Pouring Information

Greetings. I'm pouring information into my brain this week. I think it's overflowing. I'll just keep pouring though. Between all my classes I've had nine chapters of reading to do, plus a few assignments.

I finally spent time reading the Internet Technologies book and I have to say I like it so far. I thought the first chapter featuring the basics of the Internet was informative and helpful. I appreciate learning everything I possibly can about the Internet and this book covers a lot. I have mixed feelings about the Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox portion, because it seems very familiar. I am confident the rest of the book will continue to impress me. I'm looking forward to chapter two, which I plan on completing before class on Wednesday afternoon.

I was happy to learn about TLDs (top level domains) and URLs (uniform resource locators) in Tutorial 1, Browser Basics. After looking at URLs for so long and not knowing what they really are, it's a great revelation to understand them properly. I also thought the relationship between ICANN and TLDs was interesting. Learning about the relationship between IP addresses and Domain Names was great, too. I guess all this will fit together and make sense as a whole someday.

I broke my hand in the beginning of July and it's been healing pretty well. I thought I would test it today and tried to shoot a few jump shots at the basketball court at the local YMCA. I heard my wrist make some cracking and popping sounds when I was shooting jump shots. Those troubling noises along with a little pain was enough to make me stop immediately. It still feels a little sore. I'm hoping I'll only have to wait one or two more months before I can play basketball again. We'll see. I just want it to heal properly.

Internet Technologies / Design Essentials / Geometry / Image Design

I'm looking forward to learning more in the Internet Technologies class. I know I will feel more comfortable posting to my blog. I've been thinking about a few specialized topics to post about, but that will be a secret until the time is right. I have enough homework to keep me busy and I have taken on an extracurricular project, which I may reveal in a few weeks when the project's focus is more organized.

I'm trying to keep up to date on Internet Technologies and New Media. It's interesting to see some talk about federal regulations for telecommunication companies which would mandate every Internet user be allowed an equal share of bandwidth, regardless if they are extreme downloaders, file sharers, bandwidth hogs, etc. For example: currently Comcast will limit your bandwidth if you utilize to much causing a strain on the network. Supposedly Silicon Valley companies are in favor of the regulation and telecommunication companies are not. I've seen reports that President Obama is open to this regulation, but there is no clear winner yet.

My Design Essentials class has a great teacher and we are using a great book to learn from; Design Fundamentals for New Media by James Gordon Bennett. The writing and focus is pretty strong, and the graphics are outstanding. I see this class being a great benefit to my education.

I'm starting to get my feet wet with Geometry and I'm actually enjoying it. I've only started looking at the first chapter of our book, but so far so good! In addition to our Geometry text book our teacher has recommended an outstanding book called Squaring the Circle: Geometry in Art and Architecture by Paul A. Calter. This book is fascinating to me, featuring all kinds of cool designs like cubes, fractals, pointed arches...I know I will enjoy it.

Image Design has been keeping me busy with in depth Photoshop instruction and a photomontage project. I'm learning a lot from a great teacher and lots of my own hard work. I have some strong ideas for my project and will post updates as it moves along.

I'm looking forward to working with the website aspects of the Internet Technologies. I have a few ideas so hopefully this will help them to fruition.

1st Week of School Round Up

Greetings All!

It's been a great start for the fall semester. I have some great teachers and classes. Marlyn has been excellent in the Internet Technologies class. I am already feeling more comfortable using forums and have started this blog with her guidance.