Monday, November 24th

What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Do you have any traditions? Go in to detail about your plans for the 5 day weekend.

Thanksgiving is my birthday. Usually on Thanksgiving we have a huge family dinner down at my grandmas house. This tradition ended last year when sadly my Grandma past away. Now I really don't know what we will do for Thanksgiving, hopefully someone will come down to visit us.

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But on Thanksgiving we will be celebrating my birthday, then eating the big dinner, and then we will be going out to do some black friday shopping! Colby and I will get the GoPro Camera, then go and fight old women for the half priced ipads. I can't wait for that. Anyways, later on in the week I'll be hanging out with other friends, making other YouTube Videos and finishing College Applications. So I will have a lot to do this break.

Thursday, November 20th

Go out and look up a what all goes on a resume website. What can you find? Include an example image if possible.

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Anything and everything to show someone any and all accomplishments. A resume website is much more useful because it can be every changing and be completely updated unlike most resumes in which you have to make copies for every new person. You should be including contact information, why you should hire, and about me page, and any other specifics that will make you look different than the next.

Monday, November 17th

Consider the quote. What exactly do you think it means and how does it relate to Web Design?

I think the quote means that how well something is designed is based on how well it works. It may or may not be pretty but the way it works is how well it is designed. The man stating the quote showed this quote in everyday life. Steve Jobs made perfect designs in almost everything he did. The phone and computers being so easily worked, so user-friendly that they became popular. The way each apple store was laid out in such a simple design was what made it so popular. Everything was simple, easy to understand. 

In Web Design, this applies to how simple and user friendly a website is. The way a website is designed will determine how often a user will return to such a website. If it is easy to use, pretty to look at, and gets the point across, then this is a successful website. Example: Google Drive. Its beautiful and works perfectly.

User Experience - The overall experience someone uses while on a computer website or application. Especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.

Thursday, November 13th

Reflect on your learning this semester so far in this class. Think about the first day you walked in to this room until right now. What have you learned about Web Design? What have you learned beyond Web Design? Explain yourself.

When I walked into class the first day I really had not known much about programming or Web Design. I had taken a intro to programming class my freshman year but I hadn't retained much of that knowledge. So basically I relearned the way to program and use HTML. Not only did I learn HTML again I also was able to use it for something I actually was interested in. 

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I have learned how to make the basics of a website, but I have also began to learn how to make a website look very professional. Slowly but surely I'm getting better at making websites. Beyond the actual web design part I learned how to use PhotoShop and other useful tools for my social media endeavors later in life. 

Friday, November 7th

Define the following terms on your blog. Do not copy and paste definitions. Site where you got your definition.

FTP - The file transfer protocol is a network protocol that transfers via internet, one host to another.

Web Server -  a computer system that delivers web sites through HTTP, the basic network protocol used on the "World Wide Web".

Web Hosting - This is a service that allows people to make their sites accessible to the "world wide web"

Source: Wikipedia

Monday, November 3rd

Tell me about your weekend. Give me details and photos!\

On Friday, I went out to a Costume shop to look for something because I had no idea what I wanted to be for halloween. I just decided to dress really weird and in nice clothes. So I guess that was pretty spectacular. Anywho, after that Colby and I went down to Worlds of fun and went around scaring people. The people at WOF said our costumes were too realistic so we couldn't go into the park. We did anyway and almost go kicked out multiple times. 

On Saturday I woke up early and started working on our new YouTube Channel. Colby and I recorded two videos and I used the template below to create a banner for our channel. Then we scoped out this house and took a couch from it's living room and put it in our YouTube room. That was a hard job. 

On Sunday I had to come back to reality and do all my homework. So I practiced Saxophone, did homework, hung up many things in my room that I have put of for months, etc. So all in all, the weekend was extremely productive. 

