Social Networking

Social networking has become a major problem for many people today. Social networking is a time consuming chore that many people are composed to do. I find social networking a time wasting device that is dumbing down the American youth. There are many social networking sites online today like Twitter, Face book, MySpace, and blogging. Each has several hundred million followers that will go online several times a day to check there mall or update their status. It is quite easy to connect to one of these sites just by typing in the name http://www.facebook.com/ or going to Google that will give several hundred sites. Online social networking has also affected many of to days youths grades and GPA average. Because they would rather spend all night online messaging there friend or updating the status and not studying for their major exams that would be coming up.

            Social networking also has an upside to it. Social networking can allow people to find old friends and meet new ones. Social networking sites will allow people to message between themselves instead of using expensive texts and phone calls between each other. This can also lead to stockers, rapist, and identity theft. Social networking is a place for cyber bullies and pedophiles that will abuse the social networking sites for their personal amusements or devious deeds. That is why I believe all social networking sites should be careful watched by the government and also by the children parents.

Special Effects

This is a picture of how I created a lightning bolt with a lens flare effect in the program After Effects

Many of us have seen amazing effects in movies like realistic explosions, time travel portals, and much more. But do we know how they are actually done? Some people think that, because of technological advances, it’s just click, click, done! Or that it’s something that can be learned from just reading a book and following instructions. In actuality, it can either be a very arduous, frustrating process or a very fun, awesome experience. Being a beginner, I don’t know how to use all special effects programs but the one I found to be the easiest (and best!) one is Adobe After Effects. With this program you will be able to learn basic techniques such as compositing, blending modes, keyframing, and much more. I really recommend this program for beginners because once you are able to learn some of the very basic techniques, you will be able to create so much with. For example, you can animate a 2D character and even create simple 3D shapes and animate those as well! Of course, using this program alone won’t get you very far in the Visual Effects industry but it is a great first step!

Here is a video I created using the program to set my computer on fire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R11jPE1tlFk

Forever Young I Want to Be

I love being young. Most of the kids I know or graduated with say they can’t wait to grow up and get away from this despicable town we call Kingwood. I think being young rules, like honestly I see my parents go to work six or seven days a week and it looks awful. Right now I complain about working four to five days a week but my paychecks go directly to whatever the heck I want to spend my money on. Being young is awesome; I don’t have to worry about paying for anything but gas. Another thing I love about being young is the fact that I still have all of my high school best friends still around. I mean of course they are off at their own schools but when there is a break from school or its summertime I get to spend as much time with them as I want. I understand that someday I’ll have to grow up and be a “responsible adult” who works 40 hours a week but right now I’m going to experience new things, laugh as much as I can, and stay out till 4 a.m.

http://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-Being-Young