Best Advice

Hello new computer students,

First off, don't fear this class. I was terrified my first day in the class because I have never been very good with computers. It doesn't matter how far behind you are in technological skills, Ms. Belisle is a really helpful teacher. Don't be afraid to ask questions!

Also, just keep up with the homework. It's not hard, but if you don't do it, it will negatively affect your grade.

Finally, have a great time. Even if you already have a lot of computer knowledge, there is always something to learn.

Hope you have as a great a time as I did!

My Favorite Websites

All of the websites were really great, but my three favorites were the ones by Teka Nichols, Nichole McCarter, and Rory Davids. All three websites were colorful and had a great use of pictures. They were delightful to look and showed great web design.

My Website

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~koverman.

Surprisingly, making this website was much, much easier than I thought. I used Expression Web, and I found it was really easy to use. I'm most proud of the My Favorites page because it took so much work to make it look neat. If I could change something, I would have more pictures of my family and fiance. My biggest technical challenge is the problem of my thumb nail which I didn't save right. I had to go through the process of reinserting it and saving it again. My biggest design challenge was finding a font and color that looked good with my backgroung (it was harder than I thought it would be). I'll probably show my site to my fiance first and maybe some people in my dorm who are featured prominently on my site. In the future, I might have to make a website for a class, and I'm thankful for the opporutunity to have learned how to do this.

Pictures that Lie

My picture is inspired by some research I'm doing for a literaure class about Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange. The film adaptation of the novel has become such an iconic aesthetic, and Malcolm McDowell's interpretation of the novel's main character, Alex, is so simultaneously chilling and charming, I just couldn't resist adding another image to the milieu.

First, I found a lovely antique picture of Lisbon on Stock Xchange, and I found a screen shot from the movie on Google. I magnetically lassoed Alex out of the screen shot and put him on the streets of Lisbon. I had to resize him so he didn't tower over the door frames, and I had to use the clone stamp tool around his arms and legs (which was one of the most painstaking tasks I've ever had to do).

My Picture that Lies doesn't really have a great political meaning like many of the photos we have looked at in this class. However, in researching the public's reaction to this work of art, I have been amazed how the movie still repulses and shocks people today despite the presence of much more violent (and less well constructed) films in the mainstream today. For me, this image somewhat conveys the "staying power" of the book and film in the modern mind.

In my opinion, I don't believe that this manipulation was harmful. If I tried to use it for commercial gain, it would be illegal since I don't have permission from Malcolm McDowell to use his image, but since this is just for my class project, it's just a harmless, sort of weird image that pays tribute to one of favorite directors, Stanley Kubrick. However, if I were going to make something like this for commerical use, I would obtain permission to use the picture of Malcolm McDowell.

The article I researched is titled "Computer as Accessory to Photo Fakery." It doesn't directly relate to my piece because the article deals with supposedly faked photos of POWs in China. However, the article also addresses the history of photo fakery. Before the use of computers, the article reports that "the photo manipulator...needed a mechanical pencil, retouching medium, an etching knife and tubes of spotting colors." Even though I complained earlier about the difficulty of cloning the tiny areas around Alex's arms and legs to make him appear like he is actually on the street, in perspective, using PhotoShop is so much easier than the old methods. It's amazing what lengths people went to in order to fool others before PhotoShop became so prevalent.

Browne, Malcolm W. ""Computer as Accessory to Photo Fakery"." New York Times 24 Jul 1991: 6. Web. 9 Apr 2010.

The Importance of HTML Code

I believe that is important for web desingers to know HTML code even if there is great software that helps when constructing a website. The designer should at least have a working knowledge of code so that if something goes wrong with the software, they can correct it or spot the errors. The software available might be useful, but a good web desinger should understand how the program uses code to create web sites so that he or she can have greater control over their design.

My Favorite Slideshows

All of the slideshows were great, but my two favorites were the one about the terra cotta warriors by Teka Nicholas and the one about the Spanish language by Ana Price. Both of the presentations had great pictures, really beautiful color schemes, and the presenters each fit in a lot of information in a very short amount of time. While they didn't make me want to change my major, they were very intriguing presentations that taught me a bit more about different career options.