Category: ROX

Ida

Less than a month after we returned from our almost month long venture in Louisiana, it was hit by a hurricane that tested all of the repairs New Orleans had made after Katrina destroyed many of the systems that keep this city from being underwater.

My friend, Bart Everson stayed to defend New Orleans, while his partner and daughter came back to where they just vacationed, my hometown. At this point, they are all seasoned New Orleanians but I was still worried.

They moved after Katrina to a nicer home, but it isn’t too far away from their old one, which had roughly 6 feet of water in it due to the levee’s failing.

Utility Room by Editor B

This is what I was worried about. This is what I was concerned about. That’s an image of the interior of their home after Katrina. Being the God like creature he is, my friend was able to score a press pass and sneak into the city while it was closed to everyone. It was then when he took this photo and cleaned out the entire first floor of his home. It was the contributing factor in the saving of the home.

Most of my concerns were relieved however, as my friend is fine. The only real damage that he knows of to their home is that their little free library was destroyed, and the TV antenna on top of their roof was taken by the hurricane winds.

Power was restored to their home yesterday, but half a million are still without power. He announced shortly after we left that he is running for city council in New Orleans, on his platform that has awed and inspired me for decades. One of living with nature, instead of against it as we have for hundreds of years.

He posted this right before the hurricane hit

This man has been an inspiration to me since I was literally 11 years old. Even though that inspiration has shifted from star struck wonder to that of true friendship, it amazes me that he is able to still be that beacon of light to me. I would vote for him if I were able.

The Crescent City has wooed me with her charms, and shaken up so many things that were cores to my beliefs. Bart moved there because he couldn’t stand the cold, I’m oddly comfortable there because I have issues with midwestern heat.

My thoughts and my heart are with all of those in the south and northeast who were affected by Hurricane Ida.

Everything Old is New Again

It’s been way too long since my last post.  It seems as if I forget about my little corner of the world here and forget to drop in and reflect on my life, which is the main reason for this blog.

At the beginning of last summer, I accepted a position with VICOPS (Collaboration Technologies) at Indiana University.  This small department handles all of the videoconferencing/collaboration resources for the entire Indiana University system and outside affiliates.  I work for the help desk, where we take telephone and video calls for assistance with issues regarding technologies such as desktop videoconferencing, Adobe Connect, Telepresence, etc.

At the beginning of the fall I was offered and accepted a full time hourly position with them. I no longer have to worry about finding multiple jobs to fill hours.  It has been a great relief to my family as well.  I never realized how much I actually treasure steady working hours.

I’m only 10 credit hours away from graduating.  This semester I’m taking nothing but Informatics and Computer Science courses.  Most of these are just introductory courses, which are a cakewalk for someone with my knowledge in the subject.

My business has received a much needed injection of attention.  After changing the name from LML Video Services to Magic Media Services, things just died out.  I then put a request on reddit for someone to help redesign the logo for my business.  I was more than surprised at the results when someone obliged my request.  I am now working on redesigning my website, which will be located somewhere on the rox.com domain temporarily.

Rachel and I finally got “grown up” furniture for our bedroom.  With the assistance of my neighbor Bill we got a new dresser, chest of drawers, headboard, armoire and night stand.  We also purchased a new mattress and box spring, which was needed greatly.  Our old, borrowed furniture went back to my grandma who lent it to us over 10 years ago.  I can’t thank her enough for the kindness in her heart.

Over the weekend I replaced the first of three sinks in our home.  The one in our utility room (they are all exactly the same) started leaking about a gallon of water a day.  The drain was rusted out, but I couldn’t replace it as it was seized together.
The shut off valves for the water lines were seized as well.  With all of the water problems this area had previously, we knew this was going to be ugly.  Since we needed a place to give Amelia a bath while remodeling our main bathroom (which will be happening soon) we decided to purchase a utility sink for the space.  8 hours and 3 trips to Menards later, I was both finished with the project and worn our physically and mentally.

On the ROX side of life, I’m currently downloading the latest finished episode for distribution to CATS.  #96 will be on the air soon in Monroe county.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon with more organized and focused posts.

 

Out of Sync

My first semester as a student at Indiana University was very hard on me.  So hard that I became “out of sync” with the world around me, and the normal activities I participated in (including this blog).

Too many events occurred to even begin to try to catch up with one blog post, so I won’t try.  Instead I’m going to mention current events.

This week was the first semester of the spring semester, for which I’ve decided to take some 100 level courses in an attempt to give my mind a break.

I’m also adjusting to some changes in my work schedule, as I now have some very long days.  I work from 7:30a until 10p two nights a week.  While this may sound horrible, it allows me some freedoms.  I don’t work on Wednesdays, and I only work 5 hours on Fridays.  It’s a trade off that I’m willing to pay for.

During the winter break, I was able to catch up on ROX.  I have edited 11 of 24 episodes for the season one DVD set.  I hope to finish editing by the end of the semester, and begin DVD authoring.

