My Prezi

MY Prezi

       I worked with Second Life for my presentation. I used Prezi as a vehicle to convey what I learned about. I created an account on Second Life and explored many aspects of the "game". It was an interesting and sometimes frustrating experience. The reality of the Second Life is that it gives users infinite possibilities as to how they live their lives. It was hard to fully grasp the numerous possibilities offered in a Second Life as there is a fairly steep learning curve. I attributed this to the "openness" of the program. What I mean by this is that so much of the internal workings of the program are exposed to the user in order to offer such a vast number of possibilities. The option of creating clothing, structures, items etc.. makes my head spin. Also the interface is very raw and not streamlined for clarity and ease. Overall I'm gonna stick with the reality i have created for myself, my First life.

Final Video Posted

Enjoy

Sweet song I heard from a friend.

Birds of War

Halloween

World Series Prediction

Here is a little side note on current events. It's gonna be Phils Yanks. Sorry all you Anaheim fans out there, this just isn't your year. Yanks are gonna come out on top, whether it be game four tomorrow or game five back at the new stadium. I don't see a repeat of 2004's ALCS meltdown in which the Red Sox came back after losing the first three to win four strait and win the pennant.
      

          That being said I cannot wait for Phils Yanks. It is going to be an epic pitching and slugging contest with the Major Leagues best. A-Rod Howard, CC Cliff, Rollins Jeter can't wait to see how things playout. One thing is for sure as a Yankee's fan on campus I am gonna keep my head down when faced with large groups of crimson doning philly fans. Especially when we take games off them haha. So barring any meltdowns it should be an interesting series that I look forward to taking precident over any work I have.

Dramatic question

The embedded movie posted above is a film that serves the same purpose as our film. It was to come up with a dramatic question and then document random people's answers. Enjoy

xtranormal

Project expectations

Our Group has decided to work with the idea of ones future goals and aspirations.
We look to deal with all age groups as we believe that this will give us a wide range of answers. we hope to capture average peoples hopes for the future and in doing so be able to access and view a piece of their interior personality. The project is daunting in that we need to achieve some level of style instead of just presenting raw footage and expecting the viewers to elevate and find meaning in the video. It is our jobs as the directors, producers and editors to make our audience see the artistic nature of this dramatic question. in the end i hope our video is able to convey the fact that all of us have dreams and lofty expectations of our future no matter the age and situation. The video will be posted here once it is complete.

Conversation

The book The Conversations provides insight to the often invisible world of movie editing. the book surrounds Walter Munich and several conversations with Michael Ondaatje, author of "The English Patient". Munich's resume is very impressive he has worked on such films as very impressive - "Apocalypse Now", all three parts of "The Godfather", "American Graffiti" just to name a few. He seems to have an uncanny ability to find the best possible flow for a movie and conform the scenes to the flow. I personally think the two of them are extremely artistically gifted. They have each been a part of oscar winning films. Their interactions really provided an interesting take on cinema. The most significant realization I came away with after reading this text was the importance of their craft to movie making. They essentially dictate how the viewer perceives the actors and story. I feel as though an actor is only as good as the editor presents him to be. He stated that he does not watch any other movies while in the editing process. I like the idea of him not wanting anything to interfere with his train of thought.

Changes Made To Blog

I changed my blog in a number of ways. I added sections, widgets, pictures and changed numerous other aspects.

I decided to go with a different blog template. One that showed I like sports, I downloaded it custom from a website. I changed the color scheme as well to make it less like a home work assignment and more personal. I tried to make it easy going and colorful by playing with the fonts and adding pictures. I also added some pictures of myself and one of my girlfriend and I.


I also wanted to add more blogs that were not assigned in order to add some fun to it and make it less about the class, in order to help me eventually transition into making a blog solely for the purpose of exhibiting my personal interests. At this time I only have one post about music but I plan on adding more. In addition I added a about me section, to convey some vague information about my personality.

I plan on playing with my blog more as the class continues on in the semester. I am still not totally satisfied with my changes, mainly my template which maybe custom but is still boring.

New Mashup DJ

The mash up genre of music is usually not where I find myself when I am alone listening for music, but when it comes to party music it works. Recently I was turned on to an artist who goes by the alias DJ cobra, his first CD is free to download off his site DJ Cobra is Iller. You may notice he pays homage to the late great Michael Jackson with his album cover haha. His songs are no more than two minute a piece but unlike the vastly popular girl talk he jumps from song to song much less and lets some good combo's ride out. Some notable combo's are t-pain and the Beatles another notable combo included is jay-z and the stones. So if you have a party and are strapped for music throw it on and let it ride.

Self Critique

My blog is a little boring at the moment. I need to tweak it and use the critiques of it to better it. My text is a little boring at the moment, not accessible enough or interesting. I need to convey my personal views and mannerism into the posts while at the same time remaining academic. In addition I could add additional visual aids to accompany posts in order to convey my post in both a lingual and visual manner. I ranted in my last post and some of the language was redundant as well.

R.I.P. P. Swayze

Time to dance with the universe.
- Point break

The best of the web reviewed by me

The Webby award page offers links to some of the best rated sights on the net. I looked at a few in particular from different categories to evaluate them from my perspective. They are the Adidas homepage then, the Saab page (from class) and the 1000awesomethings page. All deserve the award as it is obvious that much time and effort has been placed into both their aesthetic design and their creative functionality.

To begin with the Adidas page is a collage of images that seem to link to different sectors of their company. Each image signifies a division of their company. For instance for the more fashion interested consumer the image used is a picture from their latest Y3 fashion show, when the mouse moves over the image it gives a small blurb and a link to shop for the fashion oriented products. The other pictures are of tennis players, runners etc… this enables each type of user direct access to the products they are most interested in without bringing the user to sectors they are uninterested in.

The Saab page is functionally as well as aesthetically excellent. The clean cut design seems to emulate the ideals the company tries to convey in their car design. It works to relate to the user in many different ways through visuals and personal relation by way of having the user seemingly describe themselves through a number of personal preference questions. The Saab and Adidas are worthy of praise in the manner that suits them best, but the 1000 awesome things page uses a different approach.
It uses simplicity to present facts and experiences in life, by putting a positive spin on them. The list is long and covers things that normal people can relate to. Some just for fun like sneaking in cheap candy into the movie theater and others as a source of optimism, like detailing the positive aspects of having junk in the trunk (haha) entitled “#950 Big, fat asses. It is a fun page that is perfect for procrastinators and the efficient at the same time through numerous simple posts.

Creativity as Presented By TED talks

The TED talks we viewed in class presented interesting ideas in an original medium. The use of TED gives the speaker both credibility as well as an opportunity to present ideas to an open minded community that is less rigid and more open to new ideas than the conventional medium of publishing. The idea that creativity is being hindered by the confines of the classroom is a well thought out hypothesis. Creativity is most definitely discouraged inside the academic institutions. We are taught to replicate the work of our instructors in a manner that they see fit. Often in a class you do not do the work the right way you aim to do it the teachers way. As an English major I find that I learn a new style of writing with each class in order to appease the teacher’s ideals of proper English composition. Writing should be less about form and more about conveying content in one's own point of view, style, and voice.