Youtube in HD. Pretty sweet. I tried to hack for the embed. Hopefully it works. I just happened to upload in 720p last night. Didn't know it would go live today and now I've got an HD embeddable youtube video. It may even be better quality than vimeo. Haven't done a side by side comparison.
Roadside in Lesotho from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
I don't have vimeo plus yet, so you have to go to vimeo to see the HD version. I'd love to see what people think. I'll upload something with less color correction tonight. Hard to truly see the best of the resolution upgrade with my film look and saturated color correction.
Showing posts with label Canon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canon. Show all posts
Friday, December 5, 2008
Youtube in HD - African Adventure - Roadside in Lesotho
Monday, November 12, 2007
Rolling through Rwanda - The African Adventure Begins
Motorcycle "Taxi" in Kigali, Rwanda from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
In case people don't read the entire pseudo diary account. Which hosting site do you prefer?
For those of you who knew about my plans for South Africa, they got thrown for a loop last week. My travel companion, who lives in Rwanda, got two freelance jobs this month and wanted to switch around the trip. Since I'm free from any real restrictions, I was happy to make the change. So Rwanda first, the rest of Southern Africa in December.
So I arrived 2 nights ago in Rwanda. Met an interesting nurse, Eli, from Belgium on the plane, had some good conversation during the 8 hour flight. Music, politics, culture and languages. I never knew Flemish was just Dutch with a thick accent. Waited around for over an hour for my bags in Kigali. Luckily they eventually showed up. I was worried for a little while. As I exited the baggage claim....
I saw Pedro, who then wisked us off on an adventurous night.
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NIGHT 1: We dropped off my bags at P's house, which is down a rutted bumpy dirt road and then headed to "Hotel Rwanda" where they were having a brand relaunch party of a Rwandan Beer, Mutzig via the Heineken Company. It is delicious going down, but P and his roomies said it doesn't bode well for the next day. It treated me fine though.
We met some really interesting people at the courtyard party & barbeque, including J, a Ugandan born Rwandan, who went to grad school at Pepperdine and now works for Heineken and M, a Security officer from Blackwater, yes that Blackwater. He works at the US Embassy in Iraq. He's on vacation and decided to do something a little different with his time off. We also met a young Rwandan named JP, who rides motorcross here in Rwanda. How weird is that. He said it isn't big in Africa, but he really wants to get to the US and Canada to train with the best. It was an interesting mix of Westerners and Upperclass Rwandans. Definitely a place to be seen.
We all piled into J's truck later in the night and headed to a bar, Carwash, which doubles as a carwash during the day to hang out with some of J's' friends. What a great collection of people. Some pretty amazing conversations at Carwash. J's cousin, E, is in fact an aid to the president of the country. It was a great networking opportunity for Pedro and his various interests, but more so it was incredibly fun. JP, got way too drunk, and became a little irritating to just about everyone, but he was young, only 21. The other Rwandans were pretty fed up with him and he eventually staggered his way out of there.
We then headed to Cadillac, a local dance club. Even though it was Saturday, we were still the only Westerners in the place. We danced for awhile and then had to avoid/reject some ladies of the night that had zeroed in on us. I never realized how obvious a target I'd be in a country with so few whites. It was annoying and funny all at the same time. Eventually we grabbed a bite to eat and walked up the road.
DAY 1: We headed into Kigali to do some shopping for the week with the house cook Matilda. Headed into town on a little crowded mini bus then walked the city in search of the grocery store. Unfortunately the best stores were closed on Sunday and the only store open was a more modern supermarket built in a new mall complex. Pedro said everything was unfortunately almost double the price here.
NIGHT 2: I cooked a lamb stirfry with rice that night for P and some of his roomies. Great stirfry with marginal meat. It was better today for lunch once it had softened a bit. That night, P's friend Greg dropped by. We ended up having some amazing conversations that bridged politics, culture, bogus pharmaceuticals, virtual economies, the coexistence of past, present and future in a single place. Quite a whirlwind of ideas.
DAY 2: Didn't fall asleep till 3:30 AM, so I was tired in the morning, but we had some errands to do. Pedro had to pick up a couple books for a doc filmmaker he works with in the states, and get a couple keys copied for me and I needed to get some cash as well. Let me just say, things take a little longer in Rwanda. We ended up going to 3 different floors of the bank for P to do his money transfer at his bank, then my card wouldn't go through and they couldn't put it in manually. So we went to a 2nd bank whose network was down, and then to a 3rd bank that was able to make it happen; but that took nearly 45 minutes. I didn't mind. It was an adventure just to see how things worked. Next,off to the bookstore which took an hour and a half, since they kept disappearing to look for a book in the back room/down the street and wouldn't return for 20-30 minutes. We still weren't able to find a Rwandan proverb book that fit what he was looking for.
