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      Saturday, April 13, 2013


otherstuff
09:24 AM - 04/13/2013

The topic: Okay, time for a break

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From paperwork. I got the taxes done and sent last week. This week, I caught up on paperwork.  I hadn't reconciled the old company's checking account since the December statement. And I reconciled two months of the other company's account. That's not my favorite thing because we take PayPal on that and they deduct fees right away (4.4%). We pay the credit card fees once a month, they're automatically deducted from our bank account. For PayPal, I tell the accounting software how much the customer paid, then deduct the fees on another line. I don't want the customer invoices showing the fees so I have to take additional steps so everything balances. It's a PITA. And UPS automatically deducts money on a weekly basis.

So, what am I doing now? Working on the Disney meet video for 2011. Yeah, it's a little late, but I had computer problems and couldn't finish it last year and then I just kept putting it off. Now, I've got the time to devote to it.

Yesterday, I checked my music playlist. It wasn't playing well with my new version of Windows Media Player, so I figured I'd just redo it. A playlist with Disney music only. Well, with the new version of WMP, you can't listen to something that's not on the playlist without adding every damned tune to the playlist. At least I couldn't. I'd work on the thing for fifteen or twenty minutes, then see a song "oh, I want to listen to that" and I'd lose what I'd done. I did this three times before I finally quit trying to listen to other songs. I catch on quickly. tongue

It took me over an hour to do. When I was finished (I'm hoping I got all the Disney tunes), there were over three thousand Disney songs on the playlist. It will be fun seeing the duplicates (amazing how many Disney compilations have the same song versions).

And then there are the photos. Thousands of photos. I like having a lot to work with, but I lose the EXIF information (date and time the picture was taken) when I take the old picture, copy it, edit it (usually to brighten a dark picture and sharpen the image), resize it and paste it onto a background, because I have a brand new picture. The EXIF information helps me keep the photos in order. Last night I had a great idea to find a program that would make a contact sheet with the EXIF information I needed. I'd use pictures that Brian and I took and work from there (most everyone that was there took pictures and sent them to me for the video; without knowing the approximate time they were taken, I'm lost as to how to add them to the video, which I like to do chronologically).

I downloaded two programs, both old. Neither of them had me jumping for joy. I removed them both from my system. On my search I found a post on a forum that suggested using IrfanView. I'd previously installed it on my system because it reads SVG files (my cutting files). And I tried it last night, works like a dream. Printed the contact sheets on the black and white laser printer, then the color printer this morning. I'll use the b&w to get them to the right ride/time of day and the color to further order them.

Yay!

Then when that's done, I'll add the transistions, then the music. Then burn them to disk, then print the labels onto the disks. Then make the DVD case cover and insert.

I'm pretty excited about the insert. This has a menu of what's on the video. Back on Valentine's Day I got a Big Shot paper embosser. Well, during the next few weeks, I found that I can make my own embossing folders. Time consuming, yes, but they're MINE! Not someone else's idea of a cool emboss, but my idea of a cool emboss. And I worked on an idea that had been percolating in my brain for a couple of weeks. I did a test folder last weekend, but I had it backwards so it's more of an "in"boss that "em"boss. The bossing goes in, it doesn't stick out. So I did another one the right way. I liked it. I used some Stickles glitter glue and am happy with the way it turned out.

This past week I made the one I want to use on the insert and it turned out best of the ones I've done. The edges are clean. It's going to be good, I know it is. 

So, contact sheets finally printed out, time to get cracking.

I wish there was an easier way to do this, but I have to admit, once I get started, I love it.


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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

In her spare time, she makes pretty things to sell in her store.

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