Last Entry…?

I can’t believe this course flew by so fast. When I first registered for this course I thought to myself this must be a boring lecture class with lots of essays. Going through each day, I saw how interactive the course was. The lectures were interesting conversations instead of having a powerpoint or written notes to read from. The essays were blog entries which didn’t have a length requirement; just techniques which we learned from our reading materials assigned in class. I enjoyed our professor’s opinions and thoughts on better writing. I would have to say, being a up-and-coming digital media major, writing skills learned in this course is definitely a necessity to be great at what I will be doing.

I have always been a little weak when it came to my writing skills. I have been trying to better my skills for a long time and slowly with practice and time, I should be at my full potential. This course definitely helped me learn a lot of new techniques to write better. The reading materials were all very helpful in this process. I would say this might just be my last entry for this course, but it is my first entry into a world of better writing.

 

Sandler’s Newest Hit or Miss?

One of my all time favorite actors is Adam Sandler. He has been around for decades creating wholesome and funny movies for all types of audience. He has made some of the greatest hits of all time. Movies like Waterboy, Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore and plenty more have filled his audience’s hearts with laughter and love. In 2010, he released a movie named Grown Ups. With Kevin James, Chris Rock, and David Spade all co-starring next to Sandler, the movie became such a sensational hit that a sequel was in the making within no time wasted.

Grown Ups 2 was released July 12, 2013. I have yet to watch the movie but I have been checking up on the reviews and they are not pleasing to read. http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/07/12/grown-ups-2-review/ gives the gory details of the critic’s bashing of the newest Sandler’s movie.

I have noticed a decline of favoritism in the Sandler films over the last couple of years. Movies such as That’s My Boy and Jack and Jill didn’t really gain fans, more so lost them. Maybe it’s the fact that Adam Sandler is just a few years shy of 50. He’s getting pretty old. Although I doubt funniness erodes with age, maybe his taste in comedy is not for the up and coming generation. His humor might be what his audience loves, being that we grew up watching his movies and watched him grow as well, but not for someone who is just now turning into their teen years. One truly has to know where Adam Sandler comes from and who he is to understand his comic mischief.

 

DreamWorks Believes in Magic

I am 22 years old but sometimes I feel like like I’m still a little kid. DreamWorks makes that happen for me. For years DreamWorks animation arm has been providing hilarious, comidic, family fun animated movies for the world. With each movie, we are introduced to many animated characters whom we fall in love with. In 2004 DreamWorks Animation finally got it’s own name.

Being a digital media major I ultimately want to work for DW Animation. I know it is a long ladder to climb but I am confident I will get there one day. Reason being, this company is one of the top leading movie creators in the world. They are good at what they do. As am I. Making animated movies is my lifelong dream. What better place to make my dreams come true?

To extend DreamWorks’ work, they are now expanding to TV programming where they will be able to be viewed on Netflix. DW Animation will stream for 300 hours of programming which is the biggest commitment yet to bring Hollywood content to the web. These programs will be inspired by characters from DW’s animated movies such as Shrek and The Croods.

DreamWorks Animation has so much lined up for its up and coming years. They have movies ready to be released for the next 5 years. there are movies in production now that will be released 10 years from now. I can’t wait to become a part of this company and start making these animated movies. It takes very long to make but in the end it’s always worth making people feel like magic still exists, as I’m sure many adults feel like children watching these amazing animation stories.

The Final Verdict on Zimmerman

It’s finally in. The verdict has been reached. I was at work last night and the TV was on. CNN broadcasted the final courtroom meet as the verdict was read out loud by Judge Debra Nelson live on national TV. Not Guilty was the conclusion reached by the six jurors. “The jury had three choices: to find Zimmerman guilty of second-degree murder; to find him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter; or to find him not guilty.” told by CNN from the source http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/13/justice/zimmerman-trial.

Now the questions begin. Was the jury right with the decision they casted? Was it fair that the jury was compiled of 5 caucasian women and one Hispanic woman? Is it okay for Zimmerman to walk away with the killing of Trayvon Martin on his hands? Should he have been convicted of at least manslaughter if not murder? People all around the world believes this is another racial issue now. This verdict probably made many African-Americans feel like there is no justice for them within the law. For years there have been controversial issues with black and white when it comes to law itself. To many, this may seem like Justice took a step backwards in history in the making. But others may agree that this was the correct decision. Self defense was portrayed by Zimmerman.

On another note, this is also the second high profile case in Florida which was made very public. Casey Anthony was also acquitted of murder when they found body remains of her 2 year old daughter. Some may question now whether Florida’s justice system is flawed. This is not good publicity for their system. I found an article from LA Times http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/12/nation/la-na-nn-george-zimmerman-jury-day-three-look-ahead-20130611 which stated “Anthony case and several other criminal cases in Sanford that he said in which the perpetrators had gone unpunished for reasons the public often did not understand.” This statement seems to be very fitting to both Anthony and Zimmerman’s verdicts.

This only leaves Americans at a crossfire with racial controversies and the flaws of the justice system. We don’t know when race will stop playing a part in determining verdicts. We also don’t know when the law will stop letting perpetrators walk away from crimes. We, as citizens of the USA, must come to terms with reality and take actions to change this for a brighter future. We have come a long way with fixing racial issues and law’s imperfections, but it seems like we have a very long road ahead before things get better.

 

 

REST IN PEACE TRAYVON MARTIN forever in our prayers...

My Aca-Meme

Quote from William Zensser’s writing piece “Clutter” & “Simplicity”
Image from Clipart by Ron Leishman – http://clipartof.com/435890

The source I chose for my meme was from Zinsser’s writing piece “Clutter” from our class readings assigned earlier in the semester. I truly found his reading very helpful since I am not the best writer. Zinsser gave very good advise on better writing and understanding that with clutter, your writing piece will have less readers than if you choose to eliminate clutter. With the clutter removed, it will be a simplified piece to read and it will keep the readers focus on what you are trying to say.

I personally think my image is very relative to the quote I chose to use for it. I believe that when clutter is present in writing, the reader probably feels just like this angry gardener. Removing weeds is not as easy as people think. It is hard to pull them out of the ground. Same as reading cluttered writing which is very hard to understand and follow through. This image and this quote plays hand in hand to keep anyone’s attention for a representation of Zinsser’s writing.

The reason I chose this image is because of the connection of the image with the quote. You can see how angry he is at the weeds. He is literally trying to destroy it in the worst way possible because of the rage it causes him. Now imagine a reader trying to set a writing piece on fire or cut it up in a million shreds all because he is trying to fight the clutter just to read the material and understand it properly. The relativity between this little angry man and a frustrated reader is almost alike.

Geoffrey Sirc’s Serial Composition

Our newest class reading happened to be Geoffrey Sirc’s “Serial Composition.” Sirc goes in to speak out about his thoughts and views of music. Breaking into 5 scenes, he tells us the beginning of music to how today’s is going. I believe Sirc was trying to establish to his readers the passion he serves for music and how the era is starting to change music completely. This reading piece awares its readers and us think about the true facts of his feelings for music.

He has 5 scenes installed as a story. He spoke about how students in college prefer to write shorter papers but do not put the needed thoughts and effort make it a great piece. The students should practice writing through a series of essays. He hits on the fact that, like music, writing has it’s own traditional style. But now writing is breaking tradition by evolving new different styles.

Sirc talks about the importance of mixtape. He goes into a short background of the start of mixtapes and follows it up by the difficult steps to make a great mixtape. Theme and the tracklist are the hardest things to decide. The mixtape must tell a story so it must include songs in order to make the listeners understand what the mixtape creator is trying to say.

He wraps it back into talking about writing by saying western art music has only 12 notes. This minimizes the musicians to force them to be very hard thinkers and make musical poetry come out of the instruments. Same like this, Sirc says that writers must make the maximum impact by making minimal design.

This text is useful for those who wants to learn about writing’s importance to make them a better writer. This text used a comparison to best imply what Sirc was pointing out. The relationship between music and writing gives readers an opportunity to connect their writing with themselves to write better. One thing I wish Sirc did do was go into detail about what makes writing good. Of course he compared it to music which is a very important aspect, but he goes into heavy detail about music which he did not perform with the writing.

I personally agree with Sirc. The man is right. Within the music he says people use to put so much thought to making good mixtapes. Same with writing. Now people are lazy and don’t care to make these things speak to the readers/ listeners. They should set it up to follow order, yet extend out enough to keep their viewer engaged.

Twitter Vine vs. Instagram?

Twitter is one of the largest social networking site in the world. They even own Vine. Now Instagram has taken over the competition. In this article I found called “Instagram video sends Vine sharing on Twitter plummeting” I read up on the dropping numbers of Vine because of the release of Instagram video. I knew Instagram has been more popular then Twitter for a while now and aren’t surprised at the numbers dropping. It honestly feels like all of these social network sites are trends. First it was MySpace which got overtook by Facebook. Then came Twitter and Vine which is now followed up by Instagram and their video. I don’t know why it’s a continuous trend but I do know something else will come and take over Instagram. I wonder if the users who follow these trends just like the cycle of making their accounts and starting over with the friend making process. What is it about all of these social network sites where people spend hours on their smartphones? Having multiple accounts with the same set of friends on every different site seems very redundant to me.

Resident Evil: Deprived of Life…

When I was 13, I watched my cousin play a video game that scared the pants off of me. It got me into the long and twisted world of Resident Evil. This is one of the only games I know of that has followed a plot since the very first game; keeping in mind the very first game was released in 1996. A 17 year long saga, which has been popular world wide for being a single player, third person shooter game.

