Fall In Utah 2008 Part II

Well, I FINALLY am figuring this YouTube Quality stuff out...

I found that if you export video using WMV (Windows Media) settings on 640 x 480 @ 960 kbps the video quality doesn't get degraded as much (YEAH!!!)

This video doesn't have any cool sound to it (I was just experimenting), but the picture quality is MUCH better than before. Especially if you choose High Quality.



I'm going to mess around with the settings a little more, but I think I'm finally finding the optimal settings.

The bummer of it is, I can only export to WMV on my PC....
Oh well, if that's what it takes for good YouTube, I'll live with it.

Enjoy our Fall Colors though...

-Graydon

Our Dog Blue

We own a dog named Blue.

He's a Beagle that we got from the pound & we KIND OF think he may be pure bred as his coloring is incredible.

Anyway, I was shooting some random video tonight & shot this video of him.


You can even hear the kids screaming in the background.

Enjoy!
-Graydon

Fall In Utah 2008

It's starting to get cold in Utah and with that come the gorgeous fall colors!

I've been reading up on how to make great videos using my new camcorder & one site basically said, "The best way is to get off your duff & just go out & experiment"...

So....I did just that. I'm still working on finding the optimum export settings so that YouTube doesn't trash my video, and this one ain't all that great (it lost a lot of the detail on the upload), but we're getting there...


Check out the fun in the yard!


Click Here to see the footage on YouTube & then click on "Watch In High Quality".
It still kind of garbled the video even in high-quality, but you get the idea...

Enjoy our fall colors!
-Graydon

Experiencing The Alley

Okay, Michelle, this is for you...and anyone else who's interested. A video of the kids going through Grandma's Spook Alley. It was filmed in night vision so it does look a little different, but I think it adds to the mood.

Grandma Blair's Halloween Party

It was time for Grandma Blair's Annual Halloween Party. She really went all out this year and was very organized and prepared to entertain all the kiddies; complete with a spook alley in the basement.

This is a video walk-through of the spook alley before the scaring began.

Pumpkin Walk

Syracuse City holds a pumpkin walk every year, and every year it gets bigger. We waited in line for about 50 minutes before we even got to the pumpkins. You can't see it very well, but the kids were invited to show up in costume and people passed out candy along the path. Luckily it wasn't too cold outside because we were out there for about two hours. Beside the neverending row of pumpkins, carved in various ways, were these special groups that were just amazing: Months of the year, Disney, A fire-breathing dragon with burning cabins, the muppets, and a Super Mario Game. We had to walk through the fire station to get out and the kids were very excited to see the fire trucks and ambulances. It was a fun night.

The Power Of The Internet - Music Style...

This was one of the coolest video's I've ever seen.

One guy is in Denver, Colorado, the other is in The Netherlands.
Together they put together this incredible video..

It's to The Eagles Hotel California.


Just amazing! Absolutely amazing!

Ain't the internet cool?!
-Graydon

Year Book Photos

I just saw these on Michelle's blog and got a big kick out of them. I had some fun. www.yearbookyourself.com


1958


1962


1972


1986


1956


1960


1978

Ye Annual Lighting Of The Pumpkins!

Every year at our place we enjoy carving out pumpkins, cleaning them up, sticking them on the porch & lighting the little orange critters up!

We have a great time of it every year and this year was no different, except that Emily has now become extremely articulate and narrated the whole thing for us!

Laurie had a great time to....eating a chocolate cookie and enjoyed getting it all over herself.

So we proudly present the lighting of the pumpkins!

Click here and then click on Watch In High Quality for a much cleaner video...


Enjoy the fun!
We all had a great time!

-Graydon

Fall is here....time to insulate!

Last weekend we woke up to lots & lots of Snow.



Nearly 8 inches of the fluffy white stuff!

Which prompted me to go out & buy insulation.....no, not for the house, but for my Storage Shed out back.



So why on earth would I want to insulate a storage shed?

Well, it just happens to be where I ship all of my products out of and the shed my employee works in when he's here.

It can get pretty cold in the shed in the winter, even with a Kerosene heater going full-blast.

My dad had said that insulating it would be ideal as it's already made with 2 x 4 walls so it's be a no brainer....except....

Except for the fact that I have all the walls lined with shelves and all of the shelves have products on them.

So, what's a guy to do?

Take all the crap off the shelves, that's what!





So, last Wed, my employee & I pulled everything off of all the shelves one wall at a time & insulated every wall in the shed.

To make things easier we stacked the product as close to where the shelves were so that loading them back up would be easier.

Check out how we stacked the stuff!

We took stuff off the East wall and stacked rows of it on the center shelf, then we'd lay down a shelf board and then stacked more product. We were able to stack almost a whole set of shelves on that one center stack.



It hasn't snowed again or gotten really cold again yet so we don't know how well it'll work, but it "feels" different in the shed now and it's quieter (the insulation acts as a noise diffuser).

It also gave the shed a much needed overhaul. Kind of like when you clean out your garage, I found stuff I didn't even know I had!

I also found a bunch of garbage too (I could've filled a whole garbage can w/ all the stuff I threw out).

But, it's insulated now so we're ready for whatever mother nature can throw our way this winter! I also got really good with a staple gun too!

Time Flies!!

So here is what I have been doing in all of my spare time for the last week. I took 15 video tapes from our camcorder and put them all on the computer. Then I clipped them, titled and made them into 6 DVDs. After watching the DVDs some of the footage dragged a little, so I still have some editing to do. But I got a lot done.

It was like going back in time watching them. Kids grow so fast and most of the time you don't realize it until you look back. ( I apologize for the quality I made them small so they would run quicker.)


28 October 2005


10 July 2006

Graydon just found out that a 12 year old daughter of some friends of ours has a malignant tumor and has been given 6 months to two years if radiation doesn't work. He asked the dad if they had a video camera.

Make the most of every moment, make as many memories as you can and enjoy the journey.

2nd HD Video, The Snow Melted!

So by this afternoon all of our 8" of snow was gone....

I'm experimenting with different settings on the camera.
This one was shot in 30p with 960 x 540 import into iMovie 2008.
It looks like at the lower resolution, it's not nearly as clear.
http://vimeo.com/1960309


What A Difference A Day Makes! (Snow Melted) from Graydon Blair on Vimeo.

Still cool footage though!

Yes. I know, I'm sounding geeky w/ all these settings.
Just working on getting the best video quality out of the camera before I start shooting the "Real" stuff I bought it for...

-Graydon

First HD Video, First Snowfall In Syracuse

Today I had a chance to try out my new HD Camcorder with some awesome footage of the snow we woke up to.

I'm still learning how to get the best picture out of it for the web, but I think this one turned out pretty good.

So, here I present my first HD Video for the web...

Here's the link to it where you can see it in HD:
http://vimeo.com/1950109


First Snowfall In Utah 2008 HV30 from Graydon Blair on Vimeo.

Enjoy the video!
-Graydon

Dino Park

Last week I met my Aunt Julie and her kids at the dinosaur park. It was nice cloudy weather and the park was all decorated for Halloween, including little human skeletons dangling from the mouths of the dinosaur skeletons. It was a lot of fun.

Another Zoo Outing

This is the perfect weather for visiting the zoo, plus school is in so it shouldn't be too crowded. I was wrong. I showed up early, got a parking spot right in front and saw 6-7 school buses just unloading and tons of kids waiting at the entrance.

We did have fun. We even had a squirrel join us for lunch. It ran around our table eating anything the kids dropped. It then stood up on its back feet trying to see if Josh had anymore. We then left all of our things at the table and ran to the bathroom, when we got back the squirrel was up on top of the table. It ran when it saw us.

Laurie Plays Peek a boo!

Laurie had fun today with us.

We were watching the Presidential debates (BORING!) and she walked up to the couch and started playing Peek-a-boo with mommy!

It was so cute!


Mommy's been playing this with her in her high chair but this was the first time she'd done it on her own & we got a big kick out of it.

-Graydon

OW!!

When I was in college we visited the Corian Company...you know, the place that make the corian counter tops...as a class. When we left we each received a Corian cutting board. I have never used mine as a cutting board...I haven't really used it at all. For some reason I pulled it out yesterday and didn't put it away. (I am not good at putting anything away... it drives Graydon crazy)

Anyway, I left it standing on its side next to the couch and this morning I kicked it with my baby toe. It hurt sooooo bad! Before long it was swelling and I couldn't walk. I asked Graydon if he thought it was broken...no, but he suggested I tape it. Taping helped, but it still hurts. Josh laughed at me several times because he thought that I walked funny. This was bad timing because we had a wedding to go to tonight and I couldn't wear any shoes except flip-flops. That limits my dress options.

I just had to share my experience of the day. Lesson learned...Put things away. :)

My first stab at a decent video....

Me & the Mac have been having a lot of fun lately...

The other day I took some footage of my old Isuzu Pickup (yep, it's old...1984 old).

The camcorder I used was my old Sony TRV480 so the video quality isn't all that great, but iMovie was fun to mess with.



Music makes even the most dull, boring video (you know, like video of an old rusting truck) actually more enjoyable.

Yep! I'm a lovin' that Mac!

-Graydon
Mac junkie

General Conference online is awesome!

I've been studying up on online video the past few weeks in preparation for doing some online video for my business.

Today is general conference and I was watching it online and was amazed at the clarity of the video quality (it makes YouTube look like trash).

Then I did something that blew my mind. I pressed the "Full-Image" button on the video. Now, if you've watched YouTube or other online video and done this you see a very pixelated video that looks really blotchy.

I have a 24" flat panel monitor (cinema 16:9 style) so when I resize the videos to full screen they can really look bad.

So, I figured, "huh, let's see how good conference looks". I hit the button and it resized to the full screen and to my surprise the video quality was absolutely stunning!

Pure HDTV! I was utterly amazed.

The image quality was perfect!
Here's the link to it:
Link To The Conference Video

If you look in the shaded areas on the video you can catch just a hint of pixelation and digitizing, but the overall picture quality is just utterly breathtaking.

It makes the picture we see on our TV look really, really old & outdated.

Man, digital video has REALLY come a long way and the church seems to be keeping right with it.

-Graydon

Random photos

Laurie got to see her cousin Delilah last week. They weren't really interested in each other, but they are both so cute!

Laurie is now 8 1/2 months old and is crawling, pulling up and cruising on furniture.





Emily and Josh have had a lot of fun making letters out of themselves. Here is the letter W.




Last of all, I got my hair cut this week. This is the shortest that I have ever had it. I really like it.