My first games consoles

My first games console 

When I was about seven or eight the most popular consoles were the Sega Mega drive and Nintendo.  We had the Nintendo and one of my cousins had the Sega mega drive. I loved both especially the cartoons that came with them but I loved using the cheats to get to levels I was no where near ready for. I also liked playing football games and other games on the consoles. .Even when I was that young I found that  it was always something that I could really concentrate on.

The main selling character for the Sega mega drive was Sonic the Hedgehog with his friend tales and manic tries to save their mother. There have been many different cartoons based  around Sonic the Hedgehog and Sega always had Sega theme tune  as a logo at the start. Nintendo were selling an Italian plumber Mario and Luigi who were trying to fix peoples pipes. I also played Donkey Kong and others.

Sega and Nintendo’s games were an awkward shape and very big. Also the console was big.

Now I play with games like the Nintendo Wee and it makes you think how far games have come. As well as that there are things like the Game Boy Advanced which makes thing a lot easier as you can play games in a car.    Now when I travel  on long journeys like holidays I make sure to have my Gameboy Advanced. But as they are so small you can loose them very easily

blogger introduction

 Hi 

I am going to start a new blog today over this next week or so I will be talking about how technology has effected my life and what it means to me. I will also be talking about things that I have a passion for and also things that help me relax on a day to day basis. The way that I cope might help other people who are similar to me over the years I have found different coping mechanisms.  I love having my blog to do every day and I hope that others take something valuable from it.  It would make me very happy if others like me could get something out of it themselves.

getting creative with technology

Getting creative with technology

One day when I was bored I wrote a story about Fruit People. When the receptionist saw it she thought that it had potential and then with the help and encouragement from Mencap I sent it away to different places. This was my first real big idea and I really believed it was good.   My Mencap support worker put me in touch with the Disability Arts Council and we were able to get a grant to develop my idea further.  I was able to work with a young animator who would help me learn.  This was the beginning of an exciting time for me. One of the first things that teacher taught me was how to do claymation. This is where you take a background scene set it up then you take the character and move it centimeter by centimeter. I found this to be very slow and I did not enjoy doing it. Then he taught me about using computers and how that would help me to animate. I began to enjoy going to see him. After a time his apprentice came to my house and taught me how to use a package  called toonboom.  I loved working on this project and I knew this was something I wanted to do in my life.

When this project was finished I sent it off to different TV studios and I was invited over to Cartoon Network studios in London. This reinforced my love for cartoons and animation as I loved being in a place where they talked about cartoons and animation all day. My Fruit People was also shown on RTE “wee programme” on a Saturday morning.  I then was introduced to Toon Boom. I used this package to create a small short called As the ball bounces. I found this very difficult even with help from a home tutor. But I was determined to keep trying to learn it. Then I was introduced to Crazy Talk   which was a little simpler and I got another grant to help pay for another tutor who has helped me greatly. She still works with me. I also did an animation about my life called The Way See It.  The last one I worked on with her was called the Digital Switchover  which Mencap have used on the LiveNet site.

 I think that  everybody should be given a chance to see what they can do and  often people are left out because they do not have the opportunities and no one takes an interest in them.  I was lucky 

how tv magic is made

How TV magic is created

 

When I was at secondary school I visited UTV studios in Belfast. I can remember being very excited when I heard that it was on and that a classroom assist and a teacher who was a county footballer told me that it was on I was so excited. We went down in a car and got something to eat before entering and I couldn’t wait. I saw a TV show called All Mixed Up presented by Eamon Holmes  being filmed I also saw the ITV news desk. I saw the whole UTV studios including the news desk and other pieces of the studio and chatted to Adrian Logan about sport. I could not believe how organized the pl;ace was and how everybody knew their place I found this to be a wonderful experience and have helped with the fascination I had with TV.I felt so happy as I went to school the next day.

I am still appreciative still to this day of what the people at UTV and my school had done for me that day. 

There is nothing more helpful sometimes than a good day out a lot of people can learn more this way 

Music to my eyes and ears

Music to my eyes and ears

When I was at the  youth club,  a friend of my brothers took a video in with him of MTV  a sky channel and he showed me  my first video of Queen. I still remember this video to this day as I remember how energetic Freddie Mercury was and I just loved him so much.  I loved the others in Queen very much and it was at this point that a started to have a fascination with music. I also think that Micheal Jackson did brilliant videos and in this day and age there are people like Neyo who can do a good video today. I also like to listen to Adele, Rhianna and Beyonce.

Nowadays I use music videos to calm myself down if I am in a bad mood. Also if I am not thinking straight or seem to be a little muddled up in my head it helps to calm me down in a massive way. I tend to have the music very loud but when it is over I feel a lot calmer and can think better to get solutions. I whistle to the music which I enjoy.

Music can calm people down very quickly