Building out Resources
I spent a lot of last week working on midterms for classes, so I wound up having to do both weeks worth of tasks over Spring Break. This is not a bad thing, as I enjoy working on this project and I was mostly hanging out at home anyway. The only roadblock I hit with that is that my computer drive is too full to download the new audio file for Episode 1 and my external drive to put things on and clear space is at school in Fredericksburg, while I am at home in Fairfax. I need to be able to download it to put it in Soundtrap to add music and other transitions to the audio, so it seems like that will have to wait until the next round as the last step before publishing this episode.
I still had plenty to work on though. I built out the website more, linking the StoryMap to one of the pages and starting to make road trip itinerary maps for another page. To link the StoryMap, I could not figure out how to make the title card for that page bring me directly to the StoryMap, even Google was no help there, so I wound up writing a little bit about the StoryMap and its purpose on that page and providing a physical link. That can probably change pretty easily to make it better, but for now it seems like it will work. For the road trip maps, I used google maps to outline a possible trip and linked to each google maps page so if anyone wants to change order, add, or take away for their own use, they have that ability. So far I only have 3 maps. One is for ballparks on the National Register, one is for ballparks on the StoryMap not on the National Register, and one is for baseball related museums. I am going to add more, I am just not sure what would be good yet.
As far as the podcast prep, I have spent a lot of time with supplemental material. I listened to the episode again to find what I needed to elaborate on and wrote some information to go on the website for those things, and I found sources to back it up and cited them. That part was easy, but also the most time consuming. I also found the rest of the sources I need to cite in the transcript once I get to that, so that will make it easier once I get to it. I am storing everything in Zotero, which generates citations on its own. This really helps the process go quicker, and makes it easy for me to go back to different sources. I also listened to some of the stock music in Adobe Podcasts, and while some of it is okay, it is not quite the vibe I am looking for so hopefully Soundtrap will have something better.
Conference Prep Some More
Wednesday February 26 was when my paper was due for the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference, so I turned that in then. Really it is due when I present on March 21, but I entered a student contest for it, so that is why it was due sooner. Now all I have to worry about is the presentation, and I have all my pictures, I just need to make a PowerPoint and prepare what I am going to say. I went to the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Williamsburg, VA in November, and a lot of presenters just read their paper like a script. I could do that, but as someone who does a lot of interpretive programs I would rather have an outline for myself and talk more casually about things than read a script. I feel like it makes it more engaging and a better quality conversation overall. I am going to use the paper to make that outline, but it will be more bullet points for the presentation. For the Powerpoint, I am making it really simple with just pictures to back up my talking and show the audience the ballparks, people, and other resources I am talking about. I have a lot to show, and I may have to find some different pictures to go in it, but I have most of what I need already so that should be attainable.
Next Steps
When I return to school, I am going to clear the space on my computer to download the audio and finish that, then I am going to fix up the transcript for spelling and punctuation errors and cite everything in that. When that is done I think it will be ready to go up on the site, so hopefully that will be part of the next update. The Conference will also be included though, since that is at the end of the next two weeks, so time might hold me up a little bit, but I figure I can shoot high and be humbled if needed. That is part of the fun, and I learn something regardless so I consider that a good thing. Wish me luck in Gettysburg!