Blog Reflection

   While I have blogged before, or more accurately attempted to start up the skeleton of my own blogs, they've never come to anything because I either became too frustrated trying to figure out how to best manage the templates to utilize the material I had, especially with mixed media, or I'd just feel annoyed that I would get sidetracked and forget about them for long periods of time.  They can be a bit time consuming, especially to do well, and I never found an avenue to commit the time to them that I should have liked.  In this case at least the template was rather user friendly for the simpler requirements of the course, though in all fairness the templates for the blog pages have likely improved quite a bit in the years since I tried to start up my own blogs in the first place.  If they were all this easy and domain space all free I might be inclined to do it more, but I'm heavy into customization so the likelihood I might find something agreeable there isn't altogether conceivable.  I'm just not much of a blog type.

  This would be a convenient way to gather input from students, collect assignments in a mutual spot, and thanks to timestamps and other little features it would at least be easy to keep track of submissions and other minor factors, but it also feels like the temptation with it is to have it become another social media outlet rather than an academic exercise, but then again maybe that's not a bad thing.  If I had to use it though it would probably just be in response to assignments or as a paper-free alternative for some students to turn in reports or submit simple presentations rather than do anything more detailed in chronicling, at least until blogging gives me more of a reason to incorporate it.  The most difficult part was honestly just the research, everything else is pretty simple if you know how to drag files and create the links, otherwise not much work to it at all.  I can see the overall value of it but as it stands it's not quite my time to crawl out of my shell and find the joy in it that other hardcore bloggers seem to.

A Supremely Cool Printer For All Your Teaching Needs

  Years ago when I was finally starting to get some of my homemade comic book titles produced in decent amounts and wanted to start making copies for distribution (long before I had the means to actually set up any proper arrangements with buying ISBN codes and going through professional printers) I had a dilemma; how could I afford to print my own comics by the dozens when the cost of ink cartridges for most printers ran upwards of $30 for what amounted in the end to little more than a thimble's amount of ink?  Even only printing in black and white the prospects were not good, and I began to pine for someone to come up with a printer for home use that would allow the user to have storage systems with lots and lots of cheap ink and be able to run off hundreds of pages with minimal amount of cost, effectively becoming your own private printing press.

  To my astonishment and delight one of my tech-savvy friends was able to find just what I needed.

  https://www.cobraink.com/

  Enter Cobra Ink Systems, for all intents and purposes a Mom and Pop store based out of Cookeville, Tennessee, where I found exactly the object of my desire.  What they did was to make a business around customizing Epson printers to do exactly what I described, adding small plastic tanks to the side of the printer that could hold many ounces of liquid rather than a small thimble's amount or what could be stored in the sponge of a regular cartridge, effectively replacing the cartridges and bypassing them so all the ink would be supplied by the tanks.

  Even better for my needs and concerns, the printers can be bought to service for pigment ink, which unlike regular inks doesn't bleed or run off when wet.  I've dipped a printed page in water and it only did damage to the paper, not the printed image or text itself.  For the cost of around $300 and up for the customized printer and about $35 for a full set of ink bottles, color and black, you have a printer that in my estimation is fantastic for not only private users who have large printing volume, but the educational applications are good, too.  Granted a lot of schools will have copiers and those are the most common resource for quick printing, but for a specialized classroom or a tutor who handles lots of teaching assistance the usefulness over a common office printer is most certainly exemplary.  You can run off hundreds upon hundreds of pages without even getting halfway depleted in your ink levels, and instead of the hassle of replacing ink cartridges the Cobra team has a "restart" button installed in the cartridge housing to fool the computer into thinking that the printer has been magically refilled.

  Even if one only uses it as a printer for their office in assisting with their teaching and running off pages, assignments of other such things, I believe it's worthwhile to have.  I've sworn by the Cobra printer for 4 years now and would frankly be mortified if I had to go back to owning a regular store-bought printer and use the absolute scam of regular ink cartridges again.  There are a number of different models, with or without scanbeds that can be bought here:

https://www.cobraink.com/Printers/epson7110.htm#

  While the initial cost of the printer may be offputting, the advantage in the long run not having to blow so much money on ink truly is appealing, especially if you print in large amounts.  You can also choose how much ink you want to buy in bottle sizes ranging from 1 ounce per color to 32 ounces, which believe me 32 ounces will last you a long, long time unless you're a crazy person printing everything you see.

