Final : Day in the Media

Aidem eht ni Yad : Lanif

I wake up in the morning, sleepy eyed and eager to climb straight back into my bed, and without even realizing it I am assaulted by a tidal wave of media. We walk through our lives every day, usually, without realizing the monsoon we’re walking through.

There is media everywhere!

Image by Pamorama

From the time you wake up to a song on the radio up, when you walk down the street and see a billboard for some new toothpaste, and even as the busses drive by you, everywhere you look there’s media. This blog, yes the one you’re reading right now, is media too. Did you even think about that?

Media is more than just a term for the press and all that jazz. Every day, just like everyone else, I interact with the media.

Every. Single. Day.

Just scroll down a little further my friend and I’ll show you the media that I deal with daily.

Sound Recording

Darkness. Silence. And then “…all wrong now / She's ripping wings off of butterflies…”

The song continues and I blindly slap off the iPod/radio alarm chilling beside my head. Every morning (excluding Saturdays and Sundays) I wake to the sound of my music blasting any random song - any random song, I might add, that has not been obtained through bootlegging or piracy because that is very wrong and terrible (Media & Culture). On this fine morning, Paramore’s Brick by Boring is my welcome back to the land of the living.

Paramore's Brick by Boring Brick

Occasionally though, the sound waves don’t quite have that bang to wake me up, so the song weaves itself into my dreams all limbic-ly until the next track does the deed. So far I think my record is 10 minutes without noticing the alarm going off beside me.

Of course… my roommate noticed and was ready to throttle me. Good times.

Radio

Because we live in such a fast pace, media driven world, as soon as I’m rolling out of bed, sleep crust still in my eyes, I reach for my phone. My Razzle, the Blackberry wannabe, is my connection to the world.

Verizon Razzle courtesy of Amazon

I check for texts from a best friend in North Carolina, my mom back in Jersey, or from my boyfriend just one floor away from me. It’s usually an empty inbox in the morning, I mean who would want to get up that early just to text me? But if I have a message, like the lovely ‘are you alive?’ messages I get from the girls in my hall, I respond instantly.

Early phones and transmissions would have noise and interference from other radio wayves (Media & Culture) but today that's not as much of a problem. My phone may not be cool and have 3G and connect to the internet or anything else all these fancy new phones do, but it keeps me alive – yes, my phone is my lifeline.

Internet

As a college student in a high tech school, e-mail and the internet become almost as valuable as blood – if you don’t have it, you may as well be dead.

So once all the morning rituals are completed, I grab my laptop and surf the web a bit before class. The first thing to do is to head over to MyMail and see if there’s anything of importance since email is the most popular use of the internet (Media & Culture).

Image by Blue Sky Factory

With E-mail I get messages from the forums of my job at the EMC and status updates from different professors or Financial Aid.

Living up at Schillhammer, heading to the Mail Room is a bit of a hassle. The Champlain mail system is kind enough to understand this, and so I get e-mails when I have packages or a full inbox.

It makes things soo much easier.

Books

Comic books are something a bit of the past that I think everyone should revisit. Whether it’s an old worn copy of Batman and Robin (which would be amazing) or something a bit more recent, seeing the story come alive on the page is something simply amazing to behold. It was after World War II that comics started to move away from superheros and onto other genres (Media & Culture): Enter web comics.

On a biweekly basis I can be found going through a list of about ten different web comics. Web comics are free online and usually updated once or twice a week, but also available in the familiar print form for a small fee. They’re entertaining and great ways to watch an artist’s talent grow over time.

One of my favorite web comics is Looking For Group, a satirical series based on the online addiction, World of Warcraft.

The characters take after the types of characters found in the game while the story makes political and social jabs at regular intervals – all while managing to have a deep plot for the protagonist elf, Cale.


LFG's Slaughter Your World

I first saw the video above based on on the warlock sidekick, Richard, and have been addicted to the comic and his sadistic jokes ever since.

Magazines

Magazines always seem like such a waste to me. A majority of the articles found in magazines can easily be found somewhere on the internet – like everything else these days.

But there are a few publications I’m willing to pick up every now and then. OtakuUSA is one of those. On break I found one of my older copies and was flipping through it today.

August 2009 OtakuUSA Cover
Featuring Edward Elric of FMA Brotherhood

OtakuUSA is one of a number of specialized entertainment magazines (Media & Culture). The magazine focuses on anime and manga straight from Japan, giving American readers updates about what’s happening to series and the companies that host them over on the Japanese side of the world.

It comes with tons of full page pictures to advertise for new and classic series alike, and often comes with a DVD sampler to catch the interest of their readers and hook them on new series.

I don’t usually buy them, and I never subscribe, but when I see an issue with a familiar character on the front, I tend to check it out.

Television

I don’t normally watch a lot of television. I’ll watch a few things like NCIS religiously, but not much else. For me it provides background noise.

The most common white noise of choice is Food Network, a network ranked 14 with over95.5 million subscribers (Media & Culture). While there are a few hosts on there that I cannot stand, Guy Fieri is definitely not one of them. I love all of his shows and there are quite a few of them.


Guy Fieri of Food Network

My roommate and I are definite fans of Food Network. Even when we’re not watching it, we’ll glance over occasionally, see something delicious, and then complain about caf food.

It’s an age old tradition here at Schillhammer 303.

Movies

To get into the holiday spirit, my friend and I grabbed our boyfriends and settled down to watch the most awesome claymation movie ever: The Year Without a Santa Claus. This old school movie is easily one of the best.

We had already watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town and made a ton of jokes about the logistics of that movie as well. For example, baby’s flying from the wind but bunnies sitting there casually watching.

The style of claymation has evolved over recent years with things like Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. But this movie has been my all time favorite holiday movie since I was a child.

Year Without a Santa Claus' Snow Miser

With Snow Miser’s and Heat Miser’s songs you can’t go wrong. My friend and I had our little sing along during those bits and all was well – you can’t have a Christmas without the good holiday movies. And since we don't have it on DVD, and have to catch the movies on ABC Family, we miss out on the surround sound and high definition that is part of the DVD experience (Media & Culture). Though with such old claymation, that would be kind of weird.

Video Games

Living at Champlain you’re bound to have a few gamer friends. Fortunately for me, while not being a game major, I’m friends with some really cool ones.

However when my friend gets creamed by her boyfriend in some hockey game, we needed to take our revenge.

Enter Quidditch World Cup.

I trained her for several days in the art of the art of flying around and scoring goals before tonight when we teamed up against her gamer boyfriend and mine… and we lost.


Screenshot from Warner Brothers' Quidditch World Cup

Not the proudest moment in our lives, but we had fun. Which isn't unsual since sports games (even fantasy ones) are some kf the most popular sorts of video games out there (Media & Culture). We went old school and played on the Gamecube, a system many gamers would call obsolete with things like the 360 out, but I still cherish my purple box of a platform.

See, you can’t really escape the media. Media is so much more than paparazzi.

No matter where you are during the day, it’s always right there, waiting to sneak up behind you. You can be chilling quietly in your dorm, and hear the music playing from three doors down, or you’ll be doing research on the internet or from a textbook – it’s all still media.

Blogger Logo

I can’t picture a life where all of these media suddenly vanished.

There’d be…nothing really.

Champlain in 60 Seconds : Team Awesome

Emosewa Meat : Sdnoces 06 ni Nialpmahc



During the production of the video I handled a good majority of the planning for meeting up and getting the bases covered before we actually started. I helped scout and plan some of the early shots. I filmed the zombie attack and I was filmed at the very end for te group cheer. After that, with Andrea, I helped do the final edits and then posted it to my YouTube account.

I feel like I earned anywhere from a B+ to an A. Due to conflicting schedules I couldn't be there for as much as the filming as I would have liked, but given what we had to work with I made the most of it.

