Thursday, June 2, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Effects of Futuristic Technology
As humanity is improving we people require more updated needs, and in order to meet our needs technology has been exceptionally worked on a lot to advance our standard of life. Future technologies such as flying cars, hybrid cars, wearable transportation, touch-screens, etc will definitely improve my family and my standard of life, because that means we will lose less energy on doing things that technology can already do for us. Meanwhile, we can enjoy doing other things like reading, planting the garden, or we can do a lot of things at once. Additionally, nowadays people are creating things in the purpose of maintaining sustainability; well simply because people just don’t want to die young. However, even though futuristic technology can be sustainable, it can also be expensive. That means my family and I have to work whole lots more to earn enough money to afford those. On the other hand, even futuristic technology can be convenient, that makes us lazy creatures that finally die out of diseases. If technology does all the work, what can we do? I’ve realized that not only me but a lot of my peers often complain about how slow the internet works, how slow it is just to load a web page, how slow it is just to get to the nearest destination, etc – yes, complains like that. In my opinion, having more advanced technology will also negatively affect us because that means we do less physical activities which result in a high risk of diseases. Also, doesn’t that just make us more stressed? When you can do many things at the same time, eventually you will mess up the whole thing. Well that doesn’t mean the improvement on technology is bad, but living your life is also important. Let the future decide.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Cat Tien Trip
Honestly saying, the pass few days have been amazingly wonderful – as if they were especially designed for my fifteenth birthday – March 4th. This trip to Cat Tien not only allowed me to be closer to nature, but it also taught me how to live independently and take care of myself when “Mommy” wasn’t around. I’ve learnt so much from this extraordinary trip, and it was simply cool for me to apply what I’ve studied at school in real life. And above all, I suppose I’ve grown a bit more mature after this trip.
Day 1 – March 1st 2011
This might or might not surprise you, but I seriously spent about five to six hours packing my things the other night before the trip. Well, I extremely got overwhelmed over the fact that I was going away from home – far from Ho Chi Minh City for the first time without my family’s supervision. I woke up real early that day and prepared myself to be presentable, and as soon as I got to school time passed real fast until the time we started for our journey. The three-hour ride didn’t turn out to be long and boring as I expected, but rather sort of relaxing and enjoyable. I killed time by listening to music, eating snacks, chatting with friends, and planning for what I’d do when I arrived there. Well, after arriving there, we received our room and immediately after opening the door and skimming the room, Susan, Tien and I shockingly spotted a cockroach happened to be stuck in the mosquito net of the middle bed – the bed I was supposed to sleep in. Anyway, after that we quickly changed for the next activity – which was visiting the bear stations. Fortunately, well if you don’t call it weird, we all ended up seeing two bears fighting. I felt sorry for feeling excited for that, because I hardly saw animals fighting each other like that in real life. Probably getting the sense of what nature really is was kind of cool. After eating dinner, later at night we were invited to a conference room – a big one that made me feel somehow important – and we spent about thirty minutes listening to Cat Tien’s guide introducing briefly about the national park. Sorry but for most of the parts, I thought they were for the birds, still he gave a pretty nice presentation. Last but not least, we ended a superior starting day by joining the fire camp and grilling marshmallow. After eating like six pieces of marshmallow, I seriously wanted to throw up. All that sugar was sucked up in my stomach, and I felt a little bit fatter than usual. Oh yeah, I was also totally into Jared and Johnny’s talents of telling ghost stories, they were so all creepy and gave me that chilly feelings on my neck. I thought it was a good start; probably it would get better the next day.
