Talking Cat Author, New Camera and also SWEARS

Tuesday night was special for millions, if not billions, of people all around the world. The reason for this, of course, was that I got to have a brief chat with Chris Onstad while (and after) he signed my copy of the GOF book.The best part of the evening came before this photo was taken, however, when I completely snubbed Onstad because I failed to recognize him walking along with Ryan. This is attributable to two things:

1) Unlike most webcomic authors, Onstad has never done conventions or even much in the way of being photographed. This book tour is his first ever series of public appearances, seven years after he started the comic and with his popularity already well established amongst the usual circles.

2) The one photo I ever saw of him was from an interview with The Onion AV Club, a photo which my memory decided to switch to a high-angle-looking-down perspective which made him appear about 5'6 when he is more like 6'3.

Speaking of The Onion AV club, here's an interview with Felicia Day - who is mostly known for a pair of web series called The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - which I found handy in the context of Handful.

SEGWAY

So I'm testing another camera, this one being more upscale than the Flip Mino knock-off but still decidedly in the realm of "consumer toy" rather than professional equipment. But for now I only have consumer dollars, though it sure would be nice to get the show to a point where I can sell merchandise and/or solicit donations which could go towards professional equipment!

Inspired by yet more nice comments which have come as a result of that young British fan's showcasing the Great Lakes episode, I have desperately been trying to whip together something for this weekend. Long story short, I seem to have to uninstall and completely reinstall my editing software - rarrrrgh.

But on the other fag, despite the fact that this camera (that links to pretty much the same model, just replace the "SDHC" after the slash with "PC") comes with it's own terrible editing software that insists on being the only way to get reasonable files off the camera....it just might be what I go with. At the very least, it's much closer as there are a reasonable amount of features (i.e. low-light compensation, backlight compensation, a pseudo-directional mike called a "zoom mike") and palatable video/sound quality for what I want to do. Also it is cheap enough that I could stomach going into a little debt for a second one and a tripod.

Assuming I get the editing software thing resolved today I will at the very least be uploading some of the different slices of test footage I've done and if the planets align I'll even have a new episode of Handful up!

Oh wait, I'm not sure I got in the swears I promised (sorry mum).

FUUUUUUUUUCK PROPRIETARY EDITING SOFTWARE THAT WON'T LET ITSELF BE INSTALLED ON ANY DRIVE OTHER THAN "C:" AND FUUUUUUUUUUCK THE COCKSLAPPING SLAPCOCKS WHO WON'T JUST LET ME GRAB THE FILES OFF THE CAMERA IN A REASONABLE FORMAT LIKE .AVI or .MPEG BUT INSTEAD MAKE THE RAW FILES SOME .MOD BULLSHIT THAT HAS TO BE SQUEEZED THROUGH THEIR SOFTWARE'S SPHINCTER TO BECOME A USABLE .MPEG

Count down the seconds until "Software Sphincter" becomes a common programming term! Count'em off!