Wonderous Wordle

So as it turns out, the winning words are WORLD, FACEBOOK, PEOPLE, TECHNOLOGY, ONE, WRITING and VIDEO. There are a bunch close seconds and some silly ones (poking, phish, cute, silly) but those are the words that I used the most in my blogging experience. I’ve got to say I like it. I like the way the words turned out and I and content with the topics of my discussions. Wordle is a fantastic tool for writers if they are having trouble sticking to a main topic. It’s easy to let your mind wander and accidentally start talking about whatever is on your mind. A good writer puts emotion and opinion into each piece of work. Without that then there would be no passion behind the writing. You need spunk! Something that will make you stand out from the crowd and say “Hi I am here and I am better than the rest!”  Wordle has taught me that it is okay to go back an add some flavor to your writing. Colorful words stick out and will grab the attention of a reader. There’s nothing worse than reading a boring blog.  Not only does wordle offer a creative way to present your story, but you can also adjust the color, font, style however you’d like. Then you can print it out, frame it, and hang it on your wall for all to see! So thank you wordle!! You’re doing great

E-Mail vs. Snail Mail

Remember what those are? Remember way back in the day when people used to sit down, take out a sheet of stationary paper and write a letter to an old friend or a pen pal? You don’t? Well it happen whether you remember it or not. I’m not sure if it is entirely a lost art, but it definitely seems like it is quickly becoming replaced by all this new modern technology. I remember I used to have a pen-pal from a different country when I was in 5th grade and I would send him a letter every month or so. In return I would get personal letters addressed to me in the mail enclosed with pictures and random useless junk that I loved. It was great. It was so personal and interesting. I would wait for the mail man to come and then rip open the letter and hope that there would be something cool inside. Now there are so many alternate ways to get in contact with a person that doesn’t require cutting down any trees or getting any ink on your clothes. It’s called the World Wide Web.

This handy little invention has come up with so many different ways of “sending letters in the mail” Emails, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Live Journals, WordPress!! You name, they’ve thought of it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly convenient and accessible. I just feel like it has taken away some of the intimacy. Nowadays life is so fast paced. With my schedule I barely have any time to think about what I need to do next. I just do it like a robot. I don’t have all too much time to sit down, write out a letter, find a post office and mail it out. It sounds simple, but emailing takes all of one minute. It’s nuts!! With emailing, you don’t have to worry about it getting lost. You just need to make sure that your computer doesn’t crash. There are fancy ways to make emailing more personal now. You can add photos, games, videos, and who knows what else! Video chat is becoming much more popular as well! It’s crazy to think that one click of the mouse and you can see your long lost cousin half way across the world and have a conversation as if you were sitting right next to one another. What will they come up with next?????

The Carrier Pigeon

National Facebook Poke Day

So it turns out that the very popular “poking” action on Facebook has made itself into a holiday. April 16th marks the day as ‘National Facebook Poke Day’! Of course with all great new ideas comes a cool and witty Facebook group, which already has about 500 members.This group seems pretty dedicated to getting this holiday known!

“The goal is to poke as many people on Facebook as possible.

Poke your friends, family and even your cat if they have a profile.”

This bizarre feature that is offered by facebook is innocent. It in no way will harm the person who is doing the poking, nor will it harm the person whom is being poked. It will simply display a message that so and so has poked you. The reason for these poking wars are endless and probably silly. In my opinion, the poking feature is simply flirting. It is telling the person that ‘hello I am too shy to say that I like you, so instead I will poke you. Now I did a little more reseach about the whole poking phenomenon and I found a clever little youtube video made that pretty much explains poking and facebook stalking entirely. Enjoy!

Writing Spaces & Remediation

It is almost impossible to avoid using a variety of writing spaces, especially as a student at a university. The three writing spaces that I use the most are a computer, pen and paper, and my cell phone. Each of these different writing spaces is used for a different task. The computer is an incredibly convenient and accessible instrument for writing. The features that it offers nowadays are more advanced than ever before. It takes a lot of stress off of the writing by not having to worry about grammatical errors and worrying if you’re writing instrument will run out of ink. In the reading, “Writing as Technology”, it mentions that computers have been recognized not only as writing technologies, but as media for popular entertainment and expression, which we are using to refashion visual as well as verbal communication. The advancement in writing has become exciting. In class is when I prefer to use the old methods of pen and paper. It is an easy way to take notes without having to carry around a lab top. The pen and paper method is something that will never die off completely. It is much more personal to receive a hand written letter, as opposed to a typed letter. The third writing space I mentioned is a cell phone. It is a quick and convenient little device that is becoming more and more closely related to a hand-held computer. It allows me to send a message to someone in seconds, as long as I have service.

