Tuesday, February 25, 2014

SEO Post #3/Intro to Spring Break

I must admit, finding a second group of topics to write about for this post was a bit difficult. So, instead of focusing on current events, I figured I'd write a bit about what's going on in my life instead of in the world.

As everyone knows, Spring Break is coming up, and tons of UF students are busy either studying for midterm exams or finishing getting in that last-minute beach body workout (except for me). Most of my friends are going on cruises to either the Keys or Cozumel, but due to recent events involving cruise ships, I'm opting to stay home and find some things to do.

There's usually nothing to do in Boca, and to some extent that's true. But, with the opening of two new burger restaurants (BurgerFi and Tucker Duke's in my hometown of Deerfield Beach), beaches, and being only an hour away from Miami, I've accepted that there may be some fun things to do!

But, another task that I have to tackle during spring break is applying to internships. Tons. And. Tons. Of. Internships. Which means that I have to work on my resume, which can be found here.

I'm hoping to stay in-state, but if anything else comes up out-of-state, I'm more than willing to relocate for any position that I receive.

Spring Break 2014 may be low-key this year, but I'm excited to see what the next week brings! Stay tuned!

Sunday, February 23, 2014

SEO Post #2

This week, some of the world's trends include the Daytona 500, the close of the Winter Olympics, and Justin Timberlake, especially after his performance with Jimmy Fallon on his show this past Friday.

First, let's start with the Daytona 500. It happened today at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The biggest story coming out of the 500 today would probably be that the race was halted due the the inclement weather sweeping the state, which was also definitely noticeable in Gainesville all day today. There are currently a couple of floods outside of my bedroom window.

The Olympics also ended today, with Russia winning the final medal count with 33 medals. The United States came in second place in the medal count with 28 medals. The other funny thing about today's Closing Ceremonies was that Russia was actually able to make fun of its technical difficulties during the Opening Ceremonies, forming this structure in today's event.

Another big story today is Jason Collins signing his contract with the Brooklyn Nets, making him the first openly gay player in the NBA. Before signing this contract, there hasn't been a single game in NBA history played with an openly gay player on the floor.

Finally, Justin Timberlake is making headlines after making an appearance on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show this past Friday night. Timberlake stopped by his friend's set to take a break from his 20/20 Experience Tour. The two performed a new installment in their "History of Rap" series, which is absolutely hilarious and definitely took me on a ride down Memory Lane (I grew up listening to a lot of these songs as a kid).

You can watch the "History of Rap Parts 1-4" here.

Also, I really just love Jimmy Fallon, especially when he's hanging out with Justin #BringJT2UF

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

A Step Back From the Serious


A lot of the news today has been full of death and destruction. So for this assignment, I chose to step back from some of the serious and not-so-happy everyday topics that we're faced with, and decided to take a more positive approach, because positive thinking equals a positive attitude!

One of my favorite websites to browse is Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed has proven itself to not only be a pretty legitimate news source, but it's just a fun site in general. It literally has something for everyone, whether it's a quiz or a post solely dedicated to food. A lot of the posts are relatable or downright hilarious, which makes it a great place for me to visit at any time of the day.

Recently, there's been a lot of talk about Jimmy Fallon's debut hosting the Tonight Show, including who his guests were, random famous people that stopped by, and "The Evolution of Hip-Hop Dancing."

Some other great posts obviously involve the Olympics. Currently, the U.S. is first in the medal count after lagging behind for a couple of weeks, so that's a great sign of achievement for our country. Seeing our athletes triumph, go for gold, set records, and make history.

Lastly, any post involving animals is a sure way to brighten your day, because who doesn't like little, furry creatures doing funny things?

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

The World of the Modern Journalist

The two videos below are just a couple of things that we, as journalists, may hear or see on a regular basis, whether it's a good snippet of sound from an interview, an intriguing quote, or something that's just plain out of the ordinary. What I really like about this CNN promo is that it's an advertisement for a news organization that already broadcasts its news 24/7 both on TV and on the Internet. It's interesting to me that a news organization with that broad of circulation would have its own YouTube channel for even more news. It almost begs the question of whether it's enough new or too much news, but upon browsing the channel some more, you're able to find things on the YouTube channel that are different from the news channel, such as more personal and one-on-one interviews.

The other reason why I chose this video is because the promo throws out adjectives at the viewer, captivating them into some of the aspects of what makes journalism so interesting and great. Words such as "childproof," "determined," "moving," and "revealing" speak to the viewer and kind of give them insight as to what the news is all about, because as journalists we should strive to make our stories as compelling as they possibly can be, and I think that those words accurately describe the world that we're working in.



The next video I feel speaks more to some of the obstacles journalists face on the job, especially when they're shooting live from the scene of wherever it is that the story is breaking. People are constantly trying to wave, get in our shots behind our backs, throw us off from doing our jobs, even "photobomb" us just so we can give them some sort of attention and put them on TV.

The following video is from the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore as he was reporting live from the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina during Winter Storm Leon, the storm that ravaged through the Deep South and left many under blankets of snow and without power for several days.



Cantore handles this encounter flawlessly, not to mention that the entire thing is absolutely hilarious. Just a bit of humor to brighten your day.

Until next time, friends!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

"Dont Make Me Think"

After reading "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug, I began to think about all of the different websites that I visit on a regular basis and how they correlate (or don't correlate) to Krug's guidelines and advice (since he doesn't like to call them "rules").

I believe that Krug is right in regards to keeping things simple and to the point with websites. No one, including myself, likes when things are too busy and are hard to find. It makes finding what it is that you're looking for a lot harder and, frankly, more frustrating. I began to recall certain sites in my mind where I had encountered this myself, and realized that he was right. Accessibility is key, and if you set something up that no one else can find and don't provide any answers or solutions, you're going to gain less views and customers.

Another thing that I've come to believe makes a good website is layout, especially when it comes to certain tabs and links. I can't count the number of times where the home button on a site was randomly displayed elsewhere or where a link for customer service or FAQs was hiding. Layout is indeed everything. I personally can't stand sites where there's too much Flash on it or too many tabs and features on the homepage (sorry, American Eagle Outfitters). I also can't stand it when I have to jump over 5,000 hoops to get a phone number or an email address, and I really can't stand it when sites have a contact page with no Internet or email contact (ie: Amazon in some cases, Chegg). If your layout isn't going to give your consumer what he or she is looking for, especially if he or she has an inquiry, then what's the point of having a site at all? Again, it all comes down to supply and demand, and most importantly, answers.

Finally, the part that I liked the most about the entire book was towards the end when Krug delved more into the accessibility aspect of a website, especially when it came to users with disabilities. My father suffered a stroke this summer and is completely paralyzed on one side of his body. My father also was one of the heads in charge of the IT department of Palm Beach County, so he knows his computers. To watch him not be able to do his work or to not be able to fix certain parts and use certain sites and piece things together like he used to is difficult, so this piece of the book definitely spoke to me because I feel that that's something that a lot of web developers don't really think about when they're putting something together, and that's "How can we make this so that EVERYONE can benefit and access our site."

Ironically, as my dad is slowly but surely getting back to work, this is one of the projects he's currently working on, because he wants everyone to be able to use and access a computer or website without feeling like they have to struggle with it just because they may have some sort of disability or impairment.

Overall, I feel as if I gained some more knowledge regarding web development and web building, and a lot of the points that he touched on were indeed agreeable, and I feel that going forward with this blog, I'm going to try to find ways to not make people think when they look at it.