file 5 - Journal continued...
This is a continuation of file 4.
3rd June 2022 (continued)
As a continuation of my thoughts about vlogging, I remembered I have a
camera for sale on ebay that can record video. I, for some reason, thought
it was capable of 1080, but that was utter nonsense; VGA / 640x480 was its
only setting, but part of my recollection was that it included software.
I had not looked at this until now. The CD stated it was compatible with
Windows up to XP MCE. It included offerings from MGI, namely "Videowave". I
put the disc into my Windows 10 system, and even though it encountered an
error during the install it succeeded. I opened it to take a brief look
before finding a review on Youtube from 10 years ago. It was pretty damming;
it was by that point in time common knowledge that the software was a buggy
ass piece of crap - so much for finding something quirky and old, but
essentially still useable. Indeed, as I tried a few simple options in the
edit suite I managed to crash it a couple of times. Maybe it would work
better on a machine of its era... I think I'll give it one last chance,
although, to be truthful, it looks less capable than Windows Movie Maker.
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8th June 2022
-------------
I finally got around to vlogging this morning (or so I thought) for the
first time in 6 months.
First I had to decide which camera to use; the webcam being preoccupied
being a webcam I first elected to use my actual camera, only to realise I'd
left it outside... all night... in the rain (fortunately it does still
work). I therefore dug out my smart phone but being out of practice I
inadvertently kept taking photographs of myself rather than starting and
stopping the video recording... I didn't find this out until I'd spent an
hour talking to the thing and came to transfer the files to my computer. Oh
well.
I then had an actual job to get to.
This client is one of those who have hardly left the house in the past two
years and were still in the mindset that they needed to wear a mask around a
stranger. We had a nice chat though.
He seemed to largely blame his plight on China, as if, I don't know, he was
oblivious to the fact that other nations were doing research at the lab the
'thing' originated from; or perhaps he just felt that China could have done
more to stop the initial spread.
Back at home and I set about charging the three batteries I have for that
smart phone I had mainly ever used for vlogging. I think its main issue is
that it, for some reason, drains any batteries that are left in it, because
the one that was in it (after all these months) was indeed flat, whereas the
other two still had 75%+ charge. I don't know why the phone drains batteries
(it's shut down, not on standby or in a sleep mode, it just drains
batteries). This is why I have ended up with three, because I bought a
replacement thinking the other two just weren't any good any more.
I think I will try and vlog again tomorrow. Prior to this morning, I had
looked up some advice on Youtube for getting into vlogging, specifically
with regards to confidence; I find it (somehow) both weird, but not
surprising, how I kind of got into vlogging a little, when I did it for a
while, but how out of it I feel again now, as if I am new to it. I ended up
watching a video which contained a list of 5 things, but of course to "Just
do it" which I pretty much knew already.
Another video cropped up in my feed today from that youtuber, this time from
her latest video talking about when "vloggers hit the wall"; she was clearly
talking about herself (not that that doesn't discredit the advice), because
(as she admitted) she herself hadn't vlogged for a while, and had hit one of
her walls.
She talked from the perspective of a 'professional vlogger' as she deemed
herself to be, and painted a world that I actually don't want to get into; I
don't want to appear as a highly polished person in highly polished videos,
produced on expensive equipment in a highly polished house. That's not me
and I don't aspire to it; I just want to vlog, casually, but regularly - I
would like a Youtube that was more akin to that. Perhaps through me vlogging
like that it will encourage others? But then I would surely become an
influencer, and again, they come across/portray themselves as highly
polished...
I feel quite worn out after my "day's work", since I actually had a couple
of jobs today - a practice I get out of; yesterday I pottered about
tinkering with my own computers which is far more relaxing to me than being
sociable with clients - that seems to take more out of me than doing the
actual work; but it was nice.
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Monday 13th June
----------------
It has been a while since I journalled on this thing, my AlphaSmart 3000,
but it is currently nice and sunny and warm outside, so here I am.
I began the day by spilling a cup of tea in bed (just a minor spillage!)
After reading there for a while I got on with some work (nothing major),
before just tinkering with computers that I have been "trying to get
sorted".
I was starting to think I had misplaced my Phenom X6 CPU; at one point I'd
installed it in the wrong computer, and then I seemed to think it wasn't in
the right computer, when it was... this is what happens when I don't see a
project through from start to finish!
