Last blog post

So this is my last post. Wow, I can't believe I made it to 50 blog posts. Well I can believe it, I just mean that I can't believe it's the end of the semester. It went pretty quick. I had a good time. It was a bit stressful, but still a good time. I must admit I did enjoy Professor Baldwin's class at 9:50am tuesdays and thursdays. Compared to my other classes, it was actually relaxing. My journalism classes were a bit, how do I put this nicely, intense. So it was nice to step into Professor Baldwin's class and have class discussions about whatever he wanted to that day. I also must say that I learned a lot of new things about a lot of different topics. I know that's so cliche to say, but in this case it's true. I never knew about all the programs such as Byrce or Sketch-up (well I knew of Sketch-up but never used it). So just the chance to actually use these programs and see what I'm capable of creating was really cool. I liked our class discussions too and how Professor Baldwin always wanted us to think outside the box. We can't give him the answer, "I don't know." We have to pretty much say whatever comes into our mind. I feel like more professors should be like that. But all in all, I had a good time.

Joy ride? Adventure?

Okay so I just googled 'Kinect games' to see what would come up and found out some interesting stuff that I didn't know. I knew that you could play sports on the Kinect but what I didn;t know is that you could go for a joy ride and go on adventures with this thing. So I don't have to go waste gas in my real car if I wanted to go on a joy ride, I can just turn on my Kinect and go for one. And I don't have to go all the way to a tropical rain forest to go on an adventure, I can just go on one on my Kinect. It's kind of like video games but taken up about 100 levels. I was kind of indifferent to the Kinect when it first came out because I guess I wasn't sure what the point of it actually was but after researching a bit about it, it's actually really cool. So cool that I want to go out and get one for myself.

Zumba

Have you ever seen watching television and all of a sudden one of those Zumba commercials comes on? This video game, or whatever you want to call it amazes me. You use the Kinect to play it and from what I understand, the Kinect can read your body motions as you dance along with the song. I mean, I though Dance, Dance Revolution was amazing. Now the Zumba comes out. I have yet to play it but I've heard some great things about it. You can basically put yourself in the shoes of the people of "So You Think You Can Dance". I mean, you're probably not as good as those dancers, but it puts you in their position. I really want to try this sometime and see if it's as amazing as everyone says it is.

Technology

Can you just take a second to look at this product? Just take a second. What does it look like to you? Well, its black and sort of rectangular shaped with a few camera looking things on the side of it. What if I were to tell you that this product will be the technological phenomenon of the future? This product will let you journey to virtual worlds. This product will let you play soccer with virtual people. This product will let you be anywhere in the world within the comfort of your living room. If someone were to tell me all that about ten years ago, I probably would look at them like they have five heads. Like how can a product let you do all those thing? Apparently not that is possible. It's just crazy how rapidly technology advances. It leaves me with the question, what's next?

Pink collar jobs

Professor Baldwin always talks about how he doesn't want us to have pink collar job. I totally agree with him. He told us about students that graduate from Yale and end up working at Starbucks. That to me sounds a but scary. It makes me think, what's going to happen to me? Am I going to graduate Stony Brook and land some awesome job at some upcoming newspaper? Or am I going to strap on a Starbucks apron and makes some lattes? Well I don't know the future so I can't really answer those questions for you. But I can tell you what I do want. Of course I want that newspaper job. I mean who wants to work at a pink collar job after they graduate college with a masters? Very few people. I mean right now in my life I do have a pink collar job because I'm a college student and that's just what we do. How many college student do you know that are already settled in a professional job? None. Because that's why we're going to college, to get those professional jobs. Hopefully. But I'm optimistic. Not unrealistic. Optimistic and realistic, I think that's a good combination. I'm going to do what Professor Baldwin told us to do. I'm going to 'think outside the box'. I'm going to start getting more creative and innovative in my major. Take some risks. Create some new ideas. That's the direction that I think most successful people go in.

Blogging

Before I started blogging in this class, I was actually blogging in another class and I had my own personal blog. So blogging was not something foreign to me. The other blog that I had to write on was for my Journalism 24/7 class. I basically just had to blog about the changes in the media industry. I actually found that it is a lot of fun. I love to write, which is the main reason why I'm majoring in journalism. So it just makes sense that I find blogging to be fun. Just the whole concept of blogging is so interesting to me. There are probably millions of blogs on the Internet right now. In fact, there are probably hundreds of people who are blogging at the same exact time as me right now. I just think it's great that people feel the need to create blogs to get their ideas and opinions out in the world. I also like to read other people's blogs when I get a chance. Just the view people have on certain things are interesting to read about. Some blog even have cool features that let you click on link to different pages and watch videos and other multimedia things. I just think blogging is a great things and I'm glad I got a chance to do more of it in this class.

