My First Foray Into Filmmaking
In 2004, I worked with three fellow grad students to create a documentary about a folk artist in Crawford, GA named Bennie Morrison. Bennie paints on a variety of objects including magnolia leaves, bricks, satellite dishes, fans, and more. His art depicts cotton fields, aliens, school buses, farms, outhouses, and any other scene he imagines.
The project was a blast to work on. We were able to spend time with Bennie and watch his process for making art. We learned how to operate cameras, capture audio with a boom mic, and edit video. My old band even provided the music.
It initially began as a class project, but we continued working on the film after the class ended and were accepted into the 2004 Athens Film Festival. That meant that we got to see our movie on the big screen at the Morton Theater.
So, I finally got around to posting part of the documentary on YouTube. Hopefully more people will learn about Bennie's work now that he's Internet-famous.
Top 10 Tools for Learning and Working – 2009
Jane Hart recently posted her 2009 summary of learning professionals' top 10 tools for learning and working. I submitted my lists in 2007 and 2008, but failed to submit my 2009 list before Dick Clark put the year to bed. Tardiness hasn't slowed me down in the past. Why should it now? So, without further ado, here's my 2009 list of top ten tools:
- Google Chrome: Chrome replaced Firefox as my default browser in 2009. It's much speedier, particularly when using AJAX-heavy web applications such as Gmail. I conduct nearly all web searches using the omnibox and I've even made several Application Shortcuts, which isn't a terribly useful feature other than the fact that my web applications open within a streamlined Google Chrome window.
- WordPress: I still consider WordPress to be the best blogging platform available, but I have been increasingly using it as a content management system for more static websites. Wordpress plugins provide the flexibility to create almost any type of site, including a reviews system for a library catalog.
- Brizzly: Brizzly is a web interface for Twitter and Facebook. My favorite feature is how it displays full URLs rather than those mysterious shortened ones. The mute feature is also nice, particularly when you need a temporary break from elearning folks who get tweet happy during lrnchats.
- Friendfeed: I was really hoping to see Friendfeed become a bigger player in the world of social media in 2009. Those hopes were dashed when Facebook bought them out in August, though I still consider Friendfeed an extremely valuable tool. I'm now feeding my social media content from a variety of websites into Friendfeed. This means that it's easier than ever to share content with my online contacts. We're also using it as a collaboration tool in my office to share and discuss online content.
- Readability: Readability is a browser bookmarklet that makes it easier to read online by stripping away all of the typical distractors from a page. This is highly recommended if you follow wordy bloggers.
- Google Reader: Google Reader was included in my 2007 list, but I decided to list it again for 2009. It remains my most used web application other than Gmail. I follow news, blogs, web searches, and social networks using Google Reader. I also make heavy use of the share feature, which is fed into Friendfeed, Twitter, and Facebook.
- Lala: Lala enables me to listen to my music library from any computer. Its interface is very similar to iTunes, which is convenient since Apple recently bought them out. The rumor is that many of Lala's features, including streaming your purchased music from the cloud, will be integrated into a future version of iTunes.
- Garageband: Garageband has enabled me to start recording and writing music again. It's much easier to multi-track with Garageband than with my old 4-track cassette recorder (though maybe not as hip).
- Adobe Connect: Connect was also on my 2007 list, however a couple new features (or, new to me at least) warrant a second appearance. Breakout rooms are a great way to promote attendee participation in a web conference, though I must admit I have not yet tried to use them in a live class. Also, the third-party plugins available from the Adobe Exchange site are helpful and fun.
- Handbrake: I have been using Handbrake to convert DVD's to mpeg-4 files at work. It includes several presets that are helpful when converting videos for ipods, online streaming, Apple TV's, and more.
Our Newest Family Member
My wife recently found this little guy on Manor Road. Each car that whizzed over him knocked him off his feet. She pulled over, picked him up, and now he's ours. We named him Orzo because he had a few maggot friends... I'll never think of her shrimp and orzo dish the same way.
He's healthy now and is making friends with our other animals. Here's a couple pics and a video:
Bottle Bed Update
After ignoring this project for a few weeks, I went back to work on our glass bottle planting bed. The back section was created using wine/liquor bottles. We'll plant succulents in the back... there are already a few agaves and prickly pears.
The front section will be an herb garden and was built using mexican coke bottles (which beats american coke by a landslide)...
Turned out alright... It's a bit hippie, but not too much. Pictures below...
Front Planting Bed
Well, we're basically complete w/ the front entry way. Though, I'm sure we'll add many more plants in the weeks to come... Before and after photos below:
Monk Parakeets Visit My Yard
After months of ensuring that our bird feeders remained full, the famous Austin Monk Parakeets finally came to visit my yard. Here's a bit of history on these birds:
These lime-green birds, also known as Quaker Parrots, have been in Austin for at least the last 20 years... According to an urban myth, the birds came from a pair kept as pets... When the birds fly, you might be able to catch a glimpse of blue in the wings.
Below is a blurry photo of our visitors. They're loud, but pretty. Hopefully they'll come back!
Watch My Dog
We're experimenting with allowing my dog to stay out of his kennel during the workday. The last time we tried this, he tore up every magazine, bill, or book he could reach.
This time, I'm asking for help from the Internet. While at work, watch my dog on this live streaming video feed and comment here if you see him acting up. If he does something bad, I'll reprimand him via the answering machine (which will probably be the most entertaining part of this whole venture).
Lifestreaming and Personal Web Sites
One of my goals for re-vamping my site was to include all the external content I post around the web: google reader items, flickr photos, twitter posts, etc. After all, the traditional personal site is dead.
I've made a good decent first stab at the goal here.... but it's still not quite right. I want you to be able to read my comments about shared Google Reader items, see who's commented on my flickr photos, and see my favorite youtube videos all from my site. Most importantly, I want people to be able to subscribe to one RSS feed that contains all of this 3rd party content.
Dave, at Mezzoblue, is in the process of accomplishing exactly what I want:
"I’m merging my traditional posts with links from Delicious and Google Reader (which is what I was up to when I wrote about the latter’s API), photos from Flickr, and Twitter posts (or tweets, if you prefer). The home page, archives, and primary Atom feed all work on this new system."
Perhaps I could install a Wordpress plugin called lifestream to get me started along this path... but as someone pointed out in the comments re: lifestream:
"...two things: 1) I’d like to keep the number of ready-made plugins down, and 2) since it’s just based on RSS feeds, there isn’t as much information to play around with, so it kinda limits the possibilities. For example, in Dave’s system, with every Flickr post, it shows how many comments that photo has at any given time."
Instead, I need to use these tools' APIs to accomplish what I want. We just did something similar at work (our tag cloud on the "For Undergraduates" page is now powered by the Delicious API). I just need another Christmas break from work so that I can do some more tinkering.
Progress on Entry Way
I know that doesn't look like alot of progress since my last post... but believe me, this was a ton of work. Mostly, it was difficult because I don't know what I'm doing re: gardening/landscaping. Getting those damned pavers even was a pain.
Originally, we'd planned on buying air conditioner pads to serve as pavers. They're cheaper and bigger. But we struck out when trying to find them... so I went with these regular ole' pavers. Turned out pretty nice though.
Next step is to install a border and start planting beyond the entry way. Hey yo!
