Wasn’t that brilliant?

It’s almost haunting right? I once had a very similar nightmare.

In the nightmare I was 9 years old again and had a sister and for some reason was named Steven – The dream clearly wasn’t based on my childhood but had a lot of similarities like being set in Missouri during the 80s . In this nightmare I lost my sister to unseen horrors that I could only catch a quick glimpse of (for being 9 years old I was already growing past the horrors that plague children from birth til they grow too old and doubtful to trap) and all we had were her enthusiastic final words that came from the next aisle over.

“Steven, come quick… there’s indians!”

The story linked above tapped into the same horror vein that my dream had. I don’t like that. I will probably sleep with lights on now, crap.

Wasn’t that story great? Who would have thought a collection of faux-web postings on a make believe website would resonate so darkly? Pass that story on – It deserves to take on a life of it’s own.

As for my dream, I have been working on a fiction based off it for awhile so that might make it’s way up here. Also, some day I will write why I have such lovely and crunchy dreams.

Related posts:

Stories about Pandas Lessons when snow flakes hit Working on the site… and computer crash!

We didn’t write in Missouri, they didn’t encourage that. They actually didn’t like us reading either. Or dancing. Or having skin pigmentation. Yea, not a fan of Missouri if you haven’t noticed.

But halfway thru my sixth grade year I moved to Colorado.

And like the second day there we were given a writing assignment. We were put into groups of four, and we would all start a story, then pass it to our left and continue on with who ever’s story we got (the person’s on our right). It was the best day of my life up to that point I think – pretty much because I realized I could write better then most sixth graders and that I was sitting next to a really cute girl named Stephanie.)

I really haven’t improved, so I can still write better then most sixth graders.

I still like playing writing games though.

My newest one involves pestering people to give me x number of random words. Then I start typing, include the words, and have instant story. So being bored one night, I pestered someone on facebook until they gave me what I needed – so 27 words later here is a story about a Panda.

The Panda and the Seven Layer Burrito.

Related posts:

Brilliant story I found/A dream I once had.

For those of you not keeping score on the Northern Virginia/Washington DC snow scene this year, we got some snow then we got more this weekend.

This picture does not do it justice.

I literally can’t go on my deck. It’s taller then the dog. It’s up to the wife’s belly button. I can’t see my lawn furniture as an example of how sitcom-ish this snow storm is.

We are 24 hours into non-stop snow, and this is what I have learned too late to be useful:

• Movies: I have 1562 movies. They are entirely the wrong movies for this weekend. I even carefully massaged my Netflix que into something brilliant as far back as last week, I made runs to Target and Best Buy to stock up. None of them are what I want to watch right now… I even know exactly what movies I want to watch. None of them are here. Sure I could get them on iTunes but they aren’t high definition. So I am stuck watching TV.
• TV: Wow, watching nothing but HGTV and Food Network you notice how bright sunny and not buried under three feet of snow the rest of the world is. You know it’s bad when you are watching HGTV and they are showing a snowy house in Canada in the dead of winter and you are thinking “Wow it looks nice there! We should move there!”
• Food: I want Taco Bell. Let me rephrase that, I always want Taco Bell… but being denied Taco Bell by mother nature makes me dream about it. I had a dream about a Crunch Wrap Supreme. We bought $183 of food this week (We hadn’t been shopping in awhile) and even the usual mix of frozen burritos, instant macaroni and cheese and tomato soup doesn’t seem to quell the hunger pains I have for something drowning in Fire sauce and come wrapped in a multicolored festive wrapper.
• Eating: My wife pointed this out to me. We have done nothing but snack, graze and then eat this weekend so far and we’re only 24 hours in. What is it about an abundance of food and the inability to go outside that makes us want to put on winter weight and hibernate until True Blood comes back on tv this summer?
• Facebook: No matter how different we are inside, our Facebook pages all lead us to believe the same thing: We are not shoveling anymore. Some of us hung tough until 1AM, some quit as soon as they hit home last night and some of us didn’t even bother. Sunday we will see a rash of posts that all say : Oh crap. I should have kept up with the shoveling better.
• Florida: My brother-in-law was outside the disaster area, so instead of you know waiting out the storm where he was – he flies to his mother’s. While his wife and dog are buried under massive blankets of cold white snow he can have the single best restaurant dish I had in 2009 – Kobe Beef Meatloaf with bbq sauce.
• Slacker: Wow, who knew that the slacker gene is cold activated? I have all these ambitious plans (Like making this website have actual content) but all I can think about is making a bed cave and hope there’s no work on Monday.
• Dog: My cousin is right, a deck is a life saver. The dog can go under the deck to do her dog business. It’s got to suck to be a dog and have to pee outside… the snow is taller then you by inches. You’re trying to urinate in the freezing cold wind with someone watching and all you can think about is an avalanche! I think that proves we are smarter than dogs, we invented indoor plumbing for ourselves while all the can do is catch squirrels.

