Monday, October 18, 2010

Florida Sunshine

So after graduation, I was given the chance to fly out to Miami, Florida to see a few friends of mine. My parents are so awesome, that they gave me a ticket to go out there and hang out. My first order of business was to hang out with Jillian, which was easy, because she was picking me up from the airport. Then it was a 4 hour drive down to Key West. We stayed at an awesome place called The Truman Hotel.

We went out and tore up the town. Jillian tried to keep up with me, but she forgot I was celebrating being out of school (a goal of mine for my whole life). So, she was hung over when she woke up, but that was nothing a little pool time couldn't fix.



After we left Key West, we drove up to Marathon, which is about 2 hours away from the southern most point. We met up with my old buddy Sean, who is a dolphin trainer at a resort called Hawks Cay. There we got to meet all his co-workers and all his awesome dolphins. They did all sorts of great tricks, like dancing above water, making motorcycle sounds, and a ton of other actions by command. Next was to go out with him and tear up his town. Jillian asked me to remind her that she was not drinking, and I forgot. Needless to say, I bought her drinks and she tried to keep up again. There was a band there that was playing surf music, but they also played some stuff that we could country (2 step) dance to. We tore that dance floor up and really impressed everyone there. Well, we think we did...we were under the influence of my favorite East Coast beer...Yuengling.
Once we got back from the bar, we went back to Sean's place and cooked some food that we picked up from the local fish market earlier in the day. It was awesome, and the friend we met, Mona, was also awesome.

We woke up the next morning and trekked back to Miami. Once in Miami, we went all over. We checked out the beach, the food, the awesome architecture. Awesome trip, I had a great time.



Saturday, September 18, 2010

Portfolio and Graduation

Well the time has finally come. I am a week away from my P.A.C. review, then a week after that is portfolio show. I am really happy with what I have to show, and I am working on last minute tweaks on my shell and print pieces.

My portfolio is going to consist of:
1. Interactive Shell (A kiosk style menu of my work)
2. Looping Reel
3. Print Pieces
4. Display Board

My display should really catch everyone's eye when they walk in the room. I am really looking forward to any feed back I receive at P.A.C. so I can be as unique as possible at the actual portfolio show. At the beginning, my goal was to have best portfolio, but now I am just trying to make it as entertaining and unique as possible so possible employers go back and talk about how cool it was.

My next post will most likely be after my portfolio show. I will upload pictures when I get them!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Open.ac.uk

In my eLearning class, I was given the assignment to take a short course from any subject I wanted, and to make not of the things I liked and did not like, and to experience a popular online learning website. I must say, it was more familar then I thought it would be.

I worked at FedEx-Kinkos, now known as Fedex Office. While there, I had to take specific courses to become skilled enough (gauged by the online learning site and my superior) to take on certain tasks. These tasks, and the courses I took, would help me get to the next pay scale. The FedEx learning intranet was way ahead of it's time, now that I look back on it, and very much resembled this online learning program. Audio, video, graphics, test, and LOTS of reading, it felt like I was back making copies.

Unlike the FedEx learning program, this one has social interaction and focus groups to be a part of. I did not partake in ths process. What I did see that was similar, was the inabilty to skip too far forward but still see what progress I made and what was left to do. I think this gives the learning hope that it will enevitably be over. I think this could be an overlooked feature, but is very important to the learner.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

What is eLearning?
eLearning is a collective intelligence online that can help students (or anyone for that matter) learn a subject using the knowledge of a group. This knowlage can be in the form of a website, blog, video blog, or wiki (collective journal with post editing ability).

Examples of eLearning?
- Website with an interactive time line about the wealthiest Americans in history.
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html

-Data collected about the AIDS epidemic put into a map graph and sideshow.
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/webspecials06/aids-25/index.shtml

-Clear explanations make this animated graph about economic cycles easy to understand.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/02/business/economy/20090705-cycles-graphic.html

-Technology Wiki for a Tech School
http://wiki.monroe.edu/index.php/Main_Page

Below is the link to my Delicious account where I have listed some eLarning sites dedicated to music, music technologies, and music business.

http://delicious.com/mikeplaystheguitar