wicked wings baby

Aaaaahhhhhhh the HTML!!! Week 5, the week we had all been fearing, hoping would never come, but it did anyway. Sophie was armed with her how to make websites for dummies book and probably 10 hours of study while some of us had no idea and were armed with 3 hours of sleep and a zinger burger ultimate box meal from the Kernel, much more helpful in my opinion.

I DIDN’T TAKE ANY PHOTOS THIS WEEK! For that I am sorry but the test was more annoying than stressful and I had really greasy fingers from the wicked wings…so damn good. Basically we had to code two webpages which linked to each other, had paragraphs and pictures. The coding itself was the easiest part. Cyberduck was the real bitch, or duck rather…Moving those files was impossible, it just didn’t want to remember where the files were saved and when they were moved the server was just screwing around and not working. Eventually the network was so crap those who had not finished what should be a 10 minute task in 2 hours had to complete at another time. Thankfully I got it done in time. And can I say something? WTF is with these pictures:

why pomegranates?

what?

I will never fully understand network media.

Flash.

are you a slave to the matrix?

Aside from being slightly late to this class to grab some $9 asian food (CJ Lunchbar, Hardware Lane, ER MA GURD SO GOOD) when Luke Egan, #doyoueganblog and myself entered the room we were discusses, has technology made our lives easier, and the pros and cons of this. Unfortunately Elliot, our technological, articulate and cupcake master seen below only allocates us so much time for discussions each week and it is inevitable that we always go over time. I would have LOVED to have taken this discussion further because I have talked about it many times in the past and the varieties in opinion make it very interesting, especially in how many instances people can become quite aggressive on the topic.

to html or not to html?

What does Flash think? Are we slaves to technology? Of course we are, of course I think that. I am the biggest criminal of them all. I run a blog with my instagram, flickr, Facebook, smugmug, youtube, vimeo, wordpress and probably like 20 other things all connected. I have an iMac, iPad, iPhone, and Macbook all synced nicely in the iCould. Ew, feel sick even writing it, but its all true. I don’t know anyone my age of 20 who isn’t a slave to technology. Granted I know many who have there best attempts to make people ‘think’ they are immortal to these advances in technology but to be blunt they are just liars, its too convenient, its too easy. So what do we do because it isn’t going to go away, not is it? No. Its not, that is why these people are so wrong. You can’t fight it so don’t bother. I personally love technology and what it does for us but I know that there needs to be restrictions. I don’t like the fact that if I go out to dinner I can be contacted by anyone and everyone on at least 6 different applications all coming through one device…but I don’t know where the restaurant is, so I need google maps. Awkward yes, avoidable, yes again. Have a look at home before you go and then remember the directions, write them down on some good old fashioned paper.

Technology will always be there, right in your face, it is about how you deal with it, how you discipline yourself. Don’t blame society and the creators of this technology. No one is saying you have to use it. You run the technology, not the other way around. Anyway, I might do a separate blog post on this topic because I find it very interesting and this could go on forever. Back to the class!

#helpsophie

The preparation has begun for our deadly HTML test which is only a mere 6 DAYS AWAY and it would seem that many of us are not ready for it. I would do a massive blog on it but Elliot was kind enough to email us the basic instructions on how to prepare. Woo! Essentially it was an extension of the previous week, now incorporating a program called Cyberduck, which may or may not be for the test itself, I can’t actually remember but we need to download it and create folders etc. However be warned, this is really all Elliot’s emails discusses. The actually content is not included so, please refer back to my last workshop blog which can be found in the workshop categories (linked below 🙂 ). Everything is basically there but again we have to write up some code that has a heading, link to another page/site, incorporates an image, line break, paragraphs and something has to be in bold. I certainly hope that is all. Happy studying, see some of you in class next week!

