mountain masala

Learning to teach online

here is a new website with vdeos about online teaching and learning hosted by the university of new south wales' college of fine arts.

learning to teach online

 

Advent Bible Studies

Dr Peter Mallen from the UCA in Victoria has published a new set of Bible studies for Advent. They are based on this year's lectionary texts from Isaiah and Matthew. You can find them here

YTV News

here's the thing that I made with the youth group using BoinxTV. its a contemporary reading of Luke 21:5-19. I originally tried having each clip separate and setting up the chroma keying (ie. green screen transparency) in BoinxTV (which is pretty impressive in that regard). but the program is designed for live broadcast, and i had far too many quick cues to get right. apart from that the program seemed to stutter if i was doing too much - i guess it needs more RAM or a faster Mac (I'm running a 2.66Ghz MacBook Pro Duo with 4Gb RAM).

so instead i put the news readers and news footage together in Final Cut Pro and used a chroma key filter in that. the green wall that we'd filmed with was very pale, so the chroma keying picked up people's eyes and other random bits of clothing. the overlays are all preset and triggered live. i could have made them smoother with more practice.

i've come across some tutorials and extra files here - i hope they'll help as i want to customise stuff. its built on Quartz Composer, so I may have to bite the bullet and get into that next year.

anyway, here's what we came up with. as always, they're a fun group to work with.

 

Luke 21 from Craig Mitchell on Vimeo.

what is advent?

'stan the man' (hauerwas) speaking over at theworkofthepeople.com. provocative as always.

 

AMAZING stopmotion video

check out these two extraordinary HD videos by film maker sam o'hare

coacheletta - http://vimeo.com/15596222

the sandpit - http://vimeo.com/9679622

 

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

the combination of jerkiness and selective focus in the latter makes it look like minatures. apparently the selective focus technique can be done in-camera with the right lens, but it's also now a filter called tilt shift in boinx's istopmotion,  o'hare actually used a high-end pro image processing program called eyeonline fusion to create the effect post-shoot.

 

when you're not sure what to cook for dinner....

1. chop half an onion and start to saute it gently. this buys time with the family, since they love the smell. and it helps you feel like progress is being made.

2. pour yourself a glass of red wine. sip.

3. poke around in the freezer and choose some meat to thaw. it doesnt matter much what it is. put in microwave. the sound of the mircowave is another sign of progress.(vegetarians can visit the garden at this stage...)

4. go to favourite cookbooks and try to narrow down the style of cuisine. will it be moroccan, thai, italian, turkish? narrow the cookbooks in the pile down to those of that genre. (yes, alright! Google if you have to!)

5. refill glass if necessary while reading. take as long as you like on this step. its almost the best part of the process. so many possibilities! you can even tag some for later

6. check onion. bugger. burnt. repeat step 1.

7. choose a recipe and just do a quick skim over it. at this stage you just want to get a general feel for what the dish might be like. make sure the title will sound good on facebook. it must have at least one exotic ingredient, preferably three.

plans for next year

In 2011-2012 I will be undertaking a two year, full-time national research project in the area of Christian education for the Uniting Church's national Assembly. I will be seconded to the Assembly for that time with the intention of returning to my role at Uniting College at the end of that time.

My hope is to undertake the research as a doctoral research project. The purpose of the research is to help the Assembly identify its role and priorities in CE, but behind that is a deeper consideration of what CE might mean for the church in this time and place. The research is meant to include field work aross the country.

This arrangement has been under consideration by both the Assembly and the Council that oversees our College for some time, and has only just received the 'green light' at both ends. Hence I've been unable to speak about it while undertaking all sorts of plans for next year.

Uniting College will shortly be advertising for interim staffing for that period. The plan is that I will commence the project in late February. I will maintain an office at Uniting College and be thetre from time to time.

Despite the obvious absence and the difficulties that will cause initially at the College, its a very exciting project and obviously of benefit to my long-term work in teaching and research.

Looking forward to it!

copyright

just found out that duke university has a centre for the study of the public domain. a bunch of presentations about copyright and music interested me. there are webcasts stacks of interesting lectures..

another reason to go back to my old school when next i travel...

do you know the muffin man?

for my sunday afternoon wind-down (after prepping for worship all weekend and leading it in the morning) i decided to try making muffins for the first time, having been encouraged by an article in last week's epicure. as someone who rarely bakes, it was going to be a test of my skills with recipes that are actually meant to be followed!

i'm pleased to say that both recipes worked perfectly! we have 2 x 6 medium muffin silicon trays.

Berry Muffins

This is pretty much what was in Epicure.

Combine 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt

Separately, whisk 3/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup canola or veg oil, 1 egg, zest of 1 lemon

Gently fold the above two bowls of stuff togather and gently add 1 cup fruit (I used semi-dried cranberries with frozen mixed berries

Spoon gently into greased muffin tray and top with cinnamon sugar

Bake for 15-20 mins at 200 degrees. (20 mins worked for me)

Fabulous but a little too lemony (recipe had 1/2 cup apple or muesli plus 1/2 cup blueberries)

Asparagus & Cheese Muffins

I discovered that we have "The Great Little Australian Muffin Cookbook" on our shelves. Here's a slight variation on one in the book.

Steam 200 gms fresh asparagus until just tender. Slice into 1/2 cm bits.

Mix 2 cups self-raising flour, 1 cup grated cheese (I used parmesan), 2 spring onions chopped, 1/4 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp salt

Whisk 1/4 cup sour cream, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup milk.

Gently fold liquid into dry mixture and gently add asparagus.

Bake at 200 degress for 15-20 mins. (20 mins worked).

Both were quick and easy and I can see myself making a batch or two on Sunday arvos for lunches and breakfasts during the week. So many options for savoury or sweet.

 

boinxtv

i'm leading worship tomorrow at my home church, and recruited my sunday morning youth group to film the gospel reading. 3 or 4 times a year we work up something present in worship. after reading the Aussie paraphrase by nathan at laughingbird I thought that the lectionary reading sounded like a news report, so i wrote a script along those lines.

last sunday we filmed in front of the light green wall in the youth room. i've never done 'green screen' because i've never had a green screen!

during the week i recorded the news on several channels. i put the footage in front of the news reports in final cut pro and then used a chroma key to remove the green. a stronger green would have worked much better (or a pro mask plugin!).