Monday, March 30, 2009

Work hard, because it counts!

Hello. I just wanted to point out the fact that today is officially the first day of third term. We received our report cards today, and personally, I could have done much better in some subjects. But it is my, and every one else's, last chance to bring up our grades, in order to graduate proudly and successfully! We will start to get our summatives, and exams in the near future, so I just wanted to say, be prepared. [Mostly telling myself :D]
Not trying to worry anyone. =]
But just because it's the first day of term three doesn't mean that Mr.Case isn't going to teach us anything! Today in class, we learned more about HTML and the World Wide Web. Notice how every time you want to type in an address, you first type in ''www...'' ? Well that means World Wide Web. This is a huge web that connects everything together.
We then got to explore Dream Weaver a little bit, and get to know more HTML codes.
That's all for today.
Good Day.

- Peggy .

Put your hands on your head!

We came to class, and forgot to turn on our ears. So Mr.Case was talking and trying to teach us a lesson, but everyone simply continued to do what they were doing, and refused to give him their full attention. Therefore, Mr.Case told us all to put our hands on our heads. Fortunately, that was just to get our attention, so that we can listen.
Anyways, today in class we learned something new. We went into Dream Weaver, a program best fit for HTML, and explored the program. HTML codes are very fascinating, once you get the hang of them. You can create/edit pages using HTML, very easily. Although it is impossible to learn every single code there is, we have access to a site called http://www.webmonkey.com/reference/HTML_Cheatsheet
This site is considered as a cheat sheet for us to use, so that we can look at the different codes. Basically what we did was go into Dream Weaver and write down things and change them using HTML codes.
Also voip is voice over Internet protocol.
We have just been introduced to a new program, therefore it is a good idea to start remembering some of these codes, because they will make their way onto tests, pretty soon!

Bye For Now!

- Peggy .

Sunday, March 29, 2009

How organized are you?

Alert, test alert! Make sure to study for the test that is coming up next next Wednesday. Since its two weeks away, make sure to make pages on the wiki for everyone to study off of, so that we don't all fail the test.
In order to be successfully, you need to first be organized and know when and what you are supposed to do. Now, some people naturally have a mind for remembering things very well, and most of the time, don't need a calendar to help them keep track of things. On the other hand, most people do need some kind of calendar or note book or something to help them be organized and remember things. Mr.Case showed us, once again, how to use the wiki calendar to keep organized. He also suggested Google calendar, which he says is a great tool for keeping organized. The good thing about Google calendar is that you can insert other calendars into it to, for example the school calendar so that we know when the shortened period days are, the PA days, or any other events. Of course that's why Neda, Serena and I do a podcast on the events so you don't have to read too much! =]
We briefly touched upon the fact that Internet has become an amazing tool for everyone to use and digest information from. The Internet was first devised by the American Military in the 60's. The military made them so that they could track their enemies at all times. It then became more popular and more useful to the public. The Internet is connected to each station. You can get a message through to someone in more than one way. This is useful because if a virus happens to be blocking a message pathway, the message can then be delivered in other ways, using other routes.
FTP stands for file transfer protocol.
HTTP means Hyper text transfer protocol which is a fairly new inventions, that came out in the 80's. As you all know, when we want to access a page, we first type in WWW. This means World Wide Web. This is a network that uses hyper text transfer protocol to get a message across, or to simply access a page of information.
Hyper text is a code embedded text, that has the power to link text. For example, if you click a link, it will open up the page that is attached to the link.
We also looked at HTML codes and what it looks like. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML is a code that web pages are able to read, that represent the things that we can see. For example, when you open up Google, you can see the page, with colours, text, links, etc. But what you can't see is all the different HTML codes that lie behind the page. The are used to create the actual page. You can try this out for yourself. Simply open up a web page of your choice, go to View-Source, and you will see what the page really looks like. Lets say you want to freak out your friends. Here's a really cool way you can do that. Go to a page that you want, and change the HTML codes, and put your name or any text of your choice. Then save the changes to your desktop. By saving it to your desktop, you are not changing anything on the actual site, but you have a copy of the site, but with what ever you added to it. When you want to access the page, you just open up the saved page, on your desktop, and there you have it, the page you created yourself!

