Everyone should play a musical instrument
In this manefesto, i present to you the idea that everyone yin britain should play a musical instrument, i shall provide and argument for and against this point, and add my personal opinions
I feel that every british person should have the chance to play a musical instrument, be it guitar, bass, drums, or anything that could be considered a musical instrument, why do i think this?
My passion in life is music, which to me takes a priority over many things, with the exception of friends and family, and obvious things like food and shelter, My love for music is very strong, so i feel that everyone should have the chance to play an instrument, and be able to express themselves in a way which many would not consider possible, and describe their emotions and feelings through music, i personally feel that many people would benifit from music, particularly on an emotional level, as i feel that playing music should be considered a therapy, as it allows people to do something their way and exactly how they want, and then share it with others should they so wish.
playing music is like painting a picture, but where as many people do not have the skill or ability to make physical art, everyone has the potential to create sonic art through an instrument, and whether they are skilled to a high level or just starting, whatever they create will be theirs, and can be made in a short amount of time and in many cases, without a lot of skill needed.
However, it can certainly be argued that many people do not have the time or money to pick up an instrument, but to this i ask nay sayers to look at government funding, and in recent years, it seems that the arts have been widely disregarded, and now it has come to light that MPs have been claiming expenses on things which aren't in anyway essential, so i say that instead of MPs who already earn good salerys being allowed to claim everything as an expense, the government use the money to provide funding for musical instrument schemes, suh as school purchase schemes, thus allowing children to access instruments at a young age and have the chance to do something that may stay with them for life and enrich their life.
of course, there is the factor of the credit crunch, well i feel that if instruments are funded then many businesses will benefit, think of all the businesses involved in providing musical instruments, from building them, shipping, designing, making components and selling, many businesses will benefit from this. No, it wont solve the credit crunch, but with everyone being able to express themselves in a way they may not have been able to before, i feel that this may open up carreer oppurtunities for many people, and there are many examples of people who have been stuck in dead end jobs who took up a musical instrument, and then became stars, so its not impossible at all!
Overall i feel that while this may be very idealistic, i believe that if everyone played an instrument then the culture of britian would be much richer and varied that it is today, in a country where our culture is made up of aspects of others, music would set us apart from anyone else, and everyone in britain would be better off even if they only experience it once.
New Manefesto
Video games and films are not to blame!
In this manefesto i shall argue my point that murders such as the murder of James Bulger, (allegedly inspired by the film childsplay) do not mean that video games and films should be banned or censored.
Video games do not affect the majority of the audience whom they are distributed to and while these killings and crimes are very tragic, it is only a very small amount of people who commit them..
The very idea thaat children and even adults are exclusively impressionable and affected by the images shown in films and video games, admittedly there is an amount of evidence that some people do become influenmced by media such as video games and movies to an extent that they may perform some act of violence based on the events portrayed in that media, however, the amount of people who have not acted upon these things far outweigh the amount that have, and many of the people who do have eventually, under tests, been digagnosed as mentally ill, so it is no surprise that they are affected.
And then, there is is the argument that if these people are so highly affected, then surely thing such as bbc news should be banned, when they show scenes of suicide bombing and war zones, are these not worse than virtual scenes? the scene that is reality surely has much more effect than a scene that is fake? if we go to such a length to try to outlaw virtual reality, then surely we should attemp to outlaw reality which is much more horrifying due to the fatc that these things are actually happening??? the very idea of attemping to ban something intended to be entertainment is idiotic, they are meant for enjoyment, when these games and films are in production, it is not the plan to inspire mentally unstable people to go out and kill, the objective is purely to entertain, and for the very large majority, they are simply entertained, and nothing more, they do not act upon things which they are shown within this media, they simply view it and that is all. So please, i ask you, do not blame video games and Films of inspiring murders when they simply dont, the murders are down to the murderers and people who commit acts of violence, not a virtual relity world intended to entertain.
Showing posts with label DAT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DAT. Show all posts
Monday, November 30, 2009
DAT101 Subjective writing & Rhetoric, argument and persuasion
These are some of the other things we have covered in the DAT101, during lectures.
