Saturday, September 26, 2015

Foxed: A Stop-Motion Animation!

Even needs to have some sort of break in their day, and here is a great stop-motion animation called Foxed created by my friends, James Stewart and Nev Bezaire!  What makes this so great is the use of stop-motion which requires a lot of patience and skill.  Every scene is excellently created, and captivating.  It will surely keep you on the edge of your seat!

Even though it is not created with real actors and actresses, it is capable of conveying emotion through sound.  The background music is intense, and the use of dialogue makes for a phenomenal piece of work.  The various camera angles also help convey the emotion, using first person and third person perspectives.

Most videos I watch aren't stop motion, however this style helped contribute to thriller like atmosphere.  Honestly, I rarely find a stop motion animation that I enjoy, and I particularly liked this one because it made my heart jump when Emily couldn't get her mom's attention, and there was someone else... some thing else in her place.

Please check it out here!
https://vimeo.com/138706287

Friday, July 3, 2015

A TEENAGE Novel Written By A TEENAGER?

Growing up I was confused.  Who am I really?  Am I date-able?  What traits would my ideal boyfriend have?  Would I ever find someone who didn’t want to be ‘just friends’?  Boys seemed to fog up my adolescent mind.   I envisioned a day I would marry a man of my dreams, despite the rumors I overheard that I was too unattractive, too forward, and too persistent.  My first adultlike thought was when I was five years old, and I had a desire to be a mommy.  Either this was because of my strong desire to have a sibling, or the unconditional love from my mother inspired me to pursue a similar relationship.  I am not setting up the scene to a teen pregnancy survival story.  Thankfully, and somewhat selfishly, I no longer have the desire to have a child of my own.  I blame the hormones for making my emotions fluctuate at inconvenient times, and for my odd decision making skills. Here I provide you the opportunity to enjoy this unique memoir outlining the high school experience of an average American teenager.

(coming soon :D)

Friday, June 26, 2015

Grab Some Coffee And Judge Me (non formal introduction)

backstory:  I signed up for this Coursera course online and I had to introduce myself.  This is what I whipped up.

Let me hook you right here, right now: I am 16 year old author.  Well... Arrow's Rescue was never published... and I was 8 years old at time, so the book, unfortunately, couldn't make it to the charts.  False advertising? Maybe.  Serious about this class?  Most definitely.  I have always enjoyed writing, and try to update my blog about the activities in my life.  If I was to write a book I would call it The Teenage Chronicles and All the Thing the Hormones Made Us Do.  Also, I have diaries upon diaries full of gossip, rumors, and fairy tales about vicious, and fictitious, boys that have made me feel a certain kind of way.  My diary keeping began in 6th grade, because it was a homework assignment.  Now it seems all the writing I ever do is for a grade, or SAT score out of 12.

Now I am a senior in high school, but not a senior in writing. Sure, ink glides off of my pen, and my fingers click-clack away on the keyboard, but nothing is ever concise enough to give me an A in my Advanced Placement English courses.  I need help so I can do well in my Advanced Placement English Literature course that will commence in the fall of 2015.  Hiring tutors isn't an option for me, so I am trying to utilize Coursera's free resources to make my writing more fluid, and enjoyable.

I need all the help I can get, AND THIS MEANS YOU so please give me all the constructive criticism you can summon (and leave the devil I call bad writing in hell).

Saturday, April 4, 2015

GMU V JMU. Is it just one letter different?

I am going to examine the two universities of George Mason and James Madison.  Is it just a few letters that make them different?  Most defiantly not.  First I'll address size, even though JMU holds the longer name, GMU is the larger school.  I don't have a preference for a small versus a larger campus, but I would like to be able to go for a walk and stumble into some people I do know.  If I had to choose I would probably go with a more selective, small class, school.

James Madison felt like they were trying to be a large campus school because they had their campus so spread out.  However, both seemed to have just as many buildings as the other.  I didn't like how they both had classes that were taught lecture style, and how they considered a small classes one that had a group of 30 students, but hey it is what it is.  I would rather have a personal 1 to 1 connection with the professors, like William and Mary.

