little things
It's the little things that make you feel smart. And in this case, the little thing is my ipod. In an unusual display of technical savvines, I updated my school visit set up. Instead of lugging around a computer, portfolio, and books, I now have a small (3 pound) projector and a photo ipod. All my images--book pages, photos, the whole works-- are on the ipod, hook it into my projector and, Voila! My speech! Everything fits in the size of a lunchbox and I might have to start worrying that my arms will grow flabby without the constant lifting of heavy equipment.
I decided to test this set up for the first time at a college guest lecture--one of the tougher crowds. The students come from all facets-some interested in publishing, some teaching...many of them not interested in children's books specifically. Getting through layers of disdain and making them respect the genre is a challenge. So it was a lecture that I had to be "on" and would particularly benefit from a lack of technical difficulties.
Coming into the room with my small bag, I had slight misgivings. Perhaps this wasn't the wisest time to test this system out after all. What if the projector suddenly blasted my sappy song playlist instead? But it worked like magic, flawlessly and effortlessly. For once, I could give my speech without equipment disasters or worries. Freed from mundane concerns, I spoke passionately and with feeling. After my words, I asked for questions. Hands raised. I knew I had reached them...
And the first question was, "Is that an ipod?"
I decided to test this set up for the first time at a college guest lecture--one of the tougher crowds. The students come from all facets-some interested in publishing, some teaching...many of them not interested in children's books specifically. Getting through layers of disdain and making them respect the genre is a challenge. So it was a lecture that I had to be "on" and would particularly benefit from a lack of technical difficulties.
Coming into the room with my small bag, I had slight misgivings. Perhaps this wasn't the wisest time to test this system out after all. What if the projector suddenly blasted my sappy song playlist instead? But it worked like magic, flawlessly and effortlessly. For once, I could give my speech without equipment disasters or worries. Freed from mundane concerns, I spoke passionately and with feeling. After my words, I asked for questions. Hands raised. I knew I had reached them...
And the first question was, "Is that an ipod?"
posted by Grace Lin at 9:27 PM
4 Comments:
"It's been so long that a lot of people forget that Robert even has cancer. I never forget . . . You have to be able to draw and paint when you don't love it, when there are a million distractions and heartaches . . . When a doctor says , "no cure" to you, it makes you a little crazy . . . Somewhere along the way this project got too big . . . Instead of making me have a thicker skin, this project has skinned me . . . I've been second guessing-- do I really want people to know these things? . . ."
Grace -- Forgive me for responding to everything at once. One of my favorite authors is Anne Lamott, who has the courage to reveal, with enormous humor, her deepest thoughts – to find and touch universal feelings. I share some (not all) of your experiences. I admire your fortitude. Your blog and message-board posts simultaneously pierce me -- and make me laugh. Keep posting and blogging; I have you bookmarked . . .
Grace--your set up is too cool. Having just lugged all the paraphenalia around last night, I am envious. Care to share the brand and model of your projector? I assume your ipod is like my son's that he listens to music on, right? They're all the same except for different memory configurations.
--
Denise O
Congratulations, Grace! I'm interested in hearing about the ipod as well. Powerpoint on CD has worked okay for me so far, but easier sound interesting, too.
-Nicole
P.S. I'm SO sorry I could not attend the reception! I hope my message got through to you that day as well as the gallery folks.
Thanks Connie, for your kind words. Denise & Nicole--my projector is an Infocus Lp70, but you can use any projecter that has RCA--which is pretty much all of them. Just need to get the $20. cord from the mac store that hooks it into you ipod to the projecter. It has to be a photo ipod, though now ipod has video...so I think theoretically you could make a movie of yourseld, put in on the ipod and then project it.
This is definitely the best and easiest set up I've had so far. After my talk, someone asked about the snowflakes and I was able to quickly open that folder on the ipod and have a snowflake slide show while I was talking.
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