Hey folks, it's another week gone by and I'm one week closer to spring break. We almost there boys. But ya know right now it's saturday morning, I got my dog sitting next to me, a space heater going and I'm listening to those sweet Relaxing Donkey Kong Music + Rain and Thunderstorm sounds so that means it's time to write a blog post. I got no huge introspective heartfelt meaning this time so I'll just talk about my week, it was pretty alright. I just worked more on my laser cut wooden brain and a 3d modeled house that resembles a block of cheese. It's my cheese house. But that's just first hour. Being busy with that and doing test corrections in physics this week makes me very happy that I have this weekend to chill out and enjoy myself a little. So I don't know I guess if you're mad stressed about something this weekend, feeling that way 24/7 isn't going to make it any better, so make sure to include some time for yourself and take it easy. Enjoy your weekend folks I'll see ya in the next one.
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Hey folks, I was recently thinking how before my senior year started I thought it would be boring, awful, and lonely because of everyone I knew the years prior have moved on, I also didn't feel much different than myself in 10th or 11th grade. I know that I did grow and I have matured a lot through high school but it's a long shot from how I viewed Seniors when I was a freshman or younger. In a lot of ways my senior year has been boring and tiring but it's not all bad. It seems as though by pure chance, and without much thought on my part I've made more friends this year than I ever had in my high school career. But anyway I guess my point is that no matter our age, skills, background or title, we're just people and on a basic level we all go through our own battles and struggles. It sounds like common knowledge but it took me a long time to learn that and control my anxiety when talking to people when I was younger. I also think knowing this reminds us to put ourselves in someones shoes and feel what it's like for them, it's empathy and I think it's very important to who we are as people. It's also easy to forget, so we all need reminding sometimes that empathy is one of the things that makes us human.
Guys, its a beautiful snowy winter, Saturday morning, I am chilling so hard and when I'm done writing this blog post I am going to play minecraft. That being said, I'm super happy I get to share my week to whoever wants to read along and chill for a minute. To start, by the day I am getting better at programs such as Illustrator and Photoshop through I-Lab, and it's awesome when I get to apply those skills in some of my other classes, like yearbook. Every project we've done just adds to my tool set of skills and I'm really looking forward to what the rest of the semester has to offer. Other than I-Lab things have been fairly normal, I'm still waiting on my MSU application, but I should know soon enough. This past week was also Mental Health Awareness Week, which is awesome, even if it kind of fumbled some presentations it had a great message and I, as a student of ROHS felt heard and cared for, in a way. So yeah it was alright week, take it easy folks I'll see ya in the next one.
Hey guys let me just start out by saying that we're almost to 100 page views! So thank you to those of you that stop by and enjoy the site. That's why I'm planning something for this site that I'm very excited about, I wont disclose anything yet but stay tuned. Anyway, so last week was the first week of semester 2 of my senior year at ROHS. Even if my grades weren't at the top of their game, I'm still very happy with the people I've grown close with, and the accomplishments I've acquired. So those of you in school, just remember that academics are important, but it's not what solely defines you. Everyone is unique and interesting, but you'll never see that in yourself if you're only worried with how you stack up against others. That being said, I know that only one month in, 2020 has also set a lot of worries on our shoulders, rumors of a world war, horrific fires and flooding in Australia and the Amazon, and even a worrisome spreading of the Coronavirus in Wuhan, China. I know almost no one reads this but I want to say that I'm holding a heavy heart for anyone affected by these events and that even if it is a long way off, if shit hits the fan I have faith humanity will stand together. So, sorry for the more somber post, this is just what I was thinking at the time.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YrJ8rMq_xHvgc8c5t9jykOnRKVTvwssk
What I posted above is our advertisement for the iLab class, it took shape as a non traditional ad. With voice overs you might hear on a radio show or podcast, this audio played while we had shots of the classroom play over it. Our creative thinking had part in influencing what we wanted our ad to be. Creative thinking is working through problems in a flavor that only you have, it is your ability to problem solve in a way unique to you. I used this when we built towers from basic supplies. My creative thinking led me to a path where I designed a huge base and a very skinny tower that went very high. Whether or not it worked is irrelevant I promise. Outside of my creative thinking, I’ve developed a lot of skills in ILab that I’ll use for the rest of my life. My ability to problem solve and work with others drastically improved over the course of the class with group projects and getting to know my peers. One skill I still need to work on is to not get frustrated when things don’t go my way. I still need to fully learn that things will always go wrong sometimes, and I’ll have to make the decision to give up or continue many times throughout my life. Hopefully with time, experiences, and mental wellness I’ll have the confidence in my abilities to always push forward. My partner and I actually encountered many problems on our midterm project. We wanted to record a whole podcast, but we lost audio and footage multiple times and we learned google drive is not a good file sharing service for large files. I led to us having to settle for a 3 minute ad instead of a 50 min show. We originally thought that we could sit down and record the podcast in the schools podcast room, then have the ad play in the middle, as an ad read for us to read off of. With the storyboard we created prior, we could take focused shots of our classmates and the classroom/learning commons. We also created unique logos and intro jingles for our show, as you can see from the ad. We created the ad the way we did because my partner and I have always been fond of podcasts, and when the chance rose to have our own we had to grasp at it. We were inspired by many other content creators such as H3, Gus and Eddy, and Supermega. What was most difficult about the project was keeping track of what data was on which SD cards. It’s the reason we lost a lot of footage and even had to record a new podcast. What was easy was the podcast itself. Jimmy and I are just really good at talking to each other and meaningful conversation came up really easily with us, I definitely want to record more in the future. I learned how to be organized, thorough, and precise with this project and those traits are going to follow me for a long time. At the end of the day, even though not everything worked out, I was able to get up and record a lot of cool things with my friends. It was a project I actually invested myself in and I feel like I got a lot out of it. I know that if I do more in the future, I have the skills to succeed. Our midterm project for i-Team is to make an advertisement video meant to exemplify the unique elements of the class that make it the experience it is. When I was told that we'd have complete creative liberty, I was so excited because it'd mean I'd be able to live out my dream of having a podcast.
