Extreme Week

Well, I apologize. I've had a lot to write about lately, things I've done, reflections on working the phones for the ACHD, some NAULive/UTV62 things, and the SBS reception I attended representing NAU Live.

Although, what I've found is that between classes, work, and hanging out with Megan almost any time I'm not at work or in class, I really don't have the energy to write any detailed blog entries.

Although I think it's great to be back on campus, I do have some concerns. I'm not sure how long my little 750 dollars in dining money will last, and I am also not sure about my current financial aide and payment status. I work many many hours this coming weekend, and then my schedule should even out a little bit, which should improve everything.

As a sidenote, I am thinking of getting a Wacom tablet before long, I've been borrowing Megan's (Thank you, Megan!) and they're amazing. Although, I've got to fix my storage/backup situation first, so the first paycheck is likely to go toward an external 2-disk (mirrored, for data protection) box for my photos, some random temporary crap, and probably my video work.

Well, it's movie night, so I've got to wrap this up. Hopefully I will write again within the next week.

An apparently bad week.

I know everybody has them. which is one of the reasons I try not to write notes all the time that consist simply of things like "I had such a bad week, I mean nothing to the world at large, and I hate all my classes." This week, however, is an exception. I think that I'm having a really bad week, especially by the very sensitive standards of some of the people whose lives I read up on.

So instead of taking more pictures for my PHO281 portfolio, or being in the darkroom developing that film, or working harder on the rewrite of my JLS131 news story, I'm going to write an angsty blog post slash Facebook note. I figure since everybody else does it, I am allowed, eh?

Hmm.... Actually, I think the worst part of this week is that Sunday my roommate tore apart his side of the room, thinking his parents were going to bring the stuf he doesn't need home. So it's difficult to move around my side of the room.

Oh, there's also the bit where the NAULive reporter asked me to do something Yesterday at night, which was subsequently rescheduled to Thursday night. So I've got the biggest and hardest to move camera sitting here in my room. Even though NAULive is not running this week, I hope I don't get in trouble for having it so long.

Other than that, I am significantly behind on my photo project. My fault, but I have a feeling I'll be able to make it in time... I just need to pray that the two rolls I took today, plus some of my previous exposures will work for the project, which is architecture on campus, of which I've got a lot of photos. I've heard that some of the other teachers have allowed their students to do some digital pictures on a CD. I can assure you that if I were doing that, my project would basically be awesome. Ohwell.

I'm sure that I need to mention something about always forgetting to do the extra credit in the classes for which I direly need it. This lack of ability to remember task lists is surely the fault of the world.

Well, that's it for my angsty blog post I suppose. I need to go back down and switch my laundry to the dryer machine.

My Protest of Shoes

Well, It's finally come to it. I have either gone hopping crazy-mad, or am about to offer a new and interesting critique of humanity. Unfortunately, I have none of Ryan's potentially world-changing wisdom today. Only a personal narrative about my barefoot campus adventure and today's frustration with footwear. So we must here conclude that I've gone hopping crazy-mad.

Recently I decided my shoes were aging abnormally fast. In high school, I was able to keep a pair of shoes for a very long time, often two or three years before they were actually unwearable, and usually I finally ditched a pair of shoes when I outgrew them - not when they died or had holes in the soles. However, here at NAU, I either walk differently, walk significantly more often, or some other type of walking that has caused my shoes to die within six months.

I decided that until I can get new shoes, I would wear my sandals around. It's springtime - therefore nice enough outside to do so, and it'll be a cool change in theory. Unfortunately, what I didn't think about was the fact that those sandals are always difficult to wear for long, especially if I don't wear socks with them, such as in a situation where I've just been in the shower with them and I do not feel like having wet socks all day long.

Yesterday this became apparent when after my German class, I went to NAULive and did some photog work for Tuesday's show with Jessica, one of the anchors. It was, of course - difficult to keep up while walking around. I had the double-problem of having brought the large JVC DV-500 ENG/EFP camera, along with the huge tripod. Add to that, I was wearing The Sandals Of Doom. The shoots ended up turning out okay, I was (as I often am) awkward and slow throughout the process, forgetting about certain settings, even switching the camera into full auto mode at a certain point, and not being sure how to switch it back.

Back at the Comm Building and Studio A, I ended up leaving my shoes behind the camera I was operating for today's NAULive, affording me the opportunity to stand around for an hour and a half without shoes on. The show went well, but I could still feel the pain. (Yes, I am whining. At least it's not about video acquisition formats, or a comprehensive, 8-page complaint about the speed of my computer, or about mobile computers.)

