Confession: I eat vegetables out of a can!

Last night, after I got home from a long weekend, I wanted to make something quick, and easy. Without really thinking about it, I went to my kitchen and made this canned chicken lowmein. As I looked around at what I had, I noticed that I have a lot of canned vegetables in my house. Then it occurred to me: I'm a hypocrite. As someone learning about the local foods movement, which I agree with and support. I realize that I have not done enough to incorporate this into my daily life. How can one support local farms when their vegetables come from a can that has been imported from who knows where? I feel bad. Not every vegetable I eat comes from a can, in fact I have a FABULOUS garden at my house, it's just sometimes, I think it just comes down to laziness. I see where people can live a lifestyle where all of their food is fresh and grown locally, and I agree that it is a healthier and more inexpensive way to be. I just don't always demonstrate that in real life. Hopefully this will be something that can be improved in the future, as I try to fully practice what I preach.

Website Code

Today we had our first lesson in coding and I must admit that it is not as scary as I initially thought. I'm still working on my webmap on Omnigraffle, but I'm not worried about being able to have it completed by friday.

On a different note, I've noticed that since I've decided to devote my website to the topic of sushi, I'm eating and craving it a lot more. A few years ago, I went through a phase where I had it 5 times a week (no exagerration). Right now, I'm not that bad, but I'm back at a once or twice a week rate. It's not bad research, I am certainly enjoying it. I just hope that I don't suffer a jeremy piven from eating it so often.

From powerpoint to website model

So now that the powerpoints are out of the way, I am one step closer to creating my website. This week, I made an outline of the content and now I am using this outline to organize my site using the Omnigraffle program. The organization is pretty easy though, I'm not sure how this map I'm making will eventually be the foundation of my website. Obviously this is a class and the learning process is one that runs step-by-step, but I am becomming very curious to see how this will come together. Aside from my curiousity, I'm also realizing that the creation of this website is going to require A LOT of time and work. Sushi is a topic rich in content and I feel that it is going to be challenging to try to figure out the line between having the sufficient amount of content and too much fluff.

adobe illustrator/flash =no friend of mine

Our assignment was to find a picture of a vegetable or something that would be relevant to our game design, trace it, and fill it in with color on Adobe Illustrator. When one thinks about tracing, the words "easy" and "simple" come to mind. Well, not for me and not when it comes to adobe illustrator. I had a hard time getting my lines to connect and I even had trouble getting the color that I wanted. Initially, I started out with a carrot, which seems easy enough, however, it proved challenging enough for me to have two rough drafts, end up throwing in the towel, and settling for a cucumber. Tracing vegetables on the computer is one of the most tedious, and humbling things I've had to do so far this semester. Unfortunately, this task was only half way complete, we then had to take the vegetable and put it into motion using flash. I've known alll semester that eventually we will all be using flash, and fearing it all the way. With the help of my classmates, I was able to put it together, and submit the project. But the idea of doing this on a regular basis, scares me a bit.

We have currently moved on to another flash project called "mini game", I can't say that it's any less tedious, but I do appreciate the step by step directions that globaloria provides for us. As much as I don't want to keep doing this, I feel that practice makes perfect and eventually this will be easy and familiar to me. Or at least I'm pretty sure that's the idea.

Yay for eating local foods

http://100milediet.org/

I found this website when I was googling the local food movement. It serves as an easy and informative website, encouraging people to eat locally. The concept is to only eat foods within a 100 mile radius, for it proves to be healthier without skimming on taste. The information is cut and dry, without giving people facts that are hard to understand. I feel this website can be useful to helping create a game for "Animal, Vegetable Miracle" as well as inspire others to eat locally.

PowerPoint Presentation Tomorrow!

Tomorrow I am set to do my powerpoint presentation. I should probably reherse a few more times so I'm not nervous once I stand up there. I'm a little stressed out because I have an exam right after I present tomorrow, so I'm a little worried that my mind will be elsewhere. I just hope that it doesn't show through my presentation. Aside from my nerves, I'm happy with the way my presentation came out. I've never created a PowerPoint on my own, so when I heard things like "annimations" and "notes" it sounded like a foreign language to me. However, once I sat down and put it all together, it wasn't as scary or as challenging as I initially believed. From what I've seen, everyone has managed to pull together presentations that are researched and informative. I must say that I'm happy for my classmates. Of course, I want myself to do well, but it's nice to see the people around me excelling as well. So congratulations everyone and wish me luck...

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Game?

For our game design class, our main assignment is to create a game inspired by the book, "Animal Vegetable, Miracle". The book follows the experiences of Barbara Kingsolver's move from Arizona to Appalachia to become an organic farmer. It includes recipes and articles about the benefits of eating local, organic produce. I'm not sure how to make a game out of this. Right now I am reading the book and trying to pull anything out of it. In order for anything to materialize, you must brainstorm first so, here are a few random thoughts...
The book discusses something called the "Vegetannual" which is related to the months of the year that certain crops flourish. I thought that perhaps a gardening game could be created where the player would have to manage their garden over the course of a year and be able to save food that could be stored in dormant months. I also thought about a game that could tackle the obesity crisis, by helping a figure make the appropriate food choices. Right now these are just ideas and I don't really know where I'm going to go with this, or what the final product "team awesome" will come up with, but I'm confident that everything will fall into place.

Preparing for my powerpoint presentation

Well I decided to go with a different clip for my PowerPoint presentation about how to eat sushi. Because the presentation is an introduction to the topic, the video would be more appropriate. I feel that before one would want to prepare sushi at home, they would probably like to know how to eat it. It seems like people would already know how to do that, but that's not always the case. I remember going on a date with this guy who didn't have a clue what he was doing, and he used that to try to be cute, but I thought it was a semi-lame ploy to make conversation. At any rate, I thought it would be helpful to incorporate that into the presentation. Also, the "how to eat sushi" clip is a lot shorter than the "how to make sushi" one and when you only have 7 minutes to work with, time counts.

Putting the powerpoint together seemed like it would be really hard at first, but once I gathered my research and found accompanying images, it all seemed to fall into place. The only thing that I'm slightly worried about is speaking in front of the class, fumbling my words, and sounding like an idiot. I always fear presenting in class because I am talking to a group of strangers, however these strangers are somewhat familiar because I have to see them three times a week for a few months, and I don't want to be known for the rest of the semester as that dumb girl who messed up her presentation. But I feel like as long as I'm rehersed and rested, I should be fine.

My website is going to be about sushi!

Although some people thought I should do a dinner party themed website, I've decided the focus will be sushi. I am currently doing research for my PowerPoint presentation and finding that 25 pages will not be hard to create. I am currently looking for brief information in order to introduce the topic to the class. I am also considering using a youtube video similar to this one, demonstrating how sushi is made. Right now I have a lot of ideas, and I'm not sure how it is all going to come to fruition, but I'll figure it out eventually.