Show Notes

Song of the Week

• “Sweet and Low,” by Augustana from their album Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt

Picks

• Chris: The new iPods and their shininess.
• David: Anti-Pick: The new iPod nano and its unfortunately placed video camera.
• Shannon: Smiley faces and Slumdog Millionaire.
• Nikki: Anti-Pick: Colds. I think we can all agree that they’re bad.

Show Notes

Song of the Week

• “Defy You” by The Offspring (iTunes link)

Picks

• Nikki: Land O’ Lakes butter, better known as LOL Butter! (from MyLifeIsAverage.com, the hilarious companion to FMyLife.com).
• David: Boston! If you only do one thing, go on the fun yet information-filled Boston Duck Tours.
• Ben: Bands Blink-182 and Weezer

Show Notes

Song of the Week

• “Intuition,” by Natalie Imbruglia from her album Left of the Middle

Picks

• Nikki: Quaker Caramel Rice Snacks!
• David: Glee, a musical comedy television series
• Chris: Dropbox, a file syncing and sharing service

Other Mentions

• Charlie and Lola
• ET

It’s with great pride that I introduce a shiny new version of Tada! Now let me tell you about some of the new things.

First, you’ll notice the completely overhauled site. This provides you with new features that will make your browsing experience better by allowing you to quickly filter through to the posts you want, or browse efficiently through the posts with more condensed summaries.

We’ll also be introducing a couple new features. One of which that I can tell you about are more posts. Since we can’t exactly fit everything into one of the condensed episodes, we’ll sometimes take stories and share them with you through the blog. As always, we’ll be sure to sneak in our opinions and ideas, and elicit your own feedback. ;)

Second — and as I alluded to before — is a new format for Tada! Granted, the long episodes were great because we could fit a lot of content in, but our listeners have told us that they would prefer something easier to digest. So from episode 20 onward, we’ll be focusing mainly on picks and anything else that we find interesting.

And, best of all, we’re creating a new podcast! Keep an eye out later this week for Tada Tech, the show all about recent news and developments in the tech sector that are of interest to young adults.

Thanks for listening, listeners. And with that, I’m out. Ta ta!

First of all, you can now leave us a voicemail at (315) 944-0449. This is a new way to share thoughts, ideas, and comments about the topics we discuss on the show or about the show itself. If you leave us a message, we may play it as part of the show!

Secondly, we’re launching an new ‘Picks’ section of our website that can be found at http://tadapodcast.com/picks. We’ll use it to share gadgets, books, music, and other things that we find in between shows and want to share with you. They will be linked to Amazon.com, and if you buy anything through the Amazon links, Tada! gets a portion of the sale. We’ll use the money to keep the podcast running strong, and we thank you for your support (monetary and otherwise).

As always, you can reach us at our email address, or now at our voicemail number, (315) 944-0449.

Thanks to all past, present, and future listeners––you are the reason we podcast. We hope you keep listening!

Ta ta!

David

Show Notes

Picks

This week, we’ve chosen our favorite picks to share with you. Have you found something interesting that you think we should mention on an upcoming show? Let us know in the comments, by leaving a message at (315) 944-0449, or by email.

• Chris: TED Talks, WeChooseTheMoon.org
• David: Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Beth: Monk (buy the first season of Monk and support Tada!)

Song Picks

• Beth: Welcome to the World by Kevin Rudolf
• David: Wasted by Cartel

Miscellanea

• Teen Ink Link
• Internet in Greece, Internet in US not up to par
• Things to Do This Summer
  • Travel (you don’t have to go far!)
  • Read
  • Get outside and enjoy the summer! (Ultimate frisbee, etc.)
• A Very Potter Musical Link
  

Teen Tech Tip

• Free Ways to Text: Last episode we discussed texting and one of the major problems we had with it was the cost. This article shows how you can text through your email address, and we also discuss solutions such as using AIM or Gmail SMS in the show as well.

Discussion Questions

• Is the media over-infatuated with Michael Jackson’s Death? 87% of people say yes according to CNN poll… Link
• What if you had a million dollars?

Show Notes

Picks

This week, we’ve chosen our favorite picks to share with you. Have you found something interesting that you think we should mention on an upcoming show? Let us know in the comments or by email.

• Chris: Alice and Kev, a blog about two homeless people in The Sims 3
• David: 13 year old girl is only known survivor of Air France plane crash

Miscellanea

• VOICES page in Post-Standard is giving away a mix of Non-Fiction and Fiction books this summer! Link
• Feeling pressure? Check out That’s Not Cool.com (Suggested by Nikki!) Link
• “Why Teens Haven’t Embraced Twitter…Yet” Link

Teen Tech Tip

• Protecting Your Password: It may seem like a no-brainer, but Google has some good tips on creating secure, original passwords. Link

Discussion Question

• What’s the big deal with texting? (Have an opinion on this? Email us with your thoughts, or leave a comment below!)

