I wanted to post this on Wednesday, but since Wednesday I’ve been fighting with After Effects something horrid. I’ve never used it before, but figured if I could use Photoshop reasonably well then pfft, using AE with a single specific, basic objective I should be able to work it out.

Soooo not the case. Using AE was a struggle. I was constantly fighting with it to get it to do what I wanted. And when it came time to publish? Aaaack. I’ve been ready to publish something that looks like a video clip since Wednesday afternoon. The first few times I got no sound. Then I got sound, but inverse colours. And when I finally did get something with the right colours, the right sound, in the right order? It was 2GB’s. Waaay to big to publish it anywhere.

The worst part was that all of this comes down to my lack of knowledge around video compression. Around movie making at all. In then end, it became such a frustrating drama that this post? This post was meant to be about the SNOW. It’s not. It’s about my drama with After Effects.

Mostly. On the 28th of August, The Boy, The Fourth Quarter, The Fourth Quarters flatmate Nut and I did a one day snow trip. A ONE DAY snow trip. Which is EPIC. We got up at 3 in the morning for the 4 hour drive down (which is why we had two drivers, they switched back and fourth so the other had a chance to sleep) rode ALL DAY and then drove the four hour drive back so Nut could go to her ball, and The Fourth Quarter his concert.

It. Was. Madness.

But also awesome, the wind died down, the snow was soft and blue skies appeared in the afternoon. We picked the right day, because they got storm weather on the Sunday, and it swept right on till mid last week.

We also managed to forget our awesome VADO camera, and because I was determined to get some decent footage for a snow video of some sorts, I used my point and click to take video footage. It was actually good quality. The video? Not so good quality. I couldn’t figure out how to compress it nicely, and after two days of trying, I said ‘fuck it’. So, here is what I have:

Promise to wrangle the next video project into something that’s better quality. I’ll figure out it at some point.

Also, it appears the video and sound are wack. CLASSY!

Anyway, I’m trying to be more active in the communities I’m part of. One of those communities is 20sb, which, from what I can tell, seems to be pretty brilliant. And they do these THINGS, like blog swaps and meet ups and interviews, and today I thought I’d take part: I did a video blog.

And okay, sure I decided last minute that I was going to get in on the VBlog action, and after encouraging @abby_cake to do one I thought I’d better just do it.

That was before my mad dash around the city, where I unsuccessfully tried to find a piercist. When I finally got round to do it, I was 15 minutes late back from lunch, had no idea what I wanted to say, so I did what I always do: I thought I’d wing it.

I grabbed the camera out of my bag, put it on the steering wheel and talked shit for a minute or two. So it’s not classy. I don’t dance. There’s no background music. I’m not wearing make up. I didn’t edit it. And I am sitting in my car, while the sunlight makes me frown with it’s wonderous glare.

But hell yes I took part. In all my rush-back-to-work unattractive state. Woo yeah!

So, I won’t fib. I think these two, half hour shows made for MTV are BRILLIANT. They are the opposite of serious, there is no plot (and no required thinking), just people out doing the weird and crazy (but not TOO weird and crazy) for a laugh. A bunch of guys rocking out, being stupid, for our viewing pleasure. The Boy and I have been watching them together every week. It is all kinds of awesome!

In short, Rob Dyrdek spends his time trying to make ‘fantasy’ come to life in his big old industrial factory. There’s a whole bunch cool stuff too, Flying foxes, a foam pit, an GIANT indoor blob, basketball hoops in impossible places . . . they do all sorts of cool stuff too. Swim with sharks, skate on giant skateboards, build a studio, rap with the receptionist, find their ‘inner spirit animals’. Naturally they do it all while being complete asses, but it wouldn’t be tv if they took everything seriously, right?

And, they have the cutest puppies around while they do it:

Edit: Appears MTV took the video down. Enjoy this cute photo of Beefy, then.

Originally uploaded to flickr by artsprojekt

I’m totally in love, and my next pup is going to one just like that. Rob and Big, and Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory are an easy way to spend half an hour, laughing at the shit they do. A super sweet pick-me-up in tv form. :)

So, this chick buys a cd, gets in her car and plays it. Never before has watching someone do this evoked such an sympathetic reaction, for serious. You need to watch this.

The subtitles let you in on what’s going down, and then her expressions explain the rest.

:)

I was sick for a couple days this week (Me and fluids had a falling out. Me and the IV drip had a brief reunion. Sigh.) so I’ve spent the last few days at home. In my boredom I tidy-ed. And apparently this what happens when I bed make now. Just quitely I think Sibling taught him as a new game.

I love that he always looks so confused after. Yay for funny little dogs :)

This is the only time he makes this noise. :)

Last week The Boy’s dad very kindly got The Boy and I Breakers tickets. It was a fantastic game, and it was the first time I’d seen the stadium mostly full for a Breakers game (Basketball, alas, isn’t as popular as some other sports in NZ).

And while I don’t pretend to know alot about Basketball (my knowledge is limited to playing in a very very social league back in high school), what was most exciting was the crowd’s enthusiasm!! There was loads of cheering and people throwing their arms into the air or protesting at a ridiculous call. The crowd was VERY animated! It was helped, I think, by the fantastic drum line up they had – it was pretty damn cool! After playing RockBand with The Square I’ve come to appreciate how tricky keeping a decent beat can be, and I was pretty impressed with these guys!

The Breaker boys put on a fantastic show, completely pwning the opposition (The Adelaide 36ers) in a 131-101 win for the playoff game – it was quite exciting! The 36ers, alas, have to come to the end of their season, and the Breakers (hurrah!) have another sudden death game on Friday. I’m quite looking forward to it, actually :)

Top Gear are part way through a ‘Top Gear Live: World Tour‘, and last weekend they were in New Zealand. Sibling and I had gotten Dad tickets for Christmas, not realising that he was going to be away on a Golf tournament.

So we went, my sister and I. We weren’t exactly the target market, but we’ve both watched the tv show so the tickets weren’t exactly wasted on us. Alas, May (my sisters favourite) wasn’t present. They cracked some jokes about him being lost to Krd, and introduced Greg Murphy (a Bathurst 1000 winner) as his replacement. It was pretty fantastic, filled with fire and fancy cars and a bunch of cool things from the tv show. Incredibly enjoyable, despite the boys obviously having had to do the same show at least a dozen times before us.

A couple of highlights:

Hammond got jumped by a motorcyclist:

Greg Murphy got put into a cage with a motorcyclist:

Cars. Drifts. Flames.

Stig Intro

Car Soccer

It was a great show – and I loved that I was able to sit within 50 metres of Clarkson and Hammond – they actually do have all the same mannerisms that they do on tv! And despite the fancy car segments being lost on us, and jumping out of our chairs in fright at the unexpected pyro effects, we both had a great time. :) If Top Gear Live is coming to a place near you, check it out. It’s a great way to pass an afternoon!