Month: February 2021

There’s been plenty of debate about whether to use Google Docs or Microsoft Word, but the debate should be less about which word processor to use and more about when to use each one.

Here’s a rundown of why I choose one over the other for certain purposes:

Formatting

If you have to do anything more than basic formatting, Microsoft Word should be your go-to.

Google Docs tends to mess up complex formatting when you switch to a different computer or convert your file format. Google Docs can’t even handle a consistent hanging indent on a works cited page when submitting to Canvas.

Google Docs always makes at least one of my citations format incorrectly, its header margins are off, and half the time my essays are up to half a page smaller than I think they are because of general page margin inconsistency. I’ve had points taken off for all those things at least once, which is why I’ve leaned more toward Microsoft Word in recent semesters. Microsoft Word even has ways to ensure your formatting remains as it’s intended.

Auto-save and edit history

The auto-save feature in Google Docs is a real lifesaver, whereas Microsoft Word has nearly killed me.

I once had my laptop die as I was about to submit an essay near the deadline, and OneDrive wasn’t able to save the document. I had to beg my professor for an extension, and she didn’t give those out lightly. I’m pretty sure she only gave me the extension because my normally prepared, grade-obsessed self was so pale she thought I’d die otherwise.

Additionally, Google Docs has the ability to look at the edit history of a document, which is especially helpful when something from an old draft is useful to the current draft. Microsoft Word has a version of this, but only for files saved in OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365, and it wasn’t as detailed as Google Docs when I tried it out. The track changes feature is about as close as it gets in Microsoft Word.

Internet reliance vs. offline editing

That said, Google Docs’ reliance on the internet can be frustrating, especially when poor weather or the increasing number of Zoom and online learners clogs your internet connection.

The struggle of your internet going out right as you’re in the middle of typing a sentence on a dark and stormy night is annoying enough to set anyone on edge, and it’s happened to me so. many. times.

I’m not cliché or melodramatic enough to use the phrase “dark and stormy night” in my creative writing assignments, but it would be nice if I could use one to inspire some writing prompts instead of worrying about whether or not Google Docs will cut out because of my internet connection’s sensitivity to bad weather.

The best Google Docs can do is provide a Chrome extension or offline document viewing, which you have to enable for each individual document, whereas Microsoft Word can be used offline pretty much any time.

Basically, unless your internet connection is consistent, Microsoft Word is the best word processor to use. At the very least, Microsoft Word should be your backup for this scenario.

Collaboration

In regard to collaboration, Google Docs is superior to Microsoft Word.

Google Docs is primed for real-time collaboration, and it’s easier to see who edited what in the color-coded edit history. Microsoft Word has a similar feature, but only in the subscription-based Microsoft 365 online Word app, which isn’t even a full version of the program.

The closest Microsoft Word comes to competing in a less niche way is sending documents with track changes, but that takes longer and feels clunkier. Google Docs just streamlines the process and makes things easier all around.

The only time I use Microsoft Word for collaboration is in my editing internship since that’s what my professor is most familiar with, or when other professors require it for class. Otherwise, all my collaborative essays and projects are done in Google Docs.

Familiarity

When it comes down to it, familiarity will probably be the deciding factor for anyone debating which word processor to use.

Despite being trained to use Microsoft Word at various times across the span of my education, I’m probably most familiar with Google Docs since Google products have been increasingly integrated into education over the years. Think about it, even our Dmails are just university-sponsored Gmail accounts, and the same was true of my K-12 email account.

Plus, Google products are mostly free, which makes Google Docs more easily accessible than alternatives like Microsoft Word, even with the access provided by Dixie State University.

The long and short of it is that both Google Docs and Microsoft Word are useful, just for specific things. Google Docs is for auto-saving, collaboration and basic word processing needs. Microsoft Word is for offline editing, formatting and more complex word processing needs.

Don’t go all in on one or the other. Use both for different scenarios.

As the radio blares on, the realization hits me that all pop music sounds the same; however, one artist managed to break the mold. Leon Bridges, a 31-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas, and his band have revived the old school 1960s style of music into an album released in 2015, which revamped my spark in new music at the time.

Even though the album is over five years old, it is still one of the albums I listen to the most. The new “old” style, the lyrics and the passion Bridges sings with are what make this album unlike any others.

Black History Month is dedicated to recognizing the contributions Black artists have made in America. The album “Coming Home” by Bridges is a prime example.

“Coming Home,” Bridges’ first-ever album, was nominated for the Grammy Awards for Best R&B album, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Global 200 list, and sold 42,000 copies.

Bridges’ style of music is unlike others by taking instrumental techniques that were popular 60 years ago and transforming it into the music we listen to today with its own distinctive form. Bridges’ sound is unique because of the use of trumpets, trombones and percussions, which we rarely see today. Featuring a prominent drums, a bass guitar, and an excellent vocalist, Bridges and the local musicians he used make the album sound as if it was transformed from a different generation.

In almost all of the music videos, Bridges has a black and white filter over the film and sings with an old-school microphone. He is truly a one-of-a-kind artist in how he incorporates retro nostalgia in modern music.

“I don’t want much, I just want to be a better man, for my baby” is the way the song “Better Man” starts on the album. This perspective Bridges has reflects the attitude he portrays throughout the album: yearning and desiring to be with his lover once again.

This style of love Bridges sings with is far different than what we hear most of the time on the radio today. Today, most top songs are about superficial romance and hookups. Bridges sings more about life with his girl and how he wants to be with her. In the song “Coming Home,” he sings, “I want to be around, darling,” which is just about the opposite of what most hip-hop artists are portraying in their music.

One of Bridges’ first songs ever composed is titled “Lisa Sawyer,” named after his mother, and it talks about his mother’s conversion to religion, which defined his music style.

In Bridges’ song “River,” he sings, “In my darkness I remember / Momma’s words reoccur to me / ‘Surrender to the good Lord / and he’ll wipe your slate clean,'” which portrays his religious side and the value it has in his life, which also isn’t as common in the music world today.

“Coming Home” is an album that will reignite your desire and love of listening to music. As Black History Month comes to an end, this album and artist should make the Black community proud because of the way he portrays Black excellence.

The song “Coming Home,” which the album was named after, was the most viral track on Spotify in February 2015, so take a quick break from whatever you’re doing, put your headphones in, and check out this album unlike any other.

A bill prohibiting transgender female athletes from competing in high school sports was voted on in the Utah House and passed 50-23, and it will now be voted on in the Utah Senate. This bill is damaging to transgender athletes in Utah.

The bill, House Bill 302, states that transgender female athletes should not be allowed to compete in female sports, and the reasoning behind it is that it would create an unequal playing field for female-at-birth student-athletes.

“When transgender athletes compete against women, women’s sports are no longer women’s sports; they become unisex athletic events,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in a statement. “This bill would protect the opportunity of girls throughout America to athletically compete against other girls.”

The logic in this reasoning is flawed. Transgender women are women and should be allowed to compete for female sports teams. No one is asking for unisex events, only for those who identify as male or female to play in their respective gendered sport.

Troy Williams with Equality Utah said in a report to Deseret News, “I don’t believe that the representative’s intent is to harm transgender students, but the impact most definitely will.”

I can’t speak for whether or not the intention was to harm transgender athletes, but as Williams said, the impact will harm transgender athletes regardless. This is just another thing on a long list, from bathroom policies to athletics participation, that has taken rights away from transgender people.

The NCAA has policies that allow transgender athletes to compete, and trying to overrule that decision does two things.

First, it eliminates the opportunity for transgender athletes to practice their sport in high school and potentially go to the collegiate level. Second, trying to overrule the NCAA looks foolish and will only further continue to damage the reputation Utah high schools and colleges have around the country.

2020 was a good year for women’s sports, especially with the success leagues like the National Women’s Soccer League had, and it’s time for LGBTQ+ people to have their moment. The acceptance of all races, sexualities and genders in sport is necessary, and they’ve been waiting long enough.

