Semester Reflections

I've learned how to use Pages and different software on a Mac, and even though I somewhat learned it, I'm really bad at Photoshop & Illustrator. 


Anything with Photoshop and Illustrator was the most challenging part of this semester for me. 
What I enjoyed doing the most was the Pages project from earlier in the year. I got to show off my knowledge of England and it was fun, designing the brochure and the itinerary the way I wanted to. With Photoshop, it was like a step by step procedure. I didn't like it at all. 
The things I've done this semester may assist me in my future - even though I don't like Photoshop, if I take  broadcast journalism I may have to edit photos and other things. 
I worked hard in this class, despite me not having pictures that were edited using Photoshop. I've always been shy to ask for help even if I need it. Besides, I'm just bad at art in general. Help & instructions wouldn't help me - they never have when it concerns art in any way, shape or form. 

Presenting Final Project

Today...I will present my final project. I chose #15 to present. I really don't want to present. 
Its not that I'm scared to present to only my Multimedia teacher (I take speech - I'm used to it) 


I have to talk about it for two to three minutes, but I guess I'll be fine. 
Afterward, I have to take this survey... 


The project doesn't look that great on a PDF, so I'll present it as a Pages document even though I have it as a PDF. It just looks better. 


But anyways, wish me luck! :) 

Citations for Project

Bibliography

In the above link is my PDF document for my citations for my final project. 

Ugh...finals week - more like STRESS week. Lucky elementary school students who don't have to take finals...well, I guess they will soon enough. Wait...I forgot that they don't get the three days of early dismissal :) 
I know I'll do well, but I dislike testing very much. And I feel sick... I didn't sleep last night because I had a really bad stomachache. I hope it's not anything serious enough to make me have to stay home sick. 


I'm almost done with my spread - I just need to complete the bibliography. 


I just want this week to be over already... no homework, no getting up ridiculously early for school, no work in general. I can't believe the semester's already practically over - I mean, save for finals - but it feels like last week was the first week of school. 

Food Template

I have the food template I was absent for, but I can't find any food pictures I can use for Photoshop. 


I think I'm going to switch out of this class next semester. I guess it's a good thing, finding out I'm as bad at computer art as I am with paper and pencil art. 


There are a lot of links to each day of the food template... 


Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Working on Project

I have to say that my technology classroom feels strangely empty today. Maybe it's because some of the people are at an MUN conference, but anyway, it feels weird. 


There are very few good photos on Wikimedia Commons, and for that I was disappointed. But I did find two good ones - one of Taylor Swift and one of Blake Lively (Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl.) 


I'm off to edit them. I'll update in a bit. 


Also, on my Multimedia teacher's blog, I wasn't here for the two days we did the food collage. 
Please don't make me do it...Photoshop kills me. & I don't know if I was here for Illustrator either but I 
know I won't do anything really well on it...
The only thing I'm actually good at is IPhoto. I'd also like to know on a scale from 1-10, how often will we be working with Photoshop next semester because honestly, I can't manage to have a really low score in a class because of something like Photoshop, which is art, which I am terrible at. That's why I have never taken an art class at my school. I'm just as awful with computer art. 
If we will be working a lot with Photoshop next semester, I will have to consider changing classes.




I edited the photos from Wikimedia Commons, and they don't look bad, but they're not amazing, either.
Other than that, I didn't do much in class today. I guess today's just one of those days where I feel exhausted and I don't know why. 

Working on Project

I have to say that my technology classroom feels strangely empty today. Maybe it's because some of the people are at an MUN conference, but anyway, it feels weird. 


There are very few good photos on Wikimedia Commons, and for that I was disappointed. But I did find two good ones - one of Taylor Swift and one of Blake Lively (Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl.) 


I'm off to edit them. I'll update in a bit. 

Photos

I have a lot of photos that I edited, so I'm going to put two of them here.
Tell me what you think! 

Final Project 2

At first, I wanted to work on a project that involves just Pages, but I also like editing photos with IPhoto.
I want to do a spread on my favorite celebrities, but I can't find their images on stock.xchng.
Now that I think about, a project with just Pages would be too time-consuming. I wouldn't be able to finish it by the end of the semester. 


If you have any suggestions on how to find celebrity photos on a free stock website, please comment, or if you know any websites that may have photos of celebrities, also comment.


I have this one photo of Taylor Swift that I edited that I really liked, but I don't know if the image is copyrighted or not. 

