, she's been entertaining guests at her farm where she cultivates rodent-eating carnivorous plants. Seems she has found an even stranger sideline that's a money spinner.

"People either like it a lot or they hate it," she told Time magazine.

Don't snake bag it till you've tried it yourself. Let a few of these reptilian relaxants wriggle their way up your spine and across your face, and see if this is a de-stressor, or distressor.

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Image Source: http://images.watoday.com.au


Finally: How does the world of modern computerised technology fit into all of this:

Japan with its robotical prowess seems to be leading the world in this particular area.



There have also been a few DIY attempts in the home to master the mechanical art of massage:

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Image Source: http://thepirata.com

This video about some guys on coin operated massage chairs is very slow and boring to begin with, but has a surprise ending not to be missed:



That's about it for this week's Friday Funny. I've got to go give my texting thumb a bit of therapeutic work.

So let's finish up with a recent picture of yet another "Neo" versus "Agent Smith" encounter.

Perhaps "The One" is
a little too relaxed after the recent pawing of pressure point tension release?

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Image Source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Pythagoras Wall Wisher

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I bet the ancient Greeks never dreamed there would be a Maths Rap video with cool Avatar Dancers in it like this one.

Oh how the times have changed. Teaching kids Pythagoras is much more than a matter of just getting the right triangle.

Big Passy is teaching some 9th graders all about Pythagoras Triangles, and so it has been time to build another WallWisher website. Here is an iframe window into this brand new "Pythagoras9" web site:



If you would like to see the above wall full size, then click the link below:

Click here to see the Pythagoras Wall full size

If you would like to know how to build your own Wall of links to items that all follow a particular theme, then check out our previous blog post on this here:

http://passyworldofict.blogspot.com/2009/06/wallwisher-online-notice-board.html

So I bet you are just itching to see that cool Dancing Avatars clip about Pythagoras triangles, and so here it is:



But being an Arnie fan from way back, this is definitely Big Passy's all time favourite Pythagoras movie:



So now that we have Pythagoras all squared away:
PLEASE DO OUR ONE CLICK SURVEY AT THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS WEB PAGE. JUST CLICK ONE OPTION IN, AND THEN CLICK THE "VOTE" BUTTON.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Mordialloc Jazz Festival - Part 1

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Big Passy has been out and about being a "Photo Junkie" again. Sorry Guys and Gals, but the Guitar and IT posts will have to wait until Melbourne's wonderful fun filled summer ends.

This time we went to see "Mojo" - The Mordialloc Jazz Orchestra" which a couple of my muso friends play in. We also got to see the "Victoria Police Showband" who are an awesomely tight and together unit. They did a great Brass and Vocals version of the old Cream classic "Sunshine of Your Love".

The new Panasonic ZS3 Lumix camera worked a treat, and we actually used sports action mode for taking most of the photos.


The folowing Wondershare Slideshow contains 36 photos taken at the Big Band Sunsets Festival on February 6th 2010. When you get through the whole show, the last picture should be of some kids dancing around in the sunset. If you missed any pictures then click on the big arrow in the center when the slideshow ends.

Note that we can click on the bottom of the slideshow on the "Manual Play" option at any time. We can then advance through the photos one by one at our own pace. This allows us to stop for longer on the photos that we really like, and quickly bypass the ones that we are not interested in.

(Push the Play button arrow below if the slideshow is not already running).



If you would like to see the above slideshow full size, then click on this link: http://www.passyworld.com/passyHTMLs/MojoJazz1.html

If you would like to get your own copy of "Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory Deluxe" (for just under $60 US) then click the following link:
http://www.flash-gallery-software.com/purchase-flash-gallery.html


The following website has information about the February Festival of Jazz at Moridalloc. It is very easy to get to, (just park at the train station), and do the 3 minute walk to the beach and river side central park.

http://www.bigbandsunsets.com.au/index.htm

Saturday Feb 20th at 5:30pm has "Combo La Revelacion", who were doing sensational Latin Jazz music when I saw them a couple of years ago.The following web page has the full program flyer for all four of the Saturdays in February:

http://www.bigbandsunsets.com.au/festival_program.htm

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If you need directions on how to get to the festival at "Hazel Pierce Park" then go to this web page:

http://www.bigbandsunsets.com.au/getting_there.htm

We also tried out the Motion Picture function on the new Panasonic ZS3 Lumix camera. Unfortunately we were plagued by sound problems with a very strong wind coming off the beach nearby.

Big Passy also needs to get a bit steadier with the camera; however we were filming at full zoom.


Anyway, here are some very brief snippets of music from the MOJO band. We will have to get along and film the band
again on a still day, and get better at using the camera.

Up first is a brief one minute video of a great Saxophone solo.
(Move the mouse on and off the image to display the video player controls).




Next time we see the Mojo Band we will have to film each segment a little bit longer and also make sure there is not a huge wind blowing.

Here is a short Boogie Woogie video of the three sisters from the Mojo Band.
(Move the mouse on and off the image to display the video player controls).




Here is a video of my good friend Andrew in a Trumpet versus the Wind contest (not exactly sure who won this one):



The movie mode function on the new Lumix camera is sensational. We were able to get around 3000 pixel wide .mov files out of the camera. However, next time I might try 4:3 format rather than ultra widescreen 500x280 pixels that we have here on this blogpost.