Closing Thoughts

• Thanks to Chris Iven, who is leaving his position at The Syracuse Post-Standard as youth editor, for all the work he has put in to the Voices page and for the help and guidance he has given to the aspiring teen writers of Central New York.

Show Notes

Snack of the Day

Every episode, we just have to eat something and share it with you. Today, it’s nothing special, but we’ll be eating dinner afterwards!

Picks

This week, we’ve chosen our favorite picks to share with you. Have you found something interesting that you think we should mention on an upcoming show? Let us know in the comments or by email.

• Chris: Senior Daze, a Liverpool organization providing a party after the senior ball to prevent drunk driving
• David: His homemade metal bracelet and Facebook usernames
• Alex: Oddee.com
• Nikki: Hot Air Balloon, by Owl City

School Choice

• Students may choose which school to attend
• Competition among schools
• Improved school quality
• Government vouchers instead of giving schools aid
• Open Enrollment
• Further Resources:
• Existing problems: http://reason.tv/video/show/60.html
• More information on school choice: http://www.edreform.com/index.cfm?fuseAction=document&documentID=57&sectionID=67

What do you think about school choice? If you had the opportunity, would you choose a different school? Email us with your thoughts, or leave a comment below!

The end of the school year is fast approaching, and for most high school kids that means dreaded final exams. For New York state students, it means Regents exams! We discuss studying and test-taking tips, and give some ideas on how to handle stress. The Tada! team has had an exciting day. First we drew our new album art with chalk, then we played UNO (Nikki won the championship and Chris came in at a close second). And now we’re bringing our latest insight to you!

Show Notes

Snack of the Day

Every episode, we just have to eat something and share it with you. Today, we’re having sandwiches and pretzels, with light mayo of course!

Picks

This week, we’ve chosen our favorite picks to share with you. Have you found something interesting that you think we should mention on an upcoming show? Let us know in the comments or by email.

• David: Think Geek
• Nikki: Crocheting!
• Chris: Google Wave, Google’s future solution to e-mail, chat and document collaboration; and his article about creating your own job

Test Preparation and Regents

• Studying
  • Review Sessions
  • Study Groups
  • Practice Tests
    • Knowing the test can make all the difference
    • Provides insight into what you know and don’t know
  • RegentsPrep.org
• Test-Taking Tips
  • Don’t Cheat
    • You’ll only make yourself feel bad
    • Chances are, the person next to you struggled with the exact same problem and you’d be copying down a wrong answer
  • Keep calm
  • Read the question fully
  • Read every answer, even if you think you picked the right choice
  • Highlight (if allowed), underline, circle
  • “Brain Dump” – write down as much information you can remember as possible to use as reference
  • Skip a question and return to it if necessary
• Handling Stress
  • Breathe, but don’t hyperventilate
  • Feel prepared — just remember that you do know this stuff, since you’ve been doing it all year
  • Don’t procrastinate when it comes to studying
  • Take the day before the exam to relax, and only study lightly (if at all)

What’s your opinion on the Regents or standardized testing in general? Have some studying, test-taking, or anti-stress tips to share? Email us with your thoughts, or leave a comment below!

Show Notes

Snack of the Day

It wouldn’t be Tada! without snacks to record with…this week we’re snacking on Classic Lay’s potato chips!

Picks

This week, we’ve chosen our favorite picks to share with you. Have you found something interesting that you think we should mention on an upcoming show? Let us know in the comments or by email.

• David: Not Back to the Future…Nikki!
• Nikki: Organizing
• Chris: Wolfram Alpha, a new powerful computational resource, allowing you to find out things from weather specifics and math problems to gene sequences and element attributes

Teens and Summer Jobs

• Benefits
• Money
• Experience & Skills
• Looks good on college and future job applications
• Downsides
• Take up time from homework and social life
• Require discipline
• Won’t make a lot of money at first
• Finding Jobs
• SnagaJob.com
• Craigslist
• Newspaper classifieds
• Knowing people, asking around
• Issues
• Adults are taking jobs teens once had
• Age restrictions
• Other Options
• Creating your own business (lawn mowing, babysitting, etc.)
• Working for the family
• Job shadowing, internships

What’s your summer job search experience? Do you have a job? Email us with your thoughts, or leave a comment below!