Well Here's The SlideShows, Skeleton of My Google Map....and My War Story.

Well, after slaving away to make all six slideshows  and create a google map to embed them in I discovered this entire project idea wasn't possible to achieve...at least not in any way I knew how.
My first attempt to get an embed code was to export and upload .zip files to Divshare where I then copied and pasted the embed code into the editHTML space in the description bubble on google maps (I also put it in the rich text bubble just to check).
This was a no go.
Next, I went to the Sound Slides website and uploaded all of my .zip files there to get the embed codes. These codes didn't work either!
Desperate, I turned to the one source that has always solved any problem I have ever had to face in life...google.
I found out that google maps doesn't like to easily upload videos and slideshows that are foreign because of security..so now I had to turn all of my .zip files into .mp4's and make youtube videos out of them! This wasn't the quickest process in the world so I only completed two of them to see if it would even work in the first place....it didn't.
So now here I am 12 hrs of hard, frustrating work later and I don't even have a completed final project to show for it.
Fail.


View Areas Beneficial to Finals Week in a larger map

Final Project 300 Word Story

            Finals week is upon us all; time to burry our faces in the books and study until we can’t possibly read another sentence right? Wrong!

            Over studying and stressing all week may not result in the grades you’re aiming for. Stress can actually make it harder for your brain to learn and remember information so one of the main things you should focus on this week is to remain calm!

            One interesting method that is said to help your mind relax is to try and do absolutely nothing for 3-5 minutes. Your brain needs a break from all that studying so let it rest with no stimulus so it can take that breather it disserves.

             Another fun way to let your brain recharge is to set aside 15-20 minutes to do something purely for fun. Play a game, paint your nails, or Skype with a friend from home, anything to get your mind off that looming paper you need to write. After you have some fun you may find that you feel more productive and want to tackle some of the work you have piled up.

            After you’ve finished up one of your many projects and given your brain a long, hard workout why not go exercise the rest of your body?  It’s been proven time and time again that working your muscles and getting your blood flowing relieves your body of stress. You don’t have to go all P90X on yourself either; a simple walk or jog can do the trick, and you may find it surprising how energized and motivated you can feel afterwards.

Final Project Description

I've chosen LSC finals for my final project topic.
The multimedia forms I'll be using are an audio slideshow and an interactive map.
What I plan to do is talk about areas on campus that can assist students in prepping for their dreaded finals ie the library, writing center, dorms, hornets nest, gym, dining hall (yes I have a way to tie all of these locations to my topic). I'm going to take pictures at all of these locations and create a slideshow accompanied by audio narration by me and soundbites from students. Then I will make an interactive map of the campus and mark all of the places I discuss in the slideshow then add blurbs about what these areas have to offer. I'm going to have the slideshow play out of the map so the two are connected.
For the 300 word essay I'm going to write about finals and stress.

But Hut Controversy

            The Lyndon State College but hut’s days could be numbered.

Semi-recent events resulting in extensive damages to the campus’ designated smoking area have caused college officials to further discuss the possibility of removing the eye-sore from campus.

Over the course of the semester, public safety has dealt with multiple issues in that area of campus such as trash being left on the ground, people carving and drawing on its posts, the overhead lighting inside the hut has been blacked out and taped over more than once, and not to mention reports of illegal drug and alcohol consumption by some of the huts frequent users.

George Hacking, the head of public safety, feel that this is a huge disrespect, not only to the campus itself, but to other members of the LSC community who properly utilize the area for its intended purpose of smoking cigarettes. Hacking says, “there are a number of students who actually go out there to smoke cigarettes who enjoy having a roof over their head and they’re not causing any problems… I’ve actually had students who use the but hut come to me and complain about the use of alcohol or marijuana in that area.”  

When asked to describe the but hut and/or its usual inhabitants many students, including those that use the area, used the term “sketchy” or “reckless.”  This kind of response really gives off a strong impression the area has and it’s not exactly a positive one.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we came back from Thanksgiving break and it was gone… It’s fair, they’ve warned us several times,” says LSC student and but hut user Evan Shadowfax, “it’s really going to suck in the winter with the freezing cold winds.”

