Assignment 7

I started off making the image smaller and then played with the saturation. I dropped the reds down, increased the blue, and then put the master saturation up high.

I duplicated the image, blurred the top and then erased over myself with a low hardness to create the emphasis.


Dropped the image size down, duplicated the layer, desaturated the image and then went through with the eraser. My hardenss was low on the shirt and 100% on the eyes. The eyes didn't turn out like I wanted but it needed more color than just the red shirt.

Reading 4: The Virtual Lives

As someone who's never taken the dive into second life I find the entire idea absurd. Here I read about people meeting in virtual coffee shops, having virtual conversations, going to virtual parties and I can help but as myself the obvious question. Why?

Why not physically leave your house, meet at physical coffee shops, have physical conversation and go physically to parties?

It's too simple to merely dismiss it that way. There are people that spend their time (and money) investing in this virtual world. I guess the appeal of an alternate (second?) life could be a draw, to be anyone, to go anywhere, to do anything.

But that immediately brings back, because when push comes to shove you weren't anyone, you went nowhere and did nothing.

I find it interesting in the first article that the Author concludes by talking about logging off and eating dinner with his wife. He could have left it at the virtual cocktail party, typed a period, and closed his laptop, but he chose to add an extra paragraph about returning to the real world, cooking dinner and spending the evening with the woman he loves.

No second life could, or should, ever take the place of your first.

With anonymity comes the moral hazard. The author of the second article talks about the surreality of his surroundings, going to strip clubs, and on more than one occasion having to turn his avatar's virtual eyes away.

The virtual world, in my opinion, incorporates most of the bad and none of the good of real life. There are no smells, tastes, or sensations other than what can be stimulated by sight and sound, transmitted through miles of wire in Ones and Zeros.

I think I'll stay in the real world.

Assignment 6

Reading 3: Nobody Knows You're a Dog

I've been reading a lot of articles lately that talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of internet communication. On one hand the internet has the ability to bring like minds together from the far reaches treat topics of interest. On the other, people seem to check their manners at the door when they enter into a conversation saying things that they would never dare, nor probably want to, say to a persons face.

Leaving aside the elephant in the room issue of internet predators masquerading about online and other morality-issue problems, there is a breakdown of human communication when online, nobody really knows that you're a dog.

The slightest dissagrement in the blogosphere will unleash a hailstorm of insults and profanity that would never be said in actual conversation. Neighborhood watch PTA member mothers of three will curse heritage and class when their opinion on the latest installment of the Twilight series clashes with another user's.

Then of course there is the complete fabrication of identity. People who create a persona for the mere entertainment of living the virtual world in someone else's shoes.

"On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

In my opinion, on the internet EVERYONE is a dog.