May 3, 2010

I'm excited to say that we now have 3 1/2 weeks of school left. Lacrosse is about to be over which I'm happy about and cheer tryouts are coming soon! I haven't been able to prepare much for tryouts but I'm going to start working hard these next few weeks. My dance recital is also not too far away which is great but I hope we'll all be ready to perform! I'm hoping that exams won't be too much of a struggle and that they will go smoothly. A lot is happening this month so hopefully I'll be able to stay organized and prepared for everything. Last weekend the seniors threw their final party, the Blackout Blowout, and it was pretty fun. Everyone dressed up in black except for the seniors who all wore crazy neon colors. In a few weeks there will be some graduation parties that should be fun as well. Summer is so close and I can't wait for it. In about 4 weeks my family and I will be heading for Florida to spend a week at the beach which should be great. Hopefully these few weeks will go by quick!

blaire
3/3/10

SPC

Last week our lacrosse team competed in SPC and did pretty well. Overall we came in 4th place, but we played very well as a team. Our first game was against was on Thursday St. Andrew's and we won 20 to 13. One girl on their team was yellow carded for yelling at the ref which was pretty amusing. Later that day we played St. John's and we didn't do as well. We lost unfortunately but St. John's has a very well rounded team. On Friday, we were all irritated to hear that we would be playing Hockaday for the FOURTH time. We were tired of playing and losing against them so we knew we had to make some sort of comeback this time. First half went great and we were in the lead while Hockaday struggled. Our defense had them stuck and they were unable to score for a great deal of time. But during second half they came back and beat us 12 to 9. We were slightly disappointed in the loss but we were really thrilled at how well we played overall. This following weekend will be our final weekend of lax as we play for state.

blaire 5/3/10

dreamweaver tools

This week we've continued to learn about new tools on dreamweaver such as the apdiv. Apdiv allows you to position things anything anywhere you want on a page. You can drag any type of element you'd like onto a page such as text boxes, images, pretty much anything. I guess in the end it's helpful but most the time I'm just trying to make sure I'm using the other tools correctly. Adobe makes things simpler in certain ways but its difficult when I'm still not 100% on where tools are located and what they exactly do. Hopefully I'll catch on soon. \

blaire
4/23/10

Project

This week we began creating our pages for our clients. It's our job to create a page for them and create something they would like. I'm creating a page for one of my previous teachers, Ms. Patterson, to share information about the trips she takes students on to europe each christmas. I'm planning to explain the idea of her trips, what all we do, and hopefully make people become interested in her trips. I think this will be a fun project but it's complicated using DreamWeaver now because some of the tools are still confusing to me!

Blaire
4/23/10

Web Page project

This week we have been assigned to creat a web page for someone in our school that is involved in some sort of school activity like a club. We're making these pages so that people can have access to their information in a simple way. I'm not sure who I'd like to make a page for yet but I had the french club in mind or one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Patterson, who is a 6th grade history teacher. She plans the 6th grade Washington D.C. trip each year, and she also plan extra trips during christmas time to europe. I've been lucky enough to go on two of her trips to europe. My first trip was to Spain and the second was to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. She does a great job of planning trips and they're always super fun. I think it'd be fun to make a page for her so that people who were interested in her trips could find out info easily without having to look for her and ask all the time.

NYC

Last week, I was lucky enough to stay in NYC for the weekend with my mom and attend a Joffrey Ballet Jazz Intensive. We left wednesday night so that we could relax and enjoy the city on Thursday and Friday. We did lots of shopping and visited NYU and Julliard. Both schools were really cool, and I especially liked NYU. We also toured the NBC studios which was fun but unfortunately no actors or actresses were working that day. But while we were shopping later that afternoon we saw one of our favorite tv hosts from the Bravo Channel, Andy Cohen. He was filming a Pepsi add, so I was able to get some good shots. On thursday night we saw The Adams Family musical which was awesome. It had great songs and it was pretty funny. On Friday night, we saw one of my favorite musicals, Phantom of the Opera. As usual, it was amazing and the phantom was great. Then on Saturday, my intensive began at 10:00 that morning. We started off with a ballet class, then a musical theater/broadway style class. The ballet was good, but I really enjoyed the musical theater/broadway style class. Our teacher was a broadway dancer himself and he was great and hilarious. Then we had our lunch break and we began the afternoon with a modern class, which was different but I was glad to be learning something different than what I'm used to. After that followed a contemporary class that I was not too fond of. :) The teacher was just a little different than most and I wasn't used to her style. But our last class of the day was just a normal jazz which was great. I liked our teacher a lot and his style was similar but still a little different than what I'm used to. The second day was just the same but the classes were in a different rotation and we had different teachers. I loved the second day, and I learned lots of neat new things. Overall I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I had and I hope I can experience something like that again!

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Last week we watched Pirates of Silicon Valley which is a film about the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who created the apple computer company and later on, Microsoft and Windows. Their journey was long and exciting, but there were many bumps in the road that caused tension, stress, and competiton. Steve and Bill seemed to be the perfect duo, but as their success grew their friendship was strained by the business and desire to be rich.

If I could work for Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, I would choose to work with Bill for several reasons. First, he seems to be a better business partner and easier to work with unlike Steve who appeared to take in all the fame while Bill stayed in the shadows and kept working. Steve seemed desperate for fame and success which wasn't necessarily wrong but when he achieved the fame and success you would notice that Bill wasn't included as much which seems unfair on his part. But Bill was a good friend so he continued to work and not let it bring him down.

Bill also seems to have a more calm personality that would be easy to work with. In the movie, you would see Steve flip out at Bill for unecessary reasons. Bill never had intentions to back stab Steve or leave him behind but Steve had that impression when he found out that Bill was creating an new program that would be Microsoft Windows.

Bill also appears to be the nicer of the two, and he seems to have lots of ideas flowing through his mind. Even though Apple was a huge deal and success he was still thinking ahead, working, and creating new ideas such as his Windows program. He also seems like a trustworthy buisness partner that is dedicated and willing to listen to his partner's ideas. I think he has these nice qualities due to Steve's hot temper and poor partnership skills, which helped him learn how to be a good buisness man unlike Steve. Overall, both comapnies had great success and they still continue to achieve success to this day. But in my opinion Windows would be the company to work for.