Here’s a new video for a song from Explosions in the Sky’s last album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. If it reminds you of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, it could be because co-director Peter Simonite was also a second unit cinematographer on the film.

It’s hard to believe that the last couple of months have flown by so fast and summer is almost here. I am starting to understand that time somehow speeds up when you are a parent, which is sort of the opposite of what you’d expect, since a growing baby also makes you acutely aware of the passage of time. It can easily stress you out if you stop and think about it too much, but I’ve been making an effort to relax and enjoy my leisure time a little more as of late. That means less blogging and tweeting, believe it or not. My workaholic side usually makes me feel guilty and unproductive whenever I’m not doing something “creative”, but I realize that’s weird and not entirely healthy. Fortunately, fatherhood is quickly becoming a pretty satisfying creative project in its own right. Now if I could just nod off while watching a hockey game and not wake up feeling panic or remorse, I’d be in pretty good shape.

Alicia’s Macbook died a couple of weeks ago (don’t get me started on Macs!). Fortunately it wasn’t the hard drive, so we didn’t lose any photos or videos, but it did remind me that we really should start backing everything up to the cloud because, well, it’s the year 2012 and you can do that now. I’ve been taking advantage of Apple’s iCloud on my iDevices, but now Google recently announced that they are launching Google Drive. They offer 5 GB for free (just like iCloud) but the pricing is a lot cheaper if you want to increase it. I think I’m also going to give Carbonite a test run before I decide what I want to use.

Speaking of Google, their Project Glass video went viral a while back and caused a bit of a stir. The video illustrates how a pair of internet-enabled glasses with an augmented reality heads-up display might work in real life. It was quickly parodied and became a bit of a joke, but I suspect this is a lot closer to reality than most of us realize. They just have to figure out how to prevent people from walking into traffic while wearing them.

I was a little bit dubious when AMC announced that they were setting up a reality series to capture the modern day equivalent of Mad Men, but I have to admit that I am pretty hooked on The Pitch after watching the first two episodes. The competition between two marketing firms forms a classic reality TV structure for each episode, and the personalities involved are pretty varied and unique. Before I was a computer programmer, I had considered getting into marketing. I now realize that it would be way too stressful, but strangely, I see a lot of parallels with the video game industry.

The tech world is still reeling from Facebook’s recent $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, and although it seems like a lot of money for a bunch of photo filters, I am starting to see why it might be so valuable. There was a point where I too thought it was just a gimmick and a fad, but then I realized that I was sharing random photos on Instagram without sharing them anywhere else and checking for updates on a regular basis. On the flip side, I can’t remember the last time I uploaded a photo to Flickr. For the average person, photo sharing is all about convenience and the ability to add just a little bit of artistic flair. Which reminds me, this article is kind of fun.

As someone who grew up on early Sierra games and other adventure games that existed before the “point and click” interface took over, I’ve always wanted to write my own text adventure games. I tried making a few on the Commodore 64 when I was a kid until I realized that they are a little too complicated to pull off with a few billion “if” statements. The recent launch of PlayFic, however, has me itching to dabble in interactive fiction again. It’s basically a web-based community for creating and sharing games written with Inform 7. I know no one is interested in games without pictures anymore, but there are still annual IF competitions. Maybe I’ll start playing around with this and see where it goes.

It’s not really a music video per se, but it is an interesting way to preview a new track from the upcoming Sigur Ros album. Valtari hits stores on May 23rd and it seems a lot more minimal than their last few albums. I’m okay with that. Looking forward to finally seeing them live this summer.

So as it turns out, these pesky little blog posts don’t just write themselves. I’m falling behind again, partially due to lack of time, but also because I haven’t been feeling the urge to write anything “off-topic” as of late. I have a handful of drafts started on a handful of different topics, but I can’t seem to find the motivation to finish them off. Perhaps weekly mega posts are a more realistic goal. We are hoping to redesign Film Junk sometime in the near future, and I’d like to set it up so that it doesn’t require daily attention from me. At any rate, I am now trying to avoid writing a review that I need to write for Film Junk, so procrastination has inspired me to pass along another batch of random links right here instead.

I know I’m EXTREMELY late to the party on this, but I recently discovered Grooveshark and have been using it to listen to music at work a lot lately. I’m not sure how much longer it will be around for since they’re currently being sued by all the major labels but it made me realize how close we are to storing absolutely everything in the cloud. We don’t have Spotify yet in Canada, but another streaming music service from France called Deezer is supposed to be launching here soon.

