ireport Post

This site in a way reminds of the way BBC News has their website set up.  The obvious reason being the colors they use for the site itself.  Aside from the front page stories that catch my eye, my attention is averted due to the in your face advertisements mentioning the new "Fire Phone" which can be bought on Amazon.  What I liked about the website is right above the Headline Story, is a scroll bar called "Editors Choice" which gives you mini headlines which show a certain subject, and if you click on the link, it will take you to a particular story about the headline.  I guess what I dislike about ireport is the fact that I don't understand its purpose, its not clear to me.  I can't judge on whether or not it is a good idea until I get a better grasp on what the purpose of it is.

Jeff Williams arrived at Lyndon in the Spring Semester of 2014.

He was recruited by Head Coach Tom White out of the University of Southern Maine as a highly sought after transfer.

It wasn’t long before Williams became a hit amongst the guys on the team, as well as against the opposition in the NAC (North Atlantic Conference).  Williams put in the work both at Southern Maine, making it to the last day of cuts as a freshman and upon arrival here at Lyndon State.

Not only is his hard work displayed in the weight room and on the playing field, Williams is also a standout as a student.  Posting a mid-three’s GPA, and being awarded on the Dean’s List his first Semester at Lyndon.  An Exercise Science major, Jeff would like to see his education take him on to Graduate School, where he hopes to earn another degree, and end up at a Division One institution as the head trainer.

Despite where his education can take him, Williams has the highest of hopes of playing baseball after his eligibility is up at Lyndon and the College ranks.  And why not the highest of hopes, his hard work and determination have is above anyone else’s.  This past summer with the tutelage of Coach White, Williams made his presence felt in with the Medford Starz of the Atlantic Baseball Confederation. 

It was here that Williams put up some big numbers, remember still just nineteen years of age.  This league of the same competition if not better than that of what Lyndon faces while playing in the NAC, Williams made 14 appearances.  Pitching in 32 1/3 innings, on top of what he pitched for Lyndon a few months earlier, he posted 3.90 ERA, with 26 strikeouts, while allowing 20 walks, uncharacteristic of Williams.  Nonetheless these numbers for someone not used to pitching nearly this much, at such a young age are impressive.

The Hornets are headed in the right direction, and it is with Jeff Williams at the head of what should be a very good pitching staff.  Williams’s hard work and determination will surely take him places in the sport that he loves so much.  The only thing that’s left to do is continue to get a little better every day.

Photos: Taken by Dylan Clark, thanks to Jeff Williams

Audio: Thanks to Jeff Williams, taken by Dylan Clark

Soundslides editing: Dylan Clark

Text: Dylan Clark

Accompanying Story: Dylan Clark, Information provided by Jeff Williams

Audio Slide Show

Audio Slide Show Synopsis

For my actual Audio Slide Show, and not the fake one that I posted about in my last synopsis; I will be taking the audience through Jeff Williams, and mine now ( I adopted it) usual workout. What I plan to do is take pictures of Jeff in the action of each one of his workouts, multiple shots to capture different angles.  Along with this will be roughly a 30 second interview asking Jeff his motivation for working out.  It is possible for me to throw music in during the shots portion of the slide show in order for it to not be boring.  My original idea was to play the interview during the entire slideshow accompanying the pictures, however that wouldn't quite be long enough.  Once again I will be working along on this project, however a shout out to Jeff Williams for letting me bother him during the whole process will be put in the end credits.

200 Word Synopsis

For my Audio Slide Show project, the concept is to tell the story of a night through the eyes of Lyndon State students. If done sooner, it would have been about the festivities that occur during the weekends, however that could be considered inappropriate. What exactly I will do, is capture the night life during Sunday, and then the daytime during Monday, mainly to see the “hangover effect” that a typical weekend has on a college student. For sound, I think I’ll use natural sounds, because it makes the most sense for the topic of the assignment, however if there is a spot where I could throw music in, then that may be an option. I think mainly the intended audience would be any college kid that wants to see what college kid is like through other people. For me personally, if I were to watch this assignment when it was finished, that it would really catch my eye. As for the team members, since I am working alone for this assignment, I think that I pretty much will be doing every job necessary to get this project done. I’m not too sure how I will be able to capture the audio along with the photos, because my phone doesn’t record sound, so I may have to use a microphone, that being the only real problem so far.

Fish Project

Slideshow- Gallery Homework

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/audioslideshow/2014/may/02/van-gogh-london-house-artangel-audio-slideshow 

This first URL is the slideshow that has accompanying audio.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WjViXHUIZg
 This second URL is the second slideshow that has no audio attached to it. 

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/photos/gallery/collection/1#/carousel

 This third URL is the one for the photo gallery, no audio attached.

 I would have to say that the photo gallery and the slideshow without audio were not very effective as story telling platforms, however the slideshow with accompanying audio did the best job of telling me a story without being to overbearing.

 I would say that out of all three, the two slideshows, and the photo gallery, that I was best able to follow a story with the slideshow that had audio attached to it.

 Not to say that the other two were terrible, however it was just enough audio to help me understand what it was I was watching, without completely killing the message of the images.

 I would say the use of sound made all of the difference, without it, I would have just been watching pictures in motion on the screen, and like I said before, it wasn't so much audio that it killed the images, but just enough, and timed correctly, where the story was told at the end of the slideshow.

It seems that over the years Major League Baseball has seen a huge increase in the amount of Home Runs hit per year.

 Also apparent is the amount of players that have increased their individual home run production, with multiple players hitting upwards of 40 plus homers.

 Since the start of the 1990’s, Major League Baseball began doing testing to see if the players hitting these many home runs were being aided in some way. It is evident that since the start of that decade, and carried through up until the players in today’s game, some sort of performance enhancing drug is being used.

 The numbers explain it perfectly, the increase in 40 plus home run hitters is abundant. I spoke with a major sports fan (Alex Paduch) on campus, to get his opinion on the data. “From what is being shown in the chart, the game has definitely changed over the years, and it is very clear that steroids are the main reason.”

 To make sense of how steroids and the game in general has changed, you should be given a little more information on what exactly the chart is saying. The “Dead Ball Era”, is the time in which the game was the most basic, and had absolutely no 40 plus home run hitters.

 The game was simple, they never replaced the ball until it was completely unraveled, and this made it near impossible to hit the ball over the fence because it simply wouldn’t carry. During the Second World War, most of the MLB players were subject to the service draft, and were forced to leave the game for the time being.

 This made MLB have to employ players of less caliber, and thusly the amount of home runs hit decreased due to less skilled players.

 What is surprising is the amount of 40 plus home run hitters in the “Pitchers Era” in comparison to the “Clean Era”. The pitchers era was exactly what it sounds like, the time in Major League Baseball where pitchers have had the most success, and hitters struggled the most.

 As compared to supposedly the last clean era in baseball where both the hitters and pitchers were even in statistics, and neither enjoyed more success than the other.

 Finally the “Steroid Era”, an era which is still going on despite all of the testing and the amount of long length suspensions being handed out for those testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. So far it has lasted 23 years, and even seen players hit over 60 home runs in a single season, and even Barry Bonds hit 73 in one single season.

 It is clear by the chart which is still incomplete that Steroids that has had an impact on the game of baseball. There isn't any way to show the amount of steroids taken each era, and place that into the graphic, however I did a little extra research, and it shows that since the 2005 MLB season, a total of 53 players have been caught using, and suspended a number of games for the use of steroids.