Thursday, November 17, 2011

Literary Magazine Finds

PINKY by Patric Perkins: When I was a kid I wish I had a stuffed animal that would protect me like the bunny did for the main character! It would have saved me a lot of tormenting from my brothers.
THE LAST ACCOUNTING by JR Hume: The loyalty of the dog, Toby, makes me both sad and happy at the same time. Because of the dog waiting for his boy for a such a long time, the boy may have forgotten him, but the dog still has faith in his boy.
THE GHOST by Barbara Donnelly Lan: Uh... Just... I don't even... My brain hurts.

                                                                                                                                                

I've always been fond of reading, and finding short stories online like this makes me happy. I'll probably end up going home tonight and reading more of these. There are a lot to sort through, and not all of them are as good as others, but reading is reading...

Links for class

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Literary Magazine

Summary: On the website Every Day Fiction, there is a story, Your Luckiest Day, in the form of a letter full of advice from an older brother to a younger brother.


           The short story Your Luckiest Day, by Douglas Campbell, is in the form of a letter from an older brother, Pvt. Landon Pickett, to his younger brother, Rory Pickett. It starts out talking about how Landon is proud of Rory for doing wonderful in school and how Rory has a steady girlfriend, Lynette Samuels, and all that stuff, but then Landon says that he heard from his mother that Rory wanted to join the army. He says in his letter "you’re all on fire to sign up for this war next month when you turn eighteen. I’m writing to ask you, little brother — no, to beg you — not to do that. Oh, I know those recruiters, the things they tell you: how the girls will love you in your uniform, how your country needs you now. Well, let me tell you a few things."
            Landon goes on to describe several things… How there are no women like Lynette in the army, how uniforms only look so good for a little while then they get really gross, the horrors of war, how Landon is lucky to have just lost his leg and not his life, as well as how he made a terrible mistake when he joined the army by not marrying his sweetheart beforehand. 
            Landon’s last full paragraph in the letter is the really powerful, and is difficult to even attempt to restate, so here is a direct quote. “So I know I’m not the best person to be giving advice, lying here with my strength gone, my sweetheart gone, half a leg gone. But I feel qualified to give one piece, and here it is: Rory, your luckiest day, your luckiest hour, your luckiest minute is the one you’re living right now, the one you’re holding in the palm of your hand. Don’t you dare do what I did. Don’t toss happiness aside and go off chasing a pack of blood-soaked lies, thinking everything will be the same when you come back. If you’ve got happiness right there in front of you right now, for heaven’s sake, grab it. Grab it with both your hands and hold on tight. Because it can disappear quick as a rainbow.”

Monday, November 7, 2011

Reviewing A Web 2.0 Tool v2

"A tool for taking notes on your computer.
Create a workspace and create notes in the workspace. You can save your workspace at any time and return to them from the same computer or any other computer. You can also share your notes with others by providing the workspace name (or url) to a friend. Great for collaborative ideas and brainstorming as many people can work on the same page at the same time, just by using different notes."

VS
"Simple and easy web sticky note. lino is a free sticky & canvas service that requires nothing but a Web browser. Use lino anytime, anywhere. Post stickies not only from your PC, but also from outside via Email. Paste it, see it, and peel it off anywhere."

           Have you ever been on the computer and wished that you had a sticky note to write something down on to remember later? Or wished that you had a Mac or OneNote to do the same thing? Now there are websites to do just that, and Linoit and Webnote are two of them.
           Any respectable website should have an aesthetically pleasing web layout (the content, structure, and design) navigation should be simple and obvious, it shouldn’t crash, it ought to be free, and it needs to seem reliable.  Linoit falls into most--if not all--of these categories, while Webnote does not.
           Lionit’s layout is nice on the eyes and easy to navigate, so people can easily figure out how to personalize it by choosing different layouts, colors, and languages.Pictures, videos, and other url’s can be added, as well as standard stickies. It has been around longer so it’s worked through nearly all of its bugs, The basic Lionit is free, but if someone wanted to upgrade their account, it could cost about $3.00 a month, or $29.00 a year, but it it useless to buy an account because there isn’t that much of a difference.

                                                                                                                                                 
Webnote~
Pros:
o   Can search stickys through web-bar on page
o   Account is not necessary
o    free
o    double click to edit
Cons
o   Web layout kind of sucks
o   boring colors
o   Boring
Lino~
Pros:
o   *aesthetically pleasing web layout
o   easy to use
o   the basic lino is free forever
o   can sort by date sticky posted
o   can post more than just stickys with text
o   videos
o   pictures
o   links
o   files
Cons:
o   unknown