I know, this isn't the Sunday night post, but there is a very good reason for it. I need to get this out there, because I don't want it to only be a footnote in the Adventure Time Series.
As you may have thought, I went on the ATS this morning, and when I arrived at the first location, I got horrible news. A call from my nephew, telling me that my oldest dog Lily had died. I could hear him braking up over the phone, and I did a little as well. She was the sweetest dog that there was. She loved people and always wanted attention from anyone that she saw. She had the friendliest personality of any dog I've ever known.
The vets said that she had a mass in her stomach that was more than likely cancerous, and that is what caused everything. She was so tough. She showed no sign of being in pain, she was only lethargic the last two days. My nephew was the one that took her to the vet and said that she began convulsing as they walked in the door. The vets snapped into action and attempted CPR on her, but there was nothing they could do.
I don't know how I did it, but I made it through the whole process of the ATS ride. I think the distraction was needed. I was going to do the final wrap up on my way home from my friends house, but I decided to do it on the way to her house. As soon as I got to her house and sat down, and started letting those thoughts go through my head, I finally broke down. I went and pet her dogs and let them know that they are loved. It was a transferal thing. I was passing on the love I couldn't give to Lily to them.
I got enough composure to be able to take the long ride home, and it was a long ride. I put my headphones in and just listened to music to drown out my thoughts. As much as I didn't want to walk into a house without Lily in it, I needed to get home and give all the love I could to The Truffle. I spent most of the ride in the triple digits, and made it home in record time. I don't think The Truffle really knows what is going on yet. She seems to be pretty normal. She didn't see Lily swirl into the ether, so she may not be aware that she is gone.
I needed to do this tonight, but I also need to wrap it up about now, because I need to get out to The Truffle and spend more time with her. Before I go though, I have a few pictures to share with you, including the sculpture that I was looking at, at the very time that the call from my Nephew came in. It's a little eerie. Peace in and goodnight.
So, a package arrived yesterday. I'm sure you can guess what it is by the box, but we'll talk about that a little later.
It appears that the forecast for Saturday has changed, and it has changed in a good way. It looks like now, the weather is going to be exceedingly favorable for the next ride in the Adventure Time Series. What was supposed to be a morning full of showers, is now a slight chance of showers. It should be a beautiful day for a ride, and I'm really looking forward to it. There is going to be a surprise guest along for the ride this time, and the two, that's right, two locations that we are going to, are relatively new to the area. I now for a fact that one of them only opened about a month ago. This will be a long day, so I'm going to have to do some self editing on myself while I'm shooting with the GoPro. Fortunately it is voice activated, so I can start recording and stop recording by just saying those very words. Tomorrow night I will go over everything on Saki, and the GoPro, so that all the batteries are charged, all old video footage is deleted form the SD card, and Saki has good air pressure, and all the bolts are tightened down.
Don't forget, that I will be posting an Instagram story along with this, so that you can follow along as I do it, or you have 24 hours from the time I post each part of the story to watch it. Once it's gong though, it's gone, and you will have to wait until Sunday night to read about it. I will hopefully have the video edited and posted on YouTube by the time that I write the blog post. If for some reason, I don't have it ready in time for the Sunday night post, I will have it ready for the Tuesday night post. It will just be a little out of place on a Tuesday night when I will have already talked about it on Sunday. Can you tell that I'm rambling on? There's a reason for that. I really just want to get to what's in that box up there, but I need a little more content before I reveal it to you.
Another picture, and no real reveal? Yeah, I'm being pretty sneaky tonight. Ok, I'm sure that you can tell by the box, and the above picture of what appears to be a gig bag with a guitar in it, that I ordered my guitar finally. That is the case, but before I show you the guitar, I have to tell you about my ukulele class tonight, which wasn't a ukulele class.
I was a little nervous tonight. It was like going to my first class all over again. I know very little about playing guitar, and let's face it, ti's a bit intimidating. It's larger than a ukulele, it has 6 strings (yes the guilele has 6 strings as well, but it's not the same), ti's electric, and has knobs and switches and things. There is a lot to take in. Anyway, I got to class at the same time I always do, and hung out in the little lounge area that they have. I purposely stuffed the gig bag a little back form where I normally have my ukulele, and had my leg in front of it, partially hiding it. It wasn't a very good job, if anyone really cared to look, they would know instantly that it wasn't a ukulele. My teacher walked out from his previous lesson, and was focused on other things, but still pointed at me, and said,"You". In a somewhat accusatory voice, implying that I was next on the chopping block, and then said that I could go back and he would see me in a half hour. My lesson is only a half hour, so you see the humor in that. I picked up the guitar and snuck past him and headed into the music room.
He was helping his other student to his car, because he had surgery on his knee or something not too long ago, and has to walk with a cane. The student not my teacher. I got the new guitar out of the bag, and sat there waiting for him. the bathroom for the place is directly across from his room and he headed in there to wash his hands. As he did, he flippantly said, "So where is you Les Paul?" I said, "ti's right here." He finished with his hands, came around the corner and I held up the guitar. He was blown away, "Are you kidding me?" "That is beautiful." He's a guitar guy so he loves guitars of any kind. he immediately asked to hold it. He tuned it up, which is a normal practice when I go in. With new strings on any instrument, they go out of tune almost immediately until the strings are broken in. He was loving it. he looked it over completely. He pointed out a few of the features that stood out to him, like the finish and how it wasn't overdone. He loved the rosewood on the fretboard, and the etching that is on the back of the head. Gibson etches "Made in USA" on the back with then model year and another thing that I can't remember. If I do remember, I will get a picture of it for Sundays post, so that you can see what I"m talking about. I guess I should finally show you the new guitar right?
Not quite yet. This was a new experience for me. We had played around with his guitars in the past, but we never really got in the nuts and bolts of them until today. He showed me what all the knobs and switches on my guitar did, and it was fascinating. I won't go into it here, because it wold probably bore you, but the knobs are in sets, and relate to the pick ups on the guitar, same with the switch. Here was the biggest thing. On the ukulele the chords are similar to the guitar, but they aren't the same chords. I know, that makes no sense, stick with me though. Since the ukulele is scaled differently, not just in size, but in the actual scale, what might be a C on the ukulele, is a G on the guitar. It has the same fingering, but since it is in a different area of the scale it has a different name. It's going to take some getting used to, but it's going to be fun
Now a picture? Ehh, not quite yet. He started pulling out all kinds of charts for me that relate to the guitar. Chord charts, barre chord charts, and note charts. All of it is interesting stuff to me. It's old stuff, but it's all new in this sense. Now it was time for the nitty gritty of actually playing it. He starts showing me the different chords and having me play them. I took to them really quick, after all, they weren't really all that new to me, they were just given different names, and the scale on the guitar is slightly longer than on a ukulele. I'm talking about the fretboard here. It is longer between frets on the guitar than on the ukulele. I was able to get through all the chords with very little problem. He then went over the barre chords. I took to them just as quick, and I learned a few things about them, and how to name them, you know like A chord or B chord, stuff like that. These were a few things we didn't really get into on the ukulele. It's new and fascinating stuff to me. That took up all of our time, but he told me, that we just covered about 6 months of lessons in a half hour. It seems like aliens, but I remember when I was just starting out, and how long it took me to just get a G chord under mu fingers, so I believed it. Hell, barre chords terrified me. I thought there was no way that I was ever going to get them, and now they are my favorite type of chords to play.
I told him that I had the ukulele to thank for my speed in picking all that stuff up today. Alright alright, I'll put of the picture of the new guitar. Before we get to it though, I need to make a proper introduction. I mentioned in previous posts that I was looking at a specific Gibson Les Paul. Well I found it on a site called Musicians Friend. My teacher mentioned it to me, and I went there on Friday, and there was may guitar. The site is great, it has all the things you need and then some, and the best part is, that there were no taxes on it, nor did I have to pay for shipping. I got it for cost. I couldn't pick it up cheaper if I went to Orlando and got one form one of the music stores there. Anyway I would like to introduce you, to Penelope.
As you can see, Penelope is a fiery red-head that can really wail. Classic Les Paul design with all those beautiful curves. That is the finish he was talking about. It has a light gloss finish to it that he really liked. The word is, that the less finish that is on a guitar, the better. It lets the wood open up faster than if you had a high gloss finish on it. this particular one is called the Gibson Les Paul Faded T. There are a few other numbers and letters, but it isn't really important that you know all that. It's called Faded because it is supposed to look like its is worn down over years of playing, hence the light gloss finish. Sometimes I stumble into the right thing, and this appears to be one of those cases. Like with the GoPro and the mic set-up. I had no idea, that a light gloss finish would be better, I just liked the look of it, and I knew that I wanted a Gibson Les Paul. This is the one that stood out to me, and it was a very good price. I told my teacher the cost when he asked, and he said that you would have a hard time finding a used one for cheaper than that. He also said that he would take that on stage for a show in a heartbeat. It's not professional grade, so that made me feel pretty good when he said that, and he has professional grade guitars.
