hmatt's blog

We had last minute cancellations to go to sequoia. I’ve been on the fence about it since Jacqui mentioned car sickness around town and the drive would have been 6 hours anyway with traffic. :/

We’ll plan ahead next time and make scenic stops along the route. 🙂

My scene partner, Andre, from last month’s acting class told me about a great place to buy groceries. He said, “It’s like Whole Foods, but much, much cheaper… it’s called SPROUTS”

Today, I finally made the trip over to the one in Burbank. The first thing I noticed was the bulk foods section. It reminded me of the days back in Vancouver, when I used to buy bulk candy with Randy at Cub Foods, which was later named WinCo.

I did the same thing at this store, buying a little bit of food here and there.

Here’s my receipt.

I bought some ground beef, which I haven’t done in such a long time, and some other items for a burger. I plan to use the Burgerville Sauce I have before it ‘expires’ later this month.

I don’t want to spend too much time typing up all my thoughts, but I bought some Chia seeds on a whim (they were $5 for a bag) and just now spotted a couple recipes on Pinterest I’d like to try. Now that I have an idea of what they sell, I’ll be able to craft a proper grocery list next time.

Some items I probably won’t get again anytime soon though.. the licorice was pretty expensive (next time I’ll buy some of the gourmet Root Beer flavored kind) and that chocolate covered honeycomb was a bit too hard to be a replacement for a Violet Crumble bar. And even though I enjoy retro stuff, peanuts from the shell kept coming out all smashed. I don’t know how that is even possible!

At any rate, I’ll be back again to shop for chicken at some point. =)

Last summer I read about a kickstarter project called Poppy. It is a viewmaster like toy where you pop your iPhone and can take and view 3D videos and photos.

I immediately became a backer and started using the device right after I came back from Australia.

I’ve been busy trying to get everything to work so here is a list of my adventures with this project thus far:

-getting a new iPhone
-using the poppy
-sample photos
-Anaglyph (red/blue) photos
-taping trks3d
-fixing the 3d ratio with after effects
-setting up new YouTube channel
-YouTube changes

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getting a new iPhone

I wanted to buy the newest iPhone before I traveled overseas, but Jacqui reminded me that I should keep my current phone so I can buy a SIM card seeing how the iphone 4 I had is unlocked. I wanted to make sure I had the highest resolution camera to use for 3D videos and photos.

-using the poppy for the first time

I opened up the package as soon as I was home, but I waited until I upgraded my phone and restored the software before trying the device for the first time. It was worth the wait.

I took some around the apartment photos and videos, but it wasn’t until the day I took the camera to Santa Monica before I really used the poppy. Then of course I used it at work.

The Santa Monica photos were cool See them here . However, the video compression made my videos a bit lower quality than I’d hoped. The bigger issue was when I was recording the roller coaster coming toward me- the poppy3d app lost a few frames, so I decided then and there that I would record my kids show videos with the ‘native’ iPhone app.

-Anaglyph (red/blue) photos

Eventually the poppy App will have things like “turn your stereograms into anaglyph photos”, but someone on the poppy3d forums suggested the app “3Dshot!” and it works wonders.

-taping trks3d

When I tape my kids show I usually connect my canon camera to the tv so I can see the framing. The 3d video is ‘smaller’ frame wise, than I’m used to- and there’s no way to see what I’m taping while the phone is in the device– so taping took longer than expected. Finally I found a take or two that looked great and I was ready to text upload onto YouTube.

http://theretrokidsshow.com/2014/01/trks3d-special-1-3d-lever/

-fixing the 3d ratio with after effects

Apparently, the poppy app adjusts the slight curving of the images that happens due to the mirrors on the poppy. Whoops! I put it into After Effects and three hours later after testing and testing I realized the problem and solved it. I had to re-crop each side and adjust the 3d aspect ration. Here’s a picture. (Insert)

The hardest part was trying to crop and then do this, but after several attempts I arrived a solution I like.

