Lawncare decision model

With this assignment, I

tried to think of simple images that would be easily recognizable, despite my poor drawing abilities.
It is that exactly which gave me my biggest problem. Thinking of a symbol for a healthy lawn, since a thumbs up is pretty recognizable. The symbol for the temperature was only a problem for half of it, as the thermometer was pretty easy to think of. Without using numbers, I had a pretty tough time representing 90 degrees, so a 90 degree angle with an arrow was the best I could think of, since I assumed the arrow would indicate something of a higher quantity. I had the toughest time thinking of a symbol for the "dry" step in the process. First i thought to draw a sun, but soon determined that a sun would probably just be seen as another symbol of temperature, and i needed something better. This is when i hard to start thinking creatively, and came up with (what is supposed to be) a water droplet with a symbol to show that it's canceled out. That was the best I could think of, but I was happy with it. "Pests" was by far the easiest to figure out what to draw. I put my incredibly mediocre drawing abilities to work, and put together a bug that is a smiley face short of a kindergarten drawing.
I feel like I accomplished what I was trying to with this assignment, mostly because I thought of the best symbols that I was capable of drawing for each step. I also definitely accomplished what i wanted to with making it look symmetrical. The only think that I don't think i necessarily accomplished was figuring out good symbols for "yes" and "no." I was gonna just use a check mark and an X, but I already used the X for the "do nothing" option at the beginning.

Other Map

My original plan was not to do a concept map, but an affinity map. After getting frustrated from not being able to think of good enough topics about the Internet for that, i resorted to a more simple concept map. My map shows what i think are the two most general uses for the internet- for getting information and for amusement. A lot of things fell into "information" that could have had their own category, but for the sake of not having a disorganized mess, I just kept it simple. What gave me the most trouble was just giving each category enough space, since I made the mistake of writing the transition words first, so I had to compensate and branch off a bit.

With this assignment, I tried to think of the different ways in which I use the internet to fill up the map. I decided not to start naming specific websites since that could cause some spacial issues, and I didn't to leave any big ones out. I think i covered most of the basic purposes of internet use, for me at least. I liked this map because the ideas flowed very well, and I was able to just write things down as they came to me, not having to worry about it being wrong.

NOTE:

The part that is cut off at the bottom from social media is "staying in touch" and "meeting new people"

Collage

This assignment really allowed me to display the words and images in any way I desired, not in any set way like a map does. For the most part, I just cut out images of people or things I recognized or liked and put them on randomly in places that i deemed suitable. The theme I recognize the most, and what people seemed to point out, is that the man in the goggles is clearly the focal point, which is what I intended since I thought that picture was the most interesting. Another thing I noticed is that there are a lot of warm colors, apart from the blue in corner. I also see a lot of characters, mostly human, but the two animals as well, giving the collage a little bit of "life."

After reflecting on my collage, I cant really see any major themes besides these. I can tell that I tried to make it look slightly unorganized by putting a few pictures on crooked too. This was partly on purpose, and partly because I was running out of time and wanted to get all of the pictures I liked in place.

Mind Maps

INTRO:
When brainstorming what to do for my mind map, I was trying to think of something that pertains to my everyday life. I thought of sports first, but realized that was probably to general and unoriginal. As I was thinking to myself,"Man, I'm bored." it occured tome, something relevant to my typical day - being bored and looking for a way to pass the time.

MIND MAP 1:
For the rough draft of the mind map, I just tried to think of the various in which I pass time on a daily basis. Things like watching TV, surfing the internet, doing homework, and going to the gym immediately came to mind. I then thought of other things such as just hanging out with my friends or girlfriend, and even went as far as to make the broad category of "relaxing" its own element. This map was relatively messy and unorganized, and certain categories could be grouped together to make it more efficient.

MIND MAP 2:
For the 2nd and final mind map, I decided to organize it in a way that allowed related categories to be connected (such as social life and watching TV, since I do that with my friends). I also put activities such as "TV" and "internet" in the category of "relaxing" because I figured they went hand-in-hand. In addition, I also tried to make it look much more neat, and added a few poorly drawn pictures to give it a little extra. With the adviceof someone who is much moreartistic than me, colored the middle in accordingly to match the colors on each arm of the mind map, and I had myself a finalcopy.

CONCLUSION:
After completing this assignment, It made me think about how I spend my time a little. I realized that I probably pass a little too much time by not doing anything productive, but let's be honest, that's probably not going to change. It did, however, make me try to think of some new ways I can pass time, whether productive or not, just to change things up a little. Overall, it was an enjoyable assignment since I was able to do it about something that I do on a daily basis.

