It got hot enough yesterday that I found myself getting sluggish for a few hours in the yurt. Shannon came by in the afternoon and suggested opening some of the windows, which made a huge difference. Then she cranked open the dome at the top for cross ventilation. I hadn't thought of either.
My uncle Fang and my mother approved the video but my father has some edits he wants made. That kicks it down the road a bit. I still need the specific timestamps he wants cut, and once I make the edits it'll take hours to re-export 70 minutes of 4K footage and re-upload to YouTube. That's the way it goes.
Life is good out here. I just sat having coffee looking over this stunning view. Birds, a light breeze, nothing else. Another beautiful day and another opportunity to live this life and continue building it.
The things that excite me are writing, music, and video. Van life requires frequent chop wood carry water tasks at shorter intervals than life in a typical home. Right now the van is in disarray. The items I'm using are in the yurt, and what's left in the van needs attention. Probably three hours of dedicated work to restore it to its best shape. I'll get to it.
Last night Shannon cooked up what she called keto sushi. A feast. She loves to cook and likes to prepare meals with the colors of a rainbow. My current diet doesn't have many rainbow colors, so this was a real treat. Big portobello mushrooms, a nice table set up, eating well in a remote place. Fun.
Back in Durango I received a package with a pair of the new Meta AI glasses. They've been sitting in a box because I need to send them out for custom tinted prescription lenses, but yesterday I opened the box and played around with them for the first time. I've been keeping an eye on these for years, holding out until I felt they were worth it. I think the ability to record at any moment will add real value to what I'm doing. There are countless times when my hands are occupied and I want to capture something that's part of the story.
First impression: they look super dorky. I got the color called clear grey, and you can see some of the electronics through the plastic. The camera lenses look a little more prominent than they do in the black version. When you're recording, a small white light flashes on the front. I was disappointed to learn it only records in portrait orientation. I want landscape. A bit of a bummer, but I can crop it. What surprised me was the audio. You can listen to music through these glasses and it actually sounds pretty good, nothing over your ears but somehow projecting sound into them. The microphone is excellent too. They're called AI glasses because you can say "Hey Meta" and ask questions like you're talking to Claude or ChatGPT in voice mode, but I got them for the camera. The most useful AI thing I found in testing: I could say "What kind of tree am I looking at?" and it would tell me. I'll keep experimenting.
Yesterday I was working on the video of my hike to Clear Lake. I notice I'm getting more ruthless with the editing, wanting shorter and tighter. I learned how to create a voiceover in Final Cut Pro and I'm going to have to narrate the story of the hike. I also found a sound effects program that's going to make adding audio to onscreen graphics much easier. The video work holds a strong pull for me but still feels a bit stuck in the mud. I recognize my improvement. It's just a skill that can only be built with repetition over time.
This yurt is an opportunity to set up gear I've been carrying that has never actually been set up since it's been in the van. Two pieces of favorite gear that have never gotten out of their cases. I'll have to change that.