To convert the camera's Quicktime .mov movies into FLV format we used the "Adobe Flash CS3 Video Encoder". To work out how to use the Adobe converter, we followed the excellent instructions in the book:
“Visual Quick Project: Enhancing a Dreamweaver CS3 Web Site with Flash Video” by David Karlins. ISBN = 978-0-321-53523-8.

We were then able to make web pages containing the movies on our "Passy World" dedicated website, and then iframe into them from this blog. (Although it was a bit tricky making the webpages slightly wider, and the iframe slightly bigger again). Making our own FLV videos on our own site means we can have total control of everything. (Eg. We do not have to use YouTube at all).

Stay tuned for a Part 2 Jazz Festival post when Big Passy gets along to a less windier day, and captures some much better quality music video clips.

If you are ever in Melbourne during the month of February, then definitely get along to the "Big Band Sunsets Festival" at Mordialloc.

FINALLY, DON'T FORGET TO DO OUR ONE CLICK SURVEY AT THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS WEB PAGE. JUST CLICK ONE OPTION IN, AND THEN CLICK THE "VOTE" BUTTON.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Friday PC Raging Funny

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Image Source: http://www.myps3.com.au

Let's face it, computers can be pretty damn annoying at times, and for some people this can be the straw that breaks the camel's back. (and everything else).

So is it funny to laugh at other people's misfortunes?

Well check out this blog post, see if you giggle, and you be the judge.

Hmmm... bit of a problem printing. A simple minimal fuss solution:
Use the photocopier instead!





I guess if you'd missed out on lunch because your computer gave you problems, then you'd naturally be taking a bite out of your laptop:

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Image Source: http://www.cliconline.co.uk

So maybe just get off the computer for a while, and organise the mail run:




Sometimes it is just so hard to get yourself plugged into the Matrix:

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Image Source: http://www.officerage.com

Or to even get yourself plugged into the whole idea of another boring day at the office:




And here is another guy with some deeply troublesome anger management issues:




They've even made computer rage coffee mugs:

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Image Source: http://www.coffeemugheaven.com

Looks like a couple of guys in this office have overdone the caffeine and everything else. Check out what happens about 40 seconds into the video:




Perhaps a weekend away with the guys getting in touch with your deepest inner feelings could help a lot with computer anger management:

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Image Source: http://faculty-staff.ou.edu


Passy World advises to avoid computer rage as follows:


Nip the problem in the bud by seeking out help for your computer problems as soon as they surface. Remember, expert help is always not too far away.

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Image Source: http://www.optimize-your-pc.com

FINALLY, DON'T FORGET TO DO OUR ONE CLICK SURVEY AT THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS WEB PAGE. JUST CLICK ONE OPTION IN, AND THEN CLICK THE "VOTE" BUTTON.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

How to Use Google Analytics

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In a previous blog post we installed Google Analytics onto our Passy World of ICT blog. If you would like to see the instructions on how to add analytics to a web site, then click the following link:
http://passyworldofict.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-install-google-analytics.html

The Home Page for Google Analytics is here:
http://www.google.com/analytics/

We have had Analytics set up for about a month. So now it's time to interpret the data that has been collected.

Here is a YouTube high level technical overview of how Google Analytics works:



Here is a good Beginner's Video about how to interpret Analytics Data and Graphs. The sound track is not all that good, but the content and explanations are excellent. It also includes a blog example.



As soon as we set up Analytics on our Blog, Google emailed us an excellent list of resources for Analytics. This email is contained in the PDF document below:




The above PDF document has all the links to the You Tube Channel, the Blog, the User Guide, and so on.

If you would like to have your own full size copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.


Alternatively, you can view or save the full size PDF by clicking the link below:





Analytics Reports for Passy's World of ICT

Let's examine the Reports that Google has generated for Passy's World of ICT.

Here is the main Analytics Dashboard Summary:

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The stats are showing that people stay for an average of 55 seconds on our site, with a high bounce rate of 70%. This is probably because they click a link on our page to go watch a YouTube video or some other link we have in our post. This makes their time appear very short, as if they have nearly bounced straight off our site. Passy's World of ICT is basically a portal to other media that is located elsewhere on the web. This is what we have planned to be from the outset, and so all is good here.

As a more detailed reporting example, let's examine "Traffic Sources".

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If we examine the URL source report in detail, and click on the pie chart option, we find that virtually all our traffic comes from the Googles for various countries around the world:

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Another interesting thing, is that over half our visitors use Firefox as their browser:

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And currently it seems that we are mostly getting new visitors, and the return rate is quite a bit lower than what we would like. Perhaps this will change over the next few months.

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Summary:

Analytics is telling us for Passy's World of ICT:
  • Most Visitors are brand new visitors
  • They only stay on a page for a short time before clicking one of its links
  • Our post on Orianthi the female guitarist is our most popular post.
  • The post we did on Graffiti Creator is also very popular.
  • Firefox is the browser of choice and most visitors have high speed internet connections.
  • Most of our visitors are located in the USA.
  • The least number of people visit our site on Sundays.
  • The most number of people visit at 7am in the morning.
  • Most visitors only view 1 or 2 of our pages and then exit.

We will check out Analytics again, in 2 or 3 months time, and see what trends emerge.

It is certainly a very useful free tool for anyone running a Blog or a Website.

DON'T FORGET TO DO OUR ONE CLICK SURVEY AT THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS WEB PAGE. JUST CLICK ONE OPTION IN, AND THEN CLICK THE "VOTE" BUTTON.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi