Exciting.
Frustrating.
Learning.
Confusion.
Completion.
In short, I have and had many thoughts about my website while and after creating it: Reina's Website.
It is here that I wish to address some of my thoughts as well as explain some of my shortcomings while creating my website.
When I first began creating my website, I was beyond thrilled. I had never worked with technology in this manner. For the first time I was successfully opening and using programs on my computer such as iMovie, photoshop, and much more. Before I began on this assignment I believed those programs were meant for the amateur professional, a status I was not sure I could obtain.
And then came the frustration: "Why isn't it working for me?" Not understanding why my page is not looking like the professors. Over time I realized that one mis-type in html code, uploading the wrong document, or using a different browser were simple explanations to why things weren't working. I began to be frustrated by the time consuming endeavor of changing a simple mistake. I would first work on the html code in jedit, upload the document to my files, refresh my website, just to realize I needed to make more changes and begin the three-prong process all over again! A simple lack of an apostrophe required three steps to correct.
After a few months, I began to understand the logic behind the code. I started to figure out, through trial and error, how to complete the assignments. However, I am still confused as to why some of my pages are not exactly how I aesthetically would prefer them to look.
I would like to discuss the following assignments/pages:
Animation.
iMovie.
Powerpoint.
Table.
Both my animation, masksani3.gif, and iMovie in their final stages of creation appear with some issues. After uploading my filtered mask images to gifbuilder and added the set length of time of each image and looped them I notices a red tint to some of the images. I have no idea how to get rid of it! Similarly, with my iMovie in the application itself the pictures and images look great and after converting the movie to .mov in vlc it still looks great. But after embedding it in the webpage a couple of the images/transitions disfigure the images. I have no idea how to fix it.
I am very proud of my powerpoint. As a .ppt file the transitions are as I wish them to be and in the last slide I figured out how to embed videos, which play by clicking the boxes below the video's title. However, after saving the file as a movie the transitions changed and the videos do not play. I did however attach a link to the file so viewers can view the slideshow in ppt and hopefully see it and access the material as originally conceived.
Lastly, let's discuss my tables. Under assigmnet #7 there are two tables. The first one was originally conceived where the table would be the entire page with 25% of the page white and 75% purple. I was unable to figure out how to make it appear that way and settled with how it looks now with the table appearing as just taking up the top of the page. My Pilobolus table and my final project which are both tables, for some weird reason, don't get smaller or larger when the page is decreased or enlarged, rather it is a set size and one must scroll to view it all. The first table however does change, so I can't tell what is different in the codes.
I am very proud of my work, but I also had to give up some of my aesthetic preferences while creating this website. On May 11th, my mac computer started to slow down and completely stalled the following day. I had to spend an entire morning at the apple store and proceeded to reinstall my software over the weekend. Despite my huge strides over the semester when dealing with technology, I freaked out about the thought of completely wiping my hard-drive clean. Even though my entire computer was backed up with time machine and documents were on a usb drive and dropbox online, I was scared.
Despite the lack of having my own mac computer to work on, I was able to complete my website with the help of my Mom's pc and the Steinhardt computer lab. It was not ideal, but it got the job done. It was a bit frustrating not to have my entire iTunes library available to me when choosing background music for my iMovie and final project, time consuming to teach myself how to use a different computer and download the necessary programs and plugins to finish the remaining projects, and slightly inconvenient to head to NYU to use the computers, I was still able to get the job done. I did notice that on the various computers I used my webpages appeared differently. Music started on its own despite the code stating: autostart = "false", controllers and movies had weird borders, etc. I can only hope that the webpage is viewed as intended, even though that seems unlikely depending on the computer and browser it is being viewed on.
I was surprised how I have enjoyed blogging. Although I do not think I will continue blogging after this class, I felt I was able to explore some of my thoughts on technology and took greater interest in how the media discussed various aspects of technology.
On a final note, I have a website devoted to me as an artist, teacher, and student and hope to use it as a way to promote myself in the future. I have finally learned how to use various computer applications, which would have otherwise remained a mystery. Lastly, I have just offered to work on a website for a community project that I co-created and co-run, Flattening the Hills Street Fair: A Celebration of Jewish Life in Washington Heights, an endeavor I would have never volunteered for before this course.
So in short, I learned a lot, and still have a lot to learn.
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