Magazine Project Broadcast Video

Refelctive Writing X.C.

From the choices presented to me for the magazine project, I chose to do a review because it best suited my interests. I want to do something on the editorial side of the video game industry and writing reviews is one of them. All the knowledge and experience from this assignment and class will be a definite plus.

What worked was my previous experience of writing reviews for games. My review style was a little altered for this class because I tried so hard to stay away from writing for the "hardcore" and keeping it as short as possible. My chose of reviewing a handheld game worked over reviewing a console game because I don't have to be at home to play. I got a lot of my play time in while riding the light rail to school, sitting in a car ride, or playing in class if my teacher was boring me (no not you Professor!).

What didn't work was the time constraints I had to review a game over reviewing a movie or a concert which is a one time, two hour event. This project was done during crunch time of the semester for every class so finding time to play a game enough to review it was difficult.

Motivating myself to play a game for school was easy. Not many times do I get the chance to do what a love for an assignment.

The hard part of this project was basically the same as what didn't work, It was very hard to get enough playtime in to a game to be able to review it. But it can be done.

All in all, this was an awesome project. Do it again for your students next semester. They will love it!

Magazine Project: Review Broadcast Script

Magazine Project: Review
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
60 seconds

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GREAT USE OF THE TECHNOLOGY ON THE NINTENDO D-S OR A GREAT GAME FOR IT IN GENERAL, THEN LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS. PHANTOM HOURGLASS IS THE FIRST DIRECT SEQUEL TO A PREVIOUS ZELDA GAME. THE ART STYLE OF THE GAME IS TAKEN RIGHT FROM ITS PREDECESSOR, THE WIND WAKER.

WHILE MOST GAMES ON THE NINTENDO D-S USE THE TOUCH SCREEN IN GIMMICKY FASHIONS WHILE RELYING HEAVILY ON THE BUTTONS, PHANTOM HOURGLASS USES PURELY TOUCH SCREEN CONTROLS. YOU CONTROL LINK SIMPLY BY DRAGGING THE STYLUS ACROSS THE TOUCH SCREEN IN ANY DIRECTION. USING THE SWORD IS SIMPLY EXECUTED BY SWIPING OR TAPING ON AN ENEMY.

PUZZLES IN THE VARIOUS DUNGEONS IMPLEMENT THE USE OF ALL THE D-S FUNCTIONALITY PERFECTLY. WITH THE INCLUSION OF MAPS TO DRAW ON CHANGES THE ENTIRE DYNAMIC OF PUZZLE SOLVING. NOW YOU CAN MARK THE SPOT OF TREASURES OR SECRETS TO PROCEEDING IN A DUNGEON RIGHT ON THE MAP.

THE CARTOON GRAPHICS LOOK BEAUTIFUL AND THE SOUNDTRACK IS THE BEST IN ANY D-S GAME TODAY.

WITH ITS SIMPLE CONTROLS AND FUN GAMEPLAY, PHANTOM HOURGLASS WILL MAKE A GREAT ADDITION TO ANYONE’S D-S LIBRARY.

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Neat Ideas Fair

Neat Ideas Fair
60 seconds

ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW WHERE NEW INVENTIONS ARE MADE?

LOOK NO FURTHER THAN S-J-S-U WHEN IT HOSTED THE NEAT IDEAS FAIR IN THE BARRETT BALLROOM OF THE STUDENT UNION. MANY STUDENTS AND FACULTY ALIKE ATTENDED THE EVENT TO CATCH SOME OF THE NEAT IDEAS PRESENTED BY OTHER STUDENTS.

WITH ITS GREAT VIDEO PRESENTATION, THE E-Z POUR EASY POURING CEREAL BOX QUICKLY BECAME THE HOT COMMODITY AT THE FAIR. THE E-Z POUR WOULD USE A PULL OUT SPOUT OVER TRADITIONALLY RIPPING OFF THE TOP OF A BOX AND MAKING A MESS.

THE FAIR ALSO FEATURED OTHER GREAT NEAT IDEAS SUCH AS REWIND, A RECYCLING VENDING MACHINE THAT GIVES CREDIT TO BUY ITEMS AT NORMAL VENDING MACHINES. ALSO, TELEBEER, IT’S LIKE PIZZA DELIVERY, BUT DELIVERS BEER STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOUSE DURING THE BIG GAME.

ALWAYS STAY OBSERVANT TO THE WORLD AND SEE IF SOMETHING CAN BE IMPROVED TO BETTER PEOPLE’S LIVES. MAYBE YOU MIGHT COME UP WITH A NEAT IDEA.

-30-

Online Reporting

The major breaking news story I chose was Hillary Clinton’s planted question. Although about a week old, I still find it to be the biggest story right with her poll numbers going down recently.

I went to these web sites and they are as follows: Fox News, ABC News, USA Today, and BBC News. I picked American press stories and one from England to get another country’s perspective on American politics.

First, Fox News took the Grinnell College student’s planted question for Clinton to dig deeper and find out if this had happened before with Clinton’s campaign. In a telephone interview, Geoffrey Mitchell, 32, said he was approached by Clinton campaign worker Chris Hayler before an event back on April 2. Hayler supposedly was going to plant a question using Mitchell, but repeatedly Mo Elliethee, spokesman for Clinton’s campaign in Iowa, denied the accusations to Fox News. ABC News focused on Grinnell College sophomore Muriel Gallo-Chasanof who was planted with a question for Clinton on global warming. ABC News cited the video of Chasanof winking to the camera after she said her question. ABC News says that Clinton’s campaign is blaming the mistake on one of their junior staffers. In the USA Today news story quoted a reaction from fellow Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. Edwards compared Clinton to George W. Bush by planting questions. Clinton’s campaign attacked right back at Edwards. In the BBC News story, it took a fairly straight forward approach by just saying what happened in the rally in Iowa and also brought up what ABC News said about blaming the incident on one of her aides.

The media presented this story pretty well with facts and quotes for all the stories. One error that totally just ruined their credibility with me is ABC News. They spelled Grinnell College with only one “n” (Grinell). You should never get a name wrong if you working for the big time like ABC News. Surprisingly the best online coverage I read was the Fox News story. My only gripe with Fox News was they continually showboated themselves by claiming they broke this story first. Fox News did not just report the news, they went out and investigated to see if Clinton had planted questions before.

Topical Blog Post #3

Topical Commentary: Cramming

Pop those Red Bull tabs and get jacked up, its finals time. Finals are looming in mere weeks here at San Jose State University. Projects need to be presented, papers need to be finalized and stapled together, and books and notes need to be studied for those final exams. College students usually don’t sleep around this time and we become caffeine sucking vampires to fit every little piece of information in to our head to form in to knowledge.

Is this really necessary for professors to have classes so back-loaded? Throughout my years in junior high, high school, and college, teachers and professors don’t seem to realize students have more than one class. Students end up with multiple projects, papers, and exams to do all at the same time. This can be very rigorous and stressful for students. I know college is meant to put you through hell and back to show you can handle the real world after you graduate. But I mean come on? I want to sleep for more than two hours during the days leading up to finals.

Professors need to start spreading the load of their coarse work. It is like having a balanced diet; you can’t eat bacon cheese fries and a steak three times a day. You need to have a steady diet of coarse work throughout the semester to keep students sane and away from cramming.

I am going to go get some sleep now. Bye.

Topical Blog Post #2

Topical Commentary: Dishonest Politics

All we want is honesty. Once someone breaks their honesty with us, how can we trust them ever again? Well, Hillary Clinton seemed to have made a dishonest move last week when her campaign deliberately planted a question in an Iowa campaign event audience. MSNBC caught Grinnell College sophomore Muriel Gallo-Chasanof on camera winking after she asked a question to Clinton. The video spread like wild fire and now Chasanof has come out to the press and has confirmed she was planted with a question. Clinton herself has denied she knew about the planted questions.

Have politicians been doing these sorts of tactics for years and years? Yes. Does that make them dishonest? Yes. I cannot find a way around it, if you plant a question in an audience whether it is for the good of getting your message out or just acting like your care about a certain issue, it is still dishonest.

When the highest form of authority is lying to your face, then what has become of democracy in America? Democracy is about fairness, justice, and freedom. If I want my presidential leader of my country to lie to me I would move to Pakistan or somewhere else.

It has already started to show in the Iowa polls with this slip-up in Clinton’s campaign. Barrack Obama is now the democratic front runner in that state. It only shows that America is sick and tired of being lied to their face. We have been going through lies and deceit for the past seven years with Bush and we do not need Clinton to continue that trend.