Hump Day Haiku

Hey! What's going on? PlanetBravo mascot Ash back here once again to deliver your next Hump Day Haiku!

New Year approaching
Say bye bye two oh oh nine
See you next never

Pizzy's 'Top 10 of the Decade' in Technology & Entertainment

As the "aught" decade (2000-2009) winds down over these next two weeks, we find ourselves with more time to reflect on a really awesome 10 years of change in 'Entertainment' and 'Technology' - the two things we love most here at PlanetBravo (Hey - that's why we have Techno-tainment Camp after all!)

I thought it would be fun to reflect on the TOP 10 innovations or transformative events in Techno-tainment of the past 10 years. So here it goes...

OVER THE LAST 10 YEARS, WE'VE SEEN BIG CHANGES IN:

10) HOW STORIES ARE TOLD: This past decade brought about some groundbreaking concepts in television programming - two shows in particular stand out that have changed the way other shows are constructed: '24' and 'Lost.' Both created in the first decade of the 21st century, these shows have changed the way viewers are asked to follow a program. Instead of wrapping a storyline in one or two episodes, viewers are asked to hang in there all season long, or maybe (in the case of 'Lost'), all series long! These shows have bent the mind, and inspired scores of new shows - some that have done ok ('Flash Forward' and 'Fringe') and others that have not ('Daybreak?'). * THE LOW DOWN: Best Mind-Bending TV Story of the Decade: Lost

9) HOW WE SAVE THE PLANET: Although the case for global warming and climate change was made long before the year 2000, this past decade brought forth the most discussion, evidence, and change we have seen yet to save this little place called Earth. In spring of 2004, my dear friend Will Aardappel called me outside of our school to show me how he traded in his motorcycle for a Honda Civic Hybrid. He raved about its environment-friendly amenities, but also told me of other perks: free parking at LA meters, a huge tax break, and the possible passage of legislation for carpool lane driving! Sounded great to me! In December of that year, I purchased my own Hybrid vehicle that I still drive today. Also in this decade, Vice-President Al Gore won an Academy Award for his eye-opening documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' and companies all over the planet are still jumping on the GREEN INITIATIVE. And just in time to wrap the decade, the most ambitious meeting of the minds in Copenhagen took place in Dec. 2009 to pave the way for new measures in preserving Planet Earth. * THE LOW DOWN: Best Green Invention of the Decade: Zero-Emission Hybrid Cars

8) HOW WE WATCH TELEVISION: When we look back in time, we can always remember 2000-2009 as the decade that killed the VCR (and possibly broadcast television). The 21st century brought about the era of pausing and rewinding live television, recording favorite tv shows and series, and fast-forwarding through commercials with something other than VCRs! Behold the invention of TiVo and DVR! Also changing how we watch television this decade: High-Definition Television, BluRay Discs, and on-demand forms of television through Hulu, Fancast, network sites, and iTunes. What a transformative 10 years of television it has been! * THE LOW DOWN: Best TV Invention of the Decade: TiVo/DVR

7) HOW STARS ARE BORN: No doubt, the aughts brought forth a new star-making trend through something dubbed Reality Television! Whether it be 'day in the life' shows such as 'Jessica and Nick' to competition shows like 'Survivor,' 2000-2009 gave us a brand-new window into the lives of people just like you and me - except in many ways, propelling them to stardom UNlike you and me. No show epitomized the average joe star-explosion like 'American Idol.' In June of 2002, the world met Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul as judges for wanna-be superstars on a global stage. The show produced megastars such as Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, and scores of less-talented punchlines... Sanjaya, anyone? Looking back, we can be certain of one thing when it comes to stardom in the new century; fame doesn't seem quite as far away as it once did. * THE LOW DOWN: Best Star-Making Vehicle of the Decade: American Idol

6) HOW WE FIND OUR WAY: Where were you on May 1, 2000? Ironically, it was that day in history that made it more likely for you to tell exactly where you were. That day may have come and gone without much fanfare, but it also changed the way we get from the proverbial point A to point B. Without delivering a deep technology lesson here, let's just say that May 1, 2000 made it more likely to pinpoint small areas with accuracy using GPS (Global Positioning System), opening up the explosion of technology-driven navigation in our daily lives. Nowadays, the orientation-challenged are assisted at every turn by a GPS system on independent handheld devices, built-into their cars, and/or on their cell phones. * THE LOW DOWN: Best Navigation Tool of the Decade: GPS Accuracy and Availability

