Hello! How are you? How are things? What’s new?<\/p>\n
I’ve been mental.<\/p>\n
But you knew that already.<\/p>\n
On Sunday\u00a0<\/strong>I had a fun fun fun day, helping judge dressage at the Ascott-under-Wychwood, British Eventing One Day Event.<\/p>\n I have just checked the results website, I’m very pleased to see that the pony that I wanted to bring home (there’s always at least one of those) won her section, leading from the front all the way.<\/p>\n I’m thrilled to bits with this result.<\/p>\n The rider was a tidy youngster with a promising style, and the pony was a star.<\/p>\n On Saturday<\/strong> we went to see HP7b2d (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two – non-3D).<\/p>\n We went to the 22.30 showing, to avoid children.<\/p>\n The bottom line for me is simple.<\/p>\n No matter what certification the BBFC has awarded the film, it is *not* a children’s film.<\/p>\n Seriously.<\/p>\n I spent a huge chunk of Friday<\/strong> in the Salisbury area, then came home to join Soph in the studio, where we sat in front of a couple of microphones, listened to four Top Tracks and talked what some might consider to be amusing rubbish.<\/p>\n And by ‘some’ I mean Soph and me, obv.<\/p>\n On Thursday<\/strong>, after a day of work stuff, I went to band practice.<\/p>\n This month’s pieces were Bob Dylan’s ‘Knockin on Heaven’s Door’ to warm up, Snow Patrol’s ‘Chasing Cars’ for the main course and Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ for the finger-shredding dessert.<\/p>\n There’s a video clip and some stills knocking around somewhere. I’ll find them if you want.<\/p>\n On Wednesday<\/strong>\u00a0evening I was a singleton because Soph was out. I stayed home and annoyed the hell out of Twitter. And finished writing Part One (of three) of a new short story project. And practised guitar.<\/p>\n Tuesday<\/strong> evening I had my weekly guitar lesson. Then came home and continued trying to learn how to drive Sony Vegas Pro.<\/p>\n I can’t remember what happened on Monday<\/strong>, it’s lost in a haze of not enough sleep and too much being awake. But it’s safe to assume it involved trying to acquire more Vegas Pro skilz.<\/p>\n The Vegas Pro thing isn’t going too well.<\/p>\n I’m finding it simple to learn the ‘new’ features and facilities. But I’m finding it difficult to do the ‘old’ ‘routine’ functions that I can do in the old, free editing package.<\/p>\n For example, earlier today I recorded a very short, witty and (I think) amusing little film.<\/p>\n After making the film I fired up the nasty little free video editing package, added a title, two sets of credits, trimmed and edited the clip and added a soundtrack.<\/p>\n Five minutes from start to finish.<\/p>\n In the free software.<\/p>\n Then I fired up Vegas Pro and tried to do the same thing.<\/p>\n Half an hour later I’m still trying to figure out how to make the software do what I have already done – and done in a handful of minutes – with the free software.<\/p>\n Jesus.<\/p>\n I’m sure I’ll get the hang of Vegas Pro sooner or later.<\/p>\n And the short video?<\/p>\n Here it is:<\/p>\n