Who's your look-alike?

Today we learned how to use iphoto and collected photos for it.

This kind of tool reminded me of my childhood, when I frequently scribbled on everything.

While I played around with it, I came up with an interesting idea. I thought it interesting to find someone who look like ELP teachers including Rab. So I searched for them and here's what I found. I hope you enjoy!

Chris Hale(DJ, ELP teacher)

Joe Satriani(guitarist)

Chris Hopkins(ELP teacher)

Elton John(musician)

Miguel Sosa(ELP teacher)

Oompa Loompa (in the movie Charlie and the chocolate factory)

Paul Wadden (ELP instructor)

Earl in My Name is Earl (just kidding)

Ged O'Connell (ELP lecturer)

Eric Clapton(guitarist)

Christopher Gallagher (ELP lecturer)

Matthew Macfadyen(English actor)

Bill Harshbarger(ELP teacher)

Father Christmas

Robert Homan (ELP lecturer)

Superman

Noah Benett in Heroes

Steven Engler (ELP instructor)

Stone Cold Steve Austin( professional wrestler and actor) ※This idea is originally Rab's)

And finally , we have Rab!

Paul Krugman (Nobel-winning economist)

It took me over two hours to find these people...

I hope it was worthwhile!

5/26

Today we received a lecture on prezi by Shantonu and Saori. Both the way they presented prezi and prezi itself were fantastic. Prezi seemed not so simple for me, but their lecture helped me understand it. I was surprised they were so familiar with many functions prezi has. I don't think I could explain even in Japanese so well as they did in English. It's not just about the English skills. They must have been prepared for it very much. Thank you Shantonu and Saori! I want to do a presentation with prezi someday. Maybe I will for my essay.

Next class is on iMovie. I think I'm going to make a movie for my presentation even though I have never done that, so I look forward to it.

5/23

At first, I made a pair with someone I didn't know, who was math boy Yuya. Then we talked about how we utilized the tools Rab introduced to us. Yuya and I also talked about our essay topic. He said he was going to write on the energy problem, which is now the hottest topic in Japan. And I told him at least I was going to make a presentation on Bin Laden's kill, though I'm not sure if my writing is on the topic since I have my TW class in Winter. It could be out of date by then. Who knows how it will be in six months? Anyway, my presentation will be on Bin Laden's kill and I think I will make a video for it if I have time to do so.

After that, Rab introduced Google Sites. It provides you with a easy way to create your own website. Using it, we have to make a website, that is supposed to contain all the things we are going to touch upon in our essay.

I want to write more, but I have a test to worry about. So please excuse me. See you when I have time!

5/18

Today we learned how to use Keynote in the other Mac room.

Rab got us familiar with how to put pictures and movies in the presentation slides.

Some ELP teachers also joined our class session today. I thought professors were all supposed to know this kind of thing. But obviously they don't. Rab said that the guy who sat in the center of the room, during his lecture on PowerPoint, deleted all his slides except the one he wanted to delete. Important thing is he couldn't recover the slides. They are all gone. Imagine all the time and efforts he spent on creating the slide show and how embarrassed he was because he accidentally did it in order to teach students how to use PowerPoint. I feel really sorry for him!

At least in my use of PowerPoint type of softwares, I don't care so much what it is as long as it has the very basic functions of the softwares. But for those who like to decorate slides with cool effects, Key note would be the best choice.

If you can't afford Office or Keynote( I don't know if you need to buy it), you should check http://ja.openoffice.org/.

This OpenOffice is like a free version of Microsoft Office, which can be used on Win, mac and Linux. It can convert files created by Office or probably Mac's counterpart. And the most impressive thing about this software is that it is free.

By the way, today Shantonu asked Rab how to put a Youtube video in the slides and Rab said you have to convert one into another format to do that.

This is what Youtubefire, which I already introduced in my blog, does for you.

Youtubefire gives a way to save a Youtube video on your computer as wmv, mp4, avi..blur blur blur.

You just have to add the word "fire" after youtube of the address

So like I explained in the previous post, if the address is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gy25McxkEI, you just have to rewrite it to http://www.youtubefire.com/watch?v=8gy25McxkEI.

I don't know if even any of my classmates check this blog or not, but I'm feeling like I have to let you know what I know if it seems informative enough!

P.S. Looks like Youtubefire isn't working on Mac now. So you need to switch to Windows or wait till the maintenance is finished.

5/11 and 5/15

On 5/11 we did exactly what I wrote we did in the last post. I'm quite relieved! After all, I'm not so nuts. I think I felt like I forgot all about it because the contents of the last two classes are almost the same. I couldn't distinguish one from the other and I was under that impression that I was going crazy. But it seems like I wasn't. good thing to know!

On 5/11 Rab introduced how to record a video using Quicktime player. I have my own PC camera and microphone to use for ridiculously useful Skype, so I already knew how to do it on Windows. Yet I'm not a big fan of Mac, so I wasn't familiar with the way on Mac. You just have to mute the output, launch Quicktime and select the Recording button. Very simple!

After that, we recorded our pre-presentation, which I couldn't because I forgot to push the recording button. Maybe I need to restate it is not simple at all. On this planet there are some very dumb people who find it impossible. But don't worry. Like I said, I have my own camera and microphone. So I recorded it at home. Watching it was catastrophe beyond human imagination. I know I was terrible, but I didn't know I was this terrible. Soon after playing the video, I suspected that something was very wrong with my microphone, but it wasn't! What's wrong was me, not the microphone. But it's not the end of the world. These days everyone says the individualities, including one's weak points, should be embraced!!!!..... Yet unfortunately, I don't agree with this opinion. Before anything, one has to prove himself worthy of recognition as an individual. Therefore, very,very unfortunately for me, since I'm one of the ICU students, I have to do my best to prove myself.　Actually, I've been always doing what I can to make the situation better in my own way( Useful expressions!!).

I know my writing is too redundant considering the purpose of this blog is reviewing what we learned in the class. Rereading the above writing, perhaps I might even sound like some kind of junkie. So maybe I will make it as brief as I can in next post. Stay tuned!

amnesia

On 5/9, we covered how to use Google Form. It is one of the functions google document has. Google Form gives a simple way to create a variety of questionnaires. I tried it to ask Yoshiki about the legality of Bin Ladin's kill, which will be my essay topic.( But since I have TW in winter, considering the freshness of of topic I would have to change it when writing.) It is impressive that Google Form sends a feedback to a questioner as soon as a form is completed. Rab said that it would be a great help if your essay is about something to which people's ideas matter. We should also note that we have complete representation of those concerned when conducting a survey. For example, if you only got answers from ICU students but the subject should not be limited only to the ICU community, it would be a grave mistake to present the result as a complete sample. You might end up being accused of lacking neutrality toward the subject. So watch out when you pick up people to whom you send your questions.

I just realized I was writing the same thing as I had written days ago. Am I out of my mind? Or maybe I'm having amnesia. Not to make fun of myself as I always do, I think something is seriously wrong with me. These days I have been having difficulty remembering my friends' (most are among my best!!) names. Maybe I should go see a doctor. Or I will be fucked up! I don't want to get any more nuts than I am now. This should be the minimum requirement for humankind. I hope I will remember the things covered last Wednesday and return to writing. I'm very serious. and sorry.

As far as I remember, I think we covered how to do an effective presentation, which Rab explained using Yoshiki's slides and sound recorder. I hope that's all we learned that day.

5/9

5/9

I've been dizzy all day because I played flying disk without having breakfast or lunch today.

If I offended you in any way, please show mercy to this poor little bastard. I had no intention to do so. I know I wasn't making any sense even when talking with Rab. Sorry, I'm begging for your mercy. But I'm not always making sense especially when I'm talking in English. So you have to get used to this madness if you need to communicate with this poor boy. Anyway, like I said, I'm not feeling well so I'm going to hit the sack.

Today Rab introduced how to use Google form for our writing. Google form provides a number of ways to create questions. You can choose from multiple choice, grid, and normal text question. If your essay topic is on what people think about something, this will help you a lot. After that, we learned how to use Google presentation. We first put a picture into a slide and then learned how to insert videos from Youtube. Rab also taught us the way to put a drawing and a shape into slides. By the next class, we have to make several slides for our presentation on each essay topic.

5/2

Throughout the golden week(Sadly it was not golden "week" for ICU students), I just hung out with my friends and did nothing else. I even forgot how to read books though I have to deal with them for the mid tests to come. hmm...

