Myth and Media – Reflection

Myth and Medium is my attempt to show the transformations of a mythic trope as it is reused and reinterpreted in new media. While I was making this project, a few major things struck me. First of all: the internet connection in Rutherford is absolutely horrible and I will never ever use it to upload a file bigger than a Word document EVER again. Second of all: my computer does not have the technical capabilities to do all that I needed and wanted it to do- at least, not easily and not quickly. I wanted to upload the video last and arrange the text and images first, and due to that I was left ripping my hair out at the last minute trying to download, edit, and upload videos for the Prezi. Did you know there is only one free FLV editor available online (and it is a DEVIL to use), and that all free video converters cap you at 100 or 200 MB files? Yeah, so I spent four hours downloading a 412 MB file and the video editor I downloaded “RichFLV AIR” is not user friendly at all, so there went another two hours. Unfortunately, the cuts in both the Final Fantasy 8 and Wrath of Khan videos look choppy at best, but again, it was the best I could manage with my computer. The Search for Spock clips are also very, very bad, and while I was able to use Adobe Premiere Elements to edit them, the quality of the video still stinks because I had to film it with my iPhone since I couldn’t find the scenes I needed on YouTube and the DVD was copyright-safe; it wouldn’t let me rip the files using Premiere. All in all, a very frustrating exercise. On watching the videos- I edited out some superfluous moments to save space on the Prezi and shorten my load times. The Final Fantasy 8 Finale is about 4 segments long, all stuck together, but they each work together in a narrative structure- i.e. you can watch the whole video and shouldn’t have a problem (except for a shot of some game characters running, again, my video editing software is unbearable, and yes I did try to fix it). However, if there’s any confusion, the text portions of the Prezi should give you clear enough cues as to what to look for. What have I learned about multimedia and remediation from this project? I came in with a very clear vision of what I wanted to say, and I hope I said it well. The more I have worked on it, the more I believe that while a fun and easy program to use, Prezi does not really do what I wanted it to do. It is a presentation program- like a glorified PowerPoint- and while its ability to host video and zoom from one slide to another without following a linear order is nice, it doesn’t lend itself to in depth discussion. The expectation is that I would be standing before an audience, talking, with my Prezi running behind me to support or supplement my arguments. But since I intend for this to be a project I turn in in lieu of a 10 page paper to Dr. Platter, I felt more text was necessary. I have also furthered my love for the Perseus Project, BibleGateway, and the Gutenberg Project. All of these are free sites that host text-based media, namely books that are no longer or never were under copyright law. Since most of the primary texts I used (Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings series being the exception) were public domain, these sites were more than helpful both to me and, I hope, to my audience. There are no direct links to Wikipedia this time- I figure if my definition isn’t enough then I have done something wrong. There are still plenty of links to my source materials, and combined with the interactive nature of Prezi, I don’t think anyone should feel ‘trapped’ on the page. I also have a Works Cited slide/panel, to enhance my credibility. Hopefully the Prezi says all I really need to say on the topic. The rest is just fluff.

DePalma’s Italian Restaurant

I like Italian food, don’t you? I also like quiet but conveniently located restaurants. If you share these sentiments, you’ll like DePalma’s. But, if, like me, you like your food to be reasonably priced… well, you may not love DePalma’s. Don’t get me wrong, DePalma’s isn’t terrifyingly expensive, it’s just that everything starts to add up after a while.

They make great, authentic tasting Italian food from the freshest ingredients and with out the Americanized flavors that some other Italian places (cough*Olive-Garden*cough) are known for. They also have a wine list that’s half as long as the menu – no joke! I guess you could argue that the quality of the food makes up for the higher prices ($7 for a plate of pasta at lunch time, plus a few buck extra for drinks and no salad or soup to go with it), but when I walk downtown for a hardy lunch around $10, I can think of a few places that will fill me up, cheap. Okay, so they have a few dishes that are cheaper (a slice of pizza and salad come to mind), and water is free, but when I’m hankerin’ for Italian, I want my pasta and a Coke, you know what I mean?

