Monthly Archives: July 2006

More word limitations

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A while back, I wrote a post about qwerds, words that can be typed using one hand (assuming standard keyboard hand positions).

Lately, thanks to Ro, I’ve been concerned with words that can be formed using a given set of letters. Which is really just Scrabble, with fewer limitations. Namely, what letters Ro has available in is Enormous Alphabet Library.

He has:

  • A mostly complete set of magnetic plastic letters that fit into this device that sticks to the fridge; When you put a letter into the device, it says the letter and what sound it makes. Then it plays an annoying electronic version of the ABC song.
  • A couple sets of those standard plastic letters with the little magnets in them that everybody has probably seen at some point.
  • A set of wooden letters with magnetic paint on the back1.
  • A set just like above, but without the magnetic paint.
  • Wood blocks with letters on them.2
  • Small foam puzzle pieces with letter printed on them, along with Sesame Street characters.
  • Larger foam puzzle pieces with the letters cut out as separate pieces.

I’ve spent some time trying to figure out how to spell ELECTRICROCKET using as few different types of letters as possible.

I’ve been helping Ro learn to spell words using his collection, but until the innovation of the magnadoodle, we’ve been restricted to only certain words. However, the Magnadoodle allows us to make imprints using the wooden letters with magnetic paint, so we can spell anything. ANYTHING.

Well, anything that will fit on the Magnadoodle. And since Ro isn’t hung up on getting the letters in the proper order, or even in a line, we’re usually okay.

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This evening, Ro and I are headed off to the Lucas Family Reunion in Tennessee, where we will relax in a mountain lodge with 8 members of my father’s generation, 10 or 11 of my generation, and 7 of Ro’s generation. will be stuck in town, rabble-rousing with and .

This is my second trip flying solo with Ro on a multi-hour trip. It went so well last time, I guess I’m getting cocky.

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1 Did you know you can buy magnetic paint, and basically paint the equivalent of a refridgerator door anywhere you want? Amazing. I really feel there’s something very cool that can be done with that. Maybe just a good prank.

2 Bought, inexplicably, from the U.S. Treasury website. I tried to find the link just now and couldn’t. But at the time, the U.S. Treasury was the only place I could find them. Weird.

Grrr… I’m a Video Producer, part II

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So, when I in school for Film & Video, we were often given projects that were just a bunch of random footage and told to put them together into something, maybe even a story.

At the time, I thought it was a somewhat pointless exercise because unless you were going to be doing music videos, generally the footage made sense. Either you shot it with an order and story in mind, or it was something that was shot live and already had a “story” naturally.

Turns out, that exercise is almost equivalent to putting together these little trailer things for Georgia Shakespeare. For the Shakespeare pieces, it’s not an easy task to pull out the soundbites… Those people just go on and on. Plus, we lack the audio equipment to get good sound, so really all we have are visuals.

It’s the same with Metamorphoses… the sound is pretty much unusable, so all we’ve got is a seemingly random bunch of images to pull together to show a mood, or something. Plus, the footage is taken of a dress rehearsal, so it’s improvisational camera work on a cheap tripod. Plus, it’s a really dark (in terms of lumination) show.

The other thing that irritates me is that there seems to be some sort of unwritten rule about length of clips and dissolves. Sometimes the dissolves work, sometimes they don’t. I don’t know if that’s a software glitch with Roxio VideoWave, or some rule I’m violating that prevents smooth dissolve.

Anyway, it’s been kinda fun to dabble in this stuff again.

Would that there were enough hours in the day to do all the things I wished.

Metamorphoses Trailer (MPG – 0:37)

Time Machines

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For years, I’ve wanted a watch that ran backwards. I saw one in a catalog when I was 12, and then never saw another one again (with the exception of those lame Goofy watches). I couldn’t pass a watch shop or a kiosk without asking if they had one. All I ever got was funny looks.

A friend gave me a wall clock that ran backwards, and that was a nice substitute.

I’ve sort of given up in recent time, as my obsession naturally faded.

But now I have a new obsession, thanks to my brother, who linked me to this odd watches page:

Legend:

The See Touch watch… the link to the manufacturer is dead… (www.seetouchwatch.ch). Harumph.

