THIS should have been called Über-geek....

Only the other day I was mentioning that 'I have no life'. This was refuted by my worthy compatriot, who has also been quoted as saying that my days don't end, they just slow down a bit.   I am definitely back in the insanity-zone....

Sunday we drove back up to P-town to RETURN the sink we bought two days before. This was after a pleasing interlude in the sink aisle at Home Depot whilst the three of us discussed the respective merits of various sinks. There was some heated debate over whether or not it was important to have a sink that is resistant to scratches, stains and grey marks from pans. I became quite fired up, and mentioned that I planned to write a manifesto laying out a 'Workers' Declaration' that the sole consideration regarding kitchen implements should be Utility and Function, not Aesthetic Appeal.  However instead of Rallying the Troops, I wound up laughing as we trailed through the store looking at countertop materials. 

Monday it was back to the daily grind of school and expeditions into geekery.  After school I went to a robotics meeting for the CHS team, and wound up staying the whole three hours. DIscussed video-considerations with the team captain.....there was a huge amount of things to be hashed over and planned out, and now I am engaged in making a short ad to air on the local community access TV station, and also filming the introduction of the robot at tomorrow's assembly. Yesterday I rendezvoused after school to film the voice-over for said advert.    Today I stayed at school the whole day, in order to be present at the robotics meeting after school and likewise the assembly run-through at lunch. 

Also on the way back from P-town I read over part of the infamous novel I wrote last November, and was surprised at how hysterical it was. Most amusing to read the incoherent copy I wrote at the height of the lack of sleep. And a couple of terribly funny lines that I honestly do not remember writing.... O.o  

Wednesday tech stuff:  I didn't know it was possible to be this much of a geek. I'm wearing a pair of earphones over my earbuds, am working simultaneously on two computers, have two flash drives in play, am downloading a codec for Mac and Windows...all this as preliminaries for editing an advert for robotics. 

I was given a .avi file of Team 997's winning match at the championship games at regionals. This is for use in making the ad to turn in to the broadcasting studio in the next day or two. The file plays with no trouble in VLC media player (a really nifty little free media player, btw...download here) but when I tried to import it to my editing program (Sony Vegas Movie Studio) only the audio was visible. The same thing happened when I tried to play it with Windows Media Player, or (switching to Mac) import to iMovie.  

I have heard this is a problem sometimes, and it requires fiddling with codecs. A little hunting on the internet revealed the VMS editing platform tends to have trouble with certain .avi files, and I found recommendations to download GSpot, a tiny application which diagnoses which codecs are needed to play the file.    Downloaded that...found that the file needed the DX50 codec, supplied by DivX. I downloaded a version for both Mac and Windows.    That is currently being installed, so we shall see.....


and because I have nothing better to do than my bio homework, here's this....
Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Starting time: 18:38
Mood: geeky :P
Outside my window: sun on huge snow clouds
I'm thinking: I hope this codec works.....
I'm reading: Baha! Who has time to read?  Well Great Expectations, on and off...finished 1984.
I'm listening to: Scott's voice-over for the robotics ad  XD
I'm wearing: dark grey tank, black and white plaid shirt of me dad's, jeans with a TON of stuff in teh pocketses
Yesterday, I: went to robotics potluck :)
I'm excited for: Atlanta
I'm sad because: not sad :)
I'm hungry for: salad
The song stuck inside my head is: Another One Bites the Dust
I want: FinalCut Pro
I love: being awesome :P
I loathe: cold wet weather
This week, my goal is: to get the robotics stuff done on time