Wednesday 26 March 2008

Ideas move forward

Well the week has gone fine so far to be honest. The snow, gales and blizzards have gone, and yes I can finally go do something, rather than sit at home. When I have seen at home I have been concentrating on my ideas for the assessment, this includes what my flash movie will be for the web page and practice ideas for the crossword. Have also been doing some research about health, safety and computing. Something to put on my web page. The web page has to be linked with the presentation. So to make these ideas work I have created a draft page using Dreamweaver, this includes a flash image when you open the page. All the flash image needs now is the play, pause and stop buttons put in place.

Monday 24 March 2008

The weather worsens

Well it’s the first day of the Easter holidays and I have nothing to do other than sit at home, due to this dreadful weather we in the north east are being hit with. So I thought I venture out and take a few pictures.
This picture was taken during blizzards, and you can see the top of the road.


When the weather changed again you could.


Demonstrates the power of snow and what it can do when drifting. Where’s the farmer when you need him



Friday 21 March 2008

All CS3 versions apply

Now its Good Friday, it must be the start of the Easter holidays. What have I planned, not a lot to be honest, revise for the last part of the maths exam and have a play about with web premium.

With the web premium I want to start drawing and testing ideas for my assessment and see weather they will work or not. This will mean looking at other programs within the package, like Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Both could be very beneficial for bring out good results.

Wednesday 19 March 2008

Soon be trading

Well I’m In the Social Software class investigating new things on Gaia online. It’s basically an online social site where you can earn gold points for selling and trading various objects, yet to buy or trade as I have just purchased the trade card that cost 500 pieces, so I am now making the money by playing games. One of the games is fishing, others games are puzzles and word making, these all earn you gold.

My favourite game at the moment has to be the puzzles as you can earn lots of gold depending on the difficulty of the puzzle, the highest gold score is 300 pieces.

If you visit various areas of towns you can pick up insects, these I believe can be used as bait for fishing, not forgetting they can be sold on.

Monday 17 March 2008

The future

Monday morning and I’m thinking how quickly the college year is passing, April already. The college course will be finished around June and July time, then if all goes to plan I will start the HNC in August. Now that is something I am looking forward too, feel I have learnt so since returning to college last year. Am a whole lot more confident when it comes to working with computers, I feel if I was in employment and asked to create a database or spreadsheet it would no longer be a problem.

With the time going so quick, means thinking further than the HNC, where will I be and what will I be doing. Do I take employment or study on toward a Degree after the HNC?

Sunday 16 March 2008

Farmers life

Well the weekend has gone fine, worked the nightshift, now at home doing some work on the computer. Not a lot of college work yet, the work load for block two is easier.

Farm work in demanding, I notice this when the farmer drives by each day.


Tracks mark their journey time


The farmer’s hard work pays off.


Saturday 15 March 2008

One step further

The week has been superb, feel I am learning so many new things that will help me progress to the HNC. Monday was the easy day, took the theory assessment for spreadsheets and databases. I passed, so that made my day.

Later on in the day I had the usual, made a small video about health and safety in software for applications. The video was about how not to sit in a chair when using a computer. Maths was cancelled to make way for a lecture about risk assessment in the lecture theatre, Important, as I will have to carry out risk assessments as part of the assessment.

Social software on Wednesday consisted researching online chats room and how to use them safety. Edited some more photos in the still images class, one was placing a driver in a car using the path tool.

Find myself getting the hang of Photoshop now, and I finally finished the small video about the bee. Used Flash mostly to make the background movie, then added some sound effect and transcript.

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Photoshop CS3 Practice

The software I was waiting for arrived yesterday, good shipping time to be honest. So now it was time to get a little practice using the skills I have learnt so far at college. And maybe a little browse, my first visit was Photoshop CS3. So while I was browsing I decided to edit a picture I had posted before.

As I am new to Photoshop CS3 I was going to keep it easy, so I decided to extend the trees in the background using the clone tool.


Unedited photo

Edited photo with the extended trees using the clone tool

Sunday 9 March 2008

New ideas and stuff

Well the weekend has come to an end. Leaving me to refuel my concentration for college this week. It’s going to be a half and half, numeracy has been cancelled due to a health and safety lecture. So it only leaves two classes tomorrow, the first and third. Then it’s the lecture for one hour, could be interesting. Have said before, health and safety is important. Very much happy, as my new software has been dispatched. So it will be with me soon, I find this as the chance to test my ideas for the assessments, and then see if they work. Rather than find out later they don’t work and feel disappointed, at the end of the day this is the software I will be using later on in life as a web developer.

Friday 7 March 2008

Bring good software to use

Well it’s the usual Friday and I’m off college, haven’t got much to do at the moment as most of the work towards the assessments hasn’t started yet. Now the bursary has come through, I spent some of the money wisely and bought some computer software. Web premium, includes Photoshop and flash CS3. Vey handy as it means I can have a play around, as well as complete college work away from college. Well it takes about 3 to 5 working days to arrive, so expect some edited picture to appear on my blog.

I must say I am very anxious for its arrival as it will substantially boost my college performance, and help prep me for next year’s HNC in multimedia web development.

Thursday 6 March 2008

Easy week

I have now found that I am getting a little bit more confident using Flash and Photoshop CS3, considering at the start I hadn’t used the professional version. Have to say they are worth the money, got so many feature’s for carrying out different tasks. Have near enough completed the water pump task using flash, as for Photoshop, I started editing various pictures. One was to move a farmer behind a fence, with a little help I figured it out.

Audio today has been fairly simple, continue creating the audio radio show. I have now got the text of what is going to be recorded, so all that is left to do is find some sound effects. That I did, so all needs to be done is record and edit, then post to Duncan.

Monday 3 March 2008

My plans coming to light

Has been a good weekend, other than work I have been concentrating on my presentation for the digital media, elements for applications. Have pretty much decided what I am going to be doing and how, one of my ideas is to use Flash to introduce the headings of health and safety. Then I read a book about flash for research purposes, basically to find out how to create a button to introduce the next page.

I am calling it a presentation because the general purpose would be to present the presentation to students who undertake the introductory level of computing.

So this is why the presentation would include a quiz to test the students, see what students know about health and safety. Health and safety is an important factor at the end of the day, and at the end there will be a small video as a run down to remind the students why health and safety is important.