Posted by Jed Lewison on Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 9:28 PM Pacific

Getting close...

Almost 1,000,000 views of my videos!

Pretty soon, there will have been more than 1,000,000 views of the videos on my YouTube channel.

When I started futzing around with YouTube last year, I never even considered the possibility that I'd be able to communicate with so many people. I think one of the first videos I put online was of a bird pooping on President Bush so that my sister could see the video. Not a bad way to start.

Starting last November, after the Las Vegas debate, I went about trying to create videos with a message -- and most of them sucked terribly. I'd never done any real video editing before then. After Thanksgiving, I bought Adobe Premiere Elements packaged with Photoshop Elements. Combined, I think I spent $99.

Other than that, I haven't spent a dime on video creation -- just used my existing PCs and video capture equipment (I've built several HTPCs, which are essentially glorified DVRs).

I've gotten a little better with video editing, though it's still hit and miss. I still put out my fair share of clunkers.

But it's still pretty exciting to think that for $99 (and a lot of time), I've been able to reach a pretty large audience -- as a citizen.

It gives me faith in our democracy, and hope for our future. I would never underestimate the obstacles we face to achieving the change we desire, but I'm starting to think: maybe Barack Obama really is right, after all. Maybe we can do it.

Getting close...

Almost 1,000,000 views of my videos!

Pretty soon, there will have been more than 1,000,000 views of the videos on my YouTube channel.

When I started futzing around with YouTube last year, I never even considered the possibility that I'd be able to communicate with so many people. I think one of the first videos I put online was of a bird pooping on President Bush so that my sister could see the video. Not a bad way to start.

Starting last November, after the Las Vegas debate, I went about trying to create videos with a message -- and most of them sucked terribly. I'd never done any real video editing before then. After Thanksgiving, I bought Adobe Premiere Elements packaged with Photoshop Elements. Combined, I think I spent $99.

Other than that, I haven't spent a dime on video creation -- just used my existing PCs and video capture equipment (I've built several HTPCs, which are essentially glorified DVRs).

I've gotten a little better with video editing, though it's still hit and miss. I still put out my fair share of clunkers.

But it's still pretty exciting to think that for $99 (and a lot of time), I've been able to reach a pretty large audience -- as a citizen.

It gives me faith in our democracy, and hope for our future. I would never underestimate the obstacles we face to achieving the change we desire, but I'm starting to think: maybe Barack Obama really is right, after all. Maybe we can do it.

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