videoblogging, what I do

Videoblogging: A Month in the Life

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Ah, yes, my “glamorous” job… I admit it’s a lot of fun, but right now I’m mostly tired. This month is  the most intense I’ve yet had with Sun. Here’s what it’s looked like so far:

Oct 23: Flew to Minneapolis.

Oct 24, 27, 28: Filmed interviews with the SAM-QFS team at Sun’s Eagan, MN office, flew back to Denver.

Nov 1-6: Filmed parts of Sun’s Data Management Ambassadors’ conference, fortunately being held near my “home base” office in Broomfield. Especially fortunate because I still had a lot to do organizing the SC08 Student party. Worked long office hours when I wasn’t behind a camera in a hotel conference room.

Nov 8: Flew to San Diego.

Nov 9: Much-needed day off (it was a Sunday!), went to the zoo.

Nov 10: Filmed an all-day ZFS Workshop at LISA.

Nov 11: Flew to Las Vegas for Sun’s Customer Engineering Conference. Lunch with Barton, toured the CEC show floor, hung out and had dinner with my OpenSolaris buds, declined to go to a late show with them, went back to my hotel room, watched House.

Nov 12: Filmed an HPC track that took most of the day, plus one other presentation. In the evening, participated in a Birds-of-a-Feather session on blogging. Disagreement was, er, lively.

Nov 13: After a very bad night’s sleep (my room at Caesar’s was right on top of a disco), got up at 4 am to catch a 6:22 am flight to San Francisco. Lynn picked me up, already dialed in to a staff meeting. In the afternoon, moderated the chat as Lynn’s presentation to Forum 2.0 was streamed online. Had a few ideas about how to do the moderator’s job better, will be writing about those later. In the evening Lynn and I had a meeting with Meena, then went back to our hotel for dinner. Had an extremely hot bath – the cold water didn’t work. At least the bed was very comfortable.

Nov 14: Up early again, interesting news on my iPhone. Hurried to get to Sun’s Menlo Park campus for Lynn’s second Forum presentation, then a dash to the airport for our flight to Austin. Arrived a little before 5, Diana about the same time from Denver, then ran into Matthew at baggage claim. Everyone’s coming to town for SC08. Got our cars, I went to Spankyville, where Ross was preparing dinner for a gang of us.

Nov 15: Up at 8 to catch up on emails and run some party-related errands, then on to film at Sun’s HPC Consortium all afternoon. Ended the day filming an interview with Dr. Jim Leylek. Had a quiet dinner with Dominic, went home and to sleep.

Nov 16: Up early again today for the Consortium – first speaker of the day is Andy Bechtolsheim, so sleeping in is not an option! Will be leaving early (Peter will take over the camera) so I can go help set up the venue for the party. That will run til about 2 am, and I’m supposed to be back filming at 8:30 on Monday. Then there’s the SC08 show opening Monday night, and I’ll be filming on the show floor Tuesday through Thursday.

I hope to survive until next Saturday, when I leave for warmer climes and something resembling a vacation. I should note that this month has been equally intense for practically everybody at Sun!

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videoblogging

When You’re in Front of the Camera

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Most of the people I’ve filmed so far for Sun don’t have extensive television or other on-camera experience and, needless to say, are not professional actors. Being comfortable in front of a camera is a good skill to have in our video-driven age, but it doesn’t come naturally to most. The tips below are some things I’ve learned in my attempts to put my subjects at ease.

Those of you who’ve had the pleasure (?) of being in front of my camera will have heard a lot of this already. If you have more to add, I’d love to hear it (in the comments).

Preparation:

How much you prepare in advance is, as far as I’m concerned, entirely up to you. Often the preparation is already done, because we’re capturing on film a presentation, TOI, etc. that you have already delivered one or more times. But I’ve also filmed off-the-cuff interviews where the interviewer and interviewee met for about ten minutes beforehand, agreed on a list of questions, and then sat down in front of the camera and talked. When both parties know their topic (and you do), this works just fine.

If you say something you wish you hadn’t, or stumble over a line, we can always edit it afterward, or do another take. You don’t have to be perfect the first time, or even the second.

There is no canonical length for online video. As long as what you have to say is interesting and useful to your audience, they will watch it. Probably not in YouTube viral numbers, but the people who matter (even if they’re only a handful) do pay attention.

Humor is great if it comes naturally to you, but there’s no need for gimmicks to keep your audience engaged.

Clothing:

  • Do NOT wear narrow vertical stripes. They cause moiré patterns which look psychedelic on video – probably not the effect you’re looking for.
  • Warmer colors are preferable to black or gray, which can look very funereal on camera.

Standing, Moving:

  • Don’t feel that you have to stand in one place for the camera. If you naturally tend to pace when speaking, go ahead and do that – you’ll feel more comfortable, and that makes better video (I’ll follow you with the camera – it’s my job to keep you in the frame).
  • Hand gestures are great (they add liveliness), but try to keep them high on the body (waist level or above) so I can catch them while still zoomed in to get a good view of your face.

Where to Direct Your Gaze:

To get the most natural result for the video viewers, it’s best if you look directly into the camera lens, as if it was the face of the person you’re talking to. However, this can be hard to do without a lot of practice, and some people are uncomfortable with it.

  • If there are two or more of you: In interviews or round-table sessions, you’ll probably find it natural to look at each other more than/instead of the camera. But do try to include the camera in the conversation, as if it was another person – this makes your future viewers feel included.
  • If it’s just me filming you, I try to position myself so that, if you talk to me, you’re also making “eye” contact with the camera lens.
  • If I can film you in front of a real audience, that often works better: many speakers find they are more energetic when they’ve got the right people listening to them.

Scripts and Prompts:

  • I have rarely filmed anything totally scripted (though you can certainly do that if you prefer), but you may find it helpful to speak from notes or slides.
  • You can improvise a “teleprompter” by printing your notes or script large enough to be read from a distance (e.g., from the floor while you’re sitting in a chair). I’ve even had someone stand beside the camera and “wind” a scrolling script for my subject to read – the result was great because the position of the script kept her looking towards the camera the whole time. Another time, the subject wrote (in advance) on a flipchart that she positioned near my shoulder so she could look into the camera while following her notes.

Slides:

When I film a presentation with slides, I usually zoom in on the speaker’s face/upper body, and may not get the slides into the frame at all (unless you’re walking in front of the screen gesturing at a slide – that’s okay, too). I take notes on the timing of slide flips (using the timecode on the videotape as I’m filming) and later edit in the slides as graphic overlays; here’s an example.

Many speakers make slides so dense with information and small text that they cannot be read at video resolution (nor from the back of a room). Needless to say, this makes things hard for your viewers.

  • If you’ve got so much text on your slide that the font becomes too small too read, you probably need to use less text and/or break that thought into two or more slides.
  • Some complex diagrams simply can’t be broken down. In this situation, especially where there are small text labels involved, it helps to explain out loud each element of what you’re showing, because people may not be able to tell by looking at it.

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videoblogging

My Videoblogging Rig

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One of the things I do for Sun is videoblogging. I use that term in preference to videography, filming, etc., because I don’t claim to be a video professional.

Nor do I have professional equipment. I need to be light on my feet (and in my suitcase), and I often have to shoot under less than ideal situations. When professional video services are justified, Sun has (expensive) teams to provide them.

But I’ve been upgrading, with advice from my videoblogging friend Jan McLaughlin, who’s a movie sound professional.

So here’s what I’ve got:

Camera: Panasonic PV-GS500. It’s a decent camera, 3CCDs, but really nothing special; we got it cheap because it was a floor model at Best Buy. I prefer cameras that use mini-DV tape. Tape is a cheap form of permanent backup, and it stores the video in a high-quality, raw AVI format that I can edit with the software I have, and can output at DVD quality (or better) if I need to (though I more often compress to Flash and iPod video formats for online distribution). Hard disk cameras, on the other hand, often compress while you’re shooting into a lossy video format – that’s why they can fit so many hours of video onto a small internal hard disk.

Extra battery: Some of the events I’ve videoed weren’t set up for it, at venues that wanted to charge hundreds of dollars simply to supply a convenient power outlet. It made more sense to get an extra battery that will last several hours, and having two means I can charge one at a less-convenient outlet while using the other on the camera.

Sound

At the first big event I taped, I learned that it’s tricky to attach a professional sound board to a consumer videocamera. Running a big, heavy XLR audio cable into the camera’s 1/8″ audio jack required an adapter and was a shaky arrangement – we lost half the audio on one presentation because something came loose.

