Justin Johnson's Personal Blog

I remember this thing.

2008-08-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

So, now I've got a Tumblr. It's simple to blog. Easy. Fast. Fun. I just put up things that I find as I drift around the internet. There's value to that - a day by day referential way to categorize whatever flits in front of my eyeballs and catches the fancy.

God, I haven't touched this thing in ... must be years. A long time. Going back and looking at posts where I wrote about moving to Florida, and being in NYC and pondering moving here someday, but then quickly shaking off the notion for fear of 'winter.' (which, to my past self, ain't all that bad, actually).

Maybe I won't post again for another couple hundreds days. Another presidential election. Doesn't matter. Let's chat about today, since todays are more relevant than big sweeping generalizations I could come up with any ol' time.

Was at work late again. Seems to happen often these days. I actually woke up at a decent time, made it in at a decent time. The girl who makes "The Burg" was in shooting stuff up in the green screen. She's quite nice, and has had some awesome success -- Michael EISNER type success. Their shoot went late and I stayed late along with them. When the office starts getting barren, it starts closing in on you ... each person is a buffer away from you being 'the last one.' Never good.

Been feeling down about this whole Obama-looking-like-he's-going-to-blow-the-election thing. I keep refreshing Drudge, thirst unquenched for every piece of info, every snippet about who Obama is going to choose as VP, or what kind of dumb shit McCain was spouting. It's overwhelming, and it stresses me out. Today I told myself I need to just split off and take a data-break. Having stepped back, a funny thing happened. I recalled how little I like either candidate. Why the fuck was I getting all involved in Trilateral-ballsucking Barack, when the dude who actually said what I thought, Ron Paul was out of the mix. How sad I felt when I realized when there'd no longer be that lone, screaming voice of reason ... saying ... sure wouldn't it be NICE to give a billion fucking dollars to Georgia, but hey guess what ... we don't actually HAVE a billion dollars ... we have lots and lots of negative dollars. Gah. I don't even want to type about it any more ... it's too tragic.

I'm about 800 pages deep into "Atlas Shrugged," and for the first 300 I felt that I may never hit the end, but now I'm starting to panic that it will eventually end. Doesn't seem plausible with the size of the thing, but it'll happen. Such beautiful writing - some certainly long and drawn out speeches which essentially resonate the same thing, but amazing nevertheless.

Alright, I feel like that's a decent chuck of text. I hope when I dive back into this blog this will mean something. Look ahead, I'm going to Europe for the first time on September 19th. I'm a tad nervous, and concerned I'll blow all my money, but I think I can live cheap for 10 days. I'm feeling drawn to Greece. Fuck the Romans and their Imperialism (though god, I love Italian food ...). The Greek culture, like the early United States, seemed to have it together at one point in history. I want to bask in that.

Erik's watching "Mad Men" in the other room. I feel compelled to join him. Goodnight.

New Film at Filmfights!

2007-06-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

You've got to check out the latest film I've crafted. It's only at Filmfights ... I finally got to work with longtime FF contributers On Rye LTD. Steve and Jake are awesome.

Here's a link to the movie ... VOTE FOR ME YOU BASTARDS! I'm tired of losing at my own website.

Backyard FX - a beautiful new show by good Film Fights buddy Erik Beck

2007-05-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

So, after a long pitching process and a couple delays, we've got the DIY filmmaker network Indy Mogul up and running! It's a big deal to me because friend Erik Beck (of Wallyville fame) who helped me out so much on Channel Frederator promos and a whole slew of other stuff, is creating it and I'm helping manage Indy Mogul.

I'm in love with how easy it is to work with Erik as a talent, and he's been very responsive to all the tweaks I've asked him to make. This concept has legs, and it's my honor to be a part of it. Erik's got the personality and the know-how to make a lot of something out of a lot of nothing and it's going to show as the episodes progress. Keep tuning in, and I'll keep you blogged and updated.

Hear the Humor

2007-05-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

Marissa and I had the chance to do some voice recording with our insanely talented friend Dan Meth of the upcoming Meth Minute.

Click the picture of Marissa rocking out to read his full blog post.

