Here I am, still in the woods surrounded by cats as is the rules. They are psychopomps, cats. It’s hard to deny it when you frequently dream lucidly. When my dream has been hijacked I’ve often been woken from it almost immediately with a paw in the mouth, or a “MWRAK” in the face. I love that I’ve met so many cats in the last few years. These guys are representing for the team.
Rajah is the hunter, closer to a wild cat so long as there’s a soft place to stay and guaranteed fish in the morning. Carlos is more vocal, more oriented to people. Wherever I am on the bed he is burrowed next to me all night as I sleep, sharing warmth and dreams.
I’ve taken this downtime to try and upskill myself. There’s a feeling I’ve got that if I can edit videos and make them proficiently enough they might start to help fund my crazy excursions. There are lots of walks I want to do, I like the things I like so my take on things would be through the prism of what I like. I’m sure it’ll eventually involve cars, but walking, nature and food, and my first video has a focus on food.
I went to a local restaurant, Upstairs at the Tillingham. It sustainably sources the menu and avoids waste – it’s like they were trying to do at Birch with all that fennell – and they have been making wine on site (strong wine). They have vineyards. Climate change is kinda working to their advantage, but it’ll be a while before they have good red. Brilliant service throughout and really really good food. I had too much to drink.
They priced food according to difficulty, and just the fact they made potato skins into a feature makes them heroes. I went there just with the intention of making a tester video and having a lovely meal. I hadn’t even checked the menu and prices beforehand. I spent a bit, but it was worth it. And I made a video. I then put the video out on an obscure YouTube channel that I’ve never used before. It’s connected to a load of gaming related stuff I never really followed through on since lockdown. I’m still very cagey about putting personal things online, despite this blog, believe it or not. I know what the comments section can turn into, and I tend to have opinions on things so care is needed.
This was about learning. How could I have made this easier for myself in the edit? Wipes, movements, opportunities to cut away and cut back, I’ll need to improve my techniques but this is early days. I’m happy enough with it as a proof of concept as it gives me things to work on. I’ve credited the hardware and software I’m using in the description, but in this instance the bulk of it is recorded through a pair of RayBan Meta Sunglasses that I impulsively bought a few months ago and have been using a lot as a hands free kit and as speakers. They are an incredible piece of tech, basically a go-pro with microphone on your face. They even have all sorts of Babel fish like live translation functionality but I won’t be able to switch that on unless I go to America. Even without that they’re good. I’ve always been an adopter. I was a huge fan of Douglas Adams, adapted Hitchhiker’s Guide for stage at school, mentioned it to Stephen Fry… My best mate from school is an engineer. The boundaries of tech have constantly excited me. Even AI. How can we USE it? Resistance is futile.
Plus they suit me okay so I don’t look out of place in them. They’ll be brilliant when I walk Shikoku. But I’ll need to get quicker at editing, and be efficient about clearing space in my phone.
I want to get good at the tech so I can go into nature and do analogue things and demystify those things for people who might otherwise block themselves from ever trying to do them. If that involves recording myself having an expensive meal and getting pissed, I’ll take one for the team, baby.
I edited it to be less than twenty minutes. Mostly I tried to make the cuts not too jumpy but there are lessons I needed in the filming. Why is the camera cycling like that sometimes? I even show how it stops happening – I think it might be a focus thing that’s needed. Lessons lessons. It’s a whole world out there.
Here’s the link. Tread softly…
AlBarclay 