Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
I’ve owned two JVC camcorders in my life. the first I purchased in the summer of 2000. I loved that thing. It went with me everywhere. Over time, however, it began sputtering and eventually the motor went. Upon researching it, I found that this was a common problem with JVC camcorders. It wasn’t worth repairing.
Gert and I, despite the disappointment, purchased a new JVC in 2004. I used it a lot. It’s not a high-end camcorder, but it meets our needs. Meets. That means it still works. More than four years later all is well and good with the camcorder. Nevertheless, I’ll never purchase another.
Last winter I purchased Gert a new desktop. Of course, we could have opted for XP at that point, but took the plunge to Vista. I rarely use that computer, preferring my POC laptop instead. The laptop is just fine for me. I occasionally will pull a video from the camcorder and post it, but it is always a shorter clip, if you hadn’t noticed.
Well, Gert has been pushing for me to produce another movie. She likes the ones I have done in the past (not available to the public, I am sorry to say). It would be a stretch to produce such a thing on the laptop. I tried to render one once and it locked this thing up for a day.
Not a problem, we have this wizbang new desktop with lots of memory, a hge drive, and better firewire than the laptop. I finally sat down to do that this morning. It’s 10:00 a.m. and I am back at the laptop.
JVC has abandoned my camcorder. Why? Simple, money. Vista recognizes the camcorder, can control the device, but cannot capture the video. It needs an updated driver. JVC has written no such driver. No one has, which I find interesting. Usually I can find a driver somewhere. Even Gert’s old non-name scanner I found a driver for. But not for the JVC. They would much prefer I purchase a new camcorder. And I may. It won’t be a JVC though, and I told them that. Sheesh . . .
Apparently, some firewire cards with the TI chipset will function. I will look into that, although I am not particularly fond of having to purchase parts for a new computer. We shall see.
In the meantime, it looks like I’ll be stripping the laptop down to free up as much space on here to work on video in small increments. Wish me luck . . .
Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »
Monday, July 7th, 2008
It’s interesting what happens when one is on vacation: when is the last time I recorded an Utterz? Created an Oh My strip? Delved into NJ politics? Loaded Silver? Hung out FriendFeed or Twitter?jjj Yeah, it’s good to be on vacation, but it is going by so quickly . . . Along these lines, I have not scored one baseball game yet this year . . . Oh Amanda, please tell me this isn’t the level of dialogue you aspire to . . . I guess I am not going to try for Bob’s shutterspot this week . . . Why am I reading less and less of Michelle Malkin’s content these days? She limits content in her RSS feeds. It requires a click, despite throwing an advertisement in the feed. That’s not how I surf . . . So much for my dream of getting one of the new iPhones. Those plans are not priced anywhere near reality for our household . . . Despite being in our nation’s capital, I will not be attending the Lua conference . . . This is scary. Really scary. I rarely use my real name for web sites and haven’t for MySpace either, not that I use their service . . . Speaking of which, I recently signed up for a Groupee account. For those who haven’t kept pace, Groupee is the current-day version of InfoPop. Still not ringing a bell? Well, the Groundspeak fora used to be hosted by InfoPop. It’s like stepping back in time . . . My interest in Menuism is waning. Their weekly e-mails tell me I receive compliments and then say I have none. Also, much like TC.com’s rating system, what does it mean that I went from 100% helpfulness to 88%? If it means nothing, then get rid of the metric . . . We are planning our meal at Bobby Flay Steak. I would be even more excited if the site worked in Firefox. It is the only site in his network that requires me to launch IE . . . Making room for another cheesy store on the Avenue . . . I am not surprised: Carla Katz lost her job . . . Wasn’t there a hurricane Bertha a few years ago? I am pretty certain I did a tie-in to the Dead’s song Bertha then, much like Zooma is doing now . . . Is anyone surprised Starbucks is going to close 600 stores? Yeah, neither am I . . . Another datum that I am growing old: the beard is almost all white. 
. . . And just like that, GR is empty . . .
Posted in Bob, Miscellaneous, New Jersey, Politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Gert and I were sitting on our couch today enjoying a peaceful Tuesday when we saw the mail truck pull up and then drive off, leaving no mail in our mailbox.
This reminded me of an old axiom I have: There should be no mail on Tuesdays.
Mail, save local, takes a minimum of two days for delivery. If something is mailed on Monday, it won’t be delivered on Tuesday. Mail something on Saturday and it has two days to be delivered on Monday.
My contention has always been that unless something was mailed locally on Monday or the post office holds the catalogs for a light day (remember Cliff from Cheers), Tuesday should be free of mail.
Posted in Bob, Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
If you have never read French Laundry at Home treat yourself. It is an exemplary foodie blog. This post is enough to hook the casual reader . . . Conversing with those who practice verbal diarrhea is a waste of time. I know better . . . Happiness is the smell of chili is wafting through the house . . . Strange things I remember: It’s Ricky Barab’s birthday. I haven’t seen this guy in more than 20 years, but I remember his birthday. Go figure . . . Congratulations to the Boston Celtics. It’s been a long time since they had a championship. I have fond memories of the old Boston Garden. Of course, the best moment at the Garden was in ‘82 . . . Wordle is fun . . . Thomas Sowell is a smart man. He writes well too. Usually I agree with him . . . A somewhat stream f conscious piece, but my mother pointed me to a Slate article (When’s the last time I visited there? I suspect when Kinsley first went to work for them, but he has moved multiple times since.) about catch phrases. I really thought It is what it is was a phrase made famous on the first season of Top Chef . . . One of the better Deviant Art animations I have seen . . . Wish lists work. I received a book (But Didn’t We Have Fun?) for my birthday because I had it listed on my wish list. Feel free to pick off a few treasures from it, if you are so inclined . . .
Posted in Baseball, Culinary, Entertainment, Language, Miscellaneous, Politics, Sports | No Comments »
