Don't Panic

Not a blogger

2014-01-27T10:06:00.003-05:00

A blogger? Nope, not me. I used to post a lot. Just for fun. Maybe it's time to retire this stale "site".

No time these days.

Sigh.

Car shopping

2013-02-14T12:11:00.000-05:00

For me, car shopping requires a lot of data. How big are they, how much do they cost, what fuel consumption are we looking at?

With my car donated and our other car on it's last go-round at 202 thousand miles, we are shopping. Here is data I collected from edmunds and cars.com on the our top choices.

Capacity (all seat 5):
Car L W IntVol CargoVol (cubic fee)
----- --- --- ----- ------
V70 186 71 135 33.3
CR-V 179 72 103 37.2
Golf 165 70 105 12.2
Jetta 179 70 125 32.8

MPG/Power/Range
Car Year City Hwy HP/TQ Range
------- ---- ---- --- ------- ------
v70 01 17 24 168/170 400/527
CR-V 2wd 12 23 31 185/163 351/470
CR-V 4wd 12 22 30 185/163 336/459
Golf 11 30 42 140/236 435/609 (same for '12 and '10)
Jetta 11 29 39 140/236 420/565 (same for '12)

Prices (current advertised prices on cars.com)
year/miles/price (miles and price in thousands)
v70 04/80/11, 06/54/17, 08/44/20, 10/54/24
CR-V 2wd 07/46/16, 09/57/17, 10/44/21, 11/17/22, 12/13/21
CR-V 4wd 04/56/15, 07/40/22, 10/24/26, 11/20/21,
Golf 11/5 /20, 11/41/23, 12/14/25, 13/7 /24
Jetta 10/25/24, 12/--/25, 13/12/28

After driving all but the CR-V and based on the data I offer:

The 2 wheel drive CR-V gets very good gas mileage and has more cargo room than our current car. And it is 7 inches shorter! It is also more reliable than VW. However, VW gets better gas mileage by far. These also have near-luxury interiors and much better handling than the CR-V. The jetta is more car than the golf, but is also more expensive. A newer v70 is also an option as there are some to be had with "low" miles at good prices.

Time to make a choice...

Filming and post processing a theatre production

2012-09-22T17:51:00.001-04:00

Recently I was in a play - a musical. Yikes. I also did an edit of two video tapes (from the same show) onto DVD.

Here are some notes.

First the disclaimer

I work for Apple. It's a big company. I have nothing to do with Final Cut Pro or iDVD or any of that. Anything I say here is not authorized by Apple and does not in any way represent a company opinion. Further, nothing I say here can't be found by searching for it from other public sources.

Also, I'm a total amateur.

The equipement

Two MINI DV camcorders, consumer grade, were used for filming. One was duct taped (yup) to the top of a ladder in the back of the theater. The other was in front of stage-right on a tripode. The front one was panned and zoomed throughout the play. The back one stayed put on its perch.

For editing I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro and access to Final Cut Pro X, iDVD.

Filming

Video and audio quality is obviously direct relationship to the cameras we used. Also, we used audio from the cameras. The audio clearly has noise from the camera's internal mechanisms throughout. It's not horrible, but it's there.

Filming the show presents difficult challenges with lighting. The optics of these cameras can't really keep up. When the lights are bright, cast member's faces are washed out. When the scene is dark, the whole scene is jaggy from JPG artifacts.

Two cameras isn't really enough. There should be two more. One each side of the stage to capture cast member's faces, or front sides more accurately during dialog etc. Also, with more cameras there is a better chance that one will have good footage of a particular moment. All too often during editing I had to choose between two bad shots at the same moment. Usually the fixed back camera won.

Also, multiple cameras would likely help with another problem we had. The front camera has huge gaps in footage (even a couple seconds of shooting the ceiling!). The back camera did not. It was set to 1.5 hours per tape and was able to capture complete footage of both acts.

It turns out MINI DV audio settings are crucial to working in Final Cut. I got very lucky, both cameras were set to 16-bit audio.

Editing

Importing from MINI DV, the second act suffered from audio drift. This was due to the back camera getting started and stopped at the start of the tape. This caused Final Cut to break the tape into multiple scenes and it doesn't seem to do this very well. It took me four tries to get a full "good enough" copy from this tape. I assume that Final Cut will get better at this. Better cameras are said to help in this area.

