March 14, 2016

It is almost one o'clock in the morning. This night disappeared real quick.

I slept in this morning, which was great, and then read a textbook chapter before lunch. So I did something at least. After lunch I think I read some more but I also played around with my video editor and figured out how to put captions on a video. It is looking to be a little tedious and that will be the worst part of making the video tutorial for my technology class. On the plus side, I think I came up with what I want to do for my tutorial. I am going to cover the basics of Canva and make a simple flyer for a Minecraft event at a library. This was inspired by helping the sixth graders make their album covers, which reminded me that Canva was a thing, and last week while volunteering at the public library I submitted a Minecraft event at the library to a local events website. So the need for flyers in a library is a real thing.

Also, this afternoon when I was back at the public library the PR lady I'm volunteering for asked me if I was familiar with infographics. She has a bunch of statistics that she has always wanted to put into an infographic but has never had the time. I mentioned Canva, which she had heard of, so in the near future I might be doing that, which I could use as another example in my video of ways Canva can be used in a library.

I was also introduced to one of the children's librarians who recently graduated from the same school I'm going to, so we talked about that for a little bit. Small world. It is always good to see proof of people getting jobs with the degree you are currently earning.

Tonight I spent a could hours, maybe even a few, sewing bookmarks. I sewed eighteen of them together, which is the number I cut out yesterday, and I got ten of them turned inside out (or rightside out) and ironed. I set up a TV tray by my desk and brought my iron over so when I got to that stage I just had to spin my chair around to use the iron. It was a lot more convenient than having to get up every time and then bend over a table to iron. My back appreciated it. Tomorrow, if I have the interest, I should be able to get the rest of them turned rightside out and ironed. I might also start finishing them by sewing around the edge and then the zig-zag down the middle. Maybe.

When I was done with that I played a little Torchlight 2, which I finally got around to downloading yesterday. However many years ago I wanted to play the original Torchlight, and I own it because it was in a Humble Bundle, but never got around to it. Then in the last year or so I got Torchlight 2 in a bundle, so I wanted to play that. And now I have. It is kind of fun but probably not worth the wait. I think most of that is me not really wanting to devote my time to another in-depth game. There is character leveling through skill trees and inventory management and all of that stuff takes some focus and a lot of time. I'm not ready to commit to that. Also, the camera angle is off just enough that it annoys me. Or maybe I just need to play it in a smaller window. I don't know. I might give it another try.

After that I loaded up Minecraft and made a little square sky island, which took longer than it should have. I just couldn't settle on what I wanted it to look like and I kept trying stuff that wasn't working. I eventually came up with something I liked and then downloaded a rendering program so I could render out a 3D picture of the island. It took me a bit to figure out the program but I think I've got it now. It is currently in the middle of rendering out my third attempt and it has got my hopes up. The preview looks like what I was imagining in my head so the final picture should look even better. If not I'll just have to keep tweaking things. It renders with a bluish-gray background and I'm hoping it isn't a color used in the island itself because I want to delete the background and that would be much easier if the color was unique to the background and not present in the rest of the image. I'll have to dig around a little more in the options and see if that color can be changed. I would think it could be but who knows.

The ultimate goal and the reason for this Minecraft render, is to use in my tutorial video for Canva. Even though the flyer is really just an accessory to the video and isn't going to be used in real life, I still want it to look good. My idea is to have the floating island be the central focus on the flyer, something that will grab the attention of kids and parents. It looks interesting in my head so hopefully reality matches that.

And, something I almost forgot (because it really isn't that significant). I renewed my XM subscription today, once again calling to cancel in order to get a better deal. Usually they have to go through several offers before getting to the one that I want but this time it was the second suggestion, and it was for six months instead of five, which I've had to get the last two or three times. There is always the chance that they will accept my decision to cancel without offering me a special deal but I think I would be okay with it. I listened to it for a bit today on the way to the library but then switched back to my own music. I don't spend a lot of time in my car and spend far less time actually listening to the radio, so it wouldn't be much of a loss at this point.

I've got a little bit left on the render so I'm going to wait for that and then go to bed. Tomorrow I need to read more for class, work on the tutorial video idea, and maybe start the license review for my other class. I am also going to volunteer at the public library again because it gives me an excuse to leave the house over break.