STORMAGEDDON 2011 part three: #Irene Aftermath (well, in my corner of NYC)

In the final installment of TheVlog: STORMAGEDDON 2011, I chronicle the the damage Irene did to my neighborhood in northern Manhattan.  Shot on August 28, 2011, the footage captured here was shot before the clean-up crews were done and captures a bit of the drama of having a tropical storm pass through your city.  Of course, this is just my corner of the city. Some areas got it worse than me.

STORMAGEDDON 2011 part two: #Irene Arrives in #NYC! (from yesterday)

Sorry, it took me a while to cut it together and it’s in HD so it took another few hours to upload the 1GB final cut to YouTube.  By then it was 3am and I was so tired I could hardly keep awake.  I expected Irene to wake me up with her fury, but she didn’t.  Anyway, so here it is—the calm JUST before the storm:

STORMAGEDDON 2011 part one: The Calm Before the Storm

STORMAGEDDON 2011 part one: The Calm Before the Storm

TheVlog for yesterday, August 26, 2011.  Footage I shot of the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge before #Irene.

 

 

 

 

 

TheVlog @ thepete.com for July 19, 2009: visiting the Highbridge Water Tower in New York City

The Highbridge Water Tower is 100+ years-old and 185 feet tall. The tower was built to house the pump that provided water to the north end of Manhattan in the last half of the 1800s. It may not sound exciting, but the inside of the tower looks like a movie set and the view from the top is pretty impressive. Just watch the thing--what? Ya got something better to do in the next ten minutes?? ;)

Here is an 84MB mp4 version of "TheVlog @ thepete.com for July 19, 2009: visiting the Highbridge Water Tower in New York City" hosted by Lisa from OnLisaReinsRadar.com. Thanks, Lisa!!

TheVlog (in HD) for 1/20/9: ThePete’s Adventure on Inauguration Day in DC part 3

PLEASE NOTE: This was SHOT in HD, but is not in HD here on YouTube thanks to problems I've been having uploading my HD videos. Sorry :( That said, the picture was still pretty clear when I looked at it on my laptop before uploading. What IS this video? ThePete, Siskita and Jay ThePal visit DC for the Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama. This is part 3 of their inauguration day adventure! In this episode, Jay ThePal makes a new friend, Aretha sings and Barack Hussein Obama gets inaugurated! One more part 4 coming soon!!



Click here for a downloadable mp4 if you're having trouble with the Flash player above.

TheVlog (in HD) for 1/20/9: ThePete's Adventure on Inauguration Day in DC part 2

PLEASE NOTE: This was SHOT in HD, but is not in HD on YouTube thanks to problems I've been having uploading my HD videos. Sorry :( That said, the picture was still pretty clear when I looked at it on my laptop before uploading. What IS this video? ThePete, Siskita and Jay ThePal visit DC for the Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama. This is part 2 of their inauguration day adventure! In this episode they reach the reflecting pool, the Washington Monument and come face to face(s) with 1.5 million screamin' Americans!

Watch it now:



Two more parts to go! Wahoo!

The(HD)Vlog from Inauguration Day 2009 (pt1)

The learning curve on cutting AVCHD video (MTS files) on my MacBook has been STEEP for me. Finally cut together a forty-minute cut of the HD stuff we shot in DC the day President Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated. Below is the first ten minutes of it and while I encoded it at 720p, I'm not sure YouTube is displaying it that way, however. Like I said, the HD learning curve has been steep so gomen, gomen!

If it's not in 720, it still looks pretty damn good for a YouTube video:



Sorry I don't have an mp4 version yet--still working out how to keep it in 720. I'll add it soon, though.

ThePete, Siskita & Jay ThePal on the Hucklebug Part 2 (TheVlog for 20090129)

Yesterday, I posted part one of highlights of the video we shot of us recording our appearance on the Hucklebug podcast. The footage starts me (ThePete), Siskita and Jay ThePal and does contain profanity. The video is definitely rated PG-13. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. :P

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

If you have any trouble with the Flash player above, here's the mp4 link from my drop.io feed:

http://drop.io/thepetecom/asset/tv20090129-mp4

ThePete's Washington DC Trip Day 3! (TheVlog 20090120)

iPhone edition!!

Here is the best of the footage we shot today, January 20, 2009, in Washington DC on my Jailbroken, unlocked iPhone:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Click here to download the above video as a 13 meg mp4 file.

I couldn't livestream because they were using cell jammers, apparently. :(

On our way in to DC!

On our way in to DC!, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

DC Inauguration Trip Day 2 ThePete, Siskita & Jay in DC!

OK, here's Day 2! Please tune back into thepete.com later today where I will attempt a live streaming video of everyone's cheers from where ever the hell we'll be in DC when Obama takes the oath of office :)

But here's TheVlog for 20090119:

Yay! YouTube yanked my vid! THAT'S why I hate them! I had forgotten! Here's an mov link and an mp4 link as well:

http://video.lisarein.com/thepete/stuff/ThePeteTV/tv20090119.mov

http://video.lisarein.com/thepete/stuff/ThePeteTV/tv20090119.mp4

UPDATED 20090123: OK, since YouTube are jerks and yank my vlog post because of music playing on loudspeakers (I assume, they don't tell you why), I figure there's no point in leaving the embed up. So, here's an embed from drop.io that will hopefully leave my video UP:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

ThePete, Siskita and Jay the Pal in DC Day 1 (TheVlog for 20090118)

If the above embed doesn't work, go here:

http://video.lisarein.com/thepete/stuff/ThePeteTV/tv20090118.mov

Added this mp4 link just in case:

http://video.lisarein.com/thepete/stuff/ThePeteTV/tv20090118.mp4

UPDATED 20090123: Replaced YouTube embed with one from http://drop.io

TheVlog for 20080611

So, yesterday we were out and about again, as usual, this time despite the heat. We traveled mostly by rail so it wasn't too bad. However by the end of the day a nice thunderstorm rolled in and cooled things down a bit. And I mean a BIT. We still slept with the fans aimed directly at the sofa bed.

