Kelly Murphy's Blog

Finally

murphykelly — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:16:59 +0000

I have my project together, but putting the last pieces together were difficult…especially when you have no internet and you’re in the middle of packing and moving. I came across a wonderful women who worked with Grandin in expanding the Hug Machine, creating furniture. I added a section, and found it difficult to fit in, I think the tagging and the parent posts are tough to understand. I read other student’s projects, and found them all to be interesting and I like how varied our class is in inventors, so I look forward to seeing their final projects.

Status on Project

murphykelly — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:02:38 +0000

I’m still putting things together for the project, as our draft is due tomorrow. So far I just have a few things up, and even though I’m still working on my final product, I wanted to put what I sort of have so far just to see what it will look like. Probably best if you don’t look at it yet, it’s very sloppy! Soon there will be photographs, I will also work on my APA style, as well as adding much more to the Biography. This project is much tougher than I ever thought. Research is hard, there is a ton to look at it but it all becomes so redundant after awhile. I’m not understanding how to make bullet points, but I was really excited to figure out how to put the pages in order as well as have a “parent” page. When I look at the “dashboard”, I can see all of the categories, but it doesn’t display on the blog when I view it. I’m still learning and slowly progressing!

Blogging Progress

murphykelly — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:45:06 +0000

Though I was gone and unable to post anything for week 2 on my progress with blogging, I think it is important to update how everything is going. So far, I’m getting the hang of it. I feel kind of silly posting 3 posts in a day, but I guess that’s part of catching up! Note to self and other new bloggers: when editing the appearances, it WILL lose a majority of your editing. I was very happy to discover that I could put one of my own photographs in the header, however, after doing so it erased all of the work I did on the widgets as well as the links for my female inventor. I’m constantly learning as I build upon my blog, hopefully any issues or troubles I’m having will sort of die down.

Other than that, it’s exciting to have found a terrific amount of research online for my project, and I think it’s great that I can share it on here with others. Check out the video under Culture Site !

Librarian Help

murphykelly — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:17:39 +0000

I was excited to discover the librarian help website, which will definitly enhance the research for our Culture Site project. There are so many times during the summer that I will be gone on either vacation or visiting family, so though I will be far from the OSU library, I can still get a vast amount of information on my topic.

There were tons of articles on Dr. Temple Grandin, all related with her work as well as her unique biography. This made me realize how important her work has become in the Animal Science world, and really made me feel at more ease with my topic. I think I will send an email to Jane Nichols, perhaps a little later in the week, especially if I am having more trouble finding information. Though I think it is a great resource, I kind of feel like I have the hang of it and will contact her in case I have trouble.

Cultural Site Project: Dr. Temple Grandin

murphykelly — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:44:24 +0000

With so many amazing female inventors in the world, I wasn’t sure who exactly to choose for our class project. After much research, I found one that not only believes in the same issues as I do, but also has an amazing life story. Dr. Temple Grandin was born in Massachussetts in the late 1940s to a Swedish-American family. Having a passion in animal rights, she created and designed humane living areas for livestock.

Having been diagnosed with autism by the age of 2, she relates her experiences in helping her to understand those of the animals within the facilities, how new sights and sounds can be alarming. She then invented restraint systems that creatively teach the animals, not hurt them. She has also invented the Hug Machine, which is a therapeutic contraption used on those with autism, to benefit sensory relief. Today, Grandin is in her early 60s, working within Colorado State University in Animal Science.

Her story is both inspiring and wonderful, I wish that I would be able to contact her for an interview on our project, but it sounds as though she is very busy with her work. I will, however, research her and her countless interviews to get an expert idea of such an interesting female inventor.

The beginning

murphykelly — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:25:32 +0000

Let me just begin by saying that I am very new to this technological world. However, after excessive reading of our course syllabus and setting up, I realized how simple it was to create my very own blog. I am still figuring a few things out (what is a widget?), but for the most part am surprised with how easy this is. As Helen Keller once famously said “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” With that, I am daringly going into the unknown and look forward to the technological adventures we will be facing throughout WS 320.