Utah has been on the wrong side of history on many issues surrounding the rights of LGBTQ+ people. Utah’s claim of “protecting the children” is overdone. There comes a point when “protecting the children” comes at the cost of hurting others, and we’ve reached that point.

The point of high school athletics is to be inclusive. You hear it before any game you go to in the state that the Utah High School Athletics Association wants a fair and equal playing field for any students who wish to participate, but then bills like this come up blatantly banning someone from participating.

This bill is damaging to not only transgender athletes, but the state of Utah as a whole. There is no need to protect females from other females. There are already very few transgender athletes looking to compete in high school athletics; why should the government go out of its way to make a law that bans them?

It’s a lack of empathy and understanding toward transgender people. Williams said it best – those making this law have an “irrational fear of a minority population.”

The ACLU of Utah has ways you can help stop this bill, like lobbying to your senator, on its website.

Glow Ups take the worst parts of diet culture, youth culture and consumerism and smash them all together to make a toxic monster that haunts our dreams at night.

Urban Dictionary defines a “Glow Up” as “a mental, physical, and an emotional transformation for the better. Glow Ups can be both natural or planned. As well as being gradual and permanent, or fast and temporary.”

It’s a cool concept, but let’s get real; who posts photos on Instagram of their newfound emotional maturity? In a society with visual values, there’s an implicit understanding that Glow Ups always have a visual component to them.

I should clarify that there’s a difference between putting work into yourself to make healthier life decisions versus throwing yourself into all the new beauty trends and comparing yourself to how models look.

There are infinite ways to Glow Up, although the vast majority of people who have them — or at least post about them on social media — are women who change their appearance. The internet is obsessed with women looking thin but curvy, flawless but natural, and sexy but innocent. It’s no wonder that this trend is blowing up right now; nothing is ever enough, is it?

While beauty standards affect men, women and everyone in between, women who are perceived as unattractive make less money than their attractive counterparts. It affects everyone mentally, but disproportionately affects women financially.

Beauty advertisements also target women much more often and they’ve been doing it for decades. Old cartoons that depict women before and after using X products are just the 1950s version of modern day influencers peddling skin creams for acne and anti-cellulite leggings.

What is up with the internet’s obsession with making drastic and immediate visual changes to women’s bodies? I, for one, wish Instagram models would shut up about how easy it is to get a snatched waist if you just buy this detox tea and follow this simple exercise routine.

We all know that “detox tea” just means “laxative” anyway, so why are we still buying into it? Furthermore, why are we still buying it?

When it comes to profiting off insecurity, the beauty and diet industries are really raking it in. Think about it; the entities that benefit the most from our insecurities are the ones that sell the “solutions.”

Do you feel marginalized and ignored by society because you don’t perfectly fit the current beauty standards? Buy these items and purchase this program and soon you’ll look completely different. You wouldn’t want to get caught looking like — gasp — yourself!

There’s so much more to Glow Up culture than the damage it does to impressionable youth who don’t have fully formed self-concepts yet. Of course you weren’t “sexy” when you were in middle school — you were a child. So what’s the deal with the folks posting pictures of their 13-year-old selves and saying, “Thank God I don’t look like that anymore!”

I get that Glow Up is a play on “grow up,” but this whole ugly duckling mentality crumbles under actual analysis.

We all remember that story, right? The one that teaches children that it’s OK to be ugly as long as you grow up to be beautiful? The Ugly Duckling was really the original Glow Up when you think about it.

The tough truth is that we’re not all going to end up as swans. Moreover, waterfowl aren’t bombarded with ads about how to make their feathers softer or quick and easy beak procedures.

“Glow Up culture is a capitalist plague that feeds off our insecurities and you can’t convince me otherwise. Don’t buy into it.”

Emily Mildenhall

I struggled with eating disorders for years. Teachers and classmates who knew me in middle school complimented me in high school after my weight loss. As a teenager, I learned that my peers didn’t see me as a human being until after my Glow Up.

