INSTRUCTOR OF WRITING, LITERATURE, AND DIGITAL PUBLISHING

E-MAIL:

VideoAdventuresInformation@gmail.com

WEBSITES:

VideoAdventures.info ( in process )

GiftOfInfiniteColors.com ( obsolete Flash )

ArabicInDamascus.us (obsolete Flash/inactive due to war)

VIDEOS: YouTube / videoadventures

SKILLS:

Adobe: Premier & Audition & PhotoShop & Illustrator & InDesign & AfterEffects & DreamWeaver ( inactive: Final Cut Pro ) / international video & audio data management / last minute poster design & show cards & business cards ( inactive: ProTools )

PRESENT WORK

* International video assignments and projects. Clients include tourist bureaus of Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malaysia, Azerbaijan. Charity media in Kenya. See YouTube / videoadventures. Nominated for awards as director and videographer. Google: Maasaicameramen

* Writing, publishing, and promotion via internet and print-on-demand in English, Spanish, Arabic

PAST MEDIA WORK

* Video productions and commercials in United States.

* Arabesk Studies in Damascus, Media/SEO Specialist, arabicindamascus.com/.us. Operations suspended due to war. (Incomplete http://www.arabicindamascus.us remains in operation with hope of end of conflict.)

* Russian Cultural Institute, Damascus, instructor of Presentations in Advanced American English -- Personal, Sales, Academic -– for Syrian professionals speaking to English-only international audiences. Assembled website and delivered material via text and audio. Website lost to war.

* National University instructor of American Literature, World Literature, Essay, Creative Writing, Technical Writing, Business Communications, and Information Research and Report Writing. Classes uploaded to university instructional websites.

* Los Angeles Mission College instructor of Literature and Essay. Assembled website for students. Discontinued.

* Camp Pendleton ( on contract ) instructor of Literature and Essay. Uploaded materials to college instructional website. Assignment terminated, office closed, due to mass deployment of Marines to Iraq War.

* Writer of 22 published novels, novels translated to five languages, one novel achieved New York Times Bestseller List for series, other novels scored other bestseller lists; sold cinema stories; poetry; wrote video projects.

* Writer/reviewer appearing in U.S. and foreign periodicals, including N.Y. Times.

* Writer/designer of United States patents, technical manuals, Spanish language copyrights.

* Certificate ( 30-units), Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA

* Certificates in Video production, Digital imagery, and Web design

* Past film/tech school & training

* B.A., M.A., American Literature

* Multiple for-profit enterprises in foreign cultures and foreign languages.

PAST BUSINESS WORK

See the website ( programmed in obsolete Flash format ) www.GiftOfInfiniteColors.com.

The website shows fifteen years of work to design and export Central American arts during Guatemalan civil war.

On GiftOfInfiniteColors.com, a narrative in English and Arabic details the years studying the Mayan society of Santiago Atitlan and the local weaving art to develop products for export to the United States and the world.

The extreme violence of the time required decentralized management. Artisans would not work in groups beyond their closest family members -- brothers and brothers, perhaps a cousin,perhaps in-laws, no outsiders. The people of the village feared jealousy and petty quarrels would lead to anonymous denunciations to the military -- and death.

I managed groups of weavers with master weavers heading the groups. The head man received the orders and money transfers, he assigned the work and paid his subordinates. The brass and silver workers in the old capital of Guatemala, Antigua Guatemala, worked by the same system. I managed as many as one hundred workers through the master artisan to subordinates system.

I rotated through Guatemala on three month intervals -- two months of writing novels, design of products, and trade show sales in California, one month in Guatemala. Work with Mayans required Spanish and Tzutujil, the language of the villages. Work with metal workers, government, military officials required only Spanish. Work in Guatemala required travel in buses, trucks, and many kilomenters a day of walking. If holidays or production problems made delays, I traveled -- by bus or air -- to El Salvador, Honduras, or Nicaragua to search for other products. Circumstances sometimes required extending to sixty days.

I also noted details and took photos for my continuing series of paperback novels. If the sales of handcrafted artisanal products declined, I transferred money from my writing to pay the Gutemalans.

The imports from Guatemala earned more and more. When a publisher later entangled my writing in a contract detail, I paused the writing to concentrate my imagination on the imported products. I earned more money than I had from sales of writing -- without the dictums of the corporate publishers.

The day-to-day difficulites of working in a war did not stop the work nor the earnings. The US Drug Enforcement Agency imposed regulations on the Guatemala government and the US Customs service. These regulations crashed the enterprise.

I went to teaching.

STAFF and ACADEMIC WORK:

* Leader, Subcommittee on Emerging Technologies, LA Mission College Technology Committee. Involved the study, learning, demonstration of publishing methods to faculty. TERMINATED / RESIGNED due to faculty refusal to publish course material as electronic text -- for computers, tablets, cellphones to cut expense to students and allow study anywhere, anytime. Staffer told Payne electronic publishing threatened textbook profits of campus bookstore.

* Continuing the development of internet .html / .css / video / audio / .pdf to support enterprise and education.

* 2010 -- 11, maintained websites in Damascus for international academics. Operations suspended due to war and electronic assaults. Only inactive www.arabicindamascus.us remains.


* 2009, April through October: Worked in Damascus. Managed three websites -- all destroyed. Wrote English-language text and meta-tags to score page one, Google. Photographed, video/audio recorded tours. Disassembled and reformatted University of Damascus CD audios for international students. Wrote and recorded advanced American-language essays and scripts for post-graduate Syrian professionals. Output on CDs, USBs, and on-demand web audio.

* 2008, February through June: Worked in Damascus, Syria with internet professionals. Presented workshops in free Google website publishing. Worked with Syrian government television program to encourage foreign academics to study in Damascus.


* December 2007: Presented LA Mission College classes in website publishing. Promoted college to community.

* October 2006 through December 2006: Damascus, Syria. Attended Arabic classes and studied techniques of language instruction with other academics. Interviewed Arabic language instructors to find Syrians qualified for National University language program.

* January 2005 -- June 2006, UCLA Arabic. Continued with courses in Arabic and Islamic history to gain Certificate in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

* December 2003 and continuing: Initiated accelerated Arabic language course to be presented at National University Carlsbad Learning Center. Proposal involved research in the cities of Tangier, Marrakech, Fes. Interviewed academics and technology specialists. Project interrupted by accelerated deployments. Now continuing development as independent project through arabicindamascus.us, Project will be an on-line interchange to offer Arabic instruction to foreigners studying Arabic and Islam in Damascus, English and internet to Syrians and international Islamic students.

* 11 September, 2001: Created an e-mail Technical Writing course in nine hours for military personnel, Amphibious Assault Base on Coronado Island, San Diego.

* Redesigned assignments to accelerate careers of personnel in US Marine Corps, Navy, SEALs, Army.

* Adapted courses of business writing for military and corporate professionals.

EDUCATION:

* Continuing studies in multimedia technology. Past training included video, video editing with Final Cut Pro, sound editing with Pro Tools, image manipulation with PhotoShop and AfterEffects, internet animations with Flash, web publishing with Dreamweaver and free programs, text publishing with InDesign and Acrobat.

* Institute of Arabic Language Study in Damascus, Syria

* UCLA – Certificate in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, July 2007

*Damascus University, School of Literature, Arabic

* Seminars in on-line technologies of Moodle, Etudes, Blackboard.com for writing across the curriculum and electronic instruction via the internet, at LA Mission College, National University, Palomar College.

* California State University, San Marcos -- Post-graduate Special Education courses.

* California State University, Northridge -- B.A, M.A., Literature.