For my flash project, I decided to do a presentation on what kinds of things you should keep in mind when moving into the dorms and living in them. The reason I decided to do this was because I remember coming into my first year of SMASH, completely unaware of what was going on, and was nervous as to what to bring with me. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like living in the dorms and didn’t know what kinda of things we would be doing. I just want future 1st year scholars to be able to know what they need when coming into the academy

Flash Presentation: Living in the UC Berkeley Dorms as a SMASH Scholar (Non-Linear)

Frame 1: [Title] Living in the UC Berkeley Dorms

Frame 2: [Intro] Living in the UC Berkeley Dorms is an exciting and new experience for many people. Many people who have never lived on campus are clueless as to what to bring and what it’s like to live in the dorms. There are avariety of components that make up how to live in the dorms to the fullest and to not make any mistakes. {GO BUTTON}

Frame 3: [Menu] *Buttons that lead to a variety of different pages, each with a different category.

{TOILETRIES}{DORMS}{OUTSIDE}{LEISURE}{ROOMMATE}{FOOD}{CLOTHING}{KEYS}{WEEKEN

D}{TIME MANAGEMENT}{RA’s}….etc.

Frame 4: Dependant on which button is pushed

{TOILETRIES} A list of things you will not want to forget that are associated with the bathroom.

{DORMS} What dorms are like.. finding dorm.. basic setup.. sizes..

{OUTSIDE} What it’s like outside.. what to do outside.. choice of clothing dependant on weather

{LEISURE} Make sure you bring other things to do on your leisure time so you and your friends wont’ get bored

{ROOMATE} You don’t know who your roommate is going to be, so make sure to have an open mind when coming into the dorms.

{FOOD}The food here is not all that great so make sure to pack some extra snacks.

{CLOTHING}Will want to bring a variety of clothing because the weather in Berkeley can be very unexpected

{KEYS}You must take your keys everywhere. Never lose them or there will be a fee.

{WEEKEND}Whenever you go home on the weekend, be sure to take anything you need. Bring all materials you need to complete your homework, all the clothes you will need to wash, etc.

{TIME MANAGEMENT} You will definitely want to manage your time when living in the dorms. You want to be able to have fun, but not so much fun that your work won’t get completed. Be sure to use your time wisely.

{RA’s} The resident advisors are here to help you. They will assist you in any way possible. Be sure to get to know them well because you will be living with them for 5 weeks. Although some may seem strict at first, they have only your best interest at heart.

{…} = button

activities_podcast

Our podcast was concerning the mandated activities at the SMASH academy. For our podcast, we interviewed 3 SMASH scholars and one SMASH RA. The scholars that we interviewed were Jessica Sodhi, Joseph De La Riva, Fynoolah O’Reily. The SMASH RA that we interviewed was Lorin Jackson. We asked them a variety of questions involving SMASH activities. They each gave us varying answers, and each of them had different opinions on the activities. Based on their responses, we concluded that the SMASH activities bring SMASH scholars closer as a family.

The way in which my podcast is different from my group members is basically the songs that I chose. The song’s that i chose were “Move Along” by The All American Rejects, and “Everything’s Magic” by Angeles and Airwaves (AVA). The reason I chose these songs was because they are very upbeat songs which went great with our topic because activities are meant to be fun. I also chose to vary the people who were answering questions so it wouldn’t become too boring in such a short amount of time.

-posted by anthony first, not jorge

I. Intro

• SMASH intro
• “We’re here to talk about how SMASH students feel about having activities forced upon them. A typical day during our SMASH summer session consists of waking up, going to breakfast, going to class, going to lunch, going back to class, having a meeting, going to dinner, and finally tutorial. Unfortunately to add on to our busy schedules, it is required for us to participate in mandatory group activities. After having a full day of classes, many of us would like to go back to our dorms and rest, or just finish up some left over homework. We feel that these mandated activities take much of our free time away, which we could be using to do something else. We interviewed other SMASH scholars to see what they thought about these activities.

II. Interviews

• Questions to come later.

III. Conclusion

• After having done all our interviews….(conclusion will be posted after interviews). But in the end we still believe that these activities should not be mandatory, but rather voluntary.

What’s In a Name?

At first glance, my montage may seem like a jumbled mess. There are a lot of things that I like and a lot of things to me, so it’s hard to fit it all on such a small space. My first name Anthony is said to mean “worthy of praise”. I didn’t know how to represent it on my montage so I decided to leave it out. My last name means “having crow-like qualities.” I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I didn’t know how to represent either my first of last name on my montage. One thing I did find was my family crest. My last name Vazquez is a variation of the Spanish name “Vasquez”. They each mean the same thing, my last name just changed over time.

