UMP FUN

The next video work from the "studios" of B.H. e VIDEO WERX .. Now I start to experiment to see just what this programs limitations are. Just as with any program I use I like to really "kick the tires" on the program.. Today's effort was a quick toss together as some true experimental work to see what I can and can't do.. In this case I took some videos that I shot of Ian over the past few years and clipped them then ran them together and when there wasn't enough video I added a few stills (pics or .jpeg files) to the end to take us to the end of Vince Guarldi's "Little Birdie".. The second song to get through the entire video segment. A few other things different to this video, the titles at the end are changed (background colour) as well as the text can be changed.. The music added married with the audio track that was already there..  Switching from scene to scene has different fades to (animation).. .

What can I say about this video??   I started an idea last night shortly after the olympics prime time wrapped up and that idea fell flat.. I then started this idea.. What I wanted was to try to use the program as I am getting to fully understand it.. This video uses some pictures I found of the northern lights phenomenon, and the music was the toughest to figure out, so I went with what I saw and what that made me feel.. And this was the result..  

Badge Henry 


(OK I said I didn't see where starting a third blog was feasible.. well I just has an idea for one.. Having the Infinite Improbability site be my videos site..  That might be a stretch but I am seriously thinking about making that blog my videos exclusive site..  Thinking about it anyway..)

STICKY MONDAYS ALWAYS GET ME DOWN

Rained a bit last night, cooled things off nicely but... Today is the result, high humidity readings.. At least the heat is good for one thing, when they say it's a dry heat, this seems to be what they mean..

Messing with the video program a little more over the weekend has yielded a few videos and ideas for a great many more.. One idea I wanted to try is mixing media (video and still pics) and wasn't sure it would work.. It did and so a few more ideas will work their way into the videos I will produce.. 

Gonna do some test videos over the next few days to find out how this will work. Several ideas to try and where to do this??  Not sure where but they will just be test vids for dicking with in the movie maker program..

Yesterdays entry removed for copywrite reasons so was the video from youtube....  Just to play it safe, I don't want to lose any site I have right now.. Although later might be ok.. The change at the other site (PNOP) that I wrote about that has happened, that won't be until later this week (first part of August) I keep forgetting I was ten days ahead on my entries there.. I say was ten days ahead because now I am a full month ahead.. I have entries set until the first weekend of September and by the end of this week should have entries set until October sometime there abouts..  The new  way I am doing things will afford me the ability to do it this was with being able to add to entries or however I feel need to be done..  Thas cooool duuuude... Thanks and good nuttin'...

Badge Henry  (cologne tester expert... expert cologne tester.. tester expert cologne..)

A PREVIEW

The video transfer project that I started a little while back I would have never guessed it would get done as quickly as it did..   I dedicated a week to get it done and it took a couple of days.. One to edit, the other to upload it to the youtube site.. There will be a few more videos uploaded possibly.. I am starting to work on next Sundays music video project right now (being written on Friday the 27th)..  Came up with an abstract idea and thinking of the music to put it to..

By not much of a preview I mean that this entry is slated to go live here only an hour before the entry on the PNOP blog.. However as I said I put it on my youtube site some ten minutes after I got the video completed and in fact they loaded simultaneously to both sites..  Although the blog site will go live shortly with the same video, it is available to blogger and the video here will likely be deleted by Monday to avoid copywrite issues..

Henry, Badge Henry  Psycho banana at large

 

DID I HEAR THAT RIGHT??

Things seem to be  a little ahead this year in general, they say.. Harvest was nearly a month early.. Everything seems kinda early.  A few days ago I see the dreaded.. The truly dreaded without any doubt in my mind whatsoever.. The grandest dread there ever was invented.. I am talking of course about a commercial I saw on the tv.. Oh woe is me those  dreaded words being uttered   "BACK TO SCHOOL"..  Uck... I mean school starting was not looked forward to by me ever.. Not any year, from the very start to ..  Well my last year wasn't bad.. Truth is by the time I was a junior in high school things were better, maybe not great or good but tolerable.. So we were in the local walmart today looking for wedding gifts and came across the school supply aisle.. I looked at some of the things they have and thought how things have changed.. Way back when I went to school (stone tablets?) they had the three ring binder things that I just had to have.. but now they have them in a zip style thing that has a thing to put your pencils and other things in a pouch for all the important things (cell phones and i-everything I'm sure).. And as cool as all this looked all I could think was how much longer they will be using actual books and switch to the new technology.. Imagine having the i-pad and having to hand your homework in on SD cards or flashdrives (zipdrives)??  The day coming where school is in the house not a building .. and you only go to the physical school two days a week for "hands on" type of classes.. The new interaction of kids talking to each other in the same room via texting.. That isn't at all far fetched, my little brother does that now with his wife and they can be sitting on the swing on their porch.. I wondered and told mom how different things might be for the nephew somewhere down the line and more than likely for Tabitha's twins.. Makes you wonder how anything will be in 18 years when they are about to start their senior year of school..  2030.. The class of 2030..  How's that make you feel??...
 

Then the first game of Scrabble today started off well.. I passed my first turn, only to have the computer pass it's first turn.. I've always wondered if we both pass three times in a row even at the start will the game end.. So rather than risk that I played and scored fairly well.. Then the computer played and we were off.. About the fifth turn the computer was starting to kick some serious ass and I remember thinking well here's a loss.. But then something happened, through my giving up being down by about one hundred points I threw in the towel and figured might as well see how bad it can get.. The computer must have switched to the first level (beginners) because suddenly I was out scoring it.. Soon the computer passed a few turns in succession and I was right back in the think of things.. But was it too late??  Turns out it wasn't too late, the letters were perfectly timed and I started to score quite well.. And then miracle of miracles  I scored enough to win.. strangely enough..

