Let us first examine the map, so we know what we're talking about: See that, Houston to Chicago, a straight shot north across the United States. Here's Amtrak's proposal: Step 1: take the Sunset Limited train from Houston to Los Angeles. Step 2: take the Coastal Starlight from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon. Step 3:… Continue reading Amtrak’s clever plan for getting from Houston to Chicago
Author: mh
“We fell in love in a hopeless place”
This was my third article for The Daily Tar Heel: "We fell in love in a hopeless place." If you go to my "writing" page, you will see that it's one of my favorite articles that I wrote. I wrote it during a pretty stressful time; and I wrote and re-wrote and crafted every word… Continue reading “We fell in love in a hopeless place”
The last of the mohicans
I'm reading the "Last of the Mohicans". I'm reading it because Lucy Maud Montgomery read it and mentioned it in her journal. However, I checked it out 2 months ago and I am still on page 45. In the meantime, I finished reading "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents" and started and am over… Continue reading The last of the mohicans
Can’t understand fifth-graders
I'm working with fifth-graders, and they are quite beyond my comprehension. There was this girl called ... well, let's call her Anna. She's a goofy girl. She spent the first class I was with them with her head down or in her arms the whole time nearly. Now she's livened up a bit and she… Continue reading Can’t understand fifth-graders
The girl who turned her back
"I never met a child who didn't like this project." This is what I tell everyone when describing making science animations with kids. Until last week, when this girl we'll call Leah turned up with an attitude for her session with me. As we have been progressing quickly along, I was already at the stage… Continue reading The girl who turned her back
Making a snail in Blender
I poked around some online examples and tutorials. This snail was super cute and ended up being my inspiration! Can't get any cuter. And then this was a nice and straight-forward tutorial for making the spiral shell, which I stuck on top of the snail. He's a little lop-sided and one-eyed, and after all, that… Continue reading Making a snail in Blender
Quiet pause in the class
After some rough days, I just had one of the best lessons I conducted today at Wolf Meadow. This was with a group of kids whose lesson last week was a complete wash, mostly due to some miscalculations on my and my partner teacher's part. Well, we tried again this week, and it went so… Continue reading Quiet pause in the class
What the kids call me
I used to always just have all the kids call me 'Mejs', when I visit schools for 'Animations with Kids'. But then, the teacher I first worked with in the fall insisted on the kids calling me 'Dr. Hasan', plus she would always introduce me to the kids, or refer to me, as "my doctor… Continue reading What the kids call me
A film with different speeds
A few months ago, I was trying to create a film of various images and clips of footage. However, all the footage was in various speeds - some in 6 frames per second (is that speed a crime in the film world?) and some in 30 frames per second. So when I added in the… Continue reading A film with different speeds
Video editing
Usually, I make animations, so I just have the rendered images all in a row, and then a single audio file - somewhat chopped up, but still coming from a single file. But a few months ago, I made more of a traditional "movie" made up of single images, bits of videos, and lots of… Continue reading Video editing
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