Yesterday's post (which was meant to be a talk about a friend who passed away) descended into a fairly morbid post about a lot of loss experienced over the years.
Well, today, after waking up, I started to look at the future, and realised that there are a few things I want to do, and a few things I need, in order to make it happen.
Fred, as I mentioned in the previous post, had been in a few accidents, and without heavy doses of painkillers, he was essentially unable to function. Walking was painful, but he showed admirable amounts of fortitude and didn't let his past define his future.
His prospects and ambition never dulled, and he was always looking and moving forward.
Filming Gigs
As mentioned before, I film monthly gigs that the Wicklow Music Collective organises and runs.
The gigs have gone well, and I specifically bought a set of 3 Mevo Start Cameras in order to film these events, and after the first couple of nights, I bought a 4th Mevo Start camera to give me more coverage.
These recordings have gone well, but I have had to lower the quality to 720p just to keep them running.
I use my phone to run them and hook them up on my hotspot, which isn't the best, as the phone can't really handle them all, especially when trying to film at higher resolutions.
Another problem is that for hours, I'm without my phone, which isn't ideal in case I was needed, and in general, I tend to feel a bit lost without it (especially when my pint runs dry and is in dire need of a refill)
The Galaxy S10 Ultra
I have been reviewing tablets for months, and came to the conclusion that the Galaxy S10 Ultra can do everything I need and more, especially when it is combined with a WIFI router I can bring to the gigs to create a private network for it and the cameras to run on.
There was one on the CEX website for €680, which is a bargain, considering it is €100 more on refurbed.ie.
The only thing is, it's a B rating, which usually indicates it has some minor cosmetic wear, but I really don't care too much about that, as long as it can do what I need it to.
Model-Making
With the cameras, I want to record and livestream my model-making sessions, which I think will be a lot of fun.
What I will be doing is livestreaming the session, talking to people as I do it, then, after the fact, I will edit and condense the entire session into 10 - 20 minute YouTube videos, and I will also record a voice-over to go over that.
The model-making sessions will be primarily to create aliens and creatures from the stories I write, and I will be speaking about the lore and world-building of these different races and creatures.
For years, I have written lore and world-building, which means that I have hours of written content just sitting here waiting to be spoken.
The videos will be interesting, and now adding the tablet and router to my arsenal, I have everything I could possibly need to do these videos and streams, and the new additions will make the work I currently do much easier.
It's a lot of money to spend, but this isn't something I decided to buy today, like any purchase I make, big or small, I thoroughly research and think about it to ensure I'm making the right decision.
Watch this space, some great things are coming very soon. I feel like a bonfire has been lit under me.
Thats a great tablet, I actually use a Lenovo M9 with headphones as my daily driver, Im an IT so the screen size is very convenient, had this tablet for about 2 years now but Im currently looking for a 8GB model or even 12GB and I might change in December if I dont decide to get me some Meta Quest 3 😅 I want to change it mostly for multi tasking rather than for making content
I'll be holding onto this for a good few years, and I looked it up to find out how long it will be supported, and apparently it will receive updates and support until 2031, which is brilliant (if that's true) because by that stage, it would probably be time for an upgrade.
I haven't seen anything about the Meta Quest 3, but I have one of the older models, which I really like, but need to find more useful things to do with it, other than just playing the odd game. I saw that they can be used with software similar to Blender, where you can design rooms with them, but I haven't looked into it properly in a while.
Some of these tablets cost more than a decent laptop, but the form factor may work for you. Some gear I see in CEX seems overpriced.
I was torn between buying a laptop or a tablet, but I opted for the tablet because there are so many things I can do on it, and I believe the tablet will be a bit more versatile when it comes to going out and filming the gigs.
CEX can be expensive, so I was kind of surprised to see they had this model up for €100 less than other retailers. I believe if I were to go out and buy it new, it would cost about €1,100 or more, so getting it for nearly half that price is pretty good in my book, especially since it comes with a warranty.