The end of a good year. The best.

I take a look back at what I've done for the year. It as a rather fun one, I agree - deepened involvement with SUTV, an introduction to HTML, and a lot of reading under the "Content" tab in D2L that I haven't read yet. The thing I enjoyed the most? Flash. It's a rather versatile tool, yes - I found it unthinkable a while ago that full-length animated features on cartoon channels were being made upon Flash. Inevitable, anyway.

It gets me to thinking:

The Budget - and why you should know about it. If you're involved with PA higher ed.

The final project of the year.

This was a work done with Sean Gallagher, of the same class. All coding is of the highest quality. On the website is a picture of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and constituents in HTML. The governor is proposing his budget for the 2011-2012 period. The constituents are protesting. This image relates the tale of Governor Tom Corbett's budget and what those involved in the PA higher education system need to know about it - and what they can do about it.

Flash 2: The Flashening.

http://students.ship.edu/tk7999/THEPACKAGE.SWF

A second Flash animation, this time for a grade. It now has something resembling a story with it. If I can get a hold of a copy of Flash, I might just try to hone my skill and continue on.

Sergeant Leitner's Princess Playhouse Troupe - a view from behind the scenes.

I signed on again to design the sounds for Professor Leitner's "Little Princess Playhouse." The plays put on for this iteration? A variant of the fairytale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", and Cinderella, which needs no introduction. This time around, though, the professor requested that I use various image/video cues to go along with certain events in the story. It's not much of a departure from sounds - in fact, the only thing different is the medium transmitted.

I figured out a tad too soon that this task was doable with one computer, but since there were two available for use - one my own personal computer, the other the professor's old laptop - I decided to test my hand at juggling both. Foobar2000 on my personal computer was responsible for playing the sounds; VLC Player was used on the professor's for handling video. I wish I knew of a better alternative for each; a digital soundboard, with keys that could be assigned a cue. Press a button to play, press the button again to stop. This'll also have effect upon projectors, as well - one could be configured in a menu - the output projector could be determined during button assignment, or in the big "Preferences" menu.

The job does seem simple at first read - actor does something, push a button. Sometimes, it's the other way around - the first play of the double feature, "Princesses", starts on me cuing music. With the equipment and knowledge I had of the task, however, it can add up to become a rather amusing juggle of a projector remote, a "soundboard," and a "VCR."

It's something that I really enjoyed doing, and given the opportunity, I'd do it again - it's the sort of thing or field that I'd wanna work hard at and perfect.

Jenna Bush speaks - an event worthy of a listen. Or two.

This post to come in a tad - once I attend the event.

Flash!

My first play with Flash.

Soundslides - The Makening

http://students.ship.edu/tk7999/soundslidesproject/soundslider.swf

Let's Cyberstalking Prevention.

A graduate student within my class gave a nice little presentation today about cyberstalking. Interesting, although nothing I'd have any use for - never really been cyberstalked at all, and never would try something like it. Seems like a bit of a waste of time. And reputation. And a criminal record is not a good thing for a newly minted Comms graduate to have. And most of these things I've learned before, being a bit of an expert at online chatting.

But anywho. In order.
1. Don't respond to the stalker.
2. Block the stalker.
3. Report him/her to the site.
4. Report him/her to the police, if the harasser is persistent.

And SAVE ALL LOGS. They'll come in handy.

The presenter and the useful communication tool - GOOGLE READER

Google Reader can read RSS and ATOM feeds online or offline. RSS and ATOM feeds are small bits of text that are sent to tell people about updates to a website. GReader can be used on all sorts of mobile devices.

Decided to use it to keep tabs on various sites I like. Thank you, ma'am.

My Compy is Work: the start.

I have opened the Twitter.

http://twitter.com/#!/kalugne

Good idea or best ever?

I do sound work for a school theater group: "Little Princess Playhouse", they call it. It was created three summers ago by concerned theater professor Paul Leitner. He said something or other about the dearth of theater events for small children. This small troupe works for a few weeks on certain evenings/mornings to practice for plays on Saturdays.

It's a fun little activity, this; working in time with the actors, finding/cutting/splicing to get the perfect sound effect, all the while sticking it to the man - perfect for me. It seems easier than it sounds - I'm fond of the program

Just last semester, the outfit put on a play titled "A Princess Christmas", a spin on Charlie Dickens' old classic, "A Christmas Story." Instead of the old Ebenezer Scrooge, the curmudgeonly main character is a small girl called Princess. Yes, she's visited by three spirits of past, present, and future each, wanting her to change her ways. Yes, she learns at the end to be generous, and gives up her excess items to the less fortunate. She even uses "Bah humbug."

Personally, I thought the play as written was a bit thin... but with the actors assembled, it was very, very good in the end. The scene that I enjoyed the most involved "Tiny Tim" and her mother discussing the lean times at Christmas. Set to Clair De Lune. It was my decision to set the scene to the music, and to have the mother and daughter hug at the first swell really worked out.

I'm doing work again on a new set of plays for the spring: "Cinderella" and an adaptation of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses."

Longform blog assignment due next week.

Yep.

Also, your podcast is due a month from now.

Let's talk about it.

HOW TO INTO PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER
-WMP compatible
-USB hookup
-Broadband connection
-Memory and battery better
-MP3 default, WMA and OGG alright

HOW TO INTO YOUR PODCAST?
-What do I like most?
-What am I passionate about?
-On what topics am I an expert?
-What subjects will attract attention?
-What message do I wanna convey?
-What will a listener get out of the show?

Journalism and mass communication, and their faces over a decade.

It's become a whole lot easier to become a journalist over the past 10 years, thanks to the growing proliferation of the Internet; as well as subsequent ease at which anyone can post something on it, thanks to the growth of the mobile device industry as a whole.

See an interesting thing happen in the neighborhood? All a random person-on-the-street has to do is snap a picture of it with his/her cellphone; upload it to Facespace, Mybook or the like; and wait for an audience to come and take a look. Instant journalist.

Formal journalist training is only "icing on the cake" these days.