I am going to take this snow storm sequel opportunity to work on this website. Let me know if there is anything you want me to help you with as far as computers/technology goes!

Later eh, -james.

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Musings from a snow day (December 2009) Disclaimer

Note:
As of Jan. 18, 2010 when I wrote this there is a note that VLC has suspended the 64 bit OS X version of VLC until further notice. This may cause problems with the 64 bit version of Handbrake. If you are having trouble ripping DVDs with 64 bit Handbrake, please download the 32 bit version.

A little background: Handbrake no longer decodes DVDs on it’s own, it uses the decoding portion of VLC. I have been running 64 bit VLC since the Handbrake .94 betas – at that time Handbrake required 64 bit VLC, I don’t know if that is still true or not and honestly I haven’t had time to play with it yet to see if there is any impact.

If you are having trouble with the 32 bit/64 bit thing please e-mail me and I will try to help – if nothing else I can point you to the dark corners of the web that have 64 bit VLC downloads.

That out of the way, let’s start!

Step One: Load a DVD and Start up Handbrake!

Note: You have to have VLC installed on your Mac, but you won’t have to start it up to rip DVDs with Handbrake.

The screen should look like below:

For this example, I am using my wedding DVD titled “ARIEL_&_JAMES_WEDDING” (This will work with homemade DVDs as well as commercial DVDs)

Click your DVD and then hit the Open button. The screen will now look like below:

Hit the Open button.The screen will now look like this:

For movie DVDs (Which is the primary purpose of this How-To), the film should automatically be selected.

If the duration looks shorter or longer then the movie, it might be special features or an extended cut of the movie. Play with the title drop-down until the duration equals the length of hte movie you intend to rip.

Step Two: Pick a Preset!

If you don’t see your preset drawer, click on the Toogle Preset button in the menu.

You should see a selection of choices like the ones on the right.

Since Handbrake was originally designed as a ripping tool for iPods, you will notice that the presets have become very Apple-centric. The good news is that most devices have embraced the beauty of the h.264 video file. This is the best compression method when ripping movies for an Apple device and these files will play back on most devices you have laying around the house!

Let’s look at what you have:

If you don’t plan on watching these files on a tv or are looking to cram the most files on a hard drive, this is the best setting for you.

These files are at the maxium resolution of the iPod. They are decently small file wise and while looking outstanding on iPods and iPhones, they look ok-to-decent on a television or computer screen.

These medium resolution files will play back on all Apple devices as well as game machines/media streamers that support h.264.

If you don’t have an iPod Video/Classic AND you don’t plan watching these much on a tv or computer screen, this is the best setting for you.

These files are optimized for the iPhone’s widescreen and lower resolution. These look outstanding on an iPhone and significantly smaller in file size then a traditional iPod video file. They do not look good on a tv or computer screen however due to the lower resolutions.

These low resolution files will play back on all Apple devices as well as game machines/media streamers that support h.264.

So basically: Use this to rock the iPhone and use the one above to share between iPods and iPhones/iPod Touches and other media machines.

These are pretty much untouched from the original DVD and it takes true talent and study to spot the differences in most cases.

These files will not play back on an iPod or iPhone/iPod Touch due to the resolution. However they will look like the original source material on tv and computer screens. These files play back beautifully on Xbox 360s (have not tested them on the PS3) as well.

Since you are doing this often, I would suggest you make your default preset choice. Click the little gear icon in the bottom corner and select “make default”.

You can also update built-presets this way.The Handbrake community views encoding as a dark art, not a science. They are constantly tweaking the preset for the best trade off between size, quality and encoding speed! Make sure you check back often!

Step Three: Go!

Though there are a ton of options at this point, most of them are not needed on a daily basis. I will cover these in an upcoming advanced Handbrake article.

For Now, let’s choose a output destination (where you want to save the movie) and go!

Hit the Browse button to choose a save location.

When you have chosen a place to put the movie, hit the Start button and sit back!

Watch the status bar move and the computer will do what it does best.