(This is where the whining stops and the explaining starts.) I ended up just walking home barefoot, my feet were already in pretty extreme pain, what could make it worse? I actually discovered that walking home barefoot was probably the best idea, I went from the comm building to the union and then from the union to Reilly (using the pedway by Cowden and Tinsley) barefoot, and found that although I walked slower, it wasn't really that bad. It was better than worsening the blisters or killing another good pair of socks.

Today I ended up just wearing the boots that I wore when it was snowing, I realized just how slow I've been walking, as a result of the shoes/sandals being evil. It was an amazing difference actually. I will definitely not get that type of shoes again anytime soon. (and by anytime soon, I mean this weekend when my mother comes for a visit.)

No Talk Show Pilot?

Well, many of you may know that I was dedicating my Sunday to two things.

1. Sitting at my computer next to the phone all day long, waiting for Courtney from NAULive to call.
2. Recording the pilot episode of Courtney's talk show for UTV62.

Unfortunately, my least favorite of those things happened for 14 full hours - I didn't leave my room all day except for one 45 minute breakfast run at 10:30 a.m. The thing I actually wanted to do, record the pilot, did not happen. I spent most of my day sending e-mails to Courtney, and I never got a reply.

Naturally, I did have fun with the GL2 the other evening, I'll put the results of my 2-cam videoblog shoot online next weekend sometime, after I've captured the results from both cameras and edited them, including some of my brand new Motion opening graphics, and of course, my Soundtrack Pro themesong for the videoblog. (I may need or want to rework the Motion opening sequence, but I've basically got what I want.)

The second naturally in my post is something UTV62 related. I am naturally going to have a discussion with Courtney about showing up and calling people. I don't know if I made this clear to her, but I cannot call cell phones because they are usually long distance, so if I want to talk to somebody whose number isn't on-campus or local, I need to wait for them to wait for them to call me, or I need to e-mail them. This is bad when people who I need to contact never call me or check their e-mail.

I hate to say it, but I am extremely frustrated because I had multitudinous opportunities today to go hang out with other friends (I'm still sorry, Megan!) and get food - instead I sat here all day waiting for the highlight of my weekend, and nothing happened other than me browsing some websites about old macs, and chatting the day away. Oh, I did COM200 and GER102 homework as well.

DV Recording

I've got a really cool toy to play with this weekend. It's a Canon GL2 in what I think is basically the most awesome configuration ever. It's got an MA-300 Microphone adapter, and two dynamic mics (One lav and one hand held), plus the appropriate (long enough) XLR cables.

I am going to use it on Sunday to film a pilot episode of a talk show for UTV62.

Until then, I've got Camera+1 sitting here in my room, so I've decided to do a few things with it.

The first thing I shot with it here in the dorm was actually a screen capture of the old Toshiba laptop (aka TWL) booting IBM OS/2 Warp 3 and loading one of the IBM Works applications. The screen cap worked fairly well and it made me realize exactly how slow that old laptop is.

After screen capping the Toshiba, I decided I'd try a different method just for fun. The GL2 has an S-Video input and when the camera is in VCR mode, it can do analogue input for recording to the DV tape, or for recording straight to computer. So I got out my trusty new S-Video cable and the PowerBook G3, and did a few OS X screen captures in the camera's VCR mode. This was definitely interesting because it was essentially a perfect example of Mac OS X's failings in a low-resolution setting. The default size for everything is basically awful when outputting at 720x480.

Bored with screen capturing, I performed what I think is the most important and interesting of the tests - a direct comparison between the DV and Video8 formats, and of course the Sony HandyCam I've got and the Canon GL2.

For the comparison, I set both cameras up at about the same height on tripods, each in a different enough location so that I could look back and forth to make it seem more like a legitimate multi-cam shoot. I then got the dynamic hand held mic and the Canon Mic Adapter. I decided I wanted a direct comparison of the audio as well as the video quality, so I actually took the headphone output of the GL2 and attached it to the Microphone input of the HandyCam. I pressed record on both cameras, sat down and just talked about the setup for a few moments.

Doing such a shoot is definitely interesting, I am certainly happy to have a comparison done, and I can't wait until Monday when I can start to capture the tapes to hard disc. I'll have to capture at the comm building, and then bring the footage back to my iMac on the iPod or something.

At any rate... I certainly can't wait to do the actual talk show shoot, but I am concerned because I received a phone call today (after the EM checkout desk closed) saying that for the show, three cameras and a minimum of three microphones (two lav if possible) will be needed, so I hope the now-wimpy one camera, one lav and one hand-held will be acceptable.

If we were allowed to shoot S-VHS, I'd run out and buy another S-VHS tape and shoot with two or three of the big 3-chip S-VHS cams, but I don't think NAULive has enough tripods for that, unfortunately.