CHD Jeopardy ALL STAFF TRAINING JANUARY 2023 ALL STAFF TRAINING WAS BACK ON THE WEEKEND! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023!!!
Only the THIRD 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 including the first ever use of the CHD Wheel of Destiny!!!!
This way I could hand out INSTANT PRIZES for answering questions and then whatever was left over (lots and lots!), everyone gets a Toblerone, CLIF bar or a Rice Krispy square! Thank goodness for HIGH QUALITY DOLLAR STORES IN TOWN! And no need for a follow-up over the weekend! INSTANT PLAY AND INSTANT WIN! YAY!
Come for the training…..
stay for the Jeopardy … & the food!
Jeopardy VI Reboot Version Jeopardy VI Dual re-BootJeopardy VIII Triple re-BoJeopardy VIII Triple re-BootJeopardy IX Memes “R” UsCHD Jeopardy Generation CHD
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
! 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!
And I am going to go absolutely nowhere! Well, maybe Cobble Hill for coffee and ratatouille in the forest! Or walks on the beach! Or a longshot is Tofino or Alberta! But anywhere I do go, will be very random and very spur of the moment!
I did scale back my OAC posts this past year (September ’21 to July ’22) but still managed some fun posts and pages, as well as some updates and brand new random posts – you know the kind- COVID kind of interfered with daily updates as we had TWO years of students coming back to UVIC! The regular ‘1st Years’ and the ‘then’ the current ‘2nd Years’ … who never did set foot on campus during COVID! September 2021 was THE busiest I have ever seen on campus! Who knows how busy September 2022 will be but .. it WILL be busy!
AND ANNOUNCING THAT I HAVE FINISHED 99.99% of the NEWEST CHD JEOARDY – GREG’S PLAYLIST II in September and for all our new and returning COOPS! Good luck! And even MORE prizes (Chocolate!) to win and new TYPES of questions too!
And I will also have a new shorter version of my CALL Orientation which will be only about 2 minutes long and less than a dozen slides! Okay, that was hard to do, to keep it THAT short, but I will still keep some Star Trek and Easter Egg elements in there … the usual for this Bog Blog! For a quick sneak peek, but only the working/BETA version, you can download it here in PDF format, or watch it at YouTube in video format! I even kept it shorter than the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds trailer ! But it will still probably change and be even better than it is right now! YAY!
Thanks for all the support and reading all my fun Bog Blog posts and pages at UVic! More to come in September! WOOT!
Everyone stay safe and healthy today, tomorrow and for the rest of the year!
Not to worry . . .
Back on August 29th to prep for
. . . Septem . . . PURR !!!!
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!
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!
I discovered a feature of WordPress here at OAC that can create Video Playlists in a post! I have used Photo Galleryquite a bit, once I learned how to use them, and published some of my favourite photographs I have taken at this post, Photography Gallery.
This feature allows you to build a .. Video Playlist .. as the name indicates. Very much like a YouTube Playlist, but for OAC purposes, based on media you have at your own OAC Media Library.
All you have to do is have some video media (MP4/M4V work best) uploaded to your Media Library. Then in your new or already existing Post/Page, click on the “Add Media” button. Under “Actions“, click “Create video playlist“. All the videos that are in your Media library will now appear. Click on the ones you want to be in your playlist and a Blue Checkmark will appear on each one.
Then in the bottom right hand corner, click on “Create a new video playlist“. Then click “Insert video playlist” … et voilà …your video playlist is inserted into your Post!
You can change the order if you want by editing the Video playlist quite easily, if you want to change the order from how you uploaded them.
If the OAC Media Library does not want to upload your video, use Handbrake to convert to either MP4 or M4V. Free software for both Mac and WIN and works like a charm for converting SO MANY FORMATS!
A few more helpful links for creating a Video Playlist at OAC. Not all the features mentioned will work at OAC but there are many hints and images at these sites to help create your Video Playlists at OAC. ENJOY!
session, complete with CHD Supers, Coops and Consultants and … CHD JEOPARDY! CART2D2 was even there! Brand new questions, answers, puns, jokes and PRIZES TOO including the first ever use of the CHD Wheel of Destiny!!!!
into a video and have posted it at YouTube! So you can slowly go through, WATCHING Jeopardy! You can scroll down below or click HERE to go directly to it! YAY CHD JEOPARDY AND SATURDAY STAFF TRAINING!