I might have used the front camera for audio but could not because the camera was right next to the orchestra and suffered from lots clipping. I was lucky that the back had good enough audio and had complete copies of both acts.

Credits

I did not have complete information for the credits. Yes I could have asked but didn't leave enough time before the DVDs were due. So, the whole orchestra and who knows who else did not get into the credits. Sigh.

Opening title sequence

Things always break down when rushed. The opening title sequences as a typo! I mentioned I'm an amateur right?

Burning

iDVD is a strange program to me. But I got it done. I still don't know how to get chapter markers where I want them. Time was short, and adding them every 10 minutes was good enough.

Disk Utility is also strange - or at least the help online is (to me). Searching for how to deal with iDVD's img file output and burn it to disk the instructions people wrote were generally terse. With good reason. It is actually just simple. Open Disk Utility. Click the .img file. Click the Burn icon. It does the right thing.... Nice.

Burn speed? I have an 8x drive. I chose 4x just to be safe - rather have a good copy than not... Every disk save one came out just fine. The one that didn't did not look great going into the burn. I blame that disk.

Conclusions

I need a faster computer if I'm going to do this more often (which I'm not).

Final Cut Pro X's mutlicam editing is awesome. It lines up clips based on audio content with ease. Loved this tool. Rough it in as it plays in real time - or even 2x/4x speed. Go back, adjust on the timeline and you're done. So much easier than other editors I've used.

Cameras matter. Get or rent the best you can. Use a tripod meant for smooth movement or don't move the camera and expect to use the footage. Zoom in/out SLOWLY. Fast zooms aren't useable.

Just So - Elephants

2012-08-14T16:34:00.001-04:00

I'm in this play. It's not really my thing but I've had a lot of fun learning new things and meeting new people. Who knows, maybe I'll do it again next year (fat chance).

Here I've recorded my recollections of what I need to know about Elephant's songs and stage directions. With just two days to go I'm hoping that writing this down will help me finally remember it all. All the lyrics are here.

Just So elephants songs and stage directions

Key:

BOLD text - a scene with elephants

Skip text - a scene without elephants

Purple text - stage directions

ACT 1

Just so

Come in during end of EM's intro
As chorus begins, king and queen get bags
Show "Elephant" to the audience
leave and change fast into suit as chorus begins (90 seconds)

Another Tempest
Skip - There's no Harm in Asking

Move up stage (away from audience)
act disturbed while EC sings

Silly Questions
The Limpopo River

Kit and Mike B build the Boat
Leave when around when the boat leaves
ADJUST THE SET

stage left box moved to center stage, remove cushion,
Queen takes planter from tree box,
and MIKE B takes the top from the tree box and turns on the tree

Skip Living on this Island
Skip Thick Skin

GET READY with Hawaiian shirt, take off jacket, put Hawaiian shirt on over grey under shirt.

The Parsee Cake Cake Walk

Freeze at the end.
Fall down if Rino passes near you
leave stage

Skip The Crime
Skip The Chase
Skip We Want to Take the Ladies Out
Skip Pick up Your Hooves and Trot

GET READY: need jacket and grey hat, and leave for trees

Jungle Light / Just So (Reprise)

COME in when "That's right you know it must have been shadowy..."
put down leaves soon after IT's Brash It's BOLD it's Daring…

Limpopo River (Reprise)

Cross stage from left to right on first chorus
Sing the round with KK and other prey animals

ACT 2

Skip Just So (Reprise by EM)
Skip The Argument
Skip Wait a Bit
Skip Aboriginally I Came
Leaps and Bounds

Need outback hat instead of grey hat
Come on at start when Rock Concert music starts (clap to the beat)
Leave after "You can say that again...."

