John Noe

New habits are hard to learn.. and blogging is one I’ve always had a hard time with. Someone told me that it takes 2 weeks to learn a new habit and only 2 days to break it. It’s so easy to slip up and lose momentum and break the habit, then give up all together. Its why so many new years resolutions are tossed by Jan 15th.

I had a pretty good streak going trying to create this new habit of learning something new every day and blogging about it, and as soon as my routine changed it went pretty much out the window. I spent a week in New York, got the flu, didn’t feel like doing much of anything else. January has been a bit of a bust as far as the resolution goes. I got a good amount of other things done outside of my usual goings on – had a near week long marathon of planning and producing the Helping Haiti Heal drive, and in doing so taught myself a great deal more about CSS and a bit more HTML to get that site off the ground. I got a high off the knowledge I gained from getting tossed in the deep end and coming up having learned something. I want to hold on to that feeling, and I want to use this resolution (if we’re still calling it that) to help me channel some of that extra energy and time into more of that. I also want to use this blog more often for other things other then these updates, because again, the more I get used to having one, the more often I think of posts I could make and thoughts I could dump out.

So on that note, what I am up to now?

So yeah, thats it for right now. If you’ve remembered this blog still exists and read this far, I thank you. I hope to have more on here and much more frequently from February and onward.

Hey peoples. Blogin on a plane to NY for Melissa’s birthday party, and its been about 4 days since my last entry. When I think about how long it takes to actually type these things out, I feel stupid for not finding time to, because how could I possibly not, ya know? My excuse (which you know was coming) is that after being in close contact with at least 4 people with the flu, it caught up with me and I’ve got it pretty bad. This frustrates the hell out of me because being sick is the number one catalyst for me breaking good behavior. Last October when I moved into a new apartment I started a great routine of going to the gym with my friend Ben like 5 days a week, some weeks more, for about 5 or 6 weeks – pretty much a record for me since.. forever. Then I got a cold and sore throat and that, and after a few days of ‘giving my body the chance to rest’ or whatever, I fell off the wagon I guess. I’ve been going here and there since then, but I need to get back in that routine.

Anyway back to THIS routine, while I have been pretty ‘leave me the hell alone while I lay here’ sick for the past few days, I have managed to get a fair amount of my learnin’ done. I spent hours experimenting with the live streaming techniques and preparation for the live pottercast we did yesterday, and learned a lot about what works and what does – part in terms of what my particular computer can handle – and I think the next few shows will show big improvements. The Walt Disney imagineering department research was very interesting, learning about how many different people of different trades can wear that hat. From it’s history of originally being a hand picked team of Walt’s from the Disney Studios to develop Disneyland, to the present, where from their website

“The Imagineering organization encompasses more than 140 diverse disciplines, including writers, model-makers, computer animators, artists, engineers, sculptors, filmmakers, scientists, programmers, special effects designers, architects, master planning, creative development, production and Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development.”

Unfortunately there are no internships for anyone not a student, but that’s one question answered anyway. I’ll have to put some serious time and thought into figuring out how one becomes an imagineer. If anyone reading this happens to know anything about it, please do leave a comment

Studying the NYC subway routes is sort of a hilarious endeavor I’ve come to realize, and you certainly can’t do it in an hour. But what I did try to memorize is what routes I would find myself taking on a normal trip to NYC, and where the stations are. Also, increasing my competence with reading the dam subway map if need be.

I’d love some more ideas from you guys on what to include in my Learnin’ here. Leave a comment or twitter me Thanks for readin!

Hey guys!

So of course it should come as no surprise that the hardest part of this project for me would be remembering to get the blogs done in time. Bah. Good news is I haven’t neglected to stay on schedule with my learnin’, although I guess I’m a half a day behind as I haven’t picked my topic for today (the 5th) yet. Any ideas?

So the research I did on the 3rd was really interesting, learning about what makes the newer 3D movies I’ve seen, including Avatar, so special and innovative. I spent some time familiarizing myself with terms like circular vs linear polarization in relation to the method in which the stereoscopic images are projected. Its pretty awesome and answers the question to why the 3D glasses we’ve been using lately don’t have those red and blue lenses like we’ve been used to.

It research pulled me into the direction of learning about all the cool new 3D entertainment on the horizon for 2010, including the release of special monitors and blu-ray players for watching these movies at home – awesome news for me and others out there who haven’t bought a blu-ray player yet, good reason to wait a couple more months. Also interesting to discover that there are already deals in the making to have some of the first exclusive 3D TV channels coming this year to cable/satellite TV this year as well.

