I had a tired, old, home-made, second-hand chipping hammer that was broken and had been so for years. So, I MIG-welded the busted joint, ground the transition, and added a reclaimed hickory handle, which came from a hatchet rebuild shown in a previous video that I posted on YouTube. With the re-weld and addition of copper handle rivets, it should last a few decades now.
Tag: GoPro
Film Friday – 41st Annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Fest 2017
Below is a short film documenting my visit to this year’s Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. I lived up to my promise to Stamps-With-Foot again this year and did not buy a wooden sailboat, but there was 2-3 in my price range (and about 100 waaayyy out of it…) that made me drool.
Film Friday – Lincoln Park in West Seattle, Washington
OK, so it is not Friday, but I started working on this video Friday night… Does that count?
Lincoln Park in West Seattle is one of my favorite spaces in all of the Seattle metro area. It is a phenomenal urban space: Stamps-With-Foot and I go there all the time just to hang out, I used to run there along the beach and through the trees in the mornings, it was my first outing after hip surgery, our monsters puppies love it there, it is romantic, great for picnics, strolling hand and hand along the beach, a fine hour+ long hike after work, a protected kayak launching point, good fishing spot when the salmon are running (the pink run started earlier this week…), there is a public pool, bald eagles nest in the trees along the shore, and sometimes I go and watch the sunset from on e of the many benches when I have had a bad day. I hope this little film captures part of the magic of the place.
Going Topless
I made a short film showing all the steps in removing the Hard Top from my 1986 CJ7 Jeep for the first time in 1.5 years. I couldn’t round up the help to pull it off, so I put on my thunking’ cap and used the lift. The garage is a MESS, but my excuse is that we are still remodeling the house and it has been a wet winter and spring so there are materials and projects in work everywhere.
Film Friday – Closing Out 2016 with a Snowboard Trip with My Son
For Christmas break this year my son, The Ruminator, wanted to do a little Snowboarding. I figured it would be a nice positive cap to a so-so year personally, physically, politically, etc…
Note: This is the fist film edited and made since my switch from GoPro Studio to iMovie and since my conversion from a Windows 10 computer to my Mini Mac for video and Audio editing. It was so much better to use and just worked! See this post for more detail.
A open letter to GoPro:
Dear GoPro,
I am afraid that our relationship isn’t working out. It is not me, it is you – most definitely you. I have been a loyal fan-boy for years, but 2016 has undone us. Let me explain:
I have 4 GoPro cameras, 2 originals, one Hero Session and one Hero 4 Black. There must be $400 worth of mounts and accessories in my video equipment cabinet and mounted to almost everything I own. I was the first in line for the KARMA Drone, and I own a few shares of your stock. Hell, I was at your booth/jam box at NAMM 2 years ago and gushed to the staff there like teeny-bobber. I was at the 2016 NAB show when you guys won the “Best Of” award. Trust me, that I was all in and committed to making it work between us.
I can’t say enough great things about the cameras I own. I love them and use them while biking, boarding, cart racing, 4-wheeling, diving, running, working in the shop, etc… I am happy that the engineers, programmers, and employees in the SF Bay Area can go to work and do cool stuff, get paid a living wage, and work on tech that millions of people use every day. So why are we breaking up???
I mentioned that I own stock. Have you seen those numbers lately?! Hmmm… Screwing up the Amazon relationship before Christmas and not having production capacity did not help after the KARMA fiasco. Did your Contracts Team not even flip through “The Wal-Mart Effect” before negotiations started? Yes, I am somewhat irritated at losing money because a great product line is managed like a PTA bake sale. Additionally, I have had a DJI Phantom 3 Pro for a year or more and it has never once fallen out of the sky. I had the KARMA for 3 days before I had to climb 30 into a pine tree to retrieve it after it fell out of the sky. Camera was OK after the fall, but I sent the drone back for a full refund. One of the smarter things I did in 2016.
The final straw though is GoPro Studio. Holy sweet baby Jesus, I wish I had all the HOURS of my life that have been lost due to crashes, auto-overwrites, searching web forums for patches, and completely re-processing almost half videos I have made in the last 10 months. A recent attempt to make a film out of a Christmas snowboard trip made me want to beat my computer with a hammer for even associating with GoPro Studio. I know, I know it is “free” software… Bundled software with a $500 camera and an $800 drone is not free. As of the writing of this post, the last update to Studio was in October of 2015 – that was 15 months ago, eons of time for software. I finally had to drink the Kool-Aid and use my wife’s Mac Book to edit the film in iMovie. I made a killer little film in like 50 minutes. The software didn’t glitch, hang, or overwrite my project. It was easy to use even the first time and it just worked. As a note, iMovie is “free” as well…
To be clear, I do not see any of this as a production, software, or engineering failure. It is an issue with program & senior management. Hire professionals that understand product launch logistics, QA/QC, beta test management, vendor & supplier relationships, and the impact all of this has on your business and investors.
In closing, I am sorry that you made me do this on such a public forum. I am sorry that I can no longer support the hard work of your engineering team and production staff by purchasing your products. Spend some time on you, work on who you are and who you want to be, and get some professional help. Maybe someday we can sit down at the table again, but I am going to need my space for now.
