I suppose there was bound to be some reaction to the excessive hours I spent working on the Maximo Secrets website the previous week. I feel I have achieved little this week; I will be lucky to dredge up words for a single page.

The YouTube video was published on Thursday and while I started the next video, I made little progress in catching up the missing week from when I indulged myself with a holiday. One video and podcast episode is still my target, but the podcast has stalled for a month now, although I know I can easily catch this up. If only I could catch up with the video and get far enough ahead to counter the similar effect that the Christmas break will create.

The reason for the lack of YouTube progress in the last couple of weeks is because each of the last two videos has been just shy of 30 and 35 minutes long. If a video is twice the length of others, then it will of course take about double the time to produce. The next one will also be a long one, 25-30 minutes, so no catching up during the week ahead I expect. The one after that will be a monster.

The number of YouTube subscribers, views, and watch hours all fell off the cliff during my week away but bounced straight back again after the first video was published. My guess is that the lack of posts on LinkedIn, my only social media channel that I monitor, was the cause of the drop. YouTube subscribers is now 647, with 4500 views, and 300 watch hours. The target of 4000 watch hours in a year is not even a speck of light at the end of the tunnel, I will be lucky to get to 30% of that target at the end of the first year.

I did a little bit of work creating a new page template using the Query Loop Block. It is mostly complete, but I now need to try it out by converting some existing pages. Creating a new page template from scratch is a worthwhile exercise, it starts to make you think of the possibilities. I have made a mental note to also try some patterns and to create my own reusable blocks, when I see something that repeats across posts or pages.

The other midweek activity was starting the new WordPress course for Create Your Own Site. Tanya said it was a beginner’s course, and I noted that it is Module 1, so perhaps there is future ambition towards intermediates. I didn’t do the practise sessions as I had covered similar ground over the previous weeks, and more. It was useful to go through, not just to reinforce the ideas but also to focus on the techniques being used to construct a training course, as that is a likely focus for me next year. I will complete the remaining three lessons either this week or next.

I did have a discussion with my management team, and I will become a mentor for Tadas, the Lithuanian engineering intern who I have mentioned previously in these pages and who now is the owner of a contract with our company. There is likely to be two other new starters in January and I will have the job of making sure they get trained and certified in Maximo. I will soon have to start getting to know the Sensei plugin, a Learning Management System that is also used by WordPress Courses, and another to handle membership of a small number of people, probably the plugin Simple Membership.

The weekend came and the only progress I made was researching lighting as I am dangerously close to not being able to record a video either because it is too dark with the shortage of daylight hours or due to the persistent rain which frequents my little spot in North Devon during the winter months. I lost one recording day this week because of rain, so I had to start the preparation for the next video.

Studio lighting requires a key light set at 45 degrees to the subject and a fill light set at the same angle but the opposite side and half the light intensity of the key light. My research suggests I need a back light set just behind and the same side as the fill light to add highlights to the model’s hair. Well, this model is pretty bald so I can save myself some pennies there. As I am using a green screen you do need to illuminate this from both sides to reduce the effect of the shadows created by the key light and fill light. I couldn’t find a good term for this, Screen Lights perhaps, but all my searching just found the same lights as for the key/fill lights, but I can’t think they would need to be as powerful or need the same capability. Everything also seems to point to diffusers needed all the way round to soften the lights and stop me from squinting.

My biggest worry with all of this is, do I have space? Will I be able to place the lights out of sight of the camera, and still be able to navigate through to the green screen without risking knocking over one of the six tripods. If I get the Lavalier microphone working, I can at least move one tripod and microphone out of the way.

My other worry was whether the Neewer RGB660 Pro LED Video Light Kit will come with UK Power Adapters? I just couldn’t find out after searching and looking at pictures, and in the end, I thought OK, forget about Neewer and go with other brands, but I got the same problem with those. After about 6 hours of research I thought, buy via Amazon as they have a good returns policy. I could swear in the five hours I was doing more research a £30 discount appeared which I gratefully accepted. You’ll have to wait to next week to see if the plugs are OK, whether I have had to buy other power adapters or whether I have sent the package back.

My objectives for week 45 will be:

• Try and publish two YouTube videos, although I doubt, I will catch up by that much.
• Receive and try out the Neewer light kit and work out whether I need lights to illuminate the green screen.
• Finish the new Page template and convert the five pages for YouTube and Podcast so that I can return to a single set of categories rather than having duplicates.
• Continue to rework Categories and Tags across the existing posts and pages.
• Install the Sensei plugin for Learning Management.
• Start using the Lavalier microphone and Power Director 365 video editor.

With a bit of luck, I will receive the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max I ordered so I’ll soon be looking at purchasing a ring light to go behind my laptop. I have visions of using the iPhone to record myself, head, and shoulders, while I demonstrate various aspects of Maximo. Hmm, how do I eliminate the noise of the keyboard?