The impact of the internet

Since were discussing the impact of media on our society in my History of Motion Media and Mass class, now would be a good time to get this story in the books... so to speak. First of all, I'm skipping all the classroom chatter and getting right to the nitty-gritty. After all, this is the bunny show you know.

Well lets get started shall we. The internet is such a powerful tool for your ability to find, manage and share all kinds of information. It can be used in so many ways that it can be mind boggling. For example, I can ask it any question that I can think of and it won't get tired of talking to me. The one downfall to this great tool called the internet is for everything that is good, useful and helpful there is... I guess you could say, danger in many forms. The good part about the bad side of the internet is you have to physically visit or participate in certain sites or forums before your computer is slammed with a virus. Or how about this one, chatting with someone trying to "hook up" when their really underage or something of that nature. Then we have the identity theft issues. With internet purchases becoming more common, we have to be careful and investigate the site that we enter our credit card numbers into. With fuel prices so high and I really don't see them ever going back to the one dollar and some odd cent mark, online purchasing will become even more of a practice. I'd even be surprised if we seen two dollars a gallon again.

Ok, now that we've covered what not to do lets talk about all the good things. I am the type of person that you could call a late bloomer. What I mean is I don't jump any band wagon that comes trotting by. Usually I have to be introduced to whatever it is in some unique way and then think about how it could benefit me and then wait a while and let all the bugs get worked out or any other problems... or just waiting on a way that whatever it is suits the way I want it. The only problem with that is I'm always behind on whats going on... at least it seems that way to me. I initially got internet service around late 1998 but really didn't think that much of it. Email addresses and surfing the web just wasn't in my interest back then. In fact I pretty much though surfing the web was a waste of time. Need I say... times have changed!

Fast forward about ten years. The internet has almost become my best friend. Why is that? Because there is a world of knowledge out there just waiting at my finger tips. Anything about anything... it's out there... especially these days with MySpace and YouTube. We can communicate with people all over the world and it won't cost nothing but your monthly internet service provider payment. Not everything is on the internet but almost everything in some kind of shape or form is out there. What I'm trying say here is that the internet has drastically changed my life. If I had to get rid of the internet, I would definitely feel lost. To sum it up, I'd say I use the net for help on homework, watching tutorials, writing, business and surfing for knowledge. Just the other week I bought a driver side mirror for my pick-up truck cause a tree branch from a storm fell and broke it completely off about three months ago. It was over a hundred dollars cheaper compared to a dealer and it came right to my door step.
Emails have become second nature to me. Unless you're my family or my friend I'd rather send you an email. Heck I've even sent Shell-Bell emails when she is just in the other room. Lazy huh...

You see for me I guess you could say that the internet has become my big brother. Now that the year is 2008, I've stumbled across many amazing sites that have been very helpful and not to mention having my very own site up and running which is www.designsbybunn.com
By the way, I plan to make a few changes in the hopefully near future but I need to learn a bit more about web coding before I start messing with it and screw something up.

In the past few years there have been a few sites on the internet has really took off. MySpace being one and YouTube being the other. There are plenty of other sites out there that are basically the same but wouldn't it be exciting to be the creator of something like this and sit back and watch the up-loading numbers fly like superman. The one thing I don't like about these sites is that for everything that is good and clean you have dumb and stupid! Especially YouTube. There are many good videos on YouTube but the amount of dumb videos of either people acting stupid or some useless twenty second video about how drunk or what billy bob does at parties are endless. That's what you get though when you offer something to the world for free and they can access it from there own computer. On the other side of the fence you can watch some really nice videos from all kinds of things.

As I was sitting here just the other day thinking exactly about what I'm writing, I thought to myself... why in the world didn't I think about this before. If almost everything is on the internet then why haven't I searched for information and videos on things I remember to have a heavy influence on me as a kid. Remember me saying I'm a late bloomer don't you.
With that being said this will be sort of a kick-off of several things to come. I have much to share with you concerning this but for now I'll start with some good ole TV shows I use to watch as a kid. These shows were by far the best programs on TV. Much better than the reality shows that dominate television nowadays. Talk a look at these TV shows I've listed below and tell me what you think. Even listen to the intro music to these shows. They are jamming with all that keyboard.

The Internet: It's here, it's all here.

streethawk

This show was my all time favorite show as a kid. I loved it do much I knew the exact time and day when this program aired. The 80s was the best. The music, TV the way women dressed with their teased hair and acid washed jeans...

Airwolf intro

I absolutely loved this show. Unfortunately shows like this didn't last very long. Oh how I miss the 80s.

