Above the Rug

What I've been doing.

2008-07-29T15:24:00.002+01:00

Seems there's a resurgence in posting right about now and it's making me feel guilty that I haven't posted anything for a quarter of a year. No, I'm not dead, but I have been stupidly busy. One of the things I have been busy doing is this - www.betheatslocal.org. I meant for it to be a videoblog, but it turns out text blogging is much quicker to fit in around the demands of making pastry and poaching eggs. I have some videos for it in the pipeline though. Maybe I'll even make an effort to post videos here... You never know.

Jon Snow and the digital revolution

2008-04-17T12:42:00.001+01:00

Big Media knows it too! Jon Snow talking about the digital revolution.

Reclaim the web

2008-03-12T16:04:00.005Z

My housemate Chris and I are organising an un-conference called Reclaim the Web. It's a place for techies and activists to get together to work out how to use web technologies to 'make the world a better place' (hey, you gotta have lofty ideals or else you'll never get anywhere). We're gonna run it along three strands this year; practical workshops, short sharp presentations followed by organic open spaces discussions.

It's the third Reclaim the Web that's been held and the first one that I have been involved in organising. I'm so psyched about it. We're going to have presentations on mobile tech, vlogging workshops and who knows what open spaces discussions.

Semanal08 - Climates - Browse a huge range here

2008-02-24T20:26:00.003Z

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I was watching this video from the Common People when I noticed a curious ad at the bottom. Ebay, for all your climate needs...

Semanal #? - The proper way to remove a bottom bracket

2008-02-19T22:41:00.002Z

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You know its serious when you need a scaffolding bar to fix your bike. This is at Cranks, the DIY bike mechanics where I volunteer. Cranks people, if you find this and you don't want your face on the internet, please let me know and I'll take it down.

Bottling it

2008-02-04T11:17:00.000Z

Ok. I bottled it. It was becoming obvious from Ubuntu forums that most of the video editors for it are a bit crap, so I just bought Sony Vegas Platinum Edition. I'll clean up my computer and put this on and see how I go. Maybe my editing problems will be solved. When I get brave, I might try partitioning the drive and install Ubuntu that way. At the moment I really need to solve my editing problems - it's becoming pressing. Once I am in a happy editing place, then I'll try to educate myself on the finer points of hard-drives and have a go.

(Beth weeps as she is sucked back into the machine).

Semanal #4 - Wood Slick

2008-01-28T00:38:00.000Z

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LOTS OF SWEARING, DON'T READ IF YOU HAVE A SENSITIVE CONSTITUTION.

Recently, you may have seen me go a little bit crazy on Twitter about the wood slick that washed up along the Sussex (and further) coastline. In Worthing, they had piles of the stuff, much higher than your head, but here in Brighton we had less of it. I went down to the beach the day after it made the news (but about a week after the ship, the Ice Prince, went down off Portland Bill - treacherous waters!). I was all fired up from being made to go out onto the street to do 'market research' in my Women in Social Enterprise course - I wanted to talk to people. So I did. I talked to lots of people and got some lovely footage, but unfortunately, because my computer's such a dumb-fuck piece of machinery, I couldn't post it... it was too big and I can't compress. So, this is what you get for now.

My problems are these. I can't use Moviemaker to compress because it won't accept the MP4s that my Xacti produces. If I use a codec to change them to AVIs then it used to partially load them and then crash. Now it tells me I am missing a codec needed to put them in at all. I also have Adobe Premier. It doesn't recognise my camera (possibly because I am not using a firewire), so I have been trying to import footage rather than capture it. I can import it, but I lose the sound. I have no idea why.

This has been an insurmountable headfuck for me for months. So much so that I would try to sort it out and it would defeat me, and I would retreat with my tail between my legs, vowing never to videoblog again. I haven't edited anything properly (i.e. not in camera) since about October. There's loads that I want to do, but I just can't do it at the moment. The computer has been winning up until tonight when I finally decided that the bastard thing would not beat me.

Thus, I have decided to do the unthinkable and install Ubuntu. This is, for me, a rash decision. I am not techy. I am what you might call the Man in the Street. I don't know what a command line is, though I understand that I am going to have to understand what this is. I might melt my computer and my mind by doing this, but both are essentially fried anyway, so it can't get that much worse. I like that there are forums where people want to help you and where they have a specific bit for absolute beginners. I like that it's free and open. Windows, frankly, can go screw itself... well it can in a week or so maybe, when I've saved all my data (have to organise time to do this around jiving, running and pond building). Fuck, I hope this works.

Youth Movie Soundtrack Strategies - The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor

2008-01-24T20:58:00.000Z

This is my friend's band's video for their new single The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor. Despite having a rather dubious name, I think they're fucking ace. My friend is the one sitting in the chair with hair all over his face.

Semanal #3 - Burning the Clocks

2008-01-21T21:41:00.000Z

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Here's what we do in Brighton to celebrate the solstice. This event is called Burning the Clocks. Groups make paper lanterns and walk them down to the seafront where they are burnt in a great big firey inferno. Fire. FIRE!!! Fuck yeah!!! I was with the University of Brighton 'team' (it's where I work). Our take on the theme of 'The Tower of Babel' were some babel fish and a giant ear. Not everyone got it, but you could watch the faces of the ones that did as recognition spread across their face. I was carrying the battery pack for the giant ear. Not every day you could say that.

