Moses sent 12 leaders to explore Canaan
On 24th May 2019, Friday was my last day of Final Year Project. The entire journey was tiring, draining, a troublesome process I must say.I was so upset, disappointed and rather triggered with my project supervisor as every week goes on. No reply from her when I asked a question. Only reply that I will always get from her is just a word that says ok. A thought came to me... What do you mean by ok? Can you evaluate more so that I can know and reach what you say?! I was expecting an open-ended question than a close-ended question. So every time like this happen again and again, I will screenshot it or call a friend of mine and she will say the same thing to me, your supervisor is not answering your question. Well, how I wish I have a superpower to read her mind. Days later, she will automatically check on me via messaging, have I done this or have I done that. Having said that, I still can close an eye to just move on from there and do the necessary things.
On the 3rd-4th week, my supervisor gave me some tasks that are not within the job scope. She did ask me, do I want to explore new things. Without knowing, I agreed to take these tasks. All I know is exploring a game with no farther explanation. I was told to find out what is it and how to play. I remembered I texted my supervisor - how does the game play, I don't know how am I going to start; I don't know what is the purpose of this game. There is no single reply from her that answer to these 3 questions. After exploring, the next thing I know is, to do a summary of the game and how to play. So then, I followed her instruction.
On the 6th week, right after my Mid-term presentation, I was told to do a video for this game or recording of this game. So I recorded every moment of what to click and steps of the game. Also, recorded my voice while clicking the functions. Then again, I receive from her again, your voice is very soft. I really can't hear you speak. But I hear my recording voice, I find it clear and loud. Then she added saying, can you change the audio from text to speech. Of course, I immediately told her, the way I explain the game is so much different from text to speech which is a computer-generated voice. So then, I need to hear my voice and type it to a Microsoft Word before I converted the text into mp3. The video, of course, I mute it and do it again for my video. Adobe After Effects does allow me to edit and at the same time, add audio into it but when I run/play the video, the audio changes to another voice that has a strange and harrowing voice. The original audio way sounds better and nicer. No clue why the sound changes when I added the audio speech into the timeline in Adobe After Effects. So I have to find another video editor on the web because I can't think of any program/software that I do video editing.
On the 10th week, I read an article from THIR.ST that says "My FYP endgame: 21 days before our submission, my project was doomed to fail". I thank God for the article, it was so timely. I really needed to hear and/or read that someone out there knows exactly how frustrating it can be. As I was reading the article, there is a bible verse reference quoted Numbers 13. So I decided to read Numbers 13 after reading the article. In my mind, I pray a short prayer that God help me to be like Joshua (previously known as Hoshea) and Caleb instead of 10 other men who saw only the giants in Canaan. Only Joshua and Caleb held on that promise which God was giving to the Israelites from every tribe (Numbers 13:1-16), despite seeing the giants in the land.
On my final presentation day itself, I was truly not ready and prepared. So during the presentation, I was told to remove the watermark/logo on the video. Finding a video editor is literally, not easy. I keep redoing the video because every time, I have finished doing the moment I export it, there will watermark on the video. I redo a number of times due to watermark. I don't have that sum of money to buy a full version as it will definitely remove that watermark or logo. So ending up using the free trial version, to edit and add audio to my video. My project supervisor doesn't believe me, I have tried so many online video editor. until I lost count of them. She keeps forcing me to remove the watermark. All of these are not my according to my job scope but I still do to help my supervisor to explore the game, typing out the game guide in a Word doc and doing a video for the game guide.
Again, I was reminded of the story of Numbers 13 & Numbers 14. So on the last day of my FYPJ morning on the train, I was meditating on these 2 chapters while reading it again. God told me to trust in His power just like Joshua and Caleb trusted that God was bigger, stronger and could overpower the giants. Don't be like the 10 men who saw their giants (Descendants of Anak) (Numbers 13:22, 28) who are much stronger, powerful and bigger in size (Numbers 13:31-32). They chose not to go to the land of Canaan which God had promised to Jacob, their ancestor (Genesis 28:13-15). Only Joshua and Caleb went again to take their possession, a land that flows milk and honey (Numbers 14:6-8, 24, 30).
To resonate, I prayed for myself to be like Joshua and Caleb to face my giant which is the video/project. After that, I chose to trust in His glorious power because I know God will lead me every single thing and I will receive victory just as God leads Joshua and Caleb into that land, a land flowing milk and honey and will give to Israelites. I was rushing and having problems rendering video makes me even more frustrated with it and my supervisor. I can't render the video out from my desktop computer in the lab, my laptop and the school library computer. After that, I prayed for God's miracle to be upon this hopeless situation. Then later, I get a student who happens to be doing video editing since the 1st day till the last day of his FYPJ. I keep praying, please let it work. Please let it work. By the grace of God, I manage to render the video just in time with added computer-generated voice and with no watermark. Submitted every document and e-learning web folder and including video on 6:30pm. Though exceeded the time rather than not submitting anyone of it. If not, I would get a zero mark for that video.
