Fort Collins Drainage?

So is anyone else worried about the drain systems in our fair city? It seems like every time there is substantial rain the streets are flooded! I'm not talking a couple inches, there are streets where the water rises higher than the sidewalk along the street. The last major rainstorm a few weeks ago I actually saw people blow up rafts and set sail down plum! It looked fun, but really, after a history of flooding you would think the city would want a more efficient system.

Dateline "To Catch a Predator III"

I used the Dateline series as one of my main sources for my personal essay. Actually, it is quite entertaining to read or even watch if you caught the episode on TV. They add in the actual conversations of when these criminals are caught and what they say or how careless they are is humorous. Chris Hansen, who is the main correspondant for this story, has dedicated his time to catch these monsters and raise awareness for the community. Hats off to Dateline for their hard work!

To the south!

At this time of year, every year, I yearn to grow wings and join that mass procession of down and feathers to a warmer climate. You see, the cold and I do not agree. I am one who is infatuated with the warmth and color of summer months. The cold, its persistent needle sticking of frigidity is right around the corner. This weekend belayed its most obvious clues in the forms of leaves rustling and cool temps. I know many enjoy this time of year and for those people I ask how? How can you rejoice when you can barely operate your hands enough to lock your bicycle, much less remove your hands from the lock after locking it? How can you smile when the action leads your lips to their own cold rock hard cold frozen state? Please, if merry during cold weather accept the quick flutter of my eyes as acknowledgement of your greeting. I am not a Scrooge, I merely wish to keep my digits intact!

diploma dot com?

It came to my attention earlier this week that Cal Tech (yes the same Golden Bears who beat us earlier this year in football) have begun to offer videos of complete class lectures of some of its courses. Youtube is hosting the videos free of charge making them available to the international community at the click of a button. Upon further investigation, I found that Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, similarly posts professors notes to a significant amount of both undergraduate and graduate courses. Again, one of our nations and worlds leading intellectual bases is offering vasts amount of knowledge to anyone on the world wide web. I find it encouraging that these institutions have begun to offer this ability. Many may ask why? I, for one have no answer and also believe that the institutions themselves do not either. It is an interesting experiment, the results of which may lead to fascinating and innovate educational reform. I believe that humans have not the capacity currently to truly realize the potential of cheap and instant international communication. MIT and Cal Tech are attempting to exploit this fact and I believe that it will further our international knowledge through collaboration. I am proud and excited to be one of the generation that will attempt to utilize a great resource in order to further the society of man. Keep up the postings Cal Tech, MIT, and others, you are providing foothold for what may someday change the world!!!

Are we losing our minds?

I read the article from Wired Magazine, "Clive Thompson on Human Memory and the Outboard Brain." I feel he is making some claims without looking at the entire scenario. He claims that because of the Internet, we now longer are can remember as much as our elders. Some of his claims are I think have other correlations however that can account for the statistics which came up. Thompson says, "When Robertson asked his subjects to tell them a relative's birth date, 87 percent of respondents over age 50 could recite it, while less than 40 percent of those under 30 could do so." In our day, the popularity of online calenders and Palm Pilots have eradicated the need to put dates like this to memory. At the touch of a button, we can find out this information. I don't think that it is that we cant remember the facts, I just think that since we don't need to remember it, we don't put the time into trying. Thompson also says that, "And when he asked them their own phone number, fully one-third of the youngsters drew a blank." With the way cell phones are made, we no longer have to enter in the actual phone number of who we want to call, often times we have phone books within our cell phones which store the numbers for us. So unlike our elders who had to repetitively enter in phone numbers, we just don't have the repetition practice they did. I'm not saying that we aren't getting lazy, I'm just saying that we should look at the other factors involved before we make claims saying our memory is withering.

Dog Olympics

So I was walking my dogs today at the City Park off from Mulberry and I came across the Dog Olympics! Okay, so I was pretty excited. They had all these different events including speed, agility, and special trick competitions. We stopped to watch this competition to see which dog could stay the longest. Some of these pups were impressive, perhaps I am just biased because I have beagles and listening is not in their vocabulary. These dogs were able to stay with treats being waved in front of them, and the judges trying their best to distract them. I don't think my dogs would have lasted longer than about 2 seconds with the attention span that they have! It was a pretty cool event though, so if you have a well behaved dog, you should think about it next year, if nothing else, it was cool to watch all of the other dogs. Oh and here is a picture of Jake, I can't brag about one and not the other!

10 Criteria for a good website

1. Be sure to edit what you your website - Having grammatical and spelling errors is not only annoying to read but also loses the credibility of your website. It's not that hard to read over what you have written, and it makes a big difference to the readers.

2. Add pictures and figures in moderation- Graphics make websites more entertaining and often can add to the general message of what you are writing, but when you are making a website, you have to take into consideration how long it will take the average computer to download the image. If a reader has to wait too long, they won't stick around to read what you have to say.

3. Know your audience- It is difficult to read an article or about a subject when the vocabulary is over your head. It is also not credible to be reading about an academic subject and see incidences of slang throughout the text. When creating a website, be sure to cater the voice and vocabulary of the writing to the audience.

4. Make it user friendly- If a reader can easily jump from page to page and read about what they are interested in, they are more likely to explore the website. The use of links and proper organization encourages readers to further explore and keep them from getting bored.

5. Use appropriate text- Crazy fonts are great for getting the reader's attention, but if you are writing a 10 page essay, in order for a reader to get through it, the text needs to be easy on the eyes. An understanding of the purpose of the webpage will aid in the selection of text to best suit the reader.

6. Keep it short!- Readers tend to like to skim through long pages of text. If you want your point to get across, you need to keep your writing short and to the point. Another strategy is to bullet your text. This allows the reader to be able to pick out the most important points.

7. Extra Links- It is important to give your readers the ability to learn more about the subject. By providing a list of extra references, you not only increase your credibilty but you are also more likely to keep your readers happy.

8. Use attractive colors- If it is hard to look at, it will probably be hard to read from. Be sure to use colors that go well together and do not strain the eyes to look at. You also may want to consider what you want the mood of the webpage to be. This will decide whether you want brighter colors, or a more toned down scheme.

9. Be sure to have a focus to your site- It is important to have a reason for making the website. whether it is for research purposes or just for fun, being able to portray the purpose of the site is important. It is also important to stick to that subject so that you don't lose the interest of your readers.

10. Let your readers know who the author is- I am not saying to give out your personal information, but if an author takes credit for his/her work, the reader is more likely to believe that what is being said is credible.

Examples:
Good Website- Yahoo.com : This website is easy to navigate and gives links to various subjects. There are pictures to entice the readers and all of the articles are credited to an author.
Bad Website- http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/ : This website basically shows you how mistakes can go wrong. It is hard to read, the graphics are distracting, and they use motion that makes it hard to focus.