Minot, ND flood scenes and traffic jams (the historic 2011 flood)

[shizeninho]

North Dakota looks like a very beautiful place.

[ulillillia]

With the beauty comes... almost nothing. There's very little around here.

[LatestUFOSightings]

What color is the grass there Uli?

[heyjamesworks]

Hey Ulillillia, two questions:

• Exactly how many miles would you estimate that initial traffic back-up was in your video?

• Have you ever revealed your real first name? I can't say I remember ever seeing it on your site. Infinitely curious!

[ulillillia]

The traffic was backed up for a good 4 miles or so. Look at a map and note the junction where the 83 bypass joins up with another road that leads west and east. Note the junction at the north end of town. This span is how far the traffic was backed up. I'm estimating it's 4 miles.

[wildblur]

Just saw this video again. Did you hear that ND hasn't been a state for several years now? A historian just discovered this.

[opsprowler]

seems like a long way

[DeoMachina]

Woah, this is crazy, I had no idea it was that bad!

[JonLeibow]

Thank you for braving the sight of the driver- and passenger-side mirrors to get this footage

[HyperHamster]

@JonLeibow because he's very likely to get undertaken/overtaken and need to constantly check the mirrors in that situation?

[JonLeibow]

@HyperHamster I suppose if anyone could drive while recording out of both driver- and passenger-side windows in the back seat row, it would be Ulillillia

[ulillillia]

That is not something I can do, even if I was legally allowed to drive.

[HappyRussians]

You should become a civil engineer and solve all of these problems with your amazing brain.

[lonebard]

"The National Guard is doing a good job of keeping the flooding under control with these Blackhawk helicopters. Take this case where this one is hauling a sand." A single grain of sand? Stay classy America.

[ulillillia]

That's supposed to be "sand bag".

[MarkQP]

lol

[exactspace]

Ulillillia, I see a lot of correlation between the scenery here and your game. (Not the flooding part). But great video. Interesting and entertaining.

[RIPUlillillia]

It was 10:50 AM when I found out that Ulillillia, my favourite YouTuber of all-time, had passed away during the

tragic flooding of North Dakota. Ulillillia, you will be missed by all of us, and will always be viewed as that

special little man that taught us so much and touched our hearts.

May you rest in peace, in Heaven, my dear Ulillillia. None of us will ever, ever forget you.

[ulillillia]

Being sarcastic or something?

[yyoomadtho]

@ulillillia well, what meaning does your existence hold? if the afterlife really is true bliss like people say it is (heaven or not), then why not kill yourself right now? In fact, why don't we all kill ourselves? Heh, well, I can't, since I've got bidding to do, but you guys can.

Basically, what I'm saying is, if this life is an inferior world, why not end our lives and enter the superior one?

Think about it.

[Carpythesharky]

@ulillillia Are you doing a big 4th of July celebration/firework display again this year? :D. It was awesome last year. Or maybe it was two years ago I forgot ^^.

[Munkeymon]

So people should probably just leave the area forever? Got it

[justinlloyd2]

did you use a polarizing filter or were the clouds that intense?

[ulillillia]

I have no polarizing filter. It's just the bare camcorder with auto-adjusting white balance and focus (I do have manual control over these, but I rarely use them).

[SnowflakePillow]

Ulillillia > contemporary journalism.

[WarrenPanto]

Very glad you're OK, Ulillillia! The greatest mind in North Dakota is safe!

[waypastthat]

0:20

Umm... is that what I think it is in the mirror?

[banduril]

Flee to Canada

[Microwavish]

Did you record the footage in this video, Uli? Did the car's rear view mirror bother you?

[xJohnDoughx]

That's a pretty cool water effect...you should incorporate it into a flooded version of Carnivalesta.

[ulillillia]

Carnivalesta is at too high of an elevation for flooding. Ronnisa Plains is the closest you'll get to that and that's far into the distance. Ever wonder why the Keveran River is 14,400 feet wide, a rather high width? It's swollen from all the rain.

[mlerch89]

I used to live in Fargo, ND! I was there for the 2009 flood. I wasn't a fan of that so I moved to NC. I regret that decision now.. I miss being up there. :)

[ulillillia]

No. I'm 5 miles away from the river at the closest point, very far. I'm also roughly 140 feet higher than the normal level.

