Everything recorded here is produced on this equipment. It isn’t the best but except for the final assembly and CD burns (which require a computer) this is what produced all my video sounds. And I have an unkind word for other people’s videos shortly. Video still seems to be very much a man’s game, with few women in the trade. Behind the camera, I mean.At first I wrote it off to my poor search criteria—I kept finding nothing but really, really bad Internet videos. It’s another annoyance on line these men who use a simulator or draw diagrams and call it a tutorial. The morons point a camcorder at their flat-screen or a whiteboard and start blabber-mouthing. They try to do this on the fly and maybe one in a hundred has enough brains to pull it off. They don’t rehearse, no checklist, not even a script. I can take about five minutes of “Um” and “Er” and “Whoops.”
My advice [to such men] is buy a lapel mic, a tripod, and some queue cards. True, I wing it all the time, but thinking isn’t something keen people stop doing just because they’re trying something new. I’ll match my oldest and earliest work against 99% of the home made videos out there. No excuses, I’ve never once had lessons or the right equipment either. This younger generation is not made of the right stuff. The world knows one in a hundred will get anywhere, but television had convinced them they’re all in the game.
Speaking of tripods, I own two but I think I’m going to shell out and get something really nice. These aluminum collapsible models are nice but they sway in the wind and a decent camcorder makes them top-heavy. How can you tell I spent this morning with logistics again? Is it that obvious? Or am I working the room? I have to admit, I’ve never recorded anything but short clips, both audio and video. And the audio has never been in stereo although I don’t imagine that is much of a hurdle.
No word from Estelle three weeks now. This, gals, is why experienced guys only want to date, never get involved. You never tell it like it is, instead you don’t call. One week is saying I’m not good enough for you, two weeks, means I’m on hold while you’re checking out the competition. And after three, well, I have an anonymous account at a dating site to keep an eye on things.
Why a dating site? Because my oath, the world is full of unaccomplished women. Heads up, I did not say bad, I said unaccomplished. No, I don’t consider keeping one’s promises to be the same, although many of the lower orders expect a medal for doing so. Paying one’s own way, difficult as it is for some, doesn’t even rate. (Sorry, Ken.) But nor does it have to be rocket science, so don’t hand me the “man’s world” argument. Right now I’d settle for a gal who has a nice job and plays guitar. Provided she is also pretty, of course. Let’s not become Liberals over this.
As for men, well, they are expected to lie for a date, or at the least severely embellish. But women grind because they try to be cute about lying, especially those with dependent children. Of course they have to say they love them, but in a dating ad? We know you enjoy your kids because you have no choice. You demand tall men but scream sexism if a man wants slim. And ladies, leaving the religion field blank means you are Jewish. The controversy alone, on that one—can you hear it already?
At noon, DeeDee and I met up for coffee, making the fifth time so far. A poll of the bakery says we are dating whether we admit it or not. Doesn’t matter that [the bakery] is the only place we’ve ever met. Like many, she’s working two part-time jobs. We have differing intellects but are strikingly compatible over what you’d call the “togetherness” quotient. I’ve had excellent relationships with women from university grads to drop-outs of this disposition. I don’t demand a woman with a super IQ. Just if you want along for the ride, at least be good company, at least on the trip back home.
This got DeeDee and I to talking about dating. It would appear for all my moaning about the lack of babes in this town, I’ve got infinitely more dating experience than many. Why ask for a date when it is no longer an issue? Asking creates the option of first rejection for the less assertive party, and it is easy for such persons to say no because they can. Then again, I do consider dating a completely separate undertaking from reality. Dating is a prelude that [either] works out or walks out.
ADDENDUM
Did you know I never took “shop” in grade school? My marks were too high. When I graduated from high school, I didn’t know how to swing a hammer. (Before any nail-pounders snicker, remember by grade twelve I’d been in a rock band five long years and my world was full of teenage women far more eager than the best left over by the time your crowd clued in, is what I’m sayin’.) Where was I, oh yeah, I mean about shop is my entire exposure to electronics was a ten minute lecture in eighth grade. Near the end of a math class, the instructor drew us some NAND and NOR gates.
I caught on to the gate operations and passed the test. But he never said these were computer components, or even that they used electricity. I never learned how big these things were, what good they did, or how they were used. I thought it was a child’s game like tick-tac-toe where the outcome was TRUE or FALSE. There was no binary back then, just T and F. Isn’t it strange how the education system works, how some mechanic in that class I was not allowed to attend probably got a job soldering what I’m struggling with today.