5) HOW WE COMMUNICATE: We used to ask the question: can you walk and talk at the same time. The question this decade became: can you drive and talk at the same time? - to which lawmakers replied, 'Uh, No.' Who would have guessed entering the year 2000 that we'd be ending the same decade with a slew of new laws around the country aimed at preventing driving and talking? Although cell phones were around before 2000, text messaging (or SMS), cellular internet, and GPS on phones were not. Now, instead of interrupting a friend or family member's day with a phone call they must take, we can simply send them a 160 character blurb letting them know what they need to know without further disruption. What an invention! * THE LOW DOWN: Best Communication Enhancement of the Decade: Text Messaging

4) HOW WE CONNECT WITH OTHERS: This innovation of the century's 1st decade could be called many things, but one thing is for sure: it has changed the way people reconnect, stay in touch, and build relationships. The 2000-2009 decade brought us innovations such as YouTube, Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and the newly-realized term: Social Networking. 'Web 2.0' became a term to describe a way of interacting online through databases and real-time virtual connections. Now, it is commonplace to learn scores of intimate information about friends or coworkers simply because you read their thoughts on a virtual stream of consciousness. * THE LOW DOWN: Best Social Networking Tool of the Decade: Facebook

3) HOW WE GET ONLINE: I had reservations on where to rank this innovation of the aughts, but I really do think it deserves to be in the Top 3. Prior to this decade, the sharing of electronic information meant being plugged into something. Not anymore. Thanks to 'wireless fidelity' (WiFi), the web went to the airwaves. Airports, coffee shops, libraries - public spaces everywhere - freed us of our walls when it came to connecting online. Before WiFi, a conscious decision had to be made when and where to set-up a workstation, conduct business, or seek the answer to a nagging curiosity. PlanetBravo itself is able to offer really cool classes in any classroom in almost any school while students explore and learn online right at their desks thanks to this incredible innovation. * THE LOW DOWN: Best Network Innovation of the Decade: WiFi

2) HOW MACs BECAME PCs: To preface this entry, I am using the term 'PC' in two ways: 1) to mean any Personal Computer, and 2) in the widely-adopted sense to mean a Microsoft Windows-based computer.
The war between Mac and PC (Windows) has been around since the 1980s, but there was never a fair battle until this past decade. Some might say the tides started to turn in 1998, when Apple introduced its iMac computer with a stylish, unorthodox look, but I don't think so. The two biggest innovations that Apple made with its computers came in 2001 and 2006, with the switch to a completely new operating system (MacOS X) and a new processor (Intel), respectively. In those two moves, Apple created a more stable, fast, and compatible computer - putting their computers as just as viable an option for productivity as PCs. No longer is there much argument against getting one system over another when it comes to features and capability. Another thing is to be said about affordability, though. Apple computers continue to warrant much higher prices in comparison to their PC counterparts. * THE LOW DOWN: Coolest Computer of the Decade: The Intel-Based Mac

1) HOW WE CARRY ENTERTAINMENT: Technology has been getting smaller for centuries, but this past decade brought us the coolest and smallest ways to carry entertainment with us anywhere we might be. The days of Walkmen and portable CD players were great, but they also meant carrying around the media (tapes and CDs) to accompany them. When the MP3 file format and MP3 players were introduced in the late 90s, people could stuff a lot more into one device; however, they were hard to use and unreliable. It wasn't until Apple released the iPod in 2001 that a revolution was born. The ease of use and sleek design made the iPod the MUST-HAVE invention of the new century. Since then, portable media innovations have continued to get smaller, more diverse, and more affordable. In addition to the world's most popular portable media player, Apple introduced the most portable media phone in the decade: the iPhone! These devices have combined to allow us to bring gigabytes of audio and video anywhere we go. * THE LOW DOWN: Best Portable Media Device of the Decade: The iPod

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So - what are YOUR favorite innovations of the past decade? Reflect and Comment below!

Hump Day Haiku!