I'm really excited about everything that is going to come next with this new world to explore. It's going to be a wild ride. Peace in and goodnight.
I guess I'm going to start off with a little bit of a rant. A friend of mine showed up at my house yesterday unannounced. That is something that I would never do. I don't think it is proper or polite, and I don't like it. I didn't go of on them for it, but maybe I should have. I'm not comfortable with people just dropping by. It's probably more of a control thing than anything. I would rather know when someone is stopping by, so that I can plan things accordingly. You know, be a proper host.
There, that is out of the way. I was watching the MLB Allstar Game before coming in to write this. They are in the seventh inning in a tied game. Normally that would mean that you stay and watch the game to see the outcome, but they started the game too late, and it is 10:37 at night right now, which means that I have to go to sleep. That's the way it is with sports, they always put the big games on at a later time. The east coast usually goes to bed before it's over and reads about it the next morning. I'll find out when I look at my phone in the morning who won.
I was planning a big surprise for Saturday. If you follow me on Instagram, you were going to see it first, but things went awry and the surprise is no longer going to happen. I'm not going to tell you what it was, because, I might be able to find another way of doing it, and I can reveal the surprise at a later date. It's too bad to, because I thought it was pretty cool. Regardless of that though, I will be doing the normal Instagram story for the next Adventure Time Series ride. It will start at just before 9AM Saturday morning New York time. If you don't follow me, you can click here, and you can follow me so that you will be up to date on what it going on with the ATS ride. I will also be doing the next video at that time, but I more than likely won't get that up until Sunday. I'm not sure about the timing on this one though. It's going to be a long day Saturday, and I'm sure that I'm going to have lots of footage to go through, all the while trying to get it to be around the 10 minute mark. We'll see how it all works out. There is a pretty good chance of rain as well, but I'm hoping that it's going to be later in the day, so that we can get this in just before the rain starts. Either way it's going to be fun.
Before I get to the Favorite Song of the Week, I have to bring something up. I've noticed that the emails subscriptions have not been even showing an area for the videos that I post on here. I really have no control over that, and don't have any idea of how to correct that. That is why I"m going to reiterate here, that the best possible experience you can have with this blog, is to actually come to this blog. I had thought when I put that subscription link, that it would just give you a notification that the blog was posted, and a link to click on to get to it. In a way it does do that. You can simply click on the title on the email and it will take you here, but I can understand how it is just much simpler to read it in the email and forget about seeing any of the videos that accompany it. I don't blame you for doing that, I just know that you will have a much more enjoyable time with this, if you actually come her to check everything out.
Now on to FSOTW. I'm sticking with the Baby Driver theme that I mentioned last week. This song is the song that kicks off the entire movie. They have a cold open with just a crew of people in a car going to do a heist on a bank. Then Baby puts in his earbuds, and starts this song. It's the entire opening sequence, and it appears to me, that Edgar Wright filmed this scene entirely around this song. It is one of the best opening scenes that I've ever seen. it has everything; humor, action, drama, what more do you need in an opening scene. It could have been the whole movie, and I would have been ok with it. The band is The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and the song is "Bellbottoms". I really hope that you enjoy it, cause I know I did.
I even learned this song last week in my ukulele class. That reminds me, I'll have something for you about that on Thursday. Until then, peace in and goodnight.
You read it in the title. It was a total chill weekend. I did something on Friday that I haven't done in a while. I took Melvin out for a ride, and as usual, he got all the love. I've neglected Melvin, since I've got the GoPro set up on my Arai helmet, and I have to use the HJC (the normal Melvin helmet) as my daily rider. I put ol' Melvin on when I went to the bank, and then a went and got some gas. Like I said, Melvin got tons of love and attention from people. Maybe when I get the new helmet, which is a long way away, I'll figure out some way to mount the GoPro on Melvin's helmet. My only worry though, is that I may have to cut holes into Melvin in order to get it to work. It would be a blast for you to see some of the reactions Melvin gets though. I'll have decide if it is worth it or not.
I did absolutely nothing on Saturday. I was going to get up and ride really early, but when the alarm went off, I decided to just sleep in instead. Well, that is if you can call sleeping until 6:30, sleeping in. In the end, I just sat at home and caught up on a bunch of recorded shows. I'm nearly caught up on all the series that I had recorded.