That’s all for now! I will be back at a later date with an advance lesson in DVD ripping and encoding with Handbrake. Trust me, I went to community college to learn this stuff.

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How-To: Screenshots in OSX Disclaimer

You can get hurt or seriously killed… or sued.

In particular, DVD ripping. It might be illegal and it might be legal. I didn’t tell you to go ripping DVDs, and I specifically am saying don’t go share the movies that you rip. What ever you do is your own fault.

That said, have fun and stay dry.

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Working on the site… and computer crash! How-To: Use Handbrake Brilliant story I found/A dream I once had.

I had a 750gb Seagate crash. These drives were spawned from Satan himself. They are horrible, I don’t wish them upon my worst enemy.

Good news is that the backups worked, just have to finish migrating a Boot Camp partition to VM (working on the how-to article now) and all will be good with the world. Then I will continue to work on this website.

Later, eh…
-IV

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Brilliant story I found/A dream I once had. Disclaimer Lessons when snow flakes hit

A lot.

Best guess is we got between 20″ and 24″, that’s taller then our dog. The snow drifted to piles that I could lose my wife in. It snowed enough to close the the government two days after the fact.

Yes! I got an honest to God snow day at 33 years old!

I have looked forward to this since I moved to the Washington D.C. area seven years ago. With child like glee I would literally stare out the windows at any hint of a single snow flake drifting quietly thru the winter air. I used to live in Denver, when I was a kid we got serious snow and we got serious snow days.

Things we used to do on snow days:

• Play Lord of the Rings… and by that I mean we used to do dumb ass epic marches from one neighborhood to another in blizzard conditions to “hang out”. One time walked like ten miles in sub freezing weather just to see this kid Don’s grandmother. For no reason. We were like 13, we didn’t have anything better to do. Just like Lord of the Rings, there would be like thirteen of us too… ranging from 4 foot to 7 foot tall dressed in nothing but rags and weary from our hikes. Instead of axes and swords we had…
• Guitars! God snow days were literally made for band practice. What if you didn’t have a band? Great day to start one! Our parents had to go to work… to earn livings and to bring food home to feed us. Us? It was either watch daytime tv in the days before Jerry Springer or play incredibly loud and messy music. I hadn’t even discovered punk yet! We were playing like this indescribable mess of power chords and one note bass lines set to trash and bash drumming. I would show video examples, but I have burned them. Oh God, I might be barely talented now but back then it was just horrible.
• Play Sega. Mega System. All day long. You kids and your Ps3s and 360s, all we had was 8 bit Joe Montana football and R-Type. Hell yes we had R-Type and we played it for hours and hours and hours.
• Eat lots of Taco Bell. Who cares that there is sixteen feet of snow out there and that bare skin will be instantly blistered… we can make a Taco Bell run.

Things I do as an adult on a snow day?

• Clean the house.
• Think about work.
• Do laundry.
• Dig myself out.
• Make runs to the Pharmacy.

Wow, as an adult I really fail at embracing the spirit of a snow day.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the snow day.

Related posts:

Lessons when snow flakes hit Brilliant story I found/A dream I once had. Stories about Pandas

Like most things on an Apple computer, everything you need is built into the OS.

The easiest, quickest way is to simply use the keyboard shortcuts.

• Command + Shift + 3: Takes a picture of the whole screen. Saves it to your desktop.
• Command + Shift + 4: Allows you to select a part of the screen. If you press space before selecting an area you can simply click a window to capture that specific window as a whole. Both methods save to your desktop.

If you want to copy the image to the clipboard instead of saving to a file, use the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Command + Control + Shift + 3: Takes a picture of the whole screen and places it in the clipboard.
• Command + Control + Shift + 4: Allows you to select a part of the screen. If you press space before selecting an area you can simply click a window to capture that specific window as a whole. Both of these methods places the image into your clipboard.

If keyboard shortcuts aren’t your thing, you can use the Grab application found in your Applications->Utilities folder.

When you first launch the application, nothing appears to happen. You will find the same options as above (the keyboard shortcut methods) thru the menu. An additional option called Timed Screen is also available. Clicking this option will bring up the following window:

This will allow you to capture things that require time to get ready, for example menus and submenus for demonstration purposes such as this:

If using Grab, remember to save your files after capture. Unlike the keyboard shortcut methods, Grab doesn’t automatically save your captures!

There are also a number of commercial software applications for screen captures and screen casting, but since I don’t use anything other then keyboard shortcuts above I would hate to discuss something I haven’t tried.

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How-To: Use Handbrake