The blog comes to and end...or does it?

Is this it for my blog? I've never kept up with one as long as I have for this class. I know that's sad considering there is only a few posts, but now that I have become somewhat accustomed to posting, I'll sort of miss it. Of course there's nothing stopping me from continuing, other than no one will read it and anyone who would I'd feel sorry for them. I hope anyone who did read this over the course of the course enjoyed the absurdity of all my blatherings. I know I did. I think I'll start up a blog on facebook or myspace or adultfriendfinder or one of those places and see where it goes. I'll do one from the perspective of a mail order bride from Scandinavia living in the south who wants to be a senator. Or maybe I'll try writing from a black dude's point of view since everyone in my class seems to think I decend from Africa. Either way, the blogging must continue regardles of audience, ethic, or talent. Good luck to everyone in my class and if I knew what any of you looked like I'd say hi to you in the real world. Until then, accept this virtual high-five and peace be with ye.

Woops. Missed one.

The Strength of Internet Ties. At first I thought I thought this was going to be about virtual neckties and how durable they are, but of course it wasn't. Just when I thought there'd be an article about something I could relate to, along comes another exploration of web relationships. This thing was thick with information, much of which I skimmed over like low-flying aircraft. I guess people are using the internet more profoundly than some people thought. I don't know if I doubted this myself, but I also don't know if I would have thought to research it either. It seems we will never have the rural-Pleasantville-style community again now that the net is up and running at full steam. I never lived in one of those communities where everyone knows each other and is all up in one another's business, but it sounds lovely. If it wasn't for the net, I probably wouldn't keep in touch with any of my old friends. I don't like talking on the phone that much, and I've sent maybe five letters in my life, so the fact I can pop on send a quick "F.U." or "WazzuP DOod?" really helps maintain my meaningful relationships - whether they're a block or 2200 miles away.

Rant in C:\ Major

This article, "How Computers Change the Way We Think", by Sherry Turkle, was pretty dry. For most of it, I didn't really know what Turkle was talking about. So I guess I didn't really agree with most of what she said, but I didn't disagree either. Except for her comments on privacy and how "college students seem uninterested in violations of privacy and in increased governmental and commercial surveillance." I'm a college student and I am sure as hell interested in my privacy being violated by The Man and his buddy, The Business Man. Those guys are always up to something, and it's not my, or any other student's fault that they take every chance they get to peak into our lives. She then says, "In 10 years, ideas about the relationship of privacy and government will require even more active pedagogy." Why in ten years? Why not NOW? One of the main reasons we're in this crazy environment now is that at some point it was decided that the Constitution should no longer be required reading in school. Sure, we'll fly the flag in every classroom, but we don't want those kids learning their rights before we get a chance to take them all away. She also mentions something about when there is more education about silent surveillance, there might be more political engagement with the issue. That's true, but that's not the whole issue. Teens need to be educated on more than the silent spies. They need to know the everyday rights they have, that are taken for granted from lack of awareness, are being quietly stripped away, and soon the only ones to blame for not knowing will be the themselves. Anyways...the rest of her points seem valid, but also seem like she's stretching them out a bit for a better paper.

(A Horse's) Behind

I feel like I'm behind in every class. This weekend is Ketchup Weekend. I will cover myself in tomato paste and get caught up in all my work. I'll be the busiest french fry in the box.

Don't Drop the Soap

I really don't enjoy reading articles about marketing schemes and all the hard work that advertising execs go through to sling garbage to teens and "tweens". Whenever something that people use and enjoy comes along, the focus is immediately shifted from "how can this be better" to "how can we sell this". This is not a new phenomenon, and it is not going away any time soon. The rest of the article, "The MySpace Generation" by Jessi Hempel, talks about various companies scrambling for a slice of a commodity that hasn't even begun to finish taking shape. The amounts of money CEO's like "Red Rupert" Murdoch throw around at these web designing twenty-something’s is obscene. Ever since the web flickered onto screens worldwide, it has been like a slippery bar of soap in the hands of men wearing suits. Businessmen try to grab it and squeeze as much money out of it as they can, but it slips. Politicians notice all the commotion and don't like how some people are using the soap, so they try and take hold, but it is hard to get a grip. The reason the web is so slippery is because it is constantly growing, and changing, and covers so much area that the idea of borders and boundaries stretches paper thin. This is why I love the web.
As for the video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us", all I can say is, very cool. For many years, science fiction authors have written about people creating a machine that becomes self-aware. Then it either creates Austrian or Australian (whether it’s the Terminator or Agent Smith) enemies who are going to kill us all. I know this is not what this particular video is saying, but I think that if one uses the metaphor of feeding something it implies that the "something" is some kind of entity that is alive. The web is not alive. I did not watch The Matrix too many times. However, an entity is defined as:

that which is perceived or known or inferred to have its own distinct existence (living or nonliving)

The web is an entity. It is a growing, learning entity that is made up of and sustained by the people existing outside of it. I don’t think that it will somehow learn to hate us and then try to destroy us, but I do think that with the increasing amount of users and information being poured into the space it exists in, that someday, maybe far in the future, we will see elements of the web develop into something else we have never seen before. What that will be I have no idea, it’s just fun to toss around the idea. I bet if I started reading Sci-Fi again, it might provoke some interesting thoughts.

