The Grass Is Greener…

This Canadian weather has been so abruptly, painfully cold lately, that I’ve been fanaticizing about the idea of living in California. Come on, haven’t you let your imagination run?  But there is one person who dreamed of coming HERE, and he didn’t let it stop with his imagination. In his homeland in China, he left for the airport dressed as a Caucasian elderly man, in hopes to fly to our snowy wonderland. He made it.

I wonder how he came up with this elaborate plan. I can imagine his friends thinking he we watching too many Mission Impossible movies with this kind of idea, but it worked. Almost. This 20-some year old Asian man (let’s call him Ethan) boarded an airplane in Hong Kong wearing a very elaborate mask and costume, and if it wasn’t for his youthful-looking hands, they might never have caught him (they never tell you about disguising your hands in the movies). Neither his boarding pass nor his areoplan card had his birth date on it, and it wasn’t required, which is what he presented. When I look at that picture of him in his costume, I find it pretty amazing that the security in Hong Kong didn’t have a clue. I guess he picked the right disguise, who wants to give a senior a hard time?

What’s even more curious than how he came up with the plan, is why he did. When Ethan was detained he claimed the status of “Refugee”. What was he escaping from, what did he leave behind, that made his so desperately want to come to Canada? I have a feeling it was more than just to show his buddies he could do it. What could his story be? Is he running from the ruthless Chinese mob after a bad business deal? Does he want a huge house with a large family? Is he trying to find the woman he fell so deeply in love with on the illegal website of Facebook? Is he a spy? Maybe I’ve been watching too many movies. But I really want to know why Ethan went to such extreme measures to get here.

Maybe Ethan would think I’m the crazy person, dreaming about leaving this country. This is, after all the land of opportunities, freedom, and acceptance, isn’t it? Shouldn’t that be enough?

Maybe it’s Canada’s reputation for being forgiving and accepting that seemed to fit his escape plan, but I hope Ethan can stay in Canada, and I hope he finds what he was looking for.

E

Original Article: http://www.leaderpost.com/health/Disguise+passes+scrutiny/3788337/story.html

This digital storytelling assignment was based around 10 random-ish slides, with which we were asked to find/create a cohesive story. For us, this meant adding our own little animated character to the pictures. Basically we just edited the panda in paint, making a number of different positions and expressions (around 25), and then just added many different clips of him onto the background photo’s in very short frames. Pinnacle studio’s is the program I used; it is a great starting out program starting at 30$ flat rate, but I have a feeling this process could have been easier and crisper with more features.

We have to give credit to “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”, a great short animation that gave us the idea of putting a cartoon on the backgrounds.

This was a very fun movie to make, especially doing the voice. But don’t worry, it is my real voice, but I don’t sound helium-ated normally :). Thanks for watching!

   —> our video “Little Panda”

  —> Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

In grade 7 I could write HTML, and I had a domain to go with it. It’s about time I got back into my web-designing side. Online Profile, here I come!

I don’t want to dive in head first, so I’m starting out with a free website building (and hosting) site. Wix.com caught my eye first off, and immediately I was designing. Adding boxes, widgets, creating pages, making it “flashy” (in more ways than one) was simple to navigate! I’m really enjoying all I can do with it right now. It’s a real time-saver.

Another good feature is the ability to use your own domain name. No, it isn’t free (that would be sweet), but for 4.50 a month you could have that and so much more! Honestly, I don’t think I’ll do that, because if I really like my page I’ll just re-make it on HTML and find a cheaper web-hosting service with my own domain. But! It is still a fabulous option.

To check out my progress, or to start a website yourself, follow the link:

http://www.wix.com/ellainabrown/1

let me know if you have suggestions or comments or anything! (I don’t know what to put under my name, by the picture slideshow, if you have a thought share it 🙂 )

Here is the video we completed in 3 hours (about) for ecmp355, We sort of breached the parameters we were given in every way.. but we sure had fun making it.

iMove 2009 review: Although the program was pretty to look at, and useful when attaching files and materials created and gathered from other programs (it was actually quite intuitive in that sense), it had limited capabilities once the materials were there. It was a bit deceiving. After quite some time searching ways to edit sound tracks, we couldn’t really edit the sound at all. We also lost the visual a few times. Perhaps they were prompting apple consumers to buy Final Cut? But apparently other versions of iMovie, specifically version 2006, are both more maneuverable and have better editing options. For a free movie editing program, I would prefer Windows Movie Maker.

Look: 4.5/5

Ease and Accessibility: 3.5/5

Uploadability: 4.5/5

Options and Effects: 2/5

The “Awe” Factor: 2/5

…which gives it a final score of 16.5 out of 25! iMovie 2006 is your basic movie editing program, great if you want to whip up quick video with a few snazzy effects.

I’ve become a bit more of an avid YouTuber these past few weeks, and I wanted to make my contribution to the YouTube community. Me and my friends were making dinner and dessert, and decided to film ourselves and try to make a little tutorial. I think it exposed our in abilities to cook rather than provided sufficient information. So far, 40 hits! It’s going to be revolutionary ;).

Image via Wikipedia

((Warning, this post is on the verge of a “vent”))

My laptop was stolen, and I actually feel lost in the world. My schedule, plans, ideas, assignments, notes… it is all being erased in someones basement as I type. The nerve! If you are out there Mr. Thief who broke my car window and rummaged through my vehicle, I will pay you more for that old laptop than you will ever get from a pawn shop! Actually, I honestly considered driving my car back to the place where it was broken into, placing a note on the window, hoping the thief would come back for more, and it would say “300 dollars for the laptop”. Then a better idea struck me: no, I should stick a camera in the vehicle and then catch the culprit! But then they might just break into my car and steal the camera, so I would somehow have to hook up a feed that would transmit the data to somewhere else…

Is this healthy? Am I such a good person that I deserve to have a laptop, when only 25% of the world (or less) has internet access? But I’m just going along with my cultural norms; It’s not my fault I was born into this privileged life! Yikes, I never want to go down that road. I have always wanted to be able to at least try to keep my life in perspective with the rest of the world, so I don’t take things for granted.

So what the heck, why do I feel so down? Do I really need to dwell on this so much? It’s just stuff! Maybe I need to lose my things more often… (that’s not an invitation, I’m being hypothetical). You don’t know what you got till it’s gone I guess, or how attached you really are to the material things that are really only a privilege.

This makes me wonder, should we really be supplying our schools and young people with cellphones, computers, iPods, mounds and mounds of technology, when 90% of the world doesn’t even have a college education. A billion people entered into the 20th century not even able to write their own name, let alone type it. Aren’t their bigger issues in the world than how to get more stuff into the classroom? Could that money be used to help someone read a book for the first time?

Honestly, I am one of thee most fortunate people in the world to even have access to a computer.

Just a thought.

some not-so-fun-facts: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats