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After leaving the hospital, the endless doctors appointments began. Primary concern was the facial fractures which needed to be surgically repaired before the bones fused incorrectly. Second is the damage to the nerves controlling my left eye. My eye was able to look right, but there was no signal to move my eye left which resulted in double vision. It was also the same side where my face was paralyzed so not only could it not move properly, the eyelid wouldn't close either. After a 3 1/2 hour surgery, metal plates and screws placed in my face aligned the bones back to where they're supposed to be. The skull fractures were fusing perfectly, or close to it anyway. I still had considerable numbness on the right side where the surgery was, as well as swelling. During the first month of recovery, I didn't notice much improvement. Still had double vision and even though the surgery was successful, the swelling and bruising made me look very poor. My facial paralysis was not improving and in fact, there is now a noticeable drooping on the left side due to the lack of muscle movement. Electrical stimulus tests showed that the nerve wasn't severed, but was damaged and recovery would be long. There was talk of decompression surgery, but the neurosurgeon didn't think that it would be as beneficial as they could have hoped. The second month, I began to notice that my double vision was lessening. If I looked to the right, I could see a single image. This was terrific news because it meant that the nerve was healing and there's a strong likelihood that my vision will return to normal. Not much on the facial movement, but the swelling had gone down and I was beginning to look somewhat normal once again. During the subsequent months, my vision was finally returned (month 4) swelling was gone (month 6) and my face was showing the beginning signs of moving once again. While still mostly paralyzed, there is not quite a bit of movement and best of all I can close my left eye. I wouldn't say that I can blink, but it is a significant improvement from before. While I am still not a good looking guy, if you didn't know that I was run over by a truck, you really couldn't tell by looking at me. There are some indications that I'm not quite right (visually ) but for the most part, I have regained muscle tone in my face. I have a long way to go, measured in months to years, but I am alive and functioning. Every day I am feeling a little more like my old self and I am thrilled at the outlook. That's all for now...

Howdo all, yep that time has come for another blog entry, something that's a bit of fun.. Green Screening. For those of you that are wondering what Green Screening (also known as Chroma keying) is, it's a simple technique for making you appear somewhere your not on video. Anyone who has seen a weather forecast or a new's show on TV will have seen green screening in action... Or not as you can't see the green screen once the editing has been done.. Anyway, here's what a green screen looks like.. Or part of it as it is rather big being 3m x 1.6m. Ideally your screen should hang nice and flat with no creases showing... My screen was quickly hung in a way too small room just so I could have a quick play.. I've not told my wife yet that I want to turn the spare bedroom into a recording studio yet So having filmed your bit of footage, you now need to do some editing.. I use Sony Vegas Pro 11 for all my video edit (more about Vegas in a later blog entry), as you can do so much in it. If we zoom in a bit you can see me and the bit of backing footage I'm going to use in the time lines. You need to make sure your backing footage is below the green screen footage or this won't work. Now to add the "effect" which will make the green screen vanish. In Sony Vegas I click on the "Video FX" tab which brings up a whole host of video effects options.. Chroma Keyer is the one we want. As you can see you do get a choice of different types of Chroma Keying, you can do it using a red or blue screen, but green works the best which is where "green screening" got it's name I guess. The last 3 GS options are my own custom pre-sets. For this demo I dragged and dropped the "GS option" onto my GS bit of footage in the timeline. Which gives you this. The GS has vanished and been replaced by your bit of backing footage.. It's not looking that good however, the backing is a bit dark and you can see the folds in my GS (which is why you need them as smooth as possible). When you drag the GS option from the Video FX tab onto your GS footage this window also appears so you can tweak the GS effect. You need to tweak the Low threshold and High threshold a bit, I also add a very small amount of blur.. Until you end up with something like this. A close up.. So there you go, my short guide to Green Screening.. If your wondering why this blog entry is called "A stupid guide to Green Screening", this short video will give you an idea of what's possible.. The only limit is your imagination

