Well Here's The SlideShows, Skeleton of My Google Map....and My War Story.

Well, after slaving away to make all six slideshows  and create a google map to embed them in I discovered this entire project idea wasn't possible to achieve...at least not in any way I knew how.
My first attempt to get an embed code was to export and upload .zip files to Divshare where I then copied and pasted the embed code into the editHTML space in the description bubble on google maps (I also put it in the rich text bubble just to check).
This was a no go.
Next, I went to the Sound Slides website and uploaded all of my .zip files there to get the embed codes. These codes didn't work either!
Desperate, I turned to the one source that has always solved any problem I have ever had to face in life...google.
I found out that google maps doesn't like to easily upload videos and slideshows that are foreign because of security..so now I had to turn all of my .zip files into .mp4's and make youtube videos out of them! This wasn't the quickest process in the world so I only completed two of them to see if it would even work in the first place....it didn't.
So now here I am 12 hrs of hard, frustrating work later and I don't even have a completed final project to show for it.
Fail.


View Areas Beneficial to Finals Week in a larger map

Final Project 300 Word Story

            Finals week is upon us all; time to burry our faces in the books and study until we can’t possibly read another sentence right? Wrong!

            Over studying and stressing all week may not result in the grades you’re aiming for. Stress can actually make it harder for your brain to learn and remember information so one of the main things you should focus on this week is to remain calm!

            One interesting method that is said to help your mind relax is to try and do absolutely nothing for 3-5 minutes. Your brain needs a break from all that studying so let it rest with no stimulus so it can take that breather it disserves.

             Another fun way to let your brain recharge is to set aside 15-20 minutes to do something purely for fun. Play a game, paint your nails, or Skype with a friend from home, anything to get your mind off that looming paper you need to write. After you have some fun you may find that you feel more productive and want to tackle some of the work you have piled up.

            After you’ve finished up one of your many projects and given your brain a long, hard workout why not go exercise the rest of your body?  It’s been proven time and time again that working your muscles and getting your blood flowing relieves your body of stress. You don’t have to go all P90X on yourself either; a simple walk or jog can do the trick, and you may find it surprising how energized and motivated you can feel afterwards.

Final Project Description

I've chosen LSC finals for my final project topic.
The multimedia forms I'll be using are an audio slideshow and an interactive map.
What I plan to do is talk about areas on campus that can assist students in prepping for their dreaded finals ie the library, writing center, dorms, hornets nest, gym, dining hall (yes I have a way to tie all of these locations to my topic). I'm going to take pictures at all of these locations and create a slideshow accompanied by audio narration by me and soundbites from students. Then I will make an interactive map of the campus and mark all of the places I discuss in the slideshow then add blurbs about what these areas have to offer. I'm going to have the slideshow play out of the map so the two are connected.
For the 300 word essay I'm going to write about finals and stress.

But Hut Controversy

            The Lyndon State College but hut’s days could be numbered.

Semi-recent events resulting in extensive damages to the campus’ designated smoking area have caused college officials to further discuss the possibility of removing the eye-sore from campus.

Over the course of the semester, public safety has dealt with multiple issues in that area of campus such as trash being left on the ground, people carving and drawing on its posts, the overhead lighting inside the hut has been blacked out and taped over more than once, and not to mention reports of illegal drug and alcohol consumption by some of the huts frequent users.

George Hacking, the head of public safety, feel that this is a huge disrespect, not only to the campus itself, but to other members of the LSC community who properly utilize the area for its intended purpose of smoking cigarettes. Hacking says, “there are a number of students who actually go out there to smoke cigarettes who enjoy having a roof over their head and they’re not causing any problems… I’ve actually had students who use the but hut come to me and complain about the use of alcohol or marijuana in that area.”  

When asked to describe the but hut and/or its usual inhabitants many students, including those that use the area, used the term “sketchy” or “reckless.”  This kind of response really gives off a strong impression the area has and it’s not exactly a positive one.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we came back from Thanksgiving break and it was gone… It’s fair, they’ve warned us several times,” says LSC student and but hut user Evan Shadowfax, “it’s really going to suck in the winter with the freezing cold winds.”

Is it really fair though? Multiple sources, who have asked that they remain anonymous, gave detail from the night the but hut’s railings were destroyed. Allegedly, the culprits were two intoxicated friends of a freshman who lives here at the college. They arrived on campus after a party in town and proceeded to kick the railings out. If this accusation is true then the students of the college who use that space correctly may have to pay the price for something they couldn’t have prevented.

