The last place left in China with clean air. Visit while the skies are still clear and the air is still fresh. Visit before the dumping begins. Eat the local fire-spice cuisine. If you’re white and you’ve never experienced staring and pointing and labeling before, come now before the locals get used to us.
Rediscover China. Come to Chuxiong.
Who said parenting was difficult? Sheesh! Lighten up a little bit, if the little one wants to help out around the house, by all means…
TURN OFF YOUR POP-UP BLOCKER IF YOU CAIN’T SEE THE MOVIE.
Update:
Ma thinks Billy is less than 5, I’m not sure. You decide.
The new video by Bob and accomplice/wife Chun Mei, we proudly present, Chuxiong Entertainment’s, Ford Focus “S”peed Racer!
Video shot on August 27, 2006 at 6:00ish PM, shot on my 3CCD Panasonic (w/ wide angle attachment) in Chuxiong, Yunnan, edited with Final Cut 5.
Final Cut Notes:
- I used a preset, so that’s why it’s in a box format. Next time you’ll get the regular size. You can stretch the Quicktime window for the “Thomas Thompson” effect.
- I used H.264 2-pass, it took 30-40 minutes on this laptop to encode it, but it’s pretty sweet (I love variable compression.) Also, Quicktime allows for AAC audio compression (FLV doesn’t.) It’s a toss up, they both work and look good.
- I sped it up 277%, which I think it faster than Tom’s video. Lower might be more realistic.
- The ‘chirps’ you hear or my horn.
Update:
I re-compressed in FLV and I think I like H.264 better. I just can’t decide, but H.264 2-pass is the bomb. Anyway I also added a Flash Map.
Finding a crack dealer in Orinda — it just ain’t gonna happen. That’s why I just ordered me some shoes:
Some fresh Adidas, some yuppyish Steve Maddens, and some hippy green sandals. It’s the first time I’ve ordered shoes online (pretty nice experience though!) Zappos.com has a huge selection, the site loads very fast in China, swtiching between colors is immediate and easy, and the “close-up” shots seem accurate. It seems like it’s rare to find Nike on a third-party online shoe dealer, which sucks, because Niketown sucks.
I’m seriously eyeing the Mini, so that’ll be in the blog for a while.
Hopefully Jim can do a test shoe fit for me, even though his foot is a liiiiittle bigger, it’ll be a good gauge. They offer free-shipping returns for a year.
I want to buy a Mac Mini. I basically deleted this blog entry because just got off my lazy a** and researched. The answers are:
- No, you can’t use the Powerbook screen as your monitor
- No, the Mini won’t recognize any drive except for the internal drive in Target Mode (hold T)
- Yes, I have to buy an LCD monitor
Still wondering about hard drives. People say LaCie sucks, people say LaCie is good. But damn, that Mini/LaCie drive looks too good to be true — 500 GB, small, fits with the mini, 7200 rpm, bunch of firewire/USB ports. I’m scared it’ll just break one day, it’s only $299.
Update:
Okay, the Mini was a good idea, except…
If I get a Mini 1.66 gHz, it’s $799
+$235 for 2 GB RAM
+$295 for more hard drive/ports.
+(at least) $300 for an LCD monitor
——–
$1,529 for non-portable, slower computer.
Then look at the Macbook 13″ 2.0 gHz.
+$235 for Ram.
+$0.00 for additional HD/ports
+$0.00 for LCD.
——–
$1,534 for portable. Faster.
Okay, screw the Mini.
-bob-
The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) is a United States Navy Nimitz class supercarrier named after Carl Vinson, a Congressman from Georgia. She was commissioned in 1982 and carries F/A-18 Hornets and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as well as surveillance and other aircraft. Carl Vinson can carry 85 planes and 5,500 personnel. Very few ships of the United States Navy have been named after a person who was alive at the time of the christening.
A member of the United States House of Representatives for fifty years, Carl Vinson was, for twenty-nine years, the Chairman of the House Naval Affairs and Armed Services Committee.
It looks like they’ve resdeigned VLC to look like Quicktime player. In any case, it’s fresh. The player is now resizeable (via dragging, no more 1/4, 1/2/ 1/8 screen, etc) and seeking is much more fluid and smart. They’ve also put the controls into the player, although I still prefer Ctrl-Shirt-C. It also works with Windows.
I previously mentioned how you can get in shape, the technological way. Here is an attachment that works with any shoe! Go get it.
This is with iMovie, but you can do with Final Cut or whatever. There are slight differences here and there (like FC you have to Export as a Quicktime component, then set all your Flash settings.)
I’m convinced this is some of the best compression out there. Everyone agrees that source material is very important, so if you like to shoot all wild-style (camera shake, fast cuts, etc) then it won’t compress that well. I learned that one a few times!
Now you have the know-how and the tools. Go out and make a video, it’s easy, and yes, you do have time.
Bob
ENLARGE PHOTO
CHOP CHOP!
VIEW MOVIE
VIEW FLASH VIDEO TUTORIAL