  If there are downsides it is that you need to print at least once page of something every week or the system runs the risk of drying out and becoming useless, and also some bugs can arise with the printers because they have been customized from existing printers, but the folks at Cobra have an extensive video tutorial troubleshooting section and are available for phone calls and email.

  Overall I just adore these printers and would not think of being without them if I had the opportunity to use them in a classroom or office environment, because they have been an immense boon to my artistic career.

The Future of Communication?

  When I initially set out to pick a definitive major, the difficulty was having a sort of purpose or mission behind what I wanted to do.  Just "being in education" or being a teacher wasn't by itself an appealing idea as a general concept, because it felt too random, but I'd also decided the last thing I wanted to do was make a career, even a teaching career, out of my artwork because my philosophy is you run too great a risk ruining a thing you love if you make a career out of it.  It tends to suck the joy out of that thing you love spending your free time on, and so you don't want to spend anymore time on it.  Obviously that doesn't jive with the millions of people who set out to make careers out of their passions, but I love art too much to want to risk ruining it by making it a full time job, or teaching it.  So the problem after that became what to do instead and where to focus my education.
  One strong possibility I liked was teaching English and being able to help those who are aspiring in their English studies to excel, because I do care very much about the use of good language for American native speakers, and figured if students who were studying English as their second language were taking the time and energy to make it happen for themselves, they needed someone who cared enough to make sure they were doing it right.  Combined with that my love of all things Japanese and being told while I was taking a visit to Shimonoseki, Japan, that Japanese school systems were always looking for good English teachers, and I figured it was as good an avenue to try as any.  I have a good friend who has made a successful life of teaching English in a Japanese school, and someday it may still prove to be something I would like to do.
  But one snag that has concerned me the whole time has been the language barrier.  Much as I try Japanese is a struggle, and not just because of my general lack of discipline and skill in learning second languages but because Japanese is VERY tough for Westerners to learn, and always has been.  That was why I'm very intrigued with a piece of technology on the horizon that may or may not prove to be a fantastic asset to the process of language exchange between English and Japanese speakers, and potentially far beyond that.  I was randomly linked to a video on Youtube, designed for humor but admittedly coming off extremely creepy, of an English man running around the streets of Tokyo with a small device in his hand and declaring it would translate his voice into Japanese and then immediately translate their Japanese back to him.  His purpose?  To ask Japanese women if he could kiss them.  Here's the original video, and bear in mind it's since been updated in the description to assure the world that yes all the women involved are actresses and not being accosted by some strange British freak asking them for kisses, but it barely makes the video any less uncomfortable or goofy to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6ngM0LHxuU
  However it did get me fascinated with this iLi device, so I looked into it further. Designed by Logbar, a software developer in Shibuya, Tokyo, and founded by Takuro Yoshida, this yet unreleased technology promises to be able to instantly translate between English, Chinese and Japanese with a pre-loaded translation engine that doesn't require any internet connection to use, merely the push of the main button translates your speech via speaker and does the same back to the party you're speaking with.  Logbar promises that the technology will be affordable, quotes at this point estimating around $200, and intends to revolutionize convenient translation technology, replacing more time consuming apps and internet-needy programs.  Pre-orders are expected to go up around March or April of this year.

  Is it too good to be true?  There are concerns that it's merely flashy vaporware with no definite provable value as of yet, but Logbar is confident enough that it's going to be a success that they're already planning a second edition that will include French, Korean and Thai, and more after that.  If it pans out and proves to be worth its salt, it may seem like a massive crutch for the linguistically-challenged like myself, but it's also rather exciting.  This is more or less the realization of Star Trek's greatest dream, the Universal Translator, and even if it's only an asset in communication, it appeals to me great should I ever decide to follow through on that dream of working with the Japanese.

