A Dana Life

The Most Boring Stream on Twitch

2020-04-16T16:02:00Z

A whole year of this. Aimlessly driving down American roads. This was my experience the year I lived in a van.

It’s also been a whole year since I quietly launched this channel on Twitch.tv. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect much response. As entertainment goes, this is against everything Twitch stands for: it’s prerecorded, repetitive, uneventful, and sometimes downright boring. But despite all that, last year people watched it for over 56,000 hours at an average of 6.4 concurrent viewers. ⊕Not bad for a 24/7/365 channel!

I’d like take this opportunity to tell the story of how this project came to be.

Origins

In 2018 I took a year off from my job to pursue a dream of mine: a year-long, cross-country road trip. I won’t go into too much detail on that here (there’s lots of stories in the archives), but during that time I felt pressure to share details of my adventures on social media. People who learned of my trip were eager to follow along.

The trouble was, creating content took time away from my time adventuring, not to mention I had no existing social media audience. ⊕Other than my wonderful and supportive friends and family :) I tried growing a social media presence but I’ve never felt comfortable promoting myself – perhaps the primary aspect of the social media game.

At some point in the hundreds of hours of driving I hatched a plan. I would save all of my dashcam footage and make it available online, sort of a slow tv art project of grand scale.

This would allow me to “passively” generate content while simply driving. I didn’t know if anyone would watch it, but I knew the idea was at the very least unique.

250+ Hours of Footage

While premise was simple, it wasn’t easy. The SD card in my dashcam could only hold around 8 hours of footage; if I waited too long the oldest footage would be overwritten. ⊕Unfortunately this did happen on occasion, most notably I lost many hours of gorgeous footage of Badlands National Park Every couple days I had to pull out my laptop and back up the footage to an 8TB external hard drive. When I had reliable wifi, I backed up the footage to the cloud (using Amazon Glacier).

To conserve disk space, I didn’t record any audio with the dashcam. This decision ended up being controversial to some members of my future community, but consider yourself lucky you don’t have to listen to muffled fragments of my podcasts and audiobooks.

When the trip was over I had in hand about 2.5TB of unedited footage. That’s enough storage to hold 1/8th the text in the Library of Congress!

In this trove there were a few captivating moments. Most of it was uneventful. All of it was high-quality, consistent, and honest footage of the United States of America.

Editing

It was obvious that the average user gets immediately bored and “changes the channel” when nothing changes after about 20 seconds or so. I tried to trim out all moments where the vehicle wasn’t moving. ⊕I did not trim any red lights, traffic, or other normal driving circumstances

Needless to say, editing 250+ hours of footage isn’t an easy task. There is no software that is designed to work in this immense timescale.

By hand, I searched the footage for thumbnails of gas stations, parking lots, drive-through restaurant lines, and other humdrum moments. Instead of cutting them completely, I carefully trimmed them to appear as if I pulled into the parking space, came to a stop, and immediately pulled out. There are numerous little cuts like this, and I think most go by without people noticing.

Going Live

Exactly one year ago today (April 16th), ⊕My birthday btw I went live. The first viewers started to trickle in, mainly people browsing the generally-uninhabited Travel & Outdoors category on Twitch.

The response was generally positive, but it was obvious the channel wasn’t for everyone. Many new viewers watch the channel for about a minute, realize that it’s pre-recorded, and leave forever. Put simply, my channel doesn’t provide the back-and-forth between streamer and viewer that those users come to expect.

Others, however, got hooked.

I have viewers who have watched hundreds of hours… enough to see the footage loop several times! Having a background in software development I wrote a bot to keep the viewers company. Through the bot they compete with each other for a spot on the “miles leaderboard,” or use the !location command to check in on where we are, or they use the !timewarp command to jump to a random moment from the trip.

Some stats

As I wrap up, I wanted to include some stats for the nerds:

46% of the community is from outside the USA.
The most common words viewers use to describe the stream are relaxing, calming, and peaceful.
The channel gets an average of 242 unique viewers per day.
I have made $213 from the Twitch Affiliate program.
The most-requested feature is to add more footage.

I really appreciate you stopping by. If you’re interested in learning more about the bot I wrote, check out this article about Tripbot. If you’d like to help support the stream, please consider subscribing for free with Twitch Prime.

Thank you!

-Dana

Tripbot, the Adventure Robot

2020-04-15T00:00:00Z

⊕ For the past year I’ve been running a slow-tv art project. It’s comprised of an immense trove of my own dashcam footage, plus a custom chatbot to interact with the footage. I’m writing this to announce that I’ve made the source code to Tripbot publicly available.

To interact with the bot, simply enter commands in the chat box on the Twitch channel.

What can the bot do?

Here are some of the things you can ask of Tripbot:

!location will tell you all about where we are driving ⊕!location also gives a handy Google Maps link
!timewarp will jump to a random moment in the 250+ hours of footage
!date tells you the day the footage was recorded
!guess gives viewers an opportunity to guess what state we’re in, e.g. !guess CA guesses that we’re in California
!miles are a way to earn points for watching the stream… !leaderboard shows the users who have the most miles.

