Final Project

View NaNoWriMo in a larger map

[Minor notes: Somehow the west coast ended up beating out the east. There are actually two markers in south-most California, only noticeable by zooming in.]

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) began as something a group of friends decided to do in 1999 – binge novel writing during one month. Hey, no one ever said writers were sane! It had since evolved, growing much faster than the creators had expected (courtesy of blogging). As time went on participants would receive pep talk emails during the month from known writers – Neil Gaiman, as an example. These would be some of my favorite things, listening to how authors that I knew and loved went on about their writing process and giving encouragement. I'm saddened that this year I didn't pay attention to these emails, though I am inclined to go back through my NaNoMail on the website and read them anyway.

Generally the only reward for “winning” at the end of the month is the satisfaction that you did this. You made it! You survived! You can go back to having a normal life, a normal sleep schedule, reconnect with your friends – because hey, pat yourself on the back, you were amazing! It's about the accomplishment that you wrote 50,000 words in one month. Achievement Unlocked.

There is, however, some new bonuses that I only just realized while I was searching around the website in my sleep-deprived state. To be an official winner, you have to verify your word count on the NaNo website. From there, sponsors have allowed you to indulge on two very nice offers. The first – which makes me really wish I had put in more effort towards my word count – allows you to get five free copies of your novel in paperback form from CreateSpace, a company of Amazon. The second offer is 50% off Scrivener, a program that allows you to work on your manuscript and organize your notes (similar to Microsoft OneNote) all in the same program, side by side.

Congratulations to all participants who made the climb. One year, I hope that I will make that goal! Now, return to your lives, sit back, and enjoy the haul of editing.

[On a semi-separate note, this project helped me reconnect with writers who have graduated from the school, ones that I wish I had gotten to know better while I had classes with them, but I had fallen off the face of the Earth.]

Final Project Concept

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is drawing to a close. I plan to do a podcast on the trials and tribulations people have gone through - both on campus and off - and how their final product looks, as well as using GoogleMaps to plot where those people are (with possible snippets from their works). If I can find a write-in nearby, I may also go to that and do a slideshow.

Video Project Story

The conflict between Palestine and Israel has gone on since long ago, and will likely continue to go on for many years to come. The land in question holds much significance for the different peoples. For the Jews, Israel is their birthplace spiritually, religiously, and for the national identity. For the Arabs, it is the same since they develop their line from Abraham and his son Ishmael.

The Arabs many times throughout history had been shafted. In 1917 in the Balfour Declaration, England promised the Jews a national home, though nothing was yet official. During World War II the Jews sided with the United States and other nations, and because of their support, the UN officially deemed it that they had earned their land, and essentially forced Palestine to give the Jews land for the Jewish state (1947). This land had been called Midinath Yisrael. The land was divided for formation of two countries, one for Jews and another for Arabs with status of Jerusalem as free city that does not belong to any of these two.

1948 the Arabs reacted – which should not have been a surprise, after all, did the UN really expect Palestine to roll over as this happened? But there was little organization of their forces in what was known as the Palestine War, which lasted seven and a half months, and many Arabs either fled or were expelled from their home, which afterward became part of the state of Israel, and Egypt and Jordan took control of Gaza Strip and the West Bank respectively, as well as Jerusalem was also split between Jews and Arabs.

The UNRWA (UN Relief & Works Agency) gave these people who fled from Jews refugee status. There are still refugees from this war today. But many, like Ahmed Shukarry [check doc. on who this guy is again] say that they owned for generations is not the solution. Everything that the UN has done is not a solution. The only way to fix the problem is to allow the refugees to return home that they owned for generations before 1948 . It may have been Arab aggression that caused the refugee problem, but how could they not be aggressive?

Currently the situation has finally begun to make progress with its treaties, but even as they work through them, Israel continues to build settlements on the West Bank; [guest speaker of...] said that: “Israelites will not withdraw from the West Bank, unless by force”, and Palestine jumps the gun under Israel by requesting status in the UN. This causes other complications: while most surrounding countries agree to accept Palestine, the US, which holds an unshakable grasp with Israel, promised to veto this, putting a bad mark on them. To make the matters more fractured, the US later makes comment to possibly refuse funding to all international organizations that recognize Palestine as a state.

The Jews don't believe that Palestine can be trusted with a truly independent state.

