[Intro to "Micro-Serial" Concept Using 12seconds.tv on 12seconds.tv]

Ever since Gabe Mac came down last weekend my brain has been kick-started to another level (not a new level, just another level ; my brain has no problem being kicked AND kicking like a mule all the time). It’s like I need more things to WANT to start!, right?! It’s something that can’t be helped! It seems to be part of who I am–and I think I need to start embracing that part of me in a more fulfilling way instead of letting it hamper me.

One new project that came to mind occured immediately after coming across a service that I’ve known about for months but never ended up checking out until this week. The web service is called 12seconds.tv.

12seconds.tv is a new “evolution” of the Twitter idea. It is to vlogging what Twitter is to blogging. Although not “competing” with Twitter as pointed out by Sol Lipman, Co-Founder of 12seconds.tv (who also corrected my .com/.tv blunder in the first video test below), it’s a comparison that is obvious even if unintentional. Twitter limits what you can type by giving you 140 characters to type your thoughts. 12seconds.tv limits what you can say by giving you 12 seconds to record your thoughts.

I really liked the concept from the get go because it adds another layer of personality to a “micro thought”. It can, of course, provide the internet with a new fountain of “human spam” but alas, that’s the world we live in today; adapt and accept it, filter it as needed to get through the day if you’re bothered by it, and you’ll survive on the e-frontier.

After doing a few different webcam tests throughout the early process I was able to at least have a set of quality markers. The kind of quality captured affects what the content of my 12 second rant will be. Sounds unnecessarily complicated? Of course it is! I should just use whatever I have when I have it right? Sure!

But that’s not the way I roll.

The mini-project I have in mind is one that takes 12seconds.tv a step further–in perhaps a direction it wasn’t intended to go–but that’s what makes the concept of the process intriguing to me. The goal is simple: Create a video capturing a serial short story in 12 second chunks that, as a whole, constructs the final piece.

• How does one separate the tale?
• How does one keep pace and rhythm?
• How does the fractured delivery affect the final result?
• How is punctuation dealt with considering the 12 second constrain?

Here’s to hoping I see at least “one chapter” of this project come to a close before sidetracking to something new!

I’ve visited Holland four times in the last two years but it seems there are still things I have skipped out on experiencing. Some of them less pleasurable than others. Eating raw herring was one of the times I wished I played hookey on.

When my girlfriend’s good friend Milou Nicolaes came to Holland at the end of January, it was only natural that since we were there as well we’d visit her in her home city of Maastricht, in the south of Holland. She took us to the downtown area and eventually we passed by a fish market of sorts. She was ecstatic about the raw herring and convinced me with “You don’t come to Holland and NOT eat raw herring!”

This Dutch food custom is kind of like a “fast food” or an inbetween snack. The herring is beheaded and the guts are party/mostly removed. It sits in a preserving liquid with a little salt and maybe a little vinegar. Raw chopped onions are sprinkled on top and actually stick to the surface of the fish like it’s covered in glue. The texture is honestly that of a live fish. To eat it a person picks it up by its slimy tail and lifts it over their mouth. Imagine being a seal or a seagull or peligan eating a fish and you’ve nailed it. Then it’s down the hatch!

I’m a sucker for new food experiences. I paid for this one with a near immediate gag reflex. I won’t tell people NOT to try raw herring when in Holland–just don’t do what I did and ignore the word “RAW” herring. Don’t be fooled: It actually DOES taste raw. Go figure.

It seems like everyone on the internet loves cats. The internet feeds my partner’s addiction; she gets daily flickr feeds and so on, so how could I NOT have checked this place out with her while in Amsterdam. Here’s the lowdown on Amsterdam’s de Poezenboot (The Cat Boat) sanctuary.

Relevant Links: de Poezenboot Website

Last week on Thursday, the new host of MobuzzTV, Gabe Mac, previous vlogger over at XOLO.TV, was kind enough to ask me to do a Canadian correspondence on the iPhone ho-hah here in Canada. My little interjection happens around the 3:40 mark.

MobuzzTV was one of the very first podcasts that inspired me to try my hand at web video stuff. Gabe Mac and the crew over at XOLO.TV not only opened up my abilities to explore in this space they also turned out to be some of the finest people I’ve ever had the luxury of making friends with. After heading to Amsterdam four times in two years, they’ve made it easy to see Amsterdam as a new future “home” some day.

Religious visions happen every year all over the world. Some of them, like the one that happened in Fatima, Portugal take on a life of their own. Nuno Teixeira gives you the lowdown on Our Lady of Fatima, a sanctuary that brings people of faith together from all over Portugal and even the world. There are those who walk to this sanctuary as a “promise” to Our Lady; a trek taking days, weeks and even over a month to do.

Relevant Links: Our Lady of Fatima – Wikipedia

For many people, when they think of Holland, they inevitably think of clogs–traditional wooden shoes that come in many different shapes and sizes, decoration and style. Nuno brings you the lowdown on the dutch clogs with a little help from the fine people at The Wooden Shoe Factory in Volendam.

Relevant Links: De Vriendschap

The city of Nijmegen has a long turbulent history. During World War II it was the first city to be invaded by the Germans which then allowed entry into the rest of Holland. The Canadians played a pivotal part in once again securing Nijmegen–but of course as with all war, many lives where the price of victory. Nuno gives you a special lowdown on the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and Memorial and discovering, during his research, that the uncle (George Albert Quarrier) of a good friend (Samuel Foxworthy) was killed during the final 2 weeks of the war.

Works Citied: Wikipedia – First Canadian Army | Wikipedia – Operation Market Garden | Wikipedia – Nijmegen | Wikipedia: Battle of Reichswald | VAC: Groesbeek Memorial | VAC: Remembering their Sacrifice | VAC: The Rhineland Campaign | VAC: Western Holland
Dedicated to: Samuel Foxworthy and the Quarrier Family
In Memory of: Gunner George Albert Quarrier, Royal Canadian Artillery, A/103610

Two years ago Nuno was able to get to Portugal. While there he grabbed a load of videos. Driving into the city of Aveiro one can see a stretch of gridded water-spots. These water-spots are part of a process that separates the natural salts out of the sea water that flows in through canals. Nuno give you a quick lowdown on the salt beds of Aveiro.

Nuno got to take a bus tour out of Amsterdam near the end of his 3 month stay. The tour group rode eastwards towards a small community reachable across a 2 km long dike stretching across a man-made lake created out of the stranded waters of the North Sea! Nuno gives you the lowdown on one of the most important Dutch settlement in centuries past, before the Enclosure Dike (The Afsluitdijk) closed off the salty sea waters, thus ending Marken’s reign in the fishing industry.

Works Cited: PlanetWare | Wikipedia – Zuiderzee

If you like to stumble on random stuff out of the blue and you’re the kind of person that REALLY likes to dig around like a warthog in a grub fest then The Flype Club might and might NOT be for you. Nuno gives you the lowdown on the Flype Club with the help of two founding members “stevenswrong” and “mcgrory” (on Twitter). Find out about the origins, the tribulations and the plans for the future of the (not so secret) Flype Club.

Works Cited: Urban Dictionary (thumbs up definition!) | Wolfram Math World | HighBeam Encyclopedia
Mentioned Links: Flype Club on Tumblr | Flype Club on Twitter