Me Against the Machines

I’ve won a few battles, but technology is winning the war. I imagine the official score is around:

Technology: 2,831 versus Laura Lee: 3

I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to put together a five to ten minute video teaser about The General History Project. I returned with fifty-five hours of video footage from Kenya. The footage mostly includes taped interviews but also features scenes from around the tea and coffee farms, church, a family reunion, our safari, and a couple field trips.

Although I want to focus on the audio recordings and transcriptions, many people encouraged me to include a visual component. I agreed that this was a good idea. So, I tried on the hat of a video editor. It didn’t fit.

I knew the war with technology would be a dirty one when I spent twenty-eight minutes on the phone with a customer service representative explaining my troubles in backing up the original footage on an external hard drive. At twenty-nine minutes, the helpful employee informed me, “Um, well, actually, we’re not set up here to give technical support, but it just sounded like you needed to talk to someone.” I checked to see what number I’d dialed.

I said, “So you’re telling me that, after thirty minutes on the phone, that you can’t help me?” This man was obviously a veteran and unfazed by my frustration. He said, “I want to tell you something, I’m not sure if you’ve heard it before, but I want you to remember: Michael Jordan was not a good basketball player the first time he stepped out on the court.”

I’m not kidding. Oh yes, this technological warfare was going to be dirty.

I recruited more people for my team: TGHP’s Treasurer, Jessica, joined me in the struggle. She has a Mac with a wonderful application called I-Video. We spent four hours at the Apple store last week trying to get our computers to talk to one another. I think my PC got nervous surrounded by all the Macs, and it shut down. It wasn’t looking good for this TGHP teaser. Until yesterday…

I brought my video camera with selected tapes to Jessica’s house. I plugged the camera directly into her Mac desktop (after a quick run to Best Buy to get the right firewire cable). We opened I-Video. A lovely, welcoming screen appeared asking us if we wanted to import footage. We clicked in the affirmative. And it began to import. It was a beautiful sequence of events.

Perhaps my losing streak has ended. I think this video may actually happen after all. And then I’m going back to transcribing and writing. My biggest concern now is that I might have to buy a Mac, but I’m not going to discuss this possibility any further while I’m typing on its competition. ‘Cause that’s just not PC (or in the budget).

So…stay tuned for some video clips from my work with The General in Kenya. They’re on the way (thanks, Jess)!!

Oh, and thank you so much to all those who have voted in Grant for a Change. I currently have 116 votes – still a ways back from the frontrunners, but I’m so grateful for your support. You have until the end of this month to vote at http://www.nau.com/collective/grant-for-change/laura-lee-p–huttenbach-665.html. Instructions are in the previous blog, and I’d love it if you took two minutes to vote if you have not done so. Thanks so much!

Sending good thoughts – Laura Lee Huttenbach :)

Pretty Please

Hey there TGHP-ers,

I have exciting news to share! My lovely sister nominated me for a contest called “Grant for Change.” It’s sponsored by a small clothing company from Portland called Nau, and they’ll give $10,000 to “an individual working to instigate lasting, positive change.” Some think that might apply to me and The General History Project.

Now here’s where you come in (I hope): It’s based on votes, and I would be honored if you took 4 minutes of your time and voted for me. I would be ecstatic if you spent 8 minutes of your time and asked your family and friends to do the same. There are some other cool projects featured there, so feel free to browse around.

Here are the instructions:

1. Go to http://www.nau.com/collective/grant-for-change/laura-lee-p–huttenbach-665.html

2. Click on “Register” in the upper right corner of the page.

3. Put in your name, email, and create a password. Then click “Register Now.”

4. Go to the link again: http://www.nau.com/collective/grant-for-change/laura-lee-p–huttenbach-665.html (copying and pasting it in the browser works).

5. You’ll notice some tabs above my text – “Who, Why, Images, etc.” Please click on “Rate/share.”

6. Please click on five stars (or whatever rating you think is appropriate).

7. Please accept a big, sloppy virtual hug of appreciation from me, yours truly.

To quote a recent email I received from a TGHP supporter:

Laura Lee: Voted for you and sent this along to more voters – an interesting site and so encouraging to see so many young people with a service disposition. Sometimes when I listen to the discord in DC and observe the rampant materialism, I lose confidence in the future; this site is a refreshing antidote to despair.

So yay for good people. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Talk to you soon…

Kwa u pendo (“with love,” in Swahili) – Laura Lee

Ps- Thanks to my friend Ashley and her friend Becca for telling us about this grant. As an old colleague used to say, team work makes the dream work… :-)