Culture Days

Hello everybody! Since we had our culture days on Monday 16^th and Tuesday 17^th where every student had to hold a presentation about a topic of American or Irish Culture and attend at least 10 other presentations as well as share our experience on our blogs that’s what I’m going to do right now. Of these 10 presentations I mentioned above we had to choose 7 American topics and 3 Irish topics.
 
So here are the ones that I attended:
 

Irish presentations: (actually I even managed to watch four of them though I was afraid at first that I couldn’t manage to go to the three assigned one due to my tight schedule)

 
Polar Opposites: To be honest I didn’t really have any idea what this topic was about until I watched the presentation and I simply chose it because it fitted perfectly in my schedule. However, it really turned out to be very interesting and Katrina really did a great job explaining everything.
 
Irish Intelligence at its peak: I chose this topic because I wanted to know a little bit more about Ireland’s secret service which is quite fascinating. I surely learned a lot of new facts that I didn’t know before.
 
The Fenian Brotherhood and their raids on Canada: This subject surely captured my attention and I was quite surprised since I didn’t know that the Irish had such a huge influence on Canada. Theresa really managed to break down the most important ideas in a very understandable way.

Monica Loughman – Ballet in Ireland: I especially liked this presentation because it was so different from all the other tackled topics. Though, I myself never really was interested in ballet, I found the presentation very intriguing and Anja really did a great job bringing across her topic.
 

American presentations: (I watched 10 American presentations in total and if I had had more time I would have probably attended even more ;) )
 
Same-sex marriage: I really was looking forward to this presentation because I wanted to know what Miriam has to say about it. I already knew that the situation for couples of the same sex who want to get married is worse than here in Austria but I didn’t know that conservative states such as Alabama don’t even accept already married couples.

Two Famous American Women Poets: To be honest, I never heard of neither Emily Dickinson nor Maya Angelou before. Nonetheless, I knew from the start that I wanted to attend this presentation, not only because Magdalena is my best friend but also because I wanted to know a little bit more about these two women poets. And I was not disappointed. Both women were truly fascinating personalities. What I liked best about the presentation was the reading of the poems.
 
Massacre at Virginia Tech: The reason I chose to watch this topic is because it is also connected to my own topic, America’s Gun Culture. Though, I’ve already heard a lot about shootings in America since they are all over the news, it still shocks me to hear the full extent of them nonetheless. Anyway, in my opinion Barbara really did well especially explaining the real reasons for similar shootings – mental illnesses not media violence or violent video games.
 
Flappers: Before attending this presentation I looked the expression “Flappers” up on google because it didn’t mean anything to me. When I found out that it’s about women in the 20s breaking out of conventions I was immediately interested. What I really liked about the delivery was that Julia showed up in the complete costume and explained everything thoroughly.
 
The Smurfs are real: To be honest I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this presentation and really was surprised that it’s about a disease. What I really liked is that Jasmin didn’t make an all-serious presentation, on the contrary she managed to keep it funny from the beginning to the end.
 
The role of religion in the US education system: Religion has always been a controversial topic especially when mixed with education. I found it shocking to hear that people actually take their children out of school just because they don’t believe in science and evolution. Overall, it was a very interesting presentation even though Vid talked a little too fast but that was simply nervousness (which I can fully understand, I was extremely nervous myself)

The US-Mexican Border Woes: I already heard about the US-Mexican border being very restricted and well guarded but I simply couldn’t imagine that it was so extreme. Especially learning all the different measure that are taken to prevent Mexicans from entering the US was horrifying. In my opinion Judith managed to present all the different aspects of this topic in a very compelling and understandable way.

 
CIA – Project MKUltra: At first, I had no idea that this topic is dealing with mind control and I was stunned since I thought similar things only happen in science fiction movies. All the facts that David informed us about were both interesting and eye-opening. All in all, I think he did a great job explaining this little known topic.

Women for women – The will to lead: I really was looking forward to hearing more about this topic since it is very up-to-date and deals with a problem women are facing all over the world. What really shocked me is that the situation for women in America is even worse than I expected it to be. The only consoling fact is that women such as Michelle Obama and Sheryl Sandberg are trying to improve the situation by showing that women can be in leading positions too. In my opinion the presentation Sabrina gave was intriguing and mind-blowing.

F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby: I was anticipating this presentation since I already watched the movie and wanted to know a little bit more about the book and its writer as well. I was definitely not disappointed and I think that Verena did an amazing job presenting this topic.


Since I also have to select 5 topics out of the American presentations that I want to be tested on the KGP, I’ll present my choice here in no particular order:

1. Women for women – The will to lead
2. The role of religion in the US education system
3. Flappers
4. US-Mexican Border Woes
5. CIA – Project MKUltra

I hope the range of my chosen topics is wide enough.

10 things that Supernatural taught me

Hey guys, I know I’m late for blog Thursday as always but I couldn’t think of anything good to write about until last night. When I lay awake in bed and couldn’t fall asleep I had a good but probably a little weird idea. I already mentioned that I love the TV show Supernatural quite a few times so I thought why not write down 10 things I learned from watching all nine seasons of it. (Yeah, you read right, NINE seasons and the tenth is coming out in October.)

Anyway, let’s start:

1)    The first thing that Supernatural has taught me is how to curse with a lot of different swear words. I would give you some examples but that would be rather inappropriate.

2)    Another thing is that if you have a fake ID pretending to be FBI agents nobody will ever question you. Even if you use the names of rock musicians and somebody notices they won’t do anything about it and still give you all the information you ask for.

3)    Salt can protect you from pretty much anything – neither demons nor ghosts can come near you

4)    Holy water has a similar effect.

5)    Silver isn’t bad either especially when you’re dealing with a werewolf.

6)    If you die it is totally possible that you come back to life even if you die 100 times in a row.

7)   If you travel around with an enormously tall guy with long dark brown hair you can certainly find WiFi in every crappy motel room.

8)   Angels are real but they are not those friendly holy beings and in fact can be douchebags some times.

9)  You can drive around in your car with a trunk filled with guns and speeding all the time without being ever pulled over by a police officer.

10)  And last and most importantly, you either die a hero or live long enough to watch yourself turn into the villain.

Well, that’s about it. Please don’t take me too seriously. I just wrote down what was going through my head at 3 am so this post is just a little insight on the weird ways my brain works late at night ;)

John Green & The Fault in our Stars - The sequel

Hey guys, it’s Blog Thursday and you know what that means...

I already told you about The Fault in our Stars, a book I really like, and its author John Green. So today I came across an interesting interview on youtube where he talks about this very book coming out as a movie on June 6th. In this context he also speaks about the casting process as well as filming in general. In addition, John Green talks a little bit about writing his books in general and how shooting a movie is different from making youtube videos. (Remember I told you that before he became a writer he had a youtube channel which he shared with his brother.)

If you like to watch the video yourself here it is:

Since this post is still a little short I wanted to show you another interview with John Green and part of the cast of The Fault in our Stars, namely Shailene Woodley who portrays the character of Hazel Grace Lancester and Nat Wolff who plays Isaac. This interview does not only consist of questions but also each of them is kind of connected to a short clip from the movie. They mainly talk about those specific scenes and difficulties the actors, mainly Shailene, encountered while playing their characters.

To watch the interview just click here:

I know this post is still rather short but I don’t really know what else to talk about so I’m going to end it here.

Useful tools for writers part 2

Hello guys ;)

Before I start, I wanted to apologize for being late again for blog Thursday. I don’t even know myself why I can’t manage to stick to my own schedule, but I guess I just lacked inspiration and ideas for a thoughtful post.

Anyway, as you probably know my last post was about useful writing tools and I already introduced you to a few of my favorite. However, there are a lot more of similar resources that I collected over the last few years and that I wanted to share with the writers among you.