Today was different though. I did wake up early, and got some riding in. It was a short ride, but very productive. I had to get it in early, so that I could see a real early showing of Spider Man Homecoming. I'll give you my review of that in just a bit. I had a goal for my ride, and that was to get some pictures in a couple of areas that I've been looking at for some time. The first one is an old abandoned Sears & Roebuck's building. They have an all brick wall on the outside that has nothing marring it. It looked like a really great place to get an early morning picture. I have a thing for that nice soft light of early morning. This is the one I told you about before, that eventually I want to get an late evening shot there as well, so that you can see the difference in the lighting. When I do get that other shot, I'll post a side by side of them. In the meantime, here are the shots I got there.
I put the flash on for that second shot, just to get a little pop out of the reflective rim tape. After that, I hit my second location. It's a Mexican Restaurant not far from that location that has a really neat mural on the side of the building. I've always wanted to get Saki in front of it, but it is always packed with cars and people. that wasn't a problem at around 7 in the morning. The parking lot was vacant, and I got to pull up right in front of it. Here is what I got there.
That mural is just fun, and Saki looks pretty good in front of it. When I was loading these pictures in, I realized that I missed the portrait shot I took at the other location. I think it came out pretty good.
Just in case you were wondering, I did shoot some video of the whole thing. I got home and did the editing before I headed out for Spider Man. I kept it simple today. Didn't try anything new, and worked more on keeping the time down. I want to try to keep these videos around 10 minutes. This one comes in a couple of minutes under, so that is a good thing. Give it a view, and let me know what you like and don't like about it. Then more I learn from you, the more I can make the videos more appealing. You can leave a comment on here, or go to the YouTube page and leave one. Anyway, here is the video for you viewing pleasure.
If you follow me on Instagram, you got to see the little promo I made for this, and as I said, I used Building Houses by Danielle Ate The Sandwich. I like it. I think I can get that song to work with almost anything I put together with it.
While I waited for the video to upload on YouTube, I went to see Spider Man Homecoming, and run my errands. I really enjoyed the movie. It did have some very small glitches in the CGI, but I was able to get past it in a hurry. It was like a Spider Man Comic. It had that really fun and witty style to it. It isn't the typical origin story. This takes place after Peter has his powers, and it still getting used to them. he knows what he can do, he just hasn't had the time to do any real training with it. It's fun and worth watching on the big screen. I didn't see it in 3D, so I can't tell you if that aspect of the movie is any good, but it has a good story, great action, and a whole lot of humor. Oh, and don't forget to stay until after the credits. There is something real fun there.
I nearly forgot, that I ran into some old friends when I was getting ready to walk away from the counter into the theater. It was really good seeing them again. They were from my old days of hanging out at the beer bar. I had some good times there, but after a while, I realized that the beer was just far too expensive, when I could go to one of the many breweries in the area, and get beer that was more than likely better, and at a cheaper cost. We caught up a bit, and then went our separate ways after the movie.
That is all that I have for you until Tuesday, so peace in and goodnight.
With the holiday, and packing as much as I could into a very long weekend, while filming, editing, and positing two videos to YouTube, I forgot to do something on Tuesday night. Yep, I forgot to post the Favorite Song of the Week. I do have one, well, I have several, but we will get to that later, just don't forget to remind me.
I also forgot one other thing that I was going to post on Tuesday night. I finally broke down, and bought a pair of monkey feet.
Yeah, I know they are really called Vibram 5 Fingers, but I prefer monkey feet. I needed a good pair of water shoes, and checked around. Everything was either way over priced, or Crocs, and I'm not wearing Crocs. These were rather inexpensive for Vibrams. Vibrams usually run in the low $100 dollar range, and these were just are $50. From all the reviews, they appear to last, and from what I can see, they are constructed rather well. I'll have to see how they fare once they've been in water and what not. My only problem with them, is my foot fall in them. I'm a heavy heeled walker, and it's a bit uncomfortable because of that. They don't have any cushion in the heel, so I'm going to have to alter the way I walk when I'm wearing them. That shouldn't be too hard, I've only been walking this way my whole life.
