On the Upcoming Onslaught of Vlogging Disasters

As has been mentioned a few times already, I am going to be participating in VEDA: Vlog Every Day in August. This means that my YouTube channel will actually serve a purpose other than being a virtual shelf for those three videos of me sliding around on bean bags with Jenna. [Moment of silence in honor of that blessed faceplant.] This means that I will be even more self-absorbed than usual. This means that you will see a lot of my face and hear a lot of my voice and see a lot of my bedroom wall.

But more importantly, this means that we have a new way to interact with one another. Three of the four people still reading this on a regular basis know me in real life, so that isn't super exciting for them. For @ctmagnus, though, this is his best chance to see me eat a Milano cookie. Yeah!

However, I am still a wee bit terrified of vlogging. Something about talking aimlessly in front of a camera makes me nervous, so I'd like y'all to help me out. Step one: keep reading.

The scheduled topics for the first week (as decided on by the powers that be) are as follows:

• 08.01: Introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to participate in VEDA.
• 08.02: What's your B-HAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)?
• 08.03: What's one trend you can't believe you wore? What's a trend you hope will come back?
• 08.04: What's something you're insecure about?
• 08.05: What is your relationship to technology? Is it healthy?
• 08.06: Get dressed up and vlog. Vlog before you go out on the town (or stay in and talk to people on the internet).

Step two: having read that list, can you think of any related questions you'd like me to answer or things you'd like me to ramble about or hair tutorials you'd like me to just kidding. But really, this will be way more fun for all of us if I have some questions to answer or plates to spin on my nose. Holler at me (pfft) in the comments, via email, on Twitter, or with your own YouTube video in response to any of my upcoming "episodes."

Step three: subscribe and promise to leave nice comments with mostly accurate English sentences! One of the scariest parts of this endeavor for me is that it takes place on YouTube, not Vimeo. We've all read YouTube comments at least once. They are illiterate clumps of vindictive keystrokes all tied up with string, and I would imagine they are exactly what drove that guy to insist that the rapture was imminent. Nobody wants to stick around on this planet after reading a YouTube comment.

Step four: nope. I don't have any more steps. Although, if you're very nice to me during this vlogging experiment, I might reward you with some sweet giveaways. (Autographed 8"x10" glossy of Juan Pedro, anyone? The Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-ray? An empty Freeze Pop wrapper?)

Step five: buckle up, kids. This ride is about to get hella bumpy.