Here's my portfolio for the journalism class I took this year. Over the course of the year, we've handled Prezis, podcasts, commercials, newspapers, and multiple other topics. This is a culmination of the work I'm proudest of. While the portfolio isn't necessarily visually attractive, I'd say it's pretty thorough, and that should count for something here.
In case you want something to make this much more appealing in terms of audio.
(Everything except for the Documentary is in Google Docs form, since my computer doesn't seem to like opening things that are .docx, which are most of my files, thus making it challenging to transfer them to .pdf and .jpeg/.gif. Also, I like Google Docs.)
A Table of Contents!
300 Word Article
Extensive Explanation of 300 Word Article
Articles From Model UN
Very Extensive Explanation of Model UN Articles
Keystroke Newsletter (Explanation Included)
Podcast and Commercial Explanations (Podcast and Commmercial not Included)
Prezis (Explanations Included)
Doctor Who Feature Article
Doctor Who Query Letter
Explanation of Query Letter and Feature Article
"The Brony Herd" Documentary
Documentary Planning
Documentary Explanation
This isn't really journalism, but is instead pure essay writing. The basis of this was we were given a sheet of quotes and had to pick one from it. Then we had to write an essay about this being true or false and why we thought that way. I suppose you could think of this as journalism on journalism.
Midterm Essay
Monday, June 11, 2012
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Assassin's Creed Revelations
This trailer, like all of the other Assassin's Creed trailers, is amazing. The video itself is strong graphically, but the action in it is also very good. The music also works with it rather well. The game is supposed to take place a couple of years after Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and you play as Ezio when he's 50-ish. Some would think that he'd be slower and less skilled, but this is not so. In fact, he is actually a lot stronger than in the previous game and he gets a few added on items. In the trailer you see him get defeated when his hidden blade breaks, but later when he is about to be hanged you see him start an escape. Also, the spot he was to be hanged at was the spot where you leaped off of and into a bale of hay in Assassin's Creed I. This therefore can show that he will escape from the battle (well, it shows that if you've played the previous games). When I first heard about this game, I couldn't wait for it to come out. But now that I've watched this trailer, I'm even more excited for this game.
Dancing Mad
This song is by far one of the best instrumental songs I've ever heard. It's from Final Fantasy 6, and is used as the theme for a character named Kefka. If you know who Kefka is, the song fits him. I've never played the game myself, but I was told about this by my brother. Anyways, the song is just purely amazing. It has a sort of eerie feeling at parts, and has some evil-carnival undertones hidden in it. While I'm not much of a fan of the guitar solo near the end, I do rather enjoy the part that starts at about 6:30. It sounds like the typical Final Fantasy battle music. I've been listening to this song almost every day for the past week or two and I plan to keep it up.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
A Wizard of Earthsea
I enjoyed this book. I'm not normally a fan of fantasy, but this book managed to intrigue me. Sure, I figured out practically the entire plot within the first few chapters, but it was somehow compelling to me. It was a rather cliche book, with the whole dragons and wizard school and the likes, but it was also unique at the same time. I would have liked it more if at the beginning of the book it didn't say that he was the greatest sorcerer to ever live and that he tamed dragons, because that made it seem a lot less interesting to read. Despite this, I still read past the pages of it telling me how the book would progress.
I found the concept to be interesting, and also how Ged interlaced together spells in order to not only create a binding spell but also a mist spell. I knew that the invaders wouldn't get in even before he did this, because they would most likely kill him and then the book would end. However, there were more than one hundred pages to go.
When he read the spell that allowed him to bring back the sous of the dead, I knew he would use that spell despite the warnings he received from Ogion. It was just so amazingly obvious. The foreshadowing wasn't even slightly hidden. And I don't really understand why Jasper had to have a rivalry with Ged, because Jasper was 2 or 3 years older than Ged and knew much more than Ged did about almost everything.
When it reached the part where it first mentioned the name of the shadow, I thought nothing of it. I just figured that the shadow had no name. But when they started to mention that it might just have a name, I figured out that its name was Ged. It wasn't that hard to see that the shadow was Ged. It was especially easy to see that the shadow's name was Ged when people mentioned that they saw someone like Ged walking around, but the thing cast no shadow. It was also an easy thing to notice because the shadow knew his true name without ever really hearing it from somebody else.
