SO YOU HAVE THE COMPUTER – NOW WHAT?

Wow, having a computer and iPad for the MTI program has been so amazing. It has been a challenge to set everything up, and while I don’t have all the programs perfected yet, I’ve already been able to utilize the technology for many things. First things first – using AppleCare and my year subscription to Apple’s One to One program!

• The One to One trainers have helped me come up with solutions for things such as converting and viewing video files, making a DVD that will play instantly on a computer or DVD player, and setting up the iTunes store for purchasing apps on the iPad. There’s still a lot to learn!

• Speaking of video files, one of the things we need to do for the MTI program is share videos of sessions with other MT’s in the company. In the past, we’ve found that sharing a DVD is a good solution, because then we don’t have to find a time when everyone can come observe the intern at the same time (this is nearly impossible). However, the MacBook Pro did not come with iDVD. Very surprising! However, I was able to copy the app from an older MacBook, a free solution to the problem. This is very important when you work for a nonprofit!

• I am SO GLAD that I decided to get AppleCare for the Mac. Why? Because the speakers were defective! AppleCare covers the cost to replace them. I just got the repair estimate by email – $548.

Replacement speakers = free!

Now for a few stories about using technology in classes!

• My intern started a 1:1 case study with a student. She does not have an assistant, and is unable to simultaneously play the guitar, sing, assist the student with hand-over-hand, and give verbal prompts. Therefore, using GarageBand and our Blue Snowball microphone, I helped her record first a keyboard background to the song she was using, at exactly 90bpm, in two different styles. Then she recorded her voice on top of the chords. Finally, we shared the different versions of the song to iTunes and put them on the iPad. Now, she is able to plug the iPad into our keyboard (to amplify the sound), and is hands free to work with the student, while still providing “live” music!

screen shot of the iPad

• We have Relaxation classes every day. One of my goals was to hook up the iPad to our Somatron, which is a mat with speakers that connects to a radio and vibrates to the music. Well, I figured out how to do this! For the first few days, I had students take turns laying on the mat. One day in class, I had students gather around the Somatron, take their shoes off, and place them on the mat. Then I opened GarageBand on the iPad, played a pre-recorded string loop, and set the instrument to keyboard on a pentatonic scale. I played various notes, and talked with the students about the difference in feeling between the high notes and the low notes. It was wonderful to see the students’ reactions to feeling the vibrations! A few students started moving to the music on their own. Their reaction when I found a low bass loop was awesome too! It's a massage with music... If you've never tried a Somatron, I highly recommend it.

•  One of my current class projects is creating a story that’s told through narration, familiar songs with re-written lyrics, and instruments representing various sounds (i.e. a maraca for a chirping bird). I use the computer to take notes, because I type much faster than I can write, and therefore I can get the students’ ideas written down more quickly/efficiently. I have the students record the instruments in GarageBand with the Snowball mic, and listen back for the best recording. The next step will be to record musical background for the songs (they’ve chosen my guitar as the background) then have one of the students record the vocals. Last, I will have another student record the narration, and put it all together!

• We started a music video project quite a while ago, and with everything going on (changing locations, settling into a new routine) it’s taking a long time to get back into it. One of the problems is that I started the recording on a different MacBook. Well, I’ve finally transferred those files to my new MacBook, and we’re slowly getting back into the project! Still on the list of things to do is recording the vocals, and filming the two remaining scenes. And of course, putting it all together. Stay tuned for the completion of the video:

With all of the valuable data I’ll be storing (video, GarageBand recordings, etc.), it will be very important to back it all up. After much research and talking to Apple employees, I discovered that the best external hard drive is the Western Digital My Book Studio with 2TB of storage. These can run up to $250. Yikes! That’s not exactly in the daily program budget! So, the fundraiser continues. I’ve left the Donate button up at the top of the blog, with the disclaimer that “Further tax-deductible donations will go towards technology to supplement the MacBook.” Well, I’ve found the first piece of supplemental technology that I need! Will you help spread the word? Thanks!

Just for fun, here are some recent-ish pics of my hair growing out:

10/12/11 - bleached the blue (almost all) out!

11/8/11 - crazy hair!

11/19/11 - RAAM reunion party (red gel)

11/21/11 - new Ironman sunglasses (some day...)

11/23/11 - hat hair after running!

