THE WINDOWS TO THE WORLD

Dear nightsatin1,

I really do like your videos. I think that it is great that you like to make different kinds of videos. I really do enjoy the movie star videos, but I do want to branch out and make different styles of videos later. I am sure that your channel will a source of creative ideas later. I still have not quite decided how to use Led Zeppelin music later. I might just make a video about Led Zeppelin. Or I could make one of those fantasy videos.

I have attached a video made by one of my Youtube friends, Rita, AfsAnehAfairytale. I used to write her a lot more than I do now, because she has been busier recently. I first found her channel because of her Lucy videos. But now she makes different kinds of videos, but the Lucy videos were her early videos. I thought that you might be interested because she uses some good effects. I really do enjoy her videos. She is friends with a group that I call the romantic video people. A lot of those people are my friends too. Anyhow, just look at her channel when you have time. Rita is very creative.

I do plan to learn how to use Windows Moviemaker software later. Likekinds has given be all sorts of tips about Moviemaker. Likekinds is someone that I found when I started to ZPopZRock. I was looking for people who made slideshow videos with rock and different kinds of music. Whereas Shabannie had been looking mostly for people who made movie star videos. Some of the Shabannie friends seemed to think that it was an old music channel, so that is another reason that I started a new channel.

One problem with Onetruemedia software is that some of the effects intentionally blur up some of the pictures. I do like the colorful Christmas effects and transitions, and I may continue using Onetruemedia for Christmas videos next year. And Onetruemedia does do well with simple movie star tributes. The effects and transitions are nice, but eventually I do want to make more colorful and psychedelic videos.

I already have Windows Moviemaker, and I just need to take the time to learn how to use it. I have gotten very good at making movie star tributes quite quickly with Onetruemedia, and I really have not felt like slowing down long enough to learn something new. I guess that I will slow down after the new year. I made that Peggy Lee video in only three hours. The song is not that long, so that made it a little quicker too. When I use scenes from movies and a variety of settings, it sometimes takes a little longer to put it into some sort of sensible and enjoyable order. And when I try to match up specific pictures to the lyrics, that can make it take longer to make also.

Sometimes I make the video in several sittings, so I really do not keep track of the time. Some days I just collect pictures for several different videos, and do not bother to arrange them until later. Which is why I have several videos started right now. I was working on my James Stewart video. Then my pianist friend shared some of his music with me, so I was busy downloading his music last week. I was working on the Mabel Normand video with my friend's music, but I decided that I really felt more like making a festive Christmas video. I knew that my friend liked Peggy Lee, so I selected a Peggy Lee Christmas song that I had planned to use eventually. I have the piano music selected for Lana Turner and perhaps Joan Crawford. Now I just need to pick a project and finish it. I will probably work on Mabel Normand again today.

I have also started to collect pictures for my New Year's hat video. Last year I made one with pictures of the stars from the year with hat pictures. This year I have more than twice as many stars and hat pictures, so I was feeling kind of overwhelmed the day I was working on it. I might just decide to add a second song onto the video, but I am not sure what I will do yet.

Well, it is probably good for me to make videos. I do enjoy it. Even before I was on Youtube, I used to correspond to people that I met on message boards on various sites. I do enjoy writing to friendly people like you. Well, I hope that I have not bored you too much today. I will write about the weird stuff later.

Yours truly,
Ellen

2010-11-23T06:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Genia106,

Yesterday, I was looking at surfcottage's videos. I had not looked at her channel for awhile. Sometimes I look at the videos with the most views, and then wonder why that video got so many more views than her other views. Frequently it is because of one word in the search like Titanic or Bolero, or the famous song, or something is in the news, or the story is popular right now, but who knows sometimes. She has a video with a cowboy theme, but it is not about movie stars. I have used some of Willie's music, but not cowboy music, so I looked through my Willie music downloads and picked out the song.

Then I looked at my list to pick out a cowboy movie star. I had put Johnny's name on my list when I had made my Mary Pickford video. When I put his name on the list I thought that I would never get around to it, but I knew that I wanted to make a few videos about western movies. I did not know much about him, but he really was in a lot of movies.

