Work Reflection

I have the barest of information typed out. All that's left is making it pretty. It should be no problem.

1st six Weeks Reflection

Macs. What can I say about them? I loathe everything about them. You can't open them up to add better hardware, you can't use any other OS other than Apple on them, they just are not pleasant in general. I forgot that the former teacher in an "awesome" display of generosity decided to replace the PC's with Macs. Thank you sir, for making us poor PC users feel disoriented. The software is exactly the same as Microsoft's. Connecting to the Internet is confusing and harder than it needs to be. If you, dear reader, could see me, I would be twitching and frothing at the mouth as I type, such is my hatred of the horrible Apple machine.

(Don't get me wrong, I still like the iPod, but I digress.)

Anyway, I learned how to use Pages, a word processing software by Apple. I learned hoe to use that Photobooth thing that everyone is so excited about, and I also learned that blogging is much simpler now than it used to be. I remember the days when you had to hand type your CSS (because it made things prettier than HTML) and code that page yourself. </mutterings of an old woman>

Brochures I like and Reflections

I like this one by "La-a" because it has a color scheme that is associated with it's country. Also, it's Italy which is awesome in itself.

There's also this brochure that I like because there is the feel of it being egyptian, which I assume is the point. Not sure what the scribblies are for,but whatever works is cool, man.

Oh-em-gee this one has Borat in it which makes it second to the Italian one. It's actually well designed as well.

Reflections: Urgh, I'm sorry to say I did not get very much done, I had a killer headache the entire day and my mind was just not there at all. My only hope is to double production next class. I did manage to kinda gather information from the Scotland official webpage.

Rubric Self Grade

General - 2
Cover - 4
Table of Contents - 4
Work Log - 1
Bibliography - 3
Bibliography, Citations - 0
Professionalism - 4

Brochure Step One

Alright then, here is the first step. There will be more on the way, of course.

I've had generally few difficulties, other than, er, occasionally getting off task. Truthfully, the hardest part of this project is the reflections, because I never know what to write. Addressing that, I guess, would be to turn this into word-vomit and type everything going through my head and catching myself when my mind wanders. I've learned that I have problems being an adequate blogger and that music does actually help me focus.

Sketch Plan

So this is the inside of the brochure.

And that's the outside.

I think I got a lot accomplished. I planned the brochure, cited some of the websites, and made-up stuff I missed from last class. I didn't realize that the Photobooth procedure was mandatory. Oops. Oh well. 

What You Need to Know Before We Begin

1. What is plagiarism? Plagiarism is the unlawful use of material that is not your own. It is good to avoid plagiarism because one, it is not honest, and two, it could get you into legal trouble.

2. What citation format are we using? MLa format, as it is a cultural study which falls under the MLA. I myself will be using footnotes primarily.

3. Create a Works cited page for two of the websites you will be using.

4. What is Stock Photography? Stock photography means that the person who published the photo gives anyone the right to use it for any purpose.

5. Why can't we just use random images from google? Because they may not be stock photos. Just because they've been uploaded doesn't mean their free license.

6. What does it mean to be Public Domain? It means that there are no copyright laws for the information within your area of residence.

7. Public Domain Picture:

8. Citation: Collins, Molly Elizabeth. A Roo, Contemplating Food. 21 June 2009. Deviant Art. 
     N.p., 23 June 2009. Web. 15 Sept. 2010. <http://th03.deviantart.net/fs46/ 
     PRE/i/2009/164/c/3/A_Roo__Contemplating_Food_by_Azzy_Raventhorn.jpg>.

Scottish Reflections

Their government isn't very different from ours, except they call their Congress a "Parliament". It amazes me how different they proclaim to be from Americans when they really are the same.

Netiquette Responses

Scenario #1 – A student sends a harassing e-mail to another student. The receiving student
retaliates with a “flaming e-mail.” Is this the appropriate response? If not, what would be? This is not an appropriate response. The correct thing to do is to mark that address as spam using your email program and ignore that person.

Scenario #2 – When hanging out with friends, one of the students makes a call on their cellphone and carries on a conversation while still within the group. Is this ok? Why or why not? This is not okay. It is common courtesy to excuse oneself before making a phone call.

Scenario #3 – A student logs on to a free file sharing website and downloads a song they just heard on the radio. Is this ok? Why or why not? This is not okay unless they own the rights to the song. 

Scenario #4 – A student follows a questionable link to a website and downloads a malicious script which releases a Trojan Horse virus on to the school network. Is the student to blame? Why or why not? There are questions that need answers. Did the student know the link was to questionable content? Like did he purposefully follow a link to hotbabezwithloosemoralz.com? Or was it a link to encyclopediabrittanica.ci? It really depends.

Scenario #5 – An hour before class, a student remembers that a writing assignment is due. The student goes to the library, logs on to a website, and copies/pastes the information. Is this ok? Why or why not? Of course it's not okay. He does not own the creative license on the information.

Scenario #6 – At home, a student uses a software package to copy movies and games from DVD’s for his or her friends. Is this within fair-use laws? Explain. It is not okay unless he bought the rights to copy and distribute the DVD's and games. 

Scenario #7 – A student logs into the school website to download the syllabus they lost. Are they breaking any rules or laws? Explain. Unless it was posted as private content, they were not breaking any rules. The syllabus was posted as public on the school homepage, and he did not have to log in as a teacher to view the document, therefore it was okay.

Scenario #8 – Students spend a good amount of time in class creating a web page for a school sponsored fundraiser. However, there website is not usable by certain individuals with disabilities. Was this disrespectful or wrong of them?

Why do you think netiquette is important? Why are we *using part of our class time for this?
Netiquette is important because it establishes rules for how people should behave on the Internet. Without them, the internet would surely fall into chaos. I assume we are using class time because some people haven't been following the rules of netiquette. 

Pages Evaluation

I prefer Microsoft Word to Pages. It might be because I'm a PC all the way, or it could be because Word 2010 is so much easier to access than Pages. I can't find anything I need on Pages. Oh well, you people are free to use what you want. *shrugs*

Blog Rubric

Design Template - 3
Design Tab: Gadgets - 4
Setting Tab - 4
Protecting Your Identity - 4
Posting - 3
Blog Entries - 3
Commenting - 4
Professionalism - 3

Creating an avatar

Creating an avatar was interesting. The problem with so many choices was deciding on which ones would look best. I guess this avatar is what I would look like if money were no object.

Here's the links so you can make one, too: Voki - Talking Avatars
Meez - 3D Animated Avatars

Here's what I had to say about other people's avatars: "Superdeedooper"
"Frogsticker"
"Connor Palmer"
"Potateo Poeple"

If you find anything interesting, leave a link in the comments! (Please note I cannot help but sound pretentious in trying to pass this assignment)

Something interesting that I found

I'm no expert at making photos "purty" with the magical photoshop, but there's another place to post art and photography. It's called DeviantArt (don't worry, the art's not explicit) and it's a free image uploading thing that also has forums, journals and chat rooms. Unfortunately, the fanbase are called deviantTARTS for a reason. They tend to be emotionally unbalanced, hate critique (even though the purpose of posting your art is so you can learn to better improve it) and will generally hate everyone who doesn't sing praises to them for their brilliance.

Anyway, this whole blog thing has been interesting.

I hope the Internet is full of sophisticated, cultured individuals ready to think!</sarcasm>