By Sephyroth on March 28, 2008 at 11.16 pm · Filed under tv, video
I got up early this morning so that I could go to volunteer all day today; it involved taping pieces of paper to plastic boxes for some upcoming events the group I volunteer for have coming up. Anyway, as I was in the shower, a discussion came up about the “new kid” on the video scene - Hulu. I’d heard about it a while back, when it was in closed beta, and to be honest, I didn’t think it would have much potential.
However, I gotta say that I’ve been converted to what they’re doing by another site out there - Veoh, which has full episodes of CBS programs like The Price is Right and others. They have small breaks; in an episode of Price, for example, there are 3 30-second breaks in the show.
The big part of the discussion was that on Hulu, there is a wide breadth of programs available. If you have a look at the list of TV shows by network, there are tons of shows available. The most awesome thing, at least to me, is that if a show was originally broadcast in HD - Prison Break, for example - it is shown in the proper format on Hulu (i.e. widescreen). If you don’t already know this about me - I’m a stickler for taking advantage of a widescreen monitor, so someone showing a 4:3 program on an HDTV in 16:9 stretch bugs me.
One of the coolest videos that I’ve found on there is a video from the NBC News Time Capsule - the parts of the first episode of “Today” that were preserved on film, along with clips from the 25th anniversary of the program. It’s a fascinating look back, especially when you consider that those news scrolls you see on the bottom of the news channels are definitely not a new thing!
Also, be on the lookout for the technical glitches along the way. It may be innovative, but it sure wasn’t perfect.
Just a note - if you’re not in the US, you likely will not be able to view the videos on there, as it is designed for American viewers - much like the ABC’s forthcoming Playback program and the BBC’s iPlayer are only available to Australia and the UK respectively.
The thing to note is that this can only be a good thing for the networks - while it might sound like buying into “the man’s” plans - I think it’s great that the networks are actually embracing the technology that is available to them in order to provide something that they know (thanks to YouTube and other sites) that viewers are interested in viewing. The best part of it all is that it is free.
Somehow, I don’t mind seeing a 30-second commercial every ten minutes or so; or, on a longer video, watching a longer ad and being able to watch the whole program ad-free.
Jamie Oliver is known for making simple food; I’ve done up one of his recipes in the past - lemon stuffed chicken in a simple dough. It’s been a while since I’ve made some of his recipes.
However, something I didn’t realize (mostly because I don’t watch much TV, especially breakfast TV), is that he’s a regular guest on NBC’s Today Show. Yesterday, I was perusing their site to find video of a completely different feature to any of the cooking stuff, but one thing popped out at me - Chef Jamie’s chicken recipes.
I go to watch it and they’re just amazing recipes, though the folks don’t quite do everything right, there are some great ways to make chicken. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the videos here, but I can give you a link to it, and a little bonus, an interesting cooking segment from earlier in the show, the team, along with Robin Williams, making lamb shank.
As you might expect, there’s a bit of fun along the way with Robin in the room. However, the recipe does look really good to make, the only issue being to find lamb shank in the store.
Though the first dish I want to try is the Roast chicken breast with lemony Bombay potatoes, I might just try to get that done tonight, but I don’t know…
A long time ago, I had mentioned someone looking for a video of a truck using an escape ramp. That request was echoed by Radioactive Jam. As it so happened, I flipped on the National Geographic Channel today, and they had a show on about the science behind runaway vehicles.
The first segment mentioned the well-known (at least if you’ve watched those John Bunnell police chase shows) PIT maneuver - which usually ends a police pursuit. The case they mentioned featured someone from the Washington State Patrol PITting someone, but since he didn’t have access to the local PD’s frequencies, he couldn’t coordinate with them on how to sort out the chase. So the bad guy got away. I’m just curious why they didn’t have the local channels available to them - here, the State Patrol is heard frequently on local Police and Sheriff frequencies. I guess it’s different in Washington.
Anyway, the last segment of the show featured the Runaway Truck ramps, and their science. They also featured a truckie who was forced into using a runaway truck ramp, and she says straight out that if it weren’t for the ramp, she would have rolled the truck down a mountain.
