Cracking the Code

We have started a new project, well two new projects I guess. One of the projects we have started, which is what I will talking about in this post, is coding. The other project we are working on will be revealed later. For now lets just talk about the coding. We have not really got into the project yet, and its not really a project, its more like something we are studying and learning like any other class. But this involves games. Yeah, we aren't a normal class if you couldn't tell by now. But thats what makes it awesome. Anyway I think everyone should learn coding, or at least a few things about it.

My first experience with coding was most likely in this class. I probably have done some coding before or at least I've seen it before, but I wouldn't remember that. When we did the coding lesson in this class, which was about a week ago, it was pretty difficult for me. I mean it was easy at first but as I got farther and farther into it, it was difficult. Eventually I got through it. In my opinion it was fun. What we had to do was move codes into certain spaces to make a little angry birds character move in order to get a pig. There were codes like move left or move right but thats not what it looked like. It looked more like "moveleft();" or something like that. I don't really remember. But when I first attempted to move my little anger bird I got it. I think everyone did in fact. It was pretty simple. Doing this small lesson taught me at least the basics of coding I guess. It was pretty easy and anyone can do it. I find it fun, you may not if you ever try it but I suggest if you haven't, you should, because its very fun to make your idea into something real.

If I could create any program, game, or app, I would create an app that helped you find a matching pair of socks. I mean finding socks that go together or one left and one right sock that goes together in the morning is very difficult in my opinion. I have to go through trying on different sock trying to find which one is a left sock and which on is a right sock. It also takes me forever to find matching pairs of socks. My socks get mixed around and I can never ever find matching pairs. So, if there was an app to take a picture of your socks and match them together would be great! The way it will work is when you first get it, you need to have all of your socks and you need to take an individual picture of each one. Then you will match the socks together and it will know which one is matching. If it were possible, I would also add something in that app to help find the socks. Then the next morning all you have to do is find one sock, match it with the image then the app will find your matching sock! It kind of sounds like a dating app, but for socks.

My Humorous Monologue

SacramedD_Comedy from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

From this comedy project, we have learned many things, especially the sixth graders. I say that because it's their first year in this class. But I have learned how to write a comedic monologue, even if I'm not so great at it. Iv'e also learned a few things about the cameras. I know its my second year so I'm most likely expected to know quite a few things in this class, but last year I was always lost when it came to the cameras, although this year, it is very clear to me. Iv'e learned how to use the magnification setting on the cameras. Iv'e learned how to make a GIF as well. Last year I made one too but if you look at it, its obvious I didn't know what I was doing. I think thats all Iv'e learned this year so far but I'm sure I'm missing some thing.

When filming this we must use something called "padding." A few of us learned to do this in a media camp we went to in summer, but not everyone knew it. Padding is went you press record, you wait 3 second until your subject moves or does its action then say "action!" When you say action, that is a signal telling your subject to move, but I'm sure you knew that. After the action in the video is over, you say "cut!" or "stop!" or something to tell the subject the video is over. But, before you say that, you must wait three more seconds. If you wait three seconds, the risk of cutting the person off is lower. What I mean is, when you press record the camera takes a few seconds to actually start recording. So if you don't wait those three seconds, you could possibly lose the beginning of your video.

In this project I had many things go wrong but some how I managed to finish on time. For example, one day Jhoanna checked out a camera to use. She got a ride with me and we went to my house. We filmed a few things for her and a few things for me. The next day she went to import the footage into IMovie. Unfortunately, she only imported it to her computer. She tried to send me my footage but that didn't work. So I had to film that part again. It was a struggle trying to find a day to get a camera because that was the one week I was busy. So one of my weaknesses was trying to find time. One of my strengths was maybe editing. I think if I had a little more time in editing, I would have done a little better. I think I could improve in many ways, but one way would be in the filming. I need to improve in finding better shots and angles. Overall, I liked this project. It was a challenge for all of us, and I'm glad its over. I mean trying to make a whole class laugh on your own is pretty hard. If I were with friends, it would have been a lot funnier.
 

Comedy Writing

We have just started a new project, this is a comedic monologue project. It is important to have a sense of humor because this project might be easier to you than others because of it. If you are adjusted to being humorous in front of others, it will be easy for you to record your monologue or to write it. However, for others, like me, it is a littler harder to come up with a funny monologue. Another reason a humorous trait is important is because everyone loves a little comedy sometimes. Having a humorous trait can really help in a project like this.

