Don't Worry be Happy

I wanted to share my lip sync video. I did have it for the group video, but I don't think it got loaded to the server properly and therefore didn't make it in.

So here it is.

My individual project

For my individual final project I chose the idea of using web 2.0 tools to promote my friend's romance novel, Hunting JC. I put together a prezi presentation to show what I would do to accomplish this goal.

Click the forward arrow to move through the presentation.

Using prezi to create this was fun and pretty easy. It is a lot more interesting that power point presentations. The pictures are screen shots of some of the things I have done. I have started to blog about the book and added a link from my blog to her website. I worked on creating an ad for Facebook, I sent out some tweets with links to the book's site.

I don't know much about marketing, but it has been fun to try to get people to check out her book. Hopefully it helps too.

I created the internet - wordsmithing

I think like some of my other classmates, I wasn't quite sure what to do with this. Do I just edit what DI has already written? I thought what was there was already pretty good. I don't really consider myself a master of the written or even spoken word most days. I don't seem to be able to find the right words sometimes. So, I waited, and then I forgot, and then someone else posted about it and I had to prompt myself to look at it again.

I got the impression that DI didn't want us to just edit what was there, but add to it, create more. I added a few things, in orange. There are s few other things that came to mind, but couldn't quite figure out how to make the words flow well together to keep the rhythm that seems to already be there. I would like to keep watching to see what might get added to see if I could make more additions.

I do remember buying my first computer, my first year for grad school 1995. I didn't get Internet right away. I had email at school and wasn't sure if I would ever need my own. Boy, was I wrong. The next year I signed up for mindpsring, which became earthnet. I kept them for years before going to free email. I remember being so excited to get home and check to see if I had emails. I also remember spending an entire evening staying up and emailing back and forth to my boyfriend at the time. I would send an email and then wait for his reply, hitting refresh every few minutes. I was so excited when instant messenger came about. At one time I was jealous of those on AOL because they had the little voice that said "You've Got Mail". I quickly got over that and actually try to avoid AOL.

It's hard to believe that I have witnessed the birth of the Internet. It seems that is has always been there. What did we do before it? Students now have more access to things for research and don't have to spend hours going through card catalogues and studying the dewy decimal system. You can do all of your Christmas shopping without every leaving your house. While you can make great contacts and connections, I do think that they are not the same as some of the ones you have in person with someone. I know people make the comments that the Internet is so impersonal, you don't learn social skills. True, there will always be those who take it to the extreme and keep human contact to a minimum, but I don't think it is the norm, at least not yet.

Geotagging

When I first got my Mac and started uploading photos, I thought it was really cool how it could automatically read the dates of when the images had been taken. I could also then go in and add tags to say where they had been taken and it would put everything on a map for me. I had never seen anything like that before.

I hadn't realized that Flickr could do that as well. It did take me a little time to figure out how to actually add the geotag to my photos. I easily figured out tagging them, but getting them onto the map was a little more tricky. I think I ended up doing it in a rather round about way, but it all worked out. It's fun to see where everyone in our class has been. There are some great traveler's out there. I am hoping that I will be able to add some international pictures soon.

I knew a little about EXIF, although not that term. I know that a lot of things now have the capability of tracking your exact location. My cell phone has that, but it is only activated if I dial 911. Other than that I don't think it has any idea of where I really am. I think GPS technology is really amazing, but there are times I really wonder if we really need all of it to be so accessible. I have to say I am not terribly excited that you can look up my exact house on google earth, even though I think the concept is cool. I don't know if it's that I worry about the "big brother" concept, or that I really just don't think that people need to know all about that unless I want them to. It just seems to much like someone spying or being that annoying busy body always in everyone else's business.

On the other hand, after watching the TED video, I think that is amazing. I agree with Morgon that I would put some of my images out there to let people pull from them and create full images of places or things. I can see al sorts of ways that technology could be used. It would be great in the classroom. Imagine studying architecture and being able to look at the building from all angles and not just a one dimensional picture. I went to the website and looked at some of things they have on there and was just fascinated.

maps to adventure

I used to spend my summers working in Ogden, UT for a small summer stock theatre. At the beginning of each summer I would plot my route, pack up my cats and head west. Most times I did the drive by myself, so I would try to find things along the way to make the drive worth it.

This route is similar to the one I normally took, but I added some stops that I would like to make if I did this trip again.

First stop would be Louisville, KY, home of the Kentucky Derby. The one time I tried to stop there to tour Churchill Downs, they were actually closed for some fund raiser. The next stop would be Santa Claus, IN. It looks like a neat little place and they have an amusement park. Third stop would be Hastings, NE, home of the Kool-Aid museum. I have always wanted to stop there just to check it out. Could stop in Omaha to see the largest ball of stamps too. Last stop Ogden, UT.

I often find some of the places to stop from RoadsideAmerica.com. Completely random things.

I have used Mapquest and Google maps for some time. I love road trips and finding new routes. They are both pretty easy to use. You can just type in your destinations and they plot the route. You can also set some parameters to include avoiding toll roads and other things like that. Once the map route is shown, you can even drag the line on the map around to change your route.

I don't use mapping sites as much anymore now that I have access to GPS.

