Here's my latest toy, bought with the blog in mind. A Flip Ultra HD camcorder, seen with its little ...ah... protuberance hanging out. $179 at Sam's Club, HDMI cable included. 8 Gig of internal memory, about two hours of video. Academy award not included.
But this is no ordinary camcorder. It has a secret identity. Add the flexible mini-tripod I got from a well-wisher at Christmas, and it morphs into the awesome
Flipzilla!
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| You are being watched. |
Uh-oh. Flipzilla has encountered an alien life form:
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| O Nooo, Mr. Bill ! |
Stand back, Folks! This is a tense situation....
Okay, I'm not really 12 years old. But then again, here's Flipzilla peeking out of a magnetic mount motorcycle tank bag. I think you can tell where I'm going with this....
Uh. Maybe I should learn how to manage a still life before I undertake suicide videos.
But hey, just to illustrate once and for all that I really have no shame, I'm going to premiere right here - today! - my very first videos posted to You Tube. These are going to be real collector's items.
There's your Tour de Lazy Daze. I'm learning a lot as I go along. In fact, I made a list:
1. I probably need to prepare a script or better yet produce a silent movie. It turns out that if you put a video camera in my hand I'm liable to say any fool thing that comes into my head. Not unlike this keyboard. My dreams of a late career in Hollywood are herewith on hold.
2. There's quite a bit of shake from just holding the Flip, so I'll have to work on that, maybe use a tripod. This bodes ill for my plan to attach the thing to my handlebar and go for a rumbling video ride on the Beast. However, the mere prospect of imminent disaster has never stopped me yet.
3. Video takes a lo-o-o-ong time to upload onto Youtube. Ratio of about 15 minutes to 3 minutes of video. And this is supposed to be a 1.1 Mbps upload connection. So the idea of doing this on the side of the road through Verizon is a nonstarter. In fact, there's every chance that casual video may be the Death of the Internet.
Watch the YouTube videos soon, if you harbor a masochistic streak. For I'm liable to come to my senses and delete them at any time. I'm well aware this is pretty lame stuff. But I literally just got this thing out of the plastic. I hope to acquire polish as time permits. With a little practice, I may soon be able to competently entertain you with ... O, maybe a photogenic chipmunk or two.
Really. No, really! Quit that.
Bob
7 comments:
Nice videos. I've discovered that my videos are best when I have that regular, free associative ramble, so I like the style.
You didn't show the cab over. Is that a bed? Or storage?
Be warned with your RV youtube videos, though! My videos on my blog get about 300-400 views, but the one of my RV interior has almost 3,000.
(Almost all are from people on youtube searching on "RV", not blog readers.)
Jennifer
Well, thanks, Jennifer. Unfortunately some of my free associates are not presentable.
The cabover is both bed and storage. Right then it was not made up. I have the inside ladder and my dirty clothes bag thrown up there. And anything else large I can't find an immediate home for. This trip I am going to experiment with sleeping on one of the couches. I think it's cooler down there.
That was actually the first time I've used a video camera in perhaps a decade. The upright orientation of the Flip is a little harder to keep still than the old wraparound grip. But it's flat and no bigger than many phones, so maybe I'll casually carry it places where wonderful things happen. :o)
My old blog, Speed Bumps, was in the hands of my friend and former editor Don Bradner. This is the first time I've had to deal with the guts of it, so I'm a little clumsy while learning the ropes.
It's coming along. I've only had the blog up for 10 days. I've had 1139 views. Nothing compared to your stats, of course, but it seems a decent beginning.
Probably 139.5 of those are just excessive self regard. Aaak.
But this is all just idle curiosity and folderol. I blog for pleasure, not for food. Otherwise I'd be as slim as you, the which sadly I am not.
Bob
I think unpresentable free associations would make for a really great blog.
Hey, Jennifer, welcome to my world.
Hey Bob, love the blog. Love your sense of humour. But hey, don't you know we 'girls' want to see the bathroom? It's #1 for us LOL.
your vids look like they are super high quality - might be why they take a while to upload, maybe in addition to the improved upload times you would feel more comfortable shooting those unpreventable free associations if you used a lower quality definition setting?
give it a go, the bathroom and bunk are feeling left out ;)
Thanks for the vids, Bob. I really enjoyed them. Now i can't wait to see how you like the Daze and what you do customize it.
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