The next ATS ride is fast approaching. No, I'm still not going to tell you where I'm going, but I think it should be pretty good. For one thing, this place is very new. I'm not positive, but I think it opened this year, or maybe late last year, so it's not a place that a whole lot of people in general have been to yet. Also, I'm adding another little special surprise location to the ride. This is a little more for me, than for you though. Yeah, I'm going to be a little selfish on this one. I'm really looking forward to showing you these places. I'm hoping the videos will continue to improve as well. I still need to find out how to face out the music. I haven't found out how to do that yet on my own. I'm sure that I could look it up online, but that takes all the fun out of it.
I'm still a little upset by the troubles I had posting the promo to Instagram for the last video. I really liked that one with Kashmere attached to it. I understand that it could have been copyright infringement, but it was so good. I played that video for my ukulele teacher today, and he really liked it as well. Oh well, I'm sticking with the plan I have, so look forward to the next video promo on Instagram, to have a little laugh with me on the inside joke of always using the same song for it.
I may do another video this weekend, but I have no idea what it would be about or where to go, Other than that, the only plan I have is to go see Spider Man. I did see a clip today, that has me a little concerned for the movie. It could be just a bad edit that they showed, but there seemed to be a small glitch in the effects that bothered me. Marvel has a pretty good track record, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. It's not like I'm not going to see it.
I'm getting closer to the purchase of my guitar. I have one picked out, it's just a matter of saving a little more money before I buy it. The one place I was going to buy it, doesn't have it anymore, but I found another place, so as long as it's still there when I'm ready to buy, I will be getting a Gibson Les Paul. It's not the most expensive one by any means, but it is still an electric guitar. I'm not going for any professional grade guitar here. Those things can get real expensive. I'm talking the price of a car expensive. I'm never going to play professionally so no reason for that, but my ukulele teacher did tell me that he has the equipment to do recording. That could work out to my benefit. If I can learn how to play the guitar to the level that I want. I could do my own music for the motovlog, and not have to rely on other music that I may not be able to use anyway. This could get even more fun that it already is.
Ok, I hear you. I didn't forget, it's time for Favorite Song of the week. As you know, I've been listening to the soundtrack to Baby Driver all week. I'm probably at about 10 listens now. Needless to say, FSOTW is coming from that soundtrack. Here is my dilemma though. There are so many good songs on it, that I don't have just one FSOTW, so we are going to break this up over the next few weeks, and have this little tribute to Baby Driver end with the song that has truly captivated me since hearing it. Now normally I would give you a little background on the song of the band, or a story of my own past relating to the song. Not today though. I'm going to do it a little different. I'm just going to post the video and let you get a good earful.
Admit it, when you heard that opening riff, you thought it was Jump Around by House of Pain. Ha, this is where they got it. This is Bob & Earl with "Harlem Shuffle". The original. You are probably more familiar with The Rolling Stones version of it, but this is where it all came from. I really don't have much background for this one. The Bob & Earl that sang this song, weren't the original Bob & Earl. Originally it was Bobby Byrd & Earl Nelson of a doo top group known as The Hollywood Flames. They didn't have much success, so Bobby Byrd went off and had his own solo career. Earl found another Bob by the name of Bobby Relf. That is when this song came about. It was written by the two of them, and get this, the music was arranged by Barry White. Yes, that Barry White. the smoothest most mellow voice of R&B. With that kind of pedigree behind it, it had to succeed. It did succeed, but only after Bob & Earl had already gone their separate ways and had their own solo careers going. Life's funny that way sometimes. This is part one of the Baby Driver tribute. You will see why I'm saying that this is the best soundtrack to a movie ever. I'm still standing by that statement.
With that, I'm going to call it a night. Peace in and goodnight.
I wanted to just get that out of the way. Since I had so much trouble on Sunday night getting the video embedded, I wanted to see if I could get it right off the top, and it worked. I don't know why, but I'm going with it.
So as you can see, I took a little ride on Monday, and went to the Inlet to get that view that I've been dying to show you, and a few more cool little things. One of which was that house I mentioned when I went to the McLarty Treasure Museum. I was the one that I saw the Vanilla Ice trucks outside of. The pictures didn't come out as great as I'd hoped, but they give you a pretty good idea of the place.
I like the morning light for pictures, always have, but these didn't not benefit from that light. It created a shadow on this side of the house with the sun behind it. Regardless, if you blow it up, you can see all the way through the house, which I think is absolutely incredible. I think that this house will be on the upcoming season of The Vanilla Ice Project. It starts later this month on the DIY channel. They were still doing some work on the landscaping, but other than that, the house is completed, and looks really good. I would love to live there, but I'm guessing that it's a couple of million. I saw a sign for one house, that was a great deal smaller than that one, and it was at $625,000. It's a pricey area to live.
