Hello everyone and welcome back to the Millennial Minority! I am Rodrigo and I’m here to present a featured post by one of my fellow collaborators Kareem Ibrahim!! If you’re out of the loop, I teamed up with Kareem Ibrahim and Chad De Los Santos to promote Extra Life, a non-profit organization that connects gamers and children’s medical hospitals. Today, I wanted to promote Kareem’s podcast on my site to showcase some of the work their creating to promote Extra Life! So here it is below..
As you can see, Kareem did a screencast. He talked about JoshOG, a live-streamer, who participated in Extra Life and raised almost $25,000! I’m really glad Kareem did a screencast about him because we were able to showcase an actual Extra Life gamer to give you guys a more accurate representation of the Extra Life community. I hope you guys enjoyed his screencast! Kareem presents tons of background information about JoshOG and Extra Life as a whole.
For those of you who don’t know, Kareem actually came up with the idea of using Extra Life so he’s sort of like the expert amongst our cohort. I hope you guys enjoyed his screencast! He has more content so I hope you check him out. I know I personally enjoyed it because he helped diversify my site with new people to meet and learn about. Very rad!
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this little post and I’m glad you guys got to learn more about Kareem, JoshOG, and Extra Life. If you enjoyed Kareem’s content, make sure to check him out here. ALSO, don’t forget to check out Chad’s page here. Finally, if you’re interested in Extra Life, make sure to check out their site! Thank you guys!
Hey guys!! Welcome back to the Millennial Minority! I’m happy to finally be posting my new video in collaboration with Extra Life! Today’s video is actually an interview with two people who I’ve befriended throughout my time here at Rutgers! First off, we have Mak who is a Junior here at the university and who I met through work and a mutual interest in video games and anime. He’s become one of my closest friends and mentors here at the university. Next, we have Dan who I met on the ultimate frisbee team our first year at Rutgers. He is one of my closest friends and my current roommate. As stated, I’m not going to explain too much about them in the hopes that the video explains it for y’all!
I will talk about the behind the scenes process just to clarify some things. So I shot this video a little differently because I wanted to add some new visuals to the mix to make it seem unique. So I decided to film the video in a different style. Rather than following Mak or Dan around in a particular location of the outdoors, I decided to film them in their homes. The reason behind this was to work with the stereotype that video games are typically indoors. It felt fitting since most gamers do so inside. However, if you notice in the video, I had some shots of our friends in the film as well and not just of the two individuals. I did this to break down the stereotype that gamers are anti-social. Instead, I tried to focus on the idea that gaming can bring individuals together in a friendly manner. People who game like to hang out with their friends and just relax, laugh, talk, and have fun and I wanted to capture that aspect of video gaming in the film.
To do this, I decided to film scenes from our daily lives and mashed it all together to get a final product. This type of filmmaking is related to my interest in “edit” videos like ski or skate edits. Here is an example of one to get a visual on my idea. In this ski video, you can see abstract and close up shots of different areas and the people in the video sort of hanging around before showing scenes of them skiing. I tried to incorporate that similar style by showing scenes of the guys in the household just hanging and playing their games in a similar fashion. I enjoy this type of filmmaking because it gives off an essence of being an “underground” culture which is the direction I wanted to go with since video gaming incorporates the same themes.
On the more technical side, I simply used my Nikon D3300 as well as my cellphone to record audio. HOWEVER, I decided not to use the audio recorded on my phone and used the audio from my camera. I did this because the audio recorded on my camera seemed to come out fine and because it saved me time in the editing process. Since I was working with two interviews, it was going to take me a long time to try and get the audio and scenes to align up. Instead, I kept the audio from my camera and edited on iMovie to reduce background noise and make it more crisp. It was a tough process, but it worked out in the end. Next, I went on Free Music Archive and found a couple of songs to add to the film. I wanted to go with some Hip Hop/ Urban beats because I really enjoyed the aesthetic that it added to the film. Again, I wanted to emphasize an idea of the film being raw and underground.
