"Describe the day you were born"

On April 22nd, 1991 at exactly 10:51pm I was born at a hospital in Aurora, Illinois about an hour west from Chicago.  At that time up north still has pretty cold weather unlike here in Texas.  I tried to ask my parents what they remember about that day besides me being born, but they couldn't remember anything besides the weather.  The day itself is an actual holiday that even to this day a lot of people I talk to about it are unaware that Earth Day even exists.  Brief Earth Day history: The idea came from Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1969, in order to bring awareness about the planet being at risk.  It became an official holiday in 1970 and went global by 1990.  This video is actually from 1970, the first official Earth Day, I thought it was pretty cool how people protested and celebrated. It was and still is a very serious day.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/67649


World News on April 22, 1991

The president, at the time George H. W. Bush, announced that "The United States would initiate what soon became the largest U.S. relief effort mounted in modern military history. Such an undertaking was made necessary by the terrible human tragedy unfolding in and around Iraq as a result of Saddam Hussein's brutal treatment of Iraqi citizens."  Of course and unfortunately this event took place longer than just one day, but there was constant breaking news throughout this time.

Many Kurds fled a Saddam onslaught in 1991.

Another tragic event that happened on this day, and earthquake with the magnitude of 7.6 hit Costa Rica killing about 80 people, injuring hundreds, and leaving thousands homeless.  The earthquake was also felt in Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Colombia.  It also caused landslides and tsunamis adding even more to the damage.  Estimated cost for all the damage in Costa Rica was about 43 million U. S. dollars.

Technology News on April 22, 1991

Intel releases new 4865x processing chip and along with that IBM introduces two new personal computers priced from $8,345 to $12,695 depending on the size of the hard drive.
I don't know how "fast" that processor might have been at the time, but what I found most interesting was the actual price for a personal computer.  Nowadays you can buy laptops or desktops for as low as $200 dollars, that's pocket change compared to what they used to cost.  My generation definitely takes these things for granted, and they only care to get the best and fastest technology out there.

Another piece of technology that was being announced on this day was "VCR+" which could now help you program and record your favorite TV shows.  I thought this was pretty fancy.  Nowadays people do this very same thing, but on their DVRs rather than on a VHS cassette.


Entertainment News/Facts on April 22, 1991

In sports, White Sox player Frank Thomas is the first to hit a home run at the new Comiskey Park in Chicago.  Even though I am actually a Cubs fan, I found this interesting since I was so close to the city and I love baseball.

The top 3 shows on this very day by ratings were: Cheers, 60 Minutes, and Roseanne.
This was another fun fact I learned, because Roseanne was actually one of my favorite shows to watch later on in my middle school/high school years.

I learned that a song I actually know only because I have older friends that showed it to me randomly, was on the Top 40 Charts on this day.  The song is by Enigma and it is called "Sadness- Part 1", the video is rather creepy, but the song is odd to begin with.

Yeah... I still can't believe I've heard this on some of my friends mp3 players.


I learned a lot of cool things that happened this day, I just wish that my parents had more stories to share.  Everything I did learn, I wasn't aware of at all before doing the research.  I probably found the Earth Day history and what was going on in Iraq the most interesting, it made me want to know more about it.

Assignment 3

I don't read the news everyday, but when I do want to get information on what is going on, I usually go to CNN for it. Therefor this was my first time even looking at the websites for both Huffington Post and Google News. If it had came down to the "look" of the site, I automatically had Huffington Post in my mind as the winner, but you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. After analyzing both websites and clicking on links of what might interest me, it was then very easy for me to choose Google News as the better news aggregator. Their whole setup and organization just seems so much more professional and gets to the point of what one is actually looking for.

At first glance, the Huffington Post website looks more appealing and organized than Google News, using different fonts, sizes and color choices. Honestly, the only thing I liked about the Huffington Post was their blog like layout and choice of font. Once I started to scroll down the page and click on different links, each page was overwhelming with even more links and pictures and headlines that were odd and didn't make sense at times. It didn't take long for me to almost hate it, it is definitely not a site I would go to get serious news from, to me it was almost like going on Facebook for it. The reason I say that, is because it is hard to take a news story serious and believe it, when right next to it you have another story completely off the wall and most likely not true.

Another thing I didn't like about Huffington Post was that every time you do click on a link it takes you to another page but it is still the Huffington Post website. So if I want to go back to the home page I either have to click the back button or their 'Front Page' button to get there, which also makes it harder to open up different stories at the same time. Google News on the other hand opens up a new tab for each story or link you click on which is highly convenient. So of course it still being Google, it gives you different links to that story so you can choose what news site you want to read it from i.e. CNN, Fox News, CBS News, USA today, etc. I like having these options right in front of me and it makes it easier to navigate from one story to another on different sites.

Although at first, seeing Google News' homepage seemed more overwhelming to me, it really wasn't. It only seemed that way because of how they have everything layed out on the page. They have more of a list of things in which you may be interested in, from top stories to world news, technology, sports, health, etc. They have less and smaller pictures to go along with their links, which makes it less of a distraction, unlike Huffington Post having a picture for almost every single story they post. Google News is definitely the better news aggregator because the amount of links from news stories they share including real time coverage. As I mentioned before, I like how organized Google is and the options they give me for different news sites without me feeling overwhelmed with information. On Google News I feel like I'm the one in control of what I want to see and/or read. Huffington Post makes me feel the opposite, they have scattered information and at times it feels as if they are throwing all this information in your face all at once, making me not want to read anything at all.

Assignment 2: Don't 'like' anything

I have a love/hate thing for Facebook, but mostly hate. It is just a social media site where most people,  probably including most on your "friends" list go when they are bored. A lot of people who are on there constantly, almost as if they have nothing better to do, are just there to be nosy and gossip and complain about everything pretending like they actually mean the "Congratulations" or the "Happy Birthday". Some people just like to stay "relevant" to your life when they were just someone in your high school graduating class. I personally only have a Facebook to stay in touch with my family members who live in other states and also in Mexico. I had deleted it at one point for almost a year and did fine without it.

Therefor, I decided it'd be easiest for me to NOT 'like' anything on Facebook for the past week. Though I do get on when I have down time or yes, if I'm that bored I still scroll down, like a few status', read any links that catch my attention and from time to time I'll post a status. I did catch myself a couple of times really wanting to like something, simply because I REALLY did like what someone posted. I checked my Facebook at least once a day to see if anything changed drastically from me not liking anything, and honestly I saw no difference in how posts were arranged on the timeline. The most liked or commented on posts were usually still at the top whether they were from an hour ago or two days ago. I think there might have been more noticeable differences on my timeline if I had done the experiment for a longer period of time.

Assignment 1

A few days ago the Dallas Morning News tweeted a link for "30 can't-miss fall festivals coming up in Dallas-Fort Worth", this immediately caught my attention and I was curious to see what was in store for this season. This list includes the Dallas Chocolate Festival, Oktoberfest, Fiesta Latino Americana, Cottonwood Art Festival, Dallas Comic Con: Fan Days, and of course the State Fair of Texas. Fall is definitely my favorite season and I highly look forward to hopefully being able to attend most of these festivals.