[GThanatos]

public transportation systems could greatly unburden the massive traffic surging. but i guess those are not popular in the US, eh?

[ulillillia]

The only active public transportation I'm aware of are taxis and school buses, both of which don't go outside city bounds. With 35,000 to 40,000 residents, there isn't much use in it, unlike mega cities like New York, Las Vegas, or San Deigo. The Minneapolis/St. Paul area is the closest I've ever been to a mega city.

[GThanatos]

@ulillillia you think so? in europe we got means of public transportations even in much smaller cities. it is possible to go pretty much everywhere by bus or by train.

if even jogging is faster than driving right now, wouldn't going by bike be a legitimate alternative? it's also good for your health ;)

[ulillillia]

My stamina is rather low making jogging not an option. I'm afraid of bikes (from my very long ago past) so that's not an option. If trying to get around to the south end of town, however, it's almost faster to just jog instead of drive.

[AxeInfection]

@ulillillia Why are you afraid of bikes?

[xJohnDoughx]

@ulillillia You should give bikes another try. It's a lot less exhausting than walking (riding a bike is actually the most energy efficient form of travel) and you can go really fast without losing control due to the breaks acting as a reliable safety feature! All it takes is a little practice.

[valcaron]

All this time I've been pronouncing Minot as "minnow". I guess I assumed it was a French word.

[Ketsui]

Where's the guy that asks about the documentary? Here piggy piggy.

[ulillillia]

Huh?  What are you referring to?

[Ketsui]

@ulillillia

There was a guy in your past videos that would mention a documentary being done on you that he was interested in. I saw it several times.

[Shugo489]

@ulillillia In your April 31, 2011 blog, you detail a documentary group contacting you.

"#5 A documentary about me!? Wow!: During the summer of 2011, a film crew (sorry, the name of the company that's doing this is classified) might be coming to make a documentary about me. Details are vague at the moment, but this is definitely a first for me. It all happened by chance too. One day, I was doing my daily check as usual and, out of nowhere, I got this E-mail and it started from that."

[TriforceSD]

That is some nice country you all have up there. Aside from the floods and the bitter winters, it seems like a great place to live.

[ulillillia]

The remoteness will also cause problems - it does for me and then some. There's almost nothing of interest around here for me. No major events (like NexFest and the like) ever come here. The biggest event is just the state fair and that's only 9 days (and it may be cancelled this year due to the flooding).

[fuckthisfuckbullshit]

Interesting video, Uli.

[Shugo489]

At around 3:20 in the video, you can see in the right sideview mirror someone lifting a bottled drink and perhaps drinking from it. Can you specify what the drink is?

[Shugo489]

Is this done with the HD camcorder that you were having problems accessing the file type before?

[ulillillia]

Yes. I spent almost 5 hours just converting the M2TS files over to something I can use, for a puny 30 minutes of video. Another 3 hours went into processing the resulting MPG files. My system can't play 1920x1080 video at 29.97 fps. Adding the narration only took 3 hours. With construction stuff going on, it took even longer. Throw in Ireport not working (3 tries) and an oddly slow connection speed (about 1/4 as fast) and it's no wonder why this was posted 3 days after it was recorded.

[Shugo489]

@ulillillia Have you tried the codecs in the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP)? They work wonderfully for lower-end machines, and your computer is far from low-end, so I think you should be able to play 1920x1080 video fine. Try it out!

[ulillillia]

I use Virtual Dub for my video, but Windows Media Player also has the same problem. I hear the audio repeatedly starting and stopping about 5 times a second and the video is playing back at a slower speed. The Platform Masters site details my system's specifications. The video card is currently my main weak point on my system with the motherboard then CD/DVD writer not far behind. The CPU is quite decent along with the RAM, resolution, and hard drive capacity (1.25 TB).

[Shugo489]

@ulillillia I remember reading your specifications and although they don't come back into my head very vividly, they seemed more than capable of at least playing back video at that resolution. I highly recommend you at least try out the CCCP and use Media Player Classic.

[lneh]

Too low altitude :(.

[moomar2]

Why do the clouds have to look so scary in an already scary time.

[ulillillia]

Chance. At least it illustrates the point and trouble behind this.

[N0Lif3]

Is your home in danger of being flooded, ully?

[ulillillia]

Just the basement, but this is due to heavy saturation of the ground, not the flooding.