Reviving Home Video (and Audio)

For our 20th wedding anniversary, almost a decade ago, I wanted to preserve our memories so rather than regular gifts or a trip to celebrate, we purchased an iMac to optimize our photo editing and organization with Photoshop and purchased Elgato Video Capture to transfer our home videos.

This post is about Video Capture. We purchased the Elgato one, but there are other brands available that do the same thing. Video Capture allows you to connect a camcorder, VCR, DVD player or other analog video or audio sources to your computer.

You can preserve your home videos by connecting your camcorder to your computer. You press play on the camcorder and capture the video on your computer. With the video digitized, you can also edit it to save the best parts in a shorter highlights video.

Tip: If your camcorder or analog video source has an S video output, it will give better quality result than the yellow video output. The red and white outputs are for audio.

I would advise to still keep the original cassettes (and cameras) in case technology changes and improves in the next decade(s). Perhaps in the future, there will be technology to improve the quality of old film. Looking back, our home videos were first transferred to videocassettes that were of okay quality. To get better quality, we then transferred them to DVD. We can now transfer them digitally. How long will we have DVD players for? Who knows what future technology will be available?

We used to save VCR cassettes of shows we recorded or VHS movies we purchased. We can't imagine watching those anymore. Many of those films or television shows can be streamed or purchased at higher quality now. We're happy we can digitize from our original camera cassettes and not the VCR tapes or DVDs we made that may be lower quality than the originals.

In some cases, lower quality is better than nothing so there are times that I digitized a VHS tape or DVD with Video Capture. Before donating your VCR or allowing it to break, it's a good idea to transfer them if you want to do it yourself.

There are companies who provide this service if you don't want to take the time to do it yourself.

Although my home videos were digitized years ago, I recently took my Video Capture out to record songs I wrote. 

My digital piano has audio outputs so I connected it with Video Capture to my computer. It's a bit of a cheat because there's no video output. The file I get is a greyed out video with the piano audio. I edited the file in iMovie to remove the video and only keep the audio. I can then upload the audio MP3 to my music collection to listen to them.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

May 5th is Cinco de Mayo in Mexico. My parents spend their winters in a small town on the west coast of Mexico. The first time I visited, I ordered a shrimp cocktail from the menu and was surprised when it came in a cold tomato based broth. It was delicious. Every time I go back, I order it and it's just as good as the first time.

It's the perfect dish for me to make when I want to reminisce about my time in Mexico.

 

My breakfast on Cinco de Mayo is a tribute to two coffee shops I like in the small town.

I would have a caramel latte at the shop we went to the most. At the other, I had fresh honey with toasted homemade bread that was amazing! I didn't think I liked honey until that day. to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I made a caramel latte using Nespresso's Mexico coffee served with toasted fresh bread and honey.

For afternoon snack, I was reminded of our time at Mexico City airport where we would have a layover. On our way there, we saw people carrying boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We walked all over the airport trying to find the shop but couldn't find it. We didn't have that much time so I promised my daughter that we would find it on our way home when our layover was a little longer.

That day, we asked at the information desk and we were told that we had to go out of the security area for the shop. I wasn't going to let that stop me, so I went out to find it. I thought that I spoke enough Spanish to order a dozen regular doughnuts but the worker could not understand what I wanted. It was a reminder that I should really improve my Spanish in the future.

 

Going back through security with only my purse and doughnuts, I wondered if this was a regular sight for the security agents. My daughter was thrilled. We enjoyed a couple and had some interesting looks and comments when we boarded the plane with the box in the bag. 

We didn't know it at the time, but it turns out that there are still a few Krispy Kreme doughnut shops left in Toronto. I thought they had all closed.

Every once in a while we get doughnuts (or my daughter receives some as a gift). I was happy that we had some in the freezer to enjoy and reminisce about that day in Mexico.

We enjoyed looking at our photos and videos from our trips to Mexico.

Like I wrote in my last blog post when I celebrated Lei Day, if you haven't curated photos or videos from past trips, this is a great way to use a deadline to get them done. You can use a national holiday date, use the date when you went or even better, choose now to get started.

Celebrating Lei Day

Following up on my previous post about celebrating trip memories, Wearing my Hawaiian dress, I made Hawaiian themed foods to celebrate Lei Day.

I was ordering groceries every two weeks at that time so without early planning, the celebration would have to be done with foods I already had in our house.

We started the day like we did at the resort with fresh berries and watermelon.

I also ordered Hawaiian pizza a few days before (not thinking about Lei Day) and froze leftovers so although it's not a Hawaiian dish, I enjoyed it for lunch.

    

Without ingredients to make a mai tai, I made a fruit punch like I had from a food truck in Hanalei.

While in Hawaii, we had a lot of fish and seafood. In the freezer, I had lobster meat and shrimp so I made a lobster cheese dip for an appetizer and lobster & shrimp on baguette for dinner.

                        

                     

My husband and I used this deadline to curate the photos and videos from our trip. My husband made a highlight video using Final Cut Pro and we enjoyed reminiscing while watching it.

If you haven't curated photos or videos from past trips, this is a great way to use a deadline to get them done. You can use a national holiday date or use the date when you went or even better, choose now to get started.

My Photo Album Collection

Counting down to the end of My Revive55 Project is helping me accomplish more. I think the following quote by Gretchen Rubin is very relevant to memory projects: "something that can be done at any time is often done at no time".

Do you think that you'll organize your photos some day? That you'll document your stories? That you'll organize or declutter your mementos? I wanted to stop procrastinating which is why I started my Revive55 Project. By having a deadline and sharing my progress, I am accomplishing a lot but I still don't think I can do everything I wanted to do without spending every waking moment on the project. 

I think that is also a very valid point to recognize. I will not do everything I wanted to do.

In recognizing that, I have to prioritize. What adds the most value? What do I love the most? What shortcuts can be taken? How will I do this in the future so that I don't fall behind again?

These are some of the questions I am hoping to answer before my project ends.

How will I preserve and enjoy my photos in the future? Here's what my collection looks like at the moment and how I got to this point.

This isn't all my albums. I actually have three of each colour on the bottom shelf completed. The bottom shelf are my Creative Memories albums and average 30 pages per album. The Blurb photobooks are on the right side of the top shelf with the year on the spine. Each of those books average 220 pages. One of my concerns that prompted me to start photobooks was the amount of space the albums would require with the increase amount of digital photos. One photo book is equivalent in shelf space to 6-7 Creative Memories albums.

When I started to scrapbook with Creative Memories, my first child was 10 months old. Starting my albums at his birth was a great starting point. Scrapbooking was my hobby and I made time for it. During the time of film photography, we didn't have as many photos to put in albums. It wasn't too difficult to keep up if it was something that we enjoyed.

Before starting to scrapbook, most of my photos were already in regular photo albums. Learning that those albums were damaging my photos, I started to transfer them to photo-safe Creative Memories albums.

I stopped scrapbooking my chronological family albums in 2008 when my passion and hobby became blogging. I didn't actually mean to stop, I just kept procrastinating and saying I'd catch up some day. As the days passed, the task became more and more overwhelming so I procrastinated more.

When I started my Revive55 Project last year, I had photos in albums from my birth to before my wedding. Because I wanted to make "special" albums for my wedding, showers and honeymoon, I procrastinated doing them. I purchased the albums and they've been sitting there empty.

I wanted them to be perfect and I suffered from perfection paralysis. I skipped those and had my photos from after the honeymoon in albums up to a few years before we had our first child. I never completely got caught up to my son's birth.

When I started to focus on my photos again a couple of years ago, I completed four photobooks for the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

So my gaps were for a few weeks around my wedding and honeymoon, 3 years before my son's birth, part of 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2015 to present. I also have to admit that I have a few gaps in my completed albums as well, like my sister's wedding that I had perfection paralysis and was overwhelmed with the number of photos. It wasn't my wedding, but I had enough photos to fill an album. How many pages do I allocate to her wedding? Which photos do I omit?

I also have extra photos over the years that I would love to add. In my first scrapbook, I included two pages for our trip to England. Two pages!! How does a trip only have two pages? The previous two pages were a business reward trip to St. Thomas. The cost of the album was limiting what I put in that first album. 

I can't add pages to that album without it affecting all the albums that come afterwards. If I add pages, I have to remove the last ones and add those to the next album and it creates a cycle of adding and removing.

What I hope to do with the extra photos is to include them in an England album of trips over the years. I could also do a Caribbean album of our various tropical holidays. Those are someday projects. 

I am currently focusing on closing the gaps in the chronological albums.  I'm very happy to have completed 2008 in my photo albums this week.  I also recently finished my 2013 photobook.

When I was making photobooks for my siblings when they turned a special age, they shared their childhood photos with me. Many of them I didn't have because our Mom would share the photos between us and not have four copies printed. Since starting my Revive55 Project,  I added the new-found photos to my childhood album and in so doing, expanded from one album to three. I also added mementos like report cards, ribbons, certificates and newspaper clippings. My first album is from birth until Grade 8 and my second is my high school years. The third is my university days. I am so happy that I managed to get that done during my Revive55 project.

My next focus is to print my 2009 photos and put them in Creative Memories albums. With my anniversary in May, I will focus on my wedding and honeymoon photos during that month. I will then continue chronologically to finish our photos before we had children.

Once this is done, I will consider my photos preserved from my birth until 2014. Creative Memories albums from my birth to 2009 and Blurb photo books from 2010 to 2014.

I then need to decide what to do from 2015 to 2019. Is it realistic to get caught up with those before the end of the project?

I don't want to keep falling behind and with the number of photos I'm adding to my collection, I need to find a new way of preserving and enjoying my photos. 

At the moment, I am thinking of continuing to make chronological photobooks but also having specialty albums (scrapbooks) or photobooks for trips and special themes. My husband has begun to make videos that include video clips, photos and journaling. He also makes digital albums that we watch on our TV either my mirroring our computer screen or through Apple TV.

I just wanted to write an update now as I am getting closer to closing the gaps in my photo projects. By reviewing and writing updates, I sometimes get aha moments when I get new ideas so hopefully something will click to help with my photo collection.

Capture Memories with Homework for Life

Everyday, we are creating special memories; even during this pandemic.

Matthew Dicks has had an unbelievable life. Crazy things have happened to him, so much so that his friends encouraged him to go on stage to compete in a storytelling contest. He has since won the Moth StorySLAM competition 45 times and is 6-time GrandSLAM champion.

What he found was that those crazy stories weren't his best stories. The stories that people love to hear are the little stories of everyday life. They are the stories that people can relate to. When he realized this, he wanted to find more small stories that exist in his life to remember and share.

He created "Homework for Life". He writes a sentence or two every day of something story-like that happened. He found that his project turned into magic as his "storytelling lens" sharpened and got refined.

He says that by taking 5 minutes at the end of your day to capture it,  Homework for Life helps you notice that your days aren't always the same and meaningless.

He found that life slowed down and time doesn't fly for him anymore.

Here is the Ted Talk where he presented Homework for Life. I highly encourage you to watch it. I have watched it multiple times since I first found it. I purposely omitted great parts of the video in my blog post.



I was trying to remember where I learned of Matthew Dicks. I thought it was from Marie Masse but couldn't remember exactly from what. I get lots of inspiration from Marie by email, from a course I'm taking with her and her podcast.

I started a Homework for Life spreadsheet at the beginning of January. I haven't gotten into the habit of reflecting at the end of the day but I have written down stories for most days by looking at my calendar and photos as reminders. I'm just looking back at my list now and because I have been writing down memories, I see that I first watched the video on January 9th after learning about Matthew Dicks from Marie's 71st episode of her podcast: Intentional Documentary. She has taken a break from her podcast this year, but I highly recommend listening to her podcast from the start if you're interested in photography and storytelling.

Just looking back at my spreadsheet, I can see stories that I'm happy I captured because I had already forgotten some of them.

Celebrating Trip Memories

Yesterday was St. George's Day, England's National Day. My husband is English so we sometimes do something special to recognize it.

