Rendering Takes a Long Time

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Was all set to be on my way to work at 8:30 when I realized the computer was still on, and I hadn't checked email. Good thing I went back, it had failed to auto-login. So I got to work at 8:50 instead. With my laptop, which I had also forgotten. The plan was to sit in Starbucks after work, and people-watch as it updated Quicken, Windows and Norton's. I did remember to not wear socks. I had my Tevas out to wear to work. There are a couple of heat rashes on my left foot which don't need to be inside shoes & socks.

Another day with lots of work, but today was more organizing than testing. Longest weekly report in months.

Lunch was at Starbucks. Lots of eye candy. Also many women who are way more tiny than my brain can wrap itself around. Caucasian and Asian women, adults, but couldn't be more than 80 lbs.

After work, back to the same Starbucks, with my laptop, and did the updates while people-watching. Well worth it.

Home, two deliveries. Towels from Target and "just crystals" to try in the litterbox.

Launched Nero, opened the DVD project I'd started, and added chapters. Less fine control than Corel, but thumbnails and no complaints about close-together chapter marks. And a "save" button which is active with every change. And after I chapterized the show and was about to put a mark at the cast list, there was no cast list. I'd used the wrong clip.

Still up at 1:30 am because I decided to start at square one, converting the original video to Blue Ray format, and will overlay credits in Nero. 2.5 hours to convert a 1.33 hour clip.

While things were cranking, I tackled a couple of projects. Got my computer-aimed telescope ready to bring to SJAA to be aligned, which included changing the batteries (8xAA) and scraping corrosion from one of the terminals. They had only been in there since May, and this is the first time I've had Duracells leak. It was only one, so not so bad. Also dug into my basket of assorted telescope parts and pulled out three eyepieces (4, 9 and 25mm), the camera attachment and AC adapter.

And I dug through a couple of bags of loose photos to find one to give to Middle Sister to show her son that Youngest Sister was very blonde as a toddler, because he's baffled how his 14-month-old is blonde when all the genes say he should be a redhead or auburn.

And there was Facebooking. This morning FB was down, had to make up for that.

Dinner and an episode of Virgin Territory and TMZ were in there too.

Plans for tomorrow:
Sleep in
Work on the DVDs
2 pm Hogue Park, telescope fix-it
4:30 Mountain View, Coffee date

I Am Usually Too Early

Was up till 3 am working on the Blu-ray DVD. Nero does it the right way, mostly. Chapters have animated thumbnails on the menu pages, 30 seconds looping. You can also select where to start. Very customizable, the one gotcha is in standard mode if you change a setting on one page of titles, it changes it for all pages. It can be done in advanced mode, but at the risk of losing all the features which make it easy to use.

I quit at 3, but kept the machine on because there was stuff to be done in the morning.

Woke up for real at 10, got dressed and drugged - last night I did not insulin, and yes, there were no night sweats, but my Hgl at 10 was 100 points too high.

Put the finishing touches on the DVD project and set it to save to HDD, which was a 3-hour process, just in time to go to the 2 pm SJAA Fix-it session way on the other side of San Jose. It's near the Los Gatos Blvd exit of 85. 25 minute ride. But I was there at 1:30. After 15 minutes of not seeing anyone I knew, I set my camp chair under some trees and watched what looked like a middle school drama camp trying on costumes for A Misdummer's Night's Dream. They were so cute. A couple were going ovrr lines & blocking, and there was a photographer halfway across the park taking publicity and bio pix. SJAA shares a building with them.

In the other building, and between the two, the Arab-American Assn. was setting up for gathering. The food was just arriving.

At 2, when no one had shown up, I checked online and saw the Fix-it was actually tomorrow. :-(

Home, opened the DVD project and started it burning a DVD. Most software would have used the already-created files, Nero wants to start from scratch. Another 3 hours...

Reheated some chicken and steamed carrots for a late lunch, watched half of an episode of Restaurant Stakeout then headed to downtown Mountain View to chat about stuff. Her neighbor, an extremely attractive nurse whom she mentors for AA, lost her mom today. Apparently not as tragic as it could have been, her mother had stopped eating weeks ago, the pain was getting to be too much for her, and checked into hospice with a DNR order. It is so sad that CA doesn't do assisted suicides in cases like this.

Back home, the DVD was done and the program had shut off the PC with the disc ejected. Put the disk in my DVD player, and immediately saw it had to be redone. The software by default had added an intro page and background music to each chapter page, all of which were at 12,000 dB. And I had typoed one of the chapter titles.

It only took 10 minutes to fix that, the DVD is rendering in the background. 1hr15m to go...

If that DVD turns out okay, I will burn an ISO file and make some copies. Overnight rendering, I think.  At least Nero saves everything, so I can take up where I left off.

In other news, the bracket I ordered turned out to only be an inch longer than the one holding the bird feeder, so I unscrewed the existing one and mounted it two posts further from the porch, refilled and re-hung the feeder. I think now the porch is safe from spilled seeds.

Also delivered was a set of 3 cell phone batteries and a charger. Two are being charged now. They are slightly longer lasting than the OEM batteries. I expect at the convention I'll need to change batteries once a day.

Also got LinkedIn mail from former co-worker in Belgium, he says he'll meet me in Brussels, and will connect with the other former co-worker who had already emailed me. So at the very least I'll hook up with two friends for drinks or dinner, at best I'll get a tour with Francophones. I speak almost no French, let alone the Belgian variety.

Guardians of the Galaxy has gotten great reviews from fellow members of basfa, and my cousin Mike in Milton Keynes. Disappointing that it looks like he won't be around when I'm visiting his folks. But maybe we can hook up during the con.

Plans for tomorrow:
Guardians of The Galaxy
SJAA Fix-it
Maybe make some sourdough bread
Sit on the porch in the evening and watch the hummingbirds