I told readers that I’d post a blooper reel after reaching 500 “likes” on Facebook.

Well, that happened a few weeks ago.

I know. I’m terribly slow. I feel really guilty about it. But here it is… finally.

It’s not really a blooper video, not in the strict sense. It’s more of a compilation of weird moments (which include bloopers) that didn’t make it into the final edits of recent 1-minute hikes. Honestly, some of it isn’t even that funny. But I do get attacked by ants, so I think it may be worth a glance.

To increase the value of this strange compilation, I’ve made it educational. If you were ever wondering about the process of creating a “1-minute hike,” I’ve broken it down into eight steps: 1. Wake up your hiking buddy. 2. Introduce the trail. 3. Talk about things along the trail. 4a. Make pretty faces. 4b. Dance. 5. Sing and embrace the random. 6. Have a cute dog with you. 7.  Create a “1-minute hike” introduction voiceover by ducking under the covers of your bed to reduce the echo produced by the high ceiling of your 120-year-old house. 8. Edit.

A few notes:

Ignore my messy room displayed at the beginning of this compilation… including the “cat castle” jungle gym for my cats Bo (spotted cat) & Arrow (in-your-face cat). Also, at 3:40, I say “FUDGE.” I don’t drop bombs if I can help it, instead, I make flattering faces.

To explain my second-to-last clip, when I do my “this-is-a-1-minute-hike” introduction for each video, I usually do it after the hike. It’s the last thing I do when putting together the edited video. So I’m at home. And I discovered that when I do a voiceover, my voice echoes in the big rooms of my ancient house. It sounds terrible. So for a long time now, I’ve walked to my bedroom, ducked under the covers and recorded my introduction. It’s silly, but it works. The covers muffle the echo. Anyway, that method was perfectly fine until I adopted Oreo in May. He follows me like a shadow, and he always tries to come under the covers with me when I’m recording my voice. If I shut the door on him, he whines, and the camera picks that up. If I let him in the room, he claws his way into my makeshift tent to join me. You see my dilemma. The only option is to hope he stays quiet long enough for me to record my introduction. Naturally, that results in many bloopers. So I added an example of these bloopers at the end of this compilation. Enjoy!