I planned to make fish and chips, but then upon request changed it to jacket potatoes as the English call it (baked potatoes). I was happy that my daughter was home because she thought of making scones with cream and jam to serve with tea in the afternoon. How perfect.

I love that she's wearing a sweatshirt she bought on our last trip to England. We also used our England cups and sugar bowl I bought at Harrods in London. The sugar bowl and cup and saucer were purchased in 2018 while I bought the "Harrods Knightsbridge" cup on my first trip to England in 1992.

My daughter thought to post the event on social media, even if I didn't.

I was reminded of St. George's Day yesterday morning when I checked my TimeHop app and saw my Facebook post from 10 years ago.

This made me think of other national days I could celebrate to be reminded of travel memories. I could use the National Day or the date I travelled to prepare a special meal or go to a restaurant/pub that serves food from that place.

Here are some example that I could choose from:

• Australia Day - January 26
• St. Patrick's Day - Ireland - March 17
• St. George's Day - England - April 23
• Cinco de Mayo (Mexico) - May 5 or Grito de Dolores - Sept. 16
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste - Quebec - June 24 
• Canada Day - July 1
• United States Independence Day - July 4
• Bastille Day - France - July 14
• Switzerland National Day - August 1
• Barbados Independence Day - November 30

Here's a list of national days by country if you like the idea and want to celebrate your past trips or even dream of places you want to visit in the future:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_day

An easy way to remember the travel dates is to look in our passports. Click here to read my blog post about the passport journal I created. I added the holiday dates and travel dates to my calendar with a reminder a week before to plan the celebration if I want.

I made a small 7x7 photo book with photos from my phone of our last trip to England.

It only took a couple of hours. I chose 80 photos (maximum for the company I was ordering from). It's one photo per page and we can add a line of text per page.

I didn't think to look at it yesterday, but I did this morning.  These types of travel books or digital books could be added to the festivities by reminiscing and rembering the stories of our trips.

Having a date to celebrate, can also give a deadline to complete a photobook or digital album of our best trip photos that are lost in the clutter of our digital files.

90 Days to go - Playlist Shuffle

It's 90 days to July 20th; the official end to my Revive55 Project.

I am trying to focus on writing this post but the television is on near me. To try to drown it out, I put my headphones on and shuffled all my songs on Apple Music - I have 3000 songs on the playlist.

I think the playlist is also distracting me, but I am reminded of a quiz shuffle I used to play.

The rules were:

1. Put your music library on shuffle.

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3. You must write that song title as the answer to the question, no matter how silly it sounds! Most of the time they seem to work though, strangely enough.

I used to post my lists on my blog because I loved them so much. Some of my favourite answers in the past were:

• What is your life's purpose? Wasted Little DJ's (love it!)
• What do you think of your best friend? Club Foot (we loved that one since my husband had broken his foot the year before) (posted in 2009)
• What would best describe your personality? Hot N Cold
• What will they play at your funeral? She's A Genius (hahaha)
• What is your biggest secret? Tears Dry On Their Own (😢)
• What do you think of your friends? Silence Is Talking 
• What will you post this as? Love, Love, Love
• If someone says "is this ok? you say?" You can do better than me
• What do you like in a guy/girl? Flowers and Football Tops
• How do you feel today? Lost? (yes, question mark is part of the song title)
• What is your biggest secret? Kaleidoscope Heart (my love of hearts isn't a secret)
• What do you think of your friends? All I Need
• How is today going to be? I'll Take Everything 
• What is in store for this weekend? Lazy Days 
• How is my life going? Writing to Reach You 
• How will I be remembered? Last Request 
• What is my signature song? Summer Sun 
• The next time I'm in front of a crowd I'll say: Turn Up The Sun
• My innermost desire is: You Love Us 
• Happiness is: Song 
• What makes you laugh? Shine On 
• What makes you cry? Don't Look Back In Anger 
• If I could go back in time, I would change: Mysterious Ways 

So while reminiscing of the song shuffle quiz, I'm going to write this blog post while listening to my shuffled playlist and seeing what catches my attention.

