Communication

Field	Data
Title	Communication
Description	When was the last time you were excited to get an email? * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	communication, noise, vlog, vlogging, facebook, twitter, email, bills, notification, texting
Link	Link

Notes:

3,000,000 red cones, 3,000,000 green cones, 10,000 blue cones in the eye. No wonder I cannot read the  blue on blue design that Microsoft is so honry for in their programming design.

Today is the first day of the TLA project. TLA stands for Three Letter Acronym.

Barking is a sign of immaturity in domestic dogs. Mature dogs only bark to say something specific. Dogs that bark all the time don’t know their place in a the local hierarchy.

I used clonezilla today. It worked flawlessly. Well almost flawlessly. It did not recognize the partition on a Samsung drive to write an image on. It has an easy mode that sets te defaults for you. So far, I’ve always used the easy modes. not sure I could beat the default settings.

PSR Problem Step Recorder. I’m just now learning about this.

Have you heard some of the vitriolic shit coming out of North Korea? The words “act of war” keep coming out of their mouths. There is something about a nuclear test that involves the U. S. and more about neighbors being punished if they help enforce the new sanctions. It sounds scary. Trouble is, it has sounded like this for a long time. Just when do we take their threats seriously? That is the rub.

There are 150,000 Chinese national students in the U. S. at the moment.

Radio interviewers need to come up with a real viable solution to the telephone call. At least half of the people they speak with who use a mobile phone cut out so bad you cannot understand them. If I am ever interviewed on the radio it will require that it not be done over the regular mobile phone. Not much chance of this being an issue any time soon I bet.

Note

Harry Houdini made the first successful flight in Australia.

I installed a Firefox addon at work, but I haven’t restarted my Firefox yet. It has been over a week. Linux boxes just don’t need rebooting like Windows.

Somewhere in Texas there is an eBook only library opening up. I like the fact that this is in Texas. I feel a bit proud about that. They will lend the readers along side the books. I hope nothing goes wrong.  I hope all the devices come back in better condition than they left.

I swore I was going to get outside at lunch today. It was nice. Even if I didn’t get any food, I wanted to get out and walk around for a bit just to relax. never happened. It was one of those crazy days all day. Everyone had problems that I’ve never messed with before. It was one of those days that just sapped the strength. Thing is, it still worked out OK. I didn’t feel overwhelmed. I kept going. I rolled on. Things pretty much worked out.

Listening to NPR I hear the following exchange, paraphrasing.
“Egypt’s new constitution has their [I don’t remember who they are]  budget is guaranteed. Does this threaten the legitimacy of the constitution?”
“No one questions the legitimacy of the constitution.”
This was said in a way that made me think that no one dares question the legitimacy of the constitution.

Loud noise is bad for you. It can not only cause damage to you, it can cause issues with mental health. They are working on a chemical that will help the human body regenerate the little hairs that allow us to hear sound. The mental issues are not covered in this testing.

Notes

“Actually” is a far over used word. I hear people say it in government  and in all kinds of interviews to mean “What I say is the truth and what that other person said is bullshit.”

I get a ticket in this morning that said “... need help with lap top ...” Seeing them use two words to spell out laptop makes me not want to deal with them. Even the spell checker wants to stitch the two words together. This is prejudice of me, I need to work harder at not prejudging someone’s skills just by what might be a typo that I myself have most likely let slip by.

Birthday party

Field	Data
Title	Birthday Party
Description	A friend’s kid’s birthday party * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	birthday party, kids, family, fun, home, good time
Link	Link

Kids playing with balloons

Field	Data
Title	Kids playing with balloons
Description	Ah, the folly of youth. This video was shot at Makayla's birthday Jan 2013. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	kids, fun, family, balloons, home, friends, fun, joy, good day, good times, excitement, youth, play
Link	Link

Commute

Field	Data
Title	Commute
Description	Spread over a couple days. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	vlog, vlogging, commute, commuting, bus, crossing streets, birds, sun rise, working saturday
Link	Link

Mobile Movement

Mobile devices are taking over. Dell, HP all manufacturers are taking a hit. The funny thing I hard in the NPR report is that these manufacturers are looking to foreign markets for a place to hock their dinosaurs. I doubt that will work. Africa runs on mobile phones. No one has a computer. China is headed the same way. The time is coming where only developers will have a keyboard in front of them. Everyone else will just hold conversations with their devices.

