Here it is

Well I am finally finished. i have sent my file as a PDF to the instructor and to the web site for the class. I tried to burn a DVD/CD but it did not work. So I guess I did not in actual fact succeed at the final project, because I could not burn a copy. I do not know if this is a problem of my OS or it is just me. I am going to go to the college and try to do it there. It has been so hectic that I did not really get a chance to enjoy the process. I was so twisted about the web site that I failed to get into the pleasure of learning new things. I am going to try to be much more pro-active about my media studies involvement. i am tired of being freaked out about everything I do notfinal-project.pdffinal-project.pdf understand.

final paste up

OK here it is I am beginning the final creation of my paper. Just gotta put the images together and do the final scanning. I am going to do three things. Make a hard copy on a a set of pages, make a PDF file and send it to the instructor, and make a DVD and deliver it (somehow – in time) to the instructor. Here is a very rough idea. I am putting it together in a long running format . When it becomes a web page I will have more options for text and graphics I have sites that I would like to add also. Hopefully it will grow out of this organic process.

doing the paste up

 Borderlands is on its way – I have almost all of my contributors stuff. I am just missing a poem and a picture. I am modifying my Borderlands comix for the newspaper. I am going to put together a composite piece that updates the work I did in the summer. (Update is a positive word for situations that have not improved at all since I addressed the issues!!) I did a bunch of very expensive colour copying and I am transcribing a couple of the pieces because my printer is not working yet (I have the cartridges I just need to put them in). My Web Page program says I can import things in three ways – from files, from scans, and from direct word  processing. I am going to try to use my own images not a gallery, and I am going to retrieve those images in three ways – from a DVD or CD; from scanned pictures; and from pictures sent to my desktop by friends, etc. It seems fairly straightforward the only problem I have is that I do not actually know the procedures but I will talk my way through as I get to each and hopefully it will come together!!

I wrote another online exam for my other media studies class on Thursday and even though I gave myself 4 hours to write the exam it took me over 6. I was late posting (again!!!) and I did not know the correct procedures for posting to my instructor thru the WEBCT and so I ended up sending him an attachment in a personal e-mail just to be sure that I got the exam there. I also had to put the exam in a format I had not used before – I had to turn it to RTF – a rich text file- I have heard of them and even received them but I had never made one and I am  proud of myself that I learned how to do it without asking my room mate for help.

Next semester I am taking advantage of the technology workkshops offered by the moodle guys at Malaspina. Last semester, they gave workshops on web site creation and design and powerpoint – both of which I had to learn to use as part of my media studies courses.
Hindsight is always better – if only I could time travel!! Oh well to work.

fear of media

I have been trying to understand my reluctance to do a web page without instruction. I am suffering from guilt about not doing my work on time and in a correct academic fashion and it is plaguing me. Why am I balking so much about such a relatively simple thing. I know a lot of my feelings surround my need to be shown what to do and my lack of incentive towards experimentation with things I do not understand. For example, I had to read about powerpoint and then get a demonstration and an involved explanation before I was able to feel free enough to navigate the site alone. After the project was handed in and I looked over my fellow students work I realized that I could have done so much more. I knew about the techniques but it is almost as if I cannot do what I have not seen done. This seems to be a disadvantage in this particular situation which demand working with new and unknown technologies. Is my reluctance due to my preconceptions about technology or my abilities to use technology. Or do I feel apprehension simply because I am unskilled or untrained. I do not feel incompetent I feel frustrated becasue I know that once I feel OK I will sail along doing what needs to be done to accomplish the task. So how do I break free of this restriction. From the beginning I asked for help and the person I really counted on to help me, someone who actually has an operating web site made arrangement to help and then never showed up. When I asked my room mate he said he did not remember how and that I should try to learn it on my own. I asked a student in my media studies class who had said that she knew a lot about web pages but she was not interested in a collaberation and we were unable to meet for even the most rudimentary instruction. It seems as if whenever I tried to step outside of my rote learning practices I faltered and now I face having to do the task and no real confidence about the assignment. I have known from the beginning what I want my web page /newspaper to look like. if i could just do paste-up or even a collection of digital files I would be OK but it transferring it into a web page that is making me feel unabale. Anyhow, I am not letting this mysterious lack on my part stop me from trying my best. I have all of the componnenet parts to complete the task and I am going to spend the rest of my time learning as much as I can. My room mate has offered to sopend some time with me showing me some of the techniques but neither he nor I have ever used the linux-based openSuse OpenOffice Writer program which is the program for creating web pages on my KDE desktop.
Anyhow, I have an on-line exam all day tomorrow and then I am dedicating my time to manifesting my newspaper!!!!

here is another page for my paper

After a harrowing day navigating thru the snow and narrowly missing mishap I have spent this day regaling in my new job. I have the best pop-culture job in the world if you support popular culture. I work at a place where the rich and those pretending to such come in and buy empty teddy bear (alligator, horse, dog, cat, duck, unicorn, raccoon, and almost any animal you can imagine) bodies which you stuff ( with environmentally friendly and non-toxic materials) yourself and then buy incredibly fashionable and expensive clothes, shoes, and accessories to clothe them with. Anthropomorphically speaking of course. It is so beyond reality as most of the world knows it that it is incredible.

So, how does this relate to technology – aside from the obvious involvement of manufacturings, shipping, and consumerism. My only digital attachment here is that I made a collage and scanned it and now I am going to try to send it for all of you to see. This is new ability for me – before I needed guidance and instruction from my tech-master room mate. Today I waited til he was gone to do it – hope it works. I had fun doing the paste up and I hope you can see that I am really engaged here. How odd!!

scanning my ideas

I have been working all day on a paste up for my newspaper. I am going to take pictures of the people who have submitted their works for me. I am going to make my comics but I am not sure if I will do them in one big picture or in frames like I did this summer. There are a lot of topics I could address such as poverty, child advocacy, treaties, reform of the child welfare system, children in care, etc.

This has been a very exciting week for me technology wise. Last week \\\i did my very first powerpoint and I was amazed at how easy it was to access and use. Linux Open Office has a program for the web called Impress which is a clone of powerpoint but for open source users (like me). When I have time not dedicated to school work i am going to experiment with it to see if it is as easy as ppt. Also i was veery impressed (ha ha) with the students nin my class and the work they submitted for their projects – they utilized many aspects of the program that I did not know how to access. Such as the use of clip art – I made acollage and scanned it and added it to my project but they got pictures off of the web and added them and they looked excellent. Also they experimented with colour backgrounds, text, and graphics too. I will be more open to using thes themes now that i know a little of what powerpoint bcan do.

I have also been using google to find out about things that I would normally look for a book to reference. For example, i was playing poker with my roommate and we were not sure of the sequence of cards and their worth so I googled it and we kept the visual list on the screen while we played through the night. It is this kind of instant answers to questions that makes google so useful to me. I would not depend on it for academic referencing but a source to find out anything about just about anything it is superb!!!

I have been avoiding signing into facebook here at home. I feel as if it is too invasive of my privacy and even tho it probably does not make a difference I am keeping my use to the computers at the college. I see the computers at the college as different from my own home computer. I feel protective towards my privacy and my space here at home. At the college I feel as if everyone is on-line and I am just another one of many. Here at home I feel as if I am under surveillance for my use and that the trail that I leave electronically leads right to my inner sanctum. I know it sounds paranoid but that is how I feel. Of course doing technology at the college means I have to have a relationship with microsoft and one of the things I notice right away at the college is how long it takes to boot up and allow me to use it. I clocked it at 1:55 mins. one day. Here, with my linux – openSuse OS I am on-line in less than 30 secs.!!! OK so its slow – but the moodle tech told me it is because it is loading all of my personal settings – so that is why it takes so long. Who would have thought that there would be such a technological discrepancy between the two systems.

This monday in my poetry class we got into a very loud and assertive conversation about facebook. The teacher, who had asked students in two other classes to sign up to make communication between the group easier but when she asked our class we rebelled and said we did not want to do it. That was at the beginning of the semester when we refuse the sign in and now she says that she is very unhappy with the invasiveness of the site. She did not get the benefits she was looking for and many of the students refused to keep up their correspondence because of the endless e-mails from people they did not know asking them to join groups they would never think of joining and sending messages to their fun walls and all sorts of popular culture stuff that hopefully I do not have to get involved in after this class is over. My room mate has assured me that I will be able to close my facebook account and there will be no repercussions or continuing attachment to the site but I will believe that when I see it. Well gotta go and do some work on my page. heres a rough idea of my layout

making comics

Today I started on my paste up for my newspaper/e-zine.  I am making a collage for my other Media Studies class and I am going to do my comics at the same time. I also have an idea what Ravengirl is going to look like, stay tuned!! I have not made any graphics lately as I have been working on the text I want to place on my pages. It is beginning to seem doable. I have a major collection of news items to prompt some ideas for my first edition. I want to have a theme at least at first. marginalization, gender bias,racism, economics – something topical and interesting. Or I might just let my contributors set the tone. That would really be interesting – some of my friends are pretty radical and politically active.

new media

I am frustrated beyond belief. Now my blog site is acting up!! Whenever I sign in it puts another web site address in the tittle space and the web site I came from (hotmail) in the text body, what is that about? I just lost a whole posting because it went back to MSN instead of posting to my blog. What is it?

So this is a repeat complaint – what else is new. I am finding it very hard bucking the mainstream with my rival OS. My roomie is obsessed with new tech and he keeps putting new browsers, and OSs in my computer. The last time he did it he added Mandriva and it took over control of my hard drive and would not recognize my openSuse/KDE desktop. So I could not get at any of my files. He had to remove it and let me have my original file system. Thank the gods!! Next he introduced me to the new OPERA web browser, which is way faster than Mozilla Firefox but otherwise not that different so far. So here I sit surrounded by new tech and frustrated by it all.

I am scanning the paste-up of my e-zine this weekend. I have invited friends and collegues to submit articles, poems, photos, drawings, rants, comics, or short stories to my page and then I will create it!!

getting submissions

Well frustration has set in permanently now. Every time I go home I have a new web browse or a new OS to deal with . I have used so many new aplications that they are beginning to dance in my head like Xmas sugarplums!!!

As for my term project, I am asking my friends and aquaintances to submit articles, photos, poem, or short stories for my e-zine. I am making a paste-up this weekend and scanning the format so I can see what it will all look like as a web page.

 I have been frustrated by the disconnect between Microsoft and linux – what else is new. I am almost ready to admit defeat and return skulking to the mainstream camp being unable to stand the tension  and the travelling between the college and my house. Right now I am looking for a Frontage web site tutorial and before next week I will have to learn how to do power point for a presentation on-line. Whew!! Is digital life ever busy. I long for the quiet of the lake and the sounds of the birds (Instead of the constant clik-clak of the keyboard!).