I caught one of Santa's helpers in the parking lot.

I love impromptu and a good challenge, and I really enjoy making videos. With changes at work come new and different apps and programs. My toolbox at home doesn't mix and match much with my setup at work. So the challenge I gave myself here was to adapt and to kick something out as fast as possible. I set my timer for 1 hour.

Jill Bell, one of our south King County sales & marketing reps at First American showed up with a Santa hat on that simply cracked me up! I pulled out my trusty Blackberry 8330 and started shooting video as she walked across the parking lot.

I have Windows 7 and Office 2010 at work. I didn't have any video editing software installed so I jumped online to find Movie Maker, Microsoft's free video software. Yeah!, there's a new version so I downloaded it. I love another free app, an audio recording & editing software called Audacity. I use it all the time at home to clean up and edit audio tracks.

I downloaded the few seconds of video I shot of Jill and put it in Movie Maker, then I recorded me whistling 'Santa Claus is coming to town' via my headset with microphone using Audacity. I tweaked the sound a bit and added a little EQ and reverb. All in all, (including the software download & install) I was finished in about 50 minutes.

To me it's like jazz. It's fun to set the timer and to throw yourself into a small project not knowing where it's going. Just shut up and go for it. Let it take you where it will. Have fun, flex your creative muscles and don't worry about the outcome. It is what it is.

Happy Holidays!