I just got back from a wine tasting in a Bank. The bank reminds me more of an apple store in it’s spaciousness but all the people working there are all solid knowledgeable bankers who are putting the relationship R bank in Banker. I know a banker who just retired from banking to start his own insurance agency, and I thought Steve was the last great Banker. Perhaps the staff at Citibank understands this and is developing their business from the outside In.
Monthly Archives: February 2009
Super Pets Critter Trail three just say no.
I came home yesterday after food shopping and was greeted at the upstairs door by my daughters Pet Gerbil Max. Wow I thought how cute, greeting me like a dog, this was quickly replaced with shit the mouse is loose.
I had bought the Critter trail three for my daughters two hamsters Max and Ruby for Christmas. This came with tubes and multiple levels for climbing and a wheel to spin in. It was built like a birdcage and had a petting area I thought how cute my daughter Sabrina will love this.
After a month however the Gerbils began de-construction first eating away the yellow shelves until they were too dangerous to climb. Then they went about eating the bottom out of a second deck as well as the petting area, actually eating a crevasse between the tube and petting area which was later their escape route. I also needed to constantly vacuum around their cage because they were constantly flinging shavings, poops and anything else they could chuck out of their cage.
Originally we had stored the Gerbils in a fish tank with a gerbil lid and after I rounded up both the vermin they are now safely back in their original home. I have left a few messages at Super pets International in Elk Grove Illinois. I explained that even a guy from Geneva Illinois now knows that plastic is bad for chewing animals.
The best bet is to speak with a real pet store owner so they can tell you the read deal not a sales person at Petco, or worse pet smart who much like a doctor pushing meds recommended by pharmaceutical sales people will sell you something a rat will eat through. The people at Petworld on Route nine near Pizza Hut are real knowledgeable, and know their stuff. Doing a search about Gerbils before you buy anything plastic is also a good idea. Two red flags I ran through during my hurried Christmas shopping.
Max and Ruby appear happy back in their fish tank, and I am glad to not have to dust bust around their cage again today. You should also please checkout the Super pets site at Superpet
which has a cute picture of kids surrounded by their pets near their feet which is apropos if you think about it.
Hanging out in JP
I went out with Sharon and her friends Julie and Dean this past Friday and had an excellent time. We met up at Latino Restaurant on Centre street to eat at a place that was found on Yelp. The place was packed with people mostly locals I suspect and everything was in spanish. The waitress we had helped us out but it was touch and go for awhile. The good news is they have much of the food already prepared and you can see what it is you are ordering.
Iphone video problem solved…
I worked with two 2nd tier Apple techs who were both very good last thursday. Steven Brown in Final Cut Pro and Roger Johnson from iphone support. We had the problem of the iphone playing back a demos music but unable to process the dialogue my client wanted to hear also.
What we found was that a stereo mix down with two tracks of voice cancelled each other out in the itunes mixdown. Usually two tracks of audio is preferred. We found that if you take the one channel of voice over with music it plays fine through the speaker on the iphone.
The same is true if you post a youtube video and then try and play it thru iphone also. You need to mix it down as a mono Aiff file then reimport it into your timeline. For FCP editors here are the steps.
Here are the steps for exporting a mono audio file from stereo DV audio in Final Cut Pro.
1. Mute all audio tracks in the timeline except the tracks with the DV audio
2. Select the sequence in the Browser
3. Go to File/Export/Using QuickTime Conversion…
4. In the Save dialog change the “Format:” to AIFF and leave the “Use:” at Default
5. Click Options and confirm that the audio is 48 kHz Stereo Linear PCM in the Sound Settings dialog and click OK
6. Save the file with desired name in your desired location
7. Import the mono AIFF file into your project
8. Mute the DV audio tracks
9. Place the mono AIFF on a new audio track
10. It will now play out of left and right channels with the stereo music track and will sum to mono w/out phase cancellation.
Hope this helps others down the road. Thanks again Steven and Roger at apple.
Interesting video problem with the iphone
I recently shot and produced a demo for a Professional Seminar speaker and then made him DVD copies etc. I also sent him an iphone version directly from Final Cut pro the editing software I use in all post production. Funny thing is the music played all the way through but his voice was lost after it was synced to the iphone from itunes. You can hear the music thru the little speaker but not music and dialogue. If however you plug in the headphones you can hear both mixed down tracks perfectly.
Being thankful
I am awoken today surrounded by my kids and both sadly are sick. My son CJ who is flying to Florida later today to see his grand parents is got a raging head cold full of snots and poor Sabrina my youngest cannot keep G2 and water down.
Isn’t everyday Valentines Day?
If you are in a meaningful relationship with someone is not everyday Valentines day? Does not the sight, sound or smell of the one you love close to you not elicit a reaction of warmth, fondness and caring. Why is it that hallmark beats us all down once a year with this mid winter obsession that saying I love you everyday to that special person means nothing unless it is also said with magnitude on February 14th.
Finding your voice on the internet.
One of the things I think a blogger needs to do when starting out is figure out what he or she is going to write about. Is it going to be personal or professional? Funny , sad , full of factoids or just ramblings and gems from the cranium.
Do you know Zoe Foods?
Riding the Bolt Bus.
