Merry Christmas

I think I told several people in class about the fuzzy kits I bought at Renderosity.com. Finally I made some time to play with the elements. Here is the card I created for a bunch of fuzzy bits.

Inspiration

Ok, I am still trying to decide what I want to do for my Flash project. So far I have scrapped thre different ideas. Time to look for some inspiration. Where else could I go but to Goggle. I searched about 20 mins before I found this site:

Flash Animation

There are some truly amazing flash presentations here. Mostly by professionals, these animations are inspiring. Although I cold not use any ideas I found here they are definately worth looking at. There was also an interiew with "Ice Cube" who talks about the rise of Internet TV and the death rattle of Flash. Hmmmm

Guess I had better get back to what I was doing.

The Book World's Answer to the Ipod Touch

This is really cool! Basically a portable library and Newspaper stand that conects with the ease of a cell phone to something called "the whisper net". Books,newspapers and magazines are delivered to the device from anywhere, anytime. Your purchases are even backed up on line just in case of disaster.



Amazon.com: Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device: Kindle Store



I figure with the new Verizon Voyager cell phone, an Ipod touch and the kindle I am good to go. Okay maybe I also need an Apple notebook (pro, of course), oh and maybe a new wacom tablet ( I still can't get the old one to work on the MAC) and maybe the Adobe CS3 master suite. Opps I forgot about that new 1Terabyte wireless external hard drive, an 8g flash drive, the logitech wireless web cam and the Nikon D80 10mp DSLR with the 18-135 mm zoom lens. Hope Santa reads this.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you and yours have a great Thanksgiving!

BahBah, Investigative Reporter

I will apologize in advance but I just couldn't help it. You may need to turn up the volume just a smidgen. Hopefully this gets me off the hook for the Apple commercial.

Maybe it is just the winter "blahs"

In July 2 of my friends got married to each other. I was thrilled I only had to buy one gift. Both of them work in the film industry in LA. Janet has a degree in Graphic Arts from ISU and Adrian has a degree in Digital Media. Adrian is from Britain so he calls it IT which makes sense to me also.
Since I had already registered for this class and was very interested in what I might find open in the job market after my studies are complete, I decided to quiz them.. It was not as inspiring as I had hoped. Janet works as a senior accounts exec for a firm that distributes TV programs overseas. She spends most of her time calling or emailing customers and checking the status of the programs she handles. Adrian works for Universal Studios, now that was hopeful. For the past few years he has been working as a film editor. Sounding better and better, right. Ok, apparently there are a number of variations in the editing field. He spends 8 hours a day, 5 days a week , 45 weeks a year cleaning micro dust, debris and repairing film frame by frame by frame so it can be remastered.
Yep, it is bloody awful. Still, I was not completely discouraged.
Well, this week I found a site that pushed me over the edge.
Interactive Media Center - University Library: University at Albany
The artist is only 18 years old. I may never even come close to this level of work. Bah Humbug. It is so cold out that as I am typing my finger are shutting down and refusing to type. Just after a spell check I will post this and go in search of an alcoholic beverage. HAH this is something that 18 year-old kid can't do yet. I am feeling better now.

So what do You have in the treat bag?

There were a number of free Poser props and 2D elements this year. I could not resist playing a bit. I probably could have spent a little more time on this but decorating for the holiday took a lot more time than I thought it would. Next year I will not stress so much about where to put the severed hand and feet or how many spiders should go on the web. Happy Halloween.

Tholie, the amazing singing cat

This was a special request from my Mom. She wanted her chat room friends to see what an amazing cat her little Tholie is and what she can do.

If it weren't for bad luck....

I had planned on bringing home the footage for the Commercial Project and using it with Livetype to spiff up my commercial. Before I left class, I loaded the files on my flash drive or at least I thought I did. After we figured out why my project did not appear in the drop box I should have gone back in and loaded the completed file. All That was on the drive was a file of an incomplete project with no clips. That would not have been a problem if I had opened once I got home but I did not do that. I waited to check it on Thursday after the lab hours were over. So I will just have to see if I can make it out to the Lab on Tuesday after work. Of course there is no guarantee I would finish the edit before class. Oh, just a thought, maybe I can run out and get the footage and call in sick on Wednesday. I would have the whole day to work on the project. I am not going to do that of course but it was the only bright spot to my weekend so far.

