Neal Campbell's Blog about life and new media ... have a nice day! ☺

Hate Fake

Posted by on Nov 26, 2011 in beliefs, politics, rant, tech media | 0 comments

I’m not a fan of the Muppets now that I’m old. Now I’m a Jim Henson fan. I’m more interested in the puppeteer than the puppet.

As we move toward the next election, the paid pundits on the left and the right tell us it’s going to be Romney V. Obama, even though very few Republicans give a damn about Romney. I gotta say it’s weird for me because I’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative and that’s what Romney’s record suggests he is too. I just don’t believe him. He comes across as 97% inauthentic. I’ve experienced enough of that in my personal life to know it when I see it.

The other night, I decided to watch the Republican debate. I put out a few tweets and then got one back from someone pretending to be named Jen Littlefield. The twitter names is jPENNAME!!! This person may tweet again, but hasn’t tweeted sense he or she tweeted,

@nealcampbell are you looking for an actor or a president. Why do people always want their candidates to sound like Dr. Phil. Geesh.

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Pay Your Bills, D.C. (Neal.TV animation)

Posted by on Nov 12, 2011 in Comedy, Neal.TV, rant | 3 comments

A few weeks ago, the venerable C.C. Chapman shared a video on Facebook. The video is a rant produced by Felonius Munk. It is a better state of the Union than any one a President has ever delivered. We’ve got lots of people bloviating about politics on behalf of one of the two major parties. This was different. What Felonius had to say transcends party and race. He gained fans from both the left and right. I think his rant is powerful because it is honest in a political world where we don’t get a lot of honesty.

I’m working on a new animated project and to make it happen, I have to learn animation. I’m teaching myself, but this video is kind of a class project. I wanted to learn how to make a simple animation of a person talking to an audience. I borrowed the audio from the YouTube video produced by Felonius Monk and used it to make my first animated short.

Felonius uses some grownup words so some of my church-going friends might not enjoy this cartoon. I personally like the idea of creating animation that speaks to adults on person.

When I watch this, I see lots of room for improvement, but I’m having a blast learning how to do this!

If you like Felonius’ rant, he has a store selling Stop it B! T-Shirts. Subscribe to Felonius on YouTube and follow him on Twitter.

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Existential Crisis at Work

Posted by on Oct 3, 2009 in acceptance, alcohol, beliefs, GOD, gospel, love, musings, rant | 1 comment

I’m going through an existential crisis. It ultimately feels like it’s going to be a good thing, but it’s not all that fun right now.

The Wikipedia entry about what an existential is crisis sums it up well:

Existential crisis, derived from existentialism, is a stage of development at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value; whether their parents, teachers, and loved ones truly act in their best interest; whether the values they have been taught have any merit; and whether their religious upbringing may or may not be founded in reality.

For me it starts with the question, “What is my life going to be about?” and I guess I started asking the question when all my gospel music heros started dying. It really feels like I spent much of the last couple years in mourning. It’s been too much, but I don’t know how I could have not gone through the mourning. After Michael Jackson died, I started to finally understand what I was experiencing.
After I understood what was going on internally, I started dealing with it and coming out of crisis mode. Well, last week a dear friend’s mother passed away and the funeral was yesterday. Loosing people is my trigger. I turned on the gospel music and went to the dark place where I feel isolated and uncertain about the meaning of life.
Right now I’m bouncing around in a state of cognitive dissonance where what I think and believe doesn’t fit into any of the political, religious or social systems I know about yet. It’s a process of discovery and hope, but comes with a bit of fear since I can’t know how the story will end.
The best part about the journey is that my wife loves me and inspires me with an infinite sense of optimism that it’s all going to be okay.
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A Tale of Three Web Orders

Posted by on May 28, 2008 in rant | 2 comments

Over the past few days I’ve placed orders for three different products from three different online retailers. I ordered a Mega Bar LED from Musician’s Friend. I ordered two Lite Panel 1X1 LCD lights for the Big Trip from B&H, and I ordered three cables from Monoprice.com.

I ordered the Mega Bar LED light May 23rd from Musician’s Friend. They offered two shipping speeds, the fastest of which is Expedited. When I log in, the order is listed as Open with a delivery estimate of May 28 to June 2. I’ve yet to receive email confirmation of the order.

I ordered the LitePanels from B&H May 25th and received an order confirmation within a few minutes. I received a shipping notice the following day on the 26th, including a tracking number.

Last night, I ordered three cables from Monoprice, and I swear the confirmation email was in my inbox before I released the click on the buy button. Eleven minutes later I received an update on the status of my order. Less than 12 hours later, I received a shipping notice with the tracking number.

This is my second order from Musician’s Friend. Both have been disappointing and this will be my last order from them. I order a lot of stuff from B&H. It’s always a good experience.

This was my first order from Monoprice, and it won’t be my last. They seem to understand the lesson ALL Web retailers would learn. Lots of Web shoppers really need an order status right away and updates along the way. Monoprice blew me away by not providing just one, but three confirmations and updates. Musician’s Friend, on the other hand, hasn’t communicated with me at all about my order.

I’m not sure what Musician’s Friend means when they use the term, “Expedited,” but I’m very glad I’m not waiting on the slower alternative.

UPDATE: It’s been a week since I ordered the Mega Bar LED light from Musician’s friend. The order still shows as open with a delivery date of June 2. The LitePanels from B&H arrived on time, and someone from B&H commented on this blog post — NICE! The Monoprice.com order is out for delivery with USB, so it will arrive on time.

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