And the results are in . . .

I met the 50,000 word goal for NaNoWriMo. Technically my official word count on the site is 50,229 words but Microsoft Word begs to differ with 50,236. And I'm still not done writing it. The reason I stopped at the minimum when I reached it (which I obtained on the 26th) was because I was preparing my application for the JET Programme and I had to get my forms and documents to the Japanese Embassy on the 29th of November. I also caved in and got the iPod nano.

So what do I do with my story now? I'm probably going to finish it at some point and when I do I'll probably go over it to make sure there are no inconsistencies throughout the whole novel. As for whether I want to publish it? Probably not at this point but I'll post it to my old FictionPress account and share it with people there. Just in case the nudity content of it is too much it'll also be on my deviantART as well. Might add an appendix as well just to explain the world/alternate earth. For those interested here's a brief summary:

            A hunter named Giorgio has been missing for weeks and almost everyone in the town of Shamps presumes him to be dead. Upon Giorgio's return people begin to disappear and end up dead. Some townspeople blame the deaths upon the Ruta, the natives of the land, and their belief in the Earth Goddess that allows the Ruta to shape-shift. Other townspeople easily pin the deaths on Giorgio. A shepherd name Francis refuses to believe that either of them is the cause of all the deaths but the discovery of something sinister involving Giorgio may hold the key to the cause of the mysterious happenings.

I think my summary on my NaNoWriMo profile is a bit better than this but in short it involves werewolves a bit but it's not exactly a werewolf story.

I have mentioned in my earlier postings that Japan is not one of my ideal places to go to for EFL teaching but when you're experience is low there are not many places to go. I mean I could go to Turkey through some UK recruitment agency that a friend/classmate of mine is doing right now but from what I learned from her experience at that time is the people who run that department are short of staff. I was scrambling for my application for JET. I though about applying for it at an hour that I should be sleeping. What I didn't realize at the time was that I needed reference letters. This was about ten days before the deadline. I thought ten days was not enough time to get a reference letter done but I ended up with three by the time I went to submit an application. One of the reasons I was scrambling because I was picky about my references. I kind of have to be since the instructions asked my references certain questions about my working habits and leadership skills. What I was picky about was who to pick out of those who qualified or thought that did. There was one I debated on using as a reference, a university professor. I had this professor for 3 out of the 8 courses I took for my CTESL course. Sure I should have asked this professor earlier but the reason I debated asking was I hardly paid attention about halfway through the winter semester (which 2 of those courses took place). I mean I want someone who will say nice things about me. I may not know what was written in those letters but the lesson here learned is don't be too picky with referents. I'll know if I'm selected for an interview January 2014. Hopefully I didn't do anything in my application that would get me disqualified.

And in my previous post I had a technological dilemma on which mp3 player I should get. I hinted that I was leaning towards getting the iPod nano and I did. Black Friday is an event in the United States that has somewhat crept its way here to keep shoppers in Canada and not going over the border and so the stores here had some Black Friday specials. The nano was priced as $20 lower than the regular price for the weekend but I'd be hitting myself hard if the price was even lower for Boxing Week in December.

So my initial disappointments with the nano were that it didn't come with free songs and it doesn't like .wma files. I haven't tried syncing them to the nano but iTunes kept on asking me if I wanted to convert them to .aac files. My past mp3 players all came with free tracks but not the nano. Maybe it's also a good idea that I didn't tell iTunes to convert the .wma files because the majority them refused to be converted due to some setting I had on my old laptop when I ripped the songs from the CD. It's a pain having to rip the files all over again but it gives me a good reason to review my taste in music.

As for the positives so far, I think I got a hang of using the touch screen. Sound is okay and finally I can control the volume and scroll through my list of songs. It is quite light compared to my Sansa and I can use the car speakers to blast my tunes. Well technically I can't since my parents and I don't always share the same tastes in music, especially my mom whose hearing has somehow gotten sensitive to certain sounds (I may end up like that one day so I can't complain). Maybe one good reason I should get a driver's license.

So here's hoping things go well: I get my story done, hopefully get a job, and hope that my new mp3 player lasts for a long time.

Technological Dilemma

This is my mp3 player. It's a SanDisk Sansa Fuze I got as birthday gift in 2008 I believe. As evidence by the tape holding it together it's been pretty well used/abused to the point that the screen messes up, I can't pause, the wheel hardly responds so forget about lowering or increasing the volume, I can't hear anything out of the left earbud, and I have a hard time shutting it off. It was pretty banged up by the time I needed more space (since it comes with a microSD expansion slot). It served me well for 5 good years and it's about time I need a new one.