Then we headed home on motorbike; the quickest way to get around. You jump on the back of a bike for a little less than a dollar, with helmet on and hands holding tight to the back of the seat you weave through the streets, cars, and people of Kigali. I have a little video captured from my still camera. Nothing special, but kind of fun. I also discovered a new site: Vimeo. I think the quality is better here. Hopefully it plays for everyone no problem. The upload took hours though, since the internet here in Rwanda is only a little faster than dialup.
Today I went into town by myself. Despite my lacking/nonexistent French, I bounced to 3 stores on an errand run; some books for Pedro, and groceries for the house. I promised the roomies I'd make Chocolate Chip Cookies, since they don't really exist here. If you have a good recipe, email me. Unfortunately they don't have chocolate chips, so I'm going to cut up several chocolate bars.
Next post will be a London Recap in a day or so. I just have been slow to do it.
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007
JMT: Conquering the Behemoth - 19 of 20
The 2nd to last video of the JMT series. I was left in the dust by my hiking partners this day. The filming slowed me down. Watching the footage makes me want to get back to it. Nothing like standing on top of the world. Only days away from my trip to London and Africa. Hopefully I can update you all along the way, but sometimes its hard from the road.
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Monday, October 22, 2007
JMT: Early Morning Wake-up - 18 of 20
The morning we climbed Mount Whitney we woke up at 5:30 in the morning. Originally Smelly wanted to get up at 2 or 3 in the morning to avoid potential storms that could prevent us from making the summit. With no clouds and good weather, we all agreed to nix this crazy idea. The night before we changed our exit plans a couple times after some lively text conversation with Kenji (our original ride) via our satellite phone. He originally said he'd rather not hike the mountain if he didn't have to. The Angler had driven up Smelly's car to the Whitney, so we had transportation home. Instead of camping on the summit (our original plan) and seeing Kenji in the morning, we decided to book it home fast instead. Dreams of milk shakes, beer and burgers were too much for us.
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Friday, October 19, 2007
Hiking the JMT: Dinner in the Shadow of Whitney - 17 of 20
Just some contemplative footage from dinner the night before we ascended Whitney. We had tons of pad thai and the last quesadillas of the trip. I'm also having some issues with Divx. You'll notice the audio goes out of synch. Sorry bout that, but after 4 attempts to correct it, I gave up. 3 more videos to go and 10 days until I head out for my international adventures.
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Thursday, October 18, 2007
Hiking the JMT: Baywatch Dives - 16 of 17
After arriving at Guitar Lake below Mount Whitney, the Angler and I decided to dive into the freezing cold tarn. As you can see, my heart almost stopped from the cold. Definitely a refreshing way to wash the sweat away though. Clearly my "Baywatch" dive was pretty pathetic, but the Angler delivered with a quality Hasselhoff inspired dive. Bonus videos are coming.
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Hiking the JMT: Pinchot Pass and the Resupply - two videos today
We had a tough day hiking up Pinchot Pass, but the view was beautiful. A couple days later, we were resupplied at Charlotte Lake by some of Smelly's friends. We had two members of Pasadena's Search and Rescue Crew and two international paragliders. They brought a box of wine, a couple bottles of beer and the first true dinner we'd had in awhile. We had ground beef, bean and cheese burritos. They were absolutely delicious. The next day, The Angler joined us for the final trek toward Mount Whitney. As we climbed out of the Charlotte Lake Valley, we caught a glimpse of our friend the Paraglider, jumping off a cliff and flying across the horizon. At that moment, paragliding was officially on my lifetime to-do list. Seems like a serene way to take in the world while simultaneously getting an adrenaline rush.
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Friday, October 12, 2007
JMT: Tickling the Fish, The Thin Man, and a Creepy Grad Student
Freezing once again, so I'm going to be quick. Same night as Boy Scouts and Pyros. Since it isn't explained in the video, "The Thin Man" was a very tall very thin hiker who creepily snuck up on Smelly and Jekyl in Mammoth. He also had a knack for silently creeping up on you on the trail. Part of our motivation for our brutal 17 mile day was to ditch the Thin Man and the Israeli (Another creepy solo guy). Hope you enjoy.
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Thursday, October 11, 2007
JMT: Boy Scouts and Pyros - 11 of 17
Down in Lower Pete Meadow I followed a use trail to this little campsite. It had nice benches and was close to a stream. We did some bathing and then started a fire to get warm. I though a little Melly Cam might warm your heart as well.
