Ах, Одесса!

Посетила легендарный оперный театр в Одессе.

Потрясающе красивое здание. Помог случай - в этот день в театре был вечер юмора в рамках фестиваля "Большая разница". Увидела всех своих любимчиков из "Прожекторперисхилтон". Ваня Ургант ходил за остроумными вопросами зрителей в зал, был от меня а радиусе метра. Я была проосто счастлива :-)

Ребята шутили оригинально, даже если большинство шуток были домашними заготовками, мне все равно понравилось, особенно музыкальные номера.

Понравился золотой песок на одесском пляже! После гальки южного берега Крыма это было неожиданно приятно.

16-я станция фонтана шикарно реконструирована.

Много гуляла по городу, обнимала знаменитые памятники.

Посмотрите больше фото здесь

American traces in Odessa (August 10-11th, 2011)

I and my friend Tamara arrived to explore American traces in Odessa (10-11 August, 2011).

We sent warm greetings to De Ribas at the beginning of the famous Deribasovskaya mall!

We visit the Odessa's heritage "Londonskaya" hotel with Grand stairs.

The "Londonskaya" hotel has a Celebrities' museum.

American celebrity who stayed at the "Londonskaya" hotel - a famous ballet dancer Isidora Duncan.

"Bristol" hotel in Pushkinskaya street. "Bristol"’s famous guest - American writer Mark Twain stayed in Odessa in 1867.

Than he described his trip to Odessa and Crimea.

An American actor Ken  Richters played M.Twain in a new movie filmed in Odessa.

In 1928 steamship "Pestel" brought to Odessa Theodor Dreiser - a famous American writer.

Theodor Dreiser  also stayed in "Bristol" hotel.

In 1978 the US  "red millionaire" with Odessa roots -  Armand Hammer- was  a celebrity guest at  "Bristol" hotel.

We saw a magnificent Odessa Philharmonic Hall. Born from American parents Hobart Earl is the  conductor of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra.

We saw a Hawaiian girl on Odessa streets. :)))

NATO naval exercise "Sea Breeze" coordinated the activities of Ukrainian and international forces in Odessa region.

USS "Monterey" crew was in Odessa. USS 'Monterrey" officers' band performed in Odessa's Central park.

We had time for a coffee-break the American style :))

More pictures here 

Finish

I have finished my 14Things.

I hope it's good enough to complete the course. :-)

I plan to spent 1 week remain vacation with my friends near the Black Sea.

Odessa and Nikolayev wait for me.

My summer pictures here 

 

Thing 14: What’s New With Search Engines

Google Dashboard is a Google product created to provide us all the information that google has about us. IT simple answer the question "What does Google store in my Account?". 
Google Dashboard displays product-specific data that's associated with our Google Account. The Google Dashboard is sort of control panel which lists all it products in a summarized form at one central Place whereby we can manage our account information and all other personal settings associated with each Google Product.

Name: WindowOnAmerica Center in Dniproprtrovsk

Email address: woadnepr@gmail.com

Alerts

My alerts 2 active alerts

Blogger

Name Svitlana

Country Украина

Blogger Profile 10 entries

Blogs 2 total

Most recent: Welcome to Lanusic! at 4:02 PM

Following 3 blogs

Most recent: INFORMATION CENTER "WINDOW ON AMERICA" on Mar 15, 2011

Contacts

Contacts 45 entries

My contacts: 2 entries

Most contacted:

jnk2002@ukr.net - my colleague

Evgeny Borisenko - patron

Gmail

Inbox 300 conversations

Picasa Web Albums

Nickname: WindowOnAmerica Center in Dniproprtrovsk

Gallery URL http://picasaweb.google.com/112888706069942045869?authuser=0

Albums 4 total: 0 public, 4 unlisted, 0 sign-in required

Most recent: Welcome to Lanusic! on May 17, 2011

Photos 737 total: 0 public, 737 unlisted, 0 sign-in required

Reader

Subscriptions 23 total

YouTube

Profile setup

Username: WindowOnAmericaDnepr

Gender: Female

Age: 43

Uploaded videos 37 public

Most recent: America the beautiful. Musical congratu... on Jul 16, 2011

Viewing history

Favorites 50 favorites

Most recent: World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFe... on Aug 4, 2011

Playlists 1 private

Comments

Most recent: otkrper on Aug 3, 2011

Contacts 1 public

Personal messages

Most recent: I have to tell you on May 21, 2011

I saw a statistical information about the usage of each Google Product at one single place. 
Lets look at Gmail, for example. It shows us how many messages i have sent and how many chats i have participated in.  Similarly, in Google Docs, it shows us the total documents owned by me or opened by me or deleted by me.

Google Dashboard is very useful in a sense that it provide us full control of our data at one place and all the data in our dashboard is considered Private. I find this Google App very useful and handy.

In this post I also want to say the words of gratefulness to you, Mary Nell, as a good coordinator of this program, who helps us to learn a lot of new useful and important things for work and for life. 

I am also very glad to be a participant of the 14 Things! 

I'm happy to have new friends!

Thing 13: Document Sharing

 I put this links to my Blog for future:

• Google Docs http://docs.google.com

• Microsoft Office Live Workspace http://workspace.officelive.com/

• SlideShare http://www.slideshare.net/

• Zoho http://www.zoho.com

There are variety of online document sharing tools, but i have found Google Doc the more suitable among them. 

