Hello everyone! My name is Kelly McDaniel and this is the blog I created for ds106 at UMW. I am currently a sophomore and am majoring in chemistry and math (if you think I’m crazy, you’re not alone). I will also be using Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud for my ds106 work, so feel free to follow me!
Here is my introduction to the ds106 community on Twitter:
Some of my favorite things: Animal: Pig Sport: Softball TV Show: Bones Food place: Moe's Drink: Blue Raspberry Nerd Slush from Sonic #ds106
— Kelly McDaniel (@KellyM_umw) August 26, 2014
As you can see, I listed some of my favorite things. Pigs have been my favorite animal since I was a little girl. I still have tons of stuffed animal pigs I have received as gifts throughout the years. I would absolutely love to have my own mini pig (or teacup pig) as a pet. If you have never seen one, you should definitely look them up: they’re adorable! I started playing softball when I was six years old and played up through my senior year of high school (more on that to come). The TV show Bones is my current obsession. If you have never seen it, I highly recommend doing so. I am currently finishing up season 9 which I hope to do before season 10 premieres on September 25. I love Moe’s and it is my favorite place to eat. I really wish there was one in Fredericksburg so I could go more often. The best thing about Moe’s is their stacks. They are kind of like burritos only 10x better. If you haven’t had one you should go to Moe’s and try one soon! Last but not least: the Blue Raspberry Nerd Slush from Sonic is the best drink in the world. It is basically a blue raspberry slurpee that is filled with Nerds. It is super sweet but also super delicious, and the biggest size I would recommend getting is a medium. My perfect meal would definitely be a Moe’s stack with chips and queso and a Blue Raspberry Nerd Slush to drink.
As my introduction to Flickr, I posted pictures of my summer.
In May, soon after school was out, I went to a Nationals game with my boyfriend, Sean (we have been together for 3 years). Our trip to the game was a little hectic with some parking garage and metro issues, but luckily there was a rain delay so we ended up making it there right on time.
Also in May, I went to Nags Head, North Carolina with my mom, dad, sister, and grandma. It was a relaxing vacation during which I spent most of my time laying on the beach and reading. This picture is of a beautiful sunset we saw one night after eating dinner.
I spent most of the summer doing organic chemistry research at UMW as a part of the Summer Science Institute. This is a picture of me and my friend, July, taking a break from our research to help Dr. Scott with his titration tournament lab. We were timers and we had to wear those cool goggles in order to be official.
As part of the Summer Science Institute, we got to go on a few fun field trips. This is a picture of me and a meerkat from when we went to the National Zoo. It was really fun to see all of the animals, but it was also about 100 degrees out that day, making it very tiring. We also went to a Nationals game that night and on a canoeing trip earlier in the summer.
For the Fourth of July, I went to yet another Nationals game with my friends Casey, Courtney, Katie, and Olivia. Again, it was a little bit of a struggle getting to the game because we decided to drive and half of DC was blocked off for the Fourth of July. Once we finally made it to the park though, we had a fun day!
Another fun adventure from this summer was a trip to King’s Dominion with Casey, Katie, and Courtney. It was a really nice day and we went on a lot of roller coasters (which I am kind of afraid of so I usually ride them with my eyes closed). We finished the day with Nerd Slushes and Chipotle (which is good but definitely not as good as Moe’s).
This last picture is of Olivia and me with Mason and Duke, two golden retrievers. They are my friend Niki’s new puppies which are named after George Mason and the JMU mascot. They are adorable brothers who love to play and cuddle with each other.
As an introduction to YouTube, I made a somewhat silly video:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmeoQfh1u4au7vmjSfoYkdQ
It shows some of my accomplishments. The first is just braiding. I got really excited when I learned how to fishtail braid someone’s hair and I love practicing on my sister and my friends. The second is a video of a DC motor my group made in physics. It was initially really frustrating, but when we finally got it to spin we were really happy. The third is decorating Christmas cookies. Every year, my sister and I always make a ton (about 150) of Christmas cookies and decorate them all. It takes a while but it’s really fun and we’re always very proud of our work. They are always delicious! The next is a video of something I did for extra credit in my high school AP physics class. I had to balance 6 dimes on a hanger and spin it around at least one time in a circle. It might look like it was pretty easy in the video, but that was at least my 100th try. You can tell how shocked and happy I was when it worked because that was one of the most frustrating things I have ever done. The next accomplishment was from I went mini golfing with Sean. We got to hole 15 and I had no idea how to approach it so I decided to just hit the ball hard and hope something good happened (a technique I use often). What then happened was the ball went up onto the sidewalk and over to hole 16, bounced around a little, and then went right into the hole. I thought it should have counted as a hole in zero for hole 16, but Sean didn’t agree so I had to redo the hole. The last accomplishment (which I’m sure you can tell I’m very proud of) is me flipping an omelet. I had never done it before and was really nervous that my omelet would go flying into the ceiling, but I decided to try it anyways. I did it right for 3 different omelets that night and managed to not ruin a single one. However, I haven’t tried since that night so hopefully I’m still able to do it…
Last is my introduction to SoundCloud:
This clip is from a video my mom took at one of my high school softball games. I think it’s a cool sound clip to listen to, because separating it from the video makes it easier hear all of the different voices and cheers going on. I chose to make this sound clip, because softball was such a huge part of my life. I started playing when I was 6 years old. In 6th grade, I joined my first travel team, the Ashburn Shooting Stars. I was a part of the Shooting Stars organization for 7 years, all throughout middle and high school. I was mainly a pitcher, but I also really enjoyed playing in the outfield. My favorite team to be a part of, however, was the Stone Bridge High School softball team, especially my junior and senior year. We were like a family and we were really good, losing only three games in total during those two years. We won districts and regionals both years, and we had a heartbreaking loss in the state final my senior year of high school. The final score was 9-10, and I’m sure every single one of us would love to go back and play that game again, in hopes of a different outcome. I made the decision not to play college softball for a few different reasons and, although I still believe I made the right choice, I sometimes find myself missing it. I have been thinking about joining the Mary Washington club softball team in the spring or helping coach a house league softball team, but my ability to do that will depend on how busy my schedule is.
I hope you have learned a little bit about me through this post!