“Writing as Technology” defines remediation as “a newer medium takes the place of an older one, borrowing and reorganizing the characteristics of writing in the older medium and reforming its cultural space.” The transition of pen and paper to a computer was a huge upgrade. A computer has everything the pen and paper had, but a thousand more added features, such as the access to the World Wide Web, spell check, and neatness.

G – G

I want to share this comic blog with the world: Garfield Minus Garfield

This features a hilarious comic that’s created simply by photo-shopping Garfield the cat out of his own comic strip.  

The site describes the comic as such:

“Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb. ”

I think it’s fantastic that they’ve published a book of these, I think they’re hilarious — not just because I have a great dislike for the lasagna loving cat.  The concept and result is genius, and I generally favor anything that had its roots on the internet, as you may have noticed.  

Here’s my favorite:

Some, such as this one, work better than the original comic itself — Garfield creator Jim Davis agrees!

“Some of the strips were slappers: ‘Oh, I could have left that out.’ It would have been funnier,” Davis says.

I don’t know about you, but that makes Jim Davis a much cooler dude than I expected.

1968

Today, the United States is the most powerful country in the world. We take pride in our technology and money. Early in 1968, there was talk that the Soviet Union was planning a trip around the moon. This meant that they would be placed far ahead of the United States in the Great Space Race. The United States was not about to be placed in second place. The race was on! This is what gave the United States that extra incentive to send their men out into the great unknown. Above is a picture of the very first photo that was ever taken in outer space. It was taken way back in 1946 by a group of soldiers and scientists. It was taken by a 35-millimeter motion picture camera riding on a V-2 missile that was launched from the white sands missile range.

12 years later meant a whole new world of technology. 1968 was marked as “the year that changed the world,” according to Time Magazine in a 40^th anniversary special. It was an important year full of devastating tragedies, racism, riots, war, psychedelic fashions, daring new music, and it ended with three brave U.S. astronauts circling the moon. Their timing couldn’t have been any better.  This country needed something to restore their hope in humanity and country pride. The United States had lived through the assassinations of brave world leaders; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, followed shortly by outbreaks of riots and extreme chaos. Not to mention the war that was still going on. An estimated 19,000 young Americans had already died while defending our country in Vietnam. Even worse- there was no end in sight. The U.S. needed something, anything, to restore trust and hope in their country.

Apollo 8 Crew (Lovell, Anders, Borman)

On December 21st, Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman were launched flawlessly out into space. Almost 69 hours later Apollo 8 had successfully orbited around the moon. Imagine that! The United States sent three astronauts up into space, they took pictures, and returned safe and sound. Not only did they take pictures, but they had six live telecasts broadcasting to the people back home who were able to witness an unforgettable astronaut’s-eye view of the moon. This was the perfect way to end 1968. On Christmas Eve, during Apollo 8′s ninth revolution of the moon, the astronauts sent this message down to earth through the live telecast while focusing the camera on the moon itself,

“This is Apollo 8 coming to you live from the moon. The moon is a different thing to each of us. My own impression is that it’s a vast, lonely, forbidding-type existence– great expanse of nothing that looks rather like clouds of pumice stone. It certainly would not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work.” (Frank Borman)

“…for one moment the cares of the year were forgotten, and the vision of a world united in peace prevailed.” (Time Magazine 1968)

Shhhhh!

“We all possess more power and greater possibilities than we realize, and visualizing is one of the greatest of these powers.” (Genevieve Behrend)

Over this past summer I read a book that was both inspiring and I’ll say it, life changing. In fact, I was blown away. The amount of wisdom and truth behind it is incredible. My friend Rachel lent me the book, “The Secret” and told me that it changed her life. I thought to myself, “now that’s silly” but I trusted her opinion. I’ve heard some people mention this book, and everyone seemed pretty satisfied with the results.

So I read it. It took me all of two days because one- it was an easy read and two- I couldn’t put it down. Turns out that Rachel and everyone else were right. This book was life changing. It describes to the readers the secret of life. According to this book, the secret to everything you could ever want is the law of attraction. Simple as that.

“Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you’re holding in your mind. It’s what you’re thinking. Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you.”

In other words, it’s in three simple steps. First you ask, then you believe, and then eventually, receive. This book is all about the power of positive thinking and being able to obtain absolutely anything that you could ever imagine. Imagine that!? It stresses that no goal is out of reach. I am already a very optimistic person, but this book only further amplified that. The Secret explains how to find your ideal husband/wife, the perfect job, how to make endless amounts of money, buy the perfect house, lose weight, be happy, and whatever else you could ever want. All you have to do is ATTRACT it to yourself.

“Laughter attracts joy, releases negativity, and leads to miraculous cures.”

You will have to look at life with the glass half full, not empty. This book is a collection of about 30 different doctors, writers, teachers, and everyday people who claim that knowing “The Secret” has changed their lives forever. This is a self-help book full of tons of advice and positive encouragement to better yourself and to obtain the life you always dreamed of. I know there are a lot of people who are very skeptical about the whole idea of the book, but I strongly encourage everyone to read it. It’s worth it. So before you read this book, just start sending out positive energy and thoughts and the universe will send it right back to you. Simple as that, guaranteed!

Phish is back!!!

Phish is back! And it’s about time! 4 long years after Phish‘s breakup in 2004 they finally decided that they would reunite and start performing again. Phish will make their way back out into the spotlight at the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia. Their music has been inspiring audiences and musicians for more than 20 years now.  For all of those people who have never heard of this brilliant jam band that started way back in 1983, here is a little background information.

The band is name up of Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Jon Fishman, and Page McConnell. Phish formed at The University of Vermont and they took off from there. They never received much television or radio publicity, but their dedicated fans found them and were intrigued by their unique sound and creativity.You can compare this band’s sound to music by The Grateful Dead, The Beatles, Allman Brothers Band, and their role model, Frank Zappa. According to bassist Mike Gordon, Phish plays “bluegrass, Latin, rock, funk, classical, jazz, calypso, hard-core, and Broadway.”

They have influenced countless jam bands and introduced a whole new genre of sound. They have released 12 albums along with numerous live recordings. They are a live band and are known for their live performances and willingness to experiment. In 2008, Phish received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Jammy’s held in Madison Square Garden. Rolling Stone quotes:

“Given their sense of community, their ambition and their challenging, generous performances, Phish has become the most important band of the Nineties.”

In my opinion, Phish is the definition of feel good music. They play for the fans, and they sure do have a lot of fans (phish heads). Their knowledge and understanding of the music combined with their simple and somewhat deep lyrics are inspiring. Below is a video of a show from back in 2000 at theRoseland Ballroom in New York City. They are performing one of their more popular songs, “Back On The Train” Welcome back Phish!! You were missed.

Response to Naked in the ‘Nonopticon’

“Facebook executives mistakenly assumed that their members were not the sort who cared very much about personal privacy. After all, users readily posted photos from wild parties, lists of their favorite bands and books, and frank comments on others’ profiles. Weren’t young people some sort of new species used to living “out there,” immersed in the details of celebrity lives via PerezHilton.com and Gawker.com, and obsessed with the eccentricities of reality-show contestants?” (Vaidhyanathan)

    This passage made me think; it’s definitely true, in my opinion, that people want to display their lives by using Facebook in order to be seen.  They do post pictures after they’re done a wild night of partying.  They do list their favorite bands and books.  They do leave frank comments on others’ profiles. 

     In fact, I think our generation is indeed some “some sort of new species”, used to “living out there” and “immersed in the details of celebrity lives”.  As Nussbaum put it, “Younger people, one could point out, are the only ones for whom it seems to have sunk in that the idea of a truly private life is already an illusion”.  I know that I have a small sense of privacy these days, with surveillance being everywhere and my debit card transactions being tracked.  It’s not even paranoia–it’s just common knowledge.

     However, when there is a chance you can protect your own privacy, you are going to take it: “When we complain about infringements of privacy, what we really demand is some measure of control over our reputation in the world. Who should have the power to collect, cross-reference, publicize, or share information about us, regardless of what that information might be? If I choose to declare my romantic status or sexual orientation on Facebook, then at least it’s my choice, not Facebook’s.” (Vaidhyanathan)

     This is the very difference between surveillance and Facebook; surveillance typically cannot be controlled, but your reputation on Facebook, or any other social networking site, can be.  And it should be–at least, according to its users. 

 

A New Life for “Second Life”

Second Life– I read an article about this a little while ago and I think it’s really cool what possibilities are available using this program.  In the following video, you’ll see members of the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) as they explain how they use Second Life (once just a simple MMOG) as an educational tool for students.  The internet has always been a great way to connect people who are far away in distance but close in interests, and the members of the ISTE are using Second Life for just that reason. I think this just goes to show how with a little creative thinking, we can use existing technology to do really amazing things.