Well, here is a sneak peak TRAILER of the new stuff in CALL with a special guest appearance! I can actually HEAR the eye-rolls, even when I work remotely! That … is a good thing!
The tech upgrades are complete! Many thanks to Andrew, Marcus, Sophie, Heather, Dan, Adam, Jessica, KC and everyone else! If I forgot anyone, I will ‘Photoshop’ them in later on!
Okay, you might then argue that The Pods at the Front of CALL were another non-disaster upgrade, but …. the screen at the time had broken and well, why not upgrade the back computers to a kind of ‘If you build it, they will come‘ scenario for students. (Spoiler Alert – An ALL TIME FAVOURITE MOVIE of mine! And it worked … Covid started about 3 weeks later! AND CALL also got new furniture JUST BEFORE COVID! And believe me, the old furniture WAS a disaster! Whew!
CALL Facility Large Screens
So THIS current upgrade is unique in that we are getting FAR SUPERIOR STUFF that we did not have before! And those things are …… well, you will just have to wait until the next Bog Blog post. For now, I will include more photos of lots of stuff that has happened in CALL, and the first of the Before and After photos too! And a few random ‘Favourite Bog Blog’ posts at the bottom too!
A constant mainstay of most of my posts are … MEMES! Yeah, yeah, yeah …. everybody does Memes! And … that is a good thing! See, just added one there of Martha Stewart! And probably all you youngsters out there won’t know who she is or her catch phrase! That is okay and that too is … A Good Thing! I guess that makes this a Meta-Meme! LOL!
I generously populate my posts with home grown memes and gifs! Some might argue that a meme should NOT be a GIF. That would NOT be … ME! A picture might be worth 1000 words (+GST/PST), so why not animate it, and add a few more to the mix! The more the meme-ier! LOL!
I use an online site called ezgif.com to do most of my editing. All you need it an original image or gif and you can quickly and easily make it into anything you want! And if you can’t find the exact meme or animated gif …. you can import your own VIDEO clip! I use handbrake to ‘harvest’ a few seconds of movies or YouTube clips. Then it only takes a few minutes to really figure out how add text to your new GIF! I even wrote a post about it called ‘Adding Text to GIFs … Jeopardy GIF/MEME Version!‘ way back in May of 2021! I have a mini lesson there but oodles of links for you to explore as well! I think it is one of my better posts as I use GIFs every day and try to think of new ones or new techniques too! Hardly a CHD meeting goes by without SOMEONE including a relevant and hilarious GIF … you know who you are!
But I also like to be creative in PowerPoint too, for all the CHD Jeopardy training sessions each semester! GIFs created at ezgif are standalone and great!
CHD Jeopardy
But in PowerPoint, you can place a ‘clean’ or ‘untexted’ file and then use PowerPoint to add animated text AFTER the image shows up, or WITH IT too! So, the GIF can ‘fly in’ from the left side and then the text can ‘fly in’ (or anything!) from the right side! So, it adds another level of animation to the GIF! I use both!
There are probably an infinite number of bloggers, making an infinite number of GIFs on the internet! So, give it a try and see what you can make on your own! Start easy with a simple favourite GIF of anything! Add a few lines of text, change the font, the colour, the timing! And then try it in PowerPoint too! Be creative! Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy! AND HAVE FUN! That might be a more ‘timely’ or ‘generational’ GIF for all of the younger bloggers!
I am guilty on all those counts …. sentenced to lifetime imprisonment for flagrant and repetitive bad graphic design work! My daughter is a professional Graphic Designer and … you guessed it … rolls her eyes every time I talk about what I did for the most recent Jeopardy! LOL!
I am also adding a post called ‘GIFs‘ with JUST FAVOURITE CALL MEMES IN IT HERE! Some with text and some without! And below will be many of my most recent memes from here at Bog Blog! Enjoy! And although OAC does not like putting up PowerPoint files, all the CHD Jeopardy training sessions are in PDF format and the GIFS, although not animated, are there! Just click on my Page for CALL Jeopardy Opus! Need any, let me know!
