James's Blog.

Does copyright hinder or cultivate creativity?

March 7th, 2013 by

I think that copyright hinders creativity because we take peoples work and we make it better fix it up to are own liking, We are going to have to use have to use someone else’s creation in order to create something.

Basically everything that you create has to do is copyright. if we want to create something, we need to be inspired by others first, we need to use beats so we use a drum beat but that beat is already made from someone else. Everything that we invent from someone else’s creation. But, because of copyright laws, they need to pay for that one drum sound.

Overall, I think that copyright hinders creativity because everything that we invent is something that we take from something original and make it better or change it. However i think if you make a little video or just remix and its 1 min long or less then that should be allowed, if its over 10 mins than maybe it should not be allowed.

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Art Relfection

March 5th, 2013 by

During the last few weeks of art class we have been working on creating a character, We were all given a type of font and I was given comic sans. I thought that Comic Sans would be a easy Type of Font to do because it seems like a superhero. We all got different fonts. I did a lot of research on what comic sans could be and where it was made. Later we had to create sketches and plans of our character’s face, head, hands and body. After experimenting, we had to make our final draft and upload it onto the computer. We would later add color to the drawing using Adobe Illustrator.

I think I was able to capture the comic sans Super hero like I planned, but there were some things I could’ve improved. The face of my character was quite successful but I did not make the lines clear so i could not add the black for the mask so that made it look a little weird, I think one of my weaknesses was the skin tone I was looking for a tanned skin tone but i ended up making him spray tan or orange, I should have spent more time on my final, especially on the skin tone. I think I did an alright job at doing the clothes for my character but I think if I added a cape then that would have made it a little better and made it represent Comic sans as a Super Hero.

I think I could have improved the shape of my guy, He looks kind of square and I wanted him to look buff and well built but it didn’t look the way i wanted to in that sense, if i make his arms more muscular and his body more Curvy i think it would have looked a lot better.I did a good job researching and planning and my final character came out as I wanted Except for the skin tone. I could’ve done a better job researching as well. I researched a variety of cartoon characters and this helped, but what could have been even more helpful, was if I chose cartoon characters that I would use as inspiration for my character.

 Here is my Font: Comic Sans

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Sidelined book trailer

January 8th, 2013 by

This is the book trailer that I made for a book that I read called sidelined by Trevor Kew, this book is about a goal keeper who has to move schools and try out for the soccer team, she has a few problems on the way. This semester I have read varrys of books,I have included my shelfari to show you what i have read.

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Presentation reviews

December 18th, 2012 by

For this unit (poems) we had to make and present a presentation about a poem of our choice from a website called Poetry 180. This website has 180 different poems. For the presentations we were put into groups of 4, we had to write about our group members and 1 more person of out choice. My group members were pascal, Amanda and Luke. The other person I chose was Henning.

Pascal: Pascal did his presentation about the poem: “Fat is not a fairytale”. I also wanted to chose this poem but i let pascal do it, pascal started by reading his poem to the class. This poem was about Being fat can not be a fairytale. I think that Pascal did an ok job at analyzing and making connections to/about the poem.

Henning: Henning’s poem was “to help the monkey cross the river“. He started out by reading the poem, then he shortly analyzed it, even know it was a short analyz it was a verry well done one.  He connected his poem to teaching a child about dangers and fear. That you can’t just take the dangers of life away.

Luke: Luke’s poem was “The Death of Santa Clause“. Luke started out by reading it (like everyone else). As the title says it’s about Santa Clause dying. But Luke thought that this poem could also be about that the part of a child that believes in santa dies. About growing up and realizing that some thing aren’t true.But I did not think that Luke properlly analyzed the poem.

Amanda: Amanda’s poem was: “for my daughter”. She connected her poem to the poem: “for my first son”. Both of the poems were about dying and growing up. She first read the poem. I think that Amanda’s poem is about hope. he anazlyation was well done and she didnt say alot of Um’s and Like’s

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Drama

November 28th, 2012 by

What is the skill(s) I used?

I used a lot of body language, showing that I was an mother, I also used vocals, for example a weak voice showing that I was very old. It was mostly the posture and body language that I used.

How did I approach creating the character? Was it successful- if so, how?