I did find the DV connection for the camcorder I borrowed from mom. I went to circuit city and bought a firewire. Not the right one of course but I at least am getting closer to retrieving the video of the Homecoming parade. While I was there I looked for a camcorder for myself. Yep, I found a really nice pricey one that the sales clerk assured me was firewire capable and that was the one I needed. When I got it home it was not equipped with a DV, IEEE 1394 or firewire port. I returned to CircuitCity and argued for a while found a cheaper one (open box) was able use a firewire connection. I got on line and discovered I needed a 4 to 6 pin firewire to connect to the MAC and it will ship in 24 hours ( actually that will most likely be 48 hours as this is Saturday).

I took a bunch of stills, some Livetype and a soundtrack I made in GarageBand and imported it to Final cut Express. Not great but I am learning a lot.

The Video Gods Hate Me

I borrowed Mom’s camcorder to use at ISU’s Homecoming Parade today. After a few minutes of playing with the controls I felt I could be successful in shooting enough video to make a short 2 or 3 minute presentation. All went well at the parade. I got clips of the BRMM, Reggie, the Alumni Band and even did a mock interview with my Mom. I ran back the tape and it looked pretty good. There were a few crucial elements to the project I had not planned for.
Mom and I got home about 11:30 and I wanted to get started on editing the video. The camera had a USB input to the computer so I could not use a fire wire to import the footage into Final Cut Express. I just had to think about the problem for a while. I think best while shopping. I went to the fabric store and to Michael's and found some really cute things for the holidays. Okay I am now ready to tackle that video. I looked around the Internet but did not see a solution for my problem. It was getting late anyway so I decided to shelve the problem until tomorrow.
Credit for the next idea I am giving to my cat. About 2am I must have rolled over on her and she sunk her back claws into my leg. I was wide awake and my first thought was, “Hey, I can load that video to iMovie , create a folder and open it in Final Cut”. Sunday morning, right after 2 cups of coffee and a pop tart, that is what I tried. Okay that did not work either so I made some toast hoping I would think better on a full stomach.
I decided to see if I could load the video my PC. First I had to locate the set-up disk that came with the camera. Since the camcorder was purchased in 2002, I knew I had a long search ahead of me. After 5 years there was no telling how far away that disk could have rolled. I know what you are thinking…why not just load to mom’s computer and the transfer it to my computer. The disk was never loaded on her system. Mom was sure that it did not come with a disk because it was so old. I went to SharpUSA.com to see if I could download the drivers. It is now Sunday afternoon. I downloaded what I thought were the drivers but were actually a readme file and a PDF on how to connect the USB to the computer. I was instructed to install the drivers from that elusive disk.
I got out the manual. Maybe there was something I missed or info I could use to get that video on to a computer. The camcorder can be hooked up to a TV. All I have to do is find some AV cables and I’m set. I can record the video to the VCR, use the Dazzle digital video creator 150 to transfer the footage to the computer and I am good to go, right? I really think this might have worked had if had not loaned the Dazzle to a friend sometime back and if could have found a store that sold blank Beta tapes (all my tapes are full of 9 seasons of Doctor Who and 2 seasons of Twin Peaks).
It is now 4:08 on Sunday. I lost the first round with the Video Gods but the battle is not over. After I finish this bit for the blog, I am heading start to Kodak.com and look for a semi-pro EasyShare digital camcorder. If they don’t make one then I guess I will be sending an email to find out how soon I can expect one.

Christmas Wish List

This is at the top of my Christmas list

Phone Wars coming soon

I found an article at Engadget that I found interesting. It demonstrates how quickly the industry can respond to new tech and consumer demand.

Cool New Phones

A squishy post

Okay, I just had to skip ahead to animation. I promise I'll go back and read what was in between. Just one bounce. I did not render it, I used playblast instead.

Fun with Maya

Saturday afternoon, I finally had time to load the free MAYA program on the computer. I watched about 2 1/2 hours of video tutorials at Lynda.com and read a bit in the book I bought at Barnes and Noble last weekend. When I felt a little more comfortable with navigating the interface and learning a bit more about the buttons I opened up Maya and began to play...I mean work with the program. It is amazing! Wayyyy more buttons than Poser and a great deal more useful. By 2am I had created a bowl from a cv curve and 3 eggs that I hope in the future I can make hop in the bowl. Animation is the last bit of the video lecture and in the book as well. The render engine is super fast. The quality of the pic is fantastic. They really mean photo realistic! I may have to put Maya unlimited on my Christmas list....student pricing, of course. Maybe I will have more time to play...I mean work with Maya this week. I am not sure why the pic of the bowl loaded twice.

A Better Way...

Composed with Poser 7 and PowerPoint
In May of 2006, I started working on the Safety Committee: a voluntary position that was conducted mostly in off hours. The first week was interesting. From 6am-7am on Tuesday ( our regular meeting day and the only times we were paid for the committee work) a small group (3 out of 472) met to plan out the focus for the coming year. I was decided that we would take pictures of some of the safety hazards in the departments. Our committee leader said he could request the company camera from the Lab but could someone else bring a camera just in case. George said he could but the card was full and he didn't know how to get the pictures off the camera was now useless. I asked him to bring in the camera and I
would wipe the card for him so he would not have to buy a new camera. He said he would have to ask his wife. The following Tuesday I bought my camera. We divided into two groups and started off to hunt for hazards. I loaded the pictures I took on my laptop and emailed to our committee leader. On Sunday before our next meeting, I went to Office Max and bought a copy of Office 2003, installed it and opened PowerPoint. In about hour and half I had a presentation complete with pictures and bulleted descriptions of the problem and solutions. I took my laptop to work and set up to show the committee. From there I made several more presentations defining the "mission" of the committee, organizing our plans for the future, etc. I made poster with photographs and compiled material that I laid out in either word or PowerPoint. I signed up for Animation Factory.com and used the premade pics and gifs to illustrate an safety issue or behavioral aspect that related to safety. The newsletter, feedback to the maintenance department and other posting I cranked out on my desk top to support the committee. I also created two characters to demonstrate safety compliance. This is when I really developed an interest in digital media. After using auto shapes and editing pics and gifs to use in a graphic presentation for PowerPoint, I realized that PowerPoint was NOT a good graphics program. It was never designed for that and there were definite limitations. However I continued to design layouts and scenes in PowerPoint and in word (not a good program for posters).

The search was on for a better way to create really cool media. I googled my way to Crazy Talk, DAZ 3d, Poser, Toon Boom, True Space and Bryce. After working through the free trials in one weekend, I bought Crazy Talk (the one I used to animate the doll in a previous post) and Poser. I knew at the time I would not be reimbursed so I tried to be frugal. I worked most of Sunday trying to create something really eye catching for the meeting on Tuesday. The backgrounds I set up in PowerPoint and then imported them to Poser where I added a character, Slim Safely, in various stages of unsafe behavior. Poser had a ton of premade props that I could adapt to the projects and all but a couple were free. The following week I downloaded lots of props and set them up in Poser, saved the scene as a JPEG and took it to PowerPoint and added Signs and other items to create the background. Once I had completed the background, I imported it to Poser and added my characters, posed them and saved them as JPEGs. There was no way to use video or animation other than PowerPoint so most of the stuff I did was of still images. To spice up the presentations, I did use GIFs downloaded from Animation Factory and embedded a cartoon shading of Slim Safely waving but did not delve too deeply into animation.

When the TV did arrive I had already decided to leave the committee for a variety of reasons. Only two animations were completed before December 2006 when I resigned from the committee. I turned in 12 still scenarios I printed out on photo paper for the bulletin board and 4 animated PowerPoint's illustrating a safety issue. Two of the presentations were made using GIFs I downloaded from AnimationFactory and two were done with Poser. I could only find one, that is what I posted last week, when I went to weed out my files. I was a little disappointed that none of the items I turned in after I told them I was resigning were used for the boards or TV.

I made a decision. Digital Media was what I wanted to do and no matter what I was going to learn to do it well. Nestle has a tuition reimbursement plan so there no good reason why I couldn't do it.
About 2am this morning after finally getting the cv curve in Maya to revolve and make a bowl, I did think of a few reasons. After a good nights sleep I have forgotten what they were.

PowerPoint gone horribly wrong

This is one of the two video powerpoints I made for the Safety Committee at work. The background was set up in Power point, with auto shape and some elements I found on the web. I spifted up the pics, cut and pasted and turned some of them into GIFs. I took the background to Poser 7 and added the robot in 18 frames of looping video and embedded it into a Powerpoint for the Video display at work. They never used it so I thought I would post it here. I took the begining slide and last slide (converted to JPEGs) and the AVI clip of the robot to Adobe Premiere elements. I placed all the bits in the time line and voila, I think I made a teeny tiny movie.

Summer Job

Jason, a struggling graphic arts student, took a summer job at his Uncle Mikes Bakery for the summer. An already long and expensive list of software grew to astronomical proportions last semester prompting Jason to sign up for extra hours. Getting up for the 3am donut fry and bake session put a bit of a burden on his social life but, hey, by the end of the summer he would be able to afford the CS3 suite AND Final Cut Pro. There may even be enough left over to add another gig of ram to his laptop!

He pulls up to the bakery about 2:50am and notices his uncles car is nowhere in sight. Just as he was unlocking the door, the phone starts ringing. Uncle Mike explains he has had car trouble and would have to wait for a tow and the car rental offices to open up at 8am. Jason would have to make the donuts, cookies, cakes and breads without him. After a really good pep talk from Uncle Mike, Jason is ready to tackle the tasks. The list of products that are needed is posted on the bulletin board so Jason sits down and starts planning his project. With his storyboard now complete, Jason moves on to designing and producing.

The loaves of bread are a good place to start. He slowly and carefully mixes the dough making sure all the ingredients blend properly to avoid air pockets that would cause pixilation in the finished loaves. Jason carefully divides the dough into the 25 loaf pans and sets them aside to rise. On to the cakes! He mixes the batter for the layer cakes and cupcakes and prepares the pans for the ovens. Once the cakes are baking nicely, he decides to work on the cookies. Ten dozen each of jumbo oatmeal raisin and jumbo chocolate chip cookies requires about 40 pounds of dough. He sets up the free standing mixer and starts adding the ingredients. Twenty minutes later he has enough dough to divide between the two different formats. The cakes come out and the cookies go in. With 15 minutes left until the cookies are done, Jason decides to check on the bread. Most of the loaves rose perfectly. The four closest to the oven got a little too warm and overflowed the pans. He edited out the unnecessary dough and reloaded the pans. Time to make the donuts. He pulls the dough from the cooler and checks the temperature on the fryer. The last of the donuts come out of fryer just as the timer for the bread goes off. All the elements are done and it’s time to put them together and test them. Everything tasted great and he was right on schedule. All the products were placed on trays and ready for delivery to the display cases when Uncle Mike finally arrives at 8:20.
The two cashiers arrive and start filling up the cases and unlock the doors. Uncle Mike stays up front for a few minutes to examine the products. They were little different than usual but were not too bad for a first effort. Jason returns to the kitchen and starts to clean up and do the prep work for tomorrow. A little while later, Uncle Mike calls Jason over to find out if he had any problems that morning.

