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Well, you're looking live into the office in the Fortress of Solitude.

I think that's a good way to put it.

Well, it's my office.

That's what I use it for.

I primarily set it up to be my office.

But I also use it for recording podcasts.

But I had never really thought about doing video.

Well, I didn't.

I shouldn't say that.

I thought about doing video, but I just assumed I'd do it somewhere else.

And so I really didn't think about how this looks.

So I have to test it out because starting on Wednesday...

I will be doing a show with Ramsey Paul.

And when you do video,

you have to look halfway decent,

so I'm probably going to have to wear something other than these old shirts I wear.

And, of course, I can't do it in a nude like I do the podcast.

But I'm also going to have to kind of make sure that the lighting is right.

I think I got the lighting okay.

I looked online.

They say, you know, you want people ready to see your face.

Well, this is as good as it gets.

So I think I have that just about right.

And the camera's positioned right.

And it's also set up so that the devil cat can't knock it over,

which seems to be his second most favorite thing to do.

I originally had it or tried to attach it to the monitor,

but it's an arced monitor,

sort of curved monitors.

And it just didn't really hold up really well.

It was kind of wobbly.

And so all my tests last couple of days, I've been doing this.

he would yank on the cord and of course the camera would start walking all over the

place and i mean it's it's cute the first time maybe the second time but after a

while it really starts to get irritating and what i've learned is that i can't

record or do anything and lock the door so lock the door he just starts screaming

and hurling himself at the door and he eventually figures out how to get in one of

the mistakes i made when i was refurbishing things the door jam the doors don't

lock completely

Yeah, the bedroom door does.

This office door doesn't.

The little metal piece is just about,

I don't know,

a quarter of an inch,

eighth of an inch in the wrong alignment.

So the little button thing, whatever they call it on the lock, doesn't catch.

And, of course, he's figured that out so he can get in.

And then he gets in and he's even crazier.

So it really doesn't work.

So what I did is I found this stand online that bolts to your desk and then it all tightens up.

And it actually works out pretty good.

It's actually better where it's positioned and I can use it for other stuff too.

So that seems to work out.

And I've got most of the echo out.

That seems to be a little better.

When I record the show,

what I do,

you can't see it,

but I take pillows out of my spare bedroom and I stack them up around the desk area.

And that kills the sound.

And it's enough.

I don't think the echo is too bad.

I mean, there's a little bit.

But that's what I think.

If I'm going to start doing regular video like this,

then maybe what I do is get some sound deadening and mount it behind me.

I kind of hate to do that because it just looks ugly.

I don't know.

I actually thought about finding some sort of like tapestry that you could put up there.

But when you start looking at this stuff, it's either garbage or it's ridiculously expensive.

So maybe that's not the best idea.

Now, the other choice I have is I could move the desk around and come up with a better area.

But I don't know.

I'm not really.

I like the way it's set up because to my right is the wall.

So I'm kind of tucked in the corner here.

So that'd be your left.

But I can look right out the window and I can look over my driveway, down the field.

I can poke around and see the pole barn.

It's a good view of things.

So if somebody's trying to sneak up on me, they're not going to be able to do it.

I'll see them before they see me.

So, you know, I like the way that I have it set up.

So I don't know.

I could, you know, they have like nicer sound deadening.

You know, I've seen panels like that.

So I don't know.

Maybe we'll give it a shot.

Problem is it's kind of expensive and it really doesn't work.

Then that would be very disappointing.

So we'll see how it goes.

I mean, if the sound is good enough, then maybe I'll just live.

You can't see the pillows I have piled up,

which is really nice because if it did,

it would kind of look weird.

And it does seem to work pretty good.

Well, anyway, this is the plan.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do shows like this.

I don't know.

I'm just kind of doing this, feeling my way through it.

I kind of like the idea of doing shows from the pole barn,

maybe working on stuff and I can talk about stuff at the same time.

That's something that I think I would enjoy.

I tried doing some walking around video this week when it snowed.

It snowed on Tuesday, I think.

And the video was great.

I mean, it was fantastic.

It was beautiful.

It was snowing.

There was enough on the ground where you could see through the woods and all that.

But the mic kept cutting in and out.

My new fuzzy mic.

And apparently the battery life on those things is very short.

So you have to really time it out to make sure that if you're going to be out for a

half an hour,

you've got to be fully charged up.

And I had a bunch of different takes, and I guess I used up the battery.

Well, anyway, I hope you see you on Wednesday night.

That's the end of this video.

I'm down to my five-minute limit that Substack and Subscribestar give me.

I will see you next time.