Subjective writing
Define yourself in 3 words
Irresponsible, loud, friendly
Define you position in 3 words if china were to declare war on britian
Scared, angry, wimpy
5 lies i tell about myself
one of the 3 original liberal arts in western culture, alongside grammar and logic
Grammar is correct language use
logic is testing and inventing new knowledge through question and answer
Rehtoric is the proper presentation of ideas, it was taught by the ancient greeks and romans in the medieval and renaissance eras
now in modern times it is coming back into poularity
Important in public speaking and politics
Notable Rhetoricians
aristotle
Ethos, Pathos and Logos
Ethos: The way the personality and credibility of the person speaking may affect the audience to make them believeable
Pathos: emotional appeals to audiences judgement
Logos: use of reasoning to construct an argument
Although we wouldnt name these things the same way aristotle did, i think they are very much still in use today, and a particular example of this is with reality TV, whereby members of the public become attatched to partiipants in television shows, and then will either vote for them to stay on television for a longer amount of time, or to get rid of them, and all of this is based on how the participant presents themselves, and trying to appeal to the nation with a background story usually describing a upssetting upbringing or similar, so that the audience may feel emotionally inclined to support them.
Quintilian
5 canons how to make an argument
Invention: the process leading to an argument being made and perfected.
Arrangement: organised to have the greatest effect.
Style and presentation
Memory: the speaker recalling particular part of an argument in his speech
Delivery: the way it is delivered to engage the audience to the greatest level
Techniques of rhetoric
Contrasting points.
Lists of three: short and consise, but with enough information to give a good overview.
Combination of these two.
repetition: pressing a point to an audience more than once to keep in in their minds.
Alliteration.
Anthropamorphism.
Antithesis: words that may be contradicting, to create a balanced effect to the argument.
Climax: build up matters ending with the most important.
Hyperbole: Exaggerating a point to make it obvious that it is important.
Innuendo.
Irony.
Metaphore: Saying something is something else to add effect to the description, e.g. "Islands are jewels in the ocean", they are obviously not, but it references the beauty and perfection of a jewel and gives the island the same beauty.
Parallism.
Rhyme: appealing to the audience and a light hearted and catchy way of presenting something.
Oxymoron: two contradicting things combined e.g. "little big".
Simile: similar to metaphore, but rather than saying something IS, saying something is LIKE, e.g. "That house is like a palace".
Symbol.
Advocacy: short and consise points.
Subjective writing
Define yourself in 3 words
Irresponsible, loud, friendly
Define you position in 3 words if china were to declare war on britian
Scared, angry, wimpy
5 lies i tell about myself
- my feet are size 14, they arent, they're size 13, i just dont like the number 13
- i can swim, No i cant, not at all, i just say that to avoid questions
- i wake up at 7 am every day, massive lie there, only when i get woken up by somebody else is that the case
- i can play drums. No i really cant not in any way i just like saying i can
- I love hot food, im not brilliant with it, and i've never really had proper hot food, i just think it sounds impressive
----------------------------------------------------------
Rhetoric, argument and persuasion
Rhetoricone of the 3 original liberal arts in western culture, alongside grammar and logic
Grammar is correct language use
logic is testing and inventing new knowledge through question and answer
Rehtoric is the proper presentation of ideas, it was taught by the ancient greeks and romans in the medieval and renaissance eras
now in modern times it is coming back into poularity
Important in public speaking and politics
Notable Rhetoricians
aristotle
Ethos, Pathos and Logos
Ethos: The way the personality and credibility of the person speaking may affect the audience to make them believeable
Pathos: emotional appeals to audiences judgement
Logos: use of reasoning to construct an argument
Although we wouldnt name these things the same way aristotle did, i think they are very much still in use today, and a particular example of this is with reality TV, whereby members of the public become attatched to partiipants in television shows, and then will either vote for them to stay on television for a longer amount of time, or to get rid of them, and all of this is based on how the participant presents themselves, and trying to appeal to the nation with a background story usually describing a upssetting upbringing or similar, so that the audience may feel emotionally inclined to support them.
Quintilian
5 canons how to make an argument
Invention: the process leading to an argument being made and perfected.
Arrangement: organised to have the greatest effect.
