May 14 - Rockstar Games

For this review, I thought it would be cool to review the website for one of my favorite game developers, Rockstar Games. I was surprised by how simple the homepage is, but I really liked it. It had the company logo (the R with the star) and a list of popular/upcoming games that are being developed. At the top of the page I found a hidden menu of buttons (Home, Links, Downloads, etc), which I thought was kind of neat. It's nice to have those hidden, because it keeps the visual layout of the page balanced around the logo and the games under development.

Rolling over the buttons, a simple sound plays and the game's cover art is displayed. Each game button redirects you to the sepecific website for that specific game, and each website has it's own style.

Overall, I really liked this website. It was simple and clean and easy to navigate.

May 14- Black Dog Construction

This website, Black Dog Construction, took me a bit by surprise. It is a really neat design, but the hardcore rock music that plays in the background is a bit creepy to me. I guess it would work if you are trying to appeal to a specific male demographic, but I was not sold by it (I quickly muted that).

I really liked their simple intro though, with the simple linear pictures going across the screen (the table saw image was really cool looking). The rotating hammer in the upper left corner is a nice touch too. All of the buttons move smoothly, and the site is nicely organized and easy to navigate. Also, I enjoy the black background with the text in lighter colors. It is so much easier to read, in my opinion, since it does not feel like you are staring into a lightbulb (which is how I feel with websites with white backgrounds and dark text).

Overall, I think it is a nicely designed website.

May 14 - Kalahari Pepper

For this website review, I went to CoolHomePages.com and found this website. This website is for the company Kalahari, which makes a pepper "peri peri" sauce and a Bloody Mary Blender product.

At first glance, I was a bit confused on what their product was (the safari music didn't help). I started rolling my mouse over the different objects and found out that they sell products (but I still had no idea what), and then I saw the recipes button and realized they sell food products. Honestly, I think the safari theme of the website has absolutely nothing to do with their product, except for the fact that their company logo is a Rhino, but still it does not really make sense with their product.

I do like how each of the buttons have their own animation, and for the most part they all work smoothly, except for the Rhino Products scroll. When it opens and rolls up it is a bit laggy. One thing that I really like about this website is the transition between pages. It moves from page to page like they are all laying flat on the ground rather than loading a new page everytime you click on a button. I would definitely like to know how they created that.

May 11- Skittles

Okay, so for this review, I will admit that I was completely DISAPPOINTED with the Skittles website. It does not take you to some cool Flash site with a neat Skittles rainbow or anything like that. It redirects you to FACEBOOK, with a little Falsh navigation box in the upper left corner of the page.

I mean, really???? Really, Skittles?? Maybe I'm just overreacting and the company is trying to save money by doing a Skittles Facebook rather than an intricate, expensive website, but I'm still disappointed. I use Facebook to network with friends... not big, corporate, candy manufactures. Furthermore, when you click on the "Media" button to see videos, it redirects you to their YouTube page. Lastly, the button for their product descriptions redirects you to their WIKIPEDIA page!!! The more I look at this website, the more disappointed I get.

Overall, it looks cheap and shows no creativity whatsoever.

Earth Day Celebration Concert

On Wednesday, April 22nd I was lucky enough to attend the Earth Day Celebration Concert at CSUSM. I was not sure what to expect, but I was extremely excited to get to see some of my fellow classmates perform.

The first act was a vocal ensemble made up of students. The songs they sang were extremely beautiful! They sang wonderful Irish folk songs, one of which was an Irish drinking song called The Wild Rover. I absolutely loved this song! The lyrics for the chorus were extremely catchy, and I found myself humming the melody for a few days after the concert.

The second act was a gamelan ensemble of students, which was also amazing! The patterns and melodies of the traditional pieces were almost mesmerizing! The set up of the stage was also impressive. The different instruments (especially the huge gongs) were a bit intimidating, but they made some beautiful resonating sounds. Most of the pieces became repetitive, and I did start to lose interest about 2/3rds of the way through, but the students did an amazing job playing the instruments. I tried to watch and see how they were playing the instruments and was fascinated by the different techniques they used to play the long and short notes.

