As I blogged on Friday, I wanted to have some stuff up this weekend of a video nature, but my video options are being very, very uncooperative. I have an OLD version of Final Cut on the Mac, but it has since been corrupted and can’t be used right now. Still, it’s a sledgehammer when many times a simple stapler will do.
In this case, I have video of a shell session (like a DOS command line) showing how to use Subversion to upgrade Wordpress. I actually I have another unrelated video as well, but they have two things in common: they need their audio replaced with another audio track (recorded on a better mic). Now if it was a straight 1:1 audio swap, that’s trivial. But I do need the help of a video editor w/rudimentary capabilities to stretch out the video on a frame for a few seconds extra, or whatever, to make sure the audio is synced up. Simple stuff that they all can do if the audio/video is muxed together, but not so much if discrete tracks.
iMovie ‘07 (I refused to upgrade to ‘08, which would have actually put me backwards in this too) can do all this easy, except it MUST convert the video to one of DV (720×480)/DVwide or MP4 (640×480). The captured video is not in a “standard” broadcast dimension, so converting into iMovie ruins it, especially because of the text on the screen, in this case. QTPro can do simple video editing but not replacing sound unless it’s a perfect 1:1 swap.
Anybody have experience with 3rd party video shareware/cheap editors that can do basic editing of this kind while allowing for add’l audio track but play nice with QuickTime and non-std formats too? Yeah, I didn’t think so. But I can be surprised.
Hello! Above is the video post I did as a wrap-up for last night’s Doctor Anonymous Show in true Dr.A. fashion, except Dr. A. did his before I got to do mine! However, I still did it, because, as Wilford Brimley would say: “It’s the right thing to do.” haha
Also thanks to Vijay of Scanman’s Notes for calling in all the way from India; you made it a cross-contiental event x2!
Whether you were there or missed the show, go the link above so you can listen to the archive, download it to your computer/music player, whatever you like.
Just a quick reminder that I’ll be hosting Dr. Anonymous’ show tonight on BlogTalkRadio at 9EST/8CST. You can find more details from DrA’s promo today and a video version from Tuesday.
I know I haven’t posted anything since Grand Rounds on Tuesday, but I had to catch up on “real life” things and then get ready for tonight, so it’s been a bit hectic! I promise I have some cool stuff in the pipeline, so when things slow down this weekend on the “more popular” blogs (heh), come on back and I’ll have goodies for ya.
Hope to see you tonight! If you can’t make the show, don’t worry–the archive of the show will be available later tonight at the BlogTalkRadio site about an hour or so after the show ends. Download it to your iPod and enjoy!
Update 03December: Confirmed panelists are Ramona Bates, Mother Jones, Val Jones, and Bongi (schedule permitting). It’s a star-studded event, ladies and gentlemen! Even Dr. A. is jealous! hehe
Anybody who’s anybody in the medical blogosphere knows that Dr. Ramona Bates, besides being a plastic surgeon, is a master quilter of the first order. It’s also no secret that she’s a great person and supports so many bloggers with kind words and commentary. However, her kindness totally went to the next level when she offered to make my daughter a “crazy quilt” from leftover fabric that had fun animals, bright colors, etc. that would be great for kids to relate.
Here is the gallery where the quilt pictures are (plus some more from the same few days). I got an account on SmugMug a couple of months back because that’s where I really felt my “good” photos should live because I’d have control over the design, layout, etc. unlike Flickr. That said, I’m still moving stuff over slowly (read: barely) but feel free to bookmark the main gallery and check back as photos will be populating regularly.
Ramona sent a nice card with the package, but one thing that stuck out was that she wanted the quilt to actually be used, not (I assume) tacked on a wall–or worse yet, left in a drawer. To that end I made a small video of my daughter with the new quilt that very evening. It’s nothing fancy, the lighting was off (it was almost bedtime, so only indoor light) and I overlooked correcting for WB or gain in the camera, but that’s not the point–the point was to show Ramona that her gift was received with the same care and affection with which it was sent, used immediately and often, and treasured forever.
I am not kidding. Elmo. For the last 6 months or so I’ve seen more Elmo than anything other single type of programming–period. It’s the side effect of the strange psychological mind-meld that furry creature can achieve with the 2-year-old age group.
However, a few moments of Sesame Street are actually cool and clearly have some “inside jokes” aimed at the older kids/grown-ups watching it with the little ones.** This one is perfect for the theme of today, featuring the sexy, sassy, singular Tina Fey as the Skipper of this bunch o’ scalawags! It’s about 13 minutes and has some “annoying” Elmo moments of course, but it’s all worth it for Tina and the smart-alecky muppet shipmates. I’m hosting here instead of YouTube in case of “copyright” violations (not with PBS, per se, but with hot-ticket celeb media lawyer types WRT Tina Fey)–enjoy!
And on a similar note, Change of Shift, the illustrious nursing blog carnival is hosted this week by Emily McGee, aka crzegrl, and of course also has the pirate theme built right in. She’s got multimedia content to go with all the awesome posts there, so check that out too!
In closing, yes, I know I’m posting this the day AFTER but the video encode (it’s my own personal rip from the TV, not commercial) and some other things didn’t allow me to get it in before the end of yesterday. But it’s never too late to honor pirates, right?! (and yes, I didn’t talk like a pirate, but I’m just trying to get this late post up before it gets later. Don’t make me walk the plank!)
**As a side note, I should say that our TV is never used as a babysitter, though it’s nearly impossible to not have it be a crutch when things get super-hectic. The norm is interactive participation, and having funny cameos like Tina Fey makes it a LOT easier for adults to do that.
Welcome to my first video blog posting! I thought this would be appropriate to welcome myself back to my own blog (nobody else was gonna throw me a party) by giving you, my readers–now worthy of a medal of loyalty at this point–a little somethin’ somethin’ extra for your patience. Here it is, or rather, here I am in moving pictures:
That was fun! I was honest when I said I did it in one take, believe it or not. I’m a pretty nim quick-witted person, and I actually thought of the whole “effect”/”transition” thing as I was talking up to that point. I filmed the “extra” scene separately, of course, but the rest of it was one take. The “goodies” were added in post, of course, and if it didn’t work I simply would have re-recorded another, less-silly take to replace this. I think it was a success!
I really, really have to give a shout out to Dr. Anonymous who pioneered so much multimedia for us medbloggers and who does his own video blogs about his radio show (before and after) as well as his own personal topics. Emily McGee, aka crzegrl, is also a pioneering medical vblogger whom I’ve admired greatly for putting herself out there and talking about her job and life in informative, silly, and touching ways. Lastly, Vijay aka Scanman, had a brief foray into this area, but I think he dropped it in favor of audio ‘casts. It’s all good–I think anything we do to reach out to readers and each other in new and different ways just makes our social and professional networks that much stronger and more fulfilling. Cheers to all of you, and now me, too!
As I mentioned in the spot above, a lot will be coming soon of a personal, and at times, difficult nature. I know I need to finish my personal illness story, and believe me when I say it has the highest priority. After a week or so when I’m far more “caught up” with posting my narratives (I’m not going to inundate the blog all at once) I think you’ll understand where I’m coming from. I think you’ll also see that if after all that I’m still around, then I’m not going anywhere! On to more posts, and thank you, thank you, thank you for caring enough to still be around–you’re the best!
AV/Photo, Computing/IT | enrico | 
December 7, 2008 7:58 am | 
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