When my sister came to visit over the weekend, she brought me a birthday present: a new Flip camcorder.
I don't think she knew how much I've been wanting one (thanks to all my bloggy friends who have reviewed the device). She claims I squealed when I tore off the wrapping. (Read my own review of the device here.)
Now, I know a lot of people who participate in Wordless Wednesdays, where their posts center around a nice photo. Wordless is something I'm not very good at, and neither is photography. But I've been wanting to play with video blogging (vlog) ever since I was introduced to the concept at the first BlogHer I attended in 2005, and my new toy makes it easy.
Of course, I'm not very good at videography either, as this first attempt at a vlog post will show you:
My Birthday Lunch from Donna Schwartz Mills on Vimeo.
Some background: I had started playing with the camcorder on Monday, by taking some shots of Megan at the gym - with the intention of posting that here today.
I had an 11:30 lunch date with a dear friend who NEVER forgets my birthday (even though I am AWFUL with dates and ALWAYS forget hers). She had arranged her work day so that she had to be in Woodland Hills for a 1:30 sales call. We decided to meet near her appointment, and so I decided to work yesterday at a Starbucks in the neighborhood.
I spent about an hour yesterday editing the clips so that all you can really see is Megan (and not a lot of frontal footage of her teammates).
And then, I deleted all the footage from the camcorder without making sure that it had been saved to my computer. I thought I'd lost EVERYTHING.
I found out later that wasn't true. But at the time, I was feeling a little bit sad that I not only did not have a birthday lunch date, but no cool gymnastics video to post here. (I found it later and so have added it to my review post here.)
My husband and daughter took me out to dinner last night, too. The conversation over the Caesar salad went something like this:
ME: I'm really having fun with my new toy.
HIM: Yeah. I think your sister has created a monster. You're going to be stuck to that computer even more now.
ME: Maybe at first. I'll settle down once I've figured out how to use the thing.
HIM: And what's with you taking video in the bathroom? (HE MAKES A DISGUSTING NOISE SIGNIFYING WHAT GOES ON IN BATHROOMS)
ME: Well, I needed to get a shot of myself in there and I don't have a tripod. Although I could get one. They have a little headmount you can get, too for POV shots.
HIM: I need to talk to your sister about this. (NOT IN AN APPROVING WAY).
Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes yesterday (especially the tweets while I was dining alone). I ended up having a great day, and now that I'm here, 52 doesn't seem so bad! (It's the new 32, as Joanne says!)
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