Justin Piercy

As an audio engineer and a fan of all things cool I can’t get enough of Mike Tompkins! Way to go man! Canadian too… can I just mention that? Rock on dude!

Wow! I had no idea! ………..

This was shot with an iPhone? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Love it!

Awesome short film featuring Whoopi Goldberg. Mesmerizing. via @ChurchCreate

Awesome. And true. Via @puzle

Here is part two of “In Love with a View”. Make sure to watch Part 1 first! For best results watch full screen in 720p. 

Check this out. In 2008 I worked with Jonathan Wagner of Buffalo RIver Pictures and produced this short film. I did all sound design, production and post production audio. Make sure to watch part 2 as well!

The view from here.

I think we’re underestimating just how much coffee was spilled….

LOL

via Pat Dryburgh

Ever since I worked on a short film with my friend Jonathan Wagner at Buffalo River Pictures I’ve developed an increasing love for both photography and film.

This video is probably the coolest hybrid of the two art forms I’ve seen to date.

To see how the creator made it, check out this blog post at North Point Media:

simpledesks:

Submitted by Justin Piercy.

Got my workspace featured on the Simple Desks blog, managed by my good buddy Pat Dryburgh. The black and white colour combo was dreamed up by my decor-savvy wife. Never though I’d love an office with black walls, but now that I have one I love it! Matches my gear too;) For all you audio junkies, those are indeed genuine Yamaha NS-10m’s

My wife, in a hammock.

Actual convo with my friend and co-worker Jeff Brodie this week:

Jeff: “You and I are like an enigma. Intensly purposeful and organized and yet frustratingly scattered and unorganized in the same moment.”

Me: ” I’m surprised we don’t create black holes.”

Jeff: “People don’t get people like us.”

// Agreed.. lol

Sweet

Haircut - Before and After

Actual convo with Tracey this morning:

“Justin, why are your keys in the fridge?”

“I don’t know.”

There were some cool clouds out today, so I gave my first crack at HDR. Normally I’m not a fan of the surrealist look, but i decided to go off the deep end a bit on these. They turned out pretty cool.

flowers

actual convo with my wife early this am:

“Justin, are you crying?”

“No, I’m laughing at a joke I made in my dream.”

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s new book “Linchpin”. In a nutshell, Linchpin is an open letter to anyone who would consider themselves a “worker”. Godin calls out to inspire the reader, to seek out their seed of creativity, and to make themselves indispensible.

I’ve been enjoying the book, finding Godin’s standpoint out of the box and thought provoking, if a little intangible. While his style isn’t totally up my alley, I really love the the way he approaches his goals for the book.

Godin writes to people in a corporate “factory driven” world. According to him, our culture has been designed to make us good at our jobs and to do what people tell us. Our culture is designed to turn us into workers, our personality left at home, with a replaceable skill set. Good at our jobs, but always replaceable. I would agree with him in the fact that this indeed is what, up until this point, employers have largely looked for in their employees.

However, in a book that starts out by focusing on the “worker”, he ironically talks more about art than he does about work. He argues that in today’s changing economy those who are truly indispensible (Linchpins, as he calls them), aren’t merely great at their jobs, they’re artists.

As I said, a little intangible, especially for those in low paying jobs in factories and coffee shops. However, the more I think about the topic the more I realize it’s true.

In today’s economy blooming organizations thrive on these types of people. I go to Starbucks not because the coffee is great, although that helps, I go because I know I’ll be leaving with a smile on my face. Their Barista’s not only serve up a mean latte, they also treat their job as art, going above and beyond their duties, being creative in their interactions. If you own a Macintosh computer, you’ve experienced the same thing any time you call into customer support, or gone to see a Genius at an Apple store. Google hires hundreds of these types of people to work at it’s HQ. Have you seen any youtube videos of Google headquarters? Watch this. 

I’ve always approached any of my jobs with everything I’ve got, Godin’s definition around that really has helped to crystallize some thoughts and given me some intentional questions I can ask myself moving forward. I’m fortunate enough to be part of a great organizaion and to have a broad range of responsibility.

How can I be an artist is the tasks I take on?

How can I be an artist when relating to my co-workers?

