Tuesday, May 25, 2010

20 things I "like' about this photo



THIS IS WHY U WATCH WHAT U SAY ONLINE!!!!!

1. <3
2. Smile
3. Ring
4. Fun city
5. Food
6. Color
7. Bowling
8. Eyes
9. Lights
10. Face
11. Beautiful YOU
12. Just way too many!!!! Lol guess u got me

Monday, May 17, 2010

Thank You!!

My letter to the editor: http://www.thehawkeye.com/storync/Grant-Mead-051010

Good experiences

I'm a senior at Burlington High School graduating in a few weeks. There are lots of people I would love to thank — from my peers to administration people. My life has not come to an end with Burlington School District or school for that matter. It hasn't just begun either. It's just one of many life-changing experiences that I have taken.

One main person I would like to thank is my principal, Mr. Messenger. It's great that we have a principal who lets us students organize and engage in great activities here at the high school.

Thank you, sir, for all the hard work and long hours you put in every day.

Now some people might not know this, but being 19 I have had one of the greatest experiences my last year at the high school. I have had the opportunity to serve alongside the BCSD technology department. I have learned the ins and outs of taking care of one of the largest network operations in southeast Iowa.

Thank you Mr. Brackett and the BCSD tech department for this wonderful experience. I hope to be able to apply what I have learned to help others.

My sophomore year, I was introduced to speech and debate. Let me tell you that Mr. Kurth is a great coach for this and I have learned many speaking techniques that have helped me a lot. Thank you, sir, for all the long hours you took out of your time to teach me and take me to events.

Around my junior year, I got involved in drama club. Mr. Nelson is the director for this and he is a well-respected guy. I have had the opportunity to be in a few plays directed by him. I have made new friendships and learned a lot of history. My very last play ever for BHS was "Our Town," a slow play but with a lot of educational background to it.

When President Obama came to Iowa, he said we need young teachers to educate these young people in a whole new way. I'm glad to see that BHS is doing this by having young people: Mr. Hanson, a young outgoing guy, teaching English while coaching debate and tennis; Miss Birch and Miss Wilson, who teach in the Science Department engaging us in a fun way.

On my last note, it's great to see that we have a great library director, Mr. McKee, who is up to date on technology. He has been a great help by not only teaching students new websites or tools to help them on that paper but also helping out all the departments at the high school. Oh, before I forget, the man has an iPad. It's the newest device Apple has on the market. If you see Mr. McKee, he will have an iPhone, iPad or some type of Apple in his hands ready to help you.

Hope to see BHS and BCSD keep on growing.

GRANT MEAD
To Comment and rate it on the website Please visit
http://www.thehawkeye.com/storync/Grant-Mead-051010

Burlington

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Location Based Services


WOW! What a big storm that came through SE Iowa. Hope you’re all having good luck on cleaning up the mess and flooded basement. My parents’ house didn’t get spared either with a few inches of water destroying everything on the ground.

One of the things I talked about for the beginning of this year was location bases services. Foursquare the biggest one lets you check-in to places and let others know where you’re out. One of the things though is location based services have hit a small little bump in the road. Big companies like Facebook have had lots of privacy issues in the last month & your avg. person doesn’t have a smartphone that can run these services.
With sites such as robmeplese.com let people know where you’re out of your house. I really think it’s a funny but yet logical approach what the site is trying to bring to light.
I love location based services. For myself I can share were I’m @ then have people comment on it. It brings to light what I don’t like. Now the one thing I have noticed is that lots of places I check into I just too that check in. The store or whatever it be don’t engage with the audience so eventually I either stop going to that place or stop checking in.
A great place to keep up to date on all this info on social media news & for a in-depth look go to www.mashable.com
Below is a fun & interesting facts about facebook. So read away and know more then your friends


Facebook: What You Probably Didn't Know
[Source: Online PhD Programs for MashableMashableMashable.com]

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Google & Verizon

Just got wind of some exciting news. Wall Street Journal is reporting that Verizon & Google are teaming up to produce a tablet. Now there are lots of questions that are still needed to be answer. Like well it run the OS Chrome S like Google was previous hinted @ making or well it run the best OS on the market right now android. Both are made by a great company and have had fare shares.
I can tell one thing thought I’m pretty excited. More excited than when the i-pad came out. WHY? Because I own a Google phone with Android on it and I LOVE IT. The phone keeps up with my everyday multitasking needs for work and play. Not only is it a great phone but it’s on a wonderful 3G network. There is always service and I’m always connected. Unlink the apple products were you pay a high price for a service that rarely never works.
Another thing to think about is Verizon & Google have been working pretty good with their android platform. If a tablet hit the market you bet I would get one. I would be able to afford it since google normally runs there items low cost. I would also have a great network that I know well work. I don’t have lots of money like apple fans to dump into devices. So im putting my money on Google & Verizon two companies that can change the way we use computers.

Android all the way

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Ban Social Media

This blog was suppose to be up along time ago. Lately My one & only laptop that has less then 200GB has been full. So I have had to clean up stuff & find useful sites to move my files to. Hopefully I can get a mac computer again & get me some more hardrive space.

If you have been following my twitter or Facebook status you might have seen that I have had surgery. I wrote a blog post @ the hospital a few hrs after I was out of surgery but it didn't post:( I even saved it to a word document but it would not even let me send it as a e-mail attachment. Copy and past epic fail to!

Last week a NJ Middle school principal thought It would be a genius idea to get all of the students that attend his school off from sites like facebook,myspace twitter etc. he is wasn't just talking about at SCHOOL he was talking about for there FULL middle school yrs!

A e-mail was sent out to parents to take on a voluntarily ban to get the students off such sites. Read the full e-mail here http://wcbstv.com/technology/facebook.social.networking.2.1662565.html

"Please do the following: sit down with your child (and they are just children still) and tell them that they are not allowed to be a member of any social networking site. Today!

There is absolutely no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social networking site! Let me repeat that – there is absolutely, positively no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social networking site! None.

Wow! that is some pretty heavy stuff! I can explain several reasons why students would want to be on such sites like that.

What could possibly invoke such a response from a man who holds such a responsible position? His intentions seem to be pure, as he thinks social networking sites such as Facebook are making kids’ lives harder due to cyber-bullying. But is banning kids from these sites the way to fix the problem?

Surely a better solution would be to encourage children to be more respectful to each other, and punish bullying more severely in whatever form it manifests itself.

Not only does he have a problem with social networking sites. He wants parents to check there text messages which im all for but to take cell phones away from kids and check them whenever sounds like to me you have a trust issue with your kids. Right now I believe we should be focused on educating the students rather then pulling the plug.

Below is my take on the e-mail when I got it last week.


I get the bullying part the principal is trying to stop but baning it is the not the right answer.