Websites that suck!

In class we have been discussing the in's and out's of websites, such as what can help make a website good and what can make one not so good.  Also, to help get a better understanding of how to design our webpages or in this case how NOT to design them, we looked at others work on webpagesthatsuck.com, which is full of many websites that you would not want to replicate.  This site truly lives up to its name.  I could not look at many of these sites for more than two minutes without inheriting a terrible headache or even just getting pissed off at the creators.

One of the websites I analyzed was for the Microsoft version of the iPod, called the Zune.  This website was one that really frustrated me as a user.  It was difficult to use and to really seemed more of like a maize.  I found myself scrolling around and clicking, while getting no where.  I did not find any information while on this webpage and to be honest, I lost interest while looking over this site and just wanted out! That probably isn't the vibe that websites are trying to give off when being viewed by the public.

Many of the sites I also looked at just had terrible color combinations and flashing lights everywhere.  It was almost as if the creators of these sites did not give any effort or thought about what was going on their site.  The first moment I glanced at any of these sites I immediately exited out and that is when my head started pounding.  It was just terribly unappealing to the eye and really fit the description of webpages that suck.

Fracking

Fracking is an issue that is very unknown to many, but happens to be a very serious issue that all should be aware of.  This issue of fracking is happening all over our country.  Gas companies are attempting to locate natural gas or what can be called Shale Gas.  The marcellus shale contains natural gases.  In order to retrieve this gas, it is necessary to dig deep down into the earth's crust which is called fracking or the more official term would be hyrdaulic fracturing.  By digging into the earth's crust with drills, the breaking of the land and rocks within the ground allow the natural gases to extract.  During this procedure, the ground water gets contaminated with natural gas.

This can be very dangerous and many be feel should not be allowed.  Actually, in many communities across the United States fracking has been banned.  Fracking can contribute to contamination in areas of our country.  When fracking takes place, it can run up into the water sources such as lakes, ponds, and even well water.  With the use of these chemicals it is polluting the environment and becoming disturbances within communities.  It has been said that sometimes as people turn on their sinks or showers at their homes, fire is coming out rather than water.  For many obvious reasons you can understand how this would be extremely dangerous.  The process of fracking is dangerous, polluting our environment and beautiful communities, and simply just a disturbance.

No Impact Man

The documentary film No Impact Man is about a man named Colin Beavan, who with his family contributes no impact towards our planets global warming.  This man pledges that he and his family will avoid producing any trash or using any electricity for a year.  He also states that they will only be traveling by foot or bicycle and will only be eating organic locally grown foods.  Colin and his family live in New York, which potentially made this task a lot harder.  The state of New York and primarily New York City take pride in their advancement and high usage rate of electronics.  With consistent traffic in the city and buses. taxis, and trains constantly available it must have made things difficult as the family used scooters and bicycles to get from place to place.

After living in today's world, it is bizarre to think about the past when technology was not as advanced or readily available to the public.  Cell phones weren't around, laptops didn't exist, and that is only some of it.  Today cell phones rule the world, so to speak.  You can look around at any given time, for the most part, and you will notice a large amount of people using there phones, ipods, some electronic device.  Imagine today going one day without your cell phone. Just one day and I can guarantee people will feel lost.  We rely on these things way too much today.  We are taking this these for granted and will never truly realize this until we have lost it all.

Throughout the film, you notice changes taking place within the family.  For example, the family must find new ways to entertain themselves, where they won't just be turning on the television or popping in their ipods.  They have learned a lot over the course of this year and besides just becoming more environmental friendly and not relying on technology as much, they have come closer together as a family.  This family made a statement and helped our planet and even made life changes of there own throughout this time.

