Learning New Things: Creating Video Thumbnails

My Cutest Thumbnail Yet

When I make videos and post them to YouTube, I seldom like the three selections that show up to use as the screen shot for the video.  When I make a title at the beginning, it never seems to be one of the three choices that come up to use.  When viewing "Tips for New Booktubers" by ChapterStackss, she mentioned that your videos are more likely to be watched if you use a custom thumbnail.  I think this is very true because based on my own habits, when I see a list of videos pop up on a related topic, the ones with the bright or cute thumbnails are generally the ones I watch.  If you upload any videos to YouTube, I highly recommend you watch her tip video.

I finally found out how to make a custom thumbnail (that's is what the video screen title is called).  I came across a tutorial on creating custom thumbnails for videos on Readables channel.  Although she specifically showed how to do it using GIMP, I found I can make some simple ones using PicMonkey and maybe my photoshop software (but I haven't tried that yet.)

Basically, it's pretty easy:

1.  When you upload your video to YouTube and the 3 options come up for which thumbnail to use, there is also a custom option which you click on.  (You must verify your account which is just a matter of typing in your phone number, receiving a secret code and putting that in the box.  This is a one-time step.)

2.  Choose a picture you want to use for your customized thumbnail and edit it the way you want.  The resize it to 1280 x 720.  (In picmonkey, I can only get one or the other because it automatically sets a different size for the other number, but I found it still works out.)

3.  Save your picture and then click on the custom thumbnail option to upload it and select it.  Remember to save your changes and it usually works.  Your custom picture will show when the video is displayed.

Do you use thumbnails for your videos?  I am so excited about learning how to do this!  Check out my YouTube Channel:  http://youtube.com/kzemek 

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Around The World

When I saw this world geography toy in a catalog, I thought it would be a fun way to learn more about the other countries so mentioned to my husband that I'd like it.  It runs on batteries and you just touch the country that you want to learn about.  Then there are buttons across the bottom for various things to learn such as the capital, continent, area, population, government, language, temperature, landmarks, general facts.  The last button is for questions so you can quiz yourself.  I play with this at breakfast and try to see how many questions I can answer right in a row.  It's harder than you may think!  The highest I got to so far is 13 setting a new record on Sunday.

Here is a video of me playing the game.  You can play along and see if you can beat me on the quiz.


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5 Friday Fragments (food, humor, heart attack, blogging, computer)

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

Alternative Cooking

I heard of a new way to make a grilled cheese sandwich: turn the toaster on its side, insert two slices of bread, one with cheese on it and put them together when it pops out. I haven't tried this yet because I would think the cheese would get all over the toaster when it melted, but I may have to update my video: Making a Grilled Cheese Sandwich Without a Stove.

Ambrosia

At my Sunday morning Bible study, I had a delicious treat called ambrosia and the best part is that it's easy enough for even me to make! Yes, I'm going to give it a try and will post about it. The main ingredient is whipped cream and all you do is mix in some pineapple chunks, pistachio pudding mix, marshmallows, chopped nuts, and some cherries if you like.

Heart Attack Symptoms for Women

This is a humorous video with an important message:

Find out how this video may have just saved a life at Go Red For Women.  The symptoms are shortness of breath, nausea, chest pressure, aches, dizziness, and jaw pain.  This video is probably how I would be.  We put off calling 9-1-1 because we think it's nothing and we'll be fine.

Feeling Guilty

I keep telling myself that I do not have to post something every day, but when I don't, I feel a bit guilty. Especially when I have ideas in my mind about things I could do. I just don't always have the time. I could have done a good post with Mama Kat's prompt about a ride in a limo, but just didn't get to it in time. Thursday morning I linked up an old post about an Easter memory from our "My Funny Dad, Harry" blog (Easter was Great Except For the Stupid Hats) and spent some time tweaking the layout. The gadget with the links across the top wasn't letting me delete the one that is no longer working--what a waste of time that was! Then I didn't have time to visit my usual blog buddies.

New Computer

I got a new computer at work--they replace them every three years! My new monitor is huge! At home, I am still using the emachine PC that I got for my dad in 2006. I hesitate getting a new one because I dread reloading all the software and I don't even know if my anti-virus program would be transferable. I feel so ignorant when it comes to technology now.

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My Top Six Favorite YouTube Videos (Writer's Workshop)

What I think makes a good video is good lighting, good sound, and the content makes me feel something: admiration, laughter, good feeling, happy tears.  My absolute favorite is the Beth Moore one so if you don't want to watch them all, please watch that one at least (it's the second one). To find my top five favorite videos, I just went to my favorites list on YouTube and wallah, here they are:

This shows how one small act of kindness can go a long way.  I just discovered this one over at It's Just Life this week, but added it to my favorites!

