Having a great time at my conference

I'm attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. So far I'm having lots of fun, met lots of new and some old faces, and I have already learned lots of things I'm bringing back to class! I hope you are learning lots about effectively finding information on the Internet...I've got a fun activity planned for tomorrow!

Internet Search 1

1. Step 1: name 3 search engines. If you don't know 3, Google the words "search engine" to find 3
   
   Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Ask, Altavista, Dogpile...and more. Take a look at Wikipedia
2. Step 6: search for the meaning of your first name?
   What keywords will you use? If you can't find your first name look for the meaning of your last name.
   
   Keywords can start off with how you naturally phrase or say the question (natural language search). There is no right or wrong answer as long as you find the information. If your first try doesn't work you just change the words.
   
   
   What does your name mean? Copy & paste the definition in your post. Be sure to give copyright credit to the website where you found the name meaning! (See Ms. Agbowo's example)
   
   
   Meaning of the name Margaret: pearl
   http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Margaret.html
   
   Meaning of the name Agbowo: unknown, but it was my grandfather's first name.

Searching for My Favorite Car

1. What is your favorite car? Camry
2. Why do you like this car? I like this car because it has 4-doors.
3. What company makes (manufactures) your favorite car? Toyota
4. Use Google to search for your favorite car's website and paste the URL:
   www.Toyota.com/Camry
5. What words did you type in the search box or on Google's search page?
   camry website
6. How many results did your search produce? (after your search completes, the results are right under Google's search box)
   About 1,870,000 results
7. Include a picture of your favorite car (don't forget to give credit for copyrighted images)
   
   
   

   

   Image courtesy of media2.paultan.org

Ms. Agbowo's Favorite Car

What is your favorite car?:    MINi Countryman

Why do you like this car?:     I like this car because I like small cars, which MINi specializes in making. And the Countryman has 4 doors where the other MINi cars only have 2 doors. I used to want a MINi E because it's a hybrid MINi.

What company makes (manufactures) your favorite car?        MINi USA.

Use Google to search for your favorite car's website and paste the URL (website address) here:    (click Countryman): http://miniusa.com/#/learn/futureConcepts-m

What words did you include in the search box or on Google's search page?     hybrid mini cooper

How many results did your search produce? About 1,270,000 results (0.17 seconds)

Place a picture of your favorite car here:

http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Mini-Countryman-overhead.jpg

Fashion Week on the move

Moving to London, baby! The next Spring 2011 fashions will be showcased by British designers for the next week or two.

Which way to go?

Question: which is your favorite: stripes, plaid, pattern, ruffles, or dresses? Which would you mix? According to current trends you can’t go wrong with any or all of these. I imagine a plaid dress with a contrasting striped belt and a ruffled bottom and a pattern headband. Then again, featuring one trend at a time also shows your current. The good thing is that you likely already have one or all of these trends in your closet. What will you be wearing?

White fashin is one way to go

Someone may tell you to put away your summer white outfits: they may get dirty at school, Fall season suggests deeper tones, old time fashion advice. But layering, color accessorizing, and thicker whites allow the fashionable to really standout with crisp white outfits or separates. And don't forget the shoes, fresh white kicks. I'm still not sure how some people keep their sneakers white [must be a lot of hand cleaning] but fresh, white sneakers always get noticed.

Spring 2011 Fashion Week almost done

Designers show their collections, or what they design for people to wear, during Fashion Week. Fashion Week is always one season ahead, about 6 months, so though we are just thinking about Fall, they showed Fall clothes in the summer. The process of designing before the season is called trend forecasting: just like weather forecasting, designers try to predict what we would like to wear and how to make their clothes different than clothes from before.

References are clothes designed before that designers study then decide how to make it different for today. For example my first blog was about how we're seeing the 1960's, '70's, and '80's. How did I know? Women have worn suits for a long time: 1960's suits were skirt suits, 1970's suits were meanswear suits, 1980's suits were power suits (with big shoulders). Aren't we seeing all that now? The difference is that the skirts are less balloon-y than in the '60's, the pants are not as wide-legged as in the '70's, and the shoulders are not as big as in the '80's.

If you're really into fashion or just want to see what a fashion show looks like, visit

• Style.com [Vogue magazine online]
• Fab Sugar [hosted by a blog provider based in San Francisco, CA]
• About.com Style [home of many blogs about style from different perspectives]
• Women's Fashion will show Fashion Week
• Teen Fashion is for your age group
•  Cool Kids Fashion
• DIY Fashion
• Kids' Fashion 
• Makeup
• Sneakers

Fall 2010 Fashion trends

Fall is here: we've bought school supplies, new clothes, and are getting used to the "school thing" after a few weeks of summer fun. Fall 2010 fashion can be explained simply by A Return To The 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's. Have you heard of the tv show "Mad Men"? This show has single-handedly brought back '50's and '60's fashion, bringing a wave of nostalgia. This means big hair, big skirts, jeans, and comfortable shoes...think sock hop. The '70's were big: big shoes, big hair, big design, and big style! Almost anything went as long as it caught people's attention. The Fall 2010 inspiration is about disco glamor, where everything is shiny, sparkly and big. The '80's were about power during the day and big fun after work, so Fall 2010 mixes both these styles: menswear- and military-inspired for day, lace for night. What are you wearing this Fall? Is it on this list? If not, there's a lot more going on than just this and you'll give me something to write about.