Is it really fair though? Multiple sources, who have asked that they remain anonymous, gave detail from the night the but hut’s railings were destroyed. Allegedly, the culprits were two intoxicated friends of a freshman who lives here at the college. They arrived on campus after a party in town and proceeded to kick the railings out. If this accusation is true then the students of the college who use that space correctly may have to pay the price for something they couldn’t have prevented.

As someone who doesn’t attend the college but frequently visits the but hut, Joseph Bryan Nelson responds to the allegations against the two possible suspects by saying, “I don’t see how someone could come to an area that’s not theirs and affect a lot of people that they don’t have any connection to at all”

            Unfortunately, public safety will have no way of figuring out if these accusations are actually true or not.

Video Project Topic

But Hut Controversy                                

I would like to do my video project on the but hut controversy. The school has had multiple issues with the gazebo over the course of the semester, most recently almost every railing enclosing the hut was some how detached (except for one) and removed from it. Rumor has it George Hacking has been contemplating removing it from the campus.

For my sound source Id like to get comments from George hacking and both smoking and non-smoking students who live on campus to get a full opinion on the matter.
Then obviously my video will be shots of the but hut and the interviews. 

Sound Slides

Many works of art can be looked at from multiple angles, with each new view telling a different story than the one before. This same outlook can apply to the people that surround us in our day to day world as well. 

On the surface Lizzie Chenard may look like any other student at Lyndon State College, but inside she is a talented individual with a keen eye for beauty.

Chenard’s passion for art arose in high school when she was required to take a computer class. She chose to take digital editing, despite being told terrible things about the class and teacher. After only a few days of being enrolled in the class however, Chenard had fallen in love with it and soon decided that this was something she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

Today she is majoring in graphic design along with minors in new media and visual arts. Chenard is hoping to make a name for her self in the future as an art director in Hollywood saying, “It would be awesome because art directors are in charge of everything artistic about an epic movie.”

She understands that she will have to start small and work her way up to her dream. She considers starting out on a graphic design path making movie posters, but for now she is focusing on her work at college.

Her style focuses on geometric abstraction which Chenard descries as, “pure forms of shape and color.”

Over time her work has grown and developed from being strictly computer based art, to drawings and paintings done out by hand. Chenard considers herself to be more of a technical drawer with a weakness in her ability to sketch out a portrait of someone.

She strives for perfection because in her geometric style of art one bump in a line can offset an entire piece. Chenard believes that she is as critical on herself as any other artist would be. She mentions that they all share the similar burden of thinking everything is pretty, except for their own creations.

Chenard takes her work very seriously, yet it is also a form of escape for her. For the time being most of her art is directly related to class assignments, but she does have one ongoing project that is purely for her own enjoyment, a series called Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

The series is based on the popular Beatles hit and each painting represents a line from the song. The paintings are vibrant and eye catching with a slight children’s book charm about them.

 While she’s working, Chenard enjoys some good audio stimulation. She will listen to music from artists like Led Zeppelin or in the case of her work in progress Lucy in the Sky, she tends to listen to lots of standup comedy. She likes the works of Katt Williams and Eddie Izzard.

Chenard firmly believes that, “anything and everything is beautiful,” and she urges people go out and search for the beauty in the world that surrounds us all. 

CNN iReport Critique

Arrested for Closing a Citibank Account
                                                                                                                                                             Manhattan NY- October 15
Click to See

I found this very interesting but I still have no idea what was going on. Clearly there were a lot of people being arrested at this bank but I'm not sure what for. It is news but its not finished news. There are a lot of unanswered questions. We have a 'when' and 'where' but we're missing the 'who', 'what', and 'why'.
If I were a CNN producer I would use some of this footage but obviously do some research to fill in the gaps of the story.
I could obviously do the same thing as this user, any 10-year-old could have. She was just an eye whiteness with a device that could capture the moment.


Great Mississippi River Balloon Race
                                                                                                                                                 Natchez, Mississippi-October 16
Click to See

Ehh its not uninteresting. I like hot air balloons and it's an interesting fact to know that there is an annual 3 day event dedicated to them in Mississippi. I wouldn't consider it national news, it seems like something that would be better suited for local stations.
I once again believe that anyone who can operate a camera could do this.


Occupy Wall Street-Police Push Protester
                                                                                                                                              Times Square, New York-October 15
Click to See

This is interesting but I don't really think its news. I have no idea whats happening and to be honest I didn't see a single person get pushed (and I watched it a few times). It is alarming and chaos is always interesting but there is plenty of other good footage from the Occupy Wall Street protests that is even more alarming and could be used on CNN so if I were a producer I wouldn't really think to use this.
Again I could do this, anyone could.

Slideshow & Photo Gallery Critique.

WMUR News 9 -U local

                                                                                    Slideshow-No Audio

U local Hot Shots are advertised on WMUR News 9 (NH’s local news station) and invites viewers from all over the granite state to upload their own personal photos (and videos) to share with others. Some shots are lucky enough to make it onto the newscast but for hundreds of others they remain in slideshow photo albums on the stations website. http://ulocal.wmur.com/
The current featured slideshow on U local's homepage is "Fall Foliage." Viewers are able to simply click a link on the slideshow labeled "add photos" then upload any snapshots they have that exhibit the beautiful sights that the season has to offer. Captions can be added to the slideshow as well.
I feel like each picture has the potential to tell a story, especially with the right caption; for example there is a photo of a football goal post, soccer goal, and scoreboard, with a backdrop of colorful fall trees accompanied by the caption, "Where have all the players gone? -With the changing colors of the leaves comes the end of fall sports...well almost!" This tells a quick story that the fall sports season is about to wrap up due to the signs of the frigid months ahead. However, the next photo in the slideshow is a reflection of a building in a body of water at an apple orchard which doesn't tie in with the sports story at all.
Collectively the slide show doesn't tell one solid story other "than this is what NH looks like in the fall" so I wouldn't say that U local is really suited to tell stories. Its mainly a fun way for locals to feel connected to one another and their news.

• BBC News

                                    Audio Slideshow: Sea Nomads 

This audio slideshow piece was about native people who live in Indonesia's Coral Triangle and make a majority of their money off of selling fish. It was about 4 min. long and used narration, photographs, and natural sounds to tell a rather detailed story. In those four short minutes I learned........
-The Coral Triangle is the world's most bio-diverse ecosystem.
-The Bajau people have been living on the sea and fishing in Indonesia's coal reefs for hundreds of years.
-At very early ages the natives are taught to dive into the reefs. However they are not properly trained and many natives suffer death from the bends (the bends is a result of the pressure your body, your blood  specifically, endures from diving into great depths. The nitrogen and oxygen that you regularly breathe in gets dissolved into the blood system. Oxygen is okay because it is absorbed by your body's tissues but the dissolved nitrogen is hazardous. Divers must ascend to the surface slowly so their bodies can adjust to the pressure and the nitrogen slowly starts to come out of solution. Rapidly ascending to the surface will cause the nitrogen to come out of solution quickly and forms bubbles. These bubbles can cause heart attacks, strokes, and rupture blood vessels in the lungs...I didn't learn any of that information from the slideshow, I have my high school anatomy class to thank for that bit of knowledge)
-The techniques they have resorted to in catching their fish are harmful to the ecosystem and to the safety of the people.
 1) Explosives- They set off explosives in the ocean to kill large numbers of fish and have them float to the surface to easy collect. This destroys a lot of the coral and other aquatic life and is extremely dangerous to the fishermen. The slide show showed a photo of a woman who lost her entire left hand and all the fingers on her right, along with what looked to be some damage to her left eye and cheek.
2) Potassium Cyanide-It makes the fish delirious and easily captured so they can be sold live to keep them fresh. The potassium cyanide is dangerous because it is pulled through the current and kills the coral and other oceanic life.
-They sell the fish to Hong Kong where they are worth much more money than the Bajau people get for them.
-The natives need to be educated on taking proper steps in oceanic conservation to preserve the Coral Triangle.

The slide show was not only informative, it was entertaining. Some great techniques were used to make the photographs and story come alive. Photos that were taken rapidly as a boy swam by with a fish were put in order and changed quickly to give the appearance that the photos were moving and you see the boy drift across the screen. The audio was also matched up well with visuals and the reporter provided natural sound breaks accompanied with visuals that made sense; an example of this would be when he used a photograph of an instrument a native was playing with the sound of the instrument as overlapping audio. There was also a time when the narrator was introducing a woman whose husband had died from the bends. Her photo was shown along with audio of her singing a sad sounding song in her native language. This gave her personality as well as set a sad tone for the fact that her husband passed away.