Howdo all, welcome to my first blog.. Of any kind as it happens. Hopefully I can get it right As you may of guessed from the blog title, it's all about video making. Something I love doing if you hadn't guessed already.. Over time I will post up all sorts of (hopefully) interesting video making ramblings such as editing software, which cameras I use and other equipment. Hints and tips, that sort of thing. I hope this blog will inspire some of you to make videos, and have fun doing so.. Of course the opposite is possible So other than introducing you all to my blog, what else will I be putting in this first entry? Well, as it happens I need your help... I'm working on a video series all about promoting RedSquare and RedSquare members videos No hint's on what it is called yet, I hope all of you like it when it hit's a computer screen near you.. So what do I need help with? Video's of course.. If you think promoting RedSquare and your video's is your sort of thing please submit me your videos.. Full credit will be given for the video clips of course You can post your video links here, or PM them to me if you want. I will be adding a "RedSquare members videos" section to my YouTube channel where people can click on your vid and be taken straight to your video page. The bad news is your videos MUST be on YouTube so I can use in-video click-able links. YouTube won't allow "non YT" in-video links! I may be able to find away around this in the future, but for now YT video's only. Will this idea work out? I hope so. But for it to work I need your video's so get submitting Guy's It's going to interesting for me as this will be the first time I've played a "presenting" roll.... Should be fun It will be a couple of weeks until the first episode is ready as I'm waiting for a bit of equipment to arrive which will make filming more fun.. And is the only way for me to get the "look/feel" I want in these vid's. By the way I'm looking for 3 or 4 video clips to finish off the opening title sequence I have created, so get submitting and I might pick yours I will of course try and keep you all update on how the project is going and get some other blog entries up here very soon.. But for now that's all. So long and thanks for all the fish.... I've always wanted to finish something off using that line :D

Hi Guys Ok. Here is the issue. Sticking exhaust valve. Yes I removed both valves. Reseated them. Polish the stem on exhaust valve. Reinstalled all parts, set valves clearance. This engine was rebuilt, with over size piston. Now the issue is,. Exhaust valve pops when running at normal RPMs. I am worried that it might drop this valve. Is there a lubercation additive to add to the oil that could help clean this up? I 've never had a valve stick before. Thanks guys Bill

Trucks are heavier than they look and heads are harder. I found this out on April 8, 2013 while foolishly removing the driveshaft from my F250 Diesel. It all started a couple of months prior. While driving the truck, there was a terrible squeaking noise coming from the drive shaft carrier bearing. I decided to make the replacement of this bearing a learning experience for my daughter, so in Sunday 4/7/13, I showed her how to set the brake, chock the wheels and SAFELY remove the driveshaft from the truck. It only took about 20 minutes to replace the bearing, but when we test drove there was a vibration. Back home, we again safely removed the driveshaft, re-indexed, and replaced it only to continue to vibrate. Once again, took it off, insured everything was aligned and reinstalled. You can imagine how frustrated I was to have the vibration continue, so we decided to quit for the day. That evening I researched, and thought about the driveshaft and I was looking forward to doing it once again. Monday morning, I anxiously waited for the kids to get on the bus to school so I could get started right away. My wife was at work already and I was home alone. As soon as they got on the bus I marched outside, crawled under the truck and began to remove the driveshaft bolts at the transmission. The 3rd bolt came out snug, and the 4th was tight as well, and I wasn't sure why until the bolt came out and the truck began to roll. In my expedited effort to get the driveshaft out, I completely missed setting the brake and chocking the wheels. The truck began to roll! As I tried to escape from under the truck, the wheel ran over my leg. At this point things happened so quickly, I'm not sure how my head ended in the path, but it did. In an instant I was hit, and a direct hit with the tire rolling over my head, back to front. (details of the initial injury skipped)

As you can imagine an F250 Diesel is quite heavy and I sustained numerous life threatening injuries. The impact broke my skull in 5 places, broke my temporal bone on the left side injuring the 7th nerve, paralyzing my face and 6th nerve damage causing severe double vision. On the right side I sustained multiple fractures to the facial bone and internally suffered both epidural and subdural hematoma's. ALL of this was immediate. It was mentioned before I was home alone when this occurred. The damage was severe, as was the internal and external bleeding. I was mostly unable to see because of the damage to the 6th nerve, but the rest of my body was functional. I ran into the house, grabbed the phone and thankfully able to call 911, then got back outside. I went outside because I sincerely thought this was it and I didn't think that I would make it. Since my kids were at school, they would also be the first home, and I would much rather have a passerby find my body than have my children make the discovery. First on the scene was a occupational health manager for IBM Fishkill, who heard the dispatch while passing by my street on his way to work. He stayed with me, keeping me calm until the ambulance arrived. Mind you, I was still fully conscience but still thinking I would die. At this point, I couldn't see, my left ear was completely deaf and I was losing a substantial amount of blood. The ambulance arrived, and I heard them talking about what to do with me. They wanted to air lift me to Westchester Hospital who's trauma center is better, but they didn't think I had long to live so they elected to transport me via Ambulance to Danbury hospital. It took almost no time before they had me in the ambulance, and I remember them asking permission to cut my clothes off and my reply, are you serious, please do what you need to do. I heard the rumble of the tires hitting the gutter rumble strips on I84 as the ambulance passed on the left and right, and we got to the hospital in record time. There was a team of specialists waiting for my arrival and they began to prod, poke, examine me in every way possible. By this time signs of external bleeding had stopped, and they were interested in the internal head injuries which were severe enough that the head of Neuro Surgery was called in to examine me. Numerous CT Scans later, the decision was to place me in ICU and monitor me with CT Scans every 4 hours. I'm sure I glow by this point.