ComedySportz this weekend - 7:30 Fri. and Sat. night at Cafe Caffeine - I'm reffing - automatic point for showing up! Woohoo! cszaustin.com

playing ComedySportz tomorrow, Fri., night at Cafe Caffeine at 7:30! www.cszaustin.com

had a great time at the improv mixer. looking forward to two more classes this weekend: improv 401 and Sally Allen's mock audition!

Just got ping, gonna see how well it works...

Remember when you had to write down the address on the “now hiring” sign or in the classified ads of the paper?  Then you mailed or hand delivered a resume and cover letter to the hiring company.  You had to actually answer the home phone and schedule an interview where you would then drive to the location using directions given to you over the phone.  And if you got lost along the way, forget it; you’d have to drive back home, call from the landline a second time and try it all over again.  Maybe then a spoke on the wagon wheel would splinter and you’d have to walk on foot fifteen miles uphill, dragging the stubborn mule beside you the whole way?  Well actually, I can’t sympathize with you old geezers, because I don’t remember.  When I entered the job market, we already had the Internet, Monster.com, MapQuest, cell phones and more.  Even so, since I started getting jobs in 2003, the technological progress has been astounding.

Nowadays, every company has a website; less people have landline telephones anymore; and MapQuest can show you an actual photograph of the street you are looking for.  Technology has changed the way we apply for jobs, and it has changed the way companies promote their job openings.

After I graduate from college, I hope to work full-time in the entertainment industry as an actress.  Technology plays an enormous role in my future.  If I am to succeed, I must keep up with the technological landscape of my industry.

The key to success in acting is auditioning.  Actors need to be plugged into several casting websites, as well as local Yahoo groups that send out casting calls.  They also need to actively search on the Internet and in their area for local theaters, film productions companies, voiceover studios, comedy clubs, and other related businesses.  An actor should keep a list of active companies and frequently check their websites for casting calls.  When submitting to a casting call, actors need a resume, headshot (8x10 professional photo of themselves), voiceover demos, actor slate, and performance reel all in compressed, digital formats.  These promotional materials can be sent to a variety of people including agents, directors, producers, clients, and writers.  However, the best possible promotional item an actor can have is a website.  The actor with a website moves to the top of the pack.  He or she simply sends the address to their site to the proper contact, who then can peruse the site and learn more about the actor.  With a website, clients can get an idea of who they are auditioning.  It’s no longer just a face and a name.  On a website, an actor can have a short biography, an artistic statement, a variety of photographs, and other types of work including writing and editing samples.

In the past, this exchange of information would take weeks, and that’s for actors auditioning locally.  Now, a project in New York can cast a Los Angeles actor in less than an hour.  Additionally, the quantity of auditions in which you can participate has increased.  With the plethora of audition websites and the network of agents, actors have a much higher chance of getting good work. 

Advancements in technology not only changed the way actors audition and get work, but also on the creative side of the film industry, technological development in equipment and programs used to shoot, edit, and stage movies has undergone huge amounts of progress.

Distribution and marketing methods have also improved from technological advancements.  Although, that is not to say that all of the new technologies have been beneficial.  Film professionals are constantly fighting those who create bootleg copies or find ways to distribute these expensively made films.  Moreover, with the separation caused by the Internet, much of the face-to-face contact has completely stopped, creating a world of danger for the unwary auditioner.  I was recently cast in a film in Houston.  The producer wanted to meet me after a few email conversations and one phone interview.  I drove up to Houston to meet this person that I honestly did not know at all.  Of course, I am one of the more wary individuals, so I took my dad with me to Houston.  The producer turned out to be a really nice person, and I was cast in the film.  Yet, it is definitely not unheard of for a situation like mine to go very wrong, because the Internet essentially allows anyone to fake an identity.

Nonetheless, most of the advancements technology has brought to the entertainment industry have been great for business.  Technology has opened the job market up, broken down geographic boundaries, connected strangers, and created a thriving atmosphere that I hope continues to blossom as I enter the full-time job market.

Entertainment and technology was a little more broad than what I really wanted to cover, so I am going to do my final project on film and technology.  This layout might change a little, but for now here is my site map for my final project.

I used a program that was already on my PowerBook G4 (I think Macs come with it installed) called OmniGraffle - it works perfectly for site maps!

Okay so for my final website I am still trying to choose between the following two topics:

1. Marketing and technology.  This site will look at how new technologies will effect marketing.  As the landscape of marketing mediums expands, the marketers of today’s businesses will have to keep up.  How will today’s marketers and the marketers of the future break through the clutter?  Technology allows us to reach people in new and exciting ways.  With this website I would explore the new avenues of marketing and advertising that businesses might take advantage of in the future.

2. Entertainment and technology.  This site would investigate the different ways the entertainment industry, mainly film industries, presents technology.  Technology is usually serves as either the saving hero or the destructive enemy.  I’d like to look at how these functions affect the public’s view on technology.

I also wanted to explain a comment that I made in class today about the people we work with.  I think the people in our world seek to work with like minded individuals.  We like working with people who have the same goals, expectations, backgrounds, education, etc.  They do not challenge our basic beliefs.  We usually like their ideas, and they like ours. 

And I do not think this is a good environment to work in.  I am excited for the future, globalization really, because it is now necessary to seek out different ideas and people who would challenge our ideology.  The internet and virtual worlds contribute to our global business model requiring us to expand our boundraries and reinvent old strategies. 

What I was commenting on in class is our everpresent desire to surround ourselves with like minds, people who agree with us, people who think we are right, people who we know will like and respect us.  I hope that this is not always the case, and I think it is important to be aware of that desire in order to combat it.  In class, I was just brining up the fact that that desire exists and it is our job to make sure it doesn't become a reality.

that is all
:)

I want a rabbit.  Not just any rabbit, but a virtual rabbit: a Second Life rabbit.  So, I went to SL, and for an hour I teleported from pet shop to pet shop, with a few distractions in between, looking for a rabbit.

Obviously, as in the real world, if you want anything you have to pay for it, even a virtual rabbit.  I am a poor college student in real life…and in Second Life.  One thing that SL has in common with the real world is that everything costs money.  So, at the end of my rabbit expedition my hands and pockets were as empty as they started.

What I found interesting is that some of the shops I went into had not only your regular household pets, but they had everything, from cats and dogs to exotic animals like crocodiles and tigers to completely outrageous pets like dragons and bionic-unicorns.

To be honest, I actually had a hard time finding a rabbit.  There were so many other animals, people are so obsessed with being different and having something unique, that sometimes it’s unique to be generic.  One of the most generic pets, a rabbit, was not available. 

Additionally, I had a difficult time finding people in the pet shops. So, it was hard to ask where I could buy a rabbit.  Perhaps, AI would be useful in second life so you could always have a presence in a world you created to answer questions and help sell products, maybe an AI SL salesman or woman.

Here's the link to my MInisite #4 on Virtual Reality.

VIRTUAL WORLDS

I am especially proud of the title graphic at the top.

I didn't want to use Google in my search for the best and the worst of website design, because I felt that is what most people would do.  I wanted to find different sites.  There are a lot of poor ones out there to choose from.

Anyhow, the two I found are not the absolute best or worst;  I’ll leave that title to someone else’s picks.  While one is obviously bad and the other is good, I thought it would be interesting to find examples of pages with both good and bad elements.  Where, even though the overall design is bad, there are well-executed parts.  The same goes for the good website example.

These two sites are for two completely different audiences, and aesthetically, they are worlds apart.  Without further ado, here is the...

Good: Texas X-Factor Professional Paintball Team
http://www.texasxfactor.com/indexFlash.php

Bad: Teign Corinthian Yacht Club
http://www.tcyc.org.uk/index.html

Good about the GOOD:
Okay, I may be a bit biased; this website is for my brother’s professional paintball team, San Antonio X-Factor.  The design of this sight is great.  The pages are unified, aesthetically pleasing, and appropriate for the target audience.  The background is creative, yet not distracting.  And the home page is well-organized.  The navigation menu is also really great.  It is labeled at the top of the box and it is easy to use.  I appreciate that it stays in place when the cursor is on the menu.  Additionally, the interactive player roster is an original and visually interesting effect.  Finally, I appreciate that you never have to scroll.  Every aspect of the site is contained in the one box.  Even though I am not a member of the target audience, I feel like this site is very user-friendly.

Bad about the GOOD:
So what’s bad about the good website?  This website needs to be UPDATED!  The current date is displayed up in the right hand corner, but the latest information on the page is from 2007.  In 2008, this team won the championship tournament in Chicago for professional paintball.  That is quite an achievement, and I would love to see that on the site!  Also, this website is so elaborate, as far as design goes, that it is very slow to load, especially if you don’t have a high speed connection.  My parent’s have a satellite connection, and they have said that it takes about 5-10 minutes for this site to load.  In toady’s fast pace technology world, that is a long time.

Bad about the BAD:
Now for the bad and the ugly: Teign Corinthian Yacht Club website.  The first thing I notice is the color design.  It is all over the place.  The website had no design unity in color or organization. It looks like they attempted to match the color scheme of their logo (in the upper left corner).  But, then they embellished on this color scheme, and completely miss the boat…or yacht.  Sorry to my friends in the UK who designed this site.  Also, the navigation menu is very confusing.  The link to the page you are on disappears and is replaced by the link to the page above.  Except when you get to “Training.”  I’m not really even sure what happens.  I feel like the page is changing under my mouse.  Each time I click and I have to reorient myself.  Finally, the size of some of the text in the news items is huge.  You have to scroll to read three words.

Good about the BAD:
I figured out that you could opt out of the distracting background images by clicking the bottom link in the navigation pane on the home page.  This is a nice option.  But the background color is not any better than the pictures.  Nevertheless, I will stick by my original reaction to this website.  I think the design of the webpage is unattractive and the poor quality outweighs any strengths the website might have.

I am very sorry if I offended any web developers with this blog.  ☺

Holy toasted monkeys - I can't believe it's 3:30am, and I am still up working on my web design mid-term!

Here's the link to my third minisite:

Exploring Google and Artificial Intelligence

Something new you will find in this one is that I figured out how to change the non-visited link color and the visited link color.  Yay-hooray!

I only ran into a few problems in this website.  They might not even be considered problems, just little quirks that have to do with the way the web page is displayed on my Mac.  First, Firefox on my Mac does not read the link coloration that I so geniusly figured out how to do, but Internet Explorer does.  Figure that one out...?  Second, I noticed that Internet Explorer on my Mac will not display the alt attributes for images on any website.  I'm going to check this out from a friend's PC just to make sure mine are functioning properly.

After trying several ftp programs, I finally found a good one, Cyberduck, and figured out how to use it with my personal computer, a PowerBook G4.  It's a little different that the ftp software we usually use in the comm. lab, so it took a little getting used to, but it's not difficult at all.

Here is the link to my second website where I use my first cascading style sheet.

Survival Skills for the 21st Century

Questions I still have:
1. With the youtube video, where do I put the "alt" tag?  Can I have an "alt" tag with a embedded youtube video?
2. An little nitpicky question: Is there anyway we can control the colors of the hyperlinks on our websites?
3. When dealing with Fireftp, how do I use sub-folders / get the internet to link to the documents in the sub-folders and not just search for them in the username folder?

Answer to #1 and 2:
Still don't know.  I'm going to try to google to figure them out.  I'll let you know when I do.

Answer to #3:
When typing in the address to the site, I have to include the subfolder after the username folder. 
For example: www.resnet.trinity.edu/username/subfolder/filename.html.

Here is the link to my mini website:

Children's Entertainment

I can't wait to learn more about styles and how to make webpages look really professional.   While these are obviously very basic websites, I am glad that we are learning "the hard way" first.  I am excited to learn how to use the programs developed specifically for web development.

