Baffled and frustrated why I can't render my latest video. The output from one of my cameras just comes out black every time, even though on the preview it looks great. WTF? If Sony Movie Studio actually came with a decent manual I might have learned the damn thing but as it is, I've no idea where to start. Feck!

A cold is setting in, nowhere near as bad as Pat has it. Walked into Preston yesterday afternoon and wondered why I bothered. The place is like a twitching corpse, minimally animated by brightly-coloured, short-lived maggots. I can't see any point in ever returning there again. And to think I could, at least, occupy my dinner hour each day with wandering about; now I can see nothing about it of value - even the library seems run down and lacking in anything worthwhile and Waterstones appears to be full of celebrity "autobiographies" for the lovers of X-Factor and Wayne Rooney. The computer section has shrunk to be a collection of tips for people who have stolen Photoshop and want to know how to use it. There were no books at all on Sony Vegas/Movie Studio for those who have bought it and want to know how to use it... Amazon, here I come. Again.

Later, trimmed the girls. Stalks were stiff but not sure they actually dry enough. The old impatience eh? New Cirklon OS with a few tweaks such as copy/paste and an embryonic sculpt of lengths.

At least I decided the selection of tracks to draw from for my showreel. Didn't do much else though.