I used to actively blog back when Myspace was the social media site of preference. During the “Myspace Era” blogging was similar to an online diary. It was where I expressed my teenage problems, obstacles and shared my desire to one day move to Washington, DC and maybe seeking my Master’s degree. Funny how it all turned out. I now live in DC, am in a Master’s program which ultimately led to me returning to the blogging world. Of course, the blogging world has changed dramatically. Now it is not just about word. Bloggers must offer photos, videos, polls, trends, and make their blog as interactive as possible in order to keep their audience engaged. At the end, my favorite part about blogging is still the ability to express your thoughts, ideas, habits, dreams and so on. The Social Media course has forced me to face the obstacles of the fast-pace social media trends, such as learning how to add things like a poll or video to my blog. People are easily distracted and need videos and photos to capture their attention first, before they even consider reading what your blog is about. These challenges have sparked my interest in blogging; therefore, I plan to continue to blog after the semester is over. I plan to remain in DC for one more year, so I would like to share my last year of my DC life via a blog. It will be my third attempt at a blog and I hope it will be the best one yet.
My nickname isn’t “paparazzi” for nothing! For someone who enjoys traveling and sharing dozens upon dozens of photos, TripNTale.com is a social media outlet with the capabilities suited for a traveler like myself! TripNTale provides an easy way to showcase my journey as I explore new places, people and experiences. They consider themselves an “online travel community” who promote and encourage. By setting up your personal profile, you immediately showcase all photos from your trips and identify what places you visited. This social media outlet allows people to follow you, almost like a blog. Therefore, you can share and encourage others to get out there and start getting to know the world too! This site also provides the capability to leave “your world footprint” by being able to show where you have traveled by using the Travel Map. Similar to the Twitter concept, you can give live updates while as you are traveling. Another reason this site serves as a great travel site, is because not only can you showcase your trips but you can review other potential trip destinations by checking out others’ trips. Let similar travelers education you, inform you and motivate you to visit other places. Just like they can see your trips, you can see theirs on TripNTale. People can follow you and you can follow them..inspiring each other! To add the cherry on top, you can use resource for free. It is unlimited! So why not start sharing photos, videos and updates from your travel adventures. I’m headed to Florida tomorrow…time to start sharing!
The VisitCalifornia.com website is an excellent online resource for all California traveling information. It really does a good job at attracting different visitors by structuring the site so people can seek information based on the scene they are seeking. It is an easy, clear, inexpensive (it is free), and useful tool for both new visitors and current residents to use to explore the sunshine state. The website offers readers the ability to learn more about anything from theme parks, wine country, beaches to city scenes to drive through. It is divided as “Life In California,” “Destinations,” “Things To Do,” “Travel Tools,” and “Deals.”The “Life in California” section is broken down into adventure, romance, indulgence and delight. I think that was a brilliant move because different people, depending on their interests, will want to easily find information about the certain atmosphere they are looking for. The “Destinations” section shares information about the major cities in California visitors can explore. It also offers helpful videos to better illustrate to readers what could possibly be in stored on their trip. It also offers readers the ability to download region and city maps. The “Things To Do” section offers information on beaches, nightlife, golf, spas, wine, and recreation activities. An events calendar is also available to readers, which I think is an excellent idea for me to add to my blog. I would focus on Orange County, especially my hometown of Anaheim. The “Travel Tools” section provides potential California visitors use interactive maps, weather updates, deals and other beneficial tools.
Being from California, the information provided on this site is even useful for me! I would highly recommend my readers to visit the site since I currently do not offer it. They engage target audience well on their site, as well as other social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. All these sites are easily accessible directly from their website. These are also something I would add to my blog in order to allow my readers various options to collecting the information they seek.
WO-MAN
In today’s world, women must be willing and able to do it all. As time passes, a housewife is becoming less and less common, meanwhile a female who an executive, a student and a mother, who ALSO stays in shape and is fashionable is becoming more standard. American women today earn more college and master’s degrees than men. According to mediapost.com, women hold onto more jobs than men, account for half of law and medical degrees, and economists forecast that they will earn more than men in comparable roles within the next 15 years. The more roles females embrace and succeed in, the more following generations of females feel the pressure to also be successful within those roles, along with continuing to add more to their plate. Seventy percent of women work outside of the home. Women feel like they are expected and motivated to hold their household together while they hold their own at work, contribute to the household income, raise the children and strengthen their relationship with the significant other.
In order to climb the corporate latter, women must be aggressive but are also expected to be polite, courteous and charming. Luckily, we are also more focused on our own empowerment. Although we are more stressed and overwhelmed with all these expectations, we love knowing we can. It is inspirational, attractive and influential. My grandmother had to maintain the household and raise the children. My mom was expected help my dad build his business while maintaining the household and raising the children. I am expected to get a college degree, masters degree, one day own my own business, stay healthy, get married and have children.
Although I’m stressed, I love that I can show my parents just how much I am taking on and succeeded in.
Workaholic – Succeed in the workplace
Opportunist – Take advantage of an opportunity
Multi-Tasker – Do it all
Affirmative – Be aggressive
Nonstop – Always have things to do
I have my Sunshine state of California, others have Puerto Rico. There are many similarities between Southern California and Puerto Rico. There are both full of Latinos, culture, incredible weather (for those of us that do not enjoy anything under 60 degrees), tasty food, beaches, and most importantly family. For the most part, people think positive things when they hear California and Puerto Rico. Either they want to visit or they already visited and want to move there. Unfortunately, another thing SoCal and PR have in common is the terrible impact the recession has had on them both. All my SoCal and PR friends want to move back home to “paradise” as we call it but that means not having a job. So what do we do instead? We move to DC and tell friends to follow us here. Currently, I have had two family members and two friends move to DC in search of jobs and graduate school and DC has delivered.
I have been to PR once and felt at home. DC is such an extreme opposite of the laid-back, predictable weather place we call home. People in DC strengthened my ambition, hopes of becoming someone of influence and power but I do not want to become just those things. I don’t want to live to work. I don’t want to live to rule. I want to live to help others and enjoy. I need a place that allows me the opportunity to leave work at work and go home to family, friends and ME. Although I can’t be in SoCal or PR all the time, I’m thankful for social media that helps introduce me to people from those places, share my prospective and brings us together to build new friendships. MEET UP, Facebook groups, twitter and others are all sources that help you feel more connected to home and/or at least keep you up to date with what you’re missing on while in DC!
For those of you who are basketball fans just like me, Monday was a rough day. The National Basketball Association took a death dive on Monday as players rejected yet another offer and decide it was time to put their egos first and the love of the game and their fans last. The meeting held on Monday led to decertifying and suing of the NBA. Union leaders brought in a anti-trust lawyer and allowed him and the union’s lead negotiator to push decertification upon the players. Unfortunately, my boy Derek Fisher came out looking more concern about himself instead everyone’s, including the fans, best interest. This mess has become a game of “chicken” as both the owners and players refuse to put all egos, greed and simply stubbornness aside in order to ensure everyone gets paid, fans enjoy a season and local businesses whose livelihood depend on the NBA season. Now, the NBA players will lose, the NBA owners will lose, other arena employees that count on the NBA to make a living will lose, and most of all, the fans will lose…Does anyone else see a problem with this?
I personally think the owners are being too nice. Ultimately, they run the business, therefore have more expenses and pocket less of the profits. I love my Lakers just like any fellow Californian but players can’t run the NBA. If the current players are about compromise, there are thousands of other future players who would be more than happy to take their place. On top of not getting paid, several players will end their career with this lockout. It is disappointing and pathetic. Everyone is pointing fingers and nothing is getting accomplished.
I grew up in Southern California but never travelled beyond two hour radius out of the city of Anaheim. Given that Anaheim is home to attractions such as Disneyland, the Angels Stadium, the Honda Center, the Grove, the Block of Orange, and is minutes away from the beach, I really never felt like spending money in hotels or time in traffic visiting other California places. Now that I am grown and have the income to take trips up and down the state, it is important to get insight from people who love can personally vouch for certain hotels, attractions, venues, and travel logistics that can make my trip more enjoyable and affordable.
The California Essential Guide app created by Veronica Hill, who has personally experienced each California destination, provides firsthand insight to travelers such as myself. The app is for iPhone and iPad devices. For $4.99, you can review photographers, prices, travel options, sights and venues from an array of options the California Essential Guide app provides easily and accessibly to your hand. Do you want to visit a beach, a national park, a day attraction, an overnight experience? Options are categorized. Each has photos and prices so you can decide whether it is something you want to invest your time and money in exploring. If so, the app also provides you with directions, telephone numbers, venue hours, etc.
