April 19-20, 2017 Uploads

GuuzakaTube 04/20/17

April 19-20, 2017 Uploads

A wet day it is, today. So as you will know from the video descriptions (for those that even read such things!) this entry deals with the videos that were filmed over the Good Friday – Easter long weekend. Whew! Getting out there and filming 6 videos between Oshawa and Whitby in various locations was fun-oh-plenty, but when it came to editing time, it was work-oh-plenty! Especially for the dealership videos, which were full of plenty of crazy edits! Now let's discuss these videos in greater detail, shall we?

Oshawa South SmartCentre

Were you ever expecting to see such a random video like this? Then again, when dealing with the outdoors and the nature my channel, it shouldn't be too surprising after all. Also, I guess it isn't fair to call this place “random” since it does happen to be a shopping centre that many Oshawans would normally shop at. Despite it being Good Friday that day, many of the food places were still open of course, and it looked like Sail and Lowe's were also open, hence why I didn't film that part of the area. For that reason I anticipated that the video would probably top out around 32 minutes, but the raw, unedited video ended up being 13 minutes. Despite that, it was still fun to go around the largely closed parts of the centre, and you know what I saw behind Walmart? Geese! They were hissing loudly too. And it was all caught on camera! Ah, quite an adventure that was! This place was one of the factors that inspired me to film the Whitby Mall over something else. Keep reading below to learn more about that.

Mills Motors Buick GMC Limited [Immaturity]

This would officially be the 3^rd video of a dealership showcasing the vehicles of Generals Motors Company. Missed the other two? Michael Boyer GM Dealership Walk Around and Oshawan Chevrolet and Cadillac Dealership [Immaturity]. Unlike the 1^st one which took place in Pickering, this one also happens to take place in a GM oriented city – Oshawa! Like my Oshawa South SmartCentre video, this one was also filmed on Good Friday. In fact, after shooting the SmartCentre, I went here next to get it done. Mills Motors is a large dealership, so there was plenty to see and photograph. The weather also wasn't terribly cold, so that made things more enjoyable. Of course, there were tons of pickup trucks, GMC Sierras, on the lot because Canadians and Americans alike just can't seem to get enough of these utilitarian vehicles, so they got your back! Crossovers and Buick sedans were also plentiful, as well as many used Chevrolets in the used vehicle area. Alright, so I guess I should probably discuss the “Immaturity” part of not only this video, but all the others as well, in greater detail this time. So! What inspired me to throw these crazy, stupid, silly, immature, crass, annoying, insert word, edits to these dealership videos? Why do I go so overboard with it these days? Well, it started with my 1^st dealership video done at Michael Boyer's GM dealership. I believe it was a blue Camaro that triggered the idea randomly. It brought so much self-amusement, giggles and joy, that I decided to do apply this immaturity to all my dealership videos to “spice it up” and make them different from most dealership videos that focus on one thing: showcasing a products features and seducing customers to buy the vehicle! Of course, that's because it's salespeople doing this, but when you see dealership videos come under GuuzakaTube, you can expect two things: A tour of the entire dealership (outside) and random, whacky edits applied to the front fascia of the vehicles! You may like it, or hate it, but either way, I just do what I like!!! So there, I hope this finally explains the phenomenon behind these wild, annoying edits.

G.L. Roberts Collegiate and Vocational Institute

“G.L. Roberts Collegiate and Vocational Institute is named after George Lake Roberts, the first Director of the Ontario County Board of Education, precursor of the Durham District School Board” I know, I know. Nobody probably gives a damn about this type of stuff, but when I see initials in a school's name, I just can't help but to be so curious as to what it stands for. Turns out that I was right about the “G” being George, but couldn't quite touch the L. Well, now we know! This high school is one of the most interesting high schools to film for a good reason: its surroundings! While the appearance of GL Roberts solely is a little stale, the fact that it's attached to a community centre, surrounded by large fields, and the fact that its close to both a marsh and a lake, makes it incredible for photography and videos! Seriously, you guys are going to love the photos when I get them posted to Instagram on Friday, hopefully. Oh, and then there was also a greenhouse filled with lots of flowers. Yeah, truly lots to photograph down there. So judging from the presence of all the fields, bodies of water, and exercise facilities, it's safe to assume that this school probably puts a lot of focus into health & fitness and the environment. I could be dead wrong because I also no nothing about it, aside from the man's initials. LOL! For the 2^nd segment in the video, I walked along the coast to film a part of Lake Ontario. Blue, cold, rocky and beautiful!

