Category: disney

Optimizing Video: 2021 Honda Odyssey RES

Matthew Heick Leave a comment

On April 7, 2024 at about 3am I physically beat the poop out of a deer on Interstate 90 crossing into Ohio from Pennsylvania (41.925716, -80.54277). The front bumper being damaged and excrement all along the drivers side of the vehicle does qualify for the “beat the crap”-stamp to be applied to the drivers side door.

All phases of matter that matter: solid, liquid, and fur.

Insurance did what insurance does and says that the 2012 is not cost effective to repair so they scrapped the vehicle and wrote a check. With that check the family was able to go place a down payment on a 2021 Honda Odyssey Touring.

One of the biggest improvements from 2012 to the 2021 is that the rear passengers have access to an Entertainment System. I decided one day to figure out what we could do with the USB input.

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Liars Dice

Matthew Heick Leave a comment

Thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean I’ve been introduced to this game that uses dice and a wager component, with the movie using “years of service” as it was the only thing the pirates aboard the Flying Dutchmen had as currency. As a young 20-something I used to Play 7’s and 11’s, where if you rolled 7, 11, or a pair you’d get to tell someone to drink. A simple game that I don’t want to pass to my youth just yet, and I feel a simple gambling game is better to pass along.

Liars dice is easy:

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This one time in Symphonic Band…

Matthew Heick Leave a comment

I’ve harkened back to the American Pie days in 1999 just to find a proper title for this post. I’m feeling good so far.

I’ve nearly completed the initial spreadsheet, extracting as many names from the 1996 Sweet Home High School yearbook and getting them sorted and organized. I also added the deceased Producer and Guidance Counselor John Daken, and the “Disney” Band Conductor John Wade.

Overall I have 81 names, 2 being Teachers and 79 being Students, and one that I’m sure the yearbook staff misnamed in the band images and I couldn’t initially locate in my searching. I also learned that I do not have absolutely everyone that would have attended that trip, as I was not part of the band photos and was not listed as a “not listed” individual, which adds to the difficulty of finding and communicating with all souls present.

Otherwise, the next steps are going to be logical:

  1. Get a gmail address so that I can communicate with all these people
  2. Set up a website, complete with purpose and status updates that I can move this conversation to.
  3. Prepare general scripts for both digital and written communication
  4. Maybe create a post card and get that mass sent out.
  5. Get ready to scan Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media sites
  6. …
  7. and other things I can’t think about right now

Albeit the journey has begun, every step is a small battle looking to accomplish a win and completely dominate this awesome war.

The Hunt for a 25 Year Old Video

Matthew Heick Leave a comment

After getting my hands on a 1996 Sweet Home High School yearbook (courtesy of EBay seller quasimodo) I was able to get some names and start my journey to finding a 1996 Band Trip Video for the Disney Magic Music Days.

If memory serves me correctly the original Guidance Counselor that filmed this trip was John Daken:

High School Yearbook / Staff

I’ve also got the Wind Ensemble and Concert Band, a plethora of names of people to track down and figure out if they have a some copy of the original video.

So, my first goal is to get all these names into a Google Spreadsheet and scan social media and old address books and track everyone down.

Bon voyage à moi!

The Hunt for a 20 Year Old Video [6 Years Ago…]

Matthew Heick Leave a comment

Editors note: I wrote this back on 7 February 2015

The 1995-1996 school year I was a freshman at Sweet Home High School[a] and had participated in a trip to Walt Disney World to participate in a Band Performance with my peers (Disney Magic Music Days). This entire event, from the loading of the busses to the trip from Buffalo, New York to our destination and back had been recorded on an 8-hour EP video tape.

I had originally possessed this specific video tape as a teenager. Over the course of time, however, I had lost this amazing heirloom as I’m sure a lot of other have. I’m sure that there is a copy of this somewhere that I can acquire so I can digitize it and be able to enjoy it though the future times.

This iswas my tiny blog on my progress in locating this by working back 20 years in my brain.

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