Headaches

Well, here is my camera.  The Canon XF100.  I won't say how much I paid, but you can easily look up the MSRP.  Just remember that I also had to purchase an expensive media card, and a VERY expensive warranty.

My headache comes from something I did not anticipate at all, and probably should have.  This camera may sit still for a while, eating up the warranty, because, apparently, not only do I need new, really expensive software, but my 3 year old, $1800 laptop computer may be unable to run any software I need.  Hence, I may need a new computer.  And not only do I need a new computer, but I need one that is pretty high in price.  One with all the higher amounts of memory, processors, cards, etc.

I thought at worst I would need new software, that I could have probably handled.  My computer is still working great, and it's not too far behind, right?  Even the real expensive stuff.  But a new computer too?  For those of you who don't know, I work with, trust, and am very familiar with Mac computers.  Hipster?  Not me.  Not a computer programmer and don't want to deal with viruses?  Bingo.

The really REALLY funny thing, I mean, I'm laughing so hard about it right now, is that I had considered purchasing a MacBook Pro when I got this one, but I was like, "pfffft.  What do I need a faster card and more of all that stuff for?  It's not like I'm going to be making movies on the thing!"

The place I take all my computer issues, accepts trade-ins, so that you don't feel absolutely horrible in situations like this.  Problem is, apparently my computer, once $1800, is now AT BEST, maybe worth $300 or $400.  And if you know anything about a brand new top of the line MacBook Pro and the latest video editing software, you'll know that, though it is a good sized chunk, it's not good enough.  Plus my current computer's battery is kind of lumpy.  What's that cost to replace, $200?  I wonder if they'll notice....

The moral of the story is, I probably will not be making too many movies in the immediate future (since I can't watch them anywhere but on the camera), and therefore I probably will not be entering this year's Film Festival challenge which you can read about here.  Which is sad because that was an exciting factor in my recent purchase of an expensive camcorder.

The good news is that I know how to use the thing fairly well already after only having it for a week.  The bad news is, when I look back on this blog in a few years, I might laugh at how naive I was in my fiscal estimate of starting my voyage into this most expensive of hobbies (in which few hobbyists turn professional).

I mean, unless any of you would like to donate $3000 dollars to my cause...... that would be swell.

The camera, I did my research, I thought hard about it, and it's a great camcorder.  Everything else?  Might have skipped my mind a little in all the camera thinking.

Reggie and the Full Effect

It's the name of a band that I liked when I was in jr. high.  For you Americans, that's grades 7, 8, and 9.  10 to 12 are high school for us.  They're not very good, and in fact, I don't know when the album I have was made (it's called "Promotional Copy", pretty creative), and I highly doubt they exist anymore.  They were kind of a punk rock group that usually featured a catchy keyboard riff, but not catchy enough I guess.

I remember my mom getting mad at me when she saw the CD at one point and realized that the first track is called "Bitches get Stitches"  It was just some audio of a guy getting shot by some other guy.  The whole album is a mixture of actual songs, weird joke songs, and weird things that don't make much sense.  I think they're from the East Coast of Canada, but all of this info is not important enough to look up, so don't bother.

I was watching a late night cartoon a long time ago called "Undergrads", which I recently started recording for the nostalgic factor on our PVR a few weeks ago.  It's pretty horrible.  It has it's moments like anything that makes it onto TV at any time slot, but not enough to watch except for the nostalgia factor (I'm going to start calling that the N-F)  On one episode, a certain song was featured, by this band, that sounded good at first (catchy), but now that I'm more than 13 years old, it has been grown out of.  The point is, just hearing a few seconds of it was enough for me to use the inter-web to find out the name of the song/band and by the album.  Remember when that was how you had to find music?  I am too young to remember any other way of finding music, and now there's youtube, so yeah... Remember?

But you know what the funny thing is?  I still like a whole bunch of the songs on that album!  Some of them are catchy, and they are pretty well produced, but honestly, the vocals are horrible, the keyboard/synth is way too simple, and some of the songs are really screamo.

Here is one of the joke songs... or at least I hope it's a joke...  when I was a camp counsellor all those years ago, and shouldn't have been listening to such heathen music, I coun-vinced my head counsellor that as a cabin we could pretend to preform this song, after carefully making sure there aren't any swear words (there aren't any, right?).  Needless to say, it was hilarious, and we were a big hit.

The moral of the story is that the music you listen to between the ages of 12 and 16 will change your life forever.  Not that any of you reading this are in that age range, or, arange, as I like to call it, but maybe keep this in mind when your 12-16 year old kids are listening to old Lady Gaga or Ke$ha, and try to push some actual good music on them, like Pinkerton or at least some Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Even though I quickly grew out of this band, I still like them, and can clearly see that the reasons I still like them, are the same reasons I like the music I like now.  My tastes, though primitive and misunderstood back then, were primarily the exact same tastes that I have now.  Just not well developed enough.  I didn't have enough experience finding good music, so I liked what I heard, you know?

It's like how if you're a few years older than me, you probably really like Fraggle Rock, or whatever the h@#$ that show is, cause I've certainly never seen it.  You love that show, cause you were a kid when you saw it.  If you saw it right now, after reading this, you'd be reminded of how you used to like it, and so, you would smile and realize that you still like it.  Me?  I grew up with Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and The Brave Little Toaster.  Both still good in my opinion.

I will always like the music and movies I heard/saw during those highly influential pimple-filled years of my life, and along with that, no music or movie I ever see/hear ever for the rest of my life will influence me more than those years, no matter how good they are.  It's quite an amazing fact to me.  Kind of like how you will always remember your first kiss, your first car, your first apartment....those years are the first appreciative years.... you never forget them.

Here's a movie that can't be beat in my mind for instance.  Notice how stupid it looks now.  I grew up with this, though since it was rated R, I probably shouldn't have...

Or who knows, maybe Reggie and The Full Effect area actually a really, really good band, and I'm just too hipster these days...

BONUS:  here's some footage of me starting a $200,000 Aston Martin...

... I got to drive it a little in case it's not clear...