CHD Jeopardy Generation CHD CHD Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist II ST:Strange New Worlds HIT IT!
CHD Grab Bag of Fall CALL y’All! November 2022 … ALREADY???
November … already? WOW …. and deserving of … ALL CAPS! NOVEMBER … ALREADY? This semester has gone both fast and slow … at the same time! And that sums up the entire year too!
This post will mostly be a summary with a few teasers about what might be coming up soon in CALL and elsewhere. It has been a very busy semester and quite the varied usage in CALL too! CALL has been around since September of 1989. That is NOT a typo – since 1989! And so many new and different uses just in this semester alone! And a bit of a list below in very rough chronological order! And the photos will be in a gallery at the end of this post.
American Sign Language (ASL) Orientation to start the year! Very successful on many accounts – they meet their Instructors (Nigel & Tim!), they find CALL so that they know WHERE their quizzes, midterms and Final exams will be and discover it is a drop-in location for them too! Thanks Sandra! Good luck to all the students with their studies! ASL is so much fun and is THE hardest class to get into at UVic with huge waiting lists!
Computer Help Desk Staff Training! Only the 2nd IN PERSON training since returning to UVic! And of course, a new version of CHD Jeopardy: Greg’s Playlist II! And lots of prizes were won – see my last post here.
PAAS Korean Chat Cafeis back in full force too! What a perfect blend of location, technology and amazing Instructors! Students get to chat with real live Koreans during their scheduled class time! Thanks Jaerang!
All kinds of Linguistics quizzes and mid-terms and later on this semester, ANOTHERLinguistics Poster Session as well! Last year, that event was the genesis of the idea to have dual monitors in CALL! Thanks for the idea, Sandra! Fortunately, I was able to reuse some older tech destined for recycling – dongles, monitors and cables from Heather at HSD and with Tomoyo’s help, setup ALL the computers in CALL with DUAL MONITORS for literally ZERO COST (just my ‘CALL Time’) and avoid shredding this older tech! Check out my PAGE about UVic recycling HERE! And for any students returning to CALL in September, the ‘new’ dual monitors were a huge new and WELCOME update! YAY! ALL my Bog Blog pages are always to the side of each and every post! YAY PAGES!
A Global Community Workshop, 2 sessions over 2 weeks helped international Business students navigate hiring and improving their resumes.
Hosted a group of international students from Pearson College of the Pacific at the end of their weeklong ‘shadowing’ of Spanish courses at UVic! They met in CALL to watch a Spanish YouTube video and workshop the week that was! Thanks Silvia and Adriana!
Spanish SIELE exam is scheduled in CALL later in November! It has been about 3 years (pre-Covid) since CALL hosted this prestigious exam! Looking forward to it! Thanks Silvia and Pablo!
A very special Spanish class with Gabriela will feature a Peruvian Rapper via a Zoom call for her students later in November! This is ANOTHER new and exciting event in CALL for her Spanish students! Thanks Gabriela and Chrissie!
Spanish Oral exams will be conducted in CALL as well, another first! Thanks Pablo!
CSI CALL Halloween
Halloween Decorations in CALL! Yeah, yet another chalk outline using old Mac Mini cables. Where is Sherlock Holmes when you need him! And amazingly it was gone the next day … without even needing a FAMIS request! They are SO GOOD!
And, of course, I am working on the NEXT CHD Jeopardy: A Mixed Bag! Tentatively sometime in January 2023, I want to add more prizes, INSTANT prizes using the new CHD Wheel of Prizes and have all new jokes, puns and puzzles to this next edition! Thanks to everyone at CHD for … putting up with me and my crazy imagination!
I am fairly certain I have forgotten a few events, so I reserve the right to … add them later on! In CALL, every day is different, every student is different and every joke and pun I think of … might not be different so I reserve the right to use them over and over and over again! And now, for some photos of the events above!
