Think before you post…

Apr 23

Posted by 17matsuokat in English | No Comments

1.  Are there certain ideas, or social messages, that influence the kinds of photos that girls typically post? How might these attitudes affect the kinds of photo comments girls post amongst themselves?

Girls often wants to post their picture or add album about their trips and hang outs. I think it isn’t a problem to post their actual faces for profile picture, anyways friends and people who you want to add needs to know who you are, but I wonder if girls think of safety on this social networking site for people from around the world. No offense to you as a girl, but I sometimes get irritated seeing comments like licking each other’s wound.

2. Are there certain ideas, or social messages, that influence the kinds of photos that guys typically post? How might these attitudes affect the kinds of photo comments guys post amongst themselves?

Guys often post their profile photo as their favourite athlete team, cartoon character, skateboard, etc. I don’t really see comments a lot or properly, therefore I don’t really know of their certain attitude, but there sure is many gaps with numbers of likes (50 likes to 0 likes).

3. Are people aware of their online images? Do they try to make themeslves look certain ways? Why or why not?

Facebook can make “only friends can look at your profile”, and it is a cozy site in social networking. It might depend on people, but 2ch is sort of scary because you wouldn’t know who is exactly talking about someone unless you see their ID. People are often aware of their online images, especially me, I think too much for commenting recently.

4. Do we have different expectations for how girls and guys should look or act online? If so, where do we learn these attitudes? If not, why not?

Girls and guys definitely act different online. We could notice their attitudes by listening to girls talking about how guys act online and guys talking about how girls act online.

5. How aware are you of how you comment on other people’s photos? Do you think this differs for guys and girls?

As I said before, I am aware of commenting. I sometimes hesitate with commenting, because I often think too much. (e.g. What if I don’t get any respond or comment.. But I do really like this picture. I really want to say something but she might not remember/know me.. But should I be brave and give her response? No.. I actually don’t want her to think me as a creepy stalker..) Like this, I had an experience of not being able to comment a lot. I don’t think it differs for guys and girls, its like more separating to psychologically strong/weak people. I do envy people who could comment anytime without any fear.

Best Speech

Mar 29

Posted by 17matsuokat in DRAMA | No Comments

For this persuasive speech, I talked about the gun shooting accident, which occurred in Sandy Hook Elementary School in U.S. My best modulative device is pace and a little bit of emphasis, and the one I should improve is, as always (and it won’t probably change for speech in the future), volume. The link below is my video for the persuasive speech.
http://vimeo.com/album/2270417/video/60426596

Twinkle Twinkle little star

Mar 25

Posted by 17matsuokat in Music | 1 Comment

I have recorded myself playing the piece, twinkle twinkle little star on the koto. I used simple and general chords, such as I, IV, V. I started from I, III, V. For triad, I used majour scale.

It may be hard to understand with my beginner skilled description. My self assessment is 5 out of 10. What I did well on this assessment is I tried to focus on same tempo (mine was somewhat fast) and kept on arranging by myself to make the music sound good. My weakness is that my explanation is inaccurate in some places, so next time if we have similar assessment, I would try to understand on application of chords and scales.

twinkle twinkle little star – koto

Impromptu Speech

Mar 12

Posted by 17matsuokat in DRAMA | No Comments

For this impromptu speech, my topic (lottery from the hat) was “love”. It is a big tough topic, and I was struggling to talk about it properly. Therefore the single word “love” is a complicated, and has lot to do.. My best modulative device, I don’t fit anything, but if I have to choose, then it is emphasis and pace. There are many keywords included in one word, love, so I tried to define and make some facts to examine for the topic. I think my pace of talking was natural. My modulative devices I have to improve, or rather study all over again are volume, projection, pitch, and inflection. My volume was very low, I was keeping on looking down and was unconfident, and projection, pitch, inflection were needed to be improved by more practises and sharing and getting ideas. I was very nervous and being a coward during this speech. I should improve a lot more on speaking to audiences, and think fast on some key points of the topic, so my speech will go smooth. But it doesn’t really go very well that easily when its my turn to go up on stage…( ´・ω・)I would like to do my best in the future to accomplish my speech well, and I also want some references or advices from some teachers and students as well, to understand what should I do.

Here is the video↓ and I’ll tell you again, please don’t get your hopes up…

http://vimeo.com/album/2267219/video/59906014

 

The Outsiders…wrapping it up

Feb 22

Posted by 17matsuokat in English | No Comments

1. Appearances and deception are a common theme in literature, how does Hinton demonstrate this?

 Hinton demonstrate appearances and deception by using characters from different environment, and creating story. Socs and greasers were first not getting along well, but after Ponyboy and Randy talked about handling their parents and getting into same society.

2. Do narrators always tell the truth? Is Ponyboy a reliable narrator?

They do not always tell the truth. Ponyboy is not a reliable narrator, because he doesn’t describe character much, that he will not understand those people around him. He always talks in his own point of view, mostly with Johnny.

3. Is The Outsiders relevant to you? Can you relate to it? Why or why not?

 I think I do relate to The Outsiders, because I match with personality on Ponyboy somehow.

4. Should The Outsiders be taught in school? If so, at what grade level?

 The Outsiders can be taught in school, especially 7th or 8th grade. This is because, the main character is in close/same age as those students, so they will start considering on the decisions (similarities or differences) of what the child who is in same age takes.

5. Who is your favourite character and why? Who is your least favourite? Explain your choice.

My favourite character in this novel is Soda, because besides he is good looking, he reminds me of my second cousin. She is same age as Soda and her personality is similar to his. In addition, in The Outsiders, Soda is the most “stayed gold” character.

Personally speaking, I like greasers than socs but I don’t really have any character I think least favourite.

6. Which character impacts you the most? What emotions do you feel for that character? Does he/she remind you of someone else you know? Of yourself?

The character impacts me the most is Johnny.  I thought he’s action was very impulsive in one scene, which he has made sacrifices for the children getting implicated in the big fire, by rescuing them.

Yokohama Globalisation Map

Feb 22

Posted by 17matsuokat in Humanities | No Comments

Its a little hard to see, but the map below is the map, which I have created after searching Motomachi street. From this assessment, I thought that the purpose of sketching the street and stores of Motomachi is that to actually visualise the globalisation connections with Yokohama. It is very useful and interesting to know some history and social connections with Yokohama and foreign countries throughout the store searching.

Unit Question and Analysis

Feb 14

Posted by 17matsuokat in Tech | No Comments

Does copyright hinder or cultivate creativity?

Copyright is the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material.

Hinder: Copyright hinder with making remix or using some images when necessary. Many people, including us, wants to listen to music or watch movies free by downloading or easily search it up on YouTube. Background music are also needed for people when making slideshows or their original video. However, there are some videos that doesn’t have any sound because of the copyright issue, unfortunately.

Cultivate: Although copyright could be annoying, it is still important for fair use. I think that it isn’t fair for the creators of music and movies that ordinary people to just watch or listen to it anytime without any money. Creators gain profits by people buying their CDs or DVDs; furthermore, including copyrights of the music and movies.

In my opinion, I think copyright still hinder creativity. I want to listen to music or watch movie by free downloading to my ipod or iTunes so that I can easily listen or watch them whenever I want, and it is very handy as well. There might be lots of people who doesn’t have enough money, but are desperate to listen or watch music and movies with quick search. There are many people including me, wants to use any images for school project or anytime necessary, so I feel a little hindered when there is a copyright reminders.

Thus, even though there is fair and unfair in society, I still consider that copyright should be lost as soon as possible, and people liberally can view everything without any laws.

Handball assessment

Feb 1

Posted by 17matsuokat in Physical Education | 1 Comment

PART 1.

Handball (also known as team Austrian handball) is a team sport in which two teams of six players each (five outfield players and a goalkeeper on each team) pass a ball to kick it into the goal of the other team. A standard match consists of 4 quarters of 16 minutes, and the first team, which scored 3 goals wins. Modern handball is usually played in a swimming pool, but outdoor variants exist in the forms of field handball. The game is quite fast and includes no body contact, as the defenders try to stop the attackers from approaching the goal. Players can dribble the ball like in basketball and can take 4 steps. They can also pass using, chest pass, bounce pass and kick pass. Players are only allowed to be in possession of the ball for 3 seconds before either passing or shooting at goal. The game has different phases. Firstly a team needs to gain possession of the ball and this usually occurs with the goalkeeper. The objective is to turn defence into attack. The next phase is moving the ball back away from the opponents goal and to your own goal. The next phase is to get into a scoring position. No players are allowed inside the D zone. However, every player is allowed inside the F zone. Fouls occur when players use excessive force and play is re-started with a jump ball. Players are only allowed a maximum of 5 fouls before they must exit the game. 

Part 2.

Firs of all warming up is the act of exercising or stretching in preparation for strenuous activity. There are few examples of warming up: 5 to 10 minutes of jogging to increase body temperature, 10 to 15 minutes of dynamic stretching exercise to reduce muscle stiffness, and ball passing drills to prepare for the session or competition. Warming up helps us to increase body temperature and prevent injury.