Vitzhak Rabin, Israel's [former?, date?] prime minister said: “The past no longer matters.” Yes, there had been strife on both sides, however generosity must triumph over the past for there to be success in peace.

For our video project we plan to use pieces from the Israel-Pakistan event tomorrow evening. Our sources will be from that as well.

Slideshow Synopsis

The slideshow I plan to do is on how to make kanzashi, showing pictures on how to make different petal shapes, and how to put it all together, and depending on time I will include some tips that I have picked up over time.

Traditionally tsunami kanzashi (meaning "folded fabric hair ornament") are made with small squares of silk, folded using origami methods, and glued together with rice glue. The adaption I've learned several months back involves small squares of cut ribbon and hot glue.

One day I will try the traditional way!

Slideshow

Slideshows and then some

Here's an audio slideshow that shows pictures of, I believe, the L.A. River and has audio of a woman speaking of it. I don't like how the audio picks up on the background noise so much, it distracts me too much from what the woman is actually saying.

What I do like is that if you hover your mouse over the bar at the bottom (the one that shows where you are in the slideshow, I can't think of a good word for it at the moment), it will pop up with a mini image of the picture that is at that particular point.

For a silent slideshow I picked this one, which is of several different kanzashi. For this particular one I like the options it provides. You can select the speed that the pictures go through, have a mini info bar pop up about them, and have thumbnails of the pictures pop up so you can select a different one.

Following with the kanzashi theme, the photo gallery I found is also featuring kanzashi.


I think when it comes to storytelling, which method you use all depends on the particular story. I think photo galleries and slideshows can work together - have the option to use one or the other depending on the person's taste. Sometimes I like slideshows, but if you can't adjust the speed, it can be too slow for my tastes depending on my mood, and I much rather just click through a photo gallery.

I can see the benefit of having an audio addition, but I can't say I'm leaning either way on whether or not I like it.

Podcast

Podcast Reviews

X-Play Podcast
http://www.g4tv.com/games/xplay/

I chose X-Play's podcast as my first to review. X-Play is a show, one that I haven't watched in years, that reviews video games. Watching the video podcasts reminds me how much I enjoy listening to the hosts and their opinions on games. Through their videos you get to a good look at various gameplay aspects, and at the end they'll give a rating.

Sometimes there are reviews, other times there will be previews, interviews (that's a lot of 'views'), and they'll find themselves at gaming conventions to get a good look at what's-to-come in the gaming world. My only complaint is that the video quality could be better, but there's a chance that there's an HD option that I'm missing.


BrainStuff
http://www.howstuffworks.com/podcasts/brainstuff.rss

From there I checked out the BrainStuff. It sounded like it could be interesting, but I became wary when one of the podcasts was “What happens when you press Alt and F4?” and thought “Well gee if someone was asking that, why don't they just try it.” But not everyone is computer literate. But then you go to something like “What is dynamite? How does it work?” and isn't that just cool? I'm not sure if I'll continue to follow this one – it seems like a hit-or-miss, but from a creative writing view you could find some gems. It might not be worth the effort though, and I'm not sold on listening to the speaker.


Pet Food Alphas
http://petfoodalpha.com/

I did realize in my search for a third podcast to review that I preferred shorter podcasts. Getting longer than 15 minutes? Not in my preference. Nonetheless I settled back towards video games and checked out “Pet Food Alphas,” a podcast that discusses the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) Final Fantasy XI.

Admittedly it took me awhile to settle into since it took them a bit to settle into it, but it is one of very few FFXI podcasts that keeps up to date, and I'm not bored listening to them since I can complete understand what they're referring to since it's a strong interest of mine. Downside for me is the length – minimum time has been 23 minutes and maximum has been 2 hours and 21 minutes and in trying to listen to two different episodes I got distracted partway through or needed to do other things. I'll subscribe, but I'm not sure how often I'll actually listen.



I won't listen to any podcasts on my ipod; it is filled to the brim with music and audio books.