I frequently make videos about people who are not on my list yet, and I keep adding people to the list, so my list never seems to get any shorter. For some of the singers and my favorite stars like Clara Bow and Jean Harlow, I will probably make a video about her once or twice a year. It is easier to make a second video because I already have some of the pictures collected. I do not know when I will get tired of making these things, but I assume that I will eventually. I decided not to make a long list for my second channel.It could seem overwhelming. I assume that I will get tired of this later and slow down on making videos.

Yours truly,
Ellen

2010-11-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

Dear Youtube friend,

I sometimes think about how to increase my views of my Youtube videos. I make videos because I would like people to watch them. It does not really matter to me exactly how many people watch them, but I do want people to find them somehow in their Youtube searches.

A Youtube friend's wonderful video with Trumpet Bolero had received over 100,000 views. The link is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo0231yRDhM

This is not Ravel's Bolero, but I assume because video may be successful because the name Bolero is in the title. Perhaps it ended up in some popular playlists too. I have noticed also that Ravel's Bolero sometimes gets a lot of views too. I might use Ravel's Bolero with a silent movie star video later to see if it gets a lot of views too. You might like to use the song too. Whatever you make will be different from mine. Doug even made a second video using this same song with different pictures.

My Sing a Song video has over 10,000 views. I wondered why it received so many more views than my other videos. I decided that this may have happened because it was close to the top of the page when I did a search for the song. And it may have ended up close to the top of the page because it was on a popular playlist. So I started some new playlists, and I put my friends videos in there too. It may just take some time for some of these videos to be noticed later.

When I have tried to get more views on my videos, I look at MrKingsRow's channel. He has some videos that get thousands of views, and then others that just get 300 like mine. And of course the videos with 300 views are usually just as good as the ones with many more views. I thought that it must be the song or singer is what helps people find the video in the searches.

They may be more apt to look for the music, rather than the movie star. This was one of the reasons that I started the second channel. Shabannie's channel was never intended to be an old music channel, but a few of my viewers seemed to think so and made rude remarks when I used modern music. Well, only one of them really was mean about it. I decided that I would like to choose the more modern song first, and then decide what kind of video to make with it without the movie star themes more like MrKingsRow, copycat me. His channel may get more views than mine because it is more of a music channel, rather than a movie star channel like Shabannie. So ZPopZRock's channel was created.

Yours truly,
Ellen

About Shabannie

2010-11-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

When I selected my user name, Shabannie, I really did not think that I would keep the Youtube channel long. I set up the channel so that I could collect my favorites and make remarks. I did not check the channel much at first, because nobody wrote to me. I used to have a friend named Shabani from India. I intentionally misspelled the name so that I would be the only one to use the spelling. Sometimes I wish that I had chosen another user name, but Shabannie has worked for me. And the name does not lock me into making only one kind of videos like it would have if I selected something based on a movie star name like I considered.

Letter to FASHIONCONSPIRACY

2010-11-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

I always tell myself that the number of views does not really matter as long some of my Youtube friends keep coming back to my channel. But I still think about it. I recently was looking at the views for my videos, and I wondered why a few of them had not gotten that many views yet. I decided again that the videos that I had recently put in playlist had really increased in views, and perhaps the others did not because I did not put them in a playlist yet. So yesterday and today I created a few new playlists, and I put most of the videos in one or two new playlists.

I may have a lot of playlists displayed right now, but I can always hide some of them later. It just may depend on the theme I have that week. Also, instead of taking videos down later, you might consider just making them private.

Yours truly,
Ellen

Letter to Likekinds

2010-11-08T07:49:00.000-08:00

Dear Doug,

I just looked at your new video from my new channel. I enjoyed it of course. 100,000 views is really quite amazing for a slideshow video. Thank you for introducing me to this song, Trompet Bolero. I had been thinking about using Ravel's Bolero, a completely different song I know, with one of my silent movie stars. I had recently seen a video with the music performed by Pink Martini, and it also received an amazing number of views.

I guess that if I wanted to compose music, I should just put Bolero in the name and it might get more attention. Putting Bo Derek's name in the song might help it too. Ha. When I first started making videos, I wondered how am I ever going to get people to look at my videos, and will they really want to. I mostly have done it via a growing network of Youtube friends, other people who make nice videos. Shabannie now has a growing number of diverse friends. I decided not to care too much about the number of views as long as my Youtube friends keep coming back again. I also get concerned that if my videos get a lot of views, the Youtube police might bother me more.

But I still thought about why other videos get more views than some of mine. I also wondered why my Sing a Song video has received so many views compared to my other videos. I did a search for the song, and I discovered that this video had ended up on someone's playlist, and the playlist ended up close to the top of the page when I did my search. So I decided to start making a few new playlists.

One day I was looking at my friends channel, MrKingsRow. His videos get a lot more views than mine. In terms of editing, his videos are about the same as mine except that he uses Moviemaker now. His transitions and effects are not that much better than the ones I use. O decided that people were mostly interested in the music. I decided that his videos were so popular because he makes more videos about singers, rather than movie stars like Shabannie has been doing. Plus of course he is friendly, and appreciates nice comments. When new people are doing their Youtube searches, they are more apt to be looking for music. So that is why I started my second channel, ZPopZRock. The new channel will really start getting more viewers soon because I have more videos posted now.

Oh well, enough people look at my videos now. I get friend invites from all sorts of people. I hope that you have a good week. I really do like your videos. I still need to learn the Moviemaker software. I have had a few projects already started, so I will probably use Onetruemedia at least until after Christmas.

Let me know if you decide to start a blog.

Yours truly,
Ellen

Tribute to Louis Armstrong

2010-11-08T06:30:00.001-08:00

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The Rolling Stones

2010-11-08T06:27:00.001-08:00

The Rolling Stones sing Beast of Burden.

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Letter to TemoinsGirl

2010-10-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hello Eli,

When I finish, I think that I will post this letter on my Blogspot at http://shabannie.blogspot.com/. I think that it helps me write if if I write it to a friend first.

I had been thinking about learning to use Windows Moviemaker. A few Youtube friends have said that that they like it better than Onetruemedia.com. I will probably use both, depending upon the video. I will still use Onetruemedia.com for my Christmas videos, because they have some cute effects. I was not that impressed with Windows Moviemaker at first, because for just a conservative movie star video that just uses dissolve transitions, it really is not that much better. And I was just used to using Onetruemedia.com.

Anyhow, I do want to make more psychedelic looking videos later with the rock music later. Doug, a new Youtube friend has explained that you can go to websites and add new effects and transitions to the program. It will take me some time to learn how to do this stuff, but I think that it will be fun to do later. I told my friend that first I just need to learn to make a few simple videos on Windows Moviemaker. I have not made any there yet, but I have the software. I have not learned it yet because I did not want to learn something new, and for my movie star videos, Onetruemedia.com works fine.

I am interested in using the kaleidescope type effects. I have always been interested in kaleidescopes. When I am more confident with the Moviemaker software, then I will try to figure out how to download the cool effects. In an earlier post, I posted a couple of the letters he sent me. I have attached a video Doug made with some of the cool Moviemaker effects. He is one of ZPopZRock's new friends. Shabannie did not know him first. ha. The link to one of his videos is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ-NFa3wtmM if you are interested.

I am also about ready to learn how to make videos with clips from movies, rather than the photo montages. I do like the photograph montages, because it is more like a scapbook or biography about the movie star's life. I will continue to make them too. Right now I feel like slowing down a little bit on making videos. I have made quite a few on recent weekends. Learning new ways to make videos will definitely slow me down. Rudolph Valentino will probably be the first movie star that I work on with the movie clips, of course. Bye for now.

Yours truly,
Ellen

Rudolph Valentino

2010-10-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

Features Rudolph Valentino in Ibanez's classic romantic tragedy about the rise and fall of a matador. This is a digest version, part of the "Silents Please" tv series. There is a musical score and narration.

Windows Moviemaker Followup!

2010-09-26T10:34:00.001-07:00

I did not write this blog. This was written by one of my Youtube friends who knew that I was interested in learning how to use Windows Moviemaker. I decided to post this for some of my other Youtube friends who might be interested. Thank you, Doug.

