It’s early afternoon on Christmas day … life is beginning to return to normal. Thank you for your support during 2007, and specifically my Run for China’s Children. 35 children in China received the best present possible this year, a new school.

If your situation allows, please consider a pledge for the LingYun Dorm Project. Send a pledge via eMail to Rich Hoeg at rhoeg@comcast.net. Remember, not everyone in this world has equal access to learning. You’ll note that none of my learning sites use Google Adwords. I support these learning efforts using my own resources; thus your donation to the LingYun Dorm Project is that much more appreciated. Donations in the USA are tax deductible.

In wrapping up 2007 I invite you to view the China Tomorrow Education Foundation’s current newsletter, and the case study the foundation created covering the building of JiaYou’s new school:

• CTEF Newsletter | Web Site
• JiaYou Case Study

Once again, thank you and Merry Christmas!
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Occasionally in life you meet someone who teaches you about dedication and ideals. Dj is my teacher. Last night we had dinner near Rockefeller Center in New York City. I learned that Dj will move back to China in January to help the children of China. Given Dj has given up a career as a Microsoft software engineer to pursue his dream of helping the kids, my own efforts in China seem small by comparison.

Good luck Dj! I hope to see you in China next Fall.

• 2008: LingYun Dorm Project
• 2007: Rebuilding JiaYou’s School: Initial Post | JiaYou | Home from JiaYou

In late September, I ran through the mountains of southern China, just north of Vietnam. This was a run that changed my life, and launched me upon a journey of a lifetime. Let me explain … 

My friend, Dj, challenged me last Winter to make my Grandma's Marathon this past Summer more than just a physical test. He said: "Rich, Build a school." I'm proud to report that the school at JiaYou is built. However, that marathon run which began in Duluth, Minnesota and ended in JiaYou, China, launched me upon a new life's journey. (download JiaYou case study)

My wife, Molly, and I are now the Midwestern representatives of the China Tomorrow Education Foundation (CTEF). Molly's and my goal in 2008 and early 2009 is to rebuild the dorm and kitchen for a mountain school in the LingYun region. Please help with a cash pledge! It is through education that this world becomes a better place! I've created a short 4 minute webcast which explains the LingYun dorm project … Loppets for LingYun!

What are Loppets for LingYun?  Watch the video and learn! The answer involves Southern China, Wikipedia, technical conferences, Grandma's Marathon, loppets, and now Legos and Birke Bashin for China's Kids!

• LingYun Video | Project Background

The China Tomorrow Education Foundation (CTEF) is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt charity organization in the United States; all donations qualify for tax deduction in the USA.

Donate via PayPal … even a $10 donation helps!

2008 / 2009 Project Status:

• Total Money Pledged: $ 6,067
• Goal: $ 7,500
  
• Project Kickoff: November 19, 2007
• Last Update: February 25, 2009

Donor List: (will be updated throughout the project)

As with the JiaYou school project, my wife and I are also financial donors.

• Thank you to these donors!
• Allen, Kristine and Ben
• Anderson, Ron and Glorian
• Arone, Joe
• Barber, Sally
• Birrell, Nancy
• Bloom, Patty
• Brehmer, Karen and Joe
• Brewer, Susan
• Chung, Albert
• Du, Doris
• Fraser, Dougall
• Griffith, Lynda
• Gupta, Puneet
• Hanson, Bruce and Pat
• Hanson, Eric and Maria
• Harris, Kay
• Hebig, Margie and Tom
• Hearn, Carol
• HIPAC
• Hoeg, Molly and Rich
• Hoeg, Will and Ellen
• House of Hope Lutheran Church
• Huebel, Martha
• Koch, Rhonda and Roger
• Jackson, Jill and Todd
• Larkin, Mary
• Layton, Doris
• Lutz, Judy
• McMillan, Ginny and Ken
• Owen, Janet
• Prystal, Jim and Betty
• Readinger, Sue and Todd
• Reynolds, Karen and Tom
• Rollin, Jane
• Rose, Diane and Fred
• Sabo, Julie and Mike
• Sidi, Rafael
• Smidzik, Linda
• Spoden, Jodi
• Sundeen, Gil and Mary
• Stensaas, Connie and Stan
• Thompson, Jan and Doug
• Troester, Linda and Tom
• Vinje, Reverend Mark (pastor at House of Hope Lutheran Church)
• Vyhanek, Teresa
• Weiss, Betsy and Bill
• Wachholz, Laurie and Rob

