Wilco Powerpoint

When I first got assigned this project I thought, this should be easy.  I am familiar with powerpoint, but through this project I learned that I was not as familiar as I had thought. 

To start this project I had to choose a band.  My favorite band is Wilco.  I have been a fan of there's for years now and have seen them in concert twice.  They have a very peaceful and soothing sound mixed tastefully with a rock n' roll sound.  I did a bit of research on the band before putting the actual slide show together.  I began by doing a basic google searche for some background information on the band which would appear on the second slide.  Then, I researched 4 of my favorite albums from the band for the third and fourth slides.  Once I completed my research I began looking for appropriate pictures for the slide show.  Throughout this class I have learned that editing is key.  Once I find a picture I love, I tend to get very attached to it, but, if I used every photo that I loved my work would look sloppy.  I found  a lot of pictures I liked but chose the ones that I felt were most fluent with one another.

Slide 1:
The first slide is the title slide.  The original photo which appears on the slide was a black and white photo.  I imported the photo into Photoshop and changed the background to a vibrant yellow color, which I later learned is a color that people are instantly attracted to.  The background color I used behind the photo was then carried throughout the project through the font.  I had a lot of black and white photos and the yellow was a great, eye-catching, contrast color.  At the bottom of the slide is a selection of various Wilco posters.  I am a huge fan of borders, a trend I kept consistent throughout the project.

Slide 2:
The second slide provides some background information about the band.  The picture is a shot from outside a venue Wilco played.

Slide 3:
The third slide lists my favorite album, "Sky Blue Sky."  The background picture, another black and white photograph has been layered together with an image of the album cover, "Sky Blue Sky."  Then, along the side is a border of the album cover in its original format.

Slide 4:
The fourth slide compares my 4 favorite albums from the band.  The information is organized into a neat table.

Slide 5:
The final slide is my works cited.  A list of links is listed which tells where I got my information.  At the bottom of the page is a border of the bands album covers.  I imported each album cover into Photoshop and gave them an antique look so they were not as vibrant as the original version.  The background image was also lightened so the links pop better.

I really enjoyed this project, it has been my favorite yet.  I enjoyed researching a band that I love.  It's a great way to get students connected to a project.

If I could have re-done anything I would have changed the layout of my fourth slide.  I would have preferred the information to be horizontal, not vertical.  Also, I would have liked to work on the second slide.  That is the one slide I am unsatisfied with, but I did not know what I wanted to do to change it.

MyFace is Everywhere

Now, a world without facebook seems like years ago, but facebook was first launched back in 2004 by a sophomore from Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg.
Initially, the social networking site was known as thefacebook.com, soon after the website gained  popularity the name was shortened to "Facebook." Zuckerman thought to use the name facebook because colleges used to hand out a list of names and pictures to incoming freshman at the beginning of a school year to help students to meet their peers. The term "facebook" has revolutionized into so much more than a pamphlet.

At the beginning of its creation facebook users were required to be members of a college or university. The social network was intended for students to keep in touch with one another via the internet. Dissimilar from its competitors such as, MySpace and Friendster, facebook required students to have a valid email from their university. At the time, there were over 30,000 colleges connected to facebook.

Now, things are different. There are over 400 million facebook users, ranging from tweens to grandparents. Facebook has become an instant success. What started as a social networking tool for college aged students has become completely integrated into society. Everyone has a facebook now. It's not unusual to see parents comments on their child's homepage, in fact, it seems as though it has become more uncommon for a parent not to be a member of facebook.

"There's no buzzkill quite like getting a friend request on Facebook from Mommy and Daddy dearest," as stated in Time Magazines article, "Oh Crap! My Parents Joined Facebook." With so many parents on facebook now it seems as though a child's privacy has completely evaporated, but there are ways to get around a nosy parent with too much time on their hands. The term "blocking" has become a favorite of teens who accept their parents as facebook friends but still want to keep their distance. "Blocking" allows a uses to create a more limited profile from anyone. This way parents and any other "friends" are prevented from seeing something on your hompage or more commonly referred as a profile. As for myself, I do not think I need to worry about either of my parents getting facebook anytime soon. My mother still refers to facebook as "myface" and I will continue to let her call it that.

Facebook is an amazing tool. It lets people keep in touch with one another easily and for free!  People love anything that's free and anything. Facebook is not only used as a way to keep in touch with friends and families but as a way to make new friends and meet new people. Facebook can be very addicting though. 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day and more than 35 million users update their status each day. A status appears at the top of someone's profile. It's usually listed above the persons name. People typically list what their plans are for the day, if anything exciting happens, a funny quote, a song lyric, or anything that anyone thinks that people find remotely interesting.