Now I will explain five tips for writing a humorous narrative. I don't find my narrative humorous so I'm not sure how helpful this will be. First tip is to help you come up with an idea. First, racial jokes aren't always funny to everyone, especially if its making fun of them, so try to avoid that. Second, a good idea is to make fun of yourself rather than others. Telling a humorous story that happened in your life can be very funny. Third, another idea is to be sarcastic. If you find something annoying, you can say you like it, just make sure your sounding sarcastic so they audience knows what your doing. For example, my project is about how I absolutely LOVE when I ask someone a question and they say "Its your choice." This could be funny depending on how your tone of voice is. If you sound like you genuinely love it then no one will get it. If you read it in a sad tone, they will get the wrong idea. If sarcastic is what your are going for, them make sure you sound sarcastic. Fourth, when telling a joke make sure its not to long or short. For example, if my joke was REALLY long then the audience would fall asleep in the middle of it. If its too short, its just not as funny so if you have a really good joke that's too short, just try to add a few more words. Fifth, nonsense. A lot of people find a lot of jokes funny just because its just dumb or obvious or just plane simple. But, if you do decide to do a joke like this, make sure it makes just a little sense. If you were to say something like, "Why did the pickle cross the road? To kill the turkey's pork chop!" then, well, not many people would find that funny because it sounds like you just thought of it right then and there without giving it any thought. Although another tip is not put TOO much thought into it. It you put too much thought in anything it will turn into a disaster. Anyway, an example of a dumb joke is this. There was a plane at the airport and a service truck was approaching it. Then, the truck hit the plane. A guy then came along and said "Good thing it didn't hit the plane while it was in the air." You probably didn't funny but it followed that last step, also that was a true story by the way... Anyway, an example of a simple joke is "Did you hear the joke about my bed? No? That's because I didn't make it yet." That one make me laugh when I saw it. It was posted on Google+ by one of the GT eighth graders. But, those are all my tips to writing a comedic monologue, hope you find them useful. I also hope you enjoy my joke monologue that I will post in about two weeks. Oh! I almost forgot, one of the most obvious tips I have is to not mess up. When ever I tell I tell a joke I ALWAYS mess up, so make sure you don't.

Now to explain my comedic monologue. As I said in the last paragraph, my topic is when you ask someone a question and they say "I don't know, its your choice." I don't find it funny because it is my own comedic monologue but who knows, maybe someone in my class will. Anyway I remember when I was thinking of an idea i had no idea at all. My mind was blank. But luckily Kyla came over to help me. Her monologue is about how she absolutely LOVES homework. Her monologue is sarcastic that's where I got the idea to do a sarcastic monologue myself. She asked me what I don't like or what annoys me and I sat and thought for a moment. I remembered the day before, I was ranting to my brother about how much I hate when I ask someone a question and they say "It's your choice". So then I came up with my topic. I asked Kyla what her thoughts were and she said she finds it quite annoying herself so I decided to do it. I have to explain to how its funny so I'll try. I think my monologue is funny because its sarcastic. I think sarcastic is pretty funny. Well that's the end of this blog post, in about two weeks another will be up and most likely with my monologue in it. See you then! Also before I go I just wanted to say that if you don't recognize the two girls in that GIF then that's Ashley Ricciardi and Myself. 

Motivational Poster

We are working on a new project and in this project we must create a motivational poster. In this poster we must include our personal quotes, manifesto, symbols, and more. We must have a portrait picture of our selves and three pictures of our personal symbols. We also need two text layers. The first will have my manifesto and the other will have my personal quotes. With these two text layers we must fill the whole page and there can not be any blank space. Now for the design requirements. We have to do some kerning so the text will fit the page. We also must use a "triadic color scheme". By this I mean we need our own three colors that we must use in our project. I chose a greenish turquoise, a purple and magenta kind of color, and a kind of dark yellow. The yellow isn't very visible though. Another thing we need is visual balance and adjustment layers.

