The Football

NECC is happening, and I am going this year!

As the date for NECC approached, I kept having this empty feeling. I couldn't really put my finger on it. The closer it came, the stranger I felt.

Earlier this week, I was running with my dog and thinking about how lucky I have been this year to be able to go to NECC. I looked up in the sky and saw a meteorite cross the sky and burn up. It was an odd coincidence, but really underlined my good fortune.

Last year NECC was held in San Antonio. I led virtual tours of the Alamo and followed the happenings there very closely.

I decided then that I wanted to go to NECC this year because it is going to be in D.C. and that is pretty close to me in Virginia Beach. No plan, I just decided I was going.

Strangely, things started to fall into place. I applied for some money to pay for a conference of my choosing with my school system. Not really sure if my name would be pulled out of the hat, I really didn't put much hope in getting the money. Somehow my name was pulled! I am pretty sure that my selection had nothing to do with the fact that on the application I wrote that I was willing to buy beverages for my bosses who attend the conference. But it didn't hurt either, and now my hotel room is covered for my stay in D.C.

Early in this school year I became involved with VSTE in Second Life. I had no idea that this association could help me to go to NECC, but what do you know? My conference fee was taken care of by this wonderful organization.

Things have really come together, and in a great way for me, but I just couldn't shake the odd sensation that something was missing. Finally, it came into focus. I was going to miss my family. How could I have not seen that sooner? As excited as I have been about going to NECC, I was going to miss my little family unit.

I have tried not to make a big fuss over this trip, even though for me it is a pretty big deal. Calvin, my oldest child at 11, will be going to Australia for 15 days and I won't get to see him off because I will be in Washington. I have convinced myself that he will be fine and that worrying about him is silly. But he is always going to be my baby and he will be on the other side of the world.

Thinking about it now, I can't remember being away from my family for longer than 3 days- ever.

I sat down with the kids on Thursday before I left and went over the details of my plans. I explained how long I was going to be away and counted off the days on my fingers. Savannah surprised me by jumping up and said, ”Hold on.”

She ran to the garage and rummaged around in there for a few minutes. Soon she came out holding a football. She sat back down beside me and plopped the ball in my lap.

“Here. Take this with you, Daddy.”
“What is this for, baby?”
“In case you miss us, you can hug the football.”
How did she know I needed that?

Ah Ha!

A few weeks ago I saw a email from ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) about a digital storytelling contest they were having to celebrate their 30th anniversary.

When I first saw the description I immediately remembered my first technology Ah Ha! moment, and it stuck with me. For the next two weeks, I could not get the idea out of my head, so I had to make the video.

So here it is, my entry in the ISTE Digital Storytelling contest-


Special thanks to VSTE for linking to the video on the News section of the site!

No matter what, I had fun making the video...

:-)

VSTE Island

Over the past 9 months I have been involved in setting up an island in Second Life for the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE). It has been a wonderful experience. I have met many new people, and expanded my technology and interpersonal skill sets.

But lately a couple of personal problems have popped up that have really been bothering me. You see, as a member of the group that has been involved in setting up this island, I am getting interviewed. By itself, that is not a concern.

I can talk in front of cameras and into audio recording devices, and sometimes I even almost sound like I know what is going on, which is nice. The issue is that I annoy myself. When I listen to myself, I think things like, "How many times can you say Um in a sentence? Idiot."

Perhaps I should have paid better attention in the public speaking class I had in college and not treated it like a joke. But really, how serious can you take a class that you can't fail? The only class that was easier was Weight Lifting. You record your progress and do an end of semester workout- A. In speech class, you stand at a podium and babble for the appropriate amount of time and you pass.

The interview that I gave for the VSTE Podcast Edge (Warning- if you try to download the video- it is very large! Patience...) really hammered home the fact that I am a "Nose Breather," or NB as I now refer to this affliction. This interview was done in Second Life and I was using a headset with a mic while the interviewer was recording a movie with his screen capture software.

I first figured out that I had this problem when I was doing some screen capture video clips for a Second Life video on Jamestown. Knowing I had this problem, I tried to breathe through my mouth in the interview, but I can still hear it.

I find my own NBing very annoying. The funny thing is that I have never really noticed anyone else doing it, so discovering that it was a problem, and thinking that I was the only one who had it, was very troublesome. I think I really started NBing after I stopped smoking. I found that I could actually breathe out of my nose and so I must have figured that it was something I wanted to get really good at. I breathe in before I speak- that is when the issue is most pronounced. So, it goes like this- deep breath in through the nose, with maybe a little whistle, then, "Yes, I like to go walking with my dog...."

I think my on camera skills are much better only because I can't hear the NBing. But just barely... I was interviewed on the local VBTV show- Access Virginia Beach (Under the embedded Windows Media File click- View Specific Segments for this video, and Click #12). In this segment I tried to suppress my natural head bobbing movements and facial expressions and ended up looking like I was about to fall asleep.

Over acting comes natural to me. Behaving normally does not, and when I try to be normal, people ask me if something is wrong. I can be the fool, but can I be Mr. Serious? Doesn't seem that way.

Recently, I was interviewed for a group of ITRT's in the western part of Virginia in Second Life. Since I am the member of a group, I tried to participate and answer one or two questions, but for the most part I tried to stay quiet. I just hid behind my avatar and and used the back channeling of the chat window. I felt like this one went better but I did not see it from the interviewer's perspective.

The most remarkable thing of all is that anyone would actually care about what I have to say. My children listen when I say, "Let's go get a Slurpee!" And my dog hears me when I say, "Wanna go for a run?" That it is pretty much it.

I am not used to saying things that are important to others... Maybe I should practice saying important things and then I won't annoy myself any longer. Probably not!

Fortunately, it seems like interview time is finished for me. While I would rather work on speaking like Captain Kirk, I think I just need to learn to breathe in through my mouth and try to act like a more normalized version of myself. Maybe I can channel the emotionless Data from Star Trek who fakes emotions to fit in with people. Or, I could just stay away from recording devices when someone wants the serious me and say things like, "I have no comment at this time."