Scavenger Hunt
1)According to www.hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/OlgaVapnyar.shtml (20/08/09)
The tallest living tree stands at 112 meters (367 feet, 6 in.), or five stories higher than the Statue of Liberty. It is a Mendocino Tree, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) found at Montgomery State Reserve near Ukiah, California, USA. It is estimated to be over 1000 years old. The tree was last measured in September 1998, and was also found to have a diameter of 3.14 M. (10 ft. 4 in.). It was declared the tallest tree in 1996.
2)Madonna has facebook!! http://www.facebook.com/madonna

3)The oldest living wild elephant was 86 years old as opposed to the longest living elephant in captivity said to be 69 years
http://www.wonderquest.com/LifeSpan-MaxMin.htm (20/08/09)

4)Glycomics studies the glycan (sugar) structures of any cell type or organism....or something. b)"Seagull managers fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, then fly out."- When they are there, they typically give criticism and direction in equal quantities, often without any real understanding of what the job entails. Then before you can object or ask what they really want, they have an 'important meeting' to go to. http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/articles/seagull_management.htm (20/08/09) God I hate seagull managers!!!
5)Eastern Promises (2007)is David Cronenbergs last feature film www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/findresults_director.asp?search=David+Cronenberg (20/08/09)
Videodrome is a 1983 Canadian psychological thriller film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods and singer Debbie Harry from Blondie. http://www.freebase.com/view/en/david_cronenberg/-/film/writer/film (20/08/09)
6) in 1995 the original movie 'Hackers' was released. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800242917/info (20/08/09)
7)hollywood is encouraged to begin phone numbers in films with '555'
to prevent real phone numbers from being displayed and called by fans.
8)The cheapest way to travel from Gold Coast to cairns would be by foot or bike but if that doesn't sound too appealing jetstar will fly you there for $289 http://book.jetstar.com/Select.aspx but its sold out so you had better start walking.
9)Bread-make it with you
10)The Brisbane band Black Assasins is privileged to have Stephen Stockwell on keyboards

Comprehending Convergence. Week 2

This was super duper easy for me to understand and it's colourful!

Convergence:

• the occurrence of two or more things coming together -
• the approach of an infinite series to a finite limit
• overlap: a representation of common ground between theories or phenomena; "there was no overlap between their proposals"
• the act of converging (coming closer)
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Convergent technologies marry two functions together to create a super awesome new function..
or sometimes they are just bizarre...

Isee 360
An ipod with camera/video camera features
www.news.cnet.com/2300-1041_3-6099056-1.html

The Egokast

Video on your belt buckle

www.newmediamusings.com/gadgets/

Vespa
with a computer...that's safe.
http://www.product-reviews.net/

Microsoft Surface
A coffee table/computer/LCD screen
www.newlaunches.com/.../microsoft_surface_1.jpg

Altered egokast man

More convergent technology...

Fun with Imovie.
'Oh it's a video!'

Screen talk. Week three

Language of the Screen? Well like I do with absolutely everything else I'm confronted with..I ran a few ideas past google. 133,000,000 results...well that's fun. First link??
" don't know how to change language of login screen..." forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=357596

Ahhh not quite what I'm after..but then the first link is always like that..a bit eager...a bit egotistical...usually without the means to support it.

This continues for awhile...not quite getting me anywhere..
I found this guy...John Seely he was fun..had some ideas about screen language...seemed pretty clued in...
"I thought hypertext was a joke. I hated video games; I thought they were a complete waste of time." — John Seely Brown

Clued in and maybe slightly dull...

The inclusion of ECU...WS and MS narrowed down the search....
well it narrowed it down to every student doing new com...seriously we are all up in googles space with our blogs...stumbling around the same concepts. Thankyou to the pioneers of the class who actually had to search a bit harder to find the answer. I was pretty late on the band wagon so I went straight to google images to find my examples (opting for the last page in every search to avoid stealing someone else's example.)

Extreme Close Up (ECU)
tightly frames a person or an object

www.inkdryerdesign.com/.../2009/01/toygiant.jpg

Wide Shot (WS)
The frame to show a landscape, scene, or context.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3286/2323259575_2cd55f9009.jpg?v=0


Mid Shot (MS)
a mid shot of a person would show their body from the waist up.

www.vogue.co.uk

And the rest......

Very Long Shot:
(VLS )
An image with substantial distance between the camera and the subject.

Very Wide Shot:
(VWS)
Portraying a larger landscape on a wider scale

Medium Long Shot:
(MLS)
Showing a person head to toe

Medium Close Up Shot:
(MCU)
Clearly showing the face without getting too close

Close Up:
(CU)
The subject takes up the entire frame

Big Close Up:
(BCU)
Focusing on facial expressions

The Little Mermaid.

In the first few minutes of the movie (I get sucked in when the mermaids start singing about King Tritan) the first scene is set up using a series of screen shots.

A Long Shot is used to establish the ocean scene (What), depicting the waves and seagulls before a mid shot captures the ship where the first scene takes place. There is then a character close up of Derek who is a main character in the story(who). As a minor character makes reference to King Tritan, Derek's facial expression of amusement and joy is capture via a Big Close Up (What). As the story of King Tritan is explained the shot changes to a Close Up of derek looking bewildered and confused (How) before panning out to another wide shot of the ship and fading sunlight (when), eventually fading down to the depths of the ocean for the next scene.

My brush with swine

I went to the doctor's the other day..presenting flu like symptoms and I was forced to wear a mask and sit in the quarantined area
which was also the Kid's Corner (swine flu victims do not get age old tv weeks and woman's weekly's...its miscellaneous Lego and wooden horses to pass the time) I was instructed to wash my hands every time I touched my face or sneezed or spoke
or smiled or did anything pig-like. The other patients (mainly old ducks with bowel problems) sat opposite me protected by a pane of glass. If the receptionist didnt gesture towards the sanitiser every time I flinched in my plastic kid's chair
the old ducks were sure to shoot me a look of disgust. The young Indian doctor was reluctant to shake my hand but he did, and I give him credit for that...they would have been as dry as autumn leaves after constant exposure to the hand sanitiser.
After straining to hear my muffled voice the young Indian doctor told me to take the mask off..and began to interrogate me on my recent travel history and social adventures.I was examined (it was a really great idea to not wear anything underneath
my jumper..made things lovely and awkward for the young Indian doctor and I)
Apparently I hadn't been anywhere or done anything remotely interesting and
and I was given antibiotics for my 'common cold' and dismissed to reception. I'm sure everyone was happy to see me out of the mask..
'oh' I could see them thinking 'what a waste of sanitiser'.