Jordan's Blog, in Honor of Professor Belisle

2009-04-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

I don't believe I have much to add to previous years recommendations: go to class, get your homework done as soon as possible, don't fall behind. This class moves quickly, and it is not difficult if you stay on top of your assignments but it would be extremely easy to fall behind. Paying close attention in class and following along with class practice/lectures is vital to success in this course. As said earlier, we move very quickly. I would highly encourage emailing Professor Belisle or the TA if you ever have any questions, they usually get back quickly. And if you have questions about grades go ahead and ask, both Professor Belisle and the TA are willing to look at your problem and properly redistribute the amount of points if need be. Best of luck with the course!

Really awesome websites guys!!

2009-04-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

The websites all in all were really very nice. My three favorites are Jenni's, Marilou's, and Nick's. Jenni's had a great design, the layout was easy to follow and attractive. I loved the page on CIPOA, it was all awesome though. I was the most impressed with your page on travel. It looked simple, but it had so much interesting content. Good job. Marilou's was more professional. Dealing with mainly her family, friends, her hometown, and things of that sort. The layout was great, it looked like a professional website. Color schemes, photograph usage, and links were appealing and easy to follow. Nick's had good contrasting colors. My favorite part was the navigation bar to be honest, very creative. Amazing job!! If you want to stop by at my website, here's a link: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jbelknap.

Props to Kim and Brandon

2009-03-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

Kim's presentation was wonderful. Rather than being a traditional presentation, it was more of a heartfelt reiteration of what she enjoys and appreciates about Dante's work. Her storytelling abilities must be amazing, she did a great job with narrating her presentation; made me want to go read Dante's Inferno. Good use of videos and photos, they were visually stimulating and really got the audience into the subject matter. Looking at images passing by while Kim narrates Dante's past and his ideas. Excellent job. Brandon's was my other favorite. He just did a solid presentation on craters, very user friendly and actually taught me something that would be fun to tell someone else later (the complex craters- because the meteors are so hot, the rock in essence melts and it acts similarly to water, which is why there is a bump in the center of the crater) But he also had some humor in there, which I fully appreciate. Good, solid presenter and presentation. Congratulations all around though, the presentations were all quite enjoyable.

Just how helpful is Excel?

2009-03-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

I have had to use excel for a large number of years, mainly for scientific and statistical analyses. This class basically gave me the tools to enhance the looks of my data or analyses of the data. I was unfamiliar with the all of the tools available such as alphabetizing names with information, highlighting cells with certain values, the IF function is going to be valuable, especially for large sets of data. Excel will most likely be used for business classes, science and/or lab classes, economics, statistics, etc. Graphs and easy to understand charts are helpful for business where advertisements and statistical analysis are used to prove a vital point to a particular audience. The user friendly products made out of excel make a businessman's life much easier. For the sciences, analyses of data is where excel is used. Trends and calculations on large scales can be done quickly and accurately. Overall, a very useful application.

Just say no to the power of the point

2009-03-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

Powerpoint has its time and place, but honestly, its time is a lot less often than students, teachers, and businessmen would like to think. Using powerpoint presentations can easily cause a zoned out presenter and audience. All too often we listen to someone regurgitate what is spelled out word for word on the slides; we are capable of reading for ourselves. I have been drilled many times over about how to create a successful presentation, whether I have mastered it is something else entirely. But over the years, a few things have remained constant: minimize the number of words per slide, use professional photographs, and DO NOT read off of the slides. All of these I agree with. The last two are not an option though, if you want to be taken seriously and if you want to be heard than head those words. Reading directly from the powerpoint automatically puts a wall between you and your audience, your audience will lose interest quickly, and you will not be taken seriously. An enjoyable and capable presenter is vital to the success of a presentation, and powerpoint is actually capable of aiding you. It is helpful when you are trying to quickly make a lasting point with your audience, in which case an easily understandable graph or a picture may be used. It is also useful to help remind you what you need to say. Small descriptions on the slides that may be accompanying a photo or something of the sort may help to keep you on track with your presentation. So do not become absorbed with your presentation, actually pay attention and interact with the audience. Do not read directly off the slides. Use professional photographs, titles, descriptions, fonts, etc. Minimize wordiness, be concise with your information. Use easy to understand graphs, do not overcomplicate the matter. Finally, show some excitement with the topic you have chosen, the audience can tell if you want to be there or not, or if you even have a remote interest on the topic you are discussing, so show some enthusiasm. Best of luck.