That isn’t to say I don’t recommend DePalma’s- quite the contrary. I have had days where I CRAVE the pasta or the salads they serve, such that I’ve even been late to a class finishing up my meal there. The lights are low, the posters from old movies from like the 40′s are incredibly unique, and the music is always fitting. It’s a great restaurant for a date (esspecailly if your significant other is paying) and especially for groups. They have HUGE booths across from the bar, which is, by the way, a full bar- not just wine! This makes DePalma’s a great place for celebrations. And located at three convenient locations – on Broad St. downtown, on Jefferson Rd. on the west side of town or over on Barnett Shoals on the east side of town, it’s definitely a place to stop on your way out for a night on the town.

Registering for Classes

As I look in my inbox, I am find myself bombarded with reminders to register for classes… Reminders that are no longer valid to me. I am graduating in a few months. Registering for classes is and has been one of the most obnoxious and the most fun things I’ve had to do at this school in the three and a half years I’ve been here. Let me tell you a few things to make it a bit easier.

• Make sure you don’t have any flags: Check your student account for unpaid bills, the library for over due books, and OASIS for any other things you may get flagged for. Get those taken care of immediately.
• Schedule your advising appointment early: If you’re an upper level student, you get an earlier time slot than underclassmen. Freshmen can get earlier time slots by participating in the Blue Card events and programs around campus. Just because you aren’t involved with the Blue Card program doesn’t mean you can’t be one of the earliest people to register, though. The minute you CAN sign up, do so! And pick an early appointment (early in the schedule, not necessarily an early morning one).
• GO to your advising appointment: I accidentally forgot to go to mine my freshman year. Even if your adviser is as useless as mine was (they probably won’t be… I just had bad luck) they have to sign you off in the computer so you can get on OASIS and register for classes.
• Talk to your adviser: Like I said before, my adviser was pretty useless. She wasn’t used (I don’t think) to Freshmen knowing ahead of time what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it. I knew what major I wanted and what classes I had to take to get that major long before I went into her office. If you aren’t like me, you adviser might have a lot more useful information than mine did. At the very least, they might be able to navigate you around the weed-out courses.
• Go ahead and get Permission of Major: Any time you want to take an upper level course and most of the time you want to take an art-specific lower level course (like 3d Art or Intro to Graphic Design) you will want to get permission of the department. On OASIS these courses are listed with POM. OASIS needs to be programed to let you take the course. Even if you have a late registration date, getting the POM early will save you a lot of trouble.
• Get “Mentored”: I don’t know what other departments call it, but in the English department, professors were assigned a group of students to tell them what kind of classes their fellows taught and help guide students to classes that would meet their requirements and possibly fill their areas of emphasis. If you are assigned to a professor in your department(s), take advantage of him or her. They know their colleagues well and they’ve had other students relay to them the kind of complaints and concerns that students may be voicing.
• Find out what courses are available and what requirements they meet before you register: Self explanatory, perhaps, but important nevertheless. Most departments have their major and minor requirements, as well as the requirements for areas of emphasis and certificates available on their websites. Many departments even have a list of the courses they will be offering in the next semester (and even in the summer) posted there as well, even including the professor’s course description and syllabus much of the time. It can be very helpful when you aren’t sure what courses you need or even want to take.
• Register on OASIS as soon as possible: The minute you can sign up for classes, get on OASIS. Now, granted, some people get weird registration times, like 4 AM or what have you. Okay, so you can wait until you usually wake up for those, but do it as soon as you roll out of bed. You would hate for that cool course you want to take to get filled up by the time you get back from your shower.

That’s all well and good, but what if you mess up one of these steps? What do you do when you have to register so late that you miss out on a class slot?

