Screencast; slate one, take one.

I’ve decided to give screencasting a go; the idea is to be able to record my own on screen tutorials about web design and development because they’re much more useful and helpful than step-by-step instruction tutorials because you actually get to see what’s going on. I’ve recorded my first “pilot” screencast and have uploaded it below for you to watch.

I’m experimenting with different export settings and this is best I came up with because it results in a a very small file size but the quality is okay watch. Criticisms about my narrating/ presenting approach and how I can improve will be very welcomed because I’ve got a long way to go before I’m ready to do a tutorial. Also, I know my speech can sometimes be a little off but I do have a stutter… thankfully there’s a pause recording option.

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Steven Knight – Administrator

Popularity

Popularity can be a tricky thing to comprehend; it can be difficult to know where you are in the social hierarchy, (particularly at school), and why you’re even there in the first place. While I was watching Glee, it made me think about all of the different social levels that there are and how desperate people can be to fit into these levels.

Obviously, most people aspire to be at the top level. If we put this into American-ism terms; this would be where you would find the jocks and the cheerleaders. From a British perspective, the top level would consist of the “hard” people, the kids who would play up in lesson, always had girls waiting to be wooed by them and they would somehow just appear to fit in. From the first moment you go to school, you are instantly aware of who is considered cool and who isn’t. How does that work? It’s not as if anyone tells you, it’s sort of like instinct.

For most of my school life, I would have considered myself to be one of the funny-but-cool kids. These kind of people mix within the cool kids, but are generally considered to be at the bottom of that level. It’s odd how I managed to fit into this group considering I have a stutter, I thought that would have made me a prime target to be pushed and kicked down to the bottom level. Maybe my school was just accepting, or maybe people managed to see past that, I’m not really sure to be honest.

Ever since Year 6/7, that’s where I knew I was on the hierarchy. However, during the latter half of Year 11 all of that changed. I’m still not sure what happened, but my friends had for some reason turned on me and instead of acting “cool” and letting it slide so hopefully things would go back to normal; I let them knew it was getting to me. And letting your friends know what gets to you is a bad idea, because they’re bound to repeat it because they find it funny, and maybe it is, but from the receiving end its hard not to feel hurt. I was no longer happy being where I was so I decided to abandon that group and fall right to the bottom level: the library kids. These are the kind of kids who spend their lunch times alone in the library reading books and browsing the Internet, just to pass time until they can go to class and ultimately go home. For a few months this is where I stood, I also spent mornings in the toilets just waiting for bell to go so the day could officially begin. It was horrible.

I do feel that being that left at that time in my life affected my exam results because for the last few months of Year 11, I had no friends and as you can understand, was very sad about that. I was really, really thankful when that year had ended so I could spend the next 16 weeks alone, by myself before 6th Form started. But I realised that I could not go another two years of having no friends and feeling that way I had done in Year 11 because that would not have helped me out at all. So, despite what I thought was “cool”, I made some new friends with people you could consider to be un-cool. It was hard for me to adjust to the sudden change of social status and the sort of people I was now hanging around with, however my opinions would soon change about this.

I’m nearly half way into my first year of 6th Form and I can genuinely say that I am happy being near the bottom, I am happy with the friends I have because I know that they care about me. I would rather be at the bottom and happy than be at the top and feel isolated.

I’ve never told anyone this because I thought it was embarrassing to admit that I had let my “friends” get to me so much, but watching Glee has made me realise that it doesn’t matter where you are as long as your happy, and this ultimately means it does not matter what anyone else thinks as long as you go bed at night and reflect upon the day as positive experience spending it with friends and feeling comfortable around them.

What do I consider myself to be now? I’m Steven Knight. I’m just myself. And that’s a brilliant label to have.

Steven, Administrator.

Gleefully in Love

This time last week I was unaware of what Glee was; although it had been and gone in America starting in September 2009, (well May 2009 if you count the initial pilot broadcast). It first came to my attention when I saw trailers for it on the British digital station E4 who acquired the rights to air it in the United Kingdom. However, it did not strike me as something I would like because it came across as too High School Musical-ish, and I really am not a fan of that. When my Twitter friend Jordan Howell started to Tweet about it all the time, I decided to watch the first episode on 4OD. Needless to say, I was very impressed with it, and how it had me capsulated after the first episode. With some series, it takes a few episodes for a show to really get into its stride, however with Glee, I got the impression that they had got that sorted since the first episode, so that is probably what made me love it: it was already established of what it was.