I would read the next books in the series. I'd like to see how Ged could possibly get stronger than he already is, and if the shadow ever comes up again in any of the story plots. I bet it probably will, along with a re-appearance of Jasper. Vetch would also probably play a large role in the book, and maybe, just maybe, the giant dragon makes a re-appearance. That would be interesting. Would Ged die or not? (Of course he wouldn't. He knows the name of the dragon and also it would be a terrible ending to kill of your main character.)
I found the concept to be interesting, and also how Ged interlaced together spells in order to not only create a binding spell but also a mist spell. I knew that the invaders wouldn't get in even before he did this, because they would most likely kill him and then the book would end. However, there were more than one hundred pages to go.
When he read the spell that allowed him to bring back the sous of the dead, I knew he would use that spell despite the warnings he received from Ogion. It was just so amazingly obvious. The foreshadowing wasn't even slightly hidden. And I don't really understand why Jasper had to have a rivalry with Ged, because Jasper was 2 or 3 years older than Ged and knew much more than Ged did about almost everything.
When it reached the part where it first mentioned the name of the shadow, I thought nothing of it. I just figured that the shadow had no name. But when they started to mention that it might just have a name, I figured out that its name was Ged. It wasn't that hard to see that the shadow was Ged. It was especially easy to see that the shadow's name was Ged when people mentioned that they saw someone like Ged walking around, but the thing cast no shadow. It was also an easy thing to notice because the shadow knew his true name without ever really hearing it from somebody else.
I would read the next books in the series. I'd like to see how Ged could possibly get stronger than he already is, and if the shadow ever comes up again in any of the story plots. I bet it probably will, along with a re-appearance of Jasper. Vetch would also probably play a large role in the book, and maybe, just maybe, the giant dragon makes a re-appearance. That would be interesting. Would Ged die or not? (Of course he wouldn't. He knows the name of the dragon and also it would be a terrible ending to kill of your main character.)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Name All The Animals
1. How is the book reading going? What parts of the book have been easy or difficult for you as a reader? Why? (please reflect)
I finished the book at some point over the weekend, and I must say that I liked it overall. The ending was very good and seemed to draw it to a close perfectly. I found it difficult to read the book near the ending. I can't really explain why... It just sort of felt a bit heavy. It might have been the fact that her mother and father practically resented her for not believing in Christ, or maybe it was how she wanted to drive but just couldn't manage to go through with the test. I sort of started to feel the narrator's feelings, and I guess that's the effect of non-fiction. While I did see it as fiction most of the time because of how it was written, it felt different from a normal novel in the respect that it made me feel more for the character than I do in most novels.
2. Pick a character in the memoir that you find yourself liking. What is the role of this character? Why does the author include this character in the plot, setting, or story?
I found myself really liking Alison. In the memoir she plays the part of the protagonist, and it includes her because the book is about her. It would be rather boring to read a memoir without a main person in it. I liked her because she came off as a rather strong character. As opposed to crying when her older brother died, she started to tie herself to the Before-People that never knew Roy so that she wouldn't have to go through the pain of being pitied. She was very firm about her beliefs and her nature, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she didn't believe in God or that she was a lesbian (well, she wasn't scared to admit that towards the end).
3. Pick a character to contrast with #2 above. Pick a character that you do not like and explain what is bothering you. How would you do it if you were the author?
A character I really disliked was Mother. She was so negative and she was practically insane. She refused to accept the fact that her daughter didn't believe in God or the fact that Alison wished she had died with Roy in the car accident. She was an opposing force to Alison the entire time and I couldn't stand her. When she started to bring the books on dealing with grief home from the library, I was wondering what she was doing. While she made it so that it seemed that she was trying to help her family get over the grief of their son dying, it just made it worse by digging up the painful memories. I doubt that I'd make the character so horrible if I was the writer, because I don't have the heart to write such a terrible antagonist... or the writing ability.