P/S: Despite having many happy feelings and a pretty good mood inside today, honestly I was extremely upset over two incidents. One was with my best friend, and one was with another friend of me. I truly hoped it would be okay for us to handle the friendship peacefully…
Day 2 – March 2nd 2011
Probably day 2, which was Wednesday, was my most favorite day because a lot of things happened the way I didn’t expect it to, but they turned out awfully awesome. I’ve learnt a lot today either, by walking through the forest for five kilometers. I’ve seen a lot of wild life creatures, well mostly plants and old trees, and for the first time ever, yes ever, I enjoyed messing around a bit with things that are rooted with dust/soil. In fact, I never liked flowers, plants, nor trees because every once in a while I feel creepy imagining them being with the dirty insects. Therefore, surprisingly enough, even though the sun was high above and its rays were burning right through me, I didn’t really complain walking the whole way but tried enjoying the moment by singing out loud with Mia. I also goofed around with Jerry and John, until we finally reached the destination without realizing we’ve been walking a quite long distance. After that, we proceeded to see the Waterfalls, but I was shocked to hear just the day before we arrived here, a few people fell down and were drowned to death. A bit dangerous I guess, but still, we had a great time hanging around and chatting while just enjoying the open space where there are no buildings, no noises of motors instead of birds singing and leaves whistling in the wind. Nicely green, that was what I got from that day. On the way back to the reception, my legs and feet hurt so much I had to take my boots off and walked with bare feet. Obviously felt so much better after doing so. After eating lunch, taking my medicine and going for a nice shower to cool off, Mia and I went to the D section to play cards with the boys. In between, I also hired a bicycle to ride around, until group 1 eventually came back from their activity. After that, we all got dressed again to go to the minority village. I truly enjoyed the ride on the vehicle without the roof – whatever it was called, despite being scratched by branches of trees and breathing dust when it was all stirred up when we passed by. Once we arrived at the village, the kids greeted us with their brilliant hospitality, and I think that they were also happy to see guests arriving every now and then. First we visited the cultural museum of the village to study about their history and culture, and then after that the teachers called upon us to pick up the trashes on the field. Felt like we’ve done something real good for the environment, well it wasn’t that much of a deal but we tried our best, right? Later, we played soccer, and Mr. Black was the goalie and I think it was totally unfair!!!! But in brief, we had a remarkable time, walking the dusty path where weeds grew everywhere. Just like the other night, we also had camp fire but this time we played goose and duck. I thought no one would pick me, until Mr. Tim tricked me by saying goose and then saying duck, and then I mistook. When I finally got what he was trying to do, I chased him off to the tree far away from the fire near the riff of the river, and I totally got him.
P/S: Today I was exceptionally happy due to someone pretty special to me.
Day 3 – March 3rd 2011
The other group already warned me of the long distance to Bau Sau – a lake where crocodiles live, wasn’t worth it because they couldn’t see any at all. Still, I looked pretty presentable for a new day and sure after the daily running, I was ready for walking five kilometers without whining and giving up. During the whole way, Linda, Mia and I had a blissful time together singing all songs like Where is the love, Uptown girl, etc Along with us Mr. Tim harmonized to the beats that made the whole line speed up their spirits and energy. Walking a bit faster and nearly arriving at our destination, we passed a bridge whereas under was a chasm. Jenny was so scared she even cried, but there was more to it. Anyway, we arrived and with no surprise, we didn’t see any crocodiles. I think Mr. Tim is a pretty nice and energetic person, even though he usually gets mad at school – I guess because of all the tensions of being teacher, but he quite enjoyed the trip to the extreme. On his own, Mr. Tim took a boat and drove farther into the middle of the lack to find crocodiles, and all of us, yes all of us, were standing in the wooden house looking after him. He was freaking brave, man! Anyway, he got back safely and later he even got really hyper by creating sort of an anthem for our journey. Well I guess it helped a bit, even with the silly singings and all, we laughed our lungs out but still proceeded fast. Now then I felt my feet aching and walked slower, until Ms. Sarah sighted me and walked along with me. We then chatted attentively about lots of matters, and it was sure fun. Walking a few more kilometers and eventually spotting the sight of the exit, I thought it was the best moment of my life. I eventually saw my future! Phew… We arrived back and then ate lunch, continued by some sport activities. Just then something extremely sad happened to me, and I just quit playing and started having a stroll in the forest alone. Today actually turned out to be my worst day of the trip despite I have learnt a lot of new things.
P/S: For the rest of the day nothing seemed fun happened to me, because I spent the whole time crying and staying in my room. I even missed the fire camp, until Jenny came back and told me what Ms. B has told her. I guess that kind of made my day brighter a bit. LOL. Come on, puh-lease, people get down and cheesy sometimes, and I’m not any exception.
Day 4 – Wish me happy birthday!
Yesterday night all of my friends, including the sad ones, came to my room and all of us decided to let go of all the sad things. They were thoughtful of me, and I’m extremely grateful for having such wonderful friends. They encouraged me to let out all of my depressions, madness and words that upset me so that I could feel better for today – which was my birthday. Waking up without jogging under that fantasy-like path, I slowly strolled to the wooden house near the river but right before that I spotted Annie and Anna. Two big smiles brightened up my day already, and then they started singing me the happy birthday song. I was truthfully happy for that, and then later when I entered the dining room, everyone also sang me the happy birthday song. I felt touched. Mr. Greg and Ms. B also came over to greet me a happy birthday, and even though not happen to spend my birthday at home, I felt it was the best birthday present ever just being present in this trip. After eating breakfast, we came to the Monkey Island, and there the guide outstandingly offered an excellent presentation. She actually made us want to learn more about gibbons and apes. About two hours visiting the island and eye-sighting the gibbons, we returned to prepare for our returning. With our stomachs full, we carried our luggage/bags/suitcases to the reception and gathered to take pictures. It was awesome, man! Our bus, bus one, was broken on the way coming to get us so we ended up squeezing into the other buses. Well, I guess everything happened for a reason, and yes I’m being religious here, – I think God plans everything and so I shouldn’t be sad about him setting up my path. Therefore, I enjoyed every moment of the trip, and I truly appreciated the friendships as well as a tighter relationship we had made with the environment. I seriously hope we will have another trip like this again, or even better. Who knows???
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Vanilla Hills Financial Model + Evaluation
I'm sorry because I didn't post it directly from Excel - since there arose some problems when I uploaded it (the images got all blurry and stretched) so I print screened these sheets to present. Hopefully it works!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Evaluation of Vanilla Hills Poster
EVALUATION
Explain how you used the principles of design in your digital poster. Use specific "descriptive" words in your explanation.
White Space: I’ve distributed white space equally on the poster, which means there is some on the top, the middle, the bottom, and between the texts – in order to make the poster look neat and bright. Despite having attractive colors (like green or yellow), white space is needed so that it emphasizes green and yellow spaces, leading attention to the important parts. Moreover, a suitable amount of white space will reduce the tension of other colors (since my poster consists of bright colors, including green, yellow, and some red/brown), making it easier for people to read it.
Focal Point: I’ve made the title the focal point of my poster, though it comes together with a picture of people smiling while riding a ride, Vanilla Hills logo, a curly-butterfly pattern, and a label of “30% discounted weekend”. The focal point consists of attractive colors, including yellow, green, blue, and a monochromatic scheme of red – which means it easily catches attention. In addition, the focal point doesn’t only stand out because of its colors but also the context: the small logo representing the theme park; the big title telling people what the poster is about; the picture of smiley people evoking people of happy moments at Vanilla Hills; the curly-butterfly referring to the fun twisted rides at the park; the butterflies telling people that Vanilla Hills is a relaxing, peaceful place; and the “30% discounted weekend” is the “main point” why people should spend their weekend at Vanilla Hills.
Fantastic Fonts: I’ve used only 3 fonts for the poster, because otherwise it will look really tangled and messy. The title of the poster has the same font (BoogieWoogieHMKBold) as the logo, because that represents the name of the theme park, making it easy for people to recognize. Another font I used was Poor Richard, kind of curly, fantasy-style, “naughty” and wild – which refers to the twisted rides or a magical place. The last font I used was Brandish, which is round-shaped and slightly horizontally stretched. Brandish makes it real easy to read because it looks somehow simple. For that reason, I used that font for the slogan of the poster: Off the rails with VH! Vow your happiness!
Display Balance: All the texts and pictures are displayed equally across the poster, and I made sure they all come in the Z shape (people read from left to ride then down). There are not too many words, only necessary ones – and they are not big words, yet have strong voice of getting attention. I tried to use limited colors for the poster, so each color is distributed equally across the poster, making the context look harmonious. Last but not least, I put two half-circled lines on the top and at the bottom, because they draw the eyes into the poster.
