Writer, Lovable Geek

I was going through old folders on my iBook tonight, looking for large files to get rid of, when I came across some fliers I had made for a few of my student radio shows while at Grand Valley State University.

Fair warning, this could get geeky.

My favorite part is the horrible clone brush job in the upper right hand corner

Ah yes. The Electric Challenge of the Powerslaves, a title that was not only a reference to the Go-Bots, but also Iron Maiden’s seminal 1984 album, Powerslave. Oh, here’s a live video of the title track. Better still, the entire background of the flier is the cover from Dio’s The Last in Line album. These fliers are a great time capsule of my Photoshop skills in college. I had probably only just learned the program at this point. Oy. I did this show with my buddy Erik.

The “premise” of this show, even if there was ever such a thing, was a combination of late night talk radio and music. All three of our listeners enjoyed it. In all seriousness, one of our friends commented that he enjoyed our varied musical tastes. Erik would play some Joy Division and I would follow it up with Iron Maiden. Hilarious.

Moving on.

This one was a bit better, look at all those images in the text!

Next up was Büllit Bëlt, my “old school” heavy metal show. This was a solo affair and a decent step in my Photoshop know-how. I had learned how to add images to text (and how to bevel/emboss said text). I seem to remember painstakingly cutting that flying V guitar and the ring of fire out of their respective original images. I also tracked down a Metallica font (called Pastor of Muppets, I believe) as well as an Iron Maiden font (Metal Lord?). For those curious, the images in the text are L to R: Eddie from Iron Maiden, the Motorhead logo, the cover of Dio’s Holy Diver and a Slayer album.

Next!

This is probably the best looking of the three, design wise.

Oh, Blades of Steel. My darling hockey talk show. Interestingly enough, it was a fairly landmark show at the time. WCKS was mainly music and a little bit of talk, but no one really did a sports show, let alone on hockey. They even did a story on me for the school paper. Obviously, this is just an ad for the Blades of Steel video game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I didn’t have to do much, which was probably a good thing, but I did change “game” in “the hottest game on ice” to “show.” That took some creative Photoshop work. I got the S, H and O from “hottest” but I had to swipe and flip the M from “game” to complete show. I was pretty happy with that.

Ah, college radio. Good times, good conversation (well, not really, except when Erik was around). Doing LansingNext with Julielyn is bringing back some of those memories and that is part of the reason I am enjoying the show so much (and like a million times more people are listening).

Tags: college, dj, flier, lansing next, photoshop, radio, wcks

Here it is, this week’s episode of LansingNext starring Ms. Julielyn Gibbons and myself. FYI, the format has changed a bit, so the first 3:36 of the show is news updates. The fun starts at 3:36.

To Listen: click on the gray play button below.

 

 LansingNext 3-10-10 [59:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To Download the MP3: Right Click on the Download link, choose Save Target As or Save Link As from the menu and then choose where to save the .MP3 on your hard drive.

Show Notes

First Segment
00:00-03:36 (News, Ads). We start at 03:36.

03:36 – 14:00 Ignite Lansing, Daniel’s presentation, John Schnider’s article about Ignite, the ensuing backlash and Ari Adler’s response.

14:00 – 16:00 We chat about Jillian Granz, the MSU student who designed a dress for James Cameron’s wife to wear in the red carpet at the Oscars.

Second Segment
16:00 – 28:00 Interview with Ivy Hughes about Capital Gains, traveling and being a transplant from Colorado.

Third Segment
33:50 – 45:50 Interview with Ryan Knott about Lansing Happy Hour Club (you can search for the #lhhc on Twitter too), and as a performing singer/songwriter we ask him for advice on what not to eat or drink before going on stage (count how many times he says mucus).

Fourth Segment
48:30 – 59:59 Reading Month is the topic and here is  Daniel’s pick, Trizophrenia: Inside the Minds of a Triathlete by Lansing native Jef Mallet , who also draws the comic strip Frazz.

Julielyn talks about the Nook by Barnes and Noble and Daniel makes a terrible joke about “Waiting for the Schuler Schnook.” Julielyn’s book is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

After the books, Julielyn talks about March also being National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month – and the importance of being screened.

What’s on Your iPod? – Daniel’s pick for this week, David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream (Live). Julielyn then subjects us to the Glee! version of Don’t Stop Believin‘ by Journey. Daniel is not amused.

Daniel and Julielyn share some of their favorite afterwork activities and we read some listener ideas off Twitter (use the #LansingNext tag) and Facebook.

Tags: ari adler, capital gains, daniel j. hogan, ignite lansing, ivy hughes, julielyn gibbons, lansing next episodes, lsj, ryan knott

As the title suggests, here is a (vast) collection of all the fun things I’ve done online over the past week. I try to do this every week, but some times I get busy and don’t get around to it, which was the case for last week. Oh well. This is mainly a collection of my weekly articles for Capital Gains and links to the recent LansingNext episodes.

