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Taking Care of Myself
Taking Care of Myself
It’s the hardest thing
The first instinct is to fix it
To figure out what would I need to do
To make it work
It’s hard to let that go, and take time for myself
To do the things that I need to do
I’m starting to figure out the mystery of why I lost motivation
And that clarity gives me hope
My first instinct would be to tell her
What was missing for me in the relationship
What I need for me to want this again
But maybe she doesn’t want to hear it
Maybe it’s too much for her already
And I know it is too soon anyway
I need to forgive myself
Be loving to myself
Sleep
Take care of myself
Rental Car Nightmares
A couple of weeks ago, I rented a car at National car rental. My sister returned it for me, and I got a shock in my email a few weeks later.
I immediate assumed this had to be a scam, or some sort of mistake. But the more I read, the more that I could tell this was actually legit. They had the right time, the right place and right company. They were charging me for $1295.81 for damages to the vehicle.
Looking at this deeper I noticed that the line items were VERY extensive, replaces door parts and handles. According to them, the car was HEAVILY damaged.
Looking at the pictures, I could barely see any of the damages they were indicating. It almost felt like they were offloading the cost of wear and tear on me.
Obviously I was LIVID.
- I knew that there were some small marks on the car when I picked it up, but I never took any pictures.
- I knew that no damage whatsoever happened when I had the car. I didn’t think any of this damage was on the car when I picked it up, but the damage in the photos are so subtle its hard for me to be sure.
- I had rental insurance specifically for this car, but didn’t want to file a claim for something I didn’t do.
- My sister had someone walk around the car and CONFIRM it was ok before she returned it. They parked it, and who knows what happened after that.
- National has a service for their “Emerald Isle” premium members where you can pick up and drop off a car without ever seeing someone.
- This now seemed like a LIABILITY not a PERK since now I can’t get them to acknowledge damage on the car.
- I’m a new member and if they were going to be f*cking sticklers about this whole thing, they should have EXPLAINED it to me. I would have got them to sign off on EVERY F*CKING SCRATCH BEFORE AND AFTER returning the car.
So I went to chase down this problem:
- I called National Support, and they told me that I needed to call their damage unit. I asked them to make a note on my case so I wouldn’t have to repeat myself.
- After I called their damage unit, they redirected me to someone else.
- After getting to another person, they redirected me to someone else.
- The last person seemed to know what they were talking about, but I had repeat myself because she could not access any of the notes that National Support wrote down.
The last woman who oversaw the appeals to the damages told me the following information:
- Generally its better if you take photos beforehand, however, in situations where the “damage” is so small it is easy to miss, you can appeal and they will dismiss it. They consider it human error.
- She told me that my “damages” were definitely small enough that someone might have missed it before (so it may not be caused by me).
- She agreed to waive all of the fees.
So my lessons learned from this whole experience:
- Always get rental car insurance just in case.
- Take a video when you pick up the car to prove the condition of the car beforehand. (It’s gonna be me in the parking lot being like “hey this is me in the parking lot picking up this car at X time” so they have proof I didn’t take the video at some other place or time)
- Take a video of the car when you return it.
- If they try to charge you for something really small and not visible in your videos, appeal, and they will probably dismiss it.
- It’s good to be a mix of legitimately angry (I was furious) but polite at the same time (I apologized in advance telling them I was very upset but I knew it wasn’t their fault personally). As a result, they were helpful and resolved my issue quickly.
A day later I got an email.
I Wish I Knew Why
I Wish I Knew Why
Maybe it was the defiance
Or feeling like I couldn’t have a reasonable conversation
Maybe I was just tired of having a virtual relationship
Or just feeling like she had no drive
That everything was just too difficult with her
That she couldn’t connect with me on art, music, dance, and singing
Maybe none of that is true
And my exhaustion is making me depressed
And I think my unhappiness is because of her
I wish I knew
Because I just didn’t have the will to fight for us anymore
I half wanted her to say she didn’t want it anymore
I wish I had a reason for hurting a girl who was
So devoted to me
So kind and sweet
A girl who I still care so deeply for
It hurts
My eyes drip with sadness
I hope she’s going to be ok
I hope she finds happiness
I hope the deep pain within her
Heals
I feel sad
Video Type Footage and Elements
I realized that I have made every single video type that I said in the last blog post (Video Poem, How To Video, Challenge Video, Conversation Video) except the How To Video.
