Cinco De Mayo

I agree mostly with this video that social media and technology is taking away our lives. This goes without saying that it takes away from actually being social at all. People would much rather talk on Facebook or Twitter than they would with that same person in actuality. However, I disagree with the part that it can take your whole life away. Yes, you may miss an opportunity to find someone like at the end if he hadn't had his phone, yet there are infinite amounts of ways for people to meet someone that they spend their life with. I also find it ironic that his message is being sent through a social media site when his whole message is against it. Furthermore, it is also ironic that our responses are being typed up onto a "social site". But, yes, I do agree that when it comes to technology the word "social" actually means the exact opposite of its name and its intentions.

April 29th

What is a 'splash page'? Look it up. Explain what they are and how they are used. Find an example of a splash page in Google Images. Save the image to you computer and then upload it to your blog post. Hint - see below.

A splash page is a image that appears while a program is loading, or, more relevant to us, it is an introduction page to a website. This is seen on most websites that are professionally designed. Splash pages are supposed to capture the viewers attention and draw them into the website so they will explore it instead of leaving the site. Splash pages usually are shown before the home page, and when it is clicked on, directs the viewer to the home page.  They also have other functions such as advertising and providing information about the site or topic prior to the home page.

March 31st

Status update! Tell me where  you are at on your product website? Can you be finished by tomorrow at the end of the hour? Do you need more time? How much more time? Be honest and explain yourself.

I'm very close to being finished. All I have left is a few pages to complete. All of the pages are linked up but I just need to add a few finishing touches. I should be completed by the end of today or tomorrow.

March 24

Welcome back! How was your Spring Break? Tell me all about it. You've been out of school for 10 days so I know you will have plenty to share. Make it good!

Over Spring Break I did not go anywhere; I stayed in Kansas. I mostly cleaned up, practiced for the Solo and Ensemble festival and relaxed. I got in lots of sleep and finished a few books I'd been reading. I did hang out with friends a lot and tossed a disc (Frisbee) and played ultimate so I could practice for Spring League with the Kansas City Ultimate League. More recently I just watched a bunch of basketball and cheered for my teams.

March 11th

Do you like the layout of this project? Have you benefited from your brainstorming sheet? Was it more helpful or annoying when starting to map out your website? Explain why.

I do like the layout of this project. The brainstorming sheet helped me to plan out the website before we even started. On previous projects I planned out the website while I was constructing it. This helps me know what I need where, when I need it, and how to get it there. It also just helps me as a guide while making the website. It was a bit annoying, but in the long run it is definitely helpful.

March 10th

After reading below to see where you should be on your product website - are you caught up? What helps you stay caught up in class? Do you like having small checkpoints? Are you behind? If so, what are you going to do to get caught up?

I am caught up. To stay caught up in class I work hard to get that day's work done and maybe a little more if I can. That way I am ahead of the game when we learn something new or do something that might take more time. I do like having small checkpoints because that is how I base my estimate of what I should get done for the day on. I am not behind, except maybe with the footer, but it won't take long.

March 5th

What idea do you have that is going to make you product website different, unique or unlike anyone else? If you're answer is you don't know - it's time to start THINKING. Explain your idea.

For starters, I doubt that anybody will be doing a website for ultimate or disc golf. Secondly I will use a neat layout and color scheme that invites and draws in viewers. The navigation will be very easy to use, and the navigation bar will break into subcategories for the navigation bar.

March 4th

What product have you decided to feature/sell on your product website? Explain why you've chosen this product and remember, the sky is the limit on this project!

The product I have decided to sell on my website is ultimate and disc golf apparel and accessories. This includes discs, gloves, shorts, jerseys, etc. I've chosen this because I really enjoy playing ultimate and I've been practicing more lately. I am also joining the Kansas City Ultimate League. This was the first thing that jumped into my head when we were deciding products. It has a wide range of people it appeals to and it is something that has a potential for many pages.

February 26

What are three things you learned about color theory and web design  yesterday? Go in to detail.

Yesterday I learned new color schemes. I knew some from my middle school art class but I hadn't learned about Triad or Tetrad. These were knew to me and I like these schemes a lot because they allow for more colors to be used. I also learned about the different types of colorblindness. Before I knew there was red-green and some other type ( I didn't know its name.) I learned about Blue and the other types of colorblindness. I also learned about colors on computers, and the 256 colors that are "web-safe".

February 25

What effect can a color scheme have on a website? How can it make a website better? How can it make a website worse? Explain why color is important.

Color schemes are important to websites because they add to them. People aren't going to want to stay on a website that is dull and boring. Color schemes bring the website to life and keep people interested, entertained, and if they happen to stumble upon it, they might even stay on it and explore. It can hurt a website by not attracting and pulling viewers into it. It may also lose viewers if it's not lively.

February 24th

What did you learn about file types as you created and designed your travel website? What are some other kinds of file types you know of? What do these different files do? Explain.

As I created the travel site I learned new file types, for example: .png and .psd. Others I know of are photos saved to a computer are usually .jpg's and .gif's are little videos. Different file types do different things and function in different ways..pdf's are used for pdf files usually opened in programs like Adobe Reader. I know that each file type is helpful in creating and using different programs and web browsers.
.png
.psd
.pdf
.jpg
.jif
.ppt
.html

February 21

What was your takeaway from this Travel Site? What did you learn that you didn't know before? How will the knowledge of how we built this site help you improve your future websites?