Lakewoods Public School & Pumphouse Marsh Wildlife Reserve

Not sure if it was intentional or not, but “Lakewoods” is a pretty fitting name for a school so close to a lake and a lot of trees. So like your typical elementary school, its got a lot of fencing around the front, to you know, help keep the baddies out and protect the innocent, little children. Well, before walking around it, I actually briefly walked the maintenance building of the Durham Catholic District Board. Sounds familiar? That's because I already filmed a DCDB building along Rossland not too long ago. Not really much to see for the building itself. For me, the main highlight of the video would be the trip at the scenic Pumphouse Marsh Wildlife Reserve. Unfortunately, I could see some garbage in the marsh, but thankfully not a ton. Would be better not to see any at all, but oh well. Didn't take away from the beauty of the marsh, and as you can hear from the video, there were plenty of marsh birds and animals vocalizing. Ah, a nice sound of the wilderness. So nice, that I kept the video running for a little longer than intended, just to capture a little more sounds on camera.

Crappy Whitby Mall Video

Fun fact #1 This video was originally just titled “Whitby Mall” but because I felt that it was rather substandard, I decided to just riskily give it a title that reflects how I honestly felt about the video.

Fun Fact #2 For some reason, the video processed itself upside down! I didn't know about this until when I played it back on my phone later. Thank goodness for video editing software!

Fun Fact #3 You can buy a passport here. BlackBerry Passport? Not sure about that one, but I'm sure you can inquire!

Fun Fact #4 This video (as well as Midway Nissan) were both somewhat late decisions. I was thinking about shooting a video in either Courtice or Whitby for Easter, but ultimately ended up choosing Whitby, so I could film the mall while it was closed, as well as the Nissan dealership that borders Saint Theresa Catholic School. As a result of the late decisions, on the day I was composing intros and outros for the Good Friday – Easter long weekend videos, I composed 3 extra sets for pieces to be used for unknown sites in either Courtice or Whitby. Well, as it stands today, 2 of the sets got put to good use for the Whitby Mall and Midway Nissan dealership. What will happen to the remaining pieces? I'll scrap it! Kidding. The intro has a very eerie, cryptic feel to it, while the outro is quite the opposite. That's all I can tell you for now!

Fun Fact #5 Ok, this is going to be highly subjective, but in my honest opinion, this is one of the most boring malls you can visit in the Durham Region! If you plan to visit the malls of the Durham Region, choose Pickering Town Centre or the Oshawa Centre. Admittedly, I haven't visited this mall in years, so I don't know if it's changed much, but judging from the outside, it doesn't look too promising.

Midway Nissan Whitby [Immaturity]

Alright, so I already went over the “Immaturity” attributes to these types of videos above, and I already went over the choice of Whitby over Courtice as the location to film some videos, but one thing I didn't mention is WHY? Why did I choose Whitby over Courtice that day? Do I just not like Courtice or something? No, I've filmed a video there back in 2016, so what could be the reason? I felt that there was more in Whitby to take advantage of that day. That's the reason. You see, the plan in Courtice was to film ***** but then I decided that I'd just film something completely new, which led me to the decision of filming Whitby Mall and their Nissan dealership. Oh, another interesting fact: I was originally going to do *******, but because I was under the impression that it was oddly open, I decided to axe the idea and chose Midway Nissan instead. Wow, so you can see that there was a lot of quick decisions and alternate planning that took place before and during Easter. “Did you spend time with family and friends at all that day or what?!” Don't worry, I did. The videos were filmed in the early afternoon and it did not take long to get them done. So! What did I think of this particular dealership? Large and variable. Which in other words is a good thing! Lots of new and used vehicles spread out over a large lot of variable elevations. “Elevations?! What do you mean by that?!” Simply that: some parts of the lot had a higher elevation than others, while others were lower. It's nothing “dramatic” but its worth mentioning just because I'm weird and couldn't help, but to point out such a random attribute like that. Oh yes, and because this video itself was long and had many edits, it took some hours to edit. I'm personally satisfied with the end results!