I have created a Sample Google Doc  - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PIu6-L0dRhiaZzOBnYsy-Ue4PKsib0Y3BP9mnzG5HhQ/edit?hl=en_US 



I use Google Doc tool at first time.
I think I 'll use it for creating different kind of FORMS for Poll. 
May be I'll share these forms with my users inquiring about their favorite books, programs and other suggestions.

I think Google Docs are useful in the case of collaborative work under some document.

My experience on download my presentation was not very successful - I got the text alone, the pictures alone.

May be if I'll made a new presentation.... all be good.

I'll keep some files in  Google Docs. I would take them from any computer, which is connected to the Internet.

Thing 12: Podcasting

Podcasts, series of digital media files (either audio or video), become more and more popular and are used by many people for different purposes. 

I find useful link for me - How create podcast:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/

Podcasting is booming right now because of its versatility and portability. After all, you can’t drive a car and read blogs, but you can listen to your iPod. This technology can be especially beneficial when it comes to libraries and other areas of knowledge distribution.

I went to a Podcast Directory NPR, looked through it and put some links that interested me to my Blog. So the links to them are:

 Music, I like singer Sade, I enjoyed her song - http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=123534412&m=123029867

Life - 

The Making Of 'King Kong': Screams, Score And More

 In the section IIPDigital I found two interesting podcast:

Clinton on the Importance of Democracy for Human Rights

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/audio/2011/06/20110606145030enilorac0.1301647.html

In this dialogue Hilary Clinton gave answers to all the questions concerning human rights and people’s freedom, as well as to meaning of democracy for civilized people and the reasons of democracy importance for society.

Today I found interesting podcast -

Obama Weekly Address: Job growth

President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to put politics aside when lawmakers return from their recess in September and pass a series of initiatives the president says will spur job growth. (Aug. 6)

http://www.usatoday.com/video/index.htm?bctid=1096389488001

I have also subscribed to some of the podcasts available on NRP and receieving its latest feeds in my Google Reader. 

  

 A tried to download podcast about Chicago, but a can listen to it through my Google Reader - 

http://www.podcastalley.com/redirect.php?pod_id=35273

Tourcaster - Getting To Know Chicago » 

I found another interesting place with a lot of podcasts:

http://www.mevio.com/

In my work I can use podcasts for AC advertizing, sharing some thoughts and ideas concerning different issues, for giving information about some activities in the Window on America Center. 

I can made video podcasts with music (without voice)

Christmas Party_25 Dec 2010_Window on America center in Dnipropetrovsk

 Today Thanksgiving Day_25 November 2010. Dnipropetrovsk WoA

“Celebration of B. Obama’s 50th anniversary Hawaiian style”

Today’s topic ща English Speaking Club was “Celebration of B. Obama’s 50^th anniversary Hawaiian style”.

To start with it was decided to have an on-line quiz about Barak Obama.  To compensate for the incorrect quiz answers we have read and translated a brief outline of his biography. This was followed by a YouTube videos about the President’s birthdays party in Chicago. The club members commented on what was seen.

The birthplace of the US President inspired us to talk about Hawaii.

After the videos on the tourist attractions of Hawaii we have answered the Hawaii trivia fun quiz. The score was not very high, but the correct answers educated us a lot about the history of this state.

In the 60^th of the last century the American pop idol E. Presley   contributed to the global  popularity of Hawaii  by filming three movies there. We watched some colorful scenes from. “Paradise, Hawaiian Style”, a 1966 music comedy film starring Elvis Presley. To support the musical theme the club member Vlad Sherstyuk performed a couple of romantic songs with guitar accompaniment .

The guests, Joanne and Patrick, a Peace Corp volunteers, answered numerous questions asked by the Club members.

The number of participants – 24 persons.

The meeting “Celebration of B. Obama’s 50th anniversary Hawaiian style” was fun with a lot to be missed for those absent!

Thing 10: Photo & Video Sharing

I like to take pictures and shoot videos. We have equipment in the AC.

I place a lot of pictures on Facebook account.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/American-Corner/116047138409027?sk=photos

When I created the "Blog Window on America center in Dnipropetrovsk', my pictures automatically went to Picasa album. (657 pictures)
https://picasaweb.google.com/home

and 66 pictures in Blog WelcometoLanusic

Now I've created an account on Flickr My Flickr.

This is a new experience for me!

Video Sharing
 

A have account on YouTube for all videos that illustrated our American Corner activities and that I like (I shot more!) -  WindowOnAmericaDnepr

For example:  

 America the beautiful. Musical congratulations with the 4th of July 

 Tanya Shutina presented her oil paintings at the WoA

Kiryll, the member of English Speaking Club, Dnipropetrovsk

Svitlana in Crimea

Usually, for the English Club meetings I try to find some videos on the definite theme; that’s why I put the key word in the search field. Then I watch the top videos in the list .
I think YouTube is a good resource for video-sharing. That's why  every session we  use  relevant You tube videos to illustrate the issue of the day's topic.

For example:

Hawaiian party - http://woadnepr.blogspot.com/2011/08/celebration-of-b-obamas-50th.html

Internet - http://woadnepr.blogspot.com/2011/07/english-speaking-club-internet-in-our.html

Summer - http://woadnepr.blogspot.com/2011/07/english-speaking-club-summer.html