January 2004 Archives

Been a busy week at work and around the house. Where to start..hmm. Perhaps it will be easier to do some quick blurbs:

Got a new couch this weekend. Went to a furniture maker behind Dad's work on Friday and picked one out. It was delivered on Monday and boy is it huge next to the futon. I had to move some other stuff around to make room and things are a bit tight in the apartment these days. I just need to get rid of my dining room table and chairs and I'll be OK.

Alan Menken and a posse of teenagers came on the Pooh ride the other day. Nothing noteworthy, they were very nice.

I almost went to Japan in March. Today is the last day to get the $399 round trip fare LAX-Tokyo, but I don't think I have enough time to organize the hotels and tours, let alone have enough money to afford the whole thing. It was very tempting because Daniel and I were talking about going and then the same day the airfare came out. Although it appears every time I plan a vacation with him, things get weird.

A little bit of a shakeup at work, but I guess I am still being evaluated so no decision on where I lie in the pecking order at the attraction. There is so much I want to do, but sometimes it gets frustrating.

I almost reached a point last week where everything was going well - work, friends, etc. and then starting Sunday it all started to go amiss. Ugh, can't I just get to a point where everything is nice and balanced??

So far, my computer has been rendering the DVD for four hours. Me thinks I need either a) A faster computer or b) smaller movies to edit. It does remind me of making maps back at UC Davis. I noticed an error right after it started rendering. When I made maps, the first bit out of the ol' Calcomp would usually show some goofy error.

I did manage to fix my issues with the menus. It seems I just have to set up the extra 'return to main' buttons before I go through and create the text and links for the menus. I also figured out how to tweak the audio. The result: A very nice looking product (well at least on the computer - it remains to be seen what happens when I write the disc).

Of course since I have worked with the movie now for days and days, my desire to watch it has diminished greatly. I hope it goes over with the relatives 'cause I am now to close to the material. I also hope than now it has been rendered I can write more copies of the DVD easily and quickly, and not have to wait 5 hours per DVD. Hard Drive space is at a premium. It looks like its sucking the whole drive. I think I will have to take my external HD I bought for the digicam photos and put it inside the machine. Now that I have two 512MB Compact Flash cards, I don't think I will need to lug the laptop on vacations anymore. Also, if I run out of CF card space, I can always get one for pretty cheap on vacation. (Ok, not super cheap, but I managed to get a PC Card reader in Tahiti for cheap so CF cards can't be that much!).

In other news, I did some measuring in the apartment today, and it looks like I will be able to fit the old record player cabinet next to the computer desk. This will free up space for a new couch courtesy of the place behind Dad's work. Now I just need to make a quicky trip to AZ to drop off the table for Mom :).

Before work today, I have managed to edit the movie together and get the soundtrack working. Now I just need to master the art of DVD Menus. I am not entirely 100% happy with Pinnacle Studio 8.8. The instructions are pretty pathetic and I am having to scrounge the help files just to try and figure out how to create top level menus. I managed to create a menu for scene selection fairly easy, but I want to create a menu above that which will have the title of the move and a link to Play All and then Scene Selection. On other DVDs I make, I would also add a link to Bonus Features as well, but for this DVD I just want to get something basic going.

I was surprised how easy it is to edit audio and video clips in the program. However, unlike Sonic DVD, Pinnacle doesn't have a fade filter that you can use on clips that you shorten. (Actually, for all I know it is there, I just haven't found it.) Since I have tomorrow off, I suspect that I will try and actually create a DVD tomorrow from it.

One thing I have been thinking of is to try and remaster some old shorter home movie. Covina Chaos is only 40 minutes or so long, but it is mounting up to be a big chore. I should have probably started on Stonehenge or Mesoclimate Adventures first and then worked my way up. Somewhere in the back of my mind lurks Dome to Dome Twice. At over 2 hours, that one is going to be a BIG challenge! Maybe by A-V Day I'll have some DVDs to give out!

Well I have missed a few days updating. I think an entry a day is a pretty tall order, especially with work, and those days (like yesterday) when you come home from work and just go to bed. The good thing is that it re-engergizes me for my day off today.

I managed to make it over to Best Buy to pick up the Pinnacle AV/DV capture card for the computer. I then proceeded to capture Covina Chaos to the computer. Only 3GB of data was required. I am not sure how I like the video quality, but it is the first try so we will see. My first cut at the movie is using the Sonic MyDVD program which came with the DVD burner. next crack, I will try the Pinnacle Studio 8.8 program which came with the capture card. I think the Pinnacle one will allow me to create much better DVD menus as well as title sequences for the movie. I figure I will have redone this movie 3 or 4 times before I am ready to burn a DVD. I will also try and post some video on the site over the next week or so.

Other than that, not much exciting is happening this week. The off season is so nice, and even nicer when you are the working lead. It gives you a chance to catch up on paperwork as well as little projects around the attraction.

CBS has announced the Survivors for their All Stars edition that will begin airing after the Superbowl. You can see the list here.

Some of the interesting notes: Now there are three tribes instead of two - prolly because there are 18 survivors instead of 16. I also noticed that the first two survivors have the most returnees. The original has 4: Rudy, Sue (still my fav), Richard, and Jenna. Australia has Colby, Tina, Alicia, Amber, and Jerri (I guess Elisabeth is busy with the View). That means half of the contestants are from the first two shows. I was surprised that they couldn't convince someone like Clay from Thailand to go and the best they could get was Shii Ann (remember her? she was the one who didn't like her original tribe and when they merged she was the first one off).

Who do I want to see it duke it out? I want to see the tribes merged with the following members left: Richard, Sue, Rudy, Tina, Colby, Kathy and Rupert. Then let them all duke it out for the million. Now that would be good TV.

Now where is the Amazing Race??

Gave a first try with some of the DVD software that came with the drive. I managed to create a good rough draft of a title sequence and it has given me some good ideas for when I actually get to digitize the video.

There is a new season of Ab Fab on Oxygene. I'm a bit disappointed that they bleep things out, but glad that the duo is back. I really like the opening title sequence for the show - maybe I should use something like that for the home videos?

This one is a bit late, but so far so good on my promise to try and put something up everyday.

Quote of the day: "Pregnant? Darling, you should tell people when you first meet them, otherwise they will think you are fat." - Edina to Saffy in "Cleanin'" the first episode of Series 5. (repeated by Saffy's bf in "Book Clubbin'")

I was out an about looking for a solution. I have all of these records that I would like to transfer to MP3 and to CD. So I was looking at record players and plugs that I can hook up to my computer to digitize the audio. As I was wandering the aisles of Fry's, I noticed that the new capture cards geared for people converting home movies might have the answer. So the brain began to wander to "Hmm, if I get one of these, I should check out DVD Recorders". Lo and behold there was one on sale for only $149 after rebate so despite the fact I went in there for one thing, I came out with something completely different.

I am the proud owner of a DVD Recorder. It does DVD-R, +R, -RW, +RW, and CDRs. I bought some blank DVD-R media because it has a better chance of playing on older DVD players. I think I have the oldest player amongst family members, so if I can get it to work on mine then it will work on anyone's. I haven't bought a capture card yet despite several trips to Fry;s and Best Buy. It appears most of the capture systems use SUB 2.0 rather than being a card for the back of the computer. Even though it is in the back of the computer, I think I would prefer one of those for speed wise. I would also like to get one that features Firewire ports as well as analog inputs since eventually I would like to get a DV camcorder. Gotta be forward thinking!

At any rate, my first DVD project is a remaster of some old home movies including Covina Chaos, At Home and About, and Mutual of Omaha's Mesoclimate Adventures. I also would like to get some old videos off of the VHS tapes (like 1989's Stonehenge: Megalithic Monument of Manure Pile and other gems from the PXL 2000 days). If all goes well, I might even post a few here on Club Josh.

It has been a pretty low-key week and a half of the new year. I rung in New Year's Eve at home. It was the first time in a few years that I really did nothing. It felt kind of nice but at the same time I also felt like I really need to get out more.

This week, the off-season returned to the park and with it some surprises. I found out that I am the new Core Trainer at the Pooh Ride meaning that I get to train the trainers as well as help work on the operating guidelines at the attraction. It is pretty cool especially coming so close to my one year anniversary of beginning testing on the ride (Jan 9). I will still be a working lead at the attraction, but there is still no set amount of the time I will be the lead so this will give me something to focus on while I wait to see how it all settles out.

Being a lead has been filled with challenges, some good and some not so good. But it is all a good learning experience, and hopefully the knowledge gained will serve me well. Now that things have quieted down, I'm hoping I will get the opportunity to expand my knowledge to another attraction in the area, but I am not getting my hopes up.

I managed to update the header in the Daily Update archives so there is some more navigation back to the main Club Josh site. I figure since Movable Type is linking to the Update index page, then I should direct some of the traffic back to the main site.

Now that my mini web vacation is over, my new year's resolution is to post more regularly (maybe daily??) even if it is just a couple of lines here and there. We shall see how long it lasts..

One of my New Year's resolutions is complete. I made it out to see this movie on a nice Saturday afternoon. LOTR is an epic masterpiece covering three movies: The Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, and Return of the King. I have to say that along with everyone else, my interest has increased with each successive movie. I think the series works best when counted all together. Fellowship suffered from having to set up everything, Two Towers was just about bad things happening in the middle of the journey, and Return of the King has to deal with wrapping everything up.

Most people I know who saw the movie complain that the ending really drags, but I think that it is perfect. So many ending chapters just end and don't show what happens to our beloved characters (notable exception - 9 to 5). If we look at Return of the King as a whole it is a remarkable piece of filmmaking that puts the exclamation mark on a great series. Anything that can make Tolkien accessible to the masses is fine by me. I also like the fact that my brother is a fanatic and can help explain bits and pieces to me. One thing, I have found that I am rarely 100 percent satisfied with the movie versions. I found that the extended DVDs actually make the movies better even if they push the running times up. Since ROTK was already 3h 30min I can only imagine how long the special edition will be.

As far as the acting goes, the triangle of Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Gimli (the ever good John Rhys-Davies) and Legoas (Orlando Bloom) for me was the best part of the films. The emotion and humor and camaraderie that they portrayed made me wish that the rest of the people would just get on with it so we can get back to them. Also notable: Ian McKellan as Gandalf and Bernard Hill as King Theoden.

For those of you who are not partial to long rear numbing movies, be sure to check it out of video when it comes out later this year. If you don't mind the uncomfortable seats, go see it today!