A while ago I wrote a blog post about buying a new camera for my YouTube videos. I was struggling just filming with my phone, and felt that a camera would be a decent investment. I narrowed down my choices and ended up getting the Sony ZV-1.

It has been a pretty good choice for me. The main complaint I have about it is that it eats battery life like it is starving. To combat that, I purchased three additional batteries along with a charger, and that has worked for me thus far. I may need more batteries down the line, we shall see.

I knew a while back that you can't just 'make' YouTube videos. You have to edit them as well. I started out on simple software that allowed me to do basic things. As I gained more knowledge, I needed the ability to do more. A lot of people use Final Cut Pro (Apple Produce) or Adobe Premiere Pro.

I did not and do not like the idea of paying a subscription service for a product that I rely on to do things if that makes sense. It is the same reason I haven't upgraded from Microsoft Office 2007. There is nothing in the Office 365 version that I need bad enough to subscribe and have to pay a monthly fee for. No thank you. With a little help from my husband, I started using Blender.

Blender is known as a 3D rendering software. It allows you to make art and stretch your creativity. It also has a video editing portion and that is what I use. It allows me to do a lot of the things I see other youtubers do. If you can do it in Final Cut Pro, chances are I can do it in Blender as well. There are also a ton of tutorials on Youtube for Blender. Everything I have learned how to do, I've learned from Youtube. It's gotten to a point where I can look for a tutorial on how to do something, watch it, and it may be set up for FCP, but I know the tools of Blender well enough to apply the tutorial to Blender itself. It may take a few extra steps, but I get it done.

I never thought I would use the other portions of blender. I am not a graphics artist. I am not an artist period. I suck at art. I literally got a D in 6th grade art. But I am learning I can create visual effects for my videos in the other modes of Blender, which means more tutorials.

What I am learning in my ripe old age, is that doing something doesn't just mean doing it and being done with it. I wanted to make podcasts. You don't just record and that's it. You have to learn your software, you have to learn to edit, you have to learn how to upload. You can't just make youtube videos. You have to know how to edit. If there is something special, you have to learn how to do that as well. Sure, you can pay someone to do it, but you have to at least know a little bit so you can express what it is that you want from them. Every time I pick something up, my brain gets stretched a little more. In the beginning of the pandemic, I started writing again. I wrote a whole fan fiction book. You can see the improvement from where I began to where I started, as fiction and dialog writing is much more difficult that writing a blog. I have been out of school for many years, I have forgotten the rules, so I had to do my research. My bookshelves are filled with K-pop and writing books.

The same is true with all of my other hobbies. I am learning and growing. It's never a simple matter of just doing the thing, no matter how much someone tells you that you just need to get out there and and do it. For you to be great, you have to be willing to learn. I like to succeed in everything I do. I'm trying. I'm learning, and I am working. Thank you for sticking with me.