family Secret

This is a picture of my uncle (dad's older brother) and his wife and daughter. Like any other family, we all have our secrets. While the secret in my family was that my first cousin was really my older sister, blood sister. Yup you heard me, my parents gave her to my uncle and aunt because they couldn't have children. My parents did it out of love because they wanted them to have a family too. As time went by they never did tell my cousin/sister who are real parents were. It was not secret to our friends and families, just for her and my sisters n brothers. We all found out eventually and accepted but not everyone is the same.

My dad's family

The top picture is of my dad's whole family. I never saw either of my grandparents on my dad's side because my grandma passed away when my dad was in his 20s and my grandpa died before I was born. My dad has one brother and three sisters. He is the youngest one of them all.

My mother's side

Bilal Yaqub

Bilal Yaqub. My youngest uncle out of eight passed away April 28, 2011 while he was on vacation with his family in Dubai. He was at the beach with his children when a wave took him away while his children were standing right there. They saw their father reappeared on shore breathless. When I heard the news about my uncle I was shocked and right then and there in the front of train station waiting for my brother to pick me up I started crying. I couldn’t believe what I heard and I didn’t what to believe it.
My uncle was the best father, uncle, brother, son, friend one could ask for. You can go up to anyone that knew him and they would agree hundred percent. Once he was committed to do something he will make sure it gets done no matter what happens. That smile of his would never fade, even if he was hurting inside I would always see those shiny white teeth instead of a frown. He was just an all around guy, always bringing people together, helping out his community and being the friendly father he was to his children. He was one of those fathers that would be a child when playing but a parent when needed to be. I did not see him that often (which I regret the most) because he lived in Boston with my aunt and three children. But whenever he did come over to my grandpa’s house, it was a party. He was my grandma’s favorite son so she would always prepare food and make sure we all came over to see him. It is just heart breaking that he left us all so soon and we will never be able to have more family gatherings with him around. You will always be in my prayers and I will always love and miss you <3

The Train Brain: 6 things

today i took the train back to jersey like i've been doing all year. but today there was something different about the train ride. maybe because it was my last class today or W/e. any way on the train i let my mind wonder and came up with ideas to blog about. i typed these on my ipod and now i will expand on here these are my Train Brain ideas.

" there are 6 things i want in life. to graduate college, get married, get a goof job, have kids, own a boat and have an in-ground pool. is that too much to ask???"

on the train home i see alot of beautiful houses on long island i got to thinking. I WANT TO LIVE LIKE THAT. now don't get me wrong my parents have provided a good life for me and my brothers, but i want to be the one to provide the same for my children in the future. now i have always wanted to own a boat but if i can't get it then i will settle for a beach house >_<. I DREAM BIG AND NEVER SETTLE FOR LESS. lets just hope i can force my dreams into a reality...

Another blog about my parents

You know I always wondered why my mom didn't do the cool flipping thing with the pan that you see in all the cooking shows. I watched a lot of Iron Chef and Food Network and it always looked so bad ass. When I came back from Spring Break, my mom told me she was going under the knife, to remove a tumor. At that time I didn't really think nothing of it, because I trusted modern technology and medicine. She told me it's nothing major so I was not too worried. She was going to the hospital on Wednesday and was going to stay there for two days. Tuesday night, she was too tired to cook dinner because she had to rest for her surgery. So I volunteered to cook. She already prepared the ingredients anyways.
When I was cooking, it occurred me that it was impossible for her to do the cool flipping thing that you see on TV simply because there was too much food. The weight of the pan was heavy. That's when I felt it. I was worried even if it was nothing major. No one in my family went through surgery before and I didn't know what to expect. She did so much for me and my family that it just made me feel like I just couldn't pay her back. As I cooked, I thought about the times that was a rebel and disrespected my parents to no end. It made me hate myself a bit, because even though I was this way, my parents continued to just push me further, with everything in their power, be that it was painful, or hard. Chinese parents are like this, and it is sad I could not be a Chinese child ingrained with filial piety and with the purpose in life to be successful. I don't know how I can repay my parents. I was always lax in terms of studying. I didn't get the grades that I should've and it just made me feel like I was undeserving of my parents' love.
Today when she came back from the hospital, she looked so frail. I didn't know what to say, but she looked at me and smiled. It hurt because I knew she was hurting. I poured her a cup of tea and helped her to the couch. I hope I can be a better son in the future.

