vienna for measure for measure....

some more eye candy for the final performance....

ARGHH! PROCRASTINATION!

I hate procrastinating when it comes to my school work but somehow I always manage to get myself in these situations! Especially when it comes to projects where it requires me to do more than just open a book and study for a test. Although I love expressing my creativity through a visual or audio medium, sometimes I feel as if I have to compromise my work because of my procrastination. But I will overcome this disease that I am suffering from and finish this semester off on a high note. These past two weeks I have been feverishly working on finishing up a website in Dreamweaver, my documentary film for this class, and my fictional film which I will be presenting at MonkeyTown at the end of the semeter. But that's not the end of it, because every day I go to class there's some more work that's piled upon my already full plate...

-TONY

And yes it's that time of the year again....

I honestly don't really understand Stony Brook. It seems that I have another round of midterms this week. I don't know what's going on. Last week I had tests, this week I have more tests, this semester just seems so much more effort then last year. Tomorrow I actually have a test in Buddhism, yea wohoo!! No, not really. On my Hinduism test a couple weeks ago, I studied for 6 hours straight the night before. I think I may study 2 nights before for his test. It's weird for me though I wait till the last minute for everything. I'm going to start now, sooooooooooo wish me luck.....

the ugly truth

tonight i saw the ugly truth with my friend in the union aud. the movie was pretty funny and there was a good turn out. at first, i thought no one would show cause there was no one there until 5 minutes before the movie actually started. when people started showing up, it was like a crowd; they all came in at once. i really liked it the movie and since i didn;t get to se it in theaters, it was nice to see for free on campus. and i think next week, they're showing friday the 13th on friday the 13th which is pretictable. they also showed tranformers 2 tonight cause it was a double movie night but we didn't stick around for that one.

USES OF THE INTERNET....

I need to have exposure to like-minded institutions to develop pedagogies for these new froms of education. Our approach to the new and growing fields of ‘telepresence’ would be greatly enhanced by this travel grant. I have been working with Sogang University with its summer study abroad program in addition to the digital arts and technology programs to further the important filed of a fully enhanced teleconferencing center. The institutional costs of centers of teleconferencing have lowered each year. Many educational institutions worldwide can benefit from these teleconferenced ‘linkages’ between like institutions. A glaring factor has emerged with the consideration of a total ‘kinesthetic’ space of leaning and cultural collaboration. These space-like much of the low-cost Internet social computing portals-are ripe for an enhancement. This enhancement of image, moving image, text, sound, and many different file formats such as the three dimensional and PDF file formats can combine into a collaborative distance learning space that has enhanced the usability and ‘human factors’ attributes to compliment the cognitive learning through distance and cultures. ‘Immersive environments’ not only can have parts of certain cultural features such as performance, recitation, film, and music, but these spaces can also be used as real time collaborative spaces with the appropriate deliveries of information and participation within.
Through my dozen or so trips to South Korea to lecture, teach for extended periods of time, and conduct workshops, I have developed a relationship with Sogang University that has expanded this work to create these ‘spaces of cultural telepresence’. While the technology currently exists to create these fully immersive, 365 degree projection of mutable image, sound, and text, the means of linking up with similar institutions around the world is a product of human and institutional relationships that find cultural commonalities and the technical means to impart these collaborative spaces.
For example: a series of performances, and exhibitions entailing modern and ancient Korean forms of performances were established on a blog, a Youtube site, Skype as a means of distance collaboration, and wrapped up in a broadcasted performance. All of these teleconferencing technologies were brought together in a real time (skype, ichat) and archived (Blogger and Youtube) space. The result existed as an archive for further study abroad disciplines and participations, as well as a format for collaboration and human factors study in the technical and cognitive benefits of working with cultural forms online.

its soo cold.... i need heat now!!

its freezing outside and inside. i don't even want to walk outside for food because it's so cold. and there absolutely no heat in my room and i have to wear sweats and a hoodie when i go to sleep. where's the heat stony brook? do they not realize that its cold in the dorm rooms and in the hallways? i mean, after i take a shower, i'm freezing on my way back from the bathroom. this is so ridiculous.

ON THE SURFACE OF IT...MORE TELEPRESENCE MODELS FOR MONKEYTOWN.

“They represent distance relationships and growth phenomena.” Perfect. Good. Good binary to go by. We wish to push out and to grow and then to consolidate our center. There is no harm in that. At the other edge. All edges…we find others doing the same thing. Reliably. Yes there are some who have a greater push and aggressiveness and on those sides we are pushed in. Do we find ourselves in a land, a surface? Is this a mysterious and terror inspiring place that we encounter: the raw expanse? Or is the Voronoi a means of explaining the rawness of the spaces and possible spaces out there? I wish to maintain my center, me being, my will to live and my limbic security in my mammalian brain. Then there are the edges…I know that I have to betray a fact of my empathetic self to achieve the pushing outward. I do not wish to have done to me what I do to others.

But without this I would implode. I would collapse upon the center of myself, which would cease to be because of the will, the aggressiveness of the others. Then I remember the great religions of stating that the ‘do unto others’ credo is the center of the civilized and empathetic self. Your parents continually teach you to observe empathy at the same time you should be aggressive. When we hover far above…get the distance…we see what the raw space looks like: there is a beautiful and ordered pattern of edges and dots. Sometimes the dots are not there. In architecture and space there are volumes to live in. yet at the center there is that outward and inward push and pull: ‘I need to expand’ with ‘I need to reflect, understand, consolidate, and empathize’. Dividing up the world this way looks beautiful…we see a world of desire in boundaries. Dividing up a country this way in terms of population density we see the principle in effect: those cells with the most dense and consolidated center become more ‘tense’ with each other…. they form smaller cells. The land looks like a great uneven net was thrown over it. Capturing what? A struggle?

Photoshop 101

So since I'm tryna cram all the classes I need for my Media Arts Minor during my last year of college, I'm taking multiple THR classes this semester alone, just like this one. Another THR class, 216, is teaching me how to get used to the basic techniques involved in using Photoshop. Now I've heard many many things about this program, but I always felt it was way too intimidating to mess around with. But now, thanks to my professor, I love using photoshop! This shit's so much fun! Check out my 1st ever done photoshop picture that we handed in for our 2nd project. We were assigned to use 3 pics, and with the help of photoshop, we were supposed to create an image that best expresses our personalities. Here's what I came up with and I think it expresses me quite well....

-TONY

folk at the café

A picture I took of folk musician Ellis Paul performing at the Sunday acoustic series at the University Café. If you're into acoustic/folk music, check universitycafe.org to see if there's a show coming up one Sunday. It's a great way to spend an afternoon, and I guess I'm biased as I help out with the series and my father is the organizer of it. You never know what's going on if you don't seek it out!

Stony vs. Brown and a farewell

Saturday was Stony Brook's first home game. We beat Brown University 21-20. Today was also my old Boss' last day here at stony... this was the last game he was working. I didn't get to see him at the game so I do not know for sure if this information is true; because I heard from my friend who works at Nassau Coliseum, who heard from the security guard there, who also guards stony brook games, and she heard it from here. But it is a little weird that no one in the athletic dept told me n my friends about it, when we visit them these past days. Apparently, my old boss got a job near his hometown, he's from WA. So if these rumors are true.... I will miss him.
Oh, and mankind, Mick Foley pro wrestler for WWE and ECW, was here on campus for the football game. He apparently resides out here on Long Island in East Setauket.
Story has it that he was in the parking lot while the tailgate was going on and he spotted some guy urinating on his car. This caused Foley to pick the guy up and rip his shirt, then the guy sprinted. Cops came to the scene and tried to find the guy. What a night.

STONY BROOK RUGBY 3-0

Today we played Vasser, and beat them 35-0. We are now 3-0 this season, with a 130(for)-10(against) point ratio. I think that's pretty epic. Rugby is a sport that no one really understands, or really even knows about. There are 15 players, 7 of which are backs (faster smaller players), and 8 which are forwards (bigger, stronger, slower players). It is a full contact sport, with absolutely no padding, it is actually illegal to wear a cup. You are not allowed to make high tackles, and you have to attempt to wrap as you tackle. It is one of the most injury proned sports in the world, and i absofuckinglutely love it.

All I Wanted Was A Little More Gucamole

I was in the Union Foood Court at SBU and was ordering a chicken burrito. The guy sparingly added the ingredients and proceeded to put my last request of guacolmole in the center of my burrito. I proceeded to ask him very nicely if he could just put a little more on the other sides since it was just in the center of the wrap and he said NO. I mean the dude was like NO, I can't give you anymore because It will deplete my supply. I looked at him, looked down at the overflowing container of guacamole (next to nearly empty containers of cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, salsa, jalepenos etc.) and looked back at him while thinking, is this guy serious? So after trying to contain my disgust I told him this is what you are going to do; I said I don't think its a problem if you put extra on there, I dont think I will deplete your supply so kindly put another scoop on my burrito and if you want you can charge me for it, but you are going to do it. He proceeded to put the extra after much hesitation and marked an X on my plate. He said I marked it so that they can charge you for the guacamole. I said thanks and at the same time another lady that serves the food placed my burrito on the grill and gave me an unmarked plate with it. She signaled ot me that he was crazy.

I was upset because SB acts as if you aren't paying your money for the food. They act as if you use magical pretend dollars when you pay them. I mean for all that money you pay for food whats the problem with a little extra gucamole. Get it together Stony Brook. I'm giving you my money just the same as I would to any other restaurant/food place.

(Image from laaloosh.com)

a part of my world at stony

I know it's nothing really, but last March when I took a visiting friend into Manhattan, I came face to face with this:

















Basically what's happening here is an advert for my favourite musical, Spring Awakening, was on the tracks at Stony. and whilst I saw many more ads for it along the way in, I felt a bit of a shiver up my spine when I saw it (my friend and I were also seeing it later that night, my grand total being about 9 on Broadway for this show). The show has closed on Broadway as of now, so I'm guessing I'll never feel like a bit of me is reflected as much on the tracks at Stony.