• Talk to the Professor: Many classes have “caps”- they aren’t designed to hold more than X students. Howeer, many professors are cool enough to let a student who really wants or needs to take their course do so, if they just ask. Be polite and make sure you take the extra effort in the class your teacher let you in to. Your teacher shouldn’t regret bending the rules for you.
• Keep an eye on OASIS: If the professor has a strict cap or a policy against letting students in after the course fills up, just keep an eye on OASIS until Drop-Add ends. Someone may drop the course, leaving you a chance to get in!
• Talk to the Department: Say you need to take a PE course or you need a Spanish class but you don’t know the professor who handles it (either because there are many or it’s listed on OASIS as STAFF). You may not get the luxury of picking a ‘good’ professor by going through the department, but you should be able to get into the class you need to meet your requirement.

That should help you get registration out of the way. Enjoy your next semester!

Research at the College Level – Navigating GIL@UGA

It’s about that time! If you haven’t started them already, you will start them soon: research papers! I’ve already posted a blog on how to write a better essay, and so this series of blogs isn’t about writing research papers, but on doing actual research. The first of these blogs is on navigating the search engines offered through the University that can help you find the materials you’ll need.

 

Have you ever see this thing? This is the ‘keyword search’ option offered through the GIL@UGA search engine. It’s broken, difficult to use, and not very appealing. One can only hope that someday they update this clunky engine, but until then, this is my advice on how to navigate it. Don’t use the quick search if you can help it. It doesn’t work. For example, I just searched for “Julius Caesar” and got, among the endless books about Shakespeare’s play and some historical documents, a sound recording of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde and “Bach, Handel and More”- a sound recording of classical music… on the first page! Trust me, just use the “keyword search” or the exact search.

The exact search is helpful if you know the name of the author, title of the book, or call number. I don’t think the other ‘exact’ options are very helpful. But that section is pretty straight forward.

The course reserve is specific to your specific course. You just search for your teacher’s name and your course, and you can access the materials your teacher has set aside for you. It isn’t very complicated.

Now for the keyword search… In the first bar it’s best to type in the most important thing you want to find out about. Let’s stick with Julius Caesar, shall we? Type in Julius Caesar and select from the first drop-down bar on that line “as a phrase”. Then leave “Keyword (Title/Subject)” alone. If you were looking for something written by Julius Caesar, you could pick “Author” from that line- say you wanted to find De Bello Gallico- but for the sake of arguement, you want to do research about Caesar as the Emporer, not as a general. You would then go to the next line and type in “Emporer,” leave “as a phrase” alone and then just leave “Keyword Anywhere” alone. But remember, we don’t want anything by Shakespeare, right? So underneath “Rome” click the NOT bubble and type “Shakespeare” in the next line. Leave the drop down windows alone.

This is what you should see if you did it right. Then click GO. You’ll find no strange audio recordings. Don’t try and use the “narrow my search” feature unless you have to- mostly it narrows down where the book was published and what kind of status the publication has. It isn’t really useful.

You may have noticed that there’s an option to “Try GIL-Find” at the top. I’ve poked around with it, and it is a more modernized looking search, but I haven’t practiced with it enough to help you refine your search.

Some helpful info about the drop-down window options:

• All of These – This option is best for one-word searches like “Shakespeare”. If you type in “William Shakespeare” and use the All of These option when NOT is selected, it may weed out all authors named William- not just the ones whose last name is Shakespeare.
• Any Of These – If you’re searching for “Carbon Dating,” but you’re willing to compare all kinds of dating to the Carbon style, Any of These is a good option because it will look for anything about Carbon and anything about Dating it can find. It won’t necessarily weed out Carbon Dating, but you might have to put “Romantic,” “Social,” or “Psychology” in a NOT category so you don’t get a ton of books on the act of dating another person.
• As a Phrase – Had you searched “Julius Caesar” as Any or All of these, you probably would have gotten a lot of books about men named Julius, books about the other emporers who called themselves Caesar, and books about Caesar Romero. As a Phrase means, to the computer, look for when these words show up together. This is convenient if you’re looking for Carbon Dating specificly or to weed out William Shakespeare from all those other Shakespeares.
• AND – This option means to search for the line above the bubble as well as the line below below.
• OR – This means either the line above the bubble or the line below the bubble can be searched for- they don’t have to be together in the book.
• NOT – This excludes any thing from the line below the bubble in the search for the line or lines above the bubble.
• - You must fill the lines in order. You can’t leave the middle line empty if you have the top and bottom lines filled. It will confuse the computer. You can, however, leave the bottom line or lines blank if you have the top line filled.
• Keyword (Title/Subject)- This will only look for your search topic in the Title or the Subject of the book.
• Keyword (anywhere) – This will search the Title, Subject, ISBN, ISSN, Author, Publication area, Series, Notes, Genre, Confrence, and Date for your search topic.
• Subject – This one’s a little tricky. You can search for a specific subject if you want to do a comparison. You can search for the subject “Rome” and get a lot of books about Rome that weren’t necessarily published in Rome or had Rome in the title. Likewise you can search for piracy, military history, underwater basketweaving, whatever floats your boat. But if you use the Keyword (Title/Subject) option, you’re just as likely to get that kind of material.
• The other options should be self explainatory. Like I said before, if you want to find books that Caesar wrote, you can search for him as the Author Name instead of the Subject- but make sure you search for it like you learned in elementary school or for MLA citations: Last Name (comma) First Name: Caesar, Julius.

I hope this helps you search for things for any up coming projects you might have! Good luck!

Multimedia Project, First Draft

The project itself can be found here: http://prezi.com/nkuuwmnre7ia/

Doing research for this project has been an interactive experience the whole way through. As you may recall, I asked Dr. Platter if I could combine the 10 page research assignment he gave with this project- in effect to kill two birds with one stone. The research alone is still not complete, so I beg forgiveness if the draft of both the project and this reflection are shaky at best.

As I said before, doing the research has been as much of an interactive process as navigating a multimedia project like this one ought to be. Every source I read has sent me ‘linking’ to another sourse. Out of spite, more than anything else, I’ve tried to ensure that as much of the sources I’ve referenced have some kind of online representation. That hasn’t been possible for some of my secondary sources, but my primary sources- for the most part- are available online in full, so I decided to use books to take notes in, but cite the source as the web-version. Ha, now my audience can go chasing after my sources, too.

Mostly this is an issue because of how deeply rooted in a previous source some of my texts are. I had thought that Odysseus was the oldest example of Katabasis, but, no- apparently the myth goes further back. He sees Hercules in Hell, and Hercules rescued Theseus from Hell, so linearly speaking, Theseus was there first. The interesting thing abouit Theseus’ story is that it almost seems like modern mythic interpretations (ala Spoony) are actually heading closer and closer to the story structure of Theseus, not Jesus, as I had originally believed. A hero goes into hell for his own (less than pure) reasons, and his friend rescues him. Not to save the world, but because that is what friends do. Spoony’s story isn’t quite to that level yet, but I suspect there will be a retelling that emulates that story.

Presenting this project with Prezi has it’s challenges. For one thing, Prezi is really little more than a glorified Power Point presentation; you are supposed to be talking to your audience and engaging them while they look at your Prezi. I don’t have the luxury of presenting it like that to Dr. Platter, so I have had to include extra text that I’m worried my bog down the nature of the medium. Ironic, that in discussing how things adapt to medium and audience (ala McLuhan’s article), I have to adapt the medium to the audience and the content. It’s a bit frustrating. And yes, I know I don’t reference McLuhan in the draft- but then, I don’t have about a third of the draft complete. I intend to post my scholarly notes in the [bracket] style frame in the manner of the “Oral Tradition” and “Sermon” ‘slides’ in the draft. The circles are for the statement of the myth itself in context and for quoting the source material. Black boxes are for subtitles and footnotes or citations. Since I will be citing all of my sources in this way, I won’t provide a separate “Works Cited” bubble in the Prezi except as a link to this site- where the audience can access my reflection if they choose.

