December 13th, 1994

On the day of my birth the Weather was cold. At least it was for the average Texan used to the warm, golden rays of the sun. What did I know? I was a newborn. What I do know is that I was born twenty minutes past midnight on a Tuesday. My mom doesn't let me forget it, "you should have been born on the twelfth, but you had to be lazy and make me wait those extra twenty minutes." Even my middle name serves as a reminder that I indeed should have been born on the twelfth of December and not the thirteenth, but let's not get into that mess. Let me talk more about what the day I was actually born on looked like.

The radio seemed to be fond of playing slow romance songs like Can You feel the love tonight? by Elton John, whose popularity on the billboard could probably be accredited to the prior release of The lion king that year. It seems that even back then songs from popular and successful films really stuck with people and made it impossible for them to let it go. And then there were songs like Meatloaf's well known I'd do anything for love, which were more upbeat but still on the topic of lovey dovey romance. Now that I think about it, not much has changed in the music department in 20 years.

Moving on to what people were probably wearing at the time (scarves and jackets obviously), a lot of  Trends that were big in 1994 seem to be resurfacing today. There were probably people sporting denim vests in rebellion against the harsh winter. It was a big year for denim after all. As the above Levi's ad demonstrates, it was trendier for women to wear jeans, any type of denim really, from overalls to vests. As for what my family was wearing: my mom was wearing her signature flowing and casual dress with a comfy t-shirt layered under it. And she was wearing one of those brightly colored windbreakers over it. One that matched the one my brother was wearing before he was dropped of at school later that day. My dad I 'm sure was sporting his dirty denim work jacket. The one he usually wore all year round.

The Magic School Bus had been released earlier in the year along with the ever popular FRIENDS series. The Magic School bus had released its 13th episode earlier that month title "Kicks up a Storm," so kids were talking about the weather, you know, small talk, and a teacher somewhere took the opportunity to teach their class about how the weather works. How great for kids to be getting shows that invested them in science right before I was born. And lucky me that I would get to enjoy this science-y show later on. Luckily, I managed to find the whole episode so feel free to watch the whole thing before moving on or after you're done reading. 

The Friends' episode was released two days after, not on the day of my birth, but close enough. It was the tenth episode in the franchise, titled "The one with the monkey," and was dedicated to New Year's. Well, it was definitely a new year for me. Considering how this show still manages to be fairly popular today, it's safe to say people were anxiously awaiting the release of the tenth episode on my day of birth. Friends is also a fairly good resource if you ever wanted an idea of what the 90's were like. Sadly I couldn't find the whole episode so you yourself could attest how great the show was, but I did find the beginning of the episode.

Also, some big name were just starting out during this time. Liam Neeson and Jodie Foster were going to star in the movie Nell. A movie about a young girl found to have been living by herself in the woods her whole life, away from society. The movie was released on the Wednesday following my day of birth, which means it was predicted to be overly successful in the box office. Only really special movies get to be released on Wednesdays, you know. Above is the trailer that was released for the movie. The quality really does scream 90's at you. Others in the movie industry that were just getting to make a name for themselves was Peter Jackson. He was just beginning to get recognition for his skills as movie director. This article to the right here talks all about a movie with creepy vibes that he directed and is praised for his work on it. That is to say, hipsters at the time were probably all about him.
Lastly, I guess I should mention some news stories, though it seems the 13th of December was a rather uneventful day, except for the plane crash that happened in California. Just a reminder that while some are celebrating life (my life in this case), some are mourning the loss of it. 

Bonus (what Yahoo page looked like in 1994):

Plain and Simple.

Well...I think that about describes the first day I spent on this earth. Thanks for reading!

Assignment 3: News Aggregator

Upon going through both news aggregators for a while I reached the conclusion that Google news is the better one as it was easier to navigate and not as overwhelming as Huffington.

Both have the same function of providing the audience with news, but each has their own way of doing so. One just happens to present its content in a much easier to follow layout, but before I get into that let me mention some of the similarities between the two. Upon visiting either website the first thing to catch the eyes is the current top story which is boldly presented front and center. The search bar for both webs is placed near the top of the page where it is easily visible and both have a plethora of news stories listed beneath the top story.

This is where the websites begin to stray from each other. The way the stories are listed beneath differ and honestly one does a better job than the other in listing the the stories in an organized manner:

 Huffington Post has its stories listed as seen on the left. Not very effective and a bit overwhelming for the eyes. It looks crowded and reminds me of those fishy looking ads from other websites that try to fish you in with curious headlines.
                                                             



Here on the right is a screenshot of the way news stories are listed on Google News. They are listed just like, well, a list, which is much easier to follow. It looks much more organized than Huffington and the stories are grouped together with other similar stories. Note the header that says World then has world stories listed underneath. That's a plus, as opposed to Huffington that seemingly just threw all the stories it could fit on the page together in a jumbled mess.

Next thing needed to be discussed is what happens when you click on a story that has piqued your interest. Google news opens the story in a new tab, Huffington doesn't. Honestly, it's preferable for a link to open up to a different tab, especially on a news website where one would have to scroll through and find the place where they left off if the story opens on the same page. It is arguable that Google does this solely because all of the news it presents comes from a different source, so by default it has to open a tab to said source as opposed to Huffington that is its own source. But, have you considered that Google could have just redirected itself to source website instead of going through the trouble of opening another tab for you? Because it could have totally done that and didn't. Good on you Google.

Another thing to note is the way the topics of news are presented. Google's is listed on the side as to where Huffington's is listed on top. When you click on a topic of news on the Huffington website it takes you to all the stories having to do with said topics. The stories are presented in the same way as they are on the front page, in a headache inducing mess. When you click on a topic on Google it lists all the stories pertaining to said topic in the same neat fashion as the home page.. In addition to this, if you look to the left again you'll see that under the topic you clicked on is now a list of subtopics. Neat! With this function Google gives users the ability to further narrow down the plethora of news they're given. They have given the user a sense of control with that.

Rolling off of that note, one of the things that stands out about Google News over the Huffington Post is the option of personalization:

The user is given more control over the news they are given with this option. The user can choose the sources they want news from and which topics interest them over others. The option of personalization is something that usually wins the crowd over.

So upon a bit of messing around on each separate website it is clear that Google is a much better news aggregator than Huffington. It has a neater, easy to follow layout and it gives power to the user, two of the most prominent specs for websites.

Assignment 2- Don't like anything on Facebook

I went about a week without liking anything on Facebook. Now my news stream is nothing but people with the occasional suggested post ad, which should be good. However, going through Facebook still gave me headaches.  It’s not just that I don’t like Facebook, but as it turns out, ads and other things I don’t want to see still make their way onto my news feed. How do these things still manage to appear before me? Via other people, of course.  It seems that there is no escape from this fate.

Because of the people that I have friended on Facebook, my news feed still finds itself plague with ads, quizzes, unsettling videos, and depressing posts with the caption “1 Like = 1 Prayer.” It’s pretty overwhelming. It was also difficult for me to continue scrolling without occasionally cringing or feeling irrationally annoyed. Facebook just found it necessary to let me know that my aunt is fond of liking pictures of sad children with missing limbs that are supposed to make you feel bad for missing limbs (thanks aunty, I’ll make sure to cut off my arm later.) and about how my ever distant friend liked the video a friend of theirs posted about someone being “comically” hurt and about the quiz that other friend took so I should take it, too.

This experiment did; however, make me wonder if any of my friends actually use Facebook as what it is intended to be used for: making status updates of what’s up with your life or posting song lyrics of that one song you really like or uploading pictures of that trip you took to Niagara Falls over the long weekend. It did actually take me close to an hour of scrolling before I got to what I would consider a personal post. Wonder what Facebook would end up looking like if no one liked anything. Darn that tempting “like” button.

So What I Found:

• ·         Less liking = More people
• ·         Ads and other unwanted things will still find their way to your feed
• ·         A re-established hate for Facebook
• ·         My brother is 65% bitchy according to that quiz he took
• ·         My newsfeed was mostly things others liked

Assignment 1

Tweet 1: Abortion restrictions, Clinic to reopen.

I feel this is a tweet that partially pertains to my rights. I am someone who is pro-choice and living in a state that is very anti-abortion. A tweet like this let's me know that there is still hope for this state to change its attitude toward abortions and there use.


Tweet 2: Bill Nye the Science POTUS

This tweet is just interesting. We've had so many presidential figures that tend to be conservative or very often involve religion when making decisions on laws. Take for example the above tweet about anti-abortion laws that most likely sprouted from religious beliefs. So imagine having a president that decides on what type of laws to apply to humanity based on Scientific findings.


Tweet 3: Jobs for 18-24

 This tweet also pertains to me. First off it lets me know that I am not alone in struggling for a job, so it gives me a sense of belonging. Second, it has a link to a situation I can relate to pertaining to the ordeal. It gives me a little more insight that I am not alone in dealing with student debt which only ever seems to stack up and that I am not the only one having troubles in finding a stable income to pay off said debt.