This is IT!

I just put the finishing touches on my portfolio, and I wanted to make one last post before I submitted my link on BlackBoard.

This is the link to my site, just in case anyone is interested:

http://www.pitt.edu/~eal47/index.html

My externally linked CSS was working on every computer that I tried this morning. I just wanted to be sure :o) All of my links were clickable, too -- and they went to the right places! This last assignment feels like a great accomplishment! Putting everything together in one place is a great way to showcase how busy we've been this semester!

I didn't want to disobey any copyright laws or anything, so I went into PowerPoint and made that little background image and tiled it. It took a few tries to get it to work - but it was fun to experiment and see how a little change would affect the way that it looked.

I am so excited for all of the skills that I have learned in 2600, and I really hope that I have the opportunity to use them in the future. After taking this class, I decided I would like to go into the technical side of libraries. It was fascinating exploring all of the different systems available, and learning about their relevancy in libraries today. I just need to decide which classes to take next semester, and then I'll be on my way!

*****

So that means summer vacation begins NOW! (Well, after I watch my last humanities lecture, that is.) I am so excited to spend time with my husband, read books for pleasure, take naps, goof off, and not study after work each night! It's going to be a fabulous break! So here's to us!! Happy SUMMER!!!

WAHOOOOOOO!

Oh my goodness I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am!!! I totally figured it out!

Last night, husband sat down with me and both of our laptops, and we figured out that my site was working with Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox ... but not IE. So, I finally remembered that Dr. Tomer mentioned using the W3C Validator to check for both HTML and CSS errors. After I fixed my heading and took out some rogue asterisks, IT WORKED!

So I just need to touch up a few more things, and then I will be finished with my portfolio! It is an unbelievable feeling to finally get something like this to work! I seriously have learned so much through this process ... I hope to be able to play around with this some more in the future!

A bit of a rant ...

Oh my. It's been one of those days. So, I spent a decent amount of time last night working on my CSS for my portfolio, and I felt like I was really getting close. Every time I made a change, I would load it through Filezilla and see my progress. I thought everything was going very well! That is, until today. I tried to pull it up on my computer at work during lunch, and it was like my stylesheet was non-existent. So I have to figure out why in the world it works on my personal computer, but not from work!

Then, to top it all off, I got my grades for my humanities course. Overall, I was pleased. EXCEPT for my collection project. She didn't feel like I spent enough time on marketing techniques and is letting me send her my revision. I don't have the foggiest idea what in the world more I can say! If I choose to leave it the way it is, then I will end up with an 89 on the project. But, you see, I am a perfectionist in the worst way, and I don't know if I can handle that ... Saturday seems so close ... yet so far!!!

One Step at a Time

I'm working on my portfolio and CSS assignment today ... I feel like it is really slow going. But I'll get there soon enough! I'm just thankful that we still have a few days until it is due. As I get further along, I realize that there were so many things I could have done differently on the previous assignments ... I may go back and touch them up if I have some extra time.

On an unrelated note ... I think this is a lot of fun!

Way to be, NPR!

Check out THIS fabulous article from NPR - it is a fantastic piece in support of librarianship!

It's called: "Why The Next Big Pop-Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might Be Libraries"

ENJOY!!

Summertime Storms

I absolutely love summertime storms! Sunsets with thunder and lightening are so much fun! It's been unbelievably hot here, but the rain made the temperature go from 97 to 73 this afternoon - unfortunately, it will be right back up there again tomorrow. Here's to hoping the humidity index will finally go down.

I finished adding the links to my fragment last night - it really went quickly after I decided which links I wanted to use. I tried to create the external CSS, but it didn't go over very well. I'm super thankful that he extended that due date! I have plenty of time to work on it after tomorrow, so I'm not too worried.

What else ... well, I'm having a heck of a time deciding which classes I want to take next semester. I've switched a few times. Right now, I'm enrolled in Information Architecture and Technology in the Lives of Children. I'm debating over Digital Libraries or Metadata ... I just don't know which way to go! At least I have a month left before I have to commit! :)

Off to finish up my 2543 lecture from last week -- this past weekend really threw my schedule off!

I'm dreaming ... of a nap!

It's either allergies or tension or exhaustion ... I'm not feeling too well. There's been so much crammed into these past few weeks that I'm starting to feel it! Rest is on the horizon, though!

So I have developed a bit of a love / hate relationship with Zotero and RefWorks. My humanities project was due yesterday, and I had a last minute realization that Zotero didn't pull through the cities in the citations. I was able to get it all corrected, but MAN! It was a bit aggravating to have to go back to find each source again - I am just so thankful that it's all over!

Today is the day for the 2600 quiz. I'm re-watching some of the lectures to cram in every bit of info that I can. I have no idea how well I will do - open book will help a lot, but that means having a strong enough understanding to find anything that I need to look up. I also need to work on the assignment for this week. We're getting so close!!!

HTML Solved

All things considered, it was a nice trip to Pittsburgh. I lived through the presentation, and classes went rather smoothly. It was great to see everyone again, too! I did leave my phone cord in the hotel room (oops!) - but it was 5:30am when I left for the airport (4:30am MY time) - so I forgive myself. I got home about 4 hours later than I planned, too - storms in KC kept us circling for awhile, and then we ended up in Omaha because we burned too much fuel. I'm tired, but happy!

I just finished up the HTML assignment - I was super intimidated by all of the different programs we had to use, but somehow I figured it out! The hardest part for me was trying to figure out how to rename the page. I named it index.html at the start, and then could not for the life of me figure out how to change it. I finally found it in the coding, and it was such an easy fix! I just made it all so complicated, when it really was right in front of me the whole time. I have not even started to think about the next part ... and then there's the quiz this coming weekend ... so much left to do! After this weekend, everything should start winding down - summer vacation is getting closer!

Breathing in Pittsburgh

Well, I made it to Pittsburgh! It wasn't too painful of a trip (minus the part about trying to find a printer cartridge before I left town). I'm staying by the airport this time ... probably not the best decision I've made ... but now I know.

This next week will be rather painful, I fear. I have a TON going on. The presentation for my humanities class is tomorrow. I am not a fan of public speaking - so we'll see how that goes. I'm kind of dreading it. I spent the evening working on my research assignment for that class, and I only have one left - so progress!! For 2600, I've been trying to work on our next HTML assignment, but I feel rather out of the loop. I have been stumbling through this one - setting up all of the different programs is what throws me off - especially since I am rather new to my Mac, and most of the info is about PC's. I'm not even thinking about the quiz yet because I have a super big project due next week for my other class. There just isn't enough time ...

One step at a time, right? It's all about breathing.

It's not that bad ...

I just finished the Koha assignment, and I just want to say that it really is not as difficult as everyone made it out to be. After I watched the first tutorial and read through the second one, and I was really feeling pretty good about the assignment. When I got to the discussion boards, that all changed - I was really intimidated by everyone's comments. But once I logged in and found my way around, it really was pretty simple. It feels great to cross that off of my TO-DO list.

On an unrelated note, today is my fourth anniversary!! Husband and I hope to go see some fireworks tonight, but I have a feeling the impending rain may change that. Here's to hoping for clearing skies!

From NPR ...

I thought this was an interesting interview with Matt Martinez from NPR: