26th Annual MetroTech Tree Lighting Ceremony

The holiday season came alive at Jay street MetroTech on Monday, November 30th when brooklynites celebrated the 26th annual tree lighting. The night featured performances  by the GRAMMY awardwinning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, stunts by the Big Apple Circus, dance routines by  Dancewave, and last but not least, Santa Claus and his live reindeer. The event was free and open to the public for enjoyment. Myself being a basketball fan, Brooklyn Nets players Thaddeus Young and Chris McCollough were also in attendance.

Nets Players Thaddeus Young and Chris McCollough

I work around the area and passing by, I had to stop and really notice how beautiful it was to be with all kinds of races, and genders. Although it took 2 hours to celebrate the tree lighting, which affected my tardiness for work, it was well worth it. While I was standing there with my phone taking pictures, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a couple that had a young child I was standing next to. They basically were talking about how every year, the ceremony gets better and better. I couldn’t help but ask them how long they’ve been attending the MetroTech tree lighting. “10 wonderful years and it gets better every year”. The young couple said they found the tree by accident.

One day, they wanted to see each other and when that happened,  they had no plans. So they were walking around downtown Brooklyn killing time and enjoying each other’s company. One thing led to another and they ended up at the MetroTech tree lighting. Aside from that, I think this event was wonderful for the Brooklyn residents because it eliminated real issues that were going on at that moment such as the threat of Isis with the holliday season approaching. The tree lighting allowed people to come together and enjoy each other’s company with no drama and tension between one another. In short, I definitely look forward to next years tree lighting to see what guest appearances will be present, the live performances , and who knows, maybe a bigger tree filled with colorful lights and ornaments.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rWmk_ioUTqA

Edward Snowden joins Twitter

“Whistleblower Edward Snowden joined Twitter Tuesday with the handle @Snowden. His profile bio reads “I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public”. A rather loud yet simple statement by Mr. Snowden in his twitter bio. Ironically, in ratio to his followers to followings, he has 1.69 million followers and is only following 1 in return. Take a wild guess who it is, the National Security Agency. His first tweet was “Can you hear me now?” This tweet can be read in many ways and have many different interpretations. However, my opinion, I took that tweet as will you be honest with the American people.

Edward Snowden who formerly worked with the government intelligence agency had intentions to fight terrorism. But in the process, he leaked top secret information that the government wasn’t too happy about. In return, he had to get away from the government and protect himself which in the process, had to get away with close people like his family and his girlfriend.

Snowden quickly gained support with the likes of Jesse Ventura, Glenn Greenwald who broke the story and surprisingly Jack Dorsey who is the co finder of twitter. So it’s evident that Snowden has gained tremendous popularity and fame with his pursuit in righteousness.

Aaron Swartz & Access

Internet’s Own Boy follows Aaron Swartz as a little kid growing up in Brooklyn until ultimately when he was grown and had a full mindset and knowledge about how the internet can be used. Growing up in Brooklyn as a little kid with his 2 brothers, he was often shown on the film as being the motivator for his brothers. When I say this, I mean it as he often took it upon his hands to teach his brothers everything he possibly learned at a young age. For example in the film it showed Aaron stating “Let me teach you algebra”. Ideally, that’s not something a little kid learns until maybe grade school but for Aaron, nothing seemed intimidating for him.

Aaron can be named various things such as a Software developer, writer, just to name a few. But in my opinion, I think the name that suits him best is Internet activist.

The title of the documentary “The Internet’s Own Boy”, it tells the viewers Swartz was an expert and understood the web at an unbelievable pace that few others could relate to. He started in his early teens with his involvement in the creation of the RSS feed, the social news site Reddit, and several other hubs for leftist activism and information sharing.

With such knowledge for the internet and how it works, it made him a target by the government. His intentions with the web was to make it a better, fairer place for users to feel safe on and know that everything is in the open and not hidden. One thing led to another and he was later arrested. After that, he was sentenced to 35 years with a $1 million fine if he was convicted. As a result, he committed suicide. This film highlights all his achievements and features numerous people close to Aaron with their stories about him and what he believed in.

“CitizenFour”

Following the documentary “Citizenfour” it follows a guy named Edward Snowden who formerly worked with the government intelligence agency with the intention to fight terrorism. But in the process, he leaked top secret information that the government isn’t too happy about. In doing so, he thought ahead and camped out in Hong Kong and planned out each of his moves carefully so he doesn’t bring attention to himself and the people he associated with. Alongside Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Andrew Swartz should be known in the journalism world because they broke out of the government structure and believed in the human murals. They exposed the behind the scenes as to what actually occurs and brought  up the question , is it wrong to be 100% truthful or is it right to keep information that could possibly hurt your creditably?