I think that creating the character was a good successful. To show that I was lower status I also attempted to look weaker and older, by having a bent back, and shaky hands, and I also was very polite whenever I spoke to ‘M’, by calling him by the sir name and never saying no to any of the things I had to do, even if it became too much in the end. I also tried to be nice, for example even when I got fired I complimented him. This can also show that I need to respect him even if he doesn’t respect me.

What needed improvement? Make a suggestion?

I think I could work more on facial expression, and maybe also after ‘mr.Ford’ had removed the stuff I could’ve ‘massaged’ my arms to show that they are sore. I could also have spoken louder, still keeping a weak voice but speaking louder so the camera can easily record it and it is easier to hear.

How can I use these skills in performance?

I think these skills could help me in performance because being able to hear what the actors are saying is, of course, very important if there is a dialogue going on. I need to have more facial expressions and more movments which will help me in the future.

Posted in Drama, Uncategorized | | | 0 Comments

Art Reflection

November 28th, 2012 by

For a few weeks now in art class, we have been reserching abstract art, our unit question is ” What makes art attractive?”  We were showed many abstrack artists a few of those artists caught my eye. We were told to reserch then draw some thumbnails i drew 20 thumb nails and i picked a good one that i really wanted to give a try and see how it turned out.

During this unit i found out i had a lot of Stenghts and Weaknesses, a few of those are, Mixing Paints, While i was painting the first 3 circles i painted were really good i liked how i blended them together. And my weaknesses are i dont think about what im going to do next, I messed up some colors because i didnt blend them to well. I Took a few looks at different painters and artists and Keneth Noland caught my eye, while looking for artists i saw varieties of different styles and many different types of painting. As i said in the above i drew a few thumbnails and i picked the one that is circles in circles and i liked this kind of design thats why i made many attempts to draw this on A4 paper.

In conclusion I think that I did well on my painting. When I look at it now I would have changed a few minor things that don’t matter much. But if I could I would do a different painting now, because when I looked at my thumbnails again I saw many that I think looked a little bit better  then my final painting. But that is just my opinion. I learned a lot in this unit, I also enjoyed it, so far it has been my favorite art unit at YIS. Abstract art was very inspiring for me, a lot of the different abstract paintings appealed to me. Abstract art is something different, you can let more loos on it, you can go crazy with on your painting. But one thing you have to remember is that going crazy on your painting and trying out a million different things might not always look good. There is always a point where it becomes to much, where the painting starts to look bad and confusing.

Here is my painting:

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Tech Reflection

November 26th, 2012 by

For the last few weeks in Tech class we have been making our own slide show about a topic we brainstormed. I chose soccer because im so used to soccer that i thought it would be a good topic to chose. We had to research three presentations made by other people and note what they did well and what they did good.

Investigation: For the investigation we looked at many different presentations and we reflected what was good about those presentations and what they could have done better, we drew a table and wrote good things bad things and overall how there presentation was.

Design: For the Design we made our own presentation about a topic we chose, i chose soccer because i can relate to soccer, i play soccer almost every day so i know alot of the rules and how to play the games so it was challenging but a bit easier because i know about soccer. We had to create our presentation, i chose to make my presentation on keynote because i like the way keynote is, it is easy to use and it is a simple presentation application.

Plan: In the plan we started to brainstorm about different topics that we were going to present on. Then we had to pick one of the three and make another brainstorm but this time it was more detailed and had alot of  content into the brainstorm.I brainstormed about soccer as i explained above i can relate to soccer a lot.
Create: For the creating process we had to create the presentation, simple. but no it wasnt that simple we had to find the right pictures and it was a bit challenging to find the right pictures, i had a lit of problems in the type of text i wrote, i didnt want it to be really Silly text but i didnt want to use Times New Roman.

 

Presentation: I presented infront of the class as did my peers, i had alot of strengths in this presentation but i also had a lot of weaknesses, here and some of them for you,

+ I didnt have a lot of text on my slides

+ I spoke with a loud and clear voice

+ Introduction

+ I had interesting pictures

- I was fiddling a lot with my hands

- It was a short slide show

This was an good unit and presenting is something that we all have to do now and then. I Hope i can have the same skills and improve my weaknesses for the next time we present in class.

Soccer Presentation from 17beej

Posted in tech | | | 0 Comments

Field Studies Diary Gd8

November 8th, 2012 by

Day 1.

