Dr. Chris Nolan and the talk on how to wisely search for information on the Internet :D

Dr. Chris Nolan came to our class on Thursday and talked about how to search for information on the Internet. The computer I used in the class must have had some problems because it didnot save everything I noted. Despite this unluckiness, the lesson I gained from him is so memorable and practical that I figured out that I am writing this entry without referring back to the note at all.

First thing about the share of the searching market. I was really surprised by the fact that Google accounted for only 66%, far less than what I thought it would. Anyway, it was good to know about other searching websites besides Google, such as AOL, Bing, Baidu (a couple of my Chinese friends use it) and Yahoo. Set aside from these figures, I learned a lot more about how to navigate among a huge source of information coming out from Google. I, as well as my classmates, often look at only several results on the first page so we should be able to make sure that what we are looking for is reliable, academic and relevant to the topic. However, what really happens is that in 99% of the case, the scholar source would not appear until the very end page. To solve this issue, Dr. Nolan strongly advised us to search for scholar source on the top right of the screen before going any further. The other good thing to know is how to search for the definitions by putting the word define and the colon before the word.

Second useful thing is how to determine which source is academic and how to navigate to the academic source much more efficiently. Any academic source should include footnotes and references, which can help you choose other better sources from a magazine or an article. For example, the magazine might be an interview between the journalist and a famous expert in the field, whose works might be useful for you. Utilizing the advances search and typing in the domains like gov and edu are also several methods that Dr. Nolan gave us.

Thank you so much for bringing us so much much much information. I am sure to apply all of them in the research process of every paper I am gonna write.

Power point-things I hate and love

Honestly admitting, I am not a powerpoint person, might be excel person as I mostly use excel for almost all of my classes. However, I am glad that I still have some experience with powerpoint to share.

• Firstly, I really hate the way songs are added in PowerPoint. Because there are so many slides in one powerpoint file, what I often want is to match the music (in terms of lyrics and tone) with what is going on in each slide. However, I could never do that and I do not really know if Powerpoint does not allow us to do so or simply because I do not know how to get to it.
• Secondly, animations sometimes make me feel annoyed. I do know how to add animations to each of my slide, but I do not know how to make them well matched together. Sometimes I put all really complicated animations into one Powerpoint file so it did not look really professional. But I personally do not want to use the simply an dull ones either (namely fading, sliding to the left or to the right). The key is how to mix these ones smoothly together.
• Thirdly, I am totally screwed up each time I am trying to add background pictures. What happen most of the time is that the pictures I find are not large enough to cover the whole slide and I have to stretch them a little bit. However, stretching them will make them look awkward like the tiger we made in class today.

Despite these disadvantages, it is undeniable that I love powerpoint, though less than excel because it is really a useful, convenient and time-saving tool of presentation. Back to the time when I didnot know how to use powerpoint, preparing for presentations was a real pain with me. It often took me days (DAYS, not hours guy) to draw outlines and pictures. However, things have now become much more organized and faster with Powerpoint. All you need is to choose layouts, add background pictures (optional though), type in key words and hit enter. Things will get done amazingly quickly.

the trip to CLT

Today I and my class had the visit to the CLT center. Honestly, I have never been there before so it is kinda cool to visit the first time, see a bunch of Macs and Pcs together. As every other lab in Trinity have only , it was so exciting to know that I can use Mac here. Moreover, thanks to Mr. Chapman, I learn a lot more about what I can take advantage of in CLT. It is the place where I can look for personal help in editing videos and images. Also, the computers here look much much nicer and more modern than those on the third floor of the library. Personally, I think I might need to go there pretty soon as I have to create an ad campaign for my Creativity and Entrepreneur behavioral class. I will need to make either a video, or a Power Point slides which require graphic skills while I obviously have no understanding about. However, learning new stuff will be awesome and I will soon come back. anyway, I wish CLT was on the third floor so walking seems less than a pain :(

And I bonus u guys with my own superrrrrrrrrrrrr nice picture/scan file.

Have a good weekend and I am getting excited about the fall break.

Image manipulation

The first thing captured my attention in this picture are these horns coming out from rabbits' heads. Later on, I realized that they donot suppose to be really weird with any Americans, but I, as have never seen them before, or at least have never been to Colorado, thought rabbits with antlers were an amazing and somehow crazy idea.  But honestly, I find quirky ideas pretty creative and it is also the reason why I chose this one out of 24 pictures. Rabbit are often the most tamed animal ever in the world and you hardly see them evoke. But what happen if they are added horns? They related me much to a strong and highly aggressive buffaloes which are willing for a harsh fight.

The comment on the right didnot mention much about image manipulation. But what I guess is that photographer might have changed the composition into black and white, as well as added the antlers to the rabbits. The black and white composition was a marvellous idea, as it created mythical and classic context for jackalope coming out. And despite the seemingly unmatch between horns and rabbits, it is such an intelligent idea because it brought a completely original thought to viewers: rabbit might no long be rabbits, if they are added strong horns.

And I chose a short video in Youtube, naming Retouching: Before and after. This was kind of long than what I really want, but then I found it so interesting. Did you ever know that 100% of fashion photos are retouched before being published? Though I am not totally agreeing on retouching because it can cause false expectations in most women and men, I feel that retouching is essential with magazine editors. Noone will ever lift up the magazine if you post an overweigh, wrinkled woman at her middle age, except from health magazine anyway. 

But then, knowing that there is certain level of lie behind each picture really helps. It awakes most women and men from their 100% perfect models