Facebook has become so popular that if a college student does not have one, that is unusual. Many people use facebook to "stalk" people. Many college students have well over 500 "friends," but how many of those people are actually friends with those people. The dictionary definition of a friend is, "A person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations.

Now, take a look at your facebook homepage. At the bottom left hand corner a list of 6 randomly selected people are chosen. How many of those 6 people do you talk to on a regular basis? For me, 0/6.

Facebook has become less of a way to stay in touch with people you have close relationships with and more of a "stalking" tool. People can find out anything about almost anyone on facebook. When you really think about what facebook has become it seems rather creepy and extremely invasive, but still there are so many users. I'm not any different though. If I can I log into facebook everyday. I do use it as a way to keep in touch with friends, and a way to stalk, and to procrastinate. If I have a lot of homework on the computer I take very regular breaks just to peruse facebook. It's addicting and immensely popular and will not be going anywhere for a long time.

Within the past few years facebook is not only being used by students and parents, but also employers. More and more employers are using social networking sites to screen job candidates. 45% of employers use facebook to screen job candidates. If facebook users aren't careful about what they post on the internet, they could lose out on potential job opportunities because of inappropriate pictures or illegal activities:
*Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information - 53%
*Candidate posted content about them drinking or using drugs - 44%

Students looking to find jobs post-graduation must be careful about what they keep private and what they publicize. Facebook can turn on you.

I have now had facebook for 3 years. I use it a lot for many different things. Not only to keep in touch with people, but for events, on campus activites, and clubs and organizations school wide. It is an extremely useful tool since almost everyone has a facebook, but the downsides of facebook are real. People should not think they are immune to the negative effects facebook can have on one's life.


*Links*
*http://mashable.com/2006/08/25/facebook-profile/
*http://personalweb.about.com/od/makefriendsonfacebook/a/whatisfacebook_5.htm
*http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
*http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1909187,00.html
*http://oregonbusinessreport.com/2009/08/45-employers-use-facebook-twitter-to-screen-job-candidates/
*http://oregonbusinessreport.com/2009/08/45-employers-use-facebook-twitter-to-screen-job-candidates/

Exquisite Corpse Animation

After completing the postcard we had to animate the postcard with our font poem. Again, I was unsure about where exactly to start because if I don't do my own project immediately after, I forget all the steps, and every step is important.

I went to the computer lab determined to do this project successfully. I referred to my notes I took while we were practicing in class. I started with clicking the animation tool and the bar at the bottom of Photoshop. I copied my exquisite corpse.jpeg into the same document as my font poem and placed it at the beginning of each layer. Then I organized each layer of my font poem in order. Then I removed the "eye" from each layer. Then I would go back and select the "eye" for each slide that I wanted to appear in the animation. In total I had 14 slides. After completing each slide with the appropriate words I added the timing into the animation.

After saving the project as a jpeg I saved it for Web Devices so it could be seen on the internet.

Once I knew how to to this project I had no trouble. It was actually fairly simple. I'm very proud of this project because I was completely intimated prior to completion. I think having the pop art theme throughout the poem and post card worked very cohesively.

I found that my biggest problem, which I solved on my own, was that I wasn't sure I knew what I was doing.

The only thing I would change about my font poem is the color of the font, once the poem goes over the postcard the dark colored text is difficult to read. If I had more time I would have changed the text color to white.

This is a really great project because it allows students to use really fun tools in Photoshop. There are so many neat effects the I learned about.

Exquisite Corpse

When I first got this assignment I was very intimidated. I felt very lost and confused but once I finally sat down and just worked on the project everything seemed to work out.

I wanted the postcard to have the pop art theme to tie into the Andy Warhol quote I used for my font poem.

The first image I used was the background image with the various pictures of the same woman. The original image was very bright so I made the image black and white. Then I took three images of Marilyn Monroe and placed them over the black and white image. At the bottom of the postcard I took images from another Andy Warhol image, cropped them, and made amplified bright colors like the Marilyn Monroe images.

I had difficulty beginning the project, mostly because I thought it was harder than it was. Once I got started it was much easier but I did encounter difficulties with the animation. Eventually I figured out how to animate and I'm very happy with how it came out.

If I had more time I think I would have added more images to the postcard. I left it this way  because the images I do have are very busy. I like the busy look, but not too busy where it's confusing.

I'm very happy with how the postcard came out. I liked this project the best, after completing it.