A SNERT with a Tissue

Is a SNERT with a tissue still as snot-nosed? I've never heard that term in my life and I've been using the internet since the days of BBS's and direct connects on 14.4 baud rate modems. I like Kurt Vonnegut though and I will only accept being called a SNERT if it is in fact a term coined by him. Back when I upgraded to a 28.8 modem, I remember imagining how lightening quick my internet would now be. After the shrill squeals and rough static of the connection being made, I would be seamlessly connected to a world of at least a couple hundred other lame dudes who knew how to use their 486s well enough to trade copies of the Anarchist's Cookbook and play Doom with each other while the rest of the world played in something called sunlight. The internet and use of computers only a little over ten years ago was considered a waste of time. However, slowly but surely, scenarios I read in SF books became a reality. Now computers dominate most people's time, and those who are not up to speed are cast aside into a pile of old Commodores and dial-up modems. So now that everyone has logged on and use colons and parentheses to express their emotions, we can have the Psychology of Cyberspace. The idea that on a mass scale people are exploring their identities, and creating new ones online is incredible. The impact this is going to have on our minds and society will be so great that looking back on the days when interacting with other didn't require typing skills will be like trying to understand Mayan culture. On one hand I think this will be a good thing, in that people may end up being happier because of their ability to change themselves and be whatever they want. The sad thing, as I see it, is that people already have that ability but are just completely unaware or untrained in how to use it. Computers facilitating introspection and discovery is really neat, but the dependence them and the need for them as the medium could be dangerous. People think identity theft is scary, what will it be like when your identity is really online and someone messes with it? What if when we're not at a keyboard, the bodies we use really do become nothing more than just a vessel that brings us to the fridge for food, and to work for a paycheck? I love the web and what it does for me just as much as the chick checking her Facebook next to me, but how far will it go? It's all ready a light year ahead from where I started and it's only going faster.

Digital Peers

I look forward to seeing what our class produces after looking over these websites. The only advantage I think Spring 06 might have had over us is that they were a hybrid class. Being able to meet up and discuss materials as well as use the web would've been pretty cool. I've never made a hypertext article before so reading some student-made ones gave me a better idea of what I'm in store for. Up to now I've been feeling in the dark about where this class is going but now a light has flickered on. I liked the essay "The Future of Video Gaming" by Carl Ritch, the layout was simple, but engaging. It made the subject more interesting than if had it been a printed essay. I scanned some others and they weren't bad either, but over all I think our class can do better. With our powers combined we could create a digital mindscape the likes of which has never been seen by any web resident. Or at least we could have a flash game on the homepage or something...

Domesday is Nigh

Imagine sitting in your little mud hut, tired after a long hard day of mud-farming. You put your feet up on a log and start to sink into relaxation. A calm begins to wash over you, lapping at your feet and up your legs like a warm tide. Not even the excitement of tomorrow's public flogging could motivate you from your seat. Just as your eyes are about to seal out the beams of sunlight that invade your cabin through the thatched roof, a loud knock almost turns your pitiful door into a pile of splinters. Outside is some guy wearing royal fabrics that are weathered and covered in muck from travelling. On the cart behind him is a giant square thing filled with parchment. Perched over the object with a massive feather quill, is the boy version of the man standing before you. His mouth opens and starts spitting out imperial decrees like apple seeds. Then he starts asking you questions like, "'Ow many bishops d'you 'ave in this 'ere shire?" or "If you are in possession ov any beasts, 'ow many and ov whut sort might they be?" If your medieval mind was like a webpage, then it would be visiting http://www.whoisthiswanker.com/ or maybe viewing images of pitchforks flying through the air after a retreating carriage of the King. --Of course I have no idea what is was like back then, but the collection of the information for the Domesday Book could not have been an enjoyable undertaking. However, it was still completed, amazingly. As far as the hypertext version goes, I can't say it would be as thrilling as the digital Bayeux Tapestry, simply because it's all statistics and information. It doesn't have any stories and not one single spear sticking out of anybody. It does provide a peak into the middle ages that a realtor or land surveyor might find fascinating - and those groups are often cast to the side when it comes to historical entertainment. One final comment on the power of books. The idea I appreciate most about this reading comes from the line "The fact that the scheme was executed and brought to complete fruition in two years is a tribute of the political power and formidable will of William the Conqueror." The book he compiled shows his strength as a leader more concretely than the wars and land he won. I think that speaks highly to the influence of the written word.

HyperTapestry:Free response

The main idea that caught my eye in the article HyperTapestry by Kim MacQueen was the question as to whether or not literate people perceive the events of their lives linearly as in literary works, or more as pictures or a web site. That can be taken in so many directions. It makes me wonder if there might have been a better or more concrete way of learning and thinking, but not good enough. The Bayeux tapestry was made in the late 1070’s. According to the article this would be a time when people were thinking like web pages, maybe really simple web pages. It was only four hundred years later that the printing press was invented. I don’t think everyone became literate all of the sudden when that happened, but I’d say around that time more people started thinking in that linear style MacQueen talks about. Now, after almost six hundred years of printing presses telling us how to think, the internet has come. The written word can deliver a massive amount of information, and the internet exploits this. The leap forward is that it exploits every other media available as well. This could be a good thing or a bad thing. It means people will be exposed to much more information, but will it effect their thinking when they are not planted in front of a computer?
These ideas and the article relate to our course topic in the sense that if our reading and writing reflects how we think, than I think the internet is changing both simultaneously.