Blinky Bug Workshop

On Saturday 06/28/08, we had a guy come in at 9:30 to do a special workshop with the ZeumMasters. The workshop was about making Blinky Bugs. "What is a Blink Bug?" you may ask. A Blinky Bug is a bug you make from using electronic parts like: LCD Lights, copper wire, guitar strings, conductive tape, pipe cleaner and 3volt button battery.

He told us how one day he was bored and he had a bunch of old electronic parts lying around so he decided to experiment by putting the parts together. He also told us that before he discovered the conductive tape or glue dot he had to saughter the parts together(hot glue gun the parts together). He said it is cheaper to buy the materials online instead of an arts and craft store, walgreens or electronic store.

For me, when Ari told us about the blinky bug workshop i thought "This is going to be boring or dumb" but once we actually got to making it, my attitudes changed. I actually liked it, i wanted to keep making more but time ran out. My blinky bug didn't work and was all messed up. One reason mines didn't work is because i chose red and blue eyes and those two colors don't work together. This has to do with how l.e.d.s work. But look above. Two blue eyes and it works!

Kickoff to Summer and...

ZeumMasters finished off a long and inspiring day of team building and nonstop action on the summer kickoff day with a few songs in the music production lab.

Almost Summertime at Zeum

Hello Folks !! Summer is about to kick in and I am uber excited. I am looking forward to a lot of fun and interesting things; going to summer camp at Hidden Villa with full scholarship, working at Zeum, assisting with Zeum's summer camp, Little Voices and taking a Health Education class.

I am really excited to help Perry with his camp, Little Voices because I really enjoy working and educating young kids. I always wanted to work with kids (which I already do as a ZeumMaster) but for camp we see the same kids for one full week and that way I get to know them more than I already do as a ZeumMaster. My goal for this camp is to make every child an artist and an amazing performer on stage. And if they're shy then I'll try my best to bring them out of their shell within a week. How, you may ask? I will use my creativity that Joy taught me, my way of inspiring people when they seem to look like they are day dreaming, by offering them unique things to do or telling jokes that Perry taught me, and self motivation that Bob taught me.

For example, last week there was a visitor who really wanted to make an animation but without clay! He wanted to use his toy car that he had bought from Walgreens. He was screaming and yelling at his mom because his mom was like you can only use clay, how many families do you see using cars? I obviously eavesdropped and I stepped in and explained to the mom while his son was take a potty break that anything the boy wanted to do in his animation was ok. When he was done he gave me a big hug and that made my day. I really didn't expect that I could do something like this but I guessed wrong.

It has been ONE year since I first became a ZeumMaster. Zeum is a terrific job. Working with different kids is an opportunity and I feel privileged. Seeing kids smile when they're done with their animation, music video, paper mask, what more can you ask for? It felt like I had an impact, not only in customer satisfaction but my daily live. Zeum has been contributing a lot to my daily life. Before working at Zeum, I was really shy performing on stage (and I still am) but working on it, nervous when talking to a huge group of anxious visitors and just shy in general. Now, I am not shy to talk to huge crowd of anxious visitors, I talk to them about Zeum to personal life. (; I am however still a little bit nervous on stage but I am determined to sing my lungs out when summer is over. (:

My Going Away Final Blog Post

Working at Zeum and being a zeummaster has meant a lot to me. Having this job has a big affect on me. I could talk to any of the adults at Zeum and youth. I’m blogging about these things because I’m going back to my hometown, Los Angeles, where I was kidnapped from to go to San Francisco, just kidding. However, I am going to miss my job and being with the people at Zeum because they are like a second family to me. Being with the people at Zeum, they have taught me that its o.k for a young man to get sensitive sometimes and no one would make fun of me or think I’m soft (a punk), which is what associates call it in the streets. Now, I can listen to women music, talk a lot and brush my hair which has become really wavy.

I don’t think I’ll ever meet bosses like Christian and Ari. They are the coolest bosses you could ever meet because it’s like they never get mad and they are always smiling which brightens my day and also makes me smile. I want to have the same mood as them when I get older like them because the people in my family, most of the time are always grumpy for no reason. I think it doesn’t take much to just put a smile on your face. Show them teeth, no one cares if you didn’t brush them, just kidding, but wait I think that’s the answer…People don’t smile a lot because they don’t brush their teeth as much as Christian and Ari do everyday. See, if people don’t start smiling then that’s what people should think, so you better smile and show them teeth. A teeth smile is what I mean, not a lips’ smile.