Area of interaction: Enviorment

Today I woke up at 5:10am I was really tired and hungry, so I slowly walked up stairs and poored myself a cup of joe and got some cereal in my bowel, I ate and got ready to go to haneda with jamie and sophie, we drove in Jamie’s dads car. When we were driving to haneda i saw many beautiful sights.When we went over the yokohama bay bridge to get to haneda airporpt I could see the water, it looked stunning and blue. When we got to the airport we checked our bags in and went to the airport security, Niel had a small pocket knife in his hand luggage which they saw and talked to him about but he was allowed to take it on the flight. After getting on the plane i when to my seat, i was sitting next to kazuki and harrison small was in front of me. It was a 1hour and 30 minute flight, we were all sad miss letham did not join us on the plane ride, Miss Letham was sick so she met us 2 days into field studies. After getting off the plane we took a 2 hour bus ride to N.A.C and we ate lunch there, it was not the best lunch because it cold when we arrived, After eating our “Wonderfull” lunch we took a big hike to our camp site, it was a great hike we really could interact with nature and see mountains and other beautiful sights. After walking our wonderfull hike to the camp spot we made a fire and started cooking our curry while half of us were cooking curry others were setting up tents, I did all the chooping up of the vegtibals and raw chicken Harrison helped a bit, After cutting those things up i went and washed them, just to make sure any extra skin had been washed off, I joined my group of, Harrison,Mia,Rohan,Niel and Myself when I sat down next to them i was about to put the vegtibals and raw chicken into the pot but we soon relized the pot had a huge crack in it, So we joined other groups and helped them. Later on we had finished our curry and went to see/ pick out our tents, I was in a tent with, Rohan, Niel, Pascal and myself We had to change tents 3 times cause we had so big tents and other groups had more people in them. after getting in our tents we put our bags down and chose which part we were sleeping in. Later the teachers called us so we walked over to them, as we were walking if you took a good look up you could see stars thaat looked like flickering cristals in the sky, The teachers said if anyone wanted to go to the onsen they had to go with the teachers, none of my tent wanted to go so we stayed there and I hung out with people from other tents. When we all went to sleep after brushing our teeth we could not really get into a deep sleep or actually go to sleep it was really cold. I woke up almost every 2 hours because it was so cold.

Day 2.

We all woke up around 6:00 am and got out side our tents, i hated the blanket that I used for a pillow cause my face was basically frozen to it, it felt horrible. Some people went into other peoples tents and played cards for 1-2 hours as the camp site people made our breakfast. I went down to the drink machine and bought a drink, it was really cool because Geva was with me and i found a drink just newly came out of the machine that hadnt been opend yet. As we walked back to the camp site we were talking about the rooms and who we hoped would be in our rooms, i was hoping for Rohan, Henning, Claude, Axel, Daniel, Jamie and Myself and i was really hoping they wanted the same thing it would be really awesome to be in a room with those guys, i have been in a room on field studies with rohan for 2-3 times now. Later when we got up to the camp site we saw people lining up for people for breakfast, it smelt really good eggs and break Yum. I lined up and got breakfast i had egg on bread with some salad. Later on after washing all the dishes and cleaned the tents we took a huge hike up the mountain and back again we went up a ski slope and when down it, it was really fun. After we packed up the tents and got our bags out we took a bus to H.I.S, As we arrived at H.I.S we could see our old P.E teacher Mr. Renalds it was fantastic to see hima again he used to be the best P.E Teacher ever. We Walked into H.I.S and then he talked to us for a little about what we will be doing in the future with him and other people in a school. So we stood up and lined up for lunch because he had a great stand with food on it, I had crisps and grapes and a salad and some juice which tasted fantastic. Later we played outside, i brought my small american foot ball which all my friends enjoyed playing with My team scored some fantastic goals, in my team were these great players, Henning, Harrison and Geva we worked as a great team. Later he told us what we would be doign so we took a bus To another school where we were tought how to make these flower decorations i thought mine looked pretty good if i dont say so myself, but the best one I thought was claude he had great detail and technique in his flowers arranging it was super to see how and what he would do next. After that amazing experience we got on the bus again ( wow So many bus trips :P ) We drove to a local farm where we helped her put the greenhouses away for the winter, it was amazing seeing how many plants and crops she had growing there on her small farm but some people whent around and destroyed some of it, I do admit I did pick up one or two vegtibals but i put them back after words I didnt break one crop that day. Later after we took all the greenhouses down we carved pumpkins for halloween so that they could sell them, I have to admit it was pretty challenging carving the pumpkin but i got threw it with the help of Henning (Gustaf). Later we took another bus back to N.A.C where we eat dinner it was alot better then the last time, it was fish and salad. i eat it all up, i was sitting at a table with harri and Mia. After that deliciouse dinner we took the bus to the hotel where we are going to stay for the next three days. It was a beautiful hotel but we had half the size room then the girls. In My room was EXACTLY WHO WE WANTED!?!?! Rohan,Pascal,Henning,Claude,Harrison,Daniel,Jamie and Axel fantastic room!?!! After getting into the rooms we put down our futons where we wanted to sleep and made our beds, i was sleeping next to rohan :) . Some people went to the onsen but i chose not to for that day.After everyone went to onsen we went to the meeting room 8:30 and wrote in our jornals about what we did that day. Then we went to our room me and our friends messed around a bit before and after lights out. (Gazza)

