Week of blogging in hindsight

YPSILANTI, Mich- Blogging has been an interesting experience, over the course of the semester I have done several types of blogging, now, including a week of a specific niche blog. I would hazard to say that the easiest part of this assignment and blogging as a whole is probably coming up with a topic. You can write about literally anything on a blog so why not?

The most difficult part to note, minus the video which was not incredibly fun, was probably tweeting during a live event.  This was a tedious undertaking I hope to never have to do again.  The probability of missing something is really high, I’m sure I misspelled several words and the tweets are too short to write anything substantial.  It’s really not a practical digital medium in my opinion.

If I were to change this at all I would probably start earlier (who wouldn’t?) and follow a specific player’s progression through a campaign.  I think that would be a really interesting development for a gamer blog and could easily attract a following of people interested in player progression.  Also, I would have liked to have taken more pictures.  Video is not really my medium so to speak, but I really enjoy taking stills of the players doing what they do.

I like to think I learned quite a bit from the assignment, I really liked how blogger was a fairly easy system to adapt after using wordpress. I enjoyed sitting in on a Dungeons and Dragons session from the outside and watching the adventure unfold.  Even though it was hard to report live. I would like to do something like that again, as a record keeper of sorts, but take my own notes and audio clips to assure that I miss less. A blog for a Dungeons and Dragons or Scion group to have access too would be a really good idea for them to recap on recent adventures.  Overall I hope to progress this blog somewhat, probably with new interesting things I encounter in the world of gaming.

Essay on Video Project

YPSILANTI, Mich-

My reflections on video as a form of digital media.
First off, I will begin this with saying that I now have an extremely high respect for anchor men and women who broadcast the news. It is a lot more work than it looks like. With the help of a friend I was able to film this in about an hour. It took significantly more time to upload the video, due to some problems with windows vista.

Once the video was uploaded onto a computer which had both the visual components to run the clip, as well as the audio. we began editing. This did not take as long however with some simple tools from windows movie maker it was easy enough to edit the clip so it was not all bad.

We then uploaded the video to both Yahoo video and Youtube. Yahoo video is not the best form of hosting, so we went with the Youtube clip. It was from there that I adjusted the size of the video slightly to make it fit this window. Also located to the right is another video. This was added easily using the HTML gadget and taking the code from Youtube.

As a whole, this project was beneficial. Unlike the audio assignment, I think uploading video is more practical and easier to do.

“Week of Blogging”

YPSILANTI, Mich.-

So, I have been thinking.  I have to make three posts relating to gaming for my new blog.  I can’t think of any cool games coming out any time soon, but I will most likely have some events I can cover.  As it is, My first story Is going to double as my breaking news quiz, I am going to do live tweets, next Monday during a Dungeons and Dragons game.  I might be able to go to a hosted Magic: The Gathering game, and do a similar story.  Aside from that I will probably aggregate a story from an online source about possibly a new Magic set, or new D&D stuff.  If anyone has suggestions let me know!

The Plan

YPSILANTI, Mich- As for my project, I’m thinking of interviewing some local gamers, as well as possibly getting some statements from a man I once met at the Michigan Renascence Festival who paints Magic: The Gathering cards. Like the seventh edition birds of paradise card.  If I can’t contact him, I would possibly get in touch with someone who makes games locally and discuss the reasons and problems with making games, as well as which games they like to play and why.

With this I will most likely focus on table top games, and not touch too much if at all on video games.  I could also take some stills of these games being played, or possibly do a video interview with a local gamer about his hobby.  As a whole I’d like to just do a general assessment of why people play the games that they do.  If there is any particular reason to pick one game over another, and potentially how much time and money they spend on gaming.  As I know, it can become extremely expensive.  Additionally, I would have liked to profile a player for some time, and see how they progress as well as their character.  There is not enough time to do this though,  -so I will probably stick with the other idea.

Thoughts on “The Reconstruction of American Journalism”

YPSILANTI, Mich. -

I will be completely honest in saying I did not read all of the article.  I did however get a chance to read the bold main points of it though.

In reading some of these I couldn’t help but, think of an idealistic place where things like obtaining more information from governmental sources is easy.  As it stands, from my experience, obtaining information from the government is not all together terribly smooth.  Especially depending on what it is you may be looking for.

“…to facilitate the gathering and dissemination of public information by citizens, and to expand public recognition of the many sources of relevant reporting.”

I think that this is a great statement of what should be done.  It does make sense for this information to become more public.  Unless I am missing some key point and what I’m thinking is a good idea is completely wrong.  Feel free to let me know if I have miss interpreted anything.

The “New” Blog

YPSILANTI, Mich. – Well, I think I’ve figured it out.  With some helpful suggestions from my readers, I have decided to undertake the “Gaming Blog”.

I really liked Ben’s idea that I could go to local game shops and sit in on Magic: The Gathering games, as if it were sports reporting.  I think there is a lot of potential news there. Especially amongst those who play regularly.

On a slightly different element, I was thinking about there being news about characters progression.  As some might know, as a RPG (Role playing game) progresses there is character progression, they evolve more elaborate story elements, and plot devices.  As a whole it is could be similar to human interest story and

A 20-sided die for gaming

writing about what this person or their character does in certain circumstances. As well as how they evolve over time.

This might be taking the story elements a little too far, but

hell it’s a blog. Most anything goes right?

Americans pull second in free dance at the Olympics

YPSILANTI, Mich. – This is an interesting article from AnnArbor.com, not only did we place second in the free dancing. They also are from Michigan and Graduated from the University of Michigan.  The story pertains on both a local and international level.

The Americans were not favored to place well in the competition although it was an extremely close match up.  The Russians seemed to default themselves by dressing with aboriginal themed costumes as opposed to the set theme of country/folk.

Although the Canadians did win in free dancing, it seems it has been overshadowed by their loss to the Americans in hockey.

My comment is at the bottom of the page, I could not figure out where to link it from.

This I believe…

YPSILANTI, Mich. – Here it is, at long last.  With some help from a tech savvy friend. I was able to record and upload my “This I believe” reading to the Internet.  I will address three places to obtain the recording, so as to not have any confusion.

First, I will link it here in this post.

Second it is located in the right bracket under “Digital Journalism”  This I Believe…

And third it is also 0n my ghetto, although improving web page.

My essay for this assignment, basically addresses my concerns for the future of journalism. As well as where I’m coming from with what I think should happen. I hope you enjoy it.

The niche? We will see…

YPSILANTI, Mich. – For my niche blog, I would like to do something focusing on gaming (specifically tabletop, such as Dungeons and Dragons or other dice based game), perhaps that of the underground social world that exists through gamers of both genders and of various ages.  Initially it was proposed to me that I do a blog on a much more argumentative and debated topic. To be fair though, at the moment, I don’t feel like having that argument with anyone.  I think it would be more interesting  to me and possibly beneficial to learn more about the gamers of the university, or of others.

I hope to attend and observe a gaming session that I am not involved in and have no affiliation towards to gain an outsiders perspective at the behaviors and mannerisms of the players. Also to see how they act in real circumstances in a legitimate social setting when not playing one of their characters.  I may be able to aggregate from sites which produce constant news about the gaming world, such as new developments and what direction the games are heading, or fan fiction which pertains to the gaming world.  Sites such as Wizards.com and White-wolf.com.

Aside from that I am totally open to suggestions as to where I could obtain more information, but as a whole I think it would be extremely interesting to take a back seat, so to speak, with one of these games.  Giving a perspective to people not at all involved in the gamers world would be a cool thing to try to attempt.

Aggregate story from BBC

YPSILANTI,  Mi.

The story I found is on the first gold metal to go to Slovakia, to Anastazia Kuzmina for winning a Biathlon.  I would say that this is just a feature story covering the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

The “Mission” of this story would be to cover the story, It is interesting that this woman is also a mother, and her reasoning for winning, “Three words explain my success – training, training, training.”

I do not think the article could be any different. The only thing I might have done was make it longer, extending on some of what she may have done in the competition.