That's all the stuff for today!
Bye.

- Peggy .

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Messing with pictures!

I'll be honest, messing around with other people's pictures is a lot of fun! Another picture was added today, and this time it was a picture of Mr.Crew!!
Once we were done with the pictures, we put them into the drop off folder for them to be marked!
These few classes have been spent making pictures, so there isn't really so much for me to talk about, but starting next week, we are getting into HTML formats, so my blog will be filled with new exciting information that we learn.
Oh also, Neda and I would like to welcome the new member of our podcast, SERENA !!! =]
This is a new term, therefore everything is going to be new and improved!
Hope you enjoy!

Bye.

- Peggy .

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Don't cross the line!

Before you start to play around with other people's pictures, make sure that you have the permission to do so, and make sure you know the line. What I mean by that is, if you have permission to make some one's picture goofy and different, know where to stop and be serious, so that you don't hurt the other person's feelings. Make sure you always ask the person before you publish their picture on the Internet, or even just show it to some one else.
Today in class, we worked on making teachers' pictures look funny, sad, angry or anything else that we wanted. Mr.Case wasn't here, so we had to save it in the drop off folder. Anyways,, it was a lot of fun!
That's all!
Bye.

- Peggy .

Monday, March 23, 2009

Can you say sad. . ?

It's so sad that march break is over and we are back at school. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I think we need another week off so we can function properly! But there isn't anything we can do about it, so let's be happy that wer'e back !
Thank god we didn't do very much today. We spent the first 20 minutes or so doing DEAR, and then we worked on the photo oganizer on Photoshop 5.
That's pretty much everything we did.
Bye.

- Peggy .

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Breaks almost over!

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful march break, because today is the last day of it! Personally, I think it went by very fast! There was just so many things, and people to catch up on, I think I still need another week or so. I'm not going to get my hopes up the least bit, because this is one wish that won't come true. We all have to get back to school, and in a month or two, get ready for exams and sumatives!
That's about it. I just felt like writing in my blog! =]

See you tomorrow =P
Bye .

- Peggy .

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Good class for some, bad for others.

The reason I say that today's class was good for some and bad for others is because some people in our class forgot that they had to bring in 5-10 pictures of anything that they took, so they had to spend the whole class writing an essay on why photoshop is helpful and a great thing to use. Remember people, that the essay is due tomorrow. When you are finished writing the essay, upload it onto the wiki for others to read and get a better understanding of what Photoshop is all about.
Basically what we did today was play around with the pictures we brought to class, and explore the many wonders of Photoshop. By just playing around with pictures, we familiarize ourselves with the tools that we often use, and the ones that we don't use that much. That way, we are not limiting our knowledge of the photoshop tools, but are getting to know ones that we didn't have a clue about.
That's about all we did.

Good Bye, for now!

- Peggy .

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Get organized.

