What do our patterns of behaviour tell us?

According to a recent book we need about 10,000 hours to become good at something, yet every year I try more and more ambitiously to get familiar with videoing techniques and yet as my previous entry shows I am not much closer to success. Does this mean, a ) I am never going to get there so give up now, b) I going in the right direction, but it is so slow and incremental that it does not feel like it or c) I have not put enough time in or had enough support to judge the situation accurately?

If I follow a I should give up the Masters now and all attempts to be a more technicially artistic person. This will be a money rich and time rich solution as it will give me more time and I will be able to spend my money elsewhere. But I will also feel a certain dissatisfaction as myself.

The other scenarios suggest that I do have a certain ability, but that I have not yet managed to progress that ability for various reasons.

When I trained years ago as a radio journalist I was about half as good as the best person technically and twice as good as the worst person. So some ability, I especially enjoyed editing and went on to do some engineering work for BFBS. But never got work in the field.

When I did my Masters I was involved a bit with the editing of a video, but morning sickness stopped me doing too much.

As an amateur I have put together a couple of films of Nathan and edited a small piece on the school in Senegal. This was very labourious then the computer lost everything.

I have also tried at times to capitalise on the fact that for many years I was a media lecturer,but despite my annual pilgrimage to the update my skills exercise by engaging with existing material or trying to get the technician to help me set things up so I could spend real time with the material, somehow the little time available would disappear in a stream of minor technical problems that I do not have the skills to solve. And I suppose that is the nub of the problem with all the technology I have access too, I have a lot of theory about what can and cannot be done, I have doneHTML courses etc, but rarely have I been able to get said technology to work when I have tried doing independent work to consolidate my fragile learning.

Hence signing onto the Masters to try and really finally have a go at something. But and here we go again. If the technician does not provide technical assistance and if I do not know how to make the machinary work, how do I progress. And is it worth struggling on to see if I can?

To try and help me with these thoughts. I swallowed my pride, decided I would deal with the weird kind of attitude I get from the technician and ask for his help. Talking virtually through out to his computer screen, rather than me, he talked me through what may have been the issue. Simple stupid things really. And one good pointer, but nothing that made one feel more secure. Basically if you are one of these people who can read digest and use a manual, that should be accessible on the net, then you are okay on this course if not then woe betide you. I mentioned that last year some students had asked for some input to which he said I bet they did not show up, I suggested that as working students they may be juggling, but his eeyorish response was we are all juggling.

So juggling and struggling I am have tried downloading the information three times to try and work out in more detail what went wrong with the camera, but the computer keeps crashing. One good bit of news though. If I give up the course and just buy the camera it will be cheaper in the long run and I would get a copy of the manual. I am sounding as jaundiced as the technician.

Education is supposed to be fun.

The other nice thing was that I bumped into Jessica, the daughter of a friend. I have known her all my life and now she is studying for her degree at the University. Seeing her cheered me up no end and made me enjoy being a student for a little while. I saw her whilst I was in the students union putting noticing up about the research. Afterwards I realised I should have put the details of this blog on my research participants wanted notice!!! So much to learn about this process, makes me appreciate how much work is put into all of this. Unfortunately my one other lead with regard to participants has come to an end as all emails to them are bouncing back. So I need to get back online and see if I can find some participants and quick otherwise there is no point in even trying to get to grips with the camera.