Earlier today I traveled through time back into the past! At 3:00 p.m. I left Japan, and at 11:50 a.m. in the morning on the same day I arrived home in Minnesota … after an eleven hour flight! Obviously the big question is … what does this have to with "converting digital camera movies to Flash". Given my body clock is all messed up, I decided it was time to post some movies from my Run for China’s Children  Quest. This also represents a good way to get back to my blogs’ main theme of technology learning.

Like many of you, my digital camera allows me to take movies. However, the larger file sizes are not web friendly; thus I wanted to convert my avi files to the Flash format. Here were my two constraints:

1. I wanted a free video conversion program that was easy to use.
2. I did not want to do much html editing to make the content run on the web.

Here was my solution:

• I found a great little freeware program, Super C from eRightSoft.
• With minor tweaking, I could easly convert my digital movies
• A typical file size reduced 8 megabytes to 800 kilobytes
• I used 320 by  240 resolution, but high quality
• I used NotedPad+ for my html editing. You may use any word processor.

Here are my Run for China movies (under 15 seconds each). Pay attention to the viewing instructions!

Initial Viewing Instructions

1. Click to select and load any movie
2. Once that page loads, click <reload/refresh> via your browser
3. The movie should now play
4. Click <back> to select the next movie

• China-Entrance
  (the children would greet us in this manner at each school we visited)
• China-Dance
  (my wife Molly dancing with some kids!)
• China-Teach
  (I give some sixth graders a very short English lesson!)
• China-Harvest
  (farming of rice is still done by hand near the Vietnamese border)

Note: I’m looking for an html code generator that works with the new version of Flash. This will then eliminate the load and refresh requirement.

And here are the screen shots on how I created these Flash movies using Super C:
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Once you have created your Flash files, it is necessary to create a very simple html file. You can <right click> upon any of my movies and use that file as a template. Use the screenshot given below, and make the few changes indicated.
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Tomorrow, Molly and I head back to the United States. Visting JiaYou was inspiring; here are some of my final impressions of this trip …

It is hard to express in words what I’ve experienced in China, but I will try.  I’ve met children who are seven years old and walk 60 minutes each way over mountain passes to get to school.  Many children walk from even farther distances to school, and thus must live at the school dorm in conditions which are hard to imagine. These same children cook their own meals every night. While I love my own children dearly, I could never imagine them living in a bleak dorms when they were only in second grade, and cooking their own meals every night.

At the same time I’ve seen the new school at JiaYou, which was built thanks to your generosity. These Chinese families are dedicated to education in a manner we in the U.S.A. can never appreciate. Their children now learn in a bright, clean, protected from the weather environment. Thank you!

For many of the children, and adults, I was the first Caucasian they had ever seen. This region of China near Vietnam is 100 km from the nearest larger city in China. It was only five years ago that the dirt road connecting the region was paved with blacktop. Our driver told us the 100 km drive used to take over ten hours. Many of the mountain villages in the region are still only reachable by footpath. Farming of rice and tea is conducted as it has been for hundreds of years … by hand.

The local officials treated Molly and me like royalty. Our entourage included four, four wheel drive SUV’s. The group ranged from the local school officials, the president of the China Tomorrow Education Foundation, the regional People’s Republic of China vice chairman … and us! Without the SUV’s we would never have reached many of the schools we visited.

Finally, my hotel room in rural China was clean, cheap ($12 per night) and had free internet access!

Bye for now … I’m physically tired, but rested of the soul. I will leave you with some photographs of my Chinese mountain journey and a 30 second sound clip (mp3) featuring the children of JiaYou!
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