The hardest part was editing. When Andrea sent the file, it didn't come with the original clips so I had to make cuts in the film manually and try to make everything smooth. It was frustrating but I eventually got it.

The most rewarding thing other than finishing was seeing how many people turned up to help film the HvZ part. I was thrilled I was able to find people outside of my dorm and group of friends. A few of the humans who helped me I barely knew - they just wanted to play with their guns!

Media Memoir Tid Bit

Tib Dit Riomem Aidem

I wake up in the morning, sleepy eyed and eager to climb straight back into my bed, and without even realizing it I am assaulted by a tidal wave of media. We walk through our lived every day, usually, without realizing the monsoon we’re walking through.

There is media everywhere!

From the time you wake up to a song on the radio up, when you walk down the street and see a billboard for some new toothpaste, and even as the busses drive by you, everywhere you look there’s media. This blog, yes the one you’re reading right now, is media too. Did you even think about that? Media is more than just a term for the press and all that jazz.

Every day, just like everyone else, I interact with the media. Every. Single. Day.

Just scroll down a little further my friend and I’ll show you the media that I deal with daily.

Media Meditation #4 : Flailing on Facebook

Koobecaf No Gnilialf : 4# Noitatidem Aidem

Everyone uses Facebook. And if not everyone, it's pretty damn close. But this week I just about lived on Facebook. Facebook became my lifeline, my one connection to the humans out there, my means of survival: it told me where the zombies were.

The symbol of HvZ from the HvZ website.

Humans vs. Zombies is the game to make you paranoid. Every time you enter a building you need to scout out the corners of exits and make sure no one is waiting to jump you and kill you. Walking through the heart of campus is a death wish. Walking out of Joyce alone is a sure fire way to get you killed. Your Nerf guns and your socks are your life lines.

So how does Facebook come into it?

Through this.

On the Facebook group you get messages from both sides. You can communicate with the undead without risk to your own life. Besides this group there are the private Human and Zombie pages respectively for whatever you happen to be.

You survive by living on these pages.

Zombies post their hitlists.



Video Footage of a Fall '10 Champlain HvZ Mission

Humans post where zombies are at the moment, if they know of any hits, and when they need rescues.

Facebook led to quick responce times and the quick sharing of key information. Without Facebook, my team would have been dead awhile ago. We learned to use the information to our advantage. We learned who to trust... and who to shoot on sight.

Time : An American Journey

Yenruoj Nacirema Na : Emit

The Time Logo

Thesis
Time magazine aims to bring a sense of understanding to its readers by presenting the facts as they happen globally from entertainment to war news.

Five Facts
-Fareed Zakaria has recently joined Time as a regular columnist and cover-story writer.
-Time now has an app for the Android to get news out quicker and faster to the readers.
-The mass of foreclosures that fueled the housing crisis was triggered by predatory lenders who targeted minorities in low-income neighborhoods.
-Druidry has been recognized as an official religion; there are about 10,000 druids in the U.K.
-In 19 days there were 4 suicides in the U.S. because of bullying.

Brain
Neocortex: as a magazine it is text based and requires reason and logic and thought to understand the squiggles called words and turn them into something that can be understood.

Limbic: the images used alongside the articles are there to inspire sympathy or empathy to whatever cause the article may be trying to promote.

An image from Time about the recent suicides.

Principles
Production Techniques: the images and font used for both the print and the website are designed to be the most visually attractive to a potential consumer.

Pacing: because it is print/text the reader is able to absorb the knowledge at their own pace and is able to, at anytime, skip something they have no interest in.

Trends
Aesthetic Shift: the information of Time magazine can be found both in print and online on their website. Now it even has apps for the Android.

Personal Shift: the news offered is something that is very participatory, you can choose whether or not you want to sign up for newsletters or if you want Time mobile apps.

Persuasive
Beautiful People: seen in advertisements throughout the magazine, the models are always gorgeous and appealing.

Testimonial/Strength: in the piece Bullied to Death they have Jennings of the Obama Administration offering his own thoughts on the tragic event.