This is the effect I used with the sheet music. If I am correct; it will work with the unregistered trial version of Rehan.

http://pleabo.home.comcast.net/~pleabo/MovieMaker/#mirdup

You may be talking about just the notes. If you are; that is the 'Boomerang' effect. It does not require Rehan. Here is the link for it.

http://www.windowsmoviemakers.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=173740

Here is a lesson on how to add effects from Windows Movie Maker Forum.

Go to Start>Computer>OS(C:)>Program Files>Movie Maker>Shared. In this folder; create a new sub folder. Name it 'AddOnTFX'.

Copy the text below and paste it into Notepad. Then save it as 'Boomerang Effects'. Do not save it as text. Replace the .txt at the end with .xml and save it as Boomerang Effects.xml

Go to Documents and find Boomerang Effects.xml Move it from Documents to the AddOnTFX folder you created in Movie Maker.

Now; open Windows Movie Maker. AAR2696--Boomerang should be the first enrty in your effects column. Since it is an effect and not a transition; It will take only one picture fot you to see what it does. It is not my favorite effect. butI do use it sometimes.

Windows Moviemaker

2010-09-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

To my friends,

I did not write this blog. This was written by one of my Youtube friends who knew that I was interested in learning how to use Windows Moviemaker. I decided to post this for some of my other Youtube friends who might be interested. Thank you, Doug.

He wrote:

I don't know what operating system you have, so I don't know which version of Windows Moviemaker you have. I have Windows Moviemaker 6, which is far better than Windows Moviemaker 2.

There is almost an unlimited number of things you can do with Moviemaker. There are not very many effects and transitions that come with the program. But; when you combine the effects with the transitions; you can do hundreds of different things.

There is a forum called Windows Moviemaker Forum. Amateurs and professionals create effects and transitions and put them on the forum for downloading. There are literally hundreds available. Probably half of these effects and transitions are 'stand alone'. No program other than Windows Moviemaker is required to use them. The other half does require another program. That is the $15.00 program called Rehan. The $15.00 is a one time fee. The Rehan program itself has many many effects and transitions. These can be combined with the built in Windows Moviemaker effects and transitions, and they can be combined with the effects and transitions from the forum.

There are also other sites that offer effects and transitions for Windows Moviemaker. When you combine all these programs; you could spend the rest of your life coming up with new and different effects and transitions for your videos.

I don't know how computer savvy you are, but if you wanted to; you could alter the script for any of these effects and transitions, and there again, add another unlimited number of possibilities.

You can use the full Rehan program for a trial period. I think the trial period lasts two weeks. The effects and transitions that are dependent on Rehan, require that you use a registered copy of Rehan.

I have many excellent programs on my computer. Some are for file synchronization. Some are for burning CDs and DVDs. Some are for editing pictures. Some are for editing music. Some are for virus and malware protection; and the list goes on. The only one I have ever paid for, is the Rehan program. I don't pay for anything if I can get it for free.

I am sending you a link to the Rehan site, where you can get the trial program. I'm sending you another link for effects and transitions. There are demos you can watch before downloading any of these.

I could go on and on, but I think I have given you enough to absorb for now.

Doug

http://www.rehanfx.org/

http://pleabo.home.comcast.net/~pleabo/MovieMaker/

http://www.windowsmoviemakers.net/Forums/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=33

It's Now or Never

2010-09-25T18:03:00.001-07:00

Tribute to silent movie stars.

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Tribute to Doris Day at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-09-23T02:19:00.001-07:00

Tribute to Doris Day! Hooray for Hollywood.

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Change

2010-09-19T21:47:00.001-07:00

Peter, Paul, and Mary sing Blowing in the Wind. "Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".

In 1999, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked #14 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

"Blowin' in the Wind" has been covered by hundreds of artists. The most commercially successful version is by folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary, who released the song in June 1963, three weeks after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was issued. The trio's version, which was used as the title track of their third album, peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts. The group's version also went to number one on the Middle-Road charts for five weeks.