Then tonight I was again playing a game of Scrabble and this time getting my ass handed to me thoroughly and the strangest feeling came over me.. That damn deja vu thing.. I was playing a word and I had a thought go wizzing through my head and I thought it was nothing but then it happened again.. I thought I hadn't had a weird assed dream in quite a while.. As I have noted I am staying awake until well past twelve for a couple reasons.. First it is way too hot to bother trying to get to sleep.. Second I try to avoid dreaming if at all possible.. The old saying "a man who never dreams goes slowly mad"  I think I'd like to take my chances with that.. When dreams and reality collide, and it seems like it is happening all the time now.. I'm slowly not being able to tell if this is the dream or if this is reality.. Who in their right mind would wear full body armor and go shoot a theater full of people.. That can't be real.. Who's gonna be there in the off chance and have a gun for deffence against something like this??  What's next a shooting at a football game bathroom??    Talk about twisted..

Badge Henry

De pagina die je in dit blog zoekt, bestaat helaas niet.

This message comes up from time to time : "De pagina die je in dit blog zoekt, bestaat helaas niet."and what it means is I push publish when I meant to push the schedule link and set the entry to a date and time.. So sometimes there is a slight preview for an entry to come sometime shortly.. I mentioned on the other blog (PNOP) that this Sundays music videos could be special..  I am really happy with the way all four turned out, and it is taking some time and effort but I am getting the hang of the video program..  Also I am trying something (new) different on that sight, you might be noticing the entries being different over the next ten days (they are all preset)..  All the entries are done.. Through the second of August and partially set through to the first of September... Not all the days are done, but about every three days would have an entry ..    Kinda cool to relax through the heat and craptastic weather..    ENJOY THE MADNESS....

Badge Henry

PARTLY TO HEAR

We stopped by to see Tabitha yesterday and she looked good for being run over by a cement mixer.. After giving birth to twins and she was home for the night and will return to Denver to watch over the care in the hospital as the babies grow to their birth weight, or discharge weight..  She talked about starting a blog and that is a good idea.. If I were to give her any advice it would be either one of two things.. Either take the family blog over, adding to it and or making it hers exclusively.. Or piggyback on the family site starting a second blog there which is extremely easy.. Unless she has a very original blog name in mind it is extremely hard to get a name for a blog.. This site here was the first name I tried believe it or not and the name is so out there and I think the main reason I got the name on my first try is the "Thad Chiz" part are not words.. Although Thad could be a name.. The number of times I tried to get the PNOP site named..  It was supposed to be named after one of three or four Tangerine Dream songs and when they didn't take (weren't allowed) I had to sleep on it and came up with the name within the next few days.. This site was easy, it was a variation of an entry I had named "subject" at the time of starting this site.. I thought it was an exact but it turns out it wasn't exactly the same...  Close counts in horse shoes and blog naming I guess.. 

Reminders & memory with the heat we have right now, I remember when I was in the band I was in and practicing when it was so hot..  Just was hot at every practice site we were ever in..  And then there was the time we played at a bar in Julesburg Co...  We unloaded and it was in the summer and as I'm setting up I am thinking their air conditioner doesn't work??  They didn't have one for whatever the reason.. That and back then they were allowed to smoke in the bar, and smoking they did..  Every gig was that way in a bar back then..   Ah the good old days of smelling like an ashtray for the following day and taking a week to recover from the heavy smoke ingestion..  There were very few gigs that we played that I felt really good at, but I never let on that I felt like shit.. The gig in Holyoke was one where I kept an eye on the bathroom at all times but never went and used it.. I was just sure I would puke or crap somewhere along that night.. Seems every gig east of town was a crapfest.. Except for the prom in Ogallala, that was one of the best gigs we ever played together.. That building was huge and we could power the whole thing, our P.A. could power the old McNicols arena in Denver with no problem.. LOUD!!   And then there was R.D.'s in Sedgewick.. Those were the greatest gigs of them all..  Back then was a completely different time.. Way different than now.. Way different.. Nothing is even remotely close to those days.. Yeah I look back fondly on those days, but they were few and far between.. Would I do it again??  Hell yes!! In a heart beat..

Badge Henry

THE INJUST POLITICAL SYSTEM..

Anyone who knows me knows I really can't stand the heat of summer.. I was just thinking how great it would be to figure out a way to leapfrog June and July and just have to put up with the last few weeks of nasty heat in August and get ready for football season..  I was tired of the heat in May, and yes you can call me a wuss but when the cold weather starts to kick in I will be one of the few you won't see wearing a coat very early.. The last few years (since I was a senior in highschool) I haven't worn a coat because I didn't even own one.. And although I got one for Christmas two years ago, I still haven't worn it...  As much as i hate the heat of the summer months that we have endured, there really is no feeling that equals when the season changes from the dead heat of summer to that early chill of cooling in the fall.. There's just a feeling, when you go from having to run the fans all night to running them until bed time and shutting them off or switching to a lesser fan to bring in less cool air and get your hearing adjusted to a quieter house/bedroom and sleeping conditions. That seems so far away.. 

My little brothers central air bit the dust in the first heat wave of late June and there are no plans to fix it so when he asked mom to watch their little boy she said yes even though our house is equally as hot as theirs.. I think she sees them as not caring about the heat and the situation they are in.. They were using a tent to sleep in, so it would be a little cooler at bedtime, but man..  what a load to deal with.. Their house windows are painted shut, with only a couple that can be opened.. Getting air in there just isn't gonna happen unlike here where every window has the potential to be opened, and nearly every window has a fan in it..

Mom came to me earlier wondering why the same two pictures of Tabitha's twin babies were all she was getting to see.. Bob sent pictures via email and I got them and she didn't see them.. First off, that is facebook you are looking in.. They aren't there.. It is taking her a while to understand the difference between the two and that facebook is a social medium so one time a while back when something was sent to her (through facebook) she wanted me to send it to her brother and I told her I thought he was friends with everyone in the family and so he would see it..  I got her logged into the email and she was able to see the pictures.. It was an emotional time, getting to see her great grand daughters..  No matter the condition or situation it was just a realization that there they were, the two new members of the family, a bit early.. I guess they really couldn't wait to get here,, "LET'S GET THE PARTY STARTED!!"...

Badge Henry

THERE ONCE WAS A GIRL..