CLT Lab

2009-03-05T05:50:00.001-08:00

The CLT lab (Center for Learning and Technology) is a great resource for anything involving technology. There is the main lab area where there are Macs and PCs available for audio and video editing. There are also scanners available, which can convert hard files into digital PDF files or even JPEG files. All of this is useful for presentations in classes; I actually used the video editing software on the Macs for a project in archaeology. We were able to pull clips from multiple videos and create one smooth running video. It is extremely nice there is help always available because quite a bit of the technology is foreign to me. There is also the digital audio lab where students and teachers can record and manipulate materials using equipment such as synthesizers, digital audio importing, editing hardware, etc. There is the Media Presentation Lab, Video Conference Center, and the Innovation Studio, but those are mainly for faculty use. There are also headphones and digital cameras that you can check out if they are needed for a class, in which case the professor would give permission for you to check them out (for my garbology project in archaeology we also had to check out cameras from the library). All in all, it is a tremendous asset to have available. The technology along with all of the help.

Lies I Tell You!

2009-02-26T13:49:00.001-08:00

These days, with Photoshop readily accessible, it is difficult to trust a photograph. And during a time where photographs are used heavily for arguments sake, an honest picture is necessary. Out of the 24 pictures that were manipulated in some form or another, Harper's cover picture for "awol in america," retrieved from Getty Images as a stock image (images available that can be purchased for commercial use), was the most frustrating. Photos like these are truly harmful to the individuals in them which is why I have chosen to chastise those behind the publishing. Having men's pictures, who are not awol in any sense of the word, pasted onto the front of a magazine where the headline reads "awol in america" is tricking the audience. But more importantly, it will disturb the men who were in the picture and their families. They could be accused of being irresponsible, of not being fit to perform certain tasks, all because of the misunderstanding caused by a missplaced, misrepresented photograph. The faded marine in line with the other men furthers this assumption. It makes us, the readers, jump to the conclusion that the faded man has already succumbed to the pressures of being a marine, and the others are of course going to follow eventually, where "desertion is the only option." Also, it can easily give the audience a bad impression of what it's like to be a marine. Who would want to become a marine after seeing a row of men who will inevitably go awol? Photos like these damage the people in them and the institutions they represent. And all of this was because Harper wanted to "decorate [their] pages."

Chris Nolan and all his helpfulness

2009-02-25T19:56:00.000-08:00

One thing that really surprised me was how .org websites are not always credible sources. In fact, they can be quite the opposite. Such as the martinlutherking.org website where there are clearly racist lyrics linked to the webpage, the author accuses MLK of plagiarizing his speeches, etc. That website was obviously on the extreme end of unreliable organizations, but never-the-less, it was easy to assume that because you are on an organizations website, you are receiving credible information. Something new that I found out about was the databases. I had never been exposed to them before his visit to class, I always used search engines such as Google or Yahoo!. Infomine is going to be an extremely useful tool when it comes time to finding scholarly sources for research projects. So thank you Mr. Nolan, searching for articles will be much easier now.

I guess I'm not the only who likes Facebook...

2009-02-05T08:11:00.002-08:00

I commented on Marilou's and Ryan's blog.

No I'm not infringing on anyone's copyright. Right?

2009-02-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

Copyright laws date back to 1790, a time when no technologically advanced material was being produced, sold, or ripped. It quite literally began as a means to give copying rights to the owner of the original work; this was meant to stimulate creative thinking and innovation. But now as the world of creative works has expanded exponentially, the laws must and have been keeping up. There are explicitly outlined laws involving what is and isn’t in public domain, what is copyrightable, and who, what, when, and where materials can be used. Public domain encompasses the world of publicly available works, as the name suggests. These materials can be used without concern of requesting and receiving copyright permission. But works that are copyrighted fall under federal guidelines: copyright lasts for 70 years past the death of the author or 95 years after the date of publication. Anything made in tangible form: papers, youtube videos, paintings, etc., is immediately placed under the protection of copyright. One of the largest markets for copyright infringement right now is located in the music world. Limewire, Morpheus, and Jukeboxalive are only three examples of a huge networking system consisting of sharing, ripping, and downloading free music and movies. Is this in fact considered copyright infringement? Of course it is. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) all form the adamant police force, attempting to prevent this widespread problem from growing any further. This is not the two sided issue people would like to make it out to be, the people downloading these easily accessible files know that it is wrong, but they also know that it is cheap. Money drives a great number of problems, and this is yet one other example of that. The only ambiguity involved with this issue would be: do people understand fully that they are stealing when they download and distribute this free music? All too often people don’t comprehend what they are doing, they just know that it’s easy, free, and “undetectable,” so why not go ahead and infringe on someone’s copyright? Right? Buy your music and movies, it’s the right thing to do.