Other covers have been by The Hollies, country guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins, Odetta, Dolly Parton, folk chanteuse Judy Collins, Marianne Faithfull (1964 single), The Seekers, soul singer Sam Cooke, blues belter Etta James, Duke Ellington, Neil Young (with air raid sound effects), the Doodletown Pipers, Marlene Dietrich, Bobby Darin, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley, Sielun Veljet, on their single "Blowin' in the Wind", Stevie Wonder (whose version became a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966), John Fogerty, The Hooters on their 1994 album The Hooters Live, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and was performed by Jenny in the award-winning movie Forrest Gump (sung by Joan Baez), and was lampooned in Me, Myself And Irene. The Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' version appears on their album "Blow in the Wind", a play on the title of the song.
An instrumental arrangement by Stan Getz served as the B-side for Astrud Gilberto's 1964 hit single "The Girl From Ipanema" and Stanley Turrentine recorded an instrumental version on his album Common Touch (1968).
In 2005 Dolly Parton recorded the song with the bluegrass trio Nickel Creek. Parton subsequently stated in a CNN interview that she'd initially tried to get Dylan himself to appear on her recording of the song, but that Dylan turned her down.
A traveling exhibition called Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956–1966, which was featured at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, contains an audio display with samples of dozens of different cover versions of the song, sung in numerous languages and from a variety of musical genres.
The song has also been sung and recorded in German by Marlene Dietrich as "Die Antwort weiss ganz allein der Wind".
In Bengali there has been a translation of the song recorded by popular Bengali blues singer Suman Chatterjee. It goes "Kotota Path" ("How Many Roads") in Bengali.
The song was translated to Romanian by poet Adrian Păunescu and was sung by folk band Pasărea Colibri under the name "Vânare de vânt" ("Windhunting").
The Italian version was written by Giulio Rapetti (better known as Mogol) and sung by Luigi Tenco with the title "La risposta (è caduta nel vento)" ("The answer (has fallen down the wind)").
Tore Lagergren wrote lyrics in Swedish, Och vinden ger svar ("and the wind gives answer"), which chartered at Svensktoppen for two weeks during 1963, first as recorded by Otto, Berndt och Beppo, peaking at #8 on October 12, and by Lars Lönndahl during November 9–15 with sixth and seventh position.[21] Both were released on single A-sides during 1963. This lyrics version was also recorded by Sven-Ingvars, as B-side for the single Du ska tro på mej, released in March 1967.
Hugues Aufray sang a French version, entitled "Dans le souffle du vent" ("In the blow of the wind"). Aufray has been known to adapt various international artists' songs to French, including several from Dylan's repertoire.
The song was covered on American singer-songwriter Jay Brannan's latest album "In Living Cover.
Gerard Quintana (former singer of the catalan rock band "Els Pets") recorded a cover of this song in catalan under the tittle 'Escolta-ho en el vent' (Hear it in the wind) for his album 'Els Miralls de Dylan' (Mirrors of Dylan)."

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Onetruemedia.com

2010-09-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of my Youtube friends have asked me about making videos on Onetruemedia.com. So I decided write this article and direct them to my Blogspot.

I keep using Onetruemedia because I did not want to learn a new way to make videos. I found this site because I had seen Onetruemedia videos made by MrKingsRow on his old channel. He now uses Windows Moviemaker for most of his videos. When you go to the website, you sign up for an account just like you do for Youtube. One advantage of this is that if I go to a relative's house, I still can make a video because my old information is still stored there.

For videos on my waiting list, I collect one picture, and then start a new video for it, and give the video a title. Then when I am trying to look for an idea for the next video, I just look at the icons and decide what to do. For premium features you have to pay something. I do not buy the premium features, so all of my videos have been made for free. Right now I am broke, but that does not mean that I would not try the premium features later.

The effects and transitions I use the most are with the montage called music video. The curtains at the beginning and end come from the montage called Sparkles. I have also used some of the stars from Sparkles. I am gradually using some of the other effects from other montages, but I might use just one or two effects. Like for Meryl Streep, at the end of the video her picture is in a floating TV with bright lights behind it. It was probably the first time I had used that particular feature. For the new channel, ZPopZRock, I might learn to use some of the less conservative and silly effects for the rock star videos.

