Google April Fool's Pokemon

Google’s Gotta Catch ‘Em All

Search Engine pulls Pokemon-themed prank for April Fools Day

Every April Fool’s Day, Google partakes in the joke-filled shenanigans of the holiday. However, this year, Google decided to focus its annual prank towards a specific audience. Those who grew up in the 90’s were able to relive their childhood dreams of being a Pokemon Master.

For 24 hours, Android and iPhone users had the exclusive opportunity to explore Google Maps, seeking out 150 Pokemon which included Togepi, Charmander, Eevee and more. Google teased that those who caught all 150 of the featured Pokemon would be given the opportunity to compete in a final tournament at the Googleplex, with the winner landing a job with the company as their official Pokemon Master, effective September 1st, 2014. While the prize of earning a job with Google was the actual April Fool’s joke, the search engine did have a special extra accomplishment that participants could obtain. 

Upon catching all 150 Pokemon, participants had the chance to collect an extra Pokemon, Mew. Mew is a rare psychic Pokemon, who was once thought to be unobtainable in the original games, Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Red and Pokemon Yellow without going to a Nintendo promoted event for it or using a GameShark cheat. That is, until a special programming glitch was discovered for the three games back  in 2003.

The video promoting the Pokemon Challenge prank was released on March 31st and was such a success that it went viral. This comes as no surprise if people consider that the official Pokemon Twitter account has 299K followers and the official Pokemon Facebook page has 5.2 million likes. The video, in particular, currently has over 104,905 likes on YouTube, and has been viewed over 14 million times.  Brian McClendon, the VP of Google Maps made a special cameo appearance for the video. A safety disclaimer was included at the end of the video, strongly encouraging participants to not take part in the Pokemon Challenge while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Blog #9: Story Restructure 02 Assignment Summary

For my Story Restructure 02 Assignment, I wrote an article on the April Fool’s Day prank that Google did this year. The theme was Pokemon related. I decided to write about this one because it was the most recent and because it was well-received, due to Pokemon being so popular. As a fan of the original Pokemon, that also intrigued me to write about it, as I remember being excited about first hearing of the prank around April Fool’s Day. In the article, I mentioned some of the Pokemon that were featured in the prank which include Charmander, Bulbasaur, Dragonite and more. I also mentioned that after collecting all 150 Pokemon on the Google Maps Pokemon Challenge, participants could obtain the very rare psychic Pokemon Mew, who could only be obtained in the original Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Red and Pokemon Yellow games through a programming glitch discovered in 2003, a GameShark cheat or a Nintendo promoted event with the glitch seeming to be the most popular and easiest way to get Mew as the GameShark cheat could apparently mess up the data of players games and cause the games to freeze.

After finishing the article, I coded the html through DreamWeaver. I changed the font size and type, along with changing the color to red text, since Pokeballs, which are used to capture Pokemon, are mostly red colored with a little bit of white added in. Additionally, I provided links to the official Twitter and Facebook page for Pokemon, along with the link to the YouTube video promoting the Google Maps Pokemon Challlenge and a website that describes the famous Mew. I also added a photo different than the one provided as the one I used showed some of the actual Pokemon being featured in the Pokemon Challenge on Google Maps.

Links I used for the assignment:

Pokemon Twitter
Pokemon Facebook
How to Catch Mew by Using the Mew Glitch
Google Maps Pokemon Challenge

Assignment: 

file:///Volumes/NO NAME/Google April Fool/GooglePokemonindex.html

Blog Topic 8- HTML & CSS

<img src=

This html code allows photos to be visible on a website. I had issues with this particular code at first because I would have problems getting the images to appear. Usually, the reason for this was that I overlooked the fact that I did not have the photo I wanted to use saved in the same place as the HTML/CSS document.

<a href=

This code allows links to be visible on a website. I had issues with this particular code at first because I could not get the link to appear. I was able to fix the issue after realizing that I had just accidentally forgot to add a quotation mark at the end of the link that I wanted to provide before closing the tag.

Link Coding Practice:
Disney Store
WWE
Sanrio

Cyclones Score 4-1 Victory Over Nailers

Cyclones Score 4-1 Victory Over Nailers

                The Cincinnati Cyclones scored a victory over the Wheeling Nailers on January 25th, with the final score being 4-1. During the first period, Cyclone #20, Josh Shalla scored a goal for his team, exciting the crowd as the first goal of the game was for the hometown team. Afterwards, there was a brief announcement that Wheeling Nailer #12, Jake Areshenko received a two minute penalty for interference.  Shortly after, Cyclone #20, Josh Shalla scored another goal for the home team but also resulting in a penalty for Cyclone #16, Dan Eves during the play. Another penalty for the Cyclones occurred when player #12, David MacDonald was called out for cross-checking as the first period ended.