If you like to write fiction like I do you have probably already encountered this type of problem at some point, at least I do all the time. You have this great idea about a character and most likely have planned all the important details out perfectly but still one thing is missing - his or her name. Of course you need to feel comfortable with the name and you want it to have an appropriate meaning connected to your characters traits or even flaws. So in order to find the perfect one there are some helpful websites out there on the internet:

The first and most important one to me is the random name generator on http://www.behindthename.com/random/. It looks like this:

Basically, you can get a random name without selecting any of the categories given and just try your luck or you can narrow down your search. Apart from the gender and origin of the name you can also select whether or not you want to get a full name including a middle name as well or a first name plus surname or simply a first name.

If you just need a common American last name this page is perfect for you:

It’s called mongabay.com and lists their names by frequency.

Here is the link: http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm

In addition, this website also lists typical male and female first names of the US. You can simply reach them by clicking the link on the top over the chart of surnames.

Another type of name you might search for is for a location or city where your story takes place. If you choose to develop your storyline in a fictional universe at a made up place there is a website that helps you find a name for it.

To find it just click this link: http://www.namegenerator.biz/place-name-generator.php

This page is really easy to use, you just need to press the button generate place names in the middle of the site.

I have one last useful website about character names that I want to show you and then I’ll go on to another important aspect of creating your character.

If you care a lot about the meaning of your personality’s name here is the address to a valuable website: http://www.meaning-of-names.com/

It does not only give you the meaning if you type in a name but also tells you a short history of it such as where it comes from. In addition, you can also find a name through it’s meaning which is especially useful if you want to choose a name after character traits.

As mentioned above I want to give you some help with another important aspect of developing your protagonist: knowing all about him or her such as his or her likes/dislikes, traits/weaknesses, background and so on.

For a chart that includes all the necessary features you should keep in mind when creating your character have a look at this link: http://www.epiguide.com/ep101/writing/charchart.html

Concerning writing about emotions, this chart includes some valuable expressions to best describe the feelings of your protagonist:

I even came across a compilation of useful writing resources on this website:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/28/50-free-resources-that-will-improve-your-writing-skills/

They are all free and help you improve your grammar as well as your general writing skills and lend you a hand to avoid common mistakes when writing.

I could probably ramble on about this topic for hours but I don’t want to bore you or annoy you with a too long post so I’m going to stop now.

Just one last thing for all the ones of you who’d like some advice on writing: here is a short video from an English-born author and journalist who gives a few tips on writing in general:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTyxpaXOAIE

Useful writing tools

Hey guys, I know it’s not Thursday but I just found some really cool websites that I wanted to share with you. If you are a writer you will find those sites very useful and for everyone else these links could help you improve your paragraph writing skills or whatever piece of writing you want to polish.

So without further ado, here is the first website:

It’s called Thesaurus and you can easily access it over the following link: http://thesaurus.com/

To give you an idea how the website looks here is a screenshot of my last search on it:

For all of you who have no idea what a thesaurus is, I’ll shortly explain its concept and functions to you: Well first of all, a thesaurus is a collection of synonyms and connected words. The website itself is pretty easy to use – you just type in a word and then you get a list of other terms with a similar meaning. Further down there are also listed words with the opposite meaning and on the right hand side you get a little bit of information about the words origin.

The next ones are both tools which I especially was looking for a very long time because it happens to me all the time that I’m searching a word which I can perfectly describe but I just can’t recall it. This phenomenon is also called tip of the tongue syndrome and so is the first website that helps you conquer it.

Here is the link and an image:

http://chir.ag/projects/tip-of-my-tongue/

The page is divided into four blocks with three search fields each. If you know which letter the word you’re searching starts with type it in the first box and so on. Other search categories include ending letter, containing letters as well as letters which are definitely not in the word and a scrambled version of it. You can also type the meaning of the word and its length in those fields. Afterwards your results appear on the right side of the page.

The other website that deals with a similar concept is called OneLook. It may not have as many features as the previously mentioned site but I still like it because it is somehow easier to use and comes with a manual on how to get the best out of your search. Additionally, it looks very organized and refers you to the definitions of the results from reliable online dictionaries.

