New York Times

Demise of the Newspaper....

asl;dkfj ;lasdjf ;alskdfj;lak df New York Times lds;kfjhl;ksadjf oiwe f;jsd s;ldkfj;l

Virtual Reality Game puts the “Awe” in Awesome!
Students place in Finals with Frog Mating Game

Besides the awesome parties, school spirit, a national football championship, and proud dairy land, UW-Whitewater has one more thing to offer: leadership in the technological world.

“I am Lonely, the Solitary Frog’s Lament” placed in one of the three top spots at the 2008 Serious Games Showcase and Challenge. Students and Professors will compete for the first place prize this December in Orlando, Fl.

The object of the game is to help female Wisconsin frogs find mates. The complex video game requires the player to:

· Recognize frog mating calls
· Recognize frog habitats and physical features
· Avoid harmful predators

When I took a crack at the game I quickly realized game-makers have come a long way since “Oregon Trail”. The simulation really does employ realistic sounds and scenes. Now I have another distraction besides Facebook when I want to avoid some homework.

The University is opening doors with its proud accomplishments in the Multimedia and Digital Arts department. The major is rapidly growing and attracting more and more talented students. Students are learning how to create interactive games that are fun and educational.

College officials hope the expansion of the major into electronic video gaming will benefit Wisconsin in the years ahead. With the national recognition, there is anticipation that the program will attract a greater number of tech savvy students to the UW-Whitewater campus.

Ribbit! Ribbit!

Here is a sample of the work that I did for the UWM Post this semester.

http://www.uwmpost.com/article/c58b6a051109ce0c01111f8f88ea0013

Photo Essay: Hula


The members get together on Mondays and Saturdays. Since all of the members are either in school or have other jobs they come to the practices they can make it to and stay as long as they can.

Ron helped to create the group when his own daughters were quite small. Now he plays in the troop's band. Even though one of twin daughters, who was in the original group, has died he still loves hula and anticipates Saturday practices.

The movement in the practices is quick and constant. By the end of the practice the room has gotten about five degrees warmer.

The group consists of dancers whose heritage goes back to many different islands. If there is a technical question they call an aunt, uncle, or grandparent. However, they have no reference for the Maori style of dancing.

There are different styles of dance that the troop performs. One or two members will take respinsibility for learning the basics and then they will teach the rest of the group. Members also go to seminars around the country.

The newer girls have begun to help each other. The performance season is coming up and the veteran dancers are busy picking songs, readying the band, and perfecting styles.

All of the new girls; kaycee, Jackie, Jaimie, and Farah; show what they have learned so far. Some will be able to perform for the public this season, but others know they may not be ready until next year.

The group is a professional hula troop, but they do not take themselves too seriously. Jeans and t-shirts are totally acceptable for practice, but effort is a necessity.

Angel, one of the veteran members, is pregnant with her second child. She will not be able to dance in shows until October, but she still performs the vocals for the group.

Saturday May 5th was Angel's birthday, and because the members of the troop have been friends for years, they decided to throw her a small party before their 10 a.m. practice.

Maya, 27, has begun to get more and more Hawaiian tattoos. The tattoos along with her hula dancing help her feel connected to her heritage.

The group recently learned that they would not e able to take part in national competition because they were unable to get financial aid. They send a quick email and its time to get back to the learning. They have a season to prepare for after all.

The group is a postmodern mesh of old island tradition and modern American conveniences. Older band members sing tribal songs into a new sound system as the dancers match their traditional tattoos with Americanized clothing.

Family, friends, and neighbors are often stopping by practices to chat or take part as members of the band. The troop has become accustomed to maintaining their concentration despite the coming and going of the audience.

After all of the work of going to seminars, scheduling prectices, twirling their hips for four hours at a time, and designing costumes the troop has the satisfaction of getting it right and moving as one.

Portraits......

Do I know these people or not?

JOURNALS.......

When is your faorite time of day?
My favorite time of day is midmorning. I have hadmy tea, rested, andam ready to go. The light is so bright and all of the colors are bright, almost like they're trying to compete with the sun or something. Everything just seems warmer as te sunlight illuminates it. It's hard to hide during the day and all kinds of kids are riding their bikes or playing in the park while their parents rest at ease in the security of the sunlight. Overall, I just like it because it's bright and I'm pretty sure liking bright things is human nature....though I could be wrong....