                With the Cyclones leading 2-0 in the second period, Wheeling Nailer #9, Barry Goers scored the first goal for his team, ending the second period 2-1, in favor of the Cyclones. As period 3 began to commence, Wheeling Nailer #8, Barry Goers received a two minute penalty for holding as the Cyclones scored another goal.  Tension continued to stir on the ice as near fights began between the two teams, with the referees quickly intervening. Wheeling Nailer #20, Nicholas Kuqali would go on to receive a two minute penalty for checking to the head as the Cyclones scored another goal and the third period came to a close.

                Shortly before the fourth period began, the tension between the two teams broke as two fights erupted on the ice between Cyclone #42 Tony Turgeon, and Nailer #13, Patrick McGrath along with Cyclone #12, David MacDonald and Nailer #98, Chaz Johnsom. The rumblings of another fight began to stir but was able to be prevented by the coaches and players on both teams. The game ended with the Cyclones celebrating the victory, followed by a indoor fireworks display.

For more information on the Cincinnati Cyclones, Wheeling Nailers or ECHL, check out the following websites:

http://www.cycloneshockey.com/

http://www.wheelingnailers.com/

http://www.echl.com/

Blog #7: Spring Break Plans

Blog #7: Spring Break Plans

                My Spring Break plans right now only consist of going home to Fairfield, Ohio. Fairfield, Ohio is close to the Cincinnati area. It takes about an hour and a half to get back home because my father and I will stop and get something to eat at a restaurant. While I am currently unsure which restaurant we will be going to this time, my father and I tend to go to either Skyline Chili or Golden Corral.

                Once I get home, I will be spending time with my family. I’m also very excited to spend time with my dog, Brandy Rose. She is a Shih Tzu and she has been with my family for many years. We even have a nickname for her, Boo. I also plan to be doing a lot of schoolwork during Spring Break.

Blog #6: Photoshop Olympics

Blog #6: Photoshop Olympics- 3 Favorite Photoshop Tools

Bronze: My choice for the bronze medal would go to the Move Tool. This tool was one of the most useful tools for me. I probably used this tool more than most of the other tools for the Site Revamp project and it was helpful in allowing me to move around all my shapes for my header, footer and other content.

Silver: My choice for the silver medal would go to the Stroke Tool. This tool was useful in helping me create borders around my shapes so my Site Revamp assignment looked a little more organized and divided.

Gold: My choice for the gold medal goes to the Paint Bucket tool. This tool was useful by allowing me to add color to my layout and shapes for my header, footer, logo and other content to make my Site Revamp project more visually appealing, while also trying to select colors that fit with the theme I had in mind for the Site Revamp. With the colors I chose, I wanted to convey a specific mood and hopefully was somewhat successful in that task.

Blog #5: Site Revamp Plans

Blog #5: Site Revamp Plans

I will be redesigning Cottingley Connect at http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/fairies.shtml. I am currently basing my design on the third wireframe, located below. However, I may make some alterations from the original wireframe design depending on whether or not I like the way some factors turn out. I have already made some changes to my original plan, color-wise so there may be other changes still to come. I originally was considering going with a more earthy color scheme, either more Autumn or Spring like but I ended up not liking the way it was looking so I changed the color scheme to hopefully create a more magical like theme to hopefully fit with the tone of the website, after I revamp it.

I also added a silhouette fairy photo for the logo to make it stand out more from the logo on the original website, which is a bit smaller and plainer. I may choose to add another one on the opposite side but I have not yet decided on that. On the original website, the content is not really divided as it could be so I hope to make it a bit more organized by dividing the content in more separate sections, which may require condensing the text and providing a place where a link would be to show more content. However, I am not sure how that will turn out yet so I can’t say for certain if that’s how the final version of this assignment will turn out, since I may end up not liking the way it turns out after trying it out or I may have some issue with Photoshop when trying that idea out since I am inexperienced with Photoshop and picky with how I want things to look like. However, because of just playing around Photoshop and trying ideas out to see if I like them, I have been able to look it as a learning experience which will hopefully be beneficial to any other future projects this semester with Photoshop in both this class and other classes.

Website Breakdown: Lifetime

Website:  Lifetime

Website Link: www.mylifetime.com

The first thing I noticed that about the page was similarity, due to its color scheme being the same when scrolling up and down the page. This is important as keeping the page more similar makes it look professional and organized, which is vital for this website as it is the official website of a television network so it is expected to look interesting but also simple to go through and professional looking. Additionally, I noticed this website had hierarchy, due to the content being centered, visually intriguing with color and close together, particularly the promotions the website was showing for their shows and movies. This is essential because it helps the user see what shows and movies are not only the upcoming features on the television network but also the most popular shows or movies at the time for the network. There is also proximity with the table of contents at the top of the website, making the content of the website divided in a way that is close yet organized, clear to understand and user-friendly.

There is also the use of white space at the bottom of the page in the “Top Content” section. I would say there is also a lot of consistency regarding containment throughout this website with all of the borders surrounding the boxes of content. If you look closely, you can also see the use of texture in the background of the website.

