Love to Learn, Learn to Love.

Lesson #62: Technique

AJuicyLessonperday.net
Lesson #62 (Tuesday, 11/19)

I am heading towards triple figures. Lesson #100 is closer than one might think. I have been on it since September 9th and the only days missed have been the ten Shabbats since then. Seventy-two (72) days = sixty-two (62) posts + ten (10) days off. Even though I am experiencing some difficulty lately finding stuff to write about, something always manages to pop up. I am confident that I will be able to achieve my goal which is to continue producing one JuicyLesson per day for an entire year. The only thing that can stop me is if I become ill. Hopefully that won’t happen.

That being said, I have decided to spend some time detailing how I go about actually posting these JuicyLessons and the media- that is the photos or video clips – that accompany some of these blog entries.

First of all, I have been writing up each of my lessons the day/evening prior to each post. This gives me time to finalize each lesson the next day, the day it’s posted, as well as adding illustrations, cartoons and videos. The posting of videos can be very time consuming depending on their sources. If I get the clips from You Tube, it’s easy and fairly quick once you get the hang of it. One simply goes to You Tube to locate a video. Then all that is required is to copy the link to that video and paste it into that day’s JuicyLesson.

So far I have been producing a lot of videos from scratch because I didn’t totally grasp what You Tube was about and how it actually worked in the sense that any clip I could possibly want would already have been posted on You Tube. As a matter of fact, I have finally realized that I can actually go to You Tube to draw on it for ideas for my posts rather than the other way around. In other words, instead of supporting my article with a video clip, I can start with the clip and employ that as my take-off point for a particular article.

On the other hand if I take a minute or two of video from television, getting that type of clip onto my site takes a lot more time. First, using my iPad mini, I have to shoot the clip directly from our television. Then, using You Tube Capture, I upload the video to You Tube, a process which is very time-consuming. I have found it easier to do something else while the clip is being uploaded rather than waiting for the process to run its course and invariably checking on its progress every few minutes or so.

Once the upload has been completed, I watch the clip on You Tube and press the Share feature which will produce a drop-down menu which I then use to copy the link. Once this is done, the link can be easily pasted onto the post.

Photos can go directly from my iPad to my post. I select the Add Media button on any given post which gives me the usual two choices: either select a picture from my own stored library (including the possibility of taking a new photograph) or choosing a pic from the media library which has been developed and added to as a result of the photos in it having been included in a previous post. For example, the photo of the Sadhu featured in JuicyLesson #60 can be used in any future post(s). I have yet to re-use the exact same photo (or video) but it is a possibility. However, please know that if in future you see a photo that you’ve already seen in a previous JuicyLesson, that I was feeling and being lazy, something which should not (never say “never”) happen as long as I remain in control of my situation. Once I make a decision as to which photo I want to use, I hit the Add Media button, make my selection, hit the Insert into Post button, and voila.

It would be a lot easier and less time consuming for me if videos could be posted directly like photos can rather than by the indirect method which requires the use of both You Tube Capture and You Tube, but unfortunately that is not possible. This is due to the fact that only very short videos can be posted directly to my website. The maximum that my blog can handle in terms of a direct video post is a measly seven (7) mb, and therefore any videos larger than that have to be posted using what I have called the indirect method which takes a lot more time.

I also post my JuicyLessons on Facebook and these posts often contain a plug* for my blog. For example I used a new tactic in today’s (Monday’s) Facebook post designed to draw readers to my website. Instead of including the gruesome photos of the Buddhist monk’s self-immolation with the rest of my FB post, I presented only the textual information designed to accompany the photo, and urged my FB readers to go to my website *(www.ajuicylessonperday.net) to view the photographs of the monk burning himself to death which, at first glance, appears to be a mercenary way of getting hits on my blog… at second glance too. If I had thought more about this process, I may not have proceeded in that way, i.e. my attempt to capitalize on our love of gory scenes. I’m looking forward to examining tomorrow’s Google Analytics to see if I managed to exceed the average number of daily hits on my website which presently stands at around twenty (20) since inception on October 17th. The number of visitors has been increasing with time though, standing at around twenty-five (25) a day since the beginning of November, reaching a high of thirty-eight (38) visits two days ago (Sunday, November 17th). By the way, I often log on to my own site for various reasons, but the system has been set up so that Google Analytics only counts me once a day, regardless of the number of times actually sign in on any given day.

The mechanics involved in posting texts are straightforward. First I type my text on Pages and then I copy it. Next I log on to my site, click on Posts>Add a Post and then paste my text onto my site. After this I write up an excerpt (teaser) as well as choosing one or more categories for each post and adding the JuicyLesson number and title. Then I hit Publish or Update depending upon whether I am putting up a post for the first time or editing it and that’s that.

Go Habs who play Minnesota, Washington and Pittsburgh this week. Good luck Montreal who needs it given their inability to put the puck in the net lately.

Peace out.

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