Video Collage: Smoking
Here is my revised Video Collage on Smoking. I decided to do this subject, because one of the things I was most surprised by at Carolina was the number of students who smoke despite the fact that most know it is "bad" for them. I was very challenged by this project due to the fact that I had to start over half way through it. However, it was very rewarding to complete the final project, because so much work was put into it. The message in this video is simply to put forth more evidence to the viewer about why people smoke as well as the effects of this very dangerous habit. It definately is an issue relevant to our student body.

This is just a friendly reminder to BACKUP YOUR WORK!! I know it seems like a pain and maybe a few extra seconds of your time but let me tell you... when you are sitting in the bottom of the UL talking to the ITS people and they tell you that you have lost EVERYTHING!! you will really wish you had taken those few extra seconds. Trust me, i promise its true- because that was me yesterday. With just a few weeks left of classes before finals (very scary), it is really a bad time to lose all your work. So please please backup your work RIGHT NOW! don't put it off because i really don't want you to end up like me.

Mashup Revision: So you want to be a celebrity?
This mashup is designed to show the masses of today that even though you may think being a celebrity would be ideal, that just might not be so true. Or you can just have a good laugh. If nothing else, i hope you can enjoy thinking about your childhood with music from the Disney classic the Junglebook.

This is the revised collage for my playlist. (Click this link to view my playlist: Revised Playlist)
My original War's end kiss collage was basically a handful of images based on my playlist centered together on a unifying backdrop. However, that just seemed to be too cookie-cutter. So i made a revision.

This collage is again centered on the main image of my playlist- the poster of the kiss. However, this time I cropped the image so it was just the crescent shaped figure of the two bodies of the couple. Then I put a faded image of a cemetery on the left with rows and rows of military crosses. Then on the right side is a bright image of a field of flowers. The curved shape of the kiss in the center is a depiction of the moment that separates these two very different extremes of time. One is filled with war and sadness while the other is celebration and freedom.

Here is my revised collage based on the song "Paper Angels" by Jimmy Wayne.
Jimmy Wayne- Paper Angels
Lyrics

I chose this song because it is a narrative country song that gives you lots of images and emotions to reflect on. The song is essentially about the Christmas season and how there are always paper angel trees in the mall. The thought behind this idea is that there are many people out there in the world who need our help and we all just need to make an effort to actually help them.

Revised Playlist
This is the link to my revised playlist called “The War’s End Kiss”. It was our first big project and definitely my favorite so far. This was due to the fact that it revolved around using music and lyrics to create a story which was fun, because I love music and I love writing stories. Also, I thoroughly enjoyed developing my whole playlist based on an image. It was difficult at first to figure out how to structure such an assignment. I wasn’t sure where I should put the link to the music and lyrics or where I should put the excerpts from the songs I chose. Being a very organized person, deciding how the page would look was important to me. However, I found that the simple layout was the easiest to understand. I broke it up in sections by song. It worked nicely to write the narrative, give the song clip with the link to the lyrics, and then if the music needed to be described to do that afterward. Also my first version had less narrative and was more like an essay. I saw after revising that it worked better to be creative and make a story with specific details rather than just give a broad overview or history lesson about the main events of World War II. This project was a good introduction to getting comfortable with the blog. I learned how to use codes to make links on a web page, which I had never done before. In the end, it was interesting to see how all of the students’ projects turned out so differently given the exact same assignment. I learned from this project that sound can truly be a powerful medium in communication.

Podcast: The New M.R.S. Degree
The podcast I created is called “The new M.R.S. Degree”. The “M.R.S. degree” is an old joke that has carried on into our modern world that basically describes a type of girl who goes to college with the sole purpose of looking for a husband. I wanted to take a stereotype that has generally been accepted and prove that it was not relevant anymore. I chose to go about this by flipping the stereotype in the complete opposite direction and show that perhaps the guys in college are looking for serious relationships and potential wives. I think this topic was important to me, because I went to an all-girls high school in Tennessee where many very intelligent girls are stereotyped this way. To be honest, I was tired of it especially when I always saw the attributes designated to us being demonstrated by many of our guy acquaintances.

My podcast is going very well. I actually just finished putting it all together and it is a few seconds over 5 minutes so the time worked out nicely. I just want to listen to it a few more times and look for any little glitches or see if it needs something else.

Ok so i was watching one of those tv series on dvd tonight and it got me thinking about the theme songs from television shows. There are always those theme songs that you will just never forget from the shows you have watched religiously. Friends anyone? Saved by the Bell? Maybe Sex & the City or Grey's Anatomy? Or even the sound of the clock in 24? I can probably hear about 3 seconds of those theme songs and recall 5 of my favorite episodes instantly. Or if i am sitting down to watch the show it can get me that much more relaxed and ready to rest for 30 minutes or an hour to watch someone else's drama (even though its fake) Anyone else know what i'm talking about or have a theme song they can relate to?

Sarah and I put together this voicemail of Forrest Gump and his wife Jenny with "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynard Skynard in the background. Obviously these characters are inspired by the 1994 film Forrest Gump featuring Tom Hanks. The voice of Forrest is actually clips from the movie and Jenny's voice is mine. We wanted to convey that Forrest and Jenny love each other very much and are proud of their homestate, Alabama. Also we wanted to show Forrest's devotion and respect for his mother. I hope you enjoy listening to our voicemail- we enjoyed making it!