Obviously, in order to have a successful podcast you need proper planning. The planning needed would include topics, cameras if we want a visual aspect, and how/when would we implement the advertisement. Would the ad be pre-recorded? or would it be recorded at the same time as the whole podcast itself? I'll include links and timestamps for other podcasts with elements we'd like to implement in our own work. Supermegacast ep:170 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRNCwl2Oh6A 0:00-0:05 Super Mega has a catchy and memorable intro that gives their show a professional and spontaneous feel. If I can do something similar I think it'll go a long way in adding to the value of our podcast as entertainment and even possibly giving it potential to turn into a brand like Super Mega has done. H3 Podcast ep:166 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-6zvdRapY&t=5034s 30:50-35:19 The H3 podcast not only has amazing titles and guests that drag you in and make you want to listen, but their ad reads are always recorded outside of when they record the podcast. This is so that they can "cut to break" and keep going over topics as the ads and video are practically seamless. It all works well with their overall filming style how they record in one take, switch cameras in real time (with the help of their crew) and have everything they need in the moment. Its a very effective tool that makes the whole content creating process easier and appear more natural. Its clearly a tough thing to pull off right but creating a natural and authentic show is at the top of my priority list. Gus & Eddy Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv-w0YrkglQ 00:00-00:30 The Gus and Eddy podcast also has an amazing intro which immediately get you acquainted with their hosts and their comedy styles. Its one where the visuals and music create a memorable sequence while having a sit com/day show feel to it. This week was a very average basic week to be honest, and everybody has those there's nothing wrong with that it's just not very exciting. I've been working hard on projects and papers, while playing video games and going to the theater in my free time. I did finally get to watch "The Lighthouse" at an AMC which is a movie I've had wanted to go see for awhile. Despite not grasping every aspect of the plot fully, the films minute details and intricate yet endlessly complex storytelling led to a movie watching experience that I could enjoy over and over again. I love movies that leave things to be interpreted by the viewer and it makes it a movie that I can't wait to purchase on Blu-Ray after it's done in theaters. Even though this week wasn't that exciting at least I'm one more closer to winter break.
Alright so with the winter holidays fast approaching that means many things. Gift giving, time with loved ones, and many celebratory feasts. But with this I have a question. When is the appropriate time to start listening to Christmas music? I hear a lot of people say that its acceptable after thanksgiving, but I disagree. Why should we give our time to appreciate thanksgiving when there's no music for it. As far as I'm concerned I'll be blasting Mariah Carey's All I want for Christmas Is You when I see one snowflake hit the ground in November. This is because Thanksgiving is genuinely a uninteresting holiday, we all get our Thursday and Friday off school and work, we go to some relatives house, there's always drama in the kitchen and then we all sit down and eat dry turkey and go home. Thanksgiving doesn't bring people joy the way Christmas does. Christmas has the winter setting of an early snow on the ground like a thin white sheet, it has big eye catching Christmas trees and decorations, it has the energy of kids that have been well behaved all year so that they could get the gifts they've asked for. And it's time with real loved ones and not indirect family you interact with 2-3 times a year. Christmas makes people happy in a way that can't be replicated any other time of year, so yes, that's my rant and I really can't believe you read that whole thing so thanks. byebye
Alright some weeks are just hell, there's no avoiding that. You get sick, miss a day and you got to find the time to catch up and make it better. It's inevitable, and everyone has a similar situation from time to time. What helps me to keep through it, is to remind myself that when the day is done, I'll never have to experience it again. I can either suck it up for a day, do the work and enjoy the luxuries of having that work done, or I can put it off to the side, and have to deal with the consequences of it not being done for much longer. It's especially hard with work that looks as though it has no point, busy work plagues a lot of my schedule and at a point it feels degrading to do. But if I spend my time fretting on what plagues my schedule, I won't enjoy the work that I love nearly as much. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if your week was hell and you stayed alive through it all, that's awesome, you should keep doing that because you're doing a great job. :)
One Idea that really resonated with me from the TEDx talk is this idea that we can change how we construct and think about living spaces like apartment buildings. I don't remember all of the details but the essentials were that we could build apartment buildings to feel like more like a small city and more of a community. In the far future it could go as far as having our apartment buildings that are open, combining indoor spaces, outdoor spaces, and social spaces built on top of buildings used for work and careers. This is obviously an impossible thought today but in the far future it could help improve the inner city feel while not taking up extra space. The idea behind the TEDx talk is that speakers are invited and they can talk about anything on their mind, this total freedom to express creativity is what feeds and influences innovation worldwide. The people that can be described as innovators are people that aren't afraid to take risks on an idea, you need to be confident and expressive. The apartment building idea was fun and interesting but overall my favorite speaker was Rob Paulsen, voice actor for many iconic characters such as the animaniacs, Raphael and Donatello from TMNT, and Carl Wheezer. He had lots to say on his experiences about his aspirations and dreams, and his experiences with fans. But the thing that stuck out to me was that he always met his successes with humbleness and he never met his shortcomings with cynicism. This is how I want to live. 5 years from now I can tell I will look back at that moment and think about Rob Paulsen's TEDx talk and how it inspired me to hold myself to that standard. The TEDx talk Detroit was an amazing experience for me and I'm very glad I had a chance to take in every talker's ideas and experiences.
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