Tikkabik

Yesterday was Career Day at Robert's school. On a lark, when the notice came in a few weeks ago, I volunteered, and they called shortly thereafter to let me know they'd like to have me in. They were kind enough to provide me with a really nice LCD projector, so I had a Keynote 2 presentation ready to go on the PowerBook (along with Griffin's AirClick USB, it was a nice way to present).

I ended up with three classes to present to: My son's class, and another class of fourth graders who came in for the presentation; and a group of fifth graders. It was a fairly short slideshow, about 10 or 11 slides long (worked out to be about ten minutes).

I got to the second slide, where I introduced myself as a writer for Macworld and MacCentral. Then I mentioned I review computer games for a living.

At that point, it was as if all the air got sucked out of the room. "It was like saying the word 'cookie' to a room full of dogs," said Robert, later.

For the next twenty minutes, I owned them. I had their complete attention.

Almost every single kid in both classrooms not only played video games but considered themselves avid gamers, and the idea that someone can make a living associated with the game industry outside of actually making the games themselves hadn't occurred to many of them.

Which, I guess, is the point of career day.

Keynote made the transitions and effects dead simple to work with. I don't think I spent more than an hour or two scripting it out and putting it together (including one slide which ran four QuickTime trailers of games I've reviewed simultaneously, without skipping a beat). The only downside was that I didn't have any audio to go along with it.

That was fun. I think I'll do it again next year. Next year I'll bring a set of portable speakers with me too.