My family video

I was trying to figure out how to record my own audio to go along with the music and photos slide show but i couldn't figure it out. so i posted the video anyway.

The video starts with photos of my Grandparents (Mother's parents) it then progresses to photos of my mother as a child, her brother and her parents. the last photo of them is a color photo with all four members of the Sparrow family. The next photos are of my fathers side of the family, the Goodwyns. it also starts with my grand parents and moves into my fathers generation showing his brothers and sister as young children. the final few photos starts with a photo of my parents together. it them moves to their wedding day and finally a photograph of there three children. Taylor (the oldest), Evan (the middle child) and me AKA Mackenzie (the baby of the family) the final photo of my brothers and me fades to gray in a tribute to all of the gray photos (ancestors) that came before us.

My Grandparents story

My Great Grandparents, whose name I'll never know, were apart of the elite social class in Dominican Republic. They had government ties and money, they were from Spain. They came to Dominican Republic to work for the goverment. (Thats all my grandfather will ever tell me) The reason behind the mystery is because my grandfather, Vincent, was disowned for marrying my grandmother, Elena.
While he was attending university, he discovered a sandwich booth, working inside the booth was my grandmother. He began to buy sandwiches several times a day, he actually embarassed himself and asked her out several times. She declined. Until one day, He told her he was not going to take no for answer. She agreed to go on a date, they fell in love and began to see eachother everyday. The only problem was that he was rich and white, and she was black and poor. Her mother had enough of her casual dating and insisted in marraige. When he proposed this idea to his parents, they told him not to marry her, because she was black. How could they ever have a proper wedding? how could they pronounce her as his wife? There are so many eligible white beautiful women, why would you choose her? He didn't care what they said, he followed his heart. He married my grandmother. This action caused him his inheritance, he was disowned from his family and did not see them ever again. I asked him if he regreted his choice.. he said "Nunca, yo amo mi negra." (Never, I love my black girl.)

Family Story

I informed Professor Baldwin of the story behind why I can't get old photos from my family.
So here it is, in video form.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jiE1X1arqM

Pictures in sketchup

Comic Life vs. My Family

Comic life is an amazing tool. It can take an ordinary sequence of pictures and turn it into an amazing story. Comic life has features that allows pictures to become pages in a comic book along with words and even actions; something that powerpoint lacks. By exporting the book as a quicktime, you are then able to create a movie of you pictures comming to life.

I really liked everything about Comic Life and the features it has. Its so easy to use and adds detail and emotion that wouldn't normally be there in a normal picture. It would be really cool if you could put the comic book quicktime into the sketchup museum so that it shows you movie in your 3D space. There may be a way however i'm new to both programs so it may take some time to figure out. Above is the video of my Comic Book Edit. Enjoy!

Family Museum with Sketchup

This semester was the first time that i got to use the program Sketchup, let alone even know about it. I was always very interested in the concept of 3D and i agree with the fact that everything will be 3D in the next couple of years. The program sketchup by google, is an amazing tool that allows you to create your own space and edit it any way you want. Using the sketchup wharehouse, you have access to thousands of models and different ideas that could help evolve your own. The only real difficulties that I had were with navigating around my own space with the orbit tool however im sure this becomes easier as you gain experience with the program.

Using sketchup, I attempted to design a museum. I used my artwork, edited family photos, as the art and developed a space around it to help show my ideas. I am very pleased with the way my museum turned out as it was my first time using the program. I hope to use it in the future and possibly in a future career. Above is a video of a walkthrough of my museum and below is a link to some 2D photos of the layout design. Enjoy!

Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59300114@N06/?find=Skikid330%40yahoo.com

comic book upload

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhvhNG-WekM

comic book so far

Dan Gulino #7 Family History

Pictured above are my mom's parents, Edward and Frances Reinold, newly married in the mid 1950's. Edward (my grandfather) was eleven years older than his new wife Frances (my grandmother). They moved into a small three room apartment together in the Bronx, on Castle Hill. Roughly 5 years later my mother, Margaret was born. Although my grandfather Edward had a decent city job fixing elevators, he never moved his family out of this three room apartment.
I believe my grandfather never moved his family out of this small living environment due to his days growing up during the great depression. His mentality was that his family was fed, housed, and safe, which was a great standing for any family during the time he grew up. However, I feel that being so deprived of the many privileges many people enjoy (including myself) shaped her to be the appreciative woman she is today.

Student Debt Crisis

The Student Debt Crisis is something I did not exactly enjoying researching/reading about. I am sure I am not alone on this one. It is a scary thought. Myself and a couple other students I have spoken to are in no rush to graduate. The economy is not ready for waves of young people coming out of college each year in search of work when it cannot even support its veterans. My mother came home the other day really excited to announce that she did not loose her job. She is a reading teacher at a middle school. I heard nothing of it until she came home that day and let us know. She didn't want to worry us. Anyways its a battlefield out there. Heres my vlogg...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NIumzd8leQ

My family pictures

I uploaded my family photos onto flickr. I managed to get some really old pictures of even my great great greadparents. So here's the link to my family pictures and the ones I changed in photoshop:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59533608@N05/sets/72157625938764141/

So close yet so far away

Its hard for me to sit here and say i was excited to do the project on analyzing our family photos. I mean, most of us have done it in other classes and the fact is that my grandparents aren't all that interesting. They are originally from Long Island however they moved to Florida not too long ago...and i cant say i blame them. I have done some over-the-phone interviews and seen a few pictures from their youth but they both worked normal retail jobs and have not done anything too interesting throughout their lifetime. As a result, I decided to explore a path i've never been down to up until this point and i'm glad I traveled it.

When projects such as these arise, I use my dads parents simply because it is easier since they are still alive. This time, I decided to turn the other direction and use my moms side of the family since the project is all about interperating the life of someone through their pictures. My moms parents died before i was born so i was never able to meet them. My mom has told me stories about their life in a way that made me want to know more. It seemed like a mystery to me that...here are these people that you are very close to but you don't know anything about how they raised your own mom.

After some searching, we were able to find pictures that dated back to the time of World War 2 when my grandfather was a teenager. I learned that he fought in the war and got released due to an injury during a battle. He then went to California to pick up my mother and drove straight to New York and got married. Besides fighting in the war, he also owned a pharmacy in Rockaway, New York. The funny thing is...he didn't go to school for pharmacology or had it taught to him. Back then, it was as easy as opening a 7-11 or Coffee Shop and he picked it up as he went along.

I'm really happy that i got to learn a lot more about my grandparents just from looking at their pictures. It opened my eyes as to other "family secrets" that i may not know about and its interesting to see the enviorment that my mom grew up in and how that influenced her in raising me. Below is the link to my photos and how i felt they should be interperated. I hope you enjoy!!

flickr family

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59627180@N08/sets/72157625935139831/

Photoshop Family

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tc8795/ here's the link to what I've done so far

I owe my parents

As I was growing up, I wasn't exactly the greatest child that my parents could wish for. I too had the known all too well rebellious era brimming with developing teenage angst. I didn't like my family at all. Our ideals were too different. My parents wanted me to get good grades, I refused. My parents wanted me to go to the library, I stayed outside with my friends instead. I never really understood the meaning of family bonding.

But now it's different. I don't see my parents as parents, but more like other people. People I respect, and people who I am responsible for. I never understood how much pain my parents went through to get me to where I am. To pay for my college tuition with a "it's okay if you hate me , as long as you get good grades" facade. And it really hurts now when I thought of how bratty I was. I wish I could hit myself. I wish I could travel a few years into the past and hit myself. I would deserve it. But now I realize what I must do. I have to show my parents that their blood and sweat was not all for vain. That they have not raised a child who cannot show his gratefulness. That's why I'm trying as hard as I can in college, to one day make my parents proud. But I still can't tell them that yet. I will show them when I become successful.