Okay, so here goes, first attempt at a blog, or whatever this is. I’m sure it will become abundantly clear before too long that I really don’t have any idea of what I’m doing here, but please bear with me. Firstly, I am having one hell of a time with WordPress. I have spent hours to this point surfing through different themes, YouTube videos, you name it, all to no avail, so… I am at this point just hammering through whatever shows up, and then checking back on the site when I’m done, and hoping for the best. Maybe I’ll hit on something, wish me luck!!
Mark Desautels says:
Wednesday, Nov. 9th, still not sure exactly what I’m doing. This doesn’t look like I really want it to look, but I can’t seem to make the jump from what I have to a real “website” looking webpage. I will keep on trying but am running out of ideas, also don’t want to screw up or lose what I already have, so it’s a bit of a compromise at the moment. In other news, Spent the past few days covering stairs in the classroom, as the snow ploughing and cold weather have put a kybosh on outside work for the moment. Very happy with where my students are with the math for the stairs section. G’night, I’ll be back.
November 9, 2022 — 8:40 pm
Mark Desautels says:
So, while fooling around with the editing, I seem to have lost all my previous ramblings. That’s what I mean about messing with things. Not that anything I had to say was all that valuable, but it was a running commentary on what was going on in my head and on these pages as I mucked about. Oh well, spilled milk and all that.
November 9, 2022 — 8:46 pm
Mark Desautels says:
Downloaded Kaltura yesterday afternoon, and started to work with it a bit. I think I have the bones of something worked out, just need to do some refining before I load it onto a Kaltura presentation. Also downloaded Audacity, but as yet haven’t done anything with it. Looking forward to that one actually, it might be something that’s usable moving forward. Will sit down with Kaltura this p.m. and start fine tuning, see what emerges. Also found that some of the things I was looking at in the way of App’s, won’t load onto my machine…older operating system. It may be time to splurge and fork out the rubles for a new Mac.
November 12, 2022 — 11:45 am
Mark Desautels says:
Spent a good part of yesterday p.m., building a Kaltura presentation. Wow, totally forgot how much I dislike recording my own voice. Took some time to get past most of the aww’s and umm’s, and managed to edit out some of the larger blank spots. All in all when it was said and done, I think it’s not a bad product. Actually fairly pleased with my effort. My other stone wall was the hovering icon that I somehow managed to figure out for the first couple of links on my project page, that knowledge is now apparently completely lost to me, lol. I am going to give it another shot today, but not holding out much hope.
November 13, 2022 — 12:13 pm
Mark Desautels says:
Alrighty then…after much head banging, I have built what some might loosely consider a podcast. Short, sweet and to the point, haha. There is a whole bunch more to figure out with Audacity for sure, but at least it’s a start. Also kept muddling with my projects page, to no avail, other than loosing my link to my Kaltura project. Managed to rescue that after many frustrating moments. Also re & re’d my menu to better navigate the “website” I’m about ready for a break and a…coffee!
November 13, 2022 — 3:17 pm
Mark Desautels says:
Sat up last night and found a great tutorial on Kadence blocks, so I spent several hours when I should have been sleeping, watching and taking notes. Now I realize I have all kinds of stuff in place that doesn’t need to be there, at all. But hey, learning on the fly, and it’s going to definitely help to improve the overall look of the website! Cheers til later!
November 14, 2022 — 11:53 am
Mark Desautels says:
Well, I think I’m mostly done. I keep going in and messing around with things, but should probably, at this point, leave well enough alone. I’m thinking I might just try to build a second portfolio just to play with over the next few weeks, but at this point, I will just try to refine a few of the individual projects et. al. Actually feeling pretty satisfied with the results, but that may change when I start seeing some of the other portfolios. Of course it’s a competition, don’t be ridiculous, haha!!
November 14, 2022 — 10:31 pm
Mark Desautels says:
There…Thank you Jamie, my Kaltura project is now working correctly. The struggle was real! So as much as I told myself I was all done, I keep fiddling here and there trying to improve things and figure out how things work. That’s just the way I work, I guess.
November 15, 2022 — 7:43 pm
Mark Desautels says:
Really enjoying looking at peoples presentations tonight. It’s always refreshing to see someone else’s take on the material. I can’t wait to see everyone’s next week, not sure now though if I’m done, or if I need to go back to the drawing board. I can see spending quite a bit of my time in the future, playing on WordPress, for sure.
November 22, 2022 — 8:11 pm
Mark Desautels says:
So here we are, day of…not sure if I’m ready for the scrutiny, and my Twine storyboard seems to have quit working. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m on the computer at work or if it somehow just got dropped, I’ll have to check that when I get home to my Mac. Actually looking very much forward to everyone’s “show and tell”. Seeing everybody’s ideas will be enlightening I’m sure. Until this evening then…!
November 29, 2022 — 2:13 pm
Mark Desautels says:
Hey, I was supposed to be done, finished, kaput, y’know. Here I am at almost 11:oo p.m., trying to figure out how to link my Twine storyboard to my web page. Go figure. Like I said, just a little bit OCD about these kinds of things. I might have to admit defeat on this one and wait for Jamie to rescue me, because I can’t solve this particular problem. Now I just hope I can get some sleep, lol.
November 29, 2022 — 11:56 pm
Mark Desautels says:
Sunday night, Feb.19th, it’s been awhile. Just trying to button up some odds and ends before walking away from this for awhile. If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ve enjoyed everything or found it useful in some way.
February 19, 2023 — 9:32 pm
Mark Desautels says:
End of term has arrived, and with it, the scrambling, trying to get grades completed and out to everyone who’s anyone. Then it’s into the paperwork to make sure everything is fixed, improved, up to date and ready to go for next term. On top of that, there’s the stuff that the school wants taken care of, course reviews, personal reviews, etc. etc. All I want at this point is a couple of days off, lol. Had a good batch of students this year, really enjoyed the experience…again. Looking forward to next term and the challenges that come with it!
February 28, 2023 — 2:24 pm