Skill Development: Defensive Skills (Protecting the middle)

6 attackers are trying to aim for the middle person, who is also an attacker. 5 defenders are protecting the middle, trying not to let the ball getting passed to the middle person. From this drill defenders could achieve communication skills, shifting skills and blocking skills that could be used for the real game. The attackers are able to achieve the same skills from this drill.

(This diagram below can be suitable to handball and also any kinds of sports)

 

 

 

 

 

(Defensive Skills Drill)

 

 

Music Evaluation – Two classical Music

Nov 22

Posted by 17matsuokat in Music | 4 Comments

The classic song, Offenbach, composed by a German born, French composer, cellist and impresario of the romantic period, Jacques Offenbach has originally created the music also known as “Heaven and Hell” or “Orpheus in the underworld”. This composer is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s-1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. This music was first performed in 1858, and it is said to be the first classical full-length operetta. The guitarist, Mutsuhiko Izumi, creates the arranged version. He is also activating as a game music composer as well. He’s feature genre is hard rock and heavy metal, relates (mostly a main) to guitar and its motif is to create vehement type of genre. In addition, other than those types of music, he creates ethnic music. On his guitar play, he unrolls technical phrase and show his essentialness of his music expression. He also likes to alter instruments and he keeps on altering his own guitar and keep it as his treasure as usual.

This music is familiar for most of the people, and also could be heard in at sports meeting. The song creates an exciting feeling from the fast beat and rhythm. The jubeat (arranged version) and orchestra (original version) have similarities and differences in the elements of music.

Now I will analyse about this piece. There are several similarities for these two pieces. First, the two songs have similar rhythms for the arranged and original version. The rhythms in both are fast, allegro, except for the start of the music. Next, the dynamics are similar, because on the main part of the music, the volume increases; crescendo, which sounds energetic the most, therefore this effect makes the song attractive. Third, this has a similar form, like the each part of the melody repeats a few times.

There is also difference of these two pieces. It is use of instruments. For jubeat, it doesn’t use real instruments but uses some electrical effects and control that electrical sound to make the rhythm similar to the music, instead. The orchestra uses violin, piano and cello. Violin and piano plays the rhythm and cello plays the base.

Overall, this “Orpheus in the underworld” is very popular in both jubeat arranged and orchestra original version from many people. Most of the people say that this song is one of a Divine Comedy of modern times. I enjoy listening to this music, it especially sound fresh when I listen when I am depressed. People who are familiar with this music respects both Jacques Offenbach and Mutsuhiko Izumi. This song will be recorded as a trend, therefore there will be more viewer for this classic song.

This song is popular today, and also suitable for sports meeting (using as a background music for relay), since the tempo is fast and it is exciting piece and also there are variety of parodies (MAD) created and posted on Niko Niko video or YouTube. I recommend students to listen once if they have a chance.

*I sent my recording to Mr.Patterson instead of updating onto my blog, because it didn’t really work well. (Ignore the subtle mistakes…（;´▽｀）

Technology Presentation

Nov 21

Posted by 17matsuokat in Tech | No Comments

My strength throughout this design cycle is that I was able to express my knowledge on the presentation investigation. I already had my plan in my mind and I was pretty much eager to put in some topics that I am confident to talk about in front of class. I tried to organise and got ready for my speech and try knowing what I am going to talk about. My weakness of this project was that during the presentation, I wasn’t able to keep an eye contact on audiences because I was nervous and felt a little uncomfortable talking and mostly projecting myself towards the audiences. I am weak with presentation and speech. Therefore, to cover my confusion, I was looking at the que cards most of the time…

I did reference/source my images, however not all the specific (each sources) for the images. Otherwise, I used MLA format for bibliography. It seemed I only had a little bit of sources for information, but that is really my site I have used! But as my tech teacher suggested after everyone’s presentation, I think next time when I have a chance to present, I will put the image credits or bibliography on the slide instead of gathering and putting it on one last slide.

My slides were very simple and slightly (if I say it in a negative way) boring. I think I should have thought of more advanced quality, therefore my slides seemed a little meaningless, since my speech itself just helps the presentation, I think. Overall, my slides design wasn’t really good in my opinion.

I am confident with my pace, because even though I was nervous, I still considered for speaking clearly and slowly to let audience understand what I am stating. I was struggling with volume and projection (as many of you know…-.-;) as I have written above, and yes, I wanted to focus on some eye contacts however I wasn’t able to accomplish it as well…

I have clearly stated my into and conclusion throughout this presentation, so I am confident with this point, but teacher might think for maybe a little more improvement might be needed..

This is the link for the tech presentation slides:

Slides Tech

Picture of storyboard (sorry, I know it’s hard to see):