The Final Blog

Northwestern Podcast

Peyton Manning Dancing

I think one of the funniest viral videos to come out in the last decade is Peyton Manning Dancing at Broncos practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xskX-_Vvx7k

Petyon Manning has been known for being a pretty funny guy, not to mention, that he is the face of the NFL right now.  He shows off his incredibly hilarious dance moves at practice, and many got it on tape.  This video has been everywhere.  Social media is using it as a happy dance, remixing it to hip hop, or even putting lyrics behind it.  I think it is simply hilarious and everyone should watch it.

Sutton Impact

The recent events of Northwestern have struck me as unique.  I have not seen perceveirence  in men going after the NCAA in a long time.  This new wave of unionization in colligate athletics will have a real significant role in the future.  The athletes of Northwestern are looking for a way to make the NCAA see that they need medical and educational backing for the future.  According to Northwestern, they would like to receive benefits for the purpose of present and future medical bills, along with the additional funding for athletes trying to complete their schooling.  This puts the NCAA in a real tight spot.

In early 2014, the Collegiate Athletic Coalition put in a petition to justify that the term student-athlete was void, and that these athletes were in fact athletes who happen to be students.  Hence, being employees of the universities in which they attend.  In March, the CAC won the argument, which, allowed the National Labor Relations Board of Chicago to pass judgement on to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington.  With this win, the Northwestern players were able to vote on wether they would want to form a union or not.  The votes were sealed and takes directly the the NLRB.  No one but them knows the outcome.  As soon as mid season, the NLRB could have a ruling that could turn the NCAA on its head.  It will be an interesting year in college football thanks in large part to the Northwestern football team.

Seasonal Apps

With the World Cup coming to an end, it got me wondering about the FIFA App.  The FIFA app is an app that the fans of the World Cup can use to get all the in-depth coverage they need on the event.  On this app, you can do things like get live score updates, FIFA world rankings, and stats leaders of the whole world cup, not to mention, each individual team.  Apps like this have become very popular when you have seasonal sports occasions.  I think this is because sports are seasonal, and unless the app covers all sport, it is impossible to keep them year round.

App Shopper just came out with the 200 best sports apps for your iPhone.  Three of the top ten apps on the list, and 13 of the top twenty have only been on the market for one hundred days.  These are seasonal apps.  The number three app has only been on the market for 8 days called the Tour De France app.  This is the definition of seasonal. (http://appshopper.com/sports/nbc-sports-tour-de-france-live-2014)  Most apps that are seasonal are free, and that entices people to download.  When sport apps cost money, they are usually long term apps.

I am one of the biggest supporters of seasonal sport apps.  I have in my cloud so many seasonal app.

Sidenote:  The cloud allows you to delete apps off your phone but keep them.  It makes it so much easier!!! 

• Fantasy Sports ESPN
• ESPN Tournament Challenge
• NFL Mobile
• ESPN Bracketology

There are a couple apps like the sport center app, the score, and the watch ESPN.  These apps follow every sport so they can follow all year round.

I love seasonal sports apps!!

Comment if you use more seasonal or year long apps.  Name some apps you think I should download, seasonal or year long.

Wegman's LPGA Championship.  http://www.wegmanslpga.org/default.aspx


It is a well known fact that the LPGA is not the most well known sport league in the world.  Wegman's Championship is a stop on the LPGA tour that runs in August every year.  Wegmans is has a vast history.  It's description is:

"Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a family-owned U.S. regional supermarket chain headquartered in Gates, New York, near Rochester. Wegmans has 83 stores in the mid-Atlantic region, in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,Maryland, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Founded in 1916 in Trenton, Wegmans has appeared on Fortune's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list since its inception in 1998, and has ranked among the top 10 for eight consecutive years.  Food Network recognized it with its award for Best Grocery Store in 2007, and Consumer Reports ranked it the top large U.S. grocery chain in 2012. It was also profiled as part of "Here Are The Jobs" segment on MSNBC'sPoliticsNation on July 6, 2012."

This Wegman website is out of date now, but It has some very cool features, but, also so lackluster ones.

Just in terms of the apperane, it is defiantly appealing with the red and gold color scheme.  I do not like the green inlet because it doesn't match the rest of the site.  It is obviously updated semi regularly because the past champions are on the top of the screen.

The page is very accessible with the border being broad enough to know what is under the title, but not specific enough that you need eighty titles.  The site also has a ease to it that makes it very easy to use.  Along with that, the rest of the website main page is made up of sponsors and social media outlets.  This shows that the Wegmans Championship puts its sponsors on a pedestal.  With the LPGA needing a significant amount of money to function, it is pleasing to see why they are here.

The actual pages within the site are terrible.  Half of the pages have one paragraph of information, if that.  The contact page is email based, but after that they have a number but don't give any information past that.  The history page has the last four winners and a picture, but doesn't give any previous stats, records, or photos, along with, not giving any past information of the event.  Specifically, how it started or how it belongs to the LPGA.

Secondly, many of the pages are based in pdf.  The sponsor info and marketing take a long time to load because of this, but also, it would not open up on any other devices.  The pdf also makes the website harder to access.  They should have the capabilities to make everything sit on the website and not have to open another page.

The only title page I like is the page of the course.  It shows each hole, and gives a background on each including distance, par, and navigation.  They need to make each page this detailed and as easy to access.

All in all, this website has a lot of room to improve.  It is a pretty pathetic website for a major golf event.  For the golf tournament in Ammon's class, we made a similar website in less that a couple weeks.  This tournament has been open for years, and should be more well rounded then this.

Technology Deprivation

Technology is one of the most important parts of my life.  Cell phone, internet, and tv are 80% of my day.  So when Dr. Bracey challenged us to see how long we could go for without using any digital media I thought he was crazy.  I decided that if I was going to do it I was going to do it right.  No phone, no problem.

I started on Saturday morning.  The first thing I did was reached to grab my phone to text or snap chat.  I took all my might not to click on the apps.  The most frustrating thing I noticed right away was the badges on top showing I had notifications.  On any other day I would be on my phone until I got rid of all the notifications.  To get by this, I decided to call people because thats not against the rules.  A couple of my friends were confused on why I was calling them.  One even straight up asked why I didn't text him.  

I found that the only way I could do this is to take my mind off of it.  Golf!!! I had to uses the phone book to look up the number for the club house.  It may be the first time that phone book has even been open.  Once on the course I found it easier to not use my phone.  I did however have friends that used their phones, so if I need anything I would just talk to them.  

 I was on the course until 9 pm.  Their were times where a grabbed my phone for one reason or another and had to catch myself.   To be honest, I may have used my phone and not even realized it.  I found it was a constant struggle to stay ahead of this challenge, but I just had to keep off until i went to bed.  So to do this, I left my phone at home when I went out on Saturday night.  Once I got home I went to bed and made it!!

I could go for long periods of time without a phone.  I have had to before and I don't want to do that.  I use my phone for everything.  Games, tv, sports updates, social media, and communication all at least once a day!! Its not a fact of being able to, its more about wanting to do the challenge.  I don't think my girlfriend would like me not having a phone for a long time.  All in all, I missed my phone to much to do that.  That's not to mention the internet and tv that I use all the time.  Fun experiment but no thanks!!