I love lyrics and since I started my first blog My Life Is Like A Song, lyrics have been a major theme.

When I put the playlist on, I wasn't wanting to listen to what was on TV, but now my husband has put SGN on (Some Good News by John Krasinski) that I am tempted to watch but I really want to get this blog post published today. If you haven't been watching SGN, click here. It's amazing!

I initially was going to write about my project while listening, but in some ways, the lyrics are speaking for themselves...
(lyrics are in italics)

Back from the dead of winter
Back from the dead and all our leaves are dry
But every seed dies before it grows
(Enough To Let Me Go by Switchfoot)

Perfect lyrics for spring time.

My father said never give up son...
Yeah, you could be someone special
You've got bright in your brains 
and lightning in your veins
You'll go higher than they've ever gone
In you, I see someone special 
You've got fire in your eyes and when you realize
You'll go further than we've ever gone
Miracles (Someone Special) by Coldplay

This is so perfect with our daughter receiving a university research grant today...well I guess it could be better if the lyrics were "never give up girl/daughter"...but that's okay.

My husband just interrupted to show me that Brad Pitt was on SGN. How am I supposed to focus with SGN playing?

Help me make up my mind

Should I blog or watch the show?

Tracing back the thread

This caught my attention because one of the quotes I heard on a podcast or read in a book was "follow the thread"...meaning that life takes you this way and that and although we don't understand the meaning, sometimes following the thread is the way we're meant to go. I have since adopted the quote "Follow Your Bliss" as one of my mantras. Following your bliss meant more to follow what you love than following this way or that...follow the way you love.

You have to swing the bat

Don't you wish the Blue Jays (or MLB) were playing right now? and NBA, NHL, EPL, MLS, Olympics, etc.

(above 3 lyrics from Save You by Matthew Perryman Jones)

Just you and me love, we are almost home
(Almost Home by Alex & Sierra)

Thoughts to travellers who were or are trying to get home.

With glowing hearts 
(O Canada by Daylight for Deadeyes)

Couldn't help but sing to the whole Canadian anthem.

I had a dream of my own
Just walking out of my home...
...And I would love it sometime
If you would walk at my side
(On The Road by Keane)

I'm all dressed for a party
And, man, I'd like to go
The streets are filled with echoes
And there's a half moon above
I don't feel much like talkin'...
...And maybe my skies are empty, 
maybe my birds have flown
And I'm scared as hell to walk out
through this door
I can't stay here anymore
(The Party by The Strumbellas)


She lives in daydreams with me
(She by Harry Styles)

If only in my dreams
(I'll Be Home for Christmas by She & Him)

I've blogged before about dream lyrics so they catch my attention. In my Grade 12 yearbook, they had questions we answered like ambition, probable destination and usually found. I answered that I was usually found "daydreaming". As a side note, my ambition was cruise director and my probable destination was Love Boat.

Bear with me man
I lost my train of thought
I fantasise, I call it quits...
...Oh just as the apocalypse
Finally gets prioritised
And you cry some of the 
hottest tears you ever cried...
...This stunning documentary
That no one else unfortunately saw
Such beautiful photography
It's worth it for the opening scene
I've been driving 'round
Listenin' to the score
Or maybe I just imagined it all
I've played to quiet rooms like this before
Bear with me man
I lost my train of thought
(One Point Perspective by Arctic Monkeys)

Arctic Monkeys lyrics are always so brilliant. This one was perfect for this blog post.

I'll give you my opinion
It's the only one I got
They'll turn you into something
Whether you are it or not
Through a microscope lens
Dissecting your whole life
But they'll never get you right
(Never Get You Right - by Brandon Flowers)

More science lyrics for my daughter (and I).

You're faking a smile with a coffee to go 

Wouldn't it be nice to have a coffee to go? Hoping our coffee shops and restaurants open up again soon.

Sometimes the system goes on the blink and the whole thing it turns out wrong
You might not make it back and you know that you could be well all that strong
And I'm not wrong
So where is the passion when you need it the most
Oh you and I
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
'Cause you had a bad day, you're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know, you tell me don't lie
You work on a smile and you go for a ride
(Bad Day by Daniel Powter)

These lyrics are giving me a new meaning these days.