Another kind act but funny too--love Beth Moore's humor! 

Love kids and teaching, this is the best I've seen:

My favorite cat video--you knew I'd have one if you follow this blog:

We can't forget about a dog one--this is funny!

Here's a Bonus:
Actually, I didn't have this one in my favorites, but remembered seeing it on God Vine so searched for it and found it. This one is so touching and inspirational, he was so brave to go on the show and boy, can he sing!

You may have seen some of these before because I know I posted at least three of them here and others of course shared some too. I'd be curious to know which one you like best! I think there's something here for everyone to enjoy. Notice I didn't post any of my own but invite you to visit my YouTube channel. Just click on the "videos" tab at the top.

This is inspired by Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop prompt to share 5 favorite videos.  Yes, I know I listed six but the last one came to mind so I wanted to include it too.   

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Christmas At Our House in 2011 (UPDATED)

Best decorated house in our Neighborhood!

Christmas morning, we slept in, then both walked Abby. Gerard wanted to show me a particular house that had really great lights and I agreed. I had a gift I wanted to "re-gift" but and was trying to think of someone to give it to when I got a brilliant idea! I would leave it at the house with the fantastic decorations as from Santa. Gerard and Abby continued on their way while I went back home to play Santa and wrap up the present with a card that said:

My secret assistants report that you have the best decorated house in the neighborhood. Thanks for brightening up this neighborhood! Santa

(I also inserted a contact card separately so they knew it was actually from a real person who they could thank.) I went back and left it next to their morning paper by the front door. It was fun being kind of sneaky and surprising someone we didn't even know!

Some of our gifts

Gerard and I both enjoy buying things for each other got lots of nice things. The few things I asked for, he got for me which I am very happy with along with some nice surprises too. I mostly got him clothes this year because that's what he needed, but he was thrilled to see I bought the Bruins book for him.

Gerard's new suit that is a fur magnet

Gerard got: winter coat, two pair of shoes, two pair of jeans (one fleece lined), folding dog dish to take on walks, Buckeye hat, candy, black suit, black shirt, Bruins book, candy.

Karen got:  Classical music CD, peanuts, binder clips, two shirts, Furry Logic books, the cute owl hat I asked for, leopard PJs, Browns dog, two big soft furry pillows, blue thermo-fit hoodie and a Kindle case.  Now to see what our pets got, read more:

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4 Things We Learned This Week (AAA, Kindle, Money, YouTube)

AAA

When my car battery died last Saturday, I called AAA and discovered that they sell new batteries and came right to my house and replaced my dead one--cost $113.

Amazon Kindle

I got a Kindle for my birthday and learned you need a wifi connection to get started which I found at our library--yea! Thanks for all the encouraging comments. Now I am learning how to load the books I want. I tried yesterday to borrow an e-book, but the site was down for maintenance! I did get my Kindle all charged up though.

Money

Did you hear about the lady who did and left $13 million to her CAT? How crazy is that!

Got my Christmas bonus yesterday and learned I'll be getting a raise next year. Yippee! That made my day!

YouTube

My YouTube channel got a facelift. It's a whole different layout now and can include several links. Of course, I listed all my blogs. My napkin folding post is scheduled for Wednesday (still have to add my pictures to it but my videos are done. If you can't wait, you can find them on YouTube (just search for kzemek and all my videos will come up).


Other Fragments:

It was nice getting some birthday cards that I did not expect. The one I got from Gerard was really cute and two from a couple new friends.

Took my morning pill (on the left side) instead of my evening pill (on the right side) by mistake yesterday--how nutso! Fortunately, thanks to my cat Manny knocking over the other bottle with his tail, I realized I had the wrong ones. At least I didn't take both morning pills! Skipped the evening one (which I take every other day) and will just take it tonight. Didn't want to risk combining the two. See, I'm not a complete idiot.


Visit Half-Past Kissin' Time for more Friday Fragments or link up yours.

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Jesus Paid It All!

I picked this one for Good Friday because it is one of my favorites about what Jesus' death means for us. Have a good Friday!



Have you voted in our favorite hymn pool at the top right yet?

(If you are wondering about our "Things We Learned This Week"--we'll be posting those tomorrow, didn't learn too much. We did however do a "Friday Fragment" post on our book blog today.)

7 Things I Learned This Week-#80 (blogging, checkers, bromeliads, writing, conference)

bromeliads

Daisy the Curly Cat left a comment on my Strange Sight-Covered Trees post saying she likes seeing bromeliads growing on trees. I had no clue what those were so asked her and she told me that they are a kind of spiky plant; there are tons of kinds! In Florida, you can see lots of them growing naturally on trees. This link has a picture of bromeliads in trees.

