2000-2009 in review

A great refresher of this decade’s most newsworthy events. How do you say this decade, anyway? The “two thousands”? The oh-ohs?

an extremely powerful video story

Intended Consequences is a video story I found on MediaStorm that is harsh on the eyes and painful to the mind. In 1994, over 800,000 women in Rwanda were raped and killed in a massive genocide. The pictures left me speechless and the titleslides are few-worded but impactful. Watch wearily, but everyone should know of these man-made disasters that are happening in other countries throughout our world.

Do the Tippy Toe: an audio slideshow on fashion and dance in LA

This is my favorite audio slideshow I’ve ever seen. It’s about some teenagers in Los Angeles who have their own style of dressing and dancing. It’s entertaining and intimate(without being emotional). I like how the creators, Simone S. Oliver and Stephanie Diani, used different speeds of showing the photos to create movement when needed. They also make good use of title slides and minimum captions at the bottom of their photos.

Do the Tippy Toe

My REAL first video story

In 2007 Mike Forehand, a Theta Chi brother at UCF, died in a car accident. Exactly two years later on November 2, the fraternity commemorated him at their house, led by Nick Constain, one of Forehand’s close friends. The brothers lit candles and shared memories of their lost brother.

My video assignment

Voice your political opinion, then watch it float by on your screen

The New York Times developed this multimedia interactive tool to describe how you feel – republican, democrat, or “neither” – after Barack Obama having been elected president one year ago. It’s kind of a mixture of a Tag Cloud and a poll. Love it.

Voice your opinion in like, 2 seconds

What a professional audioslides project looks like

The New York Times did an audioslides presentation on a play currently on Broadway. It’s interesting to watch after making one myself. While the audio is a little better than mine and a little more varied, I’m still proud of my creation!

Broadway play “After Miss Julie”

USA Today already has all kinds of multimedia content for 2010 Olympics

Olympics Preparation Page

My First Soundslides Project

Click here to view an audioslides project on Lambda Chi Alpha’s annual philanthropy, Watermelon Bust.

Don’t be afraid to talk about suicide, psychologist says

While suicide is a touchy subject, anyone can be trained to talk about it with someone they care about, according to a UCF psychologist.

In an information session put on Monday by the UCF Counseling Center, Dr. Larry Marks, PhD, presented to a mixture of UCF students and staff myths and facts about college suicide, how to spot warning signs of it, and how to prevent it from possibly being carried out. QPR: Question, Persuade, Refer was the title of the seminar and is the name of the technique used to identify suicidal symptoms in someone and to then convince and, finally, send him to the appropriate professionals to help him. The Counseling Center has been putting on this program since 2006 and since then has trained nearly 6,000 faculty, staff and students, Marks said.

Present at the meeting, held in a very professional feeling board room in the Student Union, were three staff members and nine students, two of which were resident assistants required to attend for their position in dealing with freshmen.

When Marks, who works with students at the Counseling Center, asked who in the room had known someone to attempt or commit suicide, 10 out of 11 raised their hands.

“It’s about making a connection with someone you feel some concern about, and expressing that concern to them,” Marks said.

Marks also told the attendees the statistic that more people die in the U.S. each year than homicide, 10 percent of college students have seriously attempted ending their own life, and, to the most gasps, that 15 percent of UCF students have attempted to kill themselves.

Warning Signs

Some direct verbal clues that Marks said are a blatant warning of possible suicide are “I’m going to end it all,” “If this or that doesn’t happen, I’ll kill myself,” or “Pretty soon you won’t have to worry about me.”

Some catalysts that could cause someone to a feel suicidal are being fired, being broken up with, significant loss of finances, or loss of freedom, such as getting a DUI.

A few behavioral cues that signal possible suicide are acquiring a gun or pills, sudden moodiness, drug or alcohol abuse, a sudden change in interests or hobbies, and of course, a previous attempt at suicide. And the most apparent sign of being suicidal, Marks said, is the “deadly triad:” possession of a firearm, being distressed, and being under the influence of alcohol.

The Approach

The first step of the QPR process is to question the person about their current feelings, Marks said. Before you pop the question, it’s important to first find a private area to talk and with ample time, he said. Marks then split the group into pairs (one group of three) to practice with some of the sample questions he provided.

“That was just awkward,” Spencer Fonte said afterward. Fonte, a junior computer science major, is a resident assistant at Pegasus Landing and has to know how to deal with incoming students’ academic and personal problems.

The next step is to persuade the person not to commit suicide, Marks said.

“[Suicide] is a permanent solution to a temporary problem,” he said.

Marks advises to offer the person hope in any form he or she will accept it, whether it’s that they’ll have a chance to improve their grades next semester, they’ll meet new potential girlfriends at an event next week, and so on, he said. Marks also stressed the importance of not judging anything the person says.

Listen to the audio clip below to hear highlights of the presentation, including a brief exercise in which the students practiced talking with each other about the sensitive subject.