Osiris is Alive. Well, the Book is Anyway...

So, after a very long road, my first novel, Osiris, went live on Amazon for sale last night around 6pm, a day earlier than I'd planned. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm quite surprised. I received an email from them stating that the verification step for the novel was taking longer than expected, so I assumed that it might actually be late.

It turns out that there is another science fiction writer who shares my name, Jeffrey Thomas. He's written some eight or ten books, so my guess is that Amazon's bots were trying to make sure I wasn't him, or wasn't trying to scam something that he wrote.

Anyway, all worked out, and the book is live. It's been a long, convoluted story, as I mentioned in an earlier post. Osiris, written under the working title 'Dark Star' was written, shelved, edited, shelved, read, shelved, etc. for some 18 years. Crazy.

So, fast-forward to November of last year and NaNoWriMo. I had planned on doing edits on Osiris, then edits and rewrites on the sequel, and if I completed the rough draft, moving right on to the third book in the series in an attempt to get my 50k word goal. It turns out that fate intervened and that didn't happen.I worked on a new story idea and completed the 50k word goal with that rough draft, but I was in full 'writer' mode. Once November was over, Osiris was back on my desk, ready for beta reads, edits, and publishing. That all came to fruition last night.

Osiris went live, so this morning, I created my amazon author page here, (https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07PPSL844), and they're in the process of linking the book's sales page to my profile. I've had a sigh of relief that it's out there, but now comes the work of marketing. That's a difficult thing for most people to do. So, I'm working out a schedule for the next two months to spend a set amount of time doing marketing for Osiris, and a set amount of time writing, editing, etc., for the second book. My goal is to have this second book released sometime this summer. Sign up for my newsletter to get up-to-the-minute updates on the progress of all of this on my website at https://www.jeffreythomas.net.

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!

Tomorrow is the day Osiris will be available for sale as an ebook on Amazon. It will also be available in the Kindle Lending Library, as well as in Amazon Prime for members of those two services!

Tolifo LED Photo / Video Lights

So, I have had this YouTube channel HERE for a year or two, and have uploaded a fair amount of content (something like 25 videos), most of which have been product reviews that I filmed using my DIY overhead camera rig (pictured below). As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have found it difficult to actually appear in my videos. It's pretty normal from what I've read for new creators to feel a fair amount of stagefright.

One thing I was really worried about was the fact that I had no 'real' lighting for filming interview/vlog-type videos. Everything I've seen online said that you need good lighting, so I kept using that as an excuse not to do those types of videos - until Tolifo came along.

I started looking for lights that I could use for my overhead rig, and figured that if I could get some either for free or with a discount coupon, I'd give them a shot. Tolifo gave me some discount coupons to buy several different models of their lights, so I bought three different ones. The PT-15B Pro, the PT-176S, and the PT-C-160B. FYI - The letter designation at the end of each model indicates if the LEDs are single color or bicolor. Single color LED panels use colored diffusers to get different color temperatures.

My overhead camera rig consists of a PVC frame, the sides of which are glued together, so that I can simply remove the rear cross braces (and paper roll holder), and break the rig down for storage, as I don't have a dedicated place to keep it. The lights, as you can see above, are clamp shop lights with 5500k LED 100w equivalent light bulbs that I wired into a DIY dimmer switch. The camera is just visible in the top center of the screen, looking down on the white paper.


Anyway, it turned out that these lights really weren't suited to replacing my DIY lights, so I got a fourth, more powerful light shortly thereafter in order to attempt a vlog-type video. When playing with the lights on my overhead rig, I wasn't all that impressed with them. That all changed when I used them for their intended purpose.


The following pictures are screen-grabs from the video on YouTube with the specifics of which light I was running at the time.

'PT-176S as a 'hair light' at a 45 degree angle behind with no key or background light

PT-15B Pro (at 100%) as a key light with the 'hair light'.

PT-30B (at 100%) as a key light with the 'hair light'.

PT-30B (at about 25%) as a key light with the 'hair light' and a PT-C-160B fill light on the bookshelf set at 5500k color temperature.

PT -30B (at about 20%) as a key light with the 'hair light' and the fill light at 3200k.

For the purposes of evaluating the lights, you can see that these lights really can hold their own for making videos. As a first go-round with these lights, there are a lot of areas I could improve upon, such as dialing down the 'hair light' so that it's not quite so bright on the right side of my face in the image. 

The key lights are at the same distance (about 6 feet), and for the purposes of comparison, were both at 100% for the initial image. You can see that the PT-30B has a lot more power, so it was dialed back for the last two pics where I was looking at the fill light. The 25% power seems to be just right, while the 20% was a bit too dim, especially with the over-powered 'hair light'. It's still small enough to fit in my hard case (just under 10" wide) along with all three of the other lights plus the batteries, chargers and AC adapter:

One thing to keep in mind is that none of these lights come with batteries or AC adapters. They are sold separately, but are the Sony standard NP-F batteries that are used all over the place. I purchased a kit by of Wasabi Power that contained 2 batteries and a charger. It was around $40 here, and is great. I ran the units for almost two hours with no issues. 

So, I have roughly $150 in a set of 4 lights that I can use indoors, outdoors, anywhere, and have the flexibility to infinitely adjust placement, color temperature, etc. Going forward, I'm going to do some more playing with various elements to see what kind of effect I get. I do like the look of the last picture with the 3200k light on the bookshelf. I think it makes the books look a lot warmer, even though I'm lit by 5500/5600k lights.

