MR. DARCY

It is pouring outside! How cosy! I wish I could hide under my soft duvet, eat cookies, drink tea or a cup of hot chocolate and rewatch ‘Pride & Prejudice’ - but I have to start writing a report. We are currently doing our second project and it is to be hand in this Friday. It is going well with it. I am content with my group and we haven’t had any struggles yet. By the way my lecturer has seen my first project, evaluated it, and I have passed! Before I started at the academy I was curious about how they would grade us. Therefore I have attached my lecturer’s comments {last image} if some future Multimedia Design students are here and curious as well. This is how they evaluated my first project at my academy. Well, unfortunately that report won't write itself. Till we meet again Mr. Darcy.  

ASUS, LYNCH

Say hello to my new computer and mouse! My previous computer {Fernando Jr.} is still going strong but I knew I needed one which is faster and had either Windows 7 or 8 {Fernando Jr. has Vista} for my education. My boyfriend helped me search for a new computer and we found two which I liked. It was between this Asus and a Packard Bell. Even though the Packard Bell was a bit cheaper I picked this Asus. I picked Asus because it is lightweight which is quite appropriate since we have to take a laptop to school every single day. And it is indeed very light! The Asus screen size is 13,3” and the Packard Bell was 15,6”. And the other reason I picked the Asus is because I could try and feel it at my local store and the Packard Bell was found online. So here is my new laptop named Lynch! The model is S300C. The only downside with it is it has Windows 8 and I really really really dislike Windows 8. Luckily my boyfriend did his magic and now it looks like Windows 7. Hooray! 

An enormous thanks to my dad {Får} for donating some money for the laptop. And another huge thanks to my boyfriend for helping me out, installing loads of programs, being patience while I rant about Windows 8 and buying me a new mouse and a mouse mat. Thank you!

SHORT ACADEMY UPDATE

It has been exactly a month since I started at the academy and here is a short update about it. It is good to be back to reading books, learning substance, taking notes, using the brain and being creative. Our subjects are interesting and the one I find the most exiting right now must be ‘Design and Visualisation’. I guess it is because it is within this subject you can unfold your creativity. I like all of my lectors, well there is one whom I find just a tiny bit too dull for my taste. My classmates seem nice. I haven’t really been social because my focus and priority is to study, gain knowledge and learn to become skilful in this area. There are so many students in my class and I know it is a bad excuse and it is embarrassing having being there for a month now, but I still don’t know many of my classmate’s names! But they do really all seem like good people and I know they are very helpful too. So to sum it all up I’m very positive and happy about taking an AP degree in Multimedia Design and Communication at Copenhagen Business Academy.  

PORTFOLIO

My boyfriend has been working in Aarhus for four days now so I have been home alone. I really like being alone so I have taken the advantage of it. I know I can do all my crazy stuff when H is here but I guess you go a lot crazier when you are alone. These past two days has been even more fun since we haven’t had classes because we have to hand in an assignment tomor-row. This mean I have been at home all alone {well, that’s actually not true. Basse is here too!} for two days straight. These past two days I’ve been dancing like a mad lady, listened to ‘The Lumineers’ on repeat, ate too many biscuits, watched the whole season two of ‘New Girl’ and then stalked David Walton. And of course I’ve been working on my assignment as well! The assignment is to make a portfolio in Wordpress and to create a HTML-page. This is an amusing assignment and I have really enjoyed working on it {I do hope I have understood the task assignment!}. I just finished the assignment this evening and I can’t believe it all went smoothly {linking to my HTML-page doesn’t count as a problem. It simply was a misunder-standing!}. The HTML and CSS was fun playing with, editing the pictures on Photoshop went well and I’m satisfied with the portfolio itself. Here is a link to my portfolio. Good night... Wait, I hear 'How I Met Your Mother' is back! ;-)

MEREDITH BELBIN

Do you know about the Belbin Team Inventory? It’s a personality test but not equivalent to those personality type tests such as the MBTI. The test examines the individual’s behaviour in a team environment. In class today we took the test. Before taking the test I guessed which team role profile I would end in. Below are taken from my class notes which shows my assumptions. 

>Action Oriented<                                    >People Oriented<                                 >Thought Oriented<

Shaper %%                                                    Coordinator %                                             Plant ++

Implementer +                                             Team Worker %+                           Monitor/Evaluator %     

Completer/Finisher ++               Resource Investigator/Networker %%                      Specialist %+

“%” is negative and “+” is positive. As you can see I guessed myself to end up in “Completer/finisher” and/or “Plant”. And my assumptions were correct! I scored 25 points in the profile as a Plant and 22 points as a Completer/Finisher. I got 0 points in Resource Investigator/Networker just what I thought. It’s fun to see where your strengths and weakness lie and to compare your results with your classmates. This test is said to be very helpful when building a team because you know which profiles are more cooperative with specific profiles. Below you can read a bit about the Plant profile {highest score} and the Networker profile {lowest score}. These definitions are borrowed from my test.

>Plant<
{Idea-developer/visionary}
Imaginative, creative and unorthodox.
May have difficulty to accept criticism and shut off and put himself outside the group.
Individualistic, dominant and sometimes overbearing.
Introverted person, but on an uncharacteristic and uninhibited style.
Looking completely new angles.
Goes own way - does not look at the relevance of the group and may insult if someone gets in the way.

>Networker<
{Network driver/creative dealer}
Outgoing and curious.
Social, enthusiastic and communicative.
Easily connect with others.
May forget to follow up on agreements.
Good at improvising and starting new things but may lose interest relatively quickly.
Sense of new relevant ideas.

Which profile are you?

JON DUCKETT

I received my copy of ’HTML & CSS - design and build websites’ by Jon Duckett yesterday. I’ve only read the first few pages but I can already say it’s an excellent book. I’m a complete newbie with HTML and CSS so I wanted to find a book which could teach me the basics. When I found this book on Amazon I immediately purchased it and I’m glad I did so because this book teaches you the fundamentals in a very comprehensible and simple way. It is well structured, easy and fun to read, and has many great visual examples. A must have for rookies!

NOTEPAD

We were introduced to HTML today and played with it in Notepad. I haven’t tried it before and I found it very interesting and fun {especially if you are making your own little Twin Peaks website!} Our first project is to make a portfolio in WordPress. In the portfolio we have to link to a page which we have made from scratch. This page will contain descriptions and pictures from our trip to Louisiana. So the plan for today is to pick some photographs I took in the museum, edit them in Photoshop and afterwards begin to make this {scratch} page. Later today my boyfriend will be making some time-lapse in town where I’ll accompany him. Have fun out there!

1ST SEMESTER BOOKS

I can’t really brag about the amount of pages in our study books for this semester. At least I’m not going to have a backache. All the books except ’20 Designprincipper’ are bought used so I have saved 338 kroners. Ka-ching! The books are:

*‘Digital Media Management’ by Louise Harder Fischer & Marie Oosterbaan

*’20 Designprincipper’ by Ian Wisler-Poulsen

*’29 Spørgsmål’ by Jan Krag Jacobsen

*’Usability’ by Ole Gregersen & Ian Wisler-Poulsen

LOUISIANA

It has been another exciting day in school - well actually - away from the classroom. Today’s field trip went to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Most of the art in this museum doesn’t appeal to me but I did find myself gazing at some oil paintings and figures made of bronze. The exhibition you can see there right now is YOKO ONO HALF-A-WIND SHOW. We weren’t there just for the sake of fun. We were given a photo task:

“Your task is to document a trip to an exhibition. You must take photos of you and your friends. “A student’s visit to Louisiana”. Your photo material shall act as raw material for a Photoshop course and workshops next week.”

I have taken exactly 600 pictures at the museum today. Here are some bits of them.    

AUTUMN FEVER

September is finally here! The beautiful autumn has replaced summer and I can’t wait to taste the rain, enjoy looking at the warm and deep colours around me and hoping, for just one single autumn day, for an Indian summer. September also means students going back to/starting school/university/academy. And I’m one of those lucky fellows. I started at Copenhagen Business Academy yesterday. The first day of school was okay. I’m not good at meeting new people because I’m really shy and awkward so I wasn’t really excited for yesterday. But as I said everything went okay. If I heard correctly we are 120 Multimedia Design and Communication students, 40 of them which are international students. My class is called ‘MulB’ {once again I’m a lucky ‘B’} and we are located at room C21, just next to the international students’ room, C22. I’m looking forward to meeting- and working together with them. As well with the Computer Science students.

Today was more exciting. We started the day with an introduction to graphic design. I’m feeling this will be one of my favourite subjects. Our lecturer talked roughly about colours, textures, typography, images, forms, the CRAP design principle, sizes, texts, patterns, the golden section/golden mean etc. I can’t wait to learn more of this. Afterwards we talked about the basic of the Internet. E.g. the different types of websites, screen resolutions, file sizes, bandwidths etc.. If you guys are interested in web design, coding, graphic design and so on, here are three websites our lecturer introduced us to today {click 'em}:

Smashing Magazine

Six Revisions

A List Apart

At last we talked about practical stuff such as Fronter, webmail, exams, internships etc. Fine day. Now I’m off to prepare dinner!

29 SPØRGSMÅL

I’m currently reading one of my schoolbooks, ’29 Spørgsmål - En moderne retorik til planlægning af kommunikation’ by Jan Krag Jacobsen, which is actually quite interesting. Obviously, since I’m reading it when school hasn’t even started yet and I still have vacation. I just wanted to skim through it to get an idea what I’m getting myself into and suddenly I found myself reading it thoughtfully while taking notes. One of the reasons I find the book interesting is because it uses many examples and scenarios from the television- and film world. And that was what I occupied myself with before. Hey, they even mention David Lynch’s name who is my favourite director. If that is not enough to get all exited about there is also a chapter where they mention the narrative model of Aristotle including ‘tragedy’ and ‘comedy’. First of all I can once again draw the berettermodel {in English?} and afterwards talk about the myths of Medea and Oedipus. A bit of Lynch and classical studies doesn't harm anyone! Now I’ll put ‘The Lumineers’ on repeat, drink some tea and finish this book :-)

ACCEPTANCE LETTER

I didn’t get my acceptance letter the day before yesterday like everyone else did. Everything is fine though. I called the academy yesterday and they said that I got accepted and if I don’t get my letter today I should call them back again. I got my acceptance letter today so all is good! I have confirmed the institution that I want the spot so now it's official. I’m looking forward to begin studying again. I'll be studying Multimedia Design in Copenhagen Business Academy.