Really? I Have To Compete With This? Come ON.

My favorite PowerPoint presentations were Jessica Rodriguez's "Hippoi", Kim Ferrari's "Dante's Guides", and Kaileigh Byrne's "Case Study of the Octopus".
I chose Jessica's presentation mainly because of the topic it covered. I found her theory very interesting, as i am also in the Ancient Mariner's class where we learned about the Hippoi. The fact that she knew enough and had enough confidence to formulate her own theory, then present it so well to the class made her presentation fascinating and kept my attention. The setup and creativity of the PowerPoint was also exceptional.
Kim showed a great deal of passion and knowledge in her presentation. She described her subject as a story, using the powerpoint to aide her and reiterate the things that she described. It was a truly interesting subject, and a very well thought out and presented project.
I also enjoyed Kaileigh's presentation on octupi. I've always found them rather interesting, and her presentation was filled with information. The slides were all well planned out and interesting, without being a distraction from Kaileigh's speech.

Make My Points Powerful, Please.

These articles pointed out some very interesting aspects of powerpoint. For instance, the "Really Bad Powerpoint" article impores us to use powerpoint as a supplement rather than as an entire presentation. These articles outline the basics of powerpoint strategy and tell us how to best use powerpoint to create meaningful and interesting presentations.
t=The guidelines I would use in creating a powerpoint include:

• Using more pictures as opposed to words on slides- this makes the presentation more interesting, and forces the audience to listen to the presentor rather than just read the slides.
• Using cue cards to supplement the oral presentation- this allows an information rich oral presentation to complement the powerpoint. This allows one to present a clear and compelling argument that the audience will be receptive to.
• Using unique and interesting templates that aren't painful or boring. Sometimes it seems like we use either too much or too little color and interest on slides. There has to be a balance between the two so you don't end up with something that's too distracting, or too boring.
• Staying away from over-animation. Using animation to catch the attention of the audience is one thing, using it to carry the presentation is another. Making the information and pictures enter interestingly will not draw attention away from a lack of knowledge.
• Use higher quality images. Silly graphics are not the way to the minds of the audience. If i was watching a presentaion on an important subject and i saw a piece of silly Clip-Art on the screen, I would doubt the integrity of the work and the intelligence of the presenter.
  

Let's excel at Excel.

I learned a LOT from our lessons in Excel. I'd never really done anything past making a simple chart in Excel, and i had no idea all of the things you can do to present and nicely organize information. Learning how to use all of the functions, and what sort of cell references to use for different situations will help me organize things for future work as well as for my own benefit. Using Excel to keep track of my grades and finances will help me keep track of my life, if i choose to do so. I may not end up using it in that way, but at least now i know it's an option.
I'm sure that the new knowledge i have accumulated will be very beneficial in my future at Trinity. If i am presented with a need for using Excel in another class, i feel confident that i will have no troubles figuring out what I need to do, and may even be able to aide another person who may not have taken the class.
Learning the ways that Excel can work in tandem with programs like Word and PowerPoint will also be beneficial knowledge. I never knew that you could take information straight from Excel and use it in another program. This will provide a direct way to transfer information, and make sure that the integrity of the data stays in tact. Being able to link Excel information to other programs and be able to manipulate the data without having to do anything in the other programs is a great and efficient way to create comprehensive and consistent information.
Yay!

OH, OH, IT HAS PHOTOSHOP!!!

The CLT Lab is chock full of handy resources that i never knew were available to me. What excited me most was that i now have a whole fleet of computers stocked with Photoshop at my fingertips. At home on my old computer we had Photoshop, and i would spend hours at a time using it to make really cool pictures for my family and friends. I'm happy that even though i no longer own it, i once again have the ability to use it when i fell like it. I also now have the ability to put together and edit movies. This will probably come in handy at some point in my college career, as i am hoping to be a communications major. I would like to say that the mini music recording studio will be helpful to me, but as i have no musical talent i do not think that i'll be needing to record myself doing anything for any reason. The VHS and record conversion machines are both extremely handy resources. Maybe not for classes, unless on an errand from a teacher, but they can make media that we once thought obsolete able to be used again. This lab is a great go-to place for all artsy technological needs. As Trinity students we are lucky to have these programs at our disposad and we should take full advantage of them.

Damn, That's One Huge Grasshopper..

I chose the photo of a large grasshopper on a farmer's truck. By photographer Frank "Pop" Conard, it was one in his line of "whopper hopper" post cards. This particular image caught my eye because of it's humorous edge. It's quite obvious that grasshoppers do not grow to be that large, nor do farmers haul them through the city. This picture was manipulated by enlarging the image of the grasshopper, and placing it in the bed of the farmer's truck as if it were to be carted around and shown to the city. This picture was probably manipulated for a shocking effect. One does not expect to see such a large grasshopper, and recieving a postcard with this image on it could prove to be quite funny. Frank Conard probably makes quite a bit of money of this image and ones like it. People like to see things that are out of the ordinary.
I do not think this manipulation is in any way harmful. It is not being presented as the truth, rather as a humorous exagegration meant to entertain those who view it. I believe it would fall more under the category of art than the more journalistic photos more prevalent in the choices. It's not used to make a statement about important things, it's not representing a person, it's just a huge grasshopper on a truck. Nobody is being mislead, unless they don't have the basic knowledge of nature's limitations.
I knoq if I got this post card in the mail, i would chuckle quite a bit and be pleased with whoever thought to send it to me.

Looks like Sonny's not so Sunny...

Last class period, I learned about the Sonny Bono Act of 1998 where the terms of copyright were extended another 20 years. The fact that this not only effects Disney, but all copyrighted works is an upsetting reality. As Diane Graves expressed to us, this nearly eliminates the public domain. Before hearing this lecture, i would not have given this second thought but now i understand the consequences. Though i understand that authors, artists, and other creators need to be secure in their creations and knowing that they will not be copied or used without their knowledge or in an undesirable way, these things are meant to be shared. The fact that the library has to pay so much money to allow students access to some journals and books is absolutely ridiculous, bordering on pure greed. It's understandable for a company like Disney to want to keep the copyright on their characters, because that's how they make their money. It does not make sense, however, for those who have passed on and whose children may even have passed on to still have copyrighted works. This just means that another person who may not have had any input in the creation of the work reaps the benefits while the public who wishes just to utilize the resources.

My name is Robin Murdoch. I'm from Houston, Texas and have lived there my entire life. My parents are from Ireland, and my relatives live all around the world, including Ireland, England, Canada, Israel and Australia.

My main interest is music. Unfortunately I don't have the skill to create it, but I love to listen to it. Recently I've been listening to a lot of State Radio, The Faint, Brand New, and Mgmt.

In high school I took Desktop Publishing, where we learned how to make documents in Microsoft Word, but I don't really remember much that we learned. It was my first class of the day junior year, and I spent a little too much time sleeping instead of working. My only real computer skill is the ability to amuse myself on Facebook for hours at a time. Though I don't necessarily think that counts. Or is all that healthy. I hope to be able to learn more productive things about the computer that will help me in my schooling and eventually work situations.

My "secret fact" is that I own two birds. One is an Umbrella cockatoo named Charlie, who religiously destroys the woodwork in the kitchen, and the other is an African grey named Lola who never shuts up and was named after "Lola" by The Kinks because of our confusion about her gender.

Trinity e-mail address: rmurdoch@trinity.edu