Knight Rider Intro

Man these were the days. TV shows like this were the best. My opinion of course.

Chips tv intro

Another great classic TV show.I never got tired of shows like this.

Sanford and Son -The Sanford Arms- PART 1

Now I could watch Sanford and Son all day long. Give me a pot of coffee and a rainy day with nothing but Fred Sanford and I'm stuck to the TV like glue.

Three Stooges: Curly's Sweater

I can't say that I have a favorite. I enjoyed every episode.

THE A-TEAM intro

This was a good show. I always loved it when the A Team came on.

Dukes of Hazzard Theme

Oh yes, Dazy Duke stole my heart back then. Whew.... was she sexy or what!!!

THE INCREDIBLE HULK INTRO

MacGyver

Oh yeah, MacGyver could make a nuclear bomb out of bubble gum and a trash can.

Dallas opening

Not my favorite but I did watch this show a lot as a kid.

I've been playing around with several tools in photoshop but man this program is so intense... that for the next infinity and beyond... I'll be teaching myself tricks on how to manipulate photos. If you are skilled enough, photoshop has the ability to make you lose as much weight as you want or look as young as you want or basically... whatever you want to look like, it can be done. Let your imagination run wild and then try to create your thoughts. Unfortunately, this is another area of this program where my skills are lacking. Most of my instructors have been working with photoshop for over fifteen years. As long as I keep plugging away though, the skills will come.

Here is a picture of Angelina Jolie where I altered her face a little. Any photoshop gurus that sees this will obviously know that I hardly even touched her face but I thought she looked cute like this so I left it like it was. What a beautiful woman.

Bunns gone collaging...

Yeap... that right, that's my new thing I've been doing lately. Unfortunately I don't have that many collages made so I really can't show you that much. I am working on it though. What started it though was me looking through an old photo album and got to thinking how cool it would be to have a few favorites on one poster. So I just started playing around with photoshop and try to come up with something neat. Pictures do say a thousand words so I have been taking pictures of an existing picture, retouch it a little and then place it into a new canvas with others done the same way. Then blend them all together for one nice poster. Here is what I have so far. This is an old picture of my dad and my uncle Tom. These two guys were peas in a pod. If you only new how much fun they were to be around. They new how to make you laugh until your stomach would hurt. Check these guys out.




Uncle Tom is on the left and my dad Pearl is on the right.

I thought this two pictures were kinda cool to blend together. There was a little bit of writing from an ink pen I had to take out but other than that I think they turned out fine for them being a picture of a picture.

Home alone again

Here it is Tuesday August 26th... it's raining like crazy and Shelly-Button left this morning on her way to the beach on vacation. I have a few days off this week but I was not able to make the trip since there is this thing called school classes I have to attend a couple of nights a week. It's ok though. I'm looking ahead. In the long run this schooling will help me get a good job. A good job to me means something I enjoy doing and somewhere I can be a team player. But for now, it sure does stink having to work at a rinky-dink retail shop doing something I really don't like just to have a little income while I'm in school. I could find another job but finding a part time job that will work with your school schedule can be a tad challenging. I also don't want to get into an environment that keeps me out till the stroke of midnight. I at least get off at a decent time so I'm thinking about just hanging in there until this is over. Who knows, maybe something will come along that will be something I enjoy. I hope it's sooner than later that's for sure.

My trip to Hamelt, N.C

On Sunday August the 23rd, Shelly and I got up and took off down to Hamlet to see a good friend of mine that's home for a few weeks from serving duty in Iraq. We attended the same church for years and somewhere along the line of our friendship... I started calling my friend Clint by the name of Clint-Bob. Don't ask... I have no idea where it came from. It just sounds good... that's all I can really say! I called to see if Clint-Bob and his family were free one day to hang out a little before he went back and Sunday it was. So us Bunns headed that way for the day. We meet them at their church for service and then had lunch and then we just chilled out a while at their new home. I have to say there Clint-Bobby... I'm a little jealous over that huge basement you have and Shelly is a bit jealous over that fireplace. Something we both want in our next home. We had such a good time. We seen some other friends while we were out to lunch and then stopped off to visit mom on the way back home. It's always good to see your friends. With that combination it turned out to be a great day. After we left the Neeleys, we stopped off at a near-by park for a few pictures. If you have ever been to Hamlet, then you might recognize some of these pictures.

One of my favorite pictures of the day. I was just a little late on getting a near perfect shot since I saw this car out of the corner of my eye. These guys look they're having a good ole Sunday cruise in this jam-up car.