Intel says they are working on new chips and products to make tablets work better. They are missing the point as well. No one gives a shit what chip is in their device. They want results. They want aps. They want to get things done without worrying about their device fucking up and needing to be rebooted.

I would be very pleased if the next big trend in mobile devices was wetter/weather resistance. This seems to be a big gaping chasm in the industry. I’m not talking those Tonka Toy bricks. I mean just normal phones made to be more resilient by design.

For example, at my day job, for the whole time I’ve been here until just recently, only sales people had laptops or tablets. Everyone brought pads of paper to meetings if that. In the first couple months of `being with a big company where everyone gets a laptop, it seems the first ten minutes of every meeting is finding a plug and connecting to wifi. The change is huge.

This is the way of things. Someday, we'll all have the phones embedded in our brains. We will stare into the middle distance and search Noogle (the neural net Google portal) for something, or play a game without twitching a muscle. Perhaps there will be an app to remember what people are saying to us so if they ask us a question we can answer. Another app that will allow us to get up, get ready and travel to work without actually waking. Perhaps another to let us sleep while exercising. We may only need to be awake for ... Well, we won’t really.

The minute someone lands on another planet they will claim it and tell the Earth to jump in a lake. The politics of Earth will change instantly upon hearing this. There will be somewhere to run. Perhaps it will happen slowly and the escape, the place to run to, will be virtual. the trouble with that is how easy it is to switch off the device that contains the virtual Shangri La. That is, of course, unless it is running along side the virtual realities inhabited by those loyal to the establishment. Then things get a bit more complex.

Notes

Unions have a very hard time staying relevant. The average worker today is more likely to change jobs or cities every couple years. When everything in the unions are based on seniority, membership doesn’t pay off.

There were four people in my office today unpacking and imaging computers. It is weird to have help.

One of the moons of Mars, Phobos, is only about 6000 km from the surface. It is a small moon, but since it is so close to the surface, I liked to think that it would look bigger than the Earth’s moon does from Earth. Perhaps it would look like a mountain traveling across the sky. However, Wikipedia says it would not look as big as Earth’s full moon. Too small. Even Wikipedia says Phobos will probably break up or slam in to Mars eventually.

For a while at my old job we had Chris, New Chris, and Chris Classic. Now, I think we have 6 Davids but none of them have cool pre or suffixes.

The problem with the doomsday device that makes people never having existed is the lack of impression it makes on your enemies. There is no altar of smoldering skulls of those who mocked you to act as a deterrent.

Notes

In some ways the fog seemed thicker this morning than yesterday. that is, in some spots it did. Yesterday, the fog was thick as soup at my door, but 50m away, it was much thinner on top of Westheimer.

I typed that last paragraph and there were no marked spelling mistakes. I had to deliberately misspell a word to check if the checker was checking. I have a poor history.

IT people blame security issues for stuff they don’t want to support. Remember this.

Football (soccer) in Britain is looking into lowering ticket prices for away tickets because people are not buying the tickets. Supporters should not have to decide between a tank of gas, meals, and a football evening. This time things might go through because the executives recognize that no one is bringing their kids. The next generation is not going to football games. They are playing video games at home. That is where people about 25 are putting their money.

New Belt

Field	Data
Title	New Belt
Description	Just another day in the life of Kelly. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	new belt, Target, parking lot, crossing street, fog, commute, cloths, vlog, vlogging
Link	Link

Motivation

 day, I hear one person talk about another person whom they want to change in some way. No one will change until it becomes advantageous for them to do so. You can bitch all you want, but if they do not have sufficient motivation, they will not change.

“People change” “People won’t change” When you need someone to change their behavior, you have to make sure of a few things.

If you get a reward for an activity, you will do it more. If you do not get a reward for an activity you will do it less. When you are punished for an activity you evaluate the risk and either move to another activity or adapt to the situation and become better at getting the reward for the existing activity. Notice, the existing activity is not taken off the list of possibilities.

Guarantee getting caught, every time. If you can pull this off, you are almost done. In experiments, humans do not worry about harsh punishments nearly as often as getting caught. Even if you only undo everything that someone did in a given, they will stop the behavior if they get caught every single time. The behavior is not doing them any good if they cannot reap the reward at all.