A tribute to John Lennon from YouTube.

Nostalgia: John Lennon’s career is revisited in this Time issue to celebrate the former Beatle’s 70th’s birthday in the article Lennon Lives.

Mid-Semester Reflection

Noitcelfer Retsemes-Dim

After studying 21st century media for eight weeks I've learned a lot about blogging. I've never blogged before and never had a reason to learn, but I'm glad I have. It's definitely a skill I plan on using in the future. I've also learned about the thought that goes into a commercial regarding how to suck a viewer in. It's been interesting to apply when just watching TV with the guys in the dorm.

This class has also taught me a lot about myself. It hasn't taught me anything I didn't already know about my writing self since I am a writing major, but I've learned I need to be a much more critical reader and thinker. I tend to take things at face value and don't usually dig deeper unless prompted or very interested in the matter.

If I were to take this class again I think I would take the blogs more seriously from the start. I thought they would be boring busy work assignments at first but I've grown to actually start appreciating them and I wish I had done so from the beginning.

But if I took the class again, I would like to get more use from the textbook. It was the most expensive book on my list and I feel like I hardly get any use out of it. I love the classes, but I feel like the assignments from the book are just busy work things - probably why I didn't take the blog seriously to begin with.

At first when I was given the power tools packet I groaned. It seemed like a lot to memorize and nothing worth remembering. Now, they're not so bad. a lot of them were just common sense concepts given new names so there was hardly anything to learn there.

The course blog has always been helpful. I'm not a fan of posting the book responces there, but it makes it so much easier to find out what the assignments for class are. Soooo much more helpful than Demon (aka Angel).

The personal blog has also grown on me. As I said before, I thought it would be a bit annoying, but I actually like it. I love making the posts my own.

The everyday quizzes definitely help to drill in the power tools that I didn'y already know. Occasionally they can get annoying sicne we have them every week twice a week, but overall they're handy to have.

The in-class films are usually fun to watch and discuss. I really like the discussions following "Reel Bad Arabs," it was the type of interactive discussion that makes a class both fun and informative.

I don't thing the book is very useful at all. We basically use it for busywork-homework. Rarely do we use what we read about in class. There should be more ways to incorperate it in the lessons.

Media Meditation #3 : Warring With Wix

Xiw Htiw Gnirraw: 3# Noitatidem Aidem

For those of you who don't know what the heck a 'wix' is, Wix.com is a free website creator. The process is ungodly simple and makes other host sites like Freewebs.com look archaic and cruel. To join Wix you make yourself a screenname and then you get to work. There's over 270 templates you can use and from there you can customize them in an infinite amount of ways.

With the drag and drop format you don't need to know a thing about coding to be a website god.

And yet, despite its simple and sleek design, I have waged war with Wix for the last week.

Yes, it was easy to access.

Yes, I got everything how I mostly wanted it.

But wow are there a lot of of buttons and things for someone who cannot manage to follow tutorial videos.



Tutorial video for Wix.com

It was just mind blowing. With a menu on each side of the screen, for those who can't count that's four menus, and multiple tabs with tabs with tabs it was just an overload. After three miserable attempts to figure out how to make a page, I began to get the hang of it and just flew through the process.

Put this here. Drag that here. No! God damn it, you're supposed to stay there! Lock this here. Add this. Delete this one. No! I thought I locked you there!

Image from Hyperbole and a Half.

I think my room mate and our boyfriends thought I was a little insane after awhile, but that was perfectly alright. I had fun.

In the end, I built a gorgeous website that I marvel at anytime I'm on a computer (I have a tab open now with it in fact).

Soños is my creation, my pride and joy. In Galician, soños means dreams. This was the perfect title.

Galician is not only a beautiful language, but a language that appears in my novel Dreams as the language of magic and spells. See how it all just ties together?

I love this site, not Wix of course, just my site. It's something I'm going to keep around for awhile, update and keep pretty until I'm big and famous and can hire people to make me a website with my own domain.

Can anyone say Soños 2.0?