Exploratorium!!!

So last week was our field trip to the Exploratorium! Isabel and I met up in Daly City at 9:45am to head across town together. Weather wasn't too bad in Millbrae but 3 miles away in Daly City all hell was letting loose.

Not very pleasant. The bus took us down 19th to the Pacific Heights/Presidio/Marina area. We were starving so we walked down Chesnutt to grab some breakfast at the Squack and Gobble.

I found it slightly amusing that the Exploratorium charged us $11 for admission and still had a big donations tank when you enter. Overall the Exploratorium was pretty neat. I like all the physics experiments and what not. I loved the water tornados.

I would definitely say the exhibit that inspired me the most was the History of the Palace of Fine Arts area. I loved the way they displayed the information in the huge columns with the rotating views. That's definitely an element I'd like to use one day in a site. I don't know if I'll use it for my project this time but I will definitely keep it in mind for a future project.

Isabel and I definitely had fun checking out the different exhibits. I think the funniest part was when Isabel played with the huge bubble exhibit where if you put your hand in the soap you'd be able to stick your hand through the bubble wall. Why so funny? There were not towels to wipe your hand off with when you were done.

The exhibit I think we spent the most time in were the optical illusion doors. Totally trippy. What freaked me out even more was when I downloaded my pictures and viewed them on the computer and they still worked, but even more so. I can't look at them for very long because it freaks me out!!!

Over all very fun trip. I'm definitely taking all of the movement and will bring that to my project. I'd like to add a great curtain opening and closing transition. It'll be quite the challenget to animate that...

Week 6 Exploratorium!

So Isabel and I went to the Exploratorium today! I'll post more about it, pictures included later. I'm so tired. But I enjoyed the Exploratorium very much and will be posting an expanded blog tomorrow!

Week 5

So the project proposal is due today! I'm definitely going to be pushing myself as far getting out of my comfort zone. I will be using technologies that I've never used before in my life. I was pretty disappointed in my Database Concepts class. It's over in a week and I know nothing about actually making the database useful. So I'm trying to approach this in a strategic way.

In Intermediate Authoring we're building ActionScript projects that are completely dynamic as far as nothing is on the stage in the fla. Everything is either drawn dynamically or stored in the library. So I came up with the idea of incorporating one big final project b/n this class and authoring.

So it will be a mashup of using a database to dynamically pipe in information the user searches for through a dynamically created interface that's endlessly entertaining.

I'm slightly intimidated about the database side since it's all new to me so it will be an experience. At the same time I've come to realize my most valuable resource at this school is the other students so I plan to use their knowledge to build on my own to create one seriously bad ass portfolio piece. Fingers crossed.

I re-did my Interaction site which Sharon says I should use for the final project. Not sure how to expand that to make an entertaining site. Any suggestions, let me know.

OH! I'm official! www.laurenmerka.com
I bought the domain last week. Uploaded the logo and that's it. I'm not sure when I'll have that site fully developed....But I'm still official!

Week 4

So my classes are starting to grind on me a bit. It hasn't been as bad as I expected thus far but then again what I fear the most hasn't arrived yet. I have significant final projects in all of my classes which is slightly over whelming. I'm learning so many new technologies on the coding front but I haven't learned enough yet to begin using it. That would definitely make this class a bit easier. The only technologies I'm even somewhat comfortable with are HTML and Flash. In JavaScript I can prompt a user and store that variable and that's about it. I'm also kind of thrown as to why I would want to mix JavaScript and Flash. What's the point? It almost seems like you open yourself up to greater error potential by having your sources scattered.

I'm kinda getting an idea for a final project. I'm creating a database for Database Concepts of my DVD collection. It would be cool to develop a full interface with the database so when you select a movie a little picture comes in, but not in a still way but with some sort of movement. Something to give it more interactivity even if it's something only I use. Or my friends could start using it to try to borrow my DVDs! I'd then have to add a field in the database denoting if someone is borrowing it.....