One of the things I want to do with the project is discuss how orality and language have changed- not been lost, to counter Ong’s article. I also hope that this presentation will demonstrate how everything old is new again- or rather, stick my toungue out like a child to the copyright officials who think using a part of someone else’s work doesn’t show enough creativity to be a separate work.

Things to Do for Fun on a Short Budget

Let’s face it. We’re college students, ergo we are broke. How in blazes are we supposed to amuse ourselves if we don’t have any money? Don’t say we can just ask our folks for money – that’s cheating! Here are a few suggestions on how to have fun without spending much money.

With a Group:

• Ultimate Frisbee- You can buy Frisbees at Wal-Mart. Or better yet, borrow one from one of the hundreds of kids who play it on the Meyer’s Quad every day. I’m sure they have a spare.
• Go See a Dollar Movie- There’s a dollar theater by the Georgia Square Mall on the Atlanta Highway. There’s also one at the Tate Center, but they only show one movie a week, and only on the weekends.
• Take a Walk- Whether it’s around the various gardens on campus, from the Founder’s Garden to the Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden, or around campus itself, get out, stretch your legs, and enjoy the crisp autumn air!
• Cook – You can get a lot of things chap at Kroger or Wal Mart to make- whether a dessert for a party or a meal for dinner. Most of the dorms on campus have a community kitchen you can use to cook, so SOMEONE in your group should have access to a stove or an oven and a fridge.

While it might be a bit tricky to play Ultimate Frisbee on your own, you can do pretty much everything else on this list alone no problem. But, for the sake of argument, here are a few things to do strictly alone.

• Peruse the Bookstore – Whether you’re rummaging the comics at Wuxtry downtown, catching a peek at all the textbooks in the UGA or off-campus bookstores, or strolling through the shelves at the nearby Borders or Barnes and Noble, there are plenty of places to look for new books, even if you don’t think you can afford any. Books aren’t your thing? Check out the Best Buy for video games or the Georgia Square Mall for clothes. But if you don’t have any will power, this may not be a wise choice for you.
• Volunteer – Hey, some people get a kick out of doing  work for no money. It makes them feel all tingly inside. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys that sort of thing… Look, there are lots of ways to volunteer around here. You can mentor for the kids at the local schools, read books for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, get involved with Habitat for Humanity, or … Wow, there’s so much more. Here’s a small sampling of places to check out: http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/index.jsp?r=msa&l=30683%2C+
• Explore – Think you’ve seen all of campus? I doubt it. Have you seen the staircase that goes nowhere in Joe Brown Hall? Walked the garden by the new art building? Have you seen the fossils in the Geology/Geography building? I find exploration to be a personal experience- since it give you time to process your thoughts and get a little lost without a friend wigging out on you about it. But if you’d rather do this with a friend, by all means, do!
• Get Involved – Student organizations exist all around campus. There are sword fights on Monday nights with the Medieval and Renascence Society (MARS), or you could watch anime at the MLC instead, free food and a sermon on Thursdays with  the Christian College Fellowship (CCF), the Sci-Fi/Fantasy group meets on Wednesday, and so do the UGA Gamers. That’s only the groups I know of for sure! There are flyers for clubs all over the hallways on your way to class. Give them a look and give the events a try! I guarantee you won’t be bored after that.

Literature on the Lawn

For some of us, books are the most boring things ever invented. For others, like me, they’re the most amazing things to have ever been invented, next to sliced bread, of course. For those of you who are like me, there’s an event going on in front of Park Hall called Literature on the Lawn. It’s hosted by Sigma Tau Delta, the English department’s honor society.

You can listen to people read segments from their favorite books and poems, read a few segments of your own, and buy some delicious snacks to support Sigma Tau Delta. Meet and mingle with fellow lovers of the written word, or just linger a little longer on your way to ENGL 1102 to hear a good line or from a poem. You’ll be glad you did!