Do you blog?

Blog- first named "weblog". In simple terms, it is an electronic journal you could update. Blogs are used in many different ways; some use them as a diary, some to share work from a class or work setting, and informational blogs. despite what you write in a blog, you can add pictures, videos, projects, links, etc.

*Key terms*

Blog: online journal

Blogger: person writing/updating a blog

Blogging: the process of writing or updating your blog

One particular site used for blogs is Blogger. It was launched in 1999 and has been the home for millions of blogs since the start.

I have personal experience with Blogger (hence I am writing this post on Blogger). I had never had a blog until my Elect Comm class this Spring semester. My blogs consist of the work I have done for this class and my reactions to the work. So far I have about 4 or 5 postings (more to come because the class is not over) and along with written reactions I have pictures, links and animations.

Since I only have experience with Blogger, I will mostly give information about this site.

Some of the key features Blogger offers are:

1. Blogger Comments: Anyone is allowed to comment and give feedback on your blogs. The comments you don't want on your blog can be deleted by you. Posts can be an optional choice per blog.

2. Access Controls: This is for deciding who can see and comment on your blogs. There are options in which there is more than one author, or a single author for personal items.

3. Blogger Profiles: The privacy settings give you the options to to be found, if search for, let others see certain things in your profile (interests, name, etc). This setting can be removed for safety or personal preferences.

4. Templates: To personalize your blog, you are offered different blog templates that come already made and if preferred you can change the HTML to your liking.

5. Custom colors and fonts: As with any other website, you can change the font and color to your liking.

6. Drag-and-drop page elements: You have the option to add any animation or picture and choose where it goes.

Caslon Analytics Blogging states the following:

"In July 2006 the Pew Internet & American Life Project estimated that the US "blog population has grown to about 12 million American adults", some 8% of US adult internet users. The number of US blog readers was estimated as 57 million adults (39% of the US online population), although few of those people read widely or read often. David Sifry reported in April 2007 that growth in the number of blogs created had slowed - "matured" - with other observers noting that the percentage of active blogs are compared to the total number of blogs tracked by Technorati was declining, down from 36.71% in May 2006 to 20.93% in March 2007".

"In July 2003 BlogCensus suggested that there were 701,150 "sites we think are weblogs", of which 380,657 appeared to be in English. It claimed that Portuguese, (with 54,496 blogs), Polish (42,677) and Farsi (27,002) were the next most popular languages - well ahead of French (a mere 10,381) and German (7,736). On a per capita basis the language with highest blog penetration appeared to be Icelandic, with 3,542 blogs. "

*LINKS*

http://hnn.us/articles/1572.html

http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g

http://www.geardiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/blogger.png

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/blogs.jpg
http://www.blogger.com/tour_con.g

http://www.caslon.com.au/weblogprofile1.htm

Animated font poem- Assignment #4

This project I thought was rather difficult the whole time I did it. Getting the poem together and making the pictures wasn't a challenge. It was putting the words in the animation form and getting the pictures together. I had hoped to add more animations to the words but as I kept going and following my notes I still couldn't figure it out. I made the choice of just having the words appear (as you see above) in different orders but looking the way it does on the regular non animated poem. I do love how the pictures go together from the blending of one set of colors to the next, it does look very appealing I think, and that makes me happy.

One of the big challenges I faced was when I was making the words into separate slides. This was difficult because numerous times the placing of the words didn't look right and when I tried to get animations just for the words it didn't work so that process was frustrating. One of my fellow students helped in making the words look appealing in the separate slides so that made it not so stressful anymore. The last problem was when I had thought I saved my work I accidentally deleted it and the work I had done for two hours had to remade.

What I enjoyed about this project was gaining the knowledge and experience to be able to do similar and advance projects in the future using Photoshop. I was able to teach my boyfriend how to do this project and by teaching it I was better aware of what I had to do.

I am most proud of the final outcome of the project. I think the words go together in a good order when they appear and the photos are awesome and just bring the whole project and meaning of the poem together. If I had more time I think I would have made the words look better with animation and better layout affects. But I am happy I was able to successfully complete this project.

Font poem- Assignment #3

The third assignment was taking the animated postcard and put a poem to it.

The most enjoying part was being able to successfully complete this project. I stressed about it alot, but in the end I was able to make a project I'm happy with.

If I had more time I think I would've been able to make the words animated. I wasn't sure how to do it and it became too late to fix it. I don't have photoshop on my laptop and I commute to RWU which doesn't give me the time to work on these types of things.

I wanted to put emphasis on the word "if" because not only is it the first word in the poem but if read out loud then it makes you wonder "yeah, what if". The same with "just". If you read it and actually put it out then it could make or break your message.

"Good enough" is in all caps because thats the message of the poem. Being good enough is equivalent to being perfect, and that is how some societies want us to be.

"Life" and "Easy" go hand in hand because in life things don't come easy. In reality nothing that comes easy is worth it. You have to live life with some challenges to really enjoy it.

