Friday, August 13, 2010

Home Decoration and Video

Today was a good day of work for me. Flashed digibox, programmed the remote and got to work scripting it which kept me busy until just after lunch. Shortly after three, some guy came and took the power adapter from my digibox away. Turns out the adapter was his or something. And that was that, there wasn't another adapter to be found so I was stuck. At this point, my coworker turned and said to me "Well, I guess you're finished work for today." At that point I may as well have gone home, because I didn't get much else accomplished.

I've been thinking a lot about decoration, particularly the design and layout of a room. Having spent a year working in IKEA and being in need of replanning my little bedroom gets me thinking about these things. I've come to realise that it's very difficult to get a room you like by adding pieces of furniture to it bit by bit until you're happy with your room. Getting a room you're happy with requires a slightly different approach.

The best way, I figure, is to take a page out of the book of IKEA's interior design team. They have some very nice rooms in the store, and most of them weren't put together over any sort of long period of time. The rooms were designed as a piece, and I figure that's the way to go to get a room you like. Take your room as a blank canvas, and build it up to suit your needs. Bed, couch, shelf, wardrobe, desk, etc. Decide everything you want and plan it out.

As far as I can see, if you design a room like this, you're far more likely to end up with a good room that fits together. As opposed to sitting in a room and deciding suddenly that you need somewhere for your books, then looking for a place to put a bookshelf. Of course the minor details can be changed at any time. Exactly what kind of desk or chair resides in your room is hardly as important as whether you want a desk at all. Not that this kind of planning is really feasible in rented accommodation like mine, you really need to be planning your long term home in this kind of scenario.

Inspired by Kat's recent videologs, I decided to try out the video recording feature on my Fujifilm camera. I'd never tried making a video before, and hadn't even considered the idea of using my digital camera as a camcorder. I learned three main things from this experience. The first is that the microphone on my camera is terrible. The second is that Takako is right, and I do apparently have a double chin. The third is that while it's more comfortable to hold the camera portrait, landscape is nicer for actually viewing the video.

I'm not convinced that I make a very good director. I'm a pretty lousy photographer too, so I guess these things go hand in hand. The idea of video logging is an interesting one, it might let me give a better idea of the things I see and the places I visit. Though walking around talking to your camera might look a bit weird. I'll give it some thought. One thing is certain, if I take any more video, I'll try to obscure myself from the shot as much as I can.

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