Audience participation

As the year went on and we learned more things in Theater 103, I started to realize that some of the things that we learn about in class connect to what I need to be learning about regarding my major. I'm majoring in journalism and I hope to get a job as a reporter for some type of newspaper or magazine when I graduate. My professors are constantly telling us that we are in the middle of a digital revolution. The iPad is just one of the inventions that are going to drastically change my profession. The physical newspapers are beginning to die to make way for online newspapers. But since everything is going online, that calls for more audience participation. Which is where what we learn in Theater 103 comes in. At the Tank, the audience was able to participate in the performance by controlling the Sketch-up designs on the screen. That's kind of similar to the way the audience participates when they want to get their news. Yahoo News is one of the many companies that have taken advantage of this idea of audience participation. They are going to allow their audience to participate in the way they obtain their news in the future. When you view on article online, it lets you comment on it, doesn't it? That's one example of how the audience can participate in the news they get. Now with the Internet, you can blog about the different news stories you read. Once again, another example of audience participation. So basically, I just see that the world is breaking apart from the days when someone stopped at 7-11 to get a NewsDay in the morning. The people now want to go onto the Internet to actively participate in the news they are consuming.

Which one would you rather have?

Would you rather have a bathroom that looks like the one above or below? We had a discussion about minimalism a little while ago in class to talk about a bathroom that looks similar to the one above. Personally, I would rather have a bathroom that looks like the one below. I don't really understand the minimalist type of design. Yes, I get that it looks more elegant. But it just seems so boring. Who would want to step into an all white bathroom with hardly anything in it every single morning of their lives. Not me. I like to have color, designs, things around me. That's just my taste. I can't speak for anyone else.

New houses vs. Old houses

A few weeks ago in class we were talking about the neighborhoods that we each live in and the contrast of the designs of the homes. As I was driving through my neighborhood I started to realize how big of a contrast this way in my own town. My house is about 100 years ago, so I would say that it's one of the older ones in my town. My mom loves old houses so that would be why I'm currently living in one of them now. But if you were to walk down my block you would see that there are some old houses and some news houses. You can just tell by the way they are designed. The old houses have a more classic look to them and the paint job is a little less than perfect. The new houses look more modern and efficient looking and the paint jobs are impeccable. In my opinion, I prefer the older houses. I just like the warm feeling of home they provide. I feel like the new homes are too impersonal and modern. They lack that certain feeling of home. For example, would you want to spend Christmas dinner in a one of the new houses or one of the old houses? I would personally want to spend it in the older houses because when you step into an old house you get the feeling that there are memories that were made in that home. The new houses lack those memories and therefore lack the true feeling of "home".

RUR

This is a picture of the graduate students performing RUR.

Before the performance

Before the performance began I took a picture to show how hard everyone was working. There were a lot of people in the front working really hard to get everything set up. Some people were tapping onto their laptop, others were downloading the Touch osc application on their smartphones and one guy was practicing playing his flute on stage. The actors were rehearsing their lines to make sure they were perfect before the performance began. I just wanted to take a picture to capture how hard everyone worked to put this performance together.

Building in the city

While we were talking to the Tank this weekend, we passed by this really cool building. We talked about the different designs of building there were a few weeks ago in class and Professor Baldwin showed the class some pictures. I did a google search and found some myself. I never actually got a chance to see any of those types of buildings in real life until this weekend. I've been going to the city since I was a kid and I never witnessed a building like this one. I thought it was so cool not only because of the colors but the way it was constructed. Some of the walls were going inward and some were going outward. I was thinking about how weird it be to be inside of the building. Does it look like the walls are going inward and outward? I wouldn't be able to tell you since I didn't have time to actually go inside it but one day maybe I will.

The Tank

Obviously the camera on my Blackberry isn't that good, but the point of this picture is to show what we our class saw at the Tank this weekend. I really liked the Hamlet play at the beginning. The characters really seemed to be passionate about the roles that they were playing. As the actors were performing, our Sketch-up designs were showing on the screen in the background. People in the audience got to control the Sketch-up designs if they had a smartphone. I thought that was a cool concept. I feel like that is where the world is going, in more of an interactive direction. People no longer want to sit and watch a play. They want to actively participate in the play. So I think it was cool that the performance at the Tank let the audience participate in the show.

