So I posted a new video yesterday morning (Krumbine's Epic Car Cam, it's on my youtube channel) and it was really interesting because it's a vlog that takes place on my way into the office and it's done with my Flip minoHD cam.  And it's the first vlog I've actually EDITED in a wicked long time.

The part that's really interesting is that I've always had to re-encode the HD footage before I edited it.  Which actually has been a primary reason why I didn't use the cam very often and why I've been reluctant to buy a proper HD camcorder.  But yesterday, when I loaded the footage up into Adobe Premiere, everything played back smoothly, with nary a hiccup to be seen in the native HD footage.

Wow.  That was exciting.

Seriously. And in other exciting news for creative video-types, one of the greatest barriers in youtubing will finally be shattered next month: not one, but TWO companies are getting ready to release full 720p HD webcams.  And I'm talking about the chintzy "fake" HD that Logitech was pushing with their quickcam pro.  Microsoft is releasing the LifeCam HD on September 9th and Hercules' HD webcam is supposed to be outed in early September.  Both cams shoot video at 1280x720 (youtube's native HD resolution) at an "alleged" 30fps.  I say alleged because the Logitech Pro 9000 says 30fps, too, but there's no actual way to achieve those numbers.  Usually the cam records at 14 or 15 fps.  Usually.

This blog took a total of two days to write for no particular reason.  Hope you find it moderately interesting.  If not, well, screw you!

(but not really.  Loves!)

Be prepared: get your towel now.  Also, I recommend acquiring a good knife.  If you need to ask why, sadly there won't be much hope for you when the End comes.  Suffice it to say, you don't need to reload a knife.

And a good multipurpose tool.  I think that would be useful for when the End gets here.

Okay, so to recap: your shopping list for the End of the World should include:
1. a towel
2. a good knife
3. a durable multipurpose tool

... and you might want to consider some Cheetos.  And Oreos.  Trust me, you're going to want a little comfort food.

Love,
Krumbine

As you might have noticed, issue 1 of Explorers of the Unknown is now complete and you can read it in it's entirety.  We're taking the next two weeks off to get caught up on issue 2 (debuting on 9/7/09) and I'm really looking forward to expanding EotU's audience in that time frame.  To help promote the first issue, I've put together a teaser video (featuring the unreleased cover of the comic).  There's also a review contest underway: simply post a short review of issue 1 in the comment section  and you could win a Zaphod Zombie poster!

I have some other videos planned for the next few weeks, so stay tuned to my youtube channel as well.  Finally, expect to see new Zaphod Zombie comics on Tuesday's and Thursday's for the foreseeable future.

Stay creative, guys!

Love,
Krumbine

Let's get this show on the road, peeps!  Here's another simple, easy-to-win contest!

Up for grabs is the new Zaphod Zombie poster.  (Yeah, I know, it'd be better if we had an EotU poster ... but we don't.  Yet.)  To win it, simply read the first issue of Explorers of the Unknown, which is located over here, and then come back to this post and leave a review in the comments.  It can be short, long, detailed, or so shallow that people will think you're walking on water.

But make sure it's epic, kids ;)

I'll try and tighten up the turn-around for this contest, but same as last time: all reviews are due by Thursday, August 27th, 12am Eastern Standard Time.  You can post a review after that, but you won't win a Zaphod Zombie poster.

And again, there will likely be two or three winners.  So your chances of snagging a poster are wicked good!

Get creative!

Well, I'm officially caught up now and can take a moment to write a little love note to my faithful readers.

Hi, guys :)

How are you doing?  Things have been busy for me.  So much so that just this morning it occured to me that I hadn't done a thing with krumbinesBRAIN is much too long ... worse, it was totally unintentional!  Hell, even as I write this, I can't even remember what the last episode was about ... lemme check!

... AH!  Right!  The 42nd episode.  Imagine that!

SERIOUSLY.

And I'm conflicted, too--which will undoubtedly end up in the script for the 43rd episode--because one of the reasons kB slipped so quickly through the cracks was because I've been focusing so intently on the webcomics.  Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you, as part of me has been making that transition for a little while now ... at least mentally.

But as I focus more and more on the comics, it becomes more and more evident how crucial my other endeavors are to their success.  A great deal of my website traffic comes from youtube and when I slack off on my production of videos, the views on my website slack off, too.

What's also interesting to note is that I've had AMPLE time at home, to myself, to shoot and edit video.  But I haven't.  Because I totally forgot about it.

So, in short, absolutely NOTHING has happened to krumbinesBRAIN.  I'll eventually write some more episodes (probably just as soon as I finish writing this!) and I still intend to have some more guests including angrypunkbronxkid, Em, and others.

In other news, I teased it a short while ago, and last night Sam and I had the pleasure of watching the first episode of Dexter, season 4.  If you're a fan of the show and don't want to spoil the episode, don't click the "read more" link.