Technology Poster Presentation

I thought this project was pretty cool. I really liked the technology I had come up with. It was a talk from TED that a friend of mine told me about. It is an idea to turn sand into sandstone to create walls to stop desertification. I thought it was very innovative. I didn't really know what was expected of us as far as the actual posters were concerned, because when I got to the room in the morning and everyone's looked a lot better than mine! Ah! So I wasn't sure if I had been mistaken or what. I was also pretty nervous, I am not great with talking to people, I get very self- conscious. It was really interesting to hear what other people had chosen to do their poster on. I really liked this one which was about vertical farming. I thought that was a great idea. The tweeting went very smoothly. It was nice to have computers in the room to use, because I can't get online with my phone. I think everyone in the class put in a lot effort into their projects.
Overall it was a good experience.



TED TALK:

http://www.ted.com/talks/magnus_larsson_turning_dunes_into_architecture.html

Idea Paint

Dry Erase boards are not just for schools and offices anymore! YAY!! Because I love dry erase boards. I love the way it is so easy and smooth to write. So when I came across this company that has made it so you can paint your entire walls to become dry erase I thought it was awesome! I've also heard of paint that can make your walls magnetic and into chalk boards...I think when I have a house of my own, I'll have a room where every wall is each of these things...that would be great!





HERE IS THE WEBSITE!:

http://www.ideapaint.com/site/ideapaint_home.html

PS 22 Chorus

Okay so this doesn't really have anything to do with technology, but I love these kids! They are a choir from a New York innercity school who have become a youtube sensation! They have sung for many celebrities, even the president!!! They have even helped out on an album with the band Passion Pit.
I could listen to them all day! The songs the teacher chooses to have them sing are genius!

The have sung:
Lady Gaga
Beyonce
Jay-Z
The Cure
Stevie Nicks
Alicia Keys
Tori Amos
Journey
Regina Spektor
Coldplay
and Many more!!!
You have to check these guys out!
Here are a few of my favorites:

Fashion and Technology

I love fashion. It is pretty shallow, and maybe meanless when you get right down to the important things in life, but never the less, I still admire it. Some things that I see when looking at certain fashion sites are outrageous and stupid, and also they can make you think. Like the legs worn by Aimee Mullins, which were designed by Alexander McQueen, which I had seen on a fashion site long before I saw her TED talk.
Fashion and Technology go hand in hand I think. You can not have advancements in fashion without technology. I saw on one website a pair of shoes that had a nintendo game boy in the heel, so you could just pop it out and theoretically play anytime. Whether this is a viable thing to do, who knows, but the fact that someone thought of it is cool.


Another cool cross between fashion and tech is light up dresses. I've seen light up dresses before but none like the one at the Chicago Science and Industry Museum.


Here is another pair of shoes that is amazing by Christian Louboutin

New Moon & other movies to look forward to

So I need to write a little bit about movies. I did see New Moon....haha...make fun, that's fine. I don't deny that it is a silly book and sillier movies, but I can still be a fan. I'm a fan in the way that I hate to love them, and love to hate them. But the whole phenomenon of Twilight in general is fairly crazy. The actors and actresses in the movie have become global celebrities in a matter of a year.

Movies that I am looking forward to seeing this winter:
The Lovely Bones: I read the book a long time ago and it was depressing. I really didn't like it when I read it, but when I heard Peter Jackson was directing the movie I was definitely interested. After seeing the trailer I can't wait to see it. Of course stupid me, I read some early reviews of it and they are just so-so. So I can't read anymore, I don't want to ruin it before I see it. I am really looking forward to seeing Saoirse Ronan play the main character. She was in Atonement, and was brilliant.



Another movie I want to see is The Road: I also read this book. And even though it is a very sad apocalyptic tale, I really loved the book. It was written in a way that I had never read before.
In the movie, one of the main characters is played by Viggo Mortenson, who is a great actor. He always puts himself 100% into whatever role his is playing.

The last one that I am really looking forward to is Up in the Air:
George Clooney can basically do no wrong. He always chooses movies that are perfect for him. This seems like it is going to be really good. One of the women in the movie with him is also in the twilight series, which I think it kinda funny, but also great. Just by the previews it looks like there are some great performances in the movie.

Trip to Indy

I went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum not long ago with my sister. I had been dying to go, because I wanted to see a few sculptures from this famous glass artist named Dale Chihuly. I love his work. It is so amazing. Once on PBS they had a miniseries about his team and how they made all the different types of sculptures that they do, it was so beautiful. I think glass is much a great medium. The pictures I took of the work doesn't really do it all justice. You have to go for yourself.

The first is a giant sculpture that is 3-4 stories tall. The other is a bunch of glass pieces that are made to look like marine species, which are in the ceiling. So if you lay down, you can feel like you are under water.

I haven't traveled a lot in my life. I've been to the west coast once, and to one other country. I went to Scotland (yes, technically not it's own country...but don't say that to a scot) a few years ago to visit a friend studying abroad. I loved the whole experience of traveling. I want to see the world. One thing I'd love to do is to go to remote places that few have been to.

I would also love to go camping one day. I can't believe I have never been. I've never even camped out in my back yard! This summer I had had a plan to go camping bymyself in a state park in Wisconsin for a week. Well I really was going to do this, but my dad had a heart attack and that changed my summer plans. I love to read national geographic adventure magazine and their website......which I was just browsing on and I came across an ad for some winter boots....
boots unlike any I had ever seen! They are heated, and you can plug them in to a wall socket!!
This is awesome and crazy both at the same time! If I were a serious camper (which I'd love to someday be) I would buy these! How perfect for those unbearably cold winters in northern states.

Here is the ad: http://www.columbia.com/Bugathermo/Bugathermo_Landing,default,pg.html&mid=onadv&eid=boot_banner&nid=F09onadv_ecom&did=10132009&uid=

So they are pretty expensive, but I think this is something that would be worth the investment!

Sunday 11/8

About a week and a half ago I went to see the founder of Tom's shoes speak at Purdue. His company sells shoes, and for every shoe bought, they give a pair away to a child in need. They have given shoes to thousands of children all over the world. Some of these children have never had shoes before. It was such an amazing speech he gave, inspirational.
It makes you want to go out into the world and make a difference and change a life.
I would love to be involved in an organization like this. They have internships, and I am thinking of filling out an application. I doubt I would even be considered, but it would be an amazing experience. I would thrilled to work for a company like this.

Our technology pitches are coming up this week. My group came up with an idea already, but I just thought of a different one. I've actually thought about it before.......see I dream a LOT....and my dreams lately have been very vivid. I had one recently where I won an Emmy! (I wish!, haha) It felt so real in the dream......the point is I wish I could remember more. I would be the first person to buy this technology if someone could invent a machine or device to record dreams. I would love to re-watch/re-experience my dreams after I have them. I had two just the other night that were so bizarre, but also SO detailed, but of course I couldn't remember all the detail. I think a lot of people would be interested in a technology like this. My brother, who died 5 years ago in a car accident, has been in several of my dreams the past years, and if I could go back and re-experience my dreams with him in them, that would be wonderful!
I guess I can only hope that someday someone smart enough will invent this.

So I've watched a lot of movies lately. In the theater I saw Whit it and Bright Star. Both were really good. Whip it was entertaining, maybe a little sappy. It made me and my friend interested in roller derby. Bright Star was a little long, but visually beautiful. The story was total romance, something I just love. I just completely fall for the romance of period films, "we love each other but can't be together" struggle is really appealing to me for some reason. It is about a love affair thatthe poet John Keats had toward the end of his life. The acting was also really great. It was directed by Jane Campion, which in my opinion is an amazing director, and there should be more women directors.

I've also gotten several movies from the library lately. An unending source of movies for free!
One of them was also directed by Jane Campion, The Piano. I liked the directing, but didn't love the story as much as Bright Star. The sad part is pretty much all the movies I watched just seemed mediocre to me.

Also this weekend I went to 9 Irish Brothers and saw a band named Searson. I've seen them a few times before. It was so much fun, my friends and I even got up and danced!

I've tried and tried to think about what to write about for this blog, so there is some sort of a theme, and that I will hopefully be doing this blog the way we are supposed to. I think I have thought of a fairly good idea, to write about movies and television. I love both. My family just grew up watching a lot of TV and I have always loved movies. I can write about what movies/tv I've seen lately and about the communication in the them.

