Write Right

Have you been on the hunt for one all-inclusive, extra-efficient, sanity-saving app? Well, look no further because the Ginger App is here to stay.

The new Ginger App assures that you will “Make No Mistake!”, and with their variety of extremely useful services such as the sentence rephraser, the grammar checker, the translator, or the emojis, you’re likely to never be at a loss for words, or for the correctly spelled words, again. Ginger is available for all personal computers and devices, and is just one click away from landing in your hard drive.

The Ginger App will make sure everyone knows your favorite band is One Direction…and not their commonly confused alter ego, thanks ESPN (Wandai Wrection). They also know what you want to say before your fingers can make it there – with the Word Prediction feature, you will be knocking out documents, emails, and more in no time at all. Ginger software has received many great reviews, and is overall an extremely helpful tool in day-to-day tasks. One blogger wrote, “Ginger also seems much better at suggesting and correcting punctuation than other editing software” (Assistive Technology Blog).
Most standard editors, such as Microsoft Word, do a fine job of catching common spelling mistakes, but they typically fail to catch punctuation errors, which happen just as often.

So, make your professors, co-workers, bosses, and even your mom a little bit happier when every written document is flawless. And tell your OCD friend who lives to pick apart your errors, that she can find someone else to bug. The Ginger App can replace her, and it will nag you a whole lot less.

Even go a step further and try out the “Personal Trainer” feature to perfect your typing and writing skills. This aspect takes mistakes from your own text and creates practice trials to help correct habits specific to each user. Talk about customized care, right? Let’s face it, you need this app in your life. Everyone makes mistakes, don’t sweat it, just fix it.

An Influence For Then, Now, and What’s Coming

Steve Jobs and his team of Silicon Valley nerds geniuses reinvented today’s world in regards to technology, and beyond. His name made famous the seemingly simple fruit, and said fruit took his name through the past and way further into the future than anyone could have imagined. In 1976, he and partner Steve Wozniak went forward with selling the first Apple computer out of Jobs’ Los Altos home on Crist Drive. Fast forward to January of 2007, and enter the very first iPhone.

This handy device changed the lives of millions of Americans, and all because of the man who gave the people what they wanted: an iPod and a phone in one single device.

In an NY Times article about Jobs’ masterpiece(s), Fred Vogelstein wrote, “It’s hard to overstate the gamble Jobs took when he decided to unveil the iPhone back in January 2007. Not only was he introducing a new kind of phone – something Apple had never made before – he was doing so with a prototype that barely worked” (Vogelstein, NY Times). This shows the first of Jobs’ many attempts to get the world on board with the exclusivity of the iPhone family. He wanted everyone to want his product, months before it was even functioning without glitches. And he succeeded. Majorly.

Between 2007 and 2011, when Jobs passed, he and his iPhone revolutionized the world of communicating, and furthered the future it with his legacy. Today, people spend an average of 177 minutes per day looking at their smart phones (Bloomberg Business). This phenomenon began once Jobs’ created a device that could do enough to allow people to lose themselves in their screens. iPhones have advanced at least bi-yearly, and they only get cooler with each update. The future of the company, however, was extremely jeopardized with Jobs’ passing. He left enough of a backbone at Apple for them to keep pushing new products.

Through a mastered façade, a world of secrets, and an unprecedented family of user-friendly devices, Jobs and his crew changed the world of technology.  Not only did Jobs’ revolutionize the way the world uses its devices, but he also contributed to the pitfall of every human’s posture. He was, arguably, the Most Influential American of All Time.

Brynne K McCarthy – https://bkmccarthy.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/an-influence-for-then-now-and-whats-coming/

Spin it to Win It

We live in a world of trends, a world where everyone wants to be the best, have the best things, do the best at everything and know the best. Part of this most of this desire stems from social media, which serves as not only a massive sharing platform, but also as a space for competitive bragging, stressing and doing.

With that said, a recent trend, according to just about every major publication, (Harpers Bazaar, The Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, and Self – just to name a few) is showcasing the best, hottest and latest in exercise. We, as millennials, thus have every desire to explore these trends, be they food, clothes, or, namely, exercise. Even trendier, though, is the recent hype among the indoor cycling concept. SoulCycle, the biggest name in the industry, somewhat re-invented the workout, and has revolutionized the world of spinning.

Because SoulCycle is only in certain places – NY, Chicago, Miami, CA, The Hamptons, DC, and the remaining few, ever-so-trendy places to live – various cycling studios have emerged carrying the same concept. Dallas’ elite do not have a SoulCycle to retreat to, but they do have quite a few other options running the show. Lync Cycling, The Ride House and Flywheel are the top three in our area, and each one attracts their own niche of clients. Lync, located in Snider Plaza, draws a mainly SMU crowd, whereas Flywheel and The Ride House pull in a wider range of riders.

It can be argued that SoulCycle is the brand who has truly made this workout take off, and brought the beat to the world of cycling. Other studios around the country are giving them a big run for their money, though.

It is not until one makes the transition, however, between taking the class and teaching it, that the exercise can truly be appreciated. The reason that this workout has become so popular has much to do with the revolutionized way of riding to the beat of the music accompanying the instructor. Catching the beat and carrying out throughout the entire ~45 minutes takes at least a year or two to perfect. Teaching riders to find that beat is a whole new ballgame. It all pays off fully in the end when the endorphin rush sets in. Cycling is an addiction and it has become easy to recognize the reason for the major takeoff. Trendy or not, we all ought to hop on the saddle and sweat it out!

Brynne K McCarthy – https://bkmccarthy.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/spin-it-to-win-it/

UGH, finals.

Finals are approaching quicker than anything and the summation of my feelings toward this fact can be said in one word: UGH. There is a very real anxiety that comes with the realization that I have to get an actual A on my final to do well in a class (or perhaps multiple A’s for multiple finals.) Pressure’s on, I guess. That said, this is also the time of year where the most fun parties happen because everyone wants to get one more night out before we all leave for the summer – gasp. I have found myself in a constant limbo of whether or not I should blow off my study guides and go have a good time. Surprisingly, though, I have yet to go out because my guilty conscience has won every night this week, which is probably a good thing, if I’m being honest with myself. The desire to go out is even more pressing this semester, however, because I will not be here next fall. Lately, I keep wondering about what I will be missing out on next semester while I am in Switzerland. I have a bit of FOMO (fear of missing out) because my friends will simply go on having a blast without me, but I know that next semester will forever change my life (and hopefully for the better – fingers crossed.) The FOMO, though, is making me question my studying habits and has me wanting to trade the flash cards for a night out. Finals start Wednesday, and with that, I must confess: you win, finals. I suppose I had better push away the craving to go out and open up these books, because if I fail out of college, going out won’t even be an option….just kidding, kind of.

Eating my way through NOLA (and Dallas too…)

The past week has been an absolute marathon of the best kind, which involved no running whatsoever.  My type of marathon is the eating type, and there has been no shortage of excellent meals in the last week.  Though New Orleans burned me out completely – I don’t think I could have handled one more second of smelling Bourbon St. – but the meals were certainly my favorite part.  My first night in town, my family and I went to dinner at a french-ish restaurant called R’evolution.  It was so good.  We started with crab beignets, and I had a goat cheese and cherry tomato ravioli-type dish.  My sister ordered lobster gnocchi, my mom got scallops, and my dad got duck, all of which were wonderfully delicious.  The next day for lunch, we went to a lovely pizza place called Dominca, and I ordered the prosciutto pizza, again very yummy. Dinner that night was at Ascension, and I had veal.  The following night, though, was definitely my favorite.  We went to GW Fins, and we all ordered a bunch of appetizers and one main dish, their famous “Scalibut”, which was a generous piece of fresh halibut with scallops baked onto the top, bedded over a lobster risotto.  It was unbelievable.  Easter brunch was at Antoine’s.  The food was okay, but the experience was worth it.  It is one of the most historical restaurants in the country, and all 14 dining rooms were beautiful.  Brunch concluded my meal journey in NOLA, but then I was on my way to spend my week eating throughout Dallas with my mom.  The week’s restaurants included, NOSH Euro Bistro, Dive, East Hampton, Victor Tango’s, Taverna, Toulouse, Little Katana, and Fireside Pies, Nick and Sam’s, and Saint Ann are still to come.  It has been such a great week; there is nothing I enjoy more than great food and even better company.  I will certainly be sad to say goodbye to my family, but in two weeks, I will be back home and ready to eat my way through Marin, SF and Napa/Sonoma. 

No parlo Italiano

If I’ve learned anything in my twenty years of meticulous planning, it’s that nothing ever goes according to plan.  I had dreamed up a semi-specific plan for my course load while I am in Switzerland, and, surprise surprise, it’s already gone to the dogs.  The original plan was for me to take Italian I during the summer – in June – and then take the second semester of it in Lugano.  With this plan, I would be done with my language requirement by the time I returned from my semester abroad, which would take a huge burden off of my course load.  However, as most things go, this is no longer the case.  The SMU June term schedule came out a few weeks ago, and Italian was listed as an available course, as it was supposed to be.  When it became open to enroll, I made sure I logged on right away in order to get one of the supposed 15 spots…but it came to my attention very quickly that this was no longer an option.  Each time I entered the class number, it told me that this course did not exist.  So, I went in to meet with my counselor to talk to her about this issue, and she delivered the news that I knew was true but did not want to hear: the course was not, in fact, available in June.  This threw a monkey wrench in the plan that I had been depending on to stay on track with my course load.  Luckily enough, though, my brain quickly rerouted and I have orchestrated another plan that is on par with the previous one.  I decided it would be in my best interest to stick to doing summer school in June anyway, even though SF is calling yelling my name.  I am going to take one course for my major and one for my minor, which will hopefully make it so that I am on schedule, if not ahead, with my courses.  This will still allow for me to be home for almost two months this summer, and I will escape Dallas before it gets unbearably hot.  It sort of stinks, but it is necessary so I’ll just have to suck it up and deal.  Switzerland with not a hint of knowledge of the local language should be interesting to say the least.  Hopefully they’re nice enough to accept my English, at least at the beginning.  Ciao! 

