An Appetizer

While I'm off scouring the Internet for a free merge/edit program for my AVIs, you get a snipped of my audition tape. Are you excited?

Once I get the thing edited (with a program that doesn't make it into a proprietary format unless you PAY for it), I'll upload it and then work on the TWELVE page application.

Thankfully, I read the fine print last year, otherwise I might have been shocked by the 30 recipe requirement. Good thing I've been working on that all year. Now I need to type them up, so that when they ask, they're ready to submit.

If this one makes you hungry, email me and you'll get the recipe!

UPDATE***After downloading umptyump AVI mergers, editors and the like, I finally found two programs that did what I needed to do. If you ever need an AVI editor, use Solveig's, which can be found on the CNet site. Very user friendly-if I end up with a digital camera that takes movies, I will buy the full copy of this one. It is great.

I had a lot more trouble with the mergers. One would only do the merge if the frame speeds were identical. Well, two segments were 30.04, the rest 30.01-so it was a waste. Another was billed as a merger, but it really to merge family photo albums on the Internet. Finally, I used the aptly named AVI Joiner. It has a twist in that the free version only allows you to join three files.

So, I did some track bouncing, much like the days of working in radio. Three bounces later, I have a finished video that comes in at 2:45:99, under the three minute max decreed by the Food Network.

I can't upload it, so I'll be burning a DVD of it tomorrow and sending it off with the phone book, AKA the 12 page application.

I'm happy with the finished product. It's not my full on personality, but it IS me in teaching mode, and I think that's a little more important. Cross your fingers that in mid January, I'll be flying to New York for four weeks. Guess I should dig through the boxes and see where I packed my ski jacket! I haven't seen that thing in four years.

No, I'm not posting the whole thing on the blog, because it's huge and because I'd like to keep it a surprise. Maybe when all is said and done, you'll get to see the video. All I know is I feel really good about doing it and if it doesn't get me in, I know what to do for next year!