Here is the link and another screenshot:

http://onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

I also discovered a link to a page that gives you tips on how to start off your story in a better way. This page is part of the website writersdigest.com which is in general very helpful if you want to improve your writing skills.

Here is the link to the article I was talking about: http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/10-ways-to-start-your-story-better

If you have other questions about writing or you are curious how to write a special genre of story there are quite a few useful links on the top beneath the title.

If you want to write a story but you have no idea where to begin with, what you want it to be about or which title to give it writing exercises is the right place for you. Like its name already suggests this website provides you with a lot of different exercises to practice writing. From plot generators and character generators to random names and dialogues you can find pretty much everything to inspire you and helps you kick off your story.

You can reach the website here: http://writingexercises.co.uk/index.php

Another source that mainly focuses on improving your writing skills and gives your stories more authenticity is writers write blog. This website can help you in many ways but the most practical information I came across is the compilation of characters and their archetypes. This section lists 12 archetypes with their traits, weaknesses and goals and makes your characters more relatable and believable.

To access the collection of personalities click this link: http://writers-write-creative-blog.posthaven.com/the-12-common-archetypes

For other material from writers write blog just click on the link to the main blog on the left side of the page.

The last one, I want to introduce appeals more to the poets and songwriters among you since it mainly focuses on detecting rhymes. However, you can also look up synonyms, antonyms, definitions and similar sounding words with this tool.

Here is the link: http://www.rhymezone.com/

As I like to write myself when time allows it, I can highly recommend all of the websites mentioned above because they really helped me out a great deal.

Video games old vs new

Hello guys and welcome to blog Thursday. Today I want to tell you a little bit about a few video games I am currently obsessed with and compare them altogether.

To start off, most video games I play right now are retro games from the 90s such as the Commander Keen series. However, I also like some newer ones especially those adventure games where you can make your own decisions and they can influence certain aspects of the outcome of the story.

So let’s talk a little bit about them individually:

The first one, I want to introduce to you is called Commander Keen and consist of six official games, one lost episode and another six fan-made games of which three are already release and another three are yet to come. Like every great video game it also has an amazing plot. In general it focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, an eight year old boy who travels through space as Commander Keen. The game itself is a typical jump and run game consisting of different levels and in the end of the last part of the first trilogy you need to fight a final boss.

Another game from the 90s is called Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure and consists of three parts. Concerning the type of game it is a side-scrolling platform game with different levels that are divided by bonus stages in which you can recharge your health level. The story revolves around an alien boy who wants to go to Disneyland with his parents for his birthday but their spaceship is hit by a comet and they are forced to land on an unknown planet. Somehow he loses his parents and therefore he tries to find them and save them from whatever danger they are in.

To talk about a new video game I really like, I want to bring up the video game adaptation of the TV show and comic series The Walking Dead. Not only do I love the TV show itself for its amazing plot and the presence of zombies but I also really enjoy games where you can make your own decisions. So this game is literally perfect for me. The game itself is an episodic graphic adventure and takes place in the same fictional world as the comic and the TV show, occurring shortly after a zombie apocalypse in Georgia. The characters, however, are mostly original and very important for the game since it focuses mainly on character development.

Last but not least, I’d like to put the game Portal forward. It is a two-parted game series in which you are a test subject for Glados, a giant evil computer, in the research facility, Aperture Science. To carry out the tests you use the portal gun, a device created by this company that can create two portals linked with each other. The game itself revolves around puzzles and solving them, although you can also die attempting to do so. Compared to the first edition the second one is much longer and has a more developed storyline.

So now it’s time to compare them:

The two retro games which need the DOSbox application, an operating system from old computers, are way more difficult in general because there is no health bar (Commander Keen) or only a tiny one (Cosmo) and there are many enemies who can easily kill you. In addition, you have to start over from the beginning of the level and do all the tasks over again if you die. The two new games have many more save points and also save files which helps enjoy them more and get less frustrated. The game experience is also very different considering the interactive decision you can make instead of simply trying to reach the end of the level.  

