A little piece of advice:

As cliche as it sounds-- if you go to class, pay attention, and do your work then you will excel in this class!

Website Review

I really like Tess Oliver's page because she really capitalized on showing others something that she enjoyed.  Her site is very orderly but fun-- plus the color scheme is, for lack of a better word, fashionable!  I also really loved Lauren Henderson's website because not only am I a Trinity Women's Soccer Player, but she made it look very professional.  I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been the team's actual page.  Finally, I really enjoyed Luke's site.  He really worked hard to add a little of his own personal flair to the project and it was very entertaining to navigate around his links.  Overall the sites look really good!  

Web Design

http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~kgarrett

Making a website turned out to be an interesting balance between fun and utter frustration.  I found myself very annoyed with the Microsoft Expression Web program because, although it wouldn't let you drag images throughout the page, I constantly felt the need to do so.  I found myself constantly turning to Photoshop to construct the site because I couldn't layer the way that I wanted in Microsoft.  I am most proud of my home page-- I worked very hard to manipulate the icons to look and work the way that I wanted; moreover, I spent a long time on the embedded video.  Overall I feel like it turned out really well.  

If I were to change anything, I would take the time to make a really cool slide show of my pictures from Africa for my benefits page.  I had trouble inserting a YouTube video that I wanted on that page and feel that a photo album would be a really cool addition.  Technically, embedding the video that I made was the most difficult task. I will show my site to my family and the friends who joined me on my mission trip.  Clearly I didn't intend for this to be an actual marketing site-- just a cute spoof on it to show the work that my friends and I did in Africa through the shoes that I made.  

I actually have to make a site for another elective course in the very near future, so I'm looking forward to being able to use my computer skills to do that!  Although it took a long time, I'm very glad that I know how to make a website. 

Larry Hechler Presentation

I actually really enjoyed the Larry Hechler presentation last Thursday.  I felt that he was really knowledgeable in regard to hardware and I thought that he made asking questions very comfortable and easy.  I had no idea that it was necessary to completely run your battery down for a few times when you first buy it-- I feel like the battery life on my laptop is not nearly what it could be; therefore, on my next battery purchase, I will definitely follow that rule!  Likewise, I feel like I have a whole new appreciation for computer science experts who can diagnose complicated computer problems-- after Mr. Hechler opened the computers, I realized the complexity of each component.

Pictures That Lie

I chose to manipulate a photo of Gene Kelly from the hit musical "Singin' In The Rain."  The movie is a well recognized classic and the photo was used on the movie's poster; therefore, I was confident that the image would be easily recognizable to the general public.  Initially I took the photo and used the Polyganal Lasso to crop just Gene Kelly's image swinging from a light post on a rainy evening.  Likewise, I found a photo of the Eiffel Tower and adjusted the Hue, Saturation and Lighting to match that of the poster.  I then layered Gene Kelly over the tower and resized him to look, although not technically a realistic, but relatively believable size without making him too small to see.  I then placed text on the foreground to match, as well as possible, the "Singin' In The Rain" advertisement, and following at the bottom, "Goes To Paris," as a slightly humorous addition.  The manipulation was intended to look like an old-time movie poster as a spin on an American classic.  It was not meant to offend or harm anyone and I do not believe it did so.  I chose to read the article, "Journals Find Many Images In Research Are Faked."  It put an interesting perspective on the work done in the sciences and, specifically, the measures being taken to scrupulously analyze submitted images to check for photo manipulation.  I found it particularly applicable to my life because I am very interested in the sciences and as I learn more and more about Histology, I see the ease in changing a photo of a slide to meet academic expectations.  Likewise, the article specifically points out the ease of manipulating a photograph to make something fake look real, so I really emphasized the outrageousness of my photo to make the fake semi-unbelievable.  This added a humorous aspect to my photo because, let's be honest, Gene Kelly is no King Kong. 

Young, Jeffrey R. Journals Find Many Images In Research Are Faked.  Chronicle of Higher Education; 6/6/2008, Vol. 54 Issue 39, pA1-A11, 3p, 3 Color Photographs.  9 November 2010. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=7&sid=9ad64d42-7f29-499e-ba82-adbec5b529a9%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=32538039

PowerPoint Presentation and Critique

Last Tuesday morning I made a presentation on Medical Anthropology and malaria using Microsoft PowerPoint as a visual aid.  The presentation consisted of five total slides:  a title slide, a slide describing the facts and dangers of malaria, a slide presenting potential solutions to the malaria problem in many susceptible countries, a page describing Medical Anthropology as my basis for for honing in on "malaria"-- as it is a relatively morbid topic-- with a commercial of FC Barcelona uniting with the organization Malaria No More to provide mosquito nets to families in Africa who are unable to get them, and then, of course, my "Resources" page.  I felt that the presentation went relatively well; however, I felt that it could have been better executed.  I feel very passionately about the organization and hope that I did it justice.  Likewise, I used malaria as an example of one of the many focuses for Medical Anthropologists in the field because it is essentially a profession that provides western medical resources to cultures that do not have or understand them by gradually integrating the into daily practice, i.e., hand washing.  I am not positive if I want to completely delve into this field, but it is one of my options and I find it fascinating.

As for the other presentations, I really enjoyed Lauren Henderson's PowerPoint regarding Overuse Injury in Young Athletes.  I am an athlete and have been playing organized sports for many years; therefore, I find it very interesting that kids are getting hurt so seriously at such a young age.  Likewise, Luke Tibbits' PowerPoint on Biological Weapons was not only funny, but interesting.  I know Luke well from science classes and believe that he could do very well working with biochemistry in the military someday.  All of the presentations were really good, but these definitely stood out!

Chris Nolan Lecture

Last Thursday, my roommate, Laurent Henderson, and I woke up in a frantic when we realized that the time was 8:35 am... clearly we were missing class.  I'm not good at missing class.  I know it sounds silly, but whatever.  She and I are both very diligent about making it to every class;  therefore, we were very disconcerted with the idea of not making it in.  Clearly, we missed a great lecture by Chris Nolan-- the information from whom we will never know.  From what I understand, Mr. Nolan is an Assistant Librarian at the Trinity University Coates Library.  I'm sure it was a fantastic lecture and I'm sorry to have missed it!