On 5/2, we first visited the site called "Communication Via Multimedia", which Rab created for the CM course in ICU.( It is an ELP course, but I didn't even know it exists.) This site is very useful because it introduces lots of materials Rab made us familiar with. It should remind me of what I learned in class in case I forgot. In the class, we focused on tips which make research more efficient. In the Research section of the website, you can find some advice for efficient searching. Google Guide gives you lots of helpful tips for Google search. Pandia provides tutorial on the search engines and the search directories. Then we visited Flickr Commons, where you can find lots of copyright-free pictures. It will be useful when we need to use pictures for papers and presentations. After that, Rab introduced Firefox Portable, which can be booted on the USB stick. Personally I prefer GoogleChrome because it's faster, but Firefox is also needed for using Zotero. Firefox Portable will be useful for such purpose. (By the way, Yoshiki told me that the new version of Firefox is much faster than old ones. I would have to see if that's true.) Xmarks was then introduced. It is a tool which enables you to access your bookmark on whatever operation system you are using. It is quite helpful if your home computer is Windows since most of the computers in ICU are Mac for some reason. After that, we tried Wonderwheel and Timeline, which are both Google search functions. Wonderwheel draws a kind of mind map that makes search results visually-easier to understand. Timeline is just like what the name claims. It makes it possible to sort search results in chronological order. You will find it very useful when you need to search something/someone historical. We also tried Google map. It provides a number of ways to view the world. Street View is especially impressive because it makes you feel like you are actually walking on the street. In order to collect images, Google cars with a digital camera on the roof drove through all the streets and took the pictures of them. How crazy they are!!! When I was a boy, I dreamed about such a thing. But they actually did it spending all the cost, which I can easily imagine was not cheap at all. Freaky! Lastly, we saw how Google translate works, which turned out to be not so useful. Rab also introduced Google Toolbar. Google Toolbar is an add-on program that provides shortcuts to main Google applications. For Google junkies like me, it will be a must tool.

4/27

I watched Blue Valentine today. The story line was too sad to watch. It is about a family in which something is very wrong with the couple. They break up as a result and the movie focuses on the process where their relationship come to an end. As much as I would like to explain all about it, I can't. It was such a...grotesque story that I do not want to remember any of it. But I am sure you can use it in order to talk your girl/boy friend into breaking up with you. This movie will show you how wrong it can be if you do not choose your mate very, very carefully. Yet perhaps this movie could also be good for a couple who are both cool enough to talk about the content. It might help them review their relationship from a completely new perspective.

Anyway, I am happy that it is none of my problem!!!!!!

The class on 4/27 started with visiting websites which share various types of documentaries and for free. The part "for free" is very important because it distinguishes the materials we learned in the very last part of the lecture....but I will not talk about it because I am not supposed to do so.

Anyway, the first one was Free Documentaries. I think the following quote from the site helps you understand what it is like.

At freedocumentaries.org we strongly believe that in order to have a true democracy, there has to be a free flow of easily accessible information. Unfortunately, many important perspectives, opinions, and facts never make it to our televisions or cinemas (you can watch movies in our media category if you want to know why).

As they talk about a true democracy, most of what they provide is on politics. For example, you can find names such as "Iraq for Sale", "The Israel Lobby" and "Hacking Democracy". The site provides streaming videos, which are not very clear, but watchable in terms of resolution. The second one was called Media Education Foundation or MEF. So let's see what the mission is.

MISSION: The Media Education Foundation produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical reflection on the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media.

(from MEF website)

So this site is also a bit of political, but it focuses more on the problem of media literacy, which is Rab's favorite topic, I guess. The reason this site is amazing is because they are very much prepared to help you by providing study guides, handouts and transcript, which are all downloadable for free. Rab said that a professor of media studies opened this site. I really want to say good job to him.

After that, Rab introduced Youtube, Google Video and Veoh to us. I think all of us are familiar with them, at least the first two. Youtube has been very popular since the broadband network spread to the whole part of Japan. Veoh is probably not as popular, but quite useful because being minor means videos are not deleted as often as in Youtube. So there could be videos which can be seen only in Veoh.

And I would like to introduce a way to download videos on Youtube.

1. Open a video that you want to download on Youtube.

2. Add "fire" after jp.youtube of the URL. (So if the video's URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhddQRj7gdc, you just have to change it to http://www.youtubefire.com/watch?v=fhddQRj7gdc. Very easy, right?)

3. Follow the instruction and enjoy!

I hope this will help.

Lastly, Rab told us about the danger of Facebook. Facebook does not care about users' privacies. They treat our information like their product. I always had wondered how they make money from SNS until I listened to him. Now I understand that is how they make a living. I watched Social Network, and I was surprised how crazy founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerburg is. Facebook was not even his idea. He stole it from yacht guys and did not care about it. I admit he is very, very smart, but he is too immoral. It makes sense that he is doing dirty business.

However, I have no choice but to keep Facebooking, and the movie was quite fun.

(Sorry for not adjusting the font sizes. I do not want to be bothered to do so. Even though I write lots of things despite that it is not necessary, I have tons of work to do. So just please pardon me.