Fifteen and Pregnant

This week was a study in rolling with the punches. It is no secret I have been struggling with my schedule organizing time to study for four, 5 credit classes, managing work, getting sick, keeping track of my 17 year old son, trying not to ignore my sister who was visiting from Virginia and waiting for a new addition to the family.

My niece was having a baby and this was the week. She called and said "my water broke." Right on schedule.

This is a good thing, although, it took time away from my homework. I have very little time to spare these days, but we all know, the baby wont wait for me to get it all done. I knew a little rearranging was in order because my niece wanted me there. I couldn't say no.

She is not 15. she is 32. But this assignment is number fifteen. See the connection? There is also a Lifetime movie "Fifteen and Pregnant" starring Kirsten Dunst. Remember "After School Specials?" Yes, it was like that.

This assignment was interesting because I have tried to understand WordPress and it seemed a little confusing. But like most things, it was made better by repetition. I had to go through four different themes in order to find one I could change enough to fulfill requirements. This was a good project for me because I feel like I will use this resource quite a bit and practicing with all the widgets and trying to finesse the code is a good way to learn the skills I need to be able to do this for a client.

By the way, Hollis Katrine and her mommy are doing well. Hollis is quite adorable and pretty tiny too at almost 6lbs.

Fourteen Psychopaths

It's only Seven Psychopaths and it is a movie I want to see, mainly because of Christopher Walken, but I needed a fourteen connection and the psychopath connection was a valid one this week because I could feel my sanity slipping away, wondering how I might get everything that I had to do, finished. Add work, family, stress... multiply 7x2 equals Darcy going a little crazy.

An then I watched the tutorial at 3am and realized, I could do this. The Edge animate was the breather I needed. It was very easy to follow and I was quite relieved.

However, this would not be Darcy's blog without making note of some kind of glitch. Today, my fail was that I didn't bring my artwork to school to turn it in. I left my pretty flowers around the word "GROW" on my desktop at home. So the only thing to do was to quickly create another. I was happy this assignment was easy to do because I had time to finish but not time to work out glitches. Oh, well, such is the way of this quarter. 

See the results below.

Before...

After...

The Missing Link.

13 Coins

Way back in the day of Sting's Glory days, there was a restaurant called 13 Coins. This seems like a bit of foreshadowing to me because 13 coins went bankrupt in the '90s and closed, restructured, then opened again.

Maybe like lightening, bad luck doesn't strike in the same place twice.

This week's assignment, as usual has a very thin thread that leads to my intro. The number 13, although bad luck for the restaurant, good luck for game-making aficionados everywhere.

I was happy to have been able to use the tutorial for the Construct2 game. I followed the steps, and I do love a few good steps. Maybe that makes me a follower. I am okay with that because the world would be in big trouble if we all wanted to be leaders. Like the family members in Family Feud, I am good help.

I found the most difficult point of the assignment was coming up with a theme for the game. I can do graphics very well, but making a decision about who did what to whom was a real challenge. I finally took a reality check and remembered that that was not the most important part of the task.

I did learn how to put together a game in Construct2 and more importantly, I know where to find the information I need to make more games in the future. Lookout! THIS WILL BE EPIC!

The Dirty Dozen

This is the blog post for Assignment 12. The web page redo.

I really liked the idea of not reinventing the wheel. Re-purposing a web template was really quite easy and I will explore this more in depth.

Oceans Eleven

Yep, Ocean's Eleven has a lot of really cool people in it. I swear I am going to watch the franchise someday. For now, though, I will think of how amazing they are and move on to my next assignment.

Here lies the logo I created for the requirements described on our assignments list. There were some glitches in getting this assignment out, but that seems to feel like a theme for me.

I actually love all these projects. I love design and keeping busy doing them is really just joy for me.

The Email Newsletter screen shot resides below. I like the way the brown theme turned out. I will have to see where I can use it again sometime.  Each time I complete an assignment in Dreamweaver, I feel more confident about the program. It will be one of those things that needs lots of practice until I will feel like I know the program as well as I should. I find that I like writing in the coding a bit more than I used to. In the past, code was undecipherable but now I actually prefer the split screen. Amazing.

We are winding down to the end of the quarter and it has felt like a mad rush to the end. It has been very busy and full of some of my favorite assignments.

I would like to see more work like this.

10

Ten seconds, ten photos, ten locations! Yes, you are here for the unveiling of 10 of the most amazing photos you will ever see on this blog. I kid you not.

You will laugh, you'll cry, you will tear your hair out. Watch at your own risk. Slide shows like this have CHANGED LIVES FOREVER. Proceed with caution!

Working in the Galleria template was pretty easy and it has been a while since I have been in Dreamweaver, but it became more familiar as I proceeded through the assignment. I actually enjoyed moving the code around. Enjoy... once I figure out how to post it in the blog...


And you thought this was going to be about Bo Derek and Dudley Moore.

Number Nine

I was fascinated by the Beatle's White Album track, Number 9. I remember listening to it quite often. I was trying to figure out what it meant, but also, I liked the idea that it was a song that didn't sound like a song. It was like a news reel and the audio from Futureworld blended together.

If I could have used Number 9 as my background music for my animation, I would have. Unfortunately, I didn't obtain the rights to it, so instead I will be using a lovely melody by Royalty Free Instrumentals - 168 Tracks!

 
I didn't have enough time... this feels like a common theme. I kept it simple in order to get it in on time. So, I like the flower, but it would have been way cooler with Number 9 as the sound.