How can I be an artist in my interactions with the people I lead and serve with?

Going somewhere Godin hasn’t gone in his book, how can I be an artist at home, with my wife? How can I go the extra mile for her?

Surprisingly, another value I’ve noticed Godin holds high finds itself mirrored biblically. Be faithful with what you have. No matter where you find yourself, whether a CEO or a gas station employee, be faithful with what you have. Approach your job with a fervor and artistry that is beyond expectations, and no matter where you are placed you will become a game changer.

Or, as Godin is so fond of saying, a Linchpin.

This is amazingly funny, if you’ve ever worked for a church.

Over the last number of years I’ve let this passion slip between the cracks, however, the voracity with which my friend Pat Dryburgh has pursued the art has inspired me, along with the constant encouragement from my wife to re-take up this hobby. We got a nice new DSLR for our wedding and this month I’m going to start taking pictures again.

I used to be pretty good, and am excited to check out what I csn learn to do with our new camera and the tricks I’ve picked up in photoshop over the last year. 

Here’s some of my fave shots taken with our last point and click camera:

I’m a two finger typer. There.

I’m one of the first of a generation that truly grew up on computers. Ever since I can remember I’ve had at least one around, and most of the time more. In my first years of elementary school they still weren’t very common in schools (at least in my school, and beyond that I never took a typing course. No one ever told me the right or wrong way to type and now my muscle memory is deeply ingrained to using two fingers. In fact, until recenty I actually watched the keyboard at every keystroke.

Well, I’ve had enough. My inner geek rails out against it and I’ve decided it’s time to untrain and retrain myself. I  have a feeling it will be one of the harder habits I’ve had to break but I know it will pay off.

If anyone else has gonr through this I’d love some suggestions at good and possibly free online training/tutorials.

First post from home row. Here’s to many more….

asdf jkl; asdf jkl; asdf jkl;…..

6 months ago I didn’t have any. Like zip.

My job was the biggest culprit, although at the time I had just gotten married and was also in the process of buying a house. If I was honest with myself (I certainly wasn’t with most everyone else) I was working in excess of 70-80 hours a week. My job is tough and I was finding my feet. Even having gone through it I still think there was a certain amount of that craziness that I needed to fight through in order to succeed.

I kept hearing the same things from those closest to me, slow down. My good friend Pat Dryburgh put it in as few words as anyone  - “When you don’t have the option of taking time off because your workload is so large, take it anyway. If you don’t, you’ll end up chronically ill, depressed, and with a wife that resents you.”

That stuck with me.

My friend and boss, Carey Nieuwhof, also coached me through the phase. Finding margin, he told me, is not only a number one priority for your family life, but it will also help you to succeed at the things you’re passionate about.

My wife, Tracey, was extremely graceful and forgiving.

It was a hard pull. It started with a single day a week, and it was tough. Eventually after a few weeks I was consistently succeeding in battling the “achiever” in me and not working for an entire day. Then I shaved myself back to a five day work week. Then I started managing my working hours that I had set as “work days”. None of it was easy.

I’m starting to feel like I’m on the other side. I’m working much closer to what most would consider a “normal” work week, I treat my wife better and we’re spending more time together, I’m less apt to lose my cool, and ironically even though I’m working less I actually am accomplishing more.

Margin and time management has allowed me to take a step back and evaluate my job more subjectively. I am moving forward faster, and on more projects than I ever have to date, and in less time. For the first time since starting my job I really feel as thogh I’m working less “in it” and more “on it”.

Thank you Tracey.

Thank you Pat.

Thank you Carey.

You guys are really, really awesome.

Hey.

So, you’re reading my blog. Odds are mine isn’t the only one. If you read lots of blogs you might use an RSS reader. If you read lots of blogs and you don’t use an RSS reader you should, especially if you find yourself spending any amount of time doing it.

An RSS reader gets all the info you need in one place, lets you know when any of your subscriptions have updated with fresh posts, and cuts down wasted time by delivering all the content without the many distractions around the interweb.

When I first started using a reader I got hooked up with Google Reader. I really love how plugs right in with all my other google stuff, and how I can access my reader and feeds from any computer connected to the internet. Super handy. 