In the case of jail, by locking up half the criminals, you motivate the other half of the criminal population  to commit more crimes because there is less competition. Thus, the reward becomes higher per crime.

We think of reward and punishment as two sides of the same coin. They are two different methods of assessing a situation and making the decision on what activity to do in the future.

If someone is a car thief for thirty years. They get caught in the first month of year thirty one. When they get out of jail, and have no other opportunities, do you suppose they will stop being a car thief?Every

Notes

Spent all day yesterday in a single meeting. It was training really. It was nice because I basically refused to do anything besides attend that meeting. Today, I’m right back to normal. I bounced around for hours dealing with a hundred people all at the same time. Everyone needs everything yesterday.

In the U. S. a Merc is a Mercury. In the U. K. it is a Mercedes. This one throws me off when I hear them  talk about buying from Germany.

Work is hopping. We probably have double the number of people in this office that we had before the envelopment. I call it that because it is apt.

Notes

Field	Data
Title	Training
Description	Not the actual, me whining about work training. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	vlog , vlog, training, complaining, work roof, sunshine
Link	Link

Speedy

Field	Data
Title	Speedy
Description	Our mouse in a cage and me complaining about a bunch of stuff. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	stuff and things, mouse, speedy gonzales, complaining, commute, walk, bus, time lapse, mouse, cage
Link	Link

Forgot it was a holiday today until I got on the bus. Turns out, the bus driver has to drag his feet ito keep on schedule if the traffic is not present.

I listened to an NPR audiocast about a couple developers who came up with a stand alone lamp that ran off gravity alone. The trouble is, it didn’t run off gravity alone. What it did was rely on a human to lift a weight and then run off the weight slowly falling back toward Earth. Thankfully, the designers corrected the anownscert pretty quickly. I like the idea, but it is far from a miracle. It is simply more convenient than turning a crank.

For some reason, I had a jump in views over the weekend. Can’t tell where they came from because all my numbers have not updated. It takes about a week for all the different parts of YouTube analytics to catch up. I hope this is a symptom of the free service.I would not like to make money off those numbers.

I looked at my watch about 8:00. Then I looked at my watch at 12:15. Would have missed a meeting completely, but it had been changed.

Question of Quality

Field	Data
Title	Question of Quality
Description	Good bad or indifferent? * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	vlog, vlogging, quality, good vs bad, quality vs quantity, quality vs price,
Link	Link

The cost of Diesel

Field	Data
Title	Why Diesel costs more than Gas
Description	That and a bunch more crap. Complaining about the camera and stuff. YOu know me. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	Diesel, fuel, gas, price, politics, servers, racks, vlog, vlogging
Link	Link

Lunch conversation

• Work
• My buddy Adam has been sick as a dog for a couple weeks.
• People are traveling to England all next week. One of the guys rented a stick shift car. They are not looking forward to this experience.
• Family
• How kids make excellent incubators for disease.
• Adam’s sister broke her leg in 3 places. Her dog dragged her across a hole and her leg got caught.
• My wife sends out too many self help kind of posts on Facebook.
• Video games
• New cameras for traveling for work.
• Crossing streets without getting killed.
• 401k stuff

Notes

I listen to Journey into Podcast.  Something they do that pisses me off is put a link to the MP3 file they publish. That is different than most audio based podcasting entities. At work, I have a real issue with it because we are not allowed to put licensed programs (including pay codecs like MP3) on our machines.

Video ideas: 62% better flu shot immunity

Did my 401K stuff today. My strategy is to put 10% in all the mixed funds. I know nothing about investing besides that it is all just betting one company against another. I still need to roll my old big company (2 companies ago) retirement plan in to my current one.

Notes

There were awards Sunday or Monday night. Not sure. I’m disgusted by the pomp of all those award shows. People put way too much effort and emphasis on such dribble. They could run a soup kitchen or give the money to a highway cleanup effort and get more done for humanity.

If you understood how PDF files are constructed, you would understand why it has taken twenty years to make Microsoft Word edit them. I found some instructions that say you can just open PDF files and modify them in Office 2013. That’s cool, but it sounds like the formatting gets jumbled a bit. I doubt I will get hold of 2013 for a couple years yet so they may have the bugs swept out.

