Website

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~mkeath.  

Overall, making a website was much easier than I expected it to be, although I still never found a color scheme I like.  Handcoding was much simpler than it sounded and the wysiwyg programs sped up the process.  I mostly stuck to Expression Web because I am already familiar with the layout of microsoft programs, but I occasionally had to resort to handcoding when something wasn't turning out quite right.  I am proudest of my artists page because it took me forever to make the picture in photoshop and hotspot each artists face in expressionweb. This was my biggest technical challenge and if I could change one thing I would add more artists to the collage.  Although I don't see myself making another site soon, I might keep this one updated, and I've already shown it to a few people who like my music.

Hardware

I learned a lot today.  It was really interesting to hear about emerging hardware technology. It's hard to believe that LCD screens will soon be obsolete.  I learned of the importance of running down your battery every once in a while.   I learned that if I ever open up my mac I'll lose my warranty.  If I were to buy a computer today, I would be very tempted to look into Dell after learning of their extensive warranty.  The afternoon's most important message was to back up your computer.  As soon as I got home from class I plugged in my hard drive for the first time in months.  I'll be sure to do it regularly from now on.

Pics that lie

While it might look like someone is relaxing on the beach with their dog, in actuality, this picture was taken in large back yard in the hill country.  This manipulation is in no way dangerous; what's the difference between sitting on the beach or in a back yard?  I used the lasso tool to crop out the background and then adjusted the colors and lighting to make the scene dreamlike.  I like how the colors echo the gold color of the can.  According the the rules layed down in the PSAJournal, I would not be able to enter this photo into a PSA-sponsored photography contest because I combined elements of multiple photographs.  I agree with the Photographic Society of America's rules because photographs ought to represent reality in some way.  Thsi being said, ridiculously altered images are always fun.

Davis, Jr, John M. "The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth; PSA Nature Definitio..." PSA Journal 75.6 (2009): 30-33. Ebsco: Art and Architecture Complete. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.



My Powerpoint Presentation

My powerpoint was on the Lost Generation, a group of expat American writers in Paris during the 1920s.  This was the first powerpoint I've had to make in quite a while; it brought back warm, fuzzy memories of working with the windows97 version of powerpoint in elementary school.  The program has become easier to use since then, though much of the novelty has worn off.  In doing this presentation, I realized that certain programs are just plain easier to use on a windows machine, powerpoint, excel and photoshop being among them.  My subject was entertaining to research, especially looking for pictures from the 20s.  I was unaware of the origin of the term "Lost Generation" and found it interesting that it was coined by a grumpy old mechanic.  In hindsight, I think I should have somehow made the text of my slides more interesting, perhaps by spacing them more irregularly.  Douglas and Lauren were my favorite presenters. I had never heard of circuit bending until Douglas presented, so I learned a lot and the slides were all very interesting.  My dad is a financial analyst, so I've been getting econ lessons since I was four.  Needless to say I'm tired of that stupid subject and would be fine with never hearing about marginal decisions or scarcity for the rest of my life.  Despite this, I was still drawn into Lauren's presentation and was impressed with her Seussian take on economics. 

Good ol' powerpoint97

Power Point

The worst of Power Point offenses occurs when the lecturer is ready to move onto the next slide but has to play through an extra thirty seconds of animation.  I also hate annoying animation sounds.  It's frustrating when there is either too much or too little information on a slide.  I don't know why people use light type as it's difficult to read, and I also hate it when pictures move around too much.  The best powerpoint I ever saw focused on Renaissance Art, with each slide devoted to one or two works.  It was an effective way to present such a large amount of material.

CLT

I am so glad I now know about the amazing resource I have in CLT. With its dozens of computers and 9 scanners, CLT makes having my own compuiter seem almost impractical. What reallystruck me was the conference room. That set-up is ridiculous and is appaerntly nice enough to warrant a teleconference with the secretary of state! I was excited to learn about CLT's making acquiring specially-requested software a priority. I want to go play on the video-editing software. Those computers will definitely come in handy in this class when we do more photo editing. Robert Chapman seemed like a really nice guy; his enthusiasm for technology was infectious. Below is a picture of our beloved Ms Belisle trying to contain her excitement for CLT.

This picture of Martha Stewart's head cropped onto a model's body appeared on the Newsweek cover.  I'm not sure why they chose to do this -- I didn't realize Martha was the object of mush ogling but I guess the editors wanted the cover to appeal to as wide a base as possible, from lonely housewives to lonely men. This type of photo editing is very harmful as it gives women an unrealistic projection of what they "should" look like.  At least this one isn't directed at young girls.  My video is of a picture of Angelina Jolie being altered.  I think it is more to show what kinds of cool thing can be done with photoshop than to show editing in a bad light.