Semanal #2 - Brighton NaVloPoMo Screening

2008-01-14T17:10:00.000Z

So, I haven't made a video for week #2, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about videoblogging. I have been busy organising the Brighton NaVloPoMo Screening, which I didn't get any footage of because I was too busy. Ryan did record stuff so I have decided that this link to her video counts as my entry for week #2. Thanks to everyone who came, especially Rupert, Robert, Jay and Ryan.

Semanal #1 - Stock Ghyll

2008-01-07T21:42:00.000Z

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Week one of Semanal and I am already resorting to my old NaVloPoMo tricks of posting unedited, uncompressed footage. Give me a break this week. We have the NaVloPoMo screening on Saturday and I'm a little busy. This video is of Stock Ghyll, the stream near my parent's house in the Lake District (alright, alright, their second house - I'm embarrased to admit). It had just rained and the ghyll was in full raging torrent. It's so beautiful up there (in the North!) - I really love it. I have a proposal for any British vloggers. Our American friends are having their vlogcamp, so let's have one of our own - but without the camping. Let's go to the Lake District and stay at my parent's house (I'll make sure there are no parents) and walk, look at the rain and think about the future of videoblogging in the UK. Let's do it before Rupert goes to Canada. There's no coming back from there!

It's poetical Friday - #1 Terry Simpson - How to Sing

2007-12-21T00:21:00.000Z

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Last Friday I was twittering about Philip Larkin and clouds and I dubbed the day 'Poetical Friday,' despite the fact that I was fairly sure poetical isn't a word. Trine challenged me to make a video confirming the poetry of the day, so here you are my dear, a week late. I aim to make this a regular thing - sometimes even aiming the camera at the whole of my face. Maybe we'll do some 'challenging' postmodern poetry. Or maybe we won't.

Run, Santa, Run.

2007-12-08T15:44:00.000Z

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I did a silly thing. Ok, I did two silly things. The first one was this - the Santa Dash. A 3 mile run dressed in a santa suit. I don't know if the video properly shows how horrible the weather was. It was evil. The second silly thing is also related to dashing. Umm, I signed up to do a half marathon in February. That's 13 miles. I really really hate running. I hate it with a passion, but I figure the only way I am going to get fit is by setting myself challenges, and why not start with something I really don't like doing, then all challenges after that will be easier by comparison. After the half marathon, I'm thinking some kind of coast to coast cycle ride. I'd like to go from Lands End to John O'Groats but I can't really take the time off to do that.

Twitter meet up - 4th December

2007-12-08T15:08:00.000Z

It's very strange not to be writing 'NaVloPoMo' in the title bar! Here's my footage from the Twitter meet up in London on 4th December. Due to certain restrictions, it has turned into a montage of 'Rupert moments' with me drunkenly guffawing from behind the camera. Somewhere on the internet (you'll have to find it yourself!) there is a video of various people including me talking about what Twitter means to them. I'm not going to point you towards it because I'm blatently drunk in it. Video cameras. Drunkeness. Never a great mix. I usually wake up and think, "Shit, who do I have to apologise to?" With videocameras around, you can answer this question in an instant...

Navlopomo post #30 - Dance etiquette

2007-12-01T00:43:00.000Z

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Some sage advice for the last day of Navlopomo.

Navlopomo post #29 - Earthship Brighton

2007-11-29T22:51:00.000Z

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Oh my god, what a pile of crap! Another one from the archives and no, your audio isn't broken. For some reason my year-ago self decided that this one would be better without sound! I've learnt a lot since then...

Let's be frank. I've run out of ideas (if only I could edit!). It's a good job its day 29. I thought posting this would be more interesting than filming the only moving things in my house that will allow themselves to be filmed (the cats) again, despite this video's unique production values. If you want to know more about Earthships, visit this site. There is a specific site for the Brighton Earthship, but it appears to be down at the moment. You could keep trying here though.

Navlopomo post #28 - The campsite at Azay-le-Rideau

2007-11-28T23:18:00.000Z

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Some footage from my jaunt to the Loire Valley in late summer this year with my friend Fliss. Unedited, as always. When this pomo thing is over, I'm gonna work really hard on getting my technical problems sorted out so that I can once again exercise my will. I have a bit of an obsession with lens flare. When I was learning how to use Photoshop at University, I would always put lens flare on pictures, even if they didn't need it. Especially if they didn't need it. Fliss and I were cycle touring which I had never done before. It was so freeing, especially in a relatively flat and hospitable place like the Loire valley. We didn't book anywhere to stay before hand which absolutely shit up the OCD side of me. We vaguely followed a route that took us through wine country, but if we decided mid-ride that we didn't want to go so far, or we wanted to go further, we just changed our minds.

What I would do differently next time? I would not take a one season sleeping bag and I would take a blow up mattress. Other than that (and by 'that' I mean shivery, achey nights), it was all good.

