What I did Today Working on Project 2

Today I worked on interrogating and using the interface Masher.com as well as taking screenshots of the tool itself while I was using it. I did this in coincidence with my notes on the process and for the presentation I will be giving on the project in two weeks time. All in all, this web tool was relatively quick to interrogate, but I will be going back over it multiple times to make sure I have not missed anything.

I will continue working on both my presentation and my web-essay for the project over the weekend.

Another GIF

This is what I feel like saying every time I have to buy expensive books at the beginning of the semester…

 

(From the movie Army of Darkness, starring Bruce Campel)

 

Creating Memes and GIFs…

I created this from a scene of the movie Hot Fuzz. The context is that it seems every time I go somewhere and bring my dog, someone asks a question along the lines of “why do we need the dog?” Usually they ask this as my dog is breathing heavily three inches from their ear, and ever since I first saw this movie, my response has always been “it’s not the dog we need.” The point here is that the person and dog are inseparable and one is needed to have the other. Functionally this GIF is ok, but could use subtitles so that the viewer actually knows what is being said. Is there a better GIF generator? I will look into it, haha!

http://www.gifyoutube.com/gif/aBq3zM

Memes #2…

#swimmerproblems

Memes…

An old one I had made:

Picking a Mode for Project 2

For Project 2, I choose Masher. This was not my first choice (which was Soundcloud), but it was one of my back-up choices. I decided on this site because it sparked my interest through promoting itself as a video/photo/music editor, because one of my hobbies is creating and editing video content for a YouTube channel I manage. It seems to be a fairly straightforward tool with possibly more options than, let’s say, Microsoft Movie maker, but not as in depth and experience-requiring Adobe Premiere Elements 8 or 9 (which takes instruction and time to learn all the tools and capabilities in addition to the large amount of data processing capabilities and memory your machine needs to be able to run the full suite). So, hopefully, this Masher will be a decent editor!

Completely Unrelated to this post, Meme of the Day:

(this is a reference to the film, “The Mummy”)

“YES!”: What I Accomplished Since last Class

Since our last class on Monday (Sept. 8), I had played around a little bit with my about page, but otherwise not much had changed until today. BUT, today, I am proud of myself. After receiving a few thought-process stimulating suggestions from ‘rsoto’ in the class forum, i looked into fixing my “ghost pages” issue. It all came down to playing with the menus tool under “Appearance” on my sites editing dashboard. And “WALLAH!”, it is done, and just as I wanted it; drop downs and all! Oh how proud of myself, I am! Ha ha!

 

More Site Work

Today I spent the majority of my time editing my ‘About’ page, adding new pages, and fixing my side widgets and menus. The problems I have encountered today are that for some reason or another, my new pages will not display in the header or on my menu, I will explore and fix this issue asap. I also have not been able to figure out how to set up the drop down menus and parent-page options offered with my theme (Twenty Ten). Oh problems, problems, problems.

‘Multimodal Dig’ Exercise

For my Multimodal Dig, I was able to pull from my backpack the following and list its usage of the modes of communication.

1. Chap Stick- Visual, Linguistic
2. Trident gum-Visual, Linguistic,Spatial,  
3. Writer/Designer text book- Linguistic, Visual, Spatial, Gestural
4. VT ‘Blue Book’ for testing- Visual, Linguistic, Spatial
5. King James Bible- Linguistic
6. Forestry Class Lesson packet on Wind- Spatial, linguistic, visual 
7. VT Swimming men’s speedo- Linguistic, Visual
8. Technical Editing text book- Linguistic, Visual
9. 2013 NRA-ILA Membership card- Visual, Linguistic, Spatial, Gestural 
10. Gerber Multi-tool- Linguistic (GERBER company logo)
11. Pair of VT workout shorts- Linguistic, Visual
12. Iphone 4 protecting case.- Visual, Linguistic (VT logo and school colors on back) 

All but one of these Items, my King James Bible,  posses at least two of the five modes of communication. Pattern wise, I found that, predominantly, all of my items utilize the Visual and Linguistic modes. Most all of these items are from a modern time frame and use multiple modes of communication, with the exception of my K.J.B., which is nearly identical to the original prints of this bible version and uses only the linguistic mode. The two texts that differ the most from each other are the Bible and the Membership Card, as the bible uses one mode, and the card uses 4 (all but aural). 

Today’s Travels in WordPress

Today I played with my theme in order to have a set up that had more options to include visuals, and a lighter feel than my original. What I discovered however is that the theme that I preferred contained an error in which the footer was duplicated 3 times, all in matching columns, with no options to reduce the number of footers or delete them all together. How annoying! So, hopefully, my latest choice has eliminated that trouble and added the ability to set header and background visuals. I have also added additional pages (see About, and Class Projects) to both practice creating pages and maintaining a timeline of my class projects’ progressions.