"Nobody" is emphasized because different people would think maybe there is nobody to show me how to live my life "growing up"

"Hard" is what sums up the whole poem. It concludes that life is worth living if your able to enjoy the hardships.

Overall, the project was challenging and it made me push myself to get the work done in a way that made me happy. I'm glad with the final product and I can teach others how to do it was well.

Animation postcard- Assignment #2

The second assignment called for an animation postcard. For starters it seemed pretty interesting and simple, however, I thought many of the steps seemed to be difficult. The picture below is the first animated picture slide of my postcard. I love the way the colors compliment each other and how it just looks awesome.

The picture consists of my sister and step sister playing, a baby's crib,background of South Boston and a flower. All these pictures I took myself and I thought they fit nicely into what my poem said.

The crib represents being born, the city is where you grow up and face hardships, the girls are going through a happy life and the flower is hope for promise everything will

be ok once you go through hardships.

I hope everyone can get some type of message between the poem and the pictures.

I was able to do the animated pictures, that didn't seem to be a problem once I followed Professor O'Connell's directions and also

the ones online. It didn't become difficult until the animation poem had to be done. I was stressing about what to do because first I didn't know how to put the words into animation form, which I think makes the poem look bland. But the pictures bring it all together at the end. I asked a fellow classmate how to put the words into animation and I was grateful she helped me. Also my boyfriend loves to play around on photoshop so he knew a thing or two which was nice.

The most enjoying part was being able to successfully complete this project. I stressed about the project, but in the end I was able to make a project I'm happy with.

If I had more time I think I would've been able to make the words animated. I wasn't sure how to do it and it became too late to fix it . I don't have photoshop on my laptop and I commute to RWU which leaves no time to work on these types of things.

Contact sheet- Assignment #1

For our first assignment we had to work in Photoshop and the different functions in it. First thing ran in my mind, "uh oh I don't know how to use Photoshop". Luckily for me I pay attention and take notes in class so my anxiety went down. While Professor O'Connell was explaining the steps and doing everything with us I thought "hey piece of cake I can do it" , well, even with my notes by my side, I couldn't remember exactly how to do the steps (I also don't have the book). I had forgotten how to change the DPI and forgot that I had to save the original and constantly save off that. What should of been an hour work, turned into two hours in the library trying to fix my mistakes.

Row 1 (Resolution): In this row, we worked with resolution (dpi), of an image that we chose in four different frames. Each frame had an increasing resolution from 72 dpi, 300dpi, 600 dpi and 1200 dpi. The picture I chose was one I took from my friend's baby shower. It is a crib full of the gifts she received. I didn't have too much trouble with this row because I was able to refer back to my notes (even after forgetting the directions after class).

Row 2 (Format/Mode): The picture I used in row 2 was of a flower I took. We were able to learn about the different colors in Photoshop and how we use them. I first changed the original picture to RGB (red green blue) for web. I then changed it to CMYK (cyan magenta yellow black) for print. Third, the picture was changed to gray scale (black and white). Lastly, the picture was changed to Duotone. I used yellow and purple as my two colors. I think I preferred learning about the Duotone because I was able to change it how I wanted and my creativity came out.

Row 3 (Orientation): The picture I chose for row 3 is a picture of my cousin Kayleigh and my step brother David. Using the crop tool I was able to change the original picture to portrait (where the kids are the main focus),square (where there is a bit more land in the background) and landscape where both sides were equal in background). For landscape, the dimensions were 1" x "1.33", for square they were 1" x 1", and for portrait they were 1" x 0.75".

Row 4 (Framing): The framing row was about taking an image and making it start off with one focus object and "zoom out" until you get a wide angle shot. The picture I used was one I took of South Boston. I had begun the first box with a picture of a building in the background. As I worked my way out I brought in more street lights, tree branches and the sunset. I thought it came out beautifully once it was complete and it was my most enjoyed line.

Row 5 (Content): The picture I used for this row was of my 20th birthday cake. For the same basic process as row I took one piece and kept zooming out till I had the whole picture. The difference between row 4 and 5 was that instead of focusing on one object, I relied on abstract thinking rather than focus.

Row 6 (Purpose): I enjoyed this row very much because my creativity came out. The picture I chose was that of my step brother David at the children museum. I changed the pictures three different ways with three different filters. The filters I used were Artistic Palette Knife, Ink Outlines and Accented Edges. Journalistic was when the picture had no filters and that was the last box.

Over all the rows I enjoyed were format (row2), framing (row4), and purpose (row6). I worked very hard on every row but those three where the ones I worked on with ease and creativity.

Below is a close up of my favorite picture. It's my step baby brother at the RI children museum and the way I chose to edit this picture was through Accented Edges. I think the color really comes out and makes it very eye catching.

1st Blog - 1st Class

During today's class, Prof. O'Connell went over everything that was going to be covered throughout the duration of the class this semester. This is my first blog entry.