Life in the Desert 2012

Well now I really live in the desert.  We have moved to Khalifa-A a suburb of Abu Dhabi City.  I am now working at Zayed University and it is really quite amazing.  The environment is supportive.  I really believe they want us all to succeed for the benefit of the students and the country.  The students are great.  I have to thank my graduate students from last year who taught me about the UAE and what it means to be Emiraat.  This has allowed me to hit the ground running back in an undergraduate classroom.

Maybe I will post more on another day but only time will tell.  Life is good, we have a pool in our little compound and the girls are really enjoying it.  They got me an underwater camera for my birthday and it is the gift that keeps on giving.  I guess I need a tumblr account or something.

Peace

Life in the Desert

Tweeted, "Baked humans, it's whats for dinner!" today, but really it is starting to cool down.  The weather is a pretty safe topic no matter where you are because your opinion is really unlikely to offend anyone.  So, I prefer the heat of AD to the humidity of HK.  I also find the people here to be pretty friendly.  I haven't had the chance to drive much and that can be a bit more aggro but that's mainly because the rules of the road are in the hand of the driver.  Most traffic guides, e.g. signs, painted arrows don't mean a lot, but the signals (lights or robots) get the attention they deserve.  The key means of traffic management here has been engineering because not everybody is on the same page in terms of driving knowledge and there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of enforcement of whatever the rules of the road are.  This engineering of safety means you make a lot of U-turns around traffic islands that run down the middle of every significant road and that you wait a very long time at signals.  Each direction gets their own light for straight, left turns and U turns.  There are a lot of cars but the factor that delays most travel is the length of time waiting for the signal to change.  Oh yeah, and it's my birthday. 

A full round of classes have been laid on the table and it looks like we will be able to move well during the semester.  I have 118 videos on YouTube now and I am getting some viewers.  All of it is very interesting stuff.  Lots of learning as we go built on top of quite a few years of experience.  The facebook and the youtube have reconnected me with former friends and students.  That's pretty cool.

Communication Design Management One

And here is the link for the design management class.  You probably know the drill but this will be the place where I review the progress of the class and give comment on what occurred.  Visit often and you will know what is going on and you will have a really good idea of what will be on the final exam.

Digital Audio and Video Production

Here is the link for DGC 2220, the digital audio/video course.  There should be something interesting to see here or you can see it on my youTube channel, DrRBW.

Communication Design: History & Theory

Here is the link for DGC 1180, the History and Theory class...just in case  you came here by mistake.

Well it is now the beginning of September. The semester starts today and my classes start tomorrow. I will be setting up blogs for each of the classes so that I can review the day's progress and everyone will know where we are in relation to the schedule and the objectives of the class.