fidius.org: What's My Pirate Name? (1/3)


I'm Red Anne Rackham. Arrr!

Virginia Bowman Estep

This is a picture of my great, great, great aunt. Technically, my mother's grandfather's father's aunt. Amazing how looks can be passed down this far in a family!

It's finished, it's finished! Now all I have to do is create a tape log. Which means finding a VCR that has a timer on it. Yes, we have them, but they were in use when I should have done it. I'm just trying to figure out how detailed I should be. I can be really anal if I need to, but I think I better not.

All this editing work has left me with an achy wrist. So, I bought a trackball for my home computer to see if it'll help. The hardest part was finding one that wasn't shaped to the right hand. I feel discriminated against! Sue! Sue! Those evil right handed people. ;-) Thank you, Logitech. It's wierd looking, but it works really well. I just haven't tried to draw with it yet. Maybe I'll try a tablet next?

Two years ago I created a video highlighting the Town's Parks & Recreation program. It was to be a 15 minute video, with a voiceover, to be submitted for an application for a nationwide Gold Medal award. It was nightmare city for me - a fledgling video editor. The P&R director had hired a company to get video footage, and also sent out one of our cameramen for more. It wasn't enough. I had to beg for more footage - photographs, flyers, whatever they could come up with, just so I could match what the voiceover said. I practically slept in that editing room, trying to finish it in time for the deadline. To this day I still can't watch it without cringing. The music, which I had to play over and over and over, sticks in my brain. *shudders* The only consolation I had over that mess was that Parks & Rec DID win the award for their category!

I hope and prayed I'd never have to do anything like that again. My jaw about dropped when I found out that the police department wanted us to create a 15 minute video highlighting their National Night Out program, to be submitted for an award. I reluctantly tackled it, hoping that two extra years of experience and a brand new editing system would make the job a little easier.
I discovered, to my pleasure, over three hours worth of video taken during the event. HCTV had sent out three cameras - one to get footage, two for interviews - to follow each motorcade. They were everywhere! I felt like I had been at the event myself by the time I finished reviewing the footage. The NNO coordinator had asked us to also use footage taken at the Herndon Festival - so that added another 15 minutes worth of possibilities. We had some great interviews and amusing antics - including the Chief of Police hula dancing, and McGruff the Crime Dog attempting to dance to YMCA. Things fell into place quickly, and I finished in two weeks, hardly breaking a sweat. About the only thing that went wrong *crosses fingers* was that the NLE ate the video on one of my avi files. I had to recapture everything on that file - which had been simply digitized as one long 45 minute file. Not much of a problem at this point - I knew what clips I wanted, and very quickly learned how to use the batch capture feature!
The video is done, waiting for Monday, or whenever the NNO coordinator shows up to take a look at it. I actually enjoyed doing this one! Now apparently I have to do a 30 minute show for airing. I think I could handle that . . .

TV Ban blamed on buns It's fun to read about other cable access stations!

I finally came up with a new angle for my Realm page. Hali & Aggi's Guide to the Realm. (My main characters in the game). Aggi will take the warrior and high level sections, Hali the newbie and wizard sections. Right now it's a big mess in the Realm section. I haven't put all the new pages up, and the new index.html overrides the index.htm. Everybody's confused! (Including me.) So far, I've finished the original artwork section and the Realm Regulars section. From 30 pages down to 4 pages is a big difference! It'll be much easier to update, too.
I still have to finish the screenshots page, the fun page (thinking about creating a comic strip for that one) the credits and links page, attach the guestbook to the link, and start on the Guide itself. It sounds like a lot! The hard part's done, it's already BEEN written once. I just need to transfer the information into the new format and organize it better.

Every year it's the same thing. Starting in the afternoon, you start to see BMW's and cadillacs and other little fancy cars or SUVs pull into the municipal parking lot across from my work. (yes, I know, but that parking lot is so fascinating!) Men in polo shirts, khaki shorts or pants, and expensive baseball caps climb out of their vehicles, talking on their cell phone, and head towards Jimmy's Old Town Tavern. It's the annual Herndon Amateur Golf Tournament! They fight and argue to get into the game (benefiting the arts council), get up at the crack of dawn, play all morning, collect their goodies, and then mass migrate to Jimmy's. It's pretty amusing. This year, though, they got rained upon. Hopefully not too much!

Attempting to think about redesigning my Realm page. I need a new angle. The regulars on Channel One keep changing! I was thinking about using my two main characters as "tour guides" for the different aspects of the game. It could work! I just need enough time TO think! And draw more toon pics . . .