Advice

The most important thing I learned from this class is to not leave the assignments until the last minute because it is impossible to ask a question at 2:00am the night before. Also pay attention to all the steps Professor Belisle says because when you miss one it is hard to get caught back up. Have fun in this class because you learn a lot of useful information, and Professor Belisle is really nice and approachable.

The Classes Websites

Everyone did really great! They were all professional and looked pretty.

I liked Lucy's because it had some of her family traditions which was cool. It also had a bunch of pictures to look at which was fun. Emily's website had a nice background and the layout was cool. I also liked all her pictures. Chelsea had a good website too. Her background and font was cool, and I liked the content that was on the pages.

Website

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

Making my website was harder than I expected because took more time than I imagined. I used Expresion Web. I like "My Wonderful Life" page the best because it has so many happy memories with my friends and I. If I could change something, then I would attach my powerpoint to the appropriate area. My biggest technical challenge was figuring out how to make the little pictures in Photoshop (I didn't know you had you pick a background color first then choose the picture). My biggest design challenge was trying to get everything centered. I will show this site to my parents and friends. I might make another site if it fits the criteria for the assignment.

Knowing HTML

It is important to know HTML code even if there is software that does it for you because if you need to fix something to meet your specific requirements or if you need to make a sudden change and don't have the software then you will know how. Also if you copy someone else's code and you want to change something in it then you can.

Pictures That Lie

I chose an old dungeon-looking door because I think it is amazing how different doors are and how they change through the years. I also chose a vortex to go in the middle of the door because it seems to fit a theme that if you go through one door then you will be sucked into the 'realm' of one world while going in another door takes you in a completely different direction. It signifies the choices of life.

I got the pictures from Google images. The door was manipulated by changing the hue and saturation in order to make it look like it was from the right time period... old. I also changed the brightness and contrast to make the picture look richer. Before moving the vortex I used the fading tool on the vortex's edges. Next I altered the opacity to make it blend into the door better. I also changed the hue and saturation to make it match the coloring of the door.

In my opinion, the manipulation was not harmful because the concept of the picture is abstract; in essence, the original pictures have to be manipulated in these ways in order to get the idea across. If my picture was trying to display information to help people understand something or persuade them to think a certain way, then the manipulations would have been harmful. People have always said pictures are worth a thousand words, but in more recent times that is not necessarily true because of the overuse of photo-editing software which has caused people to distrust pictures' validity.
Baker, Monya. "Photoshop Sleuths." Technology Review. 108.2 (2005): 82. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 April 2010.

My Fav Presentations

I really liked Chelsea's power point because it was entertaining with the beautiful pictures of the birds and the funny video. It was well presented; there was a lot of enthusiasm for what she is studying. It is good to keep the audience thinking that you like what you are talking about.

Blake's background was really cool, and the job seemed fun too. It was interesting to learn all the facts about what an Advertising Marketer can do- like meet the movie stars. I had no idea that it cost companies so much to put a little advertisement in a show or movie.