Globa-what? (almost finished :)

After you have presented, please create a blog post that reflects on your work that you have accomplished in this class. Blog posts must be multi paragraphed, provide links (not a website written out, but an actually hyperlink), pictures/video, and take a serious look on the work done. This last blog post will be worth 75 points. Therefore, it is not to be taken lightly or to be completed without thought. All of this work must be finished by Tuesday afternoon. You will have the evenings, weekend, and Monday and Tuesday in class to complete what you haven't finished. (75 points

Well, the end has finally come. Not only to my senior year, but my amazing senior English class. When I went to walk into Chez's room my first day of class, and there was a sign to go to A15 (a computer lab) I should have known that something was up. We all took seats at the desks and were immediately ask to take a chair at a computer. We then learned about this program called Globaloria. Globa-what? Yes, Globaloria. In a nutshell, we were about to embark on the first paperless, penless class at Riverside. This is how our journey began.

First, we were asked to create a personal wiki. Wiki!Wiki!(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)This is remotely like a profile page for yourself, embedded in the schools main wiki. This aspect of our class allowed us to upload pictures, tell a little about ourselves, and change backgrounds/font colors using HTML. Psht, I thought this class would be a breeze...if only that had been ALL we had to do.

Next step, a blog. My FAVORITE part of this class was our blogs. I love the way they can be customized and you can let all that you're feeling loose on here. I do plan to keep up with mine after this class is over. Our blog was to be utilized for writing our "papers". Since we clearly aren't the typical English class, you shouldn't expect us to use lame "Microsoft Word" to write a paper. We would just log-in and post it on here. Many of our assignments were to write blogs; I think it's an interesting new and fun way to take the stress out of writing a generic two page report.

So far, so good. I had mastered uploading my avatar, updating my wiki, and blogging. Then came the curve ball: FLASH. I have so much respect for anyone that can decipher a FLASH code, because I'm not going to lie; after four and a half months, I still can't make heads or tails of it. If it didn't work correctly the first time, I had to think about maybe holding up the white flag. This is when I knew who was going to be my parter for my senior project; Amy.

Speaking of senior projects, I must have failed to mention, that once again, our class is beyond average. Ninety percent of our senior class had to stand up with a research paper and tri-board while being pounded questions about the subject they chose to research; not us! Our senior project was to create a video game on FLASH, creating awareness to a social issues. Sounded easy enough; boy, was I wrong.

We then selected partners for this shin dig. I chose my life long bestfriend, Amy. She had the technical skills, and being an art geek, I could draw in FLASH (just about the only thing I could do.) We decided that since the drop out rates in West Virginia and in our area are increasing rapidly, we'd design our game with a fun aspect of how to stay in school, even when obstacles are coming at you. The next big decision, our team name.

Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain...yes, the hit 90's cartoon. THAT! would be our name. Pinky is a fun loving, sometimes a bit of an air head, mouse and Brain is the serious let's get to work mouse. Our team perfectly. Amy figured out keyframes, how to make buttons, and all that technical jazz while I drew our characters and mazes. When things got tough and frustrating, I would unleash my Pinky Powa and provide humor to the situation; at least I was good for something besides being able to draw an adorable mouse in FLASH. We thought our game was going on the straight and narrow path to success, until we hit a bump in the road with coding in FLASH.

The object of our game? You are a mouse who has been trapped in a maze, to make it to the winning screen, you must hide in doorways to dodge oncoming objects that represent situations that could cause you to not graduate. As you moved up a level, one doorway would disappear, causing each level to increase in difficulty as you went from freshman, sophomore, junior, then to senior year to finish the game and "graduate". Everything was going fine and dandy until we ran into trouble trying to make our maze into a movieclip. When converting the maze, it would erase some of our lines, creating gaps in the structure of our maze. We searched google, help from other classmates,everything to try and make this work. Sadly, we found no answer. Our game was incomplete and somewhat of a let down. Looking back at it now, I should be proud of what we did accomplish. FLASH is not easy and learning that much about technology in four and a half months is stellar.

After watching the rest of my class' presentations, I must say we are one special and phenomenal class. We have risen above the rest and taken a challenge most would back down from. We have gained a new set of knowledge that not many may ever learn in their lives. Even though this class was extremely difficult and hard at times, I'm thankful that it kept me going through to the end of my senior year. I can't remember a day where I didn't laugh in this class or that there wasn't something going on that could make my day brighter. Thank you Globaloria, my class, and of course Chez for this opportunity. At least come next Saturday when I'm walking down the steps of the stage with a diploma in my hand, I won't need a FLASH code to tell me how to make it back down to my seat, because if I did, I would have to stand there until Jessica or PJ came to save me. Thank y'all. It's been one heck of a ride.