My Job is to Make Fun Happen - by Ian

2007-04-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

Some zany wildness at work.

My first blog post on next new networks

2007-04-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

Do some reading ... right here ... "Generations of Videoblogging"

Colbert and Kerry and Friends

2007-04-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited about the latest episode of NNN's show "Talking Points Memo TV." Somehow the host got to hang out with Kerry as he was on his way to the Colbert Report ... and then ... the best part in my opinion, Colbert's chatting with him backstage, telling him the ruse and his sort of 'character.'

And just to make things weird, my friends Jeff and Amir bumped into Mr. C at Penn Station just the other day.

Speaking of celebrity encounters, we had our very first one in NYC the other week. We were walking to the movie theater up on E 14th st ... I happened to glance a very familiar asian man hiding behind a baseball cap and a cell phone ... several steps later Marissa and I turned to each other and said "WAS THAT 'HIRO'???? From 'Heroes'???"

And it probably was.

Hooray!

Moving ... AGAIN!

2007-04-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

... but don't worry, I'm not moving to Europe or back to Wisconsin. Our company's just shifting from being split between offices on two different floors, sharing space with two different businesses, to finally having our own digs. From 8 to 10 to 9.

It feels spacious right now, since not everyone has made the move quite yet, but I'm sure it'll get packed in no time, which ain't so bad. It's good being able to just walk over and talk to whomever I need to without making the arduous elevator-borne journey up and down, up and down.

My friend Erik (from Wallyville films and Film Fights) just finished a script I sent over to him for a ThreadBagner.com promo. I think he did a really good job, it's cool to be able to shift a task like that over and know it's going to be done well and with care.

Good work Erik!

Some kind words from my new boss, Fred

2007-04-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

Best. Boss. Ever.

Video Blogging article in the Big Green

2007-04-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed a couple of weeks ago for this, finally came out! Here's a link! READ!!!

My siblings are vidblogging ...

2007-03-22T05:21:00.000-07:00

My sister Kari ...

And my brother Jesse ...

It's rather odd. My younger brother Luke also caught the video creation bug. Maybe it's not so strange anymore, with the advent of easy editing and hassle free cheap camcorders. The bar has been lowered, at least in terms of all the wacky half-functioning crap I had to go through 7 years ago (Goodness, that was a while ago!) to even get video into my computer!

So perhaps it's not even a big deal. People just make video like they used to shoot photos. I wonder how the photographers felt when digital came along and any old schmore could get a perfect exposure? Probably similar to this.

Random IM'er Terrible Myspace

2007-01-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

tazdopey23: www.myspace.com/sassybitchfagan23
tazdopey23: go here
JST: Hmm, why ?
JST: Ugh it makes my brain bleed
tazdopey23: u make me BLEED
JST: That's gross
tazdopey23 signed off at 11:57:26 AM.

Good morning! It's a car crash!

2007-01-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

A car ran into our apartment on Vimeo

Around 8:30 am, without even a squeal, we woke to the thunderous sound of a car crashing directly into our building! Luckily, we're on the third floor, so the vehicle didn't come caving into our apartment proper.

Random IM'er "Tree People"

2006-12-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

Since my screen name is so short, I get terrible random IMs from internet idiots all the time. Instead of letting them make me feel sad, I try to confuse them before ultimately blocking their pants off. Here's one I had today.

macy4326: helllo
JST: howdy
macy4326: wats ^
JST: Who are you
macy4326: do u no ''idatedahotchic'' that s/n
macy4326: do u no that name
JST: No, please go away
JST: I live in the woods, I only know the ways of the woods
JST: and the creatures therein
macy4326: oh
macy4326: how r u talkin in the wood
macy4326: s
macy4326: ******************************************
JST: This tree has a magic screen, I talk to the tree, and it writes down what I say on a typewriter made of wood
JST: I'm talking to it right now
macy4326: um
JST: I thought you were one of the tree people I know so well
macy4326: h'
JST: but they are much better at spelling
macy4326: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
macy4326: hahahahahahagha'
JST: DO NOT MOCK THE WAYS OF THE TREE PEOPLE
macy4326: ooo
macy4326: wat u gone do
macy4326: act a fool
JST: Oh no! You're making the magic screen grow dim! With your odd threats!!!
macy4326: koolmacy4326: hahaha
macy4326: lol
JST: It grows so dim! No! The magic is wearing off!! After all these years!!!
JST: I thought it was here to stay, finally, after the slaying of the White Witch!!!!
JST: What have you done?!?!?!
JST: My lonely prison of shrubbery!!!!
macy4326 signed off at 2:26:56 PM.

