Addicted to Online Learning

 One of the things that I have an obsession with is taking online courses.  Within the past few years, I've been taking all sorts of classes to learn new hobbies and skills.  With each class I take, I post a review on Youtube.  

In the beginning, I really thought my video editing skills were really great, but in reality, the videos really sucked.  So sometime last year, I took Casey Neistat's Storytelling Class.  I learned a few things here and there, but it didn't turn me into a great filmmaker.  I think everyone has different abilities and ways of thinking which is why when you watch Youtube, there are thousands upon thousands of videos about money, but every single person explains it differently and have different experiences and perspectives.  

I wanted to learn how to paint and post art on my walls so I took Ten Hundred's Creative Acrylic Painting Class.  He is a famous graffiti artist that was based in Seattle, now he goes around the world and paints murals and creates Youtube videos.  He is doing pretty well for himself.  He has a very hip style and very down-to-earth fellow.  When I was taking his class, he even commented on our work!  I have mad respect for that dude.

Another class we took was Christina Tosi's Creative Baking Class.  We learned how to invent our own cookies, pies and cakes.  What I actually learned is that I really don't like cooking.  It's a time consuming process and those sweets are really unhealthy.  Since I can't eat what I make, we have to give it all away.  I wouldn't say that it was a total waste of time, because whenever a potluck comes around, I can contribute by providing cookies or something.

A really fun class that we recently took was David Blaine's Magic Class.  It is really fascinating how he does magic.  There is a lot of tricks to fool people and hide things and distract people.  It is a useful skill in the real world.  Too bad I can't remember how to do the tricks after I watched his videos.  

A class that I feel like I wasted my money on was Kevin Perry's Class on Video Wizardry.  It was really expensive for the amount of information that was given.  But after seeing his video and may other videos on the web, it seems like the standard camera that people are using are Canons because of the lens choices and compatibility with other software such as Dragonframe, a piece of software dedicated to stop motion videos.

So what class am I taking right now you may ask?

I'm taking a class called 30 Day Course Creator.  This class is the most expensive class I have taken so far.  ~$700.  With this class, I hope to learn how to create my own classes and upload them and learn how to use Facebook ads and such.  So far, I'm learning a lot about finance and accounting.  The really push really hard in the first few days in the class with the boring Excel spreadsheet data stuff.  I'm actually starting to get bored of it.  But who knows, I'll keep trekking on and see what I come up with.

I miss the Pandemic Sometimes

 The pandemic started in January of 2020.  There was a total lockdown.  People were ordered to stay indoors, and there was no traffic in Los Angeles.  For the first time, it was relatively quiet everywhere I went.  I never stopped working for my job.  I still traveled and sometimes, there would only be like 20 people to board a plane.  I remember having entire rows in front of me and behind me all empty on Delta flights and being served a snack in a brown paper bag with a small bottle of water.  From toilet paper shortages to mask-wearing debates, it was a crazy time.  

When I was stuck at home, Cecilia and I would do workout videos after work and take online classes on an online platform called Monthly.com, not it had renamed/reinvented itself to be Studio.com.  During the pandemic, we learned to bake, oil paint, paint with acrylic paints, produce music, storytelling, making videos, dancing, etc.  We had a very productive time.  

Cecilia and I also took the opportunity to get married in Hollywood, CA at a stupid expensive place called Yamashiro Hollywood which is a historic Japanese structure on top of a hill above the Magic Castle in Hollywood.  We got a HUGE, HUGE discount and because it was the pandemic, there was a limited number of people we could invite.  Something that would've cost us upwards of $40K only cost us $12K, mostly because we only invited around 30 people.    It was a great deal.

I don't want to focus on negativity, but a lot of people did die due to the pandemic.  Los Angeles had about 300 deaths per day at one point.  You may think... WOW!  300 people per day?!?  Yeah, that's a lot, the morgues were running out of space.  However, after the pandemic, no one can tell that the population had decreased at all.  People die all the time, but not because of the pandemic.

Now, the pandemic is over.  Everything has gone back to normal right?  Not really.  The workforce has embraced video meetings through Zoom or Microsoft Teams.  Silicon Valley has recently had massive layoffs of tech gurus.  Nowadays, these huge companies can hire from outside of California and not pay them "California Pay" which is crazy insane high.  

Do I miss the pandemic?  Yeah, kind of.  As Neil DeGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist, and overall genus dude) would explain, that the pandemic was a test to see if humanity would all come together and tackle a single problem and, guess what?, we have all failed.