The Darkness

Blogs Revisited

2005-02-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

I still have the same attittude towards blogs, even after having a blog of my own for eight weeks. I don't believe in them, and I still feel that people that write very personal things in a public blog want attention. I definitely know more about blogs, and about the different types that exist. I do support personal, private blogs that only you or a select number of people have access to, cuz then it doesn't make it seem like you're writing for a public audience.

What is a blog? I don't really know myself what it is. I definitely think its not a legitimate form of academic writing. I don't think that simply writing your thoughts down make you a better academic writer. Just take a look over my blog entries, I know if I turned them in as academic pieces of work I would recieve terrible grades on them. As far as online journals, I feel that only blogs that only you have access to are online journals. Websites like livejournal are definitely not journals, because they simply voilate the laws of what makes a journal. Diaries are supposed to be private and personal, and livejournal makes all your entries public from my understanding of it. I guess a blog is just a blog, there's no definite way to define it other than an online space for you to write your thoughts for people to see.

I'm not too sure how I feel about the role of blogs in PWR. Blogs do help you generate ideas in your head, but if PWR instructors are looking for a space for students to submit academic pieces of writing, then they should stray away from blogs. I kinda liked writing in a blog this quarter, but only on the topics I was interested in. I didn't really enjoy writing on the topics I didn't like, but in life you gotta do what you gotta do, so I did.

Overall, I feel that blogs are not a good thing for me. I probably will not continue writing in a blog, simply because I don't have time and I wouldn't want my words on paper to be misinterpreted by the people reading it. I'd rather not use things like blogs, instant messaging, and other things to communicate with people. The farthest I'll go is email, and that's just because it's impossible not to use it. That's like someone back in the day saying they weren't gonna use a telephone to communicate with people. So yeah, those are my thoughts in this issue. Goodbye!

Midterm Presentation Comments

2005-02-18T11:36:00.000-08:00

I feel many of the midterm presentations were much better than the first round of presentations. People seemed more comfortable, better prepared, and much more experienced in their topics. Here are three examples of what I thought were very enriching to the presentations:
1) There was a girl that carried a theme over from her first presentation. It was as though she was a newscaster and she started and ended both her presentations like that. I thought it was very memorable and it helped the audience to identify her topic because it stood out more because of this newsanchor theme.
2) Someone showed a humorous video. I think videos are helpful when used correctly, especially funny ones. I think everyone enjoys laughing, and laughing is usually associated with enjoying yourself. When the audience is enjoying themselves, they are more engaged to what you are saying because you are the indirect cause of the laughter. So, a funny, fitting video will make your presentation more lively and it will make your audience more attracted to your presentation.
3) Someone had a powerpoint presentation that had an organized list of ideas. This was very helpful because with every click on the screen, a new idea would pop up. Since he had many important points to make in his presentation, this was key becuase it allowed the audience to visually see and remember the ideas he generated.

Wikis?

2005-02-16T00:32:00.000-08:00

Before these readings, I've never heard of a wiki in my life. I guess I'll just talk about how I feel about the general characteristics of wikis:
I like how wikis are an open space for people to constantly edit and revise previous works. From the readings, I understand how it is possible for people to come together to collectively produce a well written work that voices the opinon of many people, rather than voicing one author's opinion. It's cool that you can edit the text right on the page, so that even people without much computer experience can edit the text. Even though this abillity to openly edit the text leaves wikis fragile, I read that many wiki sites constantly review the revisions to ensure that there are only good revisions that stay in the text. I guess then that this also allows for the progression of the work; since only well written revisions will be kept, it means that in the end, the finished work will be a product of a colletive group of "good" minds.
Also from the readings, I got the sense that it is easy to link pages together. WikiWordsAreMashedTogether so that it is easy way to recognize links between the pages. Even though the readings make it sound really easy and simple, I feel that I would get lost from all the Wiki links and edited pages and whatnot. I really like the idea behind wikis and the kind of goal that they want to come out of using wiki software. I read in one article that wikis are one means for students to collaborate and share work online, and now I'm seriously thinking about using a wiki for one of my psych group projects. From the way that they are set up, it seems that wikis are very useful in conveying and editing information between peers.
If I were to utilize a wiki for my own personal use, I would like one that had limited authorship capabilities. I would want to be able to designate who could edit the work, and I wouldn't want to let just some random person edit my stuff. I would feel violated and angry if people did that to me. Okay, I'm going to sign up for one right now....where's my google?

Small World

2005-02-05T23:58:00.000-08:00

I really liked this video clip. I feel that it was very rhetorically charged, although the guy came off in a very informal manner. I can really relate to what this guy was saying because I feel the same way about all the internet "Friendster" websites. I like the line he said about a friend isn't by how they look or what, they are defined by the actions that go on between you and that person. He said that if you lined up all his friends and enemies in a room, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them. I really like this statement because it is very true. A friend is someone you have good interactions with and an enemy is someone you have negative interactions with.
Even though this video is very cinematically simple, I feel like it has alot of visual rhetoric in it. I like how he's smoking and that he's rocking back and forth. I can't really put my finger on it, but it creates a kind of feeling that increases his ethos.
I also like the analogy he makes between people with alot of friends on friendster and people that have 30 sexual partners. I have alot of friends that add people on their "Facebook" or "Friendster" that just add other people becuase they're good looking or cuz they wanna rack up the stats on the number of friends they have.
Even though this guy totally bashes on online communication networks, I think that they are also useful in some ways. You can easily access a friend's information that you may not know off the top of your head...which is very useful. Anyway, that's enough of what I think.

