Archive for June, 2006

Snowballs.pc Episode 3 is on it's way!

Expect it later tonight.

snowballspc.com

Short, sweet and too the point. Plus I'm tired anyways.

Later!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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Ok, so corny title I know, but being in Toronto you see stranger things.

Anyway, today was another day at Call For Help where we did a full 4 shows taping as usual. Mike Hogue came in again today, which is good to see him again. For those who don't know Mike, he is the Flash Master for CFH, and he is also a professional animator. He's worked with many famous animators and has worked on many animated movies, such as Titan A.E. as an example.

Anyway, him and I know each other from where we worked last at a Call Center in St. Catharines. We actually worked the same job, but he worked the midnight shift and I worked the day shift. I remember back in March when I first started at CFH, I saw Mike again on set, and at that moment that was when I realized that Mike the Flash Master of CFH is also the guy I knew from work. I had never added the 2 together before.

Weird huh?

Anywho, after CFH Mike and I wondered around Queen St. in Toronto. If you have no idea what Queen St is well let's just say it's the same street that CityTV or MuchMusic is located. So we were walking around and Mike showed me a comic store called Silver Snail. Let me tell you if you are a comic book geek like me, you will die in this place. They had 2 floors of comics, action figures, movies, collectable figures, anything related to comics and that kind of genre this store had. I was even tempted to pick up a few things, but I decided against it due to lack of funds. But let me tell you I wasn't passed begging at that point to get money, but Mike helped to keep that hobo urge down.

Next we went to Chapters at the Paramount Theatre and I never realized how big a Chapters bookstore can be. It was three freakin' levels!!! Again I had to fight the urge to beg for money because I was like a kid in a candy store at that point again. Thankfully Mike was there to help me with the temptation to splurge on books, but man did I want to buy tons of stuff there.

After the mopping up of the drool from my mouth at Chapters, Mike had to catch his train back to St. Catharines. While I went into the Paramount Theatre to see if I could see Superman Returns tonight at the IMAX. No dice. Sold out, of course. Leo Laporte was there, but he said he bought tickets before hand so he was able to get in easily. I felt bad for him when I saw the line up to get into the theatre. I envied him seeing the movie, but did not envy the crowds he was going to be surrounded by. As it is it's good that Superman was sold out tonight, because then I can actually see the movie at the IMAX on Saturday with my dad. Now that I know how busy it was I definately think I will buy my tickets before hand.

After i left the theatre, wearing my Superman shirt I might add(stupid theatre, sold out. Psshhhaw), and I walked down Queen St. again past the MuchMusic building. Now picture the scene as it unfolds, I hear really loud music walking towards the building sounding very familiar, a massive crowd of people cheering and standing outside the building. Well, I walk closer and I see that it is Billy Talent playing an outdoor concert and I was actually able to see everything. Which is saying something because I need to be close to the stage to see everything.

The music wasn't that bad. I'm not a huge fan of Billy Talent, but hey a free concert is a free concert. So I stood there for 10 minutes when they finished their set and went inside the building to be interviewed by the VeeJays.

From there I took the subway back to where my Bus Station was, and I'm again sitting at Stella's Cafe writing this entry for you while I wait for the bus.

Now I know this blog was probably boring to some, but some of you may find what i wrote exciting. And if you do, email me, K?

Talk to ya later from my new version of my Toronto “Starbucks” and I'll blog some more.

Toodles

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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So where did yesterday's entry go?

Well, thats a very interresting story.

I was kidnapped by evil monkeys and was forced to do their evil bidding by peeling bananas for them to consume. But they misunderstood the power of the Snowball, and I was able to make a weapon using 120 banana peels and a stick. I took on those monkeys and not only did I take on them all, I became supreme leader of this Planet of the Apes, and I am now my captor's overlord!

Lazy Stupid Monkeys

Nice story huh? Well, it is obviously false, but wouldn't that be cool? To take on an entire race of Apes Charlton Heston style and become the greatest Monkey Emporer there ever had been!!!!!

