Thanks so much for your comments and participation here at this blog! It is greatly appreciated!

Anywho… I wanted to add a related article link that was just posted earlier this morning. It includes some feedback from current library members talking about how video has become an effective learning tool for them. They also provide some insights about how my paid videos compare to what you might find out on YouTube. The link by my name above will take you to the new article.

PS: I noticed that this page and the video above is loading very slowly today… even “timing out” completely. That’s because there are a lot of you trying to watch the video all at once. I guess this is a popular post :) — If the connection does fail for you… just keep trying. It will come back when the web traffic dies down a bit.

Sorry you are having troubles playing the videos. From your email address, I see that you are an AOL user. So I am forwarding the following helpful info that other AOL customers have shared. Unfortunately even at the best of times, AOL can be problematic when it comes to watching online video. But there are workarounds as you will see below…

—–START OF HELPFUL AOL TROUBLE SHOOTING TIPS #1—–

Hi Cindy, happy that I made the decision to become an active member, have enjoyed your weekly news letters.

I am an AOL user and for some odd reason a couple of months ago I started having problems playing your videos. It’s like a record on a scratch repeating the first few seconds.

Now that I am a member I tried again. Still every video gets stuck on just the first few seconds.

I went to your video help page and did everything you listed with no help of correcting the situation.

It’s ok, I am fine. All I have to do is sign out of AOL and get on the internet using my broad band connection so I can use Windows Internet Explorer browser instead of AOL… and then everything works just fine. All the videos are perfect to view.

Just passing on information for the sake of other AOL users who may be having problems too. All is fine I am enjoying your site very much.

Thank you,
Patricia

—–END OF HELPFUL AOL TROUBLE SHOOTING TIPS #1—–

—–START OF HELPFUL AOL TROUBLE SHOOTING TIPS #2—–

Cindy, I just wanted to thank you again for your patience and your help with my problem viewing the videos. I did take your advice and called AOL.

>> Customer Service Number: 800-973-1802
>> http://broadband.aol.com/broadband/getting-broadband.adp

They tried several ways to fix the problem. The girl I was talking to kept saying “that’s weird” and did say it has to be a problem from their end and she would report it and they would attempt to fix it.

They finally had me go through Internet explorer, copy the link from AOL, paste on Internet explorer and pull the site up that way. I do have to go through the whole routine every time I want to see a video, but it is well worth the extra trouble to see them. I am so excited to start making the beautiful beads you have shared with us. Problem is, I don’t know which ones to make first! LOL.

—–END OF HELPFUL AOL TROUBLE SHOOTING TIPS #2—–

BTW it’s not that I don’t like to wear make-up and that I am super vain, but having my face on camera is a lot harder than filming my hands doing something.

There is the extra make-up. It has to be quite heavy when you’re on camera or your whole face washes out. Trust me… I was filming once and had to run down to pick up the kids at school…

When I got there, people were giving me funny looks. I started talking to one of the dads and he looked up he said, “Whoa! I wasn’t expecting that face!” I laughed and told him I was filming. He understood because he used to do theater.

Also, I’m not sure if you know this, but if you don’t constantly smile and talk real fast, you can appear depressed on camera. You’ve seen other people’s YouTube videos… they look like they hate what their doing!

Sometimes when I’m filming, I want to just focus on the subject and not whether I am smiling, have on enough make up or have bed head.

One more thing… the way we film the segments, over the shoulder like we do, the camera angle is not right for getting my face in the shot. I prefer this style over the front angle that many demos are filmed in because you are watching the technique backwards that way.

When it’s filmed over the shoulder, you see it done how it would look if you were doing it and less gets lost in the translation. I hope that makes sense to you all.

I will try to do the odd video with my face in it though if it really is important to you all. Thanks so much for caring. You guys are the greatest!