The family and I just returned from a recent trip to Germany. Ski and I took a trip a to Berlin a few years back and enjoyed it so much that this year we decided to take the kids and my mother-in-law. The above video Continue reading “Return to Berlin”
Norwegian Birthday?
DJ Offbeat on the one and two!
I seriously think that I am addicted to sites like Groupon and Zozi. Since the wife and kids left for summer camp I have been buying trial memberships to about half a dozen places like Bikram Yoga and City Wing Tsun. Well yesterday I indulged myself in yet another of my secret desires, to become a world class DJ by taking an Introduction to Digital DJ’ing class at the Dubspot with DJ Reborn and DJ Spictacular.
I have always Continue reading “DJ Offbeat on the one and two!”
Everybody have fun tonight…. everybody Wing Chun tonight!
Lately I have been eager to get back into the flow of training regularly in the martial arts. Due to the ongoing physical therapy my knees have been feeling better. So yesterday I decided to visit the headquarters of City Wing Tsun to take a look at their curriculum. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Wing Chun, it is a highly dynamic fighting style that makes use of unconventional hand and foot strikes that are excellent for close quarter combat. It was originally designed by a woman and stresses speed and precision over pure brute force. The unorthodox hand and foot techniques, when applied properly, tend to cause fits for opponents during fights. I had trained in Wing Chun many years back under Sifu Rick and had been eager to try the style again. I have incorporated some of the basics of the system into my own fighting style with some limited success, but I always felt that I was missing some important components and wanted to expand my knowledge of Wing Chun further.
I had been looking for a decent school ever since Sifu Rick moved away and stopped teaching Continue reading “Everybody have fun tonight…. everybody Wing Chun tonight!”
AAUP Conference: Presentation Day
The three and a half hour long train excursion down to Washington, DC did nothing to lessen my exhaustion of the last few days. Even though, I have to admit the the seating room on the Amtrak trains allowed me to sleep quite easily. Those big reclining chairs are way more comfortable than the JetBlue airline seats that I almost purchased. The good thing is that despite the bleary eyes, my afternoon presentation on “Redefining Tenure and Promotion Standards for Multimedia and Digital Arts Faculty” was fairly well received at the annual AAUP national conference on the State of Higher Education. The only major problem with
AAUP Conference: Preparation
Tomorrow I am traveling to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Annual State of Higher Education Conference in Washington, DC to present some of my research on “Redefining Tenure and Promotion Standards for Multimedia and Digital Arts Faculty”.The presentation is based off of an article that I will be submitting for publication. This is a topic of importance many of the current new media professors teaching within higher education, And in the spirit of full disclosure, it is a topic of great importance to me as an non tenured college professor. I will post the video from the conference when I return. I am taking two of the Kodak Zi8 mini HD cameras to the conference to film the event. This is the little camera that I have fallen in love with recently. But again I digress. The full session description for the presentation
Class Trip: Seminar on digital books and ePublishing
Today I took my HUW161 Web and Multimedia Design class to a talk on digital books and ePublishing held at Noble Desktop. The seminar was hosted by Dan Rodney, lead instructor and co-owner of Noble Desktop. Digital publishing has been attracting a great deal of attention as a result of all of the new ereaders and tablet devises that have been hitting the market. Amazon reported earlier this year that eBooks on the Kindle began outselling print books in 2010. In addition to books, magazines are moving to the iPad and other tablet as well. Adobe has just released a new digital publishing suite that companies such as Wired, Martha Stewart are using to create digital magazines for devices. Even more shocking is the fact that relatively unknown authors like Amanda Hocking, as well as more established writers like Barry Eisler are profiting from these new digital formats. It is going to be interesting to see how these new developments will impact upon traditional print media outlets. Digital publishing is hot and designers should be learning about it now. I think my students enjoyed the talk.
The Slow Road Back: Solo Training
The kid is trying to get back into shape after a long and rough year on a number of fronts. It has been about eight months since I was working out on a consistent basis. Still, in that time I have been able to adequately maintain my weight and general health by eating right. However there is no substitute for regular exercise. Plus the wife and kids have been telling me that I am a great deal more pleasant to be around when I workout. Who could have guessed Continue reading “The Slow Road Back: Solo Training”
RIP Macho Man!
I just heard that Randy “Macho Man” Savage, one of my favorite entertainment personalities, past away today and thus capping and already bad week. This news seriously brought tears to my eyes because my 10 year old son and I have Continue reading “RIP Macho Man!”
The 2011 LaGuardia Publication Reception
This was a brief speech that I gave on the recent article that I authored addressing “Motivating at risk African American and Hispanic students through the study of New Media Technology“. I mentioned this article in one of my earlier posts. The reception was held at LaGuardia Community College. Special thanks to Michael Philogene of LaGuardia’s Business and Technology Department for the impromptu camera work.
The program for the event can be found here: PresidentReception11.pdf