BLOG.ORVILLEWARNICK.COM

Childhood Cartoons

Orville Warnick — Tue, 31 May 2011 03:53:34 GMT

One day I got an inching to see what I could find out about some of my favorite cartoons. So I turned to the Word Wide Web. Where else to find information on old cartoons?I found two sites that were about the same cartoon yet they were very different. So what made me chose the one over the other? Eye-catching graphics, readable text, and downloads, are the elements that sold me on Robotech.Simplenet.com over Robotechgames.com.

The first things I look at on a web site are the pictures and graphics. Because I am a visual person, the pictures and graphics are what determines if the site is worth my looking into it. For example, on the home page of Robotech.Simplenet.com there are two pictures that stand out and grab my attention right away. The first one is a headshot of the Valkyrie, Roy Fokker’s Veritech Fighter. The next picture is another headshot of a character in Robotech Armor. Some other eye-catching graphics are two scrolling text boxes. The first box announces important site events. The other informs the viewer about new updates to the site. The Robotechgames.com site, however, has no such picture or graphics. All it has is text: nothing to attract the viewer into further exploration of the site.

While text alone may not be extremely interesting, it is another important element of a website. To be understood, text must be readable. The background color is the first component of text readability. the Robotech.Simplenet.com site’s background color draws you into the text and does not detract from it. It accomplishes this by using two colors. The outer border of the page is blue. The middle is black with subtle blue lines running through it in a crisscross pattern. This background causes the text to stand out. Next comes the color of the text itself, gold on the black background. The golden words are soft on the eyes of the viewer, and easy to read. The whole page uses basically the same size font, which makes reading pleasant. The last element of text readability is the amount of text per page. On this page the text is written in the short and to-the-point statements. This makes it easy to know the purpose of the page.

The use of text on the Robotechgames.com page differs greatly from the Robotech.Simplenet.com page. Robotechgames.com has a plain black background, which causes a problem. More than half the text is written in white. White on black is a sharp contrast that tires the viewer’s eyes. Another thing that irritates is the variation on the font size of the text. It switches from small to large bold lettering. On top of that, the small print is seven paragraphs of really useless information. And the useless information is written in white on a hard to read black background.

Once the website has snagged my interest, I look for stuff I can download from the site to my computer. This bugs my wife, but is the area that can make or break a site. Here Robotech.Simplenet.com excels. The site has many different things to download. It has games, fonts, sound files, background images, and many more interesting tidbits of Robotech lore.

But the Robotechgames.com site stinks! Oh, they promise full-scale games for free, yet when I got to their download page, there was nothing but text describing the games. Under each description is a line of text that states, “No downloads yet.” What a letdown! After all they say they are doing, they have nothing to show for it except words on a page.

All in all, the Robotech.Simplenet.com site presents its information in a pleasing and entertaining manner. And it beats out Robotechgames.com in graphics, text readability, and downloads. I recommend Robotech.Simplenet.com to anyone who wishes to learn more about ROBOTECH.

This was a paper that I wrote for a English class at collage. It was a Comparison and Contrast assignment. I did not have any dates on the paper itself but the attached print outs of the web sites had the date of 04/13/2000. I will try to post more of my papers as I find them, and I might work on writing some new ones if I can find the time to.

Site update.

Orville Warnick — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 06:18:03 GMT

Will I was working a updating my website but clicked on a button that stopped me from moving forward. But it was bound to happen sooner or later. Upgrades are good right?

I keep thinking that I should write more here and in the future I hopefully will. Just need to figure out what to write about. That may be the hard part. Plus I am not a very good writer. The English language is difficult at time for me to correctly form my ideas in. I will have to do something about that. May read more books. I like to read. I am finally reading Brandon Sanderson’s new book “The Way of the Kings”. I will have to write more when I finish it.

Gareth’s Birthday

Orville Warnick — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:17:45 GMT

So yesterday was Gareth’s third birthday. He spent most of the day running around driving me crazy just like a three year old should. Maybe some day he will grow out of the stinky grouchy leave messes all over the house boy.

Here is us singing to him.

More birthday pictures

When cooking fails. :(

Orville Warnick — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:15:44 GMT

I tried to make butterscotch pudding tonight. One bite and it all went down the garbage disposal. I am not sure what made it bad. I used the same recipe that I use for chocolate or vanilla pudding. I guess what I used as butterscotch flavoring really did not work. Mette had bought a bottle of Italian Soda flavoring that was butterscotch and it did not add the correct flavoring to the pudding. I will have to look for a better butterscotch flavoring for the next time.

Ouch

Orville Warnick — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:05:35 GMT

So I went out for a bike ride today it was a nice ride until the second to last turn before I got home. Then me bike thought it would be a good idea to slide out from under me as I was making the turn. Down I went luckily there where no cars coming so I did not get squashed, just banged and scraped up a little. And my front tire is now totally flat. So I don’t know if it blew out and that is what caused the bike slide out from under me. Now my left leg and shoulder are scraped up and aching. Hopefully I will be able to ware pants tomorrow. I guess this is what comes with the fun of being out on my bike. I need to get out riding more now that the weather has finally turned nice.

Ethan and Friends Comic

Orville Warnick — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:41:03 GMT

by: Ethan Warnick

Here is Ethan’s first color comic that he did all by himself. The topic of the comic is courage.

Christmas

Orville Warnick — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:40:25 GMT

DSCN0170:
Uploaded on 12/25/2009 10:28:32 PM

Here is Kathy (Tam) and Mette at the In-laws. Christmas was good this year, but I am glad it is over. Now I just need to get the T.V. room fixed up so I can get the XBox back up and running.

New Camera.

Orville Warnick — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:54:57 GMT

A few weeks back Gareth did something to our camera and it stopped working. Will today we finally got a new one. It is a Nikon CoolPix S630. So far it is a nice little camera. And the pictures are nice. Here is an example of one.

This is Gareth fast asleep in the middle of the hall. That is where he was when I got home from Tae Kwon Do. No nap today wiped him out before dinner.

Memories of past Sundays

Orville Warnick — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:27:01 GMT

Here I sit in the kitchen of my own home and daydream about when I was younger. No worries beyond what I needed/wanted to do right then in the moment. I remember not wanting to take a nap on Sunday afternoon and so we (me and my brothers) would build forts in the living room with the rocking chairs, couch cushions, and all the blanks that we could find. You know I remember building the forts and taking them down after mom and dad woke up, but what we did in them I don’t remember much.

Then I remember as a teenager I looked forward to that Sunday afternoon nap. It was a chance to do nothing but sleep in the middle of the day for 3 or 4 hours at a time. Then I remember spending all evening sitting in the den playing what ever computer game we had at the time. The games I played the most where the Dragon Lance games Champions of Krynn and Death Knights of Krynn.

Now sit in my own home and just try to relax. I am thankful that I can do that. I don’t know how my parents ever trusted me and my brothers to leave up alone while they took a nap. I am almost sacred to think of the condition the house would be in if I left my four kids alone for a hour or so.

OK that is enough rambling for today.

First Web Site.

Orville Warnick — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:23:57 GMT

Ok so now I have published my first public web site. GFBlends is now up and live.

Still needs some work. I am not happy with how the footer is currently set up. But I have not had the time to sit and work out a better solution. I really want to make the footers dynamic and fit to the content that is on each page.

Oh well. And I need to get better pictures of the building and the process floor. I might have to wait until Rachel comes home for a visit then she can take some pictures with her good camera.

Family update.

Orville Warnick — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:20:01 GMT

Not much to update right now. Work on the house is slowly going forward. The hole in between the two halves is 60% done. The ceiling in the quiet room is mostly taped (still have to do the corners).

My wife decided that since we where having turkey meatloaf for dinner that we needed to have pumpkin ice cream to go with it. Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will hopefully get better at posting updates here. And maybe I might post something worth actually reading.

Carol Powell Mette’s Grandmother.

Orville Warnick — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:51:35 GMT

Mette’s grandmother passed away yesterday. Here is a photo album of her.

Carol Powell

Day one out of 18

Orville Warnick — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:01:03 GMT

Started the one hundred pushup challenge today. Arms are sore. will see if I can make it.

onehundredpushups.com

Sonnet 106

Orville Warnick — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:09:33 GMT

When in the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rime
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,
Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique pen would have exprest
Even such a beauty as you master now.
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring;
And, for they lookt but with divining eyes,
They had not skill enough your worth to sing:
For we, which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.

This is not mine it is William Shakespeare. I just picked up a book of his poems and sonnets off the book shelve and started read while waiting for Mette to finish balancing the check book. I read this one and thought it was nice so I wanted to share it with everyone.

Ethan playing with Photo editor.

Orville Warnick — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:36:41 GMT

I edeted this pic. It looks funy. ethan

(Update: Ethan created the photo and this post. OGW)

New Kitchen

Orville Warnick — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:26:47 GMT

Well the new kitchen is almost finished. It will be nice to have our own kitchen again and not have to eat out or at the in-laws every night. I will have to post pictures of it all when it is done. It is already looking a great and there are still some things to finish yet. Can’t wait until it is done.

Got the new TV

Orville Warnick — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:59:18 GMT

Finally got a new TV!!!! 42” VIZIO for a good price. Man Star Wars Force Unleashed looked great. Now I need to play Fable 2 on it. Can’t wait. Mette may never get me out of the basement again.

Mistborn

Orville Warnick — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:55:39 GMT

Just finished reading Brandon Sanderson Last book in the Mistborn series. What a wonderful ride. I am really looking forward to when he finishes the last Wheel of Time book. He may not be Robert Jordan but he can sure spin a great story. It was amazing how he was able to tie small things from the first book into the an important piece of information in the last book. It is nice to read such will write stories.

Window 7

Orville Warnick — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:38:37 GMT

So here I am sitting with a clean install of a new operating system. So now what do I do? I guess I need to start installing tools and app that I use. How do I test this thing out. Why do I feel the need to test it out. I just want to use it. Oh well don’t really have much to say right now, I am just to tired to really think hard. I stayed up way to late.

And here I am up late again. This time it is not playing with a new tool that is keeping me up it is watching Eureka with my wife. It is such a fun show. I really miss watching the Sci-Fi channel. But it keep me up to late at night most of the time.

New T.V.

Orville Warnick — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:47:00 GMT

So now I have enough money saved up to buy a new LCD TV. But what do I bu? How big of a TV...oh and I can't forget the sound system what good is a big TV if you can here it! I guess I need to start doing some research in to TVs.
( off subject) I need to see if I can link twitter and my Zune and XBox and Last.fm stuff to this. Maybe on the my main site page. I will have to may be write some thing to get and show the rss feeds on the main site, and a tool to post entrys from there too.(ok back to TVs)
I think I want something around 42" 1080p then a nice sound system with it so I can shake the floor. Well I am off to do some reading
Until Later.