It is a happy thing to say, but the director's interview worked out!! In the process, I got a chuckle out of a variety of "things" and I figured I would share them will you in the hopes that you would get a laugh out of them too!

First off, my hair. Editor's hair is common enough...but it's particularly bad when I have it parted down the middle and it's not overly securely pinned in place.

Secondly, two screen shots I took. One was to demonstrate a face you never want to see addressing you and the second was just down-right funny--particularly as the video froze in that position for a minute or two while the audio just kept ticking along as pretty as you please.

I need to get the disc ready to burn again. :)

I also got the three rompers cut out for the custom order and I think it's going to be REALLY wrinkly to work with. Hopefully, my customer is good with that because she's the one that wanted taffeta. :)

I kind of think I will hold off until tomorrow to start stitching. I'm feeling awfully tired now and the weather is overcast big time.

Among the profitable and/or semi-profitable things done by myself this day was the fourth go 'round on the Cow Cavalry's Director's Interview. I sure hope it came out this time...

By the way, have I mentioned that I have otherwise completed The Florida Cow Cavalry? Well, I have. :)

I'm not overly enthusiastic feeling at the moment because I am feeling very tired and rather like just curling up and ignoring life for the rest of the day. I don't suppose the on and off ache of my right hip is helping much...I can't even say that I'm overly hungry... ("Quick, take her temperature!") 

Oh well...thus is the boring announcement of an exciting fact. :) 

​Cheers y'all...

Y'all probably thought that I had totally, completely, irrevocably forgotten about the Cow Cavalry, didn't you?

Think again: ​http://freedomslightfilms.weebly.com/news/an-update-at-long-last_

:) 

I wonder how much AfterEffects work I can knock out tomorrow.....

Right, so the whole day wasn't full of mishaps, but there was potential mishaps and actual mishaps today.

First, I spent the morning (and right after lunch), back working on The Cow Cavalry. Jordan sent me the very last voice over clip Saturday (I think it was...maybe it was Friday evening) and I "knew" when I got up this morning that I was going to work on it today. I spent awhile feeling frustrated and complaining to various sympathetic members of the family about the quality of the audio. I was even talking about starting completely over with the unedited audio clips--not that I really wanted to do that...

Finally, after getting Jordan's clip dropped in and the AE made for it and in place, I started working through from the very beginning again. Roughly 15 minutes in, I wasn't feeling nearly as frustrated. Turns out, it really doesn't sound as bad as I remembered--except for half a dozen clips. I will work on those again; probably starting tomorrow. I think it would make sense since my head got re-established into the project again today.

In addition to that, I began (during renders and letting the computer catch up with itself) to design how I am going to put the Cow Cav rosters up on the the website. I also got sidetracked chasing down a fellow my great-grandfather used to play poker with...history is too much fun sometimes!!

After I washed the lunch dishes, I headed out to see if I could help Mama any--even though I really didn't feel like working very hard. After planting a few peppers, I came in to get the next med on the schedule and bring her out a grapefruit. I also switched hats since I had decided that I was going to mow the yard.

Well, I had gotten roughly half of it done when I had to dip my head to keep my cowboy hat from flying off the back of my head (ribbons tied under buns don't help that much when the wind is from the front) and I turned at the same instant...and hit this old telephone poll in the junk pile with the deck. AND...I bent the cowling in and the blade got hung up in it. It took me another few feet to realize that something was wrong. 

I turned the PTO off and put the machine in neutral, throttling down. I crawled off the machine and reached under. Nope...no go. I couldn't turn the blade on that one side. I didn't realize until I had the thing up on the ramps that the blade was actually poking through the cowling. Daddy saw me stop and crawl around on my knees, so he came and looked it over. He fixed the bent cowling and I gamely went off--first to fill up my gas tank...and then before I switched the PTO back on, Mama asked me to get her another jug of water...so it was probably around 5-10 minutes later that I started mowing again. Almost immediately I quit. That side was still not mowing. Yes, sirree...I broke the pulley!! Seriously. This is only the second time I have mowed this year and this is already the second time I have broken the mower!! 

