KeriBlog

Cars, Security and a Peek into my Life

I Have to Re-upload 102 Videos

102 blog posts are now broken, and look like this:

It’s because Viddy shut down.

For a time, Viddy was like the Twitter of video; you could even edit using their app, add music, sophisticated stuff. Maybe too ahead of their time, people aren’t really watching online video like they will, so it’s out of business.

We had a good relationship – they’d promote me, Tweet my videos and highlight them in the app – so I uploaded a ton of videos exclusively to Viddy. That was my mistake.

Sad as it is to type this: that’s the last time I bet on the small guy. It’s YouTube and Google from now on, forever.

I downloaded all 102 videos, but they’re smaller than the originals and pretty grainy. The right thing to do is haul out my hard drives and sit here uploading 102 videos to my YouTube account, then re-embed them into the posts.

This will take 20 hours, at least.

The good news is it will force me to clean up my YouTube account.

Look how bad my YouTube account is:

I’ll make a few playlists and there’ll be 250+ videos (add in my “Canadian Explorer’ series, and that’s 400 videos online, totalling 9 edited hours of content.)

Top 4 most popular videos:

From left to right:

– How to backup a Trailer – here

– Blackberry Security is why you buy – here

– Watch a Ford Focus park itself – here

– Putting on & Taking Off my Scarf – here

Here’s some screenshots of upcoming
KeriBlog videos you’ve likely never seen.

Blog tag = videos

YouTube.com/KeriBlog

 

 

Subaru’s X-Mode is for Extreme Off-Roading

X-Mode is Subaru’s exclusive off-roading system.

It overtakes the all-wheel drive system, applies torque individually to each wheel, to help both ascend and descend hills.

Push the button and it’s on, exceed 40-ish km/h and it shuts off.

You know that “hill assist” feature that’s en vogue right now? Like that, but on steroids.

These are ATV trails I’m driving on. If it can do that terrain unaffected, the road to a cottage will be easy.

Tested on the all-new 2015 Subaru Outback, in Newfoundland.

My review for the newspaper here.

That feeling really is the best eh.

What the video really looks like; that’s my Final Cut editing file.

 

 

ALS #IceBucketChallenge

I accept my nomination for the ALS #IceBucketChallenge from Didier Marsaud.

I nominate Jim Kenzie, Mark James and Daniel Morad.

6 kg.

I like how this bucket thing has ignited across the internet. Hope everyone who participates also gives their $10, not just the video part.  Here’s the donate link.

Here’s to all ALS sufferers to feel better, because a disease that keeps the mind sharp, while the body decays around it, is the cruelest.

See me flinch? Exactly.

 

 

Driving an MX-5 on a GoKart Track in Atlanta

This was a surprise stop along the 2014 Mazda Adventure Rally.

I’m driving a 2014 Mazda MX-5 on the gokart track, at the Atlanta Motorsports Park.

This is basically my first track time.

This kart track has more changes in elevation than any other track in the world, including one that’s 43 ft.

More photos of the track here.

Here’s the whole rally blogged: #MazdaRally, and there’s links there to my newspaper stuff there.

Until this trip, I thought the Miata was a princess-y car, nope. It loves off-roading?! Huh.

 

 

Tracking a Porsche with Pfaff

Pfaff Automotive invited me to Mosport for a track day… in one of their day-lease Porsches.  Yes please!

It was my 2nd track time ever, bit spoiled huh, because here I go around in a Porsche Cayman.

Learned how executing a proper corner feels…. effortless?! Huh.

And did you know you can steer the car using only the throttle?  I did that once… accidentally.

That’s Brad Meise of Apex Driver Training you hear coaching me; thanks Brad! Liked your style: precise and non-stop.

My mistakes: I brake way too late, and enter the corners with too much aggression :|

That’s the thing though: so what I can fly around with a Brad in the passenger seat.

How about when it’s just me, and there’s no cones around the track to guide me, now add the pressure of competing in a race…

You can do this too.

Day-lease a Porsche or Audi from Pfaff and spend the day driving the above track, with coaching if you’d like it.

All information found here: Pfaff Track Days

A Porsche 911 is $1,699 +HST for the day rental at the track, and the other vehicles available are the Porsche Cayman, the Audi TTS and Audi S5.

Or track your own car.

That’s $449.00+HST for the DDT Track this 2014 season with the use of your own vehicle. Because the goal is not to learn how to go faster, but to better understand the physics behind driving.

And that’s what I wrote about for that week’s ‘Keri on Driving’ column.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

It’s best to explore the limits of your car in a contained environment instead of a real life situation. This way, when your car gets away from you and starts to drift down an icy on-ramp, for instance, it’s not the first time you’re experiencing how that feels.

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

 

 

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