Demo-Gogues: Why Indie Games, Anyway?

A recurring trend one may have noticed over the course of the last three or so months (has it really been that long since we started this blog?), since my first review of Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale, is that when I featured a demo, it would always be for an indie title. Maybe a title that wasn’t indie snuck in at some point, but for all intents and purpose, indie games were on the menu. Why is that?

Do It Yourself: Peppermint Bark

As this class and group blog is coming to an end, I thought I would do a post to change things up a bit. This won’t help you find a reasonably budgeted dress or a gift to give your girlfriend this december, but how to make your own peppermint bark! (which by the way makes for a great holiday treat to bring to some of your upcoming christmas events. I made this from scratch and will easily show you each steps to making some great chocolate treats. This is creative treat and recipe that I designed on my own! I know this does not fall under fashion, but just like my DIY home decors, this is a creative do it yourself for college students to make at home! Its so simple! Enjoy!

Materials:

Chocolate chips (white or milk), candy canes, cookie sheet pan, wax paper, a microwave

step one: Place a handful of your chocolate chips in a bowl and place it in the microwave for less then a minute. Chocolate can burn so you have to watch it in the microwave & make sure it hasn’t gotten choppy and burnt.

step two: I bought a pack of small candy canes and broke them up into pieces my hands. Crush to make pieces as big as you want.

step three: Pour your chocolate onto the cookie pan that has wax paper over it. (The wax paper will slide right off.)

step four: After spreading your chocolate evenly, place your peppermint crumbles all over.

Ta Da!!

thanks!

Haylee

Tech Talk: New Ways to Update your Presentation

Many of us have been forced or have enjoyed the numerous group or individual class presentations that we are forced to give each year to provide a more comprehensive recalling of the material we have learned over the past semester. This process of  regurgitation is difficult and time consuming but it doesn’t have to be.

There are two things that you can do to not only make your presentation more interesting and dynamic but will certainly make your presentation smoother and easier to give.

The first of the two, is a style presentation called Pecha Kucha in which you limit yourself to only 20 slides each slide being displayed for 20 seconds each. The total time of your presentation will be 6 minutes and 40 seconds. This accomplishes two goals. One, you focus your energies on the important points only and do not spend an hour trying to prove your worth regurgitating every fact and figure. Two, your slides are image heavy or single words only. This prevents the audience from ignoring what your saying by trying to read ahead and enhances what you are saying. A good example of this is this Pecha Kucha presentation.

The second, is a new “game-changing presentation style” the great thing is that you can get rid of PowerPoint, Keynote or Google slideshow and work on a ever dynamic zooming work space. Prezi allows you to work simultaneously with others over the internet, create story lines, import media, present online or offline, and they support an auto play feature of 20 seconds as well.

 

Try them both out and use them more than once as switch from something old to something new always feels a bit uncomfortable but I promise when you do you not only will be a better presenter but you have a much better response from your audience.

Tech Talk: myEdu online class management

Anyone who has used online tools for college has realized that the options in the past have been poorly made or just useless. The best example I can think of is Ratemyprofessor.com added a “Hot” column to the review section, as well as the general feeling that this site was filled with underachievers wanting a place to vent. With the semester closing and a registration period already upon us it is important to be able to maintain an easy to use organizational structure to ensure we take the classes we need and track our GPA and credits.

myEdu  is a new contender to provide a useful space to collaborate with classmates, track your GPA, and class schedule. According to their website, “Our mission is to help students improve their return on education by raising graduation rates, decreasing time to graduation and supporting career readiness goals.”  Although the site cannot connect to your university they have compiled a way to pull course numbers, degree plans, and teachers that are teaching each section of the class. I personally found this aspect very useful.

Once you have spent a required 10 to 15minutes setting up your page you can manually track all of your grades and import credits from other universities as well. You will need to spend a little more time setting up the grading profile for each class.  Once you have done this however, the site is mostly seemless to ensure you are on the right track to completing your degree.

As you plan for the next semester not only does the site pull in up to date class information the employees at myEdu have compiled a workload graph to show you how your classes compare for the amount of time you will spend after class working on assignments. I presume this is being pulled from the user generated section where you rate your professor.