I've gotten a lot of compliments, so I'm leaving it alone for now. We'll see how it behaves as it gets longer... In the meantime, please help spread the word!

ARRIVAL OF THE MACBOOK!

So this post has been a long time coming, but you can imagine how busy I’ve been with a new computer! After deciding exactly what I wanted (15” MacBook Pro with a 7200rpm drive and antiglare screen), the front office helped me place the order. About a week later – which seemed like an eternity even after waiting 9 months – it arrived! Although I don’t have any children, I equated the feeling to waiting for the birth of a child. Except in this case, I had no idea when the “child” would be “born.” When it finally came, I was so excited!

I set to work pretty much immediately on getting the computer up and running. I named it Helen (she is, after all, the founder of the company).

When it asked me for a picture, just for fun, I stuck my head in the photo. The computer wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for my bald head!

Speaking of my bald head, I’ve started to grow my hair out. I still have a mohawk, but now I’m letting the sides grow:

I’ve actually cut the mohawk twice since I started to grow it in April. This morning I discovered that the front was now too long to spike straight up. It just kept falling over! So I decided to just let it do what it wanted:

Oh yeah, and by the way, instead of getting Logic, I decided to get an iPad. Did I forget to mention that?

In case you’re wondering what picture is on the screen, that’s actually my hair. I was using the Photo Booth app and showing it to students when I discovered this “light tunnel” feature. Students have been loving the iPad! Their reactions to even just seeing themselves on the camera have been so fun. When we ordered the computer, it came with a $100 gift card for apps. The first one I bought was GarageBand for the iPad!

It has already worked miracles on the day to day here at A.R.T. Center. The Smart Guitar feature is particularly exciting for students. I had one student who was agitated one day. As soon as I put the iPad in front of him, he began strumming the “guitar” and calmed down almost immediately! So far I’ve used the computer in one of my Music Therapy classes to record sounds for a story that the students have been collaborating on writing. The story is illustrated musically, so we’ve been recording the sounds. I also had one student cut the unnecessary parts out, and label the remaining sound clip by typing. She was so excited to share with everyone that she used the computer!

I’m looking forward to creating classes next semester that are based around recording and creative use of this new technology, and making it as accessible to our students as possible. Stay tuned for more stories!

THE END!

What? This can’t be it!!

That was my thought last Tuesday, during an all-staff meeting, when the CEO announced that ASD was going to match the rest of my funds. I had raised $1600, and had $1400 to go. So at first, I thought she meant that I would raise $700 and the company would match that. But I was pleasantly surprised, and actually shocked, to find out that she meant that the whole $1400 was covered!

It’s been almost a week, and I’m still in disbelief. Bald Love has been such a huge part of my life for the past 8 months, and in some strange way, it’ll actually be a little sad to see the project end!

Just after getting the news, our new HR people made a donation. They wanted to put a picture of my head on their website. Pretty cool! So this is the last pattern I’ll be shaving onto my head:

Design prep!

8/9/11

8/13/11

I shaved the HR pattern a second time for my 10-year high school reunion on 8/13. There were three guys at the reunion who had shaved heads. My husband was glad he wasn’t the only one! And since the left side of my head was completely bald, I felt like part of the “club.” Take a good look at my bare head, this is the last time you’ll see it!

So now the question is, what do I do with my hair? I guess a fauxhawk will be first… But in the meantime, IT’S TIME TO GO COMPUTER SHOPPING!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to this project. I’ve been so blessed by everyone’s generosity. It’s been a long 8 months, but it just goes to show that patience pays off! Thank you for your patience too, as some of you have probably been wondering if I’ll ever get the computer! And don’t think this is the end of the story. It’s only the beginning…

REACTIONS TO THE EVER-CHANGING MOHAWK

Once RAAM was over, and my hair had faded from red to orange for the second time, I figured it was about time for another color. I put the following picture on Facebook for people to vote on:

A couple people voted for pink, but the overwhelming majority was for blue. My husband was one of them. I figured if I can’t make him happy by growing all of my hair back, I can at least make sure the small amount of hair I do have is a color he likes! I bleached out the orange once, and let it rest, so for a day it was almost pink:

Lately I haven’t received any funded ideas for patterns to shave, so I decided to start at square one. The first pattern I ever shaved was a heart:

Design prep 

Bleached and ready for color!

Adding the blue

Just for fun - a wave!

Final product - always have to match the shirt!