My Phenom X6 computer now has Windows installed on an SSD and awaits
(amongst other things) some replacement RAM. The computer's case has a USB
3.0 socket but the motherboard don't support that so there is an adapter to
convert it to 2.0. I kind of want to get a PCI-Express -> USB 3.0 adapter to
make the USB 3.0 socket 3.0, but they're over £10 on ebay, and this seems to
be an excessive and somewhat pointless expense for a computer I'm "supposed
to be" just selling on ebay. It just feels a little incomplete without it.
Perhaps I'll just keep looking for a better deal... the same with the RAM
that's required. I could list it as it is for now (at the next listing
opportunity).
After dealing with the Phenom X6 I had another tinker with my Antec Fusion
media case system where the volume knob wasn't working. Long story short, it
now is; for some reason installing a separate sound card rather than using
onboard audio resolved it. I'm in the process of documenting more of this in
my Projects section. I'm relieved I got the knob working.
I now relax outside with a cup of tea, and shall catch up with my notes on A
Short History of Scientific Ideas.
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Wednesday 15th June:
--------------------
I slept in my tent last night (in my back garden). I'd not done this for a
while but it had been a warm day, and as I suspected, it would be a warm
night; more comfortable, therefore, in that regard to be in the tent.
However, my hayfever had been expressing itself that day so in order to
combat that I'd been drinking extra water, which meant my bladded
interrupted me in the night and I had to venture indoors to spend that
penny. It surprised me to realise it was already 2:30; I thought I'd only
been dozing thus far, but I must have actually fallen asleep.
I woke early the next morning proper and vlogged about my ordeal; I'd had my
usual back/hip ache in the night... perhaps this is from cycling, or too
much sitting each day, or a combination of the two - I need to actively
address this (situps & yoga me thinks).
I was surprised to learn, when I came to edit the vlog, that my (phone)
camera's microphone (using a lapel mic) had worked perfectly; it has
previously always done this weird auto-gain thing that I could never figure
out. Perhaps I'd inadvertently resolved this by just plugging the lapel mic
in at the right point, there was poor contact in the socket, or it was
because I was using an external battery pack that was providing more umph
over the internal battery.
So vlogging went well and while I left that file to upload (for 2+ hours), I
got to work replacing capacitors on a motherboard from a Dell computer.
As usual I was wary of doing this kind of task; the last time I attempted it
on a not so consequential motherboard, it didn't go well - I didn't want to
brick this one because I quite liked the system, but three caps were blowing
their tops so I felt obliged to do the task.
Removing the caps went pretty well; I used my thicker flux rather than the
stuff I had deemed to liquidy from watching a video about SMD repairs, and I
also turned the heat up on the iron a little more than usual.
While the caps came out quite promptly, few of the holes were clear (like
one was blocked on each of the capacitors), and I was not able to fully
resolve this (I couldn't find my little drill too, but perhaps even the bit
on that wouldn't have been fine enough). After trying for a while I elected
to just attach the caps as best I could and then test things to see if that
was enough... it seemingly wasn't; the board would POST to tell me there was
no RAM installed, if there was no RAM installed, but wouldn't power on at
all with RAM installed.
Hopefully just more fully installing the caps will resolve this as I doubt
on this occasion I have damaged anything. At least, I hope that is the case.
I have left things alone for now; these setbacks deter me until I can
'regroup' my intent and go back at it calmly, rather than exacerbate my
frustration in one sitting.
Back to the vlog upload and I was a little disappointed to find an audio
track I had used at a couple of points (namely at the start to cover the
silence so the wonderfully functioning vocals wouldn't be a shock once I
suddenly started speaking some way in) had been flagged by Youtube as being
copyrighted; I'd been lead to the album it was from by another Youtube video
where it had been used (and pointed out as such) without copyright
infringement, and indeed the video I had 'ripped' it from had no such
copyright notice regarding the track. Mine though had been detected as part
of a 'remastered' version, which perhaps is copyrighted... but it wasn't
from a remastered version... oh well. What to do? It's not as if my videos
are monetized (by me), I'm just annoyed it happened, and I believe not for
the first time, after have specifically chosen a track I believed was
copyright-free.
It's warm again outside today... I'm cooking... back to indoors.
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End of file.
Last updated: 15/06/22