| My 1st Livemocha Summer Challenge Video |
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Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 03:37:54 GMT |
Well, I changed my mind again and decided to release the video after all. Might as well not let all that work go to waste.
Sorry, I guess I just had an attack of stage fright before. Don't know why I'm feeling braver now.
There are no visuals of me, but, my undisguised voice is in it, speaking French pretty much the entire time (except terms like "Windows XP" and "Puppy Linux"). I demonstrated the French<->English Web Browsing/Translation frames.
I think the best things about this video are the things that aren't by me - especially the lovely public domain music I got from Musopen.org, composed by French composer Erik Satie and performed by Peter Johnston.
However, even though my narration is boring and I'm not sure it's all correct French - the video might still help people by introducing them to the translation frames, which are really useful. And, it will help me get a 1-year Livemocha gold key.
So, I guess it's worth releasing. I'm relieved I only have to make 2 more to win the Livemocha Summer Challenge. Making this video was a lot more work than I thought it would be, especially since I have so little experience working with video, and my French is quite far from fluent.
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| My 2nd Livemocha Summer Challenge Video |
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Friday, August 17th, 2012 20:09:44 GMT |
Here it is:
This time, I used Etude No. 1 in A Flat Major, Op. 25, composed by Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849), and played by Donald Betts.
Etude No. 1 in A Flat Major, Op. 25 is nicknamed "The Shepherd Boy" and "Aeolian Harp" for reasons explained in this Wikipedia article.
Info about the Livemocha Summer Challenge: For Language-Learners: Livemocha Summer Challenge - Ends August 31, 2012
In my video, I mentioned:
Like my other video, my narration is pretty boring. But, again like my other video, at least this video has awesome public domain music from Musopen.org. :-)
| My 3rd Livemocha Summer Challenge Video |
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Thursday, August 30th, 2012 04:10:50 GMT |
Here it is:
Info about the Livemocha Summer Challenge: For Language-Learners: Livemocha Summer Challenge - Ends August 31, 2012
I talked a bit about French text adventure games (also known as interactive fiction) and how to get started playing them.
The interpreter Windows Frotz is useful to language learners since it has copy and paste, but I also like Gargoyle when I don't need copy and paste. Gargoyle plays many different types of IF games, while Frotz plays only Z-code games.
Other useful IF links:
A page in French about French IF: http://ifiction.free.fr/index.php?id=jeux
My narration is again not particularly entertaining, but, I think this video's topic is the most interesting of all 3 videos.
Basically, you just need some text adventure game files (you can get some in French here or in English here, among other places), and some interpreter software to open the game files with.
If you're new to interactive fiction (IF) games, or have little idea what commands can be used in French IF, you can download English and French versions of an intro to IF at emshort.wordpress.com/how-to-play
The awesome public domain music from Musopen.org I used this time was Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1, composed by Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849) and performed by Felipe Sarro.