Journal 7

I'm not like the others in the fact that I'm tall. That I'm bigger. Not that I'm big, but bigger (there is a difference). I'm also not as flexible. Or as powerful. I don't do acrobatics. I don't to "six o'clock's." I don't spin like a top. I don't leap eighteen feet off the floor. But that doesn't mean I don't dance. That doesn't mean I don't try. That doesn't mean I'm not a dancer just like them. I can do things they can't. I can Tap. I can feel the beat and count the music better than anyone. I can do that. So, I may not be the next great thing to hit the world with my ability, but at least I can say that I am still one of them. I'm still me.

The reason I picked those pictures is because it shows what dancers can do. But it also shows that there are good dancers out there that can do more than that. I don't want to be the most flexible, or the one that can do the most turns, or the one that is better than everyone else. I just wanted to be the one that is good at what I wanted to be at. The images are part of my life of things that people can do, but not the things that I could make my body do. The top picture is of a tapper. Of someone that can do tap dance that not everyone can. It's my favorite. It explains me.

Journal 8

The virtual world of technology. In Hall's piece, he is talking about how this "game" called Second Life was created and how to play it. Second Life is about the people that wanted a chance to restart something that most people never do; their lives. "There are no levels to gain or beat, there are no bosses to fight, no magic mushrooms or jump on or any fashion of linear structure one would normally associate with a computer game. The game is entirely what you make of it. You should think of Second Life as a universe in which you have the divine power to alter the world and yourself to whatever you desire." Hall starts off in the real world, but then turns into the Second Life world where everything is different and extreme. It is not only him though, there are people all over the world that are involved in this life. The most intense thing about the technology was how much time was spent on it to create this world. The little details of the people to the big details of the parties that were posted as little stars on the Second Life map. It was all mainly about sexual things, though. Strippers, lap dances, pornography; the world that no one exists in now and lives in technology. How an artist designed all of these things that people wanted is outstanding, yet in a way, crude. To think that someone would slave away for hours on end just to make a part of the body perfect and "anatomically correct" is unbelievable. There is also the money issue. "... paying real money for fake money just so I could buy something that would make my fake guy look like something out of a nightmare. I began to question the very nature of Second Life." The game is not all that bad, though. It is a way for people to escape their lives now and not have to deal with the pressures. They get to be whatever they want and get to do whatever they want. It is no way to live, of course, but an escape from a place called reality is always nice, sometimes.

Using technology for educational purposes is a different story. Technology has helped education in many ways. I disagree with Haas and Rashke's opinions because they do not think that technology is a good thing for education; they believe it is dumbing the population down. In all reality, knowing more about technology and using it to gain knowledge is easier than looking it up in a book. It is a faster way of getting things done. People are moving faster than ever now and wanting to get more things accomplished than they thought was ever possible. Back when technology was new and slow, there were things that were not possible. Now, there is the entire world out there and it is accessible through a computer. Writing, reading, art, music, movies, people, etc... Everything is on a tiny, yet powerful instrument and it makes life that much easier. Sure, reading a good book now and then and writing in a journal is a good way to keep in touch with yourself. I think that technology is something that we need. I do not think it is something that is making the culture imbeciles. Sure, we have it easy now with everything right in front of us, but that makes it that much easier to get things done.

E-Portfolios

To whomever reads my portfolio, I want them to think about how my writings describe my life. They are all similar in ideas because that's all I know. My life is the main thing and I'm putting it out there for other people to read. I try to make the writings look the same so the reader knows that I was the person that wrote it and no one else. The format of my text and pictures are the same to not be as confusing as some others, even though they are different papers. The only difference is the topic and my use of colors to make the text stand out more and to get the reader's attention.

Having a portfolio online is a different experience. Having a portfolio that I keep track of is a different experience as well. In high school, we had portfolios, but they were the paper ones and I would never really do anything with it. It was all about the FCAT, so maybe that's why. Having a portfolio online is a lot easier to control. Because everything is right there and typed and designed, it also looks better. Instead of just having three papers on white paper with black text, I'm allowed to explore my creativity and make my papers unique. It makes the readers more interested as well. I think that it's a lot more fun and nice to be able to do something that makes me look like I've created art, instead of a paper.

Journal 5

Basic Design Principles :

This is an excerpt from a book that tells the reader how to make their web page look as professional as it possibly can. Using four highlighted words; alignment, proximity, repetition, and contrast, to explain just how their website should have these elements to make it the best web page. The first one, alignment, talks about how the web page should not have writing all over in different parts of the page. There should be one set alignment for both the headings and the body paragraphs after. The easiest alignment for a beginner is to make it in the center. There is also a "baseline," meaning that all the font should be on the same line and not up and down. Then there is proximity, which is keeping what should be related together and what should not be far apart. There have been mistakes where whatever was supposed to be related to the picture was far from the picture itself which caused confusion for the readers of the web page. A trick to make sure that your proximity is on track is to squint your eyes and see if you can tell what is supposed to be together or not. After that is repetition, which says that the first web page should look like the next one and the next one after that, and so on. It's important to make the pages look the same, to use the same font, color scheme, pictures, and layouts, to make the website unique. If there are other elements involved in the website that causes the reader to not be sure if they are continuing the web page they want or if there was a mistake. It is also easier on the reader to navigate the web page.