Monday, October 20th

Tell me about your weekend. Share pics

Over the weekend I went down to St. Louis for the Bands of America Super Regional Marching Band Festival. We performed Friday night in the Edward Jones Dome. We had a blast and had the best run the BV band has ever done in St. Louis. After this we went back to the hotel for pizza and cake. Soon we had to be in bed and the directors came in our room to tell us we shouldn't sneak out or do anything stupid.

 

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Long story short, I personally got into a huge argument with 4-5 of out band Staff and my mother got involved on the phone and we were threatened to be kicked out of the band. but with that said I still had an amazing night. They needed to learn to show me some respect and I got to prove them wrong :)

The next day we went back to the dome and watched the bands and had a 4 hour ride home.

Sunday I ended up hanging with my friend Kammi and we went to the Great Mall and that brought some serious memories back... Then Kammi and I went to IHOP and later went to her house to watch a movie. Overall it was one of the best weekends I have had in quite a long time.

Tuesday, October 14th

Below is a letter written to the editor who wrote the article 'Enforcement of dress code creates negative effect' that your blogged about last week. Most of you wrote on your blog that you agreed with the writer. What are your thoughts after reading the letter below and seeing a different perspective. Are they the same? Are the different? Do you agree? Disagree? Explain yourself.


I think these point are very valid. The above argument is a good one, and I completely agree that future places will hold much higher expectations for students. With that being said, I still do believe that high school students should have a say in the clothes they wear. Although some of these things are deemed as inappropriate, students, especially girls, should not be treated as children. There is a time when one will have to act professional, and be very uptight about the clothes they wear to their job. but it's not the real world yet in all honesty. Let kids be kids, and leave the administration out of it.

I think there is a bigger reason or picture for why this is occurring but these are girls many years away from bigtime jobs... some more years that others...

I stick with my first opinion that the school shouldn't monitor clothing even if they do for teachers.

Monday, October 13th

If I had 7 classes to prepare me for my future life I would definitely have classes that teach you long term lessons. 

I would have a Schedule with something like this:

1. Everything Business - Teaching personal fiances, economics, accounting, and stocks.
2. Philosophy - explaining how to view your life, how to approach certain things.
3. Personal Relations - how to effectively work and interact with other others 
4. Expression - Write papers, read books, write music/poems, anything to learn and express
5. Computer basics - all applications and office programs taught and mastered
6. Movie Making - Editing, Audio, Filming, input/output in all areas
7. Personal skill - Take your number one skill or interest and spend the entire class perfecting that skill and making a unique mastery of that skill or interest.

I believe this would end up helping me prepare for my future the best a high school possibly could. Most of the things we learn in high school we either forget or never use. They are short - term lessons.

Assignments

Career Search

Copyright Law Worksheet

Tuesday, October 7th

The following article was in the September issue of The Tiger Print. Read the article (even if you already have) and respond to it below. What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Consider all perspectives of the article while you respond.


I agree with this article hands down. Teachers and administration have been telling us they would like to treat us as adults since the 6th grade. Why now do teachers this adults control what other "adults" wear to school?

I think that anyone should be able to make their own decisions and wear whatever clothing they would like. Also this issue brings up the fact that this is only directed at females. I think its a little sexist that guys don't have a dress code yet girls are stopped on the daily with comments and "violations" of the dress code.

Although I do agree that it wouldn't be appropriate for girls to dress like strippers when they go to school, I think they shouldn't be worried every day whether or not they get sent home because they show their shoulders. Male students are not going to change and drool over "Dat Shoulder" if a girl wears a slightly more revealing shirt.

High school is supposed to be a place to express yourself right? Then why control the female population.

Monday, October 6th

Tell me about your weekend! If you don't have anything fun to share, tell me about the city you live in. What do you love about Kansas City? Do you have a favorite place in the city? Favorite team? :) Favorite event? Explain.

Friday was a very chill night. Colby, Connor, and I drove around for an hour or two figuring out what we could actually do with our lives. We found a few girls that Connor knew from school. Because it was cold we thought it would be fun to go have a bondfire on the top of this rock pile we knew. After all said and done, we only had the fire up for about 20 minutes but overall it was a fun night. 

