FINAL EXAM BLOG POST

Coming into this class, BC 203, I figured hey its another broadcast class where theres nothing more to learn. Boy was I wrong. This class took my knowledge of social media, applications, and even websites to a whole different level. The greatest thing I enjoyed in this class was not only the knowledge but the activity use of blogs. Having the list of blogs my peers were working on helped me compete. I know I know it sounds kind of crazy but hey, I love to compete. So as I looked at other blogs and their background or theme I was like hey I can do better. If they put up a post on an assignment I wanted to out do them. No bad blood but I just wanted to be better.

On my twitter , the most notable person I follow is @ericthomasbtc . This man is a motivational speaker that I listen to and look at tweets every morning. This man gives me the energy and boost I need to wake up every morning at 0530 in the morning to workout. I also follow healthy handles such as @goodhealth . This handle helps me stay on top of my dieting and gives me tips if I cheat a little lol. It's not always easy to stay on top of things but this handle definitely helps. My top 5 favorite celebrities I follow are @KingJames , @JColeNC , @JalenRose , @chancetherapper , and @JoelEmbiid . I've done a lot of traveling being in the military, so I like to follow travel pages that helps me see parts of the world I've never seen before. The 3 travel pages I like the most are @TravelLeisure , @Travel , and @NatGeoTravel . Here is a link to follow MY TWITTER .

Linkedin is one of the perennial up and coming ways of social media where business owners and company CEO's can get a look at their potential employees. In my opinion it was a great invention. It is essential for the millennial business professionals to keep up with quality linked accounts because this the new wave of the future. Before long the only way you'll be able to apply to a job is if you have a linked account and if you do have one you will be lightyears ahead of everyone else.Linkedin is a social network site where business owners, employers, and job candidates go to connect with each other in order to either help their business or find a job in the field they want to pursue. Linkedin is very popular because instead of emailing back and forth between employees and employers, it gives you the opportunity to look at someones resume'.Here is MY LINKEDIN ACCOUNT. Feel free to build a connection and start a new journey.

Pinterest is an easy way to organize. I like to call it my personal closet or my daily meal tracker. One of the many things I love about Pinterest is that you can connect and follow someone who has the same mindset as you when it comes to fashion, working out, and even tattoos. I have a few boards that I pin things on. The two boards I look at and add to most on MY PINTEREST are Fitness Exercise and Bald looks . I'm a pretty fit guy and I work out a lot so when I want to try something new in my workout or recovery meals I look to Pinterest for guidance. Since I am a newly found bald guy lol I try to look at outfits that look good on me without wearing a hat. Go take a look at MY PINTEREST .

Prezi is a unique and engaging way for you and your peers and even a way to present things to your boss without them being bored. I like to call Prezi the powerpoint 2.0. It's futuristic in all its advances. If you look back at the first time powerpoint presentation was created it blew everyones mind. With Prezi, thats the same exact thing its doing now. The transitions from slide to slide when zooming in and zooming out and clicking on different shapes are amazing. The thing that "WOW'd" me the most was the different themes that were on the Prezi. I love it and now that I know how to do it and I'm more comfortable with it, I plan on using Prezi from now on whenever I have to do a presentation. Heres a look at one of my projects that I named THE TOP 10 PLACES I WANT TO VISIT . 

In the project "Where I want to be" for green screening I used one of my childhood favorite shows, Scooby Doo. I always pictured myself as a cartoon on the show running around solving mysteries with the gang lol. The first thing I did was brainstorm what I wanted to do for my background or theme. I eventually decided to use Scooby Too and the gang in a house full of monsters either hiding chasing monsters or looking for clues. After I added the theme I took a picture in the green screen room that I thought fit the picture. Once I was done with the picture I saved it to the computer and added both the theme and green screen picture to adobe premier. I put the theme down first then followed by the picture. so naturally the green screen picture would overlap. I used the ultra key and the color key to blend the green screen picture with the rest of the theme so it would look I was supposed to be there all along. Below you will find the finished product. 

Kizoa is another way to make collages and homemade movies out of pictures and videos. One thing I loved about Kizoa was the number of features there are. From holiday themes and characters to school themes and even animal themes and characters, Kizoa provided all of them. Essentially what I did for my project was go around the campus of South Carolina State University and I looked for bulldogs. I know what you're thinking but NOOO not real bulldogs but statue bulldogs and pictures with bulldogs on them. Here is a look at my Bulldog Slideshow ENJOY!!!! 