What's Next & Other Ramblings

It was a great, successful, fairly warm, Good Friday – Easter long weekend! Got to visit lots of places and managed to get a lot done. Of course, I did also take the time to enjoy myself in other ways, but I remain glad about getting 6 outdoor videos done. Now because editing them was lots of work, this did not allow me to get that commentary done, but who cares? Well, I do, so I can always try and tackle it next week! Earth Day is coming very soon, so it'll be interesting to see what cities, people and the internet will do. What will you do? Are you huge environmentalist? Moderately concerned? Or don't care at all? Let me know in the comments below!

February 28, 2017 Upload

GuuzakaTube 03/02/17

February 28, 2017 Upload

I was initially going to hold off writing this post until Friday, but because it's highly unlikely that I'm going to complete the other video that I'm working on by that date, I've decided to go ahead and write this solo entry for the video, Oshawan Chevrolet and Cadillac Dealership [Immaturity]. Let's discuss it!

Oshawan Chevrolet and Cadillac Dealership [Immaturity]

It's been a long time since I've done a night shoot, and I was feeling very interested in doing a dealership video, so mixed the two ideas together and visited the Ontario Motor Sales, Chevrolet & Cadillac dealership located in Oshawa. I was nervous about how the filming would go, and how the video would turn out. Exploring and filming turned out to be great! It was very quiet, virtually vacant and the night scenery was definitely a contrasting difference to that of the dealership videos I've done in 2016. There were no Corvettes or red Escalades, but whatever. There were Cadillac Escalades as you've seen on the video, but no red ones. By the time I came to re-watch and edit the video, it unfortunately turned out to be very shaky, grainy and “illusionary”. I put an “ATA1201058-Like” excuses slide in the beginning to warn people about the shortcomings, but even then, I honestly don't think it turned out that bad. Certainly not stellar, but not death awful. Maybe the hilarious edits will make up for it? Who knows! Most people aren't aware of the video's existence yet, because I haven't posted it on my Twitter and Instagram at the time I'm writing this. That said, I will be posting it right after finish, polish and upload this entry to my blog, so we'll see how that affects the views. Oh yes, it should also be worth mentioning that the camera settings on the BlackBerry device I used were Auto Scene + HDR. Would I have been better off using Night Scene only? Night Scene + HDR? Or would I have to use my 3^rd party application to get even finer settings? I'll continue to experiment and see what ultimately works best.

Other Ramblings

So as you may know, if you've been reading the other entries, is that I've been wanting to put up some commentary and gaming videos on the channel for a while for now. I've been throwing up plenty of outdoor videos, but nil for games and commentaries. Not too worried about getting gaming videos, but I want to have another commentary video in place soon. I've finally started working on one the on 28th. Yay! Went great and made decent progress. Unfortunately, I didn't get to work on it all on the 1^st, due to “things”. March 2^nd is here, and yet again something comes up. Great. As results of these things that have hindered the progress, it's the very reason why I had to just go ahead and upload the dealership video on its own, and discuss it solo for this week. I should be able to hopefully get some work done later and tomorrow, so I can hopefully release it next week.

September 16, 2016 Uploads

09.16.16

September 16, 2016 Uploads

Wow, yet another entry discussing half a dozen videos! Night Test After Heavy Rain and Thunder, Asphalt 8: The Great September Max out!, Walking Around Simcoe Street United Church, Asphalt 8: Test Driving The Cars From The Great September Max out!, Pac-Man: Not Gonna Let The Last Cut-off Stop Me!,and Michael Boyer GM Dealership Walk Around. Those are the 6 videos that I'll be talking about, so let's get down into the details right this minute! This is going to be a long hardcore entry!

