Category Archives: Vlog

Photo-A-Day, Technology, Video Game, Vlog

I Finally Upgraded My Laptop

Ne Laptop and old
Photo-A-Day #4473

After 8 years I finally decided to bite the bullet and upgrade my laptop. For the past 8 years my workhorse has been a 13.3″ HP Pavilion laptop with an Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor SU7300(1.3GHz,3M Cache)w/Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD. It had 4 GB of RAM in it, a 320 GB Hard drive and I picked up an external CD/DVD drive. The cost = $675 after some coupons and rebates from someone I met at Blog World Expo.

The new laptop boasts these specs. It is 17.3″ and I didn’t fully comprehend that size until I saw it next to the old laptop. It dwarfs the thing! Although the Old Laptop has a ton of great stickers on it. I may have to save it specifically for that reason. The new laptop has a dedicated video card with 4GB of RAM. That is what my old laptop had in it for RAM alone. This RAM in this new one is 16GB and that allows me to do plenty of things at once, which is the way I work. I’m constantly switching between Photoshop and Premiere and more. There is an integrated DVD+RW drive and a 1 TB Hard Drive so I’m not running out of space anytime soon. It also has the latest Intel Core i7 processor and boasts speeds from 2.7 GHz to 3.5 GHz.

The main reason I got the new laptop was to produce Gameplay videos. These are videos where I play a video game on my Nintendo Wii U or Nintendo Switch and then capture it to comment on it, share tips or just show off the game with a review. I’ve been getting some great Nintendo Switch games lately and I really want to show them off to everyone. So, I also got an Elgato HD 60 S game capture device. I’m going to test it all out while I’m in New York for Blogger Bash. Why did I take that all with me. I knew I’d have a little time to do it and the room would have an HD TV in it that I could us, plus the Nintendo Switch and base is super portable. I’m only in NYC for an overnight for Blogger Bash but if I record some gameplay tomorrow night and edit it on the train ride home I’ll have something fun to show you. Gotta be productive and not just play games. Here is my unboxing video about the new laptop.

LEGO, Photo-A-Day, Toys, Vlog

LEGO Stop Motion Test with Battle Suit NEXO Knights

NEXO Knights with Stop Motion Studios
Photo-A-Day #4471

I’ve been creating more Stop Motion movies lately. I use Stop Motion Studio and LEGO bricks to make the Stop Motion Movies. The other day I found some LEGO NEXO Knights on clearance at Target. I picked them up because they have many movable joints and that looked like they would be great for stop motion. The joints and the ability to move them around works amazing for stop motion but the problem I have is that the bottom of the feet are smooth and do not stick to the studs on the plates. I had to find some other LEGO bricks to attach to the back of the character’s feet.

This solution made it possible to secure the character to the green base plate, slightly. I need to make sure that when I making stop motion videos that I am on a secure base plate. The one I used was on a smooth surface and therefore it moved around, too. The smaller bricks that attached to the back of the character’s feet weren’t exactly secure. The screen test below isn’t the best, but by the time I got to the last character I found a rhythm to it. I really like how I did the sword rattling the shield. That was fairly smooth. I’ll keep working on how to make the movements more natural looking and I want to create an epic fight for Built from Bricks.