Power(less)Point
Maybe subconsciously I've used it as an excuse to avoid doing a hard thing. I've told myself that getting the desired effect for slide transitions in PowerPoint was something I needed help to do; it must be easy and I'm making it unnecessarily hard. But now, after consulting the experts, it's not me, it's you. The problem lies in the fact that this MS software is not a tool of artistic expression but rather a bullet-maker that's a bit fancier than it needs to be for that pragmatic and utilitarian business function.
Windows MovieMaker would be just the ticket if all I wanted was to view it on a computer monitor or TV screen. But for projecting images across space, the compressed images just don't hang together. "You should be doing this on a MAC" was the underlying message at the Media Center on Thursday.
But it is amazing how liberating it is to know your bridges have been burned. I got more done yesterday than in any previous week, knowing it was my way or the highway. Giving up on the ideal, I hunkered down and worked on the real, and it is coming along. It won't be as polished as I'd hoped, but I'm probably the only one who'll know that.
I learned what building and room my presentation (on March 19) will be in and am meeting with the systems manager for that building next week to trial some sample images on the very machine they will ultimately be projected from. I have the name of the artist I'll be sharing the hour with and will call today to see what he can tell me about what his part of our program will be like. (I'm designated as the 'convener' of the hour so suppose I have to give a brief overview.)
With not quite two months to go, I guess I'm in pretty good shape. But I'd best be working more and talking less. I gotta go.