Brit Mansell :: Life's Influence on Design

New Retaining Wall

brit — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:18:44 +0000

We have had a ton of trouble finding home contractors that will actually return phone calls. You would think that the economic conditions would be forcing people to actually look for work, versus me having to basically hound someone into calling me back.

On the other hand, we were fortunate enough to get hooked up with a great Birmingham, AL landscaping company. Schroeter’s Lanscaping was literally a God send. They jumped right in and built our retaining wall to my exact specifications. We now have a full back yard, thanks to the new wall.

In the near future, probably tomorrow, I’ll start shaping the new back yard area and hopefully Schroeter’s will be able to start on our chain link fence for the dog pen on Tuesday (fingers crossed).

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Crusher Ridge Offroad Park

brit — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:50:31 +0000

I went out Falkville, AL last weekend just as a spectator for their hill climb race. There was a large bounty ($800) on one of the hills there. One driver just couldn’t resist giving it a shot. Follow the link below to see an amazing save and a couple of fires. Be sure to watch all the way to the end to see the action.

Crusher Ridge Video

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2010 King of the Hammers Photos

brit — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:06:07 +0000

I was lucky enough to get to attend the 2010 King of the Hammers race in Southern California. I posted all of the pictures on the Octane site. Please check them out if you’re interested.

2010 King of the Hammers Photos

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SEMA 2009 Photos

brit — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:47:41 +0000

I’m in Las Vegas for the 2009 SEMA show. So far, I have greatly enjoyed the show and the trip.

You can see some of the 2009 SEMA photos on the Octane Media site. Please check them out and let me know what you think.

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Chevrolet 2500HD Leveling Kit

brit — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:04:43 +0000

I spent most of this weekend working on my “big” truck. The first order of business was to install a leveling kit. This was so I could fit the Hummer H2 wheels and tires under it. The kit went on pretty well and I even got the factory truck center caps to work by grinding off some little spacers on the caps. The wheels look pretty factory to me now.

While I had the front up on jack stands, I noticed some slop in the front passenger wheel bearing. Today, I fixed that problem as well. $250 later I had a new unit bearing to install. The process took a couple of hours while I was fighting the small garage and rain outside. It’s done now and all is well.

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Jeep Move

brit — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:52:37 +0000

I’ve been working on my Jeep project for a while now. Well, to be honest, I worked on it a lot when I first started it, but due to two kids, a new business, lack of tools (mainly a vehicle lift), and lack of knowledge on the four link setup, I just don’t have any time to get it finished.

I’m teaming up with Blue Torch Fab to finally get it finished, but doing so meant that I first needed to get it out of the basement. That sounds like an obvious answer, except that it doesn’t have axles attached. Hilarity ensues.

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Fox 6 Interview

brit — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:48:59 +0000

The grand opening for Shift Workspace was yesterday and Fox 6 news was on hand to document the event. Here is their take on it.

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JVC GY-HM100 Still Shot

brit — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:28:24 +0000

This is a single frame pulled from a 720P shoot. It was run through Photoshop and Auto-Leveled.

I am very happy with the quality. It is more than sufficient for anything web related.

Click on the image to be taken to the flickr page to see the full resolution version.

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JVC GY-HM100 First Impressions

brit — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:14:55 +0000

My brand spanking new JVC GY-HM100 came in today.

First thought: it’s bigger than I thought it would be after seeing the pictures. This is not a bad thing. I’m actually glad it’s a little larger than I expected. Basically, the camera unit is a little larger than most consumer cameras on the market. Once you add on the included accessories and throw on a wireless mic receiver, the camera really has some bulk to it.

Bad news first:

I tried to save some money and ordered some eBay memory cards. I don’t know if those cards just aren’t the “class 6″ speed they advertised or if this camera is just snobby enough to know they didn’t cost $300 each, but either way, it turns up its nose at these cards and won’t record video on them at all. The error displayed is, “Cannot use in video mode”. Well, that’s descriptive. Come on JVC, how about “Card does not meet minimum speed requirements” or a more snobbish response like “eBay cards, like OMG!!!”.
No tethered recording (that I can find). I knew there wasn’t a firewire connection when I ordered it, but I was hoping for a miracle here. A lot of the stuff I shoot could be recorded directly to a PC with the proper connection (Adobe OnLocation). However, this does not seem to be possible with this camera. It will connect to a PC via the supplied USB cable, but doesn’t appear to work over USB to record video. Maybe some solution will arise.

Good news:

Size. Enough said.
Audio simplicity. I love the way the audio controls are organized and easy to use. They seem to be a little more intuitive than my previous Canon XH-A1.
Great viewfinder eyepiece. The rubber cover around the viewfinder is very large and soft which should make daylight shooting much better by keeping out more light.
Zoom ring. When I first read that the zoom (or focus depending on setting) ring was servo controlled I was pretty bummed, but after using it for a few minutes I think I could get the hang of it and create some smooth zooms pretty easily.

Without memory cards, that’s about all I can report at this point. Hopefully, I will be able to round up some cards tomorrow and give some sample footage and talk about the streamlined editing process.

UPDATE: I picked up a SanDisk Extreme III card at a local camera shop. That’s the largest card I can find locally. It seems to work just fine. I think the issue with the cards is around the write speed, not necessarily their “class 6″ rating. Hopefully, I will have some sample video up soon.

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BarCamp Birmingham is Coming!

brit — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:55:13 +0000

For those of you interested in anything Internet-tech related and local to Birmingham, you should check out BarCamp Birmingham. May 2, is the date. Signup is open now.

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