Sunday, June 22, 2014

Video Blog Test, Killing Time at Work

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't updated my blog for a while now. I've been meaning to post a few entries about my convention experiences from Comicpalooza and A-Kon 25. It's not that I've been lazy lately. It's more like I really haven't had the time to type stuff up. But I think that's going to change soon.

Anyway, I'm experimenting on video blogging all over again. Since I have been bringing my laptop along with me at work, I can do a lot of editing while I'm on standby between my deliveries.

Here's the video blog that I recorded and edited earlier:


Video Blog Test: Killing Time at Work

Though my laptop can't run Sony Vegas Pro 12, which is what I use on my desktop to edit the Otaku Acoustic music videos, I still have Windows Movie Maker on my laptop (don't laugh). Windows Movie Maker is capable "enough" to do what I need it to do, and my laptop has "enough" power to handle it. It's not like I'm working with multiple audio & video tracks, and will be rendering the video at 1080i. I'm going to keep my video blogs simple.

After experimenting on editing the raw video file using Windows Movie Maker, I uploaded it to YouTube and experimented on a few more things there like annotations, closed captions & subs, and more. Here I am thinking, maybe I can start doing this to kill time in between my deliveries. The only problem I'm probably going to face here: what to talk about..

For now, I'm happy with what I came up with. I'm so behind, because I'm barely doing what many have been doing for years. But I have a YouTube channel. I shouldn't be afraid to use it!

Friday, May 09, 2014

Same Faces at Different Places (Part 1): Everyday People

When I meet people at certain places like at work or in my social life, I have a tendency to associate them with the place or setting where I meet them. But when I meet some of those people at another place, I have a tendency to not recognize them. This causes me to either re-introduce myself or to awkwardly pretend I immediately recognized them. Sadly, I have gotten too good at doing the latter (thanks Lifehacker lol).


Is this weird? Is this a problem that only I have?

It doesn't happen often, but I feel like it happens more often than it should. It makes me feel like a jerk, as if I didn't remember them or forgot who they are. Bad enough, I am not the best at remembering people's names. That is something I'm still practicing until this day. After all, the best way to initially compliment somebody is by remembering their name."

I meet a lot of people due to the nature of my work. When it comes to my social life, I tend to meet a lot of people through my many friends. I also make lots of friends fast at anime conventions. Cosplayers are a different story, since costumes, wigs, make-up and masks are involved. I'll have to write about in a separate entry about them later.


Sunday, January 26, 2014

When it Freezes in Houston...

Image taken from KHOU.com
It is very rare for Houston to have a Winter Storm involving icy roads. Now I am no meteorologist or an expert in driving on ice, but as a delivery driver who spends a lot of time on the Houston roads and highways, I'd like to share a few things that I have learned to do when Houston experiences a Winter storm.

Because of how rare Houston experiences these ice-cold conditions, many commuters in this city will tend to underestimate Mother Nature. Let's face it Houston, we don't know how to drive on ice. I'm a very experienced courier in Houston, and I'm first to admit, I suck at driving on ice! Northerners can laugh all they want. Just brush it off and think of your survival (or the safety of your pocketbook)! So, in this blog entry, when I say Winter Storm, I'm not talking about blizzards or an avalanche. I'm talking about ice on freeways, which I'm sure is normal to many folks up north.

Recently, on January 24th, the Houston highways experienced some icy freeways, causing over 200 accidents. This is unfortunate to many commuters in the city, but consider the fact that no casualties were reported. Unlike the Winter Storm of February 2011, there were over 800 accidents, including at least one reported casualty. Remember that day?