Advice for Students Next Semester

My advice for students that have this course next year is to make sure you pay attention in class. It is essential for doing the all the many homeworks that are assigned. It's not extremely difficult work, however it is tedious, and staying on top will greatly simplify the hands on process during homework time.

And naturally, do the work. As the Bob Marley said, "don't worry, be happy."

Don't stress it.

Student Websites

My favorite websites were of Rory, Chase and Macy.

Rory's was very sports oriented and about his orgins. He's Scottish and very into Liverpool Fotball (soccer) Club. His background and images were fantastic and very well put together. And his other pages were extremely interesting to read about.

Chase's website was more oriented towards his basketball career at Trintity. He seems very into Dallas and his music. His postcard was very well done. His background was very clean, and it made the information to read and it flowed very well. His navbar was very artsy and clever as well.

Macy's website had a very homely feeling. Her dance photos were neatly positioned and well taken. It seemed very friendly as I stated before. Her family page was well done as well as well as her passions about her sorority, SPUR.

Website Blog

lsucheck@trinity.edu

The website making came slowly and was pretty difficult for me. I had some trouble writing the html code, so I decided to use Microsoft Expression. This was very easier inserting pictures, text and color. Putting the pictures on was difficult at first, not knowing that the images had to be saved in the same folder as the project so they come out on the page. I basically used images of myself and friends and favorite things for my images. Then I wrote about myself, so they the viewers can get to know me a little bit. I tried to elaborate on my major, and my prominent interests throughout the entire project using the skills aquired throughout classes prior to the due date.

My Picture That Lies

In my picture that lies, I took a picture of Forrest Gump, when he started his infamous run, and cut him out and put him infront of a large t-rex. I blended the pictures together by changing their hue, saturation and lighting. The contrast helped out alot to, as both pictures needed some tweaking. My point was to make people believe that Forrest Gump was actually running from a dinosaur, and not just to run for no particular reason, like he was in the movie. Obviously, there is no way that this possible, otherwise we would all be in a big hurry!

PowerPoint Presentations

My 2 favorite presentations were Bri's and Rory's. Bri's was very well organized, had great graphics, a very informative youtube video. Her topic was Social Media. She made great use of bullets as well. She produced an extremely effective and a well done presentation. Neatness and the conciseness of the presentation was absolutely prime.

In Rory's presentation, he made it known that he was master of graphics and animations. His topic was Economics. His GIF images were phenomenal, and his presentation flowed with them very well. It was very well brought together and was extremely easy to understand. It honestly made me want to change my major with his topic of economic growth and devolpment through his exampel with Mao Zedong.

PowerPoint Presentation Blog

The blogs were all very useful and taught basically the same thing about being brief, organized, and clear for the audience to understand better. The layout, color, graphics, and animations all add to each specific slide. Hitting important details and making the goals and points clear are essential to a successful PowerPoint.

My list of five guidelines that are important:

1. It's imperative never to read off the slide presentation. This doesn't substitute your presentation.

2. Simplicity and briefness on your slide makes it easier to understand for everyone. Too much information will overload some.

3. The slideshow should have no significant value without your narration behind it.

4. Good visuals that connect to your presentation will connect to your audience even better.

5. A lot of color can be a good and bad thing. Try to color code, it's easier on the eyes, makes for better organization, and adds clarity.

A lot of writing on slides is really frustrating and the first thing I think of personally, is sleeping.

Statistics are another thing that bores me to death. Give me one and move on. Nothing worse than years of numbers a mile long.

Photoshop Composition

My image describes nature in its fullest. It is a black cat waiting to devour an innocent plastic-wrapped squirell. The black crow waits for the remains. Life, death, and scavenging thrive here. The world is a sinnacle and dark place, where strength and power and grace all equal one thing: survival.

Meeting Chris Nolan

On Tuesday, we got to meet Chris Nolan, the assistant University Librarian. He gave an informative lecture on internet browsing and search engines. Google, yahoo, Bing, askjeeves were all popular engines that students used, however, Nolan described that there is a deep, and invisible web that isn't full shown through these. They are mostly scholarly academic databases that have to be paid for. Nolan spoke about page rank, meaning the order that sites come up. The more people that click on a cite, generally means the more credible it is. But rewording, and using .org and .gov endings on the url are a very good starting block for searching for academic work. Nolan gave quick tips and hints like being able to search for a word, simply put define in front of it. The best advice he had was the website http://infomine.ucr.edu/, a very credible academic source site to start projects off with.

Pictures That Lie

I chose the picture "Fire On Ice" because I am mildly impressed by the art of great ice skating. Also the magazine cover looked rather interesting. The picture originated as two photographs of two young women ice skaters. It was manipulated by the photographer putting the images together, even though they were separate at first to make it appear that the two women were skating together. The manipulation was not harmful, it gives friendly evidence to the ice skating audience, and sheds light on the two female skaters whereabouts and what they're doing competitively.

Meeting Robert Chapman

On Thursday, the class was able to meet Robert Chapman, who is the instructional support manager for Trinity University. He explained to us his work and job title, and where he works. He works in the basement of the Coates Library on upper campus. His main goal is to help students integrate technology into teaching, learning and life by making it far easier and compatible with our lifestyles. There are 8 computers in the learning lab, 4 Macs and 4 Dells. And there are for more in the main technology room. The lab is purposely built to ensure that students are able to operate and communicate skills on certain technological problems, aspirations, and or goals they have with their computers. It seemed very helpful, and an insightful place to receive good advice assistance, and even a quiet get away to complete class and homework assignments.

My Trinity Network Diagram

The class attended a session downstairs in Halsell. We got to view some crazy servers in a well air-conditioned room. My diagram hopefully explains how the Trinity Network works.

Top Tech Tip

Today in class Joe Hatch discussed alot of neat things I would have liked to know a long time ago about my mac. He briefly touched on Sophos and Clean Access, and about the Trinity systems, TU Secure and TU Guest. Mr. Hatch then said those with mac, show try Snow Leopard, a very efficient system that's around $29. According to him, 50,000 new viruses are released daily, but you don’t keep up with it, you just be wise and familiar with what you look into. There is no way to cover all the viruses. They range from identity theft, spyware, trojans, to phishing which is when you receive an email that fronts as your company, and asks you to put in user credentials, and then they will redirect you to a remote server, and now they can access your online information. Sounds terrible! The most important thing I gathered from the his talk was his Winn 103 information. They are open form 2-7 PM from Monday to Friday. Great news. Those guys might save my life.

Scavenger Hunt

The scavenger hunt, to say the least was a complete success. I now know so much about the new people in my class. I am very excited to start wonderful life-long friendships with everyone. It should be a grand adventure. Another a similar note, I commented on Bri's blog, http://btammaro.blogspot.com/ and Rory's blog, http://rorydavidson.blogspot.com/ and totally remembered that I lived with Rory in Denver. How crazy is that? Really crazy. Bri likes soccer, and to be honest, who doesn't? Thumbs up for Bri.

Well I need to do some studying, so I'll blog some more a little later.