Being thinner and more focused on fitting the acceptable look only made the pressure to be pretty worse; my obsession with my body made me scrutinize other things like the thinness of my eyebrows, the lack of volume in my hair, the shape of my nose… It’s a chain reaction that can go on forever if left untreated.

I’m done giving money to industries that count on my self-doubt to make a profit and I’m encouraging everyone to do the same. The most punk rock thing we as women can do is place sisterhood before the male gaze and end this toxic trend.

Glow Up culture is a capitalist plague that feeds off our insecurities and you can’t convince me otherwise. Don’t buy into it.

Just because it has a cute name doesn’t mean it’s harmless.

Those who are getting angry over giving those who have been historically enslaved, defamed and tortured over the amount of melanin in their skin a month to share their history — American history — share the same sentiment as KKK members.

We see history repeat itself time and time again in terms of when the KKK is strongest in numbers. It started with the 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation,” which sparked Black hate across the country, then membership dwindled. KKK crimes rose once more during the Civil Rights Movement, in what was seen as a direct response to those fighting to end Jim Crow segregation laws. Ever since, the KKK has kept up with trying to spread its hateful ideology like a four-year-old holding onto its favorite color crayon, except a four-year-old does not commit murder if someone says their color of crayon is not superior.

The importance of Black History Month is to highlight Black figures and their accomplishments to show that yes, Black Americans have contributed to society, they are educated, and they are successful. Why is it important for all Americans to celebrate and know this? Because we do not teach Black history and their contributions or atrocities committed against them in our educational curriculum.

Jane Elliot, educator and diversity trainer, said: “Any white person who was born, raised, and schooled in the United States of America — if you are not a racist, you’re a miracle. Either that or you decided to educate yourself, because education in this country is about white is right, brown’s alright, black has to stand back.”

Black History Month was officially recognized in 1976 by then-President Gerald Ford to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Every U.S. president since then has regarded February as the designated Black History Month we know today.

Now begs the question you want to hear answered: Why do people who disapprove of Black History Month share the same sentiment as the KKK?

For the KKK, any attempt to debunk their idea of white supremacy is seen as a threat. Showing Black American accomplishments is a threat to the KKK because acknowledging all the things that Black Americans have done in the U.S. directly contradicts what they believe.

In the summer of 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction over the death of George Floyd. Those who chose to oppose the movement — mostly extremist Republicans — by saying “all lives matter” or “blue lives matter” are the same majority who voted for former President Donald Trump. Those individuals have the same mindset of those who go on to request their kids be opted-out of the Black History month curriculum. The director of the school who allowed this said he wanted to let parents exercise their civil liberties, then later reversed the decision.

Many aspects of the Republican ideology mirror that of the KKK. Both value traditional, Christian, conservative views. Both are anti-immigration, tend to be more homophobic and transphobic than Democrats, have an issue with Black History Month, and voted for President Trump, who has embraced the Proud Boys and has failed to condemn white supremacists, in the 2020 election.

A majority of Republicans wish to assure that there are no ties between their party and racism, and plenty of them say, “Democrats founded the KKK,” but the Democratic Party did not. The overwhelming support for Democrats before the ‘60s from racist white supremacists stemmed from the Jim Crow laws put in place at the time. During the ‘60s, the change in political demographic with the Civil Rights Movement led the Republican Party to begin catering to white supremacists as the Republican ideology changed. David Duke is a prime example, as he is an active member of the Republican Party and former grand wizard of the KKK.

Some of you will say “not all Republicans hate Black History Month,” and while each individual has their own thoughts, the Republican Party has now historically shown ties to the KKK. Remember the incident at Capitol Hill when Trump’s Republicans stormed the building waving white supremacist flags?

You should not be angry over a 45-year tradition celebrating Black accomplishments when most of U.S. history has contributed to nearly 400 years of Black Americans’ enslavement and oppression. Instead, learn from from Black History Month and embrace it.