Future commands include !map (to display a map on the stream) and !temperature (to get information about the weather at the time of filming).

General architecture

The project is composed of two main components: a bot process and a custom VLC process. They are both written in Golang, and they talk to one another over HTTP. The bot might ask the VLC process what video is currently playing? or it might say play this specific video.

Running alongside VLC is Open Broadcaster Software, or OBS. It’s an open-source, cross-platform streaming tool that has been a joy to use. ⊕Though getting OBS to work on Linux with my ancient graphics card consumed many hours of my life!

Also present (though not included in the diagram above) is a music server using MPD. You can think of it like a headless iTunes, through which the bot can control the currently-playing audio.

With these pieces in place we can begin to control the stream.

An example command flow

When a user types !location in chat, the flow looks something like this:

Tripbot listens for messages in Twitch’s modified IRC channel
He sees the user’s message and recognizes it as a command
He fires off the function for that command, which:
- asks the VLC server what video is currently playing
- looks up that video in a SQL database
- pulls out the GPS coordinates ⊕If the video isn’t in the DB, Tripbot will use OCR to read the coordinates off the corner of the video
With the coordinates in hand, Tripbot replies to the user in Twitch chat

Thanks for visiting! I hope that gives you more context about how Tripbot works.

If you’re interested in learning more about the project, I wrote another article about the channel origins. If you’d like to help support the project, please consider subscribing for free with Twitch Prime.

Onward!

-Dana

Post-Adventure Summary

2019-01-13T17:36:00Z

⊕ Weeks in: 47
Distance traveled: 17,638 miles
Current location: hats.cone.gent[?]

Eleven months ago today, I reversed my campervan out of my driveway in San Francisco and set forth on a magnificent adventure. I had ended my lease, put my possessions in storage, and packed the van with things I might need. I traveled alone across the country, from San Diego to Maine and back. I experienced so many great things, and I have so much to share with you!

⊕This photo, for instance, was taken at sunrise while in Acadia National Park

Let’s be honest here: articles on this site are few and far between. Early on in the trip I decided to spend more time adventuring and less writing articles. I have been slowly, sneakily backfilling blog posts so that it appears I wrote them in realtime. Allow me to reassure you: the plan is to eventually have an article about every awesome place I went.

In addition to the “trip reports,” I have a number of other articles in the works that are more about vanlife in general… tips on saving money, apps I used all the time, suggestions for things to keep in the van, and some other things in that vein. These I suspect will be some of the most popular articles because they appeal to the wide audience of vanlifers and aspiring vanlifers.

Some updates since I originally wrote this article: I have started a FAQ, where you can ask me anything about the adventure.

Also, I have released a tremendous amount of dashcam footage, check it out!

⊕

I also have a Frequently Asked Questions section in the works. Here you will be able to find answers to common questions like “did you ever feel unsafe?” and “did you get lonely?” If you have anything you’d like to see answered, go ahead and use the “ask me anything” link above!

Finally, I have over 250 hours(!) of dashcam footage saved for the upcoming “slow TV” project. That project is on hold right now (I need to settle back into a normal life in order to add music and other features), but I’m really excited about it. You’ll be able to tune in and watch my journey around the country, be it boring or spectacularly beautiful.

In summary, my adventure is winding down, but there’s still much to be done for this project. You can expect more trip reports, an extensive FAQ, new articles with vanlife tips, and a place to watch my dashcam footage.

Oh, one more thing! I recently created social media accounts on each of the major platforms, including the oft-requested Instagram, so pick your favorites and follow along:

Instagram (by popular demand!)
Facebook
Twitch
Twitter
YouTube

And as always, thank you for reading!

-Dana

Map: Adventure So Far (v2)

2018-09-26T00:00:00Z

Since everyone enjoyed the last map of the adventure, I’ve updated the map to reflect the journey thus far. When this map was created I was outside of Dallas, TX, having come from the East.

There’s one last leg this map is missing… from Texas to Los Angeles, and then from LA to San Francisco (where I sold the van). I plan on making a better, more complete, and ideally interactive map in the future.

For (slightly) more frequent updates and bonus content, you might wish to check out my Instagram/FB/Twitter.

Disaster!

2018-09-24T00:00:00Z

⊕ Weeks in: 30
Distance traveled: 13,465 miles
Current location: sends.embraced.cons[?]

After a nice visit to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, my check engine light went on. There was no unusual noise or behavior when the light turned on, so I continued on my way to Appomattox, Virginia.

I had intended to see the courthouse where the Civil War came to an end. I drove onward through remote country roads as the evening sky faded from blue to orange. I’d been on the road for over seven months at this point, and I hadn’t yet had any major issues with the van.

Day One

While engrossed in an audiobook, the radio clicked off abruptly. It slowly booted back up, and clicked off again. Again and again. Frustrated, I pulled over to a safe place and tried turning the car off and on. I tried turning the key in the ignition a few times. To my supreme disappointment the engine wouldn’t turn. Perhaps there was something wrong with the battery?

I didn’t have to wait long before a friendly Southern lady offered me a jump. I was only about 20 minutes away from the Walmart that would serve as my home for the night, so I got back on the road. I was cruising down the backroads of Virginia when my headlights started to dim.