Ripe Bannanas/Just So Reprise (KK on BBQ)

Come in as BBQ leaves for Just So Reprise

Skip Does the Moment Ever Come
Skip Please Don't Touch My Stove
Little One Come Hither

Starts back stage : when piano plays LIMPOPO tune: speak: "GREAT GREY GREEN …rest… LIMPOPO RIVER"
Ends with back stage : sing "SILLY QUESTIONS" repeated…3 times

IF - the Crab

Come on while singing "PAU AMMA PAU AMMA PAU AMMA PAU AMMA" x2
Leave 5th (after wildebeests), PUT BACK the STAGE to LIBRARY

Batman Massacre

2012-07-20T13:52:00.002-04:00

As I'm sure everyone knows, there was a huge massacre yesterday. At a movie premier for a comic book super hero. Super heroes need villains and villains do exists. Why must comics be copied in real life? I can't make any sense of it really - it's just too mind boggling.

But amid all the grief and cries of why I'm thinking of how much energy and wealth we spend on military vs. spending on science, education, health care, and general well being. I'd refer us all to this video.

Not because the "good ol' days" were better. Only to illustrate the thinking I have on the killings - people invested in their social group don't usually turn on the group. Inspiring people, setting bold goals (that by the way employ people), and working towards a common greater good, can only help get more people invested/included.

May the victims rest in peace. May the injured recover. May their friends and relatives find ways to peace. May we all find ways to stop bullying and aggravating each other, ways to inspire all to be productive, and ways to let things that bother us go.

A little bit goes a long way.

passing

2012-04-04T12:52:00.000-04:00

My grandmother Annie passed away today. She was and always will be an inspirational figure in my life. She chuckled easily and listened intently. Very sharp and witty. She will be missed. Here is a video I took just a couple days before she passed.

A great spirit to the last.

I'm fortunate that I went to visit this past weekend. I received (and gave) hugs and kisses. She was delighted to see me. As I was her. So many memories of holidays in her warm house on Long Island. Playing on that property are some of the best times I had growing up. She always had tots and fudgsicles in the freezer. Makes me smile even today recalling those fun snacks.

Rest in peace Annie.

Update: if you have a memory of Annie you'd like to share please do add it to the comments. I'd like to have a collection of them. When I have some time, I'm going to collect some of the things people have posted on Facebook here as well. Especially the photos and videos.

Zach Wahls Speaks About Family

2011-11-30T23:21:00.001-05:00

One feels like one is watching a movie star who had 50 takes to get this right. One take - he nails it. Great job. Important message.

happy accidents - a movie

2011-09-16T23:02:00.006-04:00

It's been a while since I wrote about movies I've seen this year. I've seen a bunch in the interim.

This one has motivated me to write. I came across it when I discovered you can sort within a genre by user ratings at Netflix. Happy Accidents was near the top in Science Fiction.

I think it is a good movie and with 7.3 on IMDB it seems others agree. This is apt from Rotten Tomatoes:

Happy Accidents has enough quirkiness and charm to rise above the more formulaic entries in the romantic comedy genre.

Quirky, that's the ticket. But it doomed the effort to just $688,532 at the box office.

Both the leads Marisa Tomei and Vincent D'Onofrio (yeah, that one and THIS ONE) were really good. So good. There is a lot of 12 Monkeys in this movie with the time travel and such (don't want to give anything away).

If you've got 2 hours, this ain't your worst bet for a movie. It's a love story after all.

roms

2011-06-16T10:00:00.003-04:00

Thinking of rooting my HTC Incredible. Hmm, which rom? Here is one I've never heard of till today.

A short list:

Miui
Cayanogenmod w/ unrevoked

Who names these things?

FWIW, Jonathan has Gingerbread on his incredible.

black snake moan - a movie

2011-04-19T02:59:00.001-04:00

Started watching this because of the trailers showed a wee bit of skin.

Well surprise surprise this is a really good movie of redemption. Great music too.

Justin Timberlake performs really well and of course so do Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci.

Go see for your self.

Damn right

2011-03-21T10:39:00.002-04:00

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battle: los angeles - a movie

2011-03-12T01:41:00.001-05:00

Battle: Los Angeles is a lot of fun. Definitely worth the big screen and sound system you get in the theater.

They stayed away from women dressed in tank tops while shooting guns at aliens. Everyone stayed in uniform and there was no sex. A monumental achievement these days.

I enjoyed this movie. It's a summer block buster action movie released in March. I predict it has legs and will remain in theaters with repeat business.

