It seems that I am always learning something new. That happens, not because I am such a great student or because I have an insatiable appetite for more knowledge. It happens because I am always trying something new that I don’t know how to do so I have to figure out how to do it. Most of my learning experiences happen while I am trying to do something on the computer. Since I am the person that edits our web site and am involved in much of our audio and video work, I am constantly looking at new programs that will enable us to do more and different things.
One on my latest projects involves placing video on our new web site. (A visit to our web site will show you that I have not yet figured things out. I am still learning.) To work properly some of that video must be in the form of a flash file. So I have been experimenting with different mpeg to flash converter programs. Not having a clue what I am doing presents quite a challenge when video work is concerned. But I can usually follow a trail of instructions and “clues” and ultimately figure things out. Usually. But probably not this time.
I had gone out onto the World Wide Web in search of a program I could use to convert mpeg to flash. There were, as usual, about a kajillion of them available. So I load one down. It doesn’t quite do what I need done. So I download another program. Still no luck. Each of these attempts takes about 45 minutes. There is the time to find the program, download it, install it and then check it out. Needless to say, I am getting tired and just a bit edgy. I try again and am relieved to discover that the next downloaded program has the capability to size the flash file that is produced. Ah, just the missing piece I needed. So I carefully followed the instructions and loaded up my soon to be converted mpeg file. I clicked on the magic “Convert” button. Nothing happened for a few seconds. That is usually a bad sign. Then my machine whirred into action and up popped an error window. These windows appear to inform the user that all is not well with the process and there are suggested steps to take to solve that problem. On occasion such messages are very helpful. This was not one of those occasions.
The error window that the programmer had so generously supplied wasn’t all that meaningful to me. It read (I have carefully duplicated it here for you in its entirety.) “The procedure entry point av_opt_set_defaults could not be located in the dynamic link library avcodec-51.dll.” I am not kidding. That is actually what it said. Unfortunately I did not understand the first part of the message. But fortunately I had not a clue what the second half of the message was about so I didn’t have to worry about not understanding the first part. When I say that I was clueless what I really mean is that I had not a clue what in the heck the message was about. Much like many of the sermons I have suffered through in my lifetime (Some of which I preached.) it was no help to me in figuring out how to make things work.
As I continue on in my journey with God I sometimes feel the same way. I know God has communicated with me. I sense I have been spoken to; I have been in communication with the Almighty. I just don’t have the slightest idea what it is all about. But much like the learning I do to increase my skills using computer programs, I have found that if I follow up on the little bit I understand, if I keep listening and searching, if I think outside of the tiny box my brain lives in, suddenly the lights come on and it all starts to make sense to me.
Obvious, I believe that we should always be learning. Don’t retire, don’t quit, don’t give up and don’t come to the bogus conclusions that you already know it all or you are no longer capable of learning. Keep digging. God is not finished with us yet.
Copyright © 2008, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
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