I studied at RJI in the late Sunday afternoon. There was an apple which had been left behind by someone. Sunday, February 7, 2010
Apple Left Behind
I studied at RJI in the late Sunday afternoon. There was an apple which had been left behind by someone. 
Death of Squirrel
I was shocked by a number of times for a squirrel to be run over before death. Drivers didn't seem to be aware of the squirrel on the street. By the time I was back to my car, the squirrel was dead flat. Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Birthday Card
January 31 is my birthday. Last Sunday, I received Best Wishes from family and friends through emails. Interestingly enough, some people (I hardly know of) on facebook emailed me Happy Birthday. Among electronic communications, I received a birthday card from Karol (sort of my aunt) in DC. Since I moved to US ten years ago, she has kept sending me a birthday card. During those years, I lived in MD, DC, NY, VA, and now MO. Wherever I was on January 31st, Karol sent me the card. Sending birthday card could be a little thing, but I always appreciate her time to pick and buy a card (although I know she sends someone else for doing that), write, seal, stamp, and mail it. birthday card Karol sends me. This is is picture of the day.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Lobster Dinner in Maine
I visited my friend in Maine during the winter break. One night, we decided to cook lobsters, coleslaw, french fries, and onion rings. Relishing feisty lobsters along with Gritty's beer (Scottish Style Ale) couldn't be better.
Upgrading Hard Drive on Macbook Pro
Here is a picture showing the inside of MacBook Pro. I was a bit scared of opening the laptop since I had never done it before. Once it was open, I found cheapie parts made in China. I upgraded 160 GB to 500GB. The upgrading process turned out to be a piece of cake.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
EPJ_Multimedia Critique II
For Multimedia Critique II, I chose PAPARAZZI by Jessica Dimmock
The content of this project is intriguing, and its presentation exhibits “the ghoulish fascination.” Nonetheless, the creator appears to have used multimedia simply because it is available. This project has a potential for a good multimedia work, but the lack of journalistic integrity is a problem.
A paragraph captions what the project is about, but the creator leaves basic 5Ws (who, what, where, when, why) vague. It is possible that the creator could not be specific about those fundamental pieces of information for some reason.
The project does not have an overarching story line. Instead, several video clips are put together into one piece, which is not necessarily a story. There are gaps between the scenes. It is difficult to figure out how those scenes are related to one another. In short, a story, if any, does not flow because of fragmentation.
In the first scene, a guy wearing green T-shirts says something like “he’ll get xxxx the shots.” It is reasonable to assume that this “he” is the main character. But there is not a single character the creator puts an emphasis on. The ending is terrible. A guy on a car curses, and the car just careens onto the highway. It is difficult to see a conclusion from this ending.
The passage of time is confusing.
Overall, the way the project is made appears to be casual.
The user has control of the project. The project starts when the user clicks the thumbnail. The loading speed is good at least on my computer. The user can easily play the project forward or backward by a slide bar or a button. Volume control is nice to be there. Navigation is easy.
The project is loaded on a new pop-up window as the user clicks the thumbnail. This is fine, but when the user clicks another project on the menu, the window disappears behind the menu page. This operation is not user-friendly, and I would change it.
The layout, color scheme and overall presentation fit with the theme of the project and with the overall site. There is nothing problematic.
The overall presentation of the project is good. The layout and color scheme are functional. The user has control of the project. What makes this project less successful is, however, the lack of journalistic integrity. When a multimedia project is not built on the fundamentals of journalism, it becomes an example demonstrating the abuse of multimedia.
The content of this project is intriguing, and its presentation exhibits “the ghoulish fascination.” Nonetheless, the creator appears to have used multimedia simply because it is available. This project has a potential for a good multimedia work, but the lack of journalistic integrity is a problem.
A paragraph captions what the project is about, but the creator leaves basic 5Ws (who, what, where, when, why) vague. It is possible that the creator could not be specific about those fundamental pieces of information for some reason.
The project does not have an overarching story line. Instead, several video clips are put together into one piece, which is not necessarily a story. There are gaps between the scenes. It is difficult to figure out how those scenes are related to one another. In short, a story, if any, does not flow because of fragmentation.
In the first scene, a guy wearing green T-shirts says something like “he’ll get xxxx the shots.” It is reasonable to assume that this “he” is the main character. But there is not a single character the creator puts an emphasis on. The ending is terrible. A guy on a car curses, and the car just careens onto the highway. It is difficult to see a conclusion from this ending.
The passage of time is confusing.
