Testing out my Knee

Today I was pretty busy at work, up and down ladders and basically doing everything that I did last Monday at work. I didn't do as many steps so maybe not quite as busy, but I did go for a walk when I got home. I realised after all of that, that last Monday night and into Tuesday morning is when my leg started to really get sore. I'm hoping that I haven't got a repeat of last week on the cards. Then again, if it does happen again, at least I'll know for sure what caused it and be able try to prevent it from happening again. If it does come back, I'll also book in for the ultrasound that the doctor wanted me to get. I didn't see the point in going once the pain had gone as there was a good chance that whatever caused the pain had gone too.
It was freezing when I got home and I was considering not going for a walk even though it would mean that I would likely get under 10,000 steps for the day. As I came inside, the first thing my son said was "are you going for a walk, because if you are,  I'm definitely coming with you". So that was that. On the walk I didn't go as far as usual, I was just trying to concentrate on getting over 10,000 steps and getting home. Both the kids came with me and we stopped at two different parks so the kids could go on the swings and slides at each of them. The wind was freezing and it was blowing quite a bit. 
I'm happy that I did get out and walk and get over 10,000 steps for the day, but I think I'm struggling with a bit of Monday-itis, both today and last Monday. I'm really looking forward to the warmer weather now, I can't wait for the longer daylight hours and having the house opened up to let the fresh air in.

Bomber.
Hoping that I'm not hopping tomorrow.

Getting Out There

I'm still waiting for my Android adapter and waterproof case for the camera but I plan on heading out to take some footage to use in the intro in the mean time. I want some scenic shots of me riding by the camera as well as some shots from the bike. The intro may not have any actual camping in it but I can show me riding and maybe making some lunch and a coffee or something at a site near where I live to make it look like I was camping. I can also record a voice over for the intro video so I don't have to use the bluetooth audio. I did end up ordering a $2 lapel mic from eBay to test with my phone. It was so cheap that I couldn't let it go without at least trying it. The bluetooth helmet mic quality was rubbish. I ended up converting it to another format and I still couldn't use it. I'm hoping the Lapel mic will work ok with my phone so I can record to that. Failing that I'll have to try and get a proper audio recorder. 

I also purchased a mount for the camera that I'm hoping on putting on the back of the bike somewhere. I don't like where the camera was in the test video, I've looked at the possible options and I think I've come up with a way that the camera can be mounted behind me and slightly above my helmet. It should also be supported by the luggage rack that I currently have on the bike. I may end up using some cable-ties or something to secure the camera in place as the last thing I want is to have the camera fall off the bike and get damaged. 
I'm hoping that the camera will also record a more stable image once the firmware has been updated but again that is waiting on the Android adapter.
Today's goal is to have the intro video shot, edited and uploaded to the channel by the end of August. That's only two weeks away so I'd better get cracking.

Bomber.

Weighing In

Today I weigh 110.5kg. No messing around or making idle chit chat, that's what I weigh. Not really happy with that result but any loss really is a win as at least I didn't put on weight. I'm still doing really well with avoiding junk and drinking more water. I have decided that Sundays will probably be a day of rest, if I've already made 70,000 steps by Sunday, then I won't go for a walk if I don't really feel like it. Sundays are a good day to work on the blog and edit videos as the wife goes to work and the kids usually want to take it easy too.
It was raining on Monday so I didn't go out for a walk, I didn't feel too guilty as I'd already done over 11K steps by the time I got home so I was happy to avoid walking in the rain. Monday night is when my knee started to play up so I didn't walk on Tuesday or Wednesday. I should have done some upper body workouts or something since I couldn't walk but I didn't think about that until later. I got out walking on Thursday and Friday after work but I didn't go as far as usual as I was cautious of upsetting my knee again. I did at least get over 10,000 steps each of those days.
When walking yesterday I had to tighten my belt to stop my pants from falling down. The tighter hole was a little too tight and today I'm back using the old hole but maybe, just maybe, something is happening.
I took the kids to the park this morning so they could ride their bikes and I walked a couple of laps of the park myself. I should fix my own bike up so we could go for rides together. I'm pretty sure my son would be up for riding around Lake Burley Griffin, or at least some of the way around it. I'm not sure how my daughter would go just yet, but she'd probably give it a go.
The goal I set myself today is to be under 90kg by Christmas. To achieve this goal I need to lose roughly 1kg each week. I think that this is easily achievable. It may require that I give up beer altogether but I if that's what it takes then that's what'll have to happen. I know I said that I would only drink on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but the last couple of weeks I haven't drunk on Thursday. I did have a couple of beers on Sunday though as we had BBQ for dinner and I lit a fire in the fire pit and enjoyed sitting out there after dinner.
I can't remember when I last weighed 90kgs, I'm guessing that it would have been 10 to 15 years ago. I don't want to stop at 90kgs, I'd like to lose more than that and get down to somewhere around 80kgs but also by then I want to be doing some weight training too, so I may put on weight in muscle mass. Still a long way to go so not going to think about it too much. Just keep on with the walking, water and no snacks and see where it gets me. 

Bomber.

Why I'm doing all of this

Back on the 10th of July, my wife and I were arranging a council kerbside collection of random odds and ends that we'd accumulated over the last few years. It is a good way to get rid of large items that you can't sell and don't want anymore. You can get one free collection each year so we thought it was a good way to get rid of an old mattress, an old broken fridge as well as some broken kids outdoor play equipment. Most things end up getting recycled which is good.
Whilst crawling around under the house looking for other things that we could dispose of, I came across some old tax records and other paperwork from several businesses that I was involved with over ten years ago. I've been a Check-Out Chick, Wedding DJ, Barman, CEO of my own company, Manager, Sales Person, I.T. technician, unemployed, part-time, casual, full time, commission based, over paid, under paid, not paid, not had money to pay others, this, that and many things in between, you get the picture. In Australia you are only required to keep tax records for seven years, I was a little late with lodging my records for several years, so when I did sort it all out I had several folders full of tax records, invoices, bills and general business documentation that I hung onto in a plastic tub under the house just in case.
I was planning on shredding the paperwork and putting it in the recycling bin. As it was cold out, I decided to light a fire in the fire pit to keep me warm whilst I did the shredding. I had the shredder mounted above the recycling bin to make things easy but after about 10 minutes the shredder just jammed up and one of the rollers stopped feeding paper through the blades. After a few minutes of fighting with the shredder I decided that it wasn't worth trying to fix it so I threw it in the bin. I still had several folders full of paperwork to dispose of so I thought I'd just throw them on the fire.....
Much smoking, blowing and waving a piece of card over the coals to keep everything alight later, I had a raging paper fire. As I sat there drinking a beer or two, watching the old company constitution paperwork go up in flames, I got to thinking. For the last year or two I've had this idea to start a two YouTube channels. The first channel was to be about motocamping, the second channel was to be about starting a YouTube channel. So if you haven't figured it out by now, whilst watching all the old business documents burn and reminiscing about all the things I'd done in my past, I decided that it was time to do something and not just keep telling myself that one day I would. I decided that instead of two YouTube channels that I would just do the motocamping one and I would start a blog documenting my journey instead of making a second channel. I also decided that I wouldn't try and promote this blog, that I would just do it and if anyone ever found it and subscribed or whatever to you to follow blogs, then that would be cool. I wanted the blog to be 100% natural, nothing made up, no help from friends, no paying for placements or anything like that. If you have found this blog through social media or any other way, it's not because of anything I've done, it's either someone else has found it and shared it or, you have just stumbled across it yourself. I treat this blog just like a personal diary, I don't try and make it anything in particular, it is just me and my random thoughts. I do try to stick to one topic per post though.
As I was feeling happy with my decisions around the fire pit, I decided that I should take some photos and video to mark the occasion that I decided that I would stop dreaming and start doing.
To date, I think most of the visits to my blog have been me, in the stats area of Blogger you can see some things and there isn't a lot of activity going on currently. I do however have 12 visits from the U.S., so unless it is a web crawler or something, then maybe people are already starting to find this blog. If you are reading this, please just make a comment to let me know that you are a real person and not a machine. You don't have to like what I write, just let me know that you found this little corner of the internet.
The photo at the top of this post is from that fateful night one month ago, I hope my enthusiasm continues to be strong.

Bomber.
One month since the book burning.

Adding up the Cost

I was thinking further about the music for the YouTube channel and how I really want it to be quality music and the last thing I want is for copyright claims to be made against any of my videos, especially since I'll be monetising them. I started looking at the royalty free sites and I found one that has heaps of decent music but it's a subscription based deal.
Epidemic Sound do a YouTube subscription deal where you pay $15 per month as long as you have less than 500K views per month. So yeah that would be me, but I don't think I want to start dishing out bucks for music just yet, maybe if I start to earn any money then I will. At least they guarantee that you won't get any copyright infringements and if you end your subscription, all the tracks you used previously are still covered.
Thinking about money got me thinking about how much setting up the YouTube channel is actually going to cost me (or has already cost me). I'm not including my time as it's more like a hobby at this stage, but I did buy a 360° camera and I've ordered some accessories for it too. I should keep track of all I spend. Maybe from time to time I'll update this list, hopefully I'll be able to include income at some stage in the future.

