A Fast Approaching Slowness

   I was learning a bit about copyright today, and whether or not it is possible to embed a you tube video without permission from the author. It turns out that it's normally not so straightforward to do, and a lot of the legal terminology didn't seem so clear to me. I decided to opt out of embedding any videos except for the ones which I create myself, using my own pictures, voice over, etc. I figure that it's better if I try to avoid using any copyrighted information from other sources, unless simply as a link or a reference.
    I have had my share of frustrations in trying to convert movies to formats that are easy to upload to blogger. Blogger seems to take quite a while to upload videos, and it seems that the only way to do so easily and quickly is by uploading the video to YouTube first and then adding the YouTube link or reference number to the blogger post.
    I am more or less working on the text part of "Generosity". In general, I am happy with the content, even though the process itself is quite time consuming. I am enjoying in particular the idea of creating something. That is, I have been mostly taking the role of a note-taker when it comes to learning Buddhist teachings (if anything, a kind of passive spectator). With the exception of a few volunteer stints in workshops, I haven't been actively involved in this kind of tangible, visual creation making in Buddhist contexts, and I can see why people get excited about creating their own YouTube videos.
    I believe that an entire thesis can be written from the perspective of how YouTube video making is framed as an act of creation--even if it relies heavily on borrowing and sampling from others. I wonder if part of the excitement is to know what we can innovate or 'riff' off existing designs, thus adding to what is already considered valuable to many viewers. The downside of it, however, is that one can spend literally hours trying to produce a 'tangible' video, and I can see how the act of creation can potentially become a kind of obsession.