MAKE UP WORK

The following are assignments that were supposed to be completed. If you have not completed any of these assignments, here is your chance to bring up your grade.

Blog
- each student must create a blog on any subject for which they desire to have a voice.
- a new article or blog post is due each Friday by 5pm.
- the article must be at least one paragraph (5 sentences) and include at least one picture or video.
- make sure your article has a title.
- once the article is posted to your blog, click "View Blog"
- go to the article that you wish to post to my blog and click the title of your article
- copy the URL for that article
- go to my website "www.tasteofno.com". Find the appropriate post for your assignment.
- click on the comments link and paste your article's URL in the comments section.
- be sure to click publish so it will actually be posted.

The first blog post was due Friday, January 18. This blog counts as a weekly exam and is 50% of your grade.

The following pictures were supposed to be taken by each student:
- a sports picture
- a food or cafeteria picture
- a random shot around the school
- a picture of anything that you would like (clean and appropriate)
- a picture of a public place

Cafeteria Ad
- Using "Pages" on your Mac, create an AD for one day of the cafeteria menu. The AD should have a cafeteria/food picture as the background, the date, and the items on the menu for that day.

Email Regarding Digital Billboard
- we watched a video of the digital billboard that I would like to create to replace the scrolling announcements.
- you were supposed to submit an email with your opinions, critique, and ideas on the video.

Edit a Picture
- open a picture in the photo editing website www.pixlr.com
- your assignment was to edit any picture you would like so that it looked drastically different from the original

Create an AD template
- using "Pages" on your Mac, create a base template for ADs to be placed on for the digital billboard.
- the template is to include "Gulf Shores High School" and "2012-13" somewhere as a tag for the AD.
- the tags are not to be predominant but rather illusive.

Decide on a Project
- choose the genre of multimedia in which you wish to express your talent, ability, interest, etc.
- create music, video, photo collage, print advertising, digital advertising, slideshow, etc.
- if you draw, paint, play an instrument, sing, rap, sculpt, dance, sew, craft, etc. Take pictures or video and create a digital presentation.
- THIS PROJECT IS DUE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - NO EXCEPTIONS
- progress will be checked daily to receive credit for classwork and production


If you have any questions regarding these assignments, contact me at atono06@gmail.com

Homework for Tuesday, January 22

Take a picture of a public place off school property with your phone, iPod, or computer. (Try to avoid identifiable people being in the shot. If they are not recognizable, that is fine)

Upload the picture(s) to our AV Snapfish account. (Make sure you have the Username & password before you leave campus on Tuesday)

Once the picture is uploaded, click the picture so it becomes enlarged on your screen.

On the right you will see the word "Share" as in the screen shot below.

Hover over the word "Share" and select "Share this photo". The following screen will appear:

Now select the tab that says "Share with a link". You will see the following screen:

Copy the URL listed for your photo and paste it in the comment section below.

Your post is due prior to 7:30am on Wednesday, January 23 to receive credit for completing your homework assignment.

Weekly Blog Post Due Fri, Jan 18

Please post the link to the article from your blog as a comment below before 5pm on Friday.

The article must be at least one paragraph (5 sentences) and include at least one picture or video.

Mid-term Exam for the AWESOME 2nd Block AV Class

Post a link of your blog as a comment below. As long as you post a created blog, you will receive a 100. If I do not receive a link before 10:39am today, you will not receive credit for the mid-term exam.

Thank you! :)

Local Author Needs Your Help

Most of you know that my very best friend, Abbi Glines, is an author of Young Adult fiction. I love her books and I was fortunate enough to get to read all the books in advance of their release. Her latest book "The Vincent Brothers" is the sequel to "The Vincent Boys". I highly recommend these books and not just because she's my BFF. :) Both books are great love stories with believable characters and a happy ending. I'm not a reviewer so I have no idea what all I should write to tell you how much I enjoyed these and all of Abbi's books. She needs your help to get her into the top 100 on Amazon. I'm blogging from my phone so I hope this link worksU. Below is the link to "The Vincent Brothers".

Airplanes, New York, and the Authors

On Tuesday, May 8, 2012 I had never been on a plane in my life. Frankly, I didn't want that to change. However, on Wednesday, May 9, 2012 I boarded my first plane to take the trip of a lifetime with my best friend, Abbi Glines. We were bound for New York as NYC virgins sure that we were going to see all the magnificent sights of New York in four days (ha ha) and come home with the exciting tales of our adventure....... including me throwing up and/or passing out on the planes.

I got my wings!

Fortunately, I made it through all the flying with flying colors! No throwing up or passing out.... just the sensation to do so. New York was even more amazing than I thought it would be and we have some great stories to share (and some that only make sense to us). One of my favorite things about this trip is that Abbi and I laughed for four days straight. We laughed because we went to the 2nd floor of our hotel looking for our room that was on the 25th floor, at the crazy cab drivers, the poor little boy who had to pedal us uphill in a pedicab through Central Park, Abbi's concern that we would be abducted, and the Chinese man in a Chinatown restaurant yelling on the phone for someone to "GET DOWN HERE NOW!". I am still laughing at these stories and more. The city was great, Broadway was amazing, and I had the best time with my best friend.

Abbi & Me - Last pic of the trip

I have to tell you though, in all that excitement, my other favorite part of the trip was meeting Abbi's author friends and listening to their conversation. This amazing group of women are as diverse as they come, from different parts of the country and different parts of the world yet they are brought together by their love for story telling, reading, and writing. I am so proud of Abbi for all she has accomplished and I love that I have been privileged to be there as her dreams continue to come true. In New York I met a whole group of women who are doing the same thing. In the midst of their normal lives, they are chasing their dreams. Two of the ladies were recognized by fans at the book signing we went to for E.L. James. I was so excited and happy for them as they relished the moment in amazement and pure joy. Even E.L. James is stunned by the outpouring of love for her and her body of works. It was such an honor for me to be welcomed into their private group for this trip. I'm not a fiction reader (I usually only read Abbi's books) but after meeting all these beautiful and inspiring women who are chasing their dreams daily, I have a new list of books to read. I've shared the list in the link below.

NY Ladies' Books I Want to Read

Left to right: Tina Reber, Colleen Hoover, Elizabeth Reyes, Tracy Garvis-Graves, Me (not a writer), Abbi Glines, Liz Reinhardt, Nichole Chase, and Tammara Webber. We are on our way to meet E.L. James at her book signing in NY.

I hope you will add these books to your reading list as well. Several of the ladies are finishing up books to be published soon, so I will update the list as the new editions become available. Happy reading! :)

This is How it Started..... Pinterest

Once upon a time there was a girl from NOLA who bought everything from Wal-mart like the rest of the world...... until she found Pinterest.

Now I am making lots of homemade stuff that I intend to tell you all about but this is where it started. I found this blog about making homemade laundry detergent with claims that it only costs $.03 - $.05 a load. WHAT!?!?!?! Are you serious? THREE to FIVE CENTS a load? I have to try this because I HATE (do you hear me? I said HATE) buying laundry detergent. It's ridiculously expensive, even for the cheapest stuff and it's one of those things that just ruins my budget when I have to buy it. I hate buying laundry detergent.

So, now that we are sufficiently versed on how I feel about buying this crap, let's move on to making it. I followed the recipe for the liquid detergent found on this blog: One Good Thing by Jillee. I also followed her update and make three gallons instead of two.

For those of you who are concerned about having to be Suzie Homemaker or Martha Stewart, please, fear not. Here is a picture of my laundry detergent:

You are now looking into a 5 gallon bucket. Fancy, right? :) I've taken the picture inside so that you cannot see the grout stains that were left on the outside of the bucket after my husband so kindly cleaned this out for me to use for my laundry detergent. We are uptown, I'm tellin' ya!

Seriously, I love this stuff but, truth be told, I'm still not 100% sure I'm making it right because it's still very thick. A beautiful young lady that I go to church with also makes her own laundry detergent. (Shout out to Amy & check out her blog here: Instrument Ink) She was not sure about why it was so thick because she makes the dry detergent. She also said that she only uses the Fels soap & Borax because the Washing Soda was irritating their skin.

Since we can all see that I'm almost to the bottom of my bucket of detergent, I think I'm going to try the dry version next time. This will not only be easier and avoid the thickness that I've been battling but I will also be able to upgrade my container from said fancy bucket to a more in vogue coffee tin or mayo jar. :-D