It's almost march break. Hope everyone is excited, because I know I sure am! But before we can get excited over march break, we need to finish the remaining two days of school, and that means learning!
So today, we started looking at how to organize pictures on Photoshop 5. You can simply put thousands of pictures into your computer, you need to keep organized, using Photoshop.
Photo downloader creates a sub folder for the pictures you are uploading. And each time you upload pictures onto your computer, it will create a new sub folder. The disadvantage of this feature is that every time you upload a set of pictures, it automatically fixes the pictures for you, whether you want it or not. For example it gets rid of red eyes etc. So in order to prevent it from doing that, you can turn it off. Go to Edit,Preferences and it will give you the option of turning it off or on.
Tagging a picture is a very effective way to organize your pictures. There are many ways in which you can organize your pictures. It will automatically organize your pictures by date, by name, by how recently you have taken your picture etc.
Under create you can create photo book pictures. This feature will let you create a page for your book. Lets say you want to make a bunch of pictures and turn it into a collage looking image. For example, you can choose in what position your pictures are in, in a line, in different positions on your page, you can choose which pictures to put on the page book and which ones to put on the second, third, or any other page that you want. It is kind of like a cover page for a book!
You can make as many collections of pictures you want, on photoshop, but it will not affect the pictures on your computer. But when you are trying to organize pictures on your own, you are most likely to end up with duplicates of a picture. But with photoshop, you can change anything, and it will not change the location, or the amount of pictures on your hard drive. Now backing up is different from having duplicates of a picture. Backing up is when you have a copy of your picture stored so that if you have messed up a picture, you have the original copy. But having duplicates is when you are trying to sort pictures but you accidentally end up with more than one of the same picture.
XF file is a picture that has information attached to it, but you can't see it, even if you print it.
For example, someone send yous a picture that has information attached to it, and say a teacher comes by and asks you what you are doing, you will say that you are simply, and innocently, looking at a picture, when you are really reading, or listening to the message it holds. The good thing is that the teacher will not find out, and if you print the picture, you will not see the message.
Here's something cool. If you don't have a printer at home and can't print pictures, and your too lazy to go to the store and let them print it for you, you can drag your picture(s) onto the Order Prints toolbar, fill out a form, and they will mail the pictures to you!!
So why not get photoshop to help you get organized in a blink of an eye!!

That's all for now,
Bye.

- Peggy .

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

We didn't win, but we gained a lot of experience!

Hello everyone. You see, I could say that we all had a great time in class today and that we got time to work on our pictures that are due any time soon, but I can't say that, because I wasn't at school, and WE HAD NO BTT TODAY!!! =]
While everyone was spending the day working and learning, my team mates and I spent the day loosing various volleyball games, against other schools. Yes, that is pretty sad, but on the bright side, we all had a great time spending the volleyball season together and got to learn new skills each and every day. Even though we didn't win, we were still very proud of our hard work, and that's what matters. We spent the day at A.Y Jackson, and yes it is a high school, and surprisingly my future school, playing volleyball against the other schools. So I guess at this point I can say that winning is not everything and it's okay to sometimes loose!
That's all for now.
Good Bye.

- Peggy .

Monday, March 9, 2009

Work Work and more Work.

Work Work Work. We are almost done with the Microsoft Word Book. Friday is the last date for us to publish any work we have done on the book, because Mr.Case is going to be working on it in March break and wants it published as soon as possible or else they will not accept our book and will not let us sell it. So get you're things in as soon as possible!
Anyways, what we did in class was work on our photoshop pictures. We have to complete 5-10 pictures from scratch by Friday the latest and upload them onto the wiki. Also get your pictures in and uploaded so that Mr.Case can mark them. We basically got the whole period to work on and finish our pictures and get them in. Also go check out everyone's pictures on the wiki, people did such a nice job of their pictures! =]
That's all for now.
Tootles.

- Peggy .

Friday, March 6, 2009

You don't need art skills to be an artist. . Just belive in yourself!

I would love to say that I can sit on the computer for hours creating a unique picture, from scratch, but I truly can't. Not to mention that my art skills, well, not so great. In some ways, I would love to make an interesting piece of artwork using photoshop, but I doubt that imagination is enough to make that happen. Although you need a wild imagination to get started on an original piece of work, you still need art skills to make them happen. I have spent the last few classes, and some time at home, trying to make my snowman look its best. I have gone a long distance to get to where I am now, but I think that I can improve my drawing. However, I am going to make a new picture at home on the weekend, hoping it will look better than my evil snowman.
Anyways, today in class, we got to spend the whole period fixing up our pictures, and adding finishing touches to them. Last class, Mr.Case showed us how to make our own art gallery to put our pictures into so that others in the class could see them. I also have made a gallery of my own, and I'm hoping to get some pictures uploaded into them as soon as possible.
That's it for this week.
Good Night. [And yes, I am writing this at night, and I'm about to go to bed (: ]

- Peggy .

Thursday, March 5, 2009

And the award goes to the best looking. . . EYE !?

