Redemption!

Coloring in Photoshop was an…interesting aspect of the class. For my first project, I attempted to color in an engraving of Frederick Douglass escaping slavery. Yes, I’m not an artist. Yes, the class spent quite a bit of time playfully (?) mocking my color choices. Frederick Douglass was simply a nineteenth-century James Brown? Check out those red pants! Well, thanks to a friend’s discovery, I can happily say that my inability to create a decent brown color in Photoshop wasn’t such a horrifying faux-pas after all.

Gerard T. Altoff, in his book Amongst My Best Men: African Americans and the War of 1812, quotes Douglass directly as to what he wore on that fateful day of escape:

“By donning ‘a red shirt and tarpaulin hat and black cravat, tied in sailor fashion, carelessly and loosely about my neck,’ Douglass obtained a protection certificate from a black sailor and boarded a train for Philadelphia and freedom.” (page 10)

What color shirt? R-E-D?! Obviously I’m just having some fun here, but it also proves a point about coloring in Photoshop (which I still have not bought into). A lot of research should go into a photo/engraving before coloring should be attempted. The thought that Douglass would wear red was laughed at, and what did I know – it was just the color I managed to squeak out. But it turns out it wasn’t so farfetched overall.

My other conclusion? I’m done coloring in historic images!

 

Comments

I commented on Gretchen’s excellent baking analogy and her beautiful website.

 

Some words on a screen

Well…I’m blogging but I don’t have much to say. Which is the complete opposite of most people on the web—too much to say and not enough people interested to read it. This class was certainly a challenge. I think I need to wait awhile before I can step back and really see what has come from it. Coming in, I didn’t even know what CSS was. I knew some Photoshop, but I certainly learned a lot more. I learned I prefer Crayola when it comes to coloring. But most of all, I’ve decided that web design is not for me. And that does not make me a bad person. I also learned that I need to be aware of when to let go. I spent many endless hours, at all times of night, working on an assignment, only to discover it wasn’t good at all—sometimes your best won’t be good enough. Lesson for the kids out there! Anyway, I’m glad that I took this class at the same time I took the History of the Book. It was a nice juxtaposition of the past and the future of the historical profession.

Everyone in the class had very impressive assignments and projects. You all have my admiration—congratulations!

 

Final Website

I spent my entire weekend in a cold-medicine-induced haze, attempting to work on my final website. It is not done yet. I still have to go to Richmond to obtain the documents for that section. I also have to complete the other lesson plans. But it is a start.

I do have one question, and if anyone could help me out, I’d really appreciate it.  For my homepage, in IE and Firefox, when I zoom it, the whole page zooms in. But in Safari, just the text (the menu text and paragraph) get bigger – which looks ridiculous! Does anyone have a clue what might be going on?

Other comments are also welcome so I can work on improving it before next Tuesday. Thanks everyone.

 

Mind Tricks

Below is a picture I played around with creating while I was learning Photoshop. It was through a tutorial; I just did the mechanics of it. But I’ve kept it in the back of my mind as I’ve been focused on digital history for the last year. In the world of the Internet, it’s too easy to draw conclusions without adequate evidence. And from Clio2, I’ve realized that the aesthetics can also lie. How we design our website will determine how it is perceived, read, and digested by the visitor. Sure, it gives the historian a good amount of control over our research and presentation. And some of us may realize how our design choices affect our outcomes. But I wonder, how many Internet users realize this? Do we always know when we’re being fooled?

 

Comments

Commented on Dan’s blog about the uncertain state of information on the Internet and Alex’s edits to his design page.

 

Twitter Tracker

This week I commented on Tracy’s design assignment and the stress many of us are feeling.

I also commented on Curtis’ post about saving Tweets. 

Source: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/04/30/funny-pictures-non-conformist-bird/

 

Design Assignment

I spent a lot more time on my design page than it may appear. A lot. It completely consumed me for several days. On Saturday I was trying to read a book for another class. In the middle of reading a sentence, I decided I had to change the background color of my page. I need to let it go for now so I can focus on my other classes. But I know that won’t last. Oh, here it is. 

I tested it on Safari, IE, and Firefox. It looked fine. Then I sent the link to my parents and they said one of the menu items is over Rosa’s hat. So I have to work that out. It is somewhat disheartening to spend countless hours to get something to look like you want it to, only to find out your code isn’t good enough to hold up on everyone’s screens. Scratch that…very disheartening. All part of the process, I’m sure. 

Also, I’m aware that the page itself needs to be centered. I’ve tried several methods and failed; but this WILL be fixed for my final website, some how, some way!

So that’s where I am. I hope everyone else’s projects are moving along well.

 

Contributing to blogs of people I know…

This week I commented on Rachel’s blog and Tracy’s blog.

 

Stop the madness!

I have nothing of great importance to say about interactivity and websites. In the Web 2.0 (or 2.5, or whatever we’re up to currently) world of iPhones, iPods, and iEverything else, I think websites certainly have to offer up interactivity in order to grab and keep the attentions of the younger generations. It is therefore important to know your audience, to have a clear learning objective (not to have interactivity just to have it, with no purpose), and not to make the user download additional programs (okay this is a personal thing I don’t like!).

Regarding Jakob Nielson’s article, I completely understand why only 1% of people contribute on the Web—and I am somewhat frightened of them! An example: I used to go to WTOP’s website to catch up on recent news throughout the day. One day I noticed that people could post comments about stories. So I “lurked” to see. All of the posters were extreme in some sense of the word—no moderation there. Quite honestly, some of the posts made me physically nauseous. There were racist remarks galore, threats to other users and public figures, sexist comments…you name it. Now obviously these people (oh, I hope!) don’t represent the majority of web users. But that did not stop me from becoming completely disillusioned at that particular website, and I have not been back since.

So here is the problem—the one percent of contributors that Nielson is talking about control the majority of the web. So should I submit a post, trying to be a moderate “voice of reason”? Wouldn’t that be like Obama speaking at the Republican National Convention (or Palin at the DNC)? Why should I put myself out there? It’s not worth the aggravation.  Now for surveys and things of that nature, if they are simple and quick, I’ll contribute. But as for becoming part of a dialogue online with strangers? No thanks.

Please continue to ignore the irony that I am writing this in a blog post that is online for the world to read.