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I exported my old blog to the new Hippie Hosting site, and it will be operational as long as the internet gods are willing! 🙂
I will continue to blog there: http://blog.neverthesameriver.com/
I exported my old blog to the new Hippie Hosting site, and it will be operational as long as the internet gods are willing! 🙂
I will continue to blog there: http://blog.neverthesameriver.com/
My last all-nighter project in DS106!! 🙂 I can't believe it's over. I will miss it. All of it. The community, the friends I've made, my team mates. …and Jim Groom, who taught me so much, but above all, who let me see what I'm capable of if I put my mind to it. The class if over but #4Life goes on. 🙂
I've finally moved all my posts over to UMW Blogs. I wasn't able to keep the same theme, so I ended up editing almost every post so they would fit into this generic theme. But it's all good. I was getting tired of my theme anyway. Nevertheless, it was a lot of work. I've been doing this non-stop for several hours tonight, and I need to take a break.
I've been putting off making my final movie so I can give it my full attention that it deserves, without the final exams and research papers looming over my head. So I saved it for last. And now, I have exactly 1.5 days to make my final movie. Time somehow got away from me, but I usually do my best work when I'm under pressure, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow…
Remember my post about killing 3 birds with one stone? Well, I finished editing our group project, which was to make a 10-minute video about a psychologist who has made an impact on modern psychology. This movie is about Mary Cover Jones and the influence she has had on behavior therapy. She was one of the pioneer behaviorists, but not many people knew about her 1924 research until the 1970's, when Joseph Wolpe named her "the mother of behavior therapy." She did not get the recognition she deserved throughout most of her career, because she happened to be a woman working in academia dominated by men at the time.
The first video is what I posted for TDC. I used the footage from this for my first attempt at using Adobe Premiere Pro in the second video.
I must say, after struggling with the Premiere Pro for two days, I really like it. It's all pretty intuitive, I think. I just have to keep playing with all the different tools and shortcuts. I do like the fact that I have so much control over every inch of every frame. So far, I'm loving this challenge. I just wish I had more time. Final papers, final exams, etc… But I did manage to spend several hours playing with this today.
For my first project, I decided to make it short and just get used to some tools. I just used the footage I took for TDC last week. I learned how to do the following:
Import, cut clips and insert into timeline, separate audio, adjust volume, add audio transition, add video transition, add video efects, split screen, change video to black and white, add titles, use layers, add more layers, render effects, and export to cue. Whew! That's a lot. The resulting video is below. I know. It's not much. But I'm sooooo proud of it!! Go ahead, you can roll your eyes now. 😉
I used:
- Video Effects –>Image Control–>Black and White
- Video Effects–>Stylize–>Posterize
- Video Effects–>Color Correction–>Fast Color Corrector (I used this to give the last portion an evening feel.)
- Video Effects–>Transform–>Crop
- Video Transitions–>Dissolve–>Cross Dissolve & Dip to Black (I actually tried every transition that was available!) 🙂
- Audio Transitions–>Cross Face–>Constant Gain & Exponential Fade
I also figured out how to export a frame as a still image by using the camera icon as you see below! I used the still images for the black and white portions of the video. 🙂
I have become fairly comfortable with using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and have been wanting to learn how to use Premiere Pro for video editing (I've only used Movie Maker and iMovie thus far) and also Dreamweaver for web designing. Not only will I be able to increase my creative potential but I can also make myself more marketable for graphic design and/or video editing positions. I have to laugh at myself, because here I am… ready to graduate with a degree in psychology but finding myself spending most of my time doing digital art and dreaming about doing it for a living. I blame it all on ds106. Ha!
I already have two pro bono website building jobs lined up and also crossing my fingers on a possible paid position wherein I am expected to have experience in Photoshop AND Premiere. I've assured the company that I can learn the application within a very short time, so I hope they'll give me a chance to show them. Even if the job falls through, I am still determined to challenge myself on this. And I guess Premiere has now been moved to the first position in line on my bucket list…
In the last couple of days, I've viewed countless YouTube video tutorials, as well as reading as much as I can about Premiere Pro CS5.5. I'm starting to overwhelm myself with too much information, so I've decided that the best thing to do is to just jump in and start using it. Everyone has a different learning style, so my way of learning will not necessarily be good for someone else. But I plan on documenting this process just in case someone out there will find it helpful. 🙂 I found the following two tutorials to be very informative and reassuring. The videos give a general overview of Premiere and its workspace, which can be extremely intimidating to someone opening it up for the first time. I think I'm now ready to start a project!!
I do have some psych papers due in the next couple of days, but I hope to have my first video project to showcase by next week. Kee-dae-ha-shi-rah! (that means "Expect great things!") 🙂
In honor of 100th TDC today, I designed the below image to make a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle at www.jigsawplanet.com.
Perhaps because of the dimensions of the image, I ended up with only 96 pieces, but close enough…
Video Assignment 376: Return to the Silent Era
Ever since I worked on this assignment (twice) two weeks ago, I haven't been happy with it. I had been thinking about how I could make it look more authentic, more like a real silent film.
And then this occurred today, as if someone read my thoughts. Hmm… Anyway, from there, I found this article, and then I was finally led to Ben Rimes' (aka @techsavvyed) brilliant silent-film -ized Back to the Future video. He was gracious enough to list all of the tools he used to make the video in his comments section on YouTube, and I got inspired.
So… here is my 3rd and final attempt at this assignment:
I think Jim Groom will be happy that Sean Connery is no longer in the video, but that was NOT because I wanted to cut him out. I just ended up cutting all the scenes where people were talking, and he ended up getting cut. Oh well.
I downloaded the "Silent Movie Title Card" from this site as Ben suggested. (THANKS, @techsavvyed!!!!!! for inspiring me!)
I googled and found the font and the music as follows:
You can see my previous attempts here and here, but I'd advise you not to. haha.
Remix Assignment 555: d&ds106 Monster Manual remixed Pollock Style
I took the below image from this post and remixed it.
To make this image, I first found this site, where you can make your own Jackson Pollock style paintings on your screen. Then I came up with the idea to try and paint something that resembles the original monster image. Let me tell you, it was NOT as easy as I had hoped. After many trials, I finally came up with something that I was willing to settle for. Then I saved the painting as a screenshot and imported it to Photoshop. Finally, I placed the monster image on top of it and lowered the opacity to 20%. Not bad, eh? 🙂
Remix Assignment 553: Patty Pioneers remixed with Happy Days card
I took the below image from this post and remixed it.
It took me a while to find an image of "The Fonz" that would fit in with this Patty Pioneers image. Then I cut out the jacket portion without the head, placed it into the above image, and resized it to fit. Next, I cut out the hand holding the cheeseburger and placed it on top of the jacket layer. I touched up the edges and added a drop shadow to the jacket layer. It's not perfect, but I think it's acceptable. 🙂
Missing Persons Poster –> [Remixed]: The Opposer
I took the below image from here and created the remix.
in[SPIRE] is almost ready for launching! You'll be able to start submitting the DS106 work that inspired you in just a few days (I hope!). Here's an update on what has transpired so far:
Progress Report:
I know that our ideas have been a little bit scattered until we (with the help of Jim Groom and Alan Levine) finally came up with a plan. They listend to our ideas and what we were trying to accomplish and suggested that we incorporate it into the main DS106 site. Awesome! We then went to work.
What we ended up with is slightly different from what we were imagining in the beginning, but it is much more workable, realistic, practical, and still somewhat like what we envisioned. The brain component sort of got lost in the shuffle, but the following two ideas that made up the DS106 brain concept still remain:
Rachel and I are more than happy with the results.
We decided that it should be a place where all the best work of DS106 is archived where people can go and browse through the work. We decided that we should also have the DS106 community itself choose what work should be added to the collection. This is where Gravity Form came into the picture. Jim and Alan had been learning about the Gravity Form plugin and the countless ways it can be used to collect and organize data.
I remembered the e-literature piece that Rachel showed me… I had browed through the main site where the piece came from for more info. I suggested that we use that sort of a tiled portfolio format as our main page where all the best work of DS106 gets showcased. The visitors then can click on one of the tiles and get more information about the work. Tim Owens helped us find a theme that fits the bill, and we thought it was perfect. It's called Mansion by Graph Paper Press.
The Gravity Form is being used to have the visitors enter information about the work they are recommending. The Views plugin that works in conjunction with the form can compile the data in any format, e.g. list, table, etc. for the administrators to organize and view the data. Both plugins have so many possibilities. I cannot go into the details of how it all works, because I myself have only learned the very very basic functions. But trust me…it's awesome! Martha Burtis and Tim Owens have been gracious enough to help us with all the technical details, but some of the coding stuff is beyond my understanding (although I am determined to teach myself CSS and HTML when the semester is over).
So basically, when the site is finally ready, anyone will be able to enter the information about the work(s) that inspires them. Each submission will become a post on its own, and the thumbnail image they upload will become a tile on the main page. In this way, the main page will be constantly updated as new pieces get submitted. It will truly be a collaborative collection that will be driven by the whole community. Yay!
We just have to work out some final details, such as how the posts will look when a visitor clicks on one of the tiles. The form itself is pretty much set up, and you can go to HERE to preview what we have so far. Some of the work that currently show up are just test images and not real submissions.
I am still thinking that there should be some sort of a voting feature, such as a "like" button that keeps track of how may people liked the work that has been submitted.
Leave your comments or suggestions below or just give us a tweet:
Catching up on posting my TDCs…
TDC 65: My Work Space
TDC66: DS106 is the best thing since…
TDC88: Repeated Geometric Shapes
TDC90: Looking through another object
We were assigned to watch the "Everything is a Remix" video series by Kirby Ferguson.
