Advice

My advice is to go to all of the classes.  It makes things alot more simple if you learn everything in class and then you're good to go!

Favorite websites

My favorite websites included:

Jena Lynn's website - I loved her different page backgrounds, pictures and her own personal artwork.  Her site was very visually interesting!

Lynn's website - her homepage was my favorite of all the websites.  Her gif images that showed many pictures were amazing! Very creative!

Tess's website - I loved her organization and her photos! Very smooth transitions and overall just a great site!

My First Website!

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~eadams2

Making a website was actually not all that difficult, at least once we were able to use programs such as Kompozer or Expression Web.  Coding is very tedious and you can only produce basic webpages (at least with my level of knowledge). For my webpage, I used Expression Web and for a few things I hand coded when I couldn't figure something out.  My favorite part of my webpage is my Dallas page - I like the way I have the pictures with links at the bottom.  (Honestly I get really bored with alot of text, so lots of pictures with vivid colors is great!). I'm not sure I would have changed anything.  As a novice web designer, I think my page looks pretty good! I was really impressed by the graphics on others pages.  I know one page had gif animations of changing photos which was very impressive - I wish I had thought of this way ahead of time. My biggest technical and design challenge were the same - centering and organizing pictures and text.  I used alot of tables to help do this. I would only show my site to friends and family - those who would be interested in what I have to say.  I'm not sure if I will ever make a webpage again, but I am definitely excited that I could :) !

All about Hardware

I learned alot about computers in general in our class lecture by Larry Hechler.  Specifically, I learned alot about what is inside a computer and how important backing up your computer is.  I have always been worried about the possibility of my harddrive crashing and losing all of my music and school papers and such. I was detered from buying an external harddrive by their cost - close to about $100.  Now I am determined to do more research on external harddrives and buy one to ensure that I don't lose everything that's on my computer! I also learned about the battery life of a laptop.  I have heard that you're supposed to let the battery drain before plugging it back in but I really never paid attention to this. Now I know that you need to definitely drain the battery before replugging the computer in and also that it is important to do this at least once a month if you leave your computer constantly plugged in. Hopefully with this new knowledge I can be a better computer owner and buyer.

Pictures that Lie

I chose to manipulate an image of our beloved Tower.  As something so familiar to all of us, I find it fun to manipulate it to follow a story that is equally as familiar: King Kong.  I honestly just thought it would be a funny and entertaining idea so I went with it.  My good friend Lyndsey Johnson took this photo and I cropped it to just show the tower.  King Kong and the planes originated from a still photo from the original King Kong film.  I placed King Kong so that he was hanging from the top and I oriented the planes to surround him as is true to the original King Kong still photo (but instead the scene is now set at Trinity rather than on the Empire State Building in NYC).  Since King Kong was in black and white, I changed the Trinity photo to black and white.  I also blurred the Trinity photo and adjusted the color hue and the saturation of all layers.  This was the tricky part since both photos are of very different resolutions - I tried to match them as best as I could.  I don't find this manipulation to be harmful.  It should be taken as comical.  The manipulation is very obvious and the idea of the scene is also quite unrealistic.  This manipulation is for entertainment purposes only.
          I read an article which discussed the ethics of photo manipulaton.  The author argued that the manipulation does not always have to occur using photoshop, we manipulate a scene purely by chosing a certain snap shot.  Also, in the end of the article she proposed rules for what and when certain manipulations are ok.  I found this article to be very relevant to all of us.  Photoshop is not harmful, it is the individual use that can be harmful.  Each individual photographer, editer is responsible for what they do.

Salvo, Suzanne. "True lies." Communication World 25.5 (2008): 26-30. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

Class Presentations

Overall, I find it a bit hard to present on a topic in 2-3 min, especially on a topic that alot of people may have no interest in whatsoever.  I chose to present on animal behavior because I find it a fascinating topic with alot of really cool examples of weird behaviors that can be explained by evolution.  It's honestly amazing what evolution has created.  In retrospect, a more narrow topic may have been easier but I still stand by my topic because it's what I'm passionate about as a PreVet, Biology major.  Also, I felt my overall verbal presentation was a bit rough and choppy.  My slides could have been more interesting.  I have always been told to keep slides very simple as to not distract from the subject, but in a computer skills class, more interesting slides would have been more impressive. 

I really liked Karla's presentation.  I have heard alot about her subject but didn't know how exactly a Ponzi scheme worked.  I really liked her graphics and overall, her presentation was very well done!

I also really liked Jena's presentation on body image and eating disorders.  Her slides were very interesting with great graphics and layout. I also really liked her video - very representative of her topic.

Finding High-Quality Information on the Web

The internet is always evolving as time goes on; and just think that it's only been around for a very, relatively short time, yet we're hooked and dependent on it already!  I realize I sound very ignorant and naive, but I honestly have never really thought about how Google organizes search results. I obviously knew key words allow for the results to show up.  I'm very impressed that Google works so hard to give us results that we want and I'm very thankful! When I do research for science papers, I know that articles that have been cited many times are often very good or ground breaking articles.  Google uses this same idea to give us the best search results: sites that are linked the most are at the top of the list.  Also I learned about the different ways you can format your search entry in order to get results you want.  "-site:.com", "site: gov" both help you limit your search results by domain.

Bad Powerpoints

In this age of technology, many professors rely on powerpoint - this can be great for subjects with alot of detail but really bad for professors who don't know how to use powerpoint effectively. 
Bad Powerpoints:
1) Presentations with too many words, to the effect that the presenter actually reads the powerpoint to you.  Sadly, we can read faster than they can talk, so they have become useless as a presenter.
2) Powerpoints that have super decorative backgrounds are very distracting.  In my presentations I have always been told to use very plain and simple backgrounds, as to not distract from the presentation.
3) That said, a powerpoint with only words and no graphics is very boring to the eye. 
4) Text in a powerpoint should be bulleted, not long sentences.  A powerpoint should be an aid to the presenter and listener - a presentation should not be word for word on the slide.
5) A presenter should keep eye contact with the audience and not just talk while looking at their powerpoint.

Powerpoints can be great tools when used correctly.  In classes and other lectures I've been too, powerpoints are basically necessary because of the vast amounts of imformation given, including graphics and charts.  The professor then can use these slides to supplement what they are teaching us and keep our interest through pretty pictures :) .  Also, powerpoints are very useful when a professor posts them before class so you can print them and take notes directly on the powerpoint slides.

Center for Learning and Technology

The CLT, on the 1st floor of Coates Library, is a hub for technology use within the academic sphere.  I had never been to the CLT before and was very surprised to see what all Trinity has to offer.  With Macs, PCs and scanners, the CLT provides areas for web and graphic design (photoshop), and audio/video editing.  This area will be very beneficial for this class and others as we work on projects.  I have not had to make any graphics or videos for any classes, but I know where to go now to access programs such as photoshop and iMovie.  The CLT also offers an area for video conferencing in HD which allows Trinity to make 20 calls at one time, outside of Trinity, and 100 calls at one time, within the Trinity network.  Such a center really puts Trinity into the future - this allows calls to other students/professors/important figures who are outside of the city, state, or even country.  I don't know if I'll ever have the opportunity to use this technology but it's great that Trinity has this available.

No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.

     I chose this picture of News Anchor Katie Couric because it shows how images of people, especially when used for ads, are doctored to be more pleasing to the eye.  This photo was edited by changing the contrast of colors - removing the yellow tinting. Also, Couric was slimmed down. CBS edited this photo for their magazine ads.  Is CBS saying that Couric is not good enough as she is?  Photo editing jobs such as these start to rub off on younger girls who have a now skewed image to what is beautiful - and many don't realize that they are being lied to.  This image is harmful.
     I have read many articles on the internet accusing magazines of editing the  photos of women on their front covers.  I remember one particular article about Kimora Lee Simmons, and her reaction to her edited photo in a Baby Phat ad (Simmons is the creative director of Baby Phat).  In her photo she was slimmed down considerably and she said that at her age she would take all the airbrushing she could get.

Airbrushing photos of women can be very hurtful to society.  Simmons is beautiful at her normal size, she didn't need to be digitally slimmed down to a size zero. That's not her and we all know it.  Also, this sends a negative picture to her two daughters - that lying is okay and it also sends the picture that to be perfect or ad-worthy, you must be a size zero, giving her daughters a skewed idea of what is normal and perfect.

This video shows just how easily a person can be transformed by photo editing.  Why can't we use normal women? - there is indeed such a thing as natural beauty and we don't need photoshop to create it.  This video, by Dove, shows that we are being lyed to all the time by ads and photos.  We need to work on our perception of beauty - especially those creating magazines and ads.

Learning about Excel

As a science major, I've had to use Excel fairly often to create tables, graphs, calculate statistical relevance, etc. I feel pretty much like a pro when it comes to graphs especially. Although I thought I knew so much about Excel, I still am learning. I didn't know that you could format the cells with colorful titles and I didn't know a thing about conditional formating. It's honestly very cool and impressive what the program can do. In my future classes, I think this practice with Excel will definitely help with the ease with which I use the program - I won't have to sit and try to figure things out. And as for real life, Excel definitely helps with keeping track of financial data (I'm the daughter of an accountant - my Dad has spreadsheets galore). I feel like I can now make spreadsheets that are filled with data, formulas, and look pretty :) , and all very easily thanks to what I've learned and with our practice.

About Copyrights and Illegal Downloading. . . A sticky Issue

If you asked students on campus if they have ever illegally downloaded music, the answer will most likely be yes.  Even if they say no, most students have at one point copied a CD from a friend, or received a mixed CD – you are still receiving music that you have not personally paid for and this is illegal.

            When an artist copyrights their music, this is government assurance that they will be the ones to control the distribution of their work and they will be the beneficiaries of any monetary income resulting from their work.  A copyright allows us to take ownership of our own ideas/work.  Without copyrights, there will be less incentive for artists to share their work or ideas because there is no guarantee that it won’t be stolen.  A copyright is the closet thing we have to a guarantee. And even so, artist’s work is stolen every day as music is illegally shared and downloaded.  A single illegal download may not seem like much – the offender probably thinks that they haven’t taken much (if anything) away from the artist.  But just imagine if every student on campus illegally shared/downloaded a single song – that’s over $3000 lost to artists.  Now just think of all the users out there who have illegally downloaded thousands of songs each.  All of this adds up and can be a significant loss to an artist. Instead of illegally downloading songs of our favorite artists, we should support them by buying their music and hopefully this will help them to stick around and make more music – not all artists out there are millionaires.  

About Copyrights and Illegal Downloading. . . A sticky Issue by Betsy Adams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

My Trinity Network Diagram

The Tour of the Server room was very interesting - we got to see 'behind the scenes'. Now when I hear that the network will be down for several hours in the middle of the night, I will definitely think of all the poor guys working down in the server room. They really have an extremely important job and we probably don't thank them enough for what they do for us!

Trinity Mystery Spot

This is George. I walk by him every day. 

I thought he had a nice silhouette against the cloudy sky that was Trinity today

. . . at least it's not pouring!

In Picnik I made the photo black and white and cropped the bottom off.  I then added a vignette effect to create the dark edges, which i felt made the photo look old - as if taken at Trinity in the 1960s.

Hope y'all like my photo and editing job!

~Betsy

Computer Survival Skills

The best tech tip I received from Mr. Hatch's lecture was about how viruses are spread and about CCleaner. I actually downloaded CCleaner this afternoon and it took a while to scan and clean. Turns out I had over 21,000 Internet Explorer temp files/searches - what a gigantic waste of space!! I'm so glad that he told us about the program - it has made my computer work noticeably faster.

Since I have a PC that runs on Windows XP, I was quite distraught to hear that it allows programs/viruses to be downloaded without my knowledge! Scary! This makes me want a Mac even more. . . until I heard he thinks time will not be kind to Macs. I guess we'll never be able to quite out run the bad geeks and their viruses.

About Me

Hey guys, my name is Elizabeth Adams, but I go by Betsy (Yes it is indeed a nickname for Elizabeth). I'm from Dallas and my heart really is in Texas. I am a junior here at Trinity University; I am a biology major and am thinking about a possible History minor. I am a member of Alpha Phi Omega and the TU band - I play the piccolo and flute.

A note about my major. . .

As I previously said, I am a Biology major. I am also one of the very few pre-Veterinary students on campus. I hope to go to A&M Vet school upon graduation to eventually become a small animal Vet (pets rather than farm animals or exotics). For the past three summers I have worked at a Veterinary Hospital in Dallas - it's alot of fun and I've seen and learned alot. It's honestly surprising how much money people are willing to pay for their pets - whether it be a knee replacement in a tiny Pom or asking for their dog to be given bottled water while they board in the kennel. But it is also pleasing to hear that people really do treat their pets as a part of their family!

        

   --Whenever I see a dog with a cone around it's head after surgery, I can't help but think, "cone of shame!"

(--For those of you who have seen Up)

       "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look up in the sky; it's a bird; it's a plane; it's Superman!"
        -->My fact: My favorite superhero is Superman! I have never read the comics but I have seen the 1950s TV show, Smallville, and the newer Superman movies.

Most of what I know about the computer is self-taught or learned from friends/family.  I did take a computer/design class in high school where we used photoshop and other programs to edit photos/videos, etc. Sadly enough, I recently learned my computer is officially obsolete due to the fact that it runs on Windows XP and I cannot update to Windows 7 - you cannot skip updates and the hardware is not compatible.  So I'll be getting a new PC eventually. . .

Thanks for reading!
~Betsy
eadams2@trinity.edu

P.S. If you click on the top box with the fish, you can 'feed' them and they will swim to get the food. . . I was amused.