CHD Tent Orientation Week
CHD Orientation
C2D2
CHD Staff Training
Spanish Lansdowne Lecture
Great BC Shakeout
C2D2
C2D2
CHD Jeopardy
CHD Jeopardy
CSI CALL Halloween
CHD Jeopardy A Mixed Bag
Thanks to EVERYONE at CHD for participating and your support too! I can’t make The CALL Facility or Jeopardy ‘CAN’T MISS EVENTS‘ without all of you! Thank you!
! WELCOME BACK ! ! to UVIC ! ! September 2022 ! ! … and The CALL Facility too !
A full week has passed since classes started at UVIC! That would cover every day that has classes! It has been extremely busy on campus, especially outdoors with so many orientations, booths, tents and activities like Thunderfest for all students, especially new students! WELCOME TO UVIC!
The Computer Help Desk had tents up at Thunderfest as well as the day before classes started last week. CHD had a brand new PRIZE WHEEL to give away prizes! YAY CHD!
A couple of photos of the tents for all the activities and staffed by ALL kinds of CHD staff from new Coops to Consultants to Supers to Full Time Staff to our Associate Director too! GREAT TEAM EFFORT FROM EVERYONE! Those tents DO require team effort to setup and take down! YAY CHD!
CHD Thunderfest
Clearihue CHD
Clearihue CHD
All sorts of exciting stuff will be happening throughout September & all upcoming semesters!
Did you know you can reserve Student Study Spaces, including the desks at the back of The CALL Facility? There are Project Rooms in BEC, Group Study Tables in Clearihue (CALL), Virtual Reality (VR) Studio in BEC and a Digital Media Studio in HSD! ALL from THIS WEBSITE! Photos below!
A few more Dual Monitors
CALL now has DUAL MONITORS ON ALL COMPUTER WORKSTATIONS! And that is on all the Macs and WIN computers! I was able to re-purpose a bunch of monitors heading towards recycling and they now have a new lease on life in CALL! And it did not cost a penny! I used all available cables, monitors, dongles and power bars! BONUS FOR BEING A GREEN CALL FACILITY! Here are many UVIC Green Recycling Sites to check out too! These and the best of my Pages are always at the right hand side of each of my Bog Blog Posts.
I am always tinkering with my CALL Facility orientation, starting as a PowerPoint and with the goal to be under 5 minutes TOTAL as a presentation! I have tweaked my BETA version and now have what I think I will use as my file! And as a YouTube video as well!
CHD Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist II
AND I have the next CHD All Staff Training Jeopardy ready! Greg’s Playlist II and all new questions, answers, prizes and lyrics and CHD questions to try and answer! I even have NEW TYPES OF QUESTIONS TOO! But you will have to wait and .. also be staff at CHD to get the invite to the training! Come for the training … but stay for the food … and CHD JEOPARDY!
And huge HUGE NEWS THAT … I can’t really tell you about … but WILL! There are new computers coming! Wait, they are ALREADY HERE! But wait, they are not yet ready to deploy! YES NEW COMPUTERS! CHD staff unpacked them and we have to store them for now, as classes have started, so maybe by Reading Break I will let everyone know where they will be deployed! YAY NEW COMPUTERS! Stay glued to my Bog Blog for that and any other breaking Computer Help Desk news!
And how about a new feature every so often – a Throwback Link to topics … somewhat close to this one! LOL! And even some parting advice at the end of this blog, if you read that far! I sure hope you do!
CALL Layout I
CALL Layout II
CALL Layout III
The best feature of the CALL layout (thanks to rolling desks!) is distancing to make sure everyone has enough room, should they want it. There are lots of open workstations for students and of course, all new computers from last August 2021 too.
CALL has hosted many mid-terms, Finals and special workshops including a Chat Café with Korea! Really! So come on down and see what you have been missing out on as a study space for yourself and fellow students!
Thanks to EVERYONE for all your help and support over the past 2+ Covid years. Without my colleagues support and friendship, I have no idea how I would have fared! THANK YOU ALL! And hey, to quote one of my favourite TV shows of all time …. Hill Street Blues ….. and I have to mention St. Elsewhere too. AWESOME SHOWS! ENJOY!
It occurs to me that … I really like blogging here at OAC! I published a daily blog in the initial months of remote computing and all of a sudden, I had published almost 230 Posts! And a handful of Pages too. What is the difference between a ‘BogPost‘ and a ‘BogPage‘, well, I wrote a Post about that called “Pages and Posts … What Gives?“
And of course, that led me to think about which ones were my … favourites amongst them all! Yeah, not fair, but … I make the rules here! So I will now attempt to list, in no particular order, my “Top 10 Favourite Posts”
I will have one ‘filter’ though … the Post had to have the word “favourite” in it somewhere – preferably the title! So that will sub sort it quite a bit! So, HERE GOES!
“Open Book Exams . . . . or . . . . My Favourite Textbooks“. How can anyone LIKE a textbook much less make it a Favourite? Well, I did! I have kept many of my favourite textbooks throughout the years! Why not! They helped me get through many a tough course and … that I enjoyed them was a side bonus!
“CART2D2 – There is no try! Do or Do Not Young Skywalker!” THIS is a favourite because CART2D2 is a favourite! We are still playing around with this to find some great uses and the next big use will be at our first IN PERSON CHD TRAINING SESSION on May 28th! YAY! There is no try … Do or Do Not!
“Comparing Apples and Oranges but not actually ….. Oranges!” Recycling is HUGE at UVic and I try to recycle as much as I possibly can. And when CHD had quite literally a MOUNTAIN OF TECH show up last summer, CALL was used as a staging area for so much tech! And with so much PACKING AND CARDBOARD TOO! So any chance I get to promote recycling, I take it! And we are in the beginning stages of a new refresh so … warm up your Blue Bins, UVic!
“Throwback Thursday . . . or . . . Language Quotes! (and a bit of nostalgia!)” Who doesn’t enjoy a quick quote as a comeback or as a poster in their office! I probably only have a few stored in my long term PRAM that could be ZAPPED at any moment! So quotes about computers, life and especially Languages, is right up my alley in CALL!
“Bold Italics Comic Sans . . . or Word Processors Through the Years” One of my first ever Computer Science assignments, on punched cards no less, was to write a program to replace 3 words (that my Instructor had set in a paragraph (read from a mainframe!) with 3 other words. THAT WAS VERY HARD! But now, Gmail docs, Office, Pages … all have keyboard SHORTCUTS for Find and Replace! And none of them use punched cards as source code! Only shows that I correctly guessed that my future career … was NOT to be a Programmer!
“I Excel at PowerPoint . . . or Computer Puns and Jokes” What would any Top 10 List be without including a post about my favourite jokes and puns! I never let an opportunity to ‘pun’ go unpunished! And I am usually RESTRAINING myself too!
“CALL CHD JEOPARDY OPUS“. How could I create a Top 10 and NOT include Jeopardy! Okay, a bit of a cheat here as this is actually a PAGE that can be accessed anytime from any of my Posts. AND is always updated to the most recent version of JEOPARDY! In fact, the first IN PERSON CHD Training will be on Saturday, May 28th and I will have a brand new Jeopardy – Greg’s Playlist! And it will have new elements such as Fill-in-the-Blanks, Multiple Choice and even some Scavenger Hunts for prizes!
So many Posts/Pages … so little time! I am not writing at the same pace, but reserve my Posts/Pages for my remote day, unless something comes up.
It might take awhile, here’s to my next 230+ Posts and Pages and Randomness at UVic! YAY!
The CALL Facility now has dual monitors on each workstation! Well, not all of them. The Instructors stations (#37 & #38) are connected to the VDP and can project to the entire room. And room is needed for laptops and materials at each station.
