I recently priced a pair of fuzzy dice like the ones in the picture. I’m not normally the sort of person who goes in for decorating my car, but I was killing time in the Las Vegas Airport. For those of you who have never been to the Las Vegas Airport, it’s a lot like you would imagine it to be. They have slot machines everywhere and the gift stores sell fuzzy dice, souvenir chips, and Elvis accoutrements.

I was on my way to Los Angeles and had to change planes in Las Vegas. This was my first glimpse at real May-time heat. Las Vegas was 102 degrees and even though I was in air-conditioned comfort the whole time, I could sense the heat pounding through the airport glass. I live in Texas, and I’m not used to being the one who comes from a cool place. I always travel to a cooler place and return to a hotter place. So that was one big change.

The other was that I was traveling to do some work in media. I went to Square 1 Studios which is located north of LA. My goal was to do some video snippets and produce a couple of DVDs. Ten years ago, I would have done them as books. Who am I kidding? Last year, I would have done them as books. But media has taken over to the point that I took my first plunge into presenting my content in video format.

It was not as hard as it could have been, but it’s massively different. You still have to organize your thoughts and sound coherent (same as writing) but you get points for smiling when you’re in front of a camera. On the other hand, subtle linguistic nuances fly out the window. You’re doing great if you can avoid saying “um” too often and keep to the point.

I know some folks, writers-turned-video guys/gals–who do the whole video production thing themselves. That’s my next step, but I think that requires a lot more technical knowledge than I have. Then again, I go out to YouTube sometimes and think … kids are doing pretty decent-looking videos.

So that was my latest adventure in writing. The videos are in post now, that’s hip LA talk for saying they’re being finished up (post-production). And I left temperatures of about 100 degrees in Los Angeles for spectacular 70-degree temperatures in the Houston area. That was wild.

And I kinda wish now that I had gotten those fuzzy dice.

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