“Nothing I couldn’t work through” Jason commented and began to explain how he resolved the production issues. He explained that 4 of the loaves of bread had risen too much and had to be redone. To avoid unnecessary waste he added some special effects: raisins, nuts and candied fruit and made some small coffee cakes. Once they were baked he applied a lens, white icing, at a low transparency. He called them “hot swap buns”. To avoid this problem in the future he placed a piece of masking tape on the table near the ovens to mark a “safe action” area. The cakes were not as tall as they should have been after he flattened the layers but all the information would still be there when the costumer cut the cake. The decorating tube he used for the cupcakes left an uncovered area of cake between the paper and the icing. He decided to dither the icing to cover the cake and blend the icing to the edge of the paper liner. The oatmeal raisin cookies turned out great! “They were a JPEG 8 if I ever saw one.” exclaimed Jason. The short supply of chocolate chips presented a problem. All the cookies had to have the same dimensions so the cookies turned out to be a JPEG 3 due to the reduced number of chocolate chips in each cookie. The donuts weren’t a problem once he had sorted out the sprinkles into their proper color palettes.

Uncle Mike decides to let Jason leave a little early and tells him he is giving him an extra dollar an hour for today as he was the head baker for his shift. After Jason leaves, he walks over to the check out the donut sprinkles. Sure enough there were two tubs of sprinkles: one marked RGB and the other marked CMYK.

Jason was feeling pretty good about today and decides to treat himself to a good meal. He heads over to the Pizza Palace. Steven, also a graphics arts student and classmate, will still be there to take his order. After chatting a bit, Jason orders a large pizza with “the works”. Steven grabs an order pad and asks, “Do you want a BMP or an EPS?”

Fleeting Fame

I admit I am a little bit nervous. This will be my first introduction to adoring fans and aficionados of the tech world. The cocktail party starts at 7pm sharp. So where is that Limo? I simply cannot be late even if it fashionable. I cannot disappoint my public. AH, finally someone is here to pick me up! Okay, let’s hit the road, MAC.

I can hear the happy, excited voices coming from inside the ball room. The doors open and in I march. It is incredible. Anyone that is someone is here tonight waiting to meet or at least get a glimpse of me. I move through the room, ever so slowly, to build suspense. Whispers and subtle murmurs fill the room. IPHONE gestures ever so slightly to urge me forward. We share sooo many of the same features and he helped me a great deal to prepare for this very moment. The NANO family is polite but just a little cold when I am introduced. I heard last week they aren’t being invited to all the really good parties anyway. Not to worry, the INTEL twins are suitable impressed. They even introduce me to IMAC and MAC PRO. The twins explained that we would get along famously. We are all just one big, happy Bluetooth family. Everyone just had to see if I could do all the things they said I could. Filled with confidence, I link to the iTunes site and download a song or two. This move bolsters my courage so I open some pictures, resize them and zoom in and out on the photo. It is the most exciting evening of my iLife! Now it is time for my grand finale. I open the web browser and went on Safari. They say “pride cometh before a fall”. Before I realize it, the room was filled with gasps and disbelief. Displayed on my screen was Engadget.com announcing that iPhone had been savagely unlocked.

My 180 billion nanoseconds of fame has come to an end. The ballroom doors fly open and security heads straight for iPhone to insure his safety. He is quickly ushered back to the lab. Whispers and murmurs abound. “He is still so young” was the most common thread in the room. A louder voice is heard and all present turn to listen. “A software update is what’s needed. We can get to the core of the problem and get the Jobs done!” The following applauds are my swan song. No longer am I the latest “apple of the tech world eye”. I turn away and head for the door. So it goes in the fast-paced world of technology, one second you on top and the next you are byting micro dust. And yes I am still very touchy.

Alter Ego

Here is a very short video. I just want to see if it will upload. At 2:19am Sunday morning , I gave up (after 5 attempts) and went to bed. This has not been a good week with computers. Oh, well. The video features Hephzibah (BahBah) Dagget: the mascot I created for the Safety Commitee I volunteered for at work. I guess I am not too old to play with dolls after all.

Loss of a Good Friend

Mom lost a good friend today: her desktop computer. Highlander was about 3 years old but had been ill for about a year. He had suffered a variety of ailments that he survived with careful nursing and software updates but to no avail. I had called my sister, Paula, earlier in the week and she came to help me with one last ditch effort to save him.