Lately, I have been noticing that it hasn’t been too popular lately with the new generation coming up. I honestly think the reason being is because now Capcom is starting to make this game like every other shooting game. The story is changing from being the only one stuck in a city full of zombies and mutated monsters to a co-op split screen or multiplayer online video game. It takes away from being scared now. One of the best things about the older RE games is the fact that it had a sense of horror. Being all alone, having very limited ammo, even searching high and low for keys and clues to get through the game, all seemed to play in great with the theme of the whole idea of “alone and scared”. Back then, the very first game which established the horror theme was Alone in the Dark. It was an established genre by 1992. It followed a couple more sequels but didn’t go too far after RE took off. People fell in love with Claire Redfield, a lost sister in the hunt for his brother, Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop seeing the terror on his first day of duty, and many more to follow.

Now the new Resident Evil games are all the same as Gears of War, Call of Duty, Modern Warfare, and more games in that line. There is nothing scary anymore. It is either you traveling with a group of people the whole game or you can play multiplayer. I wish Capcom had stayed with the single player survival story mode. It gave the game a unique sense of excitement and fright.  I believe Capcom should definitely go back to the original idea of the game. I mean it’s always fun to play multiplayer but we still need a game that is single player within the horror genre.

Oozma Kappa At It’s Finest

The monsters are going back to the basics. I just got out of the movies and decided to write this blog dedicated to Mike and Sulley, the ultimate scare monsters.

Monsters Inc, released in 2001, introduced two of the greatest monsters known to the world. We got to follow these scary, yet lovable, best friends working together at their scream factory as they experienced the once in a lifetime journey together. After all, what is the best experience of your life, without your best friend by your side?

Well, Pixar Animations has done it again. 12 years later, we have been blessed to go on another journey with the little creatures. Monsters University is at its best topping even the Man of Steel during box office weekend. This time, we get to see further back in their lives, where they first meet; at Monsters University. Showing their strengths, and weaknesses, lands these two side by side for the ultimate challenge. I just thought this was really cool considering I’m a college student as well. Georgia Gwinnett College is definitely nothing like MU but  I could relate to a lot of the things Mike and Sulley experience in the film. One thing I did wish I could do was to join a Sorority. These two best friends got the chance to join a real brotherhood at their University. Oozma Kappa aka OK was the glue that tied them together and brought them close. Even though its in a movie, the concept of it is real. Life long friendships are made from Sororities and Fraternities.

Mike and Sulley have always been two of my favorite animated characters. Considering I am a digital media major, and one day wish to work for Dreamworks Animations, it just amazes me every time I see these blueprints and graphics come to life. I want to be the ones drawing up these sketches one day and making these drawings become real. web design and software development is cool but I really enjoy making animations and short films. It puts a smile on my face seeing my thoughts from my head come to a piece of paper to my computer screen, moving and performing actions. Animations has always been a fascination of mine. It’s the reason I still watch animated movies and play video games. I just think how much effort goes into making these products. Monsters University was brought up back in 2005. It took 8 years for the production of this film. With its final debut, I would have to say, those 8 years were probably worth it to all the hard workers of this project, considering it grossed a whopping $82 million on box office.

 

Humanizing the Digital World

Being a digital media major, I have to be a creative illustrator. In my current internship for JD Peroro I am in charge of redesigning the company’s website. JD Peroro is a digital media company and they do template designs for client’s webpages, magazines, scholarship promotions, and any and everything in between. My manager told me I have a clear sight for creativity and I agree with her. The website for her company is so bland. It’s boring and cluttered. Reading about Zinsser’s “Simplicity” and “Clutter” I had to agree that much of JD’s content can be removed because of repetition. It looks so congested. The home page displays so much information that the user of the website won’t go any further into the website after seeing the first page.

I told my manager that I wanted to come up with a brand new theme for this website.I looked into the background information for this company and found out their mission statement which happens to be “Humanize the Digital World- the drive of our company.” This gave me the perfect idea for her new theme. I want to add the human touch to the “Digital World” An image I presented to her for the new idea put the biggest smile on her face.

The human touch on digital media seems like something we do on a daily basis. We have video games, pictures, hypertexts, links, animation, short video clips, and so much more! Every day we and humanizing the digital world. Look at how far we have came from video games as to how they use to look verses how they look now. Every game mimics real life human interactions. We have built virtual worlds such as the game Minecraft.  Before we had games like Pong and Duck Hunt. It is an amazing journey how far we have came with humanizing the digital world with everything around us. All vedio games now resemble such life-like actions and characters. The story plots, graphics, characters, resemblances to life-like actions and everyday usage is all derived from the human touch. We don’t want society to feel alienated from the digital work us humans create. The goal is for the world to relate to to all digital media. It needs to be a sense of comfort, enjoyment, and reality.