The store it was purchased from no longer carries the Sansa Fuze nor any other store I know of in the city carries it's next generation, the Fuze+. Sure I could purchase one on the internet but the reviews for the Fuze + are not so favourable on amazon.

So what options are there? With the file sizes growing larger as well as my music collection I'm looking for something that can hold more than 4GB of space. 16 GB should suffice I think. From the brands that I've seen, I'm looking at HipStreet, Sony, and Apple.

I have never heard of the HipStreet brand before and I'm guessing it's something along the lines of the COBY mp3 players: the cheap ones if you're not looking for anything fancy. HipStreet has a touch screen device that comes in 16GB but reviews of it are not that satisfactory so there's no chance of me getting that one.

Sony also has a 16GB mp3 player. It costs less than an apple product and it not being an apple product I'll be fine with random file formats (as I have mix of mp3, wma, and aac). Sony is also a recognizable brand. I could go with it but I don't find it aesthetically appealing with a very limited colour selection (black). Asthetics shouldn't have to with the sound quality and when I listened to the sample track in the Sony store the sound was okay to me (or maybe it's the headphones that they were selling). With this I believe I can use windows media player or winamp to transfer files.

And the choice I'm leaning towards is the iPod. It's not cheap but it is quite attractive with the metallic colour choices and it's a well known brand. As for what to choose, I'm stuck between the nano and the 16GB touch. The touch costs more than the nano and has extra features such as a camera and wi-fi capabilities, features that are something I would rather look for in a smartphone or a tablet. My current phone (a nokia c3-00) may not be Skype friendly but it can still access Facebook and I can upload photos with my phone to Facebook. My main purpose is basically to listen to music while I'm on the bus, in the car, or walking to places so I may lean towards getting the nano over the touch (I don't need to play angry birds or temple run and I have candycrush on Facebook). The drawbacks to this are the touch screen and how I upload things to the device. I find touch screens are so sensitive that I fear that I'll break it at some point within the first year or two but I guess I can by an accessory like a cover to take care of that (more or less protect it). And then I hear the only way to upload tracks to it is through iTunes (which I already have) and with some of my files being wmv I wonder if they will play or will I have to find the cd's I got them from and rip them into a compatible format.

So basically my dilemma is between should I get an iPod or a Sony Walkman. Should I go with quality or aesthetics? Should I move onto something different or stay with something similar to my old mp3 player? Is the $149 dollars worth buying an iPod or should I go with something $40 cheaper? I may be from Canada but a Black Friday sale might make the difference. I guess I'll find out by then

Learning Devices

Yesterday this appeared on my Facebook feed and it's about the University of Ottawa considering a proposal which is a ban on electronic devices in the classroom such as laptops and smartphones and other related devices. This comes from a professor saying that it's distracting.

I have brought my laptop to class many times and from the classes I've been to I don't think any of the profs were bothered by it. Maybe some of them are but not as vocal as the prof mentioned in the news report.

Some find laptops help them learn. The advantage to having a laptop is it saves paper. If the instructor posts notes online there's no need to print them (and for some no need to attend the lecture but you should go once in a while if you're that kind of student). The laptop is also useful in taking notes.

For the phones (whether they're the newest iphones or the basic phones) they're useful if let's say someone is waiting for the doctor to call with some good or bad news, or some other emergency. There are two instances in which I remember accessing the internet through a smartphone (1 instance was technically an ipod touch) was useful in class. The most recent one was someone reading out a list of people who had to do something during the instructor's office hours when he couldn't remember who he has scheduled during that time. The other instance was someone looking up the definition of a word on his ipod touch.

But are they a distraction? They can be, but it's not something that should be banned.

From a teacher perspective they want to make sure the students are actually learning something, even though we are adults and are responsible for doing whatever assignments and showing up to class. Depending on the acoustics of the room there may be some instructors that dislike the sound of keyboards click-clacking. And yes, instructors may be able to tell when you're texting or not

From a student perspective, I have brought my laptop to class many times and I do go on Facebook and other websites. I have brought my laptop to work on other assignments for other classes. I have also seen other students with laptops in class and I remember seeing someone watch anime. If you can watch the video the comes with the article, one student mentions seeing someone watching porn on their laptop as wells as someone shoe shopping. Call these distractions yes but in my opinion students get bored. There are days when you're in class and the instructor just drags on so might as well see what your friends are doing on Facebook, watch something on YouTube, or read the latest gossip posted by a blogger.

I think there should be a compromising solution to this rather than an outright ban. If a certain instructor doesn't want technology in the classroom that's up to the instructor but it shouldn't be campus wide. It's understandable on test and exam days but on regular lesson days it shouldn't be a problem. Even if there is no net service in the classroom there are other ways to distract oneself with the laptop.