You can’t argue with a sick mind!
Game On!
Well! A day spent trying yet again to get my head around Action Script and get my drag and drop Farmyard Frenzy game up and running.
It’s quite funny feeling totally lost and thinking hard about something (having your brain hurt!).
I do finally feel like I may well be getting somewhere though and with a lot of Al’s help the game is now playable.
So the animals all make a relevant sound when clicked on and slot exactly into the drop zone when released correctly.
You should have heard the whoop of joy, it reverberated the walls of the DPS and drew a worried glance or two!
I am now trying to progress by animating an end ‘reward screen’ in After Effects and importing that back into Flash so that it plays upon completion of the game.
The real test will be if I can construct another drag and drop creation using the action script from ‘Farmyard Frenzy’.
I’m thinking perhaps a Christmas tree that when you drag decorations onto it you hear music and festive sounds.
Academic Anarchy
Well yet again the thought that reading up on methods of research would be a good idea has occured and yet again I have managed to push it away! Oops 
Sites of the day
So long and thanks for all the fish…..
Listening to – Supreme Beings of Leisure Radio on Last FM
So, exactly where do people find the time to blog? Do people bother now that micro blogging and social networking are now endemic!?
I like the idea of Blogging but bed is such a nice place to be!
Feel quite a lot of pressure (self inflicted) to read more of my ‘reader’ to prep for Thursdays Research Methods session but instead finding myself immersed in Twisted Fables for Twisted Minds by the Barefoot Doctor.
This it would appear is just the way that it is! You gotta love the Tao 
Action Script – How it makes me all warm and fuzzy on the inside!
Phew! my brain feels like it has had a thorogh work out this week grappling with the abstract and intangable thing that is Action Script 3 in Flash.
I am no reliving the golden songs of the Beatles by various artists – http://helium.lunarpages.com/~funky4/podcasts/radio74.mp3
Funky indeed!!
So I find myself getting my hands dirty with code and attempting to create a farmyard animal drag and drop game with sounds.
It’s slow work but I’m looking forward to letting Gracie test it.
Christmas officially enters my radar tomorrow as me and Deb are off to see White Christmas at the Theatre Royal Plymouth so I am looking forward to feeling all festive.
I am also looking forward to dinner at Chloes as it looks nice the menu is yummy and it is very close to the theatre.
The Duldrums
Well and truly stuck! No forward motion , no ureka just feeling overwhelmed with choices! Endless stuff started and nothing finished! No focus and less attention span than my 3 and a half old daughter!
What IS going on!!!!
A Brave New World
Hello World !
Phew, what a week! One with highs, lows and lot’s of tea!
The most exciting thing to happen is taking delivery of a rather lovely, top of the range Mac Book Pro complete with 17″ non reflective screen and solid state hard drive.
Would have I brought one with my own money ? Probably not but it is a mighty fine machine.
Probably the lowest point would be the petty wranglings and dissent from certain collegues of mine.
Depending on who you believe we are either moving office to make way for a Digital Base Room or that is a complete fantasy – Whatever!
Another excellent communication faux par was trying to track down my reader. In the CPD workshop I became aware that I didn’t have it. This is because Caroline gave it to Alex (who I hardly know ) who then managed to give it to Steve who then despite wondering why he should be given it took it home! AArrgggg.
Went to my first CPD event – Introduction to research part 1 which ended up just being me and some guy from Dartington so much for it being a compulsory unit.
It did throw up some interesting stuff though and I now need to come up with a research topic. May do something on Communication and the effect that has on learning.
Also another concept could be around a Motionology online community.
Another possibility is doing something on Interactivity and the curriculum
Bring on the PG Dip HE
Good day today! Delivered a good session for MA Graphic design and then inspired at Salsa.
In the afternoon I decided that I had better check over the PG Dip He
So I have now applied for 11 CPD events the first of which is this Friday.
I have also signed up online to the Times Higher Education site.
So all things considered a productive and satisfactory day!
Monday, Monday
Well, that was a very satisfying week end and nice to come back to work with no immediate sessions to do.
Salsa started today and I was delighted to have 10 people come including two guys.
The session went very well and everybody had a hoot!
Have carried on my pursuit of Illustrator by producing a stylish sign on sheet for the Watching session tomorrow.
Did some web development in that I placed zip files of Salsa Mp3’s on my site for people to download.
Recorded of the Moral Maze which Caroline Cash had flagged up as a debate on higher education so hopefully I will be commenting on that here soon.
Here we go……
Hi, well this is the first Motionology blog entry so hopefully many more will follow!
What a week! it’s certainly had me feeling all kinds of emotions.
The new technical instructor, Al, started on Monday. His title is TI in New Media and more specifically Interactive media.He was looking a little lost so I made him a cuppa and got chatting. It was soon clear that he is a breath of fresh air! Like flinging open the dusty curtains and seeing the sunlight come streaming through. He is blown away by the job and his excitement and enthusiasm is infectious and I can see all kinds of exciting directions to explore!
Greg, Al and me have all been ordered a brand new high spec MacBook Pro and due to Greg’s insistence they will be given to us still in the box rather than unpacked and locked down by IT.
Had to think quickly at my Keylight session on Tuesday as when I went in to set up I discovered that none of the computers would log on! It turns out that this also happened on the Monday but sadly no one mentioned it to me.Long story short when I had Acronised the machines in the DPS they all took on the same identity. After a while they can no longer handle the schizophrenia and decide to become mute. In the end a couple of IT guys got enough machines working to get by and to my amazement came back and finished the job in the afternoon (with a little nudge of course).
Al put me onto this site – We Feel Fine – It’s well worth a look.
Wednesday came along and with it the DM 1 st years well actually only 7 of them but it was great to see that Sophie was one of them. I felt a bit useless until I reminded myself that I have very little experience of Illustrator. In the end I finished up learning a lot from the help that Al was giving them and now can see the vast potential of the program.
Didn’t have one single film student or Kingsly show for my Intro to Motionology. Got an e mail from Kingsley after the non event that was rubbish so I have just pointed him and his students to the Motionology site and they will have to take it from there!
Hectic Friday morning session with the DM 1 st years. Sophie’s game design is looking really good and so are quite a lot of others so I think that it will be an interesting project. I was talking to Deb about it and she has come up with some great characters and game concept so I am going to try and do the project to.
In the afternoon I got stuck into the Illustrator classroom in a book and did the first exercise. It was very rewarding to be learning new stuff.
Finally got around to sorting out the start of Tremough salsa. Have quite a bit of interest so I am going to run it next Monday and Tuesday and see how it goes. Have now also done a lot of promotion on Sophie’s Progress Salsa so hopefully ticket requests will flood in soon!
