Kabuki at Halloween

Ok, I needed a break from the books. The wife and I decided to splurge on costumes this year. Normally, we would make our own. However, after reading "Memoirs of a Geisha", she knew the costume she wanted to wear this year. I decided that the Kabuki look might complement her look. Plus, it might turn out to be an interesting tax right-off.

After all, Arts of the Pacific Rim, including Kabuki theatre, are core content items in the Humanities course I teach. I'll wear this to school in case the auditors read my blog?

PowerPoint - a RE-emerging Technology

When someone scoffs because of my interest in PowerPoint, I raise a questioning eyebrow. Just because it's been around for 15 years (?) doesn't mean you're using it to its full potential. Think about it. Hasn't everyone been in the training, classroom, or session where PowerPoint was just a substitute for a handout.
Only recently did I start using the custom animation. Imagine my surprise when I produced my first "masterpiece" on the Windows version, complete with moving objects, only to discover that the Mac version doesn't offer this juicy tidbit. You have three options with Mac: the entrance, emphasis, and exit of a custom animation. Only on the PC can you complete the fourth and "definitely the most impressive" action: MOTION PATH or Custom Motion Path.
It seems that no matter how much of a Mac-prophet I become, I feel the need to scratch my head about things like this. Why would the Mac, so capable in the multimedia arena, lack little gems like PowerPoint custom motion paths? How about posting a reply to inform me of any other cross platform headaches I may discover as I strive to become proficient on both the Mac and Windows platform.?

Shame on GarageBand for no Tempo Changes!

Seems like yesterday I was creating my first posting to this site. Time flies when your tied to the assignments that make up the last semester of an Instructional Computer Technology degree. Anyway, over the past two months I've been preoccupied with many of the emerging technologies learned over the past two years. My teaching position requires that I produce several tracks of music, with piano accompaniment and multi-track vocals for a choral program. GarageBand has proven very useful. However, as a studied musician, I have to mention that the software absolutely fails in one key musical concept. You can't adjust tempo in a composition with GB. This truly "bites". I've found that going to my very old 386 (if you remember 1994) with Cakewalk Pro is useful. Having used that software for years, it's easy to record the accompaniment, convert the .wrk extension to .mid, and save it to 3.5 disk....email it to myself, and open it in GB. Lots of steps required to make up for something GB should have been designed to do. I know there are other products that are far better than my old version of Cakewalk Pro, but I don't have the time to check them out at this time. Don't get my wrong. Other than that, "major" problem in my composition needs, GarageBand kicks it! Any advice?