Simple is nice: I didn’t use a lot of pictures, in fact I took only one picture from the internet and developed it into different pictures (though with the same color scheme and style) using the software I have. Most of the shapes in the poster are squares and circles/round-edges, and there is not much information. Overall, still I think my poster is not simple, because somehow it looks busy to me. However, if you observe clearly, then there is no unwanted information. Anyway, I didn’t put in contact lines like others did, because the instructions didn’t say so. I tried putting them in anyway, and the poster looked far worse.
Color Correctly: Some will think that my poster is really colorful, but it’s not. I only used mostly green and yellow, and there is only a little amount of blue and a monochromatic scheme of red. However, the poster still looks cheerful/colorful because green goes nicely with yellow, making the people who read it have a happy feeling about Vanilla Hills. Yellow is referred to happiness, while green represents the hills at Vanilla Hills – or in other words, the place where there are lots of hills, fresh air, empty space, etc In brief, the colors I used speak for the theme park and are especially attractive to the kids. Since the park is for young families, it is quite important if the kids like the park.
White Space: I’ve distributed white space equally on the poster, which means there is some on the top, the middle, the bottom, and between the texts – in order to make the poster look neat and bright. Despite having attractive colors (like green or yellow), white space is needed so that it emphasizes green and yellow spaces, leading attention to the important parts. Moreover, a suitable amount of white space will reduce the tension of other colors (since my poster consists of bright colors, including green, yellow, and some red/brown), making it easier for people to read it.
Focal Point: I’ve made the title the focal point of my poster, though it comes together with a picture of people smiling while riding a ride, Vanilla Hills logo, a curly-butterfly pattern, and a label of “30% discounted weekend”. The focal point consists of attractive colors, including yellow, green, blue, and a monochromatic scheme of red – which means it easily catches attention. In addition, the focal point doesn’t only stand out because of its colors but also the context: the small logo representing the theme park; the big title telling people what the poster is about; the picture of smiley people evoking people of happy moments at Vanilla Hills; the curly-butterfly referring to the fun twisted rides at the park; the butterflies telling people that Vanilla Hills is a relaxing, peaceful place; and the “30% discounted weekend” is the “main point” why people should spend their weekend at Vanilla Hills.
Fantastic Fonts: I’ve used only 3 fonts for the poster, because otherwise it will look really tangled and messy. The title of the poster has the same font (BoogieWoogieHMKBold) as the logo, because that represents the name of the theme park, making it easy for people to recognize. Another font I used was Poor Richard, kind of curly, fantasy-style, “naughty” and wild – which refers to the twisted rides or a magical place. The last font I used was Brandish, which is round-shaped and slightly horizontally stretched. Brandish makes it real easy to read because it looks somehow simple. For that reason, I used that font for the slogan of the poster: Off the rails with VH! Vow your happiness!
Display Balance: All the texts and pictures are displayed equally across the poster, and I made sure they all come in the Z shape (people read from left to ride then down). There are not too many words, only necessary ones – and they are not big words, yet have strong voice of getting attention. I tried to use limited colors for the poster, so each color is distributed equally across the poster, making the context look harmonious. Last but not least, I put two half-circled lines on the top and at the bottom, because they draw the eyes into the poster.
Simple is nice: I didn’t use a lot of pictures, in fact I took only one picture from the internet and developed it into different pictures (though with the same color scheme and style) using the software I have. Most of the shapes in the poster are squares and circles/round-edges, and there is not much information. Overall, still I think my poster is not simple, because somehow it looks busy to me. However, if you observe clearly, then there is no unwanted information. Anyway, I didn’t put in contact lines like others did, because the instructions didn’t say so. I tried putting them in anyway, and the poster looked far worse.