This is when things really started to go wrong.

The radio clicks off again.
The engine clunks – a misfire!
I turn on the hazard lights – nothing happens.
I begin to lose speed.

An angry driver behind me passes me as I search for a safe place to pull over. I turn down a dark rural road and come to a stop outside of a house. The kind of house that does not exude hospitality. No cell phone service. ⊕The Great Smoky Mountains. Every second broken down was a second I might be spending here!

After some time I work up the courage to go knock on the door of the house. I introduce myself to the confused couple who answered the door, and while explaining my situation I manage to get some cell service. So I tell them that I probably don’t need their help, but that I might be outside their house for a while while I wait to get towed.

I’m on the phone with AAA when a police cruiser pulls up… apparently the house called the cops on me! I explained the situation to the deputy and, after running my plates, he wished me luck and drove off. It was dark now and it would be three more hours before the tow truck arrived.

I get towed the 20 minutes to a small mechanics shop tucked against some train tracks in Appomattox. It’s nearly 2AM now. The tow truck driver leaves and I settle in to the not-quite-ideal location for the night.

I’m optimistic that I’ll be back on the road again tomorrow.

Day Two

⊕

I get up 15 minutes before the mechanic opens and leave a voicemail. They call me back promptly and they agree to fit me in right away. Great! Honestly so far this is going pretty well.

They think the problem is with my alternator. Alternators are responsible for converting the motion of the engine into electricity, which it then uses to charge the car’s battery. This is why your battery lasts so long; a faulty alternator is the most likely cause of a battery that dies while driving. This makes sense to me and they go to work.

Unfortunately, after they finish installing the shiny new alternator, the battery still isn’t being charged. The mechanics tell me they don’t know why, and they have helped me as much as they can.

Well, crap.

Let’s take stock of my situation here. I’m in the middle of nowhere and very far from “home.” Even though I’ve just paid a couple hundred dollars on a repair, my van is still broken and immobile. It’s 85°f (30°C), I’m parked in direct sunlight, and battery that powers all of my electronics is dead.

So I set to work calling other local mechanics. I needed an electrical diagnosis, which was time-consuming and only to be attempted by a mechanic comfortable with electronics. No one I talked to was able to fit me in on short notice, and the appointments that were available weren’t until Monday, or until October. It was a Friday in mid-September.

I needed a new plan, or I’d be stuck living in this mechanic’s parking lot with no power and no way to leave.

The new plan is to get another tow, two-and-a-half hours to the Southeast, all the way to North Carolina. There I could find a plethora of mechanics. My reluctant tow truck driver picked up my van and we set off.

He dropped me off in a parking lot in Greensboro, NC and I tried to get some sleep. I’d be getting up early to call more mechanics tomorrow.

Day Three

It didn’t take long to find someone was willing to take on my issue, even though it was a Saturday. ⊕Shoutout to AAA Wendover! I was given no promises on when/if they could fix the problem, whatever problem it may be. I grabbed my laptop and an empty desk in their office area and settled myself in.

Six hours later they had figured out what was wrong. The battery isolator, which takes power from the alternator and passes it to my van’s two batteries, was burnt out. Practically incinerated.

Well, okay! There’s the problem! It was immensely satisfying to be able to hold this in my hand and know that the mysterious issue was now an obvious problem.

Another three hours later, just after closing, the mechanics were done replacing the isolator. The engine started up fine and charged the battery correctly. After 48 hours of being immobile, I was finally free.

Conclusions

⊕

Living in a van is a pretty great experience – that is, until something goes wrong. Being able to choose your backyard every day can be exciting, freeing, and glamorous, but when you have an issue that renders the vehicle inoperable, the van becomes a prison. At that point the van is only a metal box on the side of the road. A box with your whole life in it. It’s not a good feeling.

The thing that made this particular experience so difficult was how far away I was from my friends and family. My home bases are in California, Texas, and Massachusetts, all of which are very far away from the woods of Virginia. I had to figure this out, and I had to figure it out by myself.

During this experience’s worst moments I saw that I had a choice. I could get angry, or cry, or yell at somebody, and I wanted to. But none of these things would change the situation I was in. Instead I tried my best to remain calm, to keep looking for new solutions, and to keep my emotions in check.

By remaining calm, being patient, and acting quickly, I was eventually able to make it to my campsite at the Great Smoky Mountains on time. Another adventure behind me, and many new ones on the road in front of me.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed reading this, please consider sharing it with someone you think might enjoy it too.

Jump Into My Passenger Seat

2018-08-20T18:01:00Z

I’m really excited to announce a new project I’ve been working on:

You know those TV channels that are just 24/7 fishtanks or yule logs? This is basically the same idea, but it’s driving footage from my van adventure.

Sit back, relax, and let me chauffeur you around the USA!

FAQ

Is this live?

Nope, so far this is 100% pre-recorded footage.

When does it end?

Essentially never! I have literally hundreds of hours of video, so every time you visit you should see something different.

What kind of dashcam do you use?

I am using a VIOFO Compact A119 with a polarizing filter.

Thank you!