Samantha Ettus of MomPulse. Photo copyright 2013 Donna Schwartz Mills
I kicked off the month by attending another conference on May 1.
No, not Mom 2.0, even though its Laguna Beach location this year made it a bit more affordable. Alas, I am still not in the position to have a budget to attend a blog conference. Fortunately, the Women in Video workshop (sponsored by MomPulse and Sony) was free to attend — and it was held in the same gorgeous hotel that all my friends enjoyed last weekend for Mom 2.0.
Sony already gifted me a couple of years ago with a fabulous Handycam, which had become such a large part of my work process that I went into mourning back in December when I lost it. I spent six weeks looking through every cluttered pile, box, bag, cabinet and closet in my house (plus the few hiding places in my car) before I finally ‘fessed up to my husband that I had, indeed, lost a device that retails for over $500.
I have always been absentminded, and I seem to get worse every year. This trait drives my husband crazy.
I don’t like it much, either. I waste a good deal of time hunting down items like my car keys and cell phone (and don’t get me started on things like iPod cables, sweaters and the like).
Anyway, I knew that telling him the camcorder was gone would result in a big, bad rant about how terrible I am with anything of value. And the sad thing is that I agree with that assessment.
So I soldiered on for the first part of 2013 without my beloved Sony camcorder. I attended a Food and Wine festival and attempted to take video with my iPad. That was kind of a bust: the quality was nothing to write home about and I didn’t capture enough of the right moments to even glean out any good tidbits to write about. I reverted back to trying to take fast notes at events, which works – but I end up missing a lot, especially when I have to switch from note taking to photography. The Handycam is rather elegant, because it has a button that allows you to take a still photo even while you are recording video. It has other features I love too — so even though I toyed with the idea of buying a less fancy model, I had my heart set on replacing the camcorder I lost with one that had all the same features. And those all cost way more than I was willing to spend.
Eventually, my husband located an exact duplicate of the Sony I had lost: it was a demo model at the Burbank Fry’s, and as it’s been discontinued, it was probably the last one for sale in Los Angeles County. It was a little bit beat up, but probably no different from my old one, which got jostled a lot in my handbag.
So I was well-armed and ready to shoot at the Women in Video event on May 1. And I walked away from the workshop inspired to do more with video.
I also walked away with another gift from Sony: A nice, new copy of Vegas Movie Studio — which is finally giving me the tools I need to do a decent job of editing my video clips.
And I’ve been kind of obsessed with learning how to use the software.
A couple of weeks ago, my sister and I launched a new video series for our InQuestOf lifestyle website, based on a new book called the Fast Metabolism Diet. Since then, I’ve learned that the publishers of the book engaged several bloggers I know to try the program out and write about it. I am not a part of that program: My sister learned about the book independently and thought it was something that would help me… as you can see from the first video in the series:
See the rest of this video series at InQuestOf Videos on YouTube.
DISCLOSURE: Not a sponsored post. Products mentioned were paid for by the author, except where indicated in the text of the post.
Related articles
I’m eager to see how your fast metabolism diet goes & what it involves.
Have you been tested for ADHD? A friend was a chronic loser of things, too, and started taking Focalin, which helps him SO MUCH.
If I have ADHD, it’s the type that’s induced by trying to think about too many things at once – more situational than a physical ailment. As for the diet, you can read about it here: . Linda and I are documenting our progress on our YouTube channel.