Someone in the comments recommended a fun idea to make homemade 3D movies by modding up a little camera rig to film with 2 video cameras side by side and compositing them together in After Effects. I’m really interested to try this, and perhaps come up with a fun new way to Vlog. To my knowledge though id have to be with the blue/red lens technique for now as no one has the monitors needed to employ the new polarized technique.

Anyway – Jan 4th is a Learnin’ day spent re-familiarizing myself with a feature in After Effects called Puppet Tool. I will be showcasing this on the next live PotterCast, which will be occurring Thursday at noon ET. Lots of new stuff happening on that show, and I’m really excited for you all to give us feed back on it. Be there if you can at http://livestream.com/pottercast

That’s all for now! I’ll add the post for the 4th in after the live PC thursday and talk more about it. later!

Hey there – So yesterday’s Learnin’ went pretty well! I spent probably more then an hour just zooming around google earth for southern California (with this thing) Its a 3D input device for super geeks like me who like to navigate their computers like they’re on a starship.

Anyways, I learned a lot more about different routes that can get me to the LA area from Orange County – like taking the 60 vs the 91 – and pretty much just a better general sense on the general directions the major highways go, and I think I have a better understanding of them now.

Time will tell though, I decided I want to quiz myself once a week on this knowledge in the form of a livestream/ustream/vlog, potentially including a person or two that may or may not be knowledgeable of that weeks topics to ask me questions and see how much I can remember. Not going to get to crazy with this as I dont have the time to plan or come up with anything to intense, but I think it might be a fun way to resurrect ‘Noe Thursdays’

So today I’m learning more about 3D filmmaking and projection/viewing technology, mostly because I want to be able to take part more intelligently in discussion of this when it arrises (and it has been coming up more frequently lately). If you have any links to any good articles or pages on this, please comment this article with them! Thanks!

Hey guys! Today was a pretty incredible start to 2010. Woke up feeling not much discomfort from partaking in previous comforts on NYE so I was off to a good start. Ben and I headed over to the Rose Bowl stadium is Pasadena and got there around 11:30. We were in our seats with over 90 minutes to spare until game time (I remember because the 90 minute countdown clock hadn’t started.) So I had the time and like the dork I am I took out my phone and started studying the roster of starting players names.

Now this is a pretty ridiculous first Learnin2010 topic, and arguably not very useful – even less particularly because its the last game of the season – but one thing that will help me stick to this resolution is being realistic for myself, and today being the day after new years and spending it at a bowl game, I think it’s a fine start. So I went over my list for an hour or so, and the names of course were much more familiar to me once the game started.

Anyway not a super serious or strenuous learning day, but I’m not too bothered. It’s the start of a new routine, and I’m doing it

Tomorrow! I’m going to teach myself once and for all to recognize the names and general directions of the major highways in southern california as part of what will probably be a multiday learning venture to help cure me of my gps dependency and expand my geographical knowledge of the area I’m living in. This will be easy research obviously – I’ll probably use/play with google earth for it.

I have a few more topics picked out the following days, but I’m way interested in your suggestions, as well as tips on resources for learning the topics I’ve picked out already (if you happen to know something about them yourself.)

That’s all for now, thanks for reading guys!

In 2010 I want to learn something new every day. I want to devote about an hour to educating myself about a different topic each day of the week. Examples: learning all the major roads in southern California so I don’t have to rely on GPS so much, learn about a hot political issue – like the Health Care bill, going through all 100 of the video copilot tutorials to beef up my VFX skills and portfolio, reading biographies of notable people in the Effects/Film Industry, delving further into the world of computer programming to gradually teach myself CSS and other web languages, hell, even a day’s hour mastering 10 new ‘SAT’ words (and their spellings) would be time well spent.

Knowledge is power, right? I’m excited about this, and I want to be public about it to hopefully get help from my friends (and people reading my blog – yes, my blog) for encouragement and SUGGESTIONS about what to devote future hours to.

I will be keeping track of the topic of the day with google calendar, which will be listed and synced on the sidebar there on the right.

I will be updating the blog each day with the results of that day’s hour, as well as finalizing the following days topic. If it moves me, and it might, I may make a video at the end of the week that wraps up all that I learned (and what I still remember, sort of like an exam? lol) and toss it on YouTube.

Wish me luck!

OH and you may be wondering – wow John, you’re a designer? What’s the deal with the crappy website? Well, I’m working on it, but I spent so much time not having a website because I didn’t have a design I figured I’d start backwards now and at least have something to blog on in the meantime.

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by. Not much to see here yet. Check back again later!

John