Friday  just royally PISSED ME OFF.. On a day that is special to some people, and the day would be special to a lot of people, from birthdays, to weddings.. Just a day to remember and then some twit has to ruin it by shooting up a theater.. The most innocent of group get togethers..  What gets me is he set up his apartment to blow up if someone opened his front door to tell the inconsiderate asshole to shut his craptastic music off.. A diversion to send police and other resources away from the eventual carnage just a short distance away.. That to me is terrorism 101... Plain and simple.. When they were having troubles disarming the booby traps I said they should have taken him over there and made him disarm them with his fucking teeth (a quote on one of the Denver FB I put on)..   He wore a body armor suit thing.. He had no intention of dying in that massacre Friday morning..   He wanted to live to see what he created.. What a guy!! He didn't try to run away, give them any reason to shoot at him which is too bad I'm sure there were any number of police officers willing to try their luck putting him down.. 

The other day I started to delete more Gadgets in the i-Google homepage..   I can't see that there will be much left before the year is over.. I deleted all the "box of links" gadgets which was a great number even after earlier in the year taking the vast majority of them off via RSS reader.. I kept some as links but now they are translated into the speed dial app that is on both Firefox (proper) and Aurora (advanced firefox) browser.. It took a lot shorter time than I thought to get all the links I currently want on speed dial.. And as I check to see the remaining gadgets to see if any will yield a speed dial/RSS feed, the page will continue to shrink.. The thing I will miss is the radar that I have on the page.. The set up of my page was completely custom, it was my idea.. Now we have speed dial which opens faster in all browsers and is just a better all around fit for me..

Firefox browser updated to the version 14 after being 13 for a  week, maybe two.. Must have been a lot of pressure to move forward off of unlucky number 13.. Some of us embrace the number 13 or so says me  my email has the number 13 in it..

Badge Henry

CHOCOLATE SAUCE OPTIONAL

Hard to believe it has been  9 years (?) since they got married.. Donald and Lucy Davis tied the knot on a Thursday evening and if that sounds like a strange day to get married.. It was sort of odd.. I can't complain because everything seemed to come together quite well.. Almost magical because Lucy had everything under control.. She forgot about ninety percent of everything else there was to do with a wedding.. She got the cake, the dress (which was more than a little tight).. What else is there??   Ask Freda, although not the maid of honor she very well could have been..

the wedding day itself was strange as it rained a little (we'd love to have that now) but on that day we had rain early then in the afternoon it cleared up, we got the wedding pictures taken doubled by  a wedding picture taker and a friend of Lucy's..  The wheel barrow thing which she said no to..  the reception that was in the community hall.. The cake that was starting to melt..  It was no longer just warm but humid added to the festivities.. The one bottle of champagne shared between the bride & groom and whoever else got a sip (I got just that, a sip)..  


Shortly after the wedding (six weeks, give or take) she comes in to the kitchen at the house and starts the "I will not be here next year, I have to go back home" crap, which initially I felt like freaking out and finding out what the deal was.. However over the next five or six years I would put it out of my mind because she would say that line about every few weeks and then nothing so I figured it was  a conversation starter for her.. Kinda like "how's your dog.."  (wink wink)..  And when she got pregnant and had Ian I thought that was the last we would hear of that, and it was on the back burner for a bit.. Then it started back up and two years ago she went off to Poland to get her immigration status copesetic...  Now she seems back for good and becoming more American every day.. Happily ever after.. 

Badge Henry 

WAX ON WAX OFF

Is it supposed to be this hard to grow shit in a garden now??  I try to control the water rate, try to control every aspect of the plants supply of everything and still   end rot has happened. If it's not the hail and wind doing the damage (last year) then it's the heat and attempts to try to stay ahead of the affects of the heat, hot dray nasty assed shit.. Anyway that is the trick.. The pumpkin patch is still a gigantic question mark.. I started the pumpkin seeds a week before the sunflowers and then seeded more sunflowers after that and now.. No pumpkins are currently showing..  But the sunflowers are heading out and that can only mean one thing.. Football season should be about to start.. Kickoff has been moved up three weeks because everything else has been three weeks early.. It sure was nice of the NCAA and NFL to do that wasn't it??

Watering the grass has become tricky.. Trying a new setting on the "three head" sprinkler  is more of a smaller area watering setting but because it waters a smaller area in is more intensive delivery and so I cot the time to ten minutes per placing.. I was able to measure the amount of water delivered this way and it is closer to a half an inch which should equal better water, deeper water and hopefully cutting back a little.. However the front still needs to remain priority one to keep looking good so a possible change in the watering schedule may be watering the front every day and the back the same as it was (Mon, Wed, Fri) but using the three head as a spot water instead of the one I was using.. I'd hate to miss a day or two consecutive watering right now.. 

Change the water rate in the garden part might happen, because of the end rot situation.. Always a hit and miss. The Earth box is the easiest to get right, you can't over water unless you plug the drain hole..

The "My Whit Bicycle" video; I'm very disappointed that I didn't get that loaded to my Youtube site.. I got it only here and delete it from the computer when I deleted all  the other videos after loading them to youtube.. The videos that I did upload I changed their size to the smallest there is so they would get uploaded before the end of the year.. That video (Feb 15) was slated to take over 400 minutes before I changed the size of it.. they should look fine (?) on a small screen device and as well on the small setting youtube starts the day with.. No HD won't help, it will show just how lo def it really is..

A quick check of the tomatoes just now, the roma in the earth box planter is now officially taller than me..  That plant was started by seed in April.. And now it is taller than me. over six feet tall..

The featured video.. one of the three videos I really wanted, the one with us playing croquet with dad..   It was a Labor day and after the doings in the park..  Like I said dad was there, the year before.. Well I already wrote the descriptive elsewhere..

