Well, it’s day 6 of VEDA. In fact it’s pretty late on day 6. I can already see day 7 in the oh so imminent future, and I haven’t uploaded a video yet. And I’m not going to. Not because I haven’t tried though; you better believe your sweet, loving face I tried. Here’s a breakdown of my day:

10 am: Wake up at  after an epic night of playing True American, the effects of which I am still feeling when I wake up at 10 am (I would continue to feel these effects until about 4 pm, when they’d go away fora bit, only to return again right now as I type this).

10:06: Start editing my video for the day. It goes pretty well. Actually, one of the fastest videos I’ve ever edited. Good for me.

10:20: Already back in bed and watching an old episode of Castle while my video “produces” (fancy word for saving the file, this usually takes between one and two hours, depending on how long the video is).

11:45ish: I check on the video progress as it looks like it’s been sitting at 90-something per cent for a while now. 92%, that’s pretty good. Almost there. I start mentally preparing myself to get dressed and leave the house. You see our internet is not working (again, that’s two weekends in a row TekSavvy) so I’ll have to head to a coffee shop nearby and use their WiFi to upload my video today.

12:10: Look at the video again and am horrified to see that the progress bar still says 92%. This is not good, I think. At this point I am in denial a bit, so I give it a few more minutes.

12:24: Still 92%. WHHYYYYY.

12:25: Cancel the action, close the program, reopen the program, attempt to re-produce the video. This time I try saving it in a different file format (one that saves significantly faster but as a much larger file (harder to upload to YouTube).

12:36: File reaches 94%. Yes, that’s 2 per cent more than the last attempt. Cue Mary Tyler Moore theme song, “We’re gonna make it after all!” I begin to again consider trading in my sweat pants for something more socially acceptable as my inevitable excursion to Starbucks grows ever nearer.

12:42: Still 94%. WHAT THE WHAT!? Come on. No time to waste. I restart the computer, maybe that’s the problem.

12:54: Production attempt #3 is under way.

1:19: 94%. Sonofa.

1:26: I eat lunch. My roommate ordered Indian, so good.

2:13: I troubleshoot. Maybe the end of the video won’t save because there is something wrong with a file I used at the end of the video. There was a minor crashing issue while I was putting together the end screen. I go back into the editing stage and start deleting things, re-importing things, trying different combinations of things. ALL THE THINGS!

5:26: Broken, tired, and maybe a bit drunk still from yesterday, I call my friend and video-making-spirit-guide Ron for guidance. Since my internet isn’t working I can’t even Google solutions. The potential search of “Why oh why oh why?” comes to mind. Ron starts Googling things about my video editing program (one he doesn’t use) and we don’t find anything useful. We both started complaining to each other about the woes of video editing. Finally I decide to try saving the video in small pieces and then stitching those saved pieces together into another video file. It’s complicated and means going through the producing process multiple times, but dammit it might work. At the last minute Ron asks me if there’s anything new in this video that I haven’t used before that might be causing the issue, a new file type, etc. I go through everything one at a time and there’s nothing, I’ve used all these exact files before…and then, the very last item in the editing timeline. Something I downloaded today despite the lack of internet; how did it even manage to download? I have no idea. The answer is, it didn’t really. The file was massively corrupt. It was the culprit! WE IDENTIFIED THE CULPRIT!

6:18: I make one last attempt at saving the file. 92%…93%…94%… … … 95%! We did it! We’re past 94! SOMEBODY CALL THE PRESIDENT! Pop the champag–wait, no don’t do that, it’s too soon. Pop the water and Advil! PARRRRTTTYYYY!!

6:30: With a finished video file safely on my C-3PO USB stick, I pack up my laptop and head over to Starbucks to get my upload-on.

6:49: I get in line to buy a beverage and realise I’ve left my wallet on the kitchen table at home. This is my day guys, this is really my day. Luckily, I have just enough moolah loaded onto my handy Starbucks app (on my phone) to buy a modest drink and then use their WiFi for the next 4 hours.

7:01: I’m online and the video is uploading. This is great. I can’t believe I actually did it. Oh, what’s that? Only 1773 minutes until my video is uploaded? That’s great. That’s the best news I’ve heard all day, aside from every other piece of news I’ve heard all day.

8:11: 20% uploaded. At this rate Starbucks will be closed before my video is done uploading. I start to consider the possibility of, in the next 2 hours, getting a job at Starbucks, becoming a keyholder, and working the closing shift tonight just to be able to stay here with my laptop past 10 pm.

9:08: Less than 30 per cent uploaded. I cry silently to myself, making sure the catch my tears in my tea cup since I can’t afford to buy a refill. I move my cursor over the little x on my YouTube tab, click it, and close the internet. It’s over. There will be no VEDA video today.

9:09: I reopen the internet because INTERNET!

CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR A LINK TO THE VIDEO I COULDN’T UPLOAD TODAY.

Update, April 7 @ 10:43 am: