Research Posters

Well the last blog is finally here! The research poster project was OK.

Here are the pros:

*I think it's really cool to learn about new technologies
*It was different to have to create a poster rather than do the same old power point or speech
*It was cool to see everyone's different artistic abilities
*I liked using Twitter during the presentation as well as seeing what my classmates had to say about my poster

Here are the cons:

*The assignment should NOT have been given the day of the research pitches. We were already stressed enough about that and in that mindset. I literally was given the assignment 5 minutes before giving my pitch. I also had to ask questions at that time. It was way too much.

*The day off to research should have been given later in the semester closer to when the project was due.

*The posters took a long time to make, and the people grading it saw it for maybe 2 minutes each. I understand they had to look at a lot of posters, but those things took a long time to make!

*Having to do the poster and pitch both on essentially on the same thing (emerging technologies) was a little redundant.

*You might want to consider having some ground rules as to what you can give out during the poster presentations. Of course the posters with candy, food, and drinks are going to get more attention, but that doesn't mean that they are the best posters!


All in all it was a decent project, it just needs some tweaking!

Graduation = lame

I graduate in May, and as you may have realized from the title of this blog, I'm not happy about it. I don't love the actual school part including projects, papers, exams and yes, even sometimes these blogs, but I do love being here. One of the reasons I think that I am so not looking forward to graduation is the fact that when I leave here, I will be doing a job that isn't so ideal. Yes, it's with a good company, hopefully making decent money but it has nothing to do with what I've been learning for 4 years. Why not just look for another job? Easier said than done, I use the internet for job searching every single week. I'd say on average I am applying for 4 jobs a week and usually don't hear much back.

So I started thinking about how I can use technology, as many of our guest speakers have, to do what I want to do. I've always had a knack for organizing events, people and coming up with themes. Over the past few years I've realized that I could use my talent for something that's pretty popular today... wedding planning! However, you don't just "make it" as a wedding planner, you have to show that you're good at it and lucky for me the majority of my friends will be tying the knot within the next decade or so.

Going along with what some of the speakers have done, I've decided to use technology to help this wedding planning idea come along. I'm going to create a website with all the information people need to know when wedding planning. By doing research, I have started organizing information based on location as to bakeries, florists, venues, wedding dress shops etc. and plan to put it on the website. Once I start actually planning the weddings, I will create websites for each individual wedding and place them on the website so future brides and grooms can see my work and hopefully ask for my business.

My best friend got engaged this past summer. I plan to make her and her finace a wedding webpage for their family and friends to keep up with the wedding, give ideas, well wishes and overall be able to see the process of the wedding. It will also give me a chance to try out my web design skills. She doesn't know about it yet so SHH don't tell her ;)

Black Friday

This last break I decided not to participate in the Black Friday festivities. I've never gotten a "great" deal when I have gone in the past and would rather pay the $10 extra that I end up saving in order to not deal with the crazies that come out for this day of shopping. I found it interesting this year however, that I received more than 40 emails, that's right, 40, with Black Friday deals that you can buy online.

Some stores that I have an account with like Amazon, Target, Best Buy, even sent out emails with specials that were only available online for Black Friday, the day before the actual sales started. So I started thinking, with all the internet deals, will Black Friday eventually become digitized?

Think about it, would you rather get up at 4 am, stand in the cold with the other million shoppers and then push and shove your way into a store to try to get the DVD player, TV, video game, etc. that the store really only has 3 of or would you rather get up at 4 am in your pj's boot up the ol' computer and do your shopping without the crazy soccer moms running you over for the last Tickle Me Elmo? (yes, I know that it was only cool a few years ago).

I'll take the second option as I'm sure the majority would. See ya later Black Friday!

Life with an iPhone

OK, so as you all know I am a new owner of an iPhone. It's only been a few weeks and although I LOVE the phone, I have one issue... it takes an actual effort for me to not let it take over my life! Ok not my entire life but it really is a huge distraction because it's so cool and does so many things. Bored in class? Check your email with one click or go to the App store and download just about anything you could imagine to keep you occupied. Don't feel like studying? That's fine, your phone has enough capabilities to keep you interested for the next 5 hours :)

Besides the whole distraction thing, my only other gripe would be that the battery sucks.

That's all for now. Stay tuned!

ReCell

WE WON!!!


Sorry I just had to brag a little bit ;)

Congratulations to all my team members!

I caved ....

If you recall my previous blogs, one was about getting another blackberry or getting an iPhone. Well, today I finally decided. I wasn't planning on getting a new phone when I went to the store. My plan was just to go and check the phone out some more and get some pricing. Although I wasn't planning on getting a phone that day there were 2 things that just absolutely pushed me to get a new one.

First, I realized that you can open powerpoints and word doc's on the phone. I can't even go into detail how convienent that is being a college student. Forgot to print the slides for class? No problem! Just pick up your phone and go to blackboard and download them! Need to review a group paper but don't have time to get to a lab or your personal computer? Easy! Just open it up right where you are!

Second, I actually ended up with a good, non-pushy sales woman. Nothing irritates me or makes me less inclined to by something as when I feel like I'm just being told sales pitch after sales pitch to buy something. Not only was she informative and relaxed, she informed me of a discount that I qualify for. If you have a Purdue email address, whether it be faculty or student, you get 20% off your monthly bills (excluding any text messaging packages). No, I'm not kidding, that's $15 dollars off of every bill, and in light of the economic times, I'd be making a poor financial decision not to get one. My bills are only $6 more than my previous ones, and I get the internet on this phone.

As for the typing issue....I'm actually getting much better at it and am not having nearly as much of an issue with it as I originally thought I would

All in all, my only complaint with the phone is that it's so easy to become distracted while I should be doing other things, which really isn't too much of a complain after all

:)

Milo shouldn't be your only friend

So in class we saw an ad for this video game that really reminded me of a Nintendo Wii without the controllers. It looked really cool and I was curious as to how it worked.... and then I started thinking. I have a little brother who loves video games and he is not anti-social by any means but I feel like this video game business is cutting into kids socializing with real people. If this Milo character can really interact with it's user it'll make kids think that Milo is their friend. Why would a kid want to be with real kids who can be mean, rude and everything in between when they can talk to a screen who won't talk back in a mean way? It's going to mess kids up...seriously. Although the times in elementary school or middle school when kids weren't particularly nice aren't always pleasant, they really do teach kids important lessons. Lessons on being nice to others, when to defend yourself and how to problem solve in general.


Parents of the future... do your kid a favor and help them to make friends...real life ones.