Anyway, yes I did miss yesterday as far as posting an entry. And I have a good reason for it too. My computers were unfortunately occupied. They were both rendering video which took an extremely long and painful time. Just see Entry #010 to know what I have to say about rendering. Arrrgh.

But it is all good because I have finally finished editing snowballs.pc episode 3 and it has finished rendering the entire file. So all I have to do is convert the episode into it's individual formats and it will be released at least some time this week. I would like to say tonight, but I can't give an estimate of time at the moment.

Right now I am actually sitting at Stella Cafe in Toronto across the street from my Bus Station waiting to go home. Reason why I am in Toronto is, like I mentioned before, for Call For Help. Today was an awesome day though. It always is with CFH, but today had a fun attitude towards tapping, and everyone had a good time. I'll be here all week and I'll have more updates soon. And hopefully if the Wi-Fi holds out here in Toronto(the Wi-Fi at CFH needs to be clear for guests, and there is no signal at the Bus Station, hence why I am at this cafe), I will be able to blog entries per day. Toronto really is becoming the high-tech capital in the world. There is so much here tech-wise than in St. Catharines, thats for sure.

Anyway, as Ruler of the Planet of Apes, I must leave you now and go forth into the unknown and brave the bus ride yet to come. LOL

Seeya tomorrow.

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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Well hello again.

Not much happened today, but I did have fun. Today was kind of weird at first. I woke up this morning to the sound of my cell phone going off. It was Shane and he was calling to see if I wanted to see Click tonight at the theatres. So I said sure why not. I had nothing else to do today. So I got out of bed and I remembered that I was still alone in the house and it felt cool. I can do anything and not have to worry about disturbing anyone else. So what I did was just sit and vege on food while watching a Superman Movie Marathon. Now yes, that doesn't seem like the healthiest thing to do, but I was having fun.

So after a while I got ready, walked over to Shane's (he was a 5 minute walk away from my house), and we walked to the movie theatres with Joanne (Shane's Sister), and Brian.

We had some time to kill before the movie so Joanne brought a football with her (she wanted to get it pumped up), so we found a park and played a game of catch but like HORSE. We would throw the ball around and whoever dropped got a letter. We used the word FOOTBALL and it was fun. I came in second. It had been a while since I played football, and I remember playing street football when I was a kid, and that was the best time of my life. I never was good enough to play in a league, but a whole bunch of my friends would play together and I was always Quarterback. Amazingly enough, me a half blind guy having to throw a ball to people while trying not to be tackled. I couldn't catch the ball because I couldn't see, yet I was able to throw a ball and I became pretty good at it.

Ah, fun times.

Anyway, so after we played with the ol' pigskin, we went to the movies. Obviously we saw Click, and I have to say I was impressed. Of course it was a Happy Madison movie, and I've seen a few of those movies made by Adam Sandler's Movie company. If you are not sure which ones are his company's movies think The Benchwarmers, Deuce Bigalow, etc.

Anywho, Click has to be my favourite out of the Adam Sandler movies that I've seen lately by him. One thing I always had gripes towards Adam Sandler movies was that it for all intents and purposes was an Adam Sandler movie. Fart and privates jokes were the tricks of the trade in those comedies. But with Click it actually had a really good story behind it. It had heart, and a deep message, but of course had the occasional Adam Sandler movie style stuff.

The movie was about a father of a family of 4 named Michael Newman(Sandler). His life was always stressful and busy with work and family, and when he tries to watch TV one night he gets frustrated because there are too many remotes and he couldn't find the remote to the TV. I think you and I can definately relate. So he goes to a Bed Bath and Beyond store to find a remote because all the electronic stores were closed. So he looks in the store, finds the Bed and the Bath, but he finds an odd section called the “Beyond” hence the name of the store. LOL. Anyway there he finds a guy named Morty (Christopher Walken, one of my favourite actors), and he gives Michael a universal remote control. But this remote control can control anything in his life. Just point and click and everything goes. At any rate without giving out too much about the whole story of the movie he starts to fast forward through time and miss his life. It is here in the story where we really see the heart and the meanings of the story, and it starts to show Adam Sandlers potential for serious dramatic roles instead of a Prat-Fall Comedian.

Suffice it to say I was impressed, and I definitely give it a 4 out of 5 stars on the Snowball Movie scale, or whatever you want to call it. So I would recommend you go see it, and have a good time.

Anywho (x2), I'm going to go, I'll see you all tomorrow.

Laterz

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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Well it is close to midnight and I have just finished a long day of stuff.

I could've said work, but that was only part of the day. I also could've said partying, but that was the other part of my day.

Suffice it to say that I had to get up at 8am this morning to go help my grandma move to her new place. Luckily for me my two aunts, my uncle and my cousin were there to help with the task, and also luckily, my grandma did not have a lot of stuff to move. Which was great and not so great.

Getting stuff into the trucks and vans was ok. No problems there, but when we moved to the new place, her room was on the third floor, and that was brutal to carry stuff up three flights of stairs to move her into the room. Now, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “Well Steve, why didn't you take the elevator?” Well let's just say that they only had one elevator for the entire building, no freight elevator, and it was also lunch time. So, multiple hordes of seniors were coming down the elevator to go to the dinning room to have lunch.

We were able to use the elevator once to bring two recliners up, but there was an old lady that did not look quite happy that my uncle, my cousin and I used that elevator. She kept reminding us of the time 'til lunch, as if she was a count down clock. Yeah that was fun. What was I on “24: Seniors Edition?”

Anyway, we moved her in, took about roughly 6 hours to do, and I was beat, sweaty and tired. So when I got home, I went to my friends house to go take a dip in the pool. And man that pool was great. Felt good to just swim in a nice pool of cool refreshing water.

After swimming, I went home and prepared for a party that I was having tonight. My parents were on vacation with my sister, and my brother was out of town, so I had the whole place to myself. And you know what that means…

“PAR-TAY @ SNOWBALL'S!”

Good thing is the house is still in one piece, and not to much damage was done. I would've taken pictures, but my Dad has my camera while on vacation. So no pictures, but let's say if I did have my camera, I would take a picture of the person that is passed out on my futon in my rec-room. He passed out and we drew things on him with permanent marker. Oh shoot! I just remember he has a job interview on Monday, and he may not get the job, well at least if he can't wash off the word “Douchebag” off of his forehead by then.

Meh, oh well such is life. LOL

So I shall leave this entry to a close and I shall see you all tomorrow, same Snowball time, same Snowball channel!!!!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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Hello all,

Tonight is going to be a short blog, because I am tired and I need to get up super early in the morning. I just wanted to mention that it was my sister's Grad 8 Graduation today, and let me say I felt really old today, because I still remember the day my parents brought Jenn home from the hospital, and I would feed her, her bottle in a big easy chair in our living room. She was so small, and now she is just about to head into High School.

Man, I'm just speechless right now.

She looks all grown up.My Jenny

Night

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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Today is catchup day. For me it's the day before the weekend and it's going to be a busy week ahead. Here is the rundown:

 1) My sister's graduation

Tomorrow I am going to go to my sister's 8th grade graduation along with my parents, and it's going to be great to see her graduate and start her new life as a High School student. At my old High School by the way. It's going to be fun. I'll try to film some of the ceremony and possibly post that as a video blog. Not sure yet. Depends on if I get enough footage to warrant a post.

2) 2 parties in one day!

Come Saturday I'm going to not one but 2 parties on the same day. A pool party in the afternoon, and then another party at nigh. Going to be fun times. But not without having to move my Grandma “Nannie” to her new home. It's only a few things so it's not a lot to move. But anyway, Saturday should be fun.

3) Release snowballs.pc episode 3!

Ok, so snowballs.pc is finally in the final stages of the major overhaul that I have been going through for the past month and a half, and I'm editing the episode this week so I should have the episode out by Monday. What's good about the episode is that everything is new. New graphics, new segments, new co-host, new camera man, new, new new! Did I say that everything is new?

Well anyway, it's going to be good, and I hope you really like it. I'm really happy of how everything turned out. Anyway, look forward to that come Monday.

