20 September 2019 Frustrating Friday

[KathyB]

Today is frustrating because I need to learn how to do a bunch of stuff that I don't know how to. For starters, I need to figure out how to add a caption to a video, then I got to attempt to upload the video to YouTube, and then try to figure out how to delete the old video. I know next to nothing about making videos, so I get to take an online training class in Premiere. It would be nice if I had already learned this stuff -- I probably should have anticipated that I'd need to know it and taken the online class earlier.

I realize that all makes zero sense to most people, which is how I feel being thrust in the middle of it.

[DiveMilw]

Good luck, Kathy!  I know you'll figure it all out.

[scenicdesign71]

Oh no, that makes plenty of sense to me.  I should have learned a good half-dozen programs (which I still haven't touched) years ago, specifically video-editing, effects and projection software, so that I wasn't using things like iMovie and Powerpoint for serious projection design for far too long.  (That's partly why I haven't done much serious projection design for a number of years now; when not-too-complex projections are involved and I'm already doing scenery anyway, I've dabbled in programs like QLab and Isadora, but I don't love either one, and have forgotten most of what little I learned about them by now).

For that matter, even my CAD skills -- entirely self-taught, and in some ways wildly inefficient as a result -- could use some work.  I took a one-day Vectorworks class offered by my union about two years ago, which left me feeling hopeful... but then lost most of what I learned that day from disuse over the following months.  I should probably retake that class next time they offer it, and then come home and start practicing in my spare time for at least a week or two immediately thereafter.  Maybe dig up some of my old drafting and reconstruct it from scratch using "best practices" as (re)learned from the class.  The main thing I do remember is that the vast majority of efficiency gains are to found by taking the time to set up CAD documents carefully at the beginning of the process.  But there were a ton of really useful specifics along those (and some other) lines that I've forgotten since, and the last time I designed anything -- Alternating Currents, over a year ago now -- I had fallen completely back into my old habits.

But yeah, video too.     And yes, "this makes zero sense" is generally how I feel when confronted with any new software.  I don't know whether it's my own learning curve or that of the programs that's getting steeper, but it sure does feel like a daunting time investment, these days, to attain enough proficiency with these things for it to stop feeling like a struggle.