What Else Does Xanga Do?

Feel like I spent most of today just mucking around in Xanga and trying to figure out all the little things I can do with it, in order to help me decide whether or not I really want to take the plunge and become a Lifetime Member.  Some of the tinkering process was very frustrating, and for about an hour, I wonder I had seriously messed up my blog’s layout.  But I did learn a few things, and in the end, I think I’m happier having spent the time with the tools.  The question is, did anyone even notice ANY of the changes?  Please let me know!

Xanga Premium Lifetime members: Why did you decide to get it, and has it been worth it?

So far, this was probably pretty boring to some readers, so…

In other news, I finally finished and delivered Wendy and Aidan’s wedding DVDs!  After dragging on the project for months and months, I managed to at least get it to them a month before their one-year anniversary.  (Phew!)  This DVD marks many “firsts” for me, including the first time I put together a wedding DVD from start to finish.  Filming the special day with three cameras was kind of crazy and stressful, but editing it in Final Cut and designing the final DVD package was a lot of fun!  I’m so grateful for the experience!

On my quest to discover what else Xanga can do, I decided to try the Xanga Videos component so you can check out the short video montages that were included on the DVD.  Does anyone know whether Xanga uses a similar Flash video compression scheme as YouTube?  Is there a way to optimize video quality?  The Xanga help files are pretty sparse on this topic…

Here’s the Ceremony Montage, which shows the highlights of the event.  Please click DIRECTLY on the green Play button if you want it to play right on this page.  If you want a QuickTime 7 version (H.264) version of the clip, you’ll also find it here: Ceremony Montage H.264.mov

And here’s the Reception Montage.  Please click DIRECTLY on the green Play button if you want it to play right on this page.  The QuickTime 7 version is here: Reception_Montage_H.264.mov

Next DVD project in the works: The Kenneth & Stephanie Wedding!  =]