Kind of a quiet week.
I learned that Athena can count, though.
She’s getting older—she’ll be ten this November—so we started giving her glucosamine for her joints. I know the jury is out from a purely objective standpoint, but it seems to be helping her. Cosequin, the brand we’re using, recommends three tablets daily for the first few weeks, then two daily after that. We made that switch Monday night.
I usually give her the tabs after her bedtime walk, just dropping them on the floor for her to come pick them up.
She ate the two that I put down, looked around for a moment, then gave me The Look.
She glanced down at the floor, then back at me.
Then at the floor. Then back at me.
“Father, you seem to have forgotten to give me all of my treats.” Yeah, that look.
Then she very dramatically turned her back on me, wandered over to the middle of the living room and flopped down with a sigh.
Poor, abused puppy.
Website Updates
I spent last Sunday afternoon upgrading my genealogy site. I really need to keep it more up-to-date. The site was running version 12.3, and the current version is 15.0.5. That’s a lot of catching-up.
The biggest amount of work comes from updating the 23 mods I have installed. I love the mod system, because there are some really cool things you can implement. It’s just that when I’m so far behind on system versions, I’m even farther behind on the mods.
I also pulled the trigger on something I’ve been threatening to do for a while, which was to change the template. I’d been using the same one since at least 2019, and while I liked it well enough, I kind of felt like it was time for a change. The main difference is the layout of the front page and the color theme throughout the site.
I’ve still got a few things to tweak, then it’s back to the fun stuff: Research!
Almost A Disaster
I’m still working on copying my dad’s old home movies. It takes almost four hours to copy a 30-minute film. I get about one done a week.
The digitizer images each frame, then compiles them into a video file. Once I get home, I run through the video and make any edits I need to make. At the same time, I’m taking note of scene changes and writing down the timestamp. Then when I post the videos to YouTube, I add Dad’s notes and the timestamps into the description, and YT creates chapters for me. Kind of cool, that.
The camera Dad shot these movies on only held a small reel, perhaps 50 feet, or about three minutes. At some point in the late 70s or early 80s, he went through those reels and spliced them together into longer collections, which is what I’m working on now.
About ¾ of the way through digitizing session 4, the film broke.
I panicked at first. Was the film ruined? As it turned out, it broke at a splice, not in the middle of a scene, which suggests to me that the film is actually in pretty good shape.
All things considered, I’m rather impressed that it’s the first time it happened. Dad shot these films in the early-to-mid 60s, and I didn’t always store them under archival conditions.
Then again, I’m only about 1/3 of the way through the films.
I glanced at Amazon while I was in the library, and the smallest package of splicing tape I could find was 500 pieces. While I had nightmares about needing that much, I really don’t think I will. Then I looked more closely at the product listing and realized it wasn’t for film.
Later in the week, I called a couple of Tulsa camera stores, but there’s not a big call for splicing 8mm film these days, so back to Amazon I went. I found these strips (affiliate link) which actually are designed for film. They’re more expensive on a per-item basis, but it’s not a painful cost.
Then it occurred to me that it might be a bit of a pain to hold the pieces of film together to make the repair. Dad had a film editor, but that’s long gone, so I went back to Amazon. I couldn’t find anything that actually had the studs that fit in the sprocket holes, though.
Hmm, I thought, I bet there’s a 3D print for what I need.
Thingiverse had something close, but without the sprocket studs. Printables had just what I needed, though, and I have a son-in-law with a 3D printer. Youngest Son has one too, but his is down right now. I messaged Lego Dude this morning with a link to the Printables page, and he handed me the print when we got there this afternoon for GrandArtist’s birthday party. I love it when a plan comes together.
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