Since moving out to the Homestead, I have not had any regrets, not one. This week tested that sentiment. I have mentioned before that we have had to use satellite internet. No other service will provide for us. All of our neighbors can get internet, literally ALL of our neighbors can get at least DSL. Apparently we are literally feet too far to push their signal. I have been calling and emailing any nearby service to see if there is some way to get better and more reliable internet all to no avail. I will keep trying, but at this point I feel defeated on this front. First world problem, I know and am aware, doesn’t make it any less frustrating for me.
The reason this came to a head this week was I have been unable to upload several YouTube videos. I have even tried going to two family members’ homes and tried uploading videos, but I would have to leave my laptop there for hours to upload and if something were to go wrong I wouldn’t be there to fix it. For my blog, I have always saved on our data usage by using the WordPress App and uploading pictures from my phone using that instead of uploading them from my desktop.
Early on in the YouTube channel, I was making one take videos on my iPhone so I could also upload the videos using the YouTube app on my cellular data plan, no problem. Since I have been trying to make more professional, and longer, videos I have needed to use editing software. It has made the videos better, but uploading a 4GB video eats into our data allowance in a huge way. I actually think part of the problem with uploading was the fact that I wasn’t pre-rendering the videos. I use Corel VideoStudio X9, and when I was trying to upload a video it would render the video and upload it at the same time. I think something about that timed out the connection. Last night I figured out a way to render the videos to a file, and then upload that file. It seemed to work even on our slow connection because I was able to upload three videos. Here is one that has spent a week in the can, waiting to be shared with the public.
One of the three videos I uploaded was my son’s first video. He has seen me taping for videos and wanted to start his own channel so I opened a Homestead Kids channel. His first video was just scenery on the way home from a friend’s house. He time lapsed the video, added music, and at title shot at the beginning and end, and he did it all himself. If you have a couple minutes, take a look, and if you really want to give him a thrill subscribe. While you’re at it, consider subscribing to my channel as well.