• CBS Atlanta

                                              Photo Gallery

I decided to check out CBS Atlanta's Photo Gallery and clicked on their "Must See Slideshows" (yeah I realize it says slideshow right there in the title but the top of the page says photo gallery sooo I'm gunna let that count)
Anyway, I decided to check out the gallery titled "Moose Stuck In Swimming Pool" Link.
I was able to click through multiple pictures and watch as the process of getting the animal to safety unfolded. There is also a caption under the photos that tells you were the incident took place, Manchester NH, and that the local police, firefighters, and fish and game were all there to lend a hand.
I think this photo gallery does a good job of telling a story. The caption provides me with the who, what, when, and where while the photos show me the 'how'. The crew of servicemen used roped to lead the moose out of the water.

• Final Thoughts

Both slideshows were able to tell a story but clearly the audio slideshow was designed to tell it better. The photo gallery I looked at was also good. It laid out the event that took place in a clear easy to understand manner but sound really does add to the experience. It provides mood and pulls you into the story. We're humans, the more stimulation we can get from our sources the better! A picture may say a thousand words but add a few more to that and you've got yourself a solid story.

Audio Slideshow Synopsis

For my audio slideshow I plan to do somewhat of a portfolio/interview piece on a Lyndon State sophomore, Lizzie Chenard. Art is a hobby and passion of hers. She enjoys things like making bracelets, painting, drawing/sketching, and graphic design. Her style is unique and she doesn’t tend to capture all things exactly as they are seen. She sometimes exhibits a fun and messy style that you might find in a children’s story book and other times a simple cluster of solid black lines on some white paper is enough for her to express her creativity. She herself is a really interesting person with fascinating views on life and the beauty that she believes is to be found in all things.

After having an interview with her, I would use her own voice as the narrative. The focus will be on her art and fascination with what she calls “pretty things”; to Lizzie a pretty thing could be some trash rolling around on pavement. As far as photos are concerned I intend to capture her room, which is basically a mini gallery for her art, and hopefully some shots of her at work.

My intended audience could honestly be anyone interested in getting to know a fellow student on campus as more than just another face in the halls. I feel that a lot of people take a least a little interest the passions of others; there’s something captivating about hearing someone express their view on a topic, or in this case a hobby. It may get someone to look at that trash blowing in the breeze, or a worm wiggling its way through some dirt in a whole new light. The photos from her fun, bright room alone should be enough stimulation to keep any viewer somewhat entertained. 

Slide Show

Podcast

College years are the time many students find themselves living on the Ramen Noodle budget.
Pinching pennies and living without become a way of life. Tuition, housing, and sheer lack of time are all contributing factors to the empty pockets, but there is hope if you know where to look for it.
The wonderful world of couponing opens the door to affording all of your favorite name brand commodities be it food, clothing, entertainment, or health and beauty care. Even with all of the obvious benefits and money saving possibilities coupons have to offer, many college students are a bit skeptical about the hobby, one student deeming it “a 35-year-old woman’s job.”
This is a surprising notion considering the recent booming popularity couponing has earned itself during the state of the economy. TLC has even awarded the hobby its own television show called Extreme Couponing, where men and women spend a countless number of hours clipping, strategizing, and pairing up their coupons to achieve the ultimate money saving game plan.
Oftentimes these devoted money savers will leave the store with multiple carriage loads and even more money than what they went in with. That’s right, some people can become so skilled in the ways of couponing that stores will be stuck paying them the difference of their savings versus the actual cost of a transaction.
Between classes, homework, studying, and actually having some form of social life in college, we can’t really expect students to get on such levels of extreme couponing. However, there is no reason why they couldn’t find the time to get a few coupons here and there to save a little extra money on their next grocery run.
This day and age we’re not talking about your mother’s couponing tactics of sifting through flyers with her reading glasses and trusty pair of scissors, no no we have the technology for that! There are a number of websites devoted to bringing the savings straight to you with the simple click of a button.
Couponsuzy.com is a wildly popular website with commercials airing on television informing people all across the country of the great deals awaiting them online. It’s very simple to navigate; you can search by category or brand. Its not limited to just groceries either, there are savings on health and beauty products, entertainment, and they also offer coupon codes that can be used at some of your favorite top name online stores like Sears, JCPenney, American Eagle, Walmart, and the list goes on and on.
On October 10 a few deals up for grabs are a saving of $2.00 on Aveeno hair care products, such as shampoo and conditioner, $1.00 off Smart Ones frozen entrées, or $2.00 off Listerine mouthwash.
The process in getting these coupons is as simple as a few clicks of a mouse. Each coupon has a small box in the lower right hand corner labeled “clip.” Clicking that will put a small check in the box. You can check off as many boxes as you want and when your finished click “print coupons” and watch as your money saving coupons spew out of your printer. Many stores will accept these coupons because the manufacturer makes them.
Couponsuzy.com is great for your everyday shopping needs but another website, Groupon.com, is great for more luxurious savings.
This is a website you need to subscribe to; once subscribed they will send you email alerts on possible savings you may be interested in. They have deals on hotels, jewelry, gym and yoga lessons, dry cleaning, spa treatments, fancy dining, and so much more.
The tricky thing about this website is that it’s a hit or miss. They offer certain deals at certain times and once that time is over the deal has passed. They also are not very Vermont or New Hampshire friendly. Most of the attractions are in large cities like New York.
If you are looking to treat yourself to a little get away, or maybe you need a gift idea for a friend this is definitely an interesting site to check out.

