Month: August 2010

Day One

My first day as a student at IU was exciting, exhausting and fulfilling.

I first worked my job at Technology Services at KSoB.  I then rushed over to McNutt for my other job with UITS/TCC.  When I arrived and started to settle in, I received a call asking me to go to Read due to some staffing issues.  So I rushed over to the other end of campus as quick as I could to fulfill this request.

When I arrived I was in shock.  Whomever had worked there last had left the supply cabinet unlocked, and all of it’s contents inside unlocked.  We keep a radio, laptop, hubs and other supplies in it.  Someone could have simply walked in and taken them without worry.

The consultant that should have been there arrived about 30 minutes late, he’s obviously a underclassmen, he didn’t show any sense of responsibility.  We had many tickets and a few appointments to go on as there are many people around campus having problems connecting to IU’s network.  We called many people and were able to resolve the issue on the phone, or close the ticket because the issue had been fixed.

Printing was also basically down across the whole campus.  The printing system was migrated to a new system without any time for testing that is normally done.  Basically what was once many was migrated to a few and all hell broke loose.  As I write this printing is down again.  I hope this issue gets resolved soon, as I genuinely feel bad for these students who rely on university printers.

It was a good, hard and hot shift, but we were productive.

I then rode my bike over to Ballantine Hall, where my American Studies class is.  I arrived almost an hour early, so I had time to relax from the fast paced day I had.

I was amazed to find that my class is very small, only about 10 students!  The topic of this class is how the computer changed history and culture.  I think it’s going to be a fun and interesting class.  Since I’m the geek that I am with regards to computers and history I think it’s the perfect fit for me.

After class I caught the Bloomington Transit, the city’s public bus system.  I get to ride it free since I’m a student at IU.  My bike and I rode over to Wal-Mart where Rachel and Amelia were waiting on me.  This is a better alternative than Rachel packing her up and driving back to campus to pick me up.  I haven’t rode the bus since I was in middle school!  The one thing I can say is bus design has changed significantly since then.

Once we got home, I basically crashed from the days’ activities.  I hope I can keep up the pace.

Today is going to be a whole new adventure that I will update you on tomorrow.

Capturing Complete

I honestly can’t count how many times I have captured all of the season 1 ROX episodes, but it’s been too many times.  Between all the issues I’ve had, there isn’t really an exact source to point the blame to.  I’ve had a hard drive crash, which put me to tears.  I have some tapes that CATS made for me which have been in bad shape since the day I got them.

The hard drive crash made me seriously look for backup solutions and I found one.  I created a backup server, which backs up my files to a mirrored raid.  Should 1 drive fail, I can simply replace it and lose no data.  The system has expandability for more hard drives in the future should I need them.  The only item I haven’t done is off site or cloud backup, mainly due to the file size of video files.

For a while I was transferring video using a USB device, which worked well for a while but now leaves a video frame in places where they shouldn’t be.  I think it’s a bandwidth issue.  Now I’m transferring with a capture card, and haven’t seen any of the issues I had with the USB device.

As of right now I have over 600 gigabytes of files solely dedicated to ROX.  Most of those are simply draft episodes which have been captured, but aren’t suitable for release.  They are either missing one piece here or there, or just need fade effects added to the beginning and end.

That’s what I do.  I’m not interpreting the original work, merely trying to make 1 good episode from a sea of bad ones.  It’s not easy work.  I go over each episode frame by frame and look for things such as heat damage (which has been the biggest issue thus far) y-axis video track issues and a plethora of audio issues.

Now the real work begins.  I’m hoping to edit and render 1 episode a night.  If I’m able to keep on this schedule I might be able to start DVD authoring within a month.

Busy Weekend Ahead

I’m going to be a busy bee this weekend.  Part preparing for school, part vehicle maintenance, part helping out a friend.

My hitch and bike rack were delivered yesterday and I need them to be on the car by Monday, when my classes start.  My bike lock should be delivered today, if FedEx doesn’t mess it up.

I need to replace the front brakes on our car, the rotors are warped – a common problem on Chevrolet HHR’s with factory brakes.

I’m also replacing the brakes on a friends mini-van.  I have another friend who wants me to do the brakes on his car as well.  Do you see a trend here?  Yes, I’m known for being a brake guy.  It’s one of the few tasks (along with changing your own oil) that you can do to maintain your vehicle that will save you thousands of dollars in your lifetime.  Most of the time it just requires a jack (which all automobiles come with) and a few simple hand tools.

After that I’ll have everything I need prepared for this new journey, education at Indiana University.  The only question I have remaining is if my mind is ready for this new endeavor.  I’m hopeful it will be a seamless transition, but I’m worried the content will be more academic than I’m used to.  I have a tendency to worry too much about these things though.  Everyone tells me that I’ll do well, but that little voice inside my head always tells me otherwise.

Just What I Needed

This fall is going to be interesting…

The schedule for my job with UITS came out over the weekend, which has me working at Briscoe, McNutt, Foster and the Information Commons.  While this is great where my working life is concerned, it’s horrible for my academic life.  I have classes at Ballantine Hall and in Swain East.  They are on the opposite side of campus.  For those of you that don’t know,  the IU campus is quite large.

To make matters worse, on two of those days I will get out of work 15 minutes before my class starts.

To try to expedite my travel I’m currently working on solutions to get my bike on campus.  With my bike on campus, I think I can cut down the travel time significantly.  Since I live a good trek away, biking to campus isn’t really an option.  I’ve got some options to figure out.  I’m going to either leave my bike on campus during the week and take it home on the weekend, or take it with me each day.  I’m going to test whether my bike will fit in our car tonight, if not we’ll have to order $300 worth of gear ( a hitch and hitch mounted bike rack).

I haven’t seriously rode my bike in about 10 years, which invokes something else, a more active lifestyle.  I’m sure I’ll be really sore for the first couple of weeks, but after that I’ll in much better shape.  Something I need to do.

I also need these items:

I’ve got my eye on particular ones, but I’m still trying to find the best item for the price.

I had thought about these last minute things coming up, I just never realized it would be so exhaustive and expensive.

Editing Schedule

I am currently between semesters, my last one at Ivy Tech and my first one at IU. In this downtime, I’m working in some editing of the “good” episodes of ROX that I have, which are a majority of season one.

On a good night I can crank out 2 episodes. Last night I was only able to complete one.

Most of these episodes are in pretty good shape, they still need a look over to make sure they meet my high standards before I’ll allow people to pay money for them.  The biggest issue seems to be with transitions between shots and the beginning and end of the show.  Luckily I have a ton of “stock” clips to use if one is bad.

If you look at all of my blog posts regarding ROX, you’ll see many ramblings about technical difficulties or just not having time.  I’m finished with giving excuses.  I’d like to get season one ready and launch it with my new LML Video Services website.

Once this “easy” process is over, I will start the tedious heavy editing process.  Dissecting each episode ensuring the audio and video tracks are synchronized and making sure there are no other transitional issues.

After the editing process is complete, DVD authoring and design begin.  This is where I actually create the look and feel of the DVD.  Then I design the case and labels.  Once the producers give their words of approval, it will be released.

The biggest difference between this time, and the last time is I have an active backup solution.  My computer is backed up every night, and those backups are backed up weekly.  If my hard drive fails, I haven’t lost any work.  That is what put me over a year behind.  I had to recapture everything and start from day one.

Wish me luck.