Cover Story

I love book covers. I admit it. And I often do judge a book by its cover. Then later on I judge it by the story, etc., But a cover is your first introduction. It's the book saying, "Hello, how are you, pleased to meet you."

So, obviously, it's even more fun when the cover is on a book that I've written. So here's the ANZ (Australia/New Zealand) version of The Hunchback Assignments (this isn't the final final version, but it's getting there). Dr. Hyde, the villain, is looking kind of grim in the background. Almost like someone stole his sweet biscuits. Or he can't find his dog with the mechanical jaws...

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Odd Victorian Factoid 24: Whoa Nellie!

Odd Victorian Factoid#24: It took fictional character Phileas Fogg 80 days to go around the world. In 1889 Nellie Bly (a real person) did it in 72 days. She was a journalist and her real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She also faked insanity in order to study a mental institution from the inside.



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Another Virtual Visit

Another successful virtual visit, this time to Preeceville, Saskatchewan, Canada. Yes, a school in my own home province, but many miles away! They were great. They laughed at my jokes. Listened attentively and didn't throw any tomatoes. Err, at least none of them came through the webcam, anyway.

This is what I saw:



They used a smartboard at their end, which worked out well. And to show the images I used a program called Dabbleboard. I found it a really effective way to put covers and other photos up for the students to see. It's my new favourite program!

And that's it for visits this season. Now I can sleep all summer...err except for that Hunchback rewrite.


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Odd Victorian Factoid #23: Elephants!

Odd Victorian Factoid # 23: On May 17, 1884, P. T. Barnum proved the Brooklyn Bridge was stable by having Jumbo, and a parade of 21 elephants, walk over it. Very clever marketing.



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Back to the Past: Virtual Visit

Well, I meant to post about this ages ago! I had a virtual visit with Lake Wilcox PS in Richmond Hill, Ontario way back on February 13th. Hmmm. Is 13 unlucky? Can virtual visits go wrong? Read on, dear reader.

When we attempted to do our test run the day before we discovered that the school's servers "shut out" Skype and iChat (technically the crucial command in each program is ghosted due to school security restrictions). There was no way around this (that we could quickly fix) so the only way to do a presentation was to try Adobe Connect Live. So I downloaded it and attempted to learn the program (it has some interesting features, including a smart board which will display images). The next morning I did an hour long presentation to grade 7 and another hour long presentation to grade 8.

This is what they saw:



Alas, everything was quite slow. I am told that sometimes I sounded like a chipmunk. Other times like Darth Vader (usually I'm somewhere in-between). The students and Mr. McInnis were patient and the problems were kind of entertaining at times. A student would stand in front of the camera and ask a question. I would hear it in real time but my answer would take at least 15 seconds to get there. So the student would repeat the question. Then suddenly my answer would arrive blasting out the speakers and making the student's hair stand on end. It was perhaps like talking to someone on the moon.

It was great to connect with the students. But the slowness of the connection is either the fault of the servers or comes from the complexity of Adobe Connect Live. Or perhaps we just weren't using it properly.

Of course, won't they be surprised if I visit Lake Wilcox PS in person and they find out that I usually pause 15 seconds between answers and I sound like a chipmunk...

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