The last act was the most amazing one of all! A string quartet and saxophonist played a composition by my music professor, Bill Bradbury. The piece was divided into four different movements, and was absolutely beautiful! My favorite movement was definitely the first movement, which reminded me of the ocean. The violins made wonderful noises that sounded like whales singing. Overall, it was a wonderful piece and both the musicians and composer deserved the standing ovation they received!

Overall, the Earth Day Celebration Concert was absolutely wonderful and I am so glad I went! The performers were all amazing and I hope that they put on another concert next year.

March 18- Washlet Website

This next website I reviewed was a website recommended to me by a friend. The website itself is a kind of cool concept, but the product is a bit strange!!!

The website is CleanIsHappy.com and its product is the Washlet.



The introduction to the website was a bit much for me. The flashing images of different butts with smiley faces on them is really random until you know what the product/website is about.

Even though the layout is simple, clean, and well organized, the mandatory movies that start to play can get to be a bit annoying. There is little to no text on the site, since most of the information comes in video form. This can be annoying if all you want to do is find out how the product looks, or how it works. If your browser freezes for any reason, you have to watch the whole movie all over again (there is no way to fast forward to the spot in the movie you left off at).

I definitely do not like the background music that continues to play in the background, but I am a fan of the musical note sounds the links make when you roll your mouse over each square.

I think the sound option might be a cool idea for my website. I already know how to use Reason and ProTools to create my own sounds, so I think I might try using some synthesizers to come up with a cool water droplet sound.

March 18- Welk Resort Website

The next website I chose to review is the website WelkResort.com. The reason I chose this website is because I work for the resort, and just this last fall our Creative Services department launched this new website.

To be completely honest, I do not really like it. The layout seems very cluttered to me, and some of the Photoshop work looks choppy and out of place to me (i.e. the keys and the sunglasses). The source images used for each part of the homepage seem to have varying picture qualities, which bothers me, and makes me think it was just thrown together and uploaded before anyone examined it (or someone forgot to put their contacts in that morning!).


Despite these flaws, I do like how the links are in the shape of photos/post-its/notes and how they pop out a little when you roll the mouse over them. It makes it easier to tell which link you're going to click on (especially in a cluttered layout like this one).

If I learned anything from examining this website, it is that I need to be extremely careful when using Photoshop and Flash together. I definitely will make sure that the quality of my source images are equal, and if I have trouble finding a high quality picture, I will check out a high-end camera from the school and take my own photos.

March 13- Kiwi Cards Website

For this website review, I happened to accidentally find this website, KiwiCards.com, while googling for businesses with the name "kiwi" in them on Saturday night (March 14th)(my friend wants to start her own stationary design business, and wants to use the kiwi bird in the business name and logo).

I really like the layout of the website! The main page looks like a stationary card that is laying on a fancy table cloth. I really like how the main picture slowly changes every 5 seconds and highlights the company's products.

The links along the top of the "card" are what really caught my attention though! I really like the little animation that is used with the links. When you roll your mouse over the little kiwi fruits, the kiwi seeds burst out like small fireworks. It's cute, but simple, and not such a large animation that it would make your computer run slow if you have a slow internet connection.

I think it might be cute it incorporate those type of link animations into my site. Of course, I would use little water droplets for my pictures, since the San Diego Water Crisis is the social issue my website is based on, but it would be cool to make them ripple like water, or maybe even make them splash apart like when a water droplet hits the ground. It would definitely be something simple though, because I think simple designs look nicer.

March 10- Homestar Runner

One of the websites I decided to review is one that is infamous for it's Flash animation: HomestarRunner.com!

Now, I remember as a kid in junior high logging online every week to get my fill of a new Homestar Runner episodes, but at the time I just thought it was a cool online cartoon. Of course, it is a cool online cartoon, but now I know that it is a Flash based cartoon! Before taking this class, I had NO CLUE how hard Flash animation was (or even what it meant to be "Flash based"), but after making my own animations, I have much more admiration for all of the awesome Flash animations I come across online!

Homestar Runner was created by two artists: Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel. The site, which is made up of largely Flash animations, features short movies, games, weekly episodes, downloads, along with an online store and email section. Of the whole site, the main homepage is my favorite page.


On the homepage, there are six buttons to the left of the page that take you to the six main sections of the website. As you scroll over the buttons, a different Flash animation plays in middle of the page! They are short little animations, but they can be so addicting to watch! On top of the six different animations, you can change the theme of the homepage, which will have six NEW animations that play. Overall, the site features 25 different homepage themes, each with their own set of six animations!

I think this is a cool concept, and I might want to try this for my website (of course, I would use only one theme, but I would like to have a different animation play as the mouse scrolls over each of my main pages). I know it would take extra work, but so far, I really enjoy Flash, and could spend hours making animations in it!

February 21- The Vagina Monologues

On Saturday, February 21st, 2009, I had the opportunity of attending The Vagina Monologues at CSUSM. The production was put on by the Women's Center and much of the proceeds went towards the Center for Community Solutions in Escondido. The Center for Community Solutions is a center that focuses on ending sexual assault and relationship violence. Before the play, the Women's Center organized a Vagina Fest, which featured different tables full of information on a variety of woman health issues and concerns, as well as information on important charities that help women out in the community.

Around 6:45 PM, the doors to ARTS 240 opened, and people started filing in to grab their seats. My friends and I sat down, and waited for the play to start. Previously, I had read the play, but this was my first time ever seeing the play itself. I was not sure what to expect exactly. I knew some of the monologues would be a bit uncomfortable, seeing as they deal with issues of sexual assault and violence, but I was still excited to finally get the chance to see the play preformed live.

As the play started, all of the actresses filed on stage. I was a bit surprised that I recognized a few of them: one of my old professors, one of my old high school classmates, and one of my best friend's Alpha Xi Delta sisters.

Overall, the play was fantastic, but what I loved the most was the stage decorations. It was extremely simple, just various velvety/taffeta fabrics draped over one another, hanging from the back wall. They made the stage symmetrical by making sure that there were corresponding colors on either side of the stage, which helped keep your eyes focused on center stage, where the girls were preforming. The textures of the velvet/taffeta fabrics gave the stage a feminine feel to it, which was perfect for the subject matter. I loved how simple the design was though, because it kept the background in the background, and made the girls standout during their performances.



I have always favored simple and clean designs over grungy, messy designs, and after seeing this play, it only reiterates how important it is to make sure your website background is not too overpowering that it takes away from the content of your website (i.e. our social issue papers, or other exercises).

SD Water Crisis

For my social issue, I am proposing researching the water crisis issue for San Diego County. Many people are unaware of the impact this crisis will have, both environmentally and economically. As of right now, there is speculation that the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles will cut supplies to Southern California this spring. As a result, San Diego will change from a Stage 1 Water Emergency, to a Stage 2 Water Emergency, resulting in more regulations and fees associated with clean water supplies. If this becomes the case, clean water for people in Southern California will become an expensive commodity.

The San Diego government has stressed that citizens need to conserve as much water as possible, but as of yet, San Diegans have not answered the call and will face the consequences if they do not start conserving water. The water crisis will not only limit the amount of clean water available to San Diegans, but will also increase fees for building developers, increasing the economic hardships the building industry already faces. This water crisis is more than just an economic problem, but it is an environmental problem as well. Below average rain and snowfall in the Sierras threatens to affect ecosystems and humans alike. Clean water is a necessity for human life, and if conservation is not taken more seriously, costly desalination may be the only answer to San Diego's growing water consumption.

Inaugural Blog

On Tuesday, January 20th, Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President for the United States of America. I was able to (sort of) see his inaugural speech live in my VSAR 404 class, but because of the high volume of web traffic, the Internet feed was extremely choppy, and overall anticlimactic.

After I got home, I was able to watch the speech in its entirety, and I was extremely impressed with Obama’s speech. What moved me the most during his speech was his acknowledgement of the coming economic struggles our country will face. He made it clear that there is no magic wand that will instantly fix the problems, and that we will all have to be confident in our nation’s ability to overcome these problems. Also, hearing him talk about reexamining government programs that may be ineffective gave me hope for the future of our government. I strongly believe that you cannot expect citizens to live within their financial means when their government is just as bad with frivolous spending.

Overall, I was extremely inspired and excited by President Obama’s speech, and I am looking forward to the next (hopefully) eight years!