Film Friday – Racing on a School Night
In the back of our brains we all thing that we are great drivers. I have been driving at various semi-legal speeds on various forms of transport for 30+ years. I have hugged corners on winding California coastal roads, slid into mud holes at 4500+ RPM with all four tires throwing rooster tails, took my GPZ900r & CBR600 on track & road courses, and had track days in an AWD blue Subaru demon, and have done a 1/4 mile in less than 12 seconds. I even have a helmet at work just in case someone wants to go to the local indoor or outdoor cart tracks. All facts and experience point to the supposition that I am probably an excellent driver. Nope, I am a realist and just an OK driver.
I have known and currently know much better drivers than myself. I have been going to a local indoor cart track to get schooled by some coworkers. We have a couple of guys on staff that are great drivers and I would like to be better than I currently am. If you want to be rich, hang out with rich people and copy what they do. If you want to be a good driver…
2016 SKItoSEA Race Results
Below is a little film from my part of the 2016 SKItoSEA relay race, which this year was 92+ miles from the summit of Mt. Baker to the shores of Bellingham Bay. Seven events: XC ski, hike/downhill ski, road-run, road-bike, canoe, XC-bike, and sea Kayak. I was my teams 3rd pick for the Road-bike leg after the first two dropped out due to scheduling issues. I rode my single speed a little in the month before to get back into fighting shape… I did a poor job. In my defense the weather was miserable: I sat and waited in 38 degrees F for 3 hours, in the pouring rain for the start of my leg. The wind and driving rain made 35 of my 42 mile leg, supper slippery and a hell of a lot scarier than I had planned/trained for. Add the 20 extra pounds I am toting around and I am shocked that I didn’t keel over.
I had figured my finish time would be around 2:15, but I came in completely out of gas and cramping at 2:32:27. Man, I hurt! I have to get super serious about training as I have a Warrior Dash in July, a road race in August, and some stupid Navy Seal Fitness Test I volunteered for in September. I am not joining the Navy, they would laugh me out of the recruiters office. This is an ego thing to see if a big group of us at work can manage to meet the minimum standards for BUDs Training.
Blah, blah, blah…. Anyway, this is a small short version documenting my lack of performance , but a whole race film is in the works.
Film Friday – Following Her
Mid-month Update – Jan 2016
We have a LOT going on around La Maison du Talley and I have had 12 texts and e-mails about different stuff, so here is an overall update:
- We have our garage permit!! I did a victory dance when our contractor sent me the mail.
- Building is on hold for a bit though as we have an issue inside the house that has to be dealt with before ANYTHING else. Looks like it will not be cheap, but it has to happen right now.
- The old garage will be clear as of tomorrow and ready for demo, but that has to wait on the house as well. Dammit!
- Still don’t have an HVAC contractor for the house – 2 that can’t do the work until summer, one that won’t send a written quote, one in the running, one contractor that sent me a quote that is for almost the same amount as the entire garage build & double the next closest bid, and another that I am on the fence about – mixed reviews, but good pricing.
- We finally had the new hot tub cover delivered and it is fantastic: light, ridged, perfect color… Stamps-With-Foot is stoked.
- Finished the movie (shot with a GoPro) about our cross country jeep trip, but YouTube blocked the audio because I used a snip-it of Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile, which is uber verboten. I will edit it for sound this weekend – maybe some rockin’ blues and re-post with links.
- Sticking to my workout schedule and wrist is 90%+ healed from the break. My gym has hung heavy bags and I want to start smackin’ them, but will wait for wrist to heal 100%.
- Still chubby 🙁
- Jeep is running great. Front window seal is leaking a touch and need to unstick the odometer. She will be getting an oil change and fluid check this weekend.
- The puppies/monsters are good, but they long for the Toulousian sunshine.
- I made three more bowls in pottery class and have decided to make matching food and water bowls for the puppies as my first project.
- My J-O-B is great.
- Really happy to be back in Seattle.
- Our furniture won’t be here until February. Customs issues…
- Nana is good,
her Seahawks are good. She wrangled 90 days of free HBO from Comcast, so she is happy. - Stamps-With-Foot is happy to be going back to work.
- Looking forward to Date Night with my wife tonight at an awesome hole-in-wall Greek place in West Seattle.
Serious Road Trippin’
The Ruminator and I just finished a 2900+ mile road trip in my 1986 CJ7 jeep – The Black Pearl. We drove from Little Rock, Arkansas to Seattle between Christmas and New Year. I thought it would be a nice father/son bonding trip or at least I would have him caged for a week to give his mother a respite.
After a two-day prep and checkout, we hit the road and drove right into monsoon rains then freezing temperatures. We crossed the Great Plains, filmed the whole trip on a GoPro, scaled the Rockies, drove over the Continental Divide, crossed the Cascades, suffered -17° bone chilling cold in Wyoming, had a frozen starter, black ice, 4 stitches in my forehead (whole other story…) snow, high wind, and a broken brake line coming down a mountain pass in Oregon. Nothing like bleeding a new brake line in a parking lot in 3° weather…
It was an adventure and we had a great time, even when everything didn’t go as planned. My 15 year old son was the DJ and I was the driver/chief mechanic. I will treasure the trip and the time with The Ruminator for all my days!
