Correct Idioms: Early Adapter

Folks, please, don't make the mistake that one head of marketing at Sierra I used to know did (and fought me tooth and nail on it, insisting that they were correct), and call the people you're relying on to buy your product early in the game early adapters.

The phrase you are looking for is early adopter. Note the 'O'. This is someone who is part of the first vanguard of people to ever use a new thing. They adopt the thing early on. (Adopt meaning "to take up and practice as one's own").

An early adapter, however, is someone who takes something early on, and like McGuyver or the A-Team, adapts it to their own nefarious purposes. This usually involves and/or incorporates duct tape somewhere in the process, a pocket-knife, and potentially a Sharpie permanent marker.

Big difference.

Similarly, one I saw today was regarding people doing things on mass. People, it's French. en masse - as in, in a large group. At least with this one, there's always the excuse that it's written in a completely different language.

Triptych of Wind and Rain

Did you ever consider that three hurricanes in two months is a bit much?

Poor Florida.

Actually... maybe it's not an accident... perhaps, just perhaps... (and bear with me here)... perhaps it's God's way of telling the Floridians to not fuck up a second time and vote George Bush back into office.

Although I do think that destroying all of the voting machines with 130mph winds is going a bit far - after all, there's that whole free will thing to consider.

XP SP2 & Adobe Premiere Pro = big problems...

Interesting. Since installing XP SP2, I've not had a single problem. Not, that is... until now.

For some odd reason, export to AVI or MPEG using Premiere Pro is now completely borked. It stops with "missing frame" errors or "out of memory" errors. There's no obviously apparent reason why this should happen though... after all, the rest of my stuff works fine. The only thing I can think of as being a potential culprit is the new NX support, but I'm using a CPU which doesn't support that.

Then again, my main machine has always been a little flaky, thanks to installing way too much experimental shiat on it... and then only partially uninstalling it. Rinse, repeat. Thing is, there are reports of other people having that problem.

Time to wipe and try again. Well, first I'll uninstall SP2. Then I'll wipe and try again. :)

Construction Time Again

Well, back to editing. I've been putting together more and more of the short we shot. It has taken me a lot longer than anticipated with moving house, work, and everything else in between (that, and fixing the computer problems... I'm still waiting for the Corsair guy to stop trying to debug my system and just give me a goddamn RMA number so I can ship the bad stick back to him... still, can't blame the guy too much - he's just doing his job).

So it's all coming together now. Getting the right export settings from Premiere Pro is a bit of a pain, but I'm finally starting to understand After Effects and its slightly clunky UI. (One thing I'd really like to be able to do is create a matte on the fly over the top of the footage I'm compositing into, and see the result at the same time - either in a preview window, or on the image itself - maybe something like the Photoshop Mask tool, with its slightly pinkish hue to indicate what's showing through where. That, and being able to zoom in on the image and scroll around it would be nice - at least that way I could do fine detail work using the mouse).

One rough cut coming right up. I'm over halfway through the film now. The scene that pushes our homeless guy over the edge, and the final scene that comes after it are all that are left to put together. Alas, I managed to misplace my firewire cable in the move, so I need to go out and get a new one to capture the last of the footage to my system.

I'm also discovering that video formats really need some standardization. It should be possible for me to input my source material, output it to the DVD creator and burn it to a DVD without worrying about what format it ends up in. All I should have to say is "This project is for 24 frames a second" or "This project is 60 fps interlaced" and everything should automagically make it so.

(Yes, I know, it's not all that simple... and some people will need finer control over the elements and how they're conformed to the specified video settings... but still, I can dream, can't I?)

On the plus side, I finally got my compositing done on one of two sfx shots in the piece. I also added in a possibly completely overkill hamming-it-up lens-flare style "starburst" effect to one of them... that may need to be cut out. Might want something a bit more subtle in there.

So, it's getting there at least. I just wish we'd recorded clean audio... as it stands, I can't use any of it, so it's either going to be a huge job foleying the audio back in, or we'll just go with a purely instrumental soundtrack. Sheesh.

New rule: always capture clean audio, even if everyone is saying "we won't need it!" unless the people saying "we won't need it" are seasoned professionals with years of experience under their belts. Well, that and have confidence enough to tell people when you think they're smoking crack - before it's too late.

Sleep and Relaxation make you work better...

Who'da thunk it?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1297824,00.html

Apparently, getting enough rest, and not spending all your time working actually makes you more productive at work.

I sometimes wonder if the US isn't just working itself into an early grave. There are times when I miss England - mainly, whenever I think about vacations. Two weeks a year is kind of pathetic. Especially if the place you work for doesn't let you roll over vacation time, so the fact that you took only half of your vacation time over the first two years you worked somewhere doesn't automatically mean that they'll let you use that time later.

Still, at least I have two "floating holiday" days left this year. And if I need to, I'll just take some time off without pay to visit my folks back home while they're still around.

It's sad really... I never realized how much I'd miss my Dad if he was gone until I ended up living somewhere where the most often I can get home is every 4 years or so, just because of the travel time and jet lag.

I am the moon...

Apparently, I'm the Moon. (My sister's blog shows that she is The Devil... which is highly appropriate knowing her... so I thought I'd give this a go).

You are the Moon card. Entering the Moon we enter the intuitive and psychic realms. This is the
stuff dreams are made on. And like dreams the imagery we find here may inspire us or torment us. Understanding the moon requires looking within. Our own bodily rhythms are echoed in this luminary that circles the earth every month and reflects the sun in its progress.. Listening to those rhythms may produce visions and lead you towards insight. The Moon is a force that has legends attached to it. It carries with it both romance and insanity. Moonlight reveals itself as an illusion and it is only those willing to work with the force of dreams that are able to withstand this reflective light. Image from: Stevee Postman.
http://www.stevee.com/

Which Tarot Card Are You?
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So now I'm beloved of Spongmonkeys everywhere. Woohoo!

(Note: I'm not a big believer in random pseudo stuff like Tarot cards, but it's fun at parties to get read by people)