On that note, I don’t want to mention too much because I want y’all to enjoy the film! Hope you guys enjoy it! Again, please enjoy and make sure to check out the collaboration sites I’ve worked with. Links are right here! Thanks guys!
Hello friends! This is Rodrigo from The Millennial Minority and today we’re going to talk about memes. I’m sure most of you guys who dabble around the internet have experienced the art of memes in one way or another. Their growth and popularity has taken the internet by storm. These images that were once featured on Reddit or Know Your Meme have now taken over many media platforms and can be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Memes hold a little bit of truth to them that connect us all which is really cool! Some of my favorite memes that I’ve seen more recently are memes about children/parent relationships and the way kids over-dramatize their crazy parents. These memes are specifically catered to minorities who grew up with immigrant parents. Here’s an example of one!
Image provided by Google from Buzzfeed
I always enjoy these because these pictures are so unrealistically relatable to minorities. I think it’s so funny that many people connect over sharing stories about their parents and the fear they had over little mishaps. Whenever I bring up super outrageous stories about my mother and how she’d chase me all over the house because I didn’t clean my room, I feel like I have almost 3 or 4 people who can relate.
These specific memes become so spreadable because they are relatable in a sense to different groups. They bring us together because it gives everyone a feeling of “I’ve been there too”. It gives people the ability to connect and share stories. Not only are they hilarious, but they remind us of our cultures and how we are similar.
Memes are all over Facebook and Twitter feed nowadays and are shared by kids, teenagers, adults, and even my grandparents! I really appreciate them because they’re humorous and they somehow manage to find a way to connect us all on a similar spectrum regardless of age, ethnicity, or background. Also, if you haven’t noticed yet, many companies are trying to profit on memes too and they’re appearing more and more on promotional campaigns.
I’m lucky to say I’ve grown up with memes. I remember seeing the very original memes of dog photos and stick figures and seeing them develop to target different topics and cultures. They even come in different languages too! (As seen on my Dad’s Facebook).
Memes are typically posted by individuals who are simply trying to promote funny content. However, more and more often, I noticed certain companies promoting their brand through memes.
Image provided by Twitter
Here is an example of Ernie Keebler, from the Keebler Company, who has been utilized constantly as a social media meme. In this essence, the company promotes the brand by having “Ernie”, himself, make posts on Twitter over taking selfies or making pop culture references. In this example, he is a meme due to a running joke that he is new to social media and has trouble navigating technological terms.
Memes are being utilized more often in our age because it is a simple way of targeting a younger demographic. These Ernie Keebler tweets appear all over Twitter, the biggest hub for memes. We can find memes anywhere nowadays. My personal favorites are often memes catered to my demographic of minorities. As stated, they bring us closer together through humor. They show us how relatable our lives can be and how we can connect. I think memes, when used for positive reasons, can benefit us in a great way.
Well, that’s my little blurb about memes! They’re honestly my favorite thing about the internet. I think my Twitter literally has 10,000 tweets dedicated to sharing memes. I’ve even taken the time to Photoshop and make my own! They’re lots of fun. I just wanted to show how memes can relate to anything, even my website! I hope you enjoyed this post and be prepared for some more! I will be releasing a new video before the end of the week and I’m super excited! Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by!
Hello everyone! Welcome back to The Millennial Minority. This is Rodrigo and I am here to talk today about a little update on my group collaboration with Chad and Kareem! So as of right now, we’ve hit a couple of milestones with regards to our projects!
We have all managed to figure out the type of media we are using to produce our content. For example, I am in the process of working on a film to present to you all! We have also come to terms with discussing our method of sharing the media. We will be cross-sharing our information meaning you guys might find a post pretty soon that is either Kareem or Chad’s! I think that’ll be exciting to present you guys with some distinct and cool stuff.
So altogether, a great milestone that I found deals with our collaborations. We have been very productive about meeting and accommodating schedules with each other constantly in order to get our content out as quickly as possible. It’s pretty important to note that a ton of work goes into these collaborations. For example, as most of you all know, we decided to sponsor Extra Life as our non-profit. This choice was not quick and easy, it took a decent amount of time evaluating our sites and the information we distribute until we finally came to an agreement on what we wanted to present that connected us all together. Our topics of discussion now include the types of content we want to create as well as how we can create a stronger bridge amongst our sites.
A personal milestone that I am excited about is the video that’s coming soon! I don’t want to give away too many details (still gotta be a surprise). BUT I’ve been searching and found an interested individual who wants to partake in the next post. So like I said, without giving too much away, my next video will showcase another minority and their interest in the world of gaming. I can’t wait to show you guys how that one comes out.
“Plugged In.” by Sadie Hernandez retrieved from Flickr and free of use under Creative Commons
So like I said ,this video is going to be no less than 5 or 6 minutes like the last one and the main focus will be Extra Life and video games in general. I’m very excited to see where that production journey takes me!
To keep you guys more on the loop, I just quickly want to mention some future goals we’re trying to hit. So in the near future, we want to work more on our collaborations. Like I mentioned, we’re still figuring out how to tie things together and distribute the content amongst all of our platforms. Eventually, with time, we’ll see how our content comes out and how it will be able to mesh into our sites. So in the near future, expect to see some more features and content from my teammates.
Also, I think another milestone we will reach will be related to our productions. I hope that we can work more closely, as a group, within the creation of our media. So who knows, maybe in the near future, you’ll see me assisting in the production of their content while also receiving tips and pointers from them! I’m really excited to see how in depth this collaboration and help will come out.
So, that’s just a little update on our work right now! I hope I didn’t give away too much because I still want everything to be a surprise. Before I go, I just want to give y’all some links to check out! Please make sure to visit Chad and Kareem at their sites and also make sure to show some more love to Extra Life! Thanks
Hello friends! This is Rodrigo from The Millennial Minority. I’m very excited to be bring some interesting news to you all today. In these upcoming few weeks, I will be collaborating with Chad De Los Santos from Gaming Guru and Kareem Ibrahim from eSports is a Sport for a campaign to promote a very interesting non-profit organization. Together, we will be presenting you guys with videos, screencasts, and information about Extra Life. Extra Life is a fundraising event in which gamers sign up collectively, raise money, game for 24 hours for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. After meeting with each other, we recognized a collective interest in technology and gaming which sparked our interest in this non-profit organization. Placed below is actually a video from the website itself which showcases the history of the organization!
For my website, I will be posting in the near future a video interview of an individual with a keen interest in the gaming industry so stay tuned! This video will promote the non-profit while also keeping the topic of my website in mind. So make sure to stay tuned to the site for more content from me, Chad, and Kareem! Again, make sure to check their websites out for their content as well! Also, take the time out to check out Extra Life for more information!
Once again, the links to all of these websites are located on top! Also, I wanted to credit Google for the Extra Life logo and the Extra Life website for the video! Thanks for checking this post out, see y’all soon!
Hello friends! Today’s topic will be about Sanctuary Cities; enjoy!
Immigrants have been a hot topic in the news especially with Trump taking office a couple of months ago. One of his agendas that he’s been trying to enforce deals with Sanctuary Cities. For those who don’t know, sanctuary cites are cities that permit the residence of illegal immigrants. However, Trump has been trying to get these sanctuary cities to seek out and find illegal immigrants and assist in detaining them. Some states have gladly agreed which is a terrifying notion. However, let’s talk about Los Angeles, a place historically known for it’s immigrant population.
More recently, Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, has taken a stand to oppose Trump’s request. Below, I have added a video that was posted on Fox News, a notorious right leaning news outlet. ( I did this to try and be unbiased and show stories from all spectrums and perspectives).
Now, I know this is simply a news story so it is not very personal. However, I have another video to show in order to make it. In the next video, I want to present a Los Angeles resident who is an immigrant from Central America. I want to share his story because I think :
It’s really really interesting
It can be considered a feature of another immigrant’s unique story (HOWEVER, I want to note that I did not make the video listed below)
It is personal and I hope you, the reader and viewer, will create a connection with this student
This next article was posted by the Los Angeles Times and it tells the story of Gasper Marcos, an immigrant from Central America. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
The connection with these two videos and news stories deals with the topic of immigration in Los Angeles. The Fox News article was published at the beginning of March while Gasper’s story in the L.A. Times came out last summer. These two stories are interconnected. It is important to note that Gasper is living out his time right now, as we speak, in Los Angeles during these times of crisis. It is interesting and it is very real. I commemorate the mayor of Los Angeles for protecting immigrants. But, let’s just remember that this is simply one city. Like the Fox News video stated, many other cities are quietly and happily turning people in. The reality is that not everyone is safe like the people of Los Angeles. I hope Gasper’s story made an impact, because he, just like the rest of us, is not just an immigrant, but a person with an amazing story. I hope you all remember that! Thank you and stay tuned for more!
Hello friends! Welcome back to the Millennial Minority. Today I am very excited to present the first individual to be featured on my site! Over the past few weeks I have filmed and interviewed one of my best friends at Rutgers. I don’t want to give too many details about her because I feel that the video will do just that. However, I’ll just add a short description.
This is Vanessa Reina, a second year student at Rutgers and one of my co-workers. Vanessa lives in New Jersey but is from Colombian and El Salvador. The video is based on her love for the outdoors and her interest in people and perceptions on life. I hope you guys enjoy it!
As stated before, I filmed this video throughout a span of two weeks. For the most part, I spend a lot of time with Vanessa so I decided to carry my camera around and film her whenever I could. However, we decided a walk through the Livingston campus preserve was a great way of capturing her enjoyment of the outdoors. We also took the time out to film her interview at the preserve since it felt fitting to have her there.
I utilized my DSLR camera ( a Nikon D3300 that I typically use for photography) and worked with my 35mm lens. I really enjoy shooting in 35mm because it is the go-to in film. I also use it for my photography because it allows me to capture landscapes as well as close ups with a “blur” effect (here is an example that was shot over the course of our hike)
In order to capture Vanessa’s voice, I realized I needed some sort of microphone to attach to her. However, I do not own that type of technology and so I decided to use a little cheaper method that I picked up in high school when I used to film movies. I took my iPhone and recorded her through that ( I had her place it in her pocket). During editing, I simply used that recording and matched it up to the film. It was very tedious, but eventually I lined it up perfectly.
Since I own a Macbook Pro, I decided to use iMovie as my go to film editing software since it was easily accessible. I also used the Free Music Archive site to get music for the film. The entire editing process lasted around 5 hours. The first hour was spent coming up with an intro to the film which I am very proud of. Next, I took time out to analyze the interview (which was 20 minutes long). I picked it apart and ended up with around 4 or 5 minutes of footage that I wanted to use for the final draft. Finally, I spent some time looking for songs that I wanted to add to the video to make it lively. Even though it may sound like a long time, I really enjoyed the editing process and the time actually flew by believe it or not. What you see above is the final draft of my entire project. I hope you guys enjoy it and thank you for taking the time out to read this blog post! See y’all soon with more posts!
Hello everyone and welcome back once again to my website, “The Millennial Minority” ! Today, I am presenting a screencast where I review and discuss two websites that I drew inspiration from for the photo blog aspect of my site. The two websites that I went over were the Humans of Rutgers University site and the Humans of New York site. More details are given in the video so I do not want to get into too much detail about that. However, I want to use this blog post to discuss how I created the screencast and the creative process and details that went into the final product.
For my screencast, I utilized the Screencast-O-Matic website. It is a very simple site for beginners like myself to navigate. Once I downloaded the plug-ins for the site, I decided to review the two websites on my own and write up scripts or bullet points as to certain topics that I wanted to discuss during the screencast. This allowed me to have my thoughts in check rather than scrambling out random ideas throughout the video. I spent around an hour looking at the two websites and picking apart every detail. At first, I decided to review three websites including the Portraits of America site; however, once doing some practice runs without recording, I realized that it would make my screencast around 20 to 30 minutes. I didn’t want to exceed the 6 to 8 minutes; however, I ended up with 12 minutes of a final product. Even though the final product was longer than expected, I was able to cover every detail that I felt was important to me!
I think the hardest part of the entire process was the actual recording process. I spent around 3 hours just trying to get a recording that I felt comfortable with. The first hour of my recording session was spent trying to simply get my introduction in. I wrote up a minor introduction that talked about my website, but then I realized that I did the same in previous posts, so I decided to stray away from repetition. Also, it took up around 5 minutes just to get an introduction done, so I decided to shorten it. The rest of my time was spent restarting because my accent messed up some pronunciations and background noises kept interfering (I was recording in a college dormitory on a weekend haha). After a while, I finally got the introduction set and the website reviews sailed smoothly. One thing I didn’t realize about Screencast-O-Matic was the fact that I could pause and re-record over certain areas. Instead, I did a large portion of the video in one take (my introduction and my review over the Humans of Rutgers University website). When I finished up reviewing the Humans of New York site, I realized I didn’t enjoy that section of the recording. Instead of restarting, I looked over the website once again and finalized my thoughts before re-recording and finishing up. The final product is what you see above and I am very proud of it.
I believe that utilizing a screencast is a great method of information technology. I have realized that screencasts blend the uniqueness of a podcast and videos. I am allowed to display what is on my screen and discuss it for my viewers. I enjoy the screencast method because it takes an extra step in my opinion. I may be able to write an amazing blog post that conveys a lot of tone and emotion through text, but screencasts allow users to actually hear me and hear me convey emotion. It just gives viewers an extra sense to capture when intaking the information that I am providing. I just believe that one of the benefits of technology is the ability that it allows us to communicate better without being close to other people. The screencast allows viewers to have visuals of the ideas I’m trying to present and it allows viewers to sense the tone I am presenting. I personally enjoyed making a screencast because it helped me appreciate the ability to communicate better with my viewers.
Hello everyone! In this post, I am going to be discussing the Podcast Intro that is displayed above! The Podcast Intro is a short 1 minute clip that will play before all of the videos that are going on this page.
Overall, the time it took to create the intro was roughly an hour or so. I began with my script for the intro. I wrote down what I wanted to say and the message I wanted people to have over the direction of my website. I decided to include the purpose of my site as a whole so that new viewers could easily understand my motivation for creating the website. Furthermore, I emphasize the idea that the individuals that I showcase on the site are unique and stray from the typical stereotypes of minorities. This is the biggest thing I want to emphasize with regards to my purpose so I made it a point to mention it once or twice in the introduction. Finally, I encouraged users to check out the site more thoroughly and to see if they had anything in common with the people mentioned in my posts. In doing so, I’d be fulfilling my purpose of informing users that minorities are unique and different.
The actual creation of the intro, itself, took a longer time to work on. I downloaded Audacity, a platform for sound mixing, in order to record my voice and blend it with a song in order to make the intro pop out more and make it more enjoyable rather than simply a voice speaking for a minute. Next, I went to the Free Music Archive website where I was able to search for music that I found fitting for my introduction. I spent almost twenty minutes looking into different genres and dabbled with jazz and soft rock. I really wanted the song to have a Latin vibe and to sound relaxed. I wanted it to be a song that you’d hear in a coffee shop or in a very mellow setting. Eventually, I found the song Siesta by Jahzzar. It’s a simple tune with that begins with a guitar and follows up with drums and some techno beats; however, it only plays for about a minute so you only really get a sense of the guitar and drums. Nonetheless, I felt that it blended perfectly with the mood of the site and the message I was sending.