2nd Presentation Work

2005-02-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

For my second presentation, I plan to change around a few things. I don't want to focus on the things I did well in the first presentation, rather I want to focus on the things that I didn't do so well. I would like to be more comfortable with my speech so I don't have to look down at a hard copy, or maybe I'll memorize it enough so that I don't even have to bring a hard copy with me. By memorizing my speech, I will be able to make more intimate eye contact with the audience, which will make them more receptive to what I am saying. [To be continued...]

After having a conversation with Hialy about our second presentations, I realized that she provided me with the same critiques that I provided myself. So, I guess that I'm okay with what I already have planned for my second presentation. What may be problematic though is memorizing my speech. I get really nervous sometimes and I don't know why, so that may cause me to lose my place when I am speaking. Anyway, the conversation was good although it didn't really add any additional incite to what I needed to work on. That is all...

"Electronic Reading"

2005-01-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

So I read the article titled "Electronic Reading" from the site Hypertext Now. I guess it's an article that's pro electronic books. It gives all these reasons why electronic reading is so much better than traditional reading out of old dusty paper-back books. It says that electronic reading adapts to the reader and is just as convenient as hard copy books.
I say that I agree with most of the article. There is one section though that I strongly disagree with. The author claims that electonic reading is just as portable as regular books, and that laptops and other mediums we use to read e-books on can be made to imitate regular books. For example, the article claims that we could download the books onto palm pilots for ease of mobility and that laptops could be wrapped in leather in order to get that same feel and smell. I think that this is a bogus argument becuase the author fails to take into consideration the cost of palm pilots and of wrapping your laptop in leather. A standard book will run you anywhere from $10 to $50 bucks, but the cost of a palm pilot alone is well over $200. I don't think e-books are as portable as regular books, and the author's arguement is dumb.
For me, I'd rather read something that I can touch. Whenever we are assigned readings from PWR, I always print out the article. I dunno what it is, I guess it's just the feeling of having it in my hands that I like so much.

Research Ideas

2005-01-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

Right now I have two different ideas for the research project. The first is EVP and the second is online dating.
EVP is known as Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Y'all have probably heard of the movie White Noise right? EVP is when the voices of the dead contact the world of the living through the "white noise" of electronic devices. I think it's pretty cool so I want to learn more about it. Throughout my whole life, I've always been scared of ghosts, and since I like being scared, I'll probably like researching this topic. I was thinking about maybe doing some of the things that guy does in the movie: record static tv and no-station radio. I'm not too sure if I wanna follow through with this idea though becuase Hialy is also interested in writing about EVP and she thought of it before I did. You can learn more about EVP by logging onto www.aaevp.com
I'm sure all of you guys know or heard about Online Dating. To me, online dating sounds pretty sketchy and things that are sketchy sound interesting. I dunno, just the idea of meeting someone online to have a romantic relationship with is not right. Like, you're never really sure if that person is telling you the truth or not. Like for example, if you're a girl and some guy claims that he has a six-pack and he sends you a hot picture of some guy with a six pack, how do you know for sure that the picture is really one of that guy and not one of a Calvin Klein model? Also, who would sign up for something as crazy as online dating? People that don't want to look for dates in the real world right? So, I guess it might be good because the people who sign up for it are all the same, they are crazy and want a date from the online. That's my take on it anyway.
So yeah, I'll probably end up researching online dating because Hialy will probably do EVP and I don't want to be a biter. Online dating might be more fun/funny anyway. Oh yeah, a site for online dating is www.eharmony.com.

Blogs?

2005-01-06T10:28:00.000-08:00

I have no experience with writing blogs whatsoever. I didn’t even know what a blog was until I came to class a few days ago. I mean, I knew all about livejournal and Xanga and other websites, but I didn’t know they were called blogs. I’m really not too fond of the idea of blogging. I know that things like livejournal are supposed to provide an outlet for people to express how they feel, but I feel that there’s this notion among the general population that blogs are private diaries, when in fact they’re not. The authors of blogs know that they’re writing for an audience, so how can one be sure that what they’re writing is truly what they are feeling even if they claim they are being completely honest? For example, because I know that the words I write will be read by Christine and the rest of our PWR 2 class, I feel the need to refrain from using foul language; thus limiting the amount that I am able to express my true thoughts and feelings. My experience with blogging has also led me to kinda feel that blogging is for people that like or want attention. I had a friend in high school who told everyone to read her livejournal, what was known to be her “personal online diary”. She claimed that everything she wrote in it was true. I read it one day and saw sentences like, “yesterday I got soooo wasted during fifth period” or “when I was fifteen I had an abortion”. I know for a fact that these statements weren’t true because she told me so herself when I confronted her about them. She told me she made them up so that people will give her attention. I was like, damn you’re a big dummy. Anyway, that’s all I have to say.