Monthly Archives: October 2018

Lawsuit Protection 101

Hey y’all. It’s Jason and it’s your lucky day as it is now time for yet another Student Blogging Challenge post. This post is gonna be about one of the biggest issues about image usage: Copyright.

In this post, I’ll be covering how to use images that are protected from copyright and I’ll give you several ways to do so. Let’s get started.

#1: Using your own image

The easiest way to bypass copyright is just to use your own image. Take your own photo or draw your own image. For example, if you’re doing a post on the history of lights, then the easiest way is just to go and take a picture of the lights in your house for this post.

Perhaps you consider yourself a skilled artist (I am not). If you would like, another easy way is just to draw your own image.

#2: Creative Commons

Another option for people who aren’t the best at photography or art, try Creative Commons.

Homepage

Creative Commons is pretty much non-copyrighted Google Images. Yeah. Mind blown, eh?

Using Creative Commons for images is incredibly powerful as it searches several different royalty free photo websites using your keywords. It’s my, go-to for image usage as I’m terrible at drawing and there’s nothing interesting for me to take pictures of unless I’m on a school trip.

Well, I guess that’s it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and more importantly, that you’ve learned something.

This is Jason, Signing off.

P R I M E Comments

Hey, it’s Jason and here’s a bit of a brief post I created for the Student Blogging Challenge, and in this post I’m going to talk about some comments I’ve left on other peoples’ blogs for the challenge.

My first comment was left on Mason‘s blog. I especially felt that his visual was pretty well done and I felt that he had put a lot of work into his blog.

My second comment was on Zach’s blog, which had a very nice rule page and was straight and to the point.

http://zachc123.edublogs.org/2018/10/16/commenting/#comment-2

My final comment was on Louie’s page, which I thought was well done due to the highly personalized rules. I think that it’s smart for him to keep the rules for his blog not just according to the general guidelines, but also the way he did it.

http://lucienbean.edublogs.org/2018/10/15/how-to-comment/#comment-17

Be on the lookout for more SBC posts. There’s gonna be a lot of base rules and also tips for fellow bloggers.

This is Jason, Signing out.

Memepunk

Have you ever wondered why steampunk gets used so much in media? No? Have you ever wondered what steampunk is? Probably? Well, you’re in luck because your old pal Jason is about to answer those questions, or die trying.

darksouls1 / Pixabay

So let’s start with the burning question: How does steampunk affect current media. By media, I mean movies, tv, current trends, video games..etc…..

What is Steampunk?

But first, let me explain a bit about what steampunk is.

In my confusing words, steampunk is if modern technology had evolved in the Victorian Era. Expect to see a lot of steam powered machines and lots of exposed mechanics. Also, for some reason, there’s a heavy emphasis on the colours brown, copper, and maybe, sometimes, if you’re lucky, gold. So lots of metallic colours as well.

Steampunk In Media

Steampunk gets its fair share of usage in media, especially in movies and video games.

I think that steampunk acts like kind of an outlet for companies to use their imaginations to create huge, hulking machines and can also act as a way of making historical games more interesting. Steampunk technically takes place in the past, but ironically (I guess), steampunk isn’t set in the past all the time. Sometimes, it’ll be set in the future for some reason, which is what you’d expect from huge metallic machines powered by gears and steam.

Some examples of steampunk in movies and TV include:

Animated movies, such as Steamboy (2004), War of the Worlds (2012) and the short film Mr. Hublot (2013)

There’s also a fair share of steampunk TV shows including Going Postal (2010) and Sanctuary (2008).

However many movies and TV shows there are about steampunk, there’s also a bounty of video games for steampunk fans. Some of the more well known titles include the World Renowned Bioshock Series, Dishonored (2012), Final Fantasy (1994), The Chaos Engine (1998), and The Order: 1886 (2015).

Even music has been hit by the train known as steampunk (bad analogy). A variety of genres, such as rock or jazz have been affected by Steampunk. Bands such as Abney Park (1997), The Synthetic Dream Foundation (2006), Unextraordinary Gentleman (2004), And my personal favourite, Steam Powered Giraffe (2008) have been doing well as the steampunk genre has been holding up somewhat steady numbers since its birth.

After doing some studying on the plots and gameplay of the media (some of the nest studying I’ve ever done), I still stick to my main ideas. The ideas exhibited in the media I studied showed tons of juicy, steampunk themes. I think that the huge Neo-Victorian cities and massive, steam powered mechs and weapons.

Conclusion

I guess Steampunk is pretty much it’s own category in media. Even a simple google search on steampunk will reveal steampunk’s heavy impact on modern and past media. If you’re a steampunk fan, you’d be glad to know (if you didn’t know already) that steampunk is here to stay.

Possession is 9/10ths of the law

Alright, so I’ve gone over the whole “Identity” part of our trip, but what did we actually do on our trip? I’m sure that was on everyone’s mind while they were reading my post, instead of “Who is this kid?” or “What am I doing here?”.

As many of you know, I am Jason, and this is my official Alberta blog post.

So, in this post, I’ll be covering most of the things that I didn’t cover in my identity Video, so if you want a bit more info on Alberta, and specifically, one of the main projects we worked on. Check out my identity post after you read this post.

Also, before you read, I’ve made a little video documenting some of the places that I will mention in this post. Make sure to take a look at that. If you do not like EDM, then you can get out.

