Poetic Motion // Passionate Action

Myspace AND BEYOND!!!!!!!!1

2006-10-26T09:38:00.000+10:00

Many people go for MySpace as the best online community, but who could think it's the only interesting community? Some are themed for certain audiences, others operate solely through mobile blogging and some like There use 3-D Avatars to illustrate the visual side to the virtual community.

Here's the Article

I think its excellent to think that people are joining community sites that are not so mainstream. I mean, who couldn't resist thinking of creative ideas and methods for online communities!? The Internet needs variety and so do people's minds! So a hundred million zombies out there think MySpace is so fun and exciting but really the only community that has only grown and not improved in layout or usability. When I sign on to MySpace (yes, I'm a zombie too :O, but i won't bite) my profile page takes about a minute to load on a bandwidth connection! It's over packed with annoying advertisements and people that just want to be noticed so they can feel better about their status and social life. I totally agree that the majority of MySpace is only seeking shallow popularity to boost their ego.

Self-Esteem of a Magazine

2006-10-22T02:41:00.000+10:00

Animations

2006-10-15T03:09:00.000+10:00

Isn't it fun?

I'm gonna make something like this soon. About Pots!

Arn't I potty?

hehehehehehehehe

CLAY!!!!

2006-10-14T17:45:00.000+10:00

I love clay!!

See this guy make clay on a potter's wheel!

Mosherina!

2006-10-13T21:39:00.000+10:00

Latest work for English. These character designs are for a teenage rock concert computer game called "Mosh Pit". It was fun making these - I sub-consciously used characteristics from people I know..or at least they reminded me of them..

Back online!

2006-10-11T00:57:00.000+10:00

Greetings to all - I'm back up and posting from being away on holidays!
I'm glad to be back at home catching up on all I need to do. I was out having a great time at Black Stump '06 which was absolutely AWESOME for the first time going there! I got heaps of stuff out of the camp, like getting off ya butt and doing something (Make Poverty History) where they hung underpants on a clothes line just to show off lol. There was also poetry which I loved, I bought Camron Simmon's book - he's a performing artist with a witty collection poems and I also become star-struck (or sun struck in this case!) with the Sundance Kids who did an awesome performance I absolutely loved! There were plenty of other bands playing like Antiskeptic and Angela's Dish which rocked hardcore!

Apart from that amazing weekend @ Black Stump, I had to go straight up to sydney to help my parents clean and finish my old house. There's no comfy furniture or entertainment, it was quite boring. However! Yesterday I peered outside a window on the top floor and so a wolf/dog walking around the pool!! Half scared, half enthrawlled I ran down the stairs to tell Dad, who told me it was a Malbumut - which is like those Huskies that pull heavy sleds in the icy north pole. It was very young and extremely playful so we decided to lock it in so we could send it to RSPCA so they can take him back to his owner. It was such a beautiful dog! I wish i could love it forever but it would cost too much to look after him and take care of it and it would get very bored when we're not there. Awww it was sooo cute!!!

Website Evaluation #10 - Cultural Surveillance

2006-09-29T02:10:00.001+10:00

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	Url
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.com, yes
Who put this information here?	Andrew Hearst
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes. It is a personal/business website
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated Weekly, monthly
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	Yes
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
How old is the material?	Most of the material is recent
Who wrote the information?	Andrew Hearst
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Pretty much
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	Yes
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	Yes
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	No
Why is this material here?	Modern Culture and Media Blog
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	Yes
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	No
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
Can I do a cross check?	Don't need to.
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	Only slightly
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Yes, Check related websites or news sites.
Is the information available anywhere else?	Yes
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	Most Likely.
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	Yes
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	Yes
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	Yes
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	Yes
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes.
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	Yes
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Most of them.
Does the design complement the content?	No

Website Evaluation #9 - Tandem Activities

2006-09-29T01:53:00.000+10:00

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	Url
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.de, yes
Who put this information here?	Ruhr-Universitat Bochum
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes. It is a website from a different country
How often is the site up-dated?	Yearly at least
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	No
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
How old is the material?	Can't Tell
Who wrote the information?	Someone or some people from the university
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	No
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	No
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	No
Why is this material here?	For internation communication purposes
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	Yes
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	No
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
Can I do a cross check?	Perhaps
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	No
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Check related websites
Is the information available anywhere else?	Perhaps
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	Don't know.
Does the site include links to other sites?	No
Is there any selection process for the links?	No
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	No
Are the links described?	No
Are the links all still active?	No
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	No
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes.
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	No
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	No
Does the design complement the content?	Perhaps.

Website Evaluation #8 - MySpace

2006-09-29T01:26:00.000+10:00

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	Url
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.com, yes
Who put this information here?	Myspace Corporation
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes. It is a commerical website
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated Daily
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	No
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
How old is the material?	Most of the material is recent
Who wrote the information?	Myspace Corporation, Tom
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	No but they have an email form sheet.
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	Yes
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	Yes, cheap annoying advertisements
Why is this material here?	For internet community purposes
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	Yes
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	No
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
Can I do a cross check?	Don't need to.
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	Not about the company itself no, but the customers yes.
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Check related websites or news sites.
Is the information available anywhere else?	No
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	Don't know.
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	Yes
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	Yes
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	Yes
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Most do.
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	Sometimes
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Not always.
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	Yes
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Sort of.
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes.
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	No
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Most of them.
Does the design complement the content?	No

Cyberspace Article #10 - Tolls on the internet?

