Rambling Librarian's Podcast: "March Upon The Black"

My first attempt at an "orchestrated" piece. I was inspired by Pachelbel's Canon and wanted to try something like that, but key word is "try". In the end, I'm not sure if this is a 'Canon' but heck, it's good enough for me. This was about a week's worth of spare time. Let me know what you think of it:

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RamblingLibrarian's Podcast:



Technorati Tags: garageband, mac, apple

Post-course reflection: Blogging course for Library Association of Singapore (Session 1)

I made a mental note of the following from this afternoon's session:

1. It's no joke lugging around over 2Kg worth of computer hardware (i.e. Macbook Pro)
2. Especially when you carry the darn bag for the entire day, only to find that you can't use it at the training venue
3. I owe Siva coffee
4. I need to inject more hands-on activity for the next session on 4th August

Regarding 1 & 2, I saw Siva using his Macbook Pro at the WRL talk last Saturday and I thought, "Hey, I should try that today too!"

Alas, overconfidence got the better of me. Normally I make a point to do a site recce but this time I thought I could skip that part as I was familiar with the training venue. I thought there should not be a problem with connecting the Mac to the projector. Afterall, I saw how Siva did it.

But for some reason, it didn't work. In desperation, I called Siva on the mobile. After I explained why I called him, I half expected him to say, "Look man, I'm busy now. I ain't tech support", but he didn't. He patiently advised me on the settings (which I did correctly), and maybe I should try rebooting (still didn't work). The "tech support" session lasted maybe 2minutes, but still I owe him coffee.

I was happy with how the session went. As I learnt from my stint with the blog course in South Africa early this year, each participant would come with different expectations of what they wanted from the session, and different comfort levels wrt understanding IT concepts. Still, judging from the feedback forms that the LAS organising committee showed me at the end of the day, majority of participants were happy with how things went.

Half the class managed to sign up for Bloglines and learnt how to subscribe and unsubscribe feeds. We spent an hour going through the basics of creating and managing a blog with Blogger.com. Then last hour we covered Flickr, Technorati, and a quick overview podcasting (some of them enjoyed this podcast - the one on "Customer Service").

I can certainly improve quite a few things in delivering the training. Which was why I made a mental note for item 4 -- to give the participants more meaningful activities to do.

Would've preferred to do this as a full-day course rather than a 3-hour session. I think at one point I might have droned on too long... I tend to do that when I'm enthused about a point I'm making. Ok, on second thought, I think they are better off with a 3-hour session! LOL

Need to think of how to do even better for the 2nd run on 4th August. Even though I'm doing this course for free, I feel pressured to do a good an excellent job. Maybe because I'm a perfectionist. Or I feel bad when people make time to attend a course and they don't get the most from it. I don't know.

Anyway, I'll certainly take the advice of this participant (we tried registering for bloglines.com and those who used their office email addresses weren't able to access the confirmation email sent to their office accounts).

Will also employ the Post-It notes idea from Kevin (thanks buddy, it was an excellent way to explain concept of tagging and relating it to what librarians are familiar with).

This time the course happened, unlike the last time. In fact, 100% signup I was told, for this run (25 people) and LAS asked for a second session. This interest is all good for the library scene here, in my opinion.

(p.s. Discovered another Singapore Liblogarian! Thanks, Dexterine, for your impromptu assistance this afternoon.)


Technorati Tags: Blog Workshop, Blog Course

Post-workshop reflection: MICA Innovation Fiesta 2006 - Basics of Podcasting Workshop

They saw, they did, they heard. Heh heh.

The "See, Do, Hear" podcasting workshop this afternoon went well, thanks to the active participation from the 30 to 40 people who attended (didn't have time to count).


We did the group activity as planned, and even managed to get one recorded and uploaded. Here's what Mr. Philip Lim so sportingly recorded and gave permission to feature as a podcast: Philip's First Podcast - On "Customer Service" (script by Ms. C. Yip):

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The participants broke up into groups, drafted and rehearsed their scripts (within 30mins). Then each group presented their "show" and the audience voted for what they thought was the best one. Philip's group was selected and he very sportingly came up the the terminal, did the recording in one take. Edited out some awkward pauses, showed them how to upload to Odeo.com, topped off with discussion session.

Sweet.

Links of the sites and resources featured in the workshop have been updated to BlogCourseDemo.

Now I need to get to work and touch up on tomorrow's workshop for Library Association of Singapore.


Tag: podcasting

"See, Do, Hear" Podcasting workshop: MICA Innovation Fiesta

Doing last minute work for the podcasting workshop I'm conducting tomorrow, as part of the MICA Innovation Fiesta 2006 series of courses (open to MICA employees). This is my second year involved in the Innovation Fiesta. Last year I did a blogging course with my colleague, Rajen. This year, Rajen asked if I could conduct a workshop and I agreed (eventually... heh).

This being a podcasting workshop, I thought it'll be nice to do the introduction using an actual podcast. Here it is:

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(Basic course details, and script of the podcast, here).