Lesson learned!

A few weeks ago, a coworker from Cycle Gear sent me an email with a picture attached. It happened to be one of her friends that she knew very well. Apparently he was joy riding in the mountains a few weekends ago and hit some gravel on a highly known curvy road for motorcyclist, was thrown off the bike and was killed. Since I had worked with Rebecca, she knew of my passion for designing and thought I could help her with an idea. The other part of the email said something to the likes of...

" Hey I want to have a sticker decal made for my friend and wondered if you would like to design it for me. I know of your creativity and thought you would do a good job if you are interested. His riding number was 13 and could you some how incorporate the number into the design. Thanks".
Rebecca


I wrote back and said that I would be honored to make something for her friend. Rebecca was a cool girl to work with and I've always told her if I could do anything for her to let me know. So I immediately went to work with some things I had in mind. The one thing I didn't realize was the twist that was heading my way...

Read on to find out what happened.

Here is the original picture of the motorcyclist that I had to design something from.

My first design. I took just the rider out of the original and placed him in a new canvas with a black background and tried to make his number look like the track. Kinda like he was riding on his number.

I also told Rebecca that if she had any ideas that I would gladly try to design what she had in mind. So she asked me to design something outlined in black and white. This was my result.

I started playing around with some other ideas and thought...ok I'll add some text to the design and make it come together. After I sent her all the images I designed she wrote back and said they were all excellent but overall wanted just the bike with the abstract look with the number 13 in red. So I replied.

A day later I get an email that says: " Hey thanks... you are the man... you designed images I would have never thought of.... if these decals start to sell, I'll tell my friend to add on a dollar for you on every sell".

I was just glad to hear she liked what I had done. Now here comes the twist. Next thing I know she emails me back and says... "my friend wants to know if you can make a vector out of the images".

Well, I 'm not that skilled in photoshop just yet but I found an easy way to get it to look decent. I send the images to her and the next thing I know she is sending me this image with text going in a circle around the image. Not to mention, this image was one of the first designs I created, not the vector image I was told to make. I wrote back and asked... why was there a change in the image I created? I could have put text in the final design for you. Not only that but she included... "My friend said the sticker will cost around ten dollars. Let me know how many you want".

Is that not just screwing me over or what! I designed the image... several images at that and if I want one it will cost me ten dollars? Even though she initially said she was going to add a dollar on the cost for me... I could really care less about that. It was for a friend a passed away in a motorcycle accident for crying out loud. The gift to me would be seeing this bike club with a sticker decal that I designed all over their bikes. Well, there is really nothing I can do. I didn't watermark or copyright my work. Even if I did the friend of hers was obviously a little knowledgeable on photoshop. He has the final decision to top off the image with something of his on if he wants to, even if I did copyright the image. It just puts me in my legal rights. My question is why didn't he do it to start with. I know Rebecca pretty good from working with her over several months and she would not have done this on her on. Now that I have cooled down a little from this I am going to send her a little email to give to her friend. It will probably read something like this:

Hi Rebecca, hope the design of your friend HeeJun has been printed and looks good. Just a little note for your friend with the decal business. He might want to make sure he gets permission from the owner of any designs before he decides to manipulate any images. By doing this he will avoid any violation to copyright laws and will keep himself out of any trouble. Since I didn't copyright these I guess you can say he got lucky this time. Hope you are doing well on your new job. Talk to you later.
Brian

Do you think this will get my point across?

What's on ya mind sonny!

Here it is 2 am in the morning and I can't seem to sleep at all. I'm not even sleepy. I've been trying to tell myself to stop sleeping in so late but you know... it feels so doggone good. I'm not a morning person anyways but I don't want to get to the point where I'm sleeping till noon and having to force myself to get up either. That's what school will do to you... especially if you have a day job and other things to take care of. Late at night becomes the only time to get any computer work done. As much as I love designing videos, photoshop and everything else or just trying to push myself to learn more... sometimes I get to the point where I just want to do something else beside looking at a computer monitor. As of right now I have more programs than I will probably learn in a life time. This kind of field is always growing to newer and better programs so there will always be something new to learn.