Practice With Embedding Audio

Yes the edit on this interview stinks, for the sake of time I just cut off the end to get it down to 2 min so i could actually learn how to embed it on a blog.

Podcast Outline

Julianne-Voice 1
Jill-?
Brian-Editing

*Note: these are the group member’s main rolls but everyone will take part in all processes that will go into the podcast. For example Brian will be head of editing but Jill and I will be able to voice our own ideas and add input.


Podcast Title
-Savvy Spending

Target Audience
-College students
-Young people living away from home

General Theme
-College students and young people first venturing out into the world on their own typically do not have much money. Sacrificing name brand goods in exchange for the cheaper bargain brands may seem like the only option; but in today’s world where the economy has everyone tightening their purse strings you can easily find ways around paying full price for your favorite commodities. Extreme couponing has become a new hit all across the country earning itself a television show on TLC. People go into supermarkets with envelopes full of coupons and come out with multiple carts full of good often times for all under $10!

-The podcast will not be suggesting all college students go to such extremes (because true coupon pros spend numerous hours a week hunting down their sales and lets face it students don’t have that kind of time) What we are suggesting is the concept that coupon clipping isn’t just for your mother anymore.

Podcast Topics to Cover on Air
-Do students at Lyndon clip coupons?
-Couponsuzy.com-In depth. We will break down the site. Explaining what it is, how it works, what it type of products you can get deals on (seriously like anything you could possibly want to purchase) and so on.

Plan Of Attack
Ask students on campus if they clip coupons to save some change. (providing a second voice)
then detail why its a good idea.

Podcast Critiques

Podcast #1- How I Met Your Mother Official Podcast

I subscribed to this podcast because I really enjoy the show. The podcasts talks about the show and gives some behind the scenes tidbits along with some actor/actress interviews.
I listened to a couple episodes. One was an interview with Alyson Hannigan that I really enjoyed where she talked about her career as an actress. The other was a couple of the actors explaining how they chose what their season was going to focus on and how they all barnstorm together to make the show good. There wasn’t much I didn’t like, I mean sometimes I did space out but if something funny happened I got sucked right back in.
I probably won’t listen to it again unless I’m like super bored, and it won’t make its way onto my iPod.

Podcast #2- Hypothetical Help with Scott Johnson and Mark Turpster

I subscribed to this one because I wanted to listen to some advice and I noticed it was labeled comedy so I thought it would be funny. They gave advice on long distance relationships in college, having a random hookup, and some guy who wanted to get his ex back. It was entertaining to an extent but I found myself drifting in and out of sync with it. It didn’t hold my attention mainly because I don’t think I would have taken their advice over something I could give myself. I might check them out again sometime if they are talking about non relationship advise, they too probably wont make it onto my iPod unless I someday hear a hilarious episode that id want to share with someone else.

Podcast #3- Scam School with Brian Brushwood

This one was by far my favorite. Unlike the other two podcasts that were strictly audio, Scam School was a video podcast. Basically it’s this guy who teaches you cool magic tricks, brain teasers, street cons, bar scams, etc etc. It was basically like a video joke shop. I really think I’ll be checking this podcast out again sometime it was really entertaining. Unfortunately I can’t put it on my iPod because a lot of the teaching is done visually and my ghetto iPod doesn’t play video.

Google Maps Project

The map we created shows 8 campus crimes that were reported to public safety within the last week. We discovered that 4 out of the 8 crimes took place in the freshman residence hall Whitelaw. What is this saying about who is committing the crimes on campus? Are there just an abundance of unruly freshman, or have the upperclassmen just learned how to work their way around the system?



View Crime on Campus in a larger map

Story-

A recent Google Map of Lyndon State’s campus crime shows that approximately half of a weekend’s worth of criminal activity took place in the freshman residence hall Whitelaw.
This map was only based on the dates of September 17-September 20 but still the amount of underage drinking and illegal use of marijuana raises some red flags. There was a smoking violation, two counts of underage drinking; one of those counts was accompanied with the marijuana use, and there was also a student who suffered dizziness due to a reported head injury. The creators of the Google Map began to wonder, what was the cause of this apparent unruly behavior in the freshman that doesn’t seem to show as much in the upperclassmen?
“It’s quite interesting [living on the first floor of Whitelaw],” remarked Matt Drew, a freshman electronic journalism arts major, “I would assume it’s because we have a new found sense of freedom.”
Drew went on to explain an average weekend in the residence hall, “the other night kids were up until like 5 in the morning. Someone called public safety on them. When they [public safety] came the whole suit reeked of weed. They just told the kids to go to bed.”
Go to bed? That was all the action that was taken? Well when public safety can’t actually pinpoint who did the crime no one can fairly be punished. This raises a new question; how much crime goes on that never gets reported?
“Wow I didn’t even know kids got busted that often around here!” said Georgia Cully, another freshman who lives in the residence hall, “I just assumed they all get away with it because there are still so many people doing it.”
Do these new freshman have no fear? Cully thinks that perhaps students feel invincible because they are finally off living on their own, mom and dad aren’t around to punish you anymore. With that being said is it something the first years will grow out of?
Drew thinks so, “I’ll be interested to see how many of these people actually make it back next semester… this is the sort of stuff that weeds out the bad eggs. The students that keep going clearly show more responsibility.”
This notion could be a plausible answer to the question brought up by the map’s creators regarding the behavioral differences between freshman and older students. The students who have stuck around semester after semester may be the ones who avoided such rowdy behaviors in their earlier years at the college, and still chose to abstain from such misconduct now.

CBS Atlanta VS. Fox 44

Alright it isn’t always easy to compare writing, especially if both sites are supposed to be on professional levels, but after reading a few articles from each I would say I enjoyed CBS Atlanta’s more. I feel like their writing was sharper and clearer on the facts where as with Fox 44 I was sometimes left trying to make sense what I read. In all fairness I only read 3 stories on each site, maybe they just weren’t lucky picks for Fox 44. While I’m on the topic of writing quality I figure this is a good spot to just mention that when it came to local coverage both sites did their job. I obviously found Fox 44’s local news more interesting because it’s VT based and closer to the demographic I fit in.

The videos on both sites were pretty good. I think I enjoyed Fox 44’s editing a little better it was smoother Id say.  It was also nicely paired with the writing. CBS Atlanta’s wasn’t bad, the content was there but the stories I watched, one on a dog being thrown into a dumpster in particular, were really choppy in regards of editing shots and sound bites and I wasn’t to impressed with it.

CBS Atlanta definitely wins my vote on having better slideshows. They have a whole page devoted to it; all I could find on Fox 44 was a slideshow of 80 some odd pictures in the upper right hand corner of the home page. It was small and I could hardly make out the pictures. It also wasn’t sectioned up into multiple slideshows based on the stories each was covering, which was the way CBS Atlanta had theirs and I found it much easier to navigate.