To start off our first Photoshop project of the year, we had to first, of course, create a new document. Next, we had to copy and paste our manifesto and personal quotes that we came up with a few weeks ago. After that we started kerning our words to make them fit the page. After about a day of kerning, we added in the images in the background. Three of the images are symbols that symbolize our selves. The fourth picture was a portrait of our selves. After we added in all the images we got back to kerning. Kerning took up the most of the time we worked on this. The next step was to add color! We had to have a stroke, bevel and emboss, outer glow, and a drop shadow effect on our text. Then we needed to add the color by using a triadic color scheme. The last step was to play with the color balance to match the color scheme. After that we just needed to turn them in and finally, we were finished.


In my opinion, Photoshop is an amazing program but, when it comes to projects and due dates, it can get pretty stressful. I find Photoshop projects to be challenging so there not exactly my favorite thing to work with but I still find it fun. This was the first project of the year so I didn't expect many people to finish, including  me, but somehow I managed to turn it in on time. I ended up getting a four out of four grade and I agree with that because I worked really hard and tried my best to meet all the requirements. The thing I found challenging the most was kerning. Kerning took the longest and that's probably why some people didn't finish. I went in during recess and lunch a lot so I think that's why I finished on time. I also tried not to be absent at all so I wouldn't be behind. Another thing I did that Mr. Sanderl said to do was to kern one line at a time. This was a very, very, stressful project because it was our first. To make it even worse, it was due on the day of mid - quarter. So that means anything and everything we turned in from the first day of school, to that day, counted as our grade. Of course mid - quarter grades don't matter that much but still, I know everyone in GT wants a good grade weather its mid - quarter or not. GT can cause us to stress, but it is fun and so worth it. To prevent myself from stressing way to much, I just think of my friends. As cheesy as it sounds, its true. My friends are always there either to help me get my job done or to help me recover from my sadness of getting a bad grade. I guess thats how I solve all of my GT stress issues. Overall, I think this project was pretty fun, but I can't  wait until our group projects come along.

Personal Manifesto

Hello world! My name is Denae Sacramed and I have just come back to school from summer break and have moved on to the next grade. In this intro paragraph, I will be explaining five unique or interesting facts about my current self. One fact about myself is that my favorite color is red at the moment. Another fact about me is that I have two dogs. Their names are Chance and Hoku. The third fact about me is that I wear glasses. The fourth fact about me is that I love to wear jeans and I rarely ever wear shorts. The fifth fact about me is that my favorite fruits are strawberries and apples. These are five random facts about me and I guess you could call them interesting.

I am not a creative person at all. But this paragraph is all about my 2015-2016 creative Manifesto. Live each day as if it were your last. Live life to the fullest. Live isn't as long as you think. Don't do what you don't want to do. Be kind to others. You are lucky to live the life you live, so take that to your advantage. If you have a dream then go for it. Don't let one little word bring you down. Stop wasting your time thinking about what others think of you. Be proud of your accomplishments. Make time for friends too. This is my creative manifesto. I might have written down too much but that's okay I guess.

I think my manifesto applies to my readers because I talk a lot about life in general and how special it is. We only live once so we should do what we want to do. We wont always have the same chances we have today so I say we should live life to the fullest. Another thing I said that applies to my readers is to be kind to others. Again we only live once and we only get to meet a certain person once. No one is the same so if your mean to one person you may never see them again. I think no one really realizes how important life is and how the small things can effect your life tremendously.

Music Videos Rock!

P5T7 Never Gonna Give You Up from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

My teammate, Ashley, was probably the person who contributed the most. She is the main character in the music video. She also always tries to come when we meet up after school. The first time we met up, I went to Ashley's house. I was the only one who could go because Eden was very busy that week and Sophia was very busy as well. Ashley was busy with gymnastics and piano. Eden was busy with family and Sophia was busy with other sports. Ashley tries to make time but sometimes she can't. Ashley is a hard worker and I'm glad she is on my team. Even as I'm typing this she is working on our production plan for our music video. She is an amazing teammate. She keeps everything organized in our production plan. She also saved us by coming up with the idea to use teddy bears in our music video at the last minute. Sure, she is busy all the time with other things but she still tries to contribute. She also edits the most and thanks to her, we finished. Sophia tries to contribute but she's just to busy.  Sophia has done one or three lip syncs, me and Ashley have done almost five. Sophia does most of the filming so she does do her fair share of the work. She also helped with posters. Now, Eden. She had a lot going on before the rough cut was due. She doesn't really have time to help out. She has done three lip syncs so far though. She has also acted in the last scene. She is in about three scenes I believe. I try to contribute as much as I can. I'm never busy after school so I'm always there when we have to meet up. I have filmed a few times. I have done a few lip syncs. I do always bring the props (the teddy bears). Well Sophia and Ashley brought their own one time. I have acted in a few scenes. My computer is our editing station. But, overall Ashley has contributed the most! With her busy schedule she still pulls through and tries to hep as much as she can.

