Archives

Harvesting Videos

Mar17

When I first tried Youtube, I liked skipping around their site and finding all kinds of videos for the music that I like. Then I realized that Youtube does a lot more than just music videos. It does clips from commercials, homemade movies, and tutorials on thousands of interesting subjects. There are a bunch of videos that I’ve watched over the years that I wish I had downloaded to my PC so I could watch them again later or use them for reference. But I couldn’t figure out any way on the Youtube site to save the video or download it to my PC or copy it to a DVD.

That’s when I started asking around and one of my Tekkie friends told me about a web site where you can download a free YouTube downloader. That is exactly what I was trying to find – and here it is!

The same site does other things, too. Like they have a YouTube to Video Converter and Video Converter Software for editing what you harvest from Youtube and making it your own. I can see a lot of good uses for this software for business presentations to hobby projects – I’m glad someone figured out how to do what I was hoping to accomplish.

A Thank You To The Non Profit Attornies

Feb17

It turns out that my nephew Rick actually hand wrote a thank you letter to the non profit attorney nc practice, Everett Gaskins Hancock LLP, who has giving him a good dose of inspiration to finish up in high school with good grades and many years of college, to become a non profit attorney himself. Rick had a very “rocky” childhood and we all didn’t think he would live long enough to become any where close to legal age. Yet he managed to get his life in order, which took a lot of hard work and tough love for the whole family for many troublesome years.

Someone in the large circle of school friends that Rick has accumulated through the years, had a father who worked for this non profit lawyers practice. Through out the years Rick heard so much about how theses attorneys are so active with the involvement with numerous committees and commissions to improve our community. Funny how no one really remembers Rick talking about this man and what he did for a living. Rick did spend a lot of time over at that friend’s house as teenagers tend to do to socialize and to learn from various households and people that they are exposed to during that time of their life.

I hope Rick gets a hand written letter back. There are still a few people and companies that still communicate without the aid of a cell phone, pager or the Internet. I’m proud of Rick. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to be able to say or type that!!!

 

 

Longer Days Ahead

Feb16

This year we once again start Daylight Savings Time some what early this year, believe me I’m not complaining.  I have always been a huge fan of Daylight Savings Time, so I don’t mind losing just one hour of sleep in return for an extra hour of daylight in the afternoons. Daylight Savings Time, or DST, always begins on the second Sunday of March (this year it’s March 10th) and ends on the first Sunday of November (which is November 3rd). I have no problem with the loss of sleep rather quickly, because then I can enjoy some late afternoons out in one of my gardens or on my yard swing with any or all of the critters that we have here at the house. Weather permitting of course.

I wish that they would consider to keep all the clocks around the world on Daylights Savings Time. It must be so confusing to live in counties and/or states and/or territories and the like that don’t participate in this crazy, twice yearly, ritual that was started so long ago. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I found out that not everyone everywhere was utilizing all that Daylight Savings Time has to offer.

A moving story

Feb1

Last summer I got to visit my best friend, who lives in North Carolina. We have such a blast and it really saddened me to say good-bye at the end of the week. We spend a good amount of time just hanging around the house talking about the good old days, but we did do a bit of sight-seeing during the short time that I was there.

One day we took a road trip to the Cherokee Reservation. My favorite part was the outside play that we watched called “Unto These Hills” it told the story of the Cherokee people and The Trail of Tears. It was so awesome, a very moving story that once again made us both ashamed of the way our white ancestors treated the Native Americans. We caught ourselves crying several times throughout the program. It got a standing ovation at the end and it was weird how quiet everyone was while leaving the seating area. Most people deep in thought, which is a good thing if you ask me.

I would recommend this play to anyone who happens to be in the area of Cherokee, N.C. A few months after I returned home I took a look around You Tube to see if I could find any of the play recorded there and was pleased to find this short sample of the dance that they did at the end of the play. I play it now and then and find myself moved each and every time.

A few words about Elmo

Jan24

Recently I had heard that the man who has been the voice of Sesame Street’s Elmo has gotten into legal trouble. And that he has left the show. That really is disturbing, and sad, but that is not the reason that I decided to write this post. A few minutes ago my son and I were watching some videos on YouTube about the “Bad Lip Reading” videos, and somehow or another I ended up watching a video titled something along the lines of “Caleb’s reaction to Elmo and I know it.” Well, I am always a sucker for cute and funny babies, so I decided to watch it. The video was three minutes long, and the video was a full frontal view of a baby sitting on the floor watching television.

Although I could not see what was showing on the television, I could hear that it was Elmo singing a song. I expected the baby to start bouncing, or waving, or laughing, or SOMETHING! For the most part the baby simply stared at the television. A vacant stare. The kind of stare that I would expect a hypnotized, mindless person to have. At one point the baby smiled briefly, and shifted positions, but never was any “cuteness reward” for watching the video. I did not leave a comment on the YouTube page; I’m thinking that the parents posting the video don’t need to hear from strangers how boring the video was. I’m not a mean-spirited person.

But what I really wanted to say about this video was that if I were inclined to watch that particular video and “judge” if watching television was “good” or “bad” for young children to watch, that this vacant stare from this child really made me feel that television could very easily be used for evil brainwashing purposes. Some would argue that it already IS used for that. And I would argue that Sesame Street is a great program for children to watch. But this video really disturbed me.