Twitter

During this last week, when we were supposed to be doing posts on Twitter, I had to force myself to do this. I have heard many bad things about Twitter, and didn't want to become part of that. I made my account, and did the assignment, trying to make sure I used thoughtful comments and posts. 
While glancing through some of the posts I had decided to follow, I noticed my favorite country singer is really funny, and put some hilarious comments on his account, which made my day better.  I also began seeing news around the world and from where I'm from.  This made me think about how little I know about the news. I did manage to make it through the week, having gotten all of my tweets done and pretty sure that I got all of my replies done. After about three or four days, I couldn't tweet or reply to anything without Twitter giving me an error of some sort.
I tried to work some way around it so I could retweet and reply to people, but I couldn't come up with anything. I did however managed to get Twitter to work with my cell phone, I could text in a tweet and it would work, but nothing when typing. This caused my experience to go back down to an unpositive one.  I began hating Twitter more again.  I have just learned to deal with this annoyance, and will stop using it myself, and just read the funny comments people put from now on.
Twitter has been an annoyance for me since the start, and I am glad to be done using it. Twitter may be a useful tool for some people, but for me it is annoying and not at all useful.  I don't intend on using it again voluntarily, but if I must I will. 







http://www.balkhis.com/twitter/25-reasons-why-someone-should-join-twitter/ - article about Twitter
 http://twitter.com/#!/shananalan - my Twitter page

My Best

            I would have to say I have been at my best when I was the leader for the Davenport West High School Electric Car team my senior year.  We were working for the second year to build an electric car that would be qualified to race at the end of the year in Cedar Rapids.  I faced a lot of challenges and overcame the bulk of them.

The electric car from 2009

           I inherited the team from the previous year's leader, who graduated.  I decided that we as a team were going to do things differently from the way it had been done before.  We built a mockup out of wood, while we decided what type of metal to use.  I felt very confident in the team at that point, we had a member who could weld very well, someone who knew a lot about cars, and people who were more than willing to learn more.
          I found it difficult being a leader when a few people refused to return for a second year because they didn't want a girl telling them what to do, and how to do it.  It was disheartening to know this, and I considered giving up my position, but instead kept it to try and overcome that challenge. I managed to accomplish this with few other difficulties.  It became more fun after that point, I made friends and was actually looked up to, which felt really good and boosted my self esteem.
         We managed to get the car built and running this last summer, it was a lot of fun.  We clocked the car at about 30 miles per hour.  This was running off of two twelve volt car batteries, and a motor.  There were no brakes (one of the parts left on the to-do list).  We unfortunately didn't make the deadline for the race, but we did make it drivable by the time I left to come to ISU.  It made me feel very proud and I think I was at my best at that point.

2009 electric car team from back to front: Shannon, Franzenburg (coach), Rebecca, Jake, ??, Ben, Lupe, Anthony, Jeramie, ???, Demerest, Kelly(Teacher chaperone)

         Being in that leadership position made me grow up a little, it got me to think more about what I was capable of, and taught me how to network effectively.  It definitely has paid off, at the career fair, it was a major talking point for me with company representatives. I think that using this has helped me deal with my stress in a healthier matter, and will keep me striving to do my best all through college.





Links to West Electric Car Team videos and Pictures:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WestEngineering
http://s887.photobucket.com/albums/ac75/WestEngineering/Electrathon%20Car/2010/

Diversity Lecture

I thought that the lecture by Aldo Magazenni was very insightful.  I was at first skeptical about attending a lecture just because of the chance of awkward and uncomfortable situations.  I found this lecture to be very opposite of that.  He spoke about what it was like to live in different parts of the world and help the people.  He has traveled and spoke about Kenya, Afghanistan, India, and Italy.  I thought that those are a very wide range of cultures to visit. When I asked him which was his favorite...he said he didn't have a "favorite" but he really liked India.  Listening to him speak made me feel very grateful for everything that I have and how much I take advantage of it. If I could go to more lectures like that one, I would.  He was a very enthusiastic speaker, and seemed very knowledgeable in what he does, which is fitting, considering how long he has done his job.



here is the link to the Traveling Mercies website: http://www.travelingmercies.org/
link to a discussion with Mr. Magazzeni: http://www.personal.psu.edu/uxg3/blogs/honors/2009/01/aldomagazzeni.html