It's Called a Vlog

The word “vlogging” gets thrown around a lot these days. In social media and just on the street, everyone talks about this new way of letting other people see into your life, what you do every day, or captivating trips and experiences that one would like everyone else to get a small taste of. The term vlog is actually not a new term at all, just new to me I guess. The name originally conceived in 2000 by a man named Adam Kontras was “Vog”, a shortened form of video blog, developed when the man was broadcasting his move to Los Angeles, California (Read more about the origin of the word and Adam’s story at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_blog )

In the past few weeks I’ve tried to immerse myself into this world of electronic journalism. While I don’t know much about it and I’ve only just scratched the surface of the world of editing footage that is involved in the process of vlogging, I’ve learned a few things.

·         Vlogging is Engaging

In a world where electronics have been used and abused to the point of complete disregard for social behavior, ignorance of the real world and living in false realities, and physical harm to the human body, vlogging provides a happy medium. While one is still able to post their content on social media, they are forced to engage in an environment that will attract audiences. Video blogging is famous and interesting because it shows a glimpse of another human’s lifestyle. People often live vicariously through what they witness others doing. If anything, a good vlog makes you laugh, gets you motivated, and gets you out of your chair and exploring the world for yourself.

·         Vlogging Makes You Try Harder

Even if it’s for ten minutes out of your day, snap a video. Do something that would be exciting to you and to your viewers. You may look really silly at first, making people stop and laugh at you for driving a bike with no hands and trying to talk into a camera (believe me.. I know.). But it gets you more comfortable. It makes you less focused on what other people think of you and more on what you want for your shot. One thing that I’ve learned is to just shoot. There are a thousand and one corny quotes that I could use about not giving any thought as to what other people think and going for it. Keep shooting. Keep going for that extra shot and don’t stop until you have it. Sometimes it just takes a little nerve.

·         Stay Motivated

It’s really, really difficult to stay motivated and positive when doing any sort of shooting and editing. It’s even more difficult to speak in front of the camera and to set yourself up for embarrassment when you think you sound like an idiot. Believe me, you don’t. Everyone doesn’t like their voice on a camera. Something about it sounds awkward in our ears. But what people don’t realize is that it’s only them, everyone else views it as perfectly normal. One of the first things people do is give up. “If I don’t have a million subscribers, there’s really no point in even trying.” I know this feeling so well. But you know what? You can’t become Casey Neistat overnight. You won’t become famous the first time you hit record. It takes time, effort, and endurance to do just about anything. So remember, the next time you get caught up in what you view as a total disaster or failure, it’s just the beginning of something that is really good, something that has potential.

        To recap:
I’m in the same boat as you. I am just getting started with vlogging and although I find it challenging, it is so interesting and worth giving a shot.
People want to see your real life.
Vlogging is definitely not Hollywood (well… for some people maybe).
Get out there, become comfortable, and remember to just keep shooting.


Check out this guy Marcus Hague, a really cool vlogger filmmaker who happens to be a really good friend of mine.

https://www.youtube.com/user/VERADRON1

Get Into it

I told myself once that when I’m old, I want to be gray and leathery and living in a hut in the Andes Mountains. I would know full books by heart and be fluent in more languages that I could count on my fingers and toes. I would have little scars and big scars alike reminding me of fond memories and dangerous expeditions.

Let me tell you something. Look me virtually in the windows of my soul. Everything around us is in bright, vibrant colors. There was obviously a reason for it being so beautiful, so breathtaking, so captivating to the point where millions of people every day take pictures of that same gaseous ball of fire setting in the sky. And every day, they are still amazed. If we were made to sit in our chairs and on our sofas and… BE, we wouldn’t have deep shades of green in unexplored jungles or the rich, aquatic blues and pinks embedded in the coral reefs.

Life would be in the form of numbers and systems and programmed equations.

There would be no feeling, just reaction.

 No living, just existing.

                

            Tonight, I want you to remember to invest time, truly invest time into every single thing that you do. It’s not very hard. All you have to do is remember, in everything, strive for excellence. My dad once told me to be that person who people can come to if they need help, advice, or anything in between. He told me to be THAT person. And it stuck with me. That’s why I ask a billion questions every week. That’s why I want to know, inside and out, the hobbies I take up. I’ll never stop yearning for knowledge until I’m old and gray and sitting in my hut in the Andes. And even then, I’ll probably take up goat herding and speak fluently in bleat. Life is for storing knowledge and sharing wisdom. Life is for soaking in the moment and learning all you can from it.

What a Start.

           This is it. The beginning of my written expressions of thought. The beginning of a collection of insight, experience, passion, and hopefully at least a couple worthwhile reads. A friend once said to me, "Write often. Write every day. Even if you don't know what to write, write." 
Hopefully I'm not botching that quote too badly (and I'm sorry if I did mate). 


          Every day, instead of looking at this life as an insurmountable wall, I saw it as an impressive challenge. A feat, that if pulled off, would frame me, smiling and wearing medals once I crossed onto the other side. I felt like I was flying, turbulence free, engines go, and clear skies. But what happens when you hit that patch of turbulence? What happens when one of your wings freezes over solid? What do you do if every single cloud seems to form above you, creating such an electrical monstrosity that your internal functions momentarily falter and stop? It seems almost comical to imagine something going wrong if it's been going well for so long. For a thousand flights, you're a straight shot to your destination. On that thousandth and one flight, you crash. Alex Ebert (from the folk band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes) once said, "Try to remember, that you can't forget." Everyone has heard the saying that you can't change the past. Like Mr, Ebert says, there's no point in even trying to forget it. It happens. We wouldn't be human if something unexpected and detrimental didn't happen to us. 

          I implore you to think about this; There is a man, a man who wakes up every day and smiles into a filth streaked mirror. While that hubcap, his mirror, rolls away screeching and voicing its disapproval, his chipped toothed grin vanishes in front of him as he sees the busy street before his eyes. This man has no legs. He can't remember how he lost his legs. He can't remember if he ate or not last night... But that doesn't matter as much as his desire for something else. He does know that he needs something. Something in a bag and something in a syringe. Something to ease this overwhelming pain that seems to reverberate through every single shaking pore. That man puts on his torn Nike backpack that stores empty bottles and soggy newspapers. After five minutes of consciousness a red tinge is around his vision. A broken shell of a human being gazes hungrily at the families scoffing at his existence. There's no point in asking "Why?" anymore. There's no escape from that internal monster that's slowly taking a death grip on his nervous system, its chemical vice seizing every last shred of his thoughts. Day in and day out, this narcotic-fueled machine, can't even comprehend that he once had limbs. He once had a mother. He once enjoyed the taste of wholesome foods. He once had a point. He once could articulate. He once was a man.

       
          I, a  privileged, Caucasian male, US citizen who is given three meals a day, provided for with paid education, given love, money, a home, and the assurance that I will have friends and family there for me, still complain. I complain when something doesn't go my way. I shudder at the thought of not having a freshly stocked kitchen. It's unfathomable to not go to Starbucks several times a month. When I think about that man, or my neighbor, or anyone else who has it worse than I do, I cringe and feel sick at the fact that I have so much. My goal for the rest of my life (even though I will fail miserably, several times), is to remember that I have the "Good Life". So many people would kill for the Good Life. I need to stop wanting the Better Life. 





     

(A very special thanks concerning the conception of this blog goes to Blanche Reichert for encouraging me to start living my life stepping out of my own shoes and starting to walk barefoot, encouraging others to do the same. Also to Stephen Leininger for inspiring me to write my thoughts down. Sorry for botching your quote mate.)