What's up anyway?

You might wonder why nothing ever happens on my YouTube channel (or this blog for that matter) these days. I've said it before. No time. I barely even have the time to tweet, and that's supposed to be fast stuff. This post is just to let you know that I might be changing the direction of the multi8it project. What's to come?

• More Linux related stuff.
• Maybe some coding.
• Probably some politic/hacktivist topics.

I'm really not sure where to take this, I just know that in order to put something out at all, it has to fit my way of life, and the points above are where most of my "computerly" interests are anyway, so sharing those interests will probably not feel like a chore.

Buh-bye!

Summing up 2011

Since it is the end of the year, I thought taking a look in the rear view mirror might be in order. This year has in many ways been my "coming out" year. I started making videos for YouTube. I got a domain name, and set up a web site (which still needs a lot of work). I simply took a leap that I've been wanting to take for some time. Let's have a look:

January: My son Alfred was born. Damn this was cool. Easily the coolest thing I've ever experienced. He has leveled up incredibly fast during his first year.

February - June: During this period I mainly adjusted to being a parent.

July: I put up my first chip tunes on YouTube and got some nice comments. Then I decided to start making tutorials, something I've wanted to try for a long time. The subject was to be MilkyTracker, the program I used to make my chip tunes.

August: A month of mainly songs, and not so much tutorials. This was due to me being away for work.

October: My music production starts to stagnate a bit. This due to a lot of school work. What ever I produce for YouTube is mainly focused on the tutorials.

November: I launch my website, multi8it.com. I make another part of the tutorial series.

December: Dry month.

Now, for the main purpose of this post; what can I learn from this? Well, first of all, this stuff takes time, more time than I have. Maybe I need to review my work flow. I do want to put a lot of time into the video editing, as I think that  gives my tutorials their flavor, but if keeping the current work flow means that nothing gets done, then I need to look things over. At the moment my work flow looks roughly as follows;

1. Script writing.
2. Record audio.
3. Record video.
4. Mix them together and add transitions.
5. Export and upload.

The big time consumers are 2, 3 and 4, but I feel they need the work, or else they won't get that multi8it feeling I'm aiming for. I also want to create more music, partly because that's how I learn what to teach, and also, it's a really nice form of letting your creative steam off.

All in all it's been a great year, especially with all the nice comments I've gotten on my YouTube channels. On of the best things was when I got my first (and so far only) comment on this blog. I've never gotten any blog comments before, and commenting is generally a hassle for the reader, at least that's how I think about it. It feels good that someone actually found the reading engaging enough to give feedback.

For the upcoming year I really hope the multi8it project will continue to grow. Once the MilkyTracker tutorials are done I will be looking for other programs to write tutorials for. I also hope to produce some kind of E-book with the best stuff from the video tutorials.

To all the people that followed me, commented and (hopefully) enjoyed the multi8it project so far; I wish you all the best. Without you, this effort would be pointless.

See ya!

What is an hour worth?

The title of this post is a question that has a different ring to it these days. If you didn't know, my wife and I were blessed with a child in January this year (2011). Since then, time is more and more becoming a highly valuable asset. Now, don't get me wrong, I do love spending time with my son, but my sort of new found hobby - YouTube - has taken quite a blow. It's been more than a month since my last video upload, and time is ticking.
I feel I have found an interesting subject for my videos, and the response I've gotten proves this. The really sad part is that my MilkyTracker tutorials are just starting to get somewhere, and I really hate leaving the viewers hanging in the middle of a series. Although it might look as though the multi8it project is no more, this couldn't be further from the truth. I have registered the domain multi8it.com, and I have some plans for it. At the moment I plan on sticking with blogger as blog engine, simply because I like it. I will probably mainly use the domain and the hosting as a portal for the project, and a place to host audio files as well as project files. Initially I will not put the MilkyTracker tutorials there, as they somewhat depend on the annotation system. However, I want you to have your say. If you want the tutorials, rendered with annotations in mind, but without them, I will put them up.
This was just a tiny update to let you know that things are moving, albeit slowly. Now I'll sit down and record the audio for the next MilkyTracker tutorial.

Peace!

To tweet or not to tweet...

...that is the question. As usual, I wanna apologize for not putting up videos as often as I would like. Now, the matter at hand. I recently signed up for Google+, and I've loved it ever since. My issue is that I'm not the best social media socializer in the world, and keeping more that one account running at the same time is quite a lot to ask from someone like me.

There's no way I'm leaving Google+, I think it really has the future ahead of it. Face book is no option, since I'm rarely there anymore. I'm actually considering deactivating my account there altogether. Identi.ca is not an option either, since I want the "on the go" ability. There simple aren't any Identi.ca apps for Android that I feel comfortable using (the Google+ one kicks ass). This brings me to twitter. I do have an account there (@multi8it), and I've used it to some extent. Still, with the advent of Google+, there really is no reason to keep multiple "public social media" services going at the same time. I might reach a few more people, but since the multi8it project is so niched anyway, people who want to follow me will probably do it anyway.

So, if you're a twitter user, and better yet, if you're following me on twitter, I'm so sorry to announce that I probably will be even less active on twitter than I've been up to this point. I really urge you to check Google+ out. If you want to sign up, feel free to follow me there (http://gplus.to/simonwessel). The nice thing about Google+ is that you don't have to sign up to follow anyone there, so it's up to you.

Anyway, see ya around! Peace!

Workflow evolution

I just wanted to give you an update on my workflow. To give you necessary background info; my wife and I were blessed with a child in January. He's now 8 months old. Sleep is important, especially in that age, when you're establishing your routines. That is the reason I've kept my recording to daytime. I simply don't want to disturb his sleep. Yesterday I tried doing some recording in the evening, and guess what - it worked just fine!

Now that I know I'm not risking waking him up I feel I'm sort of standing in front of a personal workflow evolution. This means that I probably will be able to put more time into my YouTube video making.
I know I still have a lot of MilkyTracker tutorials ahead of me and they are on the horizon. However, I want this project to be sort of a dialogue.

My question; what do you want to see once the MilkyTracker series is wrapped up? You can comment here. You can comment or PM me on YouTube (simonwessel). You can tweet me (@multi8it). You can send me and email (multi8it@gmail.com). The choice is yours.

Peace.

Tumblr or Blogger?

I'm checking out the competition. I've had a Tumblr blog for some time (you can find it here), but I can't decide if I should stay there or not. I feel Tumblr is somewhat limited. Is blogger just as limited? Is it better? Or worse? We'll see. One thing is certain, and that is that Google development is not lazy. One thing that might give Blogger the upper hand.