Welcome To...

The Last Blog and Talking About ZOOM!

2009-12-03T11:44:00.001Z

Last but not least me and Grace have to get a zoom effect- Like Google map- on our doggy web site. Grace has been trying to come up with some ideas but none of them are really good enough. So we sat together and we had a look at other doggy websites and we found a few different ideas. We originally were going to have an image of different breeds of dogs and make people guess the different types of dogs. The public could zoom in on the image to make their decision. We both liked the idea but I think we agreed unanimously that there was a better idea out there! We found the right idea on Flicker.com. A man had posted a large collection of images of cute little doggies and they looked so cool in a big collage! I thought we could use it in our famous dogs section. We searched for many famous dogs such as Scooby doo, the Churchill dog and the likes to lassie. We put them in a big collage and then we put in some dogs that are unknown to the public- Well I mean dogs that aren’t famous. So basically we had a mixed collage of famous and not famous dogs and the people who looked at our site can zoom in and out and decide what dogs are famous! A very good idea that ties in with our whole web page!

Getting everythig put together!And loosing things..

2009-12-02T12:21:00.000Z

Myself and Grace have been thinking about names for our page. We thought of obvious ones like “dogs” and “dogs are fun”, but we settled on “Love Your Dog”. We think that it states the obvious and people will know what they are getting. It really is an obvious title.. not over all original but it was one that was similar to others but not copying any other…as far as we could see. Grace researched some other websites to make sure that nobody had the same name as us or the same information all in one page! Success I think!
While I have been working on getting the buttons and slicing in order.. And boy it was hard! I only went and lost it then because I saved it as a html file! Gggrrrr….so I’ll have to do it all over again! Maybe Peter might help me find the file again. I am beginning to panic a little bit because we only have a few days to get everything ready to hand up. I’m sure we will get it done but it is a really hard assignment. I got loads of pictures of my doggies to put on our page, they are all so cute and I found it so hard to pick just a few! I found loads more on google images…Oh the cute little doggies! Grace is trying to find information in cruelty to animals she said she is finding it quite difficult! The whole project is really hard. There is so much in it and sometimes we don’t even know if we should be doing it!!! I liked the other assignments that we did for media authoring that we did but this one is proving to be really tough and sometimes I feel that we are working in the dark. There is a lot in it. Roll on when all assignments are done!

Grace and I are making a doggy page...

2009-11-26T14:41:00.004Z

For our multimedia authoring class, we were asked to make a website. We chose a website about dogs, as unfortunately my dog passes away recently. We thought about what type of background we wold be able to make ourselves, and decided to go with the design od dalmation spots. We wanted to use paw prints as the buttons on our navigation pane, after Grace had seen it on another website.

We tried it, but it didn't work because the writing didn't fit properly over the paw print. I looked in the custom shapes tool, and was lucky enough to find a bone shape. This was perfrect for our buttons. We sized them to fit the largest amount of text, and then copied the shape accordingly.
We were asked to use a gif animation, so we decided that a dog in the top corner with a wagging tail would be appropriate and not beyond our capibilities.

We looked up a few different webpages to see what was out there. And found a page that had a very similar set-up to what we were planning. It had bones for its buttons, but they weren't as fancy as ours, as we were adding effects to ours. The page was plain white, and was quite frankly boring. There was a lot of information to pile through, and it woouldn't have kept my attention for long, had I been looking for information on dogs. The website was "irishdogs.ie".
It did have a nice image on the top of the page however, of loads of dogs looking up.

This gave me the idea for our zoomify aspect of our page. I want to make a collage of loads of dogs, that people can zoom in on to have a better look. I also want to have some type of incentive in place to make people want to have a closer look. Not sure what yet though....

I'm Sorry.

2009-01-07T21:18:00.002Z

I would like to apologise to my boyfriend, for my earlier post of 'Desperate Housewives, Desperate Times' where I portrayed him in an unkind manner, where he appeared as a chauvanistic pig, but he actually isn't. He will in fact make an equal amount of money as me in the future,possibly more. He is a legend, and is hung like a donkey. We are equals, ok!!!
I love him to bits. He's my rock really. Even if he is equally as stubborn as me. And that really is stubborn. He also has SERIOUSLY big hands, and big green sausage fingers.
I'm going to marry him.

