Chipmunk Videos

I added two new chipmunk videos to poetlady.com this week. We think this is a picture of one the youngsters that appeared in May. We did some research on chipmunks and it is not uncommon for them to have a litter of 5 or 6. So far we have only seen this one with Sassy. I'm not sure where our interest in chipmunks is coming from. Most people just overlook them or consider them pests. We like them because they are too small to hurt anyone.

Last week I mentioned a problem I was having with Adobe Premiere. It was the dynamic highlight/shadow effect that was causing the out of memory error. I turned it off and the video exported without any trouble. I still have one more part to finish editing next week. Then I have the 4th of July week off! During that time, I may not be able to reply to email in my usual quick fashion, as I try to enjoy the holiday.

Video Editing

This week I spent more time than I wanted trying to fix a problem with exporting video to DVD with Adobe Premiere. Out of memory errors are appearing on part one of my projects. After reading the Adobe Premiere message board I think I found the problem but I haven't had a chance to fully test it yet. It seems to happen when you apply automatic color or shadow controls. Apparently this is a common problem for a lot of people. Most of the video I work on is about 90 minutes in length and it can take 3-4 hours to transcode that much video to DVD. The error doesn't occur until the last step, which is burning the DVD. The project is a four part seminar video. Part two which is a bit longer than part one burned without an error, but part one is giving me trouble. During the past two years Premiere has worked well. Each time I edit a video there seems to be a new challenge. Early versions of Premiere were known for being buggy. There are other video editing programs out there, but learning a new program isn't high on my list of things to do. So it might be a good time to upgrade to the latest version of Premiere when the budget allows.

Budget Computer

Here is a picture of the computer that I built just over one year ago for $1000. It is still running well. I use it mainly for working on web design and video projects.



Raidmax Sagitta AXT case, 450 Watt PS
Intel P4 630 3Ghz, 800 Mhz FSB, 2 MB L2 Cache
Abit AG8-V Motherboard, 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM
GeForce 6800 GS PCI Express 256MB DDR3
HP Dual Layer DVD, Seagate 120 & 250 GB SATA 150's

Now you can get faster processors and graphic cards for the same price I paid back than. But I figure this machine should last for another two years before I need to upgrade again. I used to be a big online gamer back in the day when quake was popular. Now you can hardly find a server that is running games like that anymore. Seems like all the online game action is on Xbox Live. I'm still haven't gotten one because I have heard so many stories about them overheating. My brother had two different ones from the same store that failed to run after a few days. The game console by itself isn't that expensive, it's the extra hardware and content on Live that adds up after a while. Not something a person on a budget needs to have in their living room. I'll stick with my PC.

Student Loan Trouble

Yesterday I created an informational web page about my girlfriends student loan troubles. The problem is that they make it too easy to get a student loan. What financial institution would turn down someone for a government backed loan? It's the paying back of the loan years later that makes life miserable for some of us. I had a student loan of my own. But somehow I was able to repay the loan even though it took me over a year to find work after graduation. My girlfriend had a string of things happen that have prevented her from repaying her loan. The details are too much to go into here. You will have to read the web page for yourself if you are interested. My only advice is to avoid student loans if you have a family and you did not graduate from high school and are not planning to attend a well established school. The Department of Education has no sympathy unless you are completely disabled and unable to work. Even then you can expect an expensive court battle just to prove it.