Final Sound Slide!

Final Soundslide Rationale!

I was hesitant when picking a topic or something that I am passionate about for my final project, a 2 minute soundslide. I decided to complete a soundslide about my Uncle who passed away in Iraq. My uncle is very important to me, and I wanted to show the class just how much he meant to me. Also, I knew this would be a great keep sake and "gift" for my family. I chose to play the song "You Raise Me Up" (the instrumental version) in the background because it really connects to the message that I wanted to convey throughout the sound slide. The song really touched home, and made my project just that much more emotional, a characteristic I was striving for. One difficulty I faced when completing this assignment was trying to find an instrumental song that I could use for my background music. Not having access to an iTunes account to purchase the song, and having no means to download it, I found it difficult to not only find the song I wanted, but more specifically to find the instrumental version of it. Originally I had wanted to play "Crash Into Me" by Dave Matthews Band, because it was my uncle's favorite song, however I was limited and forced to use "You Raise Me Up". If I had more time I would definitely try to find an instrumental version of the song I actually wanted. My biggest challenge was putting all of my work together into the sound slide. I had my pictures ready, my voice over commentary, and the song I had chose. The difficult part for me was compiling it all together and aligning the slides with my voice and the pictures. I am most proud that I could incorporate someone I am very passionate about with my school work, thus making this project very personal and very meaningful. Overall, this project is something I will keep forever.

InDesign BiBi Card!

Unlike the Quark Express BiBi Card, which I found to be relatively easy, I was a little taken about when I began my BiBi card in InDesign. It was difficult to get used to the InDesign options and tabs, and figure out how I could convert what I had done on Quark into InDesign. If I had more time, I would definitely have spent it perfecting fonts, layouts, and making it look more identical to my Quark Express BiBi card, and of course the original. I am most proud, as I had stated in my last blog post, that I could work on this project all on my own, and still manage to do a decent job. My biggest challenge was keeping focus and not getting frustrated with this program. Although difficult, InDesign will definitely help me in the future.

Quark Xpress BiBi Card!

This assignment seemed challenging to me at first, however, after realizing that I had a good understanding of how to use quark from a previous assignment, and setting the margins and size of my document, I was well on my way to success. The most difficult thing I faced while completing this BiBi card on Quark, was that it was difficult to find the magazine cover used on the actual card. I thought it would be harder to match the fonts, however, that part was pretty easy seeing as though my original BiBi Card used many standard fonts, such as Times New Roman and Arial. If I had more time, I would simply perfect my BiBi card more. I feel as though I did a great job, however, more time would obviously mean a better quality assignment. The most fulfilling part of this assignment was that I could take a card from a magazine and completely recreate it on my own, making it look almost exactly the same as the original. With little direction for this project, I found that I had actually learned how to use Quark and could function with it by myself. Overall, I enjoyed this assignment although it was extremely tedious and time consuming.

Final Soundslide Script!

It was August 6, 2002. My family and I flew to Greenville, NC to attend m y uncle’s wedding. The entire time we were there, I spent countless hours laughing and driving around aimlessly with my uncle, listening to his favorite music by the Dave Matthews Band. My Uncle Chris was my favorite relative, and those 4 days in North Carolina were a blast. Little did I know that with a kiss and a hug and a plane ride back home, I would never see my uncle alive again. The saying goes “you don’t know what you got til its gone”. I never knew how much this statement would impact my life.

My uncle, Captain Christopher Cash was living the dream before he was deployed to Iraq. He was a 36-year old father of 2 teenage boys, he has recently gotten remarried to the love of his life, & he was looking forward to starting a family with her. His career as an exercise physiologist was keeping him in supreme condition on top of the countless miles he would run every day. Serving in the Army Reserves after almost 20 years in the Army, my uncle was required to attend boot camp once a month.

He was born and raised in Rhode Island, attending high school in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and moving to Texas and North Carolina for the army. He had an accent that was a mix between the lovely melting pot accents of Rhode Island, with a twist of Southern twang. For as long as I can remember, my Uncle Chris had lived in North Carolina, so I really didn’t get to see him much. But long distance phone calls and short visits here and there kept us close. We would always sit down together and tease my mom, which is his older sister. We were like a tag team. He had a muscular build and I always believed that my uncle was my hero, no matter if he was in jeans and an Eddie Bauer t-shirt or his army fatigues, my Uncle Chris had always been a hero in my eyes.

June 24, 2004 changed my life completely. I had never really lost any close family members, and was unaware of the pain it caused. It was a typical summer afternoon, my sister & I were preparing for our softball game that night. We were just about to start eating dinner with my parents, when the phone rang. I picked it up and found that it was my grandfather was on the line. He sounded frantic and told me to get my mom as soon as possible. I handed the phone to my mom and the rest was a blur. I learned that my Uncle Chris had been killed in Iraq, due to an enemy sniper. My heart felt shattered and I couldn’t do anything but cry and scream “NO” over and over again. He was gone. I never got to say goodbye.

My mom always says you have to make the best out of every situation. After my uncle passed away my family and I started a memorial race in his honor. It was tough to celebrate Christmas and not get a phone call from him, and to celebrate Father’s Day when I knew my cousins had no one to celebrate it with. I still miss him more and more every single day, but I do know that my uncle, Captain Christopher Cash was a hero.

Powerpoint Soundslide!

For this sound slide, we were asked to use Audacity to cut 1 minute out of the same song we used for our PowerPoint presentation. I used the song "Burnin' Up" by the Jonas Brothers. It was not that hard to figure out how to cut the song down to a minute, however after converting it from an MP3 and then to a WAV and then back to an MP3 was very intricate and redundant. If I had more time I would have been more creative with what part of my song I chose and try to make it with my pictures better. The pictures were taken from the slide show I had previously completed on the Jonas Brothers. I am most proud that I could easily figure out how to upload the song and coordinate it with the matching pictures. Overall, I learned a lot throughout this assignment, and I know I will be using Audacity in the future.">

Newsletter!

This newsletter was not the easiest thing to do for me. I did not have a difficult time finding the information, however putting it all together and having the pictures fit the screen was difficult, because most pictures I found were not big enough to fit the newsletter's size. If I had more time I would definitely have been more creative with my pictures and try to put better and more interesting information in it. I am most proud of the fact that I could put together a professional looking newsletter by myself, using a color scheme and font scheme. Overall, I feel confident about this assignment however, I wish I had more time to perfect my work. It was easy to find the pictures however, because I used the same pictures and information from my already made brochure.