Kars 4 Kids

Every day I have to wake up early, usually for school, I use the radio as my alarm. I give myself about 30 minutes to wake up listening to a program, sometimes WAMU, or lately, a local sports station. Oftentimes this process allows me to get up nice and slowly. But lately, as now I'm listening to commercial radio, I have to listen to commercials. Most people would say it's not the end of the world, and normally I would too. But sometimes, for about a minute, it feels like my life is coming to an end. There is some non-profit organization called "Kars 4 Kids", which does something with old cars to somehow benefit kids. Anyway, they have a jingle, an infamous jingle. It's been on making people deaf for a few years now, and it frequently brings about a rude beginning to my day. My prospects for a good day take a huge hit once I listen to the Kars 4 Kids jingle. I'm now starting to just shut off my radio.

Here's a link to the jingle. Note: If you want to leave this post with your ears intact, I'd recommend not clicking this hyperlink.

Of course, I know you did click on it so now I will explain to you the problems I have with the jingle and the organization as a whole (although everything I know about it comes from the commercial). While I might have made it seem more out of tune than it actually is, when the voices of the kid and the older guy are still ringing in your ears next month, you'll wish you had never clicked the link. This image kind of sums up my reaction, only, I can't drive my bed of a cliff. Sorry I have to link to the Blog because the image is too big.

So the commercial tells me to dial 1-877-Kars-4-Kids. First, they don't even specify if one should dial the number "4" or the preposition "for". Second, I'm pretty sure telephone numbers are supposed to be only 10 digits in the United States. They've got their consumers dialing 12 plus that additional "1".

More importantly though, what do they mean by "Kars 4 Kids"? Because it seems like they want me to donate my old car to let a six-year-old drive. There's a couple problems with that. First of all, six-year-olds can't see over the steering wheel. And secondly, it's nearly impossible for somebody not to drive off a cliff after hearing the jingle. Presumably the car that they were supposed to donate is now deep in a valley.

So if they don't mean for me to give up my car for a kid to drive, then there is only one other possibility. This has to be some kind of orphanage where they sell kids for cars. They don't specify how many cars for a kid on their website, but I'm sure I could find out easily with one simple dial of "1-877-Kar-S4Ki".

I have big ambitions for my rival business, which has a very similar jingle. "1-8-7-7 Beer for Kids. K-E-E-R, Beer for kids. 1-8-7-7 Beer for kids. Donate Bud Light today!" Admit it, you sang to this.

I found a confirmation that indeed Kars4Kids does not sell kids for cars. Therefore they must sell the cars for the kids to use for recreational use. Here's proof.



Here's a parody of the jingle. I feel that if I were to waste my mind finding new lyrics to the jingle, I'll bet I could come up with 50 in an hour.

Got my pants dirty!

For the one-week video project, we were given a prop to make our story about. We got a nest with little eggs glued in it, so of course, we knew right away we were going to film this outdoors, around a tree. We decided the best use of the props would be to have the nest fall out of the tree, and for somebody to catch it. I volunteered to act.

It was a very cold morning, but we already had our script made so my group went outside. With the help of the storyboard, we were very efficient, and got the filming done in about 30 miserable minutes. I dove for the nest, though the intention was not for me to catch it. Instead, it would land on my back. Since that is nearly impossible to do, we had to do the best job we could to make it look somewhat realistic. Obviously every viewer knew it didn't really land on my back, but that helped create the little hook, of me diving arms outstretched, then fading out, before the next shot where you can see where it lands.

After I had done a couple dives, my group thought that was enough, but I insisted on one more. And unfortunately, I landed it some wet dirt (I wouldn't quite call it mud). I ended up with a grass stain and a dirty pair of pants. Maybe I should have listened to my group.

I thought it was cleverly done for what we had, because while it didn't look realistic, in my opinion it was still pretty entertaining. The last shot was supposed to reassure the viewer that the whole thing is indeed supposed to be a joke. By the way, that thing with three legs that looks very much like a tripod is actually a small tree, so don't mind it.

Overall I thought this was a fun project. I didn't think we needed three hours to brainstorm, write a script, and storyboard just a minute-long video. I think if we had done the pre-production stuff in an hour and a half and the filming the other 90 minutes, people probably wouldn't have had to stay to edit after school.

Basketball Trick Shots in Silver Spring

I do live just a five-minute walk away from Downtown Silver Spring, but I didn't really want to film myself going into the movie theater, eating a Chipotle burrito, etc. because I thought there would be plenty of videos of that kind. Instead, I put together a collage of basketball trick shots. While I don't spend much time doing shots of that sort, I do really like to play basketball. This is my hoop but it has been a popular attraction throughout the neighborhood since we got it about eight years ago.