Next there comes contrast and color. Contrast on a page is good to get the readers eye at first and then to keep the contrast to a low to make sure the reader stays interested in what they are reading, and not something to take them away from that. To get the reader's attention, make sure the contrast is completely opposite in whatever you choose to contrast because it makes it that much clearer to the reader. The contrast should have a "focal point" which is the main contrast point to get the reader's attention. All contrasts should have one. Next comes color. Color is a very important part of the web page and there should be a limited color scheme. Using colors of the same scheme throughout the entire web site makes it easier for the reader to read and relate too. Also, it makes the web page more fun for you to design because it's gives you the chance to use your own ideas and creations. Make sure the colors look good together, though, and don't use dark on dark or light on light because it makes it hard to read. Trial and error tests are the best way to go when combining colors instead of trying to get all scientific. There is then the CMYK color model which is used for full color printing. Instead of using "spot color," which is one color like green or black, CMYK, or Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow, and blacK, is using these different colors to make up one color picture. Mixing a cyan color dot with a yellow dot makes the dot in the picture look green and in a full color page there are many different dot combinations to make all of the colors. Seeing as on a web page the light from the monitor reflects into our eyes it makes the color important.

On my web page, I used contrast to make the things that I wanted to stand out, stand out. I also used a technique of fading to make the uniqueness of my paper interesting. I hope that it isn't too much for the paper, but I wanted it to be different than any other paper. I also wanted to make it stand out and that was one way of doing it. I have to make sure that my spelling is correct because I tend to type too fast which causes some mistakes, but I always spell check after every save. My pages make me happy and I feel like they are well organized also.

Journal 4

Of the two papers, the first one, by Trask, was a very serious tone. It was serious because it was published in USA Weekly which many adults would read about things that were happening in the United States. It talks about how the tourism is taking over the Islands and how the U.S. isn't doing anything to stop what is happening to it because it's all about the money. There's even a Hawaii Visitors Bureau. "Radio and television propaganda tells locals 'the more you give' to tourism 'the more you get'." Which is only telling the readers of this story to learn more about what their money is going to before they become overwhelmed with all the nice things that are available in Hawaii.

The other story, by Knier, was more of a lighter, satirical tone. Since it was written more for his classmates than his teacher, even though the teacher was going to look over it anyway, the language was more slang like. It had curse words, jokes, and things that not only students would understand (i.e. debt, wants, low pay jobs, etc.) but other older people would understand if they went through the same thing. It was a fun story, with serious bits in it as well. Not having money to buy the things we want is what a lot of people go through and sometimes it's very hard to deal with. But the story just made the issue not as serious. "To several stores we went, even across the street to Circuit City, which sought to be the anti-Best Buy in every way: it was red where my store of choice was blue, it had useless employees as Best Buy's drones loved to help you, but it also had a larger and better selection of tvs. Damn." Just the way he makes things into others is a fun way to read about something that is not to serious, but in a way could be.

The difference in the movies is that the audiences are going to watch a comedy based on a story, and then the actual story. The first one, Bride and Prejudice, is a movie that is based on the book, but it's a comical and Indian version. The character's names are the same, but it's in a completely different time period and culture. The colors are bright and extravagant along with the font of the title which is just as bold. In the other trailer of Pride and Prejudice it's actually based on the book. The time period and culture is the same. The clothes are plain, and what people wore back then. The font of the title is a less bold and more cursive looking writing which is more delicate and shows what the story will be about.

Mice

First off, I'd like to say that this has been something that has bothered me since I've known about it.

The fact that it is in a comic book style, throws me off a little. The story is in the form of a graphic novel because that's what it is. There is no other way to put into words something that was horrible. It influences the readers to make it more understandable. It was something that no one understands and can't understand why anyone would do anything like this, but putting it down to paper makes things a little better. There are shaded characters that represent the followers of the Nazi crowd. Though they are Jewish, they're working for the Germans. It means that they're dark, untrustworthy, fowl creatures that shouldn't have light on them. They don't deserve to be drawn and made important because they're bad. The line that sticks out to me is "To go, it was no good, but not to go-it was also not good." That means that the characters are suspicious and know that something is going wrong, but they can't do anything about it. They have to go, and it wasn't fair. I know who's talking in present because their comments are in a box when the comic is in the past. And there are quotes around the comment.

The tone of this story is fearful and skeptical of what was going on at that period in time. There is also questionable and reluctance with the son asking what was happening to the other mouse not wanting to go back to that period of time where it was really hard. If there were no visuals for the words it wouldn't be the same. The reader would have to use an imagination to think of the characters and who was speaking. Sometimes an imagination isn't bad, but there are times where the pictures are important because the reader wouldn't think to shade a character and make them be in the background to make more of an affect. The pictures are to show the reader what is going on and how the feelings of the other characters are compared to what is going on around them.

It was a tough period of time to live in because there were so many things happening that people couldn't control. Lives were being lost, only because they were a certain race or religion. It was a cruel period, full of hate. These visuals and text show that no one really knew what was going on until it was right in front of their faces. After that point, there was nothing they could do to fix anything.

Silverstein

This is an advertisement for a "Screamo" band called Silverstein. Screamo is basically a type of rock music that involves hard guitar riffs, loud and fast bas drumming, and a mixture of the singer singing and screaming. The songs convey messages of pain, suffering, and other issues that hurt people. That is why there is the mixture of the word "sreaming" and "emo."

This picture is showing how the band performs and how they are loved by many. The band is energetic and makes the crowd go insane when they start to play. It's important for them to make their appearence known and amazing so they can get the feed back they need to get through the show. This picture shows that they are a loved band and deserve everything that they put into they're music. It takes a lot to write songs and music and plan shows to travel all over the country to perform in front of fans.

This band will do anything to make sure that the people that love them will go to their shows and listen to their music and support them. That's all that a band wants.