For about a year or so Windows updates had been hanging up on installation and had to be manually installed. Highlander just simply refused to shut down upon occasion or took his sweet time in doing so. The biggest problem we had was his refusal to even recognize the wireless network. This is why I asked my sister to take a look. He simply refused to listen to me. We checked all his settings, reconfigured the network and even ran the wizard to set up a new connection. We decided on radical treatment. Paula and I took an old G router left over (after upgrading to the N router) and “hotwired” it into the N router. Configured the G router to broadcast as a relay and hooked it into the network via the web. Still Highlander did not respond. I had a range expander that I thought might do the trick. We plugged in the expander and linked it to the G router that was linked into the N router. Success! Highlander proudly announced he was now connected to the network at 54mps and signal strength was Excellent! Having dealt with a terminal patient before, I recognized this as the last rally of lucidity before lapsing into an unconscious state. We still had to try. Paula opened Internet Explorer and tried to connect to the internet but the page would not open. Seconds later a message popped up stating the connection had been lost. Paula, not willing to give up yet, re-checked all the settings again. I only had one more idea left before we pulled the plug.

I went upstairs and found the software for a wireless access point, the access point and two 10 foot USB cables. I strung the cables together and made a 26 foot connection to Highlander. My hope was that by moving the access point closer to the router Highlander would be able to connect to the internet. Paula plugged in the adapter into the port. Nothing happened. No message that new hard had been found and the wizard was completely silent. Ok, we can just put the disc in and load the software. The drive started up and the program started to load then with a flicker it was gone. We made several more attempts and even tried to load the program manually. Drive failure was Highlander last gasp and we both knew it. After 4 ½ hours all we could do was make him comfortable. I wanted to draw straws to see who was going to tell Mom but Paula said we should tell her together.
We carefully removed the life lines to the printer, scanner and web cam and prepared him for autopsy and data retrieval. Mom was just too upset to watch and finally went in the other room and booted up her laptop. We gently placed Highlander in the backseat of Paulas car and she left to put him to rest. She hopes to save some of the pictures on the drive Mom had not backed up on CD.

I went in to consol Mom. She decided she would like to have another desktop just like Highlander. We talked about XP being replaced with Vista which upset her a bit. I suggested trying a MAC. She knows her way around a PC and is not too happy about learning a new OS. After explaining that Pentium D had been replaced with Core duo or Athlon64 and either would be a faster processor she perked up a lot. I brought up the HP web site and configured a multimedia model that was comparable to Highlander. The ads for Bestbuy and Circuit City would be out tomorrow and we can look at those as well. Just to cheer her up, I went to Apple.com and played the guided tour for the new IPOD touch. Her only comment was …”I think I need one of those. Do they have them at Circuit City too?” She is feeling better now.