Speaking of the cloud, the Megaupload shutdown and subsequent arrests are continuing to send shockwaves through the online file sharing community. Filesonic has also recently disabled sharing along with a number of torrent sites such as BT Junkie. And yet, reports continue to indicate that online piracy has not decreased as a result, and hacker group Anonymous now claim to be working on their own file sharing service. Something tells me that the RIAA and MPAA are fighting a battle they can’t possibly win.

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl is developing his own TV series about a rock band on the verge of breaking up who enlist the help of a therapist to work it out. That’s funny… sounds a little bit like a certain Metallica documentary we already know and love. FX have picked up the show, which is a half-hour comedy co-written and executive produced by Dana Gould (The Simpsons). Consider me interested.

Valve launched a Steam mobile app a couple of weeks ago for both iOS and Android. It mainly just lets you keep in touch with friends on the network and purchase games, but I can’t help wondering if there might be something more planned down the road. Would it be possible for Steam to start selling mobile versions of games through this app as well? I’m not sure that Apple would allow them to bypass the App Store like that, but it’s certainly an intriguing thought. For now, the app just makes it even easier to binge on Steam sales… perfect!

After years of neglect, it appears that The Cartoon Network and Adult Swim are finally moving forward with plans to launch in Canada. The move is part of a partnership with Teletoon, the Canadian specialty channel that already currently airs a lot of their programming. There was a time when I would have killed to have access to The Cartoon Network just for the retro cartoons, but now all that stuff is easy to find on DVD or elsewhere. I guess it will be nice to not have to wait a year to see new seasons of Adult Swim shows though.

If you grew up on 8-bit video games, specifically the Nintendo Entertainment System, you owe it to yourself to play Abobo’s Big Adventure. This fan-made Flash game packs a ton of nostalgia into a polished package that is surprising fun to play. It kind of makes you wonder why Nintendo doesn’t do something like this and bring all of their characters together into one game… the more obscure the better! I think I might even have to invest in an NES USB controller just to get the proper Abobo experience.

Perhaps the weirdest news story I read all week had to do with a scientific study on “flow” — that is, the state of mind while performing a task where you are at the peak of concentration and focus. It turns out that by zapping certain areas of the brain, they can simulate the flow state and increase your skill in a particular activity, allowing you to perform at the same level as someone who has had years of practice. Basically, it’s like you can “level up” without actually putting in the time. Pretty soon we’re going to be popping in brain implants to install new abilities. I’m so glad to be living in the future.

I had heard a lot of good things about Dungeon Raid throughout most of 2011, so when this game went and dropped to 99 cents on the App Store a couple of weeks ago, I decided to snag it. The gameplay is clearly reminiscent of the Puzzle Quest series, which is a large part of what interested me, but I wasn’t sure I needed to play yet *another* twist on a match 3 game. As it turns out, Dungeon Raid has a lot more going on than I expected and it packs in a ton of replay value. The only problem is that I can’t help comparing it to Puzzle Quest. And when I do that, it feels like something is missing.

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Pretty awesome new song from Sleigh Bells, although I’m not sure I can condone the use of firearms in a music video. (Obviously I’m kidding.) Their new album Reign of Terror is out on Feb. 21st. Here’s another new song from it: “Born to Lose”.

Ever since Lost ended a couple of years ago, it left a void in my TV viewing schedule that has yet to be replaced. Oh sure, there are plenty of TV shows that technically do fill that one hour gap every week, but I really miss the magnetic pull of a genuinely absorbing mystery, one that offers unpredictable twists and turns and a sense of discovery. Plenty have tried to replicate it (Heroes, Jericho, The Event, FlashForward) but they all fell short somewhere along the line. Now, for the first time in a while, Alcatraz has me feeling at least a small twinge of what Lost once offered.

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I have to admit, my first reaction to most online petitions and campaigns is to be somewhat annoyed by the self-righteous nerds who are pushing them on other people. It just seems so easy to fight for a cause by being loud and obnoxious on the internet without actually doing anything. Add to this the fact that most self-respecting tech geeks will automatically jump on board with anything that even remotely challenges government and/or corporate entities, and you’ve got a lot of sheep shooting off their mouths without thinking for themselves. On the other hand, I also can’t stand the people who are so oblivious and apathetic that they think nothing in the world will ever affect them directly.

Putting all of those feelings aside, this SOPA thing is kind of a big deal. As much I’d like to think that a U.S. bill should have no influence on someone living in Canada, the truth is, the U.S. controls the internet whether we like it or not. This bill could change the face of the internet, and as someone who runs a handful of blogs I am particularly concerned because it could even land me in jail through no fault of my own.

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