Of course the quality of the graphics and the sound of the newer games is superior compared to the older ones but in my opinion that is no problem at all and I love all of them equally.

Sources: my own experiences in playing them and my video game obsessed brother ;)

Blog topic generator

Hello guys and welcome back to my blog. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything on here but I was just over all busy for the past two weeks.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce you to a tool I found online. It’s called the blog topic generator and can be found clicking this link: http://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator?__hstc=20629287.4db5c6802fb1188727691e500d7cc164.1397767352753.1397767352753.1397767352753.1&__hssc=20629287.1.1397767352753&__hsfp=1319059963

Since I had no idea what to blog about this week I simply searched google for some interesting topics to write about and somewhere among all the results I came across this more or less useful gadget. Now that I called it more or less useful you probably wonder how helpful it is and even more important how this blog topic generator works. Well, I’ll explain it to you (even with some pictures :) )

First, the page looks like this:

Basically you just need to type in three terms which should preferably be nouns and then click the give me blog topics button. Quite easy, right?

To show you how the results can possibly look like, I’ll give you my initial search as an example:

 I typed in the expressions Supernatural (my favorite TV show), show (since I love other shows as well) and music (obviously those three expressions are the first three things that came to my mind when thinking about what I am interested in).

Now let’s have a look at the results:

Well, to be honest I have no idea what I should do with number 1 and number 2 doesn’t really speak to me either. Number 3, however, sounds quite interesting and promising and so does number 5. So maybe I’ll write about it one day, who knows. BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HELL IS NUMBER 4??? I can’t even think about anyway this combination could possibly ever be justified and what they could have in common.

So I guess if you really have no clue what to blog about this website can be quite handy (even if you only use it to rant about the weird topics they give you like I just did) but you shouldn’t take all of the suggestions too serious.

The fault in our stars...

Hey guys, guess what day it is today… Right it’s blog Thursday.

But before I start I want to make a quick announcement: Since I’m going to be quite busy next week with exams and the usual stuff and probably also throughout the rest of the semester, I decided to blog only every other week. So in general I’m going to write fewer posts but hopefully more thoughtful ones.

This time I want to tell you a little bit about my favorite book at the moment. It’s called The fault in our stars and is written by the ingenious John Green, who is not only a writer from Indiana but also has a youtube channel.

Here is a pic of him and the link to his channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers

Anyway, The fault in our stars is about Hazel, a 16 year old girl who has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Her parents force her to go to a support group in the “Heart of Jesus”, a cross-shaped basement of a church. There she meets Augustus, a former cancer patient who is due to a type of cancer called osteosarcoma an amputee now. They fall in love with each other and experience quite a few adventures. However, I don’t want to tell too much of the storyline in case any of you hasn’t read the book yet and still wants to enjoy reading it without any spoilers.

To get an idea of the style the book is written in, here’s a quote:

 

There is also a movie adaptation for this book coming out in summer 2014 if you prefer watching films over reading books. No matter on which you decide, I recommend both and I myself am going to watch the movie as soon as it’s available.

Show addictions

Hey everyone, it’s blog Thursday.

So this time I thought why not talk about something that we all love to watch though of course we all have different preferences. Some of us are more into comedy, others prefer action and drama and yet others are more into mystery, science fiction and fantasy just like me. There are even those who love soap operas. If you still have no clue what I’m talking about, it’s TV shows.

I have to admit that I myself love TV shows of any kind and currently watch at least 10 different ones, not to mention those which unfortunately no longer air but of which I mostly own DVDs. Sadly, I’m now at a point where I constantly discover new shows I want to watch including some older ones which are no longer produced but I’m rambling on again.

Actually, I wanted to introduce you to one of my new current favorite shows. It’s called The Tomorrow People and has a really amazing storyline. The plot revolves around a new species of human, named the Tomorrow People, who have special powers such as telepathy, telekinesis and teleportation. They are hunted by Ultra, a secret organization that focuses on research in order to eliminate their powers. In my opinion, this show has a lot to offer. Not only there is a lot of action combined with lots of plot twists and a compelling storyline but also really great actors, who are portraying the characters, among them my favorite actress Alexa Vega.

