Welcome back readers! It's nice to see you here!-
:)
_____________________________________________________
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST MIGHT CONTAIN BORING, tedious, dull, monotonous, repetitive, unrelieved, unvaried, unimaginative, uneventful; characterless, featureless, colorless, lifeless, insipid, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, unstimulating; unreadable, unwatchable; jejune, flat, bland, dry, stale, tired, banal, lackluster, stodgy, vapid, monochrome, dreary, humdrum, mundane; mind-numbing, wearisome, tiring, tiresome, irksome, trying, frustrating; informal deadly, ho-hum, dullsville, dull as dishwater, and plain-vanilla CONTENT. JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
_________________________________________________
For me, it is 
to reflect. What will I reflect about? Well, you'll see...
It is important for me to reflect and evaluate my blog (previous posts, design, colors ect...). This helps me see what things I can improve on, what things I am doing well, what things I edited or changed and more! I can also tell what went well, by examining my blog with a different point of view and a critical eye or sifting through the comments, seeing what readers like and what they don't. That is why, you dear reader, should (actually you are highly advised, majorly suggest, desperately recommended, immensely pleaded) comment.
Anyway...
I better get to the meaty, juicy, succulent, delicious content of this post or, well, is running out. If I keep on babbling on and on then this will take centuries to write!
I feel that the final product of my blog is a great success! The colors, layout, and gadgets add a nice touch to my blog! I am very proud about my blog outcome and I think it is a very positive design! Also, I hope that you like it too. My future posts will be more colorful, with different fonts (with bold, underline, or italic) on different paragraphs! This makes the posts more readable because, I am sure that you readers don't read the whole posts, just tidbits and funny small parts for the same reason I don't read my posts after I finish them 
.
I am most proud of my organization and my nice use of color. I think that I have nice organization that makes readers have an easier time to read. One of my goals is to create posts that are interesting and easy to read so reader's comments are more relevant and the readers understand what I am trying to say better. But, I am most proud of my fantastic use of color. The color makes the blog more eye catching and interesting. It brings the reader in and makes them want to read my posts. (Which, by the way, I work very hard on writing) I encourage you, dear reader, to read my posts. I believe that use of color is very important for a blog. Like I said before, it makes the blog more interesting and easier to read.
These are my design specifications that I think my blog should meet:
~Interesting content
~Icons/gadgets/widgets
~Links
~Videos/photos
~Organization
I think my blog meets most of these criteria. It has pretty interesting content and has a good amount of photos, except I think I need to add more. It is also very important to me to site the photos that I use. I believe that I have a good use of gadgets and widgets too. One of the things I need to work on is links. I need to add more links to my posts. Links provide the reader with great websites that I recommend and websites that are similar to my blog. Organization, like I said previously, is something that I am doing well. I think my blog is well organized and easy to navigate. If you have any recommendations on how my blog could be better, please tell me via a comment!
I think that I should work on making my blog posts shorter. If I expect readers of my blog to read the posts, I should make it easier for them and create shorter posts but with the same amount of information, just summarized. Also, at the bottom of my blog, I have a few gadgets that seem out of place. Some of those gadgets include, a Harry Potter spell gadget, a poll (which is hard to find if you didn't know it was there), a time gadget, a real Earth and Moon phase gadget that doesn't seem to work, and numerous other gadgets that don't work. I really need to change those gadgets. Maybe delete them or replace them with others, I am not really sure yet.
I think I can grow my blog by adding informational, moving, and interesting posts that leave readers thinking and taking action to do something beneficial and good to the environment. An example of this would be to inform people about things I think are important, like not littering, and not abusing animals. I can use this blog for a good purpose and I believe I can start soon, maybe even now!
I think, during this unit in Design Tech class, a lot of behaviors helped me. For one, I did most of my homework on the day it was assigned. I think this helped me because I completed the assignments usually right after school when I had ideas still fresh in my mind. Also, I had more time to do other things so that homework was a balance with fun. Doing my homework prevented me from becoming stressed out, but, since our school schedule has tech so close together, sometimes, it was hard to complete my homework and I ended up needing to do it in class. I need to work on checking my planner to make sure what homework I have because sometimes, I forget what I need to complete and what is soon due.
I think I was reflective during this unit. I think I was reflective because I reflected on what I did well and what I would work on during this unit. It really helped me because sometimes I had no idea that I was doing something wrong or something exactly right! I was also a thinker when I was blogging, reflecting, even doing my homework. When reflecting, I thought deeply about what I could change and looked at my blog with a different point of view to see what others might think of it. This is one of my favorite methods of reflecting and looking back on my work.
In my opinion, blogs are important if you use it in the right way. The blogger can share their thoughts in a safe way that can benefit the readers. They can put their thoughts out in the world and express their creativity, personality, and originality through their blog. The blog creator can post thoughts and ideas out there that can influence people who read it. The blog post might be very moving and cause the reader to continuously think about the post. It may then cause the reader to do something kind and beneficial to the environment, the world, or people in need.
Also, the blogger can write something inspiring that they might read later, be influenced by what they wrote, and learn something about themselves. My goal is to use my creativity and knowledge about blogs in a positive way by posting interesting helpful, and creative ideas and stories on my blog. This could affect readers in a positive way and cause them to do something that is beneficial to the environment, people, or the world we live in.
Image credits:
http://www.cutestpaw.com/images/the-thinker-2/
A screenshot taken by Clara
- Synonyms for boring (at the top of this post) comes from the built in computer dictionary (on macs)
I am afraid, I have some bad news for you! Today is the last day of 2013!!! It might sound like a big day, but not as big as when fireworks were allowed in Hawaii a few years back. Those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, I just mean that fireworks have been declared illegal a few years ago!! Isn't that terrible??!?!?!!!?!?! But, at least around our street, we hear fireworks going off every year around New Years Eve and fourth of July. Despite the law, people still set off fire crackers! 
Anyway, enough talk about fire works. On holidays and other significant times Google always posts a Google Doodle. Today, this is the doodle (left) Sometimes, like on Thanksgiving, there was a cool little video, and on Christmas Eve there was an interactive Santa tracker. If you want to see what I am talking about go to: http://www.google.com/doodles/finder/2013/All%20doodles and skim through the doodles or search a specific one. 
