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!
Only the second time since Covid started in March of 2020 (for UVIC remote) that we were able to host an in-person training session, complete with CHD Supers, Coops and Consultants and … CHD JEOPARDY! CART2D2 was even there! Brand new questions, answers, puns, jokes and PRIZES TOO in …
Come for the training, stay for the Jeopardy … & the food!
Many more Toblerone Challenges too! SEVEN Toblerone challenges throughout training, beginning with the very first slide that had FOUR Toblerone bars up for grabs!
The four answers are: Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (Sage), Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved (Chris), Tina Turner and Bryan Adams – It’s Only Love (Chris again!) and Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud (Sage again!)
Multiple winners ARE ALLOWED!
Rem for Worf from ST:TNG with Worf proclaiming that prune juice is a Warrior’s drink!
Zoe for solving the anagram of ‘The Computer Help Desk Rocks”!
Alexandra for correctly identifying a favourite old TV series of mine “Get Smart” with Agent 86 – Maxwell Smart! Was it the shoe phone that gave it away? LOL!
And there definitely were even “Early Bird Winners” of Sarah, Alexandra and Tom – yes, multiple MULTIPLE winners! I can’t fool them!
For the next Jeopardy in .. January 2023, I am tinkering with ideas ranging from a Scavenger Hunt (digital!), Wheel of Doom (from CHD), more Puzzles to solve and even A category of “Dad Jokes” too! Be afraid … be VERYafraid!
What DID backfire on me was my Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (SNW) question! It was the first ever POLL within Jeopardy so EVERYBODY had a chance to win some chocolate bars! But I was upended by … NOBODY believing ST:SNW was the … BEST STAR TREK SERIES EVER! LOL! I was all set to throw chocolate bars at anyone who agreed with me … and not a single arm went up! HAHA! The chocolate bars will be in the Staff Kitchen soon, along with lots of chocolate based goodies for everyone who did attend and participate! THANK YOU ALL!
A couple of LIVE snapshots of CHD Jeopardy LIVE from the weekend and also CART2D2 are below .. scroll down to see them!
Jeopardy VI Reboot Version Jeopardy VI Dual re-BootJeopardy VIII Triple re-BoJeopardy VIII Triple re-BootJeopardy IX Memes “R” UsCHD Jeopardy Generation CHD
So, what exactly IS … The CALL Facility at UVic? Well, here goes!
Including new ‘BETA‘ content
for September 2022 !
I have a NEW PDF (and PDF-video!) for a NEW version of The CALL Facility Orientation for September 2022!
⬇️September 2022⬇️ NEW BETA VERSION The CALL Facility Orientation ⬇️Click Below to download⬇️
And just below is my “Director’s Cut” YouTube version, converted from PowerPoint – and less than 2 minutes in length (1:59! LOL!) I will definitely have some updates and upgrades between now and then as I ‘Field Test’ this new approach to showing everyone The CALL Facility and preparing for September 2022.
Previous versions (Page) of my CALL intro had MANY slides of all the available resources for each language/course/Department that used CALL for homework, assignments, WICKET, etc. That has totally changed due to Covid and I wanted a very quick, very informative slide show that ANYONE could quickly see (and show!) and not be resource or ‘click heavy’. I hope I have accomplished that!
I will continue to tweak it and after a few live CALL orientations, I will update these resources! Of course, I retain the right to .. include my brand of humour throughout! Oh, by the way, without a doubt, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is THE BEST STAR TREK SERIES OF ALL TIME! And … Spoiler Alert – this could actually pop up as a Jeopardy Questions in the new September CHD Training Day! You .. never … know!
I will have future Bog Blog posts about “Heading Back to UVic“, “Oldest Computers in the World“, “On Vacation“, “Welcome Back to UVic” in September, and even some updated Pages and more totally random stuff that I seem to … maybe … specialize in! LOL!
CHD Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist II
And … another SPOILER ALERT– a brand new CHD Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist II for September CHD Training too! YAY JEOPARDY!