Essentially the workshop will be split into 3 main parts:
Part 1: Listening to Podcasts
- Where to find them
- How to listen to them
- Subscribing to RSS feeds

Part 2: Producing podcasts [Group-activity]
- Planning & scripting
- Recording & editing the audio
- Uploading & sharing

Part 3: Discussion/ wrap-up
- Applications for work & play (i.e. why do it?)
- Tips on producing a podcast

The critical of the workshop would be the hands-on portion. I intend to break up the 45 confirmed participants (I expect at least 30 to turn up) into smaller groups of 5 to 8, and then get them to do Part 2. The challenge is to manage this portion within 45mins (it's not a computer lab, but a lecture room with only one Internet terminal). I'm assuming at least one group will be game enough to do a 'live' recording and I hope to upload the file to Odeo.com.

I'll certainly have to play by ear w.r.t. actually conducting the workshop. Will see how it goes.

(And then the following day, I'll be conducting a blog-related course for members of the Library Association of Singapore. Will blog about that one later... much later).

Tag: podcasting

The Otterman speaks at the library: Tales of the Thunder Crab and other secret stories of Singapore's wildlife

Saturday afternoon. 15 July 2006. Woodlands Regional Library. About 25 people or more (excluding myself) -- majority adults -- turned up for an hour's talk by Mr. Otterman, Siva. He's a researcher with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, NUS.

BTW, that's not the title of his talk (more about that at the end of the blog post).

That's Siva, in his office attire -- polo-shirt and bermudas.


Just a sampling of what I learnt from his session:

• The mangrove is a dangerous place if you are a crab
• Our very own Bukit Timah has more species than Africa (plant? animal?)
• There's a fish called a Cowfish in Singapore (a boy exclaimed "cowfish?" out loud, heh)
• Asia has 4 species of otters, whereas there's only 1 specie in the west (I learnt how to tell apart at least 2 different species. Also, while I've never asked Siva why he's called the Otterman, I think I know now -- he knows his otters!)
  
• Siva's a smooth presenter. Jokes at appropriate intervals. I particularly enjoyed his stories about the crabs -- leaf-eating crabs, crabs that eat algae, crabs that eat termites, crabs with spines, tree-climbing ones, crabs in Teochew cuisine... If you do meet Siva, do ask him about the story of the researcher who got bitten by a Thunder Crab

At one point, his Macbook Pro ran out of battery power. "You are now running on reserve battery power." I bet he thought, "I miss my ibook".


Next picture shows Siva (left) and colleague, submerged in the Sungei Buloh mangrove reserve at high tide, with what he called (tongue-in-cheek) their high-tech tools of the trade -- $2 fish net and ordinary stick with a hook (the kind used for taking down clothes/ bamboo poles). Boy asked, "Excuse me, if your friend is in the water, won't the fish bite her?" (photo not shown here).

The slide caption says "Mangrove are safe"...


... and then the next slide Siva chooses to show crocodiles. Siva was quick to add that he's a living and breathing example that the crocodiles do not pose a danger to humans at the wetland reserve (otherwise, he won't be standing there giving a talk after wading around in the mangrove).

According to Siva, the crocs at Sungei Buloh are well-fed on fish, so they leave humans alone pretty much. But still, don't try to pet them. (Boy asked again, "Excuse me, how did you take the photo?" Ans: A colleague took the picture, from a distance with a telephoto lens.)

Then he surprised the audience and thrilled the kids with a movie clip of monitor lizards wrestling.


He showed more photos than I had time to take. The 1 hour just went by. He informed the audience that more information and references to pictures can be found at his website - Sivasothi.com

His talk was publicised as "Dolphins, Turtles, Otters and other Secrets of Singapore". I suggested to Siva it might have been called "Tales of the Thunder Crab, and other Secret Stories of Singapore" but he said that might not have made sense to people. Besides, the keywords that brought in the audience were Dolphins, Turtles, Otters... he does have a point.

Nonetheless, I have a suggestion for the title of his next talk on crabs -- call it "What if crabs were superheroes?" (perhaps this would make more sense if you'd heard his presentation).

Siva should try volunteering at the library to tell stories (to kids or adults, doesn't matter). He's good with pictures and words. I liked how he regaled the "saga of the turtle hatchlings that swam back". Again, that's something you have to ask him about if you have a chance to meet him.


Tag: library event

5th and Final draft: "The Girl, the Imp, and the Memory Tree"

Here's my 5th and final draft of the story that I'm submitting to my colleague. The draft is due tomorrow today. My colleague called for stories to be selected for this year's Asian Children's Festival (hey, discovered wikipedia entry!)

Not sure if my submission will be accepted though. Last year, two of my stories made it. We shall see.

Anyway, I had fun collaborating on the story blog with Saigon Tai-Tai (who, incidentally, has now come out into the open!)


Tag: story blog, asian children's festival

What is "Courage"?

For some reason, I asked this question to three different people over IM tonight: "What is courage?"

They all gave (equally valid) responses, by their own definitions. My response was something I'd either read or heard somewhere:

Courage is not about the absence of fear.
It is about doing something in spite of our fear.

I just felt like sharing this with you.

