A New Direction

Well, things in my life took some strange turns since I started this little venture. Needless to say, I haven't been able to compose the content I wanted to present. Part of that was due to the aforementioned strangeness. However, a big contributor to my online silence is that I was having trouble coming up with ideas that could be presented with just words and a few still pictures. Learning to do something involves "doing", and that's an action verb, my friends. I think my initial list of topics for this blog was only about 8-10 items. Not a good sign. So, I've decided to convert this to a Video Blog. Video will allow me to more easily show how to do things. I've been editing little videos for some time, mostly family stuff. I actually enjoy video editing quite a bit, so drawing on that talent seems a natural fit here. And, I've decided to open up the range of topics to things other than just handyman and home improvement subjects. This will now be a general "How-To" column. The strange thing is, once I started thinking of things on this new direction, the topics just started flowing. I think I wrote down 30 ideas the first night! I've done some "screen tests" on myself and I'm learning some new things about the videography side of things. I've already identified a few pieces of equipment that I need to buy (wireless lapel mic, better lighting, etc.), but I can add those in as I go. I have a friend that is a videographer/editor for CNN (Hey, Bill!) and he has been a tremendous help in getting me started. Now I just need to lose some weight, 'cause the guy on those screen tests isn't really appealing to the young female demographic I was hoping to reach... LOL I shot my first project piece yesterday! That bad part is that it wasn't actually planned as a project piece; It just kinda came up. I was trying to rearrange some of the shelves in our audio/video cabinet to improve the airflow and help my entertainment gear run a little cooler. That's when I broke the cabinet. Did I mention that we have company coming this weekend, and that one of the things they'll want to do is watch some movies on our home theatre setup? Yeah, not a great day... I was about to launch into an emergency repair, when that little voice in my head said, "You're supposed to videotape these little projects, remember?" Stupid voice... Anyway, the first vid is in post-production - "in post", as we say in the movie biz, dahling... I'm sure the quality will improve over time (even if the host doesn't), but I hope y'all enjoy this first offering and learn something from it. More importantly, I hope y'all like this new direction.