Thanks to EVERYONE at CHD for participating and your support too! I can’t make CALL Orientations or CHD Jeopardy without all of you and your assistance, support and … rolling eyes!! Thank you!
The Computer Help Desk had our first ALL STAFF In-Person Training session recently and I was able to present CHD Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist for the FIRST TIME SINCE COVID STARTED! And I introduced brand new fun CHD Jeopardy questions, including Fill in the Blanks, Multiple Choice and TOBLERONE PRIZES for solving puzzles and scavenger hunts! Thanks to everyone who participated and WON!
CHD Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist II
AND I am almost done my September CALL Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist II! I like to have it all ready WELL in advance of the next training session! And there will be more new Jeopardy questions, MORE Toblerone prizes and NEW ways to win NEW PRIZES TOO! And maybe even …. Spoiler Alert …. A GROUP JEOPARDY QUESTION TOO WHERE EVERYONE CAN WIN SOMETHING!!!
I try to do one or two new different participatory slides each time and the next Jeopardy will be BIGGER AND BETTER WITH MORE CHANCES TO WIN PRIZES! Listen closely …. do you want to know what …. and how to win Jeopardy prizes …….
SSssshhhh ….. can you keep a secret? Well …. so can I! LOL!
And, Spoiler Alert … I am also working on a brand new CALL Orientation PowerPoint for September!
And you never know … there might even be a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Jeopardy question too! ANYTHINGcan happen in the UVIC Multiverse of Madness! (And subtle joke … notice how I tied Marvel AND Star Trek, into the title of this Bog Blog post ….. a chocolate bar to the first CHD Staff person who reads this far ANDtells me the connection! (WAY easier than you think to solve!)
Jeopardy VI Reboot Version Jeopardy VI Dual re-BootJeopardy VIII Triple re-BoJeopardy VIII Triple re-BootJeopardy IX Memes “R” UsCHD Jeopardy Generation CHD
Jeopardy XI Greg’s Playlist
CHD Jeopardy XII Greg’s Playlist II
Thanks to EVERYONE at CHD for participating and your support too! I can’t make Jeopardy without all of you! Thank you!
A Brief History of Time, Space & … JEOPARDY At The Computer Help Desk
The CALL Facility
The Computer Help Desk had our first ALL STAFF In-Person Training session this past Saturday in The CALL Facility! Around 2.5 YEARS since our last one, probably around February in 2020 before … well … you know what happened after that!
The CALL Facility
CHD has still had training sessions throughout working remotely, but used other collaborative software applications such as Blackboard, Zoom, Skype and now TEAMS to offer training for all our new Coops and returning Consultants! SPOILER ALERT – I prefer TEAMS to all of the alternatives! YAY TEAMS!
This post will be a brief recap of ALL the CHD ‘Jeopardy’ training sessions and how it has changed from the very first workshop I presented at .. and it was not even Jeopardy back then!
CHD Workshop
The very FIRST Saturday CHD Workshop presentation was a general introduction to The CALL Facility and WICKET! WICKET was essentially an attendance program, custom written for CALL to keep track of student ‘attendance’ in CALL. Many Departments, including Spanish, Italian, German, French, Linguistics and more, required a lab component to their classes for students, typically an hour a week, with at least one visit. WICKET would identify the student and class(es) they were taking and staff would assign a location for them. When they left, they would ‘sign out’ at the front counter and their time and visit would be logged!
CALL Jeopardy I
Next was the first ever CALL version of Jeopardy! And I take NO CREDIT for the template that was used! Sherri originated the template for a Systems social event, so …. I just acquired the template! And it truly was a CALL Version. But over the years, I have mostly titled them ‘CALL Jeopardy’, but they really are just ‘Jeopardy’ or ‘CHD Jeopardy’ now! It was bare bones, no Trivia, and just pick a number under a category. But it was a start for Jeopardy!
CALL ++ Jeopardy
Then I started to get a bit more … imaginative … and introduced Jeopardy II CALL ++ Version! I started playing around with themes, backgrounds, puns, jokes and … TRIVIA under each category! Yeah, you are probably saying .. what took you so long! I even put in a ‘Daily Double’ but only for cosmetic reasons! Why not! And the side benefit was … I was learning about more features of PowerPoint! Many of my CALL orientations were using Keynote slides – which have awesome special effects! But PowerPoint has been a mainstay of Jeopardy from the beginning!
Jeopardy III Knee-d-Full Things
And then even more adventurous with the next rendition of Jeopardy III – Knee-d-Full-Things! At the time I was having knee surgery, and I think Stranger Things was just taking off too! AND a Star Wars movie was out too so .. the theme basically wrote itself! I even started to use some graphics within the trivia part of the categories too. But that has fallen a bit to the side! Trivia was barely an option back then!
Next up would be Jeopardy V Pop Culture! This was fun because I started to put a few more GIFs in each slide and … it was becoming quite challenging to come up with new and fun questions for all the new Coops, and Consultants to try and figure out! Each new Jeopardy I add a new layer of … something … to make it better and more interesting for everyone, especially myself! Pop Culture let me pick SO MANY NEW Trivia questions too! This was one of my favourite Jeopardy sessions!
Jeopardy VI Reboot Version
Then came a series of remote training sessions, based on the idea that we were all really trying to ‘reboot’ ourselves into a new world of remote computing and nobody, NOBODY, had any idea how much our work at the CHD would be affected by being home for so long. Jeopardy VI Reboot Version was the first attempt at using Blackboard, I think, and it was a bit disastrous! I ran out of time, the AV was a bit wonky too. I had been in Teams and perhaps Zoom just PRIOR and I was in the wrong Blackboard channel and the problems just continue to mount with a weird double-echo in my headset. So I basically abandoned this one mid-training! LOL! But this was a learning moment for me too! What NOT to do .. before Jeopardy!
Jeopardy VI Dual re-Boot
And of course, the obvious title for the next session would be Jeopardy VII Dual re-Boot! That was also a pun on all the CALL computers … which were Dual Boot MAC/WIN at the time! There is always a slightly skewed reason for all the titles, question, trivia and answers! Spoiler Alert: That won’t change anytime soon! 🙂 And, I also ran out of time with this version of Jeopardy! But the silver lining to having incomplete Jeopardy, is that CHD Review was introduced and given about 5 minutes at the conclusion of each CHD (Super) Review, there was time to finish of any Jeopardy questions! YAY! Jeopardy was no longer … in Jeopardy! 🙂
Jeopardy VIII Triple re-Boot
And then came the first ‘Triple Header’ called Jeopardy TRIPLE re-BOOT! This was not the first use of actual video links in Jeopardy, but I included a link to a brief orientation of CALL for everyone, and also
Jeopardy VIII Triple re-Boot
for when I would be away for my major knee surgery – I am either part Borg or part Terminator with my new left knee! THAT was 6 months away from work, so there was a gap in training session participation for me! And I seem to have a version of Triple re-Boot Jeopardy with a different start screen! Ah, I need a RAM upgrade soon as I am forgetting my own Jeopardy sessions! 🙂
Jeopardy IX Memes “R” Us
Then came a ‘ground breaking’ version of Jeopardy IX MEMEs ‘R’ Us! I discovered a site that EASILY made a custom meme with whatever you wanted to put on it! Every slide had a unique CHD Meme on it, usually poking fun at the question, CHD, staff and even myself! This was a fantastic new addition, for me, as it opened up all kinds of possibilities! And if I could not find a ‘blank’ existing meme/gif then I was able to create one with Handbrake as a brief video from a source video, slice out a few second, then turn that video, complete with my own text, into the EXACT meme I wanted, at ezgif.com!
