This Week In Business: Why Am I Spending So Much Time Doing This?

One of the things I miss about working for a company is the built in tech support. I worked with some smart people who were happy to help me out with my various tech issues (and they still help me actually, but to an understandably more limited extent). Yes, I may have a blog and be good at social media but high tech, I am not.

I feel like I now spend an awful lot of time doing extraneous stuff that makes me say: why am I even doing this? No more so than the morning I spent taking apart my computer and putting it back together. (More on this in a moment.)

Sometimes when one owns a business, you have to just roll up your sleeves and do what you got to do!

This is a photo of the miracle as it happened... though maybe it's not a miracle if you spend half a week's work time on getting it to work?

Here were this week’s ‘accomplishments’. (Accomplishments being kind of a strong word.)

I spent 20ish hours trying to get video off my borrowed video camera and eventually succeeded… with a ridiculous amount of help.

The following people helped officially end “Nicole’s Video Saga ’09”:

Matt, the poor guy who lent me the camera
Helped via: Facebook chat support, in person via physical dropoff of firewire card
In addition to lending me the camera, Matt has spent a few hours troubleshooting with me over Facebook chat. Also he has, over the course of the last two weeks, lent me a firewire card and a firewire-to-camera connector cord, both of which he found ‘just lying around’. I offered Matt a million dollars for helping me out and he said it was “no big deal”.

John, a friend/photographer
Helped via: Phone and email
Back when I thought the USB connector might work to get the video off the cassette (I found out today it wouldn’t from Matt), John sent me the link to download the proper driver from Sony’s website. He also listened to me complain for awhile.

Phil, a blog reader/friend
Helped via: Facebook chat
Phil, one of my blog readers and now Facebook friends, found a post on a few forums about troubleshooting the camera’s connectivitiy, and also told me about needing the proper drivers installed. I love that people I’ve never even met have gotten involved in Video Saga 09!

Sue, Too Cute Tuesday participant/friend
Helped via: In person telling me I wasn’t crazy
I brought my camera to Too Cute Tuesday and showed my friends the cords I haD versus what I thought I needed (all I knew was something else). Sue told me that I was missing a cord, and when I talked to Matt today, I was able to confirm that with him it was indeed the cord Sue was talking about.

Apparently, when Chris and Renee borrowed the camera, they had used their own firewire-to-camera connector cord. Ah-ha! I’m not completely stupid!

Sarah, friend down the street who owns a Mac named Mildred
Helped via: Computer lending, multiple days
So the USB connector was not going to work; it was going to have to be firewire. After taking apart my computer and realizing there was no possible space to put the firewire card, Matt told me all Macs had them built in. Sarah lent me her Mac, even as she’s in the process of moving and entertaining visiting relatives.

Renee and Chris, friends, video participants, and previous users of video camera

Helped via: Facebook chat and over the phone

Renee and Chris, my Mac friends, helped me hook the camera up to Mildred and get her to detect the video. iMovie is an ‘application’. Yup, I would have never known where to find that.

Downloading successfully began while I was still on the phone with Chris. I had to keep from screaming with joy. I eventually won at downloading video. I guess now this means I get to edit…

I worked on my business plan.

You know, because I gave myself a deadline last week. Three more weeks to get in done.

My friends Sarah D. and Matt have been sending me helpful links when they comes across them. Please feel free to do the same; I can use all the information I can get!