Bulldog Show

This process for this blog has come a long way. From me understanding the way blogs work to packing out my blog full of assignments I've done along the way was very helpful moving along. I'm grateful for this class because I learned so much. The main thing I take away from this class and blog is that no matter what you do in life trust the process. When I first looked at the list of things we had to do for this class my first reaction was "IMPOSSIBLE" but, where theres a will theres a way and I am grateful for the knowledge I've gained being in this class. 

Ayers Quick Takes

This is a short commentary on the state of Tiger Woods, Duke Basketball, and Florida State Football.

KIZOA!!!!!

I had the great opportunity to walk around my campus and find a number of bulldogs hanging out. This is a great project and way to build school morale for the not only the students but for faculty/ staff, administration, and future bulldogs who come to visit. Visit my KIZOA to watch it!!!

Blending Photos to Create "Green Screen" Gems

The reason I chose this photo is because:

1. I couldn't for the life of me choose what type of background I wanted to use. 

2. Scooby Doo was one of my favorite shows growing up as a kid. 

 3. It best fit me because I'm reserved and to myself. 

4. I sometimes end up where I'm not supposed to be.

The picture below is the picture I took to add to the Scooby Doo theme above. 

Next I added my photo by making myself smaller but including the green screen background. 

The next step I had to do was use the keying effect. Then I used the color key to dissolve the green background and make it the background of the original Scooby Doo theme.

I decided to crop out the black part at the bottom of the photo and put on the finishing touches with an  onomatopoeia. 

Preparation for SCSU Homecoming (ROTC edition)

This Prezi presentation is a brief presentation on the TOP 10 PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT..  The places I've chosen are from all over the world including North America, Asia, and Africa to name a few. take this time to enjoy this Presentation just as I enjoyed making it!!!

Don't Be Board (Ha!)

Pinterest is a program system setup to use either over the web or on mobile devices mainly to store pictures, GIF's, and videos. Some even call it the catalog of ideas or maybe even the scrapbook of ideas. Pinterest was created by the creative trio that consists of Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp in the month of December in 2009.

Many people use Pinterest as a sorting mechanism for weekly wardrobe ideas for work, school or even fashion events. There are other users that use this program to manage their diet. Pinterest allows users to post pictures of ideas from the web to inform others of their previous struggles to be healthy and give healthy tips on what to eat or drink.

Pinterest can be used for business and marketing tools for many companies and organizations. One business that comes to mind that I use is Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods Market is a grocery store full of healthy and organic foods to help you live a healthier lifestyle by eating healthy. The way this company uses Pinterest is by creating boards to show recipes or even the end results of great recipes and ideas for the holidays. With  Thanksgiving coming up I plan to use the boards I've already saved to serve food families who aren't fortunate to have a Thanksgiving meal.

After we've stuffed our faces it is key to conduct physical fitness to ensure that you can go back to work or school and perform the way you need to. Another board I use on my blog is called Fitness Exercises. On that board, I have a myriad of exercises to work off the thanksgiving meals and how to recover from those workouts.

Zachary or Stephen Mason?

Stephen Zachary Mason a native of Orangeburg, SC doesn't have the typical graduate from high school and go to college story but his name and what people call him is a completely different story. We'll start off with the background behind his name. At a young age he always wanted everyone to call him Zachary or Zach for short because his fathers name was Stephen. Now Being the thinking man that he was born to be, he believed that his life was different than his fathers, they were two different people, and there was no reason for him to be called Stephen like his father. When he came to South Carolina State University  some people would call him Stephen and he realized he just had to accept it.


Mason's philosophy on Orangeburg, SC is not the same as everyone else's . He believes while everyone wants to get out of Orangeburg and move on, you have to embrace it and make it better. He believes that your situation you're in does not define who you are and that if your surroundings are bad you have to make it better and how can you contribute. Everyone talks about how bad Orangeburg is but no one wants to help make a difference and give back to the community. So Mason has made that one of his primary goals in life.

