I got my new portable computer this afternoon. It is the Sony R505JSK Super Slim Pro. I picked this one because it is light. The other portables I have had such as the Sony F390 that Jen has now are just to damn heavy (over 7 lb.) to easily carry around with you when you are going to get a cup of coffee. I got this computer to be an extension of my mind, especially for this winter’s adventure. I have come up with quite an involved plan for the coming year. I’m going to need all the help I can get.
It is a beautiful fall day, sunny and warm. I put my laptop in my backpack and rode my bike down to the Chilmark Store for coffee and a bagel. While I had breakfast I sat out on the porch editing video of Sophie painting. It is a fun little eight minute piece of a three and a half year old painting three pictures. It works pretty well on that level because Sophie is a cute little girl to watch and we are dealing with nice primary colors. The more time I spend watching the video the more I see a piece about the process of creating in an artistic way. When I see the way she does the hand prints for the tenth time I realize what she is thinking: how she first holds her paint covered hands up close to the paper and stares at them, then she takes her hands away and looks at the painting and imagines the hand prints
Pretty neat I’d say. I think this is going to work out pretty well. (Although I did just discover a malfunctioning pixel in the display – a small black dot right after the word “video” a couple of sentences ago.)
In my thinking I keep coming back to The Journey is the Reward. What is a little strange is to realize that since we live in a four dimensional space time continuum we are always moving along on our journey even when we are staying in the same place. Sitting on a couch you’re still moving through the time dimension. As I get older I am much more conscious of how real time is as a dimension. I’m not the same as I was last year or ten years ago or even yesterday. Not just physically but what I think and feel is different too.
Cloudy with the wind from the North. I am trying to figure out how to get my new laptop to do what I want it to do. So far it hasn’t been a cakewalk. A seemingly simple thing like capturing still images off my video. It is something that sounds like it should be easy, but gets a bit more complicated. The first problem is that video is interlaced, so if there is motion you only want one of the two fields. Adobe Premiere, for some strange reason, can’t do that when you capture a frame in it. I went to discussion groups on the web and found that the only thing to do is to take the image you get from Premiere and import it into Photoshop and apply a deinterlace filter.
Went to get a flu shot at the new West Tisbury Fire House. It was so crowded that I was given a sign in sheet with number 179 on it and told to come back in a couple of hours.
I am getting very frustrated with my new laptop. I’ve been trying to export an eight minute video I made of Sophia painting. It is very simple, just strait cuts with a few fades: no music, no titles, just one still frame. The computer doesn’t seem to be able to handle it. It works for a few minutes and then starts getting choppy and speeding up the video for a while and then it may go back to working fine for a while. So this morning I rendered the whole project into a single Microsoft DV avi file and made a new project with the new eight minute clip being the whole project. I was able to export that to tape with no problems that I could see so far. The biggest problem is that it took 45 minutes to render the 8 minute video.
November 11, 2001.
A new grandson and the first real islander in the family. Betzy must be pleased; she wanted Jenny to live in her house after she died and raise a family there.
Welcome to Wild Island Dashiell.
On the ferry coming back from
I haven’t formalized any plans for this winter.
I had been thinking about going to
So maybe I should do some simpler life sized pieces first before attempting something as complicated at the five figure The Dance. Then lately I’ve started thinking that maybe this year I should work on my music fantasy. I have started developing the idea of going on a “World “Tour”. Instead of performing for audiences of people I would record what I do which is to go to beautiful places with my guitar and sing with the birds or surf or whatever the natural sounds are.
I returned the Sony laptop. Even after trying all sorts of things and talking to support people and support web sites I was unable to get the damn thing to be able to handle editing and exporting back to DV tape simple 15 minute videos without dropping frames. It is a bit of bummer because I really liked the light weight of the Sony R505JSK Super Slim Pro, but it just couldn't do the jobs I need it to do.
Next I tried to get Adobe Premiere working on the top of the line HP Pavilion laptop that I picked up at Circuit City. It was almost able to do it but not quite. In doing a half hour video project the problems were with output back to tape. Not only did it screw up the beginning and end (not a real problem since you want to have a black leader and trailer unless you are trying to insert a project into the middle of a previously recorded tape) but it also lost a few frames at random points in the middle. So after a lot of hassle I returned that computer too. My next try is a Dell Inspiron 8100. It didn't arrive until after Marianne and I took off for Hawaii.
I picked up my new Dell computer yesterday afternoon at Mailboxes in
Kialua Kona. It arrived on the Vineyard after we had left
so Todd shipped it out to me here. I
should call up the guy I bought if from to see if I can get the 30 days trial
period to start now. (I just got to
find his number; it should be on one of the CDs I made with backup data. The main problem is to see if I can get Premiere
to edit video on this machine without all the problems I have had on the last
three laptops I have been trying out. The problem is that I don’t have my video
camera yet since I had to get it fixed. But
it is on the way. As of today. So it
should arrive Thursday, or Friday at the latest. I also ordered a Ewa Marine underwater housing
for the Camcorder so hopefully I’ll be able to get some great footage of swimming
with the dolphins, as well as all the pretty reef fish. We shall see.
I’m a bit worried about how well this computer is going to work out. When I first turned it on and took the Windows XP Tour it crashed a couple of time while I tried to take the Tour. Then in Word it froze up and wouldn’t let me type, although the mouse seemed to work fine. I don’t like the idea of rebooting all the time.
It is a pretty dreary rainy day today.
Up at Volcano in a bed and breakfast. A real bed and a hot shower – even if the hot water knob is on the right. I’m about to try capturing some video
Happy Valentine’s Day! What
a beautiful day it has been. Sunny
and warm. I’ve been working with my new computer to edit
video. I’ve been working on the hike
Marianne and I took down to the
Sunset from our campsite at Hookena
after Marianne and I hiked to the
After a breakfast of fresh organic Papaya and banana from the Kona Fruit Stand dolphin fins appeared out in the bay. I swam out but I didn’t see any dolphins and I was getting cold without a wetsuit so I came in. The dolphins were out there, however, so after resting up with a cup of tea and a chapter or two in Time Love and Memory I swam back out with my new wetsuit this time. There was only one small pod of nine dolphins and they seemed to be resting, but after a while they came and played with the leaves I had brought out.
The Spinner Dolphins like to catch the Leaves on their fins.
I feel like some of the dolphins are getting to know me. The pod this morning stayed with me for almost a half an hour. For the first time I traded leaves back and fourth with one of the dolphins. Finally I had to quit, I was getting too exhausted. I was in the water forty five minutes for a total of an hour and a half of swimming that morning.
Later I went into
I feel like that climb symbolizes my recovery
from my back problems.
I'm sitting in my pickup truck in the pouring rain. I’m leaving Hookena today and heading up north to Spencer. Unfortunately I didn’t get the tent down and packed up before the rain started. Fortunately I did get the sleeping bag and mattress bagged up and in the truck, so they are dry. The dolphins were here again today so after breakfast I headed out and played with them for an hour or so. There were a lot of them and they were quite playful. I saw some new behavior too: high speed close in chasing. They are such beautiful swimmers. I do wish I had a housing for my video camera. Well, one of these years I’ll get that worked out.
Yesterday there were more dolphins than I have ever seen here; must have been over a hundred. A lot of times they were all around me, small groups slowly moving in different directions. Diving down among them in the beautiful rippling sunlight made blue and almost tactile by the water I had the feeling of soaring sacred space that I remember from being in a cathedral from the middle ages. A few days before, while swimming with a smaller pod of dolphins, the sound of whales singing their love songs filled the space and was very magical.
7:37 PM Kohala, where it is very windy and once I turned the corner the rain was pouring down so hard I had to slow down to 30 mph.
I put up my tent as the sun was going down. The wind was strong but I’m in a very sheltered spot with trees on three sides. The open side faces the ocean and the sun setting directly off shore in the middle of my view. I was too busy tying off the tent to trees and rocks to look for the green flash.
I feel like this is the start of a new phase in this journey. The first part was to have a good time with Marianne and get strong. I’m still fighting a runny nose and sore throat, but I feel like I’ve gotten into pretty good shape. I’m 160 pounds and now I can feel the individual muscles in my arms and legs when I tense them. I can be out for an hour swimming with the dolphins, free diving down to swim with them and playing the leaf game, and not feel wiped out for the rest of the day like I did a month ago. Now I come in and after a shower, a cup of tea and papaya, and some reading I’m ready to go back out, even with my cold.
So now I want to get organized so that I can get to use my new Dell laptop and get my show on the road. During dinner I watched the Captain Cook Monument Hike video that I’m working on. Having been away from it for a while it seems better than I had thought. Which is nice.
There are just so many things that I want to do. One of them is to make a list of them. I also need to make A NECKLACE for SOPHIA WITH
THE SEA URCHIN SPINES.
It rained and blew last night, but my trusty tent kept me warm and
dry. When I got up it was cloudy, gray and still
windy so I headed into Hawi and had coffee and a
bagel at the Kohala Coffee Mill. Looks like I may have even found a place to plug
in my laptop and go online. I’m at
the library now, a nice place to be out of the weather and get some work done.
I’d like to get some stuff ready to put up on my website.
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