Operation 365 2... Blog 366

How to End an Operation 365.

First thing you do is wake in the first morning after and immediately get back to work. Habits are hard to break. That is was one of the first big lessons tested and proven by the first Operation 365 in 2011. People tend to do what they do. We just need a little push in the right direction and Voila… 365 days later, 100 videos.

As I attempted to drift of to bed this morning after 2, I did math in my head, computing how many hours it was, this odyssey of expression. Was my prediction of an entire month of my year devoted to this correct? Oh, we’ll double check, but I am very much afraid so.

So, to me, the process of finishing one of these Operations included a look back and what happened, how long it took, what it meant, etc… Thank you for joining me on this trek. Let’s go to the video tapes. Thank you Warner Wolf.

So ultimately, this quest will lead me back to Thanksgiving 2011 and the end of the first and until yesterday, only Operation 365 in World History. Moments form now I will visit

http://jeffersonjay.blogspot.com/

More specifically,

http://jeffersonjay.blogspot.com/2011/11/operation-365-blog-360.html

In the first 365, I started the blog component 5 days into it, so that made me want to take the blog through 365 days, which I did. The last 5 blogs looked back at what I’d done. I will read those and use them as my guide for this happy ending.

First, let’s look at what a day of Operation 365ing entailed. If it took me two hours a day, which it probably did, then 2 hours a day, for 365 days is 730 hours. Divide that by 24 hour-days puts as at 30.4166667 days of work. Woo hoo! Now you may be saying, two hours a day, really Jim? I hear you, but know I spent about 8 hours yesterday just finishing Day 365. We filmed Day 365 for four hours on Monday. That is spit in the ocean. Here’s what a day of 365ing entailed. You decide for yourself how long it would take.

First step, making the videos. 3 of ‘em. Some go quick, like some words one, or the occasional improvised song. Other were covers I had to learn, songs I wrote and wanted to play right, covers I felt compelled to play well, etc… There were many ways for a video to take 5 minutes each to do, but the real figure was probably closer to ten or fifteen minutes each.

Once, the learning/writing/recording part was done, we get part two, Importing. So all the videos need to jump for the iPads (or whichever device) into iPhoto in my iMac and then form there into iMovie. Each of these steps takes time and there’s no way to speed it up. I should add. I did all this, both 365s with a 2009 iMac. Slow going sometimes, Extra steps are necessary. A newer machine would suck that stuff straight into iMovie and save me a step or two. I got to enjoy that during our week in Jersey on Dr. Bobby Brown’s newer unit. Once thumbnails are done generating, this step alone can take 5-10 minutes, we’ve probably spent another, we’ll say fifteen minutes to be conservative.

Then what happens? This is fascinating. Well, maybe not, but it’s real. Fascinating is in the eye of you. OK, videos are in, I can start, but first, I must prepare the blog. Step Three. I open the one from the day before. I change the date of the blog and prepare it for the new day’s details. In this period, I also often open a few YouTube windows and my blog page. I then log in to the blog and prepare that as well. Five more minutes maybe…

Step Four. Editing the videos. So now I have to go into all my flubs and get them out, meanwhile grabbing what I want and preparing it for few. Perhaps some video, clip or audio adjustments are made. The info screen is prepared. Then each video needs to Export. Each one takes about five minutes and I can’t work on other ones til it’s done. Once the first ones finished I can upload that one while I prepare the next ones, so things start moving a little quicker at that time. Multi-tasking is crucial to pulling off an Operation 365. So I prepare, edit, and bounce three videos. How long does that take? The bouncing alone takes about five minutes each. Let’s pretend the rest of this takes five minutes each for a total of ten minutes each in Step Four. These are all relatively conservative estimates.

Step Five. We’re bounced. We got to write that blog now, some words that make this all make sense, a context. We’ll call writing it, copying and pasting it, not only into my videos, but into the Microsoft Word back-up I have of each blog. We pretend that only takes ten minutes.

Step Six. Upload, They all upload to YouTube. This took less time than it did in the first 365. Still at least ten minutes here too, probably closer to fifteen or more.

Step Seven. Letting people know you did this, a.k.a. Social Media. I probably could have been a lot better that this part, but there are only so many hours in the day. They all go to Twitter, through a share link in Youtube. Most of them went to Facebook. I even dabbled with Reddit early before giving up on that one. Sometimes, and I had good luck with this, I would load the videos straight to Facebook. That took more time, but seems to gather more views much faster. Somewhere in there, I started uploading this all to my website, www.jeffersonjay.com too. Let’s say this final chunk took ten minutes.

So what did I write here? Step One, 30 minutes. Step Two, 15 minutes. Step Three, 5 minutes. Step Four, 30 minutes. Step Five, 10 minutes. Step Six, 10 minutes. Step Seven, 10 minutes. All conservative estimates. Some days, like Day 365, I spent much more much longer. I’ve already been typing here for half an hour. So, 30, 15, 5, 30, 10, 10, 10  = 1 hour and fifty minutes a day. It could easily be over two hours a day, hence 30 days straight, sans slumber, this year.

I didn’t have that clear in my mind when I made my 365 2 compilation to this song last week but maybe I should have.

OK, in a bit, I will read what I wrote last time, and begin my completion activities like it’s 2011. Thank you. Now, I think it’s best I brush my teeth.

OK. I brushed my teeth, had most of a day... Leanne is trailing badly in her Fantasy Football Championship game. Second place… could be worse. I am off to enjoy Chanukah and Christmas Eve with Leanne her dad and the dogs, Nigel, and Stanley. It will be festive family fun and I can’t wait.

I read entry one into the post-365 blog. The first one was an exhale, a breath of relief. I feel no such relief this time. I feel a quiet sense of accomplishment. I am happy, but I am looking forward instead of back. I am excited for the next adventure. I am not thinking about yesterday, only today and tomorrow. So until tomorrow… Excelsior!