After thinking about it for six years and writing for most all the while,

... I finally knew what I wanted the final projects to look like; why aim for perfection when approximation is so much easier?

Part of the problem was that I was thinking about taking, and then editing some online videos, and I would like the background to be appropriate. Now, I do not have an unlimited budget with which I could have hired all sorts of different people, and bought tools, and spent hours making templates to make sure that everything lined up perfectly or was produced to perfection. Rather, I found a way to look at the video image while I am recording. Then, the image can be moved up and down per my estimation. From there I can eye everything else, not even armed with a laser level, not a pencil, nor a sturdy hammer. All of a sudden I am a writer now preparing a story board for a 'show', editing and producing video on both YouTube; and, weekly, on BlogTV.

And so what if one or two photographs and/or video frames are a few centimeters out of alignment? WAIT, DID I ACTUALLY JUST WRITE THAT? I'm turning into a person who can walk by a crooked photo, picture on a wall or video - without reaching out to correct it? Now I've finally learned about the rule of thirds, a perception known by classic artists since time immemorial - don't center the thing - put it into thirds, with 2 "grid lines" spaced evenly on the art work, or image. Closeup photos of people should have the eyes on the top line [ie: 1/3 the way down the page]. I'm writing this all down, like taking notes, in case I later forget; and in case you are interested in image composition.

I was originally going to use only a few scenes, but I've been learning to put together a "story board" and use transition effects between scenes. We'll see, maybe you'll see much improvement by next Christmas. And I'm not kidding, it still takes a long time to teach an old dog new tricks.

Is it just me, or is this post starting to feel like a painful, awkward confessional?

"Dear Internet,

I once cheated on a high school statistics test. I once dated 3 girls, all at the same time. Nine years ago I learned to be extremely frugal, some might say 'cheap', and sometimes I feel guilty that people are not making as much money off me as previously. And I have only repented for two of those things. The third thing is so much fun that it doesn't feel right to say I am sorry. Someone even recommended I write another book. “Live Happy, Well, and Cheaply?"

They didn't know that that was in my plan, all along. It is now a fait accompli – with an additional website, Inexpensive Life©

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So We're Not Perfect! - received from a Canadian Friend

Final 2010 Winter Olympic medal standings (click on country for names of individual athletes and medals; by sport):

#	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	CAN	14	7	5	26
2	GER	10	13	7	30
3	USA	9	15	13	37
4	NOR	9	8	6	23
5	KOR	6	6	2	14
19	GBR	1	0	0	1

Full medal table
looked at, another way:

Full medal table - broken down my country.

Do you believe?

The 2010 Commerce Centre - 2010 Commerce Centre, an initiative of the BC 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat, has been created to help inform, educate and connect businesses to the opportunities of the 2010 Games and to create long lasting economic benefits for the Province of British Columbia.

“We never claimed to be perfect ...

That means we've learned to be humble.
We say excuse me and I'm sorry.as well as please and thanks,
Even when its not our fault we apologize.
Sure one arm of the torch didn't rise,
But when the earthquake struck Haiti, Canadians raised their hands to say."We'll help."
And yah, there is a fence around the torch,
But you can walk right up and shake hands with our prime minister and most famous Canadians.
We put Gretzky in the back of a pick up, in the rain, not surrounded by police.and he was okay,
And by the way... the great one is Canadian.and HE wasn't complaining!
We do have security at the games, of course, but most people don't even have a gun they have to leave at home.
The medals ARE under lock and key, but our doors and our hearts are open to the world.
It has been pointed out that some buses broke down last week, but let's not overlook the fact that our banking system didn't.
We didn't get the "green ice maker" right this time.but we will, eventually,

Just like we did when we invented the Zamboni.
Citius altius fortius
If you don't reach higher how do you get faster and stronger?
Was the first quad jump perfect?
Should we not have given snowboarding to the world "in case" it didn't take off?
So big deal one out of four torch arms didn't rise. Good thing we had three more! It's called contingency planning!
But remember.the Canadarm works every time.in outer space.and insulin turned out to be okay.
We couldn't change the weather, but maybe we can help to stop global warming.
We don't have the tax base of the US or the power of the Chinese but, per capita, we ponied up for some pretty kick-ass venues in the worst global recession ever.
Sure, some folks couldn't afford tickets, but our health care is universal.
We have shown the world that we can raise our voices in celebration and song, but moments later stand in silence to respect a tragic event...together...spontaneously.and unrehearsed.
What's more, we don't need permission from anyone to have a slam poet, fiddlers with piercings and a lesbian singer tell our story to the world while our multilingual female Haitian-born, black head of state shares a box with her first nations equals.
We've shown the world that it doesn't always rain in Vancouver, that you can strive for excellence, but not get hung up on perfection.
And we've learned what it feels like to be picked on by some no-name newspaper guy and we don't have to take it lying down!
So the point is not the snow, or the hydraulics or a couple guys being 5 minutes late to a ceremony,
We know we're lucky that these are the biggest problems we've had to deal with in the last couple weeks.
So take your cheap shots.Guardian newspaper and cynics of the world,
We're bigger and better than that.
What's more we're finally starting to believe it!”
Do you believe?

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