Insta360 One Apple Bundle $479.95
Lapel Mic $2.17
Lapel Mic dead cat $2.13
Camera mount for rear of bike $5.21
Android adapter for Insta360 One $27.99
Waterproof case for Insta 360 One $29.99
Total so far $547.44

I don't think I'll include things related to the camping trips like fuel and such, as I want to do them anyway. Maybe if I go out of my way, or end up staying in a motel or something, I'll put in the difference in the cost. There are a few things the I already own that I wanted for camping before I decided to do the YouTube channel. I already have a cheap battery bank with a solar panel on it. I've had issues with getting it to work properly but it's better than nothing. The Insta360 One also came with an 8GB MicroSD card, but I'd fill that too quickly. I had a 32GB card in my cheap action camera so I've swapped them over. I also have a 64GB card in my phone and when the adapter arrives, I'm pretty sure I can transfer videos on to my phone to free up space on the camera.

Bomber.
Back over 10,000 steps today!

Long Term Goals

Today I want to set myself some long term goals in relation to the YouTube Channel. I've spent the day at home thanks to the Doctor and got to do some thinking and some more research in peace and quiet as my wife had to work and the kids were at school.
Within a year of "going live" with the YouTube channel I want to have 10,000 subscribers. To do this I may need to pay for some placements on YouTube as well as some advertising on Facebook. To get to 10,000 subscribers in the first year is a huge undertaking and will only be achievable if I really work at making great content and being involved in the community I create. A few of the channels that have inspired me to have a go at this don't even have that many subscribers and they've been going for several years.
The next longer term goal I have is to earn $1000.00 in one month, that will be somewhere in the realms of 500,000 views in one month. I want to achieve this by the end of the second year.
Next up is earning $5000.00 a month, this is enough that I could quit my job and just do YouTube full time. I want to be doing this by the end of five years. If I get to the stage where I can be earning that much each month then we could choose to live in a nicer area where houses are cheaper due to lack of employment opportunities.
Our house is probably worth somewhere around $420K, it's 3 bed one bath on a medium suburban block. We could head down the coast and get a 4 bed, two bath place for that kind of money that would probably be newer than we currently have. I could still do some casual or part time work and so could my wife, but we'd have a better lifestyle and nicer weather too!
The final goal is to meet some of the YouTubers who inspired me to have a go at doing this. Meeting Mark from BikerBits Australia should be fairly easy, but meeting Joe Robinet or FTB would mean travelling overseas. I'm not going to set time frames for these, I just don't want to forget about why I started and who helped me.
Those are some big goals and they do kind of scare me but I think I just have to go for it, you know, aim for the stars. What's the worse that can happen, I don't achieve my goals but I still have a job and get to go camping lots.
My leg is feeling much better today, it's still a little sore but I can get up and get moving without too much issue and once moving there is almost no discomfort.

Bomber.
Hopefully walking tomorrow

Busted

I've busted my knee. I'm not sure what I did to it, but it hurts. I came home from work just after lunch as I could barely walk and I had to ride the bike home. I did a fair bit of walking at work yesterday and was up and down a ladder a few times but I never felt myself pull a muscle or anything. Last night at around 11:30pm the pain woke me up and I had a couple of ibuprofen. I dozed until 1:30am and then got up again and had a couple of codeine and paracetamol tablets. That got me through until the alarm went off. I felt like I'd only had a few hours sleep but my fitbit thinks that I got almost 8 eight hours of sleep plus a further hour of being awake during the night, not sure if that's accurate but it could just be the pain meant that I had a bad sleep.
I went and saw the doctor this afternoon and they said that it could be tendinitis or a baker's cyst. They've given me a referral to get an ultrasound just to be on the safe side and given me some more pain killers. Unfortunately it's put a stop to my afternoon walks for now, hopefully it will be better soon so I can get back to walking. The doctor didn't ask for a follow up appointment but did say that they'd look at the results of the ultrasound and let me know.
In my last post I said I was going to set some goals, so in the next few posts I intend to set some. Some of them may be a little ambitious but if you don't try then you won't succeed. I've already set a goal for walking, that is 70,000 steps a week. Once I've been hitting the 70,000 steps regularly I'm going to increase it to 75,000 and then 80,000 and so on if possible. It should be easier to go for longer walks as the weather warms up and the days get longer as I'll be able to go for a walk after dinner.
The fitbit app can track exercise so I want to try and get at least five days of exercise in during the week. My walks all count as exercise and sometimes it picks up things like mowing the lawn or if I'm working hard at work, up down ladders and such, so it shouldn't be too hard. Again if I start hitting it all the time then I'll change the settings for exercise and increase the amount of time I need to get my heart rate up before it'll count as exercise.

Bomber
aka hop-along