Music

Since I was a wee lad music has been a part of my life. Although I have no musical talent and have been told that I am "rythemically challenged" . But I enjoy music.

One of my first memories is of my grandmother holding me as she danced to the battery powered radio before we had electricity in rural South Carolina. Hank would sing the blues and grandma and I would dance. She would tell me stories of how her brother-in-law played a tater bug mandolin. Late in the afternoon just before dark with the sweet smell of honeysuckle on the soft summer air you could hear the the tinkling sound of Uncle Gene's tater bug as he walked through the tall pines for a visit. And some where in the distance there would be the whistle of a freight train and you hear a pack of coon hounds strike the fresh trail of the old masked bandit.

Through the years I have heard many different kinds of music and much of it beautiful. But some how there is a certain charm and purity of the tunes of my childhood and Scots-Irish ancestry.

Aero delight

This is great. not only is it a unique aircraft but it is available at the right time. Of course current economic conditions may reek havoc with the introduction of a new and different type of aircraft. The FAA designation of a new type of aircraft classification, light sport aircraft, is a godsend to recreational flyers of limited means. Planes in this class must have just one engine, and maximum airspeed is 138 miles per hour. Flyers must stay below 10,000 feet, can only be flown during day light, in clear skies and away from busy airports. But that's still a lot of room to barnstorm. To fly these types of aircraft you need only 20 hours of instruction to get certified. For only $150K you can be up and flying. need I say, " Wow!"

Update

I have been ill. And during my illness i have had the opportunity to view many movies on DVD. Listed are the films and what for.

• A Scanner Darkly--for the video effect. And I liked Dick's story of Bladerunner
• Gods and Generals--I am of Southern blood
• Gettysburg--same as above
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World--I love period naval films and Russell Crowe is outstanding
• Das Boot--simply the best submarine film ever.
• Gladiator--I like Ridley Scott films
• Kingdom of Heaven--same as above
• Entrapment-- Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones
• Sentinel--a good story
• Phone Booth--a simple story, minimum number of actors, shot in seven days
• The Generals Daughter--Trevolta at his best
• The Last Samurai--Tom Cruise begins to act
• Highlander: Endgame--The last chapter of Christopher Lambert as the Highlander. I liked the TV series better.

And there were others and will be more before I am back to normal.

The Finishing Touches

Why not make your home grown DVD's look like the professionally produced videos. It's easy to do. If you are familiar with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements the project is simple. Here you see the cover I did for our Alaskan video. You can layout the entire cover in Photoshop or another image processing program and create the cover art from acratch or you could go to http://www.bmyers.com/public/1299.cfm?sd=60 and download the template. There is also an informative video to explain how to use the template. Basically, each element of the layout is on it's own layer. You simply replace the elements in the template with your own as illustrated below. Incidentally you may want to eliminate some of the elements. The layers with these elements are just left out of the final.

Remember that the background color can also be changed as well as other elements such as the green line. Once your familiarize yourself with the template it's relatively easy. You'll find it's easy to create professional results.

It's finished

Yes I finally finished this video. I seem to have more than my share of problems. Technically, that is. But it's probably my fault or at least I increase the probability by pushing everything. I want to see all the big screen stuff on my little screen. Like multiple images on the screen simultaniouly with several soundtracks. This shorty is almost right. I could have given more time to the preamble to the action either verbally or written. But I didn't. More editing of the scenes would have made things better, but , alas.... If you look at the pros and you see that thay may have 15 differend shots for a minute of action, the process becomes overwhelming. But it was fun to make.