New Vidblog1 'From Out Here"

2006-12-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

(VIDBLOG) From Out Here on Vimeo

Dirt

2006-12-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

I was taking the bus downtown to grab a camera from my friend Erik.

It struck me, as I was looking at the cheap plastic chairs, that all this plastic, metal, and glass that made up the bus all essentially came from things within nature. They were all just spectacularly interwoven to create the end effect of a place to contain people and movement.

Then I looked outside and thought all the cars, houses, and office buildings were just particular assemblages of more dirt, treated and melted and dicked around with until it took on the properties that we wanted it to.

There was no real difference between a slick perfectly machined skyscraper and a mud hut. They're just all different forms of mud. Nothing we have came from anything more astonishing than what we began with.

All seemed rather odd.

When I got downtown there was a street preacher, screaming about how because the world exists we must acknowledge the presence of a god, specifically his god.

At least it wasn't raining today.

Seattle Weekend Fun

2006-12-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

So, as many of you know, I like to travel.

And move.

Actually I don't like either of those things. I like BEING other places, but I hate the actual 'moving the physical body' around crap. It's exhausting and time-consuming and just boring most of the time. Luckily I've developed a time-warping method known as 'sleeping' that can make most flights manageable.

Sadly, Marissa doesn't possess this power, so when we travel together I've got to hold myself to the occasional nap. It's hard though.

This in mind, a two hour trip up to Seattle from here really isn't too bad. So I wanted to make sure to get up there before the next inevitable re-location.

My friend KENPARTY from earlier Florida exploits got a job for Microsoft working on theier Xbox Live stuff, and since we love him and haven't seen him in a good couple months it was time to go.

It appeared like it was going to be a mess at first, he informed us his car only had two seats, and Marissa doesn't like me sitting on her lap, so we were forced to rent a car (far, far too expensive for a company called 'Thrifty').

Ken didn't mind driving, however, so it all worked out!

Oooohhhh, so what did we do ... got in on Friday afternoon, hung out, went and got some quasi-Mexican food, went to sleep because traveling is awful.

Saturday was a barrel of fun.

Space Needle

Science museum

Pike's Place Market

Watching kids run in terror

Water Jets of Death on Vimeo

...

So yeah, lots of fun. And we got Pepperoni Basil pizza that made my mouth want to spew butterscotch and rainbows. So frickin' good.

That night, though were were exhausted from walking around all day, we headed out to see my former Youth Pastor from my high school years, Tim Oas.

We hadn't really spoken since a wedding we both attended about 3 years ago (documented in the below vidblog) ...

(VIDBLOG) Escape from Alcatraz on Vimeo

Things went well, to the point of Tim actually saying "You do realize that you're talking to a PASTOR right? I'm a pastor!" a sign I wasn't putting up any false fronts about who I am and what I believe.

He had some bubble tea, talked with Marissa, I had eggnog, and we took the 'poor man's tour' of Seattle.

So yeah, we made it back to the airport on time, and it was an awesome weekend jaunt. Much less stressful than I was thinking it might be.

Vidblog, Orlando to San Francisco, 2005/2006

2006-11-29T22:29:00.000-08:00

(VIDBLOG) Everything's Gone on Vimeo

Life and video blogs

2006-11-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

Goodness gracious, finally my blog posting works again. For the longest time it just didn't do anything on the off-chance I wanted to go post a blog (which tragically, wasn't as often as it should be).

So, a lot of things have been going on. Work is rather mind-numbing and busy recently. I'm juggling the normal internet stuff, with doing videos for Channel Frederator, with trying to plow through a vidblog. with ... you know ... Guitar Hero 2.