On Jan’s recommendation, I bought:

  • Rode VideoMic: Gets much better sound than the camera’s internal mic, especially when aiming across a roomful of people. This is particularly useful in less-formal talks when there’s a lot of Q&A between the audience and the speaker, and it’s hard to get people to use secondary mics even if available (it’s also hard to get speakers to repeat the questions). This mic is also great for hand-held shooting – it doesn’t weigh down my camera hand too much.
  • BeachTek DXA-4P Dual XLR Adapter: This is a mini-mixer that fits between the camera and the tripod, with a mini-jack that goes into the camera’s mic jack. It provides a much more stable connection for XLR cables, and can also take input from another source such as the Rode mic, as shown above. Audio levels can be set independently for the two channels using the knobs – while you’re filming, whereas the camera’s internal audio level can only be set when you’re not.

I won’t claim I’m getting the best possible results from this setup; I’m still learning to use it. But the sound quality of my videos has improved markedly since my early efforts.

^ Here’s my equipment bag for carting stuff to and from the show floor. It’s a reusable grocery bag bought at a Santa Cruz supermarket the other day for 99 cents.

As for editing, I use the Roxio VideoWave software that comes with Roxio Media Creator. It’s easy to use (with a few irritating quirks) and so far has most of what I need, including text and graphic overlays. Again, it’s good enough, while a software upgrade would also require a skills upgrade that I don’t currently have time for. When we need professional video editing, there are folks available at Sun to provide that service.

And here’s how I post Flash video to Sun blogs and other sites.

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The Twitter Diaries: December, 2008, part 2

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@plasticbagUK when I saw vertigo I thought ” oh look, san francisco with parking!” 5:26 AM Dec 16th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to plasticbagUK

@Zadi ships passing in the night : just arrived ago heading for a rental car and pali alto 5:28 AM Dec 16th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to Zadi

Looking forward to the luxe bathtub at the 4 seasons 5:35 AM Dec 16th, 2008 from twitterrific

Sun’s cafeteria serving Indian food and playing music to match. 9:05 PM Dec 16th, 2008 from twitterrific

Day of filming (for a Jan release) complete, way too much time to kill at SFO. Bought Cosmo at my BIL‘s request – he’s cited in it. 2:30 AM Dec 17th, 2008 from twitterrific

useful to know if you ever fly into Denver: Freedom cab charges $1.80/mile as opposed to Yellow’s $2.25 9:17 AM Dec 17th, 2008 from web

they’re not wrong… 6:57 PM Dec 17th, 2008 from web

@michellefabio Italians have very short memories of their own history as mass migrants 7:33 PM Dec 17th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to michellefabio

I’m sure there are a million things I’m supposed to be doing, but my brain is molasses right now and I can’t remember what they are 9:22 PM Dec 17th, 2008 from twhirl

final uploads, downloads, etc. then some errands before our flight to Heathrow tonight. 5:06 PM Dec 18th, 2008 from web

heading back to Europe for a month after my longest stay in the US in 18 years (5+ months). Wondering what it will feel like. 7:51 PM Dec 18th, 2008 from web

Plane being inspected after it got hit by lightning. More delay, if we fly at all tonight. 1:13 AM Dec 19th, 2008 from twitterrific

We weren’t on the plane when it was hit apparently damage was severe. Overnight at a hotel then fly tomorrow 1:41 AM Dec 19th, 2008 from twitterrific

just talked to BA. So far looks like we’re on track to leave today and get to Milan Saturday morning. 3:28 PM Dec 19th, 2008 from web

at least we have a voucher for a taxi this time, so don’t have to take SuperShuttle and be there hours early 3:30 PM Dec 19th, 2008 from web

getting ready for our second attempt to leave the country 6:55 PM Dec 19th, 2008 from web

Waiting to drop our bags again. At least ba are handling this act of god pretty well so far 8:32 PM Dec 19th, 2008 from twitterrific

@wisequeen trying to! 8:49 PM Dec 19th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to wisequeen

