Bluezy's Computer Movie Making 101

If you are online, many of you are pretty much computer literate.  Our computers are great tools.  We can contact friends and family from great distances and use our web cams with our messenger programs to have a literal video phone.   We can sync out devices and store our information.  The computer IS a household appliance that has become more affordable to all social classes.

I just downloaded a converter to change Apple Quicktime video format (.mp4) to Windows movie format (.wmv).  I wanted to blog this to anyone who might be interested. 

I took video of my grand daughter's birth, but the camera I used saved the file in .mp4 format.  I wanted to edit it, but unless you purchase or get a hacked copy of Quicktime Pro, you can't. 



Microsoft Windows comes with a program called Windows Movie Maker.

The program is very user friendly.  You click "New Project" then click "Import Video".  It loads the video in fragments and you just drag the pieces you want on to a strip below in the order you want.  It is in fragments so you can easily edit it.

I had alot of upsidedown, sideways and floor shots.  There are options to flip your video, shorten it, and even add text within the video or just title and ending screens. 


You can also "Import audio or music" and then drag the file icon down to the bottom where it goes.  You can control what you hear by adjusting the the volume slide bar to video sound or music sound, thus omitting the voice and just having a cool rock and roll tune playing throughout.  Warning if you want to use music, the laws are now gettting tight on music usage. 

Even though you own a song, it is deemed illegal to upload content to Facebook, Youtube or other sharing sites.  Seriously, lately they have been cracking down.  Those free playlist websites are gettting hit to buy licensing and the price has cost one of my favorite sites. According to a geek site news place I link to playlist.com are going bankrupt. Hell, how the fuck do they get any money anyways?  So who reads those side ads or even pays these places?  I logged on to playlist as I typed and I guess the geeks were wrong!  Here is a song sample from there:

CLICK HERE (if you dare) to listen to one of my 1990's attitude songs on playlist.com

 (update edit December) 

I found a better conversion program and a way to rip music off the internet and YouTube.
I use my Firefox YouTube Downloader add on.
[click here to download] to capture the video.   The downloader captures in .flv format.  Miraculously the downloader will also capture in seconds flash (and I mean a flash) any song I select on playlist.com! The songs on playlist are saved in mpeg format (not to be confused with mp3).

So with all this new stuff I get, I need to make it compatible with my Windows Movie Maker (WMM) and  my MP3 player!  I have one of those Kenwood stereos in my "OJ Simpson escape model Bronco" that has a cord that plugs right into my Mp3 player.  WMM needs to read it in wmv or avi format. WMM will not accept .mpeg format either.
How to fix that?

CONVERTER PROGRAMS!

I got this free program online called DVD Video Soft Free Studio [link here to download].  It has all the conversion programs you would ever need.

They have a catch, though. TOOLBAR
don't have to install it just uncheck the offer menu, but---->"When installing DVDVideoSoft programs, you are prompted to install Optional Toolbar which ensures income for our company and allows us to offer you free software.

You can choose not to install this Optional Toolbar. However, every time after using any DVDVideoSoft program you will be asked to install it again.

If the pop-up Toolbar Offer is annoying for you, delete the following folder from your PC:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\DVDVideoSoft\TB."

It's not JUST a toolbar, but a polite request to take over option.  Take over means:

• It commandeers your homepage with it's own version of Google
• It stamps a big ol' gadgety toolbar right below your navigation bar.

 That is not so bad.  You can uninstall the toolbar, but the search engine is a different thing. The toolbar installs a cookie that must be removed.  Problem solved.  The cookie is from conduit.com and if you have a block list on your popup blocker add that name to your block list.  I found out that it was from conduit.com by right clicking my mouse on their logo on my new google browser look and clicked view image info. I found out the image was coming from conduit.com and I copied and pasted that on my search bar. A series of bad shit came up about it and told me to just clear my cookies.  Coolchaser is like that, too.  Other places that tweak your shit can be analyzed that way and you can find the source you can cut it off!!

Google Adsense has a way to let you make money every time someone searches on the internet by letting you install their search the web widget or like these guys are doing somehow making it their own google search.  It is the same as google but less garbage on the sidebars.  The only thing is that I was used to all that garbage and to have them take my google away, it is a bit invasive.

But with LimeWire and Torrent site shut downs it is really irrelevant they even exist.  This capture tech has been out there a while.  REALPLAYER (been around 4-evah) lets you do it as well and they have a clip editor so you can actually ringtone design your download or if you get it off a continual stream you can edit the song out.  It is just a computerized version of recording on KZAP and editing out the DJ.  It should be allowed....
I will be uploading video clips from my grand daughter's birth to Facebook thanks to this program.

VLC is the only multmedia player I use.  And it is also "open source"
(Software that can be used, redistributed or rewritten free of charge; it's usually created by volunteers).  Wiki definition

Staying cool and being cool!