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Saturday I accompanied the band To the Blue Springs Marching Festival. We spent the day talking to other bands and running around Blue Springs, then after our performances we placed 3rd overall which is the best we have ever done at that competition. So that was actually a blast.

Sunday I woke up early and spent all day planning revenge on this stupid kid that threatened Colby at his house. Then to cool of I went and talked with Nate Hardy who I hadn't talked to in quite some time. Then I asked if Nate wanted to go to my friends concert at some unknown car. They were actually really good but I got home very late. I ended up staying up until almost 2 in the morning Sunday night. That wasn't that fun.

Monday, September 29th

Tell me about your Homecoming weekend! If you didn't participate in the Homecoming festivities, what did you do? Share pics!

This past Friday I spent the night with the Marching Band as we cheered on the football team as we won the Homecoming Game! 

I decided to spend most of Saturday Day looking for colleges as doing some research with that. Afterwards Colby and I swagged out into our suits and went over to the girls house. We went to homecoming with Ally and Maggie and that was a blast! First we went to Winstead's, then we crashed a nearby wedding. After getting thrown out of there, we walked around the plaza and watched a magician. Going to the actual dance was fun but it was cut short so we decided to go driving around screaming for an hour and that made the girls really mad. Then we went to Ally's house and had a great time until I ended up getting home late.. 

Sunday I really didn't do much, I didn't even get out of the house which was kind of a bummer. 

Monday, September 22nd

How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting? Share photos!

On Friday night I went to the Plaza and Loose Park to hang out with one of my new friends Cameron. We drove all over town looking for Thai Tea and never found any. But overall the whole night was great, and I got to drive my dad's MR2 convertible around town. The next day I woke up just to go to band camp for four hours. That was honestly not that much fun but band is really never all that fun. But immediately after band I ran home to get dressed for Homecoming. This was really fun overall even though we had a group of about 25 people.

I went to Blue Valley Southwest's Homecoming with Jori and we had a blast. Had some awesome italian buffet at Cinzetti's followed by an actually pretty entertaining night of dancing, videogames and new friends.

Then on sunday i had to come back to reality and did all my homework.

Friday, September 19th

Now that you are several weeks in to this class and have coded one (super small) website, what do you think? What are your thoughts on web design? Is it what you thought it would be? Is it better? Worse? What's your favorite part? What's your least favorite part? Explain.

I am actually really enjoying web design, I knew it would be hard to code things that look really nice but I believe we will get there eventually. I am really excited to be able to make my own website for the Sam and Colby Enterprises, inc. co. but my favorite part so far has been the All About Me project. I think this will turn out to be something really cool! 

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This will be a harder project that will take more time but with that being said it will have a lot more information and be more interactive. I am very interested in this class, I know some people just take it for their computer credit but I really want to be able to actually know how to code websites for my future businesses.

Thursday, September 18th

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What is the importance of deadlines? How do high school deadlines reflect or simulate "real world" experience? Give an example of when you met or or didn't meet a deadline that was important.

Deadlines give you a sense of responsibility. In a job, you gain credibility if you meet all of your deadline and thus, could be promoted or at least well respected from your co-workers. 

High school deadlines help, but they are kind of like training wheels for the real world. When the deadlines in highschool are not met, there is a penalty. However, there are many chances to recover and make up the mistakes on a deadline. The difference between that and a real world deadline is the recover part. In the real world there is no time for deadlines and if you do not meet them, you don't make the money, or you could quite possibly get fired. 

One time I put off getting tickets to a concert I really wanted to go to, (although this is not a life or death situation, it was important to me). Then finally one of my good friends ask me to go with them and there was no tickets left. I could've solved that problem easily but I missed the deadline.

Tuesday, September 16th

Reflect on this quote. Give an example of a time in your life that this might have been the case.

There are cases when I agree with this quote and some that I do not. I really like winging things and just making things up on the spot because I believe ideas are more natural and come off as the actual truth instead of something you have planned or prepared. 

However, last week during a Socratic Seminar, I had not prepared with the reading or questions so in this case I was truly winging it and did not do so well. I was in the place to fail because I did not prepare. So I think this quote has a time and a place just like everything else.

Thursday, September 11th

Read and think about what this says and then blog about it. What does this quote mean to you? Elaborate! Feel free to give an example of tell a story.

I agree completely with this statement. And in all honesty I say things like this and live by this as much as possible. In my life I try every opportunity for a new experience, to get a great memory or figure something new out. Now there is an infinite amount of things you could do or work on to better yourself or just explore in general. 

Every time in my life, not joking here, when I am about to say "I'm Bored." I get angry with myself and then list off a ton of things to do. Just because of thoughts like the statement above I quit playing video games or watching TV because these are wastes of time! I love getting out and actually doing things or experiencing new places. This life truly is amazing and it is just really sad that no one seems to see it the way they should. People will regret laying around or being a couch potato, do things now while you can!

Tuesday, September 9th

How do you express your creativity? Explain.

My creativity is actually expressed in a number of different ways. I really do enjoy pictures, and not really of any certain things. I usually take pictures of nature or surrounding and express myself through captions and quotes. 

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No matter how much one would judge a 17 year old guy that puts his creativity into quotes on a picture, I really do enjoy it. If you ask anyone that knows me well, I think way too much and take life really seriously; however, I just seem this way because of the pictures I take and the things I talk about. I like to make short movies of what I think is funny as well as set up really cool scenes for instagram pictures. 

I'm honestly not that creative but when I would like to be, I have no trouble finding an easy way to express it.

Monday, September 8th

What did you do this weekend? Share pictures if you have them!
This weekend I went to the Buzz Beach Ball concert. My favorite band there was Weezer. I went with my two new friends Ally and Maggie! I bought a seated ticket so we spent the first our trying to figure out how the heck I was going to get on the main floor with the whole crowd. But after I got down there the three of us had a blast and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to.





















Then next day, Saturday, after making an amazing Vine (if I do say so myself), Colby, Ally, Maggie, and I went down to the Plaza, walked around and in general just had a good time. We helped Colby take his senior pictures, then we went around the plaza area and sang with the street performers. It was honestly a really fun weekend because there was no drama or caring, just a lot of fun.

Friday, September 5th

Pretend you are in your 70s or 80s, complain about kids these days.

"I just wanna be normal" "I just wanna fit in" "I'm most likely going to a state or community college" "What's going to get me what I need"


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Kids these days just want to be normal, they skid through life wanting absolutely nothing with their life and then when they realize in their late 20s, he opportunities have already passed. Honestly, kids these days need to get off there lazy butts and do something with their lives. If I were a kid again I would take every single opportunity to experience, to learn, to throw myself at something uncomfortable just to get better at it!

However nowadays kids take the bare minimum, they want to pass, they are happy with average. I want to slap the kids in the face who say they are fine with where they are at, or they don't mind the fact that they are just average. Is literally all the passion sucked out of this generation? Where did the drive go? Seems like the only thing people strive to be anymore is 'high.' Kids these days really need to realize there is opportunity on their front lawn but they are just to lazy to open the door. It makes me mad that people are cool with being the same, or fine with being average. Do something with your life, maybe just maybe, something you actually want to do? Sound better kids? Thought so.

Thursday, September 4th

Tell me about what you have learned in this class so far. Have you learned a lot? Do you want to learn more? What do you want to be able to do by the end of the semester?

I've learned a lot about how to structure a website, and a lot of the basics. How to set up a website and really remedial stuff. However, I really do was to get into coding CSS and making professional looking Websites. I plan to make www.samandcolby.com after I am done with this class so hopefully by the end of the summer I will be able to gather all of my media accounts into one website that looks professionally done. 

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Tuesday, September 2nd

Tell me all about your Labor Day weekend. What did you do? Include photos!

Friday evening of this Labor Day Weekend I went to a Sporting KC Soccer game with my family. It rained a lot so the game got delayed but the sky looked sweet. There was a fight during the game which was really interesting. 

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The next day Saturday was actually a pretty boring day. I hung around the house until dinner time then i went out with some new friends. We went to sonic and McDonald's and most of these new guys wanted to talk about cars. So I wasn't that interested to say the least.

Then Sunday morning I actually decided to be productive and did all my homework before going to the Legends. We met up with some fans at the legends and spent some time with them which was fun! After this Colby decided to go to his friend Billy's house to play computer games for a few hours like we used to do when we were younger. But we decided to leave after about 2 hours to go meet up with Colby's new girlfriends. We hung out with these two girls named Maggie and Ally and danced in the rainstorm. So Sunday was a really fun day. 

Monday I got up and learned a few songs on the guitar and finished my reading for ELA 12. Then the rest of the day was a pretty chill day until I asked my friend Jori to go on a drive. We drove for a few hours and sang songs all night. This was honestly really fun even though we probably looked like idiots.

Friday, August 29th

Read this small newspaper clipping and then write a blog post about it. What are your thoughts? How does it make you feel? Do you agree? Disagree? Explain yourself.



Someone finally said it! I absolutely agree with Principal John Tapene. In all honesty, kids come into this world expecting the world to give them everything, to allow them easily to accomplish and succeed. Well they need to grow up and realize that waiting around will never get you anywhere and once in a blue moon a teenager should actually work for the things they want.

Saying this as a teenager it gives me credibility because i see both sides. I see the people who expect everything to be given to them and then I see those who are actually going after the things they want. Guess who is successful in their lives. Exactly. One way or another people will realize its time to get their act together and work but i just wish we could all understand the power of will and effort at a much earlier age.

If people really thought they could accomplish, and really thought they needed to go out and get whatever they wanted in their life, imagine the changes in this society. Maybe things might actually get done before you reach the age of 25. One's teenage years are a time to learn and explore every opportunity, not some time to slack off and not care.

Thurday, August 28th

Tell me if you agree with this statement and then explain why or why not. "Images on the internet are 'free game' - if someone posted it, I should be able to use it."

I  think it is perfectly okay to use any picture on the internet. I always used to ask the teacher why it was necessary to give credit all the time to the images we post, then I figured out why. Free Advertisement. As long as you give credit where credit is due, it should be fine to give someone free advertisement of their picture, and if they didn't want their picture to go around, why would they put it on the internet?! 

So I do agree with the statement above. We should all be able to use any picture on the internet.

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Tuesday August 26th

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your life here at BVHS. What activities or clubs are you involved in? What year are you in school? What is your favorite class and/or teacher so far this year? What are you looking forward to this school year? Include some original photos from your phone if you can.

This is my final year here at Blue Valley High and I am excited to be a senior. I am really excited for this years classes because most of them are classes I actually would like to take because all my required classes are done. So far this year my favorite class is honestly probably web design because I knew the teacher previously and this class is actually something I am interested in. 

As for my previous years I have been in the marching band all four years of high school. Up until this year, because of new interests, I have been a member of the cross country team. And I have done one season of each of the following: Swimming, Golf, and Tennis. 

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Monday August 25th

What do you know about Web Design right now? What did you know about Web Design before you walked in to this class? Tell me as much as you can about how web pages work. Try to use an example if possible.

I know that you design a Web Page through a new language, otherwise known as coding. The Code that we are using in the class is HTML. At the moment I can code colors and some formatting of words on a web page as well as put extras like links and images in a web page. 

Previously I have taken a Computer Programming Class freshman year and in this class we learned how to code, make video games, etc. We coded on a Intro Program called Greenfoot (picture down below). This has helped me understand a lot of what I have done in this class so far. I have friends that design web pages and have their own blogs so the point of taking this class for me was to be able to do just as much, maybe even more, than my friends. 

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Ultimately I would like to be able to design my own webpage for my social media accounts. I would love to be able to bring all these different pictures and videos together into one website while still making everything look professional.