Day 3.

Today we woke up at 5:00 because someone forgot to turn an alarm off and they didnt turn it off till 5:50.. we were all so tired but we got dressed and headed to breakfast. I had sausages and hash browns. then we took the bus to the cool place called N.A.C, The manager talked for a while then we got dry suits on that were soo good because for the last 2 years we had to wear wet suits which stuck to my body and I hated them, but now its ok cause I love dry suits, We later drove to the kyaking place for 1.5-2 hours to get there, then we got into groups of 2 i was with rohan, i picked rohan because he is strong, we worm well as a team and we are good bro’s, we were in the kayak next to Marii and Mia, they were a good strong team. As we got into the water i diped my hand in it was cold, rohan was at the back of the kyak and he did the steering with the rudder, later when we were getting closer to the island we kept on pushing harder and harder we tryed to make it there in the top 3 but we came 4th we were close, it took 2hours to get to the island, as soon as we got there we pulled our kyaks to the shore and got out, we had some boritos for lunch and hot tea. the there was not enough boritos for everyone so i gave one of mine away. Later me and rohan went looking around the island and we broke some branches that were on the ground and we just had an all around great time, when we were going back it took us about half the time cause the waves and wind was going in a oposite direction from what it was facing on the way to the island, we came 3d on the way back and taking off the dry suits was so hard because they were wet and it was raining but we were all dry so it is ok,.. In the bus on the way back we were talking me, rohan, mia  and harri,it was a fun but slow ride back, after getting back to N.A.C and we had dinner there, i was sitting in a table with mia, rohan, niel, harri,henning and jake and we had buffe that night it was good everyone including myself loved the pizza. Later on we took the bus back to the hotel and we went to the onsen and had drinks and just had great fun for the rest of the night, and me and harri and henning were playing soccer in the room with my ball,Then we watched a move which i found to be really boring, later we brushed our teath went to bed and had fun. (GAZZA).

Day 4.

Woke up at 6am and then went down to breakfast with my bro’s i had the same as last time but this time i had an orange juice with my breakfast, later we went upstairs and brushed our teath and got changed for a wet adventure, we drove the bus for 40 mins to a white water rafting area and we split into groups for the rafting, i was as per usual with, Rohan, Mia, Jamie, Harri and Jake and we had a really cool instructer, with dread locks and he was just all around awesome, so we set off to the water we paddled down the water and we were taught how to do really cool tricks off the boat and how to hold the paddle correctly and it was the funniest time ever,  Jamie did a back flip off the boat and i did a front flip it was really fun i was paddling in the middle then I changed to the front and we splashed the other people and we splashed teachers at the end we dryed off and got in a warm bus to a special spot but on the way to there mia threw my coke bottle out the window, and i didnt finish it ;( when we got to the special spot we went to the bathroom and then had soba for lunch at a really nice resturant, later me had 30-45 mins to wonder round, so i bought an icecream and walked around then i went on the bus and talked with my friends, it was a really fun time to talk with them and catch up and listne to mucis, and other fun activities. Then we drove back to the waterrafting and got bikes to fit us and helmets. After he tought us about how to use the bike for while then we biked up a mountain which was hard and fustrating and boring but it was ok cause it is good for out health.After biking for a LONG time we got a bus to N.A.C and had a buffe again the food was great and we went back to the hotel had a meeting where we did our jurnals, then we did skit night which was great we did a what is love with rohan pascal claude mia and niel it was fun. We Played aroung and went to Sleep, (GAZZA)

Day 5.