Article Summary- Writing for Mobile Content

An article from the Nielsen Norman Group, entitled “Mobile Content: If in Doubt, Leave It Out”, discusses how content for the mobile require a much stricter editing process than needed for web content.  Because mobile users live a busy and fast-paced life, they want the information they receive to be quick to access and short, but straight to the point. They dislike verbose sites that waste their time so it is important that when editing and writing for mobile, the information is clearly understandable, due to content on mobile being harder to understand more than content one would receive on a desktop or PC.

Because interaction costs are much higher for mobile than desktop content, a much larger focus on mobile content in necessary. Content should be tightly written but precise enough to get all the main facts and information out that is needed. One example would be to not include so many quotes in a breaking news story. It may be good to include a quote from a person of greater social importance such as a community leader, politician or other well-known figure but it is not necessary to include quotes from multiple average-Joe's, as it is an example of bad filler, making the story for mobile unnecessarily wordy which is bothersome for users.

There were 2 solutions described for this matter:

1. Condense. Eliminate anything that is drawn out and too lengthy to the point that is unnecessary information. Only keep what is important but tighten what you say.

2. For the less important information, defer it to a secondary screen for users who ask for extra information. This will keep users who prefer shorter articles happy along with users who prefer that additional information because of their interest in the topic.

In conclusion, the article states that in regard to mobile content, “if in doubt, leave it out.”

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/condense-mobile-content/

Blog Assignment 2: Boxing Champ Dies After Van Crash- Three Story Comparison

The story that I chose to compare was about a 14-year-old boxing champion, Carlo Perez who recently passed away in a van crash in Oregon.  My sources came from KVAL, Fox 12 Oregon (KPTV) and KPIC.  Differences in the story include both KVAL and KPIC reporting the story from Springfield, Oregon whereas KPTV is reporting the story from Aurora, Oregon.

                Another difference is that the KPTV coverage of the story does not include any quotes whereas KVAL and KPIC includes quotes from both of Perez’s coaches along with including a quote that Perez said himself in an interview about his boxing goals just days before his passing. This is important because quotes make the story more informative and interesting along with showing the reader what kind of person Perez was during his life. This may possibly make readers more likely to read KVAL and KPIC’s version of the story over KPTV because the readers are learning more about the story because there is more information and because can help make the reader connect to a story more because they are reading quotes from people in their communities. Another difference between the KPIC, KVAL and KPTV is that KPIC and KVAL are longer stories and include more information on the report whereas KPTV was a smaller report on the story and had less information.

                Additionally, KVAL and KPIC included regarding the actual accident than KPTV did. KVAL and KPIC reported more regarding the names of those involved in the accident such as the passengers. While KVAL did report some of the names of those involved, they did not include as many identities of those involved as KVAL and KPIC did. However, KPTV reported the name of the hospital that the victims were taken to while KPIC and KVAL did not specify the name of the hospital but simply reported that the hospital was located in Portland, Oregon.

Sources:

http://www.kval.com/news/local/Boxing-champ-14-dies-from-injuries-suffered-in-van-crash-on-I-5-241875371.html?hpt=us_bn10

http://www.kpic.com/news/local/Boxing-champ-14-dies-from-injuries-suffered-in-van-crash-on-I-5-241875371.html

http://www.kptv.com/story/24542656/14-year-old-boy-dies-after-week-in-hospital-following-i-5-crash

Summary of "10 costly mistakes car owners make"

Summary of "10 costly mistakes car owners make"

“10 costly mistakes car owners make” discusses common mistakes drivers make and how to avoid making them. The first mistake discussed concerns tire issues drivers face, particularly for vehicles with underinflated tires. This can be costly as it lowers highway fuel mileage which results in drivers paying at least an extra $100 in gasoline for their automobile every year, if not more. Additionally, underinflated tires are a safety issue when driving as it can cause more car accidents due to difficulties controlling brakes and the maneuverability of the car, in general.

As cars become older models, the costs drivers pay for insurance does not need to be as high as when the car was first purchased. Drivers should opt for lower insurance coverage after having a particular vehicle for a prolonged time. Ways to achieve lower insurance would be to seek out more affordable insurers online or by asking insurers for any possible way of reducing current coverage.

Taking cars in for service without first checking prices can also be costly. Different dealers charge various prices for certain services because some dealers will add work that isn’t necessary. Drivers should check their owner’s manual for maintenance items that are required so as to avoid being overcharged for unneeded work.

Ignoring warning signs such as a check engine light can be both costly and dangerous. Taking care of issues early can prevent more expensive issues down the road, if the driver was to wait to repair something. Planning ahead when driving by always going with the most fuel-saving route will also save money on buying gasoline. When buying a car, it’s important to negotiate the price first before worrying about financing or trade-ins. It’s also advised to skip out on extended warranties and unnecessary extras, in order to save more money.