One thing though, the user interface is pretty crumby. While I loved the subscription management, syncing and having everything I was reading compiled in “the cloud”, I just didn’t find the user interface very fluid or attractive, which is a big deal if you read a lot of content in it.

At the suggestion of my good friend Pat Dryburgh I downloaded Net News Wire. Can I just say how much I LOVE this program? When using only Google Reader I could manage my feeds really well, but I’d always end up not using it because I couldn’t mesh with it’s reading interface. Net News Wire is fluid and functional. Visually it resembles Finder, which is awesome for mac heads like me. Also, it syncs with Google Reader, so I can manage my subscriptins though my google account, and read it in Net News Wire’s client program. Did I mention it’s free? And it has an iPhone app that syncs with all of the above automatically?

Check it out.

Turns out I underestimated all you PC users out there. Looks like you have a better platform for producing music than I thought. Love it;)

:P

If you don’t already know, I work at Connexus Community Church in Ontario, Canada. This week we started a new series called “Everything I Needed to Know About Work I Learned From Classic Rock”. The takeaway for this weeks message was to “Leverage Your Power at Work to Benefit Others”.

Carey, my boss and the pastor at Connexus decided to own up to this challenge himself and decided to give away his sweet corner upstairs office to one of the other employees. The contest was simple, and was pretty funny, since everyone on staff knew they may possibly be getting sweet new digs for a week, but also that Carey would end up working from the cubicle of whoever won. Check out the video blog of the contest here.

Well, I won! So I’ve been enjoying the solitude and HUGE increase in productivity that a private office has to offer. However, I’ve been a bit stumped. How can I personally leverage my power at work to benefit others as a result of my winning the contest?

I thought about giving the office back to Carey. Lame… and kind of a suck-up move.

I thought about passing along the glory to another staff member and passing the office off to someone else. Not too original, plus I want Carey to know that I appreciate the gesture.

So I came up with a great solution. One thing about me is I LOVE espresso coffee, and without tooting my own horn too much I’m pretty darn good at making it. I have a sweet machine, the right beans and all the tricks. One thing about the staff, almost everyone LOVES drinking espresso coffee.

It didn’t take too long to put two and two together. I could leverage the power given to me this week, serve the other members of staff and do something really fun at the same time!

So I packed up my gear, came in this morning and totally rearranged Carey’s office (my office) for the week, into a walk in espresso loft bar.  Needless to say it was a big hit, and I’ve spent most of the day so far serving my fellow team on staff. Love the people I get to work with and really have gotten a lot out of serving them today.

Sweet! Can’t wait to get this on my phone! Wouldn’t be surprised if Apple yanks this video down, so if it breaks I apologize!

Our wedding.. a short sneak peek at the video shot and produced by the uber talented Jonathan Wagner of Buffalo River Pictures.

Analog glory:)

How did I get Coldplay on Reel to Reel? I made it. Using that machine. For the express purpose of listening to it on reel to reel tape.

Yes, I am that much of a geek.

Trace bought the machine, along with about 15-20 reels, for me at an estate sale. It works perfectly, and some of the reels were even still sealed in plastic and blank! I have the best wife ever:)

Genuine vintage. I’d love to have the heads cleaned to clear up the signal up a bit. Also I’m looking for some new blank 1/4 inch reels. Anyone know where to find them? And a good take-up reel. They’re 7 inch, so if anyon e knows of somewhere supplying tape reels (yes they do still make them) in Ontario please let me know! Newer tapes have a better signal to noise ratio, so I’d love to get my hands on some!

The noise in the background is our bird:) She likes to sing along.

Most recent laugh out loud moment:

Me: I’m so glad I married you.

Trace: Thats good. Can I have the Zesty Italian?

:)

For those of you that have known me for any length of time, you know that music is an integral part of my existence. First a bass player, then a multi-instrumentalist, then a songwriter recording demo’s in my dad’s living room, then an audio engineering student, and now a part time freelance audio engineer, my “music life” has certainly undergone a metamorphosis since it’s inception.

My engineering and studio career however, really only took off when I began post secondary study for audio engineering. I didn’t particularly begin well, although I was top student in my class. Not due to any lack of drive or skill, but mostly because I didn’t really have a cohesive vision of exactly what I wanted to accomplish. I was fortunate enough to be able to go through with the education courtesy of worker’s comp after breaking my back in the log home industry, and because of that there was definitely a bit of pressure from the administrative end to “get me through the system”. Thus, upon the completion of my degree I launched my own production business without a very well structured business plan or model.

I learned a lot in my first few projects that really helped me to grow, to learn what to do and also what not to do as an engineer, and eventually I got hooked up engineering with another local studio, Sunflower Studios.

Since then I’ve found a much better strategy to be in the land of freelance. It allows me to be passionate about my work, without the hassle of trying to manage large amounts of overhead. While I’ll always have and do business through my own production studio (more on that later), I certainly love doing freelance work. Further, having a company listed under the government as well as a stellar website designed by my good friend Pat Dryburgh gives me an excellent platform from which to pursue both personal projects as well as to market myself and my services as a freelancer.

Which leads me the news for the day. Over this past week I cemented agreements with 1202 Studios in Barrie. This studio is “new” to the city of Barrie. New in the fact that there is new management and a fresh vision, but it also has a bit of history. This studio is located right downtown on Toronto Street, and was formerly known as “DreamBay” Studios in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Due to local construction, a scattered vision and poor management the studio eventually went under and sold out to a music school who use it’s various environments for lessons. Really a shame because this is the nicest facility north of Toronto. In fact, it rivals the acoustics, structure and design of many top level studios within Toronto and beyond. Double walls, angles galore, RPG diffusors, double doors, live floors, isolation booths, vaulted ceilings, you name the acoustic treatment, this facility has it. The place is MADE for sound and is akin to the recording studios you see on TV and in the movies.

The manager of 1202 Studios saw the opportunity and is in the process of helping the music school to find a better suited location for their needs. Renting the facility part time, the studio has had more business than the manager can keep up with. Prior, he was managing and engineering on his own but before long it was clear that he needed a dedicated engineer to work sessions and allow him to set himself up for growth, move beyond music and into other audio fields such as post production.

After some extensive dialogue and working some sessions this week I’m thrilled to announce I’m part of the 1202 team as freelance audio engineer. I’m really excited about the vision and future of this “new” studio to the Barrie area.

Don’t forget about my own production company though.. a post on that to follow, as well as more details on 1202.

• alarm clock
• reading email
• responding to email
• twittering
• taking photos
• viewing photos
• photoshopping photos
• flashlight
• to-do list at work
• procrastinating at work
• YouTube
• browsing
• shopping
• listening to music
• scheduling
• coordinating volunteers
• as a watch
• blogging
• playing games
• google wave (yes I use it)
• facebooking
• reading the bible
• scanning the yellow pages
• checking the weather
• as a calculator
• getting directions and GPS
• as a mouse/remote for my other computers
• making music

Oh, and don’t forget..

• making calls
• texting
• voicemail

So glad my phone is more than “just a phone”. And yes, if you’re wondering it’s actually quite common for me to do all of those things in a single day.

I first got the link to this video through twitter courtesy of John Saddington (@human3rror). Its a laptop that uses an OLED screen rather than an LED screen. It’s new technology and one of it’s perks is it allows for semi transparent visual displays.

Here’s what Mashable had to say about the prototype from Samsung:

“We’re not quite sure how useful this technology really is, except for looking through your laptop when everyone thinks you’re looking at it, but imagining a future with a bunch of semi-transparent gadgetry around us somehow fills us with glee.”

Agree. Love it!

I have to admit, I’m a pretty recent convert to RSS readers. I really like the physical action of visiting someones page and viewing their content through the lens of the design of their site. However, this takes time. Since I started to follow more people and more blogs it seems to take a lot of it. As I continue to grow and learn I’ve managed to find some great resources in the blogging world. However, it’s become less and less efficient to physically visit each site. Also, on occasion a really valuable post has slipped through the cracks during a time I wasn’t able to visit the sites of various authors.

