Author: Mollie Barnes

Prezi the wonderful presentation generator

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

We are all sick of powerpoints. They are boring to make, boring to watch and boring to grade. So everyone breathe a sigh of relief because now there’s something ELSE you can use for your digital, clean and easy presentations for class. Prezi!

My first Prezi!

I made my first Prezi last night for my Intro to Modern World Literature class. Very exciting stuff, I know. It’s like the Google Docs of powerpoints… everyone can edit it if you allow them to. And it’s so much easier than Powerpoint. The biggest benefit? It’s all online.

This article shows students’ reactions to the new form of presenting. Now if only they can think of a more fun way to register for classes… speaking of which I better go do that.

The allure of the odd: Burning Man

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

I have always been really interested in different festivals throughout the world. In highschool I did a project all about different festivals and one of the festivals I read a lot about was Burning Man. Burning Man is known to most as a crazy hippie fest where everyone gets naked and sets a big wooden dude on fire. What they don’t know about it, is that Burning Man is an attempt to create a sort of liberal thinking utopian society, if only for a week.

I stumbled across a spectacular essay/article about one journalist, Seth Stevenson’s, “dispatch from the front line of travel” to Burning Man.

The “man” pre-burn

This “outsiders” view of the inside of Burning Man really helped me to see the allure of the odd, the allure of going to this strange festival and stepping outside all the comfort zones that ever previously existed. People are crave community, the sense of feeling as if they are part of a group. Essentially, that’s all Burning Man is… a bunch of people getting together to have fun TOGETHER. All the bells and whistles of Burning Man might at first seem like the main allure to the festival, but I agree with Stevenson. The central allure for Burning Man is the same that all festivals have: coming together to celebrate and have a good time to create a unified culture in the melting pot that is America. And should we really need an excuse to let a little of our crazy out and dress up like a centaur? You decide…

Are they human? Or are they… wait… what are they?

Can I get my food to go…all the way across the world?

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

Thinking of traveling to Italy to get sample some local pasta dishes? Or for those of you who are scared to travel abroad, what about just traveling to Chicago to get some good deep dish pizza?

People are willing to go the distance to get their grub of choice. Obviously, because food is amazing. However, sometimes we can’t afford the time or money to go all the way to Chicago to get a cake from Portillo’s or T-ravs from St. Louis. We especially don’t have the resources to go all the way across the world to a different country to get a slice of cheese. Most of us will die without ever trying buffalo mozzarella, and to be honest I had never even heard of it before yesterday. For some strange reason I still found myself spending 10 minutes reading a whole article about this rare cheese and how a man is trying to bring this Italian local delicacy over to the big US of A.

I don’t know what drew me in more, the fact that I have personal interest vested in caprese salad or the fact that this man milks buffalos for a living. I grew up right by Grant’s Farm, so buffalo are a common sight for me. Milking them however? Seems about as weird as milking a dog in my eyes.

Would you want to milk this guy?

Although with globalization being the reoccurring theme in the world today, this was bound to happen. I for one am all for trying some buffalo mozzarella… however some people stipulate that local foods are best kept local. There’s a whole movement called Slow Food that started in Italy, actually, to help keep food local and unique. After all the saying doesn’t say “Whenever you feel like it, do as the Romans do,” so maybe we should keep local foods local. Looks like I’m going to need that ticket to Italy after all…

The risky business of 3D

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

I’ve killed a man, I’ve danced with Michael Jackson, I’ve flown with my own two wings over icebergs, I’ve been to space…virtually. With all these new virtual gadgets, there is literally a way to trick your brain into thinking it’s doing anything. I always seem to have trouble tricking my brain into fully getting into it, though. When I’m watching a 3D movie, I can usually get into it and forget that it’s fake for a few minutes, and when I get off the treadmill I immediately fall on my face because my coordination is so thrown off by the run to nowhere that I just took. 3D is trying to be the next big thing so hard, but some are still skeptical.

In a BBC article it speculates upon the dangers of watching 3D television. It says that 3D television might not be suitable for children. Who could have seen that one coming, right? Obviously every new technology that comes out is not as suitable for developing children as the activities that they would be doing had the new technologies not been invented such as playing with friends and socializing, reading, or exercising. Instead lets give them video games where they can not only stay inside and function without having to talk to anyone or be social, now they don’t even have to be unsatisfied by things looking fake.

Nintendo’s 3D portable gaming device that doesn’t even require 3D glasses

It seems like the incentives for healthy living that kids need to grow and develop normally are slowly and slowly diminishing. Or maybe I just think 3D is better suited for theme parks than basements. Or maybe I just wish that I could have perfect eyesight and so I think that anyone who could potentially have great eyesight and does something to harm it is just plain foolish.