Notes on Productivity and Job Application

Productivity:
Alright. So this evening I got a lot done. A lot more than I've gotten done in quite a while. I am starting to think that my brain is actually running at a lower excitement level than it should be, unconnected to other issues. A moderate dose of caffeine has made immeasurable difference. I'm working on laundry, organized my disaster zone of a desk (a huge enterprise), found a whole bunch more books on Gutenberg, neatened my room, and organized my bookshelf. I also scanned some photos and a reference letter. I may need to rescan the photos. I've  If all it takes is a bit of mild self-medication to get that kind of work done, I'm all for it.

Here's one of the photos I scanned; proof I might be finishing my last undergrad degree soon.

Job Application:
So, my job application package for SMOE has started to come together. I still have a lot to do, but at least I'm getting started. I've ordered four sets of official transcripts, and should be able to pick them up Monday. This is the first time that I have decided to pick them up rather than have them mailed to me; this was a mistake, but not one that makes that much of a difference. I assumed they would e-mail me when they are ready to be picked up. I'm going Monday to check on them whether I've heard anything or not. I have one of the two reference letters that I need, and I've e-mailed my CERTESL Practicum Supervisor for a second. I've also started to look into renewing my passport. My current one is going to expire in June 2011, not quite long enough to get me through another contract.

Like I said, a lot more to be done yet. I am starting to get excited though. It's going to be great to get back.

Video Contest Win

This will just be a short update to a story I posted a little while back. I am glad to be able to tell you that I won that video contest with my "Why it Rocks to Live Overseas" video. It seems that careful script-writing and photo/video selection has compensated for my crappy voice-over.  I am glad that the contest judges felt I did a decent job of it.

I also want to thank Jay for the video-editing skills that I learned in ECMM 402. I wouldn't have been confident enough to enter the contest if I hadn't gotten the knowledge and practice in that class.

Here's the video, for the curious.

Kindle DX Review

All right, my Kindle arrived on Tuesday, and I've had a few days to play with it. I have decided that it is massively cool. I was pretty convinced of this before I put up the rather outrageous fee to own it, and it hasn't disappointed. I've put together a little list of pros and cons as I see them. There are a lot more pros than cons.

Pros:

- It can read PDFs as they are. I love the fact that I can just throw any PDF file on and it gets the formatting right. It's great for the large number of Uni-related PDFs that I have to read, along with other professional reading, free e-books that are available online, and the learning Korean resources that I have. PDFs don't act exactly like amazon or mobi formatted books, which puts some limits on what you can do with them. You can't move the cursor around among the words, which is integral to a lot of the neat things that the Kindle can do.

- Notes and Clippings. I can easily mark up books or clip out quotes to use in papers or for other things. They're easy to access from my mac when the Kindle is connected. This is one of the things that you can't do with a PDF. Notes are tied to where the cursor is placed, and you can't highlight portions of text to clip without being able to move the cursor around.

- Built in dictionary. Move the cursor to a word in the book and you're provided with a definition at the bottom of the screen. It's neat to be able to check definitions of words without leaving the text you're reading. Again not available for PDFs.

- E-ink and size. The best part of this device is the great screen size and the easy-on-the-eyes e-ink. I have always found extended reading on a computer screen to be hard on my eyes, but the ink of the kindle feels just like reading any regular book. It's also nice that you can modify things like text and margin size. Another thing is that the pages change really quickly, in contrast to what I've heard. It's nothing like the speed that a computer monitor can produce, but I don't find it to be any problem at at.

- Easy access to content. As I mentioned, any PDF, lots of free e-books out there, and even things like Zinepal which will produce mobi formatted versions of web-content for you. Of course it's also nice to have access to the books, magazines, and newspapers that Amazon offers, from here, and from over 100 other countries.


Cons:


- Price. Yah, it's a big chunk of change. I feel it's worth it, especially with my travel plans. If book readers are to spread in popularity the price is going to have to come down though.

- Organization. I would like to be able to set up some more complicated ways to organize the material I have on the device. The built in sorting options are nice, but with the variety of material I have on there, it would be great to be able to set up folders or something.

Video Editing Complete! (More or Less)

I have just finished spending parts of an afternoon and evening putting together a short video to enter in to an online contest. I'm hoping to come away with a prize, but I don't know if the video is of that quality. It's basically an explanation of why it's good to go teach overseas. I used a lot of photos and a few little video clips, with myself doing the voice-over. I really enjoy putting videos together, so it's no loss if I don't come away with a win.

I tried to upload the video to YouTube, but the up-speed out here at the farm is not up for the job. I'll do so when I get back to the city tomorrow. I'll put a link or embed the video here as well, once it's up.

This video creation exercise was another very strong reminder of the reasons that I need to get back overseas. I am waiting on replies to some e-mails before I can really do much towards putting my application package together.

Well, have a good break all. See you on the other side.

Addendum:
I've returned to the relatively fast connection of the city (btw, another reason to get back overseas: truly fast internet) and uploaded my video. Here it is for anyone who's interested. I don't really like the quality of my voice-acting, but I like the video overall.



I will keep you all informed about its performance in the contest. Would be nice to score a win. The 2nd place Amazon credit would be nice to put a few books onto my new toy.

470 Paper Proposal

I am looking at writing about learning using technology in Asia for my 470 paper, specifically learning English as a foreign language using internet and other technology tools. There has been some talk about using remote teaching instead of having EFL teachers travel over and live in the country that requires English language teaching. I'm hoping to evaluate this as an option, see what kinds of downsides this option might have, and possibly look at things like cultural and political influences involved in this kind of move. I don't know what kind of conclusions I might reach, or exactly what direction the paper will take, but it is very interesting to me since it relates exactly to my career path at the moment.

Wikipedia Changes

The additions that I made to a Wikipedia page related to my favorite subway station. It's called Songnae Station, and it was generally my departure point for a lot of my adventures. To the right is the page before I made any changes. I added the following sentences: "It is an above-ground station located in the city of Bucheon. It provides access to many restaurants and other services, including the Toona Shopping Center." I also added the coordinate data that allows people to easily locate the station using other software.

The following two images are the top and bottom of the page after alterations.

 

 

I also learned that there's a difference between Latitude and Longitude in decimal form and with degrees and minutes and stuff. I found a converter that helped me get it into a form that Wikipedia liked.

The location worked great once I got the numbers into decimal form. Here is the pointer that I added on a satellite map (the red A).

 Apparently Google Earth will index Wikipedia periodically, and should find the location that I added to the Wikipedia page. It will then add a link to the location of Songnae Station in Google Earth and Google Maps so that when people look at the station, there will be a link to the Wikipedia page.

Finally, here is a link to the new page. Hopefully the additions that I've made will stick around for a bit. They've been up for a few hours now, so hopefully they won't get axed. 

Wikipedia Page that Dan Edited!

How Hungry Am I?

Ever wondered whether I would resort to eating human flesh? Wonder if our friendship would be enough to stop me if I was running low on food rations? Well finally here's your answer:

57%

Yes, so essentially odds are better than winning a coin toss that I would.