I helped Daddy take the pulley off and he sent me into the house with it...and while I was going, I heard him laugh. :) He said he wasn't laughing at me...but I guess I deserved it even if he was.

So you see, I really did have a Monday mishap...

Phlooey! That's a mouthful!! 

Anyway, I decided that I had better run back over to FloridaMemory.com to double check the identity of a certain fine looking older gentleman. I had gotten mixed up as to how many Hendry brother's I was dealing with and the one...well, I got to thinking, he looked a little too young. He was. He was Captain F.A. Hendry's son. 

Then I noticed something I had never really noticed before about this picture...

On the right (from the right), is Captain Hendry, his son James Edward, and his grandson James Edward Jr. Now....just look at those three gentlemen. Do you see what I do? There is a family resemblance even in their stance!!

The other three, from the left, are G.W. Hendry (brother), Mary Jane Hendry Blount (sister; relation to us maybe??), and W.M. Hendry (brother). I must say I love this generations of men's names...Francis Asbury, George Washington, and William Marion. :) (Someday I'd like to name a son "Francis Marion"... :D)

Okay...so there is my Cow Cav-related spiel for today. 

I cannot claim to have had an overly exciting-to-tell week this week...sure I've had enough excitement working on AfterEffect compositions, but that kind of work hardly makes for thrilling reading... ;D 

It took ALL DAY to render 33 compositions--which I did yesterday. In the meanwhile I ironed my stack of ironing and did sundry other piddly little jobs...none of which I seem to be capable of recalling at this moment. At any rate...I do remember thinking at some point yesterday that I was having a fairly productive day, so whatever it was that I did must have had some sort of significance. 

However, looking around, I can see the things that I did not get done this week...for instance, there is an unassembled skirt on the corner of the dining room table (yes, don't all sane persons keep sewing projects in their dining room!?). In the living room, there sit my bee hives--still unpainted. I was going to paint them this week, but the weather got too cold again...and quite honestly, I did have my nose glued to the computer screen for the majority of the week getting things done. There is always next week, right? ;) (I told my Mama I would seriously try to have the hives OUT of the living room before they get back...)

I received a book in the mail (don't worry, Daddy, I'm reimbursing you for my latest shopping spree... :D):

Handsome man, that...ahem....

Anyway, I haven't started reading it yet, but I have started reading Christ in the Camp while I wait for my coffee in the morning. You see, I really AM serious about reading more.

Speaking of WBtS's reading...I am quite aware that my day-by-day has fallen by the wayside again. I'll try to get it back up and running, but I'm not promising anything. Sometimes some stuff has to be let go of in order to get more important things done. And...if you haven't guess, I'm more or less CRAMMING to get The Cow Cavalry done. Me and it are ready to breath a sigh of relief... ;)

Don't worry, I have plans for the next thing I am going to tackle!! However, I'm keeping that mainly under my hat for now. I have definitely learned A LOT from The Cow Cavalry and one of the main things is "be more organized" and SET YOURSELF DEADLINES. (Literally, I see that in all caps in my head.) Also, I think that next time, I will be ready to start the editing before I start to cast voice overs and the like. (By the by, I'm sticking to documentaries for the present...) 

However, I think when The Cow Cav gets done, I will mainly focus on really nailing my impersonation for the upcoming conference. I confess myself slightly nervous (though giddily excited about it as well). I have moments where I give myself a mental shaking and demand, "Racheal, what have you gotten yourself into??" Then I shrug it off and grin like a goof-ball and murmur to myself, "It'll be okay...I just hope I don't come off like an idiot." Well...anyway. You get the idea. This is going to be fun!!