Color Correctly: Some will think that my poster is really colorful, but it’s not. I only used mostly green and yellow, and there is only a little amount of blue and a monochromatic scheme of red. However, the poster still looks cheerful/colorful because green goes nicely with yellow, making the people who read it have a happy feeling about Vanilla Hills. Yellow is referred to happiness, while green represents the hills at Vanilla Hills – or in other words, the place where there are lots of hills, fresh air, empty space, etc In brief, the colors I used speak for the theme park and are especially attractive to the kids. Since the park is for young families, it is quite important if the kids like the park.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
7 Things To Put On A Leaflet To Publicise Vanilla Hills
 | ||
| Vanilla Hills |
7 THINGS TO PUT ON A LEAFLET TO PUBLICISE VANILLA HILLS
An ideal "destination" for family's holidays, trips, etc - because of the geographical features (forest - with fresh clean air and a nice view of the green forest) - far away from the noisy cities - promote family time
Names + pictures of rides/attractions
- and thrilled information about them (how many drops, highness, what's unique about each ride/attraction, etc)
Dining - food and drinks are various to choose, restaurants, dinner/lunch shows, etc
- book tickets/packages, special offers, discounts, membership card (VIP), etc
- souvenir shops, 3D cinema, swimming pool, playground for kids/ kids' fun stops, 30% off for Christmas holidays/Children days (for a package of 4+), theaters, competitions to get gifts, fireworks, ATM, health care, Wi-Fi, special meetings with famous celebrities (ex: the president's family) etc
- address, phone numbers, open-close time
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
My Holiday
My Holiday: December 18th 2010 - Jan 5th 2011 (just for fun)
Holiday's mood: surprised, heart tendering?, 'wow', boring, but meaningful
Even though I got to stay home all holiday, it was truly enjoyable and remarkable. Since I'm a Christian, I had to attend the church before Christmas for Confession, and the priest told me that I had to do something good for people this holiday. I was surprised, because the other years he usually addressed me to pray (not a lot but I'd feel guilty anyway). Anyway, I wondered what I could do, and it all came to me one day when my brother from the U.S. was chatting with my mom and he told her there are several poor families living under Xom Cui bridge (according to an article). The kids their always wished for a Christmas present but never was the wish fulfilled. They also wished to meet Santa Claus - which I think wasn't normal to me, probably because I got to see him since I was younger (just like them). But that I also means I'm more lucky than them. Anyway, my family decided to pay a visit there with presents and cake for them on the Sunday before last Sunday. Seeing their over-happy faces like that made my heart tender, and it was a nice experience for me to play and talk to those kids. Last but not least, I was like, "Wow.." without closing my mouth as it was supposed to be (which means I left my mouth halfway 'till finishing the word, so it was "Wo..") whhen I saw the fireworks on TV on Jan 1st 2011. They were like, ah-ma-zing, especially Australia's firework - colorful, exploding, smoking, outstanding, Wow!
Yeah, it was a great holiday!!!!!
Holiday's mood: surprised, heart tendering?, 'wow', boring, but meaningful
Even though I got to stay home all holiday, it was truly enjoyable and remarkable. Since I'm a Christian, I had to attend the church before Christmas for Confession, and the priest told me that I had to do something good for people this holiday. I was surprised, because the other years he usually addressed me to pray (not a lot but I'd feel guilty anyway). Anyway, I wondered what I could do, and it all came to me one day when my brother from the U.S. was chatting with my mom and he told her there are several poor families living under Xom Cui bridge (according to an article). The kids their always wished for a Christmas present but never was the wish fulfilled. They also wished to meet Santa Claus - which I think wasn't normal to me, probably because I got to see him since I was younger (just like them). But that I also means I'm more lucky than them. Anyway, my family decided to pay a visit there with presents and cake for them on the Sunday before last Sunday. Seeing their over-happy faces like that made my heart tender, and it was a nice experience for me to play and talk to those kids. Last but not least, I was like, "Wow.." without closing my mouth as it was supposed to be (which means I left my mouth halfway 'till finishing the word, so it was "Wo..") whhen I saw the fireworks on TV on Jan 1st 2011. They were like, ah-ma-zing, especially Australia's firework - colorful, exploding, smoking, outstanding, Wow!
Yeah, it was a great holiday!!!!!