Badge (farmer ted) Henry

YOUTUNA

Sunday night started  loading of the "old" family videos for editing and upload to my Youtube site.. I wasn't sure how much would fit, nor how they would look or will turn out.. The transfer from tape to dvd might have taken a lot out of them and now the transfer from dvd to the computer and then the editing process that will ultimately lead to them being changed from the format they are in to get here to the file format they will take after editing to the third to be easily uploaded to youtube..  Why edit them at all?? Well they are all in long form VTS (VOB)  files format  right off the disc, and they are run together, rather than quick clips which is how most of the discs are set up.. I would rather they come off the way they are on but what can you do about it.. I clipped Donald and Lucy's wedding (rehearsal) video in half for the upload, I think one video is five seconds over the fifteen minute maximum upload time on youtube allows.. For this there are videos of over an hour, so I have to clip, plus there are some that I want some of but not all of the videos.. A lot of video of dad, that is a must.. I didn't shoot much of dad, and I don't know why.. I guess I never thought how badly I would miss him if he ever died..   Most of what I am after is the good old days, show what the house was like and yard.. Some of the earlier trips to Silt and grandmas house.. The very first and last get together of the White-Caine clan in over thirty years.. So far that video eludes my capture, I know which disc it is on but can't find it in the VTS VOB   files.. I have one more idea to try and see if it works.. That trip was really special, when we got there Toad was already so frail looking, hard to believe she was as bad as she was health wise after all the times I had seen her she was more than a little on the "kick ass" side of things..

I so badly wanted to go out Sunday night and see if the northern lights were active.. But I had hit the wall from the night before and Sunday was a heat fest and by midnight my vision was blurry at best and after I got the last of the videos loaded from disc I set the converter to convert the rest of the night and hit the hay.. Woke up Monday morning, saw the computer was in sleep mode and thought the impossible had happened, it converted all the videos to avi.. But what in fact did happen was the computer yawned and went to sleep as well.. Alrighty then..  Three and nine percent of a forth video were done.. Not the forty I thought, oh well.. I'll do it a different way, I just thought it might be easier  working with an avi file rather than a VTS (VOB) .. Guess we'll see..

Well after spending the afternoon Monday trying to get all those videos edited I ran into troubles with the program (Windows Live Movie Maker)  it turns out that converting to another file form from the dvd (VTS VOB) is what they suggest you do.. I had in fact done three (as mentioned above) but there was and remain  a bit of a jittery motion on the video so that might be more than a little tricky to watch..

There was a video of dad playing croquet that I  so badly wanted and after looking all afternoon I found it late last night, got it edited and now am uploading it.. It was the last time we all played croquet together, the last time dad played as the next year he would start dialysis and that changed his life completely.. He was less confident in his ability to walk in the yard, and didn't anymore.. Lucy was there and this was the summer before they got married..  Shadow was there.. Yikes..

On the other site I explained a bit about this site having issues, and while there were issues it was my undertaking, I wanted this site to be closer to what it is now.. I won't venture into being like the other site at all.. All the stuff I used to write there is now going to be here exclusively..  . I wanted to have  a site that became what PNOP has become, I've explained this somewhere else.. And then when I started this site a few weeks ago, I wanted it to be almost exactly like the family site was with the exception of the story ideas that I am working on.. When the urge to write some sort of story hits me, I want it left as a draft and not preread by anyone.. Kinda like my private Myspace site where some of the ideas are lurking.. I thought for a while about going back to the family site but it just didn't feel right, so I started the "CHIZ" site.. The other that this is piggybacked on is called "Infinite Improbability" and yes I did an entry there but did NOT push publish.. It's still a draft and will remain that way I think.. Unless PNOP goes toes up I can't see starting "I.I." but you never know, I might have a third splinter suddenly happen..  Imagine a third separate idea needing a blog all it's own??  I can't.. er can't imagine but you .. never know..   

This picture is from Freda's FB and although I feel the same about weddings as I do funerals (one in the same) I always thought that this would be the perfect type of wedding.. I always thought the perfect place for a wedding is up by the shrine at Silverton.. Although the weather is extremely unpredictable up there from June through   ...  well pretty much all year when you think of it..

Badge (don't forget the bug spray) Henry

(P.S.  Here's an explanation about the Feb. 15 video:  The video I wanted so bad to be included because of the subject matter and when you see it you will understand why I went through the lengths I did to get it even though it is by no stretch of the imagination perfect.. Or the way I wanted to get it.. There were times where I turned the camera on and let it go regardless of what might be getting shot.. That or I thought I was in pause mode and wasn't.. I tend to think it was recording on purpose because I just thought it would be a good idea.. And now it is a statement of fact, what the video description says.. The last ride, the last hurrah if you will.. And it marks the final video of the series.. I think..  To be put on Youtube of this kind... I think it is a good set of videos.. Family type anyway..)

AN EXPERIMENT GONE HORRIBLY WRONG..

Doing some video works as I am starting to evolve from still shots to video.. Here is my latest, or actually first video edited using Windows Live Video..  Forty whole seconds but it is the start of which direction I am going in..

About the video; What can I say, I was in the park minding my own business when something caught my eye and I looked and saw a strange sight.. Some guy riding this contraption and so I got the camera  out to hope I couple get video.. This was the third video and yes it is quite short.. I wanted more and I wanted a different video to be my first ever produced via the program but..  This will do..

Badge Henry

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

I was watching that new show "NY MED" and it got me thinking with tonights episode was about a guy who got  a liver transplant, and I watched as the family hugged him as he went to the OR to get the new liver and it reminded me of when dad had his bypass surgery.. That I will never forget how scared I was that something might go wrong.. Back then bypass was still or seemed relatively new.  However it seemed like everyone around here was getting one but even with how well everyone did afterwards it still was quite scary to me when they wheeled him away that day.. I think of all the procedures he had done that the bypass was the worst.. I remember seeing him right after the surgery in the ICU and he had all these tubes coming out of him.. All these machines monitoring everything.. And how every time we went to see him over the next three days he had the tubes out and by the third day I think they had him up and walking.. Now I think it is close to outpatient status or very nearly.. When he had his stents put in, I was nearly not worried at all..  However when he had pnemonia the first time, that was bad and the start of the downward slide..  yes very gradual until the very last 18 months of his life..   I think of all those times and doctors & hospitals and everything and I think to mom it was overwhelming and not the best of times.. To me they were memorable.. I was glad to be able to help towards the end, I was glad to be available.. In the early days, and I remember it quite well, when Bob had to do something in the hospital around the time  he got married I remember trying to find out what was going on and having a hell of a time and giving attitude to mom.. That was a mistake and truth is I didn't have a clue how slow.. Let me put it another way.. how   s            l        o    w      .. Wait that was too fast..   S                                                      L                                                 O                           W          (still too fast but you get the picture) the hospital worked then and still do to this day.. So develop patience first order and when dad went through his ordeal(s) I think I have changed.. Patience,    never thought I would have any but I guess      Things change a bit over time...