I saw Whit It on friday night. It was directed by Drew Barrymore. It was very entertaining. I liked it a lot. It was about a girl who found herself and her passion through roller derby. (Side note: Lafayette has a roller derby team! I thought that was pretty cool, and they are having a match this coming saturday, and I believe I will be going.) Anyway the main character didn't communicate very well with her mother, because her mother kept pushing her to do pageants, something which she did not want to do at all. The music for this movie was reallllly good. I think the right soundtrack is just as important as the right casting or director.

Another movie that I re-watched this weekend was Slumdog Millionaire. The soundtrack is amazing! It is such a beautifully told story of two people trying to find their way back to each other. The main character Jamal can only communicate with Latika via the TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He knows she'll be watching. In a city of millions they keep coming back to each other one way or another. I can't stop watching this movie!

I've been watching a lot of period movies and mini series lately. All in the 1700 to 1800's. I love Jane Austen and I have been re-watching many those movies. I started watching the mini series of Tess of the D'ubervilles, and also re-watched The Duchess.
I was thinking about the contrasts between now and then. Communication during these times was so different. The time you would have to wait for news to reach you. It was incredible. If you were a woman, you usually could not write to a man, unless he asked if he could write to you first. So many things were miscommunicated because you couldn't just come out and say what you felt. You wouldn't be able to walk up to a guy and say "I like you". You couldn't even hardly, if ever, be alone with a man. All communication would happen in the company of others, at parties, dinners, and other gatherings.

I think I love Jane Austen partly because of her happy endings. I know that when I read one of her books, that even though there are hardships, that in the end the heroine will always end up happy and in love. In all her novels the writing of letters between characters is so important. Can you imagine waiting days, weeks, or months, to hear word from the person you love? or even a friend. So much can happen in that time. Today there are dozens of ways to talk to the people you love everyday. If you want to talk to someone on the other side of the world all you need to do is get online. I have not personally used Skype, but I hear great things about it.
I watched most of Tess of the D'ubervilles, but I couldn't finish. The main character Tess, she kept having the worst things happen to her. She was an innocent young woman who was taken advantage of, because of one incident her whole life was changed for the worse. I was deeply saddened by her story. Even though it is a fictional story, it could have been true. What the women of those times had to go through could be horrible. It makes me feel very lucky to live in the time I do.

Okay so even though the times could be tough back then, I still would love to go back to that time period in a second........just for a little visit :)

What's been happening

Went fishing on last Sunday afternoon with my dad. We go in the creek at our farm. I got 3 or 4 nibbles but only caught one. One tiny sad little fish, I felt bad b/c he was so small! Dad thankfully took him off the hook (he always does, b/c I can't deal with that part) This isn't why I don't take the fish off the hooks, but when I was 5 I got a fish hook in my thumb! It got caught on my dress, I didn't know what it was so I tried to brush it off. Well I brushed it into my thumb! It went in one side of my thumb and out the other!! My parents rushed me to the hospital, which took about 2o minutes, the whole time I'm screaming my head off! All turned out well, the doctors took it out, and my parents bought me ice cream afterward.
It was really great to be away from technology and noises, and to just be out in the country. Very calming and peaceful.







Tuesday night I went out with some friends and I sang Karaoke! I've never done it before, but have always wanted to! My friend Katie and I sang Hall & Oates "make my dreams come true"
we wanted to sing a beatles song, but they didn't have it.

Thursday I went flying with my dad at Lafayette Aviation. He is a retired pilot. It was great, except as soon as we took off my head started to hurt so much! It kinda ruined the whole time for me, but I was still glad I went. Then later that night I had my astronomy lab and it was the first time we got to go outside to look at the stars. We charted constellations, saw the milky way galaxy, jupiter, and the andromeda galaxy. I saw two shooting stars! Such a beautiful night!

After school today, my mom called and said that a family friend would be flying through Lafayette. He couldn't land, due to some law about government contracts and gasoline. So He just did a few touch-and-go's. I saw him fly over our neighborhood in the T-4 he was flying.
That was very cool.

Now I'm just trying to decide what to do for dinner.....I'm SO hungry....Bruno dough sounds good

First Blog

Congratulations to me, I successfully created my first blog. It may get some getting used to, I am confident all will turn out well. I'm kind of excited to start this, even though I am not sure how interesting it will be. Hopefully I will become more proficient in blogging over time. This blog was created for my Communication & Emerging Technology class at Purdue.