Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Life is What Happens


It's been a very long time since I've been here. I won't go too deeply into the reasons for this. SufIfice to say, in the words of John Lennon, "Life is what happens to you, while you're busy making other plans."


During the time I've been away I've had some teeny-tiny bites from people wanting to use the services of Allow Me To


One was from a lovely woman who had been traveling overseas with her husband. I'll call her Vee. Vee contacted me towards the end of June 2011 saying that she had about 1000 digital photos of their trip, which she wanted made into a slide show. Thankfully she had saved them onto a flash-drive in the order that she wanted them to play. Vee also wanted background music and was happy for me to choose it.


Under normal circumstances this would have been a breeze (read: "only a tiny bit daunting"), Well heck, when has my life ever been a breeze?


As it happened, I had just been offered, and accepted, a semester contract as a full-time Teacher-Librarian at a private school about 40 minutes drive away. So there I was, teaching and managing a school library in a totally new environment by day, and by night, trying to turn this lovely lady's precious memories into something Vee would be happy to show her family and friends.


This is the text message she sent me after she and her husband had viewed the DVD for the first time:


"WOW!! What an amazing job u did with the DVD! We couldn't wait to c it 2night so had a sneak preview last night & LUV it! The Gallipoli part even brought us 2 tears with ur excellent choice of music. Thanku sooo much 4 all the time & effort you put in2 it. All the music u chose captures the feel of ev'where we went. The whole thing is just gr8 and we can't wait 2 show it 2 our friends 2night."


Here's the thing though. When it came time for Vee to pay me I had absolutely no idea what to charge for my services. We eventually settled on an amount, but I suspect that I undercharged, given the amount of time I spent on the project. Not to worry. It is true to say that I learned a lot about video editing during the process, and for that I thank you Vee.


I also know that it's true that I'm at the very bottom of a mountainous learning curve when it comes to running a home business.

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