When I watch our music video, I laugh at almost every part. I mean, its funny seeing four girls dance around with  teddy bears singing with a deep voice. When filming, there were a lot of mistakes so, of course, there are bloopers at the end. My favorite part was when Ashley threw away a donation box. When we filmed it, we had to try more than six times. It was really funny. I think the audience will enjoy seeing that part. The bloopers will probably be the best part overall. Another one of my favorite parts, that were from the bloopers, was when Ashley threw the box then the paper in it flew away and I had to chase after it. I really  like working with Ashley, I think without her, we would never had finished. But in the actual music video, another part that I liked was when Ashley, Sophia, and I were dancing around with teddy bears lip syncing together. so I think the audience will enjoy that, or the other parts with us dancing with teddy bears. Or the part of me looking like a two year old skipping around with teddy bears. Either way I had a lot of fun doing this music video with my teammates.



Our music video (MV) shows what we have learned because we have included a poster at the end. That poster shows what we have learned how to use Photoshop. We have also included many effects so the MV represents that we have learned how to use iMovie. It also shows we have learned to use the cameras. If it weren't for the cameras, we would have never gotten anything done. We have also learned how to use the green screen because we have included a part where we use the green screen in the MV. Another thing we have learned to do is make animations. We have included an animation at the end. We have learned a lot this year so we tried to show that in our music video. This year has gone by so quickly. We have learned many things. One of the main things were Photoshop and the cameras. We have done so many projects that have to do with Photoshop.

LYRICAL LIVELIHOOD

Our new project is to do a music video. We have to lip sync of course. Im very happy about that because I really can NOT sing. My favorite song... uhh I don't really have one I guess. I guess "Try" by Colbie Caillat is my favorite song. Ashley gave me the idea of "Try" and now it is both her favorite song and mine as well. The lyrics are very meaningful. It tells you to be your self and that you don't have to try so hard for other people to like you. I guess I like it because the lesson in it is very important. It tells us to not care about what others think of us. I probably have other favorite songs as well but I just can't remember them. But I think "Try" is my favorite song because of the amazing meaning behind it.

My teammates are Sophia, Ashley, and Eden. We have chosen the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. I know its going to be really weird to lip sync that song with a group of four girls. I think we can pull it off though. We were going to do "Style" by Taylor Swift but then we decided to do "Cool Kids". That's when we found out that another team it doing that song. Finally that's when we decided to do an old song. So we chose "Never Gonna Give You Up". We thought that doing this song will be fun and it will show how uncool we are. I honestly think it will be so much fun. Even if we have to embarrass our selves in front of the whole class, I dont care. I mean everyone in this class has to do it too and every ones pretty silly in this class. Besides, in this class, everyone has to be themselves in order to get an A. I mean its hard to not be your silly self when doing the projects we get in this class. I think it will be a lot of fun to do this music video.

In the actual music video, there isn't really a story to it so we have to make it up our selves. Its obviously a love song so I guess we would need a boy and a girl. The problem is that all four of us are girls. All four of us know the chorus so we will defiantly include that part. When we do the chorus, all four of us will lip sync at the same time and I guess just dance. I know it sounds weird and it will most defiantly look weird but we are weird. In our music video, we never want to give up stuffed animals because they hold special memories. We chose to do this because it relates to our audience. I mean everyone has at least one toy that they were connected to as a child that they never wanna give up. When it comes to the beginning of the song, we will get Ashley and I to be the main guy with our stuffed animals. Also, in one scene, the four of us look at a bag, or box that says 'donate' on it and we have to donate the toys but we don't want to give them up. Its sounds weird, I know but I think it will be fun. Although in the end we eventually donate the toys. I can already tell there will be many mistakes, smiles, laughs, and fun.