I recorded my voice first. After a few takes, I was able to record the script without my accent getting in the way of the pronunciation of words. Next, I imported the song and began mixing the songs. I incorporated a Fade In effect onto the beginning of the song so that listeners weren’t overwhelmed to hear the song. Next, I placed my recording in the middle of the track and added a Fade Out effect towards the end to indicate that the intro was over. I had to cut the actual song to only a minute in order to make it a short intro. I did a little bit of sound mixing in order to lower the song to make it a background song and raised my voice sound so that people could hear what I had to say, but were also able to enjoy the song. In the end, it produced the roughly 50 second clip you see above!
I hope you enjoyed this read over the Podcast! I had an enjoyable time making it and can’t wait to use it for some videos!
Hey everyone! This post is going to be dedicated about the website header that’s posted on my home page! This header is unique from my other headers on different pages because it is the only header that is not personally mine. If you go on my other pages (like contact or meet the editor), the photos that you’ll see there are photos taken by me! Like I mentioned earlier, I’m into photography so a lot of the photos that I’ll post on this site are my own! However, the one that you see above on the home page is unique because I took photos from Pixabay (a free photo site).
I took two photos, one of Peru ( which is linked here) and a picture of the North American continent (linked here). I chose these two photos because I felt like they related to the person I am. I’ve probably mentioned over a hundred times that I’m Peruvian so I decided to use that as the main header picture and decided to include the North American continent because that is my current location. I thought it was an interesting blend because it symbolizes the idea that I live in the United States, but my background is based out of Peru where I grew up in. Anyways, I blended the two photos to create the header image that you see before you. I also did some minor adjustments to make my two pictures work better. I took the Peru picture and messed around with the colors and hues to sort of take the coloring away and make it grey-ish. By doing this, I made the North America picture more visible because the real Peru picture was full of colors that made the other picture not that visible. I also darkened the outline of North America to make it more visible amongst the background picture. Those were the two minor adjustments I made to make my photos work and I hope you guys enjoy it!
Just a small note, I don’t want to make it seem like this header was easy to make, it actually took around two hours. I spent a lot of time brainstorming and thinking about what two pictures would work well together. I looked around for themes regarding scenery in North and South America just to compare the two areas and emphasize that I was from both of the areas, but I didn’t want to just put two pictures next to each other because it wouldn’t be that unique. Instead, I decided to work with a minor logo and a background picture because it seemed more simple and neat. My first draft of my header included background pictures of New York, Colorado, and other places that were recognizable around the country and I was going to connect that with a thumb print that had the Peruvian flag on it. I went with this concept to show off my pride for my country while also emphasizing the idea that I live in the United States. The blended pictures came out well for the most part, but they didn’t appear appealing on my page. The colors of the Peruvian flag didn’t clash well with the yellow of the site and it came out very blurry on the website so it didn’t look that professional. I decided to scrap that idea and sort of switch the pictures around and eventually got what you see before you! So I just wanted to say that because I didn’t want you guys to feel like I got it right the first time. It took some time and a lot of thinking to come up with an idea of how I wanted my website to be portrayed. Anyways, that’s my blog post for today ! I hope it was an enjoyable read and it gave you insight as to creating content for a site and also about who I am as a person (sort of a perfectionist and heavy thinker). Thanks for reading!
Also, I just wanted to state once again that my header was comprised of two pictures found on Pixabay and are intended for reuse. AND I wanted to note that the rest of the pictures on my page were provided by me and my camera. I hope they’re nice to look at and I’ll be posting more about my photography soon!
** Here is a formal citation of the images! **
Header Image Sources:
Map-North America-Canada-USA-Mexico by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay (CC0 Public Domain) and Fog-Hill-Landscape-Mountain-Mist-Mountain-Outdors-Peru by Pexels from Pixabay (CC0 Public Domain)
The Millennial Minority 