Controversial subjects

Issue 1.

Occupy wall street. This is the hot button issue at the moment So I might as well include it. The controversy at Occupy wall street has either been touted as a historic occasion or lampooned as a national joke in the media.On the issue I lean more towards skepticism when it comes to the movement, to me it seems unfocused, irrespective, and at times just self interested.

Issue 2. Recently Libyan forces killed the former dictator of Libya Qaddafi. The controversies here lies in a difference of viewpoints. Some people view this as cause for celebration and the end of a tyrannical rule, others argue that Qaddafi should have been brought to trial for his crimes and his killing prevented justice from being done. My viewpoint is that for the past months Libya has been a war zone. Many soldiers and rebels have died and I do not see how Qaddafi's life ending is more of a cause for alarm then any of theirs.

Issue 3.

Herman Cain proposed 999 tax plan has stirred up a lot of controversy. Some view it as a solid plan to raise the US out of debt while others view it as a partisanly flawed plan that only works on protecting the rich. Personally I think the plan itself has many flaws and would much prefer making the tax system simpler rather then more complex.

Collins, Terry. "LexisNexis® Academic & Library Solutions." Business Solutions & Software for Legal, Education and Government | LexisNexis Home. The Associated Press. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. .

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Farim, Karheem. "U.S. and U.N. Demand Details From Libyan Leaders on How Qaddafi Died." New York TImes. Web.

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"LexisNexis® Academic & Library Solutions." Business Solutions & Software for Legal, Education and Government | LexisNexis Home. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. .

Calvin and Hobbes vs Doonesbury

Calvin and Hobbes:

Calvin and Hobbes was a syndicated and widely renowned newspaper comic drawn and written by Bill Watterson. The drawings in Calvin and Hobbes are done with a very distinct art style. The art makes everything more relaxed and allows the reader to see things from the point of view of Calvin's very active imagination. The artwork also allows Calvin and Hobbes to be very active as it complements movement, seeing Calvin run, jump, swim, and hike all give off the impression of movement while making it look natural for the characters to be doing so. Just looking at the stylized dramatics of Calvin and Hobbes takes the reader back to their childhood when they themselves used their imagination the way that Calvin does. Watterson also takes the opportunity to changed his art style in a few strips to play the reader into Calvin's fantasies giving the art of the strip a taste of variety every now ans then. The real heart of Calvin and Hobbes lies in Watterson, and as a result the comic has earned a place in the mediums history.

Doonesbury:

Doonesbury by G.B. Padeau uses a distinct art style. Most of the detail that goes into the characters in concentrated around the face. the noses are extended to an almost caricature like level and as a result less detail goes into the rest of the body. Most of the images in Doonesbury are static and exhibit almost ow detailed movement. There may be characters walking or running, but the reader only sees a "still" of the action instead of getting the feeling that the character is in motion. Doonesbury also uses a more digital art style instead of the free from drawings in Calvin and Hobbes. While Calvin and Hobbes is drawn to remind the reader of the times when they were younger Doonesbury is drawn to assure the reader that the comics are for adults and there are serious political points being driving home here. To this extent it seems the dialogue of Doonesbury plays a more important role in the strip then the rest of the artwork does

Is t a sport?

The thing I would like to evaluate is something called E sports. E sports is a special type of competitive video game that is played by professional players in an attempt to win money. It merits a evaluation because although it is popular in foreign countries like Korea this is the first time it is really catching on in the west. In fact one tournament was watched by over 30,000 people on line in the US and numbers are beginning to exceeded even that. The category I will be attempting to fit this into will be the category of a competitive sport. There have been arguments in the past whether competitive video games can ever be a sport due to the constant changing and outdating of technologies and the lack of physical exertion. The five main criteria I will use to examine this is as follows. One, does it have a wide spread fan-base. Two, is it possible to make a living while pursuing this as a career. Three, is it constant enough to merit continuing support from a fan base. Four, is there measurable skill required. In base ball there is a necessary physical build, or strength do “e-sport pros have things that separate them from hobbyist players. And Five, can it maintain itself as an industry. Almost ever sport has an industry based around it, there are leagues with consistent rules and sponsors who are willing to invest money to see the sport grow. By examining these things I will determine whether this spike in esport popularity is merely a fad, or a sign of things to come.
(yes I am a huge nerd)

Hold on to your hats, the blog is changing (kind of)

When designing a website many people are tempted make it look as impressive as possible. Sparkles in the background, a funny font (maybe comic sans would work!), flashing colors, a cute picture. Unfortunately by designing a site this way you usually end up with the most god-forsaken ugly webpage that any one has laid eyes one. At that point it doesn’t matter how good your sites content its because people are going to take one look at your homepage and head for the hills. A webpage is like a introduction paragraph for a essay, or the first chapter of a novel. Its job is to draw your reader in and bring them the content of your site in an easy efficient manner. Because this is the sole purpose of your web design it doesn’t need to be needlessly complex or a work of art. It just needs to work. In this case the simpler the design is the better it works, the easier to use the more likely people will use it.

Now it I take this description to my own blog I can see it passes most of the interface tests. Its easy to use and can be figured out at a glance. It isn’t needlessly showing or complex. The design is acceptable and the colors match well enough so that the site is not unpleasant to look at. The professionalism on might site is a serious issue though, many or my journal entries are riddled with grammatical errors. The font could also be more appropriate and the titles of each writing piece are not always indicative of what the topic is. I will now redesign my blog In according to my criticisms.

“One hour later”

What has surprised me the most is that not much has changed in my web design. When I created this blog I chose the background very carefully, I wanted to find one that was humorous and would fit nicely in the bog format. After digging through all of my pictures I could not fit one that fit better then my current one. I changed the colors around but found that the scheme I liked best was my original. The things I did change however I think have improved the blog by just a bit. The first thing was font. I changed everything to a nice standard times new roman. While it is not the prettiest font to look at it is however the standard font for a reason. That reason it that times new roman is very pleasant and very easy to read. The next change was going back and giving all of the blog entries appropriate titles. Without them my reader would have no clue if a particularly entry was about until they started reading it. That was just inefficient and needed to be changed. The final thing I changed was formatting. Some of my words in were crossing over the color lines on the blog making them more difficult to read. So in the end no major changes happened to my blog, but the small changes that I made seemed to have enough impact.