The idea to install them came from a Poster Session for Linguistics, described in an earlier post! It was so successful that the monitors at HSD (in storage) that were headed to be recycled, a box of HDMI-DVI dongles and some DVI cables were found …. DUAL MONITORS! And at absolutely no cost at all! I joke that I found a penny under a station, so my budget not only came in UNDER budget .. but showed a profit!!!!
There are combinations of Portrait and/or Landscape and relatively easy to switch around. I will survey students throughout the summer to see what combination might be preferable.
Most students are away for the summer and fewer classes are actually scheduled so it will still look like ‘new’ equipment for September!
Thanks to colleagues T, H and G for helping me set them up! Those cable trays are heavy, awkward and filled with .. cables! LOL! And a very green mini-project, saving tech from a landfill too!
This is basically a sequel post to my last one ‘What’s Next for September?‘ as I have not had time to post ANYTHINGsince returning to work on campus, full time, face to face, as everyone else did too!
BUT the exception is TODAY, my first scheduled RWA (Working Remotely) to .. work remotely once a week. Working with my amazing colleagues at CHD, we each submitted our RWA to our Asscciate Director, making sure we cover each other on our respective RWA days. We have been doing that anyways for years, this merely formalizes it for specific days for each of us. AND if I am needed on campus that day for an orientation, demo or something … I just come to campus that day! Thanks to all of M, T, H and G for working together on this! Teamwork and communication!
And so NOW, the ultimate question is … What IS Next for 2022?
I have absolutely no idea! I can only reflect on this past semester – the challenges and successes I encountered returning to The Computer Help Desk and The CALL Facility … in a nutshell!
The biggest change was of course, full face to face with students, staff, faculty and … SO MANY PEOPLE ON CAMPUS! Mask wearing was mandated and basically, we were all back into the swing of things … instantly!
I fielded so many requests for CALL bookings, resources, hours of operation and … bewildered 1st AND 2nd Year students being on campus for the FIRST TIME! And new Instructors, new pedagogy based on technology (Brightspace, Zoom, Teams, OAC, Echo 360, … you name it!). AND many, many regulars of CALL returned if they had not graduated already! Thank you all for your patience and for returning to The CALL Facility!
I even changed the configuration of my desk so that there would be social distancing between CHD Consultants and myself in CALL! Okay, just switched sides, but that is an important change – and now I can see people when they come into CALL!
CALL had a marked increase in usage for American Sign Language, Korean (Chat Cafe!), French, Spanish and Italian! With the need for distancing and masking, I had to modify my approach AND content to everyone, even the Instructors! That was actually SO MUCH FUN and basically I was re-learning my duties and job .. ON THE FLY!
I literally was hosting a 3 minute ‘demo’ of what CALL is, how to use the NEW computers and even a super fast demo of Audacity at one point, using both WIN and MAC on the VDP!
Anytime you are dealing with new equipment, new computers and new students and expectations from new Instructors …. be afraid! But I was thrilled that ALL THE COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGY WORKED FLAWLESSLY!
The WiFi worked flawlessly even for upwards of 40+ students and their own laptops! The ‘Korean Chat Cafe’ with Zoom worked instantly, Brightspace was in high demand and students could CHOOSE WIN OR MAC! That was VERY welcome amongst students! And ASL mid-terms and Finals just … WORKED! CALL will be hosting the ASL Final exams which make use of webcams, Brightspace, Macs and Windows, recording and … CALL is the only facility that can offer that .. okay, CLE A103 has a room of iMacs, and they work flawlessly too! YAY TKAT!
Korean Chat Cafe
ASL American Sign Language
One of my favourite tasks was creating a new Keynote for each new semester, with all the new ‘stuff’ in CALL. But it was not worth the time to do that, considering I was able to do quick demos, as the class came in, with a minimum of fuss. But, the last ‘5-ish Magic Words” lives on as a downloadable file and at YouTube too!
Oh yes, NEW COMPUTERS and NEW FURNITURE! Just click on those links and you will see previous posts about all the new stuff, now all installed in CALL! MANY thanks to everyone at CHD who helped moving a literal ‘Mountain of Tech‘ that came in during the summer! And it would be remiss of me to again mention that CHD recycles as much as possible – plastics (hard and soft), cardboard and paper.