The travel site was super helpful. I learned how to use Photoshop after playing with it a bit. I haven't used Photoshop before so it was nice to learn. It will help me in future web site endeavors to use photo editing before I use the pictures. I also like the use of div tags. They were very helpful and seemed much neater than text boxes. In the future I can used Photoshop to edit my photos and I can use div tags instead of text boxes. This so far was my favorite web site because I learned a ton more than I have on previous web sites.

February 18th

How can Photoshop be a valuable tool in web design? Explain.

Photoshop can very valuable in web design.Photoshop allows you to edit, create, and change photos and images. This can be useful to making interesting web sites and web pages. It can help draw in a viewer and keep them on the web site longer. Overall, Photoshop can turn a plain web site into an interesting one that people will want to read and explore.

February 11th

What do you know about Photoshop? Have you used it before? What can it do? Are you an expert? A newbie? Tell me about your background and what you already know.

I know that Photoshop is a picture editing tool that you can use to crop, size, color, and distort images. Other than that I don't know much. I have used it probably once; thus, I'm a newbie. I used it during middle school computers, probably sixth grade. It was a very looong time ago. I have used other photo editing software so hopefully this doesn't seem too new to me.

February 7th

Think about how a user (me or anyone else using your site) might function and interact with your site. What are some important functional features to make your website easy to work with? How can you make it easier for the user and not frustrating? Explain why this is so important.

The navigation bar makes it very easy for someone to work with my website. Instead of having a user to search all over the page to look for links to other pages, they instead just have it large and underlined at the top of the page. Ways to make it easier is to make the link stand out: bigger fonts, change in color, and underlined links will all do this. It's important because if your website is not easy to navigate, people might stop using it.

February 3rd

Tell me about your Sweetheart weekend. If you didn't go to Sweetheart, what did you do? I want details! 

Saturday, I spent all day shopping for food for a Super Bowl Party. Then I got ready for Sweetheart. We were going to go to BD's Mongolian Barbecue for dinner, but the roads were bad so we went to Applebee's instead (I never thought that I would wear a suit into Applebee's.) Then we went to the dance. Afterwards we went to my friend's house and watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I fell asleep though, but I had already seen it so I didn't miss much. Sunday I volunteered at my Sunday School. Then I went home and helped cook food. I also took stuff over to my grandparent's house which is where the party was (their house is large.) Then we had the Super Bowl Party and then I went home and slept.

January 28th

Tell me about your All About Me site. What are going to be your 4 main content pages? Why did you choose those topics? What big plans do you have for your site that is going to make it different and creative?

My four main content pages are going to be school, family, extra-curriculars, and sports. I chose these because it will allow me to have a lot of content on my website. I can also use these to give my website some better aspects and pizzazz." I am going to use colors, fonts, and links to make this website different and creative.

January 27th

What are your thoughts on HTML code? Did you enjoy the coding activity? Do you feel like you learned anything? Explain yourself.

I really enjoyed the coding activity. It was fun to learn about that because I haven't ever experienced that. I learned a lot, but I would like to learn much more coding and how it works. This would be cool and very useful throughout life. Hopefully we get to learn more of it later on in the semester.

January 21st

Tell me about your three day weekend. How was it? What did you do? Elaborate!

Over my three day weekend, I mostly did homework. Friday to Saturday  I went camping out in Missouri. Saturday morning I went spelunking and explored a few caves near the state park where I camped. After that I drove home and went to Sweet Tomatoes with my brother and dad. Sunday, I went to Sunday school where I help teach. Afterwards, the rest of my day was filled up with homework. On Monday I went to Harvester's for the school volunteer opportunity. Then I went and got Oklahoma Joe's for the workers at my dad's office because they had a busy schedule. Then I came home, finished the rest of my homework, and went to bed.

Tell me if you agree with this statement and then explain why or why not. "Images on the internet are 'free game' - if someone posted it, I should be able to use it."

I do agree with the statement that you should be able to use the image; however, you have to give proper credit to the photo and whomever posted it. Some people may not want their photo being used and just want others to see it, but because things on the internet spread so quickly, you cannot control who uses it.

What do you know about plagiarism? What do you know about plagiarism on the internet? How do web design, the internet and plagiarism all effect each other? Explain.

I know that plagiarism is copying something of someone else's whether it is words, music, art, or ideas. On the internet people often try to plagiarize to get credit for something they did not do or use it on something of their own. Often times it is because it is not cited correctly, or cited at all; however, other times they do not cite it on purpose for other reasons. Plagiarism plays into web design directly because someone can copy something from a web site to their own and call it theirs. Without citing it they are plagiarizing someone else's work and taking it to be their own. It may be a game, image, or style. The internet is the easiest way to plagiarize because it is one of the, if not, biggest database and information can be accessed very quickly. With computers in front of us during web design, we must be aware of it and learn how not to plagiarize. 

What do you already know about web design? How it works? Programs you can use? Tools that exist? Anything.

I know very little about web design. My brother knows a lot and has taught me some but it's very minimal. I know how webpages work and can use the Internet well but cannot create webpages myself.