So they have this program for recording your gaming sessions on a PC. It’s called Fraps (as in Frames Per Second) and two nights ago I tried giving it a go for the first time.

I attended a PvP (Player vs Player) class in my favorite game, EVE Online, with a group I’d flown with before. I’d already graduated their Basic-level class, but it was my brother’s first time, so I decided to try and record the most significant fight and make a little movie out of it.

So, here goes. I wasn’t real pleased with the slightly choppy framerate (I think I should have set the FPS to 60 rather than 30) and I wasn’t sure what to do about the screen resolution. I play EVE on my laptop at 1440×900 pixels and I was concerned if I shrank it down no one would be able to read any of the text.

Oh well, it was my first try and it was still pretty cool working on it and laying in the soundtrack and title cards. Click the link below to open the movie player in a new blank page of your browser. It is in streaming Flash format, so it should begin playing almost immediately and without a lot of buffering:

My First Fraps in EVE Online (1440×900 screen resolution)

My First Fraps in EVE Online (1024×695 screen resolution)

To view in Fullscreen: Click either link above to open the new window, then select View ->  Full Screen in your browser toolbar.

Howdy folks. How’s this for something unusual? I’ve made a video documenting my player character from the video role-playing game, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Tammanastine was a character created nearly 20 years ago for the pen-and-paper RPG Stormbringer, based on the Elric books by Michael Moorcock. In the intervening time, I’ve occasionally recreated Tammy in other venues and have used his character model for one or two video RPGs. He’s become my go-to warrior-sorcerer with a tint of eeeevil.

Oblivion really it lent itself to the creation of this character and I enjoyed trying to replicate this face that I’d only seen previously in my imagination. Oblivion was the best RPG I’ve ever played and it swallowed up about two solid months of my life. That is, until such time as Tammanastine became so powerful he simply could not be challenged in the fictional land of Cyrodiil.

Autumn, who is now 6, just had her first ever cheerleading event at her school’s pee-wee basketball game. Her little sister, Julianna, had to get in on the action, of course!

My two little munchkin nieces, Autumn and Julianna, got dressed up last night as little chickys for Halloween. Check ‘em out.

To paraphrase Mr. Jinks, I love nieces to pieces!

I know the video quality isn’t as good as some of my other home videos. I seem to be having trouble adjusting my camcorder to low indoor light.

Here is the last video I took of the SS Mariah before she was sold in July. We went out for an overnight trip that instead turned into a daysail. An impending storm spooked my first mate, Chuck, and he insisted we turn back after a few short hours. I wanted to show off the Genoa and really head out to Spanish Cove, but no luck. She did sail beautifully (as always), and it was a bittersweet day.

“The sea’s vast depths lie open to the fish;
Wherever the breezes blow the bird may fly;
So to the brave man every land’s a home.”
- Ovid

This is my first collection of videos taken of the boat project I undertook in Pensacola, Florida. After winning this boat on EBay, I soon learned that a whole lot of little jobs can be much worse (and more expensive) than a few large ones! I traveled 1100 miles to north Florida in the heat of summer to get this boat in the water.

Despite the hardships, in the end it was worth it.

Topsides and Belowdecks: A Study in Nautical Horror – This is my very first video taken with my new digital camcorder, documenting the early stages of the boat’s repair and some of the colorful people around Patti’s Shipyard in Pensacola.

Boat Progress: June 6th, 2006 – This video was taken during the midpoint of the restoration. Mariah would not launch for another month and it would be weeks before her mast ever went up. At least most of the woodwork was getting done inside.

Last Boat Update: June 28th, 2006 – My final video taken before she went into the crane. The mast had finally been raised despite weeks of delays and hundreds or additional dollars in expenses. With her name and origin on her stern, running numbers and Hunter logo, Mariah was finally looking like a real sailboat!

Mariah Launches: July 3rd, 2006 – Mariah went into the water just in time to make the regatta for the Fourth of July in Pensacola Bay. We cruised out to White Island and watched the fireworks, drank beer and yelled at every powerboater who came through too fast and waked us. Good times!

I tried to get some footage of a dolphin that swam in close to our shipyard in Pensacola. Larger fish have been swimming farther into the bay in recent years and this increase in the food population has lured larger animals. There have been several bull and hammerhead sharks moving in and plenty of dolphins as well. This particular one was fishing just a few yards away during the last week before my sailboat went into the water.

It was hard to get the camera on focus to get her, but I did catch some shots. Check it out!

On Memorial Day this summer I went out on my buddy Wayne’s sailboat, an Island Packet 38. Wayne taught me how to sail on both his boats and we enjoyed a couple of good daysails and an overnighter. The Islander was big and beamy, a real joy to sail. We went out from Pensacola Bay and Bayou Chico across to Spanish Cove and anchored amongst about 100 boats.

On the way sailing into the cove we got to test our navigation in tight spaces and check out lots of hot chicks. Later, we dinghy-ed into shore and walked the beach, checking out lots of hot chicks. The rest of the day was spent lounging in the shade of the Islander’s cockpit, listening to music and using our binoculars to… well, you get the picture.