Major hand-in weds eek! I’ve pretty much finished but still nervous. Dispite stress with work, i’ve had a pretty good week! Got my major featured in Webdesigner Magazine yay! They also put in a couple pics of my portfolio which is great You can view my portfolio here.

Went to the beach for some time-out a couple days ago, which was nice. Got burnt despite using suncream, probably not used to the sun after being in the labs for the past 7 weeks. But I felt much refreshed after my top up of Vitamin D, and ready to get this project over and done with! Slightly worried about the PA, but will come to that when I start to write it.

That is all for now =)

Does anyone remember these???

A few more handy links:
MandarinDesign.com – Cool ideas for making your website have a magazine layout (CSS)
Dapino Blog – Some cool vectors. Also check out their main page, beautiful design
PickBee Icons – Lots of free pixel icons
Colour Lovers.com – Web colour trends
Obdisian Dawn Brushes – Beautiful (free) Photoshop brushes, work for mac too!
Squidoo Brushes – An index of sites offering really gorgeous Photoshop Brushes.
Bullet Madness – Free bullets.

Writing my dissertation I have come across something interesting. I have been talking about how people have information on their social networking site profiles (e.g. Facebook) which they would be unhappy for certain people to see. For example, your employer seeing drunken pictures of you. Does anyone remember the story of that Asda employee who created a Facebook group that portrayed the company in a negative light? It was called something like ‘I work for Asda and they’re shit’. Anyway, in January there were a number of signs around Asda’s staff premises explaining that disciplinary action will be taken for posting offensive or negative content about the company on blogs and social networking sites (“Don’t blog your way into trouble”).

It is interesting that any such story can no longer be found in Search engines or on user-generated-content video sites such as youtube.com. Hmm…

I feel I should warn everyone NOT to use this garage. They mess you around, make stupid mistakes and rip you off. Apparently they’re having finance difficulties and brakes are their favourite problem. Don’t go there!!

Yep. Internet is cutting out again. :’-( although not as often. Sigh.

I’ve been having problems with my Internet connection for about a month now. One day it seemed to suddenly go wrong. I’m on a Mac (10.4.11) and using Airport, and it just started to cut out the connection. Some days it cut out every hour, some days every 30 seconds and it was sooo frustrating! I kept having to connect via the airport again and again. So, after spending many hours on the phone to BT, I concluded that it was my computer. I searched on a few forums and realized that LOADS of people were having the same problem – all on 10.4.11. So I upgraded the version, downgraded the version. No change. I was considering reinstalling the system until I stumbled upon this article AND IT WORKED! Amazing! If you have the same problem then try it! I did get a bit worried when it took so long to restart my computer, but ever since then i’ve been able to surf trouble-free Apparently the version 10.4.11 has some airport adjustments that completely mess it up, upgrading doesn’t help. Apple still haven’t fixed it.

I’ve been reading loads of books recently. Well, i’ve started loads of books and about half-way through them all because i’ve been so busy lately. ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time‘ by Mark Haddon is an amazing book. Its the diary of a boy with Aspergers, and is amazing how his mind works, really interesting with unexpected twists. I’m also reading Cecelia Ahern’s ‘A Place Called Here’ about a detective who goes missing, and ends up in a world where all missing things (and people) go. Its an amazing concept and worth reading. After watching ‘PS I love you‘ at the cinema, I came across the book in a charity shop, haven’t read much of it yet but again, very good. I can’t read boring books. ‘Left Behind‘ by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins is also good. I am also reading Sue Townsend’s ‘Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction’. I read the first couple of books in the series years ago when Adrian was 14 or something, then I found this book and he’s like 35 with kids!! I can’t believe she is still making these books, they are still pretty funny. The final book I am reading is ‘Its not how Good you are, it’s how Good you want to be’ by Paul Arden. You have to stick your business head on to read this, it does it’s best to tell you how to be a successful business person.

Here are a few company names I thought of for my Major project. Please leave a comment with your two faves, or any others you think of. See my previous post for description of project/website. Thanks guys!

pixelwings.net
webartfolio.com
scetch.org
myscetch.com
exhibitique.com
mygallerie.co.uk
neucanvas.com
blanckanvas.net
galleriasuites.co.uk
galleryme.co.uk
gallerie.me.uk
exhibity.net/org
elevator99.com

I’m so pleased i’ve finally come up with ideas for my minor/dissertation, even if they aren’t completely finished.

Dissertation:

- Idea 1) How/why people become addicted to media forms, more specifically Facebook. Displacement, addictions.
- Idea 2) Dangers and benefits of online networking websites. Conducting research on Facebook (specifically). Issues to include ID fraud, personal information, personal safety, online portfolio/work, education, personal development (speech), communication (and lack of one-to-one communication), time/life management, what this means for the future).

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We had an intensive day of pitching/coming up with ideas for our majors yesterday which I found very helpful. The 9 questions to apply to my idea helped, and i have been over them again and come up with even more ideas. Here’s a summary of the questions below…

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1. How can i adapt my idea to another subject? e.g. instead of basing my idea around photography, why not books?
2. What would someone in a different profession look for in my idea? e.g. an Artist might look for Aesthetically pleasing qualities.
3. Could i combine my idea with another product? E.g. my idea + facebook = Facebook application.
4. Can i magnify aspects of my idea?
5. Can i modify the purpose of my idea? E.g. instead of a portfolio website, make ita 3D game.
6. Can i put my idea to other uses? In what other ways can it benefit people?
7. Can i eliminate anything from the idea?
8. Can i rearrange aspects of my idea? E.g. Instead of uploading artwork, draw it online.
9. Can i reverse my idea or aspects of my idea?

Ii went to the ‘Save our Lecturers’ petition against staff cuts this afternoon. It was well organised and i’m glad i went. I think it is disrespectful that tutors have to re-apply for their jobs. Students come to the Media school because it is vocational! IMP won’t exist much longer if they sack too many people!