Last summer, my husband and I lost our luggage on the way to Venice, Italy. Then we figured out on day one that we had no luggage and probably would not have any luggage for the duration of our trip, due to a major conveyor belt snafu in London Gatwick. Upon further inspection of the situation, we found out that 30 million bags were temporary lost last year and 200,000 bags were never reunited with their owners.
At that moment, I remembered seeing a tv show about a very successful entrepreneur who founded a business in 1970 called Unclaimed Baggage. The very successful business purchases the unclaimed luggage from the airlines and resells over a million items each year. I could just see the entire contents of my baggage up for sale at one of the Unclaimed Baggage locations.
Our saving grace was that we had packed a carry-on bag with a few days clothes, our bathing suits, an extra pair of shoes, and my jewelry and makeup. This was the best thing that we could have done because it gave us a head start on trying to figure out how to we were going to outfit ourselves for the next 11 days.
Here are ten tips that will help you in the event that you lose your luggage on your next trip:
1. Always pack a few clothing items and essentials in your carrry-on bag.
2. If your luggage does not show up on the baggage carousel, report the lost luggage immediately to the lost bags desk in the airport. Even if the line is long, go ahead and report it anyway so that you can get a claim number. Read the rest of this entry »
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
~ Sir Winston Churchill
Since the beginning, we have recognized the close link between learning, teaching, and doing good in the world. To that end, we have enabled authors to donate a portion, or all, of their lesson proceeds to a good cause. We have now rolled out some new features at MindBites to make these efforts more visible.
Hearts mark the spots – To see if a lesson will benefit a cause, now you can simply look for the heart icon on its lesson page. A pink heart signifies that a portion of author proceeds will go to the named cause, while a red heart means that all of the author proceeds will go to the cause.
Follow the hearts to find the real heroes – If you click on the heart or the charity names, you will be taken to a Charity Profile Page where you can learn a little bit more about the organization and its mission. Read the rest of this entry »
Presented here in its entirety with minimal commercial interruptions and FCC censorship is the pilot episode of The MindBites Insight. This little weekly event, benevolently brought to you by the hardworking MindBites production team, is intended to be a platform for us to share our video knowledge with you. Once a week (or more, if we’re feeling spicy), we’ll take you through a heart-pumping, teeth-grinding thrill ride; through the ins and outs of video production. Between all of us, we’ve got over one billion years of experience in camera technique and editing operation, and we aim to share it all, even the useless and mind-numbing, with our millions of adoring fans.
In this week’s adventure, we detail the specifics of basic camera operation. We take you through the general features found on most digital camcorders, regardless of make and model. We’ll discuss the benefits of certain brands and the hindrances of others, what to look for when buying a camcorder, and how shooting format should influence your purchase. This lesson should work as a wonderful and eye-opening introduction to the world of video production. All beginners are welcome, as well as intermediate users looking to brush up their skills, or bored college kids desperately trying to drown out their Geology professor’s discussion on cleavage and fracture.
If you enjoy the lesson, please return for our subsequent episodes, always free of charge and only on MindBites.com.
In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, we present the video of his historic “I Have a Dream” speech. Given from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, this speech is often seen as a turning point in the American Civil Rights movement, as well as one of the most powerful oratories in modern times.
Upon watching this speech again, I was struck by the number of times Dr. King references the ideals of America as a country. From reverence to President Lincoln, to quoting the Declaration of Independence, Dr. King appeared in my eyes, not only as a great man, but as a great American patriot. Watching with eyes grounded in today’s America, regardless of where you stand on issues such as interrogation techniques, the death penalty, or our role in foreign conflicts, Dr. King’s words remind us that we should measure ourselves by the higher ideal that our founding fathers laid upon our shoulders. Today, we celebrate Dr. King - a great man and a great American.
Two years ago, my mother and I were assigned the task of planning a family reunion for her large extended family. Being the oldest of nine children and the matriarch of the family, it seemed fitting that she would be the one to plan it. As most things roll downhill, the task rested heavily upon my shoulders. After several months of planning, meeting with caterers, writing emails, answering questions, and taking special requests, the family reunion went by in a blur and was a huge success. We thought we were off the hook for a long time until I received a phone call from the folks who volunteered for the next reunion, saying that they could not pull it off.
So here we go again: The place to start when planning a family reunion or gathering is to first, set a few dates as possibilities and take an informal poll. When taking the poll, include a general description of the event and an estimate of the expenses for lodging. It works out best when you give people a deadline to reply with their preference. It is perfectly acceptable to send out an email but remember to send a hard copy in the mail to those who are not tech savvy. If you have some internet skills, I would recommend setting up a blog page with all the pertinent information that people need to know to make up their minds. Here is an example of the blog page that I made for our upcoming reunion:
If the majority of the family is up for the reunion, then it is officially time to get started with the planning process. Read the rest of this entry »
If you haven’t seen the hilarious video that Chris Bosh made with his brother and girlfriend, watch it below. The trio filmed a spoof on a Texas car dealer commercial, asking fans to vote for Bosh (who plays for the Toronto Raptors for you non-sports fans) for the NBA All-Star game.
Since uploading it to YouTube, it has received more than 328,000 hits and the Wall Street Journal even wrote and article about it today. Just shows two things which we talk about a lot at MindBites:
The power of being a character in your videos no matter what your message.
The amazing stuff that normal folks can do with a video camera.
