Picture Collages

I have been playing around a lot with my new iPhone 4s that I got myself for Christmas, and one of my favorite things to do with it is create collages with my own personal photos using a free app called PicCollage. Because it is free, the app is very limited in terms of background selections, sticker art, and font choices, but it does allow you to use your imagination to create a variety of different collages with the tools it does provide. I personally like its simplicity and have been quite addicted to it since I first started using it last month.

Lately I've also been creating collages using images from movies that I've seen and really liked, such as this one you see here on the left, from the movie X-Men: First Class. In that movie, James McAvoy plays Charles Xavier, who later becomes the world-famous Professor X. He is an expert in the field of genetic mutations, and he starts the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where young mutants can feel like they are part of a family and can learn to develop their special powers. After seeing this movie, it made me wish I could attend this prestigious school and be one of Professor X's students! Any idea how I could apply? :)

Captain America: The First Avenger is another movie I really enjoyed recently. Chris Evans, who played another comic book superhero in the past (Johnny Storm, also known as "the Human Torch" in Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer), is Steve Rogers, the puny young man from Brooklyn who decides to accept an offer to become part of a top-secret military experiment and transforms into the muscular Captain America. I was truly impressed with the way they made Chris Evans look so skinny and small in the beginning of the movie and then later become so big and strong! I'm pretty sure all the ladies in the audience had to wipe off the drool from their mouths after seeing his amazing transformation! (I guess that includes me, ha ha ha!) The movie was so much fun to watch because there was a good mix of action, humor, romance, and villainy! After seeing this film, I've got to say that I'm really looking forward to seeing the upcoming Avengers movie, in which Captain America teams up with other superheroes such as the Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor! From what I've seen in the movie trailers, it is one that I will have to see on the big screen for sure!

I also made a collage of pictures from Red Riding Hood, which is a romantic thriller starring Amanda Seyfried as Red Riding Hood, Max Irons as her fiancé Henry, and Shiloh Fernandez as Peter, her lover and childhood friend. Although Valerie (Red Riding Hood) was not in love with Henry, I liked his character a lot. I felt bad for him when he realized that his fiancée was in love with someone else. I thought this movie was a very imaginative retelling of the classic fairy tale and I loved it so much that I got me a copy of it on Blu-ray! And I'm so very glad I did because the Blu-ray set includes an Alternate Cut version (not seen in movie theaters) with extended scenes and a very different ending. Without spoiling it for those who haven't seen it yet, I will say that I liked the alternate cut a lot better than the original theatrical version. It just made a whole lot more sense to me, and the additional bloody scenes made it more authentic, too. Do remember that the movie is rated PG-13 and is really more a love story which just happens to be set in a village that is attacked by a werewolf, rather than an actual horror flick, so do not be expecting a whole lot of blood and violence or you will be very disappointed.

I guess that's enough rambling from me for now. I will try to write again soon and not let another two or three months go by without posting again, but who knows. I keep wanting to post about my French lessons and share my excitement about my upcoming trip to Paris, but I keep getting sidetracked. Let me know what you think about these collages, and feel free to share your thoughts on the movies I talked about as well. See you again soon!

Going to France!

Awesome news, my friends! I'm going on a short, educational trip to Paris, France in March 2012! Yes! It is official! Back in September, I decided to apply for one of the upcoming study abroad trips that my school is sponsoring, and when I saw France as one of the destinations, you bet I got super-excited! I hurriedly put together my application packet, which included filling out an application form, sending in all my college and university transcripts, and paying the nonrefundable application fee. (Well, if you don't get selected to go on the trip, then you will get your application fee refunded. But if you do get picked as one of the participants, you can't get your money back if you later back out, so you better be sure you really want to go before applying--I was 100% certain that I wanted to go, so I did not have to think twice about it.) After sending in my application, I was on pins and needles waiting to hear from the study abroad committee. I kept worrying that I might not get chosen since I don't know much about France and have not yet taken any courses in the language, nor have I recently taken any courses related to the art, culture, or history of the country. So, when I received notification via e-mail last month that I was one of the lucky students selected to go on the trip, I just couldn't believe it! Even a whole month later, I am still pinching myself wondering if I'm still only dreaming. But, I am definitely not dreaming, and this trip is really going to happen. The trip, folks, will be for ten days during what would normally be our spring break.

In preparation for this trip, I decided to start getting more serious about my French language study. Although I've, of course, signed up for a Conversational French class for next semester, I cannot wait until January to begin a learning program. So I checked out Pimsleur's goFrench audio CD set from my local library, and over the past couple of weeks, I've been listening to the lessons in my car on my way to school and back home. The program consists of eight 30-minute lessons, and you are supposed to listen to one lesson per day. If you are a fast learner, you could get through the entire program in only eight days! (This is just very basic French, by the way. Don't expect to suddenly become fluent like a native speaker after only eight days!) I am a fast learner, so I got through the lessons fairly quickly. In the beginning, however, I listened to the first few lessons several times before moving on to the next set of lessons, just because I'm kind of a perfectionist, and I wanted to really master the vocabulary, phrases, and grammar covered before moving on. It was so much fun whenever I was able to respond correctly to the prompts and found myself answering questions I couldn't previously understand. What a rush, I tell you, when I finished the last CD the other day. I find myself hungering for more. I am definitely going to look for more learning materials at my library.

In addition to the goPimsleur program, I've been using the Mango Languages mobile application on my iPad, as well as on my laptop computer. I started out with Chapter 1 last week, then I finished Chapter 2 this week. I was able to fly through the lessons, actually, because most of it has been purely review for me, after all that I learned in the goFrench so far. They present the lessons differently, but one of the things I like about having something other than Pimsleur is being able to see the spelling of the words being spoken. Pimsleur's method of learning mainly through audio is excellent, but for me, it also helps to see the words. What would be even better, though, is a program which also incorporates video and graphics. I'm more of a visual learner, which is probably why I'm so fascinated with the use of multimedia in classrooms. In any case, I'm still thankful for having these two different approaches to learning the language for now, and I shall continue to look for more learning materials that suit my style as time goes on.

I will keep you all posted on my progress, and I will be sure to take a lot of pictures and videos while I am on my trip to share with you all. Until next time, my friends, au revoir! À bientôt!

Discovering the Internet (Book Review)

Discovering the Internet: Complete Concepts and Techniques by Gary B. Shelly


Currently reading this book for a course in Introduction to the Web. It's not just some kind of simple manual on how to use the Internet; it's more of an overview of a number of Web-related information for someone who not only wants to learn how to use the Web safely either for personal or professional purposes but also wants to be more knowledgeable and skilled in the use of this ever-evolving technology.

Topics covered include the history of the Web, important Web terminology and acronyms, strategies for being an efficient user of the Web using Internet Explorer, e-commerce concepts, online communciations, and also a beginner's guide to creating one's own Web page. Seems to be a good starting point for someone truly interested in learning more about the Web, whether a newbie or not.

As the title suggests, it is for those who wish to "discover" the Web, so there are a lot of exploratory activities in each chapter and a lot of additional information and extended activities available on the book's Web site. This is a fun book, so far, and even though I've been using the Web since the early 1990s, I am learning a lot because so much keeps changing over the years, and I'm sure we can expect a lot more changes and improvements in years to come.

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