First, current trends in the use of robotics forecast an exciting and, possibly problematic future.  In the future, robots will be helping with many tasks in the home, office, and outdoors.  The down side, however, is that robots will be replacing many humans in the workforce, leaving millions of people worldwide jobless and without income.  This would exacerbate the divide between those in upper economic class and the lower economic class.  The value of an education will probably go up because, with an education, an individual could secure a job that can’t be replaced by a robot.  Those who can afford the robotic technology will have more leisure time or more time to earn money depending on how society chooses to continue increasing work-related activity. 

The past has shown us that, if technology will allow, we will lengthen our workday and our workweek.  This precedent poses more problems.  What will occur might be a type of "survival of the fittest" in the business world.  Those companies that cannot keep up with the technological advancements will fall behind their competitors and eventually fail.  Monopolies might become a big problem in our future business world. 

By staying ahead of the technology and creating just legislation before a problem arises, our society can attempt to confront these issues before they become problems.  We will probably need to discuss and attempt to solve these issues with a global mindset, involving representatives from all over the world.

Another field of advancement that we should be looking out for in the future is genetic engineering.  We have talked about it at conferences; we’ve written about it in magazines; and we’ve seen it in the movies.  In the future, we will probably have the option of modifying our body and genetically altering our unborn children.

We spend millions of dollars searching for the cures of many different diseases, when the cure we are looking for might be taking the disease or mutation out of the picture altogether.  What if this elusive “cure” for cancer is genetically engineering you unborn child to be cancer free?  The possibilities are limitless.

I think an important solution to the plethora of ethical problems that will arise with genetic engineering is education.  If people know about the issues they are dealing with and they wish for the goodwill of mankind as a whole, I hope that legislators and voters will make the right decisions.  Yes, I am putting a lot of responsibility on government, but, at this point, I can’t even fathom what type of governing or rule-making body would work to help solve these problems in the future.  However, I do believe that the more informed people are, the more opportunity they have to make the right decision.  Therefore, our education system will be of utmost importance. 

Thankfully, the Internet has already reinvented the distribution of information.  People can learn about almost anything by doing a simple google search.  A quality education will teach the layperson to be wary of the trustworthiness and biases of the information they find.  This seemingly limitless amount of information combined with a good education, will allow our society to make the informed decisions that the future will demand.  We should perform case studies, seeking information from all viewpoints of an issue, that can lead to fair regulation on the technologies of the future.

That website looked pretty simple.  I don’t recognize “<IMG…” but I bet it’s how you insert an image.  I’m not sure what “<A HREF…” means, but that one looks like a way to link the pages together.

I wonder how you add design elements to the page.  How do you make the page visually appealing?  I’ve been gone from class for a few days, so I probably need to catch up before I ask too many questions on this blog.  I feel fairly confused concerning HTML.  From an outsider's perspective, the code seems a little complex; it’s a bit overwhelming.  Is there some software where you can create your website in a program like photoshop, and then transfer it to the webpage without having to figure out the HTML code?

For my mini website, I would like to make one that explores different forms of children's entertainment that presents futuristic ideas to the youth of our society.  I think I’ll have four basic pages each with a different show.

Dexter’s Lab – a little boy genius invents gadgets in his secret laboratory
WALL·E – a look at the bleak future of the planet based on American consumption patterns
The Jetsons – a typical family animated comedy set in the distant future
Inspector Gadget  - this children’s series featured a cyborg private investigator

Finally, I would like to learn how to imbed a video from YouTube.  It would be neat to have the theme song/into or trailer to each show.

NOTE: Alright, so this is a long entry - I apologize for that... if you can't read it all, please skip to the last two paragraphs that discuss my favorite thing: the significance of film (specifically, the science fiction genre)!

While it's entertaining and exciting to think about the “what ifs” of nanotechnology, it is extremely important to discuss these “what ifs” and their ethical implications (as well as those of genetic engineering and robotics!).  I think in today's society and in the future, as nanotechnology widens our horizons, it is crucial for the ethical discussion to stay one step ahead of the technology.  We can do this by encouraging task forces, committees, and/or organizations that are dedicated to discussing the ethical implications of these technologies.