Badge Henry

SPENT REPORT

I watched the movie Chalk earlier and even though I knew it was listed as   a  "Mocumentery" I took it as more than that.. Because there was a certain amount of truth to it..    They had one teacher who it was his first year ever as a teacher and the first scene it was his first hour to be in front of a class.. That scared the shit out of me and I could feel his anxiety coming through loud and clear..  I can't imagine what it must be like to be a teacher in this day & age and during that movie they had the issue of cell phones.. Every student now would almost have to have a cell phone.. Or worse..    The lack of music in the schools is being addressed now and it is about time.. Truth is if kids don't learn a musical instrument that soon the shit that they are playing on computers will be all that you will hear.. Sadly...   There was a part of the disc that asked the cast who was their favorite teacher, what teacher helped to shape you as the person you are today.. For me, music was very important to me and for that reason Neil was the teacher I would choose..  Although he never taught me in school, Neil brought the marching band by the house when I was growing up, he knew how much I loved the drums and the drum major and I knew all the whistle commands by heart.. However when I did learn the drums I never wanted to be the drum major, never even tried even though I think the teacher at the time would have liked to see me tryout for it.. I wanted to be a drummer and that was my main goal.. I became a drummer and got first chair from my sophomore year and stayed there through my graduation and was never challenged for it.. Don't know what would have happened if I would have been, I suppose I would have practiced (yikes)..

To me English and History were my two least liked classes..  I think English would be extremely hard to teach, because everyone knows how to speak it.. And history was hard because I didn't care for it then.. I do wish I had spent more time learning about history, could come in handy when we played some of the games we used to play..

Math was just plain tough all the time, although early basic algebra seemed easy..  They discouraged me from being in the algebra class and so that year we had what was called living math which is what it sounds like, an every day type of math.. Learning the basics of economics and all the important things therein.. My junior year I had two choices of journalism or welding and I took welding.. Beyond my imagination, welding was THE class when I was a junior.. I think there were a few kids that wanted to take the class but weren't allowed to and why I was kept, I don't know.. I had never welded before in my life, but I found it extremely easy to lean and before I knew it I was building things I needed, like a piece on my drum set, which is still on it to this day..

Badge Henry (tutor me)

FLAT OUT

This idea was in the back of my mind for the past... however long these pictures were on FB.. These pictures are the twins of Tabitha Davis and they have, as you can clearly see, developed an attitude  or 'tude for the more square of us out there.. Is this  the reesult of the medication being given to them to develop??  Could be.. They look like they are going to be the life of the party ..  "Where are the guys?"..  Ooh boy...


Went into the local promart the other day and bought something out of ..  just wanted to try to eat these.. Pumpkin seeds.. I haven't had sunflower seeds in nearly two years, turns out they aren't as good for you as originally imagined.. I think they changed the formula for making them.. I wish I could find some unprepared seeds, and then try to soak them in a barbque sauce and dry them out.. I always thought that would be better than salt driven flavored seeds.. Anyway I ate a few pumpkin seeds yesterday, try to do moderation on them, it's a tough sell.. Plus pumpkin seeds are good for you.. No really they are..  Moderation.. Right..

Badge Henry    henrip

DAMN THAT WAS CLOSE..

I had a holy shit moment just a bit ago.. Opened the browser to the homepage setting (speed dial) and it had a message on it stating there was a sync update and I went on ahead and did it figuring that there might be a dial added because I thought I added one yesterday while elsewhere and it did the resync and added one dial.. And that is all I had was one dial!!!    Say it with me :  W  T  F !!       That was ...  I tried several things including the custumary turning blue and saying certain things that won't be repeated here.. Just what the hell.. Then I tried a few things including shutting the browser down and starting again and it started and I pushed sync again and it updated and all I could think was whew.. But at the end of the sync this time I now had seven.. I guess that is better.. Then I shut down the browser and started Firefox (proper) and it was synced to the Aurora, no surprise they are one in the same almost.. Then I got the laptop out and crossed my fingers that this would be alright there and it was as it was yesterday.. I got the flashdrive, exported the .sd file and then reset the program here on the desk top computer.. Freak out averted.. I then setup a file to two separate backups with a third to be done later.. I figure if I add any more dials that unless they are "can't live without them" type that the ones I have now are very important (?) and at least they will get reloaded in the case of something like this happening again and it probably will...

I mowed and today I reversed the order I did it in, going front to back rather than back to front.. Towards the end of the mowing sortie I was mowing by this bird feeder light thing that is hanging on the clothes line and I kept bumping into it and splattering water on me.. Not even paying attention to it when I got done I noticed a bunch of wasps swarming around it.. Not that I am Mr. Tough guy or anything but I tend to tune out when I am mowing and I just didn't see them swarming around this thing.. I paid closed attention to it when I did the weed eater.. I didn't get stung at all and I don't know why not.. Just lucky I guess.. Pure plain dumb luck..

Amazing how a week ago it rained and gave us what I figure is the best rating on the lawn over all.. I think I would give it close to a seven, however there are massive patches of weeds everywhere.. I scalped some of the areas and planted some grass seed there.. I think I might try to turn some of the ground over and seed it.. After Donald got married I did that and the grass really grew well even though it was hot then (the end of July)..  Speaking of which, his anniversary is coming up shortly.. Anniversaries and weddings and baby births.. The next six weeks could be interesting..

Badge Henry

SECTION TITLE RESOUND

There was an entry on Bob's facebook shared from Hazels pumpkin patch that made me wonder just  what the..  It said if you can look closely you can see the first pumpkin of the season.. I then went out and looked at my "pumpkin" patch.. Pumpkin in quotations because this year, just like last year, I have something growing in the pumpkin patch that DON'T resemble pumpkins.. They might be only sunflowers, which if they grow proportionate to the size they are growing right now...  OH BABY WATCH OUT  thems could in fact be giant   alas  mammoth as the package says.. Or I might be coveting yet another crop of weeds just like last year.. I was so proud of the crop last year, growing perfectly along the water line set out by the smaller soaker hose, the crop was perfect except for one thing, they were weeds.. And this year might be the same thing.. Started the pumpkins from seed a week into May, directly into the ground.. They came up and the picture on the back of the package showed that is in fact what we were getting.. So how do they turn from pumpkin to sunflowers??  Or quite possibly weeds.. One thing for sure, they are extremely healthy looking whatever they are..






Badge Henry

YOU'RE IN IT FOR THE...

 The most unbelievable thing, when some towns lose their fireworks, they would lose a lot of people coming to their celebration.. Not Silverton Colorado.. You forget that the parade is quite the attraction as well.. Many towns have fourth of July parades but not many have a water fight that goes on the length of the parade route.. And then they set up shop by the city hall and blast each other with their hoses.. Some of the most fun you will ever see..

One of my favorite songs right now ... "End of Time" by Lacuna Coil..

Badge (pennies worth) Henry

HELLO RAIN

Somebody sent up a prayer for rain and it was answered, and while I don't believe in organized religion, to those who do I guess your prayers were answered..  For the lawn here Friday night saw a four tenths rain fall then Saturday (the radar was showing it might flood) we got a trace. Then Sunday afternoon we got another four tenths of an inch of moisture and that really helps.. Stopped watering everything for a day maybe even two.. Return to watering the lawn on Wednesday I think.. Might spot water where needed.. The "garden" looks really good today.. As much as the plants love the heat to grow, I think they need a break in the heat to fill in a bit.. Dare to dream that we might make it though this season without hail.. Don't worry, it will hail again.. I will hate to be right about that but it does hail at least once per growing season. Last year we got nailed three times by hail and when it didn't hail the wind blew..

So today was D day for some sort of computer schlop thing.. I hate the hackers who do this type of shit.. It was the one thing that I pointed to when everyone was saying "you should get a computer.."  way back in the day.. That and I figured I had no right to try to do computers.. Way back when they were introduced in school I saw them as being fun, but I tried my luck through the school one and then when dad got his I tried, then little brother's but couldn't see any reason to bother.. Too much agravation..   Then one day I sat down and he (lil bro) showed me some very basic things on the computer.. 1: turn it on.. 2 : getting on the internet.. From there it was pretty much learn on your own..



That brings us to the browser situation, and front page or homepage.. With i-Google being phased out at the end of next year it has made me start to phase it out now.. Disappointed in Google deciding to drop their homepage I was actually thinking about getting a different one anyway or possibly getting away from the homepage concept altogether.. I do like the way I designed the homepage, everything was set the way I wanted it after a month of trial and errors..  I designed it to be like the local news cast, news weather sports type of format from left to right.. The most viewed were the ones opened at the start. But it slowed the browsers down and even crashed the Firefox/Aurora browsers.. Opera opens some of the gadgets while Chrome I didn't bother with opening my homepage with it.. After this past Saturdays event with Chrome I was set to delete it from the computer forever but then thought I would give it just one last chance.. This will be it's very last chance and I will give it the full effort to make it work.. I'm not sure how "loaded" everyone else uses their chrome browser, but I try not to overdo it with apps and extensions or whatever.. Try to stay basic although I like the speed dial concept, there are many to chose from but I will try the one I thought was best for me.. If it crashes again I will not only get rid of that app, I will delete Chrome for good this time..

Badge Henry..

THEN JUST A LITTLE LEFT OF CENTER

Mowed the grass today and found that we are up to a rating of 6  to 6 and a half maybe.. There are areas that are still having troubles developing a good grass growth.. Truth is if June would have been more normal we would have had a full lawn by now.. We are without any doubt in a drought, possibly the worst we have ever had.. Because of the area it covers, and some people think it is an anomaly but others think this could be a sign of things to come.   Some of the grass is weed, really weedy and although I usually hate weeds at all, this year I am letting them grow, or did until today when I weedwacked a good lot of them..  which means there is a nasty spot by the whiskey barrel.. I'm ok with that, and I was also thinking that this year I will move the reseed date back a little.. Usually the last day for seeding new seed on the lawn was around the tenth of August, this year I will move that to the first week of September. I am thinking about reseeding a lot of the grass this summer but I won't do it now.. I'll wait until mid August and hope the hot dry days are starting to wain..


Here at casa 'pole we don't have central air nor an air conditioner.. The wiring won't support a single air conditioner in any room of the house.. I had an evaporative cooler at one point and it worked fine for a couple of years then it got so humid that it stopped being effective.. One year after I stopped using it we put it in the window in the dining room thinking it would cool the downstairs enough to help cool the whole house.. It didn't work as planned because it was a small space cooler.. My bedroom was as big as it could cool.. I felt like I was being selfish but since I bought it and anyone else could have gotten one as well..  This year a cooler like that one would have worked great up until right about now, the humidity is going way up with the monsoon flow.. Right now is when harvest usually kicks in and right now is when it usually rains.. I'm not complaining about not having central air or anything like that, it cools off fairly well at night, plus if you drink the right amount of water it shouldn't effect you that badly..

The browser issue or rather the homepage issue is starting to resolve itself..  I am messing a little with Chrome a little more.. They have "apps" that are really cool including a speed dial that might rival the best speed dial browser in Opera.. Chrome has a setting that will change the speed dial from twelve selections to as many as 88.. Which seems like overkill.. Right now I am starting to phase out the i-Google homepage.. Deleting at least one gadget a day right now since I have heard of Google getting rid of their homepage design.. I think I will still have Firefox (Aurora) browser be preset with  a homepage of some sort.. I will have Chrome and Opera have their speed dial setup.. I hate to rely on a browser like Chrome full time and so I won't. I really like what Chrome has now, it is potentially a really good bordering on great browser.. if it could handle the Weather Underground site I would switch and try to use Chrome exclusively.. But I have been burned twice in the same year, and this year have yet to use it like I was.. Setting up the browser with all the speed dial settings could be  a gigantic mistake if it decides to shit the bed again..