Szarkowski's Five
1. The Thing itself: "But he learned also that the factuality of his pictures, no matter how convincing and unarguable, was a different thing than the reality itself." The photographer has chosen to steal a duplication of the objects, but that duplication becomes art when it does not turn out to be the real thing, but rather a reproduction of it with flaws or improvements that differ between the two. 2. The Detail: Details validate things and make them real. The texture of a dogs fur in a picture makes that picture more authentic and three dimensional to the viewer. Photography becomes a dipiction of real life through the use of detail. The rust on a car makes it an old beater owned by two teenagers after they bought it off of a retired factory worker who stored it for his son when he went off to college. See, detail gives an image a life. 3. The Frame: Szarkowski sums it up best: "The central act of photography, the act of choosing and eliminating, forces a concentration on the picture edge- the line that separates in from out-and on the shaes that are created by it. 4. Time: Each picture is a depiction of a particular time. It is a representation of what was happening right at that time. Szarkowski writes that the time that picture is capturing is always the present but by the time anyone witnesses the image, it is a depiction of the past.

5. Vantage point: The photographer can change how imposing or diminuitive an object is by changing his vantage point. By crouchig down a photographer can make a wobbling toddler seem as tall as an office building. This obscure aspect of photography can give the picture a "sense of the scene while withholding its narrative meaning." What's Truth?
Truth is an idea of how things really are. There are over six billion people on earth and everyone will look at something and see it just a little different than the person next to him or her. I would love to be able to say that truth is reality, but is there such a thing as reality? I mean people can sit in court and say that the reality of the situation is that they saw the defendant strangle the victim. How is that reality? The victim was experiencing one type of action at the time as was the defendant and the witness. So, I guess what I am trying to say is that truth is more of an individual account of how a person witnesses/experiences something.
This may look like a party but...it was a setup for something else....what is the truth?
What is your earliest memory?
I believe that my earliest memory is standing at the top of some cement stairs. I remember standing at the top and they seemed so long. I remember that the stairs were in city because I can't remember any grass or terraces or anything. I remember that scene outsie did not look like my home. At home I had a lawn and there were other houses. At home the cars stopped while on the steps the cars just kept whizzing by. I later found out that I had wandered away from my family when we came down to Milwaukee one day to go to a museum. I was found outside at the top of the outdoor steps. There are no photographsof this. My mom is probably pretty excited about that....


What are some differences between a photograph of something and the thing itself?
First and foremost one is the actual thing and the other is a representation of the object. The representation is how you saw the object at that moment as an individual. That picture may not even show the object as others would have seen it. Another difference is that the representaion is a two dimensional image while the object is three dimensional. An photograph of an object is almost eternal. The object may disintegrate, break, or die, but the image will remain if it is taken care of. Also,the image can be carried along everywhere,but the object may be too large to be brought along to places. A great example of this is people. People used to take pictures of the dead so that they could carry the images with them. They couldn't have carried dead bodies!

I may not be able to take this person with me, but I could take her picture with me...not sure why I would need to do that, but at least I have the option...Heisenberg says, "Looking at it changes it."
I think that Heisenberg means that by examining something closely it is always going to alter in appearance. If a person is thoroughy examining something he or she will see new angles and new imperfections. Also by looking at something you change it from just an object to a depiction of an object. When a person looks at something hey view it in a competely subjective manner. No two people can look at the same thing and see exactly the same thing. So by looking at something you take it from a universally accepted whole and turn it into a subjective take on what is really there.

Is it a light? A spaceship? Are you supposed to notice the light parts or the dark parts? It's up to the viewer...

Urban Art.....

Grafitti....

Dogs lift their legs, gorillas thump their chest and yell, birds build nests, and prairie dogs burrow to claim what is theirs. Humans, on the other hand, lift something else: a spray paint bottle.

While grafitti is considered a crime, one cannot deny that all of the designs and colors add something to residential areas. To show this phenomenon I decided to document all of the grafitti that I could find, and then I chose the few that gave the area the most character.