Jinx

I thought I should comment that immediately after the last post, I had difficulty uploading a video. I'm still dealing with it.

Le sigh.

iGeneration

Listening to the song "iGeneration" by MC Lars seems appropriate.

I'm still debating over the future of Job. The To Be Educated Vlog Project is on hold for a while. Right now I have bigger fish to fry.

I'm working on these videos for my dance team, UN1TE Dance Company. I'd been using my personal computer to edit, which was AGONIZINGLY complicated. I hopped a bus this morning and used my school's Media Lab (free of charge) to edit the new Youtube vids. I was amazed by the difference between the speed of Cornelius and the computer there (which I believe was called "Altman" - all the computers there are named after famous directors). I'm converted. I'll be going to school for my editing from now on!

After "iGeneration", iTunes plays "White Kids Ain't Hyphy". Another appropriate track (for a white hip hop dancer).

Technorant

I was extremely excited to buy a Panasonic HDC-SD9 yesterday. And I was extremely excited when one month ago I purchased a LaCie 500 GB external hard drive for a sweet deal. Unfortunately, both purchases have come crashing down on me.

Maybe I shouldn't criticize these items. Really, the problem is Cornelius*, my Apple iBook G4, which has carried me through four years of audio and video editing, amongst other things. Cornelius has a sad 1GHz processor, a measly 40 GB of hard drive, and 1 GB RAM, and it is struggling to stay alive through all of my resource-heavy rendering.

What bothers me most is that I love Cornelius and my new camcorder**. But they don't love each other. There is virtually no software for Mac OS 10.3 that supports the AVCHD format, and I'm working extra hard to find a codec to play/convert the video files I've captured. It doesn't help that most purchasers of said camcorder use Windows or more recent Apple computers.

Why is it that purchasers of new equipment are always forced to update in order to keep up? I can't afford this shit. I bought a gorgeous new camcorder because I thought it was snazzy and handy, and I've discovered that it'll cost me another couple thousand dollars to be able to do anything with it.

I still have 6 days to return the camcorder without charge.

On to an even more frustrating item, the LaCie hard drive. I bought one, loaded it with files, then discovered that my system would randomly disconnect the thing. I exchanged it for another and still encounter the problem, but to a lesser extent.

Then, Sunday, I accidentally disconnected the hard drive without ejecting it first. No files on the drive were in use, so I thought I would escape free of injury.

THE DAMN FILES WON'T OPEN NOW and I have to completely re-edit the videos I was working on. Yes. Videos, plural, because I tend to create more than one sequence in a FCP file. The vids were supposed to be up this week, and I'm SCREWED.

I can't return the thing because (a) all my Final Cut files are configured to recognize those specific pathways (changing them takes FOREVER) and (b) I'd need to buy another hard drive to transfer them to. It's important to note that file recovery (should the hard drive kick the bucket) is at least $80 where I bought the thing - almost the price I paid for it to begin with.

I've run into so many technical problems lately that I don't even want to look at my hard drive anymore. While I love playing with my camcorder, I don't record video because I know for a fact that it won't work on my computer, and I'll have to go to school and test the files out there. But I'm almost ashamed that I knowingly bought an item that doesn't work with my system, in the hopes that somehow everything will work out.

Why do the gods smite me so?


* ... Yes, I named my iBook "Cornelius". So sue me.
** I named my new camcorder "Job".

I'm not a total n00b

For years, I've been reading blogs and watching vlogs. I listen to podcasts. I subscribe to various websites. I'd like to think that I'm an active member of the blogging community. However, I've never had my own blog because I assumed that I wouldn't be able to commit to it. Even now, I think this may be an abandoned project.

But today I bought a camcorder from Advance. Having spent a large chunk of money on this thing, I think the best way to get good use out of it is to go ahead with my vlog project (that's been in the works for several months now). It's called To Be Educated, and it will be posted on my Youtube account very soon.

Hooray for a new beginning of my Internet life!