My brother filmed this for me using a Flip Video. I recognize it isn't in widescreen, I will try to fix that for future videos. I tried iMovies '07 for my recent video for English and had a terrible experience. I felt helpless at times: clips would change lengths at will, it crashed frequently, the transitions were not good, so I went back to iMovie '06. I found this upbeat song and thought it fit well in my video.

I had some shots planned out, and many of them took a while. The bike one was difficult for me because I had to maintain an acceptable velocity to make the shot look decent, I had to stay under control (I crashed into the curb several times), and I had to catch the ball and make the shot keeping one hand on the bike. This shot took quite a while. Then there were some other tough ones like the one where I juggled a soccer ball then kicked it into the hoop. I actually made it on the first try when I was demonstrating what I would to do. Then it took five minutes to do it again. In addition to the challenging shots, the cold was another factor. We broke the filming over three days because while I might have been in a t-shirt and shorts, my hands were freezing.

Other shots were improvised. I had a stretch where I did as much and I could. That's when I did the 360-layup and some other shots.

Dialogue never factored into the video. My brother was had some funny comments from behind the camera because he understandably got quite bored. I might upload some of his comments as well as some of my bloopers for a weekly post soon. Sorry my dialogue was not a little more creative.

Real News #1

This is a weekly blog post segment where I go over some of the recent "Real News."
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So... this is an outrage! I'm getting ripped off of one inch of bread. Time to boycott this business. Subway, you've lost a customer.
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Is Google Responsible for Killing a Donkey? I'm glad to see Fox is staying away from politics and giving that donkey the recognition it deserves. I'm sure its family really appreciates that act of kindness. Anyway, how did somebody get this footage? Who happens to be looking at a street view of dirt in Botswana? Anyway, the witnesses of this murder were unfortunately not able to attend Google's trial.
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Though the concept of somebody getting stuck like that is quite funny, it's hard to laugh after the experience she went through. That would be miserable to be trapped, unable to move your head for hours. Now she has a story she'll never forget.
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CBC adds a new twist to twist to the Lance Armstrong case: reportedly this criminal used rugs. I wasn't able to find the video footage of this newscast, but if I were to guess, I would say it was a typo. Most likely they were trying to give the viewer a new angle on the story, informing us that he used mugs to drink the water to swallow his performance-enhancing pills.

Speaking of mugs, would you buy one of these?

When I don't know what to do... ( Random Blog Search #1)

There is the occasional week when I have no idea what to write about. This is one of them, so I've decided to start a new series where I find a random blog and right about it.

Here it goes:

6:27 PM-- Well, I encountered my first problem. I've been to 5 blogs and they are all in other languages, including Spanish and Finnish.

6:35-- I give up!! There is so much garbage or stuff just pertaining to a person's life. I'm now going to try going to Google Blog Search and type in a key word.

6:39-- I plugged in "israel palestine documentary" into the Google Blog Search engine, not with the intention of watching a documentary, but with the hope that somebody may have reviewed one that I could later go and watch. Sure enough, I was linked to a Blog post with a review.

6:43-- I am now going to use the Diigolet to annotate this post. Haven't read it yet. Hope it's at least somewhat interesting.

6:45-- Well... it's hardly got any information. Time to return to the results page on Google and try again. I feel stupid.

6:48-- I found an article on the Huffington Post. At first glance, it looks to be a news story but I'll find out when I annotate it.

7:34-- I had to eat! But I'm back now...

7:42-- I am finished annotating! You can see what I did.

7:44-- In brief, this article talks about two Israel-produced movies and how they were so successful. The movies' techniques are very different. One was made with six retired directors of Israel's spy agency talking. They were informally dressed, but B-roll footage made the film appealing. The other was made by an amateur filmmaker with his camcorder, filming his daily life.

7:53-- Well... that wraps up this post. The process should be easier in the future now that I know what my approach is. I shouldn't have to make this into a log of my time. I did it this time because I knew I would go on a wild goose chase because I had very little idea what I was doing, as you can probably tell by my vague introduction. From now on, I'll go to Google Blogs and type in some key words related to something that interests me or just words that pop into my mind. I'll click on a link that seems interesting, glance over the article to see if it's worthwhile, then annotate it. I'll then write my post and summarize the article in a little more depth than I did today at 7:44. This post was more of an experiment. Going forward, I might do videos as well, but this is all if I don't have anything noteworthy to write about.

8:00-- I am out.

Documentary Review

The Presidents: Truman to Ford 1945-1977

As one can probably tell from the title, the documentary is about the presidencies from Truman to Ford.

Truman was not well known when he became vice-president, and was not too popular when he became president after Roosevelt’s death. Nonetheless, this Democrat was the president of the United States. Many people admired his willingness to act against the wishes of the people to do what he believed was best. Truman’s first decision was to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. Many people respected him for doing so. Truman dealt with the struggle to fend off communism. He created the policy of containment. Truman also made steps to end racial segregation. He left office unpopular but in hindsight, many people appreciated him.

Dwight Eisenhower was an American military hero. He did not like how the U.S. handled the Korean War, so he decided to run for president as a Republican. The narrator called the slogan “We like Ike” as an American sentiment. Eisenhower started getting the U.S. involved in the Vietnam conflict. He sent money to South Vietnam. Eisenhower won reelection with ease. He got a heart attack that made him seem weak. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space, many Americans thought America was losing out to the Soviet Union. Eisenhower, at the end of his presidency, lost some of his “grand-father figure.”

John F. Kennedy was a Democrat the youngest man ever elected president. His generation was the youth of America. Everyone loved Kennedy. He suffered from many illnesses. Kennedy had an open-door policy. His failure with the Bay of Pigs changed him as a president. His audacity led him to challenging the nation, saying that the U.S. would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Kennedy’s biggest decision came during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He ordered a naval blockade of Cuba, which turned out to be a good decision. Tragically Kennedy was murdered not even one three years into his presidency. Despite his shortened term, he is still a famous president. 

Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn into office and promised to fulfill Kennedy’s presidency. LBJ had an ego problem, and often overreacted. He had an “in-your-face” style. It was arguably a gesture of dominance. Johnson’s Great Society created many new laws. This included the Civil Rights Act. In domestic policies, many people respect him. But he lost lots of it because of how he escalated the war in Vietnam. He did try to reach peace with Vietnam at the end of his presidency, but it was too little too late. Under fire, Johnson decided not to run for reelection.

Richard Nixon did a lot of scheming to become president. Nixon, a Republican, pretended that he had a plan to end the war, but in reality, he was only trying to escalate it. He used his presidency to go after enemies and gain celebrity status. While Nixon lied and lied, Watergate started heating up. The House passed an article of impeachment, and resigned immediately. He was a good strategist but will always be seen as a criminal.

Gerald Ford, Nixon’s Republican vice-president, took over president for Nixon. He was an inexperienced president. He tried to aid South Vietnam, but Congress did not allow it. Ford will always be associated with Nixon, which resulted in him not getting reelected.

What stood out to me in this documentary were the cinematic aspects. There was some great B-roll footage, and I always felt engaged. They had interviews and never had the narrator speak over black and rarely even pictures. There was sometimes music over interviews, which made them a little more lively.

There were no dramatic aspects present in the film. All the viewer sees are B-rolls and interviews.

The literary aspects were also impressive in the documentary. The plot was very well organized, in that the director used the obvious organization given: the presidents in chronological order. This saved me potential confusion because I knew that until the next president was introduced, the film was still describing the same one. The story was told in the third-person, and in a very unbiased way. At times I was bothered by how they were a little too acknowledging of a president’s positives. The documentaries recap of Nixon, for example, included it saying something like, “He was a very strategic man.” From the events the film described, he lied a trillion times, he escalated the Vietnam War when he said he’d end it, and he resigned after being found a criminal. I don’t know how he deserves a positive concluding statement.

A voice over narration was used. We never saw the narrator, but he played a huge part in the documentary.

The documentary used the Ken Burns effect, but not like I’d ever seen it before. They zoomed all around a wide image focusing on each individual piece. I have to say, it was pretty cool.

I would recommend this documentary if one wants pure facts. For me, I liked the truths of it, but if it had been a little biased I probably would have preferred it. Whether or not it took a Liberal or Conservative stance, I would have still been able to see a viewpoint. From this video, all I got were facts, given in a very enticing manner.  

 

My First Experience With Copyright Infringment

Last year, at the end of units in U.S. History class, we had to do Student Initiated Assignments. We could choose any topic related to the unit we had just covered. Then we could put together any kind of presentation we wanted. At the end of the Gilded Age unit, I decided to make a short documentary video on Andrew Carnegie. It only included pictures, text slides, music, and voice overs, but doing research on Carnegie, capturing audio, and editing took around three hours as I recall. After I finished, I uploaded it to Youtube, sent the link to my teacher, and never returned to the video again...