My montage contains a variety of images. I’ll start by explaining the picture in the bottom right corner. It is a picture of the CD cover of one of my favorite bands, Angels and Airwaves (AVA for short). I was introduced to this band in 8^th grade by a friend of mine. As I grew older, I started to listen to more of this bands music. I really like their music because it is alternative rock, my favorite genre of music. I like their songs because their lyrics really speak to me. One song of theirs is “Everything’s Magic”. It’s a mellow that basically says there’s magic in everything, even in things you wouldn’t expect to find magic in.

This montage also depicts some of my hobbies and interests. On the bottom left corner is a Nintendo 64 logo. Growing up, Nintendo 64 was my favorite game system. I was able to play all of the greatest games on there such as Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart 64, and Banjo Kazooie. It was a system that brought my cousins and me together because we would always play, hoping to see which one of us was the better player. Towards the middle of my montage is an acoustic guitar. I do not know how to play the guitar, but I do hope to learn someday. My brother owns an acoustic guitar and I have tried to learn, but haven’t made much progress. I plan to keep playing until I learn the basics of playing a guitar.

At the top left corner of my montage is a symbol of the movie The Boondock Saints. This movie is about two Irish men who go around killing Irish gangsters. Although this is a very violent movie, it is one of my favorite movies. The first time I watched it was when I was working on a video project with some friends. It was a really good movie, and easily became one of my favorites. To the right of my montage, there is a Vans logo that says “Vans Off the Wall”. The reason I included this in my montage is that Vans is my favorite brand of shoes. I like these shoes because they are comfortable and come in a variety of styles. I also included the Vans logo because I hope to one day learn to skate.

Also at the top right corner of my montage is the picture of two flags, a Mexican flag and a Salvadorean flag. The reason I included these was because my mom is Salvadorean and my dad is Mexican. I  am very proud to be of Hispanic descent, and love the two countries I come from. The largest picture in my montage, which is the background, is a picture of my hometown: Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the city in which I was born and grew up in. I lived there for thirteen years of my life until I moved to San Jose. It is not a decision which I regret, but I do miss my hometown from time to time. It is where most of my family is and I do miss them. Los Angeles will be a part of my for the rest of my life.

Trevor,

I’m not going to be here this Thursday so is there anything I need to know or have before tech class next Tuesday?

For as long as I can remember, I have been interacting with all different types of media. Whether it was television, Super Nintendo, or Nintendo 64, media has always been a part of my life. I always remember watching TV shows such as Hey Arnold!, Gilligan’s Island and Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Basically, TV and video games were my life after school between kindergarten and 5^th grade. I would play video games and watch TV from the time I got home to the time I went to sleep. I always remember coming home playing Diddy Kong Racing’s adventure mode and trying to beat the all mighty Wizpig in a race. I would play Super Smash Brothers and always choose my favorite character, Ness. By far my favorite game would probably be The Legend of Zelda: Occarina of Time. I would spend hours on end trying to beat the infamous Ganondorf.

I first came into contact with these two forms of media through my parents and my friends. Obviously my parents would watch TV and as I grew up I slowly began to watch more and more of it. Television was my door into the media world. Through television I was able see the commercial for the N64 and begged my parents to buy the system for me. These two forms of media soon became a part of my life. I think that these forms of media are very effective because most people use them. There are many people that play video games. These people can range from young to old and males to females. The television is something that mostly everyone watched. Many people like to watch the latest episodes of Rob and Big or Spongebob. Many also watch television to get their daily news. These forms of media are effective because so many people use them everyday.

As I grew older, I slowly began to learn about new forms of media. The news of the internet soon reached me and I was astonished by what it was. I didn’t understand it at first but I didn’t really need to. All I did was look up game cheats. Now that I am older, I come into contact with more forms of media. I love to listen to music, mainly alternative bands such as Story of the Year and Angels and Airwaves. Youtube has also become a very popular website for people to use. People use Youtube in a variety of ways which range from looking up funny videos to looking up how to tie a tie. Media is a huge influence in many peoples’ lives.

These types of media are readily available for many people to use. For example, many people use youtube to present information about a variety of topics. These can range from the crisis in Darfur to the one in Myanmar. Anybody can access youtube to upload any types of videos. Media can be used to induce change in a variety of ways. If people television and youtube to give out information instead of uploading funny videos, the media can induce change. People respond to things that make sense and are entertaining. Media can be both logical and entertaining. One example of how media has induced change is the crisis in Myanmar. When people heard about the crisis, they willingly donated their time and money to help the unfortunate people. Media can be used by anybody and can be used in a variety of ways such as entertainment and news.