We are used to free apps but for the $5, you also get free upgrades as the app continues to update. It’s perfect for on the go information. It offers more than 7000 photos and videos, along with 500 insightful entries. The app is available at www.CaliforniaTravelExpert.com.
Want to learn more? View this brief video link below.
I found the blog Californiality and absolutely love it! It is a popular statewide daily weblog covering the culture, society, politics, business, economy, government, music, spirituality and personalities of the world’s most famous state, California. Although published in Los Angeles, the blog covers the topics regarding all of California, from top to bottom. Mark Lorier has lived in California for over four decades and serves as the head writer and editor-in-chief of the blog. As I review the blog, I begin to realize just how genius the concept is and how strategically the blog is formatted and structured. For every California concept the blog targets, there is a “blogger” with over 25 years experience in the field but remain anonymous. This provides much credibility. The blog also incorporates photos and videos into each post very well, in a way that only emphasizes the message of the post.
The particular blog post that I thought related more to my “California Love” blog is called, “California Stereotypes Suck!” Being a fellow California and having moved to the opposite corner of the United States, I witness people, who both have visited and have never visited California, make complete stereotypical statements about California. As with anything, there are always slight truths when generalizing, but as we all should know not everyone or everything is the same. I myself always encourage people to visit and tend to go off on a tangent about how amazing California is but always toss in what I call the “Los Angeles disclaimer.” I have been all up and down the Golden State and although the media might make LA seem like this paradise, it is always a “hit or miss” for tourist. Either they love it or hate it. I personally would never move to LA. I do not enjoy the traffic, smog and expensive prices. To each their own, I say.
The best part about this post is how it lists the stereotypes by city! I literally had to email the list to my fellow Californians because they would laugh, as I am sure they have heard these stereotypes a dozen times. Then the post ends with a video on stereotyping blondes. The video is hilarious and really sums up the post and emphasizes its point.
Blog: http://www.californiality.com/2010/04/california-stereotypes-suck.html
No matter where you go, if you lived in California then you will relate immediately to the video link in this blog. California is a place where we work hard but also play hard. Where we get down to business but are not all about work (generally speaking of course). If you have lived or even visited California, watch the video and provide me with your instant reaction! For those of you who have never been, would you like to go after viewing this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md69zCJKD1c
The video captures the overall feeling of Sunny Calirfonia. Words that come to mind when thinking of SoCal: Sun, beach, relaxation, calm, friendly people, stress-free, life outside of work! If it is one thing I took for granted in California was the sense of life outside of work. Maybe I am generalizing but 9 times out of 10, if I meet someone new while I am out in DC, I will be ask one of the two following questions: “Who do you work for?” or “What do you do?” I am not one to enjoy talking about work after spending nine hours working. I am more than my career, I do more than work.
I played the video to 15 of my DC friends who moved here from California, 14 out of 15 agreed the video spoke the truth! The one person who did not agree stated they did not capture the economic crisis California is in righ now..which is true. Then again, the purpose of the video is to invite travelers to visit California; therefore, help its economy.
I miss home..who wouldn’t miss a place like SoCal?
How long is the social media networks list? I have heard of Hi5 but never bother even visiting their site. As for Gather, I have never even heard of it. I visited both their sites and it automatically seemed to be too much. Not that other social media sites, most specifically Facebook, are not becoming too much. Where does the line of “being connected” end and the line of “being intrusive” begin? The most significant difference between social media outlets like Facebook, in comparison to blog, is that YOU have more control over what you share about yourself with your followers/readers. In my opinion, Facebook is getting so complicated that people are not aware of all that is being shared about them, therefore do not know how to manage their privacy settings. I do my best to keep up with the new format and privacy settings, in order to better manage and enhance my profile. By even glancing at my Facebook profile, you know I absolutely love California!
I use Facebook to show photos of my trips to California and tell people where in California I am and why I recommend they visit too. I get other fellow Californians to visit chime in too, agree or disagree with me, and if they disagree, then they can recommend places they think are better. I encourage you to read, hopefully visit, and decide for yourself. Find me on Facebook by looking up huerta.maricela@gmail.com. I am still fairly new to Twitter and am still working on strategize how best to use my account to promote myself and my “California Love” blog. Find me on Twitter at MaricelaHoya to see what creative ways I come up with to enhance my blog! As always, Tweet your thoughts, likes and dislikes…all feedback is welcome!
maricelahoya 