Getting a Visa, and not the fun kind

From what I understand, you must obtain a Swiss Visa in order to stay in the country for an extended period of time.  I also am under the impression that it is one of the most frustrating and difficult processes to go through.  In the end, there should be no reason to not be granted a Swiss Visa, but the process is daunting.

Franklin University (formerly Franklin College) is supposed to send me a packet that includes everything I will need to apply for the Visa.  I’ve been told that as long as I follow the directions diligently, I should run into no issues.  I have been anxiously awaiting this package of paperwork due to all of the nightmarish stories I’ve heard about the process.

From what I can gather from my research, the Swiss Visa Desk will only accept Visa applications from people whose main destination is Switzerland – so that is a step in the right direction for me.  The application process also takes about five to ten days.  It requires that your passport have at least  two empty pages, and that it does not expire within a year after travel is expected to end.  It is also required that I submit my Visa application in person, in San Francisco, my hometown.

All of this information has been gathered in only my preliminary research.  I am well aware that I have a lot more to research and a major task ahead of me.  I am confident, however, that this process will be worth it when I get off the plane in Geneva to start my semester in Switzerland.

Ciao for now.

Study Abroad Within Studying Abroad

One of the many reasons why I chose to study abroad at Franklin College in Lugano is because they offer an Academic Travel class.  Basically, once a week, the class of your choice meets, and then in the middle of the semester, you travel will the class for ten days to study in the region that you have been learning about all semester.  It is a mini-study abroad within the main study abroad.  It is such a great concept because I will be able to not only study in Switzerland, but also in another country entirely.  The class I am looking into taking is set to travel to Brussels, Paris, Geneva and Strasbourg.  We will study the basics of international relations, and have the opportunity to see The World Trade Center, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Science and Culture Organization, the main institutions of the European Union, and the Council of Europe.  The objective is to help us learn about what problems these organizations deal with, and how successful they have been in resolving problems.  I am thrilled about this opportunity to travel to an extra four countries while I am overseas, and Franklin College does an excellent job in encouraging students to see the world.   

From Switzerland on the Mind to Switzerland consuming the Brain

Well, it’s official. I have been accepted to Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland and I am about to log on and click “commit”. I didn’t doubt my ability to get it, but whenever there is an “apply to either be accepted or not” type of situation, my nerves run wild. The process involved a series of basic questions, followed by three essays, and finally a phone interview. I checked my email every hour of everyday for about a week straight. Finally, on a Thursday morning, it came. I immediately texted my best friend, who also applied, to see what her results were. We both got in, within minutes of one another. I was ecstatic, as was she. So now, I am traveling to Europe for 4 months with my very favorite companion, and I couldn’t not be more excited. The next few months will be filled with planning (my favorite thing – actually though) and come August, we will be on our merry ways. From now on, I am going to post each week about something regarding our adventure. I am thrilled to embark on this wildly new and extremely exciting opportunity.

Ciao!!

A Sunny Surprise

A few months ago, I called my mom to ask her if she would come out to Dallas from home in San Francisco to spend my birthday with me. She told me she would love nothing more, and that if she could fit it into her schedule, she would fly out. She asked me to double check my schedule to be sure it would work out and be worth it for her to come. Just as I picked up the phone to call her and tell her to definitely come, I was met with a big, fat “no” to a mommy-filled birthday. Much to my disappointment, my mom explained that it was not reasonable, as they would be in Hawaii right before on a work trip of my dad’s. Totally unfair, I whined, but moved on.  Then, a sorority announcement came about that held the dates of Dad’s weekend, which fell right after my birthday. I asked my dad to come out, and had a restored hope that at least one of my family members would be around to help me start my 20’s.  He made no promises, but agreed to try to make it work. This past Monday, I rang my dad to see if he had thought about coming for the weekend any further. He teetered back and forth for a minute or so, and then finally declared, “okay, yes, I’m in. I’ll be there.” I was ecstatic about this confirmation. However, two days later, I called my mom for my usual morning check-in-chat. She told me she had a question for me that involved an upside and a downside.  Immediately anxious, I told her to ask away. “Well, would you want to join us in Hawaii in two weeks? We can celebrate your birthday there.” I was speechless from this offer. The fact that this was even a possibly was a shock in itself. It was an offer I was in no way going to pass up, no matter how many hours of work I’ll have to catch up on or how many hours I have to spend on a plane. I could not have dreamed up a better birthday present, that’s for sure. 
This is probably the most spontaneous thing both my mother and I have ever done (yes, we are notorious for our meticulous planning ahead) and I cannot wait to spend my 20th birthday under the sun with the best company I know.