This week I worked on my website. I added a page dedicated to related articles kind of like the New York Times but it is on a separate page right now because my main page isn't set up for my final project. http://www.uni.edu/rkann13/relatedarticles.html I am getting better at posting stuff on my website but I had trouble with changing fonts on headlines without changing the entire page's font. I don't know how to prevent that.
I looked through the articles I was given to brainstorm on the purpose of my article. They helped me think about the big picture. I know I am not going to be able to get that written till after Thanksgiving Break.
I need to figure out what I can work on while I am break concerning I won't be in the United States. I guess I will just trying to further my ideas, read some more article, and find some numbers for my data visualization.
I included another picture I took from my last visit.
Last Wednesday I visited the Cedar Bend Humane Society. The co-directors were away on business and the place was full of college students playing with animals, but I got over 30 pictures. I got more of the cats because they were easier to access, but I got some of the dogs in their cages.
I wish I could have recorded the sounds of the dogs barking while I was there because I found it terrifying and depressing at the same moment. Some of the pictures were also depressing but I guess that shows the true atmosphere.On the other hand, my friend that came with put it best when she said, "At least they have a warm place to stay with food" instead of living in a cage outside in the middle of winter with abusive owners. It is a new outlook on the Humane Society for me.
I included some of the photos I took while there.
This week I want to look at past articles on other humane societies to get a feel for the bigger picture. I also would like to mess around with the video if I have time. I want to leave stuff I can work on without being near the Humane Society till Thanksgiving Break.
This is where I am right now on the brain storming.
Data visualization: After learning about data visualization in class I was thinking about comparing national & Cedar Valley (would have to crunch some numbers) adoption rates to animals put to sleep because of lack of funding and over crowding over the past 20 years. Also I could look at the adoption rates of different types of dogs (some breeds more likely to be adopted?) and different age groups (the older the animal the less likely it is to get adopted compared to puppies and kittens?). I could even make my own graph based on what percent of pets are there because x reason such as 50% are there because of baby and children issues with the animal, 20% because of expenses issues with taking care of the animal, 15% because of inter-animal conflict, 5% because owners died, and ect. In addition, I could do a graph with money fund raised at each event to show what was a failure and what worked well. Last, I could do a graph showing how much money is giving to other non-profits in the Cedar Valley Area compared to the Humane Society. I don't know where I would find that data. There are multiple ways I can go, depending on what best fits with the story.
Video: For the video I can do a tour of the present facility and all the problems, showing all the issue the employees have to deal with daily such as overcrowd, rusty cages, leaks, ect. I don't know how I would do a tour of the new facility or if I could put their virtual online tour with that.
Slide show: I think animals would be the best subject to take photographs of. They are hard to capture but you can take your time with them. Plus you could get some interesting active shots with them getting bathed to look good for the adoptions or interacting with people during adoption hours. I don't how many animals I could focus on and if I should just stay with dogs or incorporate both dogs and cats. Focus on the adoption process or the animals needing adoption?
Interactive map: I like the idea of pinpointing where all the humane societies are in Iowa. It would be cool to add in adoption site like Petco where Cedar Bend Human Society has certain days and hours they bring animals. I think the map of the facility would be alright but not as interesting to the reader.
This week I worked on my website. I added a page dedicated to related articles 