Final Soundslide

Speech For Final Soundslide

Of the 44 official years in the NFL’s history, this past decade has provided us with some of the most exciting seasons and super bowls. Dynasties have risen then fallen, and records have been set then broken. Teams have come from nowhere and won their division to surprise everyone.

Most of the reason this decade has been so great is because of all the new talent coming into the league each year. Such amazing athletes make for a better, more exciting game full of more great plays. Coaches have also changed their styles and created new schemes to fool opponents. Every player in the NFL is a great athlete, but some are more than great. They’re legendary.

Here are a few of the reasons why this decade qualifies as a great time for football.

From 2001-2005, the New England patriots were a dynasty, winning the super bowl in ’01, ’03, and ‘04. In 2007, they were the first team to have a perfect regular season since 1972. They were consistently among the best teams in the league year in and year out, these past two seasons, have not been so great for them.

Peyton Manning is another major reason why this era of football is so great. When he retires, he could go down as the greatest quarterback ever. Not only does he have the ring on his finger, but he has the numbers to earn himself at least consideration for MVP every year.

Another such player is Ladanian Tomlinson. He has been no doubt the best running back of these past 10 years. This year, he eclipsed the top 10 in all time rushing yards, and he now ranks 3^rd all time in touchdowns.

Another amazing story is Brett Favre. After playing with the Green Bay Packers for over 15 years, he ends up joining division rival Minnesota Vikings. Near the age of 40, he wasn’t thought to do much, but is now having one of the best seasons of his career.

Now, to look at the current season. For the first time in NFL history, there are two teams undefeated after 12 games – the New Orleans Saints, and the Indianapolis Colts. Both teams have dominated all year, and seem to have great chances at continuing their win streaks into he playoffs where they can potentially meet in the super bowl for an epic showdown.

To talk about the Saints, in case you didn’t see last Monday, they thoroughly dismantled the Patriots on Monday Night Football. The final score was 38-17, and all the New England fans that were talking trash all week suddenly went silent. It was wonderful, and I loved every second of it.

Final Soundslide Rationale

With this Soundslide, I was trying to use images and limited text to get my point to show how the current decade of the NFL is so historic. I did so by bringing up several players and teams that are really a privilege to watch, and using appropriate pictures.

I found the most challenging part to be figuring out how I would get all the information/slides to fit into the 2 minute limit while still getting all my points across. I did so my just cutting down on what was said for each topic and only keeping the really necessary stuff.

I'm most proud of how I was able to do the Soundslide by myself this time. The first one really gave me trouble.

If I had more time, I guess I would have added some effects into the PowerPoint slides and transitions to make it a little more visually appealing.

Bi/Bi Card Rationale

With this assignment I was just trying to re-create the card that I had chosen. I did so by making it look as much like the original as possible.

I think i had the hardest time with getting all the fonts/font sizes correct. It was tough to find ones that were the same as the card's. I got past this obstacle with trial and error until I found the correct font/size.

I'm most proud of how I actually was able to do it. To be honest I didn't think I had a chance of completing this assignment coming into it.

If I had more time, I honestly don't know what I would change. I can't think of anything major I'd like to chance, and at the end of the assignment I was so just happy to be done with it.

Website Rationale

There was no real aim for this assignment, just to make a basic website for my favorite sports team, the New Orleans Saints. I did so by using several pictures and tables to represent the data I chose to display.

The most challenging part of this assignment was figuring out how to use Dreamweaver. I had only used notepad and other basic html programs in the past, so I had to disregard that knowledge since this program is completely different. I went about this problem by getting help from other students and just toying around with the program.

The thing I'm most proud of is that I made a descent looking and functional website about the Saints, because they're awesome.

If I had more time I would change up the headers and footers a bit, maybe get some different fonts in there, and possibly add a "highlights" page with videos to watch.

Brochure Rationale

For the brochure, I just wanted to make an cool looking brochure that gave some basic info about the New Orleans Saints. I did so by using their team colors (black and gold) and including information such as their team roster and 2009 schedule.

I had the most trouble with aligning everything and making all my text fit while still being readable and attractive. I had to constantly change positions and sizes to get it right, but I eventually did.

I'm most proud of how I got the hang of Quark - a program I had never used or even heard of before. I felt like I did a good job considering it was my first time using Quark.

If I had more time, I would decrease the amount of space devoted to the roster on the inside of the brochure, and add something a bit more interesting.