Both atmospheres seemed safe, and friendly.  Both had your average buffet styled selection, however it felt like JMU had more to offer.  JMU also was more focused on education degree I am looking to obtain than Mason was.

Now socially, James Madison has more of a reputation for being a party school when compared to George Mason.  However, I feel if you look at the right review, or talk to the right people, anyone could convince you any school was a party school.  It truly depends on the people you hang around in college.  I do realize that the schools that are labeled as being party schools may have environments that are harder to get away from.  Anyways, dorm life was... interesting. They didn't suck like Virginia Commonwealth University, but they weren't top notch like W&M, so I would say that I enjoyed them both the same.

James Madison University was definitely a sport orientated school, because they had an enormous stadium.  I asked about the cheer program they had and apparently there are seven different levels which is crazy to think about.  I'm looking forward to cheering for not only football, but for basket ball as well, since at my school basketball doesn't get the cheer team, rather they get the dance team.

If I had to choose William and Mary would be my number one college choice, but James Madison University follows closely because of the fact that although it seems the same as George Mason University, I see that it offers just a teeny bit more.

Monday, March 30, 2015

W+M versus VCU (sounds easy right?)

 


For the Saturday, and Sunday during my Spring Break the Draper family headed to central Virginia to visit both Virginia Commonwealth University, and the College of William and Mary.  I didn't take a single picture at Virginia Commonwealth University, so does that mean that William and Mary is the better school? I don't think that should stand as the deciding factor, even though it is an accurate indicator.

First we stopped in Richmond, actually first stopped an hour before that for lunch at Cracker Barrel, and to fill up the tank with gas.  It's interesting to realize that during most road trips we decide to eat at the all-American comfort food serving Cracker Barrel.  It is also one of my mom's favorite restaurants, and since it was her birthday weekend the choice was hers. 

Virginia Commonwealth University was a very clean, and welcoming campus.  I enjoyed the new buildings that surrounded the polite, academic orientated kids.  We actually had the opportunity to walk into one of the freshman dorms here, and the hallways were tight with a foul smell.  Poor freshman, but at least it was only mandatory for the first year.  The William and Mary dorms were much more spacious, and clean.  Unlike VCU, we got to see a common area at William and Mary where both girls and boys could hang out together.  When I am looking for a college campus, I would prefer to have a common area with bathrooms that are cleaned by the staff instead of by the students.

 The photo above was taken at the William and Mary Sunken Gardens, and we took a few too many pictures here...  However, it was absolute beautiful, and both schools being in Virgina really excite me.  I believe anyone could go anywhere in the state of Virginia, and not have to look far in order to find a good view.  Both campus's had a major gardens, and I really liked how students could use this area to hold activities for either clubs, or intramural sports.  

Both libraries were spectacular.  I actually preferred the Virginia Commonwealth University, to William and Mary, because I felt like there was much more space, and VCU library seemed more developed.  Both facilities had mac workstations with high end editing software which was very thrilling.  When I am in college I see myself making videos, perhaps pursuing the fruits of my you tube channel, and having an editing station to my disposal would be great.

Both schools have cheer teams, and Greek life which are both things I am also looking for.  The Greek life at William and Mary is more developed because they actually have sorority houses on campus.

 The football stadium at William and Mary was absolutely massive.  It seemed bigger than many of the schools that I visited.  I really would love a big football field, because that means a big team, and impressive cheerleaders.  I can't wait until I get to cheer in college, because cheer is something I am truly passionate about.  Although education comes first, and both schools offer a great teaching program, for the educational career I want to go into, it really bums me out that VCU doesn't have a football team.  William and Mary is a beautiful school, and they are part of the NCAA division 1 team.

To wrap up the review on both of these schools let me tell you they both seem challenging to get into.  Virginia Commonwealth University is more of a fall back school if anything, and William and Mary might just be my dream school.  I really can't wait to get into those buffet lines, and attend these schools.  I just have to raise my GPA, and test scores, and maybe my dreams will become reality.