Journal #1: Digital Security

After completing the Digital Security assignment (found below), I was not at all surprised with the results. Almost everyone I know has, at some point, used a weak and well known password, which is a terrible thing to do for it threatens your digital security.

I found this unit easy and I understood it well. There was nothing I found confusing or difficult, and for that I am grateful, because we all know how much it can suck when we need to do projects that are.

I like to think that my passwords are secure. Sure, I may use the same one for almost everything I do, but I don't think it would be easily guessed. For that reason, I'm choosing not to worry. I think the most important thing to consider when creating passwords is complexity. The more intricate the password, the harder it will be to guess, which will ensure your digital security. 

Digital Security (Assignment One)

The two worst passwords listed on the bbtnb.ca website are "123456", and "password", and I agree that they are easy to guess. When you don't know the person and you are trying to hack into their computer or other devices, these are always the first ones people tend to try. For that reason, I have never used any of them. I tend to stick to random, not significant words, capitalizing one or two of the letters and adding some numbers on the end. This way, I know that unless I tell people what it is, or someone is an incredibly skillful hacker, I won't easily have my information leaked.

I think seniors would be more likely to use these passwords, and although this is a stereotype, typically they aren't as well informed about the internet and the devices that can connect to it. So when something requires a password, they put something that would be easy to remember, such as 123456, not thinking about the consequences that could arise from it. I know a lot of adults though who warn me about this, and tell me to make sure I have a strong password, so to say that most adults would use these type of passwords would be a lie.

There are a lot of terrible passwords out there, more than just the two that bbtnb.ca listed. Other passwords that I would not recommend using would be your name or the name of anyone in your family, your address, your birthday, and other easily known pieces of information that is related to you.

Some people wonder how long a password should be to be considered strong, and I think most websites will not accept anything less than eight characters. I agree that anything less than that would not be the best choice. People usually make remarks and say the odd comment when they see someone typing in a password that is seemingly a mile long, but I would bet you anything in the world that no one else is reading their emails. Strong passwords are important, and if you are using a password that is similar or the same as one of the ones I talked about here, I strongly suggest you change it! It could save your life! (Not really, unless you are stupid and like to meet up with creepy strangers).

Timey-Wimey Stuff

This is what Toni and I did for our final photo editing assignment.

I am a geek. Get over it.

Monster Mash

As you can see, I've created a monster. Literally.

For this assignment, we had to find a piece of thrift store art and paint a monster into the scene. As you can see, I have painted this creature with weird pussy eyes, and I honestly have no idea where it came from. It started with one eye, and then it just sort of came from there. Nothing inspired me, I just started doodling and then the doodle came to life!

The easiest part of this assignment was finding the picture, and the hardest part was deciding what to draw. I found this assignment easy though, and I'm really glad with how it turned out!

Toon Town Photo Bombing

What happens when cartoon characters spring to life? Or we decide that we want to lead a life in a pixelated world? What is it that happens when students are asked these questions, or they are just told to do an assignment and how to do it? Why am I asking so many possibly rhetorical questions?

Okay, I'm done now.

This assignment is called Toon Town Photo Bombing, because it is a chance for students (like me) to get creative, and design a scene where both real life and the silly fantasy of cartoons come together. I found it pretty cool, although I am so unoriginal that I sat for a day at my desk, staring at the blinking line in the search bar of Google, not sure what exactly to do and thinking I was a failure at life. Or, at least BBT class. Eventually, this is what I came up with.

As you can see, this is Dumbo with his new family of real life elephants (click words for links of pictures I used). It's not very creative, I know, but come on, Dumbo is cute, elephants are sweet, I see nothing that could go wrong with this! 

I chose this scene because I honestly couldn't think of anything else, and elephants are my favorite animal, which I know I have mentioned at least once, if not twice, before. So, why not? I'm happy with how the final product turned out and that's all that matters. 

The assignment mentions that this kind of work can be related to film and documentaries, which is definitely true. I have thought about a career in film actually. After high school, I like the idea of moving to Toronto to take up Screenwriting at the Toronto Film School (TFS). I would like to do something like that because I love to write, and I loved watching old movies with my mom when I was younger, like Alfred Hitchcock and Richard Brooks and Steven Speilberg, and you get to learn about them, and why they chose to direct and write the things that they did, and I like that and want to be a part of that. Screenwriting is a way to put my love of writing and film together, and I can't think of anything else that would be able to satisfy my life in the way that I want it to right now. I know that is subject to change, but at the present moment, I like the thought of it very much. 

Be True To Your School

For this assignment, we used Pixlr to take a boring, white van, and create a design that could be used to represent our school. I used a picture of an Eagle, because we are the Golden Eagles, and also added our school logo on the door.

As you can see, it doesn't look very realistic, and that is most definitely the hardest part of this assignment, and considering that is pretty much what the whole assignment is, I would say the easiest part was finding what pictures to use, even when they had to be copyright free. 

I don't have a huge interest in digital design, it's not that I don't like it, it's just I am not that experienced with it, and have never really gotten into it. I would be interested in learning more about it though, and maybe trying it out sometime. 

I would definitely not be interested in having a job that involves either digital design or auto detailing specifically, because I would a) not have the patience for it, and b) not be capable of not messing up, or stressing about possibly messing up. 

I guess you could say that I have great appreciation for those who get paid to do this and do a beautiful job at it. 

You could also say that I am definitely not one of those people, nor will I ever be. 

Before the War

For this assignment, we took an old, damaged picture, and using Pixlr, restored it. Here are the before and after pictures:

I chose this picture instead of the other one because I wanted something a little more challenging and diverse. The other picture was just of a simple portrait of a man, which is still a lovely picture, but I wanted to try this one and I think I did an okay job. 

The easiest part was probably the grass and the shrubs, along with other sections of the background. It was easier because there was not a lot of detail to be be done or mess up. The most challenging part was most likely the section of the house that was gone in the upper left corner. As you can notice, I accidentally cut off the window a bit, and it was also slightly difficult to get a texture that looked right. 

I have never restored a photo before, but I enjoyed doing it and found it entertaining, although a little tedious. I probably wouldn't want to do this as a job, because I would stress and worry that I wasn't restoring it to its fullest potential, and that i would blot out an important detail like the window in this example. Restoring photos for fun or for personal use though, is something I would definitely consider doing again, and I am glad that now I know how to.