I am looking for an inexpensive video editing program with keyframe/timeline support. Something like Adobe Premiere Pro without the HUGE price tag. I want to be able to blur or pixilate videos without having to recreate the effect every time a face moves. I can do multiple layers with the software I have; but there is no way to interpolate between frames. So the process is very tedious. That’s why we usually just use high compression ratios to obscure faces.

When I donated blood today, the nurse used a “smaller” needle than normal. She said I had small veins which seemed strange since the veins in my arm are very prominent because of all the working out I do and no one else has ever had any problems all the other times that I have donated. It was still just as creepy having a needle in my arm. Thankfully, I still finished in around five minutes; so I didn’t have the needle in my arm any longer than normal.

I have no plans to work on our computer this weekend for the first time in a long time. It will be good to not have to troubleshoot and/or fix anything. I enjoy tinkering with things; but I like doing it when I want to, not when I have to. Computers are generally very reliable; but, it’s a colossal PIA when they are not working. The video card that died is still under warranty; but who can go for weeks without a working video card in their computer?

I usually try and relax on the actual Labor Day holiday; but I decided to clean the oven while I was thinking about it so I didn’t end up not getting to it and setting off the smoke alarms and having to open all the windows in the middle of February when it’s freezing cold outside like the last two years. It’s amazing how much easier it is if you don’t let it go for too long.

I lost a couple of pounds over the long weekend; primarily because I have not been eating cookies, candy bars, etc. nearly as often as I would like. I’m not on a diet. I’m just trying to reduce the amount of junk food I eat and I haven’t yet found anything to substitute. I’m looking for a tasty, low calorie snack that I can eat as much as I want and not gain weight.

The fan on our video card was making a horrible racket and needed to be oiled again. Oiling is “not recommended” because it attracts dust which is very bad for the bearings; but I would rather spend 30 minutes every six months doing a quick repair than buying a new video card. And it’s a good opportunity to clean and inspect the other components while I have the case open.

P.S. I did some updates on Monday. Applying security patches and bug fixes seems to be a never ending task these days. They should be transparent; but please let us know if you notice anything amiss.

California Girl had some work to finish up; but we were still able to get in the pool for a few hours on Saturday. There were some clouds on and off; but good pool weather for August in Ohio. We won’t close the pool until October; but, as the days get shorter and the evening sun isn’t as high in the sky in, we usually only get in on Saturday and Sunday. So we are happy whenever the weekend weather cooperates.

We had breakfast with an online friend in real life today. It was great. We wish that we had more time to hang out. It’s usually fun to meet online friends in real life; but, sometimes, they are not what you would expect and not in a good way. Breakfast was definitely not disappointing. A great way to end the weekend.

I made some changes to the server configuration on Wednesday. In theory, it should fix the intermittent slow page loading issue that we have been having. Please let us know if our page load time is better, worse or about the same.

Instead of the customary photo of California Girl that accompanies these “technical difficulties” posts, here is a side by side comparison of her diaphragms. (Newest to oldest from left to right.)

The one on the left is for “regular” use; the one in the middle is for traveling use; and the one on the right is for “almost that time of the month but let’s be safe” use.

I finally used the last credits on the music gift card that I received. Now I can lift my self-imposed moratorium on buying music from iTunes or Amazon. The only “good” thing is that I learned a lot about the internal structure of MP3s audio files and ID3 tags while trying to figure out why my album art did not show up on my smart phone.

I’ve suddenly become allergic to pollen this spring after going the first 47 years of my life without any allergies. Anti-allergy medicines work well; but give me a headache. I haven’t decided which is worse: untreated symptoms or the side effects of the medicine.

I’m “hater” so I’ll be rooting for Dallas this evening. I’m not interested enough in the outcome to watch the entire game. I’ll probably tune in midway through the 4^th quarter. That seems to be when things get interesting anyway.

P.S. We upgraded to WordPress 3.1.1 Tuesday. It’s a minor update and shouldn’t be noticeable; but, after March’s disappearing videos, we want to mention any changes, even if they are small.

Since we will not be fixing the projector in the home theater in the near future, I made a “wish list ” of the components that I would like to have if/when we can afford to replace/upgrade the broken ones. It not anything that we are going to do soon; but it’s nice to dream. Like everyone, our “when we can afford it” list is getting longer and longer.

I wish that there was some way to stop spam comments from being saved to the database. There a plenty of plugins that identify spam comments; but none that prevent them from being saved. Because of the chance for false positives we like to review spam before deleting it; but it’s a nuissance sorting through the comments that are obviously spam.

So far, the “repair” that I did to the cooling fan on the video card seems to have worked. The fan is much quieter than before and GPU temperatures are cooler too. The fix isn’t permanent so I also added a Windows 7 gadget which shows GPU temperature and fan speed so we can monitor the video card and start shopping for a new one when it first starts to fail rather than be surprised when it suddenly dies.

Also, we changed the number of posts on the front page back to 10 (which is the default). We haven’t noticed any slowdowns recently. We don’t think we need to reduce the number of posts anymore; especially with the performance improvements that we have implemented. Plus, after upgrading to WP 3.1, the number of posts was being reduced in other places.

Here is one of the photographs from our last photo session that we decided not to post. We like the composition, but the camera (or the photographer) didn’t properly adjust for strong lighting in the bathroom.

P.S. We know that this post doesn’t have anything at all to do with Saint Patrick’s Day; but today is still March 17.