4) Call for Help

Well it is that time of the month again, and I can't wait. For those who don't know I work as an intern/volunteer at G4TechTV Canada on the show called Call For Help and I absolutely love it. Honestly, it's the thing I look forward to most out of the entire month that I have a major blast. Everyone there is so cool and great, it's a shame I only get to see them only one week out of the month.

Anyway, that starts on Tuesday, so I'll be making the trek up to Toronto again Tuesday morning at 6:20am, and even though the hours for me is long (due to transportation, hours of taping) I really don't mind having to take those hours out of my day to do something I love.

5) That's it.

Well that'ts it for today, lots to do in the next coming days, but I'll be so happy doing them. Sometimes it's good to be busy.

Catchya all on the flip side.

Steve Saylor “snowball”

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So today's entry is a little odd for me. I don't know if I want to cross the threshold or the boundary of the Internet with the inner thoughts of Snowball.

Isn't this what a blog is about though?

Yes it is Inner self, but I don't want this to be a “Wearing-your-heart-on-your-sleeve” blog. It's just supposed to be focused on expanding my writing skills, and having fun with a video blog.

Come on, you're kidding yourself right?

What are you talking about?

Face it, there are things you want to write on your blog that you're afraid if you write you are worried of what people would think of you.

Yes, that is true.

And isn't it also true that you have things you want to get off your chest as of this minute and you can't because of you don't want to sound like a freakin' wuss?

Yes.

God, you are a wuss.

Look who's talking, you're talking to yourself and not even letting things got off your chest!

You're the one writing dude, not me. You have full control of the God damn keyboard, type something will ya?!

…

You can't can you? See, I told you, you are a wuss. You're just writing this entry to pretend to be funny, and not even getting into the “inner thoughts of Snowball” as you call it.

Well what do you want me to do?

I just freakin' told you what to do you moron! I'm not your Mom or Dad, you can't have them around anymore to tell you what to do if you need help. You need to figure out things on your own. Right now it's between you, me, and the keyboard, and the Darth Tater sitting on the stereo, but that is it!

Look who's trying to be funny now?

YOU! YOU JUST TYPED THAT YOU F**KING S.O.B! OH GREAT, YOU HAVE TO EVEN CENSOR YOURSELF ON YOUR BLOG. WHAT A BUNCH OF BULLS**T!

…

Great, now your ashamed you even wrote that didn't you?

Yes.

Like I said you are a wuss!

I have work to do.

Great run away, you just wasted time by writing this crap you know that right?

You tell me.

Just go watch Pure Pwnage you tard. New episode came out. And don't you dare link that, and think that this post was all about creating “imaginary” emotional turmoil so you can say that Pure Pwnage rocks.

Shut up.

You shut up.

Fine

FINE!

…

…

…

Oh just tell them already.

Seeya tomorrow.

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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If I could give one tip in regards to making videos, or making a video podcast, or making your own vlog, the most frustrating thing about the whole process is rendering.

God, I hate rendering.

I have just spent the entire day working on 2 video projects that needed to get done, and it took all day to do it. Not that the capturing the video, editing it, adding effects, or any of that. It's the rendering that takes way to freakin' long!

To render a 4 minute video took an hour and a half to render. And even then the video did not look right, there were tons of artifacting (where all you see is tears in the video), and the video isn't synced up with the audio. Then you have to go back and fix the problem again and do the whole process all over again.

And there are no magic settings when rendering that makes everything perfect. You could use the same settings, and it may look good the first time, or the first few times, but when you try it and it doesn't work, you wonder why. You did the same thing you did before, no changes were made, but it just doesn't work.

Right now I am staring at my computer screen watching a progress bar go by, with a progress time of 15 minutes left….no 20….no 30….no 95 minutes!!

What the %$#^!

Oh wait it's done.

I'm happy now.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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I'm sitting here in my room, trying to install Nero. And my brother is sitting here behind me asking if I'm wasting my time with my blog.

He now just threw a quarter at me. He was aiming for my head but missed.

Now he's flicking another coin at me.

He's sitting here waiting for me to burn a DVD for him of a video that I made.

Which he just gave me permission to put the video online. So expect that probably tommorrow.

He just called me a retard.

Aren't brothers great?

Seeya tomorrow

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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