@wisequeen holiday only 11:31 PM Dec 19th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to wisequeen

doesn’t happen to me often, but that was a fairly hellish trip. Finally arrived home 24+ hours later than expected 6:48 PM Dec 20th, 2008 from web

have no idea what I did with the charger for my Italian cellphone 6:58 PM Dec 20th, 2008 from web

@jeffreytaylor unfortunately, Northern California is a relatively small and unrepresentative part of the overall American reality 7:10 PM Dec 20th, 2008 from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

@IgorMinar where do you find Bosnian and Serbian pickles? and what are they like? 2:07 AM Dec 21st, 2008 from web in reply to IgorMinar

whoa. looks like we tiptoed out between potential (but not quite) disasters at Denver airport. 12:34 PM Dec 21st, 2008 from web

@davest maybe someone’s trying to remind you what it was like to live in Colorado. ; ) 5:19 PM Dec 21st, 2008 from twhirl in reply to davest

home in Lecco. bought 100 euros’ worth of chocolate at the factory outlet http://www.beginningwithi.c… 5:23 PM Dec 21st, 2008 from twhirl

major jet lag, up talking with Ross til 4:30 am. Interesting cultural reflections upon being back in Italy after 5 months in the US 11:39 AM Dec 22nd, 2008 from web

trying to remember where my turtlenecks are in the Lecco house 12:58 PM Dec 22nd, 2008 from web

did my old 2-hr commute to visit former colleagues in Milan. There is nothing I miss about that. 1:45 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web

in Italy, executives are being laid off 1:58 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web

I wish [American] [men] would clue in to how excluding sports analogies are. Red Sox vs. Yankees means nothing to me, or most of the world. 2:02 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web

@ThinGuy in which part of the world and by whom? 2:31 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web in reply to ThinGuy

@pizzocalabro a specific instance, but email. 2:32 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web in reply to pizzocalabro

@ThinGuy mostly a guy thing, and of course it’s very culture-specific, so perforce it leaves people out. Not good for biz communications 3:01 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web in reply to ThinGuy

@plasticbagUK there’s worse company than House 4:03 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web in reply to plasticbagUK

the family ambigram 4:38 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web

argh. almost 5 am and I’m still awake (did sleep from ~10:30-1:30) 4:49 AM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web

@caseymckinnon Jon Stewart and I were born EXACTLY the same day, and are both left handed 9:11 PM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web in reply to caseymckinnon

@italylogue I hope you have better luck than we did getting out of Denver. Where are you going? 9:14 PM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web in reply to italylogue

torchlight procession to the top of the mountain opposite; my friend Lisa is in there somewhere 9:35 PM Dec 23rd, 2008 from web

@fakejonathan hair smelling like truffles would be really, really gross 2:32 AM Dec 24th, 2008 from web in reply to fakejonathan

back online after 3.5 days without Internet (the horror!) 11:47 PM Dec 27th, 2008 from web

@medgno got back just in time. ; ) 12:16 AM Dec 28th, 2008 from web in reply to medgno

figured out how to add a tag cloud to my blog. Feeling quite chuffed about it, since I am not in any sense a programmer 1:42 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from web

taking a long time to get over jet lag. Maybe because of the trip from hell plus subsequent road travel in Italy. 1:55 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from web

had to speak to my bank to verify a wire transfer. The “security” questions are all facts that anyone could figure out about me in <5 mins 3:49 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from web

…and to change the “password” I would have to snail-mail a request on paper. No wonder identity theft is so easy. 4:05 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from web

kid: didn’t wake up in time to wash her clothes (no dryer here!), now wants to borrow my new cashmere. Tough luck. 6:11 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from web

maybe I just have a monstrous sleep deficit 7:21 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from web

@Roam2Rome somehow docs like that turn out about 30% shorter when translated into decent English 11:59 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from web in reply to Roam2Rome

@Roam2Rome no need for guilt – you have to wade through all those superfluous source words to figure out the content, it’s a lot of work 11:43 AM Dec 29th, 2008 from web in reply to Roam2Rome

@pippawilson io ho preso 4 [voli] in 6 giorni, a novembre 11:44 AM Dec 29th, 2008 from web in reply to pippawilson

@moroplace perche sei in ufficio? Non siamo in vacanza, o e’ solo per gli Americani? 2:15 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from web in reply to moroplace

Cartoceto photo gallery: memories of a different place, and a much warmer day! 4:00 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from web

waiting for the potatoes to boil so we can eat them with bollito (boiled meats) and yummy sauces 6:33 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from web

…while cleaning out thousands of duplicates in my iTunes library. Needs an automatic function for this 6:36 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from web

traffic to my site fell off sharply Christmas day and hasn’t regained. Does this mean everyone has a life outside the Internet? 7:37 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from web

argh! get these @#@$# Scientologists off my website! 8:30 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from web

the weird thing is, the Scientologists are advertising on my Funny Signs posts 8:33 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from web

Milan, Christmas 2008 12:09 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web

@ceri I’ve wiped out my inbox several times thanks to system reinstalls, change of computer/OS. I’ve never been sure it was accidental. 12:11 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web in reply to ceri

@timfoster a very old fave of mine [The Princess Bride]. The movie was great but the book (which I read years before) is even better. 3:14 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web in reply to timfoster

spending my vacation digitizing more of my life (CDs that didn’t make it into iTunes last year) 3:47 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web

@tgardner someone who is better left out of the gene pool anyway 4:35 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web in reply to tgardner

wow. We actually have CDs that have never been entered into Gracenote 5:06 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web

@MarketingProfs re. consumerism: One shock-but-not-surprise in moving back to the US has been just how much sheer crap people buy. 5:38 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web in reply to MarketingProfs

pesto pizza and salad for dinner. Replaced the calories from the 1-hour walk around the lake in the freezing cold earlier 7:51 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web

@koolinus very simple and yummy: Buitoni pizza base with mozzarella, pesto slathered on top, this time I added potato slices. 9:31 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web in reply to koolinus

@missbhavens funny, I’ve just been moving the pages to do with my garden onto WordPress 9:31 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web in reply to missbhavens

moving > 2000 pages from static html to WordPress is…a lot of work 10:15 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web

@seancarlos fixing the links will be round two – right now I’m just redirecting, page by page 10:32 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from web in reply to seancarlos

@koolinus I first ate pesto pizza in a restaurant in Milan; if anything, blame the Milanesi! 10:30 AM Dec 31st, 2008 from web in reply to koolinus

@seancarlos nice, thanks. I was going to use Google Webmaster tools for this, is LinkSleuth better? 10:31 AM Dec 31st, 2008 from web in reply to seancarlos

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The Twitter Diaries: December, 2008, part 1

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all this and I’m supposed to do Christmas shopping, too? Amazon to the rescue! 12:04 AM Dec 1st, 2008 from twhirl

night before my last day in St B. Hasn’t been totally a vacation (worked every day), but I do feel refreshed, ready to plunge back in. Sorta 6:36 AM Dec 1st, 2008 from twhirl

“Many posts are in … countries where various discomforts exist and American-style amenities and e-mail are unavailable. ” FSOT guide 2:02 PM Dec 1st, 2008 from twhirl

@zephoria re copy editors, yes, even the Economist seems to have lost some, to my shock and horror 2:03 PM Dec 1st, 2008 from twhirl in reply to zephoria

@davest depending where you are, e.g. United checkin area, it may be quicker to walk. 6:43 PM Dec 1st, 2008 from twhirl in reply to davest

2 things re. this article : 1. the headline puns are passe’ 2. spot the Freudian slip! 6:47 PM Dec 1st, 2008 from twhirl

doing some very tedious stat work, half listening to some amazing live music 1:55 AM Dec 2nd, 2008 from web

In Manhattan most of Wednesday. Who wants to meet up? 2:07 AM Dec 2nd, 2008 from web

last morning in St B after a very late night. I was going to sleep later, but there was a goat bleating outside my window 2:00 PM Dec 2nd, 2008 from web

On my way to jfk to fly to Austin, collect a suitcase, and on to Denver tomorrow. Mpk again sometime before we go to Italy for Xmas dec 18 11:34 PM Dec 3rd, 2008 from twitterrific

@ItalyArtTravel home in lecco on lake comp plus abruzzo where my mil lives 1:28 AM Dec 4th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to ItalyArtTravel

In spite of actually having worked every day of it, the “vacation” was refreshing. I’m Coming back loaded for bear, so watch out! 1:32 AM Dec 4th, 2008 from twitterrific