He brings to light some very interesting and important facts, and the following points are basically what I got from watching the videos:
I enjoyed the videos very much. They were excellent and made me think. I would highly recommend that everyone watch them.
I do agree that in order for creativity and innovation to thrive and for us to maximize the human potential, we need to keep the regulations to a minimum and let things take their natural course. But unfortunately, as long as money remains in the equation, the battle will continue. The fact that we continue to be our own worst enemy to prohibit our own progress, sadly, is a part of the human condition, IMHO. However, that doesn't mean that we should stop trying. Slowly but surely, we still manage to move forward in our evolutionary track.
And by the way, while I was watching these videos, I remembered THIS VIDEO of an experiment conducted by Derren Brown. I don't know the validity of this experiment. After all, it was made for TV. I still think it is a great illustration of the concept that even what we perceive as our own ideas may have come from somewhere else without us ever being consciously aware of it. Watch it. You will be amazed.
Another Video Assignment 445: (However, this one is a bit different, in that I replaced the video with other images to go with the audio to make it look similar to the other one I made last week.)
So my History of Psychology project (10-min. video) is slowly coming along.
I extracted audio from this video (from 1:22 to 2:14) and made a new video to match the one about Little Peter. The Little Albert study was done by John B. Watson 4 years before the Little Peter study by Mary Cover Jones.
The skills I've learned in DS106 came in handy yet again in another class. This time, Applied Counseling. I've added the vintage feel for DS106 (Video Assignment 397)
Interviewing Skills – Self-Disclosure to a Counseling Client
Video Assignment 448: One archetype, five movies, five seconds.
Each clip is 2 seconds long, because I thought 1 second was way too short. Rules? What rules? 🙂
The clips are from the following movies:
Lassie Come Home (1943)
Turner & Hooch (1989)
Shiloh (1996)
My Dog Skip (2000)
Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)
I got the idea for this as I was commenting on this post.
But the embedding has been disabled on these videos for some reason, so you'll have to follow the links:
I made this. (this one didn't turn out so well…)
Here's a second try. (this one is teeny bit better) 🙂http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnTz4k7u108
Still meh…
In this tutorial, I explain how I extracted the audio from the interview of Anthony Hopkins and put it together with appropriate video clips as a part of my video essay on Titus. This part took the longest time to edit, and it turned out to be much more tedious than I had anticipated. But I learned a lot, given the fact that I had no idea how to do any of this before starting this project. 🙂
I found this today. An excellent advice on sentence length. We could all use it. 🙂
Gary Provost, quoted in Roy Peter Clark's (terrific) Writing Tools:
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It's like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.
What's funny, though, is that at the end of the blog post, he writes "File under: Music." LOL
Here's what you call killing 3 birds with one stone:
1. Finish a part of an assignment for another class (History of Psych).
2. Use it as a DS106 video assignment idea submission. (I think this should be 5 stars)
3. Get stars for completing my own assignment idea.
Why not? The whole point of my taking DS106 is to help me to be creative in other classes and all other aspects of my daily life. I think it's completely appropriate. 🙂
This assignment took me about 15 hours to execute, and it only accounts for 1.5 minutes of the 10-minute movie my team is working on for our History of Psychology project.
First, I had the following information contained in an article:
Briefly, Jones treated Peter's extant fear of a white rabbit with a variety of fear-reducing procedures. The most successful procedure was that of "direct conditioning," in which a pleasant stimulus (food) was presented simultaneously with the rabbit. As the rabbit was gradually brought closer to him in the presence of his favorite food, Peter grew more tolerant, and was able to touch it without fear.
Then I found the following image, which immediately gave me an idea for this portion of our movie.
After 15 hours of ad tedium, here's what I came up with based on the above information:
Titus (1999)
I don't know how else to describe it. So far, video week is hell. This video assignment has taken me a minimum of 40 hours of work, 5 of which were spent on researching and trying to figure out which movie I wanted to use and 7 of which were used in trying to figure out how to download and use all the applications. I finally ended up going with a movie that I own, Titus. I had started this earlier this week, and I've been going at it today since 8am. Being a novice at this, every single edit is taking a ridiculously long time. Then there is my ever-present (and annoying) perfectionism. Here I am again at 3am, writing this blog post. After all that, the video still is not perfect. But I'm making the executive decision to call it "done."
…but that was last night. Today is a new day, and every time I review the video, I have the urge to change something. I do have two exams to study for, and I'm having a hard time focusing on them, because all I can think about is how I can make this video just a little bit better.
So far, I've uploaded 4 different versions of it. At this rate, I will never get any other video assignments done, let alone all the work from other classes that I've been neglecting. But here's my view: Better to do one thing well than to do ten things half-assed. And that's my final answer. But seriously, I think I am finally walking away from this one. Honest. 🙂
Here's an idea for the in[SPIRE] logo:
And this is the brain idea:
So what? – Vision/Reaching Beyond/Making a Differenc
After the initial brain-storming session for our final project, we agreed that a circuit board inside a brain would be a good image to represent DS106. Then I thought it should be half digital and half organic. (See my previous post.)
I finally came up with this design. I got the background images from here and here and designed the rest on Adobe Illustrator. I then transferred the design into Photoshop and integrated the other images. Please feel free to critique it. 🙂
Adobe Illustrator image: (It took me all day to figure out how I could depict half human/half digital brain.)
While my thoughts were going a mile a minute on our final project idea, I had the sudden urge to design something with this concept. I have no idea how it relates to what we talked about, but here it is:
Note: The faint red, green, and blue colors on the balls represent RGB.
hmm… now onto ideas for the image of the human/digital brain…
I met with Rachel today to talk about some ideas for our final project. Her idea was to do a hyperlink project where we can link the many characteristics of DS106 all in one place, with an image for the home page that will have hyperlinks attached to it. She was thinking something like this. The following ensued:
Some other thoughts about my desire for the final product:
- It should be simple and easy to navigate.
- It should include a section where someone can easily get an overview of what DS106 is.
- It could include a section with testimonials (we can use the 3/14/12 TDC assignments).
- It should have a section with all the background stories of the inside jokes.
- Could it map out DS106 groups and communities within the big community on the image of the circuit board?
- Those are my thoughts. Please feel free to comment.
Inside an elevator, Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower), Chicago.
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York.
This is the final cut version of Part 2 of my crime report:
Hmm… how do I describe Kim Droom? In a word, he is complicated. @jimgroom was gracious enough to agree (on behalf of Kim Droom) to do an interview for our AMCX radio show. I wanted to interview Droom in order to get an update on his investigation into the hacking incident several weeks ago, shortly after the semester began. If you are not familiar with the story, you can check out this video.
I had thought it would be a very short interview. …just a few quick questions and answers. Easy. Little did I know about Detective Droom's tendency to go off on many tangents! I had written out my questions, but we had no script and went off the cuff. After three takes, we had three different interviews and three very different varieties of tangents. They were 8:04, 8:22, and 11:14 in length!! Here they are, if you find yourself interested in listening to the raw footage:
At first, I was overwhelmed by the amount of material I had to work with, but soon realized that the more I had the better. I can pick and choose the best responses and cut and edit any way I want! So I listened to all three takes several times and took notes on them. Out of all three takes, I picked out the responses that would blend together well to give the interview a good flow. It was many hours of edit-listen-edit-listen-edit-listen-edit, etc. etc. etc… You get the idea.
One revelation I should share here is that working long hours on a project and getting to know it intimately is much like developing a relationship with a person. One becomes very attached to one's project as one spends more and more time with it.
Surprisingly, I was able to piece together a fun and interesting interview much better than I had anticipated. But it was rather long – 8:16. I started out hoping for about 5:00, but I liked it a lot and could not find anymore places where I wanted to cut. Listen for yourself:
@jimgroom suggested that I try to cut it down to half the length. In the meantime, I came up with the idea to insert some sound clips that I thought would fit perfectly into several places in the interview, which would add more time. What to do? What to do…
I took a deep breath and started cutting again. C….c…ut. Tears. C…c…c…c….ut. Some more tears (ok… not real tears, but I teared up on the inside). Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. I finally got to a point where I just could not cut anymore and ended up with 5:43 that is at the top of this post. If you want me to cut more than that, you'll have to do it yourself after you drag me kicking and screaming from my computer. So there!
The moral of this story?
With the raw footage, more is better.
With the finished product, less is more. 🙂
Our team's main idea was to run a political debate between Bagman, Allygator, and Handgela (I could not track down this video), since one of our team-mates IS the one and only, awesome Allygator herself! We also decided that including a crime update of Kim Droom's investigation into Emre5807 would round out the show very well.
I suggested to my team (Annie and Rachel) that Norm could be a great addition to our show as well, since I was familiar with Norm's sense of humor and his fantastic voice from other work he's done in DS106. Since Annie and Rachel was going to work on the political debate and the commercials, I volunteered to take the crime report segment by doing an interview with Kim Droom and also work with Norm to come up with something interesting to add.
One of the ideas was to include a weather report by Norm at the end of our show. After thinking about it, however, I thought it would be great for him to play a part in the Kim Droom interview as a guide/guard who escorts me to Droom's top secret underground headquarters. Yes!! I thought. Norm could be the "Gate Keeper" who guards the entrance to the deep dark undisclosed location from which Kim Droom works to fight cyber crimes against our online identities… Perfect!
Norm was pretty much game for anything and eager to help. He's just that kind of a guy. I emailed my idea to him and initially thought we could perhaps record something together via Skype (but in hindsight, it wouldn't have worked as well.) That didn't work out because my internet connection at the time was acting up, so we decided to just use Google chat on gmail to come up with a dialogue between me playing the AMCX reporter and Norm the "gate keeper." The dialogue flowed very smoothly, and we got it done in about ten minutes. Here's a copy of our chat.
I thought his idea to include snakes was brilliant! Yam-loving snakes at that! Hilarious! Here's the footage Norm recorded and sent to me that evening:
Using Garage Band, I recorded my lines using my computer's internal mic and added the sound effects I found on freesounds.org. I was not completely satisfied with the mix when it was played in class, but it was good enough for a preview. After that, I decided my voice sounded too soft and muffled, so I re-recorded my lines using my iPhone mic (which turned out to be a much more clear) and then re-adjusted the sound effects. Here's what I finally ended up with:
What better way to blog about audio week than using audio! Here are my thoughts on working with my team-mates on our AMCX Radio Show.
Here it is! I learned how to use autotune in Garage Band by watching this tutorial. It's not perfect, and I may have overdone the effects, making the words somewhat hard to understand, but I think it's not bad for a beginner. Ha! (but don't quote me on that.)
The Product:
I cut, copied, and pasted the original clip here, there, and everywhere and played around with various effects to make the following:
I found a clip to use for this from the video of Jim Groom's recent guest speech at Kansas State University. 🙂
Here's the original clip I recorded from the video using the internal mic on my computer:
Original clip by linda3dots
I honestly cannot explain the process, because it was very, VERY messy and tedious. But this is how my file in Garage Band looked when I got done:
Ugh! Sound Week! This was my least favorite week thus far. I have very little experience with sound editing, and by little I mean none. Up until now, my assignments took longer than necessary because of my perfectionism, but sound is a different story. Everything this week is taking much longer because I have no earthly idea what I'm doing. I've been spending a lot of time trying to learn just the very basics on both Garage Band and Audacity.
This is my sound effects story that I managed to put together after many hours of moaning and cursing:
Initially, I posted this version:
Then after getting some suggestions from Jim Groom during class, I decided to spend some more time trying to make it better. Here's a new and improved version:
What do you think? Better? 🙂
I found all of my sound effects for this story on freesound.org.
It is an amazing site where people share their sound files. I found the following sounds for this story:
Siren: http://www.freesound.org/people/guitarguy1985/sounds/59864/
Running down the stairs: http://www.freesound.org/people/mikaelfernstrom/sounds/68721/
Heart beat: http://www.freesound.org/people/HerbertBoland/sounds/32731/
Open and close door: http://www.freesound.org/people/fresco/sounds/35617/
Footsteps on floor: http://www.freesound.org/people/Corsica_S/sounds/44665/
Bomb explosion 1: http://www.freesound.org/people/zimbot/sounds/120573/
Bomb explosion 2: http://www.freesound.org/people/Lord%20Razu/sounds/107792/
I used Audacity to put the project together. I found out that the "import" option creates a new layer of sound on the same file, and the "open" option opens the sound in another window.
For the original version, I cut and placed the different sound effects linearly on one layer, which made the transitions sound very abrupt.
For the revised version, I made layers of the same sound with different volume to make it seem more seamless. I think it turned out great for a beginner… 😉
For our TDC assignment yesterday, I submitted a photo that represented my past career with the FBI. It always takes me by surprise when I realize how long it has been. Yet it still seems like yesterday. I remembered this poster I designed in an introductory digital art class I took last summer and decided to share it here. The assignment was to design a fictional movie poster that would depict something about your life.
I had to exaggerate the suspense a teeny bit for effect, as you can see. 😉
Working for the FBI was a great learning experience for me; and during the last few years I worked there, I was on a surveillance team with ten other wonderful people. Our team name was "Alpha," and my handle was Alpha-10. The work was very interesting, indeed, but the bond we formed as a team is what I miss the most.
The below photo was taken a few days ago when I caught up with a former team-mate to have dinner with her. She was on assignment in this area. I hadn't seen her in 15 years. After our days on the team, she went on to become a Special Agent and I became a mom.
I felt a small pang of envy as I listened to the stories from the path she chose, but I wouldn't trade my last 20 years for anything in the world. 🙂
In the midst of Design Week madness, I managed to post the following Daily Creates:
Food being served or eaten in an unconventional way. tdc.ds106.us/tdc36/ I wrote up a separate post for this TDC complete with more images from Korea.
Toy in action. tdc.ds106.us/tdc37/
Object that represents how old you feel. tdc.ds106.us/tdc38/
Bird tdc.ds106.us/tdc39/
Someone else's artwork in an interesting way to make it yours. tdc.ds106.us/tdc40/
Most prized possession. tdc.ds106.us/tdc41/
Design Assignment 367: Time to let out your inner Big Brother! Create a propaganda poster for ds106. Use your photo editing software of choice and write a message to inspire your fellow ds106ers. For example, I took a WW2 poster about increasing ammunition production, and turned it into a poster promoting tweeting.
I witnessed Daniel come up with this design assignment idea, work on it, and reveal his work in real time on twitter (see below), and it was so much fun to share in his excitement! I cannot express enough how great it is to be part of a community that shares their enormous ongoing creative energy and also feed off of that energy from each other. Who would've thunk? AHHHHH! and right at this very moment, I came up with ANOTHER IDEA!! I'm not kidding!
This one didn't turn out so well. Font problems…
I found the propaganda posters HERE and HERE and went to work on Photoshop CS4. I had the most trouble with the fonts, but after cutting, pasting, matching colors with the dropper and paint tool, I got them to look fairly decent.
Here are the side by side views of before and after:
For the "Big Brother" poster, I found the below photo of Jim Groom HERE and edited it as follows:
I came up with this idea while working on the propaganda poster design assignment.
This didn't quite fit in with any other assignments already there (please correct me if I'm wrong), so I decided to just submit it as another design idea.
Design Assignment 372: Take a movie poster and change it to depict a movie about DS106. It's sort of like the DS106 propaganda poster, but this time, it's DS106, the movie!!
Here's my submission:
I found the original poster HERE.
Here is a side by side view of before and after:
Design Assignment 358: The assignment is to reduce a movie, story, or event into its basic elements, then take those visuals and reduce them further to simple icons, four of them. Write your blog post up but do not give away the answer, let people guess! The challenge is to find the icons that suggest the story, but do not make it so easy.
I think they are pretty easy. Any guesses? 🙂
- Same writer for both
- Both were remade in the late 90's
- There is blood
- They are both tragedies
- Revenge is a common theme
I thought and thought and thought about this assignment, but nothing special came to mind. So I moved on to other assignments. Then after my idea fizzled out on another assignment, I looked at this again. And Bam! I got not one, but TWO ideas!! I searched the Noun Project site for icons, downloaded them, and put them together on Photoshop. It was a pretty straightforward process, but in the process, I figured out how to draw the outline on Photoshop! I'll make a short tutorial for that and post it tomorrow.
Design Assignment 364: Make a campaign poster for Bagman's 2012 campaign! You can base it on a famous political poster (Obama's Hope poster, for example), movie posters, whatever. Minimalist or complex, just make it awesome.
I just HAD to do one of these. 🙂
I'm getting behind on writing up my process for the projects. I promise I'll get to them soon!! 🙂
Design Assignment 313: Pick a movie poster and animate it. You can see an awesome example and quick explanation by Michael Branson Smith here.
It took me only a few minutes of contemplation to come up with this idea, but the execution was a lot more involved than I thought. That always seems to be the case, though. When I see my idea in my head, it always seems very easy and simple. No problem. But when I start working on it, it's a whole new ball park.
More to come…
I was in the middle of this assignment when I came up with my idea of new design assignment, and I just submitted my idea. So where were we…
Designment Assignment 54: Create an iconic image/design for your own site that somehow represents you.
I often use the handle "linda3dots" for my online activities. I came up with this icon for this assignment:
I used Photoshop CS4. Brush tool, ellipse tool, and also added an inner shadow via "fx" in layers.
Design Assignment 365: Pick your favorite quote OR make up your own phrase which describes a philosophy that you try to live by. It can be about love, friendship, family, education, culture, health, charity, etc. Design a minimalist poster depicting the concept. Extra challenge: Try to include a unique element that makes it YOU. Don't forget to explain your thought process. 🙂
SAPERE AUDE (Dare to think)
The three dots representing ellipses… linda3dots is my handle that I often use online. It signifies thoughts in progress. Again, what could have been a very simple project turned into hours of laboring over the size, color, placement, adding shapes, subtracting shapes, etc. etc. etc. I finally ended up with this final version.
The dark and gray portion on the left represents a box and the absence of thought, then the dots emerge out of the box and get gradually get brighter as they move to the right. The shadows behind the dots connect each dot to the next, suggesting the idea that each new thought is connected to the previous thought. I wanted to communicate that the process of thinking is sequential, and the dots are gradually transformed rather than popping up on their own by accident.
I thought about just having the circles touch each other or overlap each other slightly, but neither design looked interesting enough. So I thought of adding the drop shadows that would connect the dots. Then I also wanted to add the idea of thinking outside the box. I played around with many different shapes and positions but finally decided to just divide the background into two sections and have the dots emerging out of one section into the other.
I used Photoshop CS4 and used only the basic ellipse tool and the rectangle tool. The drop shadows were added to each layer by selecting "fx" option at the bottom of the layers window. I would be happy to share anything else you many have questions about, so just leave me a comment below. 🙂
Designment Assignment 342: Really Reality TV – Follow this formula to create your own reality TV show for the ds106 Network.
This assignment sounded like a lot of fun and a good one to start the design week off with, so here we go! Onward with design week!
The 100-year-old doctor still makes house calls. He must, explains Dr. Fred Goldman. That's where the patients are. "If they're sick and can't leave home," he said, "I go to see them."Remember, it's your body; choose wisely what you put into it. Also, find a good doctor to partner with who will cooperatively address your health care concerns. And, take responsibility for your personal wellness by being an awesome, proactive patient.
Don't miss the premiere of "This Old Doctor" and watch him in action. Follow the Doc as he makes house calls to restore youth to his aging patients by treating them with his mysterious preserves of unknown origin.
You'll have to read to the end of this post to find the inside scoop. Muhahahahaha.
I got the following name of the show from here.
Then I googled the name to get the fifth and tenth search items. The fifth didn't work out, so I decided to go with the 6th instead. I used the first paragraph of the 6th search result and the last paragraph of the 10th result for the show description, then made up the tagline.
I had the hardest time finding the images: I searched for and found the following Creative Commons images in Flickr. The links are attached to the images.
Found these with the phrase "this old doctor":
Then I found this with the term "surgery":
I played around with the "fx" in the layers window to add inner shadow and outer glow to the two images on the left side of the ad.
After that, an idea started brewing, and I searched the term "canned fruit." I will use these to depict preserved human organs.
An old surgeon who has performed hundreds of surgeries throughout his career has preserved all the diseased organs and other parts removed from his patients. He discovers that these fermented organs are a miracle cure for aging. And the rest is hist…I mean, a reality TV show. 🙂
For today's Daily Create, the assignment was to take a photo of food being served or eaten in an unconventional way. I immediately thought of my 10-day trip to Korea in 2010. I chose the first image below for my TDC, but I decided to do a whole blog post featuring a series of these photos. It was my first trip back since my family moved to the States in 1976. I was very excited when I got this chance to go back and wanted to remember every moment. I took pictures of everything and posted a daily set of photos on Facebook at the time for my family and friends to vicariously experience the trip with me. I only had my Canon Powershot back then, but I still got some great shots. In looking through them today, I remembered that I was infinitely more interested in the hidden nuances of my home country that you would never see in the travel brochures than other usual attractions. I took these photos of the street vendors in various shopping districts and outdoor markets. I picked out several to share with you here. I don't know if other Koreans would be particularly proud to show this side of Korea. They are funny like that. But I was incredibly proud of and fascinated by these hard-working people. 🙂 You can see in their faces that they all have their stories to tell. I wish I would have asked them…
I posted this one for TDC. It's my favorite among the group. These are vendors in Myungdong shopping district in Seoul.
Another vendor in Myungdong. He's making a Japanese snack that tastes similar to baklava.
Her business is called "Grandma's Soon-dae." She sells Korean blood sausages at the outdoor market in the city of Songtan. U.S. Air Force has a military base in Songtan.
Vendor on the streets of Songtan. This is a stand where you can buy Korean style popcorn. You can find all sorts of popped rice snacks here.
This was taken at the Namdaemun shopping district in Seoul. These are one of my favorite Korean snacks, pastries filled with red beans. They are only good when they are freshly made, so you have to eat them right there on the spot. 🙂 She was not too happy about getting her picture taken, but she reluctantly allowed me to take this photo after I explained to her how much I love these snacks.
Another one taken at the Namdaemun shopping district. She sells steamed corn and sweet potatoes, as well as an assortment of uncooked beans. …and why is that office chair in the middle of the street?
Another one from Namdaemun. This is one of my favorites. I thought she was so cute with her leopard print coat and her pearl earrings. Can you imagine sitting there and roasting chestnuts all day? And what is that down in the lower left corner of the photo? It's dried and pressed octopus!! eeeeek!!!
These ladies are making meat buns in the food court at the Shinsegae Department Store in Seoul.
…and a shameless display of a mother's pride in her son's good looks!! 😛
This was Visual Assignment 66, which was to find a celebrity look-alike for someone you know, and I came up with this. But being from the Korean culture where it's a faux pas to brag about yourself or your children, I had decided not to post it. I struggle with my cultural tween-ness all the time, which gets extremely annoying. It's like getting a brain whiplash from jerking back and forth between two different mindsets. But this was sitting in my finished assignments folder, and I finally thought why not? So here it is. I have not tagged it, since it's after-the-fact and past the due date, and I already have my 10 stars.
You may not know this celebrity, but his name is Daniel Henney and he's a huge celebrity in South Korea. My friends are always telling me that my son looks like him. Ha! This photo was taken just before his performance in his high school production of Hair Spray, the musical. He was Link Larkin. 🙂
My daily creates will be compiled and posted weekly from here on out. (And the first three are repeats because I didn't decide to do the weekly thing until the middle of this week). Also, I've completed a total of 12 stars in Visual Assignments (in case you lost count, @jimgroom. ;)).
Visual Assignment 13: Averaging Concepts Using Flickr – Take a concept, one word, and plug it into Flickr and take the first 50 images and average them using Photoshop or similar program. Step by step instructions available at http://is.gd/ku3UF
I LOVED LOVED LOVED this assignment and decided to do 3 of them. 🙂 The above listed tutorial was perfect and very easy to follow. I am floored by how amazingly well these turned out. I can't stop staring and getting lost in them…
Since Valentine's Day is in two days, I decided to search the word "valentine," and the resulting image is amazing!
For this, I searched the term "psychology," and the resulting averaged image is mysterious, dark, and mesmerizing… I think it sort of symbolizes how our thinking tends to be structured and boxed in, but there's a much bigger world outside of it.
I wanted to see if the word "spring" would give me a much more colorful averaged image than other words. It certainly did! This one turned out lovely. 🙂
For my "Fat Cat" visual assignment, I got the images from here and here.
I think most people know the various ways to select a portion of one image and copy/paste it into another. So I decided to post a tutorial on how to add a drop shadow on the pasted image to make it more convincing, which some of you may not know how to do.
In this video tutorial, I did my best to address all the little bumps I encountered while doing this visual assignment that can be seen in this previous post. I first followed @cogdog's tutorial to import my images into Photoshop as follows:
(In hindsight, I guess I could have just quickly told you these few steps on the video… but go ahead and check out Alan's short tutorial in its entirety, because it's very informative and helpful.)
Let me know what you think of the tutorial. (I had to redo it several times because I kept running out of time.)
Visual Assignment 347: Photo It Like Peanut Butter
Rather than making animated GIFs from movie scenes, for this assignment, generate one a real world object/place by using your own series of photographs as the source material. Bonus points for minmal amounts of movement, the subtle stuff. See a bunch of examples at http://cogdogblog.com/2012/02/10/photo-gif-peanut-butter/
Then I tried another idea.
I set this to play only once. I wanted to keep you from getting dizzy. 🙂 If it fails, then I'll reset it to loop. It didn't work. I guess it won't play unless I set it to loop. Just scroll this one up out of the way to read the rest of the post. 🙂
It still didn't work very well. I had to cut out more than half of it. It was originally supposed to be a 360° view. You may still get dizzy with this one. Oh well. I tried. It worked in my head when I had the idea…
At least the train worked. 🙂
I've had these images for several months now, and I've been wanting to do something with them. I didn't even know what an animated gif was until yesterday, when Jim Groom talked about it during the broadcast of the DS106 class and showed us some. Then I became determined to figure out how to make one. So I first read this and this and this. Then I found THIS, and it was very helpful, although I had to figure out a few things on my own. I will try to follow up with my own tutorial tomorrow. 🙂 I posted the tutorial HERE.
This is the other version that I had decided not to post because it made me nauseous, but I'm putting it here because I think maybe you wanna see it anyway. I get motion sickness very easily, so it could be just me. Let me know what you think . 🙂
Full 360° view
Visual Assignment 334: Using this site: http://fatcatart.ru/category/klassy-ka/ as a platform for ideas, and using Photoshop (or something like it) as your tool, place a fat cat into a photo of a classic art piece. The goal is to make it convincing: make the art become on with the cat.
I decided to try the fat cat assignment. I got the images from here and here. Hahaha. I couldn't stop laughing while doing it. 🙂
Here's a bit of Michaelangelo for your enjoyment. Tutorial on how to add a drop shadow can be found here.
This is my VERY FIRST video tutorial. It was scary, but I was inspired by others in DS106 who were brave enough to put themselves out there! This is how I ended up with this finished product for the Splash the Color visual assignment.
This is a little sloppy, but I tried my best… Let me know what you think. 🙂
Visual Assignment 340: Splash the Color – Color splash is a technique to emphasize details- you remove all color from a photo, and then restore original color to a single object, e.g. a green apple on a table. Think of the Girl in the red dress from Schindler's List.
I LOVE berries. I love all fruit in general (except a few that I'm allergic to). I think the splash of red in this image gives it a very yummy effect, don't you? The link for my tutorial is below.
And… I made my VERY FIRST video tutorial!!!!!!!!! May be a little sloppy, but I tried my best… haha. 🙂 Check it out and let me know what you think!
TDC 31: Create a photograph that represents the happiest or most memorable moment in your life.
Assignment: Create a photograph that represents the happiest or most memorable moment in your life.
I have many pictures I could have used for this assignment. But I wanted to challenge myself to create a new photograph. It was difficult because I'm not very good at saving sentimental mementos other than my photos. But after a frantic search, I did find these footprint cards in a box containing some documents. I think they sum up my happiest moment(s) perfectly. 🙂 I adjusted the hue/saturation slightly in Photoshop to make it a little more interesting.
TDC 30: Share an image of a place you lose things in your house.
I lose things once they get filed in my filing cabinet. Maybe there's a flaw in my filing system? And I also often lose things somewhere en route to the filing cabinet… Go figure! 🙂
TDC 29: Make a photo of something upside down that is never seen that way.
I was fresh out of ideas, but my son (my usual sidekick) helped me out. 🙂
I used this tool to create the following visual phrase… 🙂
TDC 28: Without saying any words, make a 10-second ringtone with only your voice.
I was just over at Gray's Gray Matter blog reading his response to our reading for this week. He had some good points and made me really think about what the word "web 2.0" actually refers to. I decided to share my comment as its own blog post here. 🙂
"I never took the word web 2.0 literally to suggest that we have a whole new web. Yes, technology changes very rapidly all the time, and it has from the beginning. My old brain has a very hard time trying to keep up with the new things happening online constantly. It IS a vague and nondescript term, since there is no tangible "thing" that it refers to. But I guess you don't even have to use that particular term. We could call it anything we want: shift, change, evolution, transformation. The way I see it, the concept of web 2.0 refers to the change in us more so than the change in the web. And like you said, it makes sense that it was always intended to go in that direction from its inception. But that's just the point. I think web 2.0 is really about the change from intention to reality. The fact is that 20 years ago, we would not have missed out on too much by not owning a computer; but today, we are so dependent on the web for communication that without it, ….well, we would be completely devastated. My father-in-law is nearing 90, and he's on Facebook. How crazy is that?"
…and it keeps on changing! 🙂
My (short) response to the readings this week is included in the video. This week has been very draining, and writing is difficult at the moment. However, creating other stuff is still energizing for me, and I've experimented with some Web 2.0 storytelling tools today, as suggested by Alan Levine (aka @cogdog) in his article.
I used three different tools, used iMovie to put them all together, then uploaded to YouTube. … I changed my mind. The combined version on YouTube ended up fuzzy and muffled. So I will embed each one separately below:
Danielle's Web 2.0 post – ITeach blog
Annie Belle – Barefootwandering blog
Alan Levine's 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story
Web 2.0 and Digital Storytelling (1:30)
by: linda3dots
I've upgraded to Jing Pro (cheap – on $14.95 per year :)) so I can upload the videos to YouTube and also edit them in any video editing software.
I'm realizing that using this method, I have to keep the message very very brief and also think and type really really fast, otherwise the audience might get bored. Maybe I should just leave it to the experts (i.e. the Q of J) 🙂
A Day at the Marine Corps Museum 8/09 (revisited) on PhotoPeach
With this, I basically just wanted to see how the application works. I'm sure I'll use it again in another project.
This is the link to my original YouTube video (1:30 min)
TDC25: Record the sound of something that gives you comfort or makes you feel safe. (in light of the recent hacking event)
TDC 24: Make a creative photo silouette by aiming the camera into bright light.
Because my blog was down because of the hacking incident involving emre5807, I ended up doing two TDCs today. 🙂
TDC 23: Make a photo that freezes or isolates the motion of an object.
TDC 22: Take a photo of two related objects of drastically different size
VERY FUNNY, emre5807! You thought you destroyed us. But you'll see… We're coming back better, stronger, and smarter because of you! Grrrrrr……….
This past week has been an emotional roller-coaster due to the hacking incident. We were just getting the hang of the DS106 thing, and bam! out of nowhere, we find ourselves right in the middle of a hacking crisis. I felt like my beloved child of 2 weeks had been snatched away in the blink of an eye, and I felt helpless. So. much. work. had already gone into getting the blog up and running…
I almost went into a deep depression over it, although my blog was only 2 weeks old. Can you imagine if it had happened later in the semester? Yikes!
Even when I could get back into my admin page after we were put on a new server, I was having trouble getting my blog back to its original state. I kept getting an error message whenever I tried to upload a theme, and I'm not a woman of a lot of patience, nor do I like to waste a lot of time trying to fix what's broken when there are clearly other options. Call it a personality flaw, but I usually have no problem letting go of the old to embrace something new.
The following are the steps I took to restore my blog. This is NOT a "how-to" tutorial. It's just a documentation of what I chose to do. I learned after the fact that @cogdog does not recommend it, and there were other (and probably simpler) ways to skin the cat, but this is working out okay for me so far. I may live to find out why this wasn't a good idea, but that would be an opportunity to learn a new lesson, n'est pas?
1. Created another subdomain called "blog2" and created another WordPress blog. (Because I'd never done this before, I wanted to have some kind of a back-up system in place before I deleted my blog. This was my insurance just in case the transfer didn't work)
2. Exported my blog content via wp-admin–>Tools–>Export. (This allows you to export and download the content to your computer.)
3. Imported the content from my computer into my newly created Blog2 (wp-admin–>Tools–>Import). This went very smoothly and my back-up blog was now in place.
4. With my heart pounding, I deleted my blog (cPanel–> Fantastico–>Wordpress), as well as my sub-domain (cPanel–>Subdomains).
5. Then after my orginal subdomain was deleted, I recreated it. Perhaps this delete/recreate was unnecessary, but I thought maybe it would give me a clean slate to start over.
6. I went back into Fantastico and tried to install a new WordPress blog again.
7. I got an error message saying that it cannot be installed because of wp-admin, wp-content, and wp-includes folders are already there for account with that name and to go delete the files manually. So I went to the files and tried to delete, but even after I deleted, the files kept showing up over and over again when I refresh. Wha?? Uh oh. Now what?
8. hmmm… decided to change the file names to something else, i.e. adminwp1, contentwp2, includeswp3. Then it can't tell me that the same folders already exist, right?
9. Tried the install again, and voila! It worked. I now had the WordPress blog up under the original URL.
10. I imported the content from my computer, and I had my blog back! …minus the images, but I'm willing to work with that (so please excuse the broken/lack of images for the time being.) So far, so good.
11. I then tried to upload some themes to my "public_html/blog/wp-content/themes" file in cPanel, but I still kept getting error messages. I was at my wit's end at this point. So I went into wp-admin and tried directly uploading the zip files into "themes". It worked. I know that we were warned against doing this, but until someone convinces me exactly why this is so bad, I'm going with what works.
Whether I took the right steps or not, it works for now. That's good enough for me. I also decided to take this opportunity to look for a new theme, although I worked so hard learning my other one inside and out. Time for a change, because new means new. Why? Because I can! (update: I tried some other themes, but nothing was better than what I had before…. *sigh* The search continues.)
I'm also in deeeeeeeeeeeeeep thought about our digital storytelling assignment for this week. I need to come up with an idea fast…
I decided to choose this as my first assignment because I was going to do it anyway, so two birds with one stone, etc…
It took me a while to find a theme that I liked. I still don't have that much content on my blog, with only 13 posts so far. I consider myself a minimalist, although you will knever know it looking at the current state of my desk.
Anyway, after lots of searching, I found this site.
I looked at through the themes and narrowed down my choices to two themes:
Journal Crunch
and Fresh and Clean
I decided to try both and followed Annie's excellent instructions shown here.
After playing around with the themes and switching back and forth several times, I finally settled on the Fresh and Clean theme. I think it's perfect for my blog for now. But I will continue to be open to other themes. If you know me at all, you'll see many changes in the days to come.
Once I downloaded the installed the theme onto my site, it took me a while to figure out all of the small details, such as the size of the images for the slider, how to insert the images for the thumbnails, how to get the tabs to show up, etc. The most challenging part of it all was the header. This theme gives you the option of inserting your own logo into the header, but not clear cut instructions on how to do it. So I will try to post tutorials on the following topics in the upcoming week (or so).
So… in the interest of avoiding TLDR, that is it for now. 🙂
UPDATE: Ah, but only if it were that easy. Two days after I posted this, our server got hacked, and… stay tuned.
I have not had much sleep this week, and I cannot begin to organize my thoughts in a coherent way. So I decided to just unleash them and see where they go:
Gardner Campbell's essay, video, and guest appearance in class the other night left me with much to think about. The way I understand it, his vision is to change the education system in a way that all students and teachers can be globally connected, constantly generating and sharing ideas. His ideas about educating the future generations to be their own systems mangers for their own online presence is wildly intriguing and very imaginable. However, I think it will take a long time before his vision comes to fruition. Not because it doesn't work well, but because we're dealing with our society that we know all to well. It would be ideal if things worked out the way we picture it in our minds. But is it realistic? Sometimes we forget that not everyone shares the same perspective. I tend to think that there are more people who resist change than those who welcome it. Change could happen so much more quickly if everyone agreed and worked toward it, but in my experience, that is never ever the case, as frustrating as it is. What ends up being the ultimate motivator is always the same thing. The bottom line. When there's money to be made, then there will be change. Forward thinkers can visualize the potential and run with it. But most people have not the capacity to look forward. They drool over the food on a plate or even cash in hand, but they cannot see the value of the "bag of gold" being offered to them. I personally think this is a brilliant vision and something worthy of a fight. Having been in DS106 course for 2 weeks, I can already get a taste of what Gardner Campbell's vision is. Let me ask you, though, what percentage of the students enrolled in this course currently have even a fraction of that enthusiasm and passion for sharing their thoughts and ideas openly? Has there been any statistical data collected from previous students? How many of them are still actively maintaining their own space? I don't mean to sound like a downer, really. I do hope with all my heart that this change takes place sooner than later. I am a student, as well as a parent, and I am and have been frustrated with the current education system for a very long time. Learning has become something dreadful that one must reluctantly endure so they can move on to a job that will potentially make them rich. How many students in this day and age actually go after what they WANT to think about and create rather than what they feel they HAVE TO think about. I came back to college because learning is fun for me. …because thinking and creating is fun for me. …because I love to learn as much as I love to eat. But in the 3 1/2 years that I've been back, the system has sucked that energy out of me and I can hardly remember what it was like to learn just for the joy of learning. I see infinite possibilities in this model unlike anything else I've experienced in college. Oh, to think of a world where every student is in charge of their own education and be excited about learning! My question is, what will it take? How do you effectively "market" the idea and vision to the larger public, as well as the administrators? How can we provide the right lens for everyone to see the true value in the bag of gold? We live in a society almost paralyzed with the fear of the big bad wolf who will gobble us and our children up and steal our identities and our innocence. How do we get past that enough to take a chance on what we do not yet see? I hate the present education system. I love the possibilities of this model. Nevertheless, I remain skeptical.
Here's my first tutorial. It almost seems like a no-brainer, but it certainly took a little bit of searching for me to figure it out, so here it goes! Someone may actually find it useful…
It all started after I installed Google Analytics plugin following the instructions on this video:
After that, I thought I was all set. But then when I checked my analytics the next day, everything showed up zero. 🙁 Aha! It turns out that I needed to also paste the tracking code from my analytics account into my theme. I remembered seeing the embed code when I signed up for the account, but I didn't know where to find it again. Not only that, whenever you change your theme, you have to embed the tracking code all over again into the new theme. So… I decided to post this short tutorial on how to go back and get your tracking code after the fact.
First, you have to open your established Google Analytics account which looks like this:
You'll see the "settings" icon that looks like this on the upper right hand corner of the page (I know. It seems silly to point this out, but there are people like my husband who may think it's just a flower design for looks, so bear with me.) Click on it.
When you see this page, click on the "Tracking Code" tab.
Then you will see the tracking code that looks like this:
You will need to copy the code and paste it into your theme. Each theme is a little bit different, but my current one has this box in "settings" where I can insert the tracking code.
There you have it! Please let me know if you think this tutorial was helpful, confusing, irrelevant, or just plain dumb. Go ahead. I can take it. 🙂
Still to come: My adventure in installing a new theme.
Assignment: Take a photo where movement of the camera creates an interesting blur effect.
To be honest, I had taken this set of photos previously while driving home one night, but I thought it was okay for me to cheat a little today since I've already done 3 other TDCs this week. 🙂 What's amazing, though, is that I was already searching through this set of photos to use in another post before I even saw today's TDC assignment. *cue Twilight theme music here*
The second week came and went so quickly that I'm still trying to catch my breath. My other classes are definitely suffering as I had anticipated. Sleep deprivation is also wreaking havoc on my brain functions as recent research on rats as well as many other studies have shown. But back to DS106…
I don't feel that I've done as much work as I should have from my OCD perspective, but judge for yourself. These are the things I've done this week:
Still to do:
Ciao for now! 😉
Assignment: Record a video of yourself telling a joke. Don't read it – tell it.
There it is! That is the first video of myself that I've posted online. I recruited the help of my son so I could talk to him instead of the camera. The expression on his face and his dry responses were cracking me up.
Assignment: Record a short video that shows an object in motion.
This was my first idea. Then I thought it was too lame/corny, and I came up with what I thought was a better idea, which was something completely different. But after spending too much time on it, it didn't pan out. So I went back to my original idea and here it is. And to think, I could have finished another assignment during all that time I wasted!!
And did I mention that I JUST LOVE JING?? Ever since I installed it a few days ago, I've been using it every chance I get.
Here I am again. I have to leave for school in 40 minutes. I decided to write a post in lieu of washing my hair today. THIS. my friends… is the curse of DS106. I wish I was a little more knowledgeable in the world of tech so I don't have to search every other unfamiliar word that comes up, which makes for a verrrrry slow progress. Akismet? Never heard of the word before last week. Plugin? I thought it had something to do with electricity… Oh wait! Aha! I have an idea for a tutorial! If I don't get sidetracked, I'll work on it and post it in a few days.
It's a new week in DS106, and so far this morning, I have accomplished the following:
Oki doki, then. I'm off to class!
Today's TDC Assignment: Make a recording of the most lively laugh you made someone do.
This the first time I've used Soundcloud. I know my product is pretty lame, but I wanted to see if I could figure out how to do it. And I did!
Wow. I jumped in, and the water IS fine. And just the right depth too – deep enough to keep my arms flailing for balance, but shallow enough to keep my nose above water if I remember to stand on my tippy toes. It's so refreshingly challenging! And to think that I contemplated dropping the course before it even began!! I'm so glad I decided to give it a try. The only bad thing so far is that I can't seem to stay away from it. It definitely brings out my inner OCD. To help with time management, however, I did download a new daily planner/organizer app and reorganized my "to do" list. It made me feel much better about putting those things off just a little bit longer. 😛
The process of getting the domain, web-hosting, and blog set up and then linking them all together went much smoother than expected. The only complaint I have with Cast Iron Coding is that I could not find any contact info on their site. As far as WordPress, there is still so much I have to figure out. But for now, I know how to add new posts, so I will play around with the other features and learn them slowly as the course progresses. My #1 goal is to keep my blog simple, fun, and readable.
Nothing like the Daily Create to get the creative juices flowing. We only have a 24-hour window to complete each assignment, so it really pushes for the NOW. I love that. Today's Daily Create (above image) was to post a pic of an obscure shadow, and I think mine may be a little too obvious but I still like it. 🙂
TDC Assignment: Compose a photograh that includes a "finished product" and at least one of its "raw materials."
This is only my first week of DS106, and already, I'm hooked. I love the constant challenge of creating something and solving problems. I thought the daily assignments were going to be too overwhelming and hard to keep up with, but I'm loving it! This is quickly becoming my escape when I'm avoiding assignments from other classes. I'm in big trouble…
Anyway, here's my second Daily Create:
Assignment: Create a 30-second "breaking news" update about something that happened to you today.
My very first Daily Create!!!! Yay! This is actually supposed to be a "breaking news" video, but oh well… I did my best. It's also my first iMovie project, and it turned out pretty good, don't you think?
This page I found online defines Impostor Syndrome as:
a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true.
It's a common psychological term which I am intimately familiar with.
This is my first post on this brand new blog, which is a part of the first assignment for a course that I decided to brave this semester – Digital Storytelling 106 (DS106). I'm taking it for elective credits through my university, but anyone (yes, you too) can take it online for free.
So… what does all this have to do with impostor syndrome? Well, let me give you a brief rundown of why I think I'm an impostor here:
I think that pretty much covers it. I definitely feel overwhelmed, but I haven't run away yet. I'm still here. I'm up for the challenge. What's the worst that could happen?
Our first assignment was to sign up for a domain and web hosting and start a blog. I followed this tutorial step by step, and here I am!!
So far, so good…


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Tampa wedding photographer specializing in romantic and stylish photography for the modern couple.
romantic. modern. creative.
You've found each other. Your love, your best friend, the one person you can't live without. This is such a incredible time in your life and it deserves to be captured beautifully. My style of photography is romantic, modern, and creative. Whether it's on your wedding day, or just because; I want to capture this moment in time and document your love in an authentic, storytelling way.
That totally-in-love happiness. The sweet, in-between moments. Who you two are as a couple. Photos that allow you to relive the unforgettable memories over and over again. Meaningful, real, and completely you.
Hello gorgeous, I'm Renee! I am so happy you are here. I'm a Tampa wedding photographer offering romantic, storytelling photography for couples in love. Currently based out of Florida, but will happily travel worldwide to capture your best day ever.
Interested in working together and looking for more info? Send me an email and fill me in on all the exciting details. I can't wait to hear your story, get to know you, and chat all about your amazing wedding! Use the contact page to get in touch.
© 2016 Renee Nicole Photography | Tampa Wedding Photographer|ProPhoto Photographer Blogsite

subset: commoncrawl


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Sasha Summers – Teen Pies
Sasha was laying in her bikini by the pool working on her tan. That got boring after a while so she started to strip down and show off her tight body for the camera.
Then something better happened; a handsome guy came along and he didn't mind fucking her brains out. She served him with a blowjob first before he got to penetrate her shaved vagina.
Watch the video from this scene here!


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HARARE, Zimbabwe --Weary Zimbabweans are facing a new wave of price increases that will put many basic goods even further out of their reach: A loaf of bread now costs what 12 new cars did a decade ago.
Independent finance houses said in an assessment Tuesday that annual inflation rose this month to 1,063,572 percent based on prices of a basket of basic foodstuffs. Economic analysts say unless the rate of inflation is slowed, annual inflation will likely reach about 5 million percent by October.
As stores opened for business Wednesday, a small pack of locally produced coffee beans cost just short of 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars. A decade ago, that sum would have bought 60 new cars.
And fresh price rises were expected after the state Grain Marketing Board announced up to 25-fold increases in its prices to commercial millers for wheat and the corn meal staple.
The economy was on shop clerk Jessica Rukuni's mind as she left the public swimming pool in downtown Harare's central park with three disappointed children. She found the new admission price of 100 million Zimbabwe dollars -- 30 U.S. cents -- out of reach.
"The point is that it's far too much for most people who don't get U.S. dollars," she said.
Her income is the equivalent of about one U.S. dollar a day, and her family has one basic meal daily.
The collapsing economy was a major concern of voters who dealt longtime President Robert Mugabe a defeat in March 29 elections. His challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, topped the poll but did not win the simple majority needed to avoid a runoff. The two face each other in a second round June 27.
Mugabe was to officially launch his runoff campaign with a rally at his party's headquarters in Harare on Sunday, the state-run Herald newspaper reported Wednesday.
The opposition's campaigning has been hampered by violence blamed on Mugabe's government and party. The opposition claims Tsvangirai is the target of a government assassination plot and he has been out of Zimbabwe since shortly after the March 29 first round. He plans to return to Zimbabwe to campaign for the runoff once security measures are in place, his aides have said.
Mugabe, speaking as he reviewed graduating police cadets Wednesday, said the opposition was fanning violence. Independent observers have said that while there have been some retaliatory attacks by the opposition, the vast majority of the attacks have been carried out by Mugabe supporters.
Mugabe accuses the United States, the European Union and especially former colonial ruler Britain of using their economic influence to back his opponents and bring about his ouster. He has severed ties with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial organizations.
Zimbabwe's official annual inflation was given by the government as 165,000 percent in February, already by far the highest in the world. The government has not updated that -- the state statistical service has said there were not enough goods in the shortages-stricken shops to calculate new figures.
The economic decline has been blamed on the collapse of the key agriculture sector following the often violent seizures of farmland from whites. Mugabe claimed the seizures begun in 2002 were to benefit poor blacks, but many of the farms went to his loyalists.
"The crunch is going to come when local money is eroded to the point it is no longer acceptable" in commercial activities or as earnings, especially by longtime ruler Mugabe's loyalists, said independent Harare economist John Robertson.
Already, more transactions are being done in U.S. dollars, both openly and in secret.
Manufacturing industries, running at below 30 percent of their capacity, reported growing absenteeism by workers facing soaring commuter bus fares.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Zimbabwe inflation now over 1 million percent
A May 21, 2008 article by Associate Press writer Angus Shaw says the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe is escalating:
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KUWK fans thought it was over for good this time when Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick split.
But her sister Kim's BFF Jonathan Cheban is SURE they're going to sort through their issues and get back together, after he checked into rehab for the fourth time this month.
Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, the former publicist said: "I'm sure they can work it out.
"There's three kids, he lives not that far from her."
The self-described Lord Disick and Kourtney were together on/off for nine years and split in July.
They have three children - Mason, aged five, Penelope, aged three, and 10-month-old Reign.
Jonathan then added: "Once he gets this out of his system I'm hoping that it will be somewhat back to normal."
Scott has reportedly hit "rock bottom" after he was seen apologising and in tears in a recent episode of KUWK for the wild bender which caused the couple to split.
But despite their issues and Scott's reported infidelity, Jonathan thinks Kourtney belongs with him.
"They're really the best together. They're perfect together," he said.
"So with anybody else it would be like weird. At this point it's hard to get with our programme. I'm hoping everything works out."
According to E! News, Scott checked into a rehab facility in Malibu at the weekend, even though he was later seen shopping for groceries in Los Angels on Tuedsday.
He is fighting his own demons while Kourtney Kardashian's ex-husband Lamar Odom remains in a critical condition in hospital.
He was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel on Tuesday after an alleged four-day drink and drugs bender.


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How to Make Your Own Juggling Balls for (and from) Birdseed
I've been thinking about what to present at Trampoline this Saturday. After some consideration, I thought it might be a nice change of pace for the day to offer a short workshop on juggling.
I'm only an amateur juggler and I don't have a lot of props to share so I thought I'd use some millet I had lying around (ever since a mad fit of optimism when I thought that hand sewing my own juggling balls might be a neat idea) and build some cheap juggling balls that I could give away to participants.
Turns out that millet makes a really good filling for conventional juggling beanbags because the individual seeds are so close to spherical and they flow nicely without clumping. This also means that when you're trying to trap them in a balloon there's nothing to stop them flying straight out again as soon as your hand slips, showering you, your cat and every single surface in your kitchen in tiny little seeds. Hypothetically of course.
Anyhoo, just in case anyone is crazy stupid interested enough to try for themselves, I thought I'd include the process below. The end product isn't nearly as nice or durable as proper juggling beanbags, but they are a good cheap alternative if you're short on cash or it's difficult to source anything better.
1. Get all of the things you'll need
- Balloons
- Rice (not millet, are you crazy?)
- Old plastic water bottle (empty)
- Funnel (red, because it goes faster)
- Scales
- Scissors
- Vacuum Cleaner (just in case)
2. Measure out the seed
This will depend on the weight you want the balls to be – I went for about 100g of filling (so 105g all up). This is less than the more standard 130-150g that most beanbags weigh, but they are for beginners, so I wanted them to be a bit lighter and smaller so that they're easier to catch and learn with. Pour the measured rice into the water bottle (using your nifty red funnel).
3. The Balloon
Blow up a balloon a little (larger than the desired ball) and place it over the neck of the bottle still inflated (it helps if you putting a slight twist in the neck before you open it). You will now be able to tip over the bottle and pour the rice into the balloon.
Carefully remove the balloon from the now empty bottle and let the air out. The balloon will shrink until it binds in all the rice.
Cut off the stem top of the balloon. This is easy with rice, as it's roughness and shape make it clump at the neck and you can just tip pout the excess with he rest holding together. If you were stupid interested enough to use millet you will need to carefully fold the neck over as you deflate the balloon to trap in the seed (you'll need to keep it held down during the next step).
Cut the neck from the second balloon and put it over the top of the filled balloon (still holding down the folded over neck if you used millet) until it is completely enclosed (and so that the open hole of the first balloon is on the opposite side to hole on the second balloon.
4. Bask in the glory of your evil glorious creation
[cue crescendo of thunderous orchestral score]


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Freephone 0800 387 627
If you need an interpreter for visitors to New Zealand, please contact us for assistance.
The interpreter we arrange for you would depend on your specific needs.
There are 3 key types of interpreting:
Dialogue interpreting
Interpretation of conversations and interviews between two or more people. The interpreter listens first to short segments before interpreting them.
Consecutive interpreting
The interpreter listens to larger segments, possibly taking notes while listening, and then interprets while the speaker pauses.
Simultaneous interpreting
Interpreting into the target language while listening to the source language i.e. speaking while listening to what is being said. (In certain business negotiations and court cases, whispered simultaneous interpreting is used to keep one party informed of the proceedings.)
We will be pleased to advise you on the service which will best meet your needs.
NB. The role of an interpreter is to provide a clear channel of communication between the client and another individual. Interpreters neither add to nor subtract from the communication, but just convey what has been said; they do not provide advice or opinions. If you require more general guidance about appropriate ways of dealing with people from a particular culture, please talk to us about our cross-cultural consultancy.
Translation & Interpreting Services Introduction
Translation Services
Interpreting Services
"Since attending classes at Euroasia my Mandarin has improved a lot. I can talk about a lot of different things now and I can understand more than I could before. Thank you."
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"Since attending classes at Euroasia my Mandarin has improved a lot. I can talk about a lot of different things now and I can understand more than I could before. Thank you."
We're experts in providing language solutions for NZ businesses
For all your language requirements in the business environment, talk to us first and let us provide you with the right language solution.


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Pineview Elementary
Phone: (307) 253-6000
Principal: Chris Carruth-Britt
Office Managers: Jeanie Manolovitz
Terri Robinson
Address: 639 Payne Ave., Casper, 82609
"We guarantee each student and staff member achieve high levels of learning for success through actions, which reflect high expectations."
Pineview has a warm family atmosphere where students feel valued and loved. Our staff has created a model of high expectations for academics and respect. Pineview staff, parents, and students are engaged in learning together, working to build student confidence and enthusiasm through healthy competition! Pineview instills a sense of tradition within their community. We have spirit and pride everyday! We make sure each child and staff member experiences lessons through passion however big or small.
Pineview staff is committed to high expectations by working together to clarify exactly what each teacher must teach and each child must learn. Our team guarantees classroom grade level knowledge and skills are met in all areas socially and academically. We understand that to increase our success in the classrooms, proof of each student's learning needs to be gathered on a timely basis and the results must be used to inform students, improve teacher practice, and better meet the needs of each child. We give each child the chance to improve their learning every day. Most importantly, we provide researched based strategies and techniques to help staff and students meet daily challenges.
Gifted Classrooms
To address and serve the unique educational needs of students who require academic challenges beyond the regular classroom, Pineview is home to the district's Gifted Program, offering four inclusion Gifted classrooms for qualifying students in1st through 5th grade. Curriculum is thematic and includes hands-on activities and many opportunities for learning outside the classroom. Mindy McGlade is the Gifted Program Coordinator. She can be reached by phone at 253-6000.
Clubs are available each year based upon student interest and participation. Students may participate in Fit Club, Art Club, Early Bird Reading Club, Destination Imagination, Cooking Club, Science Club, Handwriting, and Reading and Math Extended Days. Fourth- and fifth-graders may participate in volleyball, basketball and track through the Casper Recreation Center.
Advanced Kindergarten
Kindergarteners, in Advanced K, will have a rigorous and challenging experience while being engaged in curriculum that meets the advanced needs of the class. Instruction is designed specifically to meet advanced academic and curricular needs. Differentiated workstations are designed to enrich and challenge our students through exploration, extensions, projects and problem based learning while encouraging peer collaboration and play. There is opportunity each day to engage in enrichment learning. This is the time where students will grow socially and emotionally through interactions, experiences, and play. These relationships balance academic learning with social structures, which all kindergarteners need. Teachers provide optimal learning and have been trained in differentiation, advanced learning, and gifted education.
Functional Life Skills Program
Functional skills are all those skills a student needs in order to live independently. Skills are defined as functional as long as the outcome supports the student's independence. Skills are: Life Skills, Academic Functional Skills, Community-Based Learning, and Social Skills.
Accepting three and four year olds. Parents may pick up enrollment packets at Pineview or the Central Enrollment Office.
Classes at Pineview run from 8:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.


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Excellent range of up to 100 feet. Deep bass. Comfortable fit. Built-in mic for office use.
High frequencies sound muffled. No cable/jack for connection to MP3 players and other USB-less devices. Lacks volume control on transmitter.
Bottom Line
The Ario 2.1 wireless headphones have impressive range, but the lack of high-end clarity and the inability to work with MP3 players are disappointing.
Occasionally, I am filled with a sense of dread when preparing to review a new product. Usually, this happens when the device in question comes from a small, obscure company. In the case of LTB's Ario 2.1 wireless headphones, however, I'm happy to breathe a big sigh of relief. Overall, these headphones are pretty good; just don't plan on using them with your iPod. They're for PC audio only.
The most compelling selling point for the Ario 2.1 headphones is its powerful range. Plug the USB "Puck" transmitter into your computer and, with no software installation (the 'phones are Windows XP, Vista, Mac 10.4, and Linux Fedora 4-6 compatible), the buttons on the left ear will wirelessly raise or lower the volume on your computer's music-jukebox software. For instance, I had no problem communicating with iTunes.
Better yet, audio sounded good. Sure, there should be more high-end crispness, but each earbud has a subwoofer that has no problem producing plenty of boom, bringing out the richness of orchestral music as well as the deep thumps of hip-hop. Technically, these are 2.2 headphones, but both subs output the exact same signal, acting like a single speaker instead of a pair. The low-end bass sounds are powered by 30mm drivers in each ear (the other drivers are 40mm) that are limited to an output of 90 db to protect your hearing. LTB calls this technology SafeBass, and the effort is nice, but I sure wish the company put some energy into pushing clearer high-end frequencies out of the 40mm drivers.
Amazingly, sound can be heard wirelessly up to 100 feet away from the transmitter. I was quite impressed when I walked out of the testing labs and down the hallway at least 40 feet and didn't experience any interruption in my musicnot even through walls and glass doors.
A microphone can be used with VoIP services, like Skype. There's a switch near the power button to activate the mic, and I had no difficulty using it on a Skype call. Listening back to a message I left, I could easily understand what I had just recorded.
The USB "Puck" has a cable with enough slack to satisfy most office arrangements, but its lack of any volume controls is disappointing. I find that it's much easier to use controls you can see versus ones you have to feel, which is the case with the Ario 2.1's four left-ear controls: Power, Volume Up and Down, and Mic On/Off. And though the headphones have a USB jack and a connecting cable for charging through your PC, it's a shame that there's no connecting cable to enable usage as a normal headphone pair. You can forget about connecting these to your Apple iPod.
Versatility issues aside, the Ario 2.1 headphones do one thing very well: They let you enjoy music, DVD, or VoIP/Skype audio from a long distance with little or no interference. The product's WiStereo 2.4-GHz wireless system also skips throughout the band to avoid Bluetooth, Wi-Fi router, and microwave interference. For those who want to listen without being tethered to their PCs and don't mind the lack of compatibility with MP3 players, I can happily recommend the Ario 2.1.
LTB offers a one-year warranty for parts and labor. For product support, visit www.ltbaudio.com/support.html.
More headphone reviews:
1More Stylish True Wireless Headphones
SteelSeries Arctis 9X
Beats Powerbeats Pro
Urbanears Pampas
Logitech G935 Wireless Gaming Headset


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Tag Archives: arsenal of democracy
This week in the War, 10–16 March 1941: Lend-Lease
This week in the war, 11 March 1941, President Roosevelt signed into law a statute that was diplomatically titled 'An Act to Further Promote the Defense of the United States'; it was the famous Lend-Lease bill. Ideas and intentions that … Continue reading
Posted in Book, World War II Tagged arsenal of democracy, Churchill, garden hose, Lend-Lease, Roosevelt, spam Comments Off on This week in the War, 10–16 March 1941: Lend-Lease
This week in the War, 16–22 December 1940: The Garden Hose
At a press conference on 17 December 1940, President Roosevelt attempted to lead American opinion away from strict neutrality with the idea of lending ones garden hose to a neighbour whose house is on fire. It was a first step … Continue reading
Posted in World War II Tagged arsenal of democracy, garden hose, Lend-Lease, Roosevelt Comments Off on This week in the War, 16–22 December 1940: The Garden Hose


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Which Playoff Quarterback Are You Taking To Lead You To Super Bowl 51?
Everyone has a favorite team or quarterback to love or to hate on each year when the NFL playoffs come around.
No matter which two teams finally make it to the Super Bowl, nearly every NFL fan has a favorite to win.
Will you be cheering on your favorite quarterback or just booing the one you dislike?
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303 Software is often approached to assist at the point where an idea is born out of conversation without any clear solution in mind. Through our proven discovery process, we will work with your team to craft a solution on "paper" to prove the model prior to development kick-off. Similar to an architectural blueprint, we will draft the website or application using wireframes or interactive prototypes to design and prove the functional model prior to the more intensive development process.
Judi's House is devoted solely to supporting grieving children and their families after the loss of a family member. With an ever-growing patient community, the system Judi's House was using to manage patient health records and to schedule patients was no longer keeping pace. After initial research, Judi's House was not able to find an out-of-the-box software solution that provided the unique functionality they required for their business needs.
303 Software partnered with Judi's House to identify the specific user stories that represented the day-to-day functional needs of the organization. Working with the Judi's House team through multiple requirements gathering solution, 303 Software drafted a formidable document that identified the vision for the technology solution that Judi's House required.
Using this requirements document as a basis, Judi's House was able to effectively analyze existing electronic health record software providers as well as to get a true sense of cost for the custom solution they ultimately require to best serve their business processes.
Discovery is like drafting architectural blueprints: build your vision on paper before construction starts.


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As a wedding photographer in Ithaca NY I have photographed weddings at many venues including The Fontainebleau Inn, The Ithaca Farmers Market, The John Joseph Inn, Taughannock Falls State Park, Treman State Park, Gratitude and Grace, The Treman Center, Willard Strait Hall, The Johnson Art Museum and Sage Chapel on the Cornell University Campus, Stewart Park, The Barn, La Tourelle, Wagner Winery, Buttonwood Winery, The Carriage House, The Aurora Inn and Danos.
I would love to hear about your wedding plans!
Call me at 607.280.7265 or email firstname.lastname@example.com


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Apply to this job Bookmark it!
The Patrón Spirits Company- Patrón Spirits International
Importer, Production and Manufacturing, and SupplierView Full Profile
Entry Level
Full Time
About The Position
For more than 25 years The Patrón Spirits Company (PSC) has created the world's #1 ultra-premium tequila, using timeless techniques to ensure every drop is the very best. Our product is more than something to drink; it's a memento of a simply perfect moment. From weddings to work promotions, each handcrafted bottle is an original reminder of something or someone worth celebrating. Patrón provides the perfect opportunity to capture, craft and share these experiences worldwide.
We're looking for the very best innovative talent to join our sales team as the Retail Account Manager – Portland.
Job Description
Responsible for building relationships with top on-premise accounts, training bar & wait staff on product offerings, and assisting with the evaluation, implementation and execution of programs within brand strategies at accounts
Essential Functions of the Job:
- Ride with State Managers, Area Managers and distributor sales representatives weekly, providing the opportunity to assist State Managers and Area Managers representation of the Patrón Spirits portfolio, and observe market activity.
- Assist with meetings of key on -premise accounts within the assigned area to develop strong working relationships. Present Patrón brands and work toward achieving increased volumes.
- Responsible for sales objectives, including basic account management, new distribution, drink features and program development & execution.
- Be visible at key local events and participate where the opportunity fits our strategy, including the execution of national initiatives in the local market.
- Actively participate in promotions and events, which often occur in the evenings or on weekends.
- Stay informed of customer and consumer trends; develop programs to capitalize on such trends.
- Provide bi-weekly market activity report to supervisor to include list of objectives, accomplishments, competitive activities, special projects and/or any needs.
- Provide market and competitive brand updates to supervisor to include timely and accurate communication of changing field conditions that may affect volumes as well as staffing changes at distributors and competitors.
- Provide feedback on marketing effectiveness and sales initiatives for programs, POS, advertising, etc.
- Complete special projects, such as verifying pricing and/or distribution at on- or off-premise accounts.
- Participate in out-of-market sales blitzes.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Job Requirements
Work with moderate supervision, exercising discretion and independent judgment. Primary duties are assisting the management within the designated area sales of The Patrón Spirits Company.
Undergraduate BA/BS Degree. Up to 3 years of experience in sales, marketing or related field preferred. Position also requires knowledge of principles and process for providing exceptional customer service.
- Ability to conduct oneself in an ethical and professional manner with strong interpersonal skills.
- Ability to communicate effectively with executives, employees, vendors and customers (both internal and external) at all levels of the organization, in person, via telephone and email or other written correspondence.
- Computer proficiency required in MS Office Products, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook; ability to use advanced computer functions, including navigating the Internet.
- Ability to read and write in English with knowledge of the structure and content of the English language, including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar. Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Ability to analyze available information for the purposes of preparing reports, coordinating efforts and solving problems.
- Possession of exceptional organizational skills, with the ability to multi-task.
Physical Requirements:
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand and sit, use hands to handle or feel objects, tools or controls (5-6+ hours per day); reach with hands and arms, talk and hear. The employee is occasionally required to walk, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, occasionally lift or move up to 25 pounds and infrequently lift or move up to 50 pounds.
The employee is required to possess visual acuity to perform activities such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading, visual inspection and general observations.
The working environment is basically an indoor climate-controlled environment. The employee is not substantially exposed to adverse environmental conditions (as in typical office or administrative work).
Based in Portland and reporting to the Area/State Manager, the position of Retail Account Manager is an exciting opportunity to join a world-class organization. We are on the hunt for an extremely creative and strategic individual. If you are that person, we want to hear from you. Ask yourself - are you #patronworthy?