Good morning John!

A very long time ago I bought this. This is called a soft box. It's a light that photographers and videographers use to make nice soft diffuse light. I got this about ten years ago, and I have used it in every vlogbrothers video I've filmed at home since then. 
Until today, because the bulbs in this thing over the years have started to go kaput. And yes these are the original ten-year-old bulbs. One of these bulbs burned out, doesn't turn on anymore, which is a thing that happens, once the light fell over and one the bulbs broke, so that's where one of them is. So I had three working bulbs and that was enough I guess. And then, a couple of weeks ago I was filming, and then I left my office and then I came back in, and there was smoke in here. 

Light bulbs are totally supposed to burn out, they're not supposed to catch on fire. So the base of one of the bulbs was a little bit on fire. I took the bulb out, it hadn't broken, it was just sparking internally, and I ordered some new lights, and then I didn't set them up because like, who's got time for these things?
Well yesterday, another one of the bulbs caught on fire! 
Over ten years of using these lights and two of them catch on fire within two weeks of each other. Something must've gone wrong with the electricity, it must not be the bulbs, it's something else has broken with this light.
But in any case you're now watching a video that is filmed with an LED light! It's a little bit harsh, right now, but um I think that I can use another one and turn them both down and that'll look a little nicer. So let's see how that looks. 
You know they say three point lighting is best, but two's gonna have to do! 

John, A Beatifully Foolish Endeavor comes out in four days, I'm very excited, very nervous, this had really good reviews so far so that has taken some of the weight off. 
But the point is, while my world was actually literally a little bit on fire, it's also figuratively so. And I guess I'll just round this video out with things you maybe should know.
One, if you read the first book but it was a while ago and you've kinda forgotten, I released a recap video voiced by (?~1:50), the audiobook narrator over on hankschannel.  You definitely should not watch that video if you don't want to be spoiled on the first book, though.  The audiobook cast has been announced and there's a bunch of people on it.  The reason why is that there's five point of view characters, but then there are also what are called epigraphs and these are like, bits of context that happne between chapters, so this is "partial transcript, closed door fundraiser in Decatur, Georgia with Senator William Casey," made up person, and those bits are sometimes things that need their own voice actor to differentiate them from the rest of the text.

I like to think of audio as a different medium and how we can adjust it to best serve the needs of that medium, so I thought about that a lot and I'm really proud of what we came up with.  There's also a book resource guide at altusfuture.net.  It's got a book club kit, it's got character playlists, it's got Zoom backgrounds, all kinds of fun stuff, and the virtual book tour is still happening, which you can learn more about on hankgreen.com

If you bought a ticket for the July 6th event that John and I are doing together, your ticket may have been refunded and you have to buy it again.  That's a complicated thing that I'm sorry about.  So check your inbox for an email from The Strand, which is the bookstore that we're doing it with to make sure that you're still signed up.

John, I'm gonna be honest with you.  This has been a really obviously stressful time of my life, but strangely, I'm not experiencing that much book stress.  I'm really excited for this thing to get out in the world.  I really appreciate all the feedback I've gotten from you that's been really positive and from early readers.  I was able to do podcast sponsorships with a bunch of small independent podcasts for the book, and I've gotten to be on a bunch of podcasts.  I recorded a couple today.  I'm recording one tomorrow.  If you listen to podcasts, it might be hard to miss me.  So it really has been fun.  It's been a lot and there's a lot else going on at the same time, but I kind of set myself up for that kind of situation.  

Why do I do that is a story for another video, and I just noticed on my floor of my office, which is extremely filthy, these are the actual last sheets of the book that I did my edits on.  The most common note when I'm editing myself is the word "loose".  Loose.  I don't know what I even mean by that, but you don't want it to be loose.  

Alright, John, well, I will see you on Tuesday, the day that A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is officially on sale.  (?~3:58)