Tips for the Babies

And now, I pass down wisdom, hard-earned after a semester, for the benefit of all you babies out there. Behold:

• Do the homework! It can be a drag sometimes, especially around the middle of the semester when all of your other classes only have the occasional paper, but really, just do it. The practice is good, and it is so not worth messing up your GPA for this class.
• Don't be too angry that you didn't test out of this class. It's pretty interesting, and even if you are sure you know everything, chances are, you really don't.
• Ms. Belisle is really into design, so take an extra few minutes when you finish a project to make sure it looks nice!
• Keep up with your grades on Blackboard- it's an interesting tool to have at your disposal, plus there are random point bonuses a few times if you keep up with it.
• For exams: look over the course outlines a day or two before. Pretty much everything you need is contained within these pages! Whatever you don't understand, that's what the TA is for!
• Please note that most of the campus computers don't have Photoshop readily available- it is worth the download time to get the trial version.

Websites

I was really impressed by all of the websites that I saw, but I'll point out a few favorites:

1. Katie Doucet's. First, I love that she made a site for her brother's band! Also, I love the layout, and the design work she did. The biography is hilarious, and I like the way she made some words stand out. The layout of the pictures page is unusual but spiffy.
   
2. Lindsay Marotta's. The color work she did with her page! I particularly like how she matched her text colors with the colors of the glass that bars the opening page. I also enjoyed looking through her artwork.
   
3. Hae-Won Kim's. Her layout was very easy to follow and interesting. And, a purple fan myself, I absolutely adored the background! I also approve of the way she laid out her photos.
   

You can find my website and critique it at cs.trinity.edu/~egrout

PowerPoint Presentations

I thought everyone had really interesting PowerPoint presentations on Tuesday. There was really good use of color in all of them. I liked the way Jeff's sort of looked like a video game, with the font choices and general color scheme. I was also impressed with his graphs! Luisa had such a snazzy background, and I liked the rich, earthy colorings she used, and that she gave us information on a relevant current topic. As a fellow International Studies major, I approved! And the flawless transitions were pretty great too. 

And then there was Jenni's- I LOVED it. Really, I go into raptures. I left a huge comment for her going into detail, but there is so much to talk about! The topic was neat, of course, but I really loved all of her aesthetic choices. It looks like she got the striking color scheme from the logo for Doctors Without Borders, which I thought was a really neat way of working it in. The slide where she showed the pictures with the key words was really amazing- the way she layered in the second picture, and when one of the words was red as an extra emphasis. I also liked that she added the video. 

Making a Point About PowerPoint

The big piece of advice I picked up from the various articles and tips on creating effective PowerPoint presentations was to limit the amount of information on each slide. Apparently, when not used to aid students with taking notes in class, a PowerPoint presentation by itself shouldn't actually tell the audience much. That part is up to you, the presenter. Because the PowerPoint is only the visual aid to the presentation, not the presentation itself, I found the following pieces of advice to be the most helpful and/or intriguing:

• Use no more than two fonts in a single presentation, and make sure they are both from the same font type (Serif and Sans-Serif)
• Alter your pictures as they fulfill different purposes in the slide. For a picture that is the main point of the slide, keep it defined, make it interesting, and place it prominently. For a picture that serves as a piece of interest on a slide with other information, make it less obtrusive with techniques like upping the transparency and fading the edges, so it doesn't jump out at you.
• Don't load up on animations and cartoon images and the like. Just because it comes standard with PowerPoint doesn't mean that it is ideal for a presentation. Keep the slide transitions simple and avoid cartoony clip art. Everyone has seen it before. Instead, try using striking, high-quality photographs. 
• Do use video! It can add visual interest, new information, and generally keep the presentation from getting monotonous. 
• Under no circumstances are you to use your PowerPoint as a teleprompter! Have highlights of what you will say, or better yet, representations that will highlight what you have to say, not actually tell the people the information. Limited text is a very good thing. One of the articles recommended no more than 6 words on a slide! Another even said to include none, if possible. 

My biggest PowerPoint pet peeve isn't actually the incredibly enthusiastic use of transitions and the like, though they can be annoying enough. I really dislike it when people don't proofread. We can't see your notes, so what little text we do see up there had better be correct! Random grammar mistakes, typos, incorrect dates, pictures that fly in and cover up half of the text- all things that could be corrected if you just ran through the presentation with your roommate once. 

To "Excel" at One's Vocation....

I have learned a lot about Excel over the past month or so. I confess my experience and expertise with the program before the be quite lacking. I like to use it to make lists, but that's about it. The fact that it does math for me endears it to me greatly, as math is one of the great scourges of my life.

I'm not certain the extent to which my new found knowledge of Excel will play a role in my future, but it certainly can't hurt! I am much more of a creative than business type, and the thought of handling my own finances, for example, scares the bejeezus out of me, so I strongly envision hiring someone for that express purpose. However, as I am first starting out, or for smaller, less official things, I can definitely see myself using the spreadsheet skills I have learned.

