Chaney LaPlante

Russian Blog 2.8 This week I focused on my handwriting and I attempted writing whole words in cursive. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find time to do both my Russian lessons and my official Italian lessons but I seem to manage most days. I try to make sure I set aside time for it. Even though this is the end of the blog, I still plan on continuing my lessons because I still want to learn the language.

Russian Blog 2.7 This week has  been rather busy for me and due to this it has made finding time for my Russian increasingly difficult.  I have done several lessons on duolingo and I have watched some more of my Russian tv series. Recently I also went up to billings and went to a bakery owned by someone who moved here from Russia.  I was able to hold a small conversation with her and she was able to give me a few pointers in pronunciation.  Sadly it made me realize how little I truly know at the language too.  Random phrases aren't as useful unless applied to specific situations. The fix to that however is just broadening vocabulary. My favorite from her bakery was a вертушка which roughly translates to spinner or pinwheel for us. On another note, Russia did not have any host families available and they did not get back to my organization in the necessary time so my applications was sent elsewhere and I got accepted in Italy. So, now I have to tak...

Russian Blog 2.6  The list Overall this week I studied how cursive letters connect to each other  I did listening exercises  I did duolingo  I was unable to start Pimsleur Time management was difficult Studying cursive letters I hadn't previously considered how to connect the Russian letters but I found it essential information as I continued my writing practice.  Many of the letters have unique ways to connect to each other.  I was able to learn how to do this through multiple YouTube videos. Listening exercises For listening I resorted to using my movies and music.  I would watch or listen and try to pick out words that I recognized.  Not only does this improve listening capabilities, but it improves confidence with understanding it as a whole.  There are many words that I don't recognize though and that makes the process a little difficult. Duolingo My duolingo is progressing slowly.  Some days the ...

Russian Blog 2.5 This week I have been really busy and as a result my time scheduled for Russian has gone down some.  I am doing my best to reschedule and prioritize things so that I can begin to focus on my language again. On the other hand though, I have still been able to practice easy things throughout the day.  When I am working on homework I listen to my Russian music.  Sometimes if I am doing something that I know the phrase for I repeat it so it sticks better.  I also have been practicing my writing in my free time along with duolingo.  Duolingo has proven to be bit frustrating when it comes to grammar still, but I have taken to reading book on Russian grammar so that has made it a bit more understandable. In the future I plan on finishing a couple more duolingo lessons and i plan to start writing whole words in cursive. 

Russian Blog 2.4 This week I have been working on a variety of tasks for my language learning process.  I have been delayed a bit in my plans to work on grammar in workbooks because they have not arrived in the mail yet.  I have simply found other things to turn my attention to however. I have continued duolingo every day and I am now onto lessons on plurals and locations.  As it is with most languages, the words change based on tenses, genders and in singular or plural form.  This does make it a bit more confusing when trying to pronounce the words because you may grow familiar to it being said a specific way.  The only cure is repetition. I have watched three of my Russian Disney movies and they are awesome.  The voice overs are a little weird at times but for the most part they sound normal.  I was also proud of myself to have noticed that sometimes the Cyrillic subtitles don't match up with what is being spoken.  This is likely ...

Russian Blog 2.3    This week I have been working to memorize the alphabet and some of the grammatical rules of Russian. Before, I knew how to pronounce each of the letters due to duolingo but I did not know the alphabet, which is an elementary thing to learn.     I have been continuing with my duolingo lessons. I find it easy to follow along and memorize. At first I was nervous to spell out words but luckily Russian is phonetic so if you know the alphabet, you can figure out how to spell it.       This week I have also been watching my Russian Disney movies that I ordered. It is good to have movies you are familiar with so that you can translate more easily because you know the words.     My sticky notes around the house are also annoying to see all the time but I find that they are helping so sadly they are staying up.    So overall I am on a good path to fluency and I have been following my plan closely. In th...

Russian Blog 2.2 This week I started making my house more immersive. By surrounding myself with the language, I should be able to learn it faster. In order to do this I have started labelling my whole house in Russian vocab. This way I am constantly seeing and comprehending the words. So far, it has worked pretty well. I have already memorized many of the new words. On the other hand, it has been rather annoying to try to sound out words all around my house. I have also gotten a few headaches from the constant strain. I think in the long run though, it will help me. In the future I also plan on putting on Russian movies, tv shows, and music so that I can listen to it as well.

Russian Blog 2.1 For this blog I will be learning how to write and speak in Russian. I will be doing this using multiple methods.  First I will be using duolingo. This program is nice because it is free and easy to use.  I have started getting familiar with using this app and I have passed lesson one which is alphabet and basics. Part of the hard aspects of this is learning the new alphabet.  Many of the letters look familiar to English letters but have completely different sounds. A few basic words I have learned so far are: Привет- Hello Как дела- How are you? До свидания- Goodbye Хлеб- Bread Яблоко- Аpple Вода- Water Девушка- Girl Человек- Boy

Photo Editing Blog 1.8 For my last blog, I tried to incorporate a lot of the skills that I had learned throughout this experience.  I used the basic skills such as cropping, and saturation and sharpness as well as several other small ones.  The more difficult aspect was the layering of photos.  I took the background of one photo and added it to another.  At the same time I removed an object form another image and added it to the original.  It required a lot of attention to detail to outline.  Sadly, the picture ended up being a little hazy and I'm not sure why that occurred.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with it though. Original Final Product

Photo Editing Blog 1.7 This week I tried altering the colors more so in the picture.  I first applied a black and white filter over the whole image.  Then, I selected the color red and made that stand out and more vivid.  Some areas such as my skin still looked pink so I had to specifically go over those areas to make them black and white again.  Then I added saturation to make the colors brighter.  Overall it was pretty easy. Original   Final Product

Photo Editing Blog 1.6 I have finally figured out how to save my picture from the photoshop program as just a regular image.  Before, it would save the whole program and I would not be able to upload it to my blog.  I had to then take a picture of my computer screen with my phone and so the pixels would show up.  This is why it has been grainy.  The photo itself was not distorted.  I had to change the way it was saving and change some of my settings but now you can see what my pictures should actually have looked like. Origionals After I fixed the Issue

Photo Editing Blog 1.5 This week, I have been trying to work out the issues with my computer not allowing me to use the pictures edited on it.  Sadly, I have not figured it out so I practiced with my mobile version. I used saturation, highlighting, contrast, select color editing, cropping, blurring, and sharpening.  The app gets easier the more you use it. The most important thing I have found is to make sure the size of the tool you are using is proportionate to the area on the picture getting edited. Otherwise, it may blur colors that are not supposed to be blurred, or something similar.  Original  Final Product

Photo Editing Blog 1.4 For this week, I decided to learn how to replace the background of one image with that of another. This I found to be more difficult. It is important to keep the lighting the same in each picture. Also, it helps the more meticulous you are when outlining the section you are keeping from the original photo. Otherwise, you will need to do a lot of blending of colors later.   Some problems I faced this week were time management, because I was extremely busy and tech struggles with my computer because it is not classifying my edited photos as pictures and so Blogger won’t let me upload them to my blog. Original Final product (again, it looks grainy because I took the picture of my computer with my phone)

Photo Editing Blog 1.3 This week I have been able to download the proper software onto my computer. It took about thirty minutes to download. Once there it presented me with tutorials on the many applications that it has. I decided to edit the saturation, lighting, sharpness and most importantly the removal of an object. It seemed very complicated but in reality it was simple. You outline the object you wish to remove and then select delete. It may appear like a ghost if the figure remains but using a blending technique you can minimize it until it is no longer noticeable. Original Final Product Also, this looks grainy because I took a photo of my computer screen to add it in. The file size on my computer was too big and I couldn’t figure out how to shrink it. Most importantly though the guy on the right was successfully edited out.

Blog 1.2 Basic Editing Techniques I first tried downloading Adobe Photoshop software, but my computer was not cooperating with me.  I then resorted to getting the mobile version of it.  It was very well organized.  Tools were well labeled and it actually came with example videos on how to use different aspects of it. I started with: cropping, total lighting changes, sectional lighting changes, blurring, sharpening and color editing. Examples of these would be taking out wrinkles of clothing, making teeth whiter and sharpening features. Original Finished Product

Blog 1.1 What program is the best? Initially I wanted to start my first week off by figuring out basic skills for photo editing such as blurring and sharpening images.  I decided it was more important to research what was the best software to use first.  I did this by looking at several sites and comparing reviews on different programs.  I took some of the most recurring ones and listed them below. These programs had to meet the demands of what I wished to accomplish. Blurring/Sharpening  Color Altering  Image erasing lighting changes Cropping Layering Pixlr: This was reviewed as being user friendly but it did not have the advanced capabilities like layering, that I desired.  Unless of course, I wanted to buy the licensed version. Paint.NET:   This covered all the bases for desired capabilities but it was only available for Windows operating system. Picasa:   This was reviewed as very effective and simple to use...