But with that said, I forgot what else I had to say.

We are so excited! We have been doing linear editing for the last 24 years. Of course, I haven’t been there for 24 years, but a lot of the editing equipment has! Some of it was even used when they got it 24 years ago! So, you can see how what we were doing was an outdated way of editing and the equipment has started dying on us, etc. If you take a look at that photo, you’ll see the old editing equipment. Basically, “linear” means that we edit, how I like to think of it, live on tape. You take the block of video/audio you want from the machine on the left and put it to the machine on the right in the order you want, blah, blah, blah. Of course, this also results in a slight loss of quality. Evenmoreso when you take into account that we air on two stations and were then making a copy of our final product for the other station. By that time, the loss in quality is noticeable (at least to us), but what can you do?

Now, non-linear? It’s all digital, baby! We are going to be running an Avid now! Of course, we still have to have the final product on those icky 3/4″ tapes, but the finished product will be better and as soon as the tv stations get their acts together, we’ll be using a digital format for the air.

Change-out started yesterday morning, before I even was able to check-in at 10am, they already had the old stuff ripped out and off to the sides. I was also impressed that the tech was vacuuming. :) You see, sometimes they forget we’re up there and we don’t get as much attention as other rooms as far as janitorial work goes. It’s okay… except for when we run out of toilet paper. :P Then I get to go raid the janitor’s closets. You have to admit, also, that it’s quite hard to vacuum and clean around all that equipment and wiring, so… give us a break. Haha. But, I do believe we owe the tech a tip. ;-)

Then today, while that same tech was working in that area, the other one set-up the Avid. And then, and then, and then (!!!!!!), I got to play with it. :) I hope she wasn’t just flattering me, but she said several times something to the effect of, “wow you are picking this up quick!” I guess because of my computer and now linear editing background, some of it just comes naturally. The rest, I feel like, is just going to be me messing around… which is how I learn every computer program. (My mom used to holler at me when we got our first Windows computer, “read the manual!!!!” It made her so nervous that I learn by trial and error, haha.)

But ohhhhh, it’s so nice. :)

I am in loooooooove.

I messed around a bit, making some of the most gawdawful video that you will never see, but I think that I got a pretty good grasp on it all. Friday is our “real” training day, so… whoohoo!

Now, for a letter:

Dear Modern Communications,

I love you.

xoxoxoxoxo,

Valerie

doriansmorgan.wordpress.com

:-D

So last Saturday we went shopping for a new set. We had a price range in mind (Christmas money Steve still hadn’t spent) and Steve wanted a 27″ screen… at least.

At his suggestion, we went first to K-Mart. They had three sets that fit our criterea, a very low selection overall. We wrote down the ones we were interested in and headed closer to St. Louis.

Next was Sam’s – they had a wide selection but they were all these huge widescreen plasma things in the $1000-5000 range or so. Much out of our price range.

Off to Best Buy. We spent a long time looking through their televisions and we finally found one that, though it was a bit more than we wanted to spend, fit what we wanted. All through this, the sales guy kept harrassing us about needing help. At one point, Steve asked him some questions and not to my surprise, the guy knew nothing. Steve asked him how much power the Energy Saver televisions would save and he had to go ask his manager. He came back and literally said, “he said a lot.” Um, okay, Buddy, how much is “a lot”? That wasn’t the only incident like that, either.

Anyway, when Steve finally decided what he wanted, of course, the guy was nowhere to be found. When we finally got him over there, he went to see if they even had one of those tvs… of course, they didn’t. Nor did they have one at the other store that is “near” us. So, how about this one, we ask. No, none of those in stock, either.

Now, c’mon, people, why do you put it on display with all assumption that you can actually sell them if you don’t have any in stock?

So, I said, how about this one? Steve said, “no, I don’t like that one. C’mon, let’s leave.” And so we did. Off to Circuit City.

Circuit City had a moderate selection and after a few minutes, Steve decided he wanted to ask some people some questions. But there’s no sales people in sight, of course. And, Circuit City does not have carts. So guess who was stuck holding the two-year-old who’s getting crabby and is struggling to get down? Yeah.

I found a guy who finally asked us if we needed help. I said that we did and gestured towards Steve who started on his question. “Oh, the guy says, let me get someone else, I don’t work in that department.” So we waited and someone walked by. He’s stocking nearby shelves and tells us someone will be with us in a minute. They weren’t and I couldn’t handle it anymore so I said, “let’s go.”