So if you’ve been thinking you’d like to make that lesson you’ve been dreaming of, but didn’t think you could, take some inspiration from Bosh. If he can do it, you can do it. Go watch How to Make a MindBite and start planning your own masterpiece!
Kudos to Bosh and co. and (since he’s not in the same conference as Tim Duncan), Chris can count on my vote.
We met apprehensively at first, both guarded and with trepidation. You see, I’ve been rooted for some time now in my Mac ways, and this PC program boasted a certain degree of change that
made me, initially, uncomfortable. But as much of the world still operates in a Windows dominated medium, I felt obliged to entertain my guest with a certain degree of objectivity. So, here are my first impressions of Movie Maker, the free PC editing platform that claims comparability with Mac’s iMovie.Well, I’ll say this: I was fairly impressed. My initial surprise came from how similar I found Movie Maker’s functionality with that of iMovie’s. I was able to operate the program with ease from the start, as if I were a seasoned pro at dealing with its operations. This should lift concerns users may have about switching from one platform to the other, for proficiency at one seems to indicate proficiency for both.And for those new to editing in general, the interface of the program is highly intuitive, and I found that each step of the process is easily accomplished even by the novice, due to Movie Maker’s clear and straightforward design. It essentially holds your hand through each maneuver. The only downside to this functionality is that advanced operations, like audio manipulation and visual effect creation, become difficult if not impossible to achieve. I found this to be the same with iMovie. These programs are geared towards beginners and therefore come with a multitude of plug-ins and tools that are designed solely for speed and ease of use. Therefore, the attributes are set in stone and manual manipulation is out of the question. Oh well. For the beginner the trade-off is well worth it. Read the rest of this entry »
David Fowler of UCHobby, who recently published his first MindBite, Using a Digital Multimeter, gave the readers of his blog a peek at the cool mini-production set he made in his workshop. You can read his full post at his UCHobby blog, but the basic gist is that he attached an inexpensive digital camcorder to the swing arm he removed from a desk lamp to create a neat mount he can easily rotate around his worktable.
Very cool stuff David! And it just goes to show how a little ingenuity can solve almost any video production challenge. Check out David’s first masterpiece below. We can’t wait to see what else comes out of this cool new stage.
An AP article today reported that China plans to ban all free grocery bags in an effort to fight litter and pollution. I believe we should do the same. Moreover, I wonder if this does not foreshadow a broader trend where China may lead the US in “green” initiatives and technology out of sheer necessity.
I started thinking about plastic bags after moving to Austin a couple of years ago and getting the choice of “paper or plastic” for the first time in a long time while shopping at Whole Foods. While I try to be environmentally conscious, I was ashamed that I didn’t know the “best” option. So, I decided to put it back on the cashiers, telling them “your choice.” To my surprise, the cashiers were split about 50/50, with one even picking plastic explaining that I “look like I recycle” (after looking myself up and down, I decided that was a compliment). I became more confused when I read a few articles claiming that plastic bags had several advantages over paper, including being more energy efficient to produce and recycle (see Wikipedia excerpt below for a complete list of advantages and disadvantages). Read the rest of this entry »
In the midst of taking down tinsel and filing away the numerous gift cards you received, we want to remind you of all the wonderful footage you shot while in the throes of holiday cheer. While it’s tempting to put off editing ’til later, you are almost certainly dooming the tapes to a life of collecting top-shelf closet dust. Why not do it this weekend?! In mere hours, you’ll have a delightful piece of family heritage in the can. Here’s some advice for editing your masterpiece.
7 Tips for Editing your Holiday Video
1. Just Do It, Now! - The best advice we can give you is the old Carpe Diem mentality. Commit to finishing your video this weekend. It’s a quick and relatively painless procedure and you’ll thank us afterwards. Otherwise, human nature dictates that it will never get done (or worse, you’ll be sending it out as a gift for the 4th of July).
2. Fire Up Your Editing Program - Don’t worry if you haven’t done any editing before. For your purposes, any basic editing program on your computer or that came with your camera should do fine. If you’ve been aching to learn that high-end editing system you copied from your cousin, hold off until the task at hand is complete. Read the rest of this entry »
Email This Post
made me, initially, uncomfortable. But as much of the world still operates in a Windows dominated medium, I felt obliged to entertain my guest with a certain degree of objectivity. So, here are my first impressions of Movie Maker, the free PC editing platform that claims comparability with Mac’s iMovie.Well, I’ll say this: I was fairly impressed. My initial surprise came from how similar I found Movie Maker’s functionality with that of iMovie’s. I was able to operate the program with ease from the start, as if I were a seasoned pro at dealing with its operations. This should lift concerns users may have about switching from one platform to the other, for proficiency at one seems to indicate proficiency for both.And for those new to editing in general, the interface of the program is highly intuitive, and I found that each step of the process is easily accomplished even by the novice, due to Movie Maker’s clear and straightforward design. It essentially holds your hand through each maneuver. The only downside to this functionality is that advanced operations, like audio manipulation and visual effect creation, become difficult if not impossible to achieve. I found this to be the same with iMovie. These programs are geared towards beginners and therefore come with a multitude of plug-ins and tools that are designed solely for speed and ease of use. Therefore, the attributes are set in stone and manual manipulation is out of the question. Oh well. For the beginner the trade-off is well worth it. 
Subcribe to our RSS feed