Hunting JC

My best friend has just had her first book published. It is a romance story. I have never really understood the romance genre. I prefer stories with a plot and real characters. I have to be honest, at first I bought her book with no real intention of reading it. But then I thought, what kind of friend am I? Not a very supportive one. So I have begun reading it. I might be a little biased, but so far it is pretty good. I like that as I am reading I can see my friend in every line. I guess it is true, good writers write from what they know. She does this very well.

She writes under a pseudonym, Dominique Eastwick. I should ask her how she chose that name. She is the mother of two boys and teaches pre-school. She used to work in theatre as a costumer. She designed and built costumes for a lot of shows and was very good at it. After getting married and having her second child, she decided the theatre life was just too time consuming to enjoy her family, so she "retired" from that career and moved into being a full time stay at home mom.

This is where she really began writing. She always wrote little things here and there, but she really started expanding and wanting to be published. The first book she wrote hasn't been published yet. It is a historical romance. She says it is hard to break into that area of the genre.

Her current book, Hunting JC, has already received good reviews.

Curtain up (and down)

Last week was a very long week. We had rehearsal every night and worked hard to get the performers to feel comfortable. Many of them kept forgetting their lines. We had several run throughs of the show with people skipping over huge chunks of dialogue and causing others to get confused as to where they were. One of the office assistants for Hidden Voices worked tirelessly with individuals to run lines and help them. On Friday, we felt it had all been worth it.

Friday before the show, we all arrived early so we could have dinner together. We thought it would be good for everyone to relax and spend time just hanging out. Everyone was nervous. I kept getting asked what should they do if they skip lines, as we said all week, you just go with it. One girls actually asked what would I do if someone passed out during the show. At first I just laughed, and then she said she was serious. I reassured her that we would stop the show, make sure she was ok and then see if everyone felt they could continue. We wouldn't leave anyone out there alone.

That night was great. We had a large audience and they were very receptive. The cast did great. There were a few lines missed, but nothing large. A few times cast members helped each other remember lines they forgot. It was wonderful, a true ensemble.

The second night was even better. They cast was more relaxed. They had a great energy and didn't miss any lines. I felt like such a proud parent. I know I said it before, but it is really great to get to choose the theatre projects I want to be involved with now.

It was just an amazing experience. We did video tape the first night. I am hoping to get a copy soon. So far most of the cast has said they don't mind if we post it on Youtube, but still need to make sure. We have one woman in the cast who is still trying to avoid her abusive ex-husband, so I want to make sure she is comfortable.

The picture is of me along with Jojo and Miguel. They were two of the cast members. They are both in high school. Jojo plays football and is a big teddy bear, although don't tell him that:) Miguel started out as a very quiet kid. He stayed close to Jojo and didn't say much. But he was this first to have all his lines and blocking memorized. He even knew everyone else's blocking. He really started to come out of his shell the last week we all worked together. He is a great kid living in some tough circumstances. His mother disappeared when he was younger, they assume she may have been deported. His father was deported a few years ago. He now lives with his aunt, her three kids and boyfriend in a one bedroom apartment. I plan and hope to stay in touch with him long after this.

We will all get together this weekend to celebrate. I will hopefully post more pictures then.

Riddle

Countdown to opening night

The volunteer project I am working on has entered Tech Week. For those who might not be familiar with the term, this is where we finally add all the technical elements and put the actors and the show together.

This is not always an easy thing, especially working with inexperienced actors. Last night just the tech staff met, the director, lighting designer, sound designer and myself. We tried to go through the entire show without actors and decide where sound and light cues should be placed. This in theory should help save some time in tonight's rehearsal. But there will be plenty of stopping and starting as we figure out sound levels and actual light versus actor placement.

It becomes sort of tedious to most people and I am worried that this group will become easily distracted or frustrated since they have never done anything like this. My plan is to explain the process and its importance and that should help, but three hours of standing around while we try to get things just right will be long.

I also plan to get some pictures of the process over the next few days. I will try to post things throughout the week, but it may not all get posted until the week is over. We have rehearsals every night this week, so I may or may not be coherent enough to blog.

I am really excited about the show. We had a run through this weekend, and while they are still struggling to remember lines, they are really doing a great job of telling the stories. If we all survive the tech process it's really going tobe a great show.

Objectives

In looking back at the objectives I wrote at the beginning of this class, I have found that I think I have achieved most of them. I could add that I don't think I set any goals that I didn't think that I would be able to achieve in this class, but I don't think I made my objectives too simple either.

We touched on a lot of tools, many of which I am still not too sure what to do with. Google Wave is still something I am not sure I will really use. I have found Moodle to be useful and of course I still like Google groups, mostly because I can respond from my own email. You cannot do this with yahoo groups, very annoying.

I read Christie's post earlier and I do agree that it would be useful to really see how these tools could be applied in actual educational setting, but I think we have at least touched on that. We may not have put it into practice, but I can see many of the options the tools can give. I do think that I need to play more with each tool to see what it's true applications are. I don't think we really did that and that would be nice so we could bounce ideas off of one another. That has happened on a small scale but not as much as I would like.

I still think I would have liked a better road map for this course. I guess primarily because I would like to plan ahead. I often felt rushed to finish the list of tasks and not actually really learn about what I was doing. So now I am trying to go back and play with some of the applications to see if I find them useful or not. There are many things that I see purpose for, but not something that I will use right now, such as Twitter.