Is it just me or is everybody else enjoying this weather. Here it is August and we are consistently having ninety degrees or below days. Hey wait a minute... did you think about those first few words...here it is August. Where has this year gone? It seems like a a couple of months ago it was winter and the beginning of the year. Time is flying way too fast. It will be Christmas before you know it. Actually this is the beginning of my favorite time of the year. It won't be long and the leaves on the trees will be changing to beautiful fluorescent colors. I've always loved this time of year but ever since photography has become a passion, it's just that much more enjoyable. For me this camera has changed my take on everything. If I can just figure out how to get some pictures published, I'll be tickled pink. See this is where the late night stuff comes from. I'll stay up late watching or reading tutorials so I can learn how to do what I want to do. Putting something together is no walk in the park either. If you going to do a real knock out good job on what your designing then you will most likely be in front of your computer for hours. Even when I'm writing for this blog, I've spent up to four hours writing and reviewing just one story. It don't take long.


It looks like I will not be able to get what I need for the documentary movie about my dad. I haven't been able to get the footage from VHS from everyone... not to mention that my job has went into overdrive on hours. On top of that school is all the time demanding all my free time. I'm not giving up though. I'm going to keep going till I have all the footage. A man like Pearl Bunn should get the best instead of something thrown together to make a certain date. Now If I didn't have to work and had the money to fund what I was doing, that would be different.

Well it's pushing 3 am and I guess I better knock it off. Not before I watch another tutorial on photoshop designing though. Till next time.

My latest school work

I wish I could say that I'm learning lots and lots of stuff but unfortunately, it seems to be a matter of me playing... in a round about way. I get assignments to do and I meet the specific requirements but it doesn't seem like we are being taught what we are doing and why. This class is more like... here do this and turn it in next week. Oh and... why did you do it that way is another common question we all get to hear. Oh well, it's not over yet so hopefully I'll get to come back and say that I learned something after all. Here is my latest school work. It's suppose to be called a grid layout. Basically she hands us all a sheet of paper with all the requirements and says... email me your grid layout by Friday night at midnight. Well we didn't go over anything discussing this assignment so I guess we try to read her mind. Once again I am furious. I asked my instructor for a little help so maybe I could help the other students that are scratching their heads but you know...she really wanted me to read her mind. Actually someone else finally tapped into her mind and figured out what in the world we were to do. I don't need someone to tell me what to do but if I'm gonna design something, I have to have a little something to go on. It's kinda like me telling you to go out and get me a small branch from a tree while I'm pointing to the dad-gum jungle. Get my point.

My requirements were to use four topics from a list she gave us and make a collage from our choice of topics. I chose: Charlotte North Carolina, pleasure, sunset and Christopher Reeves.

Can you see all of these in this collage picture. If you're wondering where pleasure comes into place then allow me to explain. Superman fights crime and it was a pleasure to see him come to the rescue. If that won't work then I use the topic of time. If you look closely at some of the dudes on the front line you will see that a few of them have a watch on. And what does a watch do???

Gunnery Sergeant Sean M McCormick

About a year ago I wrote a long story about the years of growing up between my cousin Sean and myself. Sean was more like my best friend rather than my cousin. That's the way it was back then and the way it will always be. At the time, Sean was serving his duty in Irag and has since then... made it back home. Well that didn't stop him from pursuing further achievements. Here is the latest news on Gunnery Sergeant Sean M McCormick:



Gunnery Sergeant Sean M McCormick formerly of Lilesville and the son of Mrs & Mrs Harvey J McCormick Jr graduated August 4th 2008 from The SNCO Academy Advanced Course. Sean attended school at Camp Johnson and the graduation ceremony was held at Camp LeJune NC. He is currently stationed at MCAS Cherry Point NC and resides in Havelock NC with his wife Meilani Y McCormick formerly of Rockingham and 3 children.


The Advanced Course provides Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeants and Gunnery Sergeant selectee's with the knowledge and skills necessary to assume leadership roles of greater responsibility.

Instruction places emphasis on Leadership Development and Warfighting Skills necessary to lead Marines in combat and builds upon the knowledge gained in the distance education program.

Graduates of the Advanced Course will have the enhanced knowledge and skills necessary to act in senior enlisted billets at the company and battalion level. They will be able to evaluate and develop the unit's physical readiness program, organize a ceremonial drill event, conduct briefs, and coordinate a unit's training requirements.

They will be able to advise senior and junior Marines in matters of personal administration, stress management, the performance evaluation system, and financial planning. They will be knowledgeable in those contemporary issues facing the Corps and will be capable of evaluating a unit's readiness and recommending corrective action. Graduates will be capable of communicating with the skills necessary to write and edit a variety of documents.

In Warfighting, Advanced Course graduates will have the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively apply the fundamentals of Warfighting tactics in offensive and defensive operations at the company and battalion level. They will be able to function as a staff member of a battalion operations center, request close air support, and develop a casualty evacuation plan.

