Thursday, July 29, 2010

Recent thoughts and wanderings...

Life is busy, as usual. Work, fellowship, life...so it goes, on and on.

I had a thought a few moments ago, it made me laugh, then ponder.

"They say you shouldn't swim after you eat."

"They're saying to stay inside till the storm blows over."

"They say that causes cancer"

We use these types of phrases every day. I'm sure half of the time "they" is something we've read or heard from someone who heard it from someone. "They" seems to have a lot of credibility. After all, would YOU argue if "they" said something? It's almost as if we feel more credible ourselves if there is an unascribable person, with seemingly hours of research backing us up. How often do we say this? Is it a bad habit of passing on information as fact when we may not have
the whole story? I am guilty of doing this, are you?

Just a thought...

On another note, I moved again. This time, for the whole school year! I love my new room. Since I'm going to be an RA, I get my own :) It's still in progress, but here are some pics I snapped on my phone last night.




Tuesday, July 20, 2010

new stuff!

So, it's been a while again. Life has been busy, but nothing extraordinary. I am working at the Trib Lib Media Center, which is what my post is about mostly. I came across some awesome websites today, which I will share :)


The first one is www.aviary.com. It's like combining Garageband, PhotoShop, and other editing software for different mediums and putting it all online for free. It's great. I'm looking forward to exploring. They are even making it so you can order a DVD of your work, which you can get in on early if you contact them via the FAQ page.

Next is an easy and fun one, www.wordle.net. All you do it take text (Bible verse, lyrics to a song, document, etc.) and paste it into their creator. it turns the words into a piece of art. You can mix them up to a design and font you like. Colors can be changed too. Makes awesome art for any room/office space. Would also make a great gift that could be very meaningful. Here's an example made with a paper on astronomy by a pretty awesome person:
title="Wordle: black holes"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/2241643/black_holes"
alt="Wordle: black holes"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">



The third, www.xtranormal.com is just for fun. You can make videos with the animations they already have, but all hyou do is direct their actions, expressions, and words. It took me very little time to get my bearings and start a movie. I'm sure someone smart could figure out a useful way to use this.

Aside from checking out cool websites at work, I've been running a leadership camp, named LAUNCH, on Wednesdays and Fridays. The kids (ages 11-14) are great and have a lot of leadership potential. I have a blast doing crafts and activities with them. I am hoping they learn and have a great time. I want them to look back and remember this experience and go on to become leaders in their community. I was blessed so much in high school. I want to give back and this is a way I can. CNU gace me money through the Ferguson Fellowship to do this free of charge for these kids. It's as much of a learning experience for me as it is for them.
The added bonus is that my leadership professor is watching me tomorrow--talk about nerve wracking! She has been such an encouragement and champion for this project. I really could not have done it without her. Thanks Dr. Wood!

Pics of the kiddos