"I don't make home videos, I make home films."

I've been wanting to write about this for three months. Colleen and I finally gave our Christmas present to her family; the (nearly) comprehensive collection of their VHS home videos on DVD.

First, the how. Here's what you need:

Computer (I used my Mac)

VCR

Adapter with audio/video cable ports and USB ports (and included software for capturing video) (Elgato Video Capture Device for Mac users)

DVD burner

Blank DVDs

Video editing software (iMovie for Mac users)

DVD burning software (iDVD for Mac users)

Photoshop software

VHS tapes

In a nutshell, here's what we did. Recorded all the VHS tapes using the VCR and adapter software, loaded the raw video files into iMovie, edited all unwanted portions out, placed chapter markers on the files, grabbed still frames to use for menu screens and the DVD covers, transferred edited video files to iDVD, picked the specific menu template, formatted the menu and chapter selection screens so they would fit a normal television screen, loaded stills into the menus, double-double-checked everything and then burned the DVD. Time-intensive parts were capturing the raw footage from the tapes onto the computer and burning the actual DVDs because capturing the video required just starting a tape and letting it play the whole way through in real time and burning the DVDs took like 6 hours a piece. Thankfully they were time-intensive and not labor-intensive; I could get one started and go do homework or something. The labor-intensive part was the editing. The most frustrating part was making sure everything worked. The worst portion of this entire project was the afternoon I got a video down to the final edit and tried to burn it. For some reason, the software kept saying I wasn't putting in a recordable DVD in the drive when clearly I was putting in a recordable DVD. I couldn't find an answer anywhere, online, I called Best Buy, Staples, everybody's gave me the same answer, "Huh. Weird, it should be working." Thanks a lot everybody. So I ended up having Staples send in the drive and get me a replacement drive, which worked perfectly. But for that afternoon...yikes. I was not a pleasant person to be around. But for the most part, the editing went fairly smooth, the biggest hiccup was trying to find a version of iMovie that had a chapter marker functionality. For some insane reason, Apple removed that tool from the previous version of iMovie when they upgraded to the version I have on my Mac (iMovie '09). Thankfully, Colleen's Mac is still kicking four years in and that had the older version of iMovie so we used that. The only problem is that hers is wicked slow so the process was slowed down a bit, but we still managed to get it done.

The covers were easier; Colleen and I went to the UIowa Main Library and used Photoshop to create the covers. I found a free cover template online that I loaded into Photoshop and changed around to feature our chapter titles, DVD titles, and stills from each video. We also made the backgrounds of each a different pastel color so put together the set of eight DVDs looks awesome. We just had them printed at Copyworks after their graphic designers resized the file so it would print to fit an actual DVD case.

Now a bit of the why: this is very possibly the biggest gift I've ever given or been involved in. Not physically big but more in the emotional attachment Colleen and I have to it. I've given some gifts in the past to Colleen that I was excited about, but this one was different, because it was really a joint effort between the two of us. It connected me to her and her family in a way that I hadn't really expected. We spent many hours recording the raw video, figuring out chronological orders, adding clips together, editing out the many unwatchable, damaged parts of the VHS tape or random stuff like the 1988 Iowa/Iowa State basketball game Jim had preserved. In the past, when the girls would get out the old VHS tapes and watch them, I would usually watch and enjoy them to a certain extent, not as much as the girls but still laughing at seeing how they were when they were young. But working on this project connected me to this videos more deeply because the end result is ultimately ours. I wouldn't label us "creative" types, and I don't mean in the sense of being a unique personality (we are both pretty odd), but more in the sense of doing actual creating. We don't paint, never had many drawing skills, never been much for creative writing, and we both are very musical but we don't exactly create it. However, this project was an act of creation for the two of us. We took raw materials in an untouched form and turned them into something beautiful and creative. And finishing it up to give away is an emotional thing because it's like your baby.

What made this gift especially meaningful for me to give away is that it's exactly what I want to do with my career. At the core, librarianship is about getting information into the hands of people who want it and can't find it. It's about preservation of information and extending access to anyone who needs it. Colleen and I had a lot of raw information and a specific user set and we've connected the two beautifully. It was a very rewarding experience and I hope to do it again soon. The best part about it is that next time I do this type of a project, it will be so much more efficient because I've worked out 75% of the kinks and can visualize each piece of the process so much better than before. That being said, anybody who's interested in hiring me, I'll do a better job than Walgreens and for an insanely lower price. Just let me know. Seriously, I am itching to start another project.