Ah...well. Now that I have relieved my 'writing itch', I'll go figure something else out to do. I really want a snack, but I can't eat anything yet since I just took my Bart killer... :P

Probably not...I am probably the only person who can hear lines and phrases from The Cow Cavalry running through my head at vague and sundry times. I should think that I ought to be able to quote the entire narration script seeing as I wrote it and have read it over and over...and heard it time and again...but I cannot quote it verbatim. Well...I haven't exactly tried. Probably wouldn't take TOO long to get it memorized where I could. :D

At anyrate, I started to write a blog post yesterday, entitled "A Testy Tuesday", but just couldn't bring myself to publish a post about the awful, irrational grouch that was myself. I really had "growl" issues yesterday. I was cold...I was hungry...I was probably herxing. Not that any of the above give me any excuse to be a regular pain. I tried to keep my mouth shut and my brain on lock-down (it wasn't long after getting up yesterday that I knew I was in for a day of grueling self-control)...I have a "feeling" that I oozed bad temper.

Still, for all that bad blood boiling in my veins, I managed to plough through 31 AfterEffects. Granted, I imagine some of them will need a little more tweaking, but each revision brings them closer to "perfect"...if anything can ever be completely perfect. I guess I would have to ask more experienced filmmakers if that is so...

Today, though with a much better temperament (Praise God! One day like that is enough at a time...), I only managed 9. Of course, one took all morning and I still wasn't done with it by the time it was time for lunch. I know that one is going to need revision...but because I used nearly all video (rather than stills), I cannot see it well enough (RAM previews are too choppy), to tell how fantastically (or horridly, as it might be) that it worked out. 

That leaves me with just a few more to do...and then I will RENDER and RENDER...and then drop them into the timeline...and cringe...and laugh...and growl... ;) 

Okay, so you get the point. More revision will follow. I'm getting so...SO close...and I'm getting excited. :)

One of the reasons I only got nine done (other than AE crashed around 5:15--not long before I was going to go feed the chickens anyway; I decided not to restart it today), was that I washed eggs and made bread after lunch.  

Cheers!

I spent most of the day with my nose glued to one or another of my two computer screens. However, it really was a profitable thing. And it made sense on another front as well. See, it's been one of those days when I have not felt overly well. Not that I could say, "Oh yeah, such and such and this part of me hurts or feels sick". I've just been rather "blah" and tried...and semi-brainless today. My hip has hurt on and off (I tried doing some off the wall push-ups and forgot the idea on the first try because my hip screamed, "How DARE you treat me in such a fashion!!!" Of course, another day it probably wouldn't have even whimpered....but anyway.) And I have had some Lyme stomach burn too...but mainly I have just been having an undistinquished 'don't feel so grand' day. 

On the other hand, I had my nose glued to my editing machine most of the day. Did I already say that? Not exactly, I guess. 

Anyway, I have been working on The Cow Cavalry. I need three men to finish a few things up for me, but I will not start beating down any doors yet. I have most of the visuals to still put together yet, so why should I whine? I managed to fully complete (locked, I think) half a dozen or so over the last two days and worked on probably about a full dozen today. I would have to go dig my notebooks out of the drawer to tell you exactly...

After AfterEffects (oo! that sounds horrid, but how else do I say it?) froze up, I opened up Photoshop. I don't like Photoshop very well, but that's probably only because I don't use it often enough to really learn how it works. Anyway, I went into Photoshop to make lower thirds. Now, technically, I should be able to make lower thirds (with a transparent 'background' in AfterEffects, which I should then be able to layer over my interview footage in Premiere Pro. (Confused yet?) In fact, I have done this before (though I guess, I made the "art work" for those lower thirds in Photoshop as well; but the actual lower third was assembled in AE)...and it worked lovely. There is just something about this project that AE refuses to render a lower third with a transparent background. Black? You got it! Any other color of the spectrum you might choose? Absolutely! Transparent? WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT? 

Okay, okay...

After being frustrated with multiple attempts at different times (gracious! I could even say "different years" here and it would be true!) to make lower thirds in AE, today I decided to spare myself the further growlings about "dumb, stupid computer programs" and try it another way. 

