From the description on youtube:

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

Janelle, my wife, and I celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary this Saturday so I put together a video of our kids (and a few of the parents) using a tool called, Animoto. You upload videos off your system or grab them off your preferred photo sharing site (mine was Flickr). Then you select from the music they provide, which is actually really good, or select and upload an mp3. Two options emerge, 30 second free video creations or for $3 one time fee $30 dollars a year the video will match the song or number of pics.

So best practice I found is to choose the mp3 you want to act as and then upload and organize the correct amount of pictures to meet the right time allotment (the estimate video length calculated on picture count is displayed on the left). One other suggestion is to size the videos before upload(for best quality use roughly 1024pxX768px as that is what the image is sized to by Animoto. After the video is finished you can download it or post directly to Youtube.

Highly recommended tool.

Here is the result:

Before knowing the hum of a light saber and knowing bad things happen when one feeds mogwai after midnight I would often run across the poster promoting the film. The poster was often mysterious, awe inspiring and leaving you craving to put the pieces together when the lights finally fell in the theater. After the film the poster provided the uncanny ability to tell the story of the entire film, the same story the director just took up 2 hours of your life to tell, the poster artist captured in one frame, beautifully.

John Alvin was the creator of many of the most memorable frames. ET reaching out to Elliot, the spider of Arachnophobia silhouetted by the moon, Ariel reaching for a whole new world from beneath the waves, Aladdin’s lamp coming to life, etc, etc.

So if the movies had a big part in shaping me, looking at the posters is like going through an old photo album, with each picture stirring a memory, lighting up a neuron or two that has seen little use since a time when I had the mind to build robots of cardboard tubes.

So thank you John.

Take a peak through my treasured photo album

So I wanted to play a game with you all. Name 3 videos that left an impression with you. The videos that you stole dance moves from to be the coolest kid at the middle school dance. The videos that provided the lyrics that you swore one day would grace your epitaph. Even the videos that caused you to break a remote because it seemed to be on repeat and caused you to lose sleep because the lyrics would not leave you alone (We are not all ‘Shiny Happy People’). But Just pick 3.. Preferably the first three that come to mind. Here are mine:

Phil Collins – Don’t lose my number
Why? Cowboy, Mad Max, a Ninja,…check

John Mellencamp – Hurt So Good
Why?This song kicks ass and for some reason I remembered the vampiress in the chain as being hot. I stand corrected. (damn you prepubescent hormones)!

Tom Petty – Don’t Come Around Here No More
Why? I credit this video for keeping me away from acid. I thought holy crap they are eating the girl and she is cake… this is what it must be like to be on acid.. no thanks!

I get a bonus one for starting the list, and since it is a song with lyrics that for told the future and partially inspired this list.
Natalie Merchant and ’10,000 Maniacs’ – ‘Candy Everybody Wants’
You’ll get the idea.

Now go and find three videos that kept you coming back for more… until the ‘Real World’ Came along.. those bastards!