W A T E R   W E E N I E S !

(BELOW)

That is my dog Isabelle creeping to check if it hit the ground knowing it goes to the hound. It was water you silly old bitch!  That is how far it sprayed in our yard.
I go through the whole simple process of making a water weenie that made for a fun time on a hot day with my grandkids.


 

I remember when a kid had one of these and said it was homemade.  At that age, I felt doomed never to be able to be AS cool.. I had no idea where to buy tubing in my kid world of maybe a 2 mile radius.

I liked the idea of  what we now label as "DIY".  Forts, tree houses and  digging to China then figuring it out that we could fill the hole with water and have a pool! 

 

Another dooming factor was my mom.  When I was six, I managed to go two blocks to the local grocery store with my dollar I got from my grandma for "Massagink" her legs with my sister and some local older kids.  It was like 1963 or 64 and we lived on the top of Hilltop Drive in Richmond, CA.  The Hilltop area was a new neighborhood that would be considered the "burbs" back in the day, but they paved my childhood "Paradise And Put Up A Parking lot" and big ass mall called "Hilltop Mall" right where we used to feed the horsies. It was also after the trauma of the JFK assassination.  My mother is seriously catholic and it definitely was a trauma historically and culturally.  I bought a Troll doll and a Fantastic Four comic because I had the same name of the Invisible Girl Susan Storm and that was COOL, too. I really liked cartoons (and still do),.  My mom sees what I bought and tells me it is garbage and throws it away! 

  

~HOW TO MAKE A WICKED WATER WEENIE~ 

1.  Surgical tubing, a nice strong rubber band ( I used hair ties) and half a pen.  You can get latex tubing at Home Depot and supposedly there is some at the Wal Mart pet section, but I could not find it online AND THIS NEW LINK FOR COLORED TUBING I actually ganked it from the inlaw's teenage son who had a nice bunch and only took enough to make two (later finding out I could make four).  He says he used it for pect building? 

2. The rest is simple.  Shove the pen in one end of the tube and then wrap the rubberband over the tubing that is on the pen to hold it on there tight.  Tie a knot on the other end.

3. The main problem was filling it.  I had to put a rubber nozzle on my faucet to fill it.  See it in the photo?  I shoved the pen into this rubber nozzle that I think came with a water balloon kit. 

So I fill it and the grandbabies are thinking "super cool gramma" (yep) and then I see the problem.  OMG in and out in and out.  I took the nozzle and it fit the hose!  In a perfect world of coolness, one of those brass pressure nozzle tips will be the best because it screws onto a hose.  I imagine IF it pops it could be dangerous...but so is climbing a tree. 
So it was not so boring in a moment of our happy little lives!  

I found the following blog after all was blogged and done when I was looking for where to buy sugical tube. 

/projects The 120 foot water ballon

They found a place that sells fifty feet of sugical tubing for less than twenty bucks!

Atlantic Rubber latex

You can actually buy it a foot at a time or a roll, but they don't have prices until after you put in your info which I think is strange.

Back Online...diving away!

Here is my latest dive:  Victorian Star Wars Paintings by Greg Peltz

check it out this is one of the few he has on his blogspot!

Vader has gone Steam Punk?

Darth's been there and done that!

Steam Punk you may query?

"Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes fictional works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era Britain — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, often featuring futuristic technology as the people of this historical period would have envisioned it to look like, i.e. based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer, but occurring at an earlier date."

(wiki definition)

Another dive treasure link to share:

ABNEY PARK

Abney Park is Steam Punk defined in music.  Not only is it a genre, but it extends to art and fashion.  Brassy gadgets and oh yeah the boots!

Yup! I am back online.  I will be posting my blog worthy dives again!

I came to discover that not having internet was no big deal. I started using my computer like a computer and not a network tool...

• Made my (not to get into a long story) RPG pc game character stronger.
• Watched Battlestar Gallactica Season 1 from the library ( I never watched the new one, and oh yeah I likey) I am gonna order it on Netflix and see all what was it 7 seasons?
• Viewed some digital comics I have...

Off the computer making bottles to prep the baby for when mommy is going to school (weened from the titty), rekindling my cooking skills, seeing lots of poopie doggy and baby, just being loved and loving it and summer...

LOOK UP AT THE STARS!!!

Persieds Meteor Shower is going on.  It peaks on August 12th.  Check out the links below on how to find and watch the lovely summer night sky.

You can go by the fact that Cassiopeia is very distinct with it's "W" shape and then look around there....

This is what I am up to online.  Just sharing the sky schedule with you.  Hope you have enjoyed the summer night skies like I have.

We moved and won't get our internet until next month...

Here is a good link for sky events

ASTRONOMY CALENDAR

THE ASTRONOMY EXAMINER

Have fun!