To get back to the point, I hope I could come back to Zeum in the future and see the same people because they are all like family.

To conclude, my most memorable moment at Zeum was when all of the zeummasters went down to the slide at that park by Zeum. It was funny because when we went over there the little kids thought we were taking over their territory but teens can play too. So, we went over there and all the kids all stoped what they are doing, looked at us like we didn't belong. Then on top of that you had the cutters, which was unfair.

I really really enjoyed being apart of Zeum, I learned a lot. I thank everyone and now I’m off to college in L.A. Peace Out you guys and girls, and I hope your lunch breaks become longer than half an hour.

Mixing & Matching: The artform of Mashups

Yesterday morning ZeumMasters had a special presentation by DJ Earworm ...and dont worry its not an ear bug. DJ Earworm creates what are known as "mashups." A mashup is a combination of differents songs lyrics and background music. For example, you would put MIM'S "this is why im hot" lyrics and add them to Rihanna's "Umbrella" music. And its not just like the mix songs you hear on the radio, they're 2 different things.

While the mixing we hear on the radio starts out as one song and then gradually you hear a second song fading in, a mashup uses the same song beat and takes out the lyrics from a different song and gets added to the beat. Its like a new song. You can download an acapella version of a song and and instrumental version of another song and mash them together( hint the term "mash-up")

I don't consider myself a really "technically connected" person, meaning it may take me a while to pick up on things on the computer. But when DJ Earworm was explaining everything to us and showing us how we could create mashups, i was really following along. I love music. Its a huge part of my like.

Music does so much; it gives people something to move to, and it can change peoples moods too. Its a form of expression. I could really connect to the concept of mashups because when i listen to songs on the radio i think to myself "that would be cool if i could put these words with that beat". I was really into the workshop because it gave me a chance to see that i can do stuff like that. He explained that mashups work when you choses songs whose key and tempo are the same, and my mind was thinking of so many songs that would sound good together.It was neat to hear it from someone who got into doing it by accident. I think it also opened up a lot of people mind's by showing them different things and forms that they can do with music. Being able to have the opportunity to hear from and have this presentation done by DJ Earworm was also influencial to Zeum because it gave us different ideas about how we could maybe incorporate mashups into the Zeum environment, such as MPL.

DJ Earworm showed us some examples of mashups he didnt like, and he showed us one of his more popular one's named " United State of Pop," which is shown below;

All in all the presentation was really fun and opened my mind. It gave me a chance to think about music and the different things that i can do with it.

Trip to Youth Speaks Poetry Slam!

On Friday May, 16th, 2008 Zeum took a field trip to Youth Speaks Poetry Slam. It was amazing, they talked about real life issues like the War In Iraq, Abortions, Violence among youth and so much more. One thing that surprised me is that young folks care about issues that you wouldn't think young folks would care about like Education Budget Cuts, War In Iraq, Global Warming, God, Violence, Abortion/Parents not wanting you and so much more.

Most of topics I could relate to like Abortions/Parents not wanting you because a few of my friends had abortions which is sad because abortion is a real serious issue. I also agree strongly with what one person said about War In Iraq should end and the budget cuts should not go through.

I give the people who went up alot of respect because they shared personal stories about their life and their feelings about major issues in the world teens wouldn't be caught dead talking about because its uncool, geeky etc... I would not be able to get up there and share my personal stories.

This poetry slam relates to zeum alot. like the poetry slam where youth can express their feelings, youth can do that here by making claymation, news broadcast, music videos. No one can judge you because of your contents in your expression.

I got this picture from the youth speaks website : youthspeaks.org

What's Going On Here

When I first started working as a ZeumMaster I really didn't know what to do and how to be friendly and communicate with visitors. For the first month, I was basically like a sponge, absorbing a lot of new information from technical stuff to dealing with challenging visitors, and observing other ZeumMasters ...how they handled challenging situations such as a when a visitor injures themselves, or how they greet customers. Now, it has been 40 weeks since and I feel like I'm a PRO! Having said, I am able to greet visitors and handle all problems professionally.

Want to know what's going on right now? First round of mentor group is about to end, and round two is about to start, how exciting can that be! Throught out the twelve weeks as a group, I gained skills to operate the software iMovie, effectively operate Macintosh computers, and confidently greeted visitors. What I loved getting to announce the Best Of Show to everyone at Zeum andI enjoyed answering their questions. I remembered the day when we as a group voted on what project we should do as a group and we all voted to do the best of show. It was nice to see that we as a group shared a common interest.