We Woke up at 8 am and we headed to breakfast, when we came back we cleaned up the room,  folded sheets and put all against the walls, then we packed up rubish and cleaned the trash cause we were always loud at night times making noises with our phones but most of the time it was the people next to our room. Then we 1:30 mins and we stoped to get food and drinks it was fun cause i had my ball in my hand lugage so we played with it while we were waiting for the bus to drive again, then the bus went for another 1:30mins and  we played games on the bus like truth or dare and other activites. We Finaly arrived at the airport, we checked in which took a really really long time cause another japanese school was infront of us, we waited and checked in, We were given 1,000 yen each to buy lunch, i had udon with Rohan and Pascal it was a deliciouse lunch, we had to eat quickly and go meet the other to go threw secruity, some people got stoped for having a big mostico spray in there hand lugage. we sat and waited with our tickets, trying to get a good seet with our friends, then we borded the plane and i was sitting next to daniella and Sophie then daniella changed with aud so she could sit with her friend so i ended up sitting next to Sophie and Aud and we played “BS” and other games which was really fun, after that we landed got our cases and i said good bye to my friends as i took jamies car to drop me off at my house, sophie was in the car, when i got home i was really happy to see my family and my cat, and Black Ops.. overall we had a great trip. Thank you 8th Grade Teachers/Students.

We slept in late. went to usal buffe packed, got on bus, airport lunch.more

Posted in Field studies | | | 0 Comments

Drama Reflection: Character Status™

October 10th, 2012 by

1. What is the skill I used?

I Stood straight to show my higher status.
I projected my voice
I stared at him

2. How did I approach creating the character?

 

a) What was successfully:

I Showed i had the lower status by agreeing to everything he said and listening to him.

b) What needs improvement:

To talk more and to work on mu facial expressions.

3.How can i use these skills in performance?

I can make a really believable character and i can act very well.

 

The Video’s: Drama Status Video

8C Drama: Status from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

Posted in Drama | | | 0 Comments

English Reflection®

June 19th, 2012 by

In this year for english we have discovered many different things such as racism and how big of a deal it was back then, Racism and the apartheid was a huge deal, During the old days when there might have been starting the apartheid there were not woman rights, We have done many tasks to help all of our class to get more information on these topics, House on mango street, Journey to jo’burg, the power of one and also a very big one Sandra Cisneros’s visit which was                 very helpful how she told us a few good tips to help us make are own vignette, This was very helpful because at the start of this unit i did not know what a vignette was!

It also helped us with our 50 word stories, During one english class we had to practice writing 50 word stories, at the start it was very hard because  I would always get 51 or 49 It was hard to get exactly 50 words.We have read House on mango street, this book was full of many different vignettes which gave us idea’s to use on our own vignette, Reading the House on Mango street was interesting because we discovered many different values and many different problems that some people have to go threw almost everyday, racism, relationships, Family and growing up with the people who are around you.

We have found out many different writing skills and different life skills, I found out what the difference is between these two things “allusion and illusion”, these confused me many times thinking which one was which and so on.

In most of the vignettes we read, they all mostly had the five senses; Imagery, Seeing, Hearing, talking and so on.I love to write stories but i love to make longer stories then 50 words, as I said before but when I write a storie my stories will most likely will be 400 to 500 words and thats what I like, Making long stories.We tried to make many different stories as a parody of ; The House on mango street’s vignette “Hairs or Laughter” we made our own version of this about our family, the whole class did this and we all sent our stories to Miss, Clifford our english teacher; Miss Clifford Got all of these stories and made them into a book, We all saw the book on her Blog At the bottom; and the book was really cool and fun to look at and to read.

Blog Adress: http://blogs.yis.ac.jp/cliffords/2012/06/05/our-book/

Here is My photo: 

 

Thank you,

James

Posted in English | | | 1 Comments

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