Additionally, they will be able to advise commanders on operating in Military Operations Other Than War, Operations in urban Terrain, rear area environments, and in planning combat service support. They will have the ability to establish a land navigation course and will understand the principles of communication at the battalion level. Additional skills will enhance unit training on weapon systems organic to the infantry battalion and coordinate their employment. The students of the Advanced Course will conduct PT a minimum of 3 hours a week per MCO P6100.12.



Great job Sean. Were all proud of you.

Icon project

After the remote project was finally over, we had to make icons from a list our instructor provided us with. I decided to make mine in illustrator... which is a program I'm not that good at. At this point in this class, everyone is almost sick of the new teacher and were all designing just to make a passing grade... that's it. She isin't teaching us anything so most of the students are't putting in much effort on any assignments. Were all in survival mode. Only four weeks left.


Check out my goofy icons.





I had to create individual icons and a sheet with all of the icons together.

Remote project

Check out this design for a remote control for my first project in User Center Layout. I had to follow the guidelines of no numbers and no more buttons than the remote that was presented to us in class(not seen here). I also had to factor in that my user group would be the elderly so we couldn't make something confusing. Here is what I came up with. Cheesy but easy.



After our presentation of our remotes we were assigned to go back and re-do a few things. I'm not going into detail about what happened that night in class but lets just say our new teacher didn't think our remotes were good enough. So we had to make s few changes. However I was a little pissed when I followed directions and the other half of the class didn't. So I spoke my mind. I said what I thought and the class got so quiet you could hear a squirrel fart in the woods. At first I thought I may have said too much but it turns out she came by and whispered... I thought yours was the best... just re-do the programing. My thought was it's a stupid, old model remote control. It's not meant to control rockets in space. Turning the TV on and off is about all it should do. Really, how much easier could this have been. Here is my re-do remote.

My break-away

I tried to break this habit of sitting around the house on my day off and do something fun and productive. Fun... sorta...Productive... I doubt it. My cousin Calvin sent me a email wanting to do some riding back home in Lilesville and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do something fun. I had my cameras strapped to me so I could capture any type of vista that would be calling my name.





Once I arrived in Lilesville, I unloaded my bike and got ready to go. The one thing I didn't check was my spark plug. I got about a hundred feet from the house and the plug decided to fowl out on me. What can I say, I've been running the same spark plug for over a year now. It had every right to fowl. So I decided to load up and go over to Buck's where Calvin was staying for the summer and try to fix my bike. I didn't have any spark plugs with me and I left my tools back home in Matthews. After a few attempts of playing shade tree mechanic, I gave up. So I thought I'd just hike out to the big rock not far behind Bucks house. It only takes a few minutes to get there when you have a dirt bike but walking seemed to take forever.





To get to the big rock we had to do some serious tree and hill climbing. You think I'm joking don't you. Once we got to the opening to get to the rock, I knew I was in for an endurance test. Lets just say that by the time I got to the rock, every muscle in my body felt like a noodle. Calvin being only fifteen years old wasn't breathing heavy at all. I need to do this more often and get back in shape.

So here we are at the top of the hill and standing on the rock that was always a stopping point to check out the views and make a plan of our last ride of the day. That was back then. For this time it was a moment to catch my breath and dread the walk back to Bucks house. I have to say that I thought seeing the big rock would take me back into the years when I was growing up but power line crews have been tearing up the place installing new power line poles. The once symbolic place I loved to go to as a kid was now starting to turn into nothing more than just a rock. The trees have grown high enough to make it hard to see the view and all the trails have almost disappeared from all the weeds. This was not the feeling I was hoping to get and certainly not the vista I was hoping to capture. I think the vista captured me since I was so out of breathe. I think it would be different if we had come in on our bikes. Oh well... another day I guess. Here is what I got while we were on our journey.

View from the other side. I use to ride these trails from the house to get to the rock.

Calvin is the only guy that wears a pink shirt. On the walk back home I asked Calvin if he still owns the pink shirt that reads: Real men wear pink.


The trail that leads straight to the big rock.

The big rock doesn't look so big any more. I use to ride my motorcycle out here all the time to just sit and think about everything. It was always so quiet here.

This creek was still running at the bottom of this ravine. From the looks of it I could tell that if there was a big rain shower to come along, this would be a nice spot for pictures. Kinda puny looking now.

I'll just let your imagination run wild for this picture!!!

This use to be a field of nothing but peach trees. My cousin Sean and I use to ride our motorcycles all over the place here. Gees... how times have changed.