The ride was great that morning, and I mention in the video how I ran into a guy along the road that was riding around with his autistic son. Really nice gentleman that just wanted a look at my bike. He was a big fan of Saki. I got distracted and forgot to get the camera recording again when I took off, so I missed the view of the Indian River Lagoon on the way back. I did notice that I have to work on a view things when I'm filing. That is a good thing though, it means that I'm learning. I have to be cognizant of the fact that the camera is at a different angle from what I actually see. I managed to get luck with the house, and still managed to get a decent view of it, but I could have made it better if I was more aware. Lesson learned and I will improve in the future.
I'm already feeling much more comfortable with the whole editing process, which reminds me, I posted a picture on Instagram of what the screen looks like while I'm editing, and I just wanted to share that with you here.
It doesn't look like much, but that can be very intimidating the first time you start doing some editing on a video especially when you have no idea what you are doing. It is super fun though. Lastly about the ride, I did stop at a place I've been meaning to get a picture of Saki at, and grabbed a few while I switched out the battery on the GoPro. I had already finished recording for the video, but I wanted to have a fresh battery, just in case something happened on the rest of the way home. Plus I wanted to see what certain things looked like on camera. For instance, when I go into a full tuck with my head below the windscreen. The camera doesn't see much more than the speedometer, so that is good to know. Anyway, here are two of the pictures I took at that location.
I'm a little proud of that last one there. It has that slight glow of sunlight coming through the top and the lighting in general is just, right. I do have a location that I'm looking at for another shot. I want to get a shot in both the morning and the evening. I think the lighting will be drastically different and I want to highlight those differences. I'll post the pictures, when I finally get those shots.
With getting that video in, and starting the editing process, I didn't get all the things done, that I had planned on for Monday. That is ok though. My end goal was to get as many things done as I could, so that today would be free. I knew all along, that I had scheduled too many things, and that I would have overflow into today. The good news is, that I only had one overflow thing to do. That was to get Saki that oil change.
I found something out. The new headers that are on there with the new exhaust system, sit in a slightly different way than the stock headers sat. That made it a little more difficult to get to the oil filter. It took a little maneuvering, but I got the old oil filter off, and the new one on. With all that done, it was time to give Saki a bath. I cleaned the chain until it was the original silver luster that it had when it first went on. It looked great. Saki is now clean and ready for this week of riding, and it looks like a good week for it weather wise.
Back to Monday though. I made it to Northern Tool and checked out that stool. It was on sake for 60% off, so I had to buy it. It sits a little higher than I had hoped it would, but it's going to work out just fine, and it looks pretty sharp in the Lounge.
That's it next to the roller stool. I'll use that mostly for work on Saki now, and the NT Stool will be used for doing stuff at the workbench. I can work on the laptop, or do things with the helmet mounts and GoPro. It's rather comfy and has a backrest, so I can get my lean back on. Saki's Lounge continues to come together. Next step, is getting some of the old unnecessary stuff out of the lounge to increase much needed space. After that, I will start working on sealing it so that I can get that portable AC unit. With that out of the way, I can finally start working towards the motorcycle lift, and a larger tool cart. Then it will all be about the creature comforts, to make it more lounge-ish.
Also Monday, I went and saw Baby Driver. I need to take a moment here, and think of how I really want to put this. Writing will not show this, but I actually did pause to get my mind in order, and I found that I just can't get my mind in order. The movie is freaking great. I loved it, and the soundtrack was the best soundtrack to a movie that I've ever heard. Listen, I know that this is all subjective, but you have to go with me on this. This soundtrack fits this movie better than any soundtrack has fit any movie ever. I'm standing by that. It's bold I know, but that's how I roll. The movie has everything: action, drama, comedy, car chases, a love story, great music, and fast cars. Yes, I know that car chases and fast cars could easily fall under the category of "action", but this is my blog and I'll write it how I want to. Go out and see Baby Driver. My only problem with the movie is, that I wanted just a little more of John Bernthal. He only has a couple of scenes, and he is just really great at being a horrible person. From interviews that I've seen with him, he is quite the opposite in real life, but that is what being a good actor is all about. Making people believe that you are really that person, and he pulls it off in everything I've seen him in.