@jeffreytaylor did that building complex [capitol in Dhaka, Bangladesh] finally get finished? when we were there in 1976 it was a deserted construction site 7:44 AM Dec 4th, 2008 from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

back in Austin, briefly 3:04 PM Dec 4th, 2008 from web

10 minutes of Christmas shopping on Amazon 7:06 PM Dec 4th, 2008 from web

about to leave for the airport for the last leg of this very long trip. The next one may be as soon as next week, but will be much shorter 8:31 PM Dec 4th, 2008 from web

I want a “never tell me this again” check box for airport announcements. 10:36 PM Dec 4th, 2008 from twitterrific

Shuttle driver [taking me home, finally] returning to terminal for 1 more. My generous spirit wars w/ knowing this will make the trip even longer 2:38 AM Dec 5th, 2008 from twitterrific

@missbhavens thank you for your constant ability to make me laugh, often when I really, really need it 2:41 AM Dec 5th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to missbhavens

back in the office after a month on the road, wading through expense reports and producing video 6:35 PM Dec 5th, 2008 from twhirl

Hey friends in Italy I’ll be back on the 19th. Let’s make plans to meet! 9:16 PM Dec 6th, 2008 from twitterrific

Enjoying the Colorado sunshine while my friend raids Borders. Sometimes I actually manage to sit still for a whole ten minutes 9:19 PM Dec 6th, 2008 from twitterrific

leaving those blue, blue waters behind 1:28 AM Dec 8th, 2008 from web

came home sick with a sinus infection. Feel like my head is going to explode 9:01 PM Dec 8th, 2008 from web

ooh, here comes the snow! 11:34 PM Dec 8th, 2008 from web

watching the temperature plunge at http://tinyurl.com/6o8lgz 1:45 AM Dec 9th, 2008 from web

not returnable 1:51 AM Dec 9th, 2008 from web

@anildash “woah” is how Tin Tin’s dog Snowy barks (in English). I always wondered how that was supposed to be pronounced. 4:44 AM Dec 9th, 2008 from web in reply to anildash

for the 2nd time, email from a Harker School student asking permission to use a photo from my site. That school is teaching great netiquette 6:20 PM Dec 9th, 2008 from web

@jeffreytaylor you’ll always be welcome to come enjoy the view from our place on Lake Como 6:22 PM Dec 9th, 2008 from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

@jeffreytaylor glad to hear it. The view’s not bad here in Colorado, either! 7:16 PM Dec 9th, 2008 from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

sometimes, to survive, you need a change of environment 7:28 PM Dec 9th, 2008 from web

Chelsea Bluegrass 12:16 AM Dec 10th, 2008 from web

editing video and running stats. As so often 8:08 PM Dec 10th, 2008 from web

@webmink examples? 6:10 PM Dec 11th, 2008 from web in reply to webmink

for anyone who’s really, really into storage (and video) 8:18 PM Dec 11th, 2008 from web

magician at work: http://tinyurl.com/5ppojd 9:23 PM Dec 11th, 2008 from web

@lbridenne76 @smaragdis Might be a good idea but I want easy, comprehensive, aggregated stats. I spend too much time running numbers 9:34 PM Dec 11th, 2008 from web in reply to lbridenne76

@trine I hope that is less serious than it sounds 11:30 PM Dec 11th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to trine

trying to get into the <shudder> holiday spirit. 3:34 AM Dec 12th, 2008 from web

I am all out of cope 5:25 AM Dec 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

@missbhavens tell you what, I’m just gonna come live with you! 7:40 PM Dec 12th, 2008 from web in reply to missbhavens

an enlightened reader writes me: “get that Obama crap off this Italian website!” Obviously not reading too closely 8:34 PM Dec 12th, 2008 from web

@jowyang I used to “follow” people on the Usenet, with mostly positive reactions: http://www.beginningwithi.c… 9:07 PM Dec 12th, 2008 from web in reply to jowyang

@jowyang I think it would depend largely on how it’s being used. e.g., Amazon deals is exactly what I expect, so it’s not spam 9:18 PM Dec 12th, 2008 from web in reply to jowyang

mathematician Serge Lang used to make the world’s best eggnog for Yale Xmas parties. He used Courvoisier. That sounds perfect for tonight 10:57 PM Dec 12th, 2008 from web

yet another crisis tamed, at least for the moment. Home with eggnog. 1:29 AM Dec 13th, 2008 from twhirl

really, really glad I have a weekend of nothing much to do. Physically and emotionally exhausted. 5:18 AM Dec 13th, 2008 from web