Capital Gains development stories: (listed newest to oldest)

Grand Ledge Receives More Than $400,000 To Rehab Downtown Rental Lofts
3/10/2010

New Prep School Targets Young Professional Parents in Downtown Lansing
3/10/2010

Replay Entertainment Exchange Owner Adds Online Apparel Service
3/10/2010

Fabinelli’s Handmade Candy Shoppe Opens in Downtown Williamston
3/10/2010

Haze Art Gallery and Studio Move into New Buildings in Old Town
3/3/2010

New Vendor Features Great Lakes Fish and Special Orders in the New City Market
3/3/2010

Gravity Works Design & Development Open for Business, Plans Move to TIC
3/3/2010

South Lansing Brunch House Offers Traditional Breakfast and a Lebanese Flair
3/3/2010

Salon 130 in Mason Expands to 3,000 Sq Ft, Offers New Services
2/24/2010

Log Jam in Grand Ledge Gets Renovation, Goes Smoke Free and Updates Menu
2/24/2010

Law Offices of David L. Zoglio Move to New Old Town Location
2/24/2010

AnnaBelle’s Pet Station Adding Staff, Introduces New Day Care Depot
2/24/2010

#

Episode of LansingNext (I don’t know yet when episode 004 will be available for download, but I’ll keep everyone updated).

Episode 003 (listen or download)

Tags: articles, capital gains, julielyn gibbons, lansing capital gains, lansing next, lansingnext

Can’t remember if I posted this or not last week (probably not), but episode 020 of the free Magic of Eyri Podcast is now online.

Listen-o-tron! :: Downloaderize!

Tags: download, free, magic of eyri, mp3, new episode, podcast episodes, the magic of eyri

I can’t say enough great things about Ignite Lansing 3.0. It was a spectacular event that blew away my highest expectations. The crew was amazing. The venue was amazing. Everything was, at the risk of being repetitive, amazing.

I arrived on scene at 6:00 PM as the speakers were told to do, the interior of the Knapp’s Building was a buzzing hive of activity. Lights. Lasers (yes, laser). Cameras. They were all alive.

I had my pre-show briefing with show runners (Nick, Ben), the MC and the stage manager, Melissa. I was happy to see I could use a hand held mic, as I wanted to be mobile during my speech.

Around 7:00, the floodgates opened and attendees started arriving. It was energetic chaos (I mean that in a good way). Dozens filled the line for the Cravings Popcorn bar (my LansingNext co-host Julielyn helped as a volunteer).

The evening was pretty much a blur for me until I had my cue to head for the stage around 9:00 PM. I was in Group C, the last of the three groups of presenters. The crowd had thinned a bit by this point, but it was still very much a packed house.

I was pumped, primed and ready.

I took the stage and killed. My choice to go for the silly, crazy presentation worked. Had a lot of great crowd reactions (although my spork joke at the open didn’t seem to go over that well). I’m glad I decided to wear an eye-patch and to do a “character voice,” the crowd ate it up.

Five minutes later, it was all over. I received scores of compliments afterward, both in person and online.

Better still, I took First Place for my group. Bam.

I think I had third place overall. I don’t know when the video will be on YouTube, but I will post that asap once it becomes available.

Thanks to everyone at Ignite Lansing for putting on a great event!

This scene from ERNEST SAVES CHRISTMAS inspired my presentation a bit.

Tags: daniel j. hogan, downtown, event, ignite lansing, julielyn gibbons, lansing, lansingnext, novel writing, presentation, public speaking, speech

I am one of the presenters at tonight’s Ignite Lansing 3.0 at the Knapp’s Building in downtown Lansing.

For those unfamiliar, the Ignite events are held around the world and the idea is you get people together and share ideas in five minutes.

That’s right, five minutes.

Five minutes, 22 slides, 15 seconds a slide. That’s a lot of information to cram into such a brief amount of time.

And of course, being the crazy person I am, I signed up to be a presenter. Visitors to the Ignite Lansing website voted on which presentations they wanted to see. I was fortunate enough to be chosen.

I am equal parts nervous and excited about this opportunity. I’ll be speaking in front of a group of hundreds in the building, as well as being streamed online. Afterward, the presentation will be archived for all to see on YouTube. The presentations can be watched at video.ignitelansing.com (I go on at 9:15 PM EST).

So yes, I’ll be speaking in front of a crowd nearing 600, not to mention many more watching online. This is quite a bit of pressure, but I’m up to it.

My presentation is called How to Survive Writing a Novel.

Now, I do not plan for this to be a five minute promotion of the Magic of Eyri, I am not that shameless of a self-promoter. I do list myself as the author of it on my title slide, but I felt it was necessary to show the audience that I actually wrote a novel.

I am taking a very funny, zany approach to this and I don’t want to give too much away ahead of time. Although I have been dropping hints here and there, especially on this week’s episode of LansingNext.

My goal is not to be boring. I am treating this as more of a performance piece than a presentation, if that makes sense. I’ll be digging into my improv comedy toolbox a bit, and just having fun.

If I can share information and entertain at the same time, awesome.

I shall post a link to the YouTube video once it is online. Wish me luck!

Tags: downtown, event, ignite lansing, knapp's building, lansing, novel writing, omg, powerpoint, presentation