Experiment with Flo Po Images and Audio Files

I originally created this post on 10-10-10 using a free account at Audio Acrobat Dot Com for sound … but (alas) there was no way for others to listen. I’ve been seeking answers to this problem but have found none within my free Audio Acrobat account yet … but I’ve not stopped trying either.

In the meantime (as an alternative) … this morning I’ve created and added an audio link using Free Conferencing Dot Com and methinks sound IS possible now … but only by using your own computer’s Media Player. Methinks you’ll need to right click on the audio link to open it in another window where you’ll need to click on it again. Then click back on THIS original window to see the visual images of my ‘flo po’ pieces.

If you click on the images themselves, they should ’embiggen’ so you can read the words, but following along with my voice on the computer may be challenging. So … (if you wish to follow along more easily) it might work better to print the two single pages below the double one on paper so you can turn the pages in your hand.

I’m UPDATING this post on 10-22-10 at 11:30 using an Audio Acrobat MP3 file and hoping for the best.  Please let me know how this works for you … or doesn’t.  It SEEMS to work just fine for me.  I’m tempted to remove the awkward links below and may do so eventually, but perhaps it’s good to leave a trail of my journey to adding sound after all.

Further update: The audio file is now hosted here on my WordPress site, no need for the AudioAcrobat intermediary:

Scroll down for larger ‘clickable’ views of these two pages if you want to try to follow along.

5-27am Fri 10-08-10 continued 1272795
(This file was created with Free Conferencing Dot Com and uploaded from my computer)

If you have a moment and are willing to provide me with feedback, I’d like to know how this works for you. I’d appreciate knowing what type of computer you’re using (Mac or PC) … which browser … and any other relevant info you’d care to share. This is a work in progress and I’m learning on the go … doing the best I can with what I have available to me currently.

Thought for today:

“To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” 

Elbert Hubbard

 

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8 Responses to Experiment with Flo Po Images and Audio Files

  1. Karen says:

    I couldn’t get the audio thingy to work–in fact, it made my computer seize up and I ended up having to go to the taskbar and shutting down the internet tab. Not sure why. I have a PC and I’m using Windows Internet Explorer–if that helps at all!!

    Anyway–the post (words, shapes) is beautiful!!

    • Virginia says:

      Karen,
      7:54am – I’m sorry you had trouble with the audio link. I suspect it has something to do with the Internet Explorer browser. I use Mozilla’s Firefox browser … and the ‘right click’ works for me to open in a new window, but perhaps IE requires a different command for that? I’ll experiment with IE later, but I have an 8am call with Lynne Brodie so it will have to wait. I do want to say THANKS for leaving the comment when you did because seeing it come through as I was trying to decide what I wanted to work on with Lynne this morning gave me the PERFECT idea! It seems there really are no ‘accidents’ are there?

      I’m back at 9:15am after a fruitful conversation with Lynne and I’ve checked the audio link using Internet Explorer. A ‘right click’ does open up a window to allow for opening the link in a separate page, but it takes a bit of time to do so. Once there (as with Mozilla Firefox) you have to click a second time for your Media Player to open the file and that takes a while too … so perhaps your system wasn’t actually ‘locked’ up but only seemed to be while the audio file came up?

      If you’re willing to try again, I’d very much appreciate it … though I understand if you’d rather not. I’ve had enough computer crashes to last me several lifetimes and there are some things I just no longer do … ever!

      In any case, thanks for the visit and the feedback. I hope to post more regularly and to get out to visit in the Blogosphere too, but (alas) my schedule is PACKED for the next few weeks so I have little discretionary time.
      Hugs and blessings,

  2. kara says:

    It’s lovely to hear your voice. It was a little confusing to get the thing to play. Regardless of whether I click left or right on the link- I get to a page where I have to click again on it before the player opens……..at first I was a bit confused by that…..but I tried clicking on the link title again in the new page and it opened to play. At first I thought well it takes me to another page but there is no player – but I clicked again and it worked.
    I liked to see your words – and the shape of them on the page overall. So I looked at the photo, but I found myself wanting to listen much more than follow along word for word on the page. Like you said I almost would have to print them out and I just don’t think I’d go that extra mile……especially since I’d rather just listen then follow word for word.
    I don’t know how to make a podcast….but I wonder if that’s a direction you may want to explore for these spoken recordings.
    If you wanted to go all out – a video of you reading your pages might be really fun. We’d get to hear you and see you turn the page round about as you read them.
    hugs to you

    • Virginia says:

      Kara,
      Thanks so much for sticking with the process until you managed to make it work for you. I’m sure there must be a simpler, more straight-forward way to do all this (without having to open a separate page and click the link a second time) because I’ve been able to do that on other sites. I just don’t know how … yet 😉

      I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of ‘video’ at this point, but I appreciate your suggestion and will consider the possibility. Samantha has video of her reading her poetry on her site and it was fun to see her read the pieces … so perhaps I’ll get comfortable enough to go that route eventually.

      I have signed up for two free ‘AudioAcrobat.com’ trainings (one about ‘audio’ Wednesday and a second on ‘video’ on Thursday). I’m hopeful I’ll get some answers to help me make this work more efficiently.
      Hugs and blessings,

  3. Vivian78 says:

    hiii! Hm, I had some issues with it – kept stopping, but it could be that my computer is having issues. Also, it’s kind of old, so I’m not sure if that interfered with the loading process. Technology aside (by the way, I’m terrible with technology so I fully understand how hard it is to make. Tech. Work. Grrrr), awesome blog, beautiful shapey-things, and I love that quote. “To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”

    So true.

    Vivian

    • Virginia says:

      Vivian
      Thanks for your visit and comment. Sorry to be slow with my response but life’s gotten way too busy to keep up with everything so Giraffe Journal is slipping through the cracks. I’m hoping to remedy that soon … publishing more regularly with visuals and audio now that I’ve figured out the technology. Glad you enjoyed the quote and appreciate your feedback.
      Hugs and blessings,

  4. Sharon Martinelli says:

    Wow. I am using a Mac and I only had to click on the button and there you were. I lost you for a moment when I went to the larger pictures and clicked on one of them so I abandoned the idea of reading and simply surrendered to the listening. I loved being read to – your voice is as lovely as your writing.
    An interesting thing happened when I quit looking at the sheets of the journal for words. I started to see the art and found shapes of bodies in each one – the first was feminine and the second masculine. It made it fun.
    What a beautiful creative process.

    • Virginia says:

      Sharon,
      I’m so glad you enjoyed listening and appreciate all your feedback. How fun to learn that you saw images in my pieces. Occasionally I see heads, faces, and bodies in the shapes and wonder if they reflect different aspects of my self or the unseen messengers I sense around me as I create these pieces.

      I experimented opening the images in separate tabs before pressing the play button … and found I could move freely from tab to tab without interrupting the flow of the audio. I guess I’ll be experimenting for a while to figure out how to share these pieces here … and different ones at my Labyrinth Journal site once it’s up and running.

      I’ve been writing LOTS and bought myself a little Sony recorder to capture me reading the pieces so I won’t have to record them online at one of the online audio services after all. My free account at Audio Acrobat runs for a month and I’m fairly certain I’ll become a subscriber at $19.95/month because of all the features along with great technical support and free training sessions they provide. It’s very kewl!

      Thanks for joining this Giraffe Journal site through Google friend connect. What a pleasant surprise 😉
      Hugs and blessings,

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