Style and presentation
Memory: the speaker recalling particular part of an argument in his speech
Delivery: the way it is delivered to engage the audience to the greatest level
Techniques of rhetoric
Contrasting points.
Lists of three: short and consise, but with enough information to give a good overview.
Combination of these two.
repetition: pressing a point to an audience more than once to keep in in their minds.
Alliteration.
Anthropamorphism.
Antithesis: words that may be contradicting, to create a balanced effect to the argument.
Climax: build up matters ending with the most important.
Hyperbole: Exaggerating a point to make it obvious that it is important.
Innuendo.
Irony.
Metaphore: Saying something is something else to add effect to the description, e.g. "Islands are jewels in the ocean", they are obviously not, but it references the beauty and perfection of a jewel and gives the island the same beauty.
Parallism.
Rhyme: appealing to the audience and a light hearted and catchy way of presenting something.
Oxymoron: two contradicting things combined e.g. "little big".
Simile: similar to metaphore, but rather than saying something IS, saying something is LIKE, e.g. "That house is like a palace".
Symbol.
Advocacy: short and consise points.
Dat 101 Mind map
Very late updating, but never mind, this is my mind map
This mind map basically describes me in a way that i feel is simple but informative. I chose to keep the content simple as i think that it described me better this way that if i had decided to go into detail about every little thing, and so i kept it to what i personally feel are the keypoints.
A rough run though of some of the points.
Music
I only put a few, but in reality if i had listed all of the music i like then the entire page would just be a list of music, so i kept it as short yet descriptive as possible
Hobbies & interests
I kept these organised by splitting them up into different sections with lots of offshoots, so that they were tidier and it werent just lots of random sections in one
Influences
This one was the most diffiult setion for me to do as i didnt really know who inspired me in life, so i put the obvious ones, like parents, and then added other less obvious ones later when i had thought about them, I.E the philosphy branch and the Chi Cheng branch, i put the philosophy segement as i studied it during A Levels, and it had a big effect on the way i looked at life.
The Chi cheng segment almost didnt get put in, but since his life has had an influence on me, i think it was good that i put him in there.
Dislikes
I deided that i should put Fears in dislikes, as i reckon that they can describe people in a very personal and honest way, such as the fact that i am afraid of very odd things, and i think this is a good way for people to know me, because i am telling people something very personal to myself.
Overall
I dont think that this was the most detailed or best mind map that i saw, but i feel that it was good for what i wanted to do, which was to show myself in the simplest way possible, which i think is showing a lot of points, with a small amount of detail to each rather than a few very detailed points. and i think this way people learn more varied stuff about me than just learning about one part of me.
This mind map basically describes me in a way that i feel is simple but informative. I chose to keep the content simple as i think that it described me better this way that if i had decided to go into detail about every little thing, and so i kept it to what i personally feel are the keypoints.
A rough run though of some of the points.
Music
I only put a few, but in reality if i had listed all of the music i like then the entire page would just be a list of music, so i kept it as short yet descriptive as possible
Hobbies & interests
I kept these organised by splitting them up into different sections with lots of offshoots, so that they were tidier and it werent just lots of random sections in one
Influences
This one was the most diffiult setion for me to do as i didnt really know who inspired me in life, so i put the obvious ones, like parents, and then added other less obvious ones later when i had thought about them, I.E the philosphy branch and the Chi Cheng branch, i put the philosophy segement as i studied it during A Levels, and it had a big effect on the way i looked at life.
The Chi cheng segment almost didnt get put in, but since his life has had an influence on me, i think it was good that i put him in there.
Dislikes
I deided that i should put Fears in dislikes, as i reckon that they can describe people in a very personal and honest way, such as the fact that i am afraid of very odd things, and i think this is a good way for people to know me, because i am telling people something very personal to myself.
Overall
I dont think that this was the most detailed or best mind map that i saw, but i feel that it was good for what i wanted to do, which was to show myself in the simplest way possible, which i think is showing a lot of points, with a small amount of detail to each rather than a few very detailed points. and i think this way people learn more varied stuff about me than just learning about one part of me.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Dat 102
Digital Art and Technology iDat102 website
So Far...
I don't quite know how I'm going to make it, but I have some very certain ideas for my website, I know exactly how I want it, its just transferring the ideas in my head on to the screen, one idea I have is to make the banner an animated banner with my name on it, with a static noise effect on it, this will have to be made in flash, but if I can do it properly then I think it will look great.
The website will have a overall house style, made with a CSS page, so that all of the text is one colour and that the background is one colour, I think the background will most likely be black or white, as I don't want to have an image for the background as it may cause the website to load slowly, and I don't really like standard block colours as they aren't very striking, so I feel that black and white will look the best as then the users attention is drawn to the text and it will be much easier to read, as opposed to having a rainbow background or something like that.
-------------------------
Banner
I know exactly how I want my title/banner to look, with the home page having it as an animated banner, and the other pages being just plain static images
-------------------------
Site name
I will most likely buy the domain name of markpalmer.co.uk, as it is simple and easy although it may not be very interesting, I think its probably the best name for the website, as it is a site about myself.
-------------------------
House Style
The websites house style will consist of the colour of the text, the font of the text, and the size of the text, the banner at the top could also be considered a part of the house style as it will be the same for each page, except for the home page which will have an animated banner.
-------------------------
A page about the site, with some information about what programs I used.
A contact page, with a form to contact me, which accesses a javascript file, so that the form can only be sent if the email field in the form has the @ character and a full stop, which all email addresses have, so at least that way it has to be a valid email address for it to be sent, or at least what could be used as a valid address.And ..
A photos page, with pictures of me and friends and pictures of what I have made during the course.
-------------------------
Colour scheme
I have decided that the overall colour scheme of the website will be black and purple, purple being my favorite colour, and also standing out well on a black background, which works with the colour blind web page test, which means that my website should be compliant with pretty much everything.
-------------------------
Font
The websites font will be Lucida Console as I like this font and I think it looks quite good on a purple background, it is also simple and easy to read, which I really like.-------------------------
Pictures
I plan to have about ten pictures which I will change once every week or so, so than anyone who views my website wont have to see the same pictures for ages, and I will also update my pictures from the course as they are made.
-------------------------
Update: 9Th Nov
Working slowly but surely on the website, so far the pages have been made and there is bits and bobs of content here and there, not much though really and nothing particularly special, but I have got the bones of the website down now all the pages are made and the CSS page is complete, despite being really simple, it does what I want it to so I'm happy with it
-------------------------
Update: 11Th Nov
I have now bought a domain name, and instead of buying the plain and boring markpalmer.co.uk, I spontaneously went for simplymarcus.co.uk, which was inspired by the website enjoyincubus.com, which I think is a really cool name, and I also think that its a little bit different from the standard website name, so I'm really happy with my site name, and I shall be uploading the first draft pages today or tomorrow.
Update: 12Th Nov
I have decided to make my buttons in flash, as I feel that they will be easier to contain than if I make each button as a rollover button with three images to make on button, as having the buttons self contained in a flash file will keep things a lot simpler. However it does make the HTML code look a bit less tidy as it inserts a large amount of javascript which will give a user a alert and link to the adobe website, if their version of flash player isn't up to date or they don't have flash player.
-------------------------
Update: 13Th Nov
The buttons are made and the pages with these buttons are uploaded to the web space, and it all seems to work fine, just need to add the content and complete the form on the contact page and all will be finished, however there are a few things that need validating before I upload the final versions to the web space, as none of the pages pass compliancy as of yet, they all seem to have little errors which I cant figure out annoyingly
-------------------------
update: 17Th Nov
I have had to change my banner as the original didn't seem to work with the colour blindness test, so i feel it would be better to have the banner as a plain and simple black background, which will work with the colour blindness test.
-------------------------
This is the new banner-
comparison with the old banner-
I prefer the new one, although I really did like the old one, but it did have certain things which annoyed me, like for instance the fact that the static noise isn't perfect and the fact that the old banner doesn't have the website name, so i think that the new one, as well as being easier to see through the colour blindness test it is also more accurate to the site and professional looking.
-------------------------
Update: 18Th Nov
The website is now complete, although I have not yet got the form to work properly, it still sends to the Sam-i-am website regardless or what is or isn't written in the form, although i have managed to get it to not validate if it hasn't got an @ in it, although if there is anything else along with the @ it wont validate either, which is a problem. Another problem is that i wanted to have the images as rollover images which get bigger when the mouse is put over it, and i did get it to work, although it didn't work fully and the images shook and wouldn't work properly going from one image to the other, so I have decided to just have standard image which are slightly bigger and viewable as they are as a static image.
-------------------------
Update: 19Th Nov
That's it, everything is done, the JavaScript now works, and only validates the web form if the email field has a full stop and an @ sign, and all of the pages validate fully, so the home page now has the icon from the Validator page to show that the website is valid. and the CSS is compliant to level 2.1 CSS so I'm really pleased with my site over all and very relieved that its all working hunky dory.
http://www.simplymarcus.co.uk/
-------------------------
Analysis of the site
Overall I think that my website is really good, I really like it, and although it is very simple, I think that its nice and easy to use and most of all it works properly, which I'm glad about, and no, it isn't that amazing and doesn't look the most exciting, but I am honestly proud of my website, and I really feel like I have achieved something in making it.
-------------------------
Next time...
If I were to go back and start again, I think I would maybe change the motif of the website so that everything looks a bit brighter, and make sure that the buttons match the rest of the website, because they look a bit odd being green when everything else is purple, although when i made them the green was much more visible that the purple was, so I used green to avoid the issue of people not being able to see what page it linked to, but I don't think the colour is really a big problem. I would also make sure that I had the images as rollover images so that they are made bigger when the mouse is put over them, but it simply wouldn't work for me, so this time I gave up. I would also make the web form reference the javascript page so that it would only work if all of the fields were filled, thus making it less likely to be abused. However I think that the main problem with my site is probably the fact that some things look slightly crowded but I don't really think that is that bad a problem anyway, and overall I still think the website looks pretty good and I'm very happy with what I have made.
-------------------------
Just a quick screen shot of the pages of the completed website!
So Far...
I don't quite know how I'm going to make it, but I have some very certain ideas for my website, I know exactly how I want it, its just transferring the ideas in my head on to the screen, one idea I have is to make the banner an animated banner with my name on it, with a static noise effect on it, this will have to be made in flash, but if I can do it properly then I think it will look great.
The website will have a overall house style, made with a CSS page, so that all of the text is one colour and that the background is one colour, I think the background will most likely be black or white, as I don't want to have an image for the background as it may cause the website to load slowly, and I don't really like standard block colours as they aren't very striking, so I feel that black and white will look the best as then the users attention is drawn to the text and it will be much easier to read, as opposed to having a rainbow background or something like that.
-------------------------
Banner
I know exactly how I want my title/banner to look, with the home page having it as an animated banner, and the other pages being just plain static images
-------------------------
Site name
I will most likely buy the domain name of markpalmer.co.uk, as it is simple and easy although it may not be very interesting, I think its probably the best name for the website, as it is a site about myself.
-------------------------
House Style
The websites house style will consist of the colour of the text, the font of the text, and the size of the text, the banner at the top could also be considered a part of the house style as it will be the same for each page, except for the home page which will have an animated banner.
-------------------------
I am going to have a home page, with the flash animated banner, and then have a page about myself, with some information regarding my skills, my interests and likes and dislikes.
A page about the site, with some information about what programs I used.
A contact page, with a form to contact me, which accesses a javascript file, so that the form can only be sent if the email field in the form has the @ character and a full stop, which all email addresses have, so at least that way it has to be a valid email address for it to be sent, or at least what could be used as a valid address.And ..
A photos page, with pictures of me and friends and pictures of what I have made during the course.
-------------------------
Colour scheme
I have decided that the overall colour scheme of the website will be black and purple, purple being my favorite colour, and also standing out well on a black background, which works with the colour blind web page test, which means that my website should be compliant with pretty much everything.
-------------------------
Font
The websites font will be Lucida Console as I like this font and I think it looks quite good on a purple background, it is also simple and easy to read, which I really like.-------------------------
Pictures
I plan to have about ten pictures which I will change once every week or so, so than anyone who views my website wont have to see the same pictures for ages, and I will also update my pictures from the course as they are made.