That is, until Thanksgiving weekend, when I got a message from a stranger. The person wrote: "Hi There. Can you tell me what software you used to build your video? I am impressed and would like to use it too." At first I was very confused, because I didn't even realize I had allowed the public to view my video. Then it dawned on me that I had actually made an informative and reasonably catchy video that could benefit students trying to learn more about Carnegie, and others who are curious to see what people on Youtube have to say about him. For the first time in just over a year, I decided to check out my video. I watched it and realized that I had made it for entertainment purposes, so I created a couple of unnecessary text slides. While I was mocking my rather stupid intro, I looked down at my view count. I over nearly 450 views! While this is a tiny number relative to the millions some videos get, I haven't uploaded a video with nearly this many hits. 

Then I thought, This silly first ten seconds takes away from this otherwise interesting documentary. I remembered we were taught about a Youtube video editor in this class. I figured out this basic software in a couple minutes and removed a little from the beginning and end. The new edits are finalized and the old version can no longer be seen by anyone but me, I assumed. Here it is (by the way, hitting the "Like" button wouldn't hurt):



I wanted to see if my video would be high on the list of search results. First I searched "Andrew Carnegie" and I was able to find my video on the third page of results. Not bad, I'd say, considering that Andrew Carnegie is one of the most prominent figures in American history. Next I tried "Vertical Integration," where my video was fifth on the first page. Finally, I typed in "Andrew Carnegie Vertical Integration," and my video appeared first on the list. Right under it, however, was a video with a cover picture of stacks of money, a picture which looked awfully similar to the one I used in my video. I clicked on it, and sure enough, somebody reuploaded my video. This one came before the edits so if you want to see the outtakes, you may:


I messaged the user and requested that they take down the video, and I filed a copyright claim to Youtube. It did anger me that somebody would plagiarize my video and take credit for it, but at the same time, I do see it as a compliment because somebody thought it was good enough to want to take credit for. They seem to have been doing an Andrew Carnegie series based on their channel's videos. I filed this claim on Saturday, Novermber 24, so I expect Youtube to take action soon.

Update: So, as you probably saw, the video had been removed by Youtube! Too bad you won't get to see the intro now.

Capture the Fall

I created my "Capture the Fall" video by going around and taking short (usually around 10 seconds) shots. I tried to bring them to life a bit by moving around, just so that it wouldn't be a still frame collage. I took shots of everything that could relate in any way to fall, or even the outdoors for that matter. The flower I briefly showed in it does not really relate specifically to fall, but I thought it was a nice shot to include. I took shots from different heights as well, to "Capture the Fall" from different perspectives. My favorite shot was dropping the iPhone, which I used to film the video, into the leaves. Until I put it into iMovie and slowed it down as much as possible, I did not know how it would look. I elected to leave background sound in just because of the crunch sound of leaves. I ended up with well over a minute of footage, and had to leave out some shots and cut some short.

[President]-isms

This week, during the presidential debate, Mitt Romney delivered a classic. Responding to a question on pay equality for women, Romney said that while assembling his cabinet after being elected governor in Massachusetts, he was not pleased to see that his staff only sent him male applicants. He then proceeded to talk about his response. "I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks,' and they brought us whole binders full of women." This binder must have been pretty cramped. 

Romney's gaffe inspired me to search for some occasions in which other U.S. officials have misspoken.

Ronald Reagan on his recent trip: "Well, I learned a lot....I went down to (Latin America) to find out from them and (learn) their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries."

Here's a map of Latin America:

Latin America includes Mexico and all of South America

As I'm guessing you can see, there are multiple countries in this image. What amazes me is that it took Reagan a trip to Latin America to figure that out. And we can't forget that this president was best-known for his foreign policy. I wonder if he thought he was ending a Cold War with all of Asia. 

Here's another one from Mr. Reagan: "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles."

I was going to just let this one speak for itself, but then I found this image describing Reagan's claim:

This tree is breathing out CO2

 
Here's a quote from Joe Biden, which, at first glance, may not seem too bad. He was introducing Missouri state Senator Chuck Graham: "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya."

The only problem with this is that Graham happens to be in a wheelchair. I will give some props to Biden, however, as he did manage to recover from his blunder and give the man a warm welcoming. Take a look:


Just a little slip up from Joe Biden, nothing too bad. Still, it's quite funny: "The next President of the United States — Barack America!" It's a lot funnier of video:

Last up, one of the best gaffers of all time, Mr. George W. Bush. I'm going to pick a couple of my favorite from a long line of Bushisms.

On the topic of teaching to a test, Mr. Bush goes off, but unfortunately for him, what looked to be his most powerful line, turned out to be a topic of jokes for years to come: "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

Clearly having good grammar isn't a requirement to pass literacy tests. Here's a short video compilation of Bush on education (this quote is included):

 
Here's another Bush quote and it's a doozy: "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

I want to say he was trying to refer "love" to the profession, but, well... it came out all wrong.