This video from Kina Grannis just keeps making me smile. Finally got around to picking up her album “Stairwells” today. Such a lovely batch of songs to listen to on a lazy Sunday.

We were sitting in a comfortable hotel suite in Manhattan just over a week ago. I’d been summoned a few days earlier by Apple PR with the offer of a private “product briefing”. I had no idea heading into the meeting what it was about. I had no idea how it would be conducted. This was new territory for me, and I think, for Apple.

• Taylor Swift w/ The Civil Wars – Taylor Swift’s video for the lead single from the Hunger Games soundtrack debuted on MTV earlier this week. The video holds a good portion of the mood from the Hunger Games story with some elements that will have meaning to those who have read the books. Two great artists working together put out a fantastic song that has been stuck in my head for months.

Slowly starting to upgrade my camera set up. I have added a new EFS 55-250mm lens to go along with the kit lens that came with my Rebel XS. hoping to pick up a macro lens in the near future, but for now I think I’m set for some photography fun.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Took my mom to the Vikings vs. Saints game on Sunday. Despite the horrible performance and the Vikings losing to my most hated team, we had a good time.

Portal 2 is the sequel to the game that inspired the masterful fan film by @DannyTRS

Filmmaker and host of “The Totally Rad Show” Dan Trachtenberg made this short film based on the Portal video game franchise titled “Portal: No Escape.” If you don’t know what Portal is, this film does a pretty good job conveying what the whole thing is. It took him a year and a half to make it with help from some other very talented filmmakers.

This video is “winning the Internet.” Posted online about 24 hours ago (as I write this) it has generated more than one million hits on YouTube. I hope this starts something for Mr. Trachtenberg. He has been a successful commercial director for a few years. You likely have seen his handy work in some form without knowing it. Hopefully this opens up some opportunities for Dan to make a larger scale film or whatever else he might want to do.

Portal is one of those games that I think would translate well into film and Trachtenberg proves it with this short. I would be interested in seeing what further could be done in the Portal/Half-Life world on the big screen. We probably will eventually see something and if anything this short gives us a hint of what could come.

Over all rating: ★★★★

Cover of "The Death of You and Me" single from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

When Oasis imploded in late 2009 I couldn’t really claim that I was all that surprised. As an Oasis Fan you kind of expected it would happen at some point.

We also knew this would mean two things – more music from Noel and Liam; just not with each other.

Earlier this year Liam and the rest of Oasis minus Noel released their debut album as Beady Eye, a strong effort that actually rivals some of Oasis’ best material in recent years. While it didn’t feel too much like a departure from what the band had been doing as Oasis, it still felt exciting and new.

This of course meant we were just waiting for Noel to come out of the woodwork with new material of his own. It took some time, but a few weeks back Noel made his official announcement of a solo career. A solo career that has already produced two albums set for release over the next year and a half or so.

Noel Gallagher - from noelgallagher.com

Last night at 1 a.m. the first of his solo material officially hit digital store shelves. The single “The Death of You and Me” is now available for purchase on his official website. I ordered both the CD single and the digital single.

The video for “The Death of You and Me” hit a few weeks ago so the song has had a few weeks to gestate in the public and from what I can tell, a lot of people are with me in their praise for his work. Again, not a big departure from what Oasis had been doing, but this is Noel Gallagher after all – how far a field did you really expect him to go.

The a-side for the single is a bit breezy and in line with some of the brighter moments of Don’t Believe the Truth. The b-side, “The Good Rebel” feels like a mid-90′s Noel fronted Oasis track. If you enjoyed the hidden moments in the “Be Hear Now” era, I think you’ll feel right at home with “The Good Rebel.”

The first full length album “Noel Gallagher’s High Flight Birds” is set for release this November and from the material I have heard up to this point, I continue to be excited to see what Noel does. It is still a good time to be an Oasis fan – even if Oasis is no more.

During the storm it was difficult to get a full grasp on what was going on. I could hear the hail, I could see the tree down in my backyard but the full scope of what had come to town was difficult to appreciate until after it had passed. There was hardly a street in town that was passable. Getting a vehicle out on the road was nearly impossible.

My home sustained some minor damage, shingles on the roof were damaged and I lost two trees in my backyard along with piles of branches from the other trees on my property. I was lucky compared to many of the other property owners in Tyler who have significant damage to their homes, businesses and vehicles.

The response from our community was astounding. Within minutes of the storm passing by, neighbors were out helping neighbors and people from other communities poured into town to help in any way they could.

For my part, I went to work taking photos throughout the community of the damage, preparing a record that would be first published in the Tribute a few days later. It was difficult not to think I should be doing something else, but I fully recognized the need for letting people know what happened.

No one was seriously hurt from the storm and today life has mostly gotten back to normal. Less than a month after the storm our town held its annual celebration along with the Lincoln County Fair – at the same time. The city crews and volunteers helped bring the community back to a place to be proud of.

There is yet a lot of work to be done and it will be years before Tyler looks the way it did before Friday, July 1 at 4 p.m.