-setting up new YouTube channel

:: YouTube has changed how they run things and before I realized my mistake I have the unchangable custom URL to my google plus account channel with the unchangeable name of “Matthew Hirsch” instead of a channel named trks3d. After hours of research with no results I just have to say – Whoops!

-YouTube changes

In conclusion (and especially, since I started writing this post 5 days ago and hadn’t yet finished posting it), I’ll add that I’m hopeful to be able to someday change the youtube name to a different channel name or something. At any rate, it isn’t worth getting worked up over at this time.

I am excited about this camera though. I’ve been taking more photos and occasionally videos.. although the poppy app drops frame rates all too often and they’ll have to fix that first. The post editing in after effects is tedious for ‘everyday’ projects.

I’ve been posting more and more to flickr – but someday I’ll have to review if I want all those pictures I put up YEARS ago to still be there or not..

Okay. No to post this and mark it off my to do list. = )

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Note: Published online January 19, 2014

At Jacqui’s church in Melbourne, Australia, they sing the song “AWAY IN A MANGER” differently than I had learned it as a kid. However, the kid I sit for was singing the version he had learned at his church in the US and it was the same version. So I did some investigating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_in_a_Manger
http://www.hymnary.org/tune/cradle_song_kirkpatrick
http://www.hymnary.org/tune/mueller_murray

apparently there are several versions of the musical accompaniment:

The one I am familiar with is referred to as the “mueller” version..

James R. Murray (1887)

“the one most commonly printed in the U.S. is Murray’s, which is typically given the name “Mueller.” The first half of the melody is identical to the beginning of the second theme of Waltz #4, transposed down a fourth, in G’schichten aus dem Wienerwald, Op. 325 by Johann Strauss Jr., composed 19 years earlier.”

——————–

CRADLE SONG
Composer: William J. Kirkpatrick (1895)

“The tune “Cradle Song” was written by William J. Kirkpatrick for the musical Around the World with Christmas (1895) and is an adaptation of the melody originally composed in 1837 by Jonathan E. Spilman to “Sweet Afton”.”

So according to this research, I’ve come to the conclusion that the version that I grew up with, as being older, and thus the original. Since I’m biased I should also add that the ‘other’ version I keep hearing sounds, how shall I put this, forced. To me, it is as if the song keeps trying to go forward and keeps falling back, whereas the version I sing is more triumphant, although probably more difficult to sing because I goes higher I think.

I suppose you could argue that the implied tune of “Home! Sweet Home!” is the correct version, and that the Mueller version is derivative of the waltz..

Anyway, I just thought this was all very interesting.

Merry Christmas!

You want to know the difference between a master and a beginner?

The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried. – Be Friends with Failure

“You’ll always miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
– Wayne Gretzky

“Every artist was first an amateur.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jacqui and I were talking last night and the topic turned into the subject of wasting energy.

I was thinking about this and remembered my box of stuff to sell.

In 1997 & 1998 and on I was a HUGE fan of advertising characters.. especially cereal advertising characters. I sent away for several offers for such characters. I had this vision of someday selling these collectors items for profit. I think the price was $7+ per toy or something.

These toys sat in a box in the garage, and then eventually I hauled them along with all of my old belongings to California. There they too sat for ages. Sure, there were several attempts to sell these items, but much like all the other bean bag toys, they are worthless. According to the most recent sold item list on ebay, they sold for 99 cents.. minus ebay fees, shipping costs etc.. TOTALLY NOT worth it.

I had this great idea to buy some travel bug tags and put them in geocaches. OF course, that’d be another $4.25 for each toy.. and plush wouldn’t respond well to being left in plastic containers most likely.

I desire big, positive changes in my life. Jerry Savelle talks about planting a seed for big changes.. so I packed up my toys into 4 plastic grocery bags, and dropped them off at the Goodwill.

Even though I never played with these toys they were difficult for me to let go of them… why? I don’t know. Maybe because I had them for so long.. or maybe because of my misdirected optimism that I would sell them (this was before ebay). Whatever the reason.. they are gone now.

I’ve let them go.