All in all, it’s an interesting video to watch. I think that’s why National Geographic is one of my favorite channels on cable.
Sunday means recapping this week’s walks, along with setting some goals for the week. There’s a surprise in the walks; if you’re reading via RSS, you might want to check out the post on the site.
Monday, 6th August
Some more of the flowers along my path.
It was a cloudy day, and it wasn’t terribly humid or hot. However, I did take the regular route, and included a slight diversion - I took a side path that goes around a grassy area that I usually walk through (don’t worry the part that I normally walk on is maintained by lawnmowers and such - though I do walk across a couple of feet of unmowed grass).
Total distance - 5112 steps, 4.08km
Tuesday, 7th August
The turkeys were in the field normally occupied by the horses today, probably enjoying some freshly wet grass.
I waited a little bit to go out for my walk since it was still raining when I got up. However, when I did go out to walk, it was still a little wet, so I wound up taking the umbrella anyway. As you’ll see, I’m getting used to having the umbrella by now. I decided to take the normal route without the diversion.
Total distance - 4937 steps, 3.94km. If you include my mall walking, the total for the day was 11514 steps, 9.21km.
Wednesday, 8th August
Another butterfly, this one clinging onto some grass.
The sun was out, and it was a little bit cooler, so I decided to do some more exploration. I went up the regular route, but instead of turning left to head back towards the road, I went to the right to follow the “official” trail. I followed it up until I was on the other side of the soccer fields they have at the park and turned back. On the way back, I spotted a couple of dogs walking around with their owner. Having been prepared for them coming, I let them approach and then proceeded to pet them and have a short discussion about the weather with the owner.
Total distance - 6650 steps, 5.32km
Thursday, 9th August
A turkey feather that was sitting along the path.
The word for the day was definitely “wet”. In fact, it was still misting when I went out to walk, so I needed the umbrella again. I also created a new phrase - “second rain” - which is defined as the rain that falls in a forest from the collected water on the leaves. While I was taking the long route, I came to a realisation - that the primary route back to the road would require a walk down a hill where there a lot of loose rocks. So I went a little further around to a different forest opening and walked back to the road.
And a bonus for y’all - I took some video of the forest, and you can hear the rain both hitting the ground and the umbrella.
Total distance - 5683 steps, 4.54km
Friday, 10th August
Some pink flowers along the path.
A thought that had been going through my mind for some time now is to go for a clean up walk. As it happened, the sun was out, and there had only been some rain the night before. So, after some searching, I grabbed a bag and a pair of work gloves and went out to walk. I wound up picking up less than I thought I would since the grounds crew went through and cleared the cans from part of the park, but I did pick up a few odds and ends that had been there for as long as I can remember. However, I did not pick up the dog droppings, or any of the prophylactics that I had found in the past. I walked the regular route, with the diversion. I also collected the turkey feather that had been dropped the other day, along with another that was right by it.
Total distance - 5618 steps, 4.49km
Saturday, 11th August
Steam rises from the road after the rain.
This was the first day that I almost did not go out to walk. I had been waiting for it to be later in the day so that it wouldn’t be so hot, but I wound up waiting too long, as it started to cloud over. I then checked the radar to discover that there were some storms on the way. However, I didn’t let that deter me at first. It wasn’t until I was out the door and heard a crack of thunder that I decided to wait the rain out. Luckily I did and it cleared up long enough for me to go out and walk. However, I did still take the umbrella - I needed it at first where I learnt an important lesson - mosquitoes like umbrellas. It seemed that I couldn’t get rid of them unless I closed the umbrella. Fortunately, the rain stopped and I could close the umbrella. As I was walking along the normal route, the sun went away again, and I suddenly heard another clap of thunder (I never did see the flash of lightning during the whole storm however), so I picked up my pace. I’m fairly certain I did the walk in record time.
Total distance (including extra walking around the house) - 5299 steps, 4.23km
Sunday, 12th August
Water beads on some fallen leaves, about 13 hours after the rain stopped.