I realise now that I haven’t really spoken too much about the premise of the show, so let me explain. In America a “glee club” is basically a school choir, and in the context of Glee itself, the club is called New Directions which will compete against other national glee clubs. The first episode deals with the take over of the dying glee club by Will Schuester, (Matthew Morrison), after Rachel Berry, (Lea Michele), reports the then-current head of the glee club for sexually abusing a student. This is because she wants the glee club to be taken over by new management so it can thrive again, ultimately so she can join it because all she has to output her talent at that time is her blog. The rest of the episode deals with different people joining the club with different social statuses around the school; these being the geeks, the disabled, the jocks and the cheerleaders.

The premise of the rest of the season revolves around New Directions competing against different schools to win different awards to work their way up to becoming winners. However their efforts are usually disrupted and ruined by manager of the cheerleader group Cheerio’s, Sue Sylvester, (Jane Lynch), because when the glee club got taken over by Will, it took a large chunk out of the Cheerio’s budget. There are of course other story arcs that are followed throughout the series, some of which are mentioned next.

Although Glee may seem like a typical happy-go-lucky musical themed show, the subjects that it deals with are that beyond of which we’ve seen in similar brands such as the aforementioned High School Musical. Topics that are tacked include; social diversity, sexuality, relationships, underage pregnancy, adultery and drug abuse. Some of which are taken more seriously than others, however the level of maturity is much greater than which is usually connoted with shows of this nature. Think of it has High School Musical with contract mobiles.

If you’re still not entirely convinced by Glee, this is the first proper musical number from the first episode. It’s a cover of the song Don’t Stop Believing by Journey. Sorry about the not-that-high quality; its the best I could find and if I trimmed my 720p version it would be too big to stream.

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So far, thirteen episodes of the first season have been aired on FOX, (three on E4), however production and airing has halted due to American Idol and its unexpected success and demand for more episodes; it will return in April 2009 with a further nine episodes. I have watched all thirteen episodes to date and they’re all brilliant; especially the “fall final”, (episode thirteen), which tops all of them put together.

I personally cannot wait for it to return, I hope you learn to love it if you already don’t.

Steven, Administrator.

Twitty Gervais

Ricky Gervais was asked by the bosses of the Golden Globes to give a running commentary up to the event itself on the latest micro blogging website, Twitter. However a mere six Tweets later he wrote a blog essentially describing why Twitter is pointless.

As you may know I’ve stopped with Twitter. I just don’t get it I’m afraid. I’m sure it’s fun as a networking device for teenagers but there’s something a bit undignified about adults using it. Particularly celebrities who seem to be showing off by talking to each other in public. If I want to tell a friend, famous or otherwise what I had to eat this morning, I’ll text them. And since I don’t need to make new virtual friends, it seemed a bit pointless to be honest.

I suppose it was meant to be a bit of a marketing tool for The Globes, but they are watched by 25 million people in America alone and maybe 300 million people world wide – tweeting about it would be a drop in the ocean. Also I’ve got the website and I don’t have to restrict things to 140 characters. My tweeting was becoming like a tabloid version of this blog.

Ricky’s last Tweet for those of you who are interested.

I am sorry, but I am going to stop these tweets because I don’t see the point. Please follow my blog at rickygervais.com

Now, obviously Gervais is allowed to have his own opinion on Twitter, I just think he’s neglected the more important and substantial reasons to use Twitter. Disregarding it as "undignified" for adults to use it is a mere example of an uneducated sweeping statement, if we apply his logic to some powerful Twitter users then Gervais has called President Obama, Stephen Fry, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson and Jonathon Ross “undignified teenagers”, which of course, if there’s one thing people associate with Stephen Fry is his undignified persona. His other negative statement suggests that Twitter is just babble from people talking about what they ate for dinner last night; and of course you can’t do that on a blog can you?