Hey! What's up! It's PlanetBravo's mascot Ash back here once again to deliver you this Wednesday's Hump Day Haiku! Enjoy.

Holiday Season
Lots of gift ideas...why not
Give the gift of camp?

Tuesday Teachers

Today's Tuesday Teacher is Creighton, an in-school teacher at Fairburn Avenue School. Let's see what he has to say!

Q. What is your role at PlanetBravo?
A. I impart valuable computer knowledge on K-5th graders at Fairburn Elementary.

Q. I heard you have a nickname at your school...what is it and how did you get it?
A. Which one did you hear becasuse I've heard several. Mr. Computer (sometimes with Genius on the end), Mr. (color) Crayon (Color depends on outfit), Mr. Bill (Given by the principal), and my personal favorite Mr. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Actually, I made that last one up.

Q. What made you choose your camp name, Zoom?
A. I choose Zoom because when said it accelerates off the tongue, just squeezes past the opening of the closing mouth, spirals though the air, lands in the ear, speeds into the canal and bounces beautifully off the drums. Basically it just sounds really cool, really fast, and only sounds cooler and faster when you say it more than once at a time. Zoom Zoom Zoom!

Q. What's your favorite thing to teach during in school classes? Summer?
A. In school and summer I'm a sucker for the multimedia genre. Movie making, podcasting, flash programming, etc, are what I look forward to but I try not to limit myself. There are so many possibilites at Planet Bravo that I exercise the philosophy, "Teach em all and let the world sort em out."

Q. Where do you see PlanetBravo 5 years from now?
A. Becoming the coolest, rad, and straight up most influential technotainment company on the block. Oh wait, it already is. :-) Planet Bravo's a great company created by a great person. I can only see it given many more opportunities by community members and educational institutions to computercate it's LA youth.

Surprise Seminar!

Hump Day Haiku!

PlanetBravo mascot Ash here back once again for a Hump Day Haiku!

Rain, rain, go away
What's that? You're already gone?
Thanks for listening

Tuesday Teachers

For today's Tuesday Teachers interview, we have Farah, who is one of our After School Teachers at our UES location in Westwood.

Q. How long have you worked for PlanetBravo?
A. I have worked for PlanetBravo since January 2008

Q. What classes are you teaching for PlanetBravo right now?
A. At the moment I am helping to to teach the Lego Stop Motion class as well as the Math and Logic class. However, I was originally hired as the cooking teacher.

Q. What's you're favorite thing about teaching after school classes at UES?
A. I love getting to know the kids; my relationship with each student is what makes coming to work fun. However, my favorite thing about this job would have to be the hilarious things that they say. You could ask them something as simple as what did you eat today, and I guarantee that the response will be full of tangents and wildly entertaining.

Q. Tell us a funny story from one of your classes.
A. A funny thing from one of my classes is that one of my students is convinced that I am from the movie Annie. Every time I see her she comes up to me and whispers that she knows my secret, and it is OK if I don't want people to know. Of course I continue to tell her, "no I'm sorry, its not me" but she feels that she has caught on to my act, and that I cant fool her.

Q. What's an interesting thing about you that most people don't know?
A. An interesting fact that most people don't know about me is that I moved here from Kenya, and have lived on every continent except Antarctica. :)

Hump Day Haiku

Hey!

Ash here! PlanetBravo's mascot back once again delivering your Hump Day Haiku. Enjoy.

Techno-tainment Camp

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First Registrations!

Hey!

Ash here once again!

I just wanted to send out a big Congratulations to Taylor I. and Garret I., our first registrations for 2010! Can't wait to see you again down at Crossroads!

Registration is Open!

Hey everyone!

PlanetBravo's mascot Ash here once again to let you all know today's big news!

SUMMER REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

As of this morning, December 1st, registration for PlanetBravo's Techno-tainment Summer Camp 2010 is now open. Head on over to the site to see what we have to offer this year! There's new classes, new themes, and even some new ways for parents to stay informed with what's going on at camp!

For those of you who are looking for a good deal, register now to get our Early Bird Discounts! If you register before the end of December, you will get $100 in instant savings!

And don't forget, registration for our Winter Break Camp at the Terranea Resort is still open as well, but it's the last week! Sign up now to enjoy all the fun of Summer Camp 6 months early!