The sun was out again today, so it was a very pleasant walk. Nothing terribly exciting happened, though the mosquitoes didn’t seem to be anywhere around today on the regular route - not that that’s a bad thing.
Total distance - 4995 steps, 3.99km
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In other news, this week has been a week of, well, staying the course. The schedules didn’t work out to go in for volunteering this week, however I have mentioned that I want to go in this week; it looks like Friday is the most likely day to do it since there are the fewest conflicts then. The other project that I mentioned last week did get started out and it is progressing slowly, but surely. I have quite a bit of learning to do about its inner workings though - it’s all in a new language to me.
This week, my major goal is to start a new habit - writing about my walking the day I do the walk; I’ve been waiting until Sunday to write about the walks the last couple of weeks, and it’s a lot of time that I have to spend trying to remember the bits about my walk. The only thing I’d write down is the number of steps and possibly a word or two about the day. Also, I’m going to sit down and write out some of the prompts that I have in my notebook, plus some others that I’ve come up with, so that I can use them in case I have nothing; plus I’ll be able to post in the morning so that I don’t find myself at 8 or 9 at night with nothing posted for the day, and then rushing to post.
As an American, I’ve been brought up in a culture where swearing is considered almost a mortal sin. You never see anyone swearing on TV, and if you so much as utter a curse word in public, you’re looked upon as some kind of pariah who has no decency or intelligence. Either that or, depending on how foul your language is, a sailor.
Naturally, you would expect that I might be offended at someone who would swear, and would almost come to expect the words to be edited out, or bleeped, or somehow adjusted to take away the shock. And you’d be right. About a year ago, Snoskred gave me a link to an article (I don’t remember where it is, or much about it) which didn’t censor the word “fu*k”, and this offended me. So, I said something to her about my offense to it, and basically the discussion led me to understanding that it isn’t a mortal sin to swear, and that there are times when you can definitely do it. Though of course, there are times to not practice the art.
In fact, by the end of that day, I had built up the courage (yes, I know it sounds funny to think that someone has to build courage to swear, but I did have to) to actually say “fu*k”, albeit somewhat quietly and without much confidence. Slowly, I did start integrating the word into my mental vocabulary and also in some conversations; though I do still use “fill” words at times around my mother even though the times that I’ve let one slip nothing has happened. It’s probably because she swears every once in a while, most often on the road.
More recently, another word hit my radar screen - it’s one that you’ll hear from time to time down under, most likely in a pub when a group of mates get together. Now, if you are easily offended, I’ll add here that this word is Robin Williams’ least favorite swear word, and is one that is part of the original list of “seven dirty words” made famous by George Carlin. That word is “c*nt”. I have to admit that I’m still not 100% confident in the use of the word, but it’s coming to me quickly.
Recently, I’ve seen a couple of bloggers mentioning their use of swearing in their lives. One’s at Oh For Fun and the other at Memoirs of a Gouda. What’s in common with both of these posts is that they’re simply admitting to something we all do - use swear words from time to time.
Quite honestly, if you were like I was - offended by swear words - I have a couple of suggestions. First, don’t get offended, just let it go (unless it really *is* a place where you shouldn’t swear).
The second tip is to find yourself an Aussie friend. They’ll tell you that swearing is acceptable and something that is done all the time there, even on TV where people aren’t punished for using language on TV. Sometimes, during a racing broadcast, it’ll slip through and the announcer will say something totally obvious like “Well, that’s the heat of the battle there” and not outright apologize for the use of language. Here, if the same thing happens, generally the driver or person responsible will be fined by the sanctioning body.
I’ll let you go with two video clips here. The first comes from the first V8 Supercar race at Winton in Benalla VIC. Mark Skaife had just spun off the track and was chatting on his radio with his crew. I think the language is pretty clear, yet note the silence afterwards
Next, is this clip from the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Bristol in March, 2006. It’s a bit longer cos I can’t clip the file as I used the wrong audio type. Note how quickly the announcer (Mike Joy) jumped in to apologize for the language. However, I believe that there were no fines leveed because this was broadcast over the team’s radio and intercepted by Fox.
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