Flash

p.s. I have linked a really cool/moving video below about being a slave to technology. Everyone should watch this and I will also post as a separate video link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNvXKLFDb7U – Slaves Of Technology

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/luke-vanderzeil/2014/08/12/the-grey-space/ HTML Help Blog

the grey space in-between...

elliot explains the deadliness of copyright

I am trying to think of a clever way to convey the information and exercises we do on a Friday to my readers but it is proving difficult. Side note, make sure you download the above album by Horrowshow, awesome lyrics and was written when they were just in high school. ANYWAY! I have an idea for next weeks class but I don’t want to waste it this week. O whatever, lets get this out of the way. Elliot engaged in a class discussion extending off the ideas presented in the lecture about copyright and the laws and ideas surrounding it. We touched on many ‘grey areas’ meaning the legal outcomes can be very difficult to determine, however generally in these situations, the company or individual with the most moneys is going to win 🙁

Unfortunately for my classmates I got really into this discussion, leaving them to listen to the sound of my droning voice for at least 45 minutes. Left them ‘enthralled’ as can be seen below…

matt, ash and meg with their ‘engaged’ faces

Then it was onto more serious topics which seemed to put the class into a frenzy, despite Isabella’s constant Harry Potter distractions. Elliot gave us a proper example of what the HTML test will be like seen below. Essentially we have to have an understanding of how the framework of a basic HTML site works so things like headings, hyperlinks, images, bold text etc. I thought it was actually going to be a lot more but this doesn’t seem so bad.

coding n uploading

So I came home and attempted to replicate what we did in class. I put the following code into TextWrangler;

feck

The image I am attempting to insert into the HTML code is this following which I took but it is being linked through google images off Facebook so I am wondering if that is where the problem lies. Either that or I haven’t closed the code off properly.

bring back willem!

If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know, but I am sure it is just a minor issue. That is all I have to say about that.

Flash

This image refuses to rotate...

Well here we are again, Network Media, a class of misfits and media nerds from far and wide. Not far enough however to know how to make HTMLs and things of that nature. Powered by my ricotta and pumpkin ravioli I found I could achieve the list of tasks for todays class with little effort, and enough energy still remaining for the regular partying that will undoubtedly occur on a friday night.

dat backyard though

Before we had even begun our learning, Berk announced to the class that we would be deferring and travelling to Turkey for over a month?! I know right, so saddening but Berks backyard had to go global at some point so we wish him best of luck with tackling the variety of weeds and pest in Turkey. We all hope to see some fresh Kebabs being planted.

So Elliot gave us a basic overview AGAIN on the assignments for the semester for all the sloths that missed the last class and we then proceeded with navigating around blog problems we had all encountered and some basic coding exercises. It is essential that we get these skills down failing the HTML tests will result in a a failure of the subject…so awks, not for me but yea, pretty hefty stuff.

Cats be starin us down

working hard or hardly working?

Speaking of AWKS! HOW ARE YOU SOPHIE!? Sophie got us off with to a great start with her questions such as “Wait what?” and “How do I use this tablet?” Despite her lacking skills in some aspects of technology Sophie was able to quickly catch on and was blogging away by the end of the lesson. Where we have a good understanding of technology, she can actually write good, ugh, I mean WELL, WELL, so the joke is on us. To learn more about Sophie visit the Green Machine’s blog below or follow the hashtag #helpsophie

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/luke-egan/2014/08/01/friday/ 

…help

We finished off we how to add ourselves to the blogroll and took a look at some other blogs such as Elliot’s found in the link below. I found it interesting how even after just a few weeks, across the media course it is already somewhat competitive in regards to blog presentation and content. BLOG ON!

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/elliot-heatwole/

Flash

so it begins...

Friday the 25th of July marked the beginning of Network media, for myself and about a dozen others in my class with our deadly but fearless leader Elliot. Armed with an arsenal of linking words such as ‘however’ ‘consequently’ and ‘therefore’ our learning knew no bounds. Unfortunately for all of us no real learning was to take place today as it was merely a crash course in blogging, the hows and whys, and an overview of the work for the semester.

We briefly looked at some of the concepts, ideas and suggestions for the upcoming projects and what they were to entail. Broken into groups we discussed the content of these. I was happy to find out that our documenting process was now online, a step up from Writing Media Texts, making this blogging assignment much easier and more fun I think. The ability to have full access to links, pages and other areas of the interest is quite advantageous, not to mention not having to print out pages upon pages of images and quotes then harnessing our year 5 skills of physical cutting and pasting…no thanks, this is much better.

It also allows us as students to tag our friends in our posts and to view their pages and blogs, something that was not as easy when it came to physical journals. I think the outlook of the assignment as a whole has room for a lot more creative angles and presentation due to its digital sense. Plus, less writing, so excellent for all of us 🙂

Flash