I feel semi-accomplished, because while reading how the ‘shake’ and ‘stir’ flash was created, I understand the directions and what they are talking about. I also understand when the creator says that it took one to two hours to make. The appreciation that one has for such online buttons and action only comes with the patience of sitting and creating a flash of ones own. I think anyone that uses the fabulous World Wide Web should shake their ignorance, and learn basic Flash, if not to utilize it, at least to have an appreciation for those minds far greater than ours that create intricate and entertaining projects for our enjoyment.

Now, when I click the site, I see a section for multimedia on the homepage, with videos of the recent spirit splash that went on, along with clips of the homecoming parade and the dunk contest. We are keeping up with other impressive college papers, such as The Daily Collegian of Penn State University, which I consider up to par and extremely well organized. The site even includes student newscasters, in a mockery of the news that airs on television.

I think that the Central Florida Future should use this idea and begin to include streaming broadcasts of the Radio and Television majors as well. While they are trained in a completely different manor, we are all in the business of news and I think we should all be working together to improve our student newspaper, and keep it as up-to-date technologically as we can.

I turned on the 10 o’clock news last night to a story regarding a local woman who had swastika’s on her Christmas wrapping paper. Coming from an all Jewish background, I do find this absurd and really offensive, but I am not sure if this one woman’s wrapping paper experience at the Altamonte Springs mall deserves the amount of hype it is receiving. I feel like news stations are just itching to put anything on television to fill the amount of time they have allotted.

Aside from the story at hand, the headlines on the screen were laughable! Wrapped in Hate, really? They couldn’t write anything more straightforward? The reactions that they were showing from the wrapping paper were equivalent to dull and predictable quotes in a print story that don’t bring anything new to the table. The woman repeated how disturbed she was, obviously, and how she was in shock, which didn’t come as a shocker to me at all.

I think that if we want our readers to care, we need to give them something to care about.

Click here to watch the video.

The Weymouth News’ website, also referred to as ‘Wicked Local,’ creates a soundslide each week to look back at the most interesting moments in photographs. The soundslide summarizes the tiny details each week that we so easily forget. From sports to little children at a petting zoo, they have it all. The images were captured by staff photographers and freelancers all along the South Shore.

In the soundslide posted for the week of October 26, I can feel the autumn of Massachusets in every image. From the children in long sleeved shirts, soccer players sporting beanies, red and orange colored leaves in the background behind a golfer, and high school plays I felt one overbearing feeling. I felt like these people actually matter. This paper is giving you and me a voice, and that is what newspapers everywhere should be doing to stay alive.

Check out this weeks soundslide here.

This blog usually cannot pertain to this class because it is mostly posts of the trials and tribulations of people, young and old, in their love lives. There is always an accompanying image to each post that usually makes sense. The latest post, titled “tall enough” is actually a video pulled from YouTube, and it hit home.

It is, with the least amount of words possible, a story about an African American photographer and an Asian photographer who fell in love in Brooklyn. I thought the video was extremely well done, and not only did it capture the essence and the excitement of New York City, but it also showed how simple yet complicated love can be. I don’t think that the convergence to multimedia is only benefitting news organizations, but I think it is culturally connecting us. People are posting personal videos online to share their stories with the internet, which in the long-run, I think, is making us more open-minded as a generation.

Without the video’s provided, the series is text heavy, and nearly impossible to conquer. The incorporation of images, footage from county hearings, and images of the empty land that should have been built up years ago adds enormous context to the story.

The man behind the scheme, Dennis Stackhouse, can be heard at a commission meeting spewing lies and false hope into a community that was holding on to anything they could dig their fingers into. Stackhouse continuously took advantage of an irresponsible trust known as the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust by triple billing them, issuing receipts for false expenses and using the money for personal gain such as to pay lobbyists and purchase cars for board members. He promised an influx of jobs in his Poinciana Biopharmaceutical Park, a dream that never happened and which sucked $500,000 from the trust that was supposed to be spent on job creation to lift Liberty City off of the list of top five poorest cities.

The website also provides an interactive map to show the percentage of people below the poverty level, a sad and astonishing statistic.

A criticism for the website is that, while it has two videos, numerous stills, and one interactive map, I think it still could have added more multimedia to bring the project to life. The number of people who suffered from Stackhouse’s plan could have been made more apparent by interviews with local residents, more images of the run-down city and day-today videos of the reporters process of uncovering all of the information. It feels too distant. I want to feel more inside the story, and less as an outsider. I have never been to Liberty City, and I probably can not come close to understanding the way that the poor residents live there. But as a reader, I want to understand, and I don’t know if this series paints a complete picture.

The New Arts Complex

While pulling into UCF from University Blvd., the first extremely obvious site on campus is an oversized construction area in place of the Visual Arts parking lot. This construction site is soon-to-be the new Arts Complex II.

“The building is going to provide an on-site facility for music and theatre departments which is needed out here since both departments are in temporary quarters and one theater is in the industrial park,” said Chris Cox, the Project Manager for Balfour Beatty Construction. ”You’re going to have faculty offices, classrooms, practice studios and teaching studios.”

The project is costing over $25 million, and the substantial completion date is August 13, 2010. On September 16 of 2010 the punch list and close out documents will officially be complete.

Other Campus Construction

Another obvious change being made is the extension of the Recreation and Wellness Center, which has left UCF students without a pool for over a year. The project, which is being constructed by Welbro Building Corporation, is expected to be complete at the end of 2010 and is costing the University $21.9 million. Darick Bennett, the Project Manager, said upon completion UCF students will have a pool for the use of water polo and other sports, an added cardiovascular and fitness center along with a racquetball court.

“I think it is going to be a gorgeous project but the students kind of did all of the up front stuff together to make it happen,” Bennett said.

Another building that will have a direct effect on students is the Physical Science building, which will provide new chemistry and physics laboratories for students.

There is also a Thermal Storage Tank nearing completion at the end of 2009 that will reduce the cost of cooling the University by $685,000 a year. Construction on a Public Safety Building just recently began off of Libra Drive, along with the construction of the Partnership III building in Research Park that is dedicated to a partnership among UCF and the Department of Defense.

Why is Construction Necessary?

Because UCF has been on the path of constant growth, the new buildings are a necessity, according to Jack Price, the Interim Director of Facilities for UCF.

“We are growing, all universities are, because of high school students who want to attend,” Price said. ” With the growth of the state and the number of students coming to our university, the whole thing has to grow.”

While the growth is still apparent on campus today, Price says this will not be the case in the next few years to come. “We are not going to see the growth we’ve seen in the last 15 years, except at our medical school campus, ” Price said. “There will be some growth, but not as fast of a pace as it has been in the last 15 years.” He attributes this to the lack of funding.

The newest upcoming projects include a Nursing school on the Lake Nona campus, and a parking garage that is already under contract adjacent to the Alumni Center.

See below for a map of the University of Central Florida construction:

Click to hear some student commentary on the campus construction:

Related Links:

http://news.ucf.edu/UCFnews/index?page=article&id=00240041037381429012136c33d79007d9f

http://www.fp.ucf.edu/home.html