Further links and information:
http://logbar.jp/
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/ili-necklace/
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/01/ili-wearable-translator/
http://thebridge.jp/en/2016/01/logbar-unveils-ili-wearable-translation-device-ili

Something Perfectly Fitting For Quite A Lot Less

  The oxymoron of my education lies in the fact that though I committed to English education for my degree, I don't really care for it much.  If I had to point to a passion it would be artwork, and if the chance arises someday to actually do any art teaching I might just have to take it.  To that end felt fitting to highlight a very useful tool I've come to consider inseparable from my artistic endeavors, the Monoprice Graphic Drawing Tablet.  In a world where professional tablets often come with huge price tags attached to them, the Monoprice is wonderfully affordable for a hobbyist who doesn't have the coin yet to trade up to something a bit more awe-inspiring, but that's hardly a smack on the Monoprice itself.  Typically it retails for somewhere over $50, which includes installation disc and a pen and pen holding station.  Compared to a Wacom Bamboo tablet which is almost half the size of the Monoprice and draws closer to $90-$100, it's remarkably affordable.

http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-10X6-25-Inches-Graphic-Drawing/dp/B003ZZXXLK

"Professional" tablets like the Intuos or the super high end tablets like the Clintiq series will run a buyer anywhere from $200 to $2,000 dollars, and while they're regarded well and worth their weight in gold to a working professional artist, amateurs like me who want to use it as a tool to produce some good work but perhaps other, simpler functions, need something functional that won't cost an arm and a leg. Having owned a Wacom before at the suggestion of a friend I was frustrated by the combined factors that the screen size was so small (the active area being only 8.5x5.4 inches), and that the usb connector cord strained so quickly that it had difficulty keeping electric signal and eventually just died within a handful of months.  I've been perpetually using the Monoprice tablet for over a year and the cable has proven far more resilient on a solid black plastic tablet that has a more agreeable 10x6.25 inch screen (and with art sometimes canvas size can make a whole lot of difference).  If I had to point out a downside compared to the experience with the bamboo tablet though, it would be in the pens.  The Wacom pen didn't require batteries and would run presumably as long as the tablet lasted, while the Monoprice pen requires a AAA battery which lends itself to unexpected death during a project, but in over a year I've only had to replace the battery twice, so happy to say it is nicely conservational on its energy.

  Additionally there are other features the tablet can perform that I wasn't even familiar with because as of yet I don't use it for much outside of artwork and sometimes replacing the mouse with it, but features I haven't even tapped into yet which would lend themselves nicely to classroom presentation is a split-screening control function that allows you to use your computer as though it was a digital whiteboard, with the pen of course acting as the controlling stylus.  The video below goes into detail on those functions, as well as gives the tablet a fairly positive review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=komd1bHqPag

  The nib replacements are VERY cheap, which is good as I tend to grind pen nibs into the dirt and dull them up quickly, so replacements are not difficult to obtain as a set usually costs no more than $2 for a bag of 5 nibs.  The affordability of the tablet and its durability is also encouraging for any classroom scenario that might want to purchase them in bulk for a classroom setting, they won't be too difficult or expensive to replace.  All around they're very agreeably priced and sturdy, but there is a software issue that has come to light which hopefully can be corrected down the line, because it only affects me and not my wife who also bought a tablet for herself.

  My tablet, which I only use on my laptop as that's the only personal computer I own, sometimes loses connection to the driver software installed on my laptop and therefore loses pen sensitivity, erasing the brushes and the pen pressure settings.  I have to reboot my laptop to get it to work properly again.  My wife has never had this problem, so clearly it's a technical snafoo between my tablet and the laptop, but that's somewhat encouraging in the event that in a classroom full of tower computers being used the tablets would perform just fine.

So there you have it.  I would heartily recommend the Monoprice drawing tablet for either beginners or someone wanting an affordable entry into design tablets, because for the money it's remarkably handy, and has been quite an asset to my personal work.