Sat, 6 June 2009
Wow it's a Weekend! :D
Yay! It is Saturday! This morning I've been tweaking my DREU website since the CSS coding was being fussy, but overall I am pleased with the outcome. My dislike for tables has been rightfully displayed with all my div tags... Some interesting things about my website are:Blogs are read from a custom xml file and are displayed in full on the appropriate week archive and will also show the most recent entries on the homepage With the blog, you can subscribe to the RSS feed Random pictures are displayed on the home page as an incentive to go look at my photo galleries. Each gallery is generated by a script that takes all the images from a specified folder and displays them in a nice little grid. I also have lightbox implemented in my site, so the images will enlarge in a nice and easy format without messing up the browser
Yesterday was exciting because I have set the Drupal community site to have user profiles. The functionality of these include seeing who has the same name as you as well and looking to see who has the same interests on their profile.
After we got those running, Elizabeth and I went to go find a signature station to get our login ids. It was a long journey to the library only to find out that their station had been removed for the summer, leading us to another location that was rather close to where we were just at. The signature station is a lie.
I even took a picture of the lonely station, sans computer. Overall, got a lot sorted this week. I have worked hard these past six days, and on this seventh I shall rest, and it shall be good.
Wed, 3 June 2009
Couple Days In
After the past two days of information overload brain-melting, I think I'm starting to get a grasp on what the projects are. Hopefully Elizabeth and I can get these projects rolling soon, and hopefully we are actually working on the right thing. One project is to implement visual representations of member data on the Facebook application. The other is to see if Drupal would make a sufficient replacement for the Facebook application
On top of our two official research projects, I was asked to help some of the local undergrads in our research program work on a new logo for the wConnect program. Here's a visual representation on how it improved.
NOTE: the pink one was their design, mine is the bottom (which is just a revision of theirs)
We went with this design because it was more visually stimulating with a gradient background, and appeared to be girly without being completely pink. Upgrading to a broad palette can promote the professionalism strived for from the group. Also, the dandelion in the first picture would blur when resized. The new design has the dandelion as a vector so that when resized, it will keep its clarity.
On a somewhat un-related note, I forgot my lunch at the apartment... boo... but that just makes an excellent excuse to go to the Taco Bell located just down the street! omnomnomnom
Sun, 31 May 2009
Meeting Mentor MaryBeth
This morning was rather painful to get up. Plane rides make me drowsy. Elizabeth found a local church, so we were up and out the door bright and early. Afterwards, I fell asleep for a few hours to be awakened by knocks on the door. It was MaryBeth Rosson :D ! Thankfully Elizabeth, who seems to be up at all hours, answered the door. I groggily made my way into the living room after I felt competent enough to make a full sentence.
She took us out to red lobster for lunch, which ended up just being a drink for me. I wasn't really awake enough for food, but there is never a bad time for a milkshake. After an initial debriefing, we got back in her car and she took us around the whole campus for an in-vehicle tour. Luckily the only building we really need to go to is very close to bus stops, otherwise we'd be doing a lot more walking since this place is big. (Although the UofMN is roughly the same in that way, so it's nothing new.)
Sat, 30 May 2009
Departing for Pennsylvania :D
Good Morning Pennsylvania!
It feels so good to be all moved in. Yesterday I had to finish packing (lesson one: start packing earlier), get on a plane, and then navigate my way to my apartment in a state I've never been to before. (lesson 2: print out the address where you need to go). Eventually I got to where I needed to be though, and that left me at the bottom of two flights of stairs with two rather large suitcases. (lesson 3: pack no more than you can carry up several flights of stairs). After unpacking, my fellow DREU intern arrived. We were fortunate to arrange living in the save apartment, look sub-letters that are leaving in pairs. Afterwards we went to a local grocery store, aka Wal-mart, and shopped for our nutritional needs.
Later that evening, I stayed up and got to know our other two roommates a little bit more. They are really nice people and I'm really excited to start on Monday. Hopefully it won't be anything too mind-boggling.
Wow it's a Weekend! :D
Yay! It is Saturday! This morning I've been tweaking my DREU website since the CSS coding was being fussy, but overall I am pleased with the outcome. My dislike for tables has been rightfully displayed with all my div tags... Some interesting things about my website are:
Yesterday was exciting because I have set the Drupal community site to have user profiles. The functionality of these include seeing who has the same name as you as well and looking to see who has the same interests on their profile.
After we got those running, Elizabeth and I went to go find a signature station to get our login ids. It was a long journey to the library only to find out that their station had been removed for the summer, leading us to another location that was rather close to where we were just at. The signature station is a lie.I even took a picture of the lonely station, sans computer. Overall, got a lot sorted this week. I have worked hard these past six days, and on this seventh I shall rest, and it shall be good.
Wed, 3 June 2009
Couple Days In
After the past two days of information overload brain-melting, I think I'm starting to get a grasp on what the projects are. Hopefully Elizabeth and I can get these projects rolling soon, and hopefully we are actually working on the right thing. One project is to implement visual representations of member data on the Facebook application. The other is to see if Drupal would make a sufficient replacement for the Facebook application
On top of our two official research projects, I was asked to help some of the local undergrads in our research program work on a new logo for the wConnect program. Here's a visual representation on how it improved.
NOTE: the pink one was their design, mine is the bottom (which is just a revision of theirs)
We went with this design because it was more visually stimulating with a gradient background, and appeared to be girly without being completely pink. Upgrading to a broad palette can promote the professionalism strived for from the group. Also, the dandelion in the first picture would blur when resized. The new design has the dandelion as a vector so that when resized, it will keep its clarity.
On a somewhat un-related note, I forgot my lunch at the apartment... boo... but that just makes an excellent excuse to go to the Taco Bell located just down the street! omnomnomnom
Sun, 31 May 2009
Meeting Mentor MaryBeth
This morning was rather painful to get up. Plane rides make me drowsy. Elizabeth found a local church, so we were up and out the door bright and early. Afterwards, I fell asleep for a few hours to be awakened by knocks on the door. It was MaryBeth Rosson :D ! Thankfully Elizabeth, who seems to be up at all hours, answered the door. I groggily made my way into the living room after I felt competent enough to make a full sentence. She took us out to red lobster for lunch, which ended up just being a drink for me. I wasn't really awake enough for food, but there is never a bad time for a milkshake. After an initial debriefing, we got back in her car and she took us around the whole campus for an in-vehicle tour. Luckily the only building we really need to go to is very close to bus stops, otherwise we'd be doing a lot more walking since this place is big. (Although the UofMN is roughly the same in that way, so it's nothing new.)
Sat, 30 May 2009
Departing for Pennsylvania :D
Good Morning Pennsylvania!
It feels so good to be all moved in. Yesterday I had to finish packing (lesson one: start packing earlier), get on a plane, and then navigate my way to my apartment in a state I've never been to before. (lesson 2: print out the address where you need to go). Eventually I got to where I needed to be though, and that left me at the bottom of two flights of stairs with two rather large suitcases. (lesson 3: pack no more than you can carry up several flights of stairs). After unpacking, my fellow DREU intern arrived. We were fortunate to arrange living in the save apartment, look sub-letters that are leaving in pairs. Afterwards we went to a local grocery store, aka Wal-mart, and shopped for our nutritional needs.Later that evening, I stayed up and got to know our other two roommates a little bit more. They are really nice people and I'm really excited to start on Monday. Hopefully it won't be anything too mind-boggling.