Smile! Or rather, don’t.

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I went to Wolf Photo to get some passport photos taken just now.

I was unaware, but the woman who took my photo1 said you’re not allowed to smile in a passport photo. I tend not to smile for posed photos anyway because I just have trouble doing it.

I wonder why that rule exists.

Afterwards (and because apparently I hate myself), I stopped by a fast food chain to grab a quick lunch. Both the person who took my money and the person who gave me my food said “See you tomorrow!”

Presumptuous!

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1 who, for no reason I can put my finger on, reminded me of .

Childish

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3.5 year olds… are assertive. It’s important for their development as confident individuals… but…

But once in a great while his contrary attitude wears on my last nerve.

Does everything have to be such an ordeal? Can we not walk a block home from the pool without making a big production number out of it? Literally? Because he was actually trying to put on a 30 minute show? That was largely the ABC song over and over? On the neighbor’s driveway?

Ordinarily, it’s very charming. Whimsically creative, even. But after two straight hours of indecisiveness, lollygagging, tantrums, whining and general annoyingness that’s really just a continuation of this mood he’s been in this week, I’m just about done.

So now we’re finally home, and finally eating dinner at 9:15pm.

Anyway. It was a good first week at work. My boss is a great guy, and a lot of the other folks seem very friendly. And I’m told I’ll never have to pay for a DVD burner or high-density hard drive again, as there are always plenty of extra samples lying around.

Ahhh. Okay. I’ve vented. I’ve relaxed. Now I’m refreshed, and ready to read The Cat in the Hat.

The Cat in the Hat. Now he was assertive.

Travellight Loves Me

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Grrr… I’m a Video Director

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I organized my basement lab this week, and got a VCR hooked up to my computer so that I may dub the multitude of videos I was either in or directed in college.

I dubbed one of them this morning, and thusly, you can view the web premiere of Flight of Imagination, a piece I did during my stint as an R/TV/F minor in 1992, back in the days of 3/4″ tape and really expensive linear editing systems.

Neither of the stars were actors persay… Perry (The Pilot), a star journalism student at Northwestern, went on to be an editor of a Virginia newspaper and then to teach journalism at a university in Michigan. M.H. (the Lego Tank guy), an R/TV/F major, went on to be the manager of a ginormous convention center in Virginia. So, I guess this wasn’t their big break. But still, I thought they did a good job. The two actors’ future wives were my GodLike Crew.

Grrr… I’m A Dinosaur Productions
Flight of Imagination
Time: 4:14, Size: 13.1MB, Flash Video

Behind Closed Doors…

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… is where we’d like our stuff to be.

We live in a 1959 house, and I believe all the closets have the original metal bifold doors.

I have always hated bifold doors. We had them in the house I grew up in, and they never, ever, EVER worked right. They always came off the track, or got jammed, or fell out of the frame completely.

I hate bifold doors. And the ones in our current house are no exception.

Basically, if I have a closet with bifold doors, it simply won’t get used for everyday storage. Anything put in there is likely to stay in there, because I haven’t the gumption to try to open the door, get it out, and close them again because of the sheer volume of effort and cursing involved. I’m more likely to go out and buy a new whatever-it-was. Which is probably why we have three camcorder tripods and one camcorder.

One of the laundry room doors broke completely a while back, and I replaced it with the one from our bedroom closet. I like this scenario, because now I can use the closet. But someday, I’m going to have to replace it.

The point of this rant, aside from expressing my hatred of bifold doors1, is to ask if anyone knows of a good place to get odd-size closet doors, either online or off. We’ve been to Lowes, and they do not have 93″ high closet doors. They can’t even special order them; They’re not in their catalog. The best the man could suggest was to go to a lumber yard and have some custom made, which we may yet try.

All my websearches have turned up are high-end custom-carved hardwood doors or other expensive-as-hell options. We just need some 93″ high, hollow, wood, cheap-o doors of the non-bifold variety, of various widths.

Alternatively, I wouldn’t mind holographic doors, or perhaps force fields.

1which is intense, I assure you.