#thing 5

(A picture of Microsoft office’s Clippy offering help.)

Having already been fairly sensitive to language, I decided that I should try something I hadn’t done before, and decided to use one of the accessibility extensions offered by chrome. I ended up downloading Read&Write. I then used it to write and edit a bunch of emails in order to test its effectiveness. 

(A animation of a car driving up to a spinning graphic that says email in changing colours)

I have to say, it was really useful. I loved having the ability to have the emails read to me, because sometimes the wall of text just seems to be too much. The downside, it seems, is that it only works on certain websites, though this maybe my unfamiliarity with the extension. Worked fantastically for gmail, and all the google products, but I couldn’t get it to work for outlook. Maybe it’s a compatibility issue with the two products. I suppose that is one of the downsides to having it and trying to use it for anything other than google. But I did like the highlight options. Plus it seemed to be fairly intuitive to use, which I really like. 

One of the other issues I could foresee was the price. It seems to cost for all the features after the free trial, which seems like something maybe that should be offered by the university/school. I wonder if that would be helpful to be incorporated into the general population. I think if accessibility items(that are able to be used by everyone and are not limited in the scope) are more incorporated, the more normal it would be, which I think is useful. If you build it to be accessible in the first place, its easier to maintain it than to try and go back and awkwardly change something. 

Thing 5 is Video Presentations and below is the link to my presentation.

https://www.powtoon.com/c/dWTvGBNBvig/1/m

I found this Thing to be a bit daunting at first, I’ve made several presentations both for my BA and MA but for those I either had a title or a subject to work within. For this presentation it felt very wide open, with no specific area to do it on. In the end I decided on tracking the progress I had done so far on Rudai 23. It was a topic that allowed me the freedom to pick different slides, colours and images and I was able to experiment without being restricted by a particular theme.It was also very nice to see all the work I had done so far fro Rudai 23!

I found Powtoon easy enough to use once I had gotten familiar with the general layout of the options and menus. The free account had all the basic necessities and was perfect for a small presentation like this. Although, I think that if I was to the using Powtoon for a larger presentation that I would need to sign up to the pro account.

I use my phone for lists and reminders all the time, but the programs I use are mainly ones that came with my Samsung Note and that I have adapted to help me remember tasks I need to complete.  For example, my Calendar app lets me plug in reminders, but putting lists or multiple activities into it usually meant creating multiple events at set points in time, even when I simply needed to run an assortment of errands at some indeterminate point that day.  Likewise, I've been mostly using my stylus app, S Note, to jot down lists, but there's no quick way to simply compile and check off things I need from the store (I usually have to pull out the pen, select 'edit' mode and then strike off each thing as I go). 

So, while I was getting by with my current applications, downloading Remember the Milk and Wunderlist definitely made organization on my phone a much easier task.

I tried Remember the Milk for this thing and I really liked it. It's better than Google Calendar's tasks because it allows tagging by location, type of to-do item, etc. 

I had been using Tasks or Notes on my iPhone 5 to keep track of to-dos, but RTM is much more robust.

Sometimes

After a long, trying day

Or when I am buried in gray

 I allow myself to remember you 

Gentle thoughts of being curled around you and warm embraces 

Not because I miss you 

And not because I regret leaving you alone 

But because the memories are soothing. 

The bitterness of the present does not diminish the sweetness of the past, 

And I see your fists clench in anger when I remind you of this,

 And I remember that you do not see it this way. 

But that is how it has always been. 

I am trapped in the present, and so cling to happy thoughts gone by 

You reside in the past, and so you see now through a haze of the things you can never let go of. 

So I don't look on you with regret 

But sometimes 

After a long tiring day 

Buried in gray 

I pull out our happier memories and play them

 For the soothing sounds they make. 

And occasionally wonder If you do the same 

On long tiring days