April 24, 2026. I finished the video I'm calling "Jed and the Splinter" yesterday. It feels like a small breakthrough. I can see how much better I've gotten, though there's still a long way to go. The large captions took time to get right, mostly breaking long ones into shorter chunks to accommodate the bigger letters. I also tried color grading for the first time. But the biggest thing the video taught me is that I'm surrounded by little vignettes like this all the time. They're in the air around me. It's up to me to turn on the camera.
It's also fun involving other people. Jed was a great sport. I hadn't told him I was coming over and hadn't mentioned the camera. He just rolled with it.
A few other things the video clarified for me. It doesn't have to be a grand plot. Removing a splinter is a microscopic event, but the video becomes about so much more, communicating all this other information about a life and a friendship. The structure helped too: set up the story to camera, ride to Jed's, have the experience, ride back. Simple arc. And isolating a single subject rather than making it one moment in a longer video gave it a focus I want to carry forward.
All my hard drives filled up again while I was exporting the final cut. Thirteen gigabytes and nowhere to put it. Fortunately Amazon delivered a 5TB drive to the post office yesterday. I'm riding into town today to pick it up. Perfect timing.
I've been watching OneWheel prices. I really want one. But at just under $2500 it's a stretch I can't quite justify right now. This year is about applying myself to my creative projects. The OneWheel is filed under beloved distractions. I'll keep monitoring the situation.
I'm riding into town today with my campmate Melanie. She goes to Starbucks and orders the following beverage for $9.40: a venti iced shaken espresso, no classic syrup, a quarter inch splash of half and half, 5 packets of Splenda, and 7 shots of espresso. Seven shots. The town run itself is considerably more pleasant in her vehicle than it would be in my van, the difference between 40mph on a dirt road versus 8mph on deep washboard with your entire home rattling apart around you. I'm glad not to be making that drive in the Sprinter.
Tonight will be my 19th night here. That might be a record. I'd like to do more stays like this.
I found a good use for Buttercut last night. I fed it the captions from the finished Jed video and it gave me the in and out points for the two best segments to use as YouTube Shorts. Useful. I'll keep looking for more applications as I go.