The office in which I work is located directly next to our gift shop. We usually leave the door between the two open, but it is quite clearly two separate spaces: one public and one private.

Still, I can’t count the number of times a gift shop patron has wandered into our office, looked through our interal library, perused the office supplies, and pulled one of us aside to ask such important questions as, “So, is this your office?”

YES!!!

Drives me nuts. I work in a museum. I am not an exhibit.

So, I’ve been thinking about vlogging.

Some of you might be thinking that I have a hard enough time keeping this place updated and how could I possibly think going multi-platform with the blog is a good idea? Well, some of you are right, I do have a hard enough time updating the old nerd hut. But I don’t care.

Ze Frank says that people who create and distribute original content on the internet do so because they want to connect with others. “To feel and be felt.” I want to feel that connection too. If done well, vlogging can be much more personal and engaging than blogging is. The good ones (Ze Frank, John and Hank Green, Philip DeFranco) make it look easy. I really want to give it a try.

I have the tools – barriers to entry are really rather low. You need a video camera (xmas gift), some editing software (free, free, free!), and some online hosting (the youtubes). But even though it’s easy to get started – just get in front of the camera and start talking – it’s also easy to ramble on and bore your viewers. It sounds like it’s hard to get and keep and audience.  And, if we’re talking about connecting, that is the point.

So here’s the plan I have rolling around my pea-sized brain:

1. Cut the random clips from the early july road trip together into a recap-themed youtube video. This will help me learn the ins and outs of the editing software as well as what I’ll need on the back end to make a good video. Post it to facebook and see what the reaction is. See what feedback I get.
2. Come up with a framework for how each installment of the vlog will work. Nothing’s worse than a “here’s what I did today” blog/vlog if there’s no point. Figure that out – what’s the point? I have an idea I’m working out in my head – each episode will have me pulling a “random” volume from my admittedly-too-large book collection and relating the book to larger issues: world events, my life/outlook/etc. I might change my mind on that, but it will be good for me and easier on viewers if the vlog has a theme – if it’s going somewhere.
3. Write it out. I don’t know how others do it, but I know I’d be doomed to a sea of “uhh” and “umms” if I try to wing it. Not saying I’ll write an exact script for every episode, but I need to at least bullet point it – know what I want to say in what order I want to say it. Know the intro, the pertinent points to cover, and the conclusion.
4. Film a pilot episode. Not for public consumption, just to get the visual parts right: where each episode will be shot, what lighting I’ll need, lighting, etc. Put it all together and see if I’d want to watch what I just filmed.
5. Get over the fact that I hate my own voice.
6. Begin!

So that’s what’s been on my mind the last few days. I don’t know how fast I’ll be able to move, but I think I’m going to start playing around and eventually give it a shot.

The road trip is over. We are home, we are unpacked, we are back to work. I had intended to update sporadically over the course of the trip, with whatever insight and observations were floating around my head at the moment.

But, as all worthwhile vacations do, this one swallowed me whole and such plans were forgotten. In the end, we probably totaled somewhere around 3o hours in the car and put 2000 miles on the odometer. Not bad for ten days work.

Today is proving to be especially trying. After a wonderful week of friends and family, it’s had to drive a third of the way across the country, away from all that – away from home, for no other reason than that this is where you’ve chosen to live. Why did I choose that again? Oh, right, the job. The job is here and the job is teaching me a lot and giving me good experience. When the time comes, the job will look mighty nice on a resume. But in some ways, the job was my port in a storm. I’ve anchored while the storm’s raged, but I haven’t been curled up idle in my bunk. I’ve been patching leaks, mending sails, and shoring up the hull. Sure, this little bay I’ve found is fine, but it’s awfully far away from home, and I have a hunch that there’s a better anchorage out there. Just need to wait a little bit more, let the wind die, and see what tomorrow brings.

Extended, obvious, and tiresome metaphors aside, the people and places I saw on the vacation and the sense of home that both brought me have me feeling grateful, relaxed, and introspective. I am friends with and related to some awfully good people. And they are so very far away.

One of these tomorrows, the wind will die and repairs will be complete. I wonder what that day will bring.