It’s been fun matching my clothes to the current color of my mohawk, but I have to admit that the whole process of changing my hair by adding patterns or color has become less fun/interesting since lately it’s been only my own ideas. I miss shaving different patterns that were other people’s ideas. So if you have an idea you’d like to fund, please let me know! In the meantime, the mohawk grows and the sides stay shaved until I reach my goal of $2800…

It’s getting pretty long – I wonder how much longer I’ll be able to spike it straight up!

It even spikes pretty well when I just use water and let it dry:

After about 5 days the blue was fading, so I added more:

I’ve taken so many pictures of my hair that they’re all starting to look very similar… Here’s another picture of my spiky hair, after a Future of Forestry concert:

My husband and I actually met a couple at the concert who had a son and a daughter who both had mohawks. It was the strangest thing, because the woman was a runner and a drummer. And we had more in common; her name was Beth (also a shortened version of Elizabeth). Too many coincidences? Anyway, she approached me because of my mohawk. Who else knows a girl with a mohawk? I like to think it’s sort of a unique thing. Not that it’s about that. Not at all, in fact. I just don’t like to do things to be like everyone else. But there’s nothing I can do about it if other people have done similar things! Apparently celebrity kids are into blue mohawks too:

And I met a guy in Starbucks the other day who told me his son used to have a “Smurf blue” mohawk. So I guess since I’m very white with a blue mohawk, Smurfs are exactly the opposite, with a blue body and white mohawk-looking hat:

One of my co-workers told me the other day that my faded blue pastel-colored hair reminded her of My Little Pony:

There was one detour in this blue mohawk story: my RAAM team had a photo shoot after the race, which I was not expecting! So since my hair was blue, I put red gel on top, so that it would sort of match our red jerseys:

The gel was so strong that I actually slept with it in and kept it for the next day:

Then I went shopping in my closet. Hmm, do I have anything maroon with a hint of blue? Why, yes I do!

YWAM Homes of Hope shirt

A few days later, I finally got to show off the mohawk to the first two people I shared my fundraiser idea with:

They thought I was crazy, but in a good way, and they said it fit me well. Sorry Greg, my awesome husband who misses my long hair, everyone seems to like my new style!

So far I’ve only really gotten positive feedback about my hair style. The first problem I encountered is when I played for a concert at my church, for a NACM (the National Association of Church Musicians) conference. A lot of people attending the conference are conservative, and seeing my blue mohawk might offend them, or at the very least distract them from the music. I tried my best to find some black gel (a surprisingly hard feat!) but finally gave up and wore a beanie instead. Really, a beanie, in the middle of summer?!

Hat hair!

It actually wasn’t too bad, because although the A/C had stopped working for our Monday night rehearsal, it was repaired in time for the Wednesday night concert. A good thing too, because I just about passed out a few times at rehearsal because the heat was so intense. It felt a little weird having my beanie on, and a few people who’ve seen my hair actually came up to me after the concert and asked if I was hiding my mohawk, or if I didn’t have it anymore. I don’t know if anyone would have minded if I didn’t have my beanie, but I figure if even one person would have been offended, it was worth it.

A couple days later though, I played drums for a small workshop that was part of the conference. I wore my beanie again just in case, but the music directors actually told me to take it off and tell my story, because we were in a small, intimate setting and they were sure that people would be ok with it. And they were! I was glad that my head was “free” again – it felt like I was hiding a part of myself, and I have to admit that was a strange feeling.

At work and basically any other setting, I’m free to share my blue hair with everyone! I recently decided to bring back a past pattern, shaving “B” and “L” on the sides. It can either stand for Bald Love or Back to Life, my friend’s chiropractor company:

Hopefully this will bring more attention to my project!

My husband pointed out the other day that my mohawk gets more attention than my bald head did. I didn’t even realize this until he pointed it out…
Once, when we went out to lunch, he told me later that the entire restaurant, even the cooks in the back, turned and stared. Apparently I’m oblivious, because I didn’t even notice! I think that’s a good thing, because while I enjoy the conversations that arise when people notice my hair, it’s tempting to just want all the attention on myself. And that’s just an honest thought, because that’s how we (people) tend to be. But the great thing about this project is that it can’t be about me. It’s about my students. And the more attention I get, the more I get to shine that attention on my amazing students and their creativity, and how I can’t wait to see what they’ll do with a computer!