Hey hope you guys enjoy your summer and all that… stuff.

Does anyone remember the website URL for the Tech class photos?

How Has SMASH Affected You?

The project I improved was my flash presentation on how to edit audio in Audacity. I never really finished with the presentation when it was “due” because I was trying to bring it to a high level. Well, for the most part, it is finished now. It can still be improved and I would like to do so… but there is no more time. Anyway, I chose to refine this assignment because I like working in Flash. Making things in Flash can be pretty fun if you know what you are doing. I liked the freedom of the assignment. There were barely any limitations so I could pretty much do whatever I wanted and I believe it shows. Probably the only real guideline was the fact that the presentation had to be about something we learned in SMASH. Other than that, the boat is yours to sail.

I also chose to refine this assignment because I wanted to make it perfect. As it was before, it was very lacking in information and content. I had focused too much on design I had forgotten the main point of the presentation! I believe I filled in that gap in a very creative way. Instead of a bunch of boring writing, I animated the steps in the way it should look like if you were to do it yourself. For example, I would briefly tell you to click on “Projects” and then on “Import Audio” to put your own audio into the program, but right beneath it you would see an animation of an actual pointer doing the process. I believe that the animation will make the presentation much more interesting and understandable. I was also able to improve my flash presentation because of feedback provided by other people. For example, it was Trevor who told me to include a section dedicated to some examples of files I myself had edited in Audacity. Like always… other people are useful. So abuse them.

Now that I’ve actually improved the project, I am really proud of it. So far the people I’ve shown have said it was really good. Putting time into something really does pay off. There is always room for improvement though. One problem I see is the linking of the slides. There should be much more so you can jump around from place to place. I also think I should level the sound much more. Those are the two main things on my mind right now to fix.

This type of project can change the world depending on what it is I put in the presentation! If I can keep a flash presentation interesting then more people will pay attention to it. The more people who pay attention to it, the more my ideas begin to spread. If my ideas were to spread enough, then it is possible I could change the world. For example, I could use a presentation like this to increase global warming awareness. As long as people enjoy the presentation, then they will listen.

I am not done with my flash presentation on how to edit audio files in Audacity but I need to upload this first so I can continue on to assignment five which consists of me improving (and finishing) the project.

Hola my name is Jose Luis Bernal. José Luis is a Spanish compound name, composed of the names José, Spanish form of Joseph from the Hebrew meaning “he will enlarge”, and Luis, from the Germanic meaning “fame and war”. Combining them both together creates the meaning: he will enlarge fame and war! I guess that’s true because one day I will be famous (hopefully) and I cause war because I cause a lot of trouble! Well nothing too serious but I find ways to entertain myself.

Let’s explain my montage. My background is a paradise to symbolize that no matter what happens to me, I’m always in my happy place. Nothing ever gets me down. The guy in the hammock pretty much represents me because I’m really laid back and take things as they come. The flags represent that I am Mexican-American. I don’t represent only one flag, I represent both as it should be. If your going to have a Mexican flag waving somewhere, make sure you have an equally big American one next to it. Over in the background there is a Taco Bell to symbolize how much I like Mexican food. Taco Bell may not be the best example of this (most don’t consider it real Mexican food), but the picture fit perfectly into my montage. It gets the point across. Next, in the top left corner, there are 3 icons that depict the Macromedia web development software. From left to right the programs are Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Flash. These three programs are what got me interesting in the whole web business. I enjoy creating media through pictures and animation using these softwares. Also in my montage I have a laptop to represent how much I like computers. I can do a lot of things on computers and I can’t imagine life without them. Last but definitely not least, I have my Helio Ocean on the desk next to the laptop. My Helio is my most used gadget ever… it can do almost everything. Texting, email, pictures, IM, web surfing, phone calls, and a whole bunch of features I haven’t discovered yet.

I think the montage pretty much describes me completely. Even without my name in it, the montage would still describe me completely. A name is nothing more than a label. It tells you nothing of the individual. I guess that way of thinking is what makes it so hard for me to remember names.. but that is not the point here. The point it, names are nothing.

I made an account for a program named Second Life. In the program you are capable of customizing your avatar in whatever ways you want. This is what I created.

At first, my avatar’s initial appearance was very different than mine but it is expected when you choose “Boy next door” as your original avatar. The first thing I attempted was the hair. Editing the hair proved to be way too difficult so I quickly moved on to editing the clothes. The clothes were the easiest to replicate, as all I had to do to match my current outfit was change the shirt’s color to green. The difficult feature to edit was the hair as mentioned earlier. It would have been much better if the program came with preset hair styles. I believe it was difficult to edit that feature was because of the actual appearance of the editing interface itself. There were too many options that affected hair along with the original modification. I did not have to modify many features on the character. It really wasn’t that hard to make it look like me. My avatar’s appearance reminds me of me! It isn’t an exact replica, but… that’s how it goes.

Hey, this is Jose. I’m going to talk to you about my experience in Photoshop. I had already messed with the program before class today but it was good to have a little refresher. We learned about layers and how to edit each layer to get what we want. We learned how to make some objects transparent (opacity). Posted above is the montage I made.

The picture represents a stereotypical hispanic community. There is the taco bell, the roosters, and Speedy Gonzalez. It is what people expect to see in a Hispanic community, though that might not be the case. You can’t control people’s thoughts, so there’s really nothing you can do about cultural stereotypes.

Hey people. I’m going to talk about how the media has influenced me and why some media is effective for relaying messages. So if you’re interested, keep reading but if you’re not… keep reading anyway. Here goes:

I am exposed to media everyday. The media I come in contact with is usually video, audio, or interactive.

My main source of video media would have to be my HDTV. That seizure inducing box is what supplies me with all the visual media I’ll ever need as it contains a variety of programming from comedies to cartoons. I can’t remember the first time I watched TV. It was so long ago. My earliest memory though, is watching The Little Mermaid recorded on a Beta tape. Like I said… it was really long ago. I think visual media is extremely effective for getting a message across because there is a lot of room for eye candy. Eye candy is anything that attracts your eyes and makes you go ohhh or ahhh like the battle scenes in the movie 300. The scenes did not have a message (at least none that I saw) but they were eye candy.

My most used source of audible media is music. Jose and music go together like beans and cheese. I like almost all types of music. I first got into my music craze in elementary school when my parents bought me this cool CD player. It was only cool because I could drop it and it wouldn’t skip which I thought was the best thing ever. Nowadays it’s all about me and my Ipod Nano. Anyway audio is a good way to get a message across especially through music. People listen to the lyrics of artists and it’s put in their subconscious or something along those lines. Strangely people listen to singers.

The media I see a lot of is interactive. It’s everywhere now. I like using the computer a lot and everything I do on here is interactive. Uploading this blog will involve some sort of interaction. Loading a friend’s page on Myspace is interactive. Playing a movie in Windows Media Player is interactive. There are many different kinds of media out there that wait for an input from you. Interactive media is also good at getting a message across because it keeps people with short attention spans busy. It’s harder to get bored if you actually are required to do something.

Media is everywhere. You are exposed to it everyday. It is because of that that you are influenced by it. And that’s all folks.