Tree Hugging

Tree Hugging

On Friday April 26, 2012, I can say for the first time in my life that I have officially been tree hugging.  It was an experience that I was very unsure about at first, but will never forget.  Our class went to Tanglewood Nature Center, where the tree hugging went down.  This environmental activity was quite enjoyable and placed our class in a setting we may not be familiar with or use to.  Before we began the tree hugging, we partnered up and discussed the rules.  We started the activity by blindfolding our partners and taking them on a path to a tree to your knowledge only.  Then, the partner who is blindfolded would spend ten minutes with their tree, just getting familiarized with it so they can later identify the tree they were assigned.  After the ten minutes were up, everyone met at one central location and the blindfolds were removed; in which the students who were assigned a tree would try and retrace the steps they took and identify the tree they were assigned.

My partner for this activity was Alex Todd '13, aka 'Moose' and he incorrectly identified his tree the first time, but the second time he was successful.  I attempted to confuse Alex while walking him to a tree by walking in many different directions and occasionally stopping and spinning him around, which I'm assuming worked to perfection.  I was in the second group to be blindfolded and I was successful on the first attempt.  I concentrated on the direction in which I was facing, but that didn't really help as much as I would have liked.  This experience was memorable and pretty exciting as well.

Global Warming

An Inconvenient Truth

The film An Inconvenient Truth which was directed by David Guggenheim, is based on Former United States Vice President Al Gore's attempt to publicly recognize and educate of the worldwide issue on global warming.  When this film was released, it was both highly praised and highly criticized.  While watching the documentary I thought to myself how it was very factual and informative, but I had to consider whether or not everything was true.  Also, several thoughts arose that I felt should be considered while watching the movie.  I remember years ago when Al Gore was running to be President of the United States, only to come up short behind George W. Bush Jr.  Therefore, I felt there was potential or the possibility of Al Gore's motive behind the construction of this film, was to gain public attention and set up another run towards presidency.  That may not truthfully be the case but it may be something to consider.  His motive could have been just to spread the awareness and seriousness of global warming and how us citizens can make an immediate change.

Global warming is more or less the radiation from the suns rays being trapped in the atmosphere, which is then making the atmosphere thicker as it is warming the earth.  As mentioned in the film, the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the higher the temperatures.  Roger Revelle was the first to measure the carbon dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere.  According to climatecrisis.net, the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil can contribute to the high level of carbon dioxide as well as the higher temperatures in our atmosphere.  This 2006 film was awarded for Best Documentary.  The cite mentioned just above can be very useful in learning more about global warming, as well as the film itself.

This is me

My name is Derrick Vogel and I am a junior at Elmira College in Elmira, New York.  My major here at EC is criminal justice, though I am not certain what I wish to do in the future.  I am a member  of the Elmira College Men's Basketball team and have been the starting point guard since my freshman year.  I am currently 20 years old and will be turning 21 on May 21.  My hometown is Bel Air, Maryland, which is only minutes north of Baltimore.  I love my hometown and wouldn't mind moving back there when my schooling is all said and done.  To me it feels pretty isolated and away from a lot of traffic, but at the same time there is enough going on where it doesn't get boring.

The course www.women sounded very appealing to me when selecting third term classes for several different reasons.  First of all, a few friends of mine were enrolled in the course last year and had nothing but good things to say about it as a whole.  They proceeded to tell me how great of a time they had.  Also, while recommending this course my friends continued to tell me how great of a person Professor Maluso is, and that I would not regret signing up for this course.  In addition, the course is six credits, therefore I would only be taking one class for the next six weeks, rather than two.

I am a very environmental friendly person.  As a child, I spent countless hours outside just wasting the day away, whether it was playing sports, hiking through the woods, or just roaming my neighborhood.  For example, when growing up, the second I got home from school I would drop off my bookbag in the house and immediately head outside.  I would then be outside until my parents called me in for dinner, in which I rushed to finish and was back out the door.  Now that third term is amongst us, I am hoping for great weather, preferably as warm as can be.  The weather here in Elmira to me isn't very favorable.  It seems very inconsistent and as soon as it starts getting warm and gets your hopes up, it seems to snow the next day.  I am ready for summer!