2006-09-29T00:32:00.000+10:00

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html

Date: 8th June 2006

Publication: Lawrence Lessig and Robert W. McChesney - Washington Times

Summary: The Congress are voting and deciding on whether the internet should have "network neutrality". This term means that all content and webpages over the internet are treated all the same and do not have certain websites sent at a higher speed than others. If network neutrality is not voted for by the Congress, the owners of internet wires/cables have the right to discriminate and exploit the system of speed and the free transition between provider and consumer. These "gatekeepers" claim they will serve to provide "garentee quality of delivery" by adding another link to the chain and ask consumers to pay to get to certain websites. The journalist is very much against this and mentioned grass-roots coalition. Visit: savetheinternet.com

Impact: Millions of people are against this process and structure of the internet. Unless I am mistaken from any bias in the article, this whole situation sounds ridiculous! Are telephone companies and internet servers really that greedy as to add another link in the "fastness" of internet broadband just so they can regulate a price on viewing certain websites??? If this was to happen, many people would be outraged and the lowness companies have to get to suck the money out of us.

Cyberspace Article #9 - 3 year old e-shops!

2006-09-28T21:12:00.000+10:00

URL: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2491644

Date: September 26 2006

Publisher: Unknown publisher of ABC News

Summary: Jack Neal, at the age of three years old, bought a pink convertible car for $17, 000 from eBay. Apparently his mother left her account active and Jack, being a whizz at computer as all children are, managed to click all the right buttons to get his car. The seller, amused at this, did not sell this bid through.

Impact: Technology is easy for a three year old to understand. What is the world coming to!? There are so many eBay mishaps that somehow end up on the news quite regularly. Maybe Jack wanted to take Barbie out on a date in his new pink convertible.

A perfect song for this moment would be the eBay song from Weird Al Yankovic.

Cyberspace Article #8 - Internet Grammar

2006-09-28T20:20:00.000+10:00

URL: http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/InternetGrammar.asp

Date: 10th March 2006

Publication: unknown author from Webopedia

Summary: As with every new technology, new jargon is developed. However the jargon over the internet are used with varying standardisations in different dictionary publications.

eg1- World Wide Web and the Internet are proper nouns yet many do not write them with capitals.

eg2 - website; Website; web site; Web site

eg3- online; on-line - depends on whether it's used as an adjective or adverb.

eg4- Email; email; e-mail; E-mail.

To get around this confusion in jargon, this article advices to be consistent with the style that you choose. The style of the internet in fact, invites a lack of standardization.

Impact: This article impacts just about anyone that cares about the standardizations of words of the internet. I'm not sure how many people there would be that would specifically be interested or be propelled to make sure what is the correct term. The last sentence of where the style of the internet is to have a lack of standardization, sounds like the internet is designed to be an informal and relative place. It shows how the communication on the internet is flexible and anything goes as long as each other understands. However this can commonly cause misunderstandings, I do not think many people will be confused about whether email should be Email or E-mail.

Stress Pimples

2006-09-28T19:22:00.000+10:00

When over a term's work of hard school work, pop your stress pimples with this nice, stress-relief game. It may be gross and damaging to skin, but its good to get rid of the yucky goo off your face.

Acne Be Gone

Articles Coming Soon

2006-09-27T22:54:00.000+10:00

Hey everyone,
Sorry I've been absent from my blog because of all the work I've been doing. I haven't found much time for extra stuff in my life. But I'll get the rest of the website evaluations and articles in the next couple of days, so new posts will be up soon.

Sunday Bloody Sunday - Bush vs U2

2006-09-27T22:53:00.000+10:00

It is FINISHED!!! MHA HA HA!!!!

2006-09-11T04:32:00.001+10:00

You have no idea how much of a victory this is for me.

This was very difficult to make.

This picture is actually a bus stop! I'm meant to design a concept that will aid transport in an anti gravity situation (Isn't that stupid? I talked to my psychics friends about it and they say the situation is impossible! So much for imagination making sense.)

So, because this will be "ACTion buses" version 1.2, I named my design concept "TrACTion", which makes perfect sense - just take a look at the definition!

I know the perspective of some things are slightly out of perspective, but still, I welcome all comments, opinions or critques. Thanks for reading, I'm really happy I got this finished finally.

I'll get my other design concepts still in progress up and blogging soon, stay tuned.

Sci-Fi Unoriginal Idea

2006-09-08T01:40:00.000+10:00

While I was in school I suggested in a brainstorm of "future education" the idea of computer contact lenses. Apparently that idea has already hi-jaked before me.

Don't worry, it's a fake computer graphic. Check the link for the article on it.

Link to article.

Overworked Healthrisk

2006-09-08T01:31:00.000+10:00

One day I will probably pass out from working too much for college.

How do they expect me to have a 8 page script, a short story and a major design work piece finished in 2 weeks?

The light endures to examine the shadows

2006-09-04T20:59:00.000+10:00

Hey all, this here is a picture of me gone through photoshop. I know it looks way depressing and emo but I still like it very much. It has expression and a message, so it's still great. I love interpretive pictures like this. It makes you want to just stare at the picture for ages and wonder what she is thinking...

Cyberspace Article #7 - The Web is Unflat

2006-09-04T14:54:00.001+10:00

I found this article that was reviewed on another blog called "The End of Cyberspace" which was quite interesting and useful to read for my studies. I encourage you to scan through it and pick up some info.

Date: 1st August 2006

Publication: "nick" from Rough Type

Summary: Is the government really in control of the Internet? There are some that believe that because the Internet is so huge and vast, the government will never fully grasp power over this technology medium. This article asked whether the demographics of politics are really affecting the Internet. Is everyone really equal in power on the Internet? No.

An example is eBay - even though some people praise this website as a way of shopping without fraud or cheating, this could only be done with the government keeping a close eye on the transactions in its business.

The Internet may seem like the new technology that supports globalization, free of territorial boundaries, but the truth stands that in order for the this ever-growing communication system to exist without fraud and cheaters is to control with the law and authorities. The problem with this however is if the fraud and cheaters are found in the control. That's when the Internet become chaotic in its peaks and troughs in power.

Impact:
This divides people's beliefs about the freedom of the internet. It asks us what is freedom on the internet? Is it to be good and obey the regulations of terms and use when signing up for a website? Or is freedom on the internet the ability to have everyone downloadable on the internet free? Is it to have the ability to have access to all or any information on the internet and no privacy?

In my opinion, politics are usually confusing and untrustable. So I'm not going to even try to answer these questions. Some debates should be left for those who want to argue with no solution or turning point.

Website Evaluation #7 - Defective By Design

2006-09-04T14:34:00.000+10:00

This is hilarious!

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	http://defectivebydesign.org/en/node
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.org, yes
Who put this information here?	Free Software Foundation
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes. It is a website promoting an opinion.
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated Daily, however unsure.
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	Yes
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
How old is the material?	Most of the material is recent
Who wrote the information?	Free Software Foundation Inc.
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	No but they have an email form sheet.
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	Yes
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	Yes
Why is this material here?	To promote the logic of freedom in choice of software provided from Apple.
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	Yes, through a link
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	Yes, there is no perspective of reasoning from Apple.
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes, it's opinions are slightly one-sided.
Can I do a cross check?	Check out the purchasing regulations for iTunes and iPods.
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	No
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Check related websites.
Is the information available anywhere else?	Perhaps - there are articles from other websites that were reporting their moves.
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	From not that I know of.
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	Yes
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	No, they are organised according to how recent they are.
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	Yes
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	Yes
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes.
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes.
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	No
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Most of them.
Does the design complement the content?	Yes

Oops..

2006-09-04T01:26:00.000+10:00

What are your mistakes in typing up a story?

Sleepy Info

2006-09-02T02:17:00.000+10:00

Hey all,

It's 2 am in the morning, visions getting a bit blurry, but I'll type up this info, just for you readers to understand what I'm doing. Just 'cuz I love ya! *dies*

I'm sorry for all those website evaluations I've posted up lately, I don't really have a choice in posting them or not, it's a part of my duty for schoolwork. I'm in a english class which is themed around website publishing, and part of the assessment is to type up these forms checking the efficiency level of 10 websites and to write about technology-related articles. The evaluations may be boring but the websites aren't!

Here are some examples (that are "cyberspace" related):

Someone with the name Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 on Wikipedia.
There's also a "Beginner's Guide to the Darkness of Cyberspace" article on Associated Content PLUS a Blogger Explanation Tutorial for n00bs with a woman with a nice voice talking. ;)

GFX Artist Website

PLUS the very famous Save Dickson College song - made mainly by Callum from music.

Image Hosting

I was surfing around after I did my website evaluations and I came across my favourite game on Newgrounds.

It's called "Dad'n'Me" and it was made by Tom Fulp, the founder of Newgrounds. I just find the flash game helarious, even though it violent. The great thing about it is that I don't feel sick from beating up all these defenseless people because the game is just so animated. I laughed several times the first time I played it and it still makes me smile now.

Website Evaluation #6 - GFX Artist

2006-09-02T02:03:00.000+10:00

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	http://www.gfxartist.com/
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.com, No
Who put this information here?	Commerical Organisation
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Only Slightly - There will just be a few ads. in your face and that would be it.
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated Daily
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	Yes
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
How old is the material?	Most of the material is relatively new
Who wrote the information?	The "GFX Team" and users
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	Yes
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	Yes
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	No
Why is this material here?	To provide an online artist community.
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	Yes, through a link
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	No
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Can I do a cross check?	There are other artist communities on the internet but there is not really a need to cross check.
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	No
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Check related websites.
Is the information available anywhere else?	Most Likely, might be easiest to ask someone who is very artistic.
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	No, unless you want to.
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	Yes
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	Yes
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	Some are. I tried some tutorial links that don't work.
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	Yes, but that is required in this website.
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes, the fonts in the menu is quite small though.
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes.
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	Yes
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Most of them.
Does the design complement the content?	Yes

Website Evaluation #5 - Wikipedia

2006-09-02T01:42:00.000+10:00

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.org - Yes
Who put this information here?	Special Interest Group
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated Daily
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	Yes
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
How old is the material?	Most of the material is relatively new
Who wrote the information?	"Wikipedians" - both moderators and subscribers
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	Yes
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	Yes
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	Yes
Why is this material here?	To provide information for the readers, from the readers.
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	Yes, through a link
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	Yes
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	The matter of whether the information on Wikipedia is accurate is very sketchy. There have been debates about this issue and Wikipedia believes it's method is reasonable.
Can I do a cross check?	Other resources anywhere
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	Yes
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Books and other websites are the first places I'll look to to verify the information's accuracy.
Is the information available anywhere else?	Encyclopedias On the Internet.
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	Maybe, but it's very conveinient to just look it up on this website.
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	Yes
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	Yes
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	No, but most are and the ones that are not are correctly quickly.
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	In some places, but not all.
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes, but it is slightly cluttered, and to read through it the info you want to read sometimes takes paitience.
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes.
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	Yes
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Yes
Does the design complement the content?	Yes

Website Evaluation #4 - Dickson College

2006-09-01T22:45:00.000+10:00

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	http://www.dicksonc.act.edu.au/
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.edu - Yes
Who put this information here?	Educational Institution
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated weekly
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	Yes
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
How old is the material?	Updated within this the year
Who wrote the information?	Dickson College
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	Yes
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	Yes
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	No
Why is this material here?	To help the College's community and to provide information for others about DC.
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	Yes
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	No
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Can I do a cross check?	Wikipedia?
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	No
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Going to the actual school.
Is the information available anywhere else?	Yes, like Canberra Connect Website
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	No
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	Yes
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	Yes
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	Yes
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	No
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes, perhaps a instruction like "roll mouse over menu to find links" would be helpful.
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	No
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Yes
Does the design complement the content?	Yes

Fugufish Frog - Treadmill Timing

2006-08-30T21:10:00.000+10:00

What happens with 8 treadmills, a couple of geeks, a camera and a really awesome song?

Apparently this:

Website Evaluation #3 - Associated Content

2006-08-30T19:30:00.000+10:00

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	http://www.associatedcontent.com/
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.com - Yes
Who put this information here?	Commerical organisation
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated daily
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	No
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
How old is the material?	Updated in different areas
Who wrote the information?	The community and company on the website.
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	Yes, several
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	Yes, there are descriptions of the board of directors
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	Yes
Why is this material here?	To build a general community of publishers from different backgrounds and to enhance their skills in presenting their content over the internet.
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	No, but it has a small link to a place that describes its purpose
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	No
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Can I do a cross check?	Don't need one.
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	There are some potientials for identity fraud, but these users are experts in their materia.
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	-
Is the information available anywhere else?	There are probably other communities out there like this website.
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	-
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	Yes
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	Yes
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	Yes
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	Yes, if you have a slow computer.
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes, but very cluttered and full.
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	Yes
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Yes
Does the design complement the content?	Yes

Website Evaluation #2 - Stir

2006-08-30T19:19:00.000+10:00

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	http://stir.org.au/stir/
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.org - Yes
Who put this information here?	Special interest group
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated weekly
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed	Yes
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
How old is the material?	Nine days old
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Yes
Who wrote the information?	Someone affiliated with World Vision Australia
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s	Yes
Is there any other way of identifying the author	Yes
If you can’t identify	-
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	Yes
Why is this material here?	Public Service - To support a youth community that want to help others less fortunate in third world countries.
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	No, but it has a small link to a place that describes its purpose
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	No
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Can I do a cross check?	Yes
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	No
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Other Internet Material etc.
Is the information available anywhere else?	Yes
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	Depends on the target audience.
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	No
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	No
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	Yes
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	Yes
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	No
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Don't Know
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Yes
Does the design complement the content?	Indeed Yes!

RIP Sammy

2006-08-29T18:53:00.000+10:00

Sammy

My cat Sammy, who I have known all my life, has passed away within the past week.

I don't think I could describe how much he meant to me. We loved each other so much. He had a very nice long life for a cat though - lasting for 21 years and 8 months. Sammy was amazing. No matter how much he aged, he was still cute and beautiful to me.

He used to lie in the sun when he wanted to warm up on Saturday mornings. He knew exactly the right times that he wanted his meals. When he was younger he was strong, tall and independent but as he grew older he became accustomed to homely habits like wearing a little red jumper in winter, howling when he wanted attention and sitting on his little cat rug when he wanted to snooze.

I find it so hard to let him go out of my mind. I haven't stopped crying about it for the past two days. I just can't believe he's gone, and I didn't even say a real goodbye to him, or touch his fur and show how much I loved him. It was love that kept him going and there's a part of me regretting not seeing him for the last time before he moved on from this life. At least my mum said that when he was buried, he looked at peace from his hurting body. I'm glad he's found a better place. I will miss him sincerely.

Quake Cheat

2006-08-28T22:39:00.000+10:00

Why must this remind me of all the guys I know? Must they all be addicted to Quake?

Cyberspace Article #6 - Plagiarism Strikes Blog World

2006-08-28T21:37:00.000+10:00

Date - 8th May 2006

Publication - Maura Welch, The Boston Globe

Summary
This article explains a disheartening concern in the Blogosphere of the Internet. Copying other people's work has become as instant as a click; and since there are over 38 million blogs on the Internet, plagiarism has become a nasty way to wreck someone's enjoyable time writing a blog. As described through Jonathan and Beth's experience of stolen identities, plagiarism threatens people who attract many readers to their blogs, while maintaining a subtle status in the Blogosphere. These people that plagiarise are just like six-year-olds in a school play ground trying to exaggerate stories to impress their friends, says Michael Zimmer, a doctoral candidate of the New York University. This article suggests to put a clear copyright to protect blog posts from further plagiarism. "Copyscape" is also mentioned as a good freeware program that can identify word for word copying off the Internet. Additionally, because the Blogosphere is fast and speedy at finding copies, plagiarism can be put to a halt once the website address is discovered.

Impact
Well this impacts just about everyone that write on the Internet. I wanted to do my oral presentation on plagiarism, rather than fraud. Maybe I got mixed up with those meanings. Anyway, sometimes we need to think about the downsides to the Internet. The Internet is convenient to all of us because of it's instant speed in communication, but also the instant speed to plagiarism, flaming, hacking, bullying and false information. Is there any way at all that we can avoid these things and without being in fear of someone mistreating the information of ourselves that we post on the Internet? No - where there's a will, there's a way. Maybe we have to accept the situation. Otherwise we have to either - over secure our computer and passwords to the point of making our computer too slow or forgetting a password to access a website OR not blog on the Internet at all.

Cyberspace Article #5 - Windows Vista

2006-08-28T21:24:00.000+10:00

Date: 25th of July 2005

Publication: John C. Dvorak - PC Magazine

Summary:
For some time now, people have known that Microsoft has made a newer operating system since Windows XP. The computing community however was not so impressed with what Microsoft has "new" in store for the world; there was nothing ground-breaking for them anymore in this business. This author goes on explaining, in an almost biast form, how the new OS "Vista" is very "distant" from what it claims to be. Dvorak claims the reason of this is because Microsoft has no competition and it becoming lazy with it's progress.
He then goes on in this article with other OS company opinions:

Apple - Vista has the potiential, but we all know Macs are better.

Microsoft - I can't survive on Windows anymore, but XBox will put the pennies in the piggy bank.

Linux/Apache - We're so much hotter than Microsoft right now with MySQL, PHP and LAMP.

Google - I am the Internet Application King! Now all I need is MSN..

He then concluded on bombarding statements of the potientials of powerplay each of these companies have in producing much better OS than Microsoft. It was even suggested that Google should start it's own OS with Linux. Whatever will happen, it sounds like the competition between these corporations will be very tough.

What's so good about Vista anyway?

Impact:
This computer corporation battle has enough power to effect everyone all over the world. Personally I find the joining of corporations very threatening. There is so much power behind these corporations, and it makes me shudder just to think about one massive corporation controlling the whole world. The world is their oyster, but if they are going to forcefully open it with a knife, take out the edible part and eat it whole and throw away the precious pearl inside?

Have you ever seen the documentary Michael Moore did on Corporations? That has influenced my opinion about corporations, and it makes me feel very disgusted at the way the power is not controlled with these insensitive "persons" (ie - any corporation).

Cyberspace Article #4 - Celebrity Viruses

2006-08-27T23:38:00.000+10:00

Date - June 20, 2005
Publication - CNNMoney.com

Summary of Article
Although this article was made over a year ago, the report described still rings true today as it did last year and the year before. Many hackers/spammers are finding new and cunning ways to lure people into opening emails with viruses. This article briefly reports on the most common ways they entice people to open emails from unknown email addresses - with covering the trap with the most popular and talked about people of America.
Popular names include:

Britney Spears
Jennifer Lopez
Shakira
Osama Bin Laden
Michael Jackson
Bill Clinton
Anna Kournikova
Paris Hilton
Pamela Anderson

Spammers and hackers are known to post to lists and lists of email addresses with phony news events of world-wide known people as these to lure people in, like any deviant person would to a small innocent child. An example the article used was posting emails about Michael Jackson committing attempted suicide just before the final Jury's final charges about Michael's child molestation scandal. If new information like this is posted all around the news for public viewing on a mass scale, wouldn't topics straight of the news interest just about everyone on the internet? That's what spammers ask themselves. And so that's what people have to be careful about when viewing email. Here are some of my tips in avoiding virus:

Have at least one anti-virus on your computer and one anti-virus checker on your email. Scan your computer at least once a fortnight or more - depending on how many hours you spend on the net.
Don't subscribe to websites that don't seem trustworthy or ask if you want to subscribe to outside sources to the website. If the website has too many advertisements, pop-ups or looks unprofessional or untidy, don't send your email address to any part of it's data without deciding carefully whether you trust it or not.
Use common sense - Don't open emails when the senders email address doesn't make any literate sense. For example, if the sender is "dl9hentlwlrk1354bwlb40@elelkhrk30539jn.com" with the subject "Hot Hot Girls", don't open the email at all!!! Curiousity killed the cat! Delete that spam!
Use your block filter on your junk folder. I know sometimes the settings can make you miss a friend's email that you haven't saved in your contacts yet, but it's worth having a filter that gets rid of the junk you want to get rid of. Block the email addresses as well.

Impact On Society
Well I already explained how to protect yourself from the impact. Basically this tells society to get into shape with what to look out for with viruses on emails. In fact it uses a shock factor and attraction factor by using Britney Spears as a way to interest the reader. The article has a picture of Britney Spears when none of what the article talks about affects the way Britney looks or acts at all, in fact if you really thought about it, this article is using the same technique as a hacker would - sneakily attract the reader with a popular name then once it is opened the article contains information completely different. How ironic is that?

>Tracking Life Online
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/online.evolution/

This here is interesting information to compare while I was looking around the CNN website for something good for this article. If you look at most of those names up there, they are quite similar to the top 10 list of the names hackers and spammers use. What does this comparison say about society? Are we all the enticers or are we the enticed? What I think is that both of these top 10 lists reflect what we see in mainstream popularity - status of who we are and who we are better than. Is there really any need to keep up to date on the most juiciest updates on the news or gossip? Is it really important to have all the latest mp3's or know the more than the other person usually has knowledge on? Is it really important to feel better or more important than the next person in line?

Blogger in a Snap

2006-08-27T21:56:00.000+10:00

I was browsing through Dickson Library last Thursday, randomly going through the computer/internet/new software programs section and found very strange books about cyberspace. One particularly funny one was a feminist book encouraging women to publish websites on the internet to compete with the stereotypical idea (of the mid 1990's) of computer nerd boys dominating the internet scene in creations, community and socialization on the internet's. I randomly flipped through the pop culture humour in pictures and came across one that stunned me - the 8-ball bra website. Ah.. brings back the memories of those bra burning days... I mean er... What??

Anyway that comment about that book was besides the point.. I just found it hilarious because the attitude to the internet is changing so rapidly all the time; publishing books about it just don't stand any chance because it's an instant medium of communication. However this book I picked up by chance, "Blogging in a Snap", was extremely useful to me. This book is specifically for people that want help on blogging for the Blogger website. It wasn't until after I borrowed this book that I realised the whole book was entirely for explaining how to use Blogger's settings and management for making the most of your blog. The forward was quite inspiring because the author was involved with internet publishing and managing since the very early years of the internet, particularly when blogging was a new thing. There were many others that produced other ways of communicating on the internet, such as forums, that told her that blogging is nothing new. Instead of feeling negative from this comment, she agreed with it, saying "You're right. Blogging is nothing new. But Blogging is not about technology, it's about people."
I think the greatest thing about reading this book is that it's may seem as thick as a text book but in fact, it took me a very short amount of time to read through. Blogging in a Snap is designed to be zipped through so you can go straight into blogging in full understanding of what to do. Additionally, this book contains a full overview of what is required when using Blogger, whether it be the simple understanding of publishing a post to understanding the concepts of applying your own layout and html to your template. It makes me feel really lucky to find such a convenient book as this one to help me work on improving this blog. I hope you're reading Lemmy, because I'm definitely going to show you how impressive this book is.

Haloscan

2006-08-26T01:09:00.000+10:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

New Website Layout Inspiration

2006-08-24T05:21:00.000+10:00

The webpage layout inspiration is finally finished! I made this layout about a week ago, but I have to work out how to change the html of my blog to work with this set out.

I think it looks pretty awesome, I'm not sure about the dotted line and the big "A" overlapping the main square where the content will show, but it will still be readable. Tell me what you think. Are the "P"'s legible?

Cyberspace Article #3 - Bushwalkers Need Mobiles

2006-08-24T02:06:00.000+10:00

This is one of the articles I did in class to save time for doing one at home. I tried to write it as neat as possible, I appologise if it's hard to read some words or a wording error. This article isn't so much about the internet, but it does have an impact on society's expansion in computer technology. For example - Imagine when compact computers become a practical size in the amount of data it carries and the physical size that will be useable for everyone to use. It doesn't seem so far away when considering the wide-spread technology of iPods, mp3 players, play stations, USBs and notepad phones. But what about the rising phenomenons in emergency technology?
Telstra should have mobile phone towers that cover the areas of metropolitan areas but I can't even understand one sentence someone says to me on my mobile when I'm at home because I live in a new area of the city. My perception of Telstra is that its offers are not so reliable as it claims to be, the corporation is constantly looking for business in the most irritating way (foreign employees calling up on weekends asking if we want to switch to Telstra) and bludgers who go on company holidays to get drunk every night.

Where's the improvement in emergency communication technology in that?

I included a link to a website with more information on the advantages and disadvantages plus more advise on bushing with a mobile at hand. Click the title to read it.
Here's also another link containing a recent article about emergency communication technology. Interestingly, it mentions how GPS-enabled phones can make portable phones easier to locate because the transmission of the location data is faster. The downside is that this acticle is reviewing improvements in technology in America, when it's an Australian website. That's pretty sad.
<http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=33073>

Cyberspace Article #2 - Search Engine War!

2006-08-14T21:07:00.001+10:00

Hello once again,
This article doesn't actually have an author but does say it was published on the 10th of August, 2006 at San Francisco by The Economist. This article starts off by using a historic example of war (the time of Napoleon for history lovers, not mentioning any names like.. *cough* Lemmy *cough*) to explain the war that is going on with the business behind big search engines and website corporations like Google, MSN, Yahoo, eBay and AOL. It firstly talk about how Google has become so expansive in the mediums it uses, whether it be it's toolbar or word processor or GoogleEarth to it's new medium of web-video advertising. Google also wants to join up with Myspace, a fast-paced growing social-network website and another website called News Corporation.
As Google soaks up more than half its market, Yahoo is struggling behind in making between 60-70% of the profit Google is making for all it's use as a search engine. eBay has also had some disagreements with Google with it's indirect advertising or searching to it's website.

So MSN and Yahoo are joining up together to defend their battleground from the evil Googlemonster. They have now joined up their instant-messaging softwares to make a new "voice-chat" feature. Yahoo also joined up with eBay's PayPal system in return for advertisements on Yahoo's auction website. MSN and Yahoo also wanted another corporation to suit alliance with, and approached AOL to be a "merger". However, Google got there first and set alliane with AOL's instant messaging service. An analyst was quoted on the article explaining how "mergers" don't work on the internet anymore, because it's become so expansive. MSN and Yahoo need to be looking towards "mash-ups" known from a new forming trend on the internet called "Web 2.0".

Honestly I got a bit confused towards the end of the article because I don't completely understand what it means by "mash-ups". From a general perspective, of what this article suggests, is the major search engine's on the internet gone crazy over profits and the amount of market it is attracting. This is impacting a major part of the internet because there are billions of people that are so dependent on search engines to find what they need on the internet. Just about everyone I know uses Google and Google only as their search engine and use MSN messenger to talk to friends. I know NO ONE who uses AOL and maybe someone distant that might use Yahoo Instant Messenger. From what I know, the dependency on Google is enormous, and if something rotten goes on from this news, many people will have to face the consequences of these large corporations playing with the power of their market. If Google is to become the "All Powerful Search Engine" there will be chaos on cyberspace. I can't imagine what the consequences might be, but I can understand the enormous power from the impact of those consequences, if Google took too much of the market turf.
As one says:

"Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely"

Cyberspace Article #1 - Web Design Clichés

2006-08-12T00:02:00.000+10:00

This article I'm summarizing was made by Stuart Brown on the 18th of June this year. It's also published in the United Kingdom. Brown talks about the graphic design trends that have been increasingly popular during this year and critically analyses the impact these cliches have been overused throughout growing websites. He grows through the top eight cliches of 2006 and pinpoints examples and the irritatingness about them.

Excessive use of Gradients - designers have become too dependent on them.
Odd Names and Misplaces Dots - because of the shortage of domain names
45 Degree Diagonal Striped Backgrounds
Big Fonts
White Backgrounds - used to look professional, now it's plain and boring
Wet Floor Effect
Pixel Fonts
Tag & Folksonomy

Impact? I think this article does say something about the trends on the internet. At first I didn't understand what the big deal was, and why Brown was criticizing these design techniques as I enjoyed seeing them around the internet. What I do understand now, and what I didn't notice before, is that EVERYONE is using at least one of these techniques on their website that it's almost become unwritten laws among web designers. This impacts my outlook incredibly on the way I see popular designs using those techniques now, and I can see how people are not coming up with exciting new ways to attract people's attention without resorting to at least one of those ways on the list. I didn't see that generalization before I read that article, and now I can see how the trends on the internet affect people's impression on the website and how much they keep their attention or read their website.

