My name is Sierra Gail Pollock. My parents thought it sounded unique. The other possibilities were Clarisse and Atlanta. I think I like mine the best. I am sixteen years old and I go to Mountain View High School as well as Freestyle Academy across the parking lot. I like to play the guitar or spend hours hunched over my computer in my free time. I am very quiet and considered to be nice, but my close friends know that I am actually rather raunchy.

 

I like weird old things. I have a pair of saddle shoes (from before they came back in style). I have one of those instant Polaroid cameras, even though it is much more bulky than our modern point-and-click cameras. To continue this, I chose an old western theme for my website. I found the font and decided to go from there. If you cannot tell, the two boxes on the screen are picture frames hanging on a wall. The wallpaper probably does not fit the time period, but I like the colors and this is my self portrait website after all.

 

The evocative music you may or may not be hearing was also meant to go with the Western motif of the website. I created it on a website called Aviary (http://www.aviary.com/). It has an audio editor program similar to Garageband. If it is making your ears/head hurt, feel free to hit the mute key on the computer or the pause button on the music controller.

 

In the sixteen years I have lived, my family is the only group that has consistently been with me and influenced me. My parents let me have a lot of freedom and they trust me to get my work done and keep up my grades. I do, and I have learned to be self-sufficient. To see my parents and my brother, click on the Family button.

 

My friends are who make me who I am. They give me my many quirks and my often odd behavior. I don’t know what I would do without them. I have put a few of them up with pictures and descriptions under my Friends button. If you, the reader, are also my friend but you are not listed, do not panic.

 

In our Design class here at Freestyle, we have been learning how to use cameras and computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator to manipulate and create images. For our major camera project, we made a Self-Portrait Diptych. I based this on my belief that supporting yourself is very important. To see it, click on my Self-Portrait button to the left.

 

We also had a large Illustrator project, where we had to depict our best and worst traits simultaneously in an illustration. I chose modesty for mine. To see this one, click the Illustration button on the left.

 

In Web, we made our self-portrait websites as well as a few podcasts for this unit. My first podcast is called “Ten Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far,” and is about just that. I apologize for my voice, for it is nasal and I stutter sometimes. If you would rather read it, I have also written out what I say in the podcast. To see/hear it, click my Podcast button.

 

In English for this unit, we wrote a personal essay. I wrote mine about a Halloween some ten years ago when I learned to be less selfish. Once we finished writing these, we turned them into podcasts for our sites. I would suggest just reading it. You will find it under my Essay link.

 

If you click on the Photogallery button, you will see some pictures I have taken. The majority of them were taken with our cameras at Freestyle, but some of them were taken on various trips over the past few years. I like taking pictures, but I feel uncreative when I do, because I end up using the same techniques as everyone else.

We have only been here for a few months, but I have learned so much using all of the Adobe programs. I have had most of them at my house for years, but I never quite figured them out. After intense training in Design and Web, I have learned how to use the pen tool. This was the most confusing part of Illustrator for me until now, when it is my best friend. My Illustration was done completely with the pen tool. My dad taught me a bit about Dreamweaver a few years ago, and I made a simple website which no longer exists (hopefully). Now, I have learned much more in depth about the program and managed to make this website almost completely independently. We also learned Garageband, which was much less difficult to figure out than the others. We learned some in Photoshop as well, and will likely learn more about all of these later.

 

I am actually very pleased with how my website turned out visually. I hope you enjoy using it and perhaps learning a bit about me.