Playing with IPhoto

Basically, all I did today was think of an idea for my spread. I think I'm going to do a two page spread with IPhoto using pictures of my favorite actresses/singers. I messed around with IPhoto, changing up the original photos. I used a picture of Taylor Swift, one of Emma Watson, and a picture with Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl. 
Some editing I did on most of the photos was using the antique editing (the Emma Watson photos from the Teen Vogue photoshoot last year looked cool using the antique edit. I'll show you). 

I also enhanced a lot of the pictures. I used fade color, boost color, the straightening, the vignette, and tinting, sharpness and other various editing techniques.

I edited a lot of photos, but this one is the only one I'll show because the rest are saved for the actual project. It's almost time for my next class...I hope we'll do something remotely interesting in biology...

I'm just kidding - Biology's pretty cool right now. We're learning about genetics right now, and that's always fascinated me. 

Buh-bye!

Final Project

For my final project, I think I'm going to do a photo manipulation using IPhoto, even though I had wanted to do something with Pages. Even though it wasn't on the list of options (the options were all either Photoshop or Illustrator, neither of which I am good at), I am really good with Pages, and I would've gotten a good final grade :( 
I mean, yes, the project will be on Pages, but the content of the Pages document is Photoshop/Illustrator. I wanted to do a purely Pages project. If my multimedia could give me a specific project, or like different project ideas to do with Pages, I would do it. 
I mean, seriously, what if you're bad at Photoshop and Illustrator in general? There should always be a different option. I mean, we worked with Pages more than we did with Photoshop...




If only I could submit my Pages Project from earlier in the year as my final project... :( 


I really don't want to sketch my ideas. I know what they are, though. I'm just going to put an example of things I'm going to do with IPhoto on this post.


Original Image

Altered Photo


























It's December...Only 25 more days till Christmas :)

Pixel vs. Vector

Last week I wasn't at school so there were no posts - and then there was Thanksgiving break. I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving like I did! I was sad when the break was over, but...Christmas break is in 15 days! WOO-HOO! 

Anyway, today I will be talking about pixel vs. vector, and about Adobe Illustrator. 

Photoshop (which I hate, by the way) uses pixels - Illustrator, however, uses vectors.

The difference? Well, today I found out.

Vector images can be enlarged from a very small size to as large as a billboard without loss of quality. On the other hand, pixels are the small dots that make up a photo or a picture in a image format. When you try to enlarge the photo, the quality decreases because the space between each pixel needs to be interploted and it gets very pixelized.

China's Blog Wars

This are my thoughts about the article "Inside the War Against China's Blogs"


China's Blog Wars


I also gave up on the typography Photoshop work. There's not much I can do with Photoshop - I'd kind of like to know if we will be working with Photoshop into the 2nd semester - because if so, I might take a different class. Photoshop - most of it is art - is something I can't do. 
I want to KILL Photoshop. If I could, I would. However, some of my technology classmates did really good Photoshop typography work. 
2 of my classmates had pictures of Emma Watson to do typography work on - yes, she is really pretty, but obsessive much???
I have a friend in Commercial Photography and she said that they don't do a lot with Photoshop because their teacher wants them to make good pictures by themselves without editing.

???

Apparently, we will need to write down a list of what we eat for a week. We could look at the Food Pyramid for "help". 


I don't understand - what does this have anything to do with technology? More importantly, what if we don't want to? 
I don't....I just find it a little nosy wanting to know what I eat. I mean, the school already dominates my life.   
The school faculty doesn't need to know what I eat, too. That's my business, not theirs.


Also, in my next post I will be discussing an article about China's vindictive blogs.

I found the image I'm going to work with - I'm not going to lie - I didn't want to do the typography work today because I know it's going to take me forever to do it and I only have 20 minutes left. I know I'm not going to accomplish much with it. 
Like I said, I don't want to bother with Photoshop.

Anatomy of a Character

1. Tail
2. Spine
3. Apex
4. Spur
5. Bowl
6. Terminal (or finnial?) I don't know if they're the same thing. 
7. Counter
8.  Descender
9. Stem
10. STUCK ON THIS.
11. Link
12. Loop
13. Ear
14. Ascender
15. 
16. Crossbar

Typography :)

Typography is what language looks like. It is the art and technique of type design. The arrangement of type is the selection of typefaces, point size, leading, kerning, and line length. 
The anatomy of a letterform consists of:
- Stem
-Ascender
- Descender
- Counter
- Serif
- X-height
- Baseline 
- And many more! 


Typography is most commonly used by graphic artists, typographers, and art directors.
A good typographer is someone who communicates a point of view with skill and imagination.

I think typography can affect me and other consumers when we're going to buy something. Say there's two comic books. One has amazing typography on the front while the other has boring regular type. Which would you buy? That's right - the one with amazing typography. It makes the book seem more interesting while the other one is like, whatever. The one with amazing typography MAKES you want to buy it. 
Big companies pay artists for typographic work because they know consumers would want to buy their product if it looks "cool." - this also goes for the comic book example. 
Yes, graffiti is typography, even if it is illegal. Graffiti oftentimes communicates a point of view with skill and imagination. 
I think typography is super cool. I also fell in love with typography, and the way words are designed. I love words in general, whereas pictures...I do not. I mean, I love looking at them, but not drawing them. I want to ask my World Geography teacher if I could stop drawing the images for specific terms because I'd go back and I wouldn't even recognize what I drew.


 Flickr

My altered mountain. I still do not like Photoshop, and I probably never will.
I wanted to take Commercial Photography next year, but forget it. I'm going to fail that class because of Photoshop.
I know that all I do is complain, but it's true! Photoshop will be the end of me this 6 weeks.

photoshop 2

 I had to change this again, but I don't think anybody I know besides the people in my Multimedia class will recognize me. I tried to change it more, but it wouldn't let me upload the new one. I don't know why. I'm just so tired and I have one Photoshop picture to do so I really don't want to have to change this one more. But see, I deleted it entirely after my "friend" told me it looked like me. I don't stalk your blog, I ask that you don't stalk mine. You know who you are.


 It doesn't matter - give me a bad grade, Multimedia teacher.

Photoshop

Yeah, I know my panda looks weird. 

Second Six Weeks Reflection

In the last six weeks, generally in all classes I have been mostly productive, but I have to confess, I've gotten a little lazy concerning homework and projects. I don't know why, but I've just been tired of working so hard.
My work habits are good & bad - good because whenever I work, I work hard, but I tend to procrastinate. 
I do fear for my grade in multimedia because of Photoshop. I hope I can get the hang of Photoshop soon. 
The Photoshop tutorials help, it's just the drawing I can't do. I don't think I'll have a photo uploaded for last time's photo. I'll try, but I don't think I can do it. 

Photoshop

Three words - I hate Photoshop.
After about an hour of trying to work with Photoshop, I gave up. I seriously, seriously hope we do not have a project using Photoshop because I will fail for sure. :( 


My Multimedia teacher's picture he edited on Photoshop was fabulous, but I could NEVER, ever do the same.
I'm the worst drawer ever. I couldn't draw anything, even on a computer, if it would save my life. 

Ink Cartridge Questions


Today I had to answer some questions about what happens when ink cartridges run low. 
In the link are the questions and my answers


Now, time to play with Photoshop! I've never used it before, so I have no idea how to use it, but all my friends love Photoshop, so I'm sort of excited to learn how to use it! 

Spectrometry Questions

Last period I had to play with a spectrometer, and answer questions about what I did. 
Here are the questions in the link. 


Spectrometry Questions

Hex Code Update

Hex Code Chart PDF

The link above will take you to my Hex Code Chart! 

Spectrometry

Today we had our first ever group lab in Multimedia class.
Three words - It was torture. 
It was so confusing, and I had no idea what to do. 
I thought I had done the graph wrong, but thank goodness I did it correctly. 
I don't understand the point of the lab though - when are we ever going to use a spectrometer in life?
I don't plan on going into the textile industry or whatever. I bet my mom wouldn't even know what a spectrometer is. Or my uncle, who is the publisher of a magazine. Well, he might, but maybe he wouldn't.
Ok, I have to go....buh-bye! Have a great weekend! 
And....HAPPY EARLY HALLOWEEN!

Curiosity Strikes Again :(

I'm so, so curious as to what I made on the Pages Project! I worked so hard on it! 
I really do expect to get at least an A. That would be really unfair if I didn't, considering the amount of time I worked on it. 

Dogs!

My before picture is on top and my edited picture is on the bottom. Did you tell? If so,

can you comment on what changes I made? 

My Multimedia teacher had a picture, too. The edited picture wasn't as sharp as the original one. I don't what edits he used on IPhoto, but I know the edited image wasn't as sharp as the original one.

Rittenhouse, Brandon. "Daisy." stock.xchng. N.p., 3 June 2010. Web. 27 Oct.
     2010. <http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1285922>.

Hex Code Assignment

I made my hex code chart as large as I could, but it's still unreadable. Any suggestions as to what I could do about it?

Colors Galore!

In the last half of class, and after a presentation from our Multimedia teacher to explain what Hex codes, RGB (red, green, blue) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow & black), we were given an assignment - calculate the RGB and CMYK of various colors.
I'm not quite done with it - almost, though.
Next class period (Wednesday), I'll post the chart.
Class is almost over - buh-bye! :)

Playing with IPhoto

My assignment for today was to take a photo from stock.xchng and modify it with IPhoto. The picture on the top is the original image and the picture below it is my changed result. 

Strumpfer, Franci. "Evening out." stock.xchng. N.p., 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 25 Oct.
     2010. <http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1058568>.

Cover Page, Itinerary and Brochure

Now...I present the world with...my Multimedia project! 


Here are the links to the three parts of my project. 

Main Document

Brochure

Itinerary

Enjoy! :) 


I'm also wondering whether making a tour of our country on Google Earth is a grade...please don't do this to me. Google Earth is no fun :( 

Wrapping Up Project

Today, I'm supposed to be wrapping up our projects. It's due Thursday, I think. 
But, on my multimedia teacher's blog, it says that when we're done, we can't play games :( 
Instead, we're supposed to go on Google Earth and stalk our houses via satellite or whatever they're called...YAY!....not. 
I don't want to play on Google Earth! I've used it before and it's so boring for me! 
I'd rather be working than that! 


Ugh, I'm ranting again now. I guess I should go "play" on Google Earth. 
Don't even say "Have Fun!" because I'm not. 
Bye! 

Conclusion

I completed my conclusion today! :) 
There's not much else I can do in the....40 or so minutes between right now until I have to head off to biology, and I'm not much of a computer game player. I can't get on Facebook because....something about the district stalking Facebooks - well, at least the Facebook accounts that are used at school. Therefore, I refrain from getting on Facebook even though I really want to. I already want to go home. 
I have a project that's due Monday which I haven't started. I should probably do those this weekend. 
School dominates my life. End of story. 


PS: And no, Pauly D, that is NOT dissing the school, district or whatever. :) 

Itinerary Dilemma

Okay, so I did my itinerary on a different document than my cover page. I tried to copy the pictures from my itinerary document to my cover page, but they don't look the same. I really worked hard to make my itinerary look a specific way, and if I have to put the itinerary on my cover page, I don't know what I'm going to do cause my itinerary itself looks so professional and when I transferred the photos to the cover page, they aren't able to be on the sides like on my itinerary document. 
Anybody who reads this post, please comment with suggestions as to what I should do.
My idea is to say on the cover page "See separate file for itinerary", but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do that. 
Any other ideas? 
Help please! 

Brochure = Done!

My brochure is done, and my cover page is updated (it now has my introduction, my updated work log and bibliography), and I had to upload it as a PDF. 
Of course, the PDF document doesn't look as amazing as the actual brochure on Pages, but that's okay. It's actually kind of blurry. I hope it's readable, at least. If not, then I'm sorry...
I'm going to post the link to both my cover page and brochure here, so be sure to look at it and tell me what you think! :) 


Updated Cover Page

Brochure

Brochure Update

Finally, finally, finally I'm done with the brochure! (I hope...) 
But I'm done with my itinerary, and my introduction, so I'm not sure what else I can do. 
The work log is a pain to keep up with. I don't see the point of it, really. I guess it's just one of those teacher things to make sure we did our work and how we used our class time and the proof is documenting it. 
The bibliography is a pain to do but I understand the point of it. And it's easy when you use sites like Noodle Tools. 
Anyway, I am especially proud of both my brochure and itinerary. I worked really hard on them, at home and at school. The cover page is so/so, but I worked a lot on that, too. 
My new Mac laptop is great, but I still use my old Dell sometimes. I already have Adobe Flash Player on my Dell, so I use that when I want to play games...which I'll probably do right now since I'm done with everything.
Buh-bye! :) 

Work

I had to re-upload my cover page because I had accidentally put my full name in it (which I'm not supposed to do).
Since I got my new Mac Saturday, I sent my cover page, brochure and itinerary to myself to work on at home :) I might be able to get things done before everybody else, which is good.
Class over. Time to go to biology (ugh). Bye! :) 