@jeffreytaylor [a friend who had just left Paris to move back to the US] best to concentrate on the upsides right now. 24 hour groceries, for example. 4:58 PM Dec 13th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to jeffreytaylor

@divinacucina I call that an epic tourist fail 4:58 PM Dec 13th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to divinacucina

need to do a bit more Christmas shopping (SIL and MIL), video editing, pack for next week’s travels 5:07 PM Dec 13th, 2008 from twhirl

@tara_kelly . You’re providing info they need, if that also happens to be self-serving, that doesn’t make you evil. 6:24 PM Dec 13th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to tara_kelly

@lskrocki weird. The US medical system never ceases to amaze me. 6:24 PM Dec 13th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to lskrocki

the anti-Obama guy emailed me again, accusing me of being neither Italian (never said I was) nor American (which I am). WTF? 6:25 PM Dec 13th, 2008 from twhirl

Overheard in the mall: “yeah, she’s not gonna have a big butt forever” 8:24 PM Dec 13th, 2008 from twitterrific

survived a day of shopping. I don’t usually have the stamina for this most American of sports 12:56 AM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl

@anildash You’ve been reading Terry Pratchett, I take it. 1:02 AM Dec 14th, 2008 from web in reply to anildash

learn in Italian in Song: Acqua Azzurra, Acqua Chiara 1:45 AM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl

@markingegno hai bisogno di sostegno morale? 1:55 AM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to markingegno

@anildash start with “Hogfather”, which is seasonal and makes exactly the parallel you did: grim reaper = Santa Claus. Wildly funny, too. 3:04 AM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to anildash

providing Momly reassurances to the kid. Could use some of the same myself. 3:08 AM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl

@jscusc on a Saturday night, no less. Why ARE you working? 6:41 AM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to jscusc

@ThinGuy bring them out to Colorado. the 1-2 inches predicted looks like 4 to me already 3:45 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to ThinGuy

@stephenfry So glad to see you & Hugh are still friends. Hear there’s a lot of snark about him in the UK. 4:00 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to stephenfry

@ThinGuy Five?!? wow. In my book, just /having/ more than one is incredibly brave. 5:43 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to ThinGuy

don’t know why the neighbors are shoveling/snowblowing their sidewalks and driveways. Snow still coming down hard. 5:43 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl

@Halcyon thanks, eggnography.com was fun! 7:12 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to Halcyon

Pandigital photo frame for mother-in-law’s Xmas present looks pretty snazzy. Whole family will contribute photos. 7:22 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl

@glynnfoster depending, might still be better than no project at all. Here’s hoping for us warm ‘n fuzzy community types. 8:13 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to glynnfoster

@glynnfoster having a job I can be passionate about is why I left Italy. Here’s hoping I get to keep it! 8:23 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to glynnfoster

@glynnfoster Happy to say it has been. 8:29 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to glynnfoster

@glynnfoster er, has been noticed. 8:44 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to glynnfoster

Mom’s tech support, at your service 8:51 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl

it’s 1 F here, – something with wind chill. And the neighborhood kids are going sledding. Don’t think I’m cut out for Colorado 11:49 PM Dec 14th, 2008 from twhirl

transferring old posts about Christmas in Italy to my new WP site. 12:18 AM Dec 15th, 2008 from twhirl

last night’s SNL was so bad even Hugh Laurie couldn’t save it. Do they not have writers anymore? 12:35 AM Dec 15th, 2008 from twhirl

@macsun heading there tomorrow myself. Forecast is warmer, but also wetter 12:58 AM Dec 15th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to macsun

two concalls then a shuttle to the airport. Guess I better hurry up and eat some lunch 8:42 PM Dec 15th, 2008 from web

“Homei Chinese food $1 a scoop” sounds absolutely alarming 11:48 PM Dec 15th, 2008 from twitterrific

“The most typical case is when a number of residents group together to complain about the aroma of Asian cooking” http://tinyurl.com/5c74dm 1:41 AM Dec 16th, 2008 from web

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