Wish I could blog about the very different attitudes at the new big company. Things are massively different on some fronts.

There are riots and protests going on in France. There is a socialist president in charge. He got in on a save jobs and make France competitive ticket. He is no vilified as a fiscal disciplinarian. The word of the day is “cut”. People shout for nationalization to save industries that are losing money and failing.

I broke another set of cheap headphones today. I ran them over for the 35th time and they broke. Junk. Anyway, I used my backpack pair of headphones. I need a source for $1.25 earbuds. Really cheap. That or wireless. Maybe that would make them last longer. That seems to be what kills them around me. The wires get caught on things as I whizz past on my way to work on something else. Any ideas out there?

Wide angle lens

I want to make a long version and a short version of this video.  I know when I go roaming the internet for sample videos of how things work, I like having a short to the point video that gives me the information straight out. No fluff, just the facts. I may do a short and long version and only publish the long version to my social media. The other, will hang out in the ether ready to pass on information without fuss.

Field	Data
Title	Wide angle lens on the Kodak Zx5
Description	Comparing Kodak Playsport Zx5 with wide angle lens to Canon Elph 110 HS stock. Lens link (Amazon) http://amzn.to/SAWN9S Canon Powershot Elph 110 HS link (Canon) http://bit.ly/xdu9Gr Kodak Playsport Zx5 link (PC World) http://bit.ly/eyupVj * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	Canon Powershot Elph 110 HS, Kodak Playsport Zx5, wide angle lens, fisheye lens, compare, vlog, vlogging
Link	Link

Notes

I’m listening to a series online. They are stuck in an afterlife. They have so many adventures and so many enemies that any time one of them asks “What time is it?” They all run for their lives because the answer is “Time to run for your life!”

Well, hewie! I didn’t get to go make a video at lunch again today. I didn’t feel good this morning so I asked Nat to give me a ride in. She did, the sweetheart. I wanted to shoot a video of the ridiculous traffic, but I didn’t want to distract Nat while dealing with it. Lost opportunity.

I found myself deliberately skipping many Christmas and New Years themed audiocasts. I had simply had enough. I don't typically listen to audiocasts unless I’m at work. This is the rule, but there are exceptions.  This practice bites me butt around holidays that warrant a themed show. No big loss. There are plenty of audiocasts to go round for the month of January.

This afternoon I managed to get the vacation planner thing installed. It is a complex email and calendar based database that allows people to collaborate to make sure everyone does not take vacation at the same time. It allows all kinds of management to happen in the foreground. It is far more complex than it needs to be, but it looks like it will work. Now, if only I took vacations. Apparently, I have 3 weeks coming to me this year.

Vlog Dryer Feet

Field	Data
Title	Dryer Feet
Description	Putting on the new dryer feet (time lapse) and complaining about life. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	dryer, dryer feet, vlog, vlogging, complaining, drinking, party, getting old
Link	Link

Cat licking my head

Field	Data
Title	Cat licking my head
Description	What the title says * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	vlog, vlogging, living room, cat, licking my head, family
Link	Link

Notes

Another nice day outside at lunch. It was windy and I shot video anyway. I might stick it up out of spite. This camera handles wind noise better than the Canon, but it is not particularly designed to do so. The wind noise want to come through. When you can hear it in your ears, you know the stock camera is going to get smashed. You have to get dedicated equipment to really defeat wind noise.

Listened to an audio cast editor talk about moving voices around in an audio plane during conversations. She played a conversation deadpan, both center. Then she added a 20 off center, Whatever unit “20” is in. She also added some music to change the mood. She set some different music, that did indeed change the mood. The moving of the people around in the plane didn’t seem to do it for me. Not sure if I just have lousy stereo sense.

Vlog

Field	Data
Title	Memories of stuff
Description	Reminisce about a staircase , a theater from long ago. I think I already spoke about Princess Bride. Oh, well. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	vlog, vlogging, staircase, parking garage, grandfather, story, walking, bus stop, random pictures
Link	Link

Expendables II

First, let me set the evening. I had a very busy and frustrating day at work. Nothing wanted to do what it was supposed to do. People were fine, Everyone seemed to have their head in the game. It was situations that refused to play along. That is at least as frustrating as people. The universe just seems to be out to get you on days like that.

