Weekly Blog #4

Recent study from Milan Uviversity reported that old report of there being sex degrees of separation is no longer correct and it is now four degrees of separation on facebook.

That is, a friend of your frinend probably knows a friend of their freind.

This prove that a number of facebook users is dramatically increasing all over the world, and our connection is getting stronger.

Unfortunately, the number of hackers who target facebook is increasing at the same time.

There are many complaints that people got hacked or saw a malicious homepage by clicking a link their friends posted.

People easily trust and click the links because you know the person who posted it.

I have seen many posts from my friends saying like "I got a spam! Sorry if suspicious messege was sent to you!".

Many solfware company has been working on security on facebook.

For example, Websense established a partnership with facebook on developing security program on facebook.
If a user click a link, that link would be sent to Websense to analyze if the link is safe. If Websense find the link is suspicious, the waring will appear saying "This link may not be safe!".

You can also protect yourself form the malware by using a website called Virus Total.
If you think a URL is suspicious, you put the URL on the page so that the service will analyze its safety for you!

The basic thing we can do to protect ourselves is that we always have to be alert and aware in this digital environment.
Easily assuming that messeges or links from your friends are safe is definitely dangerous.
Also, we always have to update our security program with our computer.
Some people never have any protection on their laptop, which is really really bad.
By updating your security, it can fight with the malware which has been smarter and more visious.


●Question for final●
What company did conclude a partnership with facebook to improve its security?

Answer: Websense

The places I want to go for sure.

Assignment: Good Map Story

I would like to talk some place I want to go in the future.

First of all, I will introduce Salar de Uyuni.

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat which is located in Blivia.

When it is covered with water, it becomes like a huge mirror.



Sorry, this video is in Japanese, but I selecetd this one because this has a so many amazing scene of Salar de Uyuni.

But, isn't this fantastic??

Ths salt lake perfectly reflect the beautiful sky.

It is like you can hardly tell which side is heaven or earth!

Ths next place I would to tell is Jiuzhaigou Valley which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

It is located in China.

The valley combines clear blue lake, waterfalls, beautiful mountains, and forests.

Especially, I want to see this clear blue lake which is called five-flower lake!

You can clearly see the bottom of the water.

The lake changes its colar at times. It sometimes turns to ink-green and yellow, but it stays diamond blue most of the time.

 

 

Lastly, I want to visit Yurigahama beach in Okinawa!

 

 

My hometown is the closest prefecture to Okinawa, but I have never been to this beach.

This small beach only appears when the tide is low.

The sand on this beach is shaped like a star.

According to legend, the more you can collect the sand, the more happy you get.

 

There are more places I want to visit, but it would take forever to introduce all the places.

Through this blog, I realized that I love clear and blue water.

I miss my hometown!

Assignment: Greeting From DS106

I would like to introduce my home town, Ichiki-kushikino city!

The place I grew up is so country side where many nature occupies most of the area. hehe

We have beach, rivers, mountains, many rice fields, etc.

So all foods are so fresh!

Interesting events too! Like Tanabata festival! We parade down the town with giant handcrafted animals and people with drums all day.

I am a member of Ichiki youth group.

Our group hold a beach volleyball competition at the end of summer vacation every year!

So many paticipants from all over Kagoshima come for this competition, so it is a pretty big event.

In this competition, we also have some other events like beach flag competition.

It is really fun event!

On spring, a park called Kannongaike Pond gets full with people to see Cherry blossoms.

The view are amazing with 1000 tree of cherry blossoms.

We have a Sakura festival during the time, and so many people hold their "cherry blossoms viewing party.

The process to edit this image was so simpe.

I used powerpoint to combine all the picture. I feel it is a lot easier than other functions.

I am currently living in Tokyo where it is so crawded with so many tall buildings and houses.

I often wish I could go back to my home town to relax in beautiful nature.

BE CAREFULL!

Assignment: Warning

I describe myself a cookie monster because I really love cookies!

It is just so addictive to me.

I feel extremely happy when my friends buy Chips Ahoy from America.

They usually get me a couple of big box, but I finish eating them in a few days.

I cannot stop eating them!!

So,

DO NOT FEED ME COOKIES TOO MUCH!

Otherwise, I would end up eating cookie all day for a couple days, which is not healthy at all...orz

But please do feed me cookies sometimes :P

Creating this image was fun!

I used paint function for the picture and aviary.com for the text.

Making image of cookie monster with only using back and white was a little difficult and a lot of work, espacially fluffy part was hard.

I am glad the image turned out well!

I have to ask my friends to buy me Chips Ahoy again :D

My own...

Assignment: Your very own spubble

I really liked this Real Brownie when my boyfriend bought for me from Korea!!

I fell in love<3

They are becoming popular and sold in Japan but they are expensive compared to Korea.

He got me 4 boxes so I was very very happy!

I wish I could have eaten all of them at the same time...www

I used Aviary.com to add my spubble.

And I asked my friend to think of a funny comment because I really wanted to make this picture funny.

I appreciate my friend because he really came up with this perfect comment on my picture!

I ended up eating the 4 boxes of brownie in two days lol.

Visual Assignments 24

Assignment: Troll Quotes

I found a picture of Harry Potter and thought that it would be funny if I combined it with instruments of Sailor Moon.

It was my first time to use Photoshop so my friend helped me with it.

So I cut image of the stick first, and replaced it to Harry's right hand.

Then I delited his part of fingers to make it as he is holding the stick.

I did the same process for his tiara.

Finally I used Aviary Tool to add the quote from Sailor Moon.

Blog Assignment #3

I am going to write some thoughts I had about Timmmmyboy's "We Are All Artists".

As you can guess from the title, he believes that everyone is potentially an artist but they don't realize that fact. He says that creativity is not inherited and everyone can learn to be creative.
He brings an example of son whose parents are artists. The son can be creative not because the creativity is not coded in his gene but because he is exposed to the art everyday. Than can nurture his talent.

It might be little off from the topic, but I was watching a NHK program when I was in high school, and the show was discussing about creativity.
Like Timmmmyboy, I thought a person is not born with a awesome creative skill.
Because we are always see things and be inspired by things around us.
We don't just suddenly get an idea from sky, so we copy and conbine them to make thing new and original.


As I was learning calligraphy, my teacher used to tell me that if I want to improve your skill, go to art museum to see others' work and get inspired!
It was clear that when I work on my calligraphy after going to the museum, my work turn out to be great.
So Timmmmyboy's argument reminded me of that.

Another thing I agree with him is that "we can be more creative when we are unconfortable."
I really think it is true.
Again calligraphy, but my teacher was really really strict. I describe her Oni. :)
She always used to ask me to practice my calligraphy on 100 paper! This is too much.
As you can expect, at the end of the practice, I get so exhausted and stressed. Really bad condition.
However when she checks my work, she always choose works I did at the end of the practice as a great work.
Like Timmmmyboy mentioned that we face challenge and that would be a spurt of creativity, my creativity skills went beyond in unconfortable condition.

I really enjoyed Timmmmyboy's speach.
I hope I can be more creative by being inspired by things around me, and I hope to inspire people as well.