The plan is that I will be able to re-connect with my family, and more importantly, my life during this period.

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.

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.

This That and the Other

I haven’t had a chance to post anything for a while as my life has became quite full lately.

This week is spring break at Ivy Tech and IU.  It’s been a nice break from the organized chaos that has become my life.  So I thought I would write about the goings on lately.

Backup, Backup, Backup!

I finally got a stable backup file server going.  My original one died and I’m in the process of parting it out.  If you’re looking for some cheap computer parts you can find ’em right here.  I finally gave up on linux and went with Windows Server 2003.  It’s essentially XP with additional goodies for server functions.  I only have one step left, and that is setting up the RAID configuration.  That’s for a safety net should a hard drive fail.

ROX Update

While I haven’t had much time to concentrate on ROX, I have started recording episodes that still play on CATS.  I have many of the episodes on VHS, but capturing them straight to a digital format makes things much easier.  Given the advanced development of my daughter I might be able to start working on ROX again and finally get season one released in a few months.

Amelia

Taylor & Amelia

She is growing and developing at an alarming rate!  She is now eating solid foods every night.  She is also starting to move around on her own, she isn’t crawling yet but very close.  She has learned that she has a voice and likes to use it often.  I would say her favorite activity is getting mommy and daddy wet when she’s taking a bath.  She’s a hoot and a very happy baby.  We couldn’t ask for more.

The Semester From Hell

This semester I’m taking a class I’ve failed before (MATH-111) and a class that interests me (CINS-102).  My math class is great, as the instructor does his best to ensure everyone in class understands the concepts and can do the work.  85% of the final grade in this class is based upon test scores, something I’ve never had to deal with before.  Right now I’m earning a solid B, which makes me very happy.  I plan on thanking him at the end of the semester for being such a good instructor, all teachers should be reminded how much they’re appreciated when they do a good job!  My other class is a completely different story however.  While I’m learning some much needed skills in this class (XHTML & CSS) the instructor seems to use the class has her way to release frustrations she has.  There aren’t many people in this class, and many don’t seem to have the skills required or aren’t putting forth the effort required.  The class has opened my eyes to the world of web programming, but it’s almost impossible to swallow her totalitarian attitude.

Give Me The Fiber

If you live in Indiana, you might have heard about what Smithville Telephone is doing.  All of their customers are receiving fiber to the home.  It’s exciting to say the least.  Last year I rewired the phone lines in my house and installed a LAN in anticipation.  This week we were “pre-wired” for it.  This consisted of them installing a new network interface on the outside of my home, installing a battery backup system in my home, and installing a data jack.  My area, called the “Fullerton Remote” should be completed by the last quarter of this year.  With this upgrade broadband Internet download  speeds are rising from 1.5mbps to 20!  They are also adding television services which beat all it’s competitors, but that’s my opinion.  This upgrade is amazing to say the least.  Do  you know anyone who has access to 100mbps download speeds at home?  That will be their fastest rate, and I’ve seen it work.  It’s almost like comparing a 14.4 modem to a 56k, a world of difference.

Spring is in the Air

Spring is upon us here in Indiana.  The grass is becoming green again, and the temperatures are rising.  That means the honey do list starts back up again.  I listed what we want to get done around the house in an earlier post.  Now it’s time to get into gear and get those items checked off the list!

Like a Phoenix

I am slowly but surely rising from the ashes of a dead hard drive.

About a month ago, my brand new 1.5 terabyte Seagate hard drive crashed.  I tried a few tricks to try to recover the data, but none of them worked.  I didn’t want to spend the $700 to $2700 I was quoted for data recovery, as I am a person of simple means.

Luckily I had old data from my old computer stored on 4 separate hard drives.  I used my “old” hard drive dedicated to video work and installed it, and then started transferring data.  Unfortunately my “backup” drive decided to crap out as soon as I got most of the data off of it.  That drive is the only other Seagate I have.  Their reputation isn’t doing so well with me.  I think I’m going to stick with Western Digital from now on.

I now have almost every episode from season one of ROX on my computer and edited.  There are a couple I’m having problems with, but this time around things have been much smoother than before.  It’s a shame because I spent 3 years working on that stuff.  The video is crisper, the audio is clearer – just a better product all around.  I think this disaster was actually a blessing in disguise.

Once I get these “trouble” episode problems resolved, which are:  Family Values Special, A Festival of Fools and Mom, Dad, I’m Getting Married.  I can start on DVD menu authoring which is a tedious process.  The more time I spend on it, the better the end product will be though.  I want this season to be the standard, not the example.

Season One will be made up of two volumes of 4 discs each.  This is mainly due to quality concerns.  In the set will be all 25 episodes!  Also included will be special commentary on episode 31, A Toast to Poverty by the shows’ producers – J and Editor B.  Plus a few surprising extras.  It should be a hit for all!