Enter the RSS reader. A way of subscribing to people’s blogs that sends out their posts via feeds into your “reader”. In your reader the posts collect in something very much like an inbox to be read, without the visual skin of the authors website. Certainly not as visually attractive but definitely far mor efficient.

If you only have a few favourite blogs then an RSS reader may not be for you, but if you track with many blogs and currently don’t use a reader I would highly suggest trying it.

I settled on Google’s Reader, since it integrates into the rest of my Google accounts pretty seamlessly. I had been trying to find a handy iPhone app through Apple’s App Store that would sync with my Google Reader account, when I discovered something pretty sweet though my settings page. Google Reader actually has a mobile site where you can view and read your various feeds. It’s very user friendly and quite handy for browsing. Way better than any free dedicated RSS app I could find. Even better, thanks to Apple’s iPhone OS software, you can add a link to your homescreen that makes the web page function very much like an app. It’s the same trick Google used for Wave (see a few posts back).

Here’s a pic of my iPhone home screen:

See on the third row from the top on the far right? That’s my reader. Even though it looks like an app it actually is just a link to the mobile site. What’s very cool is that Google has engineered a sweet custom icon to make it blend in with most other apps, so not only does it function great, but it looks fantastic as well. Check out the same thing they did with Google Wave in my home row. Very cool.

Here’s an peek inside what Google reader’s mobile site looks like on the iPhone when you tap on the Reader icon:

Easy, neat, and efficient. Even though it’s really opening up in Safari it still does exactly what I need it to do. And it’s super great to have easy access right from my home screen. Nice work Google!

I’m a dreamer.

Time and time again I find myself drawn to that which is surreal, intangible, and often unbelievable. Some of my favourite art includes the fantastic work of Salvador Dali and his long legged elephants. I’ve always loved books that take you to another place, totally disconnected from here, either physically or philosophically. I use music to tell stories without words, and create visual sonic landscapes in my head when I listen to the music of others.

Some would say I’m pretty weird.

Going back to my teen years, I found a very unique place I could escape to, an almost dreamlike reality that exists right here. My life wasn’t always so rosy, there was a time when I just needed to get away. When I first moved into a city, Orillia, Ontario when I was about 17 I found a very unique place of solace right within the city itself. In the middle of winter, I was always fascinated by taking long walks in the city of the middle of the night. I’m not talking midnight, but a little later, about 2- 4 am.

I wasn’t attracted to anywhere in Orillia in particular, but rather in the transformation a city seems to undergo in those hours in winter. Now, living in Barrie, I find myself irresistibly drawn to the same qualities of this city.

There’s a few ways that cities change during this very brief window that makes them very, very surreal if you let yourself take it all in. Number one, during winter, and especially during a light snowfall, the sky is overcast. In the middle of the night the lights of the city turns the sky a very vivid orange-y colour. You could be walking around in a dark park and it would still be reasonably well lit due to the pseudo light reflected back from the sky. The fact that light seems to emanate from everywhere and nowhere can be disconcerting and at the same time soothing. Number two, cities become abandoned. For these few hours, there are very few if any cars around on the inner city streets of any small-medium sized town. If it’s snowing, the streets will often be covered in snow without any tire tracks. Streetlights change of their own accord, the little men that tell you to walk or stop dance to the footseps of non-existent pedestrians. You can walk down the middle of the road if you want and no one would take notice. The city is devoid of any other movement, as if time itself stops so you can have a closer look at things. Number three, perhaps the most dreamlike quality, is the sound. It’s the kind of thing you can only experience very late in the city during, or shortly after, a snowfall. The ambient noise of the town is already low, and the fresh snow on the ground and in the air almost makes it seem as if you’re wearing earmuffs. Suddenly the sound of nearby highways, cars a few streets over, distant dogs and other city sounds all evaporate, and you’re left walking in a vacuum. A little abandoned world.

I’ve always been captivated by this.

As I’ve gone through the years I’ve also enjoyed photography. One thing that I’ve been impressed itself is how well this environment allows itself to be captured on film. If you get it right you can not only capture the landscape, but the very dreamlike space of the city itself.

Hopefully over the next few weeks the perfect night will present itself, and I’ll go out and capture some dreamscapes of Barrie. In the meantime, heres a few teasers I got shortly after midnight last night.