An Office with a View

An Office with a View
You’re done! The Sales and Marketing Presentation is now complete. It took you 5 weeks but it will all be worth the extra effort you put in on the project. A Twelve CD-ROM project containing 127 color charts, 27 division break-downs all linked in a spectacular interactive PowerPoint will sky rocket you toward that corner office with a view. It took 3 days for you to rehearse changing the CDs while still making your presentation so there would be no awkward pauses. There is only one thing you forgot: Murphy’s Law.
It is 7:00 Monday morning. You go to the computer room, pick up the neatly cased CD presentation and your laptop, tell the kids it is time to go and wave a cheerful Goodbye to the spouse. It is now 7:45. You have 45 minutes to set up the presentation on the company server and get back to your cubical by 8:30. There is plenty of time. The video conference with the Detroit office starts at 11:30. Disc one up loads quickly, then disc two and so on. Well that was easy enough. It is now only 8:12 and time to check out what your presentation will look like on the big 42” screen in the conference room. You access your presentation on the server and begin your presentation. You tummy tightens as you realize the screen has your daughter’s school project proudly displayed in place of your color charts. DON”T PANIC! The rule is always back up your work. You remove the files from the server and are at your desk by 8:25. The presentation is loaded on your laptop and all you have to do is call the IT department and have them transfer your files to the server.
Ben from IT support arrives at your desk by 9:10. You explain the problem and what you need him to do. After a quick examination of your files, Ben explains that your files cannot be uploaded to the server because the new safety protocols and security software has not been installed on the laptop. Installing the new updates will only take about 15 minutes but the files will probably not survive the ordeal. Rule #2, always stay current and update frequently is now firmly etched on your brain. You decide to go with plan “C” or is it plan “D”.
You call your spouse on the cell phone but it wouldn’t dial through. The tower just doesn’t reach as far as it should. Not to worry, you text your teen and explain the mix up, run to the school, switch the CDs and be back in 30 minutes. You arrive at the school and go to the main entrance to meet your daughter for the trade but she is nowhere in sight. Maybe you are not as good at texting as you thought. Finally you spot her waiting for you at west exit door make the trade and head back to work. It is 10:45. There is still time to up load your presentation on the server. The corner office is still within reach, right?
Everyone gathers in the conference room at 11:15. You were never more ready to present your project. The only person you have to worry about is Ralph and he didn’t even show up until 10:30. How could he possibly be as well prepared as you are? 11:30 arrives and the video conference starts. Introductions go well and the first two presentations go as planned. Your presentation is 4th and you are getting just a little giddy. Then it happens. The video goes out and all you have is sound. After a flurry of activity it is discovered that there is not enough bandwidth to maintain both a secure audio and video link. The conference will have to go on without video. The remaining reports can just be summarized. Well at least Ralph will not be able to do his presentation either. Remember Murphys Law?
Ralph stands up and begins to speak. He explains that his report is accessible on a secure web site he just finished uploading this morning. All we have to do is bring up the site in both locations and he will guide us all through the links for his presentation. After the password was entered at both locations a website complete with flash elements and what might have been java roll-overs burst onto the screen blotting out all hope of ever getting out of that cramped cubical. What was that old saying: for want of a glass fiber cable a room with a view is lost.
The conference is over and you extend your hand to Ralph in congratulations. The two of you chat a bit and then reaches in his pocket and pulls out a flash drive. He mentions that he noticed that you brought in your presentation on CD-ROM. He explains that this particular flash drive can hold up to 4 GB of information and would be much easier and secure than the CDs. Since you knew Ralph rarely kept up on technology you just had to ask how he was able to set up a secure website with all the cutting edge elements. He explained that Ralph jr actually set up the site, did all the code and even added some special features to jazz it up a bit. Music seems to be coming from Ralphs suit pocket. He reaches in and pulls out the phone that dreams are made of: an IPHONE. Then it hits you, your daughter is in the same computer class as Ralph jr. Was it a cat or a dog she asked for last week? You can pick her up after school and take her to the pet store. Whatever she picks out can sit next to her as she sets up your presentation on the web. You head back to your cubical to look up the nearest ATT &T cell phone distributer so you can get on the wait-list for an iphone. There is still hope for that corner office!

Illinois Flag I found at Wikipedia

Gabbys Pet Spa This is a link to the web site I created for Creating Web Pages I. There are 3 pages. Hope you like it.

My Kitty Mel and PhotoShop

I'm Back. This a photo of my cat. I romoved some of her marking and colored her eyes neon blue with photoShop. It was rather fun.

Onward, into the unknown....

Wow, my very first BLOG.
I should probably mention why I started blogging: I am being graded for this. After a very long absence form the halls of higher education, I am returning to study Digital media. Don't ask how long, I am still considering dyeing my hair to "fit in".
This is my 1st semester back....Just one class, DMED 101, for credit, whoo hoo. At this rate I should finish in 6 more years. I also finished a few on-line classes ( CorelDraw, Creating Web Pages I), completed 2 classes on PhotoShop Elements through Community Ed and am currently taking Creating Web Pages II.
There shoulld be a few things I could post from the classes. I'll just go check. TTYL