New Stuff to Learn

When I was thinking about retirement, I took to heart the adage that one should never give up learning new things. It went hand in hand with the realization that the science I knew was too far out of date for me to attempt to write science fiction. So I started reading science magazines to try to learn Where Science Was At Now, and wrote in other genres in the meantime.

Shortly after I retired, I started publishing, and that required I learn things like editing, formatting a manuscript into a book, and things like that. (And Marketing, which is a never-ending challenge.)

Recently, I signed up for a one-on-one online class. I didn’t think about it at the time, but ideally, this class would require a camera and a microphone attached to my computer. My computer had neither. I tried to make it work by using my cell phone to call in to the classroom, but the url was long and complicated, and my fat little fingers kept hitting the wrong keys. After half an hour of our hour-long time slot, I suggested we reschedule for the following week, and promised I would have a microphone by then. I couldn’t imagine them being very expensive.

When I mentioned to Hubby that I needed to drive to Best Buy for a microphone (about 15 miles in each direction), he said we had a couple mics he wasn’t using, he’d dig one out for me. Later that evening, I found a giant box on my desk. Inside was a huge Snowball microphone.

Procrastination is a funny bird, but it does tend to light a fire under you when a deadline is looming. My next ‘class’ was scheduled for today. Yesterday morning, I decided I’d better get a move on with getting a microphone set up. I had found a headset with attached mic a few days ago, so I decided to try that one first. But first, I needed software that would record audio files.

Both my youngest son and my hubby suggested I download Audacity because it was ‘fairly easy’ to learn to use it. So I downloaded it AND set it up on my computer, all by myself! Okay, the computer did most of the work, I just hit a button here and there. But I basked in the glory of having done that much.

After much studying of the Quick Guide and a couple of tutorials, I finally figured out how to make a test recording and then listen to it. I was surprised at how tiny the squiggles were on my test recording, and when I listened to it, I could hardly hear anything. So more studying and more testing, and I finally figured out how to up the volume. Success! And a good thing, too, because it was time to make supper.

As we were watching tv after supper, it dawned on me that I had made the volume changes in Audacity, which I would not be using during my class. Obviously, I needed to find some way to adjust the volume on my computer. To make a long story short (I know, too late), I found a couple of places in Settings to test the microphone. If anything, the output may be a little too loud. Maybe I’ll have to whisper during my class.

Anyway, I learned some new stuff. Before this, I had some nebulous thoughts on how I could use audio files. Now that I’ve got a little bit of knowledge on how to make them, those thoughts are already blossoming into full-fledged plans.

Wish me luck!