CHD Jeopardy Poll
And then a new approach to be inclusive of all our CHD staff! I wanted to ask THEM what kind of Trivia questions they would like to answer, prior to the actual CHD style question! CHD was mastering Teams and I created a Poll to ask what Trivia and … the winner was … DISNEY!
Jeopardy X Generation CHD
But the runners up were all Disney too – so that narrowed it down considerably … but also made it more challenging too, to find more recent as well as classic quotes from … DISNEY! LOL! And the CHD crew were up to task and it was another favourite training session that was Jeopardy Generation CHD!
Jeopardy XI Greg’s Playlist
And the most recent one, last Saturday was Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist and is also my most favourite Jeopardy of All Time! This version had everything – GIFs, Trivia, Emoji Hints, Animation, Puns, Jokes, Links on almost every page … and the best part … LIVE AND IN PERSON FROM THE CALL FACILITY! Yeah, I had fun and I sure hope everyone else did too! And also for the first time, JEOPARDY RECORDED! I should go and look, but would probably just … not sure what! LOL!
And the next Jeopardy will be a continuation or … arguably … a sequel to Greg’s Playlist … Greg’s Playlist II! And I have already started to work on it … AND … I am asking Consultants when they are in CALL, what is THEIR #1 song on THEIR OWN PLAYLIST! So that way I can make it even more inclusive and involve more people from CHD! And I will still have some of my own songs too – Maybe including ‘Hotel CALL-ifornia‘ from The Eagles! LOL! You can check out … but you can never leave … CALL!
The entire roster of Jeopardy PowerPoint slides is here, or click on the BOG BLOG PAGES to the left and then on CALL Jeopardy Opus. And each of the individual slides above, if you click on each one, takes you DIRECTLY to that particular version of Jeopardy in pdf format! They don’t have all the animations, GIFs, etc. So if you want to see those, let me know and I can send you the PowerPoint file through Teams.
Thanks to EVERYONE at CHD for participating and your support too! I can’t make Jeopardy without all of you! Thank you!
To check the schedule for CALL, it is posted at the front entrance TO The CALL Facility. It is not online. A sample schedule for THIS week is to the right. I always post the following week too. There are ASL Final Exams scheduled in The CALL Facility once the term is over. Otherwise, regular hours for students throughout the entire Final Exam period.
No food or beverages have been a policy in our computing facilities in CLE, BEC and HSD for literally years, so that will not be going away. And until someone can show me how they can eat or drink WITH THEIR MASK ON, it is a great policy. I have seen too many computers, desks, keyboards, mice, monitors and carpets ruined from spills. Not to mention textbooks, mousepads, peripherals and .. guess who gets to clean the mess up!
It makes even MORE sense during Covid too. Let’s be safe and sound. I even go outside, OUTDOORS, to have even a jelly bean, granola bar or a sip of tea. Hey, it’s Victoria, not Northern Alberta – you are not going to suffer frostbite anytime soon!
And UVic is offering free Covid-19 Rapid Test kits. You can GET YOUR COVID TEST KIT! through thrive.uvic.ca, and I did, but you can just as easily just head over to the concessions booth area at the stadium, present your OneCard and get a free kit – SUPER FAST AND SUPER EASY! And I think this Friday, March 4th is the last day, so get going!!
No doubt, there will be more updates, changes and continuation of Covid-19 updates. I will post them as they change for using our computing facilities and how life will slowly return to a ‘new normal’ at UVic. Stay safe. Stay healthy. EVERYONE!
Masks will be required to be worn by students at all times in classrooms and study spaces except where exempt for a medical reason. Consuming food and beverages will not be permitted in classrooms, labs, study spaces or libraries.
Masks must be worn in common areas of buildings, including in on-campus housing and office buildings (e.g., lobbies, hallways, bathrooms).
So ………… Back to Campus January 2022 … but on-line for a couple of weeks!
UVic is back to remote learning but only until Monday January 24th, when it is expected that in person classes will resume. Make sure you keep up to date with every UVic notification about returning to campus safely.
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!
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!
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! 
