Map Mashup

View St. Edward's University Football in a larger map

My map is of the St. Edward’s University campus as seen from a bird’s eye view. I created the map using Google Maps and I learned how using a video provided by Google itself. The first things you will notice when looking at the map are the place marks on several places on campus. Each place mark represents a certain piece of information that contributes to my story. Also shown in my map is a purple group of lines that show something a path that helps convey something else that contributes to the fluidity and solidity of my story. Also when one clicks on each item on my map it links to a popup that shows either a picture of the building it is located on, or a video that pertains to the content of the map itself as a whole. Each place mark is where it is for exactly that – they are marking a place on the St. Edward’s campus so the person looking at the map can know what exactly they are looking for. There is an overhead view when not clicked on the place marks and also if the person is still confused about where they are looking, they can click on the building’s place mark and see what the building looks like when the person is in front of it. Also there is a picture of the soccer field, the baseball field and a spot for a potential football field, which is of course what the whole map is about, including the video on the place mark on top of the parking garage, where people can park to go see a football game if St. Edward’s ever gets a football team. Overall I feel my map conveys the sense that a football field would be realistic in terms of the space available. 

Flash Project

What if you could take all the work you have done for a certain class and put it all in one interactive place? Well, my flash project has made this possible for me by having a professional looking setup of 4 pictures. Each picture links to a specific project for the Interactive Media class. The background picture links to this very blog. The picture of the painted window links to my slideshow about the St. Edward’s University Homecoming week. The picture of the baseball player links to my video I made about one of the baseball games against the Battle of the Saints series rival St. Mary’s University. The picture of the empty field in front of the Baseball field links to my map mash-up in google maps. 

SEU Battle of the Saints Series

The St. Edwards Hilltoppers baseball team took on the nationally ranked St. Mary’s Rattlers on March 4th in their annual Battle of the Saints series.
St. Edward’s practiced their throwing and fielding before the game while the
Rattlers extended their batting practice. The St. Edward’s baseball team fell behind early three to nothing, but with strong perseverance the Hilltoppers pitched a great inning in the 3rd inning to keep the score at seven to one. The Hilltoppers managed to get a man on base in the bottom of the 3rd, but they did not score a run. The Rattlers’ outfielder Jason Garcia hit a bomb off of st Edwards pitcher, Patrick Scholl, in the top of the 4th inning. The St. Edward’s Hilltoppers would go on to lose nine to three.

The final score of this game was 9-3. St. Mary’s, a top-ranked team, slugged four home runs on their way to the big victory over the St. Edward’s Hilltoppers. Jeff Rohrbach got the starting nod for the Hilltoppers, but lasted only three and a third innings. He gave up eight hits and eight runs, though only four of them were earned. It was his second loss of the season out of four decisions. The Rattlers started Matt Holland who pitched almost the entire game; he pitched 6 and two thirds innings out of 7 possible. He gave up 8 hits as well, but only allowed three of them to score while striking out eight. Holland earned his fifth win of the season and has yet to lose. St. Mary’s four home runs were hit by Reagan Moczygemba, Jason Garcia, Esteban Raygoza, and Greg Hurbst, who can be seen above slugging a solo bomb to left field.

SEU Homecoming Week

SEU Homecoming Week

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St. Edward’s University held its annual homecoming week from February 20^th through the 27^th, consisting of week-long festivities. Homecoming week was kicked off with the appropriately and cleverly named kickoff party on the 21^st, though the dodgeball tournament was held the day before on the 20^th. Also on the 21^st was the window painting contest for each of the homecoming groups. Shown here is the window that the group, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, painted in the Hunt Hall café. Each group consisted of a campus organization trying to win each contest held during homecoming week.
            Some of the contests were the ice cream eating contest, jingle contest, and a dodgeball tournament, with the Hilltop Leadership Development taking home the top prize over the St. Edward’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The festivities included a huge setup in the middle of campus in front of the Ragsdale building. The setup included a tent with a table underneath and balloons to decorate. Free refreshments were offered to all students. Also in front of Ragsdale was a giant inflatable Hilltopper, representing the school mascot, topper, with his thumbs raised. But perhaps the biggest crowd attracting event was the Men’s basketball game against University of Texas Permian Basin. The Hilltoppers led by as many as 17, but squandered the lead by the end of the game. The game was a thrilling game with the score tight close to the end of regulation, and so the game went to the first of two overtimes. Then UT Permian Basin relied on St. Edward’s rotten luck with Elijah Jordan draining a half court shot at the buzzer to stun the Hilltoppers, 96-95.

“It was unlike anything I have ever seen,” said Sammy Bissett, a spectator at the basketball game. “He was a foot behind the half court line and the crowd was stunned. Everyone in the building had their hands on their head or over their face.”
            The Hilltoppers’ Shimeek Johnson (Albany, NY) scored a career high 30 in the double overtime thriller and lead the Toppers to a large lead in the second half. But through determination the University of Texas Permian Basin came back and tied the game with seconds to go in regulation. 

Zach Mayer: About Me

Hey guys!

This is my first official blog post on Blogger.com! 

My name is Zach Mayer and I am a sports fanatic. I follow all teams, but I root for the professional teams, the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball, the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association, and the Houston Texans of the National Football League.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, I attended Cypress Creek High School on the Northwest part of town.

My attraction to sports occurred when I was about eight. My parents would take me to various sporting events such as Astros games, Rockets games, and the now defunct Houston Thunderbears of Arena Football League 2. I loved basketball more than any other sport while following the Rockets’ Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley.

The Houston Texans were incepted into the NFL in 2002 and from then on I was a super-fan.

In the early 2000s I started to follow the Astros more intently as they got better and better, the culmination of which was their World Series appearance in 2005.

My sports watching turned into an obsession when I started to branch out to medias such as ESPN, The Houston Chronicle, and Sports Illustrated. I continue to view these pages daily.

I decided around this time that I wanted to be a part of this industry. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do but I knew I would figure it out eventually.

I came to college with the intent to major in Sports Management, which it turns out, St. Edward’s University didn’t have, which is where I happened to end up for college. Instead of majoring in Sports Management, I majored in Business Management at the urging of my father. This turned out to be the opposite of what I wanted, boring. I then changed my major to Kinesiology with the hopes of being a coach or something. Wrong again. This incorporated many sciences, which was not what I wanted to do either. Then I was urged to try journalism by my girlfriend because I did so well in my writing classes my freshman year.

So I switched my major, yet again, to Journalism, which is where I remain. I took my first Journalism class in the fall of my sophomore year and I loved it, though it was tough to grasp at first. I started my first blog that semester and I wrote in it every week with different articles I wrote and also a weekly Monday Night Football preview and prediction segment. This consisted of me detailing the “Good” and the “Bad” of both teams playing that week, and then analyzing and predicting a winner. I was right seven out of nine times, which made me very proud. I also almost predicted the exact score of one game.

I became a blogger because I feel that I can positively contribute to the Sports Journalism industry with my writing and ideas. I love writing and I love voicing my opinions in a positive way.