5
 
 
  
 
12:22 PM, Saturday, June 24th, 2023:
 
Man, how on earth do I do these entries. I dealt with this issue a bit with the trips to NY and especially Costa Rica - but this trip is over two weeks... let me explain:
 
So the crux of The Journey are videos in the moment. The first 10 years especially. It was about capturing a moment, producing a video, making an entry and moving on. Now of course some of those videos were massive edits - some over 100 hours - but they were all within the moment and I'd move on. And while I've been behind before, I've always been writing, documenting... it's just a matter of piecing it all together for the site... but the individual acts were always done in real-time.
 
Then enter a camera where, you actually don't know if you've captured the moment. You have hardly any information during the shoot and you can't really ascertain how it went after the fact, because you can't see the footage in your headset. Now if I only shot 8k30 with a codec, I could. Hell I could probably edit that on a laptop... but 8k60 raw? Not a chance. In fact, I will get home and start the process of rendering the raw files for viewing and it'll take days and then (and only then) will I have some idea of just how many workable videos I have. That day will most likely be July 12th. if I'm lucky and my computer doesn't crash...
 
...but I can't just NOT WRITE entries for 2-3 weeks and then go crazy. I want to document my real feelings, the real journey - in real time. Which means I'm in danger of wrting an entry, seeing the footage and going "oh, fuck, this won't work..." and now I have a placeholder entry without a video. I know it seems I'm the only one who cares about the numbering of all this - but I can't upload a shitty video just to keep things going... ya know? I'm also trying to push the VR journey with it's own numbering. It's a very strange problem and one I can only fathom would've been true in the 1960s if you were trying to do a video blog with actual film you had to process. So, yeah, never. This is a problem exactly NO ONE has ever dealt with.
 
So here's what I'm gonna do: I'm just gonna risk it. I know that last night is a video. I BELIEVE I nailed it. I want to talk about it and will assume it worked and I'll put the video right here...
 
 
...now once I get home and can review some of the footage, I will probably write more specifically about how this video turned out. My gut feeling is it's pretty good with the only issue being the red lights that wreak havoc on this camera. I also pray the audio is OK and I used an iphone in the crowd for that... kind of the only option for that set-up.
 
The night of course was amazing. It absolutely tickles me that my children get to see my dad perform. I wrote about this in March of last year which ironically consisted of only one video for the entire trip. See why this is so weird? What I value for The Journey is now shifting towards what will look cool in VR180 and not necessarily the ebbs and flows of my life. Yadda yadda, it will eventually get easier.
 
But yes, so cool for them to see my dad. Slightly tarnished because some beligerantly drunk dude grabbed Cameron, hugged him and apparently kissed him on the cheek? Scared the fuck out of Cameron. He was literally right behind her dancing, it only lasted a second and the dude stopped by the time Talya saw it. I was paying the bill and saw none of it. I did however get in his face the moment the music stopped and... oh shit you ready for this? The woman he was with said "Oh it's not a big deal, he's a teacher..."
 
Oh fuck man... Oh, fuck, man.
 
"THEN HE SHOULD KNOW YOU DON'T GRAB KIDS YOU DON'T KNOW". I started to get loud and realized literally nothing good could come from what was about to happen and the dude could barely keep his eyes open he was so hammered. I was loud enough that everyone heard what I was saying around him which means as we were leaving he had to deal with THAT heat. Which honestly, was enough for the moment. But oh my fucking GOD.
 
Now let me also say, this wasn't a bar. It was a big restaurant/patio situation and at no time did it even seem rowdy. But it was close to 11pm which is never a time our kids would see out of the house, especially at a place that served alcohol, but guess what time it was for us? 7:45pm - so kind of a perfect storm.
 
Anyway, Cam is fine. And silver-lining to all this? Cam routinely strikes up conversations with strangers because he wants to try out his stand-up routines. We've been trying to figure out the best way to let him know "You don't know these people" and I'm pretty sure that did it. Again, had he been in any real danger, or if the "hug" lasted more than 1 or 2 seconds, Talya was right there and would've screamed her head off and the whole world would've come down on him... I think though a lot of people knew it was the keyboard player's grandson and just though it was cool to see him dancing. He got a few high-fives from people cause it's generally cool to see a kid be outgoing and jump around without being shy.
 
But yeah, fuck that guy. Oh he's a teacher so it's ok... oh my FUCKING LORD. Whew. Whew.
 
Alright, so I believe Cam's 9.5 and a trip to our proposal spot is up next!!! I guess we'll have two entries on one day... something I don't think has happened in nearly 15 years.
 
Pretty cool.
 
Adam