I finally have a backup plan so this shouldn’t happen again.  With some help I have purchased a backup hard drive for ROX and I will have my server up and going soon.  With those two options, I hope I have enough redundancy for this not to happen again.

I hope to have season one finalized within a few months, so be on the lookout!

Crash and Freeze?

Over the past couple of weekends I’ve been working hard at getting ROX season one to the production phase.  I’ve authored all the DVD menus and have done most of the design of the case inserts.  I had all the episodes ready.  It was just a matter of rendering all of the discs and making sure I had all of the extras we wanted before it would be finished.

All of that work took an extreme turn for the worse the other day.  I had been having troubles rendering video.  I thought it was a Sony Vegas or Quick Timeissue, so I removed and reinstalled.  I then went on to think it was a codec issue, so I removed every media codec I had (quite a few), still didn’t fix it.  I had given up for the night out of pure frustration as to why my 2 month old computer wasn’t working properly.

The next day I woke to something I’ve never seen before.  A black screen with a message:  Cannot read disk on SATA 0 and Cannot read disc on SATA 3.  WTF!

I restarted the machine to hear a distinct “clicking” noise.  One of the hard drives was toast, so I removed the secondary one (the one with all the important data on it) and the computer would then boot into safe mode.  Apparently, my virus software which I get from Indiana University somehow became corrupt and became “Incompatible with my version of windows.”  So I wiped it and am still installing my programs.

My 1.5tb drive which has all of my personal, business and ROX data was clicking.  What do I do?  I could not initialize the disk.  My first thought was disk recovery, so I called the only computer service place I trust and they referred me to Drive Savers.  They gave me a code that cuts 10% off the price and gives you a no data – no cost guarantee.  I called them up and the estimate was quite shocking, $700 to $2700.  Anybody want a large Seagate drive on the cheap?

Is the data worth that?  It contains 3 years of blood, sweat and tears on this project.  I conferred with my partner in crime, Editor B.  He said he would help, which was a relief.  My homeowners insurance policy will cover anything over $1000.  After much thought and searching my other hard drives for data, I’ve decided to try something a little ‘home brewed’ to alleviate my situation.  Freezing the drive.

Not like this picture though.  The moisture from the ice will ruin it.  I scoured the interwebs looking for “freezer trick hard drive” and came across many posts about how this can help you retrieve the data you need.  Sometimes it works for just a few minutes and sometimes it works for a few hours.  There is no definitive amount of time, I think it’s limited to just how damaged the hard drive is.

I put my hard drive in the freezer last night about 6pm and I plan on taking out about the same time tonight.  I wrapped it with some paper towels and placed it in a vacuum bag.  This will help with any moisture issues that could result.  I plan on keeping the hard drive in the bag and placing it in a larger bag with ice.  When I connect the drive the computer, this will help keep it cooler longer.

I have about 500 gigs of data that I would like to get off of this drive.  But I have prioritized what I am retrieving.

Wish me luck.

UPDATE: This did not work in my circumstance.  However I’ve been told it does.

Season One

I started working on ROX because of a passion.  This show is one of the few things that let me get away from the craziness and feel free from the uncertainty that was my life.

When I “rediscovered” the show in my late teens, I began going to the MCPL and getting my hands on as many episodes as possible.  VHS tapes were extremely cheap at the time, and I thought I would eventually do something with that collection.  While I’m unsure of how many episodes I currently have, it has to total more than 50.  Little did I know that an infamous hurricane would run me into a crash course with the shows’ producers.

I had just built an amazing computer at the time, and I wanted to condense all of those VHS tapes taking up space in our apartment.  So I made a DVD set of the first 6 episodes for the shows’ creators.  This would start an ongoing collaboration to stabilize the archives of this show.

Four years later, I seemed to be at an impasse.  After buying a home, going to school and having a child on the way, I didn’t seem to have any free time to even relax – let alone work on a “hobby.”  In that time, we had re-worked my original creation into a product that many fans have purchased and enjoy to this day.  I had also done hundreds of hours of work to try to make some damaged episodes of the show up to par.

I have begun work on authoring the DVDs that will become the season one set.  Preliminary results show it will be an 8 disc set.  Due to packaging constraints, it will be split into two volumes; sold as one.  I’m not sure on the price  yet, but I expect it to be in the $30 range.  With 25 episodes, and a few extras – this was a much larger undertaking than the 7 episodes of season zero.

With season zero, I was wet behind the ears.  For season one, I’ve sharpened my skills.

I hope to have all of the preliminary work done within a few weeks.  I’m sure editor b will make some announcement when the time is right.

A special thanks goes out to “roxfan” who sent me a few episodes on DVD.  Without the kind generosity of people like him, this project would still be stalled.  You will be the first to receive a set.  I just need to find your address.  If you read this, leave me a comment and I will get back with you.

These sets are a completely non-profit project.  All charges are for cases, discs, ink, inserts and all other associated costs.  The biggest of the costs being ink.  We might setup a bartering system, to help eliminate costs.