Why It Took a Month

Last post was March 18th. That’s almost exactly a month ago. The intro video is done now, but it wasn’t done within a week of that post like I said it would be — so what happened?

Honestly? A funk. I got the footage I needed, then didn’t open CapCut for a couple of weeks. I made some progress on the Solarium in the meantime, but it didn’t feel like enough for a post, so I didn’t post. And then not posting made it harder to post. Classic spiral.

This is exactly what Not So Shai Guy is supposed to push back against. The whole point of this blog is to get comfortable sharing the process — not just the wins, not just the fully-baked updates, but the in-between stuff too. The small progress. The slow weeks. The fact that I didn’t touch the footage for two weeks because I wasn’t feeling it.

So let me say it plainly: I’ve been in a funk. It’s lifting. And I have a Solarium update coming tomorrow.

The Edit

Once I got moving again, it actually came together well. I got the new footage uploaded and into the project, then pulled everything together — cropped and trimmed. A few of the moving shots needed some work to keep Setti centered in frame — CapCut has tools for that and it was genuinely fun to mess with. The close-ups I got of her turned out great. The ground-level bike shot is passable — it does what it needs to do, and that’s enough. The intro doesn’t need a perfect bike shot; it needs to exist.

Added text with animations, built out a title card, and called it done. It looks like an actual YouTube video. That’s not nothing.

The intro is scheduled for 11am on Tuesday, April 21st.

Adventures with Setti has a launch date. This channel has lived in my head for a long time. Five days from now, it stops being a dream and starts being a thing that exists.

What’s Next

The second video is already decided. I have footage of Setti’s first time paddleboarding — and she was born for it. Completely content to be paddled around by her manservant while she soaked up the sunshine and watched the water. Majestic. Serene. Some of the shots look like a screensaver. The polar bear princess, finally in her element. That’s next.

On the blog side: Solarium update tomorrow. Day-to-day it felt like I was barely moving — but stepping back, it’s actually substantial progress. That post has been a long time coming.

— Shai Guy