One thing that didn't work well was the day when we were setting up for the event because we were kind of in a rush and we really didnt have a large bowl to put the popcorn in but we managed to do everything on time. What I hope to do for round two mentor group is have people from outside of zeum work on a project with us. I really look forward to meeting new people and hope that we get to do something like this.

I'm also excited about camps this summer! I hope I get to work with Perry's Little Voices Camp. Most of the summer camps this year have to do with the 2008 Election year.

Paul

TWJN: Traci Wendy Jule Nicole blogging

PODCAST PODCAST PODCAST.

Our project is centered on producing podcasts regarding the budget cuts in California. These cuts initiated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger are severely crippling the education system in all over California, including the bay area. Our project aims to inform the public about these budget cuts in order to make an impact on the situation. Our belief is: Knowlege Can Lead to Change. If people know about these cuts, they will start to work together to make a difference and change our current situation.

We have spent the past couple of weeks interviewing average San Francisco citizens about the budget cuts. Not only have we learned how to approach strangers without looking like a creep with a recorder, but we also learned how to affectively interview people. We learned how to come up with questions as well as create related questions on the spot. We're planning on asking our teachers, students, and parents about how the budget cuts are affecting their lives. Our project is still in a rough draft state, but we're moving at light speed to deliver this podcast series to the public and stop the budget cuts.

IT'S NOT FAIR!!

''Students Walkout In Alameda Over Budget Cuts''

Hundreds of students walked out of their classes wednesday in Alameda in a protest over the state's proposed budget cuts which have already led to local cutbacks.

I chose this quote because i think that what they did in alameda was really smart. This kids walked out because they were cutting $250,000 from high school sports. But I think that students should be also upset about their education. Education is more important than sports. Unless you're really good at basketball or any other game, athletics won't really take you anywhere in life.

I'm afraid this is going to affect me next year in high school because there might be so many students in every class that teachers might not have time to help every student individually. Another thing that bothers me is that Schwarzenegger is ready to cut $1 billion from medi-cal. It's not fair because some people really depend on Medi-Cal. They might not have enough money to pay for everything the medi-cal pays for.

Well i just think all this is not fair. It's not fair that teachers are getting fired, because some of them are really good teachers. One of my teachers got a pink slip. He's one of my favorite teachers, and I don't think that was fair. I feel very upset beacuse I actually learned something from him. He makes learning easy. And if so many teachers like him got pink slips that they might not be working next year because of the budget cuts I think that's bad.

Califonia's education budget cuts are a huge issue to deal with.

Hello, my name is Leigh Ann, and I am doing a podcast at Zeum on the proposed California budget cuts. We are collecting our research on this blog site so that we can share it with the rest of California.

In my opinion, Schwarzenegger is a cruel cruel man. He plans to cut 4.8 billion from California's education system and additional money from other social services. According to the article "The Governor's Budget Cuts Nearly Every State Department" published in the SF Chronicle on January 11th, 2008, "As Schwarzenegger pushes for an overhaul of the state's health care system to cover nearly all of California's uninsured residents, he also is ready to cut as much as $1 billion form Medi-Cal, the state's medical services program for the poor, elderly and disabled.

To achieve the savings, administration officials said they want to eliminate some Medi-Cal benefits – such as dental care for low-income adults – instead of reducing the number of people who get basic medical services." In my opinion, this quote shows that Schwargenegger doesn't care about other people who are in need, all he is worried about his salary and not people who need health care services and education.

In the same article "Schwarzenegger has asked for several cuts immediately, including $400 million from schools and community colleges, $33 million from Medi-Cal, $74 million from welfare programs and $25 million from a project at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center."

In the in article entitled "CSU rallies against propsed budget cuts" posted on the Mercury News website by Leslie Griffy and Dana Hull, the authors mention that "California State campuses could be forced to reject 10,000 qualified students, offer fewer courses, put off maintenance and lay off lecturers if Govenor Schwarzenegger proposed budget cuts for the system become reality. The state of California has a $14.5 billion dollar deficit."

Budget cuts are a major issue and we should not just let it slide and pretend it doesn't exist, because it does. If you don't want education to be affected than do something like call up his office: (916)445-2841 and tell him what you think. As a reminder if you do call, please be polite and respectful.