To upload pictures from the internet, I copy and paste URL on to the upload page. Since I have done this for a year now, I can do it faster than I used to. For most videos, I usually need about 40 pictures, depending upon the length of the song. The edit page is where I organize the video. I have to go through each picture one by one to crop the picture and center it better in the frame. Then I usually make the title and the credits screens. Then I change the order of the pictures to suit me.

I go to Edit all to make some changes for the entire video. I click on and I change the image motion to no motion usually. Then later I might put a zoom in on just a few frames. Otherwise, the software selects the motion and then I had to change it one by one. I change the seconds from five seconds to six on most videos. On some videos, I might just change the seconds on a few pictures to either shorten or lengthen the video to fit the music.

To put music in, click on music, and then upload songs, and I get a download from what I have stored in my computer. Once the pictures are in order, I watch the video many times and listen to the music, and make more changes with the pictures. Regarding music, since Youtube turns down so much of my music, I usually send the music through on an unfinished tester video to make sure they approve it before I organize the video.

When the pictures are in a decent order, then I add transitions and effects. On my last video, I usually added a music video transition ever three pictures. I used the slide effect from music video, and I did not use many of the cool effects. For the Pola Negri video, I used the music video effects a lot. You can use the music video create a montage, and the software selects the effects and transitions for you. I have done this with an Elvis video. Then I would look at the video, and change the effects that were inappropriate. More recently, I go through the pictures one at a time to add an effect. I may not change the effect on that many pictures though.

Anyhow, I have gotten used to the Onetruemedia.com. Feel free to write me here or at Youtube.

Duke Ellington

2010-09-03T22:12:00.001-07:00

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Elizabeth Taylor: Smile

2010-08-09T18:11:00.001-07:00

Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor. Michael Jackson sings Smile.

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New Youtube Channel! ZPopZRock

2010-06-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

I just started a new Youtube channel. The second channel will include rock and popular music. I will still continue making tribute videos about classic movie stars and singers on Shabannie's channel.

The new link is http://www.youtube.com/user/ZPopZRock

I hope that you check out my new channel!

Best regards,
Ellen

Bing Crosby sings Shine

2010-02-11T11:23:00.001-08:00

Tribute to Bing Crosby. Judy Garland and Bob Hope are also pictured frequently.

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William Bojangles Robinson

2010-02-08T13:22:00.001-08:00

February is Black History Month. This tribute honors the actor/dancer William Bojangles Robinson.

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They Can't Take That Away From Me

2009-12-11T20:57:00.001-08:00

Rod Stewart sings They Can't Take That Away From Me. This video includes pictures of all of my favorite movie stars that I have made videos for this year.

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This is my first annual hat video tribute to my Hollywood Collection of movie stars. Starring Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and his leading ladies, Clara Bow, Rex Bell, Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Louise Brooks, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Carol Lombard, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Lena Horne, The Marx Brothers, Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, West Side Story cast, and Elvis Presley.

Tribute to Clara Bow

2009-12-06T14:58:00.001-08:00

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Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood by Martin Booth

2009-12-05T06:06:00.000-08:00

I had decided that whenever I am at a loss about what to write about, just write about a book that I have read. The books that I select are a little bit different from what other people might select. I know that other people are not going to rush out and try to find this book just because I recommend it, but they still might decide to select something a little bit out of the ordinary in the future.

I especially like historical fiction and biographies. I like to read biographies about writers, composers, and movie stars. The book I selected today, Memories or a Hong Kong Childhood, is autobiographical. The author's experiences in Hong Kong included eating boiled water beetles and one hundred year old eggs and learning Cantonese.

I will write more about this book later. Things happen. Thank you for following my blog. I am an avid book collector. I have a waiting list of books to read. Check out Daedalus Books at http://salebooks.com/ I buy a lot of books there at a reduced rate. They get a free advertisement. Of course, I like Amazon and Barnes and Noble too.

Tribute to Desi Arnaz and Lucy

2009-11-20T15:49:00.001-08:00

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I make videos at Onetruemedia.com, then I post the video on Youtube. There is also software like Moviemaker that can be downloaded into the computer. I store pictures at Photobucket.com. I just learned how to make videos this summer. If someone has an interesting suggestion, please make a comment.

HOW TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL YOUTUBE CHANNEL

2009-11-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

When I was a child, someone told me that I would grow up to be a historian. Well, I guess that I am a Youtube historian documenting old Hollywood. One of my new Youtube friends recently wrote to me and asked for suggestions about how to get more viewers for his new Youtube channel. I ended up writing such a long email, I decided to turn this into a blog. I know that a couple of my Blogspot friends already know how to have a successful Youtube channel, but someone else might like to start a Youtube channel later. These suggestions plus his own ideas can help him started. My Youtube address http://www.youtube.com/user/Shabannie

I just started making videos this summer. Even if you are not interested in making videos, I would suggest that you set up a Youtube account anyway. Then you can save your favorites, make comments, send messages, and share videos with other Youtubers. I use Onetruemedia.com to make my videos right now. It took a few months to get a significant amount of views. Some of my older videos do not have that many views, because I did not get as many viewers when these videos were submitted. So I share the older videos sometimes.

My views increased significantly when I added that West Side Story video. I started to get all these friend invitations from Spain, Mexico, and South America. I look at other channels and look at the number of views their videos get. Having one popular blockbuster video can help you get more people to look at the other videos on your channel too. I am not really trying to get a blockbuster though. I think that my Elizabeth Taylor video has been my most popular video. And I did not expect West Side Story to get so many views. I have just wanted the views to gradually increase, and they have.

I think that the best way to get people to view my videos was to watch other people's videos, and make comments. And subscribe and send out friend invitations. And I also share some of my videos. When I have not made a video in awhile, I may share a video made by a Youtube friend. But I think that the comments are most effective, either on the video or the channel comments. Their internet friends read these comments too, and they may click on your channel also.

My Youtube friend asked me if I advertise on other sites. I do mention my Youtube on three other sites, Facebook, Twitter and Blogspot. Since I just arrived to these sites recently, I do not know if people click on my Youtube links often. But a few people have made comments, so that is nice. Some people post the Twitter or Blogspot address on the Youtube profile. So I find them on Twitter or Blogspot and follow this person, and they usually follow me back. Twitter is fun for other reasons though. I follow my local newspaper, TV station, magazines, movie star fan clubs, and it is kind of fun. Twitter does not take a lot of effort or time if you do not want it too. Especially when I was new, a lot of strangers wanted to follow me, so that I would read their junky Twitters with links to useless or unappealing links. But that does not happen much now. You can follow me on Twitter if you would like to. My twitter address is http://twitter.com/Shabannie

I recently started this blog on Blogspot. I ended up on Blogspot because a friendly Youtube friend encouraged me to follow her here. Please look at my profile later, and it lists the blogs that I subscribe to. Some of these people do not write that much, and they may mostly post pictures, which does not require a lot of time. I look at other blogs to get ideas about what to blog about later. I can post a few of my Youtube videos on Blogspot, or just provide the link. I would recommend that just set up a profile, and follow other people's blogs at first. Youtube can be mentioned on your profile. Anyhow, on my blog I just write short blurbs. My theme is The Windows to the World, which means that I will just write about whatever I feel like writing about that day. I just barely started, and I do not anticipate that many followers. But I assume that they will gradually increase. I do not really need that many people to read it anyway. My Blogspot address is http://shabannie.blogspot.com/

My Facebook account mostly is for friends I really know in person. People that I really know in person do not seem to be that interested in my Youtube videos. Oh well. A few people do look at the posted video. I can also post videos directly from Onetruemedia.com on Facebook.

A friend of mine is on Sodahead.com. I plan to look at that site more later. I did set up a profile just a few weeks ago, but I have not started a blog and I really do not plan to start one. I am just there to look at my friend's blog. I might look at other blogs later, but I have been emphasizing Blogspot recently. You can find me at http://www.sodahead.com/user/profile/1611763/ellen/ Thank you for reading to THE END. Have a good day!

To volunteer, or not to volunteer? That is the question.

2009-11-15T06:07:00.000-08:00

Years ago I went back to college to train to be a teacher for my second career. I needed to take a speech class. My teacher did not like my speeches. Other students liked my speeches, so I had to decide her opinion did not matter. She was friendly, even though she did not like my speeches. It was tough to decide what to talk about for one of my first speeches. I decided that this was an opportunity to speak to a small group of people beginning their careers and make a positive difference.