Oscar Wilde

2006-08-11T14:32:00.000+10:00

My Sociology teacher was talking about how society reacted to homosexuality before the 1900's and he started talking about this guy: Oscar Wilde. He lived amongst the upper class in Ireland and England and did many great things as it says on his biography. The interesting thing about him was his deviance of gay relations with Alfred Douglas and his sexual liking for boys. The reason being he was one of the only upper class men of his time to be open about his particular sexuality. Honestly, I'm not too fond of talking openly about homosexuality, but what made me so interested in him was his poetry. I looked on a poetry website and there was recorded 88 of his poems; some of them under 15 lines short while others go on for pages and pages. Even though his poetry comes from a different time and understanding from what I know, one of his poems struck right through to my heart in understanding. Oscar wrote this long poem that gave me an impression it was about intimate love between man and a boy. It opened my eyes to understand how passionately he adored and loved without means of lust. It hasn't changed my view on the topic though, it amazed me how much I could appreciate what he was saying. Here's an extract from one of his long poems.

Pantha - Oscar Wilde
This hot hard flame with which our bodies burn
Will make some meadow blaze with daffodil,
Ay! and those argent breasts of thine will turn
To water-lilies; the brown fields men till
Will be more fruitful for our love to-night,
Nothing is lost in nature, all things live in DeathÂs despite.

The boyÂs first kiss, the hyacinthÂs first bell,
The manÂs last passion, and the last red spear
That from the lily leaps, the asphodel
Which will not let its blossoms blow for fear
Of too much beauty, and the timid shame
Of the young bridegroom at his loverÂs eyes,Âthese with the same

One sacrament are consecrate, the earth
Not we alone hath passions hymeneal,
The yellow buttercups that shake for mirth
At daybreak know a pleasure not less real
Than we do, when in some fresh-blossoming wood,
We draw the spring into our hearts, and feel that life is good.

So when men bury us beneath the yew
Thy crimson-stained mouth a rose will be,
And thy soft eyes lush bluebells dimmed with dew,
And when the white narcissus wantonly
Kisses the wind its playmate some faint joy
Will thrill our dust, and we will be again fond maid and boy.

And thus without lifeÂs conscious torturing pain
In some sweet flower we will feel the sun,
And from the linnetÂs throat will sing again,
And as two gorgeous-mailed snakes will run
Over our graves, or as two tigers creep
Through the hot jungle where the yellow-eyed huge lions sleep

And give them battle! How my heart leaps up
To think of that grand living after death
In beast and bird and flower, when this cup,
Being filled too full of spirit, bursts for breath,
And with the pale leaves of some autumn day
The soul earthÂs earliest conqueror becomes earthÂs last great prey.

Sweet Dreams

2006-08-11T14:10:00.000+10:00

Here's a poem I made about a lovely tea I bought not long ago. I don't usually write corny little poems that rhyme often, but it suited the style so well. It's strange to write a poem about tea, but this one was beautiful, made of lovely herbs and flowers. Just to smell it is heavenly. And yes, the tea is actually called "Sweet Dreams".

Sweet Dreams

Along the narrow pathway,

In a place not to be found,

There lived a little granny,

In a cottage with tranquil sound.

Spring was coming alive,

Which she enjoyed in all her ages,

Rocking back and forth,

Reading her favourite pages.

Colours and nature surrounded her,

Water tricked towards the sea,

Feathers and petals danced,

It was bliss while enjoying her tea.

And as the frost crept in,

When the creatures were ready to sleep,

She'd snuggle closely to her cup,

A memory she'll always keep.

So this tea, I hope you'll see,

That it's not as dreary as it seems,

For as long as you drink at night,

You're guaranteed long sweet dreams.

Plagued With Sickness

2006-08-11T02:49:00.000+10:00

I haven't been well this whole week.
I've got the flu, like many other people, so we're all suffering at the moment. It started at the left side of my throat, spread to my ear, nose and head one by one. Luckily it didn't get to my chest, which is good. I wanted to do a lot of homework over the weekend, including getting heaps of work done on this blog, but the plague hit me and I was unable to feel comfortable out of my bed until today. I tried going to school yesterday but I felt so terrible when I got home, everything was just too fast and too impersonal. I'm going to try to come tomorrow though, I'm probably optimistic if I get to the first line of maths in the morning though :(.

I'm so behind now. I don't know what I'm going to do.

I'll get some poetry up here soon, right now it's really late and I should be getting to bed. There's heaps I want to write here though, I know I'll never have enough time to fit it in though. We shall see.

Website Evaluation #1 - Greenpeace International

2006-08-04T00:19:00.000+10:00

Firstly, I'm using a worksheet to evaluate this website but I'm going to reorganize this into paragraph sections in my own words.. just for the challenge and originality.

<http://www.greenpeace.org/international/>
Greenpeace is an .org site which means it is a non-profit organization. This is quite interesting since my English teacher, Mr Lemmey put it at the bottom of the reliable websites list. However I'd like to question that reliability with this certain website. The sources of information to this website are quite solid and up-to-date (depends mostly on where you go on the website - there is news undated daily but also articles which date over a year ago). The only thing to query with this website is how persuasive and influential is it to the reader to believe in it's perspective of the environment. Greenpeace is VERY influential to the reader because it focuses on motivating people to take action to the problems that are facing the earth's future. That is part of the website's purpose as it clearly asks us to take part in their organization.
The currency of the information on this website is designed to make it relevant to today's problems. From my knowledge I know there are plenty of videos and books about global warming and environmental issues that were published during the late 1980's and Greenpeace has no such information on it's website because that is not part of it's focus. Greenpeace is working for NOW issues, so it's website is very now. It's website is not very clear on the individuals who exactly publish the articles on the website but there is information published from people that are activists that talk about what's happening with their work. Additionally, from what I recall, all other resources Greenpeace use for their reports and information are cited professionally in full bibliography standards and also use information from reliable sources such as newspapers or professional .com organization websites. The website also includes contact details and even directions of their location and welcome all who come as a friendly gesture.
The material on Greenpeace is mainly for it's audience to take an activist approach to the environment by politically influencing world leaders around the globe to listen to their voice. Not only does Greenpeace asks for people to declare their environmental opinion to powerful persons but also asks for donations to help their missions to protect severely threatened areas. Greenpeace explains this on it's first link on it's menu bar about it's mission and results it's striving towards. This is why Greenpeace's perspective on the issues it faces seem incredibly influential towards the information it provides to the public. It's website, in my opinion, can be used as a reasonable website full of information about present global issues, but should be treated with care in terms of accuracy to ensure that the information they have presented is not exaggerated or blown out of proportion.
There are plenty of other environmental websites on the internet that can verify information in a different perspective to Greenpeace which can be useful for cross-checking it's accuracy. WWF is one example of a reliable resource to verify the information of Greenpeace. Personally I would discourage news media articles because their validity of information could be used from Greenpeace or less reliable information unless it indicates otherwise. Printed sources would have to be quite recent; within the year or less.
There are however no links that go outside of Greenpeace on the international site, except for websites supported by particular country websites which is shown specifically on a picture map of the world. The links are described by the title of the country through a flash activation when you roll over the red dots. The design of the webpage includes crystal clear graphics with understandable symbolism, colour which harmonizes together with a main theme of green and neutral blues to give a feeling of being a "green thumb" to the audience, organized tables with dashed lines with the centre columns used as the main source of information. Animation and java is used occasionally and mainly use a video player on their webpage for their interactive medium to show actual areas around the world that are needing greenpeace's attention. The website (I assume) is available to all webbrowsers and is not slow or difficult to surf around the site, in fact loading from page to page is done in a flash. It's menu is very organized on the left side of the website, however the font does seem slightly small and hard to read at first. The news updates are on the right column make up for that with larger font. When an articles is loaded it is opened in the large middle column which is spaced out and overflows down the website which therefore gives the impression that the website is planned in a traditional downward motion to read the articles but also fills most of the screen at the top which does give a hint of the new way of perceiving information (clockwise). There are no irritating graphic advertisements slotted anywhere in the website because it's not sponsored or funded by any company or corporation. Greenpeace decorates it's websites with graphics with textual aids to grasp the reader's attention to important issues on its site.
So finally, in conclusion, Greenpeace has much to commend for it's fantastic useful website and has definitely proved itself as a useful perspective on the major environmental problems of today.

Continuing on..

2006-08-03T23:48:00.001+10:00

Click the title. It goes to an awesome blog full of interesting sketches. Motivates me to sketch more. I wish life had more time so I could relax and take my time to draw what ever I wanted. A week or two ago I did that on a bus but I only had about 10 minutes so all I drew was the back of someone's head. I'll scan it in for you to see. Maybe some of the people that live around the ACT could guess whereabouts I was sitting on the bus.

I finally figured out some sketched for my design class. I've got a couple of designs for cars and one design for a shoe. They need a lot of working on though. They are just ideas for now. I also need a third item in the area of transport, I was thinking something along the lines of a transport tube, like in Futurama, or maybe a futuristic elevator tube. Honestly I'm not too keen on designing products with no gravity involved. After all, if there was no gravity, we would be dead. Thank God for that!! (No really.. I do thank god for that :P)

I wanted to post up something yesterday but I never got around to it because I collapsed on the couch and slept away the night. After on and off sleep I finally work up and realized I was still in the lounge room at 3:50 in the morning! Maybe it's from all those times of reading past midnight or just mucking around on the computer at night for too long.. or maybe just because of school. At least I can sleep a lot - some of my friends have been sleeping less than 5-6 hours every night. One has been especially sick for some time now :(. At least I got my flu injection this year so I wouldn't get sick this winter. Only one more month until winter is over :D!! I'll be glad because I don't have to suffer the bitter winds that blow constantly where I live.
I'll post a website evaluation before I go, but I'd better do it quickly because it's getting pretty late.
*Yawn*,
Flik

Neosynthesis

2006-08-01T23:52:00.000+10:00

Calling all art-junkies!!! -->This website is beautiful you should check it out some time. It's full of dramatic photographs, artistic abstracts and digital manipulations. Someday I'll learn how to manipulate that well. Just about every art piece on there has the style of dramatic simplicity that you just stare in awe at. I would post an example of here but it doesn't allow direct linking to pictures in case you steal them.
Speaking of art - I do design technology at school. I love being in that class, it's a place where I can be free with my mind but also extend it to a special point of thinking about how to present my ideas on paper. Right now we aren't doing something I'm so enthusiastic about - we have to imagine a world without gravity, which in reality, is impossible because we'd all be dead, but in design we have to think of products to help live without gravity. I guess it more about making a product look cool, but I don't enjoy it because I have to wrap my mind around how my product will work. I'll keep you updated with my works and ideas if I can.
I think that will be all I'm going to write for today. I still haven't talked about what specifically inspires me (although I've started with art with this post) and I want to talk about an update Greenpeace put on their website this week that I'm very excited about.

Masquerade - Paper Faces On Parade

2006-08-01T23:45:00.000+10:00

I'm back home now.
I was looking through some blogs and I found this awesome one at random. I love the layout, it's inspired me. I'd better get photoshop out and start getting expressive with some digital art! I wish I was good with photography, but unfortunately I'm not so great.

-#1-

2006-08-01T14:42:00.000+10:00

Well here's my first post.
Am I meant to introduce myself? Call me Flik. I live in Australia. I'm turning 17 soon.
I don't have much to say about myself but I do have much to say about issues and problems that face this world today. So that's what I'll use this blog for.
I'm at school at the moment. This is actually a school project, so I'm going to have heaps of fun with this and make this blog as interesting as I can make it. So I'm going to write about what inspires me, what concerns me and what I find interesting or maybe even funny.
I'm going to go now, next time I'll talk about what inspires me.
Signing off for now,
Flik