McCarthy would be proud

2011-03-10T13:53:00.000-05:00

Why is this so hard?

A congressional panel investigating homegrown terrorism in America displayed sharp divisions Thursday over how to frame the discussion, reflecting a country still struggling with how best to combat terrorism nearly a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Keep, and/or return to, doing the things that made America great in the first place. These people who do turn to radicalism and act on it will face our laws and justice system. Bringing back McCarthyism is not the answer.

Facebook: why are you so full of bugs?

2011-03-08T14:32:00.003-05:00

Why is it so hard to keep track of which notifications I've looked at? Why do you show notifications that lead to yet-to-be-posted or deleted content? Comments that you tell me about which I can't see makes me sure you just hate me. Why else would you torture me so?

And why does your Android app insist that I've not seen notifications just after I've clicked on them? I am glad you stopped clearing the notification screen (making it blank) while fetching new notifications - but there is still work to be done here.

Notifications are hard I guess.

On a different note, why do you still show my old employer on everyone's iPhone?

One more, I just tried your sign in function on Engadget and the photo you used is very old. Sigh.

network - a movie

2011-03-02T03:45:00.000-05:00

Network came out in 1976. I found it after clicking though some 2011 Oscar news and landed on Faye Dunaway. She is awesome in this.

Watching Network I saw things you don't see today: imperfect teeth, suits, smoking. Man the smoking - everywhere smoking. Amazing. OH, and there is no musical score running over everything.

I like this movie - though I have to admit about 1/2 way through I almost turned it off. The final 1/3 was exciting. I guess I liked watching everything fall apart. I do think the ending was a bit much. Almost like they didn't know what to do, so they...I don't know, punted?

I read somewhere that this movie predicted 24-hours newstainment that we have today. With Peter Finch's Howard Beale taking the role of Glenn Beck. It's spot on - unbelievably prescient.

Worth checking out.

motivational

2011-03-01T02:51:00.001-05:00

My Blood Approves: a bit of reality check...

It takes work to be successful.

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salt - a movie

2011-02-28T02:44:00.001-05:00

Salt is a lot of fun. This was my second viewing and knowing who third villains are only added to it.

It's a female James Bond with some Jason Bourne tossed in. I enjoyed this movie both times I've seen it.

wanted - a movie

2011-02-27T03:28:00.000-05:00

Over the top action sequences, check. Silly bullet curving abilities, check. Fun action flick, double check.

Great movie it is not, but Wanted is fun to watch. Sort of a violent Office Space.

the house bunny - a movie

2011-02-26T22:15:00.000-05:00

Tired clichéd losers-to-winners movie.

Still, I laughed quite a bit. The skimpy outfits provided some entertainment all their own.

district 9 - a movie

2011-02-26T22:11:00.000-05:00

Irony comes to mind big time watching this movie. To be treated like you treated others so suddenly. A stark reminder of the golden rule.

Anyway, District 9 is a very cool and unique take on the Alien landing genre.

Highly recommended.

movie sound

2011-02-26T22:05:00.002-05:00

The more I learn about how movies are made the more I see how much crazy work goes into a movie.

SoundWorks Collection: Gary Hecker - Veteran Foley Artist from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

(From kottke)

the fighter - a movie

2011-02-24T02:34:00.001-05:00

The Fighter is excellent. Great acting by all involved. Good music and cinematography.

The character actors do a wonderful job in this film. Recommend.

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numbers

2011-02-22T17:07:00.000-05:00

Statistics can be manipulated to show what one side of an issue wants to say. Sometimes though they are just plain wrong. And can be corrected.

As a guy who likes numbers and math and such, this was a fascinating look at some materially relevant number sets.

the fountain - a movie

2011-02-22T00:09:00.000-05:00

I really don't know what to make of this movie.

Certainly one of the strangest I've seen in a while. Hard to follow as the movie repeats things and does those repeats in different orders, building up each of 3 stories in turn.

Interesting yet hard to recommend. Visually, very cool in many ways.

the history boys - a movie

2011-02-21T22:38:00.001-05:00

This is an entertaining movie. Though I found its light take on sexual abuse, however "tame", a bit disturbing.

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