Obviously the individual fields of research are always leading these necessary discussions, but I think we need people (whether that’s law making bodies or lobbyists) who are prepared to address these issues both politically and socially.  We should be looking ahead, expecting ethical conflicts to arise, and we should have the appropriate platform for dialogue and action to take place.

I understand that there are such groups that already exist.  For example one organization, International Risk Governance Council (IRGC), is dedicated to governing the risk involved with fields like nanotechnology.  The IRGC specifically deals with nanotechnology in food and cosmetics.  Additionally, The Nanoethics Group, The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), and multiple government agencies also discuss ethical implications of nanotechnology vial committee meetings and web-based forums.  

With addressing these issues politically and on a law making level, we can’t sit back and say, “Oh, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” because that may be too late.

On the other hand, I am not proposing laws that limit our work in these sciences; I think restrictive laws would be a sad and disastrous outcome.  

In my opinion, we need ethical groups that create meaningful dialogue between at least two groups: those who strongly encourage innovation and advancement and those who are concerned with the negative outcomes of limitless technological possibilities.  The responsibility falls on the shoulders of leading scientists and informers.  They must work to keep our discussion one step ahead of the technology, so we are as prepared as it is possible when an ethical decision must be made.

You can bet that ten years from now, some decision will have been made on how to handle these developing technologies.  For example: Should we use nanorobots to cure disease?  Do we want nanorobots in our bloodstream?  Is it safe?

While I don't know that I am completely thrilled about government-instituted regulation, I think we will probably create laws controlling these technologies because that is how we have dealt with similar issues.  That is all we know.  Regulation.  Example: alcohol use (prohibition), marijuana use (illegal drugs)…Up next: nanotechnology use (illegal sciences)!  Wow that sounds scary - I wish we could think of some new method of guaranteeing responsibility and goodwill in our use of these technologies.

There’s no doubt about it, in ten years the world will be a new place: new technologies, more possibilities, greater concerns, and specific regulations.  Because I am a filmmaker, I want to quickly point out how film acts as a platform for discussion of these technologies.  Movies like Gattaca, Terminator, Bladrunner, X-Men, A.I., Minority Report, The Matrix, and Contact (the list goes on!) have presented a variety of views of the future that can range from the frightening and deadly to the exciting and hopeful.  Film has been, and will continue to be, a wonderful medium for sparking debates regarding these ethical issues and how they might impact our world.

As technology in the real world becomes more and more advanced, the science fiction film becomes increasingly relevant.  While these films are usually based on an over exaggerated version of our race’s future, they are often borrow technological ideas not too far out of reach.  Production of these films will continue to inspire the layperson to seek out knowledge, to form opinions, and to participate in the ethical debates of our society.

hi my name is mmadi. the first m is slient. 

i am starting this blog for a communication class at my university that sounds like it's going to be really interesting.  i actually signed up for this class just becasue i wanted to learn how to make a website, but it turns out i'm going to learn a lot more.  and quite frankly, i'm excited. 

yeah, we meet at 8:30 am, but i am one of those cursed (or blessed, depending on how you look at it) people that wake up at about 7:30 each moring no matter what - thanks to one: my childhood growing up on a farm, and two: the annoying  gaggle of noisy birds that arrives outside my window around 7am.  anyway, i thought i might as well be doing something fun and productive.

i'm thinking about getting a giant plastic owl - like the one in my family's horse barn back home - and placing on the upstairs window sill outside.  the birds think the owl is real (poor creatures) so they won't nest in your barn - or outside your bedroom window.  lets hope they don't wise up to the plastic owl ruse anytime soon. 

my housemate suggested we record oursleves saying "hoo hoo hooooo" and play that outside my window to scare the birds away.  several problems here.  one: we don't sound anything like owls, two: we don't have any recording equipment, three: we don't have the proper play back equipment, and four: it doesn't solve the initial problem of annoying sounds outside my window at 7 am.  hummm do i want to hear actual birds squaking or the hooing of my housemates?

so i've disscussed enough about birds and recording devices, which have practicaly nothing to do with this communication class.  oh well.

that is all.
mmadi