“I know some of us (myself included) are a bit particular about the looks/cleanliness of our technology. But if that didn’t matter, and you had all of the resources at your fingertips, without any fear of it hurting your technology, what would you make as your laptop cover?  Make your own collage or create your unique laptop skin on My Custom Skin, and then share your work flickr. When you blog about it, explain why you chose each image! Use it as a way to share a little about yourself with your classmates.”

Laptop Lingo

Computer cases or stickers/decals are a great way to add some fun to everyday tech, and to show a little bit of yourself on your machine. If I had some extra money, and a laptop that wasn’t already decked out in decorations, this is what I would get.

Ever since I stumbled across the painting The Demon Seated, by Mikhail Vrubel, I have had it stuck in my head. It is my computer home screen and I am currently trying to get my hands on a paper copy of the poem that he based it off of. Not the original version, which is in Russian, but a nice English translation.

Anyway, I took the image and ran it through some filters on preview, basically, I played around with the colors until I liked how it looked. The original version was just a little too light for my taste, I wanted it with more contrast, more drama, and substance. Then I uploaded it to Decal Girl to make my sticker.

I’m just going to put it here again because I just like it so much.

Art actually evoking feelings in the viewer? Ha, couldn’t be me.

Title inspired by Neil Young’s “Computer Cowboy” (1983).

One of the assignments I chose to do was Laptop Lingo by Lauren Brumfield. The description is as follows: “I know some of us (myself included) are a bit particular about the looks/cleanliness of our technology. But if that didn’t matter, and you had all of the resources at your fingertips, without any fear of it hurting your technology, what would you make as your laptop cover?   Make your own collage or create your unique laptop skin on My Custom Skin, and then share your work flickr. When you blog about it, explain why you chose each image! Use it as a way to share a little about yourself with your classmates.”

I chose this assignment because I actually got a skin from DecalGirl for Christmas, the site Lauren Brumfield included in the description. I originally wanted to make a laptop one that interacted with the logo like this:

However, the only computer with a logo I think I would like to see is an Apple Macbook though I don’t see myself buying any Apple devices. Nothing against them; Android and other brands are just typically more economic in my experiences. One device I am considering purchasing is the Nintendo DS Lite since I still have my old games. Therefore, if I don’t get my hands on the Pokemon Limited Edition one, it would be neat to just make it my own.

But first, let me show you some of my other skins:

I swear I chose the correct sizes upon ordering, but the measurements were wrong and I had to trim it. The blue forest sticker was ordered separately.

Can you guess my theme? In the interest of time, I opted to make a ‘collage,’ or display some of my images individually. That way I can edit it fully in the future. The editor page for the DS Lite looks like this:

I would use the wood pattern as the background. The logo, which is shown on the left of the collage, is embossed and I would be sure to do the measurements to ensure that the logo aligns with the one that would be printed on the decal. On the lower right corner of the cover (so that it is right next to where the device folds), I would crop the sketched image of the two Pokemon sleeping to only include them and overlay it onto the background. It is a screenshot from the Pokemon 4Ever (2001) movie and is quite sentimental to me and my childhood.

I will certainly pretty this up later, but to incorporate the 80s theme, here are images from the original Street Fighter in 1987. This was one of my earliest console games and ties in with my martial arts. I’ll also be analyzing this assignment more in-depth.

For this design assignment, I created a laptop skin from a picture that I love. The original picture was of a bucket of strawberries. I edited the photo to give it that hypnotizing look. I love the picture that I chose because I love food, especially fruit, and I always cannot wait until strawberry season.

So, as everyone knows  – my blog/ds106 experience is pretty much all politically centered/about hating my commute to DC. One of the things I don’t get to talk about enough/dwell on is that DC is absolutely beautiful. Morning, night, afternoon, rain or shine. I am in love with the place. People say that it wears off after you’ve worked there, but I’m going on about my 5th semester there and I still am in love with it. Everywhere you look there is something that surprises you.

This picture I found on the internet took my breathe away. I often see the capitol looking like this but I can never find an image that explains it/portrays it so well. I found this image and I can’t help but love it. I looked at the assignment (2 stars) From there, I just plugged it into my little image inserter and it popped up. If I actually had a budget for anything except commuting, I would consider buying this for my laptop. But, oh well.

For one of my week five assignments, I chose to do the assignment, Laptop Lingo that was submitted by Lauren Brumfield.

The assignment is to,” Make your own collage or create your unique laptop skin on My Custom Skin, and then share your work flickr. When you blog about it, explain why you chose each image! Use it as a way to share a little about yourself with your classmates.” This assignment is worth 2 points.

I picked this assignment because my laptop is basically my best friend. We have been through a lot together and we are always together whether we like it or not! HAHA! Right now, my laptop has a purple speck case on it which is covered in stickers that explain a bit about me and what I like. I have considered ordering a personalized SkinIT for my computer before, so I thought this would be a fun assignment to do! Who knows? Maybe I’ll end up ordering the skin!

I am a very indecisive person so I knew I could not just pick one picture or one thing for my laptop skin. I am obsessed with pictures, especially pictures with people because they bring back memories! I love remembering time spent with special people in my life. I chose to do a collage of pictures with family and friends.

I saved a bunch of pictures to a folder on my desktop and then I uploaded them to collage.com. Once I uploaded them, I fidgeted around until I found a design that I liked. Once I finished my collage, I saved it to my desktop. I went to My Custom Skin and uploaded the image. It created my skin for me! I really love it!

I uploaded the image to flickr as well!

I chose the top left image because it has almost all of my best friends and we love the summer because it’s when we get a chance to spend a lot of time together.

I chose the top middle image because it is my mom’s side of the family and they all mean a lot to me. This was a full family picture (minus the newest editions, twins!) that was taken in 2013.

I chose the top right image because these fabulous ladies are my roommates and I don’t know what I would do without them! They mean so much to me!

I chose the middle left image because it is my Aunt Vicki and she passed away when I was fourteen and this is by far my favorite picture of the two of us. It is a constant reminder that she is always looking over me.

I chose the middle (middle) image because it is the kids who I nanny. I don’t know what my life would be like without nannying these adorable kids. They keep me going, that’s for sure!

I chose the bottom right image because it is a picture of all of my best friends from home. It is very rare that all eight of us are together at once, but this winter, I hosted a Tacky Holiday Sweater party at my house and everyone was able to come!!! We always have tons of fun and this is a silly picture that captures our friendship.

I chose the bottom left image because it is my Uncle Gerald and he passed away this November. I love this picture of us and it is a constant reminder for me to keep following my dreams because he will always be by my side no matter what.

I chose the bottom middle image because it is my dad’s side of the family and they all mean a lot to me. This picture was taken this past Christmas.

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/laptop-lingo/ (2 stars)

I loved this assignment because I didn’t even know I could create a mac cover. I chose the picture of three of my closest friends at Shenandoah, where I transferred from this semester. Last semester was very draining and hard, I was battling a lot of personal problems and was just overall unhappy at the school. These three people stood by me through it all. These pictures are from my recent visit back to SU. I also have a really big obsession with quotes and the color pink, so I made the skin pink and surrounded the pictures with quotes that reminded me of those friends and the memories in which we share together.

The one on the left is also named Brianna so we just refer to each other as twin. She is the brightest, most independent amazing girl in the entire world. I look up to her so much for her strength and outlook on life and its safe to say I wouldn’t have made it through last semester sane without her. From tears, to laughs and memories, this girl is without question one of my two best friends in the entire world. The distance now is hard, but visiting and talking on the phone make it easier.

The one in the middle was my old roommate. She kept me on track with school and always made me laugh and smile with her craziness. Whether we were singing Hannah Montana or doing homework, this girl had my back and I had hers.

The one on the far left is my other best friend. We met when both of our friends had tried setting us up on my birthday, but ended up becoming best friends. I don’t know what I would do without this boy in my life, from the movie nights, to going to him crying, he is the one person I can rely on for anything in the world. I’ve shared some of my best memories with him and I know no matter what I will have him in my life as my best friend. Being apart isn’t exactly fun and I always look for him when something happens, but I know he is just a phone call or text away and that makes everything a little easier.