Don't let your heart get hardened into stone
Or lose yourself in looking at your phone
So many so-called friends
And still you feel alone
You should spend more time with the do's 
than with the don'ts
Don't worry if you don't know what to do
I don't know what I'm doing
No one has a clue
But you'll figure it 
And I might too
(Don't Worry by Frank Turner)

At the start of the news day, the fires begin
In words and in pictures, but I'm not listening
I'm not taking it in
I'm going to go to the country, where nothing goes on
Going to bury my head, where I can't hear the sound of bombs
Playing along
I'm going to go to a bar, where the jukebox is on
Shut out the noise with a rock 'n roll song
Playing along
(Playing Along by Keane)

Walk out, into the sunburst street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I've found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it's all that I found
And I can breathe
Breathe now
(Breathe by U2)

So many people going out and singing on balconies and on the street to thank and bring hope to people in these tought times. Locally, the Raptors anthem singer went out on his street to sing O Canada this week.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
(Let It Snow by Kacey Musgraves)

It snowed a few times today in Toronto. Not enough to stay on the ground but it was coming down quite heavily for a few minutes. This also makes me think of my parents in my hometown who still have lots of snow.

E equals MC squared till it's safe to come home
I'll come home
I'll be there when you make it worth my while
(I Guess...I Suppose by The Fratellis)

Holding my photograph up
To the window
Through the paper 
A refracted sun
(Better Than This by Keane)

I always love lyrics about photos; this reminds me of people putting drawings, rainbows and hearts on their windows and loved ones seeing each other through windows during social distancing.

Pictures framing up the past
(sounds promising)
eek...it doesn't stay happy (I don't want to write the lyrics)
This used to be a funhouse
(Funhouse by P!nk)

Maybe time to put an end to this blog post? Although that's not like me to leave it with a negative ending...have to wait for a happy ending, but I am actually sweating listening to this song. Can I skip? Normally it wouldn't affect me, but while being inspired by lyrics...I really need a happy song right now....

and here it comes...

Oh-ho, all the lights are shining so brightly everywhere
And the sound of children laughter fills the air
And everyone is singing, I hear those sleigh bells ringing
(All I want for Christmas Is You Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey)

This is the 4th Christmas song tonight...how many Christmas songs do I have in the 3000?

I just made a smart playlist with Christmas/Holiday as a genre to answer that question. I have 180 songs of the 3000 with a Christmas theme (6%) so from the 25 songs in this playlist, there should be 1.5 Christmas songs. I was thankful for that 4th one to end this post on a happy note.

If I had decided to write a blog post while choosing lyrics, I'm not sure that I could have done as well as shuffle did tonight. I used to write blog posts with themed lyrics, but it would take me much longer than this one did today. I wasn't that familiar with some of these songs so am thankful to shuffle for pointing them out to me.

Here's the full playlist. Not every song caught my attention, depending on what I was writing or doing while it was playing.

Full playlist:

1. Enough To Let Me Go by Switchfoot
2. Miracles (Someone Special) by Coldplay
3. Last Christmas by Taylor Swift
4. Heart Attack by Roz Bell
5. Save You by Matthew Perryman Jones
6. Almost Home by Alex & Sierra
7. Off I Go by Greg Laswell
8. O Canada by Daylight for Deadeyes
9. So Far Gone by James Blunt
10. On The Road by Keane
11. The Party by Strumbellas
12. She by Harry Styles
13. I'll be home for Christmas by She & Him
14. One Point Perspective by Arctic Monkeys
15. Never Get You Right  by Brandon Flowers
16. Bad Day by The Shady Ukulele Band (original by Daniel Powter)
17. Attention by Charlie Puth
18. Waste by  Foster The People
19. Don't Worry by Frank Turner
20. Playing Along by Keane
21. Breathe by U2
22. Let it Snow by Kacey Musgraves
23. I Guess..I Suppose by The Fratellis
24. Funhouse by P!nk
25. All I want for Christmas Is You by Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey