Word of advice....

Do the homework!

Favorite websites

I really liked Karen's website. I animation on the homepage was really nice as well as her navigation bar. I also really like the personal touch of her own photography she put on her site.
I really loved the design of Demi's page. the stars are incredible. The light blue of the pictures of greek had such a wonderful contrast with the darkness with the rest of her page. I really loved seeing her artwork. It's a very artistic site. I really like Drew's page as well. I like the picture-backgrounds of the pages. I thought that the black and white of him set with the black background was a great way to introduce his website.
I do need to add that I also like how one of Greg's favorite bands is System of a Down...
My website is @ http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~sdougla1

What to take away.

Hey guys, I know that a lot of you may be taking this class because you flunked the computer assessment test at the beginning of the year. I was one of those people. Rest assured this class is pretty simple and can even be fun at times. It's not very demanding of you time. I know that the lessons at the beginning may be a little boring but toward the end of the semester it will get interesting and more enjoyable. If you have a positive attitude with this class, you will have a lot more fun. Besides, you got Ms. Belisle, and she is the best computer teacher out of the bunch. Regardless, I promise you will get something out of this class that you will use. Moral of the story: have a positive attitude and do the homework. Good luck!

HTML code

It's always important to know the basics. In the case of web design, it's important for web designers to know how to right HTML code, rather that just use Dreamweaver. The most obvious reason is should Dreamweaver or another web program be malfunctioning, then one would have to right the code for the page on notebook. Also, suppose that you have a problem with the program (Dreamweaver) itself. For whatever reason, the browser is not displaying what you want your page to be. If one knows how to read and write code, then one can see the minute details that could be effecting your page. Overall, it's just helpful to know the basics.

Incredible Presentations

I have to say that my favorite two presentations were Emmalee Bannon's on Tanta Carhutha and Cristina Rodriguez's on the Lion King. Really both presentations were well done, and I rated both as a 10. What I liked most about Emmalee's presentations was how well the music fit with what she was describing. Also, I'm interested in anthropology and this presentation gave a very clear example of what a study in anthropology would hold. I was very touched by the story of this little girl. The cultural influence of the music matched the theme and feel of her presentation to a T.
What I liked about Cristina's presentation was just the subject matter and how eye opening it was. I had heard about the live musical of the Lion king, but I never really gave the show much thought. I didn't get what the big deal was. Then when Cristina explained the costumes, my interest was enticed. And when she showed the video, I was blown away. I'm really grateful to Cristina because without her presentation I think I would have missed out on a great cultural event. I really want to see the show when it comes to San Antonio again.

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Chris Nolan's presentation on the internet search engines was very enlightening. Personally, the thing about the presentation that I found to be the most interesting was how many things people believe about search engines are incorrect. I was one of those people who thought that all internet search engines( google, yahoo, msn etc) were all useless in academic search. However, I didn't even know that the advanced searches were that helpful. Google scholar is also very helpful. I also didn't know that you could change settings on Google to show websites on different countries servers. I also learned about how to actually judge whether or not a site is a good source for research. Even some wikipedia entries can prove helpful if there remains enough citation and credible sources.

I think that in dealing with Power Point it is good to try and avoid extremes. You neither want to make your presentation so bland that it causes you're audience to lose interest nor do you want so many aids to where it becomes distracting. Both of these situations make your decrease the effectiveness of you presentation. I think the articles provided different view points of what goes into making power points, both good and bad. As such it was helpful to see not only what can make an effective slide show but also what makes one ineffective.
1) Make sure that you're power points are not too wordy. A slide that is completely covered in text is distressing to the audience, and they will most likely lose interest.
2)Have a visual on your slides. It makes the presentation more stimulating as a whole.
3)Having graphs it a good way to present data.
4)Make sure that the background of you slide show matches and compliments the theme of your presentation. You don't want to have a presentation over Buddhist monks and a background of Tokyo city.
5) Having music and video clips during a presentation is a good craft. However, make sure that they are not too distracting. Otherwise you're argument will be weakened as a whole.

Excel...oh Lord...

Well, what can I say about Excel? To be blunt, before this class I knew absolutely nothing about the program. I didn't know that it could do math. I didn't know that you had to type in formula's. Heck, I really didn't even know that it's primary purpose was to create spreadsheets. I am very grateful that this class has taught me how to use it, and, yes, it's information was incredible helpful. Good lord, I think excel is a great way to get organized. I can see it helping me keep a budget. I can see it helping me keep track of list and prioritize things that I need to take care of. Academic wise, I'm sure that it will be useful to me in projects and presentations when I need to present data and information. As far as my career goes, I really have no idea what I want to do. However, it will probably have to do with me being a researcher of some sort of even a professor. I know that excel will enable me to put together all of my research and information. Anyway, I am very happy that I learned how to use Excel and I know it will help me in the future.

Pictures that can lie

For my choice of photo, I decided to choose the picture of a British soldier telling Iraqi civilians to take cover. I choose this picture in because of it's strong emotional and political appeal. I also understand how altering such a photo would cause a great amount of controversy, though no harm may actually have been done. The image was altered by its creator, Los Angeles Times staff photographer Brian Walski. The image is in fact two separate images combined into one. My guess is that Walski's goal was to combined the image of the protective soldier and the Iraqi father carrying his child in order to have a stronger emotional impact on viewers. This could be that he supports the Iraq invasion and sought to use this picture as a sort of justification. It could also simply be that he wanted to create a photo that was especially potent. Either way, it's hard to say whether or not he actually did any harm. Yes, it was wrong of him to doctrine the photo's and pass it off as the truth. The TRUTH is however, that this scene depicted within the photo is all to real of a reality in Iraq. I believe that his heart may have been in the right place, but the ends do not justify the means.

Tech Center

So, I've already been to the first floor of the Library several times. But none of those times were academic. I've checked out a lot of movies already. I don't use a mac, but I must say that Mac users will be incredibly happy to see all of the different resources available to them. I can now see how this floor will come in handy for me when ever I will have to do projects. But to be perfectly honest, I felt a little over whelmed when I first entered, and didn't know where to begin. It kind of felt like a Kinko's or an Office Max. I hope that I can get more familiar with the technology before I do need to use it for some big project.

Copy Right laws

I have to admit, I did had some reservations about listen about copyright law. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Mrs. Diane Graves was very down to earth and relatible. She offered us relivant information for us to make wise choices. The extra bit of trivia that she would add from time to time was helpful as well. One thing that I didn't know about copyright law, or rather the RIAA, MPAA and ESA focused so much on Trinity University and that they in fact use limewire and Bit-torent themselves in order to find users.
Overall, I like that she was did not judge us on our opinions about downloading music and such. My view on the controversy between freely downloading copyrighted music and entertainment industry is as stands. Honestly, the main reason why the industry is making such a vendetta against free downloads is not out of legal rights; they want the money. And they have a right to this to a certain point. The companies need to earn money in order to produce more of it. But come on! $13,000-$17,000 dollar settlements? That's outrageous. Besides the vast of majority of the artists being downloaded have more than enough money to begin. And fans will still pay for their merchandise and to see them at shows. I also don't agree with the fact that they can issue subpoenas without warning.
In the end I can somewhat sympathise with record companies and for having their products taken from them freely. But the ends don't justify the means.

Well, I for one have never been big on facebook or myspace. I know, I know, weird right? However I do love youtube and downloading music. I also use the internet to watch movies and shows. I even read books and comics from my computer. But I do use web for "educational" reasons as well. Checking homework, grades, research...these are a few of my "favorite" things. I use email lot to stay intouch with people, as well as AIM. One of my favorite sites that I go to is Deviantart.com. I'm also practicing my Japanese online. Well, that's it for now.

http://www.computertrainingschools.com/featured/search.php

Introduction

Hello! I'm Shelby Douglas from Austin Texas! Well, I enjoy music, sushi, fudge, movies, among other things. I have an interest in Asian religions and culture. For down time I use to hang out around down town Austin, specifically 6th street, where there are a lot of clubs, shops, restaurants, and live music. http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.267083,-97.739191&z=19&t=h&hl=en
As for my background, I'm multi-ethnic. I am black, white, and Cherokee Indian. In fact I actually have relatives that live on reservation. I really only use my computer for three purposes: information, school, and online comunication. I'll admit whenever I use my computer for any other reason than, I usually have a friend help me. I suppose that's it for now. Until next time!