Everyone wants their picture to look the best and the most unique one from a group of pictures. And why wouldn't you? Photoshop isn't all about having the best border for your picture, or the best and most meaningful text on your picture either. Now, I'm not saying those things don't count, but there are other small, yet important, things you can do to improve your picture. Here's a simple way, using different types of filters. Here is a very cool way that you can make some one's eye in a picture look very sharp and alive looking by using filters, but by not overdoing it. A simple and quick way you can do this is by using a filter. We have used two different versions of photoshop, Photoshop Elements 1 and Photoshop Elements 5.0. Each photoshop that you work with, no matter how advanced will have a filter button. Keep in mind though that as Photoshop gets more advanced, there are more varieties of filters to choose from. However, using Elements 5.0 will cause you no problems. In a way, filters are equivalent to the special effects that you can find in PowerPoint. They are used to make a picture more attractive. There are different types of filtering, like sharpening or unsharpening a picture, making it look like it has been pencil drawn etc.
A great way to use Photoshop easily and efficiently, is to know which tool to use for which task. That way, it saves you time from searching the menu bar for something to make your picture look more interesting. Here are some features of filter that you can use.
Pasteurize: It takes away all the colours in your picture except for the four main ones (CYMK)
Lets say you want to make your picture look black and white. The simplest way to do that is to use Threshold. What this feature does is that it takes your picture and makes it black and white.
Photo filter: This is used to make a picture look warmer or cooler. It all depends on the colour you use to do this. For example; you can choose orange to make your picture look more warmer.
Blur: The blur tool is, as you can guess, a tool that is used to blur a picture. There is a few different types of blurring. One of them is Motion Blur. It is when you blur a picture to make it look like it is in motion. For example you can make it blur so that the picture looks like it is being blown to one side.
Distort is a tool used to add ripples to a picture.
Brush strokes is used to puts ink on the outlines of a picture.
Spherize: It is used to make a circular shape, or any other shape, look 3-D. This feature is particularly used to make planets look more natural looking.
To add grain to a picture, you have to use the Noise tool.
Pixelating is when you make the pixels of an image stand out more.
Render is used for clouds and making pictures lighter.
Sketch is a cool way to make your picture look unique. It makes your picture look like it has been sketched, rather than made with Photoshop.
Last but not least, the texture effect adds, well, texture to your picture.

That's everything.
Bye.

- Peggy .

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

New Photoshop. Time to turn on your brain!

Here's another day that we sit in Btt class and learn something new and different. Before we begin however, we all have to sit down and read a book for 15 minutes because it is DEAR (drop everything and read) time again in fist period. After we have read our books, we get down to business.
Here is one thing you should be aware of right now, we are no longer using photoshop elements one but photoshop elements five.
Mr.Case is now teaching us how to change the pixels of a picture and make it less. Once you have changed pixels of a picture, you can't get them back. Resampling is changing the actual picture.
Once you have changed your picture, name it the same thing as all the pictures your fixing so that you know and you are not over writing the picture.
To resize an image, you need to first find the longest side of the picture, which in this case would be the length.
If you select the Edit, Undo History, Clear, it will enable you to go back to the way you started because it clears the undo button.
A scratch disk is where you save the data you are currently working on.
That is about all the information I was able to get from today's class, but next time, I promise to write in more detail.
Until next time,
Bye.

- Peggy .

Monday, March 2, 2009

No Mr.Case, again.

Helooo. Here is another day at school, after the weekend. Sadely, I have caught a cold, but its okay, im getting through. Anyways, Mr.Case isn't here today, so we have a supply teacher. We are supposed to work on our paintings that we are working on photoshop. We have to try and complete it today. We can also work on the wiki and our blog. On the home page of our wiki, Mr.Case has put a website for us so we can watch Bert Monroy make his pictures on photoshop. It is very interesting how he adds so many details into his pictures to make them as real looking as possible. The site you can watch this is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkJVYpaHCbE
Another video you can watch on Bert Monroy is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDnRtBOwrAs
They are both very unique styles and picture. Not to mention very interesting.
Anyways, I'm going to work on my picture on photoshop.
Until Next time.
Bye.

- Peggy .