video related
Plus-Minus-Equals
My small little personal world is starting to feel normal again – whatever normal is. My territory is mine all mine again LOL.
It was so wonderful to have our Godson Anthony home here in the states. Lots of giggles and fun. I do worry about him going over to Kosovo but it is the job he wanted because it got him closer to Germany – one of the countries he has not visited yet and really wishes to do so. He is a traveler that is for sure.
To many humans in this small condo made for an interesting if not stressful few weeks. Everytime I turned around there was someone somewhere – generally in my way. I felt like the Outer Limits intro – we control the verticle, we control the horizontal . …
With the rainy and cold weather I have not ridden my bike for a few weeks but have been using the stationary bike in PE. The week with no class made me aware of how just the having somewhere to go everyday and peeps to converse with helps.
The most exciting (well to me anyways) thing that occurred was the gift that Anthony left for me.
I managed to get it onto my Grandmother’s old trunk and hooked up. I have a whole bunch of catching up to do on what a television does now days – other than be – a television. My old school AMP does not have any HDMI ports so it took my poor brain a bit to figure out how to get the xbox and surround sound all to play nice. Oh yeah KRP bought me a Blue Ray DVD player to go along with the new TV – sweet! I watched 2012 last night. The welcome screen kept asking me to hook up the dvd to the computer so I could listen to the radio and oh who knows what else.
So I make sure the power adapter worked etc and then I hit the WALL. Since the TV was purchase in Qatar I knew about the power plug and I checked the specs out. I missed the big one – the wall – the freaking plugin for the antenna – err umm this looks odd LOL. So, the television did everything but talk to me – except being able to Auh be a television!
KRP picked up an adapter that I found RadioShack carried so yeah I am all excited – hook up the antenna and no joy. I tried everything. Ever try to read a manual written in some sort of Arabic I think. Online Google again I started to notice that all the info that discussed digital TV mentioned the HDMI hookups. But no info really on the antenna plug. Then I started thinking that maybe just maybe the antenna input only did analog and the HDMI plugs the digital? So I got out the box we got that is for converting the digital so that analog TV’s could still work and low and behold I can now watch TV. I am going to break down and run a coaxial cable from downstairs with a splitter and get another cable box for upstairs.
Now what to do about way too many remotes!
Text, Video, and Blogging
The trend in blogging has really changed in the past few years. With Twitter’s 140 character limit and Facebooks hearts and games to spread the love seems many have stopped blogging on a regular basis. Instant gratification comes with the real-time services.
I find my news reader list full of feeds with no updates. I miss reading everyone’s posts. Typing a thought into a twitter window really does not take much forethought for me I can just type some little and sometimes dumb one liner and it is a done deal. While it has it’s place and I realize some use it quite effectively to discuss anything from natural disasters to politics in real time – it does nothing for me in trying to connect with for lack of better terminology – a support system.
I have never been able to find where everyone is sharing on Facebook this one is all me but I have hit a wall with it (pun intended). By the time I clear all the requests for games, join this or that cause – I am worn out. I may be wrong here but I suspect that most of the empty updates in my news reader authors are hanging out and doing their thing somewhere on Facebook.
The origins of blogging are in the weblog. Where websites had a webpage where you shared your thoughts about the web pages you came across, liked, and shared. Then with new software and services the transition to the blog – I guess more of a personal journal that morphed into what we have now. Not really into the technical history just what I remember.
For years I have maintained a site at this .com addy. It started out with a cheesy home page and sub-pages on bicycles, hiking, dogs, and vacations. Then as modems improved the addition of photos to go along with the content.
Then I jumped on the blog band wagon. WordPress turned out to be a super neat way to open up communication with folks. One of my first blog commenter’s (Karoli) still remains a friend. Gosh she has taken her blogging and social media interaction and participation to awesome levels! I get to say I know someone who was on CNN! due to her health care activism. Blogging and social media usage done well IMHO.
So I find myself wondering why maintain a blogroll, contact info, links to social sites that I can not figure out anyway, and type when my fingers take forever to do what they used to do in minutes? It is actually kind of a pain in the arse. The webcam video thing is much easier to pull off then typing these days. I started blogging again with a different goal – to connect with folks going through the same daily crap I am.
What say you? Text, video? Blogging V Facebook?
Meanwhile I just keep sharing my dribble . …
Testing Video Programs
I have been playing with different video programs trying to find one that is:
- A) I can figure out how to use
- B) renders in HD
- C) not to dang expensive
I might have decided on one but I am going to use it till the free trial expires to make sure.
Here is a short video with the sound UP. I used a clip of the bike gears, rendered two skydive videos off old VHS tapes, and blurred my face out on one from my webcam. If you watch them via youtube in full screen and select HD I you can see the quality and let me know how the sound and video is.