Category Archives: Video

Memories captured on video

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As you’re probably already aware, I took a TON of photos in Halifax this summer. This is not surprising at all considering I can easily snap away without realizing it. Just the other day when I was at the nature park, it was just a three hour afternoon and yet I completely filled up my card, taking over 250 pictures – and that’s a place I go to semi-regularly!

Anyway, on top of the photos both George and I shot some video as well. We both have some up on YouTube and we had many just sitting on our hard drives.

While we were there George’s cousin had a deck party which ended up being a “hooray for surviving Hurricane Earl” party. There was a lot of music all night long courtesy of an iPod being set to shuffle but one song in particular stuck out. “I’m So Paid” by Akon came on and it sparked some dancing and singing and the video became a hit among our group over the next few days. Somehow that one song became associated with being in Halifax.

Earlier this week I was walking the dog and had my own iPod set to shuffle and that same song popped up. I stopped right there on the sidewalk, thought for a second, and immediately knew what I wanted to do as a little personal, fun project.

I’ve used Windows Live Movie Maker in the past to add some music and credits to my yoga videos but I’ve never really played around with it and there’s a lot you can do. With a bit of poking around I took some of my favorite pictures from Halifax, cut out a few clips from our videos, and spliced them all together with “I’m So Paid” as the soundtrack. I fiddled a bit, moved things around, got the timing I wanted, and in the end I had a video that serves as a great reminder of all the fun we had during those last three weeks of summer vacation.

Here it is:

I can’t believe I didn’t put in anything from the video I took during Hurricane Earl, but that’s okay. I got some of the best stuff in there anyway and I had a hell of a lot of fun doing it. I have to say, if you ever want to revisit some good memories, putting together a video like this one is a great way to do that.

Enjoy!

(If you’re curious, my video channel is over here and you can feel free to subscribe. I have a feeling I’ll be using it more and more often.)

How to beat the heat in Halifax, Nova Scotia

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When the weather goes haywire while you’re on vacation, and the humidity levels in Halifax climb up to the mid-30s Celsius (or 106 Fahrenheit), you can sit around and sweat and feel like you’re going to die.

Or you can drive down the ocean and take a swim in the Atlantic Ocean and cool off for awhile.

The water was slightly chilly but it was very refreshing and it felt wonderful. I swam around and splashed with the kids and it made the day a little more bearable.

Ahhh... Much better...

The fact that it completely renewed my spirit was a fantastic bonus.

Keeping busy

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I have to get up early tomorrow morning, swallow down some breakfast, and then go to Hayley’s school to do face painting all day for their Carnival day so I need a cup of green tea (and some chocolate cake!) and my bed. Thus, I’m going to do bullets.

1. George and I celebrated 11 years together yesterday. I can’t believe it’s 11 years. I’m not sure how that’s even possible. Being a Monday and being parents without babysitters, we didn’t go out. We did, however, have a delicious pork tenderloin dinner with potatoes and vegetables, and once the kids went to bed we watched a DVD together. It’s been awhile since we’ve watched a movie so that was really nice and it reminded me of the days when we did that a lot way back when.

53/365 & 8/52 - Eleven

ELEVEN!

2. I’m still progressing with yoga. I’m seriously loving it. I’m almost a month in and I just can’t imagine a day going by without doing some sort of routine. Tomorrow’s going to be weird since I obviously can’t do it before I go to the school since I refuse to get up at 5 am. It will have to wait until the afternoon or maybe the evening if I choose some of the more relaxing, unwinding routines. That will feel strange, but I won’t be able to skip it. I’ve been working hard on Low Crow Pose and can now hold it for over 30 seconds.

7/52 & 49/365 Low Crow Pose

Why yes, it WAS nuts trying to use the timer and then getting myself into that pose. I also recorded it the next day.

Obsessed? What are you talking about?! (My sister amused me today when she emailed to tell me that searching for “low crow pose” on YouTube brings me up as the first result. Ha!)

3. What I don’t plan on obsessing over is the Insanity Workout. There’s something about doing something healthy like yoga that makes me want to do MORE so I thought, let me try some cardio. I tried a few things here and there, but then I decided to give Insanity a try. Let’s just say I’m glad I borrowed it before buying it. It’s just… it’s too much. I’m not trying to lose a lot of weight or look like I’m ripped, I just want good fitness and health benefits. I want to be strong but not THAT muscular. So something like that is way overboard for me. Forty-minute workouts with very few rest periods every day is not going to work for me, especially when my first attempt found me with a sprained back that forced me to just do very basic yoga for two days because I was in too much pain for anything else. I’m sure it’s a great workout, but it’s too high impact for me. (Also I nearly threw up – literally – during the last sequence. Googling “Insanity Workout Puke” reveals that a lot of people actually do. That’s a little bit nuts to me!)

4. Speaking of videos (up in point number 2), I also recorded a video of myself demonstrating the creepy, disturbing, horrifying candy dispenser that George dared to bring into our home.

5. Our friend came to visit for the weekend and that was a lot of fun. He stayed with us and it involved a whole lot of laughing and goofing around. More weekends should contain as much silliness and as little productivity. Although maybe not quite so much late-night poutine because that’s just not good for anyone (but it’s just about impossible to say no when poutine is brought to you at 11 pm, seriously).

Happy anniversary to my favorite furry friends

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Even though I’m now 35 years old, I still have a very strong affection for a group of fuzzy, furry friends. Most of them are monsters but don’t judge them harshly for that because other than one who’s a bit of a grouch they’re pretty good little buddies.

monsterslpI can’t believe that Sesame Street is forty years old today. When I was little I watched three shows in the morning without fail – I saw “The Friendly Giant” (you Americans were missing out on that one!), followed by “Mr. Dressup”, and then I watched “Sesame Street”. They were all great shows, classics for childhood imaginations, but “Sesame Street” was a constant source of happiness for me.

And I don’t mean to sound like the old man who talks about how much better everything was back in his day and then stops talking long enough to yell at kids to get off his lawn, but honestly the newer “Sesame Street” is nowhere near as good as the classic version that I grew up with. Sure, it’s still a good show, lots of fun and plenty of great moments but it’s not quite the same.

I miss when only Big Bird ever saw Mr. Snuffleupagus and you were never quite sure whether he was imaginary or if people just kept missing him. I miss that big goofy dog Barkley. I miss Herry, the big blue fuzzy monster that hung out with Telly. I miss Mr. Hooper, though there was no avoiding that since the actor passed away (and I still remember sobbing when Big Bird couldn’t quite understand why Mr. Hooper had died and why he couldn’t see him anymore). I miss the two-headed monster that helped me learn to read. I miss the days when there was no Baby Bear on the show (I can tolerate Elmo and Zoe way more than Baby Bear, he drives me nuts).

And remember when Sesame Street was actually on a street instead of just a block? We’d see the kids and the adults and all the little monsters playing outside. There was just something so much more fun about the show back then and I had some fun showing some of my favorite clips to my kids today.

One of my absolute favorites ever, the Yip-Yip-Yip Uh Huh aliens trying to communicate with a clock that they have mistaken for a human:

(I’m a full grown adult and it still cracks me up! Unfortunately for me Breanna was pretty scared of them when I showed her this clip.)

The Ladybug picnic:

Monsterpiece Theater presents “Conservations With my Father”:

A sad time on Sesame Street:

(I had a huge crush on Bob by the way. I had his picture on my wall and kissed it good night every night before bed.)

I could seriously go on all night finding video clips for this so I think I should stop right about now.

What are some of your favorite Sesame Street moments?

RIP Patrick Swayze

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I still have things I want to share about our last days in Halifax and Hayley’s first day in grade two today. But right now, I’m just so sad that all I can say is “Nobody puts Baby in a corner”. I hope he’s at peace after such a long, hard fight.

The best thing I could have watched at this hour

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So I’ve mentioned the crazed / loopy / giddy / utterly silly phase that I’m in right now yes? The one that is caused by being awake from 6:15 am until about 5 am, with another four hours of staying awake to go? Plus caffeine?

Right.

So if you’re at the point where you’re as easily amused as I currently am, this video – which I have seen countless times before and which is funny on a regular day – just might make you dissolve into an absolute puddle of crying laughter, complete with hysteria-induced stomach pain.

(But you need to be a Harry Potter fan, really.)

I have watched it three times in the past half hour. I haven’t stopped laughing yet.

Edumacation – or six favorite AI contestants for Pico

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I had something else that I planned to write for this post but then I was horror-struck when my Blogathon monitor Pico commented that she had never seen American Idol before.

After I recovered from the shock (hee!) I decided this would be a good time to show you a clip of six of my favorite contestants on American Idol:

  1. Obviously, Ms. Original, Kelly Clarkson – “Because of You” (live on some show, one of my favorites of her songs)

  2. Clay Aiken – “Bridge Over Troubled Water” live on AI:

  3. Blake Lewis – “You Give Love a Bad Name” live on AI, beatboxer extraordinaire!

  4. Carrie Underwood – “Alone” live on AI (forgive her hair, it was 80’s week!)

  5. David Cook – “Hello” live on AI (this was my turning point where I knew I was rooting for him)

  6. Adam Lambert – “Mad World” studio version (this was so ridiculously amazing, seriously)

There you go Pico! Now you can be addicted like the rest of us next season!

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Six favorite 80's songs

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I am a child of the 80’s. I was born in 1974 so I grew up through that crazy decade with the big hair, neon shirts, blue eyeshadow, and music full of electronic synth. I make no apologies for my massive love of 80’s music. It’s beyond my control. Thus, I present…

My six favorite 80’s songs:

  1. “You Spin Me Right Round” – Dead or Alive (the video is weird man)
  2. “The Reflex” – Duran Duran (one of my favorite bands ever; I wanted to marry Simon LeBon, age differences be damned)
  3. “Shout” – Tears for Fears
  4. “Keep Me Hangin’ On” – Kim Wilde (I *loved* Kim Wilde. I wanted to look like her, crazy 80’s hair and all. She was HOT)
  5. “In Your Room” – The Bangles (they had lots of songs that I loved but this was always my favorite one. I loved her voice)
  6. “Take on Me” – Aha (I had a poster of Morten Harket in my locker in grade seven. Amazingly he still looks JUST AS GOOD now, decades later.)

It was REALLY hard to just pick six. Seriously.

The dangers of an iPod and good music

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I have an iPod Touch that I absolutely love. For one thing, as long as there’s an open wireless network in the vicinity I can get online and that’s just cool. For another, I’m able to listen to music when I take the dog for a long walk (or when I do the dishes which is such a frickin’ boring chore without music – I have no dishwasher, sob!).

284/365 - Geeks R Us

There is a downside to the iPod though, or really any kind of mp3 player. See, I love music. Most people do, right? I also love to sing. I can usually carry a tune but I don’t feel like I’m a great singer or anything so I try not to do it too loud when people can hear me. I ALSO love to dance. I can’t remember the last time I was out dancing somewhere, it’s been a long time now, but oh, it’s just fun to dance.

You see where this is going right?

So there I was the other day, out walking the dog and enjoying the day and my music. Finally she had to stop and do her business so while I waited for her to pace back and forth eight hundred times in search of the Perfect Pee Spot (WTF? Why do dogs DO that?!) I was standing still. And the song that came on was awesome.

And I forgot where I was. Which is why I suddenly realized that I was dancing and shaking my ass on the SIDEWALK IN PUBLIC HOLY HELL. Seriously. It wasn’t a brief shuffle, I was DANCING on the sidewalk for a good ten seconds before I noticed what I was doing and that it wasn’t just in my head. I can only be thankful that it was a quiet street but I’m still pretty sure that one person saw me and was doing his best not to laugh out loud at me. Gah.

For the record, I’m a big American Idol dork fan and this year my number one choice was the runner up. I have the studio version of all his songs that he did on the show, and this is what I was dancing to like a fool.

Did I mention the IN PUBLIC ON THE STREET part?! Sigh.

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Friday Flashback: Worlds collide with NKOTB paying tribute to Michael Jackson

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The music of my childhood and the music of my teen years totally collided after seeing this video. Last night New Kids on the Block performed in Detroit and upon hearing the news about Michael Jackson not long before taking the stage, they set up an impromptu tribute with photos of Michael while the crowd sang the words to “Man in the Mirror”. Then they went way back to a time when Joe used to sing “I’ll Be There” and even though they were out of practice, it didn’t matter because the sentiment was there and that was all that mattered.

George and I watched a MuchMoreMusic special today with some of Michael Jackson’s best videos. I’m glad so many people are playing his music today.

(This is why I love Twitter. I never would have even known about this if it wasn’t for the fact that I follow Donnie Wahlberg over there.)