Back to the soundtrack for a minute. As soon as I got home, I went on iTunes and bought it. I've listened to it three times already, and it just keeps getting better. This is going to be one of those movies that I buy and watch over and over and over again. I think it will go up along side my copy of Perks of Being a Wallflower. Two widely different movies, but both have fantastic soundtracks. I can see some rather mixed emotion weekends in my future when I do Perks and Baby film fest. It's going to be wild.
Before I go, I have to tell you about a few things that went on today. With the last two videos, I have made separate little promos for Instagram. Today was a bit of a challenge. I made the video clip, and made sure that it was under 1 minute. I added music underneath it and cut all the other audio from it. I posted it the first time, and it was immediately pulled for being in copyright violation due to my use of Malibu by Miley Cyrus. I was bummed. I thought I could get away with it since it was under a minute, but no dice. It went perfect with the clip I made. When she talks about sitting under the sun, it was the exact moment when I turn my head to show the morning sun. It was perfect. Oh well, I went back and pulled that audio and put a new song called Kashmere, by the Kashmere Stage Band. That one was pulled for the same reason. This one was even more perfect. The tempo of the music fit the clip perfectly, even more perfect than Malibu did. I ended up going with the same song as the last one, which still worked, but not as well. This has made me come to a decision though. I want to keep doing these little promos, because I don't see anyone doing anything like that. Everyone else usually just posts a clip from their video, and that is it, but I want to do something to set myself a part. The decision, is that each clip each time will always have that same song, which happens to be Building Houses by Danielle Ate the Sandwich. She is one of my favorite artists, so why not highlight her talents. It will be our little inside behind the scenes, so if you follow me on Instagram, each time I post a promo for a video, you can count on that song always being playing with it.
The last thing I wanted to mention, was something I leaned today. I was watching a video from a guy that goes by MattyCyclez. His video was about how people make money on YouTube. He mentioned how the earnings work on YouTube. When you are eligible for AdSense, which is sometime I could do here, but still refuse to do it on here, for reasons I've already discussed, you will get about $1.50-$2.50 per 1000 views. He didn't go into it, but I believe that is overall channel views. So you don't have to get all the view on 1 video, but of course that would help out greatly. I have a long way to go, but I'm going to enjoy the journey. I'm telling you all of this because I mentioned previously that I wanted to be completely transparent when it came to this. That way, you know exactly how much I will make, and then how much I can donate to charity. I may have to adjust my time frame for the donation, but that won't effect the planned %50 percent of earnings. It will always be that, but I want to be able to make a worthy donation to each cause, so once I monetize the YouTube channel, I will let you know the plans of when and how much I will donate each time. I might just put it at a level, say, when I earn $1000 dollars. Once I hit that level, I will donate half of that money to a charity that will be voted on by you. Good deeds all around.
This is another early post, because I just wanted to start writing this, and couldn't wait until night time. It's 7:20 in the evening right now where I am, and I already here the fireworks going off around the neighborhood in celebration of Independence Day. I'm just going to sit back now, and relax for the rest of the evening. Peace in and goodnight.
I'm writing this early again tonight. For no other reason other than, I want to get to sleep early tonight. I got a good reason, which I will get to a little bit later. In the meantime, I got a new video for you that I posted on Friday. I decided to take you for a little ride to the beach to see the sunrise. I think this is a little better than the first one, and I'm learning more and more with each video I make. This is far more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Give it a watch and let me know what you think.
I had to post this a different way tonight. I'm not sure what is going on. I would normally copy and paste the embedded link into the blog, and it would show up, but for some reason, it wouldn't let me paste it on here, so this is what you get. Oh well, this will work just as well. Anyway, I have a couple of shots from that little shoot, that I wanted to share with you as well.
The first one is just a behind the scenes shot of making some good ol' movie magic. The rest are just trying to be artsy. The one looking down the dock, leads you straight to Saki. Did I mention how much I'm liking the whole process of making these videos?
I managed to get my YouTube channel verified, so I'm good there. I looked into the monetizing of the videos, and that is going to take some time. My plan is still in place, to donate half of the money I get from the videos to a different charity each time. What it takes to be eligible for Partnership with YouTube, is 10,000 channel views. Once I hit that mark, I can put my channel up for evaluation and see if YouTube wants to partner with me to monetize with short ads. Here is the funny thing about all of this. I already had over 10,000 channel views with the videos I previously had up. It took some time to get there, but I had the numbers. When I deleted all those videos because they didn't fit what the channel is becoming, I erased that and took all the views away. I was even offered a partnership about a year ago, and did nothing about it. All in all though, I'm glad I didn't then, so that I can build this the right way now.
