Since I have become disabled I have been learning videography and digital multimedia with a computer. Because of my disability I can no longer work and I have a great deal of time available to me and I needed a hobby to occupy my time. Although I like video entertainment and television I could not become just a simple couch potato and watch television all of the time. I needed a hobby that does not require much physical work or much physical space.

I have been working with and networking computers for years. Unfortunately I can't do the physical work any more and my future is uncertain, but I am fortunate to have a skill foundation that I can build upon.

I began with a low cost general purpose computer and I used that to experiment with video until I decided that I liked it. I began by creating video CD's, but I quickly learned that the video quality was marginal at best. It was effective to learn the basics though without spending large amounts of money. I also need a television so I purchased a device from Hauppauge to allow me to watch television, but also capture video. It was a Personal Video Recording device so I could record television digitally like a TIVO device

I decided that I like video and multimedia so I began acquiring equipment and software necessary to capture and edit video clips and images. The WinTV card encodes MPEG 1&2 using hardware and I liked that, MPEG 2 encoding can be quite processor intensive. The video quality of MPEG 1 is marginal and Video CD's are not widely supported by DVD players so I acquired a DVD writing disc drive so I could write and display my work. The MPEG 2 video quality on a DVD is far superior to MPEG 1. At this time I began to get really involved with editing video clips and creating video projects. I have been using products from Ulead and I have been satisfied so I acquired Videostudio and Cool3D as well as other products. The Ulead products are also low cost as I am on a limited income now.

I built a new high performance computer with a Canopus DVstorm2 MPEG card and I am using the Adobe professional video products. I also acquired a Sony Digital video camera. I am learning about delivery formats including web delivery of video content.

I don't know where this will take me or what the future holds, but for now videography and digital editing keeps me very busy and I spend much more time creating video entertainment and listening to country music than I do simply consuming video entertainment.

I am now learning more about 3D multimedia. I have always liked model railroading and 3D modeling allows me to make models without requiring much physical space and with 3D I can also create complete movie scenes.

Although I am physically challenged and I don't know exactly what road my condition will take I prefer to use my skills and enhance them to remain active.