Facebook, and all its benefits

2009-01-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

Facebook, like all things, has a down side. It can be a breeding ground for false identities and identity theft. People can be emotionally and physically injured through the use of Facebook. But Facebook is a network where people connect, and when people are involved, so is self restraint and responsibility. It is the people that do not exercise self restraint or responsible behavior on Facebook that "ruin" it for the rest of us. It is a terrific place to stay in touch with friends, keep track of birthdays, keep up a long distance friendship, etc. Socializing is a large part of what Facebook is about. Beyond the social benefits, it is a place where groups can be formed in honor of someone or something, where political activists can communicate, where conferences can take place, information exchanged, and of course if offers security, on any level, an opportunity to check up on students and/or employees. This "invasion of privacy" can be considered an issue, but it is in public domain, the page is open for whoever wishes to look at. Unless of course your settings are on private, where only your friends can view it. But even in that case, people go into Facebook knowing full well that if someone wishes to look at it and they have the drive to do it, they can view your page. If you have inappopriate pictures or inappropriate content period, it is the Facebook page's owner that should be held liable; the grandma test is an effective way to prevent these slip ups from happening. All in all, it is a beneficial networking website. It keeps communities connected, allows events to be posted, meetings scheduled, and friends to connect. Whether or not people take advantage of this system is the fault of the individual, not the application.

Microsoft Word Experience

2009-01-29T06:36:00.000-08:00

I have basic word experience. I can create tables, charts, word art, etc. But for the most part my skills are fairly basic, I have never really had to use word for much else other than creating word documents.

Scouring the Blogs for Information

2009-01-21T12:12:00.001-08:00

I commented on Luisa's blog as well as Elena's. It turns out we have some things in common.

Joe Hatch's Visit

2009-01-21T11:44:00.000-08:00

I would like to thank Mr. Hatch for visiting our class during the early hours of the morning. It was informative and helpful, especially the topic surrounding the purpose of Clean Access which can be a frustrating program to deal with at times.

A Little Bit of Me

2009-01-15T08:05:00.000-08:00

My name is Jordan Belknap, and given that I have no issues with the name my parents felt compelled to give me, I prefer to be called as such. So, to give you a brief history of myself I will begin with my birth place. El Paso, TX is my hometown, the city most people fail to realize is in fact still in Texas - it's as far west as you can get. Because of its location, you can see 3 states and 2 countries quite easily: Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua. I've grown up cultured to the fullest. It's my home. My beautiful dry desert, the stunning sunsets, the awe inspiring Rocky Mountains, all part of it. This ever growing city has personality. The military base, that makes up a good portion of the El Paso population, adds a diverse mix of people. And because I went to a high school that was located on military property I was able to experience first hand all the wonders it brings to our little city. I was surrounded by an ecclectic mixture of cultures, languages, beliefs, and even personalities in a city that is over 80% hispanic. And that small fact brings up a point, it's a bit surprising and I suppose understandable, but I am actually a quarter spanish and a quarter mexican. That is a secret fact about myself. My white complexion, blonde hair, and blue eyes don't well represent my actual origins. But to get past how much I love El Paso, I will address a few interests I carry. Music has been in my life for 8 years or so. I have played the violin for all those years and continue to do so. The hours upon hours of intense rehearsals, 11 o'clock ending times, with the homework still piling up at home. Other than that, english horseback riding, tennis, hiking, and swimming have decorated my hours of time without work. Swimming is perhaps the most prominent of the three just mentioned, given that I have been on a competitive swim team since I was four years old. Every summer, my parents would brave the heat and ridiculously long swim meets for the sake of my happiness, well, my brothers too. But I have continued this tradition all the way into my senior year of high school. And now after 14 years of enjoyment, I think it is time for a break. And now I am here, in San Antonio, TX, surrounded by family. I hope I make the most out of my time here.

http://www.planetware.com/pictures-/el-paso-us-tx-elp.htm

As far as computer proficiency is concerned, I believe myself to be proficient at using most programs. I have had heavy usage of computer programming and other such paraphenalia (Autodesk Inventor, CNC Base, etc.) for a good four years now. But there are things such as blogging and making a webpage that I am unfamiliar with, so this class should be a nice addition to my store of knowledge.

jbelknap@trinity.edu

2009-01-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, my name is Jordan Belknap.

Secret fact...
... I am half hispanic. More specifically, a quarter spanish and a quarter mexican.