Soundslide Rationale

file:///Volumes/private$/bgagnon603/Bee%20Gees%20Powerpoint/Bee_Gees_Soundslide/small.html
...I wasn't able to embed it, so here's the file link.

With this Soundslide, I was simply taking the PowerPoint I had already made, and making it into a slide show. I did so by using the Soundslide program and combining the previously used slide show pictures and the song from it.

I found the hardest part to be editing the slides to go with certain parts of the song. I got by this problem by a lot of trial and error.

If I had more time I would have tried to edit the slide show so that the slides were a little more even in terms of length, which was hard to do because of the way in which I wanted the slides to transition.

Poster Design Rationale

While creating the poster I was trying to promote my event while emphasizing the disco theme, with a slightly humorous approach. I did so by adding the text "Bell Bottoms!" to the poster, to go along with "Disco!" and "Open Bar!" to grab the viewers attention, make them laugh, and check out what the event has to offer.

I found the most challenging aspect of this assignment to be finding the right spots and sizes for the texts and picture. I found it difficult to include everything I wanted to say/show and then organize it in a way that was appealing. I just kind of fooled around with the texts, tried organizing them in different ways until I found something that was spacious and attractive.

There's not really one key thing I'm the most proud of, I'm just happy with the way my poster turned out. I believe I effectively displayed my event, held the disco theme, and added a bit of humor. I know disco isn't popular anymore, but I feel my poster would still catch several peoples' eyes and at least make them laugh - making them remember it.

If I had more time, I think the one thing I would have done would be to give a more attractive background, or maybe just add a few minor graphics to the poster itself. I'm happy with how it looks, but a non-solid black background could have done some good.

PowerPoint Design Rationale

In this portion of my project, I wanted to create an entertaining PowerPoint presentation on the Bee Gees and their prominence in the disco era. I chose a song that I knew most people would recognize, whether they knew it was by the Bee Gees or not, so they would be able to relate to it more.

I found the hardest part of this assignment, by far, was to time the transition of the slides, pictures, and text with the music being played. I overcame these challenges by frequently adjusting the transitions so that they went accordingly with the correct part of the song.

The thing I'm most proud of from this assignment is how I was able to time the slides and effects to go with the rhythm of the song. It took a lot of trial and error, but I was able to figure out the timing and use the transitions effectively.

If I had more time, the one thing I'd do would be to cut down a little bit of the information on a couple slides, so there would be a few extra seconds to read each slide. I had to keep it like it was so the timing with the music would work, making a few of the slide transitions come a little too soon.

Postcard Design Rationale

With the postcard, I was trying to achieve the satisfaction of making a cool-looking design I would actually be proud of. I chose graphics that dealt with football, more specifically my favorite team, the New Orleans Saints. It doesn't really apply to the quote, but it's football season and it was something I was into.

I changed around the hue and saturation a lot to add some color to it, as the teams colors are white, black, and gold - which go well with many colors. I obviously layered the pictures so they were all visible even if overlapping, and I feel I accomplished my goals.

I was having a hard time adding colors to the right parts, as it would often be too dark or light to see a certain picture in the group. However, with much trial and error I was able to get the placement right and the colors to look good where they were without too much contrast.

I'm most proud of how I used several pictures of my favorite sports team to make one visually attractive picture full of color, sweet pictures, and of course the Saints. If I had more time, I guess I would add a few more detailed pictures of players or logos to liven it up a bit.

Contact Sheet Design Rationale

In this project, I used a variety of images to create several perspectives of each image in a contact sheet.
I wasn't really hoping to achieve anything about how good it looked, I just wasnted to do it correctly and get a grasp on the basics to photoshop.
Some of the variations included higher/lower resolution pictures, adding colored tints or black and white affects, close-ups and wide angle shots, abstract views of an image, and photos with various photoshop effects used on it.

What I found to be most challenging was altering the resolution to crop the pictures to the right size, while still making them fit into the contact sheet appropriately. I solved these problems with trial and error, but mostly got some help from classmates.
What I am most proud of would probably just be finishing the assignment correctly. As a photoshop novice, I didnt really know what I was doing at first, but after a little practice I got the hand of it fairly well.
If I was allowed more time, the one thing I would probably do differently would be to experiment more with color, saturation, and other basic effects to get a better feel for them.
There were 6 different pictures used in all, and 23 pictures after editing. The contact sheet shows just a sample of how you can show different perspectives of a picture using photoshop.