The only concerns I have is that I have not been able to determine the privacy that you gain on this site and how they are farming our data. One would believe they could provide trending data among their universities and more information for Gallup organization.

While it’s no replacement for your academic advisor, MyEdu is a interesting alternative to try out.

Demo-Gogues: EDGE Demo

There are many aspects of mathematics. The core principles of addition, subtraction, Multiplication, and division. Algebra, Calculus, Trigonometry, etc. Many increasingly convoluted strata of theory involving numbers. And there’s Geometry, the study of shapes, both two dimensional and three dimensional. And what is every fundamental shape made of? Corners…and edges.

That’s where EDGE comes in. And boy was this a stretch to justify a game about moving a cube around geometric levels suspended over oblivion.

Tech Talk: Apparently we don’t know how to search the internet

A wonderful post by our friends over at Hack College about how we have lost our abilities to use google

Don’t Stress: Focus

take the pebble from my hand, grasshoppa

It’s that time: every single paper and project is due in the same week. It seems like the professors could coordinate their syllabuses a little bit better, but they never do. So what is a poor, hard-pressed college student to do?

12 days of dresses

The Holidays are here, and I know we all need the perfect dresses for these holiday parties just around the corner. This time of the year, it is all about the beads, sequins, and sparkle! I am so excited to share with you readers my 12 days of dresses for this December. As a college student, the price of these fancy red dresses are what is most important. All of these dresses range in price. Depending on the designer and your personal budget, here are my 12 favorite holiday dresses ranging from $35 to $250. After all, it is the holidays.. so why not treat yourself!

1. Black Longsleeve Simple Dress

You cannot go wrong with this, especially for those who do not have hundreds of dollars to spend. You can find this Jack by BB Dakota Olivia dress at Revolveclothing.com

2. Free People Velvet Dress

I am loving this $98 Free People dress for those who are attending less dressier parties this holidayseason! Pair it with black booties and you are good to go! Love the velvet!

3. Michael Stars Rhinestone Dolman Dress

This black and sophisticated dress adds a little bit of sparkle for only $94. Buy it aRevolveclothing.com

4. Urban Outiftters Silence and Noise Strapless Studded Dress.

Attention shoppers… this dress is $14.99! What a deal! Also comes in three other colors!

5. Jules Dress in Wildcat – J.Crew

This holiday, it is all about the animal print! How cute is this printed wildcat dress! You will definitely make a statement walking into the party with this one! Pair with black pumps, tights, and some simple jewelry. $188

6. Madewell Sparklight Slip Dress

I love this dress because you can do so much with it! It is simple and cute, but jazz it up with tights, booties, and a fur coat. $165

7. Tibi Honeycomb Jacquard Strapless Dress

You obviously cannot go wrong with a dress by Tibi. I love this simple but very chic holiday dress for $219

8. Backstage Wilde Dress in Gold

Shine in this gold dress for $176. Beautiful with black shoes and a fun cocktail ring! Get it at Singer22.com

9. Forever21 Black Sheer Sleeve Dress

Keep it simple and conservative for $24.80!

10. Forever21 Lace Bottice Dress

Rock this amazing camel colored lace dress with your bronze holiday glow and some red lips! $24.80

11. Long sleeve Dee Sparkle Dress by Guess

This Dress has holiday written all over it! Add gold shoes and earrings and your ready for Christmas! You can find this great dress at Guess.com for $108

12. Forever21 Silver Maxi Dress

Max out in this beautiful shiny maxi dress for $29.80!!!! Pair it with black pumps!

Demo-Gogues: Sideway Demo

Guess what? I got the Sideway Demo to work!

Don’t Stress: Eating

nom nom nom

You’ve heard of the freshman 15. Many of you have experienced the strange phenomenon, and I’m sure some of you haven’t. But let’s be honest: it’s hard to eat right in college. The on-campus cafeteria that you had to buy that really expensive meal-plan for only serves crap, and a lot of it. It’s much cheaper to eat fast-food, and much more convenient. For a lot of students, it’s the first time in their life