For those of you who share the same opinion as Ricky and have so far scoffed at everything I have said, then let me give you some reasons why Twitter can be regarded as important. It is a very powerful tool for the media, the first real example of this would be when witnesses to the Hudson plane crash in New York during early 2009 – where eye witnesses Tweeted about the incident, sharing pictures and details on the crash before any of the real news networks were able to get hold of the story. This prompted social media and news websites to adopt Twitter because it is a very easy way to claim the first report on an event, where developments can be updated in real time for people to read about.

Another aspect of real time news on Twitter is that important events quickly become trending topics, (meaning that a topic becomes one of the ten suggestions for you to look at), where a Tweeter can get the latest information on a news story from individuals and from news corporations. An example of this would be where the death of Michael Jackson quickly become the sole talking point of Twitter, where  you could quickly get the latest updates about the situation and peoples views and opinions on the matter, this may seem as an unimportant example of real time news but you can see how it would be effective for major events.

It is also useful for large business, where employees may use it to keep in touch with people in their project teams for updates on whatever it is they are working on, similarly, business can also use Twitter to keep employees updated with the latest information – this is slowly phasing out the traditional newsletter.

Maybe lesser down the scale of importance is how Twitter can be used as a simple yet effective way of keeping in touch with friends. Seeing as a lot of mobile devices support Twitter, keeping in touch with people has never been easier. It’s a lot more effective for “chit chat” that email is due to its accessibility. Celebrities can also use it to talk to their fans – this can be seen as an important aspect because it breaks down the social barriers between celebrities and their fans.

Some may still see Twitter as pointless and ineffective despite some of the reasons given about. I of course accept your opinion, (as you are entitled one), but at least give Twitter a go before you disregard it. Even then do you choose to ignore Twitter’s potential importance, then don’t bash the people who do use it with sweeping, uneducated, statements like our good friend Mr. Gervais has done.

Oh – and in case you do find this blog entry Ricky, (he seems to find many small sites that go against him), my name is Steven Knight; I know you dislike it when people bash you whilst hiding their identity.

Steven, Administrator.

Twenty Ten

Hello everyone, happy New Year! Four days late I know, but it’s better late than never, is it not? Talking of which, when is the cut off date for wishing people a happy New Year anyway? Is it one day, one week or one month? I say this because no one really knows, do they? I’ve got a few people to wish a happy New Year to still, but I don’t want to seem uncaring for wishing them it too late.

However, that’s just a trivial matter of course, time to start my first blog post of 2010.

So, how was everyone’s New Year’s eve? I didn’t do anything too exciting, I had a night in with the family and friends of family, so that was nice and quiet, played a few games to pass the time until the projector screen on Big Ben counted down to zero. Traditionally, on New Year’s eve, you really should spend time with the people who you are with; in my case my family and friends of family, but apart from the odd game and the ten second countdown, I didn’t really. Is that bad of me? I’m not the most sociable of people as you probably know.

Even if it is a bit rude, I did manage to complete Call of Duty 2 on my lovely new laptop. I’ve only just gotten into the Call of Duty series, (hence starting out on the second one), but now I’ve properly gotten into it and I’m currently getting through Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and will soon start Call of Duty 5: World at War. I see I started this paragraph talking about New Year’s eve and have successfully migrated that onto the topic of Call of Duty, remarkable isn’t it. Maybe New Year’s eve isn’t all that after all?

Talking of gaming on my laptop, I love the laptop itself. What laptop I hear you ask? The laptop I got for Christmas of course. The Dell Studio 15 is beautiful, well built little thing. You can read more and see pictures of my new laptop at the end of this post. Seeing as I now have a laptop again after a months absence, I should be back to my usual blogging, Tweeting self pretty soon. You’ve missed that, haven’t you? I realise now I’ve directed a lot of questions towards you, the reader, which is a bold move considering my Google Analytics statistics aren’t brilliant and just confirm I am talking to myself. But I don’t care, I love my blog and will continue to update it.

Anyway, this post may seem a little thrown together but It’s currently 6.32am at the time of typing this sentence; trust me to mess up my sleeping pattern on the weekend before school resumes. If I go to bed now there’s no way I’m going to able to get out of bed in one hour, so I may as well get things done, like this blog. Anyway, I should be off now, if you’re also going back to school today, have fun. I have an exam next week, which I will revise for, I just need to get into the right frame of mind.

Steven, Administrator.