So I was thinking, so what is a subject that would interest a group of people who are all in different majors. This was a required course for everybody, and none of us were speech majors. I was thinking what is something that we should all be doing, but we usually do not really do it. Well, we do it sometimes, but we do not do it enough. At least I know that I do not. I did it more when I was a teenager, because nobody was going to pay me for it anyway. I just get to occupied with my day job, so I know that I do not volunteer enough except for activities at church. I decided to do a speech to encourage the listeners to do more volunteer work.

So I do my research, and look up volunteering on the internet. I needed to get some quotes and motivational information to use in the speech. It turned out to be more fun that I expected it to be, because this was when I was first learning how to use the internet, my window to the world. I did give a nice speech, and I would like to pat myself on the back since the teacher did not do it. Other students complimented my speech. They would tell me stories about volunteer work they had done in the past. I hope that it made them think about doing more in the future. The purpose of my speech was not to really get them engaged in a project asap. I just wanted them to think about it, so that it would become a lifelong habit.

I think that the teacher did not like my two speeches because it did not make her want to get up off her but and do some volunteer work. Well, it is not my fault that she just wants to go to work and come home and not much else. That happens to a lot of us, including me. From my point of view, I wanted these two speeches to explain how volunteering improves the quality of life for you, the volunteer, not just the person or organization you are helping. These two speeches were successful because I did get some of my fellow students to think about how volunteering can help the helper. I had read articles about how it can improve your health, and so on. I am sure that it can, because it can just make you feel better about your life.

Thank you, friends, for reading my blog again.

What am I thinking anyway?

2009-11-10T23:24:00.000-08:00

Please be sure to follow me. And write a comment so that I know that you were here. A friend of mine encouraged me to start a blog. I did not know what I would write about, so I pondered it for awhile. I checked out other blogs, and found out that they really did not write that much. So I figured, then maybe I could do it then. It would just be a written conversation, whatever comes to mind that day.

I appreciate the fact that you are checking out my blog today. I decided to wait until I wrote the second or third entry before I asked any of my internet friends to read this. Well, this is my third entry, quite incredible. I did not forget about my blog, and perhaps I can keep this up for awhile.

I encourage all my readers, all two of them, whatever, to start their own blogs. At least think about it. I would be happy to follow you too. Please be sure to sign up to follow me. You have probably heard that the new Meryl Streep movie about Julia Child started out as a blog about cooking. Wouldn't it be nice if our blogs could work out as well? I do not think that I can come up with something that would keep my interest long enough to write a book about it, but perhaps someone else can.

Thank you for your internet friendships!

It is a rainy day!

2009-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

The other day my fortune cookie said that a house without books would be like a house without windows. Nowadays we might say that a house without the internet is like a house with windows, which is probably why Microsoft calls their software Windows.

Now, I will get back the the subject of books again. What book has Ellen been reading recently anyhow? I have been reading The Gift of Prophecy by Ruth Montgomery. I bought the book used via the internet, my window to the world. Now I have the book, so my house has windows thankfully.

The book is about the life of Jeane Dixon. I saw Ms. Dixon on the Letterman show years and years ago. She made an interesting prediction about Letterman's life, but since it was bad news, she said that she would talk to him about it offstage. Anyhow, Jeane Dixon really does have the gift. But it does not mean that her predictions are always accurate. Perhaps the future changes when people are warned, and they think about it more. Ms. Dixon said that when her predictions were incorrect, it happened because her interpretation of the symbols was not accurate. And she uses her psychic abilities to help people, and I think that she was just a wonderful, sweet person.

Introduction

2009-10-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

I am interested in the history of movies. I am not an expert in this field. I write about movies because I want to learn more about them. I am also interested in Hollywood gossip and biographies, both old and new Hollywood. I can remember Sunday evenings when I was a child. I would watch the Walt Disney movie. I would get so excited when I saw that fairytale castle come onto the television screen. I really did not plan to start a blog today, but here I am. I look forward to writing more later. Please make comments.