Tag: courage

Damien the liblogarian's "I Am Singaporean" post

Here's my colleague Damien's "I Am Singaporean" blog post (not podcast though), where he focuses on being a Rat (er, read his post to get what I meant, heh).

Incidentally, Damien ("I have been a Librarian since 2000 A.D. and I am proud to be one") wrote that he started on the meme not because of the "Mr Brown incident" -- hmm... neither did I. Never did see the "I Am Singaporean" meme as part of that episode, and personally I don't think anyone should.

Anyway... maybe after this, Damien and I could continue with the "I Am A Librarian" meme. But I don't think I'm prepared to do a video like what Filipino Librarian did!

Tags: singapore, podcast, podcasting, iamsingaporean, iamalibrarian

Rambling Librarian's Podcast: "I Am Singaporean"

The guys at The Mr. Brown Show (a local podcasting that probably has the most local audience) were inspired by the Molson beer "I am Canadian" commercial (see Youtube video) and they came up with this "I am Singaporean" podcast/ blog meme to tie in with our upcoming National Day.

Any excuse for me to much around GarageBand, I'm interested. And so I tried to try my hand at it. Before I uploaded it, I tested it on my wife. She laughed at some parts but overall it was OK (she did add a few more Cs but I won't mention them here -- go guess).

Total duration for my recording is 3mins 32 secs. Apparently there's no time specification for this podcast meme, so what the heck. Anyway if it bores you, there's always the 'Stop' button:

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I've also uploaded the Soundtrack (minus narration) - original composition. It has some added "incidental" sounds like Triangle and flute and drum. Approx. 3mins 32 secs:

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The script as follows:

My name is Ivan Chew. People call me Ivan. I am a Singaporean.

It's been said that Singaporeans are concerned about the 5 Cs. I have 8 'Cs' that I want to talk about.

'C' is for 'car' - I have never owned one and don't see a need to. I get around in Singapore just fine. I've also never driven a car. The only vehicle I've attempted to drive was an Amoured Personnel Carrier during my full-time National Service.

'C' is for 'Condominium' - I don't live in one and don't aspire to. Perhaps I'm too used to HDB apartments. Growing up, I stayed in a flat (2 rooms, 1 hall) living with my parents and 2 other siblings. I slept in a hall for over 20 years and never had a room to call my own till I moved out after marriage. Now my wife and I (and our dog) live in a 4-room HDB flat. It will be fully paid in 25 years or so. I'm perfectly fine with that.

'C' is for Credit Card - I choose to have only one. I use it for convenience because I don't like to carry cash.

'Cash' is the 4th 'C', of which I have some but not a lot. Enough for me to look beyond tomorrow but not so much that I take things for granted today. *I make an effort to save because I know what "money no enough" is like. Sometimes my wife complains I am too stingy and sometimes she is right. Sometimes.

'C' is for 'Career' - I would like to think I have one in librarianship. My current employer is a government agency but I don't consider myself working for the government. I tell myself I work for Singaporeans through the government.

That's 5 Cs so far and I have 3 more:

'C' is for Chew - my surname. 'Chew' as in 'Chewing gum', which by the way, isn't illegal to buy or consume in s'pore. You just can't sell it.

My surname 'Chew' is a pronunciation in the Hokkien dialect. It is my heritage, which brings me to my next 'C' -- for 'Chinese'. I am Chinese by race but I'm not from China. Singapore isn't a province of China. I am 3rd or 4th generation Singaporean.

Finally my last 'C' -- for 'Choice'. A friend once emailed me this saying: "Choices are like belly buttons - we all have one". I believe in that saying most of the time although I accept that sometimes we just have no choice. Of those times I've learnt to accept rather than fight. Maybe acceptance in itself is a choice. I guess my friend is right after all.

Singapore is tiny in size but I think we are big in dreams and ideas.

My name is Ivan. My Chinese name is "文良". I, am a Singaporean.

"And so say we all".

And so say we all.

Ivan Chew, July 2006.

Click on this link for all the "I am Singaporean" posts at technorati.com. There was about 15 - 20 posts (excluding duplicates) when I last checked. Here are the ones by Brown and Miyagi that kicked started it all.

It's simple: You can either record your version (or just blog if you prefer not to do a sound recording), title it "I am Singaporean" and tag it iamsingaporean.


Tags: singapore, podcast, podcasting, iamsingaporean

Artistic process demystified - "Black Cockatoo, Flowering Gum" illustration tutorial by Heidi Willis

I'd recently discovered the works of Heidi Willis, a self-taught watercolourist. I liked this particular series of "art tutorial by images" so much that I've decided to mention it here as well:




Nice, right? If you want to learn more about the creative process, I've blogged about at MyRightBrain.

Heidi later wrote to me that she left a comment in that blog post because she wanted to explain the process so that I could can get the most out of the images. She also wrote that she would like to understand how other people read her work (hmm.. is this "Web 2.0" in action?)

Well I certainly did learn more (thanks!) and perhaps you might want to leave a comment over at MyRightBrain for Heidi.

Tag: botanical art