Brochure

The brochure is actually not as hard as I expected it to be. Just the format of the brochure is a little confusing, but after seeing a few examples I got the hang of it. I'm about 75% done with it, which is good.
I had to re-do my cover page and my itinerary. The original ones were so much better than my remakes, because for my cover page, I had to copy and paste the PDF cover page (which I have a link to on one of my previous posts) to a new Pages document and it looks all weird. :(
Now all I have to do is update my work log, and bibliography (lots of pictures = lots of citations) and my introduction, which I had on my original cover page but was erased after those "computer wizards" came in to "fix" them.
Ok, I have to go. 
Cheerio! 

Self Assessment

I think I am progressing fairly well in this class. I certainly know how to do a lot more than I was able to before I took Multimedia class. 
I've learned how to save documents as PDFs, but still, I do not know whether the things I've learned in this class will benefit me in the future. 


- A blog is short for a weblog, and it is a written online and accessible to users on the Internet. I'm just going to guess that blog is a noun. 
- An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego. The term avatar comes from the incarnation of a Hindu deity, especially Vishnu, in human or animal form. 
- Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately. Netiquette (or Internet etiquette) is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks. It is important because if you don't follow the rules of Netiquette you may get yourself in trouble - with friends, with other people, and even with the law. 
- Pages is an application the Mac computer that creates documents in many different formats. 
- Royalty-free is a term employed in negotiating the right to use creative content, such as photos, video or music. The term royalty-free means that once the content is licensed under a set of guidelines, the license is normally free to use it without paying extra royalty charges. Stock photography is a term that refers to photographs that can be licensed for public or commercial use, which are usually found on professional stock photography websites. 
- A citation is a source where you got specific information. For example: Hanson, Mark. "Holy Trinity Church 1." stock.xchng. N.p., 31 Oct. 2009. Web. 22 
Stock Photography Citation

These are important because it gives the author of that work credit when you use their work. A lot of times it's hard to make citations down because of not enough information, such as the author's name. 

- PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format developed by Adobe as a means of distributing compact, platform-independent documents. It is superficially similar to HTML; a PDF document may contain images and text, as well as hyperlinks. However, as PDF is based on a variant of PostScript, each document is self-contained, packing text, graphics, and fonts into a single file.

I need to review all of this before the test on Thursday. Ugh, now I'm going to re-do the work those people who "fixed" (not really) the computers.

Ta-ta! 

Disaster!

Okay, so I came to school today, and EVERYTHING was gone! My itinerary that I worked SO HARD on creating, my Introduction that I spent so much time on, EVERYTHING. I strongly despise the people who came and worked on these computers and deleted everything I worked on. 
This is horrible! My precious itinerary is gone! :( :( :( 

Self Evaluation on Pages Project so far:)

I especially liked Pauly D's project because of the cover. It just grabs my attention. A lot of the other blogs I checked didn't have their project linked so I couldn't look at them. Asian Leprechaun had hers correctly linked also, and hers is great, but it needs more images. Also, the colors of her brochure don't match the design style. I wouldn't mind, but our multimedia teacher would :P 


Here are the links to my comments 


Asian Leprechaun Comment

Pauly D's Comment

Now, I'm supposed to self-evaluate the first part of my project using the rubric provided. I have a feeling I won't do as well as I hoped I would. 


Crossing fingers... 


General - I think I'd get a 2. I didn't use a header or a footer (I don't even know what those are!)
Cover - Probably a 4, because I did have a title and an image related to my country (England) and it is consistent with document's design style (which I only have a vague sense of what that means)
Table of Contents - A 4, because it is well organized, with accurate page #s, and it is consistent with the design style.
Work Log/Initial Design - Either a 2, 3 or 4. I'm not really sure, because I don't have an explanation of the designs, but my work log is consistent with the document's style.
Bibliography - A 4, because the document is consistent with the document's style. Citations are in proper MLA format and in alphabetical order (I think...)
Bibliography Citations - A 3, because even though I have more than 12 citations, they are in Noodle Tools, not the actual document. I was meaning to add my latest citations to the document, but too late for the actual rubric scoring.... :(
Professionalism - A 4. This is the easiest, EASIEST part. I hardly ever make spelling/grammar mistakes. 


Not as well as I hoped, but not too bad, either. Now I have to start on my brochure because it's due next...it's not going to be easy, since I have no clue how to use the brochure format on Pages! Wish me luck! :) 

Reflections for Today

I had to upload the document containing my cover page, table of contents, work log, and my bibliography. It was as easy as cake. I had no trouble at all (my work log will say it was a little difficult, I had put that BEFORE I uploaded it as a PDF document, haha) I could do this easily. I'm going to continue on my itinerary, add some more pictures maybe) and I really don't want to start on my brochure, but I probably should as I'm already done with my assignment for today and I had at least an hour more in this class (I really want to play Vertical Drop on Kongregate though). I may play a LITTLE bit...or a lot...

PDF Document

Today I had to upload my cover page, work log, table of contents and bibliography. I'm not NEARLY done with either the work log or the bibliography, but I was supposed to upload it anyway. I'm not sure why, but that was my assignment. I'm not going to complain more about it. 


Here is my cover page

Edited Cover Page

Feel free to view my work and comment on this post with your thoughts on my work so far! :) 

Itinerary

I'm finished with my itinerary! YES! 
Ok, now that I'm done with the easy part, I have to start on the harder part, which is the brochure. I also have to do an introduction, which I hope won't be too hard. I despise the Mac application Pages very much. I like it and I despise it at the same time. Pages is easy to work with, but at the same time it's a pain. 
I'll continue this post later. Time to go to another class. Cheerio!

Starting the Project

Today I created the cover for my project, my table of contents, I started on my work log (I put my plan designs there) and I made three citations in my bibliography. I'm far with my itinerary now and I say that this is very good. 
All in all, I'm working hard and I get what I need to get done completed.

Reflections

I did everything I was assigned to do for the class period which was to create a plan for my brochure/itinerary and take a picture with Photo Booth and fix the picture with Photoshop and upload it onto a new post. It wasn't too difficult after my friend Pauly D helped me using Photoshop since I had never used the program before. I believe I accomplished more than enough today.
Creating the itinerary took longer than the brochure because I went really in depth with it. I know exactly where I want to take someone in London and other places in England. The brochure was very simple and nothing like what I have in mind for the final product. The final product will be colorful and detailed. I just simply sketched out the main things I plan to have on the brochure. I'm not such a great drawer so it's not a good drawing.
Sorry if you can't see the brochure/itinerary clearly. The paper was sort of see through and I wrote as dark as I normally do but maybe it wasn't dark enough to see clearly. I was sort of too lazy to go over it in pen since I wrote a lot. If you have good eyes maybe you can :)

Itinerary and Brochure Plan Sketches

Page 1 of Itinerary Plan

                                                             Page 2 of Itinerary Plan
                       

                                               My Travel Brochure Plan (it's not that great) 


I wanted to add Leeds to my itinerary because I heard it was a decent shopping city, and we would go by train because it is not too close to London. This day would be between Days 5 & 6. And Dover will not be the last day. We'd take a train from London to Eastbourne around 3:30 P.M and arrive back in London by like, 10:30 PM on the last day in England. 

Thoughts about Pages Project

My post today is supposed to be about my initial thoughts on my country, England, and the Pages project I'm going to do (create an itinerary and a brochure) 
England is a great country and I'd love to revisit, so I know where to go and what to see in London and nearby cities such as Bath. Stonehenge is a must, and so is Windsor Castle. 
I'm kind of nervous about photoshopping my brochure/itinerary plans because I've never used photoshop before. Wish me luck!

Plagiarism, Stock Photography and Public Domain

Plagiarism is passing off somebody else's ideas or work as your own. 
A really good way to avoid plagiarism is to first read the paragraph, and without looking at the paragraph, jot down some of the main idea in your own words (but remember to cite the source where you found your information) and after, check for accuracy and be sure that your paragraph doesn't sound too similar to the one on the website. 
On my itinerary project, I will be using the MLA format to cite my sources. 


Here are two sources I may use for my project


"Things to do in the UK ." Destination 360. N.p., 2010. Web. 10 Sept. 2010.
     <http://www.destination360.com/europe/uk/things-to-do>


For the source above it was a travel website so I couldn't find an author's name for the description of places to go in the UK. I looked everywhere on the website. 


Hainsworth, Martha. "Martha Hainsworth's England Travel Tips." Metanoia . N.p.,
     n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2010. <http://www.metanoia.org/england/
     sights.htm>

I liked Martha Hainsworth's England Travel Tips better than Destination 360 
because Destination 360 is a travel company 
and they want people to book their trip with them, and they only put the basics of England. 

Martha Hainsworth added A LOT and put some personal recommendations - 
where to stay, where to eat, places you SHOULD not go to. 

Stock Photography is a supply of photos collected to use instead of hiring a photographer.

It's not a good idea to copy random images off Google because it could be possible that you

copied a copyrighted image, and the company could contact their lawyers and 
it could turn into a court issue.
 It's also not very professional, and it's not worth the risk. 

Items within the public domain are works that currently have no intellectual property rights

within the country of your residence. 

The image above is Big Ben in London

Domiwo. "Big Ben, London." stock.xchng. N.p., 9 Mar. 2009. Web. 10 Sept. 2010.
     <http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1157550>.

New Project

My Multimedia teacher assigned us a new project today. We're supposed to choose a country, and make an itinerary to that country to promote cultural understanding for teenagers.
I chose England, because I've been to five countries in Europe, England included, and it was one of my favorites (besides Italy, of course), and Italy was already taken when I had to choose my country, so I chose England. This project will be easier because I've already been there (I'm a whiz at English history - I had been obsessed with it for nearly 2 years) and I'd definitely go again. 
The trip I'd organize would take approx. 20 days, and it would focus on London, but of course I'd include Windsor Castle, Bath, Dover (to see the famous White Cliffs), Oxford, Manchester, and Eastbourne (I went to Eastbourne when I went to England with my mom and loved it) - Eastbourne isn't a city that you HAVE to go to while in England but it's definitely a nice city, and it's accessible to go to by train from London (the train ride duration would be a little more than an hour). I'd include Stonehenge in my itinerary, because it's something you HAVE to go to while in England. Also, in my itinerary I'd include a tour of Shakespeare's house in Stratford upon Avon. In London, we'd get from place to place by London Underground or double decker bus or the hop on/hop off bus, and maybe the tour group would have a luxury bus with a driver when we're going to places out of London. Some excursions out of London we'd go to by train, others by luxury bus.
In London, I'd include in my itinerary FOR SURE:


- British Museum
- London Eye
- Tour of Buckingham Palace
- Tower of London
- Westminster Abbey
- St. Paul's Cathedral
- As a fun day, I'd include the London Dungeons in my itinerary
- Boat tour 
- Night walk on 3 nights in London through the parks (for example, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Green Park, St. James Park, etc)
- Spend an entire morning in Harrod's on Knightsbridge (you could spend FOREVER there)
- And more if possible 


I'm really excited for this project. I love to travel and it'd be fantastic to actually create an itinerary for somebody! :) 

Netiquette

Today, my assignment is to learn the rules of Netiquette and answer the following questions.




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?
No, this is not an appropriate response. They should've waited a day to respond so both of them could've had time to cool off and put the issue in perspective.


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?


Making calls and carries a conversation with someone else while you're with other friends is not ok. It's very rude. 


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?


I don't think its okay because I believe that's downloading music illegally. I'm not sure on this one, though. 


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?


Yes, the student is to blame. They shouldn't even be following a questionable link or downloading anything on the school network in the first place.


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?


No, it is not okay. Taking somebody else's work and calling it yours is plagiarism and it's illegal.


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's not within fair use laws because copying movies and games and giving them to other people is pirating and it is illegal.


Scenario #7 – A student logs into the school website to download the syllabus they lost. Are they breaking any rules or laws? Explain.


No, they aren't breaking any rules or laws because I'm assuming the teacher has the syllabus on the school website for a student to print out in case they lose it. 


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?


It was wrong of the students to not make the website, say, large print for people who have trouble seeing to read, because it's not including everybody, and it's disrespectful. A fundraiser is to raise money for a program or an organization and anybody who wants to give money to the fundraiser should be able to, and because of the way the students made the website, people who have disabilities cannot. The school fundraiser may have lost some profit because of that. 


Netiquette is important because just like people use proper etiquette in real life, etiquette needs to be used on the Internet, too. The Internet is not an escape from using proper etiquette. I think we're dedicating class time to this concept because Netiquette is a big part of using the Internet and it's important that we learn the rules of it. 
I've gotten so many "flaming" emails and people have asked me personal questions or questions that made me uncomfortable. From the websites I looked at (http://www.uni.illinois.edu/library/computerlit/netiquette.php) and (http://www.microsoft.com/protect/parents/cyberethics/practice.aspx), I now know what to do in those situations.