What To Do For This Class

In order to do well in this class, you need to show up and pay attention. I know that's kind of a dumb observation, but it's the truth. We go over everything in class that you need to know, so not paying attention causes problems when you are on your own trying to do the homework. Keep up with the homework. Once you get behind you are constantly playing catch up, which is just stressful. So in order to save yourself the "finals headache" just keep up, you won't have to do them later when you have stuff to do from every other class.

My Picture That Lies

I manipulated this picture for fun. When I was going through my pictures in search of one that I could use for this project, I found one of my suitemate, Emily, and I at the botanical gardens. We are poking our heads through a hole in a picture of a giant dinosaur that was used for a bean bag toss game. This inspired the more realistic dinosaur. I used the picture of us, a picture of a dinosaur from Jurassic Park, and a picture of a wall with a hole in it. I positioned the picture of the wall on a gray background and, using the smudge tool, I blended the wall and the background. Then I put the picture of the dinosaur on top of the wall picture, then the picture of me and Emily on the dinosaur. This picture is not harmful. It is to ridiculous to be real and is obviously just for fun.

In class presentations

I really like Trevor’s and Ellee’s presentations. I liked how Trevor’s backgrounds went perfectly with the presentation, especially the wave picture. Also it was a very narrowly focused and interesting subject. It was also very easy to follow. It also fully explained the causes and effects of tsunami. Ellee’s presentation was similarly interesting and focused. It fully explained the situation of the honeybees and the negative effects that it would have on our economy. The transitions and gifs worked well with these presentations.

power points

A good power point can be a very useful tool when giving a presentation. However, if the presentation is dull and boring it doesn’t help the presentation at all. In fact, I automatically zone out if the power point is boring. Repeating bullet points from the slide is one of the most boring things anyone can do during a presentation. I would much rather see pictures or charts and have the presenter explain them to me. The backgrounds also sever as a way to keep the attention of the audience. Grey, solid backgrounds are uninteresting. Changing to brighter colors or using the themes on power point makes the slides more exciting. The font used makes an impression on the audience. Times new roman font makes the power point more businesslike and official. Other fonts, like comic sans, are less formal, giving it a more fun appearance.

My ideas for an awesome power point:
1. Use interesting backgrounds (themes, bright colors, etc.)
2. Use pictures or graphs.
3. Do NOT just go over bullet points.
4. Use videos.
5. Use a font that fits the theme of the power point.

CLT

CLT is located in the library, a remote part of the library that no one seems to know anything about. This is unfortunate because it is a very useful resource. The lab is filled with the most advance computers on campus. These computers have the most memory of any computer and are the fastest computers. They are fully upgraded and have all of the programs any student could ever need. This includes Photoshop and audio/video editing programs. Also a mini recording studio is located in the CLT. There are machines in the CLT that allow students to transfer videos from VHS to DVDs. There are also people working there who know how to work all of the equipment, so if you are even slightly confused, they can help.

This was not my first visit to CLT. I went to the lab last year to work on a group presentation for my Intro to Archaeology. The upper-classmen in my group decided it was the best place to meet since it was quiet (even more so on a Saturday morning). The computers were very fast and we were able to attach several links to our power point presentation, including a video, very quickly. The only problem we ran into was the transfer from Mac to PC. But luckily the staff there was able to help us. Overall this is one of the best places on campus to work on a group project.

Excel

I have learned that excel is a very useful tool for any kind of presentation and record keeping. As a geology major (and hopefully a future archaeologist) it is very important to keep records of all the data that is collected in the field and to keep it organized. Excel does that very well. Also excel makes it easy to find any data that I might be looking for and classifying it correctly since I can sort and filter the data. Conditional formatting would be useful for looking for any patterns in the data since I can highlight certain data categories. The best part of excel though is the graphs and charts. I’m a very visual person so putting the data into charts really helps me sort through it. Plus I like putting a little color on the presentation. Excel spread sheets are perfect for putting data on PowerPoint presentations for classes. Overall I think that this is a very useful program and plan on using it often.

Chris Nolan presentation

Unfortunately I was not present for the Chris Nolan presentation. Thanks to reading my classmates’ blogs I know the basics of his presentation. Google is one of the most popular sites on the internet. I go there several times a day to look up information that to many would seem meaningless. Other days I use it to research for papers or presentations of my own. I like Google because it has so many settings. I can find a popularized website and a video to link in my presentation, but I can also go to scholar and look up articles written by an academic source. Google brings up the most relevant sites first for a search. It takes into account the title of the site, the number of links, and the number of hits to come up with the most complete search possible. I did not know that Yahoo sorts their sites differently. This is helpful for when Google is struggling to bring up something relevant. Switching between the sites is an excellent idea. The ending of a website can give clues as to how trustworthy the website is. The endings .edu and .gov are more likely to be helpful than websites ending in .com. This seems to have been a very informative presentation and I am sorry to have missed it.

Pictures That Lie

Pictures that Lie is a website that shows doctored images. There is one image in particular that caught my attention, the one of OJ Simpson after he was accused of murder. The original picture was a mug shot of OJ. Time magazine then edited the picture for the front cover. The picture was give a dark shadow, making the picture appear much more menacing than the original that was shown on Newsweek’s Cover. The picture does succeed in making OJ appear very intimidating and scary. It does make him look suspicious.

Creative commons and copyright

I was very interested to learn about creative commons. Creative commons is a web site that offers copyright licenses for any type of work online. The licenses offered are not as strict as the licenses offered by the copyright office. The copyright law gives the creator of a work the ability to control the distribution and sales of his or her work outside fair use. The liberal licenses offered by creative commons allow for the works to be shared so long as the creator receives credit. I think that the more liberal terms of creative commons are ultimately better for encouraging the creation of new works. For example, a student who is making a video for a class will have access to more works for inspiration or can incorporate works like songs, as long as they give the author credit.

My Network Diagram

Joe Hatch Presentation

The most helpful tip that I got from Joe was about ccleaner.com. Personally my computer is running a little slower than it used to. Since my computer is only a year old I didn’t think that I could blame old age for its malfunctions; but I do tend to surf the internet a lot in attempts to keep up with the world around me, so it makes sense that a lot of old data has piled up on my PC. I haven’t tried it yet, my awesome computer skills have come into play again and my computer decided to temporarily stop working, but I plan to once it’s in working order again.

About Me

I’m Paige, a sophomore at Trinity University from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’m a pretty typical college student; I spend most of my time listening to music, surfing the web, and arguing with my friends about whether Grey’s Anatomy is better than The Office (my vote is Grey’s).One of my friends is teaching me to play guitar this semester. I used to run track and cross country in high school. I am majoring in Geosciences and am planning on getting my master’s degree in Archaeology.

SECRET FACT: I am a hi-white belt in Taekwondo. Before you ask, it’s not a very high rank. In fact it’s only the second belt. But I am continuing to train while in San Antonio so hopefully I’ll get a higher rank soon.

I am very technologically challenged. Computers seem to magically break in my presence and I generally have no idea how to fix them. Thankfully my uncle is very good with computers, so he usually fixes my computer when it decides to go crazy. I’m hoping that I can learn to fix the computer on my own so I don’t have to keep bugging my uncle to fix mine every time something goes wrong.
pdowney@trinity.edu