So you guys should really check this new show out, even if you’re normally not into science fiction, give it at least a try. I promise you won’t regret it.

 

Here’s the trailer:

Food blogs

Hey guys :)

Since I was blogging about the characteristics of a successful blog last week, I thought why not talk a little more about blogs. By the way, I’ll try to write a post every once a week considering the fact that the most widely read blogs stick to a fixed schedule. So I’ll introduce you to Blog Thursday (which might be procrastinated to Friday or Saturday if I can’t find the time to write a post).

Well, to start off, this time I’ll be talking about my favorite food blog. There a few good one’s out there on the internet but my favorite one is by far this one which is all about American food: http://www.scoop.it/t/american-food

Not only does this blog give a lot of information about typical American food in general but it also provides links leading to detailed recipes and interesting articles about food-related topics. What makes this website particularly special is that Christine Szalay-Kudra, who is in charge of it, also posts her insights on these chosen topics and in this way clarifies them more or less. In addition, she also adds appealing pictures of the discussed meals and matters together with a very nice and easy-navigable layout.

 
Especially the scoop titled “10 extraordinary homegrown American foods” caught my eye because I was really amazed about all the different influences that establish typical meals in a certain state or region but also make them very hard to find anywhere else across the country.
 
So just check it out for yourself, I’ll highly recommend it and I’m sure you’ll find something that interests you, too.

Characteristics of a successful blog

Since I try to improve my blog and make it more interesting for you guys I thought about all the qualities that are part of a good blog. So here is what I’ve come up with so far:

At first, a noteworthy blog should captivate its readers interest and address them, too. Of course sufficient and correct language is very important as well as a variety of expressions to avoid dull writing but all in all content is even more important. I mean how enjoyable is it to read a post which contains marvelous expressions but basically just rambles on without actually saying anything at all. Obviously these types of writing also have some positive aspects since you can learn quite some useful expressions from them but honestly when I want to get to know more about a certain topic I don’t want to spend hours reading through a text that ends up giving me no sufficient information at all. Do you know what I mean?

Another important aspect about blogging is to write in your own words instead of simply copying and pasting a text from a website to your blog. Not only is it unfair towards the person you take it from and pretend it’s yours but it also becomes clear pretty easily that it’s most likely a different level and or style of English which you wouldn’t write when you’re writing it yourself. For example there is a huge difference between those two extracts:

 

• Keep It Simple. This is where minimalism can be applied to any blog, irrespective of its genre. No need to place superfluous advertisements or widgets all over your site; stick to the basics and remove anything you don’t need, remove anything that doesn’t add value.

• Try to stick to a simple style, this applies to any blog, no matter what type of blog and what topics it tackles. You don’t need to add any advertisement or special widgets to your site. Just try to keep it as basic as possible and get rid off anything unnecessary which doesn’t make your blog more valuable.

The first one is part of a post on http://www.theminimalists.com/blog/ and the second one is my rewritten version. They are quite different, right.

This aspect leads me to my next point: If you find any helpful sites concerning your chosen topic give them the credit they deserve by posting their link at the bottom of your post or wherever it fits best. Same goes for relevant pictures or videos. (They will also make your blog more intriguing ;))

All this talking about topics might make a few of you thinking “but what’s a good topic to post about?”. Well, I kept asking myself that question for quite some time as well until I realized the best topics are those you got experience about or interest in. Not is it only easier to write about something you already know a great deal of information about or eager to learn more about but it will also be (hopefully) more interesting for your readers since you put more work into it and try harder in general.

In case you want to write about something but feel like you don’t have enough knowledge about it do some research beforehand in order to know what you’re talking about.

Keeping all these steps in mind, I will hopefully become a more successful blogger this semester and maybe helped out one or other of you guys.

 

If you need any further advice, check out the link I included above, you can find quite some helpful tips there as well.