Kinect replacing jobs

This is going to be my third post on the Kinect. I don't know why but I seem to have a lot to say about this topic. Probably because I'm so amazed by it. One of the things that we discussed in class was how the Kinect could replace cashiers in the future. In that case, a Kinect will be taking my job. I work as a cashier now, and I can honestly say that I don't see how a Kinect will be able to take the place of that job. I mean I can see it taking the place and doing th bare minimum but when it comes time to resolve the problems that customers have, I don't see the possibility in that. I can't tell you how many times a customer will come up to me at my job with a problem. It my job to provide the "best service" by solving the problem for the customer. Half of the battle is just calming the customer down so they are no longer angry that their food did not come out exactly how they wanted it to. I don't see how the Kinect or any other technology like it would be able to solve these problems that customers seem to have. I can just picture a customer going into a food store to buy dinner, they walk up to the Kinect to order their food and in about five minute get their food. They look at their meal and realize that it's missing something, so they walk up to Kinect furiously and demand a refund. How is the Kinect going to respond? It probably is not going to understand a word that the customer is saying.

Kinect taking the place of sports

Do I think that the Kinect should take the place of sports? No, absolutely not. There are many things that technology can provide you with but one thing it can't is feeling of the wind rushing through your hair and your running full speed down a soccer field. That's just something a television can never give you. Sure, maybe you can get the same work out, but the experience is not the same. If you just simply want to get in shape, then yes go out and buy a Kinect and play fake soccer in your living room. If you want to know what it feels like to be out on the field in the middle of a game, then don't buy that Kinect for that reason.

I don't want to come across at someone who hates technology. Because trust me, I don't. I have a smartphone just like everyone else. The only thing that bothers me is when technology tries to take the place of something that does not need to be taken the place of. Sports is the number one example. Why do we play sports? Yes, to get into shape. But there are so many other reasons. We play sports to establish a feeling of teamwork. A television screen can't provide you with the feeling of teamwork you get as your jogging down the field as your team member passes you the ball. Maybe a fake person the screen can do that, but it's not the same. Just the feeling of being outside in the fresh air is another thing that a television can't give you.

Technology should be used the right way

Last week in class we talked about the Kinect. Before we talked about it, I had no idea it even existed. Shows how up-to-date I am with technology, right? We watched a video on YouTube about a lady using the Kinect to talk to a fake boy on the television screen. I must admit, it was pretty creepy. The boy was looking and talking to her as if he was in the same room as her. I'm not even going to get into how I don't understand the mechanics of the technology, all I'm going to talk about is the effects of it.

If this Kinect game becomes widely popular in the future, what is going to happen to humanity? If you can become friends with the fake Kinect people, why even bother having friends in real life? I'm not against the Kinect or anything, I just think it should be used for the right reasons. One of the right reasons I could think of would be for educational purposes in classrooms. Not taking the place of a teacher, but assisting the teacher in instructing the children. However, I don't think it should be used on someone who simply wants to a new friend. That would allow people to issolate themselves from society, to the point where there won't be any society at all. The point I'm trying to get across is that I think technology (the Kinect) is a great thing, only if it is used the right way.

transparent sketchup video

Spiral video

Bryce

I started experimenting with Bryce and I realized that it's actually easier to use than it looked. It seemed really complicated when Professor Baldwin was using it in class but when I tried it on my own it wasn't complicated at all. I started by creating an ocean surface. I put a mountain in the center and changed the color of it. I changed the color of the sky and the position of the sun. The color was called Paradise, I believe. The next thing I did was put a building in front of the mountain. The building was a little tricky because you had to create an object then resize it and change the color of it. I made it tall and painted it a blue building color.

weird buildings

I Googled 'weird buildings' and hundreds of pages of bizarre buildings appeared on my computer screen. I picked the three that really stood out to me the most. The first picture is the building shaped like the piano and violin. I thought this was so cool because the building represents what it is used for. I'm guessing it's some sort of musical hall. People can see what the building is for by looking at it instead of the traditional way of reading a sign. The second building looks like a roller coaster. I've never seen anything like that before. It almost looks like if you just walk through it, you'll feel as if your on a roller coaster. The third building stood out to me because it looks like a building that does not want to stand out. It's the shape and color of a rock. It perfectly blends in with the scenery.