My Personal Website

What I want on it:

• My resume
• Pictures and videos of myself
• My personal skills (internally and externally)
• My past accomplishments
• A short bio about myself
• Minimum background information
• Activities and organizations I have been a part of
• Some examples of my best work
• Links to my social media
• Link to my personal blog
• Minimum contact information
• Testimonials about me
• Make the website interesting and professional 

Branding Yourself

Lisa Quast's article Personal Branding 101 explains the importance of branding yourself and how in the business world, it helps to set you aside from others and put you above them. It also makes it easier for you to reach your goals. The different steps that Lisa Quast lists to brand yourself is first define your overall aspirations, conduct research, determine your brand attributes, assess your current state, create your game plan, and manage your brand. I plan to follow these steps by first graduating college and earning a degree in communications with a minor in business, then going straight to grad school and earn a masters degree. Then after I conduct research and decide on exactly what I want to do, I will determine the attributes I want my brand to express and then create a game plan on how I would want to convert myself, including what I want to look like and how I want to act, I would also need to create all of my social media accounts. Then after all of this, I would manage my brand and keep up with all my accounts to get my brand out there to others online and in person.

SWOT Analysis

After reading Lisa Quast's article "How to Conduct a Personal SWOT Analysis", I attempted to conduct a SWOT analysis on myself with the characteristics I hold that could both benefit and hinder me in the workplace.

S- (strengths): ability to work well with others, good organizational skills, good management skills, committed, honest, open to others ideas and input, able to take negative news positively, positive attitude

W- (weaknesses): easily distracted by unimportant things, can sometimes be extremely shy when first meeting someone, can be uncomfortable speaking in front of a big group of people, can sometimes get extremely competitve

O- (opportunities): graduate college with a decently high GPA with a major in communications and minor in business, go to grad school right after college to add a masters degree to my resume, play four years of a college sport to show that I can manage different jobs, be involved in other activity groups on campus

T- (threats): others who do not have the weaknesses that I have, others who have more years of school under their belt, other people who double majored in different subjects, others who have a more established resume

I believe the SWOT analysis can definitely help a person to establish their personal strengths and weaknesses and it will also help them in applying for jobs in the future.

VR & Travel articles!

Smithsonian.com article 

• The National Park Service and Google have teamed up to create a virtual reality experience of some of the country's greatest national parks
• Sights like Alaska’s Kenai Fjords, New Mexico’s Carlsbad Cavern, and Florida’s Dry Tortugas
• "The Hidden World's of the National Parks" 360 VR videos of the parks
• Gives viewers views that not even going to the sight in person could bring
• Can watch the videos on YouTube, but if you download Google Cardboard on your smartphone you can experience the videos in VR
• The video's are lead by park rangers and that is who leads you through the 360 experience

About Travel Article

• Carnival Cruise Lines paired with AT&T and Samsung to allow people to experience a cruise through VR
• Samsung VR, by Oculus now allows people in 133 AT&T stores in 37 states to experience this
• developed by Carnival Corporations and its 10 cruise line brands
•  luxurious Grande Lakes properties in Orlando to the Hilton Chicago and Embassy Suites in Anaheim, California many hotels already offer vitual, interactive, panoramic tours
• In some Thomas Cook travel agency locations in the U.K., Germany, and Belgium, you can strap on a VR headset and try a tour before you book
• Qantas Airlines allows you to view a VR experience of Sydney's Harbor Bridge and a cruise in Kakado National park while on the airplane

Buckingham Palace Article 

• The Buckingham Palace has become U.K's first landmark to be explored with VR (google expeditions)
• Makes stops at places like the palace’s grand staircase with stops in a few state rooms, the throne room to see where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took their wedding photos, and the picture gallery installed by King George IV that houses the Royal Art Collection
• Able to watch on Google Cardboard and YouTube
• The Queen herself has given the project approval

Mental Floss Article 

• Marshmellow Laser Feast, an English Design studio has created and allowed people to now visit the Grizedale Forest in Northwest England, but through a pair of animal eyes
• See the forest with different colors, talk with other animals, and move around the forest differently 
• The team used CT scanning, lidar scanning, photogrammetry techniques, and a 360-degree aerial camera to create the high definition virtual world
•  users don black circular helmets with tufts of green grass fastened to the front. They can then soak in the splendor of the forest as if they were one of its furry inhabitants. 

Video in 360

Washington Post Article on VR

• In hotel lobby in D.C. you walk into a booth and put on VR goggles and are teleported into another world 
• For example, when put on a beach in Hawaii the booth gets warm and what you see in the headset makes you feel like you are actually there
• This machine is a combination of Oculus VR's DK2, headphones, and other 4D elements in this telephone booth type machine (fans, heat lamps, and scents)
• sponsored by Marriott Hotels 

Tips for Shooting Cardboard Camera VR Photos

Do's

• Stay level with your shots
• Have people stand all around, not just in a line
• Have people stand still or they will get cut out or will be blurry
• Have both light and shadows in the picture
• Make sure the subjects face is lit

Dont's

• Turn too quickly, or the picture will get blurry
• Get into tight spaces
• Do rule of thirds, because the picture is all around you
• shoot too tight
• focus on what part, but all around you

Notes on Classmates VR Articles

5 VR pictures with Cardboard Camera