My Signature Themes

5 Major Skills

A few days ago, I was told to take a survey online that would basically describe the way I think and act.  I must say, it is pretty accurate. We were given four domains that best describes each category.  All the way at the bottom is a table that describes each domain.

Consistency (E)

Alright, this one is pretty accurate.  I am very consistent in everything I do.  I don't like things being out of order.  I also tend to treat everybody the same, regardless of whether or not they are the same.  I'm not entirely sure that's a god thing, though, because a lot of people need to be treated differently.  Not better or worse, just differently.  However, when it comes to following the rules, I work best in a place where the rules are set out and straightforward.  No one can have an unfair advantage if they all follow the same rules.

Harmony (R)

I love agreement.  I hate it when people argue, especially over stupid things that make no sense.  Some things you do have to stand up for, and I get that everyone is going to have a different opinion, but don't go looking for differences just for the sake of arguing.  Everything would be awesome if we all kept our opinions to ourselves and shut our mouths when they need to be shut.

Adaptability (R)

This is a good one.  I am very good at adapting to my surroundings, no matter where I'm at.  I think I'm so good at adapting because I've gone through a lot of changes in my life.  As soon as I got comfortable with something, it changes drastically.  So I've learned to just go with the flow and not to get attached to anything, cause it normally alway ends badly in the long run.

Connectedness (R)

This is a good one, but kind of hard to explain.  Connectedness means I'm connected to other people and believe we're all connected in some sort of way.  Some people call it collective unconscious.  I believe we were all created by God and are connected together that way.  I think there is something more to life than what we see, and I am good at comforting people that way.

Developer (R)

Okay, last one.  I promise.  I am good at developing people.  Everyone has potential, and I like to discover that and challenge people to achieve goals they would have never thought was possible.  Bringing people up gives me a rush that is indescribable.  I like to challenge people and help them improve in certain skills that I think they are good at.  I think this would make me a good teacher.  I have a lot of patience, so that might make me good at things like that too.

Executing	Influencing	Relationship	Strategic Thinking
Achiever	Activator	Adaptability	Analytical
Arranger	Command	Developer	Context
Belief	Communication	Connectedness	Futuristic
Consistency	Competition	Empathy	Ideation
Deliberative	Maximizer	Harmony	Input
Discipline	Self-Assurance	Includer	Intellection
Focus	Significance	Individualization	Learner
Responsibility	Woo	Positivity	Strategic
Restorative		Relator

What happened in Ferguson, Missouri?

To be honest, nobody really knows what happened to Michael Brown. All we know is that he was shot and killed by a police officer named Darren Wilson on August 9th (A day after my birthday).  Later on we received an autopsy report, letting us know that he was shot in the front, which goes against the only witness, Dorian Johnson, who said he was shot in the back.  With this lack of information, and what information we do have that is inaccurate, there's really no telling what exactly happened.  We can't say whether Brown was running when he was shot and this was an act of police brutality or if he attacked the officer and Wilson was acting in self defense.  This misinformation and biased opinions from news reporters is what led to all these crazy riots going on right now. When nobody knows what happens, we tend to fill in the blanks based on our opinions on the subject.  So before anyone starts rioting and destroying buildings, maybe we should know the facts first. Everyone seems to think all white people are racists and all black people are victims, instead of caring to know what actually happened.  In this day and age, it's INCREDIBLY easy for someone to share their opinions via social media, which means the ability to fill in the gaps, whether or not these stories are actually true, is a very easy thing to do.

Another area this affects is politics.  After enough riots, a new law will most likely be passed that grants whatever it is the protesters want.

So the point I'm trying to make here is don't act like an idiot until you know the facts.

Index Page Revisions

After a bunch of critiques,  I changed a lot on my index site.  Unfortunately, I made the changes after I read the reviews, so I don't have the screenshot of the original site available.  But here's the new one!

http://eravensonline.net/students/401jdw08/

So I had made a site that looked awful, but while the site was getting reviewed I completely changed the way it looked, so everyone had reviewed the wrong website.  Two days and a box of cookies later, I had managed to get everyone to review THIS one instead.  The only major change I made to it was the header.  It used to be white and slightly transparent, but I went with this one instead because I like the burned in look.

Google Drones

The next big thing is here!  Google is now working on something called Google Drones,  a drone used to deliver medicine and other utilities faster and more efficiently.  Amazon is also working with them to help deliver packages faster.  You can read more about it here.

These drones,  in case you haven't watched a video about it,  look almost too lightweight to be able to carry stuff around.  I'm not exactly sure how efficient and fast these things will actually be.  I'd rather have whatever it is I'm buying off Amazon be delivered to me in a way that's worked before in the past.  Of course,  I'm sure people said that about airplanes when it was invented,  and cars,  so who knows?  Maybe these things will actually turn out.  I certainly wouldn't want to be the first to try them out,  unless I have some sort of warranty on whatever it is I bought,  so if the drone falls out of the sky I know my package will be covered in some way.  On top of that,  I'm not exactly comfortable about drones getting popular.  I mean,  think about it.  A silent hovering camera that can watch every move you make.  It starts with them delivering packages,  but who knows?  What happens when the NSA gets their hands on them?  Sure,  I may just be some crazy conspiracy theorist,  but you never know.

Wayback Machine

WayBack Machine

What is the WayBack Machine?

The WayBack Machine is a tool created by a non-profit organization called Internet Archive,  founded by Brewster Kahle.  It was created based on a cartoon episode,  in which the main character used a time machine called the WABAK.  The purpose of the site is to show you what the certain websites used to look back way back in the day.  Below are three examples.

MSN

1996:

2014:

The biggest change I see is color.  They went from a pukey yellow green to a nice looking blue.  There are also a lot more pictures used to advertise each article.  The logo looks a lot nicer than the previous one.

Apple

1996:

2014:

The biggest change I see here are the use of pictures.  The pictures are a lot bigger and are used to really make the site pop out.

MySpace

1996:

2014:

Ha, this one changed a lot.  While MySpace is still outdated even today,  there are still dramatic differences between the new one and the old one.  The old one's header is just MySpace.com over and over again...  It's almost as if they just learned a new trick and decided to use it over and over again because it was cool.  The new one,  however,  actually looks somewhat decent.  It looks more organized and easier to navigate and less of an eyesore.

Remake High School Wrap-Up

This is the website for Hamburg High School in Hamburg, Arkansas.  To redesign it I mostly just used the lion for the logo.  The rest of the information I just copied and pasted into the new site that I remade.  There really wasn't too much to do here.

This is the website for Guitar Center.  The only real challenge here was duplicating the menu bar across the top, which wasn't too hard once I got it figured out.  Sure, the duplicated site isn't exact, but it's close enough.

This is the duplicated site.  I obviously couldn't make it exact, and I actually ran out of some information to keep the site looking filled up like the actual one.  But it isn't too bad.

The only difficult thing about remaking this logo was finding the right font to use.  I replaced the iconic guitar from Guitar Center's logo with the lion from Hamburg's logo.  Then I just replaced the text in the same place and changed the colors to match the school colors.

Improved School Website

I will be redesigning the Hamburg High School website and logo in the style of Guitar Center.

Guitar Center

http://www.guitarcenter.com/

Hamburg High School

http://www.hamburgschools.org/hamburghigh