As someone who doesn’t attend the college but frequently visits the but hut, Joseph Bryan Nelson responds to the allegations against the two possible suspects by saying, “I don’t see how someone could come to an area that’s not theirs and affect a lot of people that they don’t have any connection to at all”

            Unfortunately, public safety will have no way of figuring out if these accusations are actually true or not.

Video Project Topic

But Hut Controversy                                

I would like to do my video project on the but hut controversy. The school has had multiple issues with the gazebo over the course of the semester, most recently almost every railing enclosing the hut was some how detached (except for one) and removed from it. Rumor has it George Hacking has been contemplating removing it from the campus.

For my sound source Id like to get comments from George hacking and both smoking and non-smoking students who live on campus to get a full opinion on the matter.
Then obviously my video will be shots of the but hut and the interviews. 

Sound Slides

Many works of art can be looked at from multiple angles, with each new view telling a different story than the one before. This same outlook can apply to the people that surround us in our day to day world as well. 

On the surface Lizzie Chenard may look like any other student at Lyndon State College, but inside she is a talented individual with a keen eye for beauty.

Chenard’s passion for art arose in high school when she was required to take a computer class. She chose to take digital editing, despite being told terrible things about the class and teacher. After only a few days of being enrolled in the class however, Chenard had fallen in love with it and soon decided that this was something she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

Today she is majoring in graphic design along with minors in new media and visual arts. Chenard is hoping to make a name for her self in the future as an art director in Hollywood saying, “It would be awesome because art directors are in charge of everything artistic about an epic movie.”

She understands that she will have to start small and work her way up to her dream. She considers starting out on a graphic design path making movie posters, but for now she is focusing on her work at college.

Her style focuses on geometric abstraction which Chenard descries as, “pure forms of shape and color.”

Over time her work has grown and developed from being strictly computer based art, to drawings and paintings done out by hand. Chenard considers herself to be more of a technical drawer with a weakness in her ability to sketch out a portrait of someone.

She strives for perfection because in her geometric style of art one bump in a line can offset an entire piece. Chenard believes that she is as critical on herself as any other artist would be. She mentions that they all share the similar burden of thinking everything is pretty, except for their own creations.

Chenard takes her work very seriously, yet it is also a form of escape for her. For the time being most of her art is directly related to class assignments, but she does have one ongoing project that is purely for her own enjoyment, a series called Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

The series is based on the popular Beatles hit and each painting represents a line from the song. The paintings are vibrant and eye catching with a slight children’s book charm about them.

 While she’s working, Chenard enjoys some good audio stimulation. She will listen to music from artists like Led Zeppelin or in the case of her work in progress Lucy in the Sky, she tends to listen to lots of standup comedy. She likes the works of Katt Williams and Eddie Izzard.

Chenard firmly believes that, “anything and everything is beautiful,” and she urges people go out and search for the beauty in the world that surrounds us all. 

CNN iReport Critique

Arrested for Closing a Citibank Account
                                                                                                                                                             Manhattan NY- October 15
Click to See

I found this very interesting but I still have no idea what was going on. Clearly there were a lot of people being arrested at this bank but I'm not sure what for. It is news but its not finished news. There are a lot of unanswered questions. We have a 'when' and 'where' but we're missing the 'who', 'what', and 'why'.
If I were a CNN producer I would use some of this footage but obviously do some research to fill in the gaps of the story.
I could obviously do the same thing as this user, any 10-year-old could have. She was just an eye whiteness with a device that could capture the moment.


Great Mississippi River Balloon Race
                                                                                                                                                 Natchez, Mississippi-October 16
Click to See

Ehh its not uninteresting. I like hot air balloons and it's an interesting fact to know that there is an annual 3 day event dedicated to them in Mississippi. I wouldn't consider it national news, it seems like something that would be better suited for local stations.
I once again believe that anyone who can operate a camera could do this.


Occupy Wall Street-Police Push Protester
                                                                                                                                              Times Square, New York-October 15
Click to See

This is interesting but I don't really think its news. I have no idea whats happening and to be honest I didn't see a single person get pushed (and I watched it a few times). It is alarming and chaos is always interesting but there is plenty of other good footage from the Occupy Wall Street protests that is even more alarming and could be used on CNN so if I were a producer I wouldn't really think to use this.
Again I could do this, anyone could.