As you know, my plans for Friday were cancelled, but that was all for the good. It gave me the time I needed to edit that video and get it posted later that day. The rest of the evening, I just relaxed and watched some recorded shows. I had to wake up early on Saturday so that I could head to St. Pete for a surprise party. I didn't mention anything about that before, because there was the possibility of ruining the surprise. Well, those plans changed when I woke up with a migraine. I hadn't had one in quite some time, and I think this one might have come on from simple dehydration. I didn't make it to St. Pete. My plan, was to get over there early, hit the Dali to see the new exhibit that is going on, and then meet up with my friends for brunch. Instead. I rested in a cool dark room and drank lots of water. It worked, and my migraine broke around 1 in the afternoon.
Since I was feeling better, I decided that it was time to take Saki out for a ride. I grabbed the GoPro and took off. I didn't have any plans for making a video, but I wanted to have it for just practice. I took about an hours worth of footage, from different points in my ride. I didn't save any of it, because it was just far too random. Plus, all the footage could be had at some other time. There was some good that came out of it though. I found something, that I didn't know existed. I ended up riding out to KSC on a road in Titusville. The view is pretty spectacular, and I will get that footage for you at some point. When I hit the junction of State Rd. 3 and 405, I took the turn on to State Rd. 3. That is when I came across a little something hidden off the road in a fenced off area.
I did a little research when I got home, and found out, that that is the Space Shuttle Resolution. It isn't a real Space Shuttle, but it was a member of the Shuttle fleet for a very short time. It is actually a mock cock pit that was planned as a training module. It was made by hand by a Cal-Poly Student back in the early days of the Shuttle program. The student even came to Florida to reassemble it at one point, and even rode out a hurricane and a tornado in it. It's not what it used to be, but it s a very cool discovery. If you blow that first picture up, you can still read Resolution partially on it. This is just one of those gems that you find when you turn down a road you don't normally find. The moral of the story, don't just always follow that same old beaten path.
It was real fun riding around on Saki yesterday. I started working on my wheelies. I've done them before, and I have had minimal control over when I do them. It happens or it doesn't, but now, I'm working on control, and that takes practice. I would rather have control over them then to just let it happen how it has been. I've been fortunate in the fact that I know what to do when it happens, so that I can minimize the event of looping it. Looping means that you get it going past the balance point, and flipping the bike over. I don't want to do that, and by working on bringing it up when I want to, I can hopefully keep that from happening. Better to be safe than sorry. Before you even say it, yes I know that by doing this I increase my risk of actually looping it when I practice. That is where knowing what to do in the situation takes over. I have my precautions ready. I cover the rear brake, which is the easiest way to bring the front tire down. Also, since I'm expecting it to happen, I have complete control over the throttle. I won't panic and "whiskey throttle" it. That is when you freak out and just pull back on the throttle and make the bike go even faster. Lastly, I'm wearing all of my gear when I do this. Safety first, and besides, if I can get the wheelies somewhat decent, I'll have some really cool footage for you in the videos. I see that as a win win.
Now to why I want to go to bed early. I have a plan for tomorrow. Day 4 of my 5 day weekend. I want to wake up early, and head to Sebastian to make a little video going over the bridge. That is a shot I've been thinking about for quite some time, and I want to show you what I see when I go over that bridge. There are a couple of other areas that I want you to see along the way, and a little after. Remember when I did the McLarty Treasure Museum ride? I mentioned that I got distracted by the view and missed my turn, well I'm going to take you past that view. I'll try to make MTM my turn around point, so you can get a brief look at the building. If things go right, I might have it up tomorrow evening. I say evening, because there are a few other things planned for tomorrow as well.
After the ride, I want to head to Melbourne to go to a place called Northern Tool. They have a stool that might be just what I need for Saki's Lounge. I want to get a look at it, and see if it is the right height for the workbench. If it is, I might buy it. After that, I'm hitting up the movies. I'm pretty excited about Baby Driver, and want to see it, so what better time than tomorrow. Also, I should hit 5000 miles on Saki, and that means it's time for an oil change. I may put that off until Tuesday, but if I can fit it in, I will, and then give Saki a much needed bath. Saki is pretty road dusty right now. You can't really tell form the picture above, but trusty, Saki has been playing in the mud.
I'm going to finish up watching Fear the Walking Dead, and then call it a night. I want to be on the road by about 6:30 tomorrow, so that I can get a good early morning shot going over the Inlet. Peace in and goodnight.