Badge Henry

TO STREAM OR NOT TO STREAM

About a little over a month ago I was looking for something at the local Walmart (I'm not sure what it was I was looking for) and I don't even know why I was in the section of the store I was in, but there I was in the electronics aisle and found myself looking at the streaming devices.. My little brother has the Roku and at one point even swore it was the best way for entertainment delivery to his tv set and severed his ties to satellite and swore by Roku.. Roku would have cable programming and more to the point, it would have network television channels before the end of that year or beginning of the next.. Was he trying to talk me into it, or himself??  Forward a couple of years and he reacquired his Directv system, kept his Roku and uses the two integrated together although the Roku is more of a babysitter than anything else.. So when I stopped and looked at the Roku setups they had I was just glancing.. Then I read the box and thought "you know we have digital cable and mostly we got it because we got rid of Dish network satellite tv.. My reason for not having dish is because of the amount of filler on the dial and the fact that there were so much crud at the lower end of the channel lineup.. It used to be that the channel lineup would be fairly sludge free until around the premium channels.  By sludge I mean the channels that sell stuff.. The information channels.. or whatever you want to call them..  A slim down would occur and while going down in number of channels we got a few not available on either satellite provider and they still aren't on there..

So I looked at the streaming devices and after a few days decided to shelve the idea for a bit.. Then today I was in there and went and checked them out again, this time I went in with an open mind and checked out not only Roku, but all of the different devices.. Streaming is available on most blue ray dvd players.. In fact most dvd players have streaming.. As I picked one of the dvd players up it said standard dvd player and that was all.. I thought of that like from A Charlie Brown Christmas where Linus and Charlie are looking at trees and they spot an old fashioned wood tree and Linus says "do they make real trees anymore?"  and I was thinking do they make dvd players that just play dvd's and not streaming or any other goodies??

So I look at a few of these streaming players and I look at the Roku, just figuring I will get one for Christmas maybe this year.. The only thing I wasn't sure of was last week I saw the cable tv company running cable from one part of town where they brought the new fiber optic line in and I was just sure they were going to add more cable tv channels or something like that and I would wait and see what might come of this.. Turns out I looked at where the cable ended up and it went to the school.. What that means for the school, I don't have a clue but..

So I check a few of these streaming players out and here is what I figured out and after looking at them in the store I decided to look on line and really check them out.. An in depth search and browse at the walmart on line site and there is where a good cross section of America shops and they are just really eager to voice their opinion on the reviews section of the different devices so here is where I will share their ideas.. Some of the devices are good and some are better and what I was looking for in a device was streaming AND the ability to watch via a usb device (flashdrive external memory storage) so while the cheaper Roku  http://www.walmart.com/ip/Roku-HD-Streaming-Video-Player/20630068  Sells for around fifty to sixty greenbacks, this only streams.. No usb support...

This one : http://i.walmart.com/i/rb/0079006937097.pdf  The D-link has the ability to stream and seems to have a small number of available services and while more isn't nesissarily better, in this case it is since Roku has so much to chose from and is the standard to measure anything with...

The Netgear one : http://www.walmart.com/ip/Netgear-NTV200S-NeoTV-Streaming-Player/21092586  has the ability to stream Youtube which currently Roku doesn't, and that isn't a deal breaker.. This system has  a thing called "Fling" which supposedly will let you watch what your watching on the computer on the Netgear streamer..  Not sure how that might work but there it is, another choice in the streaming video devices..

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-HD-Streaming-Video-Player-TB600MG2F/17350648 : this is a Magnavox streaming device (box) that pretty much equals Roku.


The Sony : http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sony-DC-SMPN200-Wi-Fi-Streaming-Player/17281822  Looks to be the leader at the present time.. It has so much more information on it, on the walmart site.. I was in the store and picked this thing up and read the box.. Saw the ability to play via the usb drive and when I looked for the price tag I figured seventy or more for this.. Turns out to be less than fifty dollars.. Blew me away and it has everything I want for streaming all the channels I want including Youtube.. This was to be the winner if I looked at it on line and it had good reviews which it does however they all have that one guy who sounds like he is a sales rep for the devices writing the review for the device so I checked the other reviews and there are many pro and a few con but the pros are more than negative so.. This could be the one..  Ditching the movie part of the digital cable would be cake since we have the Starz package.. Replacing some fifteen channels with several hundred would be easy to do..

Researching things like this is what I normally do.. I remember thinking about getting dish, or directv and it was easy to check dish because my little brother had it.. Then there was the Webtv thing.. I came really close to getting that.. I kept looking when we went into Walmart and I came really close to getting that.. I wonder whatever happened to Webtv??  I didn't get it, in other words.. The compact disc burner (stand alone type) that would allow me to burn records to disc, I watched the price on that drop like a stone over a three year period before getting one just before they were banned.. I didn't know they were about to do that either..Just lucky there..  And now the streaming video devices.. The Sony is the current leader (winner) and I guess we will see how things play out..

Badge Henry

THAT WAS THEN.. THIS IS...

GOIN' BACK  (the original version)

The video for the entry/project   project/entry   "Goin Back"  the original version.. I was happy with this version but it felt a little ..  umm  not what I was wanting in the final production.. So the next day I copied a few more pictures that I had just found, when mom was cleaning the closet  a couple years ago.. I looked through this folder and saw so many pictures of dad I had never seen before (that I know of).. But in this video, it includes pictures of him from the school days, our early days, the days when Tabitha was just a little baby girl.. And dad being ... Dad..



Badge Henry

THE TIME MACHINE

I probably should have called this entry something else since I have a story in the time machine vein but,   whacha gonna do bout it eh??   I started doing my own produced videos a couple weeks ago or so .. er something in that neighborhood.. Anyway the first few were simplistic, and I knew if given enough time and tinkering that I could produce better videos.. And subject matter as well.. I never intended to do this video but upon having one of my nieces ask about a picture on my Facebook I thought why not, so here it is,  by no request nor popular demand.. I bring you...    Breakdown by the Destiny boys...

