Derek on Twitter | Tulane Technology on Twitter | Twaitter | Other Twitter apps

Twitter continues its uninterrupted advances as it moves to take over the world and enslave us all to its demonic will... No, wait. That's Google.

Twitter is the kind, simple, uncomplicated app that's melting the hearts of even the most curmudgeonly of us.

Google is the multi-tentacled monster of the deep. Twitter is a sad-eyed kitten. In the end they'll both steal your soul, but you'll feel better about one. You figure which.

Anyway, on to more Twitter matters...

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eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for Friday and for Saturday| Marie's eKaq Flickr photos | Twitter #ekaq

Friday, July 23 & Saturday, July 24 – Lee, Ix'Nal, and I took a tuk-tuk on Friday morning up the street to grab a few market shots. We'll use the footage as intro to our staged market vendor dialogues. Those turned out to be the final video shots of the production. Picked up a lot of great stills there, too. Markets are such colorful spaces full of activity - I think i tried to shoot everything!

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eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for today | Marie's eKaq Flickr photos | Twitter #ekaq

Thursday, July 23 – Thought today would be relatively straightforward. Not so much. In the end, production went well and everything we set out to shoot happened, but not without more than a little pain. The teachers arrived late, but as they were spending the time rehearsing, it probably didn't matter for the overall timeline. The biggest problem, as in past years: the sounds of Panajachel!

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eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for today | Marie's eKaq Flickr photos | Twitter #ekaq

Wednesday, July 22 - I've talked before about Panajachel, the town where we stay and work from while producing content for the Kaqchikel application. Pana lies along the shores of Lake Atitlán, an ancient volcanic caldera in the Guatemalan highlands ringed by three (probably) inactive volcanoes. It's a beautiful locale that we try to make as much use of as possible in our material. You can't help but see the massive volcanoes towering across the lake when you visit its shores. But in town, it's sometimes easy to forget what's sitting just "out there." Walking along the street this morning, I caught sight of this eerie reminder.

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eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for today | Marie's eKaq Flickr photos | Twitter #ekaq

Tuesday, July 21 - Shooting all day today - four dialogues in three locations. Fortunately, able to do them all in the hotel, some on the garden area outside our rooms, and one actually in Marie's room. It's truly amazing how much use we've been able to make of these hotel grounds, and even our rooms, as production locations. Thank god for the Hotel Posada de Don Rodrigo!

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eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for today | Marie's eKaq Flickr photos | Twitter #ekaq

Monday, July 20 - First day of actual production! Spent the morning scoping out locations and changing traveler's checks for quetzales. In the afternoon, shot two dialogues with our Kaqchikel teachers and picked up a few audio lines for later use as narration. Even built a sound booth! Not bad for a half day shoot.

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eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for today | Marie's eKaq Flickr photos

Sunday, July 19 - Now fully recovered from the yesterday's travels. I'd like to claim jet lag but we never left our original time zone. We are an hour earlier here since Guatemala doesn't observe daylight savings time. Maybe that's it...

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eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for today | Marie's eKaq Flickr photos

Saturday, July 18 - Arrived safely in Guatemala City this morning with only minimal airline induced delays. Was scrutinized by customs more than usual, but no problems in the end. Found our van driver and was immediately on the road to Panajachel. Three and a half hours later, arrived in Pana.

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eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for today | Marie's eKaq Flickr photos

Saturday, July 18 - Sitting in Houston airport waiting for our flight to Guatemala City. Uneventful flight fron NOLA to Houston, though there was a bit of unwarranted concern over a balky navigation system on the airliner. Maintenance technician had us filing out to the concourse when the Captain changed his mind and said the plane was good to go, faulty nav or no. The plane was good for one more trip, they said. Wow. That's the way to instill confidence in the air traveling public.

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Since 2004 a team from Tulane University has been traveling each year to Guatemala to produce content for a multi-media language application. Next week begins the fifth and final Guatemala road trip collaboration between the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and Tulane Technology Services. The final product of this multi-year effort is a self-paced, online and CD-ROM, Flash-based language learning application. The goal: use innovative new media technologies to teach the Maya kaqchikel language to English and Spanish speakers.

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