Checkers

In my Three Questions For You post, I asked about our checker game and everyone who commented about it said I was right and Gerard should not have been able to go back and jump me after he moved something else. However, since then I found the rules in the box and read them. It clearly says that you HAVE to jump and doesn't say anything about losing your piece if you do not jump. So, actually, Gerard did have to change his move and jump me. Gerard was right and we were all wrong! Good for you, Gerard!

Resizing YouTube Videos

Over at Design it Chic is instructions on Resizing The YouTube Videos to fit your blog. I always just played around trying different sizes but you can actually find the width of your blog space in the HTML code and there's actually a formula to use to determine the height. Also, there are two places in the embed code you have to change.

Adding The "Like" Button

Thanks to Mrs 4444 at Half Past Kissin time, I learned how to add the "like" button to posts. It's something you need to do for individual posts. According to the Facebook plug-in page, "When the user clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in the user's friends' News Feed with a link back to your website."

I Write Like

At Joann's Best I found out about a fun site that analyzes your writing and then compares it to a famous author. I used 20 random samples from the book I wrote in memory of my dad, and posted my results on "My Funny Dad, Harry" blog. Go head, give it a try at I Write Like.

Book Bloggers and Authors Online Conference

At Crazy-for-Books I learned that a Book Bloggers & Authors Online Conference is August 6 & 7 and the cost is just $15. The list of topics looks very good. I've never seen an online conference before!

Tips For Interesting Article Titles

At the Ad Master, I found "5 Types of Titles That Can Get More People To Read Your Article". They are: make a question, use the word "why," include a benefit, the list of tips or things, "How To" title.



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6 Things I Learned This Week--Part 52

San Francisco

At the Creative Junkie I came across a post about her trip to San Francisco which shows all the hills. I never knew that city was so hilly. Lombard Street was crooked and hilly! Great pictures and commentary!

Youth In Foster Care

In the PARMA SUN POST I read an article, "Remember foster teens, too with your holiday donations." It said that almost half of children waiting to a permanent adopted home are 12 or older and that the majority of gifts donated are toys and games for younger children. It suggested that gift cards from Wal-Mart, Target or Best buy are good gifts to donate for teens. The Adoption Network Cleveland distributes gift cards to teens in foster care all year round. To donate, email the outreach coordinator, Robin.Ott@AdoptionNetwork.org.

Making Videos

This week I learned that when I load videos to YouTube I can add music to it by clicking on edit and the "audio swap" tab. A list of songs comes up with the time so you can choose a song close to the length of the video. The first time I used this was with the cat video I just posted this week playing with the laser beam toy.

Thrift Stores

At Beaded Tail's Tax Tip post yesterday, I learned that some communities have thrift stores that sell items to help support charities. I never knew this. I also found out there that "CPA" stands for Cats' Personal Assistant.

Reading

Gerard read 58 books and I read 67 books in 2009. We'll each post our favorite 12 next week.

2009 Resolution Evaluation

In reviewing our resolutions we made last year I learned that we did pretty good on keeping them. Guess it is worthwhile to do.
Gerard's resolutions for 2009:
Win at least one set of tennis from Karen. (This didn't happen, he did win some games though.)
Don't break anything when cleaning. (accomplished)
Don't take losses by my teams so hard. (accomplished)
Maintain good health. (accomplished)
Spend less money. (Nope, think this stayed about the same and maybe even spent more!)

Karen's resolutions for 2009:
Be a blessing to someone each day. (Didn't do every day but definitely was a blessing to many.)
Grow closer to God. (Well, I sure exercised my faith more than ever before.)
Get in shape. (accomplished)

Here were the "smart goals" I made for 2009 (measurable, simple, obtainable, time-bound)
1) Take the stairs between floors at work rather than the elevator. (Did this all the time)

2) Read at least 50 books again this year. (accomplished!)

3) Do not spend any more on any marketing endeavor for my book. (accomplished!)

4) Keep on learning new things and continue to post them weekly every Friday on this blog. (accomplished!)

5) Continue to write down the sweet things Gerard does. (accomplished!)

6) Install CommentLuv on my blogs. (I tried but it didn't work, gave me a headache and too much aggravation so I gave up.)

7) Join that gym and actually go 2-3 times a week. (50/50 I joined but only went about once a week--that's why now I have all the exercise stuff I need at home so I don't need to go to the gym and pay $12 per month and more for a trainer)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR READERS!

For more Friday Fragments or to hook up your fragment post, go to Half-Past Kissin' time.

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