The ‘NEW STUFF‘, EACH computer (Mac Minis & DELL WIN) makes CALL quite unique! CALL is the ONLY computing facility on campus to offer: a blend of MAC and WIN computers, webcams on each computer, 24″ monitors, ethernet and solid WiFi, external optical media drives (Mac only), USB headphones with stereo microphones, private booths (with and without computers), table space, 55″ monitors at 2- ‘office/desk’ locations, 4 rolling whiteboards (2 big, 2 small) for use anywhere in CALL – AND DROP-
New CALL Furniture
IN USE, unless CALL is scheduled!! Yeah, that makes CALL very, very unique! Oh and lots of new furniture too … hint, hint!
I have even been returning as much media and resources TO each Humanities Department, for their own decisions about what to do with old CDs, DVDs, software, VHS tapes, etc. The CALL Facility, under the umbrella of Systems, has never ‘owned’ or ‘bought’ any language resources. That was always based on Departmental needs and their syllabus for each language course. So, returning it frees up much needed room.
And a ‘Not-So-Hidden-Agenda Item’ is to re-introduce myself, The Computer Help Desk and of course, The CALL Facility to all the new staff in each Department, usually beginning with their Office Manager! Yes, there IS a method to my madness!
I have kept a few very, VERY unique software packages, including McMaster French, the very FIRST software ever installed in CALL .. and needs MS:DOS to run! THANK YOU Patrickfor keeping it going for so many years, I did not have the heart to return it for shredding! So, it lives on in 3.5″ floppy disk format in the CALL closet! The last group to use it was LMF 23 summers ago, pre-Covid.
And instead of returning to in-person training, CHD is scheduling separate 1-hour afternoon sessions on specific topics for all new and returning staff, including Coops. So that does not give me an opportunity to do a full Jeopardy. BUT, at the end of our CHD Reviews (2-3 times a week) I am hosting a ‘Blast From Your Past‘ Jeopardy! I have about 9 previous Jeopardy training sessions, 180+ ‘Questions’ and going through them all to give a sense of history and .. whimsy .. to CHD, CALL and training! A nice way to end each session too – 2 or 3 questions and have some fun at the end of some training.
What else … I decided to buy my own new PURPLE IMAC too, although it is more of a … Lavendar! My computers at home were too old to really be secure, so .. NEW COMPUTER! 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, extended keyboard and …. PURPLE(Lavendar!)
And that is about it for now! A longer post, but catching up on the most important changes and improvements in The CALL Facility.
Challenges remain – we are still in the Covid Pandemic and everyone should keep wearing your masks, social distancing, wash your hands and stay as safe and healthy as possible. I am including Covid information below as well. I hope to do more Bog Blogs in the future, especially on RWA Wednesdays! And who knows what new Tech is around the corner for us at CHD, The CALL Facility and UVic in general!
Who ya gonna CALL? THE COMPUTER HELP DESK!Stay safe everyone!
What an exhausting and long year since last August – my last full vacation!
And exhausting … for ALL OF US! I am so fortunate to have been able to work with such amazing and incredible colleagues at The Computer Help Desk over the past … 500+ DAYS! Yes, it has been that long since we started working remotely, late in March of 2020!
Without ALL of their support, humour, leadership, imagination, guidance and every single possible ‘intangible‘ that each and every single one of them, ALL BRING to our Teams meetings, emails, texts, GIFs, Emojis, Jeopardy, Quote Contests, it would have been impossible to accomplish a fraction of what WE ALL DID AS A TEAM!
THANK YOU ALL!
A few key UVic and BC websites for returning to campus in September for everyone!
And if you made it this far
with such amazing and incredible colleagues at The Computer Help Desk over the past … 500+ DAYS! Yes, it has been that long since we started working remotely, late in March of 2020!
Whatever CAN be recycled 
