Month: August 2010

Green Screen and School

Monday school started back up. The first day for Adaptive P.E and Tuesday I have Adapt. P.E. and the first day of Adaptive swimming. Umm … wonder how I am going to like swimming? It is suppose to be over 100 deg.  so I dunno – I might melt!

My friends and I needed to purchase our parking permits at the college admin office. Good grief the line was all the way out the building and it was hot. So, we decided to walk on by all the youngsters in line and went into the building. Cathy walked up to the first available window and told the gal she wished to purchase a permit. The clerk obviously noticed she had just cut in line but sold her the permit and then me one also. Then she asks me if I had just walked in and cut in front of everyone while glancing over at the security person. Cathy tells her yes we did – you should really have a handicapped line and then she walked away. The gal just gave me a funny look and I turned and walked off also.

I spent the afternoon reading a few chapters and then I started playing with the video’s again. I am starting to figure out the green screen effects but have a long way to go.

I bought some green cloth yardage and made my own and a few pieces of green poster board. It is kind of interesting to me how it all works. Lighting the screen is problematic since I do not won any studio lights. It makes it hard to get it right using my room lamp and desk light. It is like setting up the flashes for photography shots. Only I have a good set of photography flashes and I do not have any lights . … see I just had to B about something!

Today’s attempt at a video:

Beam Me Up

I should know better than to let all the electrical impulses bounce around in my mind where they inevitably form thoughts, thoughts can be good, bad, or indifferent.  The what if, should-a, could-a, would- a’s, are fodder for the squirrel that runs around in his cage in my brain.  If reality is a magic trick of electrical impulses – then who is watching?

As the name of this blog states: lots of forks or paths to meander down. Somethings are consistent on the main artery but where it gets interesting is wondering off along one of the many side paths. The detours along the way run the gamut of fun to unfortunate.

Visiting friends, taking a trip, figuring out how to do something new, all can be fun and exciting.  Being diagnosed with MS would be one of the crappy paths. The balancing act for me is trying to keep the fun things on the main roadway and the less desirable stuff limited to a side path. Not always an easy thing to do.  Sometimes the squirrel in the cage reminds me has it goes around in circles getting nowhere of the old saying: “even if your on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there”.

I do not spend a lot of writing here giving reports on the latest ailment of the day , what went numb, what hurts, cog fog, etc. although I do like to b a bit. I prefer sharing the ordinary everyday stuff and maybe sometimes I succeed in doing so.  Amongst all the haphazardly written posts is my quest to fight off the sucko stuff of MS and entertain myself along the way.

I wonder if on of these days the squirrel cage is gonna break and the squirrel will just get flung out by the centrifugal forces – then what?  Is the flag moving, or is it the wind?

Beam me u p – please! (another hokey kmilyun video):


Video Crazy

What do you do all day? I spend more time trying to find something to occupy my self than I actually end up doing. What to do with the eight or so hours a day when left to myself.

I spend some time in the morning checking on the garden. Pick a few veggies and water if need be. Then I try to find something on the television – usually without much success.

I can read a book in one day, some of them take two depending on the book and if something else is going on. I try to ignore the noise that drums on continuously throughout the day. Sometimes it reminds me of  the whump whump background noise in a submarine movie that is briefly broken by kids screaming, couples fighting, and the police sirens.

I decided to learn more about the features of my video software and play around with them a bit. The results are – well – ok but not the greatest LOL but I am just learning right?

So here are the three things I tried out today.

Make an overlay where a zoomed in portion of the video is running in the corner of the main video (what ever the technical term is?) All of the video’s are under 60 seconds so it should not be too boring for you all to watch em . …

So I use a bee on a cucumber flower here:


Then I worked on cloning myself so I would have someone to talk to:


Next I tried putting cloning and stop motion into the same video:


Well it is the weekend – not sure what the plans are . …

Eye on The Cucumber

I am setting up trading some lemon cucumbers for some more squash. I have way to many to eat them all so might as well find some peeps to trade with. This year they have gone crazy. Lot’s of blossoms. I love em but do not wish to let any go to waste. My favorite way to eat them is to spread a bit of mayonnaise on them. All right I admit a lot of mayonnaise on them LOL.

I have been mulling around different ways to find room to plant some winter plants. Broccoli, cauliflower, brussels-spouts , maybe radishes later on. Dunno but one thing I am aware of is my dinky little yard takes a lot of planning to grow veggies where they get the proper light. Oh and having some available dirt might help too.

The cheap ideas for containers I have been coming up with say trashy without any artistic flare. I found some really great (and proven) planter plans. Large enough to get some dirt going yet high enough that I would not have to bend over to water and pick the results. Well I asked my dad ( feel me here Zoom) if I bought the supplies if he could build it for me. Well, first off he decided on some improvements so it would be structurally more sound.  Then he researched the cost per linear foot of the best wood to make it out of. Then he announced that it was cheaper to purchase some of those wine barrel type planters and decided that is what I should do.  So, no spiffy planter and the realization that he so did not get the off the ground accessible to me thing, along with it wound have had wheels so I could move it about as needed. Oh wells . …

I could build another brick one if I spent a few evenings but then it would be too low and not movable. The wine barrel planters would work but the dang wheels for them well nuff said about that idea.

How about a bunch of those gray bricks (  the ones we made dorm room books shelves with) and running boards through the holes and then along the top? Five gallon buckets on a dolly deal? Ok – ideas are getting wacky so I will quit for now.

I took the cucumber blossom pic with my 90mm macro lens. I am getting better at focusing with my right eye. Sounds simple but switching eyes is a pain in the . …  somehow my right eye does not connect to whatever goes on in my brain that lets me shoot what I am visualizing. But I did drag the gear out and I did try.  The focus is not sharp but way better than my last trys. I am thinking my left eye is not gonna come back this time so I guess I gotta deal.  I definitely have enough yellow blossoms to practice on! Maybe I can catch a bee doing what bees do on blossoms emmm …