I finished the book at some point over the weekend, and I must say that I liked it overall. The ending was very good and seemed to draw it to a close perfectly. I found it difficult to read the book near the ending. I can't really explain why... It just sort of felt a bit heavy. It might have been the fact that her mother and father practically resented her for not believing in Christ, or maybe it was how she wanted to drive but just couldn't manage to go through with the test. I sort of started to feel the narrator's feelings, and I guess that's the effect of non-fiction. While I did see it as fiction most of the time because of how it was written, it felt different from a normal novel in the respect that it made me feel more for the character than I do in most novels.
2. Pick a character in the memoir that you find yourself liking. What is the role of this character? Why does the author include this character in the plot, setting, or story?
I found myself really liking Alison. In the memoir she plays the part of the protagonist, and it includes her because the book is about her. It would be rather boring to read a memoir without a main person in it. I liked her because she came off as a rather strong character. As opposed to crying when her older brother died, she started to tie herself to the Before-People that never knew Roy so that she wouldn't have to go through the pain of being pitied. She was very firm about her beliefs and her nature, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she didn't believe in God or that she was a lesbian (well, she wasn't scared to admit that towards the end).
3. Pick a character to contrast with #2 above. Pick a character that you do not like and explain what is bothering you. How would you do it if you were the author?
A character I really disliked was Mother. She was so negative and she was practically insane. She refused to accept the fact that her daughter didn't believe in God or the fact that Alison wished she had died with Roy in the car accident. She was an opposing force to Alison the entire time and I couldn't stand her. When she started to bring the books on dealing with grief home from the library, I was wondering what she was doing. While she made it so that it seemed that she was trying to help her family get over the grief of their son dying, it just made it worse by digging up the painful memories. I doubt that I'd make the character so horrible if I was the writer, because I don't have the heart to write such a terrible antagonist... or the writing ability.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Name All The Animals 2
1. Examine how the author describes characters or people. How does she make them "real", "approachable", or use CHARACTERIZATION to allow the reader to sympathize or empathize with the character? Pick one character and examine him/her.
The writer takes characters and she slowly develops them, but in doing so she manages to make them very vivid in their personalities and descriptions. With Alison, she started off about how she was really close to her brother, and she continued to play off of that emotion so that we'd feel sympathy for her when her brother died. Then she made the character become a person who wanted to be around people who didn't always pity her and worry about her, which I find to be a very good way to develop a character. Characters that just feed off of other people's pity are not interesting at all. In fact, they're the type you'd like to kill if you could. But the author decided not to make Alison into someone like this and made her seem stronger by having her want to be around those who either hadn't known her brother (Terry) or those who knew, but didn't mention it (Mary Elizabeth). Also, the writer contrasts Alison with her father, who is seen as a sort of depressed character who can't get over his son's death. It's a nice contrast to make it so that the daughter seems to be a stronger character than the father is.
The writer takes characters and she slowly develops them, but in doing so she manages to make them very vivid in their personalities and descriptions. With Alison, she started off about how she was really close to her brother, and she continued to play off of that emotion so that we'd feel sympathy for her when her brother died. Then she made the character become a person who wanted to be around people who didn't always pity her and worry about her, which I find to be a very good way to develop a character. Characters that just feed off of other people's pity are not interesting at all. In fact, they're the type you'd like to kill if you could. But the author decided not to make Alison into someone like this and made her seem stronger by having her want to be around those who either hadn't known her brother (Terry) or those who knew, but didn't mention it (Mary Elizabeth). Also, the writer contrasts Alison with her father, who is seen as a sort of depressed character who can't get over his son's death. It's a nice contrast to make it so that the daughter seems to be a stronger character than the father is.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Name All The Animals
The book so far is relatively decent. I didn't like the beginning, where all it was was grief and sadness and talking about the death of the protagonist's brother, and that doesn't really interest me. I can't read about people crying and crying and crying some more, so that's why I really disliked the beginning chapters. However, I read a little bit ahead and got to around page 39, where I feel it has steadily picked up from the whole death thing. During the chapter with Paul, it was good to see a hint that there wouldn't be all this sad stuff. I predict that in the future of the novel there will be some sort of relationship going between Paul and Alison. If there is no relationship, I fear that the entire book will be flashbacks about Roy's death and Alison's father crying. But I don't want it to become all romantic. A little romance would be fine, but too much would be terrible. Hopefully the book gets better.
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