The question you are all dying to have answered, I am sure, is, "Did it work?"

Um. I don't know. 

I had gone ahead and shut Premiere down as well before I opened up Photoshop. I guess we'll just have to wait and find out tomorrow--or whenever I next crank up the beast.

There...I got that update and the urge to write off my chest. I hope you enjoyed it. :) I rather had fun writing this post, so I hope you cracked at least one smile!

Cheekily,

It's one of those things in life, when something you'd rather not see go, has to go.

Such was the case with our beautiful Black Walnut by the road:

It was rotting at the base and we didn't want it to fall across the road (where it most likely would have landed) and in all probability, taken out the power line across the road. (Had that happened, we would have been most unpopular with the neighbors!!)

We are all saddened to see this beautiful (and indeed heavily laden) tree felled, but as I kept saying "It's a parapet on the roof kind of situation". 

I watched it fall. It's not the first tree I've ever seen fall, but it never fails to amaze me how slowly and sedately they fall. 

We started the clean up...but didn't get finished. Then...we didn't work on it today for various reasons.

Guess what we found in a hollowed out portion of the tree??

FROGS... :D

I was going to do a more interesting, chatty sort of post, but it just hasn't come bubbling out of me...so you'll have to put up with this one. :P

I'm feeling rather tired and I doubt my alertness last night when I should have been sleeping, but was instead thinking upon the subject of socks [don't ask--you might laugh], helped that dull tiredness I've had all day. Well, that or the very nasty ache I had in my right hip for most of the day. 

I did get a little progress made on Cow Cavalry narration...oh goodness!! Have I forgotten to share that bit of exciting news over here??? Well, last week, Mr. K sent me the narration!!!! I've worked on the Cow Cav a couple of times since then. I am still sorting through and editing audio to one extent or another at this point and haven't put my nose back to the video grindstone. (I like doing that part a lot, so please don't take that description in a negative sense!! :D)

Well, I have a handwork project I'm on a dead-line for...so I'll close for now. :)

It's a good question, I suppose...but one it seems hard to answer.

I started out the day (cutting all discussion of dishes, since that's a given) working on the trailer for the "Cow Cavalry". I had 'finished' it yesterday and had to go back and fix a few things--some of them I spotted for myself and a few others were graciously pointed out to me by family and friends whom I asked to view it critically. It's nice to have an honest critique board. As of this writing, I'm currently uploading my third take to YouTube. Never fear...I'll give you a link here real soon. :)

I landed the job of being the-guy (ahem, gal)-to-watch-Granddaddy this afternoon and because I didn't want to watch the Bonanza episode that was coming on (I'd seen it before and it isn't high on my list...some married woman takes a header for Adam), so I watched "Master and Commander". Mama found a copy at Goodwill earlier this week. I'd heard good things about it and I really enjoyed it. I hope to write a review over on Reformed Reveiws soon. I might actually like to watch it a second time before doing that though because the lighting was terrible (glare on the TV and the film is in shadow box and lots of dark-ish scenes) and I had a couple of breaks where I either had to put Granddaddy on the toilet, hold the urinal, make sure he wasn't going anywhere, and tell him that no, he couldn't go to bed, so I probably lost some stuff in the mix. The music is great, however.

In the meantime, I got about 4 and quarter inches done on a sock. (Dark brown, this pair is going to be.)

So, the question becomes, was my day profitable?

While it doesn't seem like I did much today, I think that yes, my day was profitable. I got some more done on my film project, I got a good start into a sock, and I did something that is, in the long run, far more important...I sat with my Granddaddy. Someone has to do it...and to be completely honest, it doesn't take much arm-twisting to get me to watch movies. Particularly good ones.

Oh, yes...and I also finished that kid biography on Queen Victoria. I have yet to pick my next book...(I like to read during the slow-time when working on video projects...)

P.S. I just remembered something else! I got the first-step on a batch of pepperoni done. Yummy....