thestoryofjory.com

You may have noticed some wackiness going on with my blog yesterday morning if you subscribe via RSS. That’s because I have a new batch of students for MC 2023 Electronic Communication! Today in class we went over how to update content and theme settings on Wordpress. Apologies if that meant you got some random blog posts in your RSS reader!

Here’s something funny (I hope) to make up for it.  I made my students recite part of this to emphasize that the computer is a tool they must master; not an obstacle to overcome:

This is my Mac. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Mac is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My Mac, without me, is useless. Without my Mac, I am useless. I will treat my Mac as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its applications, and its file system. I will ever guard it against the ravages of data loss and out-of-date software as I will ever guard my legs, my arms, my eyes and my heart against damage. I will keep my Mac’s desktop clean, my files backed up, and software ready. Before Jory, I swear this creed. My Mac and myself are the creators of multimedia. We are the masters of electronic communication. So be it, until at least the end of the semester!

Fun fact: iMacs in our labs actually dual-boot Snow Leopard and Windows XP.  I think that’s pretty cool, and convenient for students.

It’s been a long day of traveling for the Oklahoma Sanity Riders. There’ve been just a few stops – at Ryan’s Buffet in Springfield, MO for lunch and a quick stop off at a highway restroom east of St. Louis.

Most riders have passed the time either sleeping or reading. Some have watched movies on their iPods and computers. There are five televisions on bus one; they’ve played Law & Order, Scrubs, and of course The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. In addition to the televisions, the bus has wi-fi, several power outlets, reclining seats, and a restroom. It’s certainly nice, and we’re as comfortable as we could possibly be making a 24-hour bus trip.

I spent the morning on the bus editing and attempting to upload a 45-second video to YouTube. Tanner read mostly, and dozed. After our lunch stop, I got the camera out and made my way down the bus aisle to meet a few more of my fellow passengers. There are a lot of interesting people on the bus, and I wish I was able (and they were all willing) to talk to all of them. It’s been enlightening to hear what motivated such diverse personalities to board a bus to Washington with 120 strangers for a 60-hour whirlwind trip.  People are talking about their backgrounds, their hopes and excitement for the rally, and politics, of course.

I hope to do something meaningful with the information and footage that people have so generously shared with me. After we stop for dinner, I’ll try to make another (better?) video that better represents their views.

Video from early this morning – departing Stillwater’s Strickland Park for Washington D.C.! I edited this on the bus and uploaded it between Tulsa and Springfield. It looks pretty funny; me editing on FCP on a 17″ MBP that’s wider than the seat tray. I know the video quality isn’t stellar; I had to compress it to only 8MB to be able to upload. Not too bad for my first outing with a DSLR!