Interactive Map

View Health Scores-Saint Johnsbury, VT in a larger map

Our group did a map of restaurants in St. Johnsbury, VT. Of all the restaurants in St. J, one of the highest in regards to health score (coming second to Dunkin Donuts) is New Century Chinese, which I believe is one of the newer restaurants in the area, so it does make sense, but it did have the problem (as mentioned on the map) of bugs – flies, to be specific. Richard and I took a trip over – it has plenty of parking (though I was blind and it took me a few shots to notice the sign signaling to where it was). The decor was odd, but I've seen stranger. We were the only ones, so service was good. I noticed quickly the place-mats advertising Asia and another New Century Chinese in Woodsville, and after asking our waitress she confirmed that the owners were the same. The food was your average Chinese restaurant taste, nothing to special, but I preferred it over New East Garden and was a closer drive than the places in Lyndonville.

One of my favorites places for a quick bite to eat is Anthony's Diner, which I generally go to alone or with one other so I can always easily find a seat, but with larger groups on a busy day it could be difficult, and around this time of year there are tour buses coming into the area for people to see the changing of the leaves. The food is decent and in my price range, and I certainly prefer popping in most days instead of going to McDonald's right next door.

HW: http://nsnsports.net/nek Critique

http://nsnsports.net/nek

This site is very well organized. It has a fair amount of ads, but they don't make the layout jarring like they can on some sites. I love the drop-down feature for the menu, the pictures on the front are nice, and I like how the "Next Live Game" remains at the top of every page.

Now, it could just be my Firefox add-ons causing problems, but it looks to me the only video you can get is when something is on live, which I never found time to see. Archive pages have what look to me like you could play old video, but I can't actually get anything; I think it's just a picture placeholder, which is very confusing.

HW: Writing for the Web

Ticket for Dog Biting
Dog owner was ticketed after his mixed Chow dog bites a second small child, its first offense from a year ago. The child with a bite around the ear and neck was treated at Children's Hospital for minor injuries.


Ten Commandments Legal Battle

HW: CBSAtlanta.com Critique

CBSAtlanta.com

The first thing I notice when I go to this website is how it is easy to navigate. There are handy site links at the top as well as the bottom. The main page appears to have a three column sort of layout, which also helps it.

There is quite a lot of text on the main page, but that's to be expected as it's mostly links to news stories. I like that there are mini video camera images next to story links that have video, and if you hover over the "Most Recent Videos" it will pop up a small blurb about the video.

I think having the "What's on CBS Atlanta" higher up would be nice; it almost gets lost where it currently is, surrounded by news links, but I'm not sure where it could go.

HW: Pimp My Blog

In designing my blog I went with a background that isn't overcomplicated but still fits with the sort of "otherwordly" view of my mind, although it's making me futz with what I want the font color for the "About Me/Blog Archive/Followers" headings. I want something readable but I haven't settled on what that is yet.

The current picture is of a basket of kanzashi (hand crafted flowers made from ribbon) that I made, since I haven't decided if this blog will focus on writing or kanzashi or both (when it's not about homework assignments).

I'd like to maybe find a way to change the link list so that it stretched across the page without having to add links to do so, but the only way I think I can do that is going into the HTML. That's a bit out of my level. I also can't tell if the picture is aligning to anything. I wish it'd line up with the post box, but I think that would once again require to pick apart the HTML.

RSS and follow by email at the bottom. Still easy to find but I don't really want that on the sidebar. I might change my mind when I get more posts on the blog though. I curiously put in for AdSense but that takes 48 hours.

The title "gutting the imaginary" is how I often look at my creative writing - reaching into the innards of imagination and gutting it apart, displaying the results through text. It's become my identifying quote on the internet.

HW: Critique a Blog

Willow Bird Baking

The layout is simple, but appealing. Its links are well organized and it's easy to find other places to subscribe to like RSS and Twitter. The pictures really make up the blog in my opinion, drawing the reader into the post (albeit in a mouthwatering, torturous way) and make me, who doesn't cook or bake often, really want to run to Pricechopper, grab ingredients, and give it a whirl. Once drawn in, the author is interesting to read. As much as I love seeing new recipes, I love learning about the author as well.

Back when I frequented twitter for more than just sidestepping international texting charges I remember how useful twitter was for being updated on new posts, although I also remember blocking it from SMS because it felt like it was too frequent and I stopped caring as much.

It caters to the community and keeps active with having links to blogs that the author reads, its Foodie BlogRoll, and the most recent post has the result of a recent cupcake challenge that had been issued to the watchers, which also provided links to the participants' blog/website if they wished.

The blog's tagline is "Inspiring Kitchen Confidence in Home Cooks" and I certainly think it's managed to accomplish that.