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007
JMT: Evolution Lake and Muir Pass - Two videos today
Sorry I'm not writing anything today. I'm sitting outside of the Canada Lake store and freezing my ass off. I forgot my fleece. I'll do better tomorrow. Since it was raining yesterday and I didn't make it out to the only internet connection for miles, here's two videos today.
Evolution Lake Videos
Muir Pass Videos
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Friday, October 5, 2007
JMT: Lancing the Blister - 7 of 17
We arrived late at Red's Meadow. After the grueling downhill, Jekyl's Blisters had gotten pretty bad. She was contemplating getting new shoes at Mammoth the following day, and decided to lance one of her blisters using a sanitized safety pin. I went ahead the next day while Smelly and Jekyl took the bus into town. We bought a bunch of beer and washed our pain away that night. Also hung out with some fellow JMTers going in the opposite direction. A bear had ripped through their "bear can". It was the kevlar bag type. Clearly they are no longer on the approved list this next season. I guess several people encountered the same problem. I had a pretty leisurely day finding a suitable camping spot while the girls were in Mammoth, although the trail was a little bit tricky, so I trekked back, read some of Moby Dick at a river crossing and waited. They had 2/3 of the food and part of the tent. Would have sucked if we hadn't found one another.
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Wednesday, October 3, 2007
JMT: Bad Blod at Devil's Postpile
This day was the closest we came to blows. Jekyl confessed later that night that she was ready to smash the camera in if I had kept filming her. After a grueling day of downhill, we got a little lost in Red's Meadow which compounded or stress. For some reason downhill really punishes the feet more than uphill. I'm still recovering from what is most likely stress fractures in my feet. Stock up on arch support and good insoles if you hike the JMT.
The Devils Postpile formation is a rare sight in the geologic world and ranks as one of the world’s finest examples of columnar basalt. It towers 60 feet high and displays an unusual symmetry for such formations. Established in 1911 by presidential decree after John Muir and the Sierra Club lobbied to save it from being inundated with water from a proposed damming project of the San Joaquin River. I wish we had gone to the top of it. I hear it looks like a flat hexagonally tiled floor.
Also, it seems dailymotion looks better, so I've linked to it below and I've heard good things about bliptv too. I'll try uploading at bliptv in the coming days/weeks.
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Tuesday, October 2, 2007
JMT: Salty Nuts on a Mountain Pass
The fifth video in the series. I feel like the new settings are even worse on this one once it's recompressed. I kinda hate youtube right now. Hopefully by the end of this, I'll have figured it out. Tomorrow, Devil's Postpile.
This is what it looks like on Dailymotion. Not much better.
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Monday, October 1, 2007
JMT: Garnett Lake and a Toe Condom
The 4th installment. Still haven't figured out how to make the footage look better. Earlier that day we did some swimming and then made a fire. The clouds made for a pretty beautiful sunset but it drizzled later that night. The minuscule amount of rain drove me into the tent. Best night's sleep of the trip, so after that, I slept in the tent rather than under the stars. I wasn't the mountain man I thought I was. Another video coming tomorrow.
Friday, September 28, 2007
More JMT - Time Lapse Fun and Quesadillas
Here's the 3rd installment of the travel footage. Hope you enjoy. I don't have time to write more today. Next post will be Monday.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Hiking the JMT: The Filter is Dying - 2 of 17
Here's the 2nd video, "The Filter is Dying" Still trying to figure out if I can use a different site that has better quality to host these videos. The best thing about them is the views and the HD, and you can't get a great sense of this after the youtube compression. I'll keep experimenting with the settings and some different sites.
I also wanted to link to our JMT Adventure Report that ML put together. It has all our mileage and daily comments along with links to a photo album documenting the trip. It's worth checking out as is ML's Blog which never fails to put a smile on my face: an article or some rant every day or two. Always fun, especially if you know her. Time lapse in tomorrow's video.
Monday, September 24, 2007
The Blog is Back! First of the JMT Videos
After a two month hiatus from the blog while hiking the John Muir trail and hanging out in Upstate New York (don't have a great excuse for not blogging recently), I'm back to blogging for at least 3 weeks before I leave for London, South Africa and Rwanda. I'll be posting a video a day for the the next 17 week-days. All pretty basic footage from the 220 miles on the John Muir Trail. Simple conversations and nice views. Hopefully it will give you a sense of being there on the trail for 20 days and won't bore you too much. It's definitely a trip worth taking. I highly recommend it. I've been promising Smelly and Jekyl, who joined me on the hike, that I'd finish the videos. Encountered some serious problems compressing the files though. I hope they look okay after being recompressed again by youtube. They 're nothing special, but they are done. Hope you enjoy them. Now it's time for me to get back to why I took the year off. Writing is a calling. Until Tomorrow.
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