I think the reason why, is that I tend to restrict myself with only shooting myself, when in How To Videos I would actually have a lot more fun shooting it with many more elements such as animation, and stop motion.
Going on that theme, I’m going through every video type and breaking down the types of video I’m going to try in each.
Video Poem
- Lots of beautiful b-roll (mostly from traveling)
- Some b-roll from video personal diary entries
- Voice over from a written script
- Collage of elements, textures, images, text and footage
How-to Video
- Less is more
- Animation
- Stop motion
- B-roll
- Talking head (straight on face shot)
- Text on screen
- Focus on simplicity and directly to the point
Challenge Video
- Broll of challenge
- Diary entries from during the challenge
- Voice overs
- Broll for explanations
- Focus on the journey and try to convey how it felt for real
Conversation Video
- Little to no editing
- Natural and interesting conversation
All The Nice People You Meet While On The Road
There are so many nice people I meet along the road if I’m just being myself and open to people.
When I was on the plane to Napa Valley I sat next to a couple. The girl got really excited when I wanted to draw with my fountain pen because her boyfriend said she loves that stuff and was an art major like me. I couldn’t get the ink of the pen and but got ink over my hands. She gave me her wet wipe in order to wipe ink off my hands. Her boyfriend lent me a pen when I asked for one to draw with. She braided her hair to show me how braids work because I wanted to draw a character with a huge braid. She offered me her chips when I said I was hungry. She was teasing me so much and was so friendly it actually got a bit awkward with her boyfriend who didn’t seem so pleased.
When I was hiking on Napa Valley, I told a couple that it was worth the view but I had to come back down because I didn’t bring any water. The girl asked me if I wanted any of her water, and asked me if I had to cup to pour it into. Then she and her boyfriend tried to help me find a water fountain.
Also when I was in Napa Valley, I forgot to bring a pen with me to draw with. I asked the girl at the front if I could borrow or buy one. She pulled out a packet of pens and just gave me one.
When I was in Austin looking at apartments, the girl who was showing me apartments told me about how Oracle was buying the apartment complex and that she wasn’t supposed to tell me. She told me I had a really nice vibe. I feel bad because I may have gotten her in trouble because when we got back to the office, I asked her about the Oracle acquisition REALLY loudly because I forgot and she put a finger to her lips and looked really nervous. I was mortified.
When I was in Houston taking photos on the rooftop, I was feeling awkward because everyone there was in their own groups talking and they are all from Citi bank but I was taking photos by myself with a tripod. When I got in the elevator, two girls were telling me how they saw me shooting photos. “You got some good shots right? We saw you,” they told me. One girl said she was calling me the other girl’s brother since she also takes pictures. She asked me whether I lived in the area, and I told her no that I was visiting from DC.
When I went to a Chinese restaurant in Houston and I was struggling to figure out what to order, the waiter came up and asked me what I wanted to order. He asked me if I was Chinese, and I responded in Chinese. He asked me if I was born in China or the US and I told him I was born in Denmark and he said it was a nice place. He said he was from Hong Kong. “I can make something Chinese style for you”, he said and made me a custom dish with eggplant, chicken and string beans. I asked him to take a picture with me, for the memories. He agreed and asked me mine name. He told me his name but I only remember his surname (Leung).
I think back to the guy who asked me yesterday whether or not I was a Youtuber and I think I was so busy being self-conscious and embarrassed, that I closed off the chance that he could have also been a nice person. Even after I told him I had 300 subs, he said to me to keep up the good work. I was just so embarrassed I got out of there as quickly as I could.
Workpost 83: Making a Gaming Video
Need to shoot a gaming video today
- “I got a bit of a dilemma”
- “This is my Valorant jacket. I got it when I watched the world championship in LA a year ago. I love playing Valorant.”
- “But this is the 21 day youtuber challenge”
- “I’ve yet to figure out how to connect those two passions together. But that changes today”
- “Hi everyone, my name is Jack, and this in the Youtuber challenge, the challenge where I post a video everyday, working not for views, but for the love of making videos”
- “There are a bunch of things I’m super passionate about, but haven’t figured out how to connect to a Youtube video yet. And one of those things is gaming.”
- “But here’s my problem with gaming. I like playing alone, I don’t like talking while I’m gaming, but I do feel like there are certain things I like to share after the game is done.”
- “Here is the plan. I have fun gaming. In between, I’ll do a little bit of journaling, and afterwards, I’ll just edit a video that is fun for me”