And I think that

it will make for a great story someday...

DAS BOOT

sorry to be shady and use you in my project (again) without telling you (again), pat

...

Too many words.

Play Money revisited

http://www.mmostreet.com/Main.php

Fax machines

The computer is grand and all, but you gotta give the fax machines some props. They're pretty masterful in their quiet way, pardoning the paper jams here and there.

Low residency's the thing, I see

Interesting.

Connecting

In order to use the Internet for its original purpose -- sharing information -- rather than for just chatting with friends and partaking in the occasional Facebook stalk, I have decided to learn about the Internet through utilizing its resources.

Or, to be more clear, I wish to learn more about Dreamweaver and anything about Flash through online tutorials and perhaps question-and-answer bulletin boards, should any exist. Ideally, I'd also like to start using blogs as a means of communicating with others, beyond writing for class or maintaining my personal blog.

Through acquiring the shared knowledge available online, I will be able to produce what I hope will be a professional, functional website for Division III gymnastics.

It's on.

I'll keep you posted.

Yay!

Dr. Reid's post on the course blog made me smile, for I have successfully completed all of those tasks.

Last night, a good friend of mine who attends Sarah Lawrence College was perusing my blog. "Wow, you guys do podcasts? What do you do with them after they're recorded?" she wanted to know immediately. "Where are the blogs of other people in your class?"

I directied her to the course blog and explained all of the tenets of the course -- the various blogs, the podcasting, the Wiki, etc. "That's so cool," she said. "I wish we had something like that here."

She's got a point. Not only have we done a substantial amount of work in various forms, but it's all available on the Internet for anyone to view. I think we can be proud of our class's accomplishments, especially as the first group to take this strictly-online version of Writing in Cyberspace. Cortland is in the midst of the cyber evolution of education.

Good work, everyone, and if I don't catch you online, perhaps I'll, I don't know, see you in person or something. :-)

Wikipedia

I've been keeping up with the course Wiki throughout the semester, as evidenced by my angry blog entries in which I wished to battle the website because...I was dumb and forgot to log in, hence not having some work acknowledged.

That said, I was working on a couple of entries yesterday when it dawned on me: This really isn't that bad. Or hard. It's neither, actually. The most difficult part about the Wiki, in fact, is remembering to do it. But other than that, it has not destroyed my soul in any manner. I enjoy having the power to correct other's entries and figure out how to provide the most "accurate" definition. Actually using the Wiki has made me more skeptical about the information I search for on Wikipedia. After all, if hacks like me can post on there, who knows what other information people are posting.

I think a particularly interesting assignment would be for Dr. Reid to ask us to define one term -- the same term -- in our personal blogs. The variance, I'm sure, would be great. Such an exercise would show just how difficult it is to have one authoritative source of information. Wikipedia may not have the final say, but with the evolution of history and science, neither do the academics.

NeoVox Articles

The NeoVox assignment was probably one the most obvious examples of "writing in cyberspace" (besides the blogs). I really enjoyed the informality of the articles. We were not restricted to any particular topic besides that our article should pertain in some way to what we've been discussing. There was a good variety in the topics that my classmates chose to write about, and an interesting mix between the technical and the personal.

While I would have liked more feedback on my pieces, I recognize that much of the class is already working hard to stay on task with other online postings. I'm also quite used to the workshop atmosphere of other writing classes, in which everyone is graded on how they respond to their peers. In a way, then, this makes the more informal workshop relaxing -- we can make comments without feeling that we need to overhaul the piece or make up things to correct.

I'm a fan of the "magazine style" of writing -- information mixed with a bit of narrative and perhaps some humor, too. Overall, I'd say that this assignment nicely complemented our other tasks. It's helped me try to synthesize what I feel to be two major questions of the class:

1) What is the meaning of these technological changes on society?

2) How do we adapt and benefit from them to move forward?

Final Podcast

Rachel and I convened in G-17, as always, for our final podcast. We've come quite a long way from that first experience. Instead of plotting what we plan to discuss beforehand, one person starts with a statement and the rest of the podcast follows from there. However, we've never scripted our recordings, and I feel that's important; spontaneity is interesting and can actually allow us to come up with connections that we hadn't thought of previously.

The first podcast took several days. We began with a lunch session of planning topics to discuss. Then we had other sessions of figuring out GarageBand, doing the podcast, editing and checking over it, and finally uploading it (and praying that it would safely find a home on iTunesU). Our final podcast took perhaps half of an hour. We said what we wanted to say, cut out the awkward pauses at the beginning and end of the sound clips, added some sweet jingles, and that was that.

The podcasts should definitely remain in this class. Honestly, I enjoyed that we were essentially free to talk about what we wished. I think that Rachel and I did a good job of staying "on task" in relating our discussions to the class. The time limit was the most difficult aspect; we found that we had a good deal to say, but had to limit it. However, the time limit steers the recording from meandering too far. As some classmates have suggested on the course blog, creating a system in which the class has to listen and provide feedback to the podcasts would be useful. This would ensure that everyone listens to each other, and allow people to learn from other's opinions of their podcast.

Is there any sort of career that utilizes podcasting? While I can't exactly imagine corporations throwing money at me so I can produce their podcasts, it sure is fun to do.

Home and Work

If the line between work and play has become blurred, so has the line between work and home. Although Dibbell states that the downfall of his marriage was not due to his work with Play Money, he mentions how some especially hardcore players have ruined their relationships by exerting so much effort into their games. One would imagine that many of these players are using computers in their homes. The wife (speaking generally -- I'm sure there are exceptions) can physically see her husband. She can glance over his shoulder and look at what he's doing. But this "home within a home" for a husband is a world that she cannot enter. It's easy to imagine her frustrations. Her husband is tangible, yet gone into a virtual realm that she cannot access.

Traditionally, workers can "leave business at