Is It Too Much To Ask?

I'm moving soon. With one big desire in my head, I draw a circle, enclosing all the possible locations I can cycle commute to work, and that way get in shape, save money, and reduce my carbon footprint. Is it too much to ask?

The video finally completed

This video ranks cities by the visual impact of their skyline. You'll probably only like it if you're into that kind of stuff anyway. I enjoyed making it, now let's see how it does :)

iMovie Obsession 2.0

I am nothing short of honored, after over 20.000 people watched my YouTube "Skyscrapers" video. Making it, almost exactly one year ago, was as fun as playing a computer game for me, and I never planned for anyone, except for a few friends, to see it. I enjoy the comments, and I thank anyone who watched it. It got me motivated to produce more content, and in past few days I indeed half finished the new video. Like the original one, it's going to be a collection of enhanced YouTube clips, but with a cool twist. All of them will be either amateur or pro footage from airplanes, helicopters & other vertical moving vehicles/objects, and will be covering the official ten greatest skylines in the World. It is planned to be released within the next few weeks.

Cities will be listed as follows (and here is the official ranking on emporis.com):

10. Dubai

9. Bangkok

8. Tokyo

7. Shanghai

6. Seoul

5. Sao Paulo

4. Chicago

3. Singapore

2. New York City

1. Hong Kong

This listing ranks cities by the visual impact of their skylines. Each building with 12 or more floors in the city proper is assigned points based on its floor count (see the table on emporis.com). The point total for each city is calculated automatically. Calculation does not include TV towers, masts, bridges, or other structures. The listing actually puts Guangzhou on the tenth position, and Dubai on eleventh, but this will change shortly, after Burj Dubai's official completion.

I set much higher standards for this project, because I want it to look professional. Here are a few highlights:

• It is going to be in HD, but obviously not all required footage was available in such extremely high resolution. Sections about Dubai, Tokyo, Chicago, and New York City will be mostly, if not all in HD.
• Video will be exported in a widescreen format 16:9.
• No titles or watermarks whatsoever are allowed to be visible in the final version of the video.
• Not a single frame should be shoot from a static viewpoint.
• Not a single frame should be shoot from the ground level. It is all about looking down on the skyscrapers.
• All footage must have been recorded during daylight.
• A vast majority of clips will be enhanced with the iMovie technology called "video stabilization", which smoothens the camera motion, and stills the picture shaking. When needed, functions like "playback speed control", "reverse video" and picture enhancement will be used.
• There will be an animated world maps, as a smooth introductions to the individual city sections.
• There is a small chance that two versions of video will be released. The compact one, fitting within YouTube's 10 minute time cap, and an uncut one, divided in the half on two episodes.

Here is a brief preview of what it's going to be, focusing on using new technologies in iMovie 09:

If anyone knows where to get more footage of Bangkok, Shanghai, Seoul, and mostly Singapore (!), please share. It's almost as all flights around those cities were banned.

This will be a dynamite for every skyscraper lover.

Little photo gallery from my walks.

Still can't believe that I live here. Click on the photo for the full gallery, I'm gonna post more images as I take them.

That's something new ...

... but I'm sure it won't move that fast, and so it won't be as impressive. BTW, I have to do something about my obsession with skyscrapers, I dreamed Burj Dubai last night - I was going on top of it, where the airport was located. Stupid futuristic dreams, then u wake up sad in present reality in a place u live.

I've made a Video Collection of 10 Tallest Skyscrapers in the World

You've probably seen photos of those supertall skyscrapers, but did you see them all on video? I really don't like picture slideshows, and that was all I could find, so I've decided to make a real video by myself, and fill the gap in YouTube content.
This is the collection of professional and amateur videos, collected from YouTube, and made in iMovie 08 with over 50 clips.

I am totally impressed with ...

... Burj Dubai

It's the tower they are building in Dubai as part of the new "Dubai Downtown" development zone. It already is the tallest structure man ever built and it has almost 200m more to go. Building of the double height of the former WTC Twin Towers looks impressive and surreal. Even more fierce is that it will accommodate a private club on the top three floors. U think there should be a reasonable limit for pushing the boundaries? I will definitely stand on top of it in 2009, when it's completed. Being on 165th floor almost 800m above ground must be unbelievably exciting & totally worth the plane ticket. Check out the video, can u believe the size of it?

Been to NYC again.

And this time it was even more AMAZING than last year. If you want to see the videos, you're welcome to visit this link.

This is the company that me and Lucy enjoyed while staying there. They are the best guys, and I miss them so much :(

So my next plan is to move there for a while in 2008. We'll see how that goes.

When you just need to turn on your new gadget ...

This is my first vlog video. I got a new digital camera, and had to try it on my way from work.

New York City

Ever since I was a child, I was impressed with the enormous cities, and NYC was one of my favorites. It is the largest city in the United States and one of the world's major global cities.

It's metropolitan area has a population of 18.7 million and is one of the largest urban areas in the world. Popularly is known as the "Big Apple" or the "Capital of the World".

Manhattan with a population of over 1,600.000 residents is the business center of the city, and the most superlatively urban of the boroughs. It is the most densely populated, and the home of most of the city's skyscrapers. The highest of them is Empire State Building (381 m), but until 2001 the highest were World trade center Twin towers with height of 415 meters. We all know what happened to them. New WTC will be completed in 2011, and the main tower will be 541 meters tall. The latest render of the tower is pictured on the left.

The main reason why I've decided to write about Big Apple is that I bought a plane ticket to go there in September. I will go alone, because my cousin cancelled, but I'm sure I'll still have a lot of fun. If someone has any idea what I should go see there, let me know. I'm planning to go to Fire Island for a day, I also want to visit all boroughs for at least a day (Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island) and New Jersey. Most of the time of course I'm planning to be on Manhattan. I will probably just walk on the streets looking up, admiring the enormous size of skyscrapers:) I hope I'll get a hostel somewhere in Greenwich Village, that I could discover gay culture over there, also want to see some of the museums, want to party a few nights, and just simply be fabulous:) I'll let you know how it will be.
Read and see more about NYC here.

P.S.: So I really went there in september 2006. Here you can read more about my NYC experience, it's in Slovenian language.

Eureka Tower

OK, here is the first thing that impressed me. This skyscraper is called Eureka Tower and at the time it's still under construction in Melbourne, Australia. It will be 297 meters high when finished (exactly 300 meters above sea level), what will make him the tallest skyscraper in Southern Hemisphere, and also the tallest residential building in the world. I asked my friend from Melbourne if it's impressive to see, and I'm still waiting for his answer. I'll let you know. Take care!

-Nejc

P.S.: My friend told me that he works very near this tower. He said: "it is ok, its nearly finished i think. it looks great in a foggy morning. the fog covers the top half but the sun above reflects off of the white panels, so it shines white rays through the cloud. its pretty cool. its mostly residential (houses) and they are very expensive with the most modern features. i have included a picture of it from the way to work today." The picture is also included in this post. I want to go to Australia SO badly!!! Have to figure something out, and then I'll have the time of my life, no I never felt this way before, yes I swear it's the truth ... ok ok:)