Bwahahaahaaa

I just accidentally deleted every single copy of the new version of my LOM vid from my computer. That means all the backup versions on other drives, too. And yes, I only noticed *after* I'd also emptied the 'recycled' folders. That's German thoroughness for you.

So it's back to square one.

The good news is I still have a badly rendered sketch of the first 63 seconds, from which I'll at least be able to reconstruct most of the editing decisions I'd made. But there was some tricky timing there, so it will be difficult.

Also, looking at that sketch, I notice that the 'visual hiccup' issues I had with Windows Movie Maker also occur in Premiere, apparently. Drat. Also: ghost frames galore. *sigh*

And I still have very little idea how to actually use Premiere. Setting up a new project in it will be... interesting, to say the least.

Physical exhaustion, mental relaxation

... were the two seemingly antithetical results of my short but 'intense' trip to Britain. The physical exhaustion, a result of travelling 18 hours by coach, showed as a desire to sleep through all of Monday, interrupted only by two hours of work in the evening. The - unexpected! - mental relaxation showed as sudden inspiration to vid and make jewellery. Granted, not the most intelligent thing to do when you have a deadline for your thesis and still no idea what to write, and I would probably have appreciated a sudden *thesis-related* inspiration more... But, having stifled most of my creative impulses for months now, until I eventually nearly lost them, I decided to give in to them this time.

Vidding didn't go too well (see previous entry *g*), but jewellery making did. I've started making a necklace for my mother, one I promised her so many years ago it's not even funny. She had these labradorite beads, and I wanted to make something really nice from them, but wasn't really happy with any idea I had over the years. I've now ended up using a very simple idea that came to me literally in my sleep. It truly is ridiculously simple, but I think that's why I like it - all the more 'sophisticated' ideas I had earlier just didn't fit the beads very well, but simplicity does. Plus, I get to melt lots of little blobs of silver for this design, and there are few things more relaxing and satisfying - nor more foolproof! - than melting metal. (Seriously! You try it! *g*) And then I get to hit the blobs with a hammer a lot - also foolproof and relaxing. (This is what goldsmithing-as-therapy would look like, I tell you.) The only thing about this necklace that may get the least bit tricky is the clasp, but I'll manage that as well, I'm sure. Maybe I'll think of a very simple mechanism for it... *g*

Oh, and I still haven't told you about the insane trip *to* Britain, have I? That really deserves an epic poem... I'm not sure I'm up to that today.