                               (the youtube version..)


We were playing sort of regular and then the idea was to go into the studio to record  a couple of songs for release as a possible single idea.. Or something like that.. We went into the studio around Christmas time (if I can remember right)  on a Saturday I think and we got all set up.. I think the lead guitarist (seasoned pro that he thought he was) thought I would be overwhelmed by the studio, and truth is I was prepared to struggle but as it turned out this song and the second that we did that day were both first takes on the drums.. There were no second or third tries, I nailed the parts the first time both songs.. On this song, the ending sounds somewhat abrupt with the guitarist still playing and suddenly stopping.. We played the song as a band although my part and the guitarist part were the only part that were recorded at that time..  The keyboard would be added as an overdub as well as the bass guitar and vocals..

The pictures in this video; I had scanned all the pictures that I had and posters and cassette tape inner sleeves  and pretty much everything I had.. Some of the things I doctored using the old PdN program and others I left alone..  There is a picture of the band with the sister of the two Ward brothers that is in this video and for what reason she was in there??  I don't know, she was supposedly the manager but she was more a yes person of her brother, able to tell us the same thing he said such as were we ready to play again any time soon??  "NO..  You suck"....  Thanks DD...  There was a girl in the band (RIZZEN)  for a short time (one picture session).. She sang maybe five songs and pranced around on stage and gave us some amount of class at one point..  (Jolle Seaton, her parents owned a hard ware store across from Finneys)  and she was really quite nice but when they tossed her out I talked to her about it and yeah she was pissed but I think she knew it was coming..  Then there was a few male lead vocalists that would try their luck.. The lead guitarist/vocalist knew we needed a lead vocalist but just never wanted to surrender that duty to anyone..

We would go through several vocalists and three keyboard players, the third being the cousin of the Ward boys and he would only learn how to play what he was shown.. Sort of a parrot type of thing..  By the time I was ready to throw it in things were about to be at the end as far as the band was concerned..  Early October of '88 we played at a bar in Kimball and that just happened to be the same exact weekend as Oktoberfest and the guys were bummed out for that reason, I could have cared less because I thought we should be playing more anyway.  So after that gig there would be an extremely long layoff.. The holidays saw them wanting to practice not to get ready for a gig, but to video tape a practice.. Then it would be April before we would get together for a gig, our final gig with me as the drummer..  When I suggested a gig, to play a graduation party for my little brother... We got it together went and played and as we were between sets the guitarist came to me and told me the tempo was all over the place. I thought there's a reason for that, we hadn't played live together in eight months.. But he was pissy about it and I had had enough of their druggy ways that I was done.. I decided right there and then that I would leave the band.. Packed my drums the next day and my drum stage and took it home and when they got around to getting their equipment three days later I thought just another reason to throw in the towel.. They did ask me to return for a gig the next year but my feeling was that if there was an issue with the tempo before there would be more of an issue now a year plus later.. I have to admit that it could have been good playing that last gig, it was to open for another band at the fair.. But I decided not to go for it.. Haven't heard from them since, go figure..

Badge Henry

(P.S.  I redid the song, the video rather because the original that is represented by the youtube version clipped the last 4 seconds of the song.  That might sound obsessive except that part of the story talks about the ending of the song.. I watched on the youtube version as the song clipped short, I could have sworn it was full and complete and sure enough while doing the redo I did the same thing.. It wasn't that way, the video program took the last three pictures off and substituted  the final three black screens (the all important credits where credit is due shit).. I know it was right the first time but didn't produce as such.. This time it did, I watched it after I got it done then pushed save.. The pictures are slightly different and the opening sequence starts the way I originally intended.. So this is better??  You decide..)

4th OF JULY

 There are so many stories about the July 4th holiday.. this story does remind me of one time we had dumped all the dud fire crackers and fireworks in general into a jar to set it off and see what it would do and dumb assed me I didn't think I should get a wick, the safe thing to do (light fuse and run)  I took the punk and stuck it down the opening and watched as it lit and ... Well It didn't explode thankfully but it did light and flash.. Had it been packed even remotely it might have blown up in my face, making me uglier than I already am...


When we were younger we went on vacation and a friend took care of the pets and lawn while we were gone and as soon as we got back, not quite that night I don't think.. But the next day he was over to get paid and as it turns out it was fireworks gettin season and he was a fire cracker nut.. He bought enough to where his pockets on his coat were overflowing with packages of fire crackers..  So he was  at his grandmas house which is just at the corner.. His cousins were here and he was showing off lighting the fire cracker and tossing it.. Then he lit one and tossed it and without knowing he has a piece of lit fuse fall in the pocket of a package of fire crackers and he started to dance and try to evac his jacket and he gets it off as it continues to erupt..  At first it wasn't all that funny, more scary than anything.. Then after he was ok we laughed  our asses off.. Thing is he was strange in that he loved lighting them and tossing them one at a time until he grew bored with it and then he lit the whole remainder of the package and he would open another toss a few and then light the remainder.. It was like a big deal until he had the fun he would have and then light them as  a whole and get out from under them.. Such obsessive behavior seemed strange at the time but he would be that way with other things as he got older..

Then there was the firework in the post box outside the post office.. Nobody knows who did it and it might have been a team effort..

Me, I always looked forward to the 4th for the fireworks. Way back when dad would get the smallest box of fireworks until I was in junior high, then he got the next step up size.. There was what I called huge as the biggest but all together they were about the same.. The 4th was like Christmas, you just never felt like there was enough fireworks and when it was all over it seemed like a let down of sorts.. Dad would shoot off the fireworks when he got home from working harvest.. This years harvest is over but usually harvest is getting started around the 4th of July...  You grow up and still the 4th had that meaning to it.. It meant more to others as the guy I was talking about would get super charged every year at this time every year and as late as the last time I saw him.. He was forced to move away, troubles with is obsessive cumpulsive extreme..

Badge Henry