Overall, the way the project is made appears to be casual.
The user has control of the project. The project starts when the user clicks the thumbnail. The loading speed is good at least on my computer. The user can easily play the project forward or backward by a slide bar or a button. Volume control is nice to be there. Navigation is easy.
The project is loaded on a new pop-up window as the user clicks the thumbnail. This is fine, but when the user clicks another project on the menu, the window disappears behind the menu page. This operation is not user-friendly, and I would change it.
The layout, color scheme and overall presentation fit with the theme of the project and with the overall site. There is nothing problematic.
The overall presentation of the project is good. The layout and color scheme are functional. The user has control of the project. What makes this project less successful is, however, the lack of journalistic integrity. When a multimedia project is not built on the fundamentals of journalism, it becomes an example demonstrating the abuse of multimedia.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
EPJ_Multimedia Critique I
For Multimedia Critique I, I chose The Letter From Iwo Jima by Erik Olsen and Lizette Alvarez. The content of the project is poignant, which is effectively conveyed by multimedia.
The content of the project is appropriate for the multimedia. Voice over narrative, interviews, video clips, historical documents (including film clips), still images, and background sound are effectively interwoven for telling this poignant story. The integrity of this project is so high that the application of multimedia technology is a conscious choice.
Interactivity is fair enough. The buttons to forward or pause the project works just fine. A moving slide bar is easy to use, and it works. Interactivity is very minimal, but those functions are enough. An advertisement, which starts automatically before the project, is annoying, but that is inevitable. If there is a button to skip the ad, that would be better.
Navigation is simple and clear. There do not seem to be any confusing or unclear navigation buttons, bars, and titles.
Layout, color scheme and overall presentation do not interfere with the theme of the project. Middle gray background and white texts do not distract an audience.
Technically speaking, the project is built professionally. Vide clips, still images, and audio are shot or recorded with great care. Voice over narrative has a nice pacing, which makes it easy to follow the storyline. In addition, relevant video clips or still images correspond to the narrative. The content of interview is profound, which adds meaning to the whole story.
A typical length of multimedia project tends to be between 2 to 3 minutes. If a project exceeds this range, it is considered to be too long. In spite of its 8-minute length, The Letter from Iwo Jima never seems to be long enough. Nevertheless, I would change the length of the project. There are unnecessary parts that can be cut out without changing the content of the project.
An ethical concern is the use of a historical (or old) image that corresponds to the content of narrative. For example, voice over narrative describes Franklin W. Hobbs’s duty as setting up telecommunication. An old photograph of a soldier setting it up corresponds to that narrative. An audience may get an impression that the soldier in the photo is Franklin Hobbs back then.
Overall, this multimedia project is professionally created with a great storyline, video clips, still images, audio, and background sound.
The content of the project is appropriate for the multimedia. Voice over narrative, interviews, video clips, historical documents (including film clips), still images, and background sound are effectively interwoven for telling this poignant story. The integrity of this project is so high that the application of multimedia technology is a conscious choice.
Interactivity is fair enough. The buttons to forward or pause the project works just fine. A moving slide bar is easy to use, and it works. Interactivity is very minimal, but those functions are enough. An advertisement, which starts automatically before the project, is annoying, but that is inevitable. If there is a button to skip the ad, that would be better.
Navigation is simple and clear. There do not seem to be any confusing or unclear navigation buttons, bars, and titles.
Layout, color scheme and overall presentation do not interfere with the theme of the project. Middle gray background and white texts do not distract an audience.
Technically speaking, the project is built professionally. Vide clips, still images, and audio are shot or recorded with great care. Voice over narrative has a nice pacing, which makes it easy to follow the storyline. In addition, relevant video clips or still images correspond to the narrative. The content of interview is profound, which adds meaning to the whole story.
A typical length of multimedia project tends to be between 2 to 3 minutes. If a project exceeds this range, it is considered to be too long. In spite of its 8-minute length, The Letter from Iwo Jima never seems to be long enough. Nevertheless, I would change the length of the project. There are unnecessary parts that can be cut out without changing the content of the project.
An ethical concern is the use of a historical (or old) image that corresponds to the content of narrative. For example, voice over narrative describes Franklin W. Hobbs’s duty as setting up telecommunication. An old photograph of a soldier setting it up corresponds to that narrative. An audience may get an impression that the soldier in the photo is Franklin Hobbs back then.
Overall, this multimedia project is professionally created with a great storyline, video clips, still images, audio, and background sound.
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