Union Street is the main street of Concord, North Carolina. It's been partly closed off the past few months because they're doing construction. But on Sunday, both sides of the street were blocked from traffic. So towards sunset, we set off to see what the occasion was. Maybe some kind of street festival, now that… Continue reading Judy Blume movie in Concord
Everyone says public transportation in Houston is horrible. I've lived there now for a few months, without a car, and it's not as bad as everyone makes out. There's some real positives, in fact -- but there also are some real drawbacks. I'd say the biggest drawback is that you really cannot get out into… Continue reading Public transportation in Houston
I usually use my trusty laptop to record kids' voices for animations. It usually works out really well, and picks up the kids' voices even when they're speaking softly. But I ran into a problem this time around at the summer camp. There was a super annoying buzzing sound in the hall where I started… Continue reading Bad audio, all the time
Two of my favorite pieces of software are QGIS - used for making maps on a computer - and Blender 3D - used for 3D animations. Both of these pieces of software, furthermore, are open-source. That means they are free for anyone to download. Every time I make an animation with a group of kids,… Continue reading GIS and Blender at once
Is there a minimum age-limit when it comes to computer animation? Well, I'm sure there is for toddlers and babies, but in the summer camp I'm in, there's three little kids that are entering kindergarten in September. They're all five. They reach out their hand for me to hold if I chance to walk them… Continue reading Five-year-olds computer animating
I had written a dour and grim post about the futility of applying to grants, but before it went live, I actually received one. Which means I was able to do one more 'Animations with kids' project in Concord before my run here ends (at least for the expected near future.) I am working with… Continue reading Animating at a summer camp
We had a "Science Festival" on Union Street, and I got to share about my Animations with Kids project. In typical fashion, I started making my poster about 5 hours before the event started. (But I got it done in time!) Now, I'm pretty proud of my poster, because in keeping with the environmental theme… Continue reading Helping out at the Science Festival
Yes, I said once that 'I don't understand' fifth-graders. And I think I still don't. I related many anecdotes of my difficulties. But they're sweet, nonetheless. The way they all eagerly contributed to ideas when I asked them to pick a title for their story. It came time to vote on the ideas ... and… Continue reading The unestimable sweetness of fifth graders
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
After some rough days, 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 well.… Continue reading Quiet pause in the class
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