No vlog today! Because I suck.

I should put up a vlog today, but I slept in, and then a thing happened, and then someone was [i]wrong on the internet[/i] and I had to take care of that, and then another thing happened, and then I played Rock Band for an hour. And now I’m out of time.

Or maybe I just don’t like them. Let’s explore that for a bit.

So, yeah, vlogs. I [i]do[/i] like them, but they are a lot more work than I originally thought they’d be… and not in a good, manageable way. It takes me 2-3 hours to complete one, and there are a lot of roadblocks that make the process more frustrating than I feel it ought. Let’s see if I can quantify those things.

1) Equipment. I don’t have the money or knowhow to really get a hold of quality equipment, and couldn’t really justify the cost even if I did. I feel like I’m doing the best I can with what I have, which really is all that can be expected. My new camera is much better than my old one, though. Maybe I just need to find more interesting things to shoot?

2) Software. My new camera doesn’t interface with the same editing software my old one did. The software that came with the camera is pretty terrible, and I’ve kind of just been meandering ever since. I’ve been through a ton of free trials and, ahem hem, “free trials” since Christmas and nothing is jumping out at me. The programs I think work best do not run well on this computer, and the programs that cost the least don’t have the features I need. Seriously, when I download your video-editing software and it doesn’t even have the ability to easily select and remove portions of video, we have a problem.

3) Topics. I figure the average attention span of a YouTuber is about 2-3 minutes, so that’s where I’ve been keeping my vlogs. I am not, however, a man known for his brevity. It’s tricky to find a topic I can speak competently on for that short amount of time. I’m also not that adept to keeping up with pop culture or current events, and even when I am, I sort of don’t want to say anything if it’s just going to be parroting what everyone else is already saying.

4) Time management. I am extremely bad at this. I am the guy who will drag a fifteen-minute task out for hours. I am easily distracted and lazy as sin. It should be easy, in theory, to find 2-3 hours a week to shoot a vlog. In practice I always end up waking up on Friday and saying, “Well, I need to do that. After I eat breakfast. And take a shower. And read all these comics. And _____. And _____. And… crap, now it’s 3pm. Oh well!”

In short, I need help.

#1 & 2, I am confident, will work themselves out on their own. I’ll get my new computer built, and will eventually find some decent software and learn to use it effectively, and it will all be just wonderful.

#3 is where I think I’ll have the most trouble. I feel like I need people to tell me what to talk about. It hasn’t been uncommon for me to go to all my AIM buddies on vlog day fishing for topics. Sometimes I’ll see something good in the YouTube comments, and use that. (I wish that happened more often, but it’s not something I can force.)

#4 will probably clear up as a result of fixing #1-3: if I know beforehand what I’m going to talk about and can be reasonably assured the process won’t make me want to be all like GRRAAUUUGGGHHH, then I won’t dread the obligation so much. (Hmm… dread’s the wrong word there. I don’t know what the right word is, though.)

In other news, I’m replacing Nomic on Saturdays with the weekly Survivor post, for as long as this season lasts. Should be a good one. When Peemeister dries up I will probably replace it on Sundays with my backlog of anime reviews. I have literally not looked at any of those in years. Hopefully I will not cringe [i]too[/i] terribly much when I revisit the archives. There were a few Peemeister and Crystalis updates which made me say, “No, this is crap. There’s no way I’m putting this on my website.” Probably not a great attitude to have when looking at one’s old stuff, but there it is.

3 comments to No vlog today! Because I suck.

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