Following the documentary “Citizenfour” it followed a guy named Edward Snowden who formerly worked with the government intelligence agency. His intention was to fight terrorism. In doing so, he thought ahead and camped out in Hong Kong and planned out each of his moves carefully so he didn’t bring attention to himself and the people he associated himself with. But in the process, he leaked top-secret information that the government isn’t too happy about. Laura Poitras, an American documentary film director/producer receives an encrypted e-mail from a stranger who called himself, “Citizen Four”. He then agrees to provide her inside information about illegal wiretapping practices of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies. In attendance with investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian intelligence reporter, she travels to Hong Kong with her camera for the first meeting with the stranger, who reveals himself as Edward Snowden.

Alongside Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Andrew Swartz should be known in the journalism world because they broke out of the government structure and believed in the human murals. They exposed the behind the scenes as to what actually occurs and brought  up the question , is it wrong to be 100% truthful or is it right to keep information that could possibly hurt your creditably?

The key issues at hand is basically what isn’t the government telling us? Are we being told everything? Are we just a pond to the government and they control the entire game of chess? All these questions and no answers. Names like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning (Bradley Manning and Aaron Swartz are important in the journalism world because they provide a voice for those who question media reporting. They also took action upon themselves to figure out why thigs are the way they are. That’s the true definition of journalism to me.

Favorite Passion

An activity that I have a strong passion for is sports broadcasting. Sports broadcasting is someone who provides coverage of sporting events using a variety of different media outlets, such as radio, television, and the Internet. The actual job of a sports broadcaster can vary. Some will specialize in one particular sport such as doing commentary, while others will do the research, production, or the presentation of many different sporting events and competitions. Broadcasters work as analysts or play-by-play announcers for sports networks or specific teams such as ESPN or the New York Knicks. Their duties may include presenting news, calling games and interviewing guests. Broadcasters are primarily employed at the collegiate and professional levels. While opportunities for work are available in television and radio, its been recorded that entry-level opportunities are more likely to be available through small, local stations.

A career in broadcasting is certainly stressful including tight schedules and deadlines, similar to jobs of journalism although this career is categorized as journalism. Sports broadcasters usually work in studios I front of cameras. But there are occasions where they work outdoors covering significant sports events such as the World Series, NBA Finals, and also arguably the greatest sports platform in the world, the Olympics. A career in broadcasting is relatively simple. First off, many sports broadcasters earn a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting, communications or a field that correlates to it. This 4-year process in order to achieve a bachelors degree allows students to gain the knowledge and skills essential of the occupation, such as effective communication and the knowledge with how production is produced.

Such classes for a bachelor’s degree in communications include audio production, mass media, broadcast journalism, and media writing. Secondly, an internship is definitely helpful for someone who is interested in this field. On the job preparation is obligated for a career in sports broadcasting. Many potential candidates gain this training through internships with television or radio broadcasting stations. While working at this internships, its important to network with people in the industry or the job to gain advantages that many people wont be aware about. That’s how many broadcasters gain positions in million or billion dollar companies such as ESPN or FOX Sports. Lastly as you progress and gain time within the industry under your belt, there are opportunities you can achieve such as hosting your television or radio shows. Ambitious broadcasting potentials begin their careers in non-broadcasting positions as equipment operators or production assistants.

Once they have proven a capacity for sports announcing, they climb the ladder and work their way up to on-air sports broadcasting positions and eventually move on to higher-paying positions at larger stations. The reason why I have a passion for this is because quite honestly you’re getting paid for speaking about sports that you have a great knowledge about. It’s important to understand that it’s more complex than just sitting in front of the camera talking about opinions and facts. It’s an institutional structure that you must follow. Such as news beats, the way you report the news, and most importantly objectivity.

Bouncing Ball

In this exercise, i added a new layer and made a third ball. This time, i created the animation of making the ball on the far left bounce. I learned how to make the object move up and down by utilizing the selection tool, shift key, up and down arrows, with the addition of using the key frames and shape in tween..

Visualizing Tempo

Here, i created another circle in flash next to the original circle. I reshaped the second circle and sped up the animation. Although it was difficult at first, i learned how to work with multiple layers, in addition to controlling the speed and shaping the tweens.

Elements of Motion – Shape Tween

In this chapter, I learned how to use Flash. I then created a moving image using flash to make a circle turn into a square then back to its original state. The Key objective of putting this together was to understand the importance of key frames and motion/shape tweens.

Chapter 15 Hello World!

In this chapter, we were introduced to html. Next we use DreamWeaver and learned about codestext>. The next exercise featured how to correctly insert hyperlinks within the html. We then goggled the image featured above and learned where to place the picture link. The final step was to screenshot the exercise complete and here’s the final product…..

Saturation Levels

Here, I learned how to change the saturation levels of the image. The purpose of this exercise was to adjust the settings of the saturation image to display the image as more brighter and vibrant, What you think?