I suppose what I am trying to get at is that while I don't think knowing how to create a functioning spreadsheet has suddenly imbued me with the desire to keep track of all of my finances and really anything that has to do with numbers in my life, there is a comfort in knowing that I could. Plus, I have a touch of the geek in me- I like to know about and how to do as many things as possible, just for the heck of it.

Confessions of a Bookaholic

This isn't any sort of official blog for the class, but I thought this was interesting and relevant. 

I personally am in two minds about putting all books ever made online. In the short-run, I think it would be lovely to have easy access like that. However, in the long-run, I would hate for printed books to go away. I LOVE books. I love bookstores. I don't want these to become obsolete! I remember reading a short story in elementary school about a society where books no longer existed- stories were flashed across a computer screen and never re-read. Someone discovered a "book," and people were flabbergasted at the concept of a physical book that could be reread and the like. This seems like it could lead to an eerily similar situation, which I don't approve of. 

Creation in Progress...

I was quite enamored with the CLT! I had known vaguely that it was there and wandered in/by a few times early on in the school year, but I never got a proper tour or learned about all it could do. I have plans to spend a great deal of time there!

I for the most part see my future use of the CLT as personal and recreational, but I can see a few more practical, school-related (though to be fair, those two don't always coincide) uses as well. 

For our CS1300 class, I believe we will be making websites, or at least pages, at some point near the end of the semester, if I remember the syllabus right (if not, this entire argument goes out the window). I would imagine the nice techies in the CLT would be quite useful in spiffing up my page- helping me create and imbed little videos, have nice, creative layouts rather than that which shows up from the most basic HTML coding, etc. 

For other classes (I can think specifically of my Comparing Countries class), they can help me put together visually stimulating and impressive presentations- getting a little flashier than your standard powerpoint! Having decent points and information are of course up to me, but I think it is safe to assume that if I am willing to spend several hours learning how to use the fancy technology to make my pretty presentation, I will be invested enough in the presentation to have good facts and arguments. 

More often than not, however, I think I will use the CLT for my own projects and amusement. I am an amateur (future professional) filmmaker, but I have always absolutely abhorred the editing process, mainly because I sort of fail at it. I am excited that I now have an excellent resource to learn how to do this, and fabulous equipment and software with which to do it! Also, I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about the VHS-to-DVD conversion thing they have going. 

The Germans Are Coming! The Germans Are Coming!

I chose picture 16 because I find it both highly amusing and an interesting look at international relations during the lull between WWI and WWII. This picture is evidently from the April Fool's Day edition of Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung and I would guess involves the "flying man" either being dangled or dropped in order to create the illusion that he is propelling himself via only his lung power. As this was waaaaay before the advent of Photoshop, my only other guess would be that they set this up on a white background, took the picture, took the picture of the background with the men running, and exposed them both onto the same piece of photo paper.

I am fairly certain it was run predominately as an April Fool's joke; the real question is on whom was the joke played? The reading populace, or the paranoid and suspicious US and Britain? Probably just on their people- I don't think Cold War tensions had exactly started, but it is worth noting that Hitler and his Nazis were now in power, and the US military might have been worrying about German military advances.

I don't believe that the manipulation of this photograph, as it were, was harmful. I think it was clearly meant to be silly, and if anyone took it as otherwise for more than a few days (I want to say seconds, but to be fair we are talking about a relatively isolated Germany in the 1930s- it would be hard to check out information like this) would just be being panicky, and probably would be a conspiracty theorist.

Isn't Chris Nolan the guy who directed Batman?

I enjoyed Chris Nolan's presentation on Web searches. I knew most of what he covered, but there were a few interesting tips and tidbits here and there that were relatively new to me. For example, though it seems obvious now, I wouldn't have thought to judge the scholarly quality of a text on the internet by the amount of advertising sharing space with it. I also learned how to limit a search on Google without utilizing the Advanced Search button, which may come in handy. Probably the most helpful thing I learned was about new search engines like the librarian one. 

On a slightly different note, some of the pages I found doing the basic Google search on polar bears led me to several environmental groups that I am now looking at for summer internships, so bonus there! Thanks, Mr. Nolan!

Concerning All Things Disney

What particularly stood out to me about Ms. Graves presentation on Tuesday was not the information about music downloading or the ethics of copyright violation and such topics- I've heard it all before. What struck me was the 1998 Mickey Mouse Protection Act she 

told us about. Forgive me if choosing this topic seems flitty and silly given the wealth of other topics to talk about, but I feel strongly about this, in a strange way.

So: I believe that Mickey Mouse and the Disney characters should be granted a specified long-term copyright that does not affect other copyrighted materials. This is a two-pronged argument, I think. First, as to why the stock Disney characters have more rights than other creations. While to the business world Disney is simply a huge corporation, to millions of children (young and otherwise) it is also a special fantasy world, and it's creations are sacred. Disney knows how to do right by them (certain sequels notwithstanding). These creations should be preserved for future generations in there original forms, and not bandied about by everyone. Furthermore, many of the characters, like Mickey, are synonymous with Disney- a veritable arsenal of trademarks. Losing the copyright to these characters could potentially ruin Disney, and thus render it unable to continue producing childhood fantasies the likes of which I was privileged to grow up with. 

The second part of my argument- that Disney should be held separate from other copyrighted works when it comes to extending the copyright. For the reasons stated above, I be

lieve Disney most certainly should be granted the right to keep their creations out of the public domain. However, I consider these to be "extraordinary circumstances," not to be applied to all and sundry. Rather, I believe the right of Public Domain should be protected in most cases. If it is really important to someone to continue to hold the copyright to their product after 50, 60, 90 years, they should individually take steps necessary to keep the copyright. 

I would compromise by allowing most anything associated with the Disney Channel to go by the wayside, however. 

P.S. I am aware that I have used copyright-protected images here- I strongly assume Disney will grant me Fair Use or at least a blind eye, given the nature of my post. 

Of Facebook and Friends

I personally use Facebook quite a bit, for a variety of things. I of course connect with friends, and I also learn about upcoming events, play games and such with the apps, "Facebook stalk" friends, and generally do what I can to present the most accurate and favorable me to the masses/my peers.One of the big things mentioned in the article "Facebook: A campus fad becomes and campus fact" is the fact that potential employers look at it for harmful information. This does not worry me for a variety of reasons. 

1. I don't really do anything I wouldn't want posted 
2.  I have former teachers and friends' parents friended, so I don't post anything I wouldn't want them to see and 
3.  I have my profile set to private, so potential employers actually couldn't see anything except my profile picture, which is often of my shoes. 
   

I think now that it is so widespread, Facebook is almost essential for college students. When it was smaller, you could stay away an principle and not be too hurt by it. Now, you will have to be the ultimate social butterfly to learn about new events being held, as well as new events in people's lives. I find it is particularly useful when one "goes off" to college, as it makes it infinitely easier to keep in touch with people you weren't the tightest with once everyone is spread all over the country. In addition, it is an easy way to ask for help brainstorming essay ideas, to get clarification on homework instructions, to take surveys for classes where it is necessary to do so, etc. 

To read the above mentioned article, click here. 

Tis a Word too great...

(As You Like It, Act III Scene II)

I have been using Word for most of my life, in it's various forms. I like to write fiction, and find the instant-edit capabilities Word provides to be almost necessary and irreplaceable to my writing. I have no idea, however, how to work this newfangled "Vista" of which many speak. I believe in straight-forward Word, old-school. Unless I am on my Mac, in which case I am slowly learning to love Pages. But as much as I love my Mac and probably prefer it to PCs, pre-Vista Word is still my favorite. I look forward to boning up on my Vista skills in class. Otherwise, for the most part, I know my way around Word quite well.

Presentations and Postings

I commented on Kaileigh's blog (http://kbyrnetu.blogspot.com/) and Kim's blog (http://kferraritu.blogspot.com/).

From Joe Hatch's presentation, I learned more about computer hackers and viruses and the like. I learned reasons why people create spam: to make money for themselves via adware, or in an even sneakier and more destructive way by adding viruses to them ("hijacked links") that put spyware on your computer and allow the spammers to learn your financial information. Not all hackers are spammers, and some just do it because they can.
I was particularly interested to learn a bit more about what adware is, as it is a word I have heard tossed around but never defined. As far as I understand it, adware is a little glitch spammers put in the links of their spam that causes you to a) click repeatedly so as to assure them more money and b) basically causes the spam to never go away and multiply and try and eat you. Or something similar ;)

The Importance of Knowing Elena

Salut, fellow students! Je m'appelle Elena Grout. I am a First Year at Trinity, planning on declaring as a double major in History and International Studies with a minor in drama. I am from Seattle (it does not rain as much as Grey's Anatomy would make it seem), proudly vegetarian, and aspire to be a writer of novels and screenplays. I have two cats at home, Charlie and Cassie. As you may have guessed, I studied French for many years and plan on spending a semester in Paris, as well as an additional semester somewhere else in the world. 

I cannot show you a current picture of my home on Google Earth, unfortunately, because the house pictured there no longer exists due to a fire in December.

I have worked on computers since Kindergarten when we got to use fun programs to enhance our learning. I was a teensy bit of a technology geek when I was younger and technology was far less advanced: I played typing speed games and used math and language programs for fun! Now, I am certainly competent, as most of my generation is, but my best skill is knowing how to coerce someone who actually knows what they are doing to help me! I was required to take a computer skills class in high school, which I was able to test out of. 

My secret fact, if I remember my post-it correctly, is that I have played the mandolin since I was 9. I have learned since then that most people don't even know what a mandolin is, so I will elaborate: a mandolin is a stringed instrument found predominately in jazz and bluegrass music. It has the same strings as a violin (GDAE), but two of each placed close together (i.e. two A-strings are placed less than a quarter inch apart, I would guess). It is fretted like a guitar. See this picture of a mandolin fingerboard for further elucidation: 

You can contact me for any reason at egrout@trinity.edu, and of course via Facebook.