But after all is said and done, can you really put a price on this?

That's what our kids will look like.

-Jon

we're marley and marley....whoooooaaaaa!

it's november 20th. at work, i've taken to putting on christmas movies when i have a chance, and i have been hearing some serious grumbling from customers about it.

"isn't it a little early to be putting on christmas movies?"

"we haven't even had thanksgiving!"

etcetera. and it's annoying to me. you hear this every christmastime, people get so annoyed that businesses start putting out christmas merch really early and people are putting lights up too early and so on. honestly though, it's always bugged me, and a few weeks ago i finally realized why.

when i was a kid, december would roll around and man would it go slow. like seriously the slowest month ever. it just took so so long to get to christmas. and as a kid i didn't know how to appreciate the season at all. and nowadays, as i get older, time goes so much faster. my weeks have been flying by so quickly. and all i want to do is hold on to feeling you get during december. it is such a great feeling and comes only once a year, why wouldn't we try to grasp onto it as long as we could?

i understand some people don't like the commercialization of the holiday and all that, and i concede that wal-mart did have a gigantic christmas tree up literally on november 1st, but that's not gonna stop me from putting on the 'a charlie brown christmas' album while i study or watching christmas movies at work.

by the way, Top Five Christmas Movies To Play At Work:
5. Elf
4. Jingle All The Way
3. I'll Be Home For Christmas
2. The Santa Clause
1. Muppet Christmas Carol

home alone, home alone 2, and a charlie brown christmas are all excluded from this list even though they are all very near and dear to my heart. the home alones aren't on there because everybody everywhere thinks they are great and for me, watching them more than once a year is too much, and a charlie brown christmas is too sweet to put it on and not give it your full attention.

in two days when i open at work, i'll probably play each of the movies on my list at least once. and thanksgiving is still a week away. bring on the cheer.

-jon

It's Christmas! Let's Be Glad

when i was a kid, the worst night of the year was christmas night. worst day was by far the 26th of december. they both sucked cause there was no more season left. it was over. people were tired of gifts, tired of eating, tired of family. it was like all joy was sucked out of the holiday and people were ready to move on to new year's. now that i'm half grown up, it's sad to think about. the reason people are sad is that the anticipation is over. nobody wants to take down decorations and think about getting a gym membership. nobody is thinking about Jesus on christmas night. and it's His night! this whole day is about celebrating the birth of Christ Incarnate and people are bummed they don't get to look forward to anything anymore. it's a sad thing. i wish my focus was more on Jesus and His birth than on worrying about getting all my gifts wrapped and all the other stuff. this is a special time of year, because of the anticipation, the excitement of being with family, of feeling more love in our society than normal, but especially because of God's gift to us, and i wish my excitement was a result of that; God's great gift to us. one of my favorite christmas songs is O Holy Night. favorite line:
"Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth." i want to feel that worth again through christmas, through His birth. such a touching line. i miss real christmas.

running with this christmas theme, sufjan stevens has one of the most incredible christmas albums i've ever heard. check it out here. from what i gathered, for like four or five years, he basically made a new mixtape of christmas songs each christmas for his friends and family and gave them away as gifts. how cool is that. a few simple mixtapes that become a terrific (and long) christmas album. he covers mostly classic christmas hymns (joy to the world, hark the herald angels sing, etc.), a few originals (get behind me santa! among others, how clever is that?), and a few non-christmas themed songs (amazing grace, come thou fount of every blessing, etc.). such interesting takes on mostly overdone songs. he makes all these old songs feel new and heartbreaking. so good. it's absolutely worth the fifteen dollars on itunes.

and this is effectively the end of christmas 2007 for me. i'm going to bed and in the morning i redirect all thoughts and efforts towards getting completely ready for spain. daunting. i have shoes, jeans, umbrella, voltage converter, slippers, and all sorts of other things to buy that i haven't even thought of yet. i also just realized the fact that tomorrow is the 26th of december is going to make everything less efficient...all of the kansas city metro area will be out returning crappy gifts. that's a shame.

merry christmas.
-jon