At a young age his parents made sure there were plenty of books to read in the house and the old saying, "There are hundreds of books to read here" was an understatement in his household.Elementary school Mason never made a "B", he made all A's. In his household his parents made him read books EVERYDAY!!! His parents told him at a young age that, "You're going to know how to read, write, and talk. In 6th grade lil Zach became a product of his environment in the gifted and talented program. This program was to separate the exceptional students from the "ok" students. Although he was around other smart individuals, everyone was so playful and didn't take things serious.

His love for college was lacking and he didn't want to go to college. In high school he already had the mindset of, " If I don't have a passion for it, I will not do it." He never saw hisself going to college so he never applied. Luckily there was an angel named Valerie that was taking care of Mr. Mason. Valerie's mother was a program manager for one of the organizations on the campus of South Carolina State and Valerie filled out his application for him. Now in his mind he's thinking, "How in the world did she get all of my information?" Soon after he was accepted to South Carolina State University.

Two things that define Stephen Zachary Mason are, Passion and Faith. You can follow him on his Twitter and connect with him and visit his blog

Person on the street

This "Person On The Street" assignment helped me realize how the students of South Carolina State University  really feel about the catastrophic events of the hurricane season that includes Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey . Lets listen in to how they feel:

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is a social network park as I like to call it. Everyone goes there to talk, clear their head or see how others are doing. Jack Dorsey, the creator, created Twitter in March of 2006 but didn't launch Twitter until July of 2006. Dorsey created it to see how people think and how they really feel. It has become a marketing to for Hollywood and big businesses. It gives everyone an opportunity to communicate with anyone from anywhere. In an interview with "60 Minutes", Jack Dorsey said " The biggest thing I've learned is that I need to communicate more, I need to be more vocal..."

His very invention has become apart of some peoples everyday life. In todays news our very own President uses it daily to voice his opinions on certain issues. Instead of having a formal press conference, he uses Twitter. There are a number of athletes who have been scrutinized because of their comments on Twitter as well as politicians being praised because of their comments on Twitter. Twitter is the gateway to someones mind but, it can also be the gateway to someones demise. 

Personally I follow people who have positive things to say on Twitter. I also follow heath gurus as well as motivational speakers. The reason I follow them are because those are the people I look up to. I follow Eric Thomas who is a motivational speaker because whenever I don't feel like getting up at 4:30 every morning to do PT ( physical training) I can listen to him. I also follow LeBron James for motivation. He is the athlete I try to model myself after based on work ethic. He has the mentality to never be outworked by anyone.
Here is my Twitter account so come follow me on this journey called life and peek into my mind.

What Is Linkedin?

Linkedin is a social network site where business owners, employers, and job candidates go to connect with each other in order to either help their business or find a job in the field they want to pursue. Linkedin is very popular because instead of emailing back and forth between employees and employers, it gives you the opportunity to look at someones resume' from a social network standpoint. this is the new wave for young college graduates and interns.

Linkedin has many features and the one feature i find the most interesting is the connections feature. The reason I find it interesting is because it gives everyone a chance to meet someone new just by going to someones page and clicking on their connections. It's easily the easiest way to grow your brand or push your resume' out through social media. In order to build upon something you care about or want to see grow, you have to have a firm foundation of experienced individuals and have a foundation of individuals who are eager to learn and carry on the business once the experienced individuals move on. 

This resource will give military veterans such as myself a fighting chance to actually find work after the military and even during service. Military veterans need this social media resource to stay up with the times and new age of technology. I couldn't think of an easier way to build a new life outside of the military and connect with individuals that you can relate to. 

Here is my Linkedin account. Feel free to build a connection and start a new journey.

A little bit about Jalen and his blog.....

Hello my name is Jalen Ayers and welcome to my blog site. This blog will get you into a routine of pushing yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. The reason I made this blog was to inform people on ways they can live a longer healthier life. This blog is for anyone who isn't afraid to train better, eat better, and live better. Understand that if you weren't doing all of these things before its not going to be easy to break bad habits but it is doable. I welcome you on this journey to a longer healthier life.

What some say is impossible is a 

challenge I take on whole heartedly.

  The Garden of The Gods

There Is A God.....

As the sunsets on Ft carson Colorado.

A birds eye view

The Garden of The Gods

Mile High Stadium