I’m liking psychology more and more, so this semester should be a good one in that department. The psychology of adolescence I’m taking seems like it will address some pretty interesting concepts. Today we talked about the definition of adolescence as well as the confusion about when it actually ends. In my continuing attempts to relate every possible subject to web design and web theory, I think it will be interesting to see how development is affected cross-culturally and domestically by different sources.
The Pool 2: Off the Deep End.
It should be another great semester for The Pool. We don’t have any final goal (like we did with the Wired story last semester), but I think we can get a lot done if we really work on it. The start will mostly be improving the interface and data we currently have while perhaps developing new interfaces at the same time. I’d also like to see it opened up to more people; it’d be great to really get the community spirit going.
I’m definitely excited about it.
Lately, Apple has been making some amazing software. To tell the truth, it’s the reason I bought a PowerBook; they just run so well together, and for the most part, they’re free (such as Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iCal, iChat… sorry for all the i’s).
As part of their 20th anniversary year, Apple will release GarageBand as part of their iLife suite (“Microsoft Office for the rest of your life”).
Let’s get something straight; I don’t usually get excited about software. I was impatient for SimCity 4 when it first came out, and the iPhoto/iTunes combo was one of the main reasons I got a Mac when I did. I’m not afraid to come out and say it, though: I’m counting the hours until Friday.
In addition to software, Apple’s keynote speeches at Macworld Expo are known worldwide to be some great marketing for the company. Steve Jobs always has an amazing ability to get the audience excited about new products (sometimes a bit too excited… can anyone say “reality distortion”?). I’ve watched a bunch of keynotes from Apple, and I have to say that if you want to see four minutes of the best marketing ever for a product, watch from 1:18 to 1:22 of this year’s Macworld Keynote. Steve Jobs made a composition using just the provided loops in GarageBand (well, someone at Apple made it; who knows if it was Steve himself 
).
The best part: iLife is only $49. GarageBand comes free on any new Macs. And the even better part: it’s $25 for educational instutions, faculty, or students. Yay UMaine. It’ll probably make me buy a USB MIDI keyboard within the next couple of months (or weeks, depending on how much I like it). I’d risk saying that Apple got me into music in the first place with iTunes; hopefully it’ll get me going with more composition. Some of the loops would be great for site background music, if the licenses allow it.
Back from the wireless wonderland that is Little Hall, here’s a little wrap-up of History of Maine.
The class seems like it will be a little different than I expected; there are more tests and discussions than I thought there would be, but I’m willing to go at it… if only because it fills a GenEd. There’s definitely some interesting material, though; one of the main goals of the course is to determine “What is a Mainer?” If you’re not from Maine, realize that the in-statah vs. outta-statah argument is pretty big around here. Sounds like it’ll be pretty fun.
Afterwards I went and got my books for info ethics at the Bookstore. It’s always crazy there for the first week of classes, but they did an amazing job handling what was a crowd of probably 100 students in about 10 minutes. At least they’ve figured out how to do it right.
Had lunch at the commons; they’ve rearranged seating in a kind of cafe-like atmosphere (four person tables, mostly, from the old long table setup they had going for the last 2 1/2 years at least). I don’t really like it; it seems to detract from that whole “campus community” environment that they’ve been pushing over the last couple of years. They’ll probably end up changing it back.
Gotta love wireless.
I just got done with my first class of the year, NMD/ISE 213. Should be a really interesting course; it’s supposedly about copyright, privacy, and all that great stuff.
I moved from computer science to new media near the beginning of my college career. I’m starting to think that I may be moving a bit to the law side of new media; I seem to be getting more and more interested in it.
Well, it’s time for history. This is Justin Russell, reporting from Little Hall.
Just thought I’d let everyone know that I’ll be away from the computer for about a week. I’ve got a bunch of stuff I’m going to try to get done over the course of the next few days, and I won’t have much time to be online.
Happy 2004 everyone!
I stopped making “resolutions” a long time ago, but I still set up goals for the upcoming year. This year’s are interesting; I want to develop a few of my own Web sites, I want to spend less time in front of computers, and I want to stay organized. If anyone has any idea of how I can do all three at once, please let me know.
I’d like to start the year off with a quote; I first heard it from Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It’s actually the first two lines from “Ode” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy:
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams…
Have a successful and productive 2004.