2008-12-04T09:29:00.005Z

I am convinced that there was a conspiracy against me. I have been playing war of the words on SPIN1038 for the last week. It's a word association game, where you have to say a word related to the last word. You start off being given a word and the challenger has to say a word, then the champion. It's really good, but you have to be really quick. If you're too slow, or you say a word that's unrelated, you get buzzed, by either Ryan or Tracey. I started playing last week on Thursday morning, when I text in. I won that day, and everyday........... Until today.
I won tickets to Sam Sparrow last Thursday, tickets to The mighty something on Friday, Tickets to Neil Delamare on Monday, and a CD on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. So with this winning streak, it appeared that I was clearing out all of the prizes. This morning, Thursday, they told us that we could not ask what the other person had said, if we didn't hear them. So it was pretty much tough luck if you miss what they said, and then you'd get buzzed out. So typically this morning, I was against someone who had a really bad line, and I couldn't hear them. Needless to say, it wasn't long before I was buzzed out. I an CONVINCED it was set up so that I lost so that I couldn't win any more of their prizes, seeing as they were running out of things to give me. I was the longest to hold onto the title, thus far.
But they cheated me, I'm telling you!! Evil!!

Organic or Paid-For??

2008-12-03T17:26:00.000Z

In the battle of organic Vs. Paid-For Search Engine Listings, I am most definitely in favour of the organics. To appear anywhere near the first page of a Google results page, your website must have good content and be an endorsement of fairly good quality. I can’t imagine that a lot of people click on the paid-for listings. I know I never have, even before I knew they were paid for. I suppose it’s because you automatically look at the top left and centre of a webpage.
However there are some benefits to being on the paid-for listings, like being able to time when your advertisement will be shown on the first page. This way you can target exactly the people you want, at the most likely time to catch them online. Obviously this would take a lot of research to find out different groups peak times to search the web, but it’d probably be worth it.
Well except that people can just click on your advertisement and you have to pay money for it. I’m fairly sure that a lot of companies are aware of the ability to cost their competition money, and I’d say that a lot of people give in to this click fraud. It is evil people, fair is fair. Stop trying to cheat your way to the top. Like these people who have invisible text, - (oh yes I have studied JavaScript and xhtml, and I know all about your white text! And about the keywords in your alt tags!) -trying to get all the keywords in so their site will appear high up on the results page. Oh yes the shameless cheats and liars! Well guess what people; Google picks up on your lies. Google is such a cool search engine though, the way they can catch people out. There is a serious amount of monitoring done on it. And if you are caught being a shameless cheater, Google will knock you off their listings altogether. You will be wiped clean off, never to be found again.
So yes the question poses how to appear number one on Google??The answer is, With great difficulty, but trying to cheat Google is most definitely not the way lads. Definitely not! Get there on you own, with your good content, because people are 80% more likely to click on the organic listings than on the Paid-For Listings!

Sample Press Release.

2008-12-03T10:20:00.007Z

I am studying Public Relations, and here is a sample news release i wrote for my writing class

News Release

For Immediate Release

Scott PR,
Grafton St.,

Dublin,

19th November 2008

Ray Dartley launches Positive Age Week

Irish radio DJ Ray Dartley launched Age Action Irelands’, Positive age week, in the Merion hotel yesterday. (18.11.2008)
Positive Age Week will run from Monday 8th until Sunday the 15th of December. The week is being launched to dispel the many negative perceptions that surround ageing and to transform attitudes.

Deputy chief executive of Age Action Ireland, Lorraine Dorgan, echoed these aims when she said “We need to celebrate the fact that we are living longer, that ageing is not a burden but an opportunity”. Dorgan would also like to “encourage as many people as possible around the country to take part in Positive Age Week”.

During the week, people are encouraged to organise parties that celebrate the elderly. Thay can be anything from a small gathering, to a street party. This week is an opportunity to raise much needed funds for the charity, as a nominated fund raiser at each party will accept donations from those attending.

Age Action Ireland is the national independent organisation on ageing and older people. It’s main aim is to improve the quality of life if older people, and to allow them to lead full and happy lives for as long as they wish to live in their own homes.

