Forever Graceful Impact: August 2010 Entry

Here’s me apologizing for the lateness of this entry. Here’s me also trying to recollect the events of the past month. A few things have already started in September, but I’ll save those for next month (if I remember).

=====Work=====

Nothing big here. Everyone is back to working full time. More money, can’t complain too much about that. I do miss my extra day off every week though. That was time to just relax a little more and to get things done.

Spent most of August just inputting each video we have onto our new website. Tedious task, yes, but I don’t mind doing those things sometimes since I’ll at least be busy. It did start to hurt my wrist after a while (repeated stress injury), but that only bothered me for a day or two at best.

I also took a week off for the heck of it. Normally, I use my vacation days for being sick. And workers usually cash in their time off at the end of the year. So to avoid any hassle, I just took a week off. I had nothing lingering to be done at work so I took it off with all my ends finished.

AND THEN the S hits the F when I come back…(next month).

=====Video Games=====

Not much here either. I did for some reason decide to play Ico, an early PS2 game. I had a copy of it from long ago, but I never got around to it. I beat it at the start of my week off. That was a very nice game. I really enjoyed it. I would like to get a copy of Shadow of The Colossus, but only if I can get it without the Greatest Hits label. I have no game that has any such label and I’d like to keep it that way.

I did pick up Metroid: Other M when it came out. I beat it in 3 days. So here’s the review link.

Metroid: Other M - click

=====Video Projects=====

Did a couple of small ones this month. One to commemorate the photos on KT Ning (although that might have been done in July…just didn’t show it right away…don’t remember), one was a silly one done with a friend I visited during my week vacation, and the other is a trailer for what we did on my birthday.

I’ll post those at the end of the entry as always. And I’ll also state that from now on, any video projects I’ve done and post here will be through my Vimeo account. Since YouTube sometimes throws up a warning due to music use, I figured to keep at least my postings here consistent and have them all be from Vimeo.

=====Square Space + Blog Changes=====

Wondering about the move to Square Space? It’s not happening. I did do their 2 week trial, but during that time I realized a few things.

One was that it would help if I knew more about what I was doing. Not that I couldn’t figure out everything (although some took time), but I found myself messing with stuff that I ended up not needing to do or use. The interface was easy to use, but half the time I was just guessing at what I was doing. There was one point where I spent half an hour trying out stuff and realized that I didn’t even want to use it in the end.

Second would be that I attempted this at the wrong time. I was too busy to actually budget time to properly sit down and make this work. Sure, I could’ve extended the free trial, but I just wasn’t feeling it.

Third is my current blogs’ traffic. The number of visitors to this blog and my game review blog does not justify me paying a small fee for something better. Would it have attracted more visitors? I don’t think so.

There might have been a few other reasons, but those were the main ones. That’s not to say I won’t ever use Square Space. Right now is not the right time I guess.

But there have been changes to this blog and my game one. Both have different banners at the bottom (just felt like changing them). Both also have video feeds on the side to our Royal Flush Media videos. I have noticed that every other time you refresh the page, the videos change from RFM videos to a random selection of videos. So if you see some weird videos, just refresh and RFM videos should pop up next. And this blog in particular underwent a name change. “Just Like Coffee That Has Cooled…” ran its course (and not everyone understood the meaning behind it). “Forever Graceful Impact” is the new name. While not everyone will understand the meaning of this title also, at least some friends can identify it with the talk/variety show we did. Possibly more tweaks to both sites in the near future.

=====Forever Graceful Impact XXVIII=====

Thank you to all that attended. A bigger thanks to those that worked the cameras. An even bigger thanks to the featured guests of the show. Without any of those components, none of this would’ve been possible.

For my birthday, we did a variety show. It was always something I wanted to do so I thought this would be the opportunity to try it. It was also a vehicle to let our friends learn a little more about each other as we shared stories, opinions, and thoughts about one another. I could recall during breaks in between segments that some people would talk to each other and relate to their stories/opinions. Nothing like getting closer to friends through similarities.

I’ve watched all of it through the wide shot I set up and that turned out well. I’ve started to edit it together with the other camera angles to see how they turned out. So far I’ve gone through the trouble to sync them together and split the segments up. The first one is the longest segment so that will take some time. I do predict to have this finished sooner than the XMAS Bash game show. Check out the trailer for it at the end of this post.

Will we do something like this again? Maybe not exactly the same, but I’d like to use some of it over again with different friends featured.

=====Final Thoughts=====

I don’t always notice it, but I feel more busy than usual. I say that I don’t always notice it because I will find myself thinking that I’m bored. This month was a little more busy with planning and putting together Forever Graceful Impact XXVIII.

I’ve actually started taking hip hop classes at Soundbox. I was invited to come join by one of the instructors (Brette) so I went. It did help that she told me what song she was going to teach to. So it’s been a month since I’ve started. I’ve been impressing people to the point that a few are asking me to join Wyldstyl. I think it’s just shocking to some since I’ve never brought up my dance background to any of them before. I’m not the best dancer in the world or up to snuff like Wyldstyl, but I can dance. Now whether I actually join Wyldstyl or even teach there (yes, I’ve been asked to) is still up in the air. Right now I’m taking hip hop and salsa for fun and for a stress reliever. Like I’ve told a friend, I forget all my troubles for the hour I’m taking class. So thanks go out to Lucia and Brette and of course Soundbox.

RFM is getting a little more recognition. Not flooded with work, but there are jobs coming in. Our website will soon get a revamp and we’re advertising elsewhere. RFM has a YouTube and Vimeo account to display our videos to the internet world.

September will be full of things to talk about. So far there’s a wedding and me on the edge of quitting my job after coming back from vacation. Stay tuned next month for that. Video time.

KT Ning – Friends’ Photos