Just kidding. If you don’t like my music then just mute it. However, I spent a lot of effort syncing up the images to the music, so it would mean a lot to me if you enjoyed the full experience.

https://youtu.be/6P8OZum2tys

On one fateful day in September, similar to last year, at some undisclosed time early in the morning, 17 rowdy kids departed Seycove in the ol’ faithful Seycove bus, with their bags crammed under their seats and their headphones plugged in. And just like that, the trip had begun.

Canadian Pacific Railway

Along our trip, we visited several CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) attractions. The CPR was also a pretty big focus on our trip, as we visited Rogers Pass, the Spiral Tunnels, and most notably, the Last Spike. We also did a lot of research before and during our trip, including watching the CPR movie The Iron Road and watching some short filmstrips and documentaries on our trip, such as “The War on Snow”, which we watched in Rogers Pass and taught us about how the military launched missiles into the mountains to cause avalanches. Or something like that.

Calgary

We spent a few days on the road, staying in Three Valley Gap and Lake Louise, before arriving at our final destination, Calgary. We spent 4 days in Calgary visiting some well known attractions, such as the Calgary Zoo, Glenbow Museum, And The Royal Tyrell Museum (which technically isn’t in Calgary but we went there while we were in Calgary).

Beakerhead

But now, you might be asking, why did you go to Calgary in the first place? Well I’m gonna tell you.

You see, in Calgary, we participated in a magical event called Beakerhead. Basically, beakerhead is when a bunch of scientists, artists, and other people come together, and take over the city of Calgary, setting up various “Beacons” and “Pop-Up” events. Beacons are pretty much huge attractions that combine both science and art to represent something.

During Beakerhead, we visited a huge dung beetle, a burning man recreation, an up recreation (House covered in balloons) and giant tesla coils.

Through beakerhead, I’ve gained a better knowledge of both Science and Art. Also where else are you gonna get to ram into your fellow students in zorb balls for school? (Yes, we actually did that.)

The Art Of Filmmaking

Another focus for the trip was filmmaking. We worked on both our iMovie and clips skills by creating 4 short films/movies at various locations.

Obviously, you’ve seen the identity video, which was included in my identity post, which all of you obviously read, but what were the other 3? Well, I’m not gonna tell you.

I’m not gonna tell you.

Nope. Not gonna tell you.

OK, maybe I’ll tell you.

Hey, stop peer pressuring me to tell you!

Alright fine, I’ll tell you. Our first one was on one of the first stops of our trip. The Heritage Ghost Town In the Three Valley Gap. The Ghost Town is made up of many restored historical buildings, and is eerily creepy, due to the abundance of manniquins. And also the dental office. That was terrifying.

In The Town, we created silent films, which weren’t even allowed to include sound effects. Even though it was in a ghost town, it didn’t have to be spooky. Ours did have some spooky elements, but still has an old-timey movie feel about it. Take a look for yourself.

https://youtu.be/n_Lt3wFq8gw

Our second was a while later in Drumheller, where we had to make a video telling the story of one of the fossils in the dinosaur museum using accurate facts about the fossil. Check that out as well:

https://youtu.be/H2zppdozdMY

Our final project was on our final day, in the Enchanted Forest, which may have been one of the creepiest places we went to. Take a look at the figures in our video and you can see for yourself.

https://youtu.be/q6nJsipWFd4

Well, you’ve watched and enjoyed our movies (I hope) and you’ve enjoyed this post just as much (I also hope) and it is now time to cap off this post. The Alberta trip was definitely a great way to start the year and will definitely be one of the highlights of my high school days.

Identity 2: The Identifying

Hey, you remember back when I made that original identity post? Remember when I said there was going to be a part 2? Yeah? Well here it is. I’m Jason, and I’m back to give you your second dosage of IDENTITY.

Also, keep this in mind: remember how Worldview was a recurring theme in Grade 8? Well now we have a new recurring theme, identity.

So, let’s pick up where we left off. I believe we had just started talking about what identity was and our driving question. Do you remember it? “How does that land affect our identity?” I also revealed our fabulous Deep Cove Identity Video. Remember that? Now, after a 9 day trip to Alberta, I have returned with more knowledge and have made an all new video about identity.

Let’s start with some details about our Alberta Trip.

The Alberta trip was good fun, but I won’t go too far into detail as there is an Alberta Field Study post coming soon (shameless self-promotion). However, I will add in some photos and I’ll explain later a bit more about the important places.

Next, let’s recap the new knowledge I’ve learned after our last post.

So, we talked a little about what Identity was in the last post, but not too in depth. Also, I’ve got some examples of identity, worldview, and how they intertwine. One example we learned at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary was how the worldviews of the First Nations people were changed after the arrival of the Europeans, and how the Europeans’ identities changed after their arrival.

Also, I learned a lot about how the land can really change the identities and worldview of people. At the Columbia Icefield Skywalk, my friend Sam and I interviewed some people and we found that many people’s worldview have been impacted by the Skywalk.

One of the key words I’ve linked to identity is perception. Perception is a word I used a lot in my new video as it was the perfect word to describe what identity is really about. The main thing identity really impacts is perception. Whether it be the perception of the land or the people of the land, all of that depends on identity.

Alright, I’ve baited it all throughout this post, and I’m sure y’all are DYING to see it, so here it is. The centrepiece of my Albertan Adventures, my identity video. (applause)

https://youtu.be/B_cCMLRjY7Q

As you can see, I’ve separated my video into a few key topics and all of those topics intertwine together to make an identity. To quote myself, “Think of it as a pyramid, without any of the building blocks, it collapses.” I think that this unit was a great way to start of the year and a great intro to a word that’ll probably get pounded into our heads even harder than worldview, Identity.