Wasted Youth
Jun. 10th, 2012 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howeirdFrom my last post, this morning:
Moved my only surviving VCR into the computer room, only to find it does not have S-Video, and my capture card has only cable and S-video inputs. Silly me, I should be able to daisy chain the cable through the VCR. Problem solved.
Other plans for today are to process the photo shoot pictures and post the best ones, watermarked, on Flickr, make a modem ringtone, maybe re-capture some of my old theater clips and put higher resolution ones on the web site. Maybe enjoy the sunshine.
Got the VCR set up after some false starts. My capture card, which I thought had one cable connector for TV and another for FM radio, actually has one for digital TV and one for analog TV (aka VCR). Killed my cable modem connection while discovering that. Now all is well, except when I put the tape cleaner into the machine, it was obvious the audio heads were shot. I went online and bought a replacement machine for about $60 (eBay). After which a friend offered to give me her old one.
Ordered a new, better GPS unit for the camera this morning from a company in HK which has been very good to me. Got email offering to send me the next gen of that model, which is officially not out till next week, if I don't mind it not coming with the new gen manual or the wireless remote (both of which will ship in 2 months). The next gen will be about $40 more but they will send me the new one at the same price I paid already. I said okay. It should be here later in the week, plenty of time to learn it before Thailand.
I processed the photos from the model shoot, they are here. Some of my favorites:
I achieved a watermarking breakthrough - something I needed to figure out before printing the Worldcon art show entries - turns out that in three easy steps, the first one being entirely not documented, one can position it at any corner. I like the lower right, since that's where artists traditionally sign their work. I could build a signature just as easily, but no one would be able to read it.
Made the modem ringtone and texted it to my work buddy. And my middle sister. She has not mentioned it.
And the VCR problem nixed the video captures for now.
I finished the cat fence, Domino yelled about it for a while, then settled down to watching the world through it.
She eventually jumped up on my lap (I took the photo from a chair in the other corner) and stared out of that side (it's mirror image of the side you see here). Until she got bored and went inside and parked herself just inside the patio door, where it was cooler. It was about 86° when took the photo, 74° indoors.
Oh, and while I was putting the finishing touches on the fence, I used one of the small tables to push myself from kneeling to standing, and my hand went completely through it:
That was a surprise. The rest of the day I mostly napped, in between reading from Jar Jar Biggs Must Die. Lunch was two lean cuisine entrees and four amazingly delicious sweet corn cobettes.
Changed both litterboxes, ordered another 3-pack, which should do me till vacation. It is getting very close. I am starting to get pre-post-travel regret.
While I was puzzling out the capture card, I updated the drivers for the display adapter. AMD/ATI has made that a 30-minute install. Too many gamer features, out of which one cannot opt.
Shopped for Nikon's latest greatest telephoto zoom lens, which I dearly want, but no one has it in stock. One site had a message from last year blaming the floods in Thailand for the delay. The lens is, indeed, made in Thailand. When I get to BKK I'll see about buying one, which will mean paying some $$ at customs on the way home, but I can live with that.
I also will be buying a suit, Thai silk tie and dress shirt when I get there. It's not the bargain it used to be, but they also have learned that fat old white guys are really that large. Used to be they didn't trust their measurements, and instead trusted their (always wrong) instincts about that.
Time for dinner, maybe an hour ago.
Plans for tomorrow:
9 am team meeting
call Kaiser about travel shots
BASFA?
Moved my only surviving VCR into the computer room, only to find it does not have S-Video, and my capture card has only cable and S-video inputs. Silly me, I should be able to daisy chain the cable through the VCR. Problem solved.
Other plans for today are to process the photo shoot pictures and post the best ones, watermarked, on Flickr, make a modem ringtone, maybe re-capture some of my old theater clips and put higher resolution ones on the web site. Maybe enjoy the sunshine.
Got the VCR set up after some false starts. My capture card, which I thought had one cable connector for TV and another for FM radio, actually has one for digital TV and one for analog TV (aka VCR). Killed my cable modem connection while discovering that. Now all is well, except when I put the tape cleaner into the machine, it was obvious the audio heads were shot. I went online and bought a replacement machine for about $60 (eBay). After which a friend offered to give me her old one.
Ordered a new, better GPS unit for the camera this morning from a company in HK which has been very good to me. Got email offering to send me the next gen of that model, which is officially not out till next week, if I don't mind it not coming with the new gen manual or the wireless remote (both of which will ship in 2 months). The next gen will be about $40 more but they will send me the new one at the same price I paid already. I said okay. It should be here later in the week, plenty of time to learn it before Thailand.
I processed the photos from the model shoot, they are here. Some of my favorites:
I achieved a watermarking breakthrough - something I needed to figure out before printing the Worldcon art show entries - turns out that in three easy steps, the first one being entirely not documented, one can position it at any corner. I like the lower right, since that's where artists traditionally sign their work. I could build a signature just as easily, but no one would be able to read it.
Made the modem ringtone and texted it to my work buddy. And my middle sister. She has not mentioned it.
And the VCR problem nixed the video captures for now.
I finished the cat fence, Domino yelled about it for a while, then settled down to watching the world through it.
She eventually jumped up on my lap (I took the photo from a chair in the other corner) and stared out of that side (it's mirror image of the side you see here). Until she got bored and went inside and parked herself just inside the patio door, where it was cooler. It was about 86° when took the photo, 74° indoors.
Oh, and while I was putting the finishing touches on the fence, I used one of the small tables to push myself from kneeling to standing, and my hand went completely through it:
That was a surprise. The rest of the day I mostly napped, in between reading from Jar Jar Biggs Must Die. Lunch was two lean cuisine entrees and four amazingly delicious sweet corn cobettes.
Changed both litterboxes, ordered another 3-pack, which should do me till vacation. It is getting very close. I am starting to get pre-post-travel regret.
While I was puzzling out the capture card, I updated the drivers for the display adapter. AMD/ATI has made that a 30-minute install. Too many gamer features, out of which one cannot opt.
Shopped for Nikon's latest greatest telephoto zoom lens, which I dearly want, but no one has it in stock. One site had a message from last year blaming the floods in Thailand for the delay. The lens is, indeed, made in Thailand. When I get to BKK I'll see about buying one, which will mean paying some $$ at customs on the way home, but I can live with that.
I also will be buying a suit, Thai silk tie and dress shirt when I get there. It's not the bargain it used to be, but they also have learned that fat old white guys are really that large. Used to be they didn't trust their measurements, and instead trusted their (always wrong) instincts about that.
Time for dinner, maybe an hour ago.
Plans for tomorrow:
9 am team meeting
call Kaiser about travel shots
BASFA?
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