#week 7.2

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 7... and 8, and 9, kind of.

It’s been a long break for me. Two weeks ago was Spring Break, and this past week was GDC. I had a really fantastic time networking with people (and just making friends), but the best part was playing all of the other detective/mystery games that were there. I loved it.

That said, I missed some stuff-- last week, I was supposed to talk about my specific goals and how I feel like I’m fitting in with my team.

Overall, I feel like I’m a trusted team member. I do my work on time, and when disagreements arise, I work to make sure I listen to every side of the story and everyone stays on the same page.

As one of the lead artists, I contribute a number of important positive things to the game. I do all of the 2D art, and help make important decisions regarding the way the team runs. I also advise the other artists and give direction when necessary.

I conduct myself in a professional manner, and I think it’s important to read the room and match the mood that everyone else is exhibiting before speaking myself. While sometimes I do get off topic, I’m making an effort to be more relevant and help keep the team on track.

The art team is actually ahead of schedule, due mostly to Kirby and my’s attention to the asset list and quick pace. While the artwork isn’t completely finished, I am confident that we’ll be able to finish on time.

We’ve had trouble wrangling the technology into doing what we want it to, but we have managed to get around it in a variety of ways. We bought the shader that we’re currently using, we’ve created documents to teach various people how to use the engine (me included), and we’ve worked to make sure that we all agree on things before going forward, which has not always been the case.

I think I’m being both inclusive and supportive. I work hard to make sure that everyone is heard, even if I disagree with them, and I check in with people who seem to be upset and make sure that they’re doing alright.

My three goals moving forward are:

Become more efficient in putting my assets into the repository

Work more closely with Mish to see how the conversations and art are implemented

Go above and beyond to create extra art that isn’t on the asset list, but will help with the game’s atmosphere.

[emilyanddylanvcd-blog]

Research: The effects of plastic straws

Here is a summary of some articles on plastic straws, how harmful they are, and some initiatives being set to reduce plastic waste.

It is estimated that New Zealand throws away 541 million straws a year, and  Wellington bars and restaurants alone give out approximately 800 straws per week. Plastic straws are one of the five most-found disposable items on NZ beaches, and as plastic straws are made from materials like polypropylene and polystyrene, they can 200 years to degrade. Wellington City Council has proposed to do its part by bulk buying biodegradable paper straws to help bars and restaurants make the transition away from plastic straws, but some restaurants, such as Nandos, have already removed plastic straws from all their NZ restaurants.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/101706914/wellington-hospitality-group-to-stop-using-plastic-straws

TheLastPlasticStraw.org is one of the largest programs for single-use straw waste awareness. The American-based organisation estimates that the US makes up just 5% of the world’s population but contributes 30% of the world’s waste. The average American will use 1.6 straws a day, and annually, 5,000 straws are collected in beach clean-ups, one of the 10 most-collected coastal waste items. Plastic straws take hundreds of years to biodegrade, but only photo-degrade into smaller and smaller pieces and are ingested by marine and land animals.

https://thelastplasticstraw.org/

It is estimated the UK alone throws away 8.5 billion straws a year, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has proposed a ban of plastic straws across Britain. With bans on microbeads in-place and having made strides towards banning plastic bags and plastic-free aisles in supermarkets, plastic straws are the next target for the UK in their plan to be free of plastic waste by 2040.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/23/plastic-straws-banned-revealed-use-8500000000-year-7335952/

Worldwide, plastic straws are the sixth most common type of litter, according to Litterati, an app that identifies and maps trash, and among the top 10 marine debris items according to environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy. Made from fossil fuels, a precious and finite resource. Single-use straws are made from several different different types of plastic and their small size means they are hard to recycle, so once discarded, just contribute to the 8 million tons of plastic being dumped into the ocean every year, and at this rate, there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/14/world/plastic-straws-ban-campaigns/index.html

McDonald’s restaurants alone throw away 60 million plastic straws daily worldwide. In March 2018, McDonald's announced it is dropping plastic straws from its UK restaurants, phasing them out from May as a trial that could be rolled out worldwide.

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/mcdonalds-is-polluting-our-oceans

[samalexlaurynstudioiiib]

Class today we did a journey map, assigned tasks, did a timeline, spoke to Tim the main idea for this being to connect with people as well as animals and wrote a list of assets for our video.