Navlopomo post #27 - Stitch n bitch

2007-11-27T23:20:00.000Z

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It's day 27 and wow, these posts are getting literal... and short. Tonight's post is about one of my many random social activities, Stitch 'n' Bitch. It's a knitting circle, essentially. It has a jazzy name but it's just the same as what my Nanna does with the W.I., just with young people too. A guy called Peter whom I met at Buy Nothing Day wanted to learn how to knit so he could do something while he rested after an operation, so I told him to come to Stitch 'n' Bitch and he did! People never do what I tell them to do! Perhaps I was a teacher for too long. I taught him to knit and he was left-handed so it was a bit shaky for a while, but finally he got it. I'm glad he figured it out before the end because it would have been depressing for him to go home without an achievement. I also finished my fingerless gloves. Ta da!

Navlopomo post #26 - Devil's Dyke

2007-11-26T22:22:00.000Z

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Yesterday's post could have been worse. Usually when I get very drunk (which in my old age is actually not often) I wake up wondering who I need to apologise to. I think that this time I managed to get away with a not entirely embarrassing drunken post. Only my shaky hand gives the game away. Cheryl commented on the fact that the spelling was correct. Have you ever tried to spell when you are very drunk? It's like riding one of those bikes where they have changed the front wheel around so that when you turn left you go right and vice versa. I lay in bed this morning wondering if I could bear to watch the video and see if I had spelt everything right.

My day today was spent in a hungover blur, which, if I'm honest was quite pleasant. I quickly gave up any pretence of being able to do anything. My friend and ex-house/work mate Ian came round in the afternoon to collect more of his stuff and we went up to Devil's Dyke to wander around and poke at things. He doesn't want to appear on camera, hence my warnings that he was about to enter the frame. His answer when I asked "What are you doing?" was "I'm taking pictures of my feet." It was just a lovely afternoon with a friend. If I had had the camera set on the right focus settings, you would have had a better idea of just how beautiful Sussex looked today. Britain is such a beautiful country. It's often easy to forget that.

Navlopomo post #25 - Pissed

2007-11-26T00:39:00.000Z

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I hope you'll understand. It's just not posssible tonight.

Navlopomo post #24 - Buy Nothing Day

2007-11-24T23:10:00.000Z

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I had such an amazing day today I really didn't have time to make too much video. The Cowley Club put on a day of workshops and free shops for Buy Nothing Day (I'm not sure if this was on a different day in North America). I was running the paper-making workshop (bet you didn't know I could do that, did you). There was such an great atmosphere there of people wanting to learn new skills and being excited about their successes. This video is of one of the participants in the sewing and customisation workshop who made a dress from an old dress and a table cloth. My friend Kat, who I hope to be running a Swaporamarama with one of these days was the facilitator for this workshop. It was so heartwarming to see people who had never used a sewing machine before come to the workshop with a handful of clothes and some ideas about what they wanted to do and go home with something new and unique.

Navlopomo post #23 - Hysteria

2007-11-23T19:55:00.000Z

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Some believe that the two saddest words in the English language are "too late." I disagree with this statement though. For me, those two saddest words are "lost kitten." The saga of Agatha's gastronomic quest continues. Tonight I returned home, prepared rice and chicken (I'm vegetarian) and went upstairs to feed her. My door was closed and my room was empty. She did this once before when I brought her home from the kitten orphanage, but that time she was scared stiff and I found her hiding in my walking boot. This time she was really nowhere to be found. Then... well, I'll let you watch the video and find out.

Navlopomo post #22 - House arrest

2007-11-22T17:18:00.000Z

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A cat post. Groan, you say, but my day has been pretty cat centred starting with when Agatha shat on my bed this morning while I was still in it. I have decided to forgive her because I took her to the vet (let's not go into the gory details) and he said she had colitis. The cure was an injection of antibiotics followed by 24 hours of starvation. Poor Agatha. She lives for food. Really, she lives for it. I think her problem is what's known as 'dietary indescretion related' colitis. That's a nice way of saying she eats crap out of bins. Who knows, maybe she has literally been eating crap, I wouldn't put it past her. It's unfortunate that she's so cute because I am currently pissed off with her but she keeps doing big eyes and squealing in a way that would make her a star of Ultra Kawaii. You cost me £36.94 I can ill afford you adorable little wretch!

Navlopomo post #21 - What woul Neil Young do?

2007-11-21T21:53:00.000Z

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Remember this? Bikes in the hall. Mess that you try to fight but finally become subsumed beneath. Yes folks, it's shared housing. This is a tour around my elegant abode. I'm being mean, my housemates are nice, but ahhh, the washing up.

Navlopomo post #20 - Aral Sea

2007-11-20T17:27:00.000Z

From the old sea bed

Many moons ago I was an EFL teacher (English as a Foreign Language). I taught in Japan and Italy and did summer schools in England. I gave it up in a not quite achieved yet attempt to settle down. My friend Darren (whom I met while doing summer school one year) is keeping the itinerant dream alive. He's currently teaching in Almaty in Kazakhstan. The video and the pictures are of what Darren describes "the ongoing environmental disaster that is the Aral Sea." This is haunting in so many ways.