I would honestly just assume CBS Atlanta has the larger staff because their site seems more put together and organized. Usually organization requires a team to maintain.

nsnsports.net/nek Critique

The first thing that caught my attention on the homepage was the slide show of photos from the sporting events paired with a quick highlight of the game and a “read more” link that will take you to the full story. The stories are written well in my opinion. You get all the exciting and most interesting parts of the game in the first paragraphs, which is how sports articles should be written.  

Next I noticed their streaming schedule which is really neat and easy to follow. I happened to check the website as a live stream of a woman’s soccer game was going on and the quality was much better than I would have expected.

The last thing on the homepage that obviously catches your eye is all the Vermont based business ads. They aren’t overwhelming and they are professional looking so they don’t bother me the way some ads do.

When you’re done with the homepage and you want to look further into the website they have drop down boxes at the top of the page that are really good for narrowing down your search. You can go to a specific sport, high school, or college. They also have archives of old games they streamed. You can click from a list of games or you can search for a specific one. You can also shop their online store for DVDs.

There is another box you can click on that says blogs/columns where you will find just that, blogs. The writing in blogs can be more opinionated and I find that entertaining. It gets you thinking about your own opinions.

All in all there really isn’t much I’d change about this site. It really fulfills the task it sets out to do which is provide the public with local, regional, and national sports coverage.

Pimp My Blog

Alright so I didn't get too snazzy with my blog because I like things to be neat and not overdone; you could say I'm a strong believer in the idea that less is sometimes more. Anyway, I first went into the template designer and chose fonts and colors that I thought were appealing to the eye but also easy to be viewed. Then I went and found some fun little gadgets to add; note my adorable turtles and pendulum clock along the right hand side of the screen. I also added a photo of myself and filled in a little about myself and voila my blog is complete!

Writing Exercise 2

Accident At Subway Central

A 59 year old man suffered a fatal heart attack today after a car crashed through the window of a restaurant in the Roaring Creek Community. Poliece say the driver of the car's breaks faild as she swirved to avoid a pedestrian.


School System Restaurant

The Eatery on State street will be closing its doors at the end of this school year. The Ticonderoga County school system, responsible for operating the facility through its special-education program, will be saving around $20,000 to $50,000 with the cutback.

Writing Exercise

10 Commandments

A legal battle ensues over a display of the Ten Commandments in the Ticonderoga County Courthouse.

The defense argues that the plaintiff in the case has no grounds to sue considering he is not even a resident of the county and has only visited the courthouse once.

Dog Bite

A Midville dog strikes again, this time attacking a six year old child.

The dog’s owner, Gordy Jamison, is being ticketed for the dog’s second offense, the first offense took place a year ago.

CBS Atlanta Critique

One of the first things I notice when I look at this page is how organized it is. My attention will go everywhere if something isn't neatly put together. Articles are placed in specific groups like most popular stories, national and international news, daily lifestyle, entertainment news, etc etc. It makes it easy to narrow down your search.
There are also lots of videos and photos to click through that are also put into categories.

It wouldn't be a good website for this day in age of it didn't have a way to connect to social media! You can connect via Facebook, Twitter, smart phone, and email.

Something that really bothers me about the site is that I can see the same ad four times without even having to scroll! I get the point you want me to check out Health watch MD and I understand that ads help fund the site but the colors along the edges fo the screen distract me from the actual content in the middle.

 There is a small box where you can fill out your information and submit a news tip. This is a great way to get the community involved with the news.

I also like that they have an up to date community calendar.

All in all I find it to be a great and resourcful wabsite.

FitSugar.com Critique

 I absolutely adore this blog! It has everything from celebrity news, fashion, beauty, pets, sex and love life, entertainment, food, money, and so on and so fourth but of course my favorite part is it's health section! You can find anything so easily, the page is very simple to navigate. There are a lot of things happening on a single page yet it is still really neat and organized. You can read about celeb diets, watch videos of workout examples, pick up some healthy living tips and so much more. Also, like most other blogs these days, you can connect to other popular websites like facebook and twitter as well as being able to email interesting posts to your friends by simply clicking a share button!
They are clearly making their money off of their ads, but unlike some other websites where I totally disregard them these ads are actually things I would be interested in, it is more specific to the audience (typically younger women who care about their appearance) Check It Out!