We drove over to Sears and went right up to the electronics… Elijah was in his stroller and for some reason, he’s suddenly decided he’s afraid of elevators and he screamed up the two floors. Anyway, we walked in and headed to the area that had the size tvs we wanted, there were two. Two.

Steve got the attention of a sales guy as soon as possible and said, “if you have one of those, we’ll take it,” pointing to the cheaper of the two. Both were horridly over priced, though the other one was worse. The guy almost seemed angry, like he was mad he didn’t have the chance to try and sell something bigger to us.

He rung us up, I paid, and then he looked at Steve and told him what to do to pick it up. How rude. Who paid for the dang thing? He didn’t even hardly look at me.

So we got in the car and drove around to the merchandise pickup. We got in there right before another couple who we’d seen checking out in the tool department. I scanned the receipt in the scanner to pull up our order like we’d been instructed and it wouldn’t take. We had to wait for a customer service person. Same thing with the couple behind us. There was no one else in the room whatsoever. Their average wait time for that day claimed thirty seconds.

We waited for nearly ten minutes. And then they tried to do exactly what we couldn’t for several minutes before finally getting our stuff. The one guy couldn’t even remember his pin number.

We head out to the car and guess what? Yeah, it doesn’t fit in the trunk, or through the door to the backseat. So Steve takes out his pocket knife and rips open the box and throws me the manual and remote. He and the loading guy take the tv out of the box and put it on the carseat. They smash the box and put it in the trunk, just in case we need to return it.

We leave. Yay. The other couple wasn’t so lucky. Their treadmill refused to fit in the back of their Jeep Liberty.

Elijah was immediately happy about our new purchase. He started beating on the side of it right away saying, “Diego! Diego!”

We got the thing home and Steve hooked it up, It’s so much bigger than our old 19″ that it takes up the whole area meant for the tv, VCR, DVD player, and ancient stereo that works only for sending out audio from the DVD player. Those three items are now placed oh so lovely-like on a tv tray. Ha. Yay. So now I gotta figure out what to do with that.

Boy, the new 32″ sure is nice (and no longer do I have to listen to E scream because he can’t watch Dora or Diego), but ech… the price I pay. :-D

Right now, he’s lying down with a bottle on a quilt on the bed. We have one set of sheets for this thing (it’s actually a twin size) and Steve is taking them with him tomorrow (story I will tell later) so I can’t put them on E’s new bed yet. Oh well, E doesn’t seem to notice. Anyway, he’s lying down and I turned off all the lights and turned on his favorite Sirius tv-radio station (23, Swing Street) and I am HOPING, HOPING, HOPING that he actually falls asleep. I left the baby gate up in the doorway so that if he gets up he can’t escape!

Oh, the bed still needs a box springs. My mom didn’t bring it with her because she didn’t think it would need it, but it does. So we’ll get that soon. Right now, Elijah’s not heavy enough to really make a difference.

Yay!! I can’t wait to get the crib outta here! (Plus, if my brother and sister-in-law want to use it, they’ll need it by November…)

Good news… it sounds like he’s actually trying to go to sleep. Whoo-hoo! Of course, this is how it should be, it’s after 10pm!

So I am all set for next Tuesday.

I will be taking Sheila and Sarah out to finally do their school pictures. I’m excited because it will be my first chance to really really use that digital camera. Will also be taking the good 35mm one, I have one roll of film I can use. I am going to take them up to St. Louis to the Muny and the Jewel Box and probably the Arch and waterfront. It will be pretty dang cool. I picked the warmest possible (according to weather.com) day for this, a high of 55 and 0% chance of rain.

So now I am totally ready for Tuesday as I have a total of 176 MB in XD cards to use. More if I get access to a computer for a few seconds to transfer from the cards to my 256 MB USB drive. That can be a lot of pictures…

I was thinking, too, that I would like to take them up in the Arch if we can. But it can be hard to get tickets and for the three of us it will be at least $20 AND Steve might be all, “AH! You went without me!?” If we do. But I haven’t been up there in so long, that would be TOTALLY cool to go. Can get lots of good pictures from way up there, probably! I guess we could go there first and see if tickets are available then go back later if needed…

Anyone want to go and have their picture taken, too? ;-)