Oh and one other thing, I was putting together the title cards late last night and my writing was not the best--I think one of the title cards has more "the's" in it than "War and Peace." Sorry about that. I try to proofread everything, but I was tired and wanted to go to bed.

Show me the way to go home... ;)

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TheVlog: Wrong Number VoiceMails are FUN!

So, here's what happens when people call my cell by accident and still leave a voicemail.
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TheVlog for 20080207: So, THIS is What Disenfranchisement Feels Like!

Well, it looks like my vote in Tuesday's primaries won't count. Watch the video to find out why. If this isn't typical Politricks, I don't know what is.

Or, if Flash vids aren't your thing, read on:

So, THIS is what it feels like to be disenfranchised!! COOL!

As a white man, I thought I'd NEVER get to feel what this was like!

And you know what? It feels pretty lame!

Yep, turns out voting officials (probably just one, Dean Logan) designed the ballot so that us indy-voters in Los Angeles have to check an extra circle to declare which party's primaries we're voting in. This is an extra, useless step that is clearly there because someone (again, probably just Dean Logan, LA county's new acting Registrar of Voters) doesn't give a crap about us independent voters or actually wants to stop our votes from counting.

Something so minor like this can be easily over looked--especially since it's obvious which party a voter went with when you look at which candidate they voted for.

That'd be like having to declare your interest in buying a Toyota before you are permitted to buy a Camry. Makes no sense. You can read more about it in the headline's from today's Democracy Now here:

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/7/headlines#4

What's really funny is that I went back and looked at the little voters info booklet/sample ballot they sent me in the mail. It *does* mention that I have to pick one of two circles to fill in--but it doesn't tell me where to find those two circles! I didn't see them on the ballot card I was handed, nor did I notice them on the ballot-framey-thing where I actually did my voting.

But back to the sample ballot they sent me in the mail--so if it was on the ballot, you'd think it would be there. In fact, in previous elections, I've filled out the sample ballot and then used it as a guide when I actually do my voting. However, this time, I couldn't do this because the first four pages of the sample ballot they sent me were BLANK! In fact, if you go back to the video I shot of me actually voting, you can not only see my hand glide RIGHT over the "Democratic" circle, but you can also see that there was only one circle to fill in at all--one for the Democrats. So, a useless choice compounded by the fact that I couldn't have inked in the other choice if I had wanted to!

Granted, I'm an idiot who was just caught up in the moment (I really was excited to vote) and I should have been more thorough as I voted, but why do I have to declare which party's primaries I'm voting in? I have a feeling that the other circle was missing because I was using the "Democratic" booth and not an American Independent booth. However, if it was a special ballot to begin with, why didn't it just come auto-checked? Hell, truth be told, I blew past the presidential primaries page on the ballot-framey-thing because a bunch of those pages were blank, too.

However, I can tell you *for sure* that if the sample ballot they sent me had been complete, I'd never have missed that stupid circle. Like I said, I use that as a guide.

I'm not the only person in LA who had trouble voting, either. Sean Carroll at the Cosmic Variance blog had bigger problems than I did:

http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/02/05/chaos-at-the-polling-station/

My sister-in-law, Lisa (http://OnLisaReinsRadar.com), IMed me last night saying she got stuck with a provisional ballot. This was the same thing that happened to Sean at Cosmic Variance. What this means, as I understand it, is that their votes will only be counted if there is a recount.
It's hard to not be sarcastic... soooo hard!

ThePete's Final Super Duper Tuesday Video

Here's a little video I cut together featuring stuff I saw on Super Duper Pooper Tuesday. This includes, lame stories CNN ran to fill time, a good story CNN did on problems some people had voting, and footage of me actually voting! It's ok if you watch! I don't mind if you know who I voted for, but the only way to find out is to watch!
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TheVlog: Very Calm Election Rant

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TheVlog ThePete Visits the Kodak with Hillary and Barack

Ok, so the visit wasn't with Hillary and Barack, but they were there the same time I was.



See, I just happened to be in Hollywood the same night as Hillary and Barack and so I shot some footage of the moderate madhouse their debate turned one of my favorite places in LA into.

TheVlog: "Waiting for XO" Day 8: THE FINAL CHAPTER!!

FINALLY! MY XO ARRIVES AND IS UNBOXED! Enjoy the XO porn!

This is far from the final chapter--coming soon: "Learning With XO"!!

Oh and I get artsy in this one due to technical issues.

Also, I'm planning to cut together one giant mega documentary chronicling the entire "Waiting for XO" saga by combining every 8 minute episode into one massive 30-minute spectacle!

OK, "spectacle" is probably too strong a word for anyone who is less a gearhead than me. ^_^

TheVlog: Waiting for XO: Day 4, Part 3: Results!

FINALLY!! RESULTS! I found out whether or not my XO is on it's way!! YAY ME!

The end is getting closer!