I got home, ate a burger and fries that Bill was kind enough to stop and let me get for dinner. Elle was on one couch. Nat was on the other. I was in my chair with my laptop in front of me. Normally, I would have edited some footage that I had shot during the day for my own vlog. I was just too tired though.

I was running though a couple vlogs I frequent as Nat was watching the DVD extras to Expendables II. I found the extras very distracting. They were running through the weapons used in the show with some experts. nat and I had discussions about the things that were being shown. It was nice to have conversation with her. We don’t just talk to each other enough. I don’t just talk to anyone enough. I have more conversation with my camera than with people. It is sad.

The movie! Yes. The extras were interesting. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the movie started and I was nodding off in 3 minutes. I remember the one guy bailing out of the plane in the beginning. After that, I remember gunshots. Lots of gunshots. Not one line of dialog made it into my memory beyond “You will find some other minority to oppress.” or something like that.

After the show, I listened to some music in an attempt to wake up, but it didn’t work. I did my nose and ear regiment. Brushed my teeth. Did 10 pushups. I was in bed listening to my book by 21:00. Funny, I didn’t make it asleep until after 22:00. Not sure why. Woke up with a spring in my step.

The “high street”

A BBC audiocast spoke of people using local stores, they call brick and mortar stores “the high street”,  to touch a product and play with it and then buying it online because it was so much cheaper. It is getting to the point now that people are trying on clothes and buying them online for the same reason.

Stores are not happy about it. The online places do not have to pay as high a rent or for retail staff and thus have lower costs. At some point the local stores will collapse because they are not selling. I remember a story of a man getting thrown out of an Office Depot because he was comparing prices on his phone. Been a while.

Amazon and others are looking into same day delivery. These online stores will use local warehouses to deliver selected goods the same day our order them. This will be the final nail in several coffins. I hear you can order coffins online.

Kodak Playsport Zx5

I’m sick of the Canon cameras. They have issues. The 300HS was a pretty good camera. The video quality was good for a while. The trouble is the camera is pretty open to the air and moisture has made it foggy. That and I dropped it and shattered the display on the back. Otherwise, the camera works. I’m saving it for an “adventure” shot.

The replacement for the 300 HS is the 110 HS which is plastic and flimsy feeling. It also skips on audio and seems to have issues with starting and stopping videos.

This time round, I’m trying something that is water resistant to keep the fog out of the videos. I want something that i can put in my pocket without worrying so much about getting sweat and lint into the camera. You should see the inside of my phone sometime. I regularly have to crack it open and blow it out.

So far so good. I just have to remember to keep the battery charged. This camera has a clock. This clock will run and absolutely kill the battery to the point it will not charge any more. When I am done with it, I will have to figure out how to take it apart and disconnect the battery for long term storage.

Several of the complaints on this camera read as follows. “I only used it once or twice a month. Then it wouldn’t charge any more.” That is because the clock wore the battery terminally flat while it sat in a drawer. If you could take the battery out or disconnect it for long term storage, I think things would be better. I wonder if factory resetting the camera before long term storage would stop the clock from killing the battery.

Many people just use their phone for vlogging. It isn’t like you need some magic device for this quality of production. It is just me complaining about my life after all. I cannot afford a phone that will do the things I want. Also, I want to shoot video in real human weather conditions and most phones are not up to the task. Some day all phones will be water resistant. There may need to be legislation to make this happen because it is a revenue generator for manufacturers.

Camera:
Name: Kodak Zx5

Features:

• Water resistant
• Fits in a pocket
• Easy to use
• Turns on quickly and is ready to record
• 5MP pictures
• Looks like a mobile phone, so you can be sneaky.
• Doesn’t pick up wind noise nearly as bad as the Canon cameras
• Inexpensive

Fails:

• Too narrow angle lens. The lens needs to be wider angle.
• Could use a flash and or video light but that would kill the battery
• Locked in battery that cannot be easily replaced

Field	Data
Title	vlog 2013-01-10
Description	Bad weather, sinking bus stop, Kodak Ze5, weather. * Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001 * Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub * Blog http://plastickelly.blogspot.com * YouTube RSS http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/zhsy00001/uploads
Tags	Bad weather, sinking bus stop, Kodak Ze5, weather, vlog, vlogging,