-------------------------
Update: 9Th Nov
Working slowly but surely on the website, so far the pages have been made and there is bits and bobs of content here and there, not much though really and nothing particularly special, but I have got the bones of the website down now all the pages are made and the CSS page is complete, despite being really simple, it does what I want it to so I'm happy with it
-------------------------
Update: 11Th Nov
I have now bought a domain name, and instead of buying the plain and boring markpalmer.co.uk, I spontaneously went for simplymarcus.co.uk, which was inspired by the website enjoyincubus.com, which I think is a really cool name, and I also think that its a little bit different from the standard website name, so I'm really happy with my site name, and I shall be uploading the first draft pages today or tomorrow.
Update: 12Th Nov
I have decided to make my buttons in flash, as I feel that they will be easier to contain than if I make each button as a rollover button with three images to make on button, as having the buttons self contained in a flash file will keep things a lot simpler. However it does make the HTML code look a bit less tidy as it inserts a large amount of javascript which will give a user a alert and link to the adobe website, if their version of flash player isn't up to date or they don't have flash player.
-------------------------
Update: 13Th Nov
The buttons are made and the pages with these buttons are uploaded to the web space, and it all seems to work fine, just need to add the content and complete the form on the contact page and all will be finished, however there are a few things that need validating before I upload the final versions to the web space, as none of the pages pass compliancy as of yet, they all seem to have little errors which I cant figure out annoyingly
-------------------------
update: 17Th Nov
I have had to change my banner as the original didn't seem to work with the colour blindness test, so i feel it would be better to have the banner as a plain and simple black background, which will work with the colour blindness test.
-------------------------
This is the new banner-
comparison with the old banner-
I prefer the new one, although I really did like the old one, but it did have certain things which annoyed me, like for instance the fact that the static noise isn't perfect and the fact that the old banner doesn't have the website name, so i think that the new one, as well as being easier to see through the colour blindness test it is also more accurate to the site and professional looking.
-------------------------
Update: 18Th Nov
The website is now complete, although I have not yet got the form to work properly, it still sends to the Sam-i-am website regardless or what is or isn't written in the form, although i have managed to get it to not validate if it hasn't got an @ in it, although if there is anything else along with the @ it wont validate either, which is a problem. Another problem is that i wanted to have the images as rollover images which get bigger when the mouse is put over it, and i did get it to work, although it didn't work fully and the images shook and wouldn't work properly going from one image to the other, so I have decided to just have standard image which are slightly bigger and viewable as they are as a static image.
-------------------------
Update: 19Th Nov
That's it, everything is done, the JavaScript now works, and only validates the web form if the email field has a full stop and an @ sign, and all of the pages validate fully, so the home page now has the icon from the Validator page to show that the website is valid. and the CSS is compliant to level 2.1 CSS so I'm really pleased with my site over all and very relieved that its all working hunky dory.
http://www.simplymarcus.co.uk/
-------------------------
Analysis of the site
Overall I think that my website is really good, I really like it, and although it is very simple, I think that its nice and easy to use and most of all it works properly, which I'm glad about, and no, it isn't that amazing and doesn't look the most exciting, but I am honestly proud of my website, and I really feel like I have achieved something in making it.
-------------------------
Next time...
If I were to go back and start again, I think I would maybe change the motif of the website so that everything looks a bit brighter, and make sure that the buttons match the rest of the website, because they look a bit odd being green when everything else is purple, although when i made them the green was much more visible that the purple was, so I used green to avoid the issue of people not being able to see what page it linked to, but I don't think the colour is really a big problem. I would also make sure that I had the images as rollover images so that they are made bigger when the mouse is put over them, but it simply wouldn't work for me, so this time I gave up. I would also make the web form reference the javascript page so that it would only work if all of the fields were filled, thus making it less likely to be abused. However I think that the main problem with my site is probably the fact that some things look slightly crowded but I don't really think that is that bad a problem anyway, and overall I still think the website looks pretty good and I'm very happy with what I have made.
-------------------------
Just a quick screen shot of the pages of the completed website!
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