This vidblog will be pretty good. It's ancient footage ... but that seems to be how things go right now. I've got enough shot for about two, splitting them up is far more manageable. It's got us packing up our stuff getting ready to move to California, the always wacky Brent and his bandmates coming to visit, some assorted segments of never-before-seen raw footage from a couple video shoots (Stick Arena commercial, a couple Fred spots), and heading off to the airport.

The second vidblog to come out of the footage will be more us settling into the apartment, the cat laying around all over the place, how barren everything looked before we got our stuff, etc.

I always regret not taping more stuff out here. Like the other night we had a "Bad Movie" marathon sort of thing, which included a little midget asskicking ninja and a terrible and hilarious Arnie flick ("You should not drink and bahkke"). We had a blast, and around 20 people showed up, our biggest party yet. The neighbors downstairs were gone, so we busted the SF Karaoke Revolution cherry and sang well into the night.

I snapped about two pictures and that was it.

The next morning I was very disappointed I didn't catch more of the action. I want to remember my friends here forever in vidblog form, not just photos. I'll have to make a point to document more.

There's big crazy news in our life. Maybe I'll expand upon that later. It's awesome and it kind of sucks big time, at the same time. News like that is always hard to break.

Posh Bagels

2006-11-27T10:42:00.000-08:00

Marissa and I decided to go down to 9th and Irving a handful of days ago. I like the area because it's, as my good friend Tracy put it, "Clement street for white people." Clement street being the bustling strip of restaurants and whatnot in our highly Asian-populated 'hood.

I love bagels, and I love bagel shops, so when we spotted Posh Bagels I knew it'd be the perfect place to go and grab a manageable bite to eat. I got some kind of megalithic-sized bagel that barely fit in my mouth, and Marissa got something much more manageable. We got it to-go, and the food was still tasty as hell when we got home.

Shrooms

2006-11-18T11:19:00.000-08:00

I did shrooms a little over a month ago, for the first time. If you want to keep believing with certainty that we're not living in some kind of matrix, I suggest NOT taking them, because ... wow.

It was 5-6 hours of pure insanity.

I lost the concept of time, and self. When that happens the fucking floor just drops from under you, and you're drifting out in space wondering what the fuck the world is.

Life, death, everything, all a big cosmic joke. I recall laughing to myself at how silly it all was. Looking out at all these people cooped in their apartments ... sitting around doing nothing, staring at glowing tubes like zombies.

Government, race, all just silly shit meant to divide us, to make us too distracted by it all to do anything positive. Not like anything we do really matters in the end.

But as depressing as that may sound, I came away with a very positive experience. It seemed to ... cement my concepts about the world. I don't know if I lead the experience in that direction or if it really was the truth, that's hard to gauge.

But one thing's for sure --- really FEELING your body as the organic machine that it is ... outlandishly odd. I just felt like a disgusting sack of trivial meat. Eating was laborious and dull, taking a shit seemed downright animal. We're beings of infinite potential trapped in fleshy humanity.

Memphis Minnies

2006-09-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

I could write about things going on in my life right now, but I decided I was going to instead try to keep track of places I eat, so I know what was good and what wasn't.

We went to Memphis Minnie's today. It's in Lower Haight, so the walk was slightly ghetto but really nothing too bad. We got there, you order like you would at a McDonalds or something, and then there's a small seating area. Don't try to bring too huge a group, could be a hassle.

The beef tips were delicious, and huge. Wow, yeah, it was really good. Marissa had the burger and seemed to like it.

So, that's where we ate today. Come and visit and we'll all go together :)

New Vidblog! (May 2006)

2006-08-30T23:53:00.000-07:00

(VIDBLOG) Just Like Old Times on Vimeo

I suggest using this link for higher quality video

Video from this weekend

2006-08-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

David Lehre Justin Johnson Dave Seger and Jeremy BBQ Madness on Vimeo

Hey everyone!

2006-08-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

I felt my first earth quake! Hoo-ray!

My First Quake on Vimeo

We were right in the middle of shooting a channel frederator spot, and suddenly everything started jiggling around. There was a 4.4 mag up in Santa Rosa about 3-4 minutes before we felt this aftershock.

You can hear things rattling and shaking in the background.