Getting very excited for a few website tweaks and re-launches coming down the pipe. Stay tuned!

I don’t usually bathe in the warm glow of capitalism very often, but two days ago you would have found Tracey and I basking in it’s full glory. We’re not the type to always need or desire the newest or the best thing going, rather when we think we could use something we consider a larger and “luxury” purchase we tend to sit on it. If we still feel the same way in 6-8 months often we’ll seriously consider it and end up getting it.

This doesn’t happen too often, but this week we picked up some really nice watches. Both of us have been without for a number of months now, and with boxing week sales galore we decided to go shopping.

I ended up with the Nixon Quatro:

And Tracey Ended up with the Nixon Kensington:

Freakin sweet!

I’m an avid learner. I love it, I love learning. In fact sometimes I frustrate myself because as soon as I start to get really good at something all I want to do is learn something else. I’ve come to realize that very often, it is the process of learning itself, rather than the aquired skill, that I find intriguing.

This really gelled for me earlier this year when I started working for Connexus Community Church. They have all of their employees take a Strengthsfinder 2.0 test. They do this to find out what you’re good at, and how to make the best use of your skills and work with others on staff. It’s a pretty long test and when I was finished 3 of my top five strengths all had something to do with learning and acquiring new knowledge and skills.

I used to learn a lot from television. I picked up a lot of smarts from the likes of Discovery Channel and TLC. This was way back when these networks were educational and before they were overrun with families with 184 children as well as unwitting demolition derby contestants. These networks used to have really valuable information on all the time, documentaries, new discoveries, new technology, a wealth of new information. I picked up on this waaayyy earlier than most kids, tuning in regularly without my parents around the same time I was watching Barney.

So what happened? The networks went down the pipes, started airing less than insightful offerings, and I started reading more. Now a TV doesn’t even exist in our household, much less a satellite or cable connection. And even though I did learn a lot, it wasn’t directional or intentional. It was simply whatever they decided to throw at me.

In recent years though I’ve noticed an encouraging trend. The internet, which has always offerred scores of information to begin with, has gone viral. For those of you unfamiliar with this word, it is far from hostile. It basically means that people are using the internet more to communicate ideas, thoughts, articles, humour, and information with one another virally, meaning from person to person, the online version of word of mouth.

Social media offers some very powerful tools for learning. Find someone’s blog who is into something you’re interested about. Follow that blog. Then, follow that author in twitter, or add them in facebook. Odds are they’ll eventually link to something else you’re interested about.

Repeat Process.

This allows for a very focused, directional, and intentional avenue for learning. If you start going down a path that isn’t valuable, or at least enjoyable, for you to digest, then unsubscribe to that blog and trace back a few steps. The number of people out there putting out information, and really good information at that, on almost any subject is growing at an almost dizzying rate. And not just websites posting info, this is people posting information to other people. Even though it exists in cyberspace, it brings community and learning into the same room in a very unique way.

Very enticing.

Now, this is a very parasitic way of looking at the internet. How we can move beyond that and start to give back to the online community is something I don’t default into well, and is something that requires even more intentionality than your intake. More on that later though.

Siiiick - Update - Seem to be doing better. Looks like I’m not going to have to head back into the hospital. Thanks everyone for the check-ins and prayers. They are a big deal:)

Online Campus Confusion - so great

An interinsting use for Google Wave I hadn’t thought of. Facilitating and capturing the content of a strategic staff meeting. Very cool.

A pretty sweet quote from Donald Miller’s “Searching for God Know’s What”. A great book. Definitely worth a read.

Awesome. Just Awesome:) Made me smile today. I needed it.

Adventures in Portable Church - Video Blog - Justin

Awesomesauce! They’re still working out a few bugs but this web based app is pretty sweet so far!

Check out my home screen… ( three rows that’s to Pat Dryburgh). More specifically check out a little app in the bottom row:) sweetness!

Sweet. Wonder how long it will take this technology to make it into an Apple Magic Mouse-type device. Love to see where this goes in a few years:)

Turns out following people immediately makes it not a secret. You’d think I’ve been around the Internet long enough to realize that. Oh well