Finaly Solving a puzzle

Off and on for a few months I have tried to make the presentation software Keynote do what it is advertised to do, namely easily export into a Flash presentation. The problem was the audio portions of the slides would not export to Flash. So after doing a lot of work to make a Flash presentation, I had bupkus. The type of audio files simply wouldn't export. After trying a variety of solutions, I stumbled upon success today. The answer was buried in changing something in the preferences (which is why the correct option never showed up in any of the menus). Voila, success. In some ways it is a little thing, but this will make a lot of other things possible, and fairly easily. What a relief to finally solve one of those never ending vexing technical problems of modern living, only to wait for the next one. But for now, I can smoke a cigar.

The future lacrosse stadium?

I strolled the campus today and took some pictures. I wanted to check out the progress on the new lacrosse stadium, which is supposed to be constructed this summer. Several weeks ago, I saw the construction crew moving a lot of dirt. Well, they've cleared the area, but there's plenty of work to go, as you can see from the pictures. I originally envisioned this project being completed by the time the new academic year started. That doesn't appear to be the case. Well, at least it's underway.

I noticed something about our clock tower I hadn't noticed before. And I only noticed it while studying the pictures I took. The two clocks in the picture aren't giving the same time. At least one of them is right (the one on the left).

Never Ending Road Work

This year has been a construction boom for roads. Everywhere I drive I have faced major construction projects. Sure, it will be great when they're done, but even the alternative routes have construction. At times it's been noisy outside of my office, but the end is in sight. I figure they aim to finish this up before the Woodward Dream Cruise, since it would make downtown Birmingham a mess otherwise. I took a couple of pictures today to remember the disruption. It has wreaked havoc on the parking situation. I am always thankful there's a spot (when there is one). I've included a shot of my building.

A Frivolous Break

I took some time out in the middle of the week to catch the Simpson's Movie. It was everything we've come to expect and more...actually about an hour more. It drags a bit from time to time, but it was well done overall and a good get-away from the go-go pace of extra summer teaching and supervision. Yes, a second related Simpson's post within a couple of weeks...D'oh. And it was great to get out of the 96 degree heat we had today. I've got a couple of window units, but the moive theatre is much nicer, and there's popcorn....hmmmmm...popcorn.

Action...

Since the Spring I have been involved in planning and creating an instructional video for an intelligence test. The video is simply an in-house affair to be used in training our students. We'll be able to put the video up on the secure server for the class, and students can watch the video online as an aid to learning how to administer the test. It's actually quite an involved project. We have had to break every aspect of the testing into its components and figure out how it should look inorder. I have been working with the folks from the Instructional Design Studio at UDM. Simply known as IDS, these folks help the faculty to integrate variou sforms of technology into teaching. The idea is to make the process useful and actually benefit education and not merely "bells and whistles". Today I brought some images over to IDS. We have already shot the footage, and I have done the voiceovers. They are editing the digital video. I plan to use it this semester. It has been a great learning experience to "direct" this video, and better understand how vidoe and films are put together.

Subtle Changes

This is a picture of one of the dorms at UDM that has just received new windows. I watched the workers put in the new windows for a few minutes a couple of weeks ago. The appearance of the building has been improved in a subtle, but nonetheless pleasing way. More importantly, this was an improvement which was promised at last year's convocation (August 2006). It was reassuing to see the change actually take place and is another sign that the university is investing in its infrastructure, which is sorely in need of upgrades at multiple places throughout the McNichols campus. I assume that otherr work is taking place inside the dorm as well. Let's hope that this is a sign of things to come.

Well, it's a start

See all my travel pages

I've filled out my travel map. I've been to a lot of states, but I still have a long way to go for world travel. Canada is not exactly an exotic country. A nice country, but not really very different. I hope over the next several years to add to this map quite a bit. (typo corrected)