Wireless Weekend

It all started with a Netflix account.

Early last week I took the plunge and signed up for Netflix to check out some of the documentaries they had available.  As a guy who hasn't bothered to get cable, Netflix seemed like an affordable and diverse enough option that would actually save me money by curbing my DVD purchases when I'm looking for something new to watch.  So far so good.

On Friday I decided that it was time to go pick up a wireless router as it had become cumbersome trying to curl up in front of the computer to watch videos.  This was a relatively inexpensive upgrade that started the snowball rolling.  

With the wireless installed I quickly added Netflix to my Wii to sit back and enjoy.  *Sigh.  I'm not the kind of guy who needs to see everything in Blu ray quality and I'm not quick to adapt to trends that don't suit my needs (it took this long to get wireless after all) however, the quality of Netflix on the Wii sucks.  It's essentially like taking a YouTube video and blowing it up to your full screen.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Wii for gaming and wasting an hour with friends, but it was certainly no consolation for taking the cable-less route.

Saturday came along and I knew what I had to do.  I was off to the store and picked up a fancy new Blu ray player with built-in wifi and a 320GB PS3, because well . . . sometimes it just feels good to reward yourself - and after wrapping a 6 month stretch of balancing numerous edits between two jobs and putting a good chunk of change into a retirement fund, I felt I had lots of justification to buy a few toys.

Netflix has since been hooked up through the PS3, which is sharp and with it's 1080p looks noticeably better than what the Wii is capable of.  The Blu ray is also nice for checking out YouTube now, however, I have my fingers crossed that they'll be releasing the app for Netflix through Samsung in Canada soon enough that I can have it playing through my existing surround sound setup.

For now both toys will undoubtedly continue to get a lot of use, and my Netflix subscription has already paid for itself with amount I've watched. In short, the wireless weekend was a blast!

Inspired Singles: Your Mother Should Know

Issue 17: Your Mother Should Know by The Beatles

While it's tough for me to talk about any Beatles tune like it's a hidden gem, Your Mother Should Know is perhaps one of their lesser known successes that I always get a kick out of.  I love the weight and jaunty tone of this track in particular.  It remains upbeat but restrained from the rambunctious style that highlights so many other Beatles hits.

The Magical Mystery Tour is one of my favorite albums of all time!  But look at the tracks listed on the cover art - they could all be considered inspired singles for numerous reasons.

 

Upgrading Your Personal Edit Studio

After over six months of juggling several different corporate editing projects, I've finally found some down time.  The pressure that my editing suite was under became apparent when the delays on existing edits started but the projects didn't stop coming in.  What's a guy to do? Space, organization, and flexibility are key to keeping the ball rolling - time for upgrades!

The bones of my existing PC are great.  Two large 23 inch monitors, a powerful video card, and a diverse range of custom editing tools through Pinnacle, Photoshop, and Premiere provide a sturdy backbone.  It seems there's never enough space for video though.  My solution to this was a USB hub and new hard drives to divide various elements.

This is how my edit suite stacks up after upgrades:

My main drive is now treated just like a home page - main operating functions, final edits awaiting delivery, main software, and several personal details.  My secondary drive is now a personal extension - iTunes library, financial backups, and lots of free space for games, personal edit space, photos, etc.  In addition to this: 

• One hard drive for personal video editing - general archiving.
• One hard drive purely for Flip video storage and backup / homevideo.
• Two hard drives strictly for corporate edits, backup, and archiving.

This provides me with 6 different drives, roughly 5TB of current working space, and a very structured layout of how the drives are used and organized.  The biggest difference here is that I won't have to stretch projects across different drives anymore (with the exception of key backups) and this makes the raw elements easier to catalogue and store.   Not to mention, it's also easier to have more projects on the go and as things progress, dedicate large projects to their own drives.

My focus has always been on the creative end of editing.  What I mean by this is that I'm not always swayed by the most expensive technical tool, but instead by how I can achieve a certain look or effect. My edit studio is far from the most expensive, but it is versatile and modern enough to tackle most of what I want and need to be able to do at this point.

My current setup has probably been about a $3000-$4000 investment over the last three years, and that seems minor when considering the amount of projects, both personal and corporate, that I've completed in that time.  It's kind of amazing how accessible the technology has become actually. 

Next on my list - software.