I could look at a set of softbox-type lights, but for the price, they aren't going to be as flexible. They're also quite large and unwieldy, and really meant for in-studio use. They're AC-powered, and not as flexible because of that fact. Still, I'll look at getting a set of either umbrella lights or softbox lights to play around with if I can find a set that isn't too expensive.

Keto Weight Loss Update - Week 26

Week 26 results are in, and I'm on the fence about the numbers.  I had two days where I had BIG cheats. For example, on Sunday, my favorate Mexican restaurant coerced me into some chips and salsa, some handmade corn tortillas, and then my son ganged up with them and we got sopapillas (a fried flour tortilla topped with cinnamon, honey and whipped cream) for dessert.  I've held steady at 175 lbs for the last two weeks, but my body fat went down to 25%. I guess I'm okay with that, as I've also been doing a lot of physical work in my job that involves lifting 40-60 lb computer servers, loading them onto carts, and pushing them a quarter of a mile away for disposal.  I'm glad that even though my weight didn't go down, my body fat percentage did. That's the goal, after all.


Scott



Week 26 - Weight 175.0 lbs, 25% body fat.

Raw Diet Numbers



Day 0 -  197 lbs, 35% body fat.
Week1 -  195.5 lbs, 33% body fat
Week 2 - 194.5 lbs, 32% body fat
Week 3 - 192.5 lbs, 31% body fat
Week 4 - 190.5 lbs, 33% body fat
Week 5 - 188.5 lbs, 31% body fat
Week 6 - 186.5 lbs, 31% body fat
Week 7 - 187.5 lbs, 29% body fat
Week 8 - 186.0 lbs, 29% body fat
Week 9 - 185.0 lbs, 30% body fat
Week 10 - 182.0 lbs, 29% body fat
Week 12 - 183.0 lbs, 29% body fat
Week 13 - 184.5 lbs, 29% body fat
Week 14 - 183.0 lbs, 30% body fat
Week 15 - 185.5 lbs, 28% body fat
Week 16 - 183.0 lbs, 30% body fat
Week 17 - 182.5 lbs, 29% body fat
Week 18 - 182.0 lbs, 28% body fat
Week 19 - 181.0 lbs, 28% body fat
Week 20 - 179.5 lbs, 26% body fat
Week 21 - 178.5 lbs, 27% body fat
Week 22 - 178.0 lbs, 26% body fat
Week 23 - 177.0 lbs, 26% body fat
Week 24 - 175.0 lbs, 27% body fat
Week 26 - 175.0 lbs, 25% body fat


On Day 0, I weighed in at 197 lbs with 35% fat, which equates to 69 lbs of fat. (yuck).
At week 1, I weighed in at 195.5 lbs with 33% fat, which equates to 64.5 lbs of fat.
At week 2, I weighed in at 194.5 lbs with 32% body fat, which equates to 62.24 lbs of fat.
At week 3, I weighed in at 192.5 lbs with 31% body fat, which equates to 59.68 lbs of fat.
At week 4, I weighed in at 190.5 lbs with 33% body fat, which equates to 62.87 lbs of fat.
At week 5, I weighed in at 188.5 lbs with 31% body fat, which equates to 58.43 lbs of fat.
At week 6, I weighed in at 186.5 lbs with 31% body fat, which equates to 57.82 lbs of fat.
At week 7, I weighed in at 187.5 lbs with 29% body fat, which equates to 54.38 lbs of fat.
At week 8, I weighed in at 186.0 lbs with 29% body fat, which equates to 53.94 lbs of fat.
At week 9, I weighed in at 185.0 lbs with 30% body fat, which equates to 55.5 lbs of fat.
At week 10, I weighed in at 182.0 lbs with 29% body fat, which equates to 52.78 lbs of fat.
At week 12, I weighed in at 183.0 lbs with 29% body fat, which equates to 53.07 lbs of fat.
At week 13, I weighed in at 184.5 lbs with 29% body fat, which equates to 53.51 lbs of fat.

At week 14, I weighed in at 183.0 lbs with 30% body fat, which equates to 54.9 lbs of fat.
At week 15, I weighed in at 185.5 lbs with 28% body fat, which equates to 51.94 lbs of fat.
At week 16, I weighed in at 183.0 lbs with 30% body fat, which equates to 54.9 lbs of fat.
At Week 17, I weighed in at 182.5 lbs with 29% body fat, which equates to 52.93 lbs of fat.
At Week 18, I weighed in at 182.0 lbs with 28% body fat, which equates to 50.96 lbs of fat.
At Week 19, I weighed in at 181.0 lbs with 28% body fat, which equates to 50.68 lbs of fat.
At Week 20, I weighed in at 179.5 lbs with 26% body fat, which equates to 46.67 lbs of fat.
At Week 21, I weighed in at 178.5 lbs with 27% body fat, which equates to 48.20 lbs of fat.
At Week 22, I weighed in at 178.0 lbs with 26% body fat, which equates to 46.28 lbs of fat.
At Week 23, I weighed in at 177.0 lbs with 26% body fat, which equates to 46.02 lbs of fat.
At Week 24, I weighed in at 175.0 lbs with 27% body fat, which equates to 47.25 lbs of fat.
At Week 26, I weighed in at 175.0 lbs with 25% body fat, which equates to 43.75 lbs of fat.

#keto #ketolife