Night Test After Heavy Rain and Thunder

Alright, so as mentioned in the video and description itself, this video was a 2^nd attempt in a different area to shoot better footage in the night. Not exactly the easiest thing to do for a variety of reasons: one, the camera might not simply be “strong” enough, as in not enough pixels, aperture not the ample size, lenses and other technical bits. Two, stabilization is an issue when there's no OIS and then there's the whole trouble of simply walking around in the dark itself, which can bring in a variety of complications. Despite these issues, I just went ahead and determinedly shot another night video anyway. It was originally raining and storming earlier that day, so I was under the impression that I wouldn't be able to shoot a video, but surely, it stopped later. After the rain subsided, I went out, found a suitable area and let the camera roll. Well, it was initially showing blurry footage, but I corrected it by adjusting settings and turning on the appropriate modes. High humidity, hot temperatures, lightning, fog and darkness aren't for the faint-of-heart! So, how well did this video really compare to the other? That depends on your judgement. I do think that this video is certainly better than the other, but I still don't actually think it's good. Stabilization was still an issue, but it was somewhat better than last time, and at least we can actually see more of the surroundings this time. Would've been cool to see some of the lightning that was still present in the sky, but oh well. The camera isn't sharp enough.

Asphalt 8: The Great September Max out!

All Asphalt 8 players are aware of how hard and ridiculous it is to save millions in this game, so legitimately saving up is lots of hard time consuming work! Wait, is it even possible to hack the BlackBerry version of this game? Who knows. Even if it is, I'm not up for that! After saving up for a few months, I decided to make a video on my upgrades to show what's been done, and what's going to be done next. After rambling and rapidly flipping through my garage, I ended up maxing out the following: Tesla Model S, Chevrolet Camaro GS, Lamborghini Urus, Audi RS 4 Avant, Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, Ferrari Testarossa, Bentley Continental GT V8, Ford Shelby GT500, Cadillac CTS-V Coupe Race Car, Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR-X, Chevrolet Corvette C7, Lamborghini Veneno, GTA Spano and the ugly Ferrari FXX Evoluzione! Wow! 3,231,396 sure covered a lot! More than I expected actually. Now there was one obvious thing to be done after this: the ultimate test drive! Read below for the full scope!

Asphalt 8: Test Driving The Cars from the Great September Max out!

In this grand episode of Asphalt 8, I race in Iceland with a Tesla Model S, Monaco with the Chevrolet Camaro GS, Barcelona with the – whoa, whoa, WHOA! Whoa. I am not about to seriously list all 14 cars and their tracks like a repetitive, dry robot because it's just overkill, and you already just read the list from above or watched the video (if you were even brave enough!), so there's just no point in going over all the nitty-gritty obvious details. Man! Playing on all these tracks and producing and editing this video was a very big, time consuming challenge, but I did it. I really wanted to take these cars for a spin to test their full unlocked powers, while filming it, so as stressful as I knew it would be, I still went for it. The end results? Unfortunately not good because the earlier parts of the video were very laggy. This was until I figured out that ScreenCorder had been saving the videos to my phone's internal memory, which would cause the videos to lag frequently whenever it came too close to being full. This would happen a lot due to the size of the videos. I switched the save toggle to memory card and it was quite the relief to see an improvement, but it's too bad I didn't notice this earlier. Lagging aside, the next big issue was audio syncing. Syncing audio to 14+ video clips was not an easy task for someone who isn't a professional audio and video engineer, but it was good practice, and it turned out to be quite alright, though some parts of the video are a little worse than others. None were actually horribly off, so that's a good thing. While I'm on the topic of audio, I'd say that the next issue that bugged me the most was the quality of the recorded audio. It's pretty warbly and screechy at most segments, making it very undesirably to listen to. Anyone watching this would likely have to resort to muting it if they wanted to make it through from beginning to end. So you might be wondering, “why would you upload such a long, partly laggy, cruddy video?” Two words: experimentation and progression. That's why. Remember when I thought the processor was the one that was mostly to blame for the lag, when it was the save location that was largely at fault? Had I given up at the point, I would have never made the discovery and allow myself to progress. So as much as I hate the way some of my videos turn out, the only way to get better is to keep going and looking out for improvements along the way. This includes actually playing better too. You've seen that Iceland race with the Tesla and the excessive, hard drifting with the Corvette so you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, so I'm shooting for better audio, less lagging and hopefully professional racing next time.

Walking Around Simcoe Street United Church

I visited the Simcoe Street United Church located in Oshawa and filmed it. Old churches have so much charming character with their architecture, that some of the newer churches are sorely lacking. This makes them nice subjects for filming. Mind you, I'm not saying that you should judge a church sorely from outside to determine whether you want to attend it or not, but to judge it from the people within and most importantly the message of the sermon. Are they actually speaking the truth from within the bible, or are they just twisting things, speaking in tongues without a translator, or conducting other activities that God wouldn't approve of? This should be the most important decision in choosing a church, but of course, if a church does look run-down and ghetto, then that would likely send the wrong impression. Thankfully, most places do a good job to make sure the outside looks presentable. So, what did I think of this church overall based on my exploration of the exterior? Great! It was a nice, sunny, warm day, but I did not appreciate the excessive wind that caused my hat to blow off! Being located downtown, it had a lot of other shops and sites within the vicinity of it, but Simcoe United's tall steeple and historical looks makes it easily distinguishable from everything in sight.

Pac-Man: Not Gonna Let The Last Cut off Stop Me!

For real though, why should I let that cut-off from the last time stop me from enjoying some more retro fun? This time I actually got to play and successfully recorded about 13 minutes of raw gameplay. I believe that I made it to level 5 or 6, before restarting back to level 1. Some will probably laugh, but Pac-Man is honestly not an easy game when it comes onto level progression. Those ghosts speed up significantly which makes me wonder how it's even possible to actually make it to level 256? Seriously, has anyone ever actually done that? No one has ever done that! Anyway, so should I discuss how the recording session went? Might as well. 6.9 out of 10 I'd say. There weren't excessive hiccups present, but the sound could've been a bit better, and my gameplay could've have also been better! Still, I think most would agree that the sound was much better than my Asphalt 8 video. I should probably record another Flappy Bird spin-off soon. You may either rejoice or be sorrowful.

Michael Boyer GM Dealership Walk Around

What an interesting dealership to visit! I really like it when GM dealerships actually have all of their brands present, as opposed to the usual GMC & Buick or Chevrolet & Cadillac inventory that most go by. The video turned out to look a little foggy when the time came to edit it, but that did not stop me from enjoying the looks of the cars in person. It's one thing to see cars on the internet, but seeing them in person is just so much better because you get to see all the crisp details to the fullest, and the actual size of the vehicle. I didn't get to see much 2016 or 2017 Corvettes (surprise! They're exotic sports cars after all!), but most of the other General Motors vehicles were there in abundance. Because this is one of the largest dealerships in the area, there was a lot to film which resulted in the raw video being nearly 20 minutes before editing it. One thing I regret is not taking enough pictures... I was very video focused during that trip, but at least it was still a good trip anyway, but would've been a little better if I took more pictures of some of my favourite General Motor cars. Speaking of that, my top three GM favourites are the Cadillac Escalade ESV, GMC Sierra and Cadillac XT5. The Chevrolet Bolt EV is nice too, but I don't know why GM decided to cripple it by not offering an optional All-Whell Drive version. Oh well. Hopefully they'll change their minds very soon. Can you imagine something farfetched like an all-electric Cadillac Escalade ESV? $275,000 CAD is my prediction. GMC Sierra? Let's go with $250,000 CAD if were talking a Denali with a crew cab and 4X4 drivetrain. Hey, if an all-electric Corvette is rumoured, then it can't be too absurd to discuss possibilities of these trucks eventually coming in an all-electric drivetrain. LOL? We'll, see..............