Comic Life Self-Reflection

Working with Comic Life was certainly something new, but it wasn't that hard. I liked that everything was visible and easy to manage. Talking boxes and different styles of font and backgrounds took almost no time to locate. The system is very nice, but the overall experience was not exactly my favorite. For someone that is a fan of this type of stuff, editing and taking time in creativity, Comic Life is great. For someone like me, that likes to almost only write and do nothing more, it can get quite boring. Specially when exporting Photo Shop images. It takes a couple of full-time classes only to edit the images and import them to Comic Life. I think that our project is worthy of being showed to other people. We took some serious time on our details and the information is clear. Using Comic Life was something new and easy, but it takes creative types of people for it to flourish.

I believe that comics can be useful to learn serious literature. They are obviously not the most serious resource to learn about a subject, but they work. I agree that some comics are mainly made to entertain. Although I also think some comics are made for easy understanding about serious subjects. I've seen some of my classmates comics about Romeo and Juliet and they do show the characteristics of the play. They use original language, and modern language when appropriate or when not talking about something very important. Overall, I think that comics are a useful and easy approach to understand literary subjects.

Bay in a Day

Day on Earth Rodrigo from mistermark on Vimeo.

My video is about a day in my life, and a couple of the things I like to do. At the end, it shows pictures of my friends, which tell how much I appreciate them. If I could choose another theme I would've chosen the beach. I was actually going to do a video about beaches in Vallarta, but it seemed to be fairly complicated. Plus, I live a little far from the beaches here in Puerto Vallarta. The process took a fair amount of time, even if it looks so easy to make. I did edit some parts to make it look better, it took me about two hours to make the first two minutes of the video. The other half took about a class and a half to complete, it was easier since I didn't have to make too many changes to the stills. I still tried to make it more smooth when going along with the song, but you can't be perfect always. Sometimes if you fix something, another thing goes wrong, and it goes on and on. I think that my project is good, I think that people will like it, the song is really soothing and the video is relaxing.

One day on Earth video

I really liked the video because of everything it shows. It tells us that the world is something beautiful that is worth recording. The purpose of the video was to inspire us to do the same. They want us to record a day in our personal world. I think that this is going to be a very fun activity to make. We'll get to know each other better, and we are going to get to express ourselves individually. I can't wait to see how my classmates come out on their projects.

I think that the parts with war and ugly scenes are weak because they don't really inspire you. They let you see the bad things in Earth and then you don't really feel like making your own video. The parts with nature and the little girl at the beginning are really nice. These things remind you of innocence and purity. The world must be seen that way in order to truly appreciate it, and I enjoy to think that way. The video in general was very pleasing, but there were some parts that were kind of ugly. I'm planning on making mine very beautiful and unique.

Fuel efficiency

In the last days of computer class, I have learned to measure how much fuel different vehicles use, and how much time I need to make it to school each year. I learned that there are several cars, such as hybrid ones, that use a lot less fuel than a normal car. Riding a bicycle is by far the most fuel efficient method of transportation, as well as walking. I plan on getting a fuel efficient car when I'm 16, I also want a cool car, but I'll think about fuel efficiency when browsing for one. I think that this was a very useful project, these are things I will probably find handy in the future. I wish we can do something similar soon, I find it to be a very interesting subject. Also, we should learn to use less fuel, even if we are lucky to live the way we do. For now, let's move onto another assignment, see you later!

Cars and Fuel

Actual Car: I have Ford Explorer 2009, and it uses 41
0.1154 liters of fuel per year. It is actually a lot, but I need to come to school so it's necessary.



Dream Car: My dream car is the Aston Martin Vanquish, it uses 472.8082 liters per year, so it would be worse for the environment, but it is still my dream car.

Efficient Car #1 (Mini Cooper S 2011): The Mini Cooper uses 84.8965 liters of fuel per year. It's the most efficient car of all four I've listed and it is actually a cool car. I might buy a Mini Cooper when I turn sixteen, I'm seriously thinking about it.

Efficient Car #2 (Toyota Camry Hybrid 2010): The Toyota Hybrid uses 90.1209 liters per year which is actually really great. It wastes a lot more less fuel than my previous cars.

Google Earth Tours

I'm going to talk about the Google Earth projects that the class just did. Some did really well and some did horrible. Adriana's project was good, she had the necessary places and good timing when moving from one place to another. It would be better if it had a little more effects though. Marifer's was really bad. She just moved around the place and did not zoom in into anything, it lasted 25 seconds. Plus, she only had two places, I have nothing positive to say about this one. Courtney's just zoomed into her house and stayed focused on that place for like a whole minute and then ended. I can give her a positive on the good start, but the rest of it is boring and bad. My tour had smooth and good, timed movement in my opinion, the zooms where also smooth. I had five stops, which were more than necessary, so that's another positive attribute. The only thing I would change would be inserting voice explanation. I actually tried to do this, and I even tried with a mic, but I just didn't understand how it worked. It was a very exciting project and I hope we use Google Earth again someday.

JOY

J
In first period, we didn't have a teacher so we just were like listening to our iPods and chatting with each other and it was quite relaxing. I feel more comfortable starting the day now because I feel more calm. I don't really know why Mr. Whitten didn't come, but he didn't show up to class. Miss Schalla substituted him yesterday I guess she was busy with another class or something else because no one ever came. We just did our own stuff for 45 minutes and waited for the bell to ring, then we moved on to this class. Moving on to a different subject, I ate an apple this morning, which is good because I never have breakfast. It actually works, I don't feel like I'm about to sleep. I hope this will be a good day to learn at school.

O
I would like to travel the world alone. I would also like to go with my family another time, but I would love to go by myself at least once. Enjoy a good dinner in front of the Eiffel Tower and just relax with the view. Drinking a German ice cream by the pool and watching the sunset at a nice cafe. Even taking a walk down the roads of Rome would be amazing. It's those little things in life that make it so great, you don't need to do big stuff to enjoy yourself. I would really love to do that someday, maybe I will when I work and live on my own. I feel like it's something you got to do before you leave this world.

Y
A part of me that makes me very special is my charisma. I don't ever treat people badly or at least I try my best not to. I do not judge people by their looks or by how much money they have. I judge people according to their personality, if they treat me well, I treat them well. I'm actually friends with everyone, I don't really know people with whom I don't talk or don't get along well with them. I like all types of sports too and I'm open minded, ready to learn and experience new stuff. I'm also good when talking to people, I don't really feel awkward with silence or anything, I just feel that talking is talking, and it doesn't have to be weird. If you get to know me I'm sure we'll get along, and remember, treat people the way you wish to be treated!