To register as a fundraiser for Positive Age Week, contact Lorraine Dorgan on 01 1234567 or visit http://www.ageaction.ie/

The attached photograoh included DJ Ray Dartly at the launch of Positive Age Week, at a small tea party, with pensioners, Maeve Reilly, John Murphy, and Mary O'Keefe, as they toast the new initiative.

####

Contact:

Emma Scott

087 1234567

This is only a sample writing exercise, and is not a real news release!!

Virtual Vs. Reality

2008-12-02T13:45:00.004Z

Virtual Communities, they could be considered the platform for global communication, but they can be dangerous unless monitored correctly. Virtual communities are groups of people who meet online, to talk. There are some people who are drawn by the similar interests that the other people have, others just want to have a sense of unity while others want to express their subconscious feelings, that they cannot show in reality. A virtual community were people can go online and create their own little characters is, second life. On this website you have your own avitar that you use to carry out the actions you want to do. Foe example, you can make them dance, sing or drink. You can pay real money to purchase outfits for your avitars, and you can dress them however you like. Its really interesting but I still find it a little bit disturbing that people will sit at their computer on second life and go to the pub online (yes it's possible) instead of going to the pub down the road! It's weird when people choose a virtual life over reality. I understand that people are shy, and aren't always good at socialising but getting out there and trying is half the battle. `
Virtual communities like social networking sites are good for people who have family abroad but again they nee dto be monitored closely, and have strict insurance systems, to protect the younger people that are logging on. Once people are careful not to get sucked into virtual reality I think that virtual communities are a great platform for communication.

Don't drink and dive in Dundalk.

2008-12-02T13:19:00.002Z

So I had my first day out in Dundalk last night. It was fairly messy now. We started off in Grace/Sarah/Cahills' house and then headed for Gearoids' house. There was a fairly disappointing turn-out for something that people were so hyped up about-the class party.
But it was good craic with the people that did turn up. We played a game of "I Never" and found out a lot of interesting and slightly disturbing information about some people. From fancying relations, to having sex in phone booths, the truths were flowing with the drinks!
Amber, first time in there and it was very confusing, I couldn't even find the smoking area. When I eventually found it with the help of Eimear and Jane, we made possibly the worst decision ever. We got a photo keyring. And I havn't seen the picture while sober so I am terrified. It was taken at the time of night that I was a bit worse for wear.
I attempted to scuba-dive a bottle of smirnoff ice with two straws and it just didn't work, I ended up covered in it. Disaster.
Anyway, first class night out went down fairly well overall. There was bonding, drinking, and dancing and what more do you need for a class night out?? Maybe the entire class to be present!!

Like to Look??

2008-11-27T09:41:00.006Z

So I'm going to talk about, explicit websites, and give you my opinion on porn sites.

I checked out a few websites to see what it was all about, and I came across a great website with loads of information http://www.netnanny.com/.
So it turns out that pornographers seduce their customers.
Vision is the key perceptual sense in males-they "like to look."
Mens total focus is on the physical part of sex.
They yearn to see things being done to body parts. They long to see naked strangers because it's impersonal.
The thing that freaks me out about porn is how there is always a good looking girl and an unattractive man. It's obviously done to make ordinary men believe that these beautiful women are attainable.
I find it quite destuctive because men can get addicted to looking at these naked strangers, and end up hurting their families.
There is also this whole thing about the man being in control. There has to be something lacking in a man who needs to sit at a computer all day and watch videos. Like go out on the town man and get yourself a real woman! That's just my opinion anyway.
Also these women in porn videos are always shown to be lusting after the men. Like seriously man, its not going to happen!
To be honest, if I found out that someone I cared about had a porn addiction, I would never be able to look at them the same again.
The internet is so dangerous in this way, because as soon as you log on, you are bombarded with these images and pop-ups. Cyber nanny's are great for keeping these pop ups blocked, for when young people use the internet.
So basically I'm not really opposed to explicit sites, but I'm not partial to them either. But I do find it disturbing when its all people do all day!!

I think I may need to become partial to my art therapy report!!

2008-11-18T17:12:00.007Z

I swear I've had the how-to lesson in how to use the library databases, but I'm still a bit confused on how you're supposed to reference them!1 Its ridiculous! So I've been trying all day with the girls in my study research group to put together the final report, that's due in on Friday and its proving rather difficult.
The report is on art, and we're researching art therapy, its benefits and who can use it. Well basically anyone can use it, but a lot of people with serious illnesses can really benefit from it. It's pretty cool actually. Like cancer patients and people with autism can use it to express their feelings when its difficult for them to speak about it. It'd actually be quite interesting to do, because people who don't really consider themselves to have problems can use it to explore feelings within their subconscious. Like imagine the stuff you'd find out!
I think its really interesting how people can analyse other peoples paintings or general art work, and can then almost always make a statement about that persons mental health. Its all got to do with colours and how heavy or light the brush strokes are etc.
Now, I don't personally know how to analyse these pictures, so don't jump to the conclusion that I'm claiming to be qualified in a field, that I'm not. The reality is that I have only touched the surface of this research and am just interested in how it is actually done.

Well the report is in fact coming together, but I really just cannot wait to hand it in, and that will be it for the assignments for at least another week.
Everything is going fairly well actually, my modules I mean.
The thing I'm worried about at the moment is my presentation in PR Theory. I know I'm going to go bright red, and once I feel my face start to flush, I'll rush my way through it, and screw it up. All I can hope for is that I can make my way safely through it without too much bother. Its only a five minute presentation, but it'll be five minutes of agonising mortification!!
Its not until next Thursday the 27th, so I have plenty of practice time anyway..
I'll keep you posted!

Shoppers and drivers

2008-11-17T20:13:00.002Z

My weekend went smoothly enough, nothing too wild.

Well apart from the absolute mania that seems to have taken over the shoppers.
I went shopping for my brother’s birthday present on Saturday, and the shops were packed with people bustling around. Everyone seemed to be in such a rush. Beating their way through the crowds, I swear my bag was knocked off my shoulder that many times it began to really aggravate me. You’d swear it was Christmas Eve, and everyone had forgotten to buy presents, the way they were going on! Now this is clear evidence of how Christmas comes too early. Once the shops put up the decorations, the shoppers go mental. I can understand the need to get the shopping done early to avoid the hustle and bustle, but everyone seemed to have the same idea, which in turn caused mayhem. But I for one generally enjoy the hustle and bustle of Christmas, (apart from in this case it wasn’t Christmas shopping, but mid-November shopping.) I love walking around Dublin city, with the Christmas lights shining in all their glory,- although this years display is apparently quite disappointing- with all the people looking all snuggled up in their scarves, and cute little red noses. It makes you want to go home, jump into the jammies with a hot chocolate, sit back and relax with the satisfaction of knowing you have completed the daunting task of Christmas shopping. Because lets face it, you can never properly relax and enjoy the lazy holiday that Christmas has become, if you’re wondering what to buy people.
It’s actually a very stressful time of year. And the worst part is the-
“You know what I like!” answer when you ask someone what you want. I really have no clued what to buy you, so why don’t you just tell me. I would regard this as better than sulking when you didn’t get what you expected. So suck it up people and tell me what presents you’d actually use, or else your getting socks again!

Monday morning, as well as the usual misery associated with it, I had to be late.
I was not late out of laziness; I was late because I had to wrestle with my eyeballs to get my contact lenses in, because I appear to have conjunctivitis because my eyed were almost glued together when I woke up this morning. When I finally put in my “goggles” and was able to see, I set off into the cold. Because I was that 10 minutes late, there were more cars on the road than usual, this frustrated me further. I generally can make my merry way up to college avoiding too much traffic, until I get off the motorway, when the queues of students made their way in. I swear 10 minutes make a serious difference. For traffic and parking. But I haven’t had too many mishaps in the parking department as yet, so we’ll keep that rant for another day.

Birthdays, potholes and pigs

2008-11-06T09:31:00.002Z

I am finally legal!! So yesterday was my 18th birthday. I don't feel any different, but I havn't been asked for i.d for anything yet.
My birthday week didn't start fantastically, on Monday morning on the way to college, as I was being blinded by the sun, I hit a CRATER of o pothole, and completely buckled my wheel, and got a flat. So I had to roll down into a randomers driveway, where I came across a man who looked like a good candidate for changing my wheel. Now don't get me wrong I do know how to change a wheel, but I can never get he studs quite tight enough, no matter how much I bounce on the wheel brace-as funny as I look doing it. As well as this I didn't have a jack. So I eventually set off on my way, eternally grateful to the man who was out in the cold huffing and blowing trying to get my wheel off.
My actual birthday was alright.
When I got home my mam had put balloons up on the gates and outside of the house!
The family was all inside, including aunts, cousins and so on. The shocking thing was that they were all about to tuck into my birthday dinner that I had requested the day before (beef stir fry and chicken noodles!-gorgeous) and well I wasn't too impressed. And so that didn't set me off in a great mood.
To be honest nothing too interesting happened, except maybe the heated discussion that followed dinner about whether I was allowed to get a pet pig or not. You see, my brother was planning on buying me a pig for Christmas, because I've wanted one since we moved to the gaeltacht. But the problem is that my dad reckons I wouldn't mind it. He came up with the proposition of me giving him 500 euro and if I got a pig and minded it I could have it back. But if my mam ends up having to clean up after it, I'd lose my money. So I don't know what to do.
The lack of celebrating was mostly caused by my 6 'o clock rise the following morning.
And so here I am in the first class of the morning, thankfully without a hangover!

Desperate Housewives, Desperate Times!

2008-10-24T10:41:00.002+01:00

Desperate Housewives is back but I'm quite disappointed to be honest. The only thing that stirred up a little controversy was Bree and Orson are having problems. Bree is obsessed with her cook book. And Orson (husband) all depressed because she has no time for him anymore. In the last episode she had promised him that she would make him a pot roast (What is a pot-roast anyway?/I never knew!) but she ended up having to cater for a big party and couldn't, and so when she got home late that night he made her cook it anyway even though she was tired because she had promised. Now it wasn't actually the storyline itself that caused controversy but the reaction to it.
My immediate reaction was "The f***er" but my boyfriend had a quite opposite reaction "Fair play to him, she made a promise and should keep it". Now usually while watching Desperate Housewives you get very little reaction out of me unless its on a break, but this particular comment made my head turn.
And then it started. An infuriated burst of femininity came out of me. It basically went something like_
"What? She's after working a really long night and she's wrecked, you think he'd just leave her alone!"
"Well she promised"
"He clearly doesn't support her!!
Yeah well she promised."
And well this simply led to a heated- to say the least- discussion about how its the 21st century, and a man should be as supportive of his wives work as she is of his work.
This went on for a while until I ended it with "well I'm going to make more money than you anyway so shut up!"
Nasty I know, but he released the beast in the first place. Anger may be a bad thing but maybe we can put this one down to passion. Yes, I think I'll call my rant, a passionate speech, just because it sounds good.

Get it off your chest monday!

2008-10-13T11:33:00.001+01:00

Today was my first Monday driving to college. There are so many ignorant drivers! I decided to give two girls from home a lift up and down everyday, but already I've found problems with this. Tomorrow I have only one class from 12-1 but one of the girls has to be in at 9 so I have to get up anyway. Even though the idea of driving was that I didn't have to hang around for the bus, but now I'll have to wait around for people !!!
Pain in the ass! Find me a solution for that, and no I cannot just ditch her because she's contributing to my petrol fund for the week!! Trouble trouble.
But on the upside of things I got my full license already, after passing my driving test last Thursday.
Had a fairly crap weekend, Did nothing but work. My boyfriend hates scary films and finds them boring but I love them, so on Saturday night he tried to be nice and rented 'The Happening' for me, but I fell asleep and that didn't go down too well! And its now gone back to Xtra Vision and I never even got to see it!
Oh but I did get to see a pub, but only from the outside, when I picked my darling brother and his girlfriend up from the pub, because due to a car crash they were in 3 weeks ago (a lovely drunk driver decided the liked the look of the front of my brothers car and smashed into it) her foot was in too much pain and she couldn't walk or take her painkillers because she had been drinking! But no drinking for me! I lead a sad life!