Google Docs

     Ever wonder if it was possible for two people to edit something simultaneously or get feedback about a presentation within minutes? Congrats, Google has now solved your problems. Google has created a program that can do all of that and much more called Google Docs. Google Docs is a very useful "Tool of the Trade," especially when it comes to school work. 

   For example, if one uploads a document to Google Docs they can edit it from any computer that has access to Google Docs (Basically any computer that has internet access.) This means that one doesn't have to waste space on their computer and can store all sorts of work on Google Docs. However, the best part is that one can share it with other people by either giving them the option to edit it or to view it. In fact, without Google Docs, we could not have completed a series of activites in our class, including signing up for this project. Google Docs can allow multiple people at a time to edit a document, presentation, or spreadsheet.

   Another useful part of Google Docs is creating a "form" or in other words a questionnaire or a survey. One can give or receive feedback about a presentation or class activity within minutes. Let me refresh your memory. Do you remember when we filled out the surveys earlier this year critiquing our fellow group members for our Made to Stick projects? That my friend is a form. To learn how to create a form, refer to the above blog post. As you can see Google Docs have played an important role in our class and can be very useful for many different school or work related activities.

Resources/Links:

Google Docs Tour

Google Docs: For Work or School

CMA Awards

     On Wednesday, November 10, "Country's Biggest Night" aired on ABC with co-hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. In my opinion Paisley and Underwood are fairly humorous co-hosts and their opening line caught my attention.

      "If you're one of the millions of people who are watching tonight, I know what exactly you're thinking: where's Modern Family?"

   The CMA's started off on a great foot with the win for best single of the year going to a personal favorite of mine, Lady Antebellum, who also went on to win vocal group of the year (Yay!). Miranda Lambert also had a big night taking home four CMA's as well as her fiance Blake Shelton taking home two. Brad Paisley ended the night with the highest honor wining Entertainer of the Year. Click here for the rest of the winners.

    The one name that was not mentioned for any award was Taylor Swift's. Lambert beat out Swift for Female Vocalist of the Year. I am a huge fan of Swift's but it was a nice change for someone else to win.

    Overall, the CMA's were a huge success, unless you were Taylor Swift fan (although,  her live performance was one of her better ones.) Either way, Swift fan or not, "Country's Biggest Night," was a very successful and enjoyable night for many others.

Charlie Brown and Family Traditions

      So we have one week left of school until Thanksgiving break. And I for one could not be more excited! Just like everyone else, I need a well-deserved break. One of the things I look forward to as we approach the holidays are the traditions my family and I have, especially watching Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang.

 Whenever the Peanuts holiday specials come on, we never fail to miss them. We watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," look forward to "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving," and are already listening to soundtrack for "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

     Whatever special it is, I always enjoy it because its something everyone in my family can watch together. So on November 27 at 8:00 pm, "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" airs on ABC, and my family and I will continue our tradition.

Happy (Early) Thanksgiving!

Secretariat

     BANG! The horses shoot out of the gate, hooves pounding, hearts racing, and through the midst of the chaos, one horse comes out triumphantly: Secretariat.

     Recently my mom and I saw the movie Secretariat because as a child I was enthralled with horses as was my mother.  We thoroughly enjoyed the movie because it gave an insight into the remarkable story of Secretariat and his owner, Penny Tweedy. Tweedy's father passed and she felt it was her duty to take over his farm and his horses. Tweedy attended a coin toss in her father's place to determine which foal (both offspring of prestigious race horses) that she would get. Although Tweedy lost the coin toss, in her mind she didn't. She knew the foal she had won had the genes to be a champion, and the foal won in the coin toss is known today as Secretariat.  

   Despite all of the nay-sayers who were against Tweedy, including her husband and brother,  Tweedy's "woman's intuition" was spot-on and she knew a champion when she saw one. As many horse enthusiasts and racing fanatics know, Secretariat won the Triple Crown* in 1973, and no horse has done it since.

    Although Secretariat is a warm, uplifting, family film, Tweedy's son recently commented about his opinions on Disney's portrayal. He said, "The movie does, indeed, glamorize and improve on my family's situation in the early 1970's..." Tweedy later went through a divorce with her husband, which the movie does not mention.

   Although the movie has been criticized for its "glamorous" portrayal of the Tweedy family,  Penny Tweedy was a a groundbreaking woman who thrust herself into the racing world which in the 1970's was mainly all men. Tweedy's perseverance, intuition and faith are admirable and make for a wonderful, heart warming film.

*triple crown - The triple crown consists of three races: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont. Arguably the most important three races in a horses career, if they are lucky enough to make it there.

Michael Phelps: 8 hit Wonder?

     In August of 2008, millions of viewers tuned into NBC to watch history in the making...and that history is a 6'4'', 200 lb, 23 year old, unbeatable swimmer named Michael Phelps. Around 4.7 billion people tuned in to watch the Olympic Games and a good percentage was because of Phelps.

     Phelps accomplished the unbelievable feat of winning 8 gold medals in 8 days, surpassing Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold medals. Many say what Michael Phelps accomplished was impossible and performance enhancing drugs (steroids people!) must have been involved. However, during the Olympics, Phelps submitted to all of the required drug tests asked of him and passed with flying colors. Although an unflattering picture of Phelps surfaced later in 2008, he has remained under the radar since.

     Since 2008, Phelps has continued training for the 2012 London Olympic Games but some say that achieving another 8 medals in 2012, when Phelps is 27, is impossible. In 2008 Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, talked to USA Today about Phelps' schedule for the 2012 Olympics.

"It might be ambitious," Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach, says of his possible 2012 program, "but just different events maybe. And I don't know if it could be this ambitious."

Do you think Phelps can achieve another 8 or his he just an 8 hit wonder?

Screencast

Here is my screencast about how to open Safari.

Speak Now...

"Don’t say yes, run away now
I’ll meet you when you’re out of the church at the backdoor
Don’t wait or say a single vow
You need to hear me out and they said speak now"
(Lyrics to Speak Now by Taylor Swift)

        Speak Now.(verb) -taken out of the context from the phrase "speak now or forever hold your peace" Two powerful words that Taylor Swift has decided to use to entitle her most recent album. The fourteen track album has hit a special milestone recently, Speak Now has sold 1 million albums...in one week.

     In this article by Tanner Stransky, he gives the examples of artists that compare to Swift's success such as Garth Brooks and Shania Twain. However, there are few artists that achieve this success.

      Whether its the fact that her songs reference her famous celebrity exes (i.e. Taylor Launter, Joe Jonas, & John Mayer) or the fact that whatever mood you're in, their is Taylor Swift song for that. I, like the other 999,999 people, went out last week to buy her album and after listening, analyzing, enjoying and then listening some more, I was very pleased. You know what they say, great minds think alike. Here is a recent performance of Swift on David Letterman, so tell me what you think and speak now...

Junior Year...

I never really understood why everyone said Junior Year was the hardest. Whether it was the teachers, the homework, the sports, no one ever really said anything. Now I realize it is all of those things.  


Everything added together makes it even more difficult. Junior year is even worse because one has to add all of that with looking at colleges, taking the SAT/ACT, AP/Honors Classes, and whatever else comes along...

I recently came across this quote that made me ponder:
"High School: the mouse race to prepare you for the rat race." 


Looks like I've got a lot more to come....