Cassandra

On the first picture, I used the image adjustments to fix the color slightly and then I used the dodge and sharpen tools on the people so that they would stand out more and wouldn’t be so dark.

On the second picture, first I cropped it, then I used the stamp/clone tool to erase the words on the wall, then I adjusted the color, then I used the sharpen tool on my clothes, then I made another layer for the guitar and changed the color of it so that it would have a pinkish/purple tone.

On the third picture, I cropped the random people off the bottom, then I lightened the picture, then I adjusted the color tones, then I used the burn tool and dodge tool to highlight parts of the building on the right side.

I thought the Second Life reading was interesting. It seems crazy to believe that people really make their living in an imaginary world. I remember the first time about three years ago when I heard about the online world. I thought it sounded fun and very technology advanced. Once I tried it for a couple hours and it was just way too time consuming for me. I don’t think that people should waste their real lives doing something so fake. I feel like it could really ruin relationships and careers if people got too involved in Second Life. I wonder how long this fad will last.

I thought it was very interesting to read the cartoons about the internet.  It is true that the people out there reading about you don’t know anything. You need to make sure that the information you have online paints you in a god light. For all they know, you could be a dog- you have to show them who you really are. This makes me think of the people who go on dating sites and post fake beautiful pictures of themselves when they are really ugly people. No one knows who you are, and yet at the same time, depending on what you post on your myspace, everyone knows who you are.

I enjoyed reading the article about creating your own brand. I think that it is important to make yourself look good online. I have tried to Google myself before and I would be interested on learning how to make my name more visible in a search. I also think that purchasing your own domain name is a good idea.

The other article from our readings that I enjoyed was about Google and when it isn’t your friend. I don’t have a problem with Google keeping information about my searches. I feel that it helps the search engines be more accurate when showing me results and I feel like they are more personalized. If someone has a search record that proves they murdered someone, then the evidence should be used against them.

I thought that this week’s readings were very interesting to think about. At my job we use email for everything but we don’t have an official email policy. After reading the email etiquette article, I realized all the things about email that my company could easily improve with just a few rules. The 32 most important email etiquette tips are all very simple rules to put into place but not everyone knows or realizes them.  Reading this made me think of one experience in particular where my friend at work did a blind carbon copy marketing email to about 20 customers and after she sent it she realized that she had sent the wrong email (containing a different customer’s private information.) She then tried to recall the messages but it didn’t work for everyone’s email. If she would have read the email before sending it, she wouldn’t have made this simple mistake.

The second reading is something that I thought everyone knew, but it was a good refresher. I have another work experience to go along with it. In regards to Rule #8: Respect Other People’s Privacy, it shared a story of what happens when checking other peoples email and that you can get misled. A few years ago at my work, one of my coworkers caught a glimpse of an email that contained his name and thought that it was talking about him in a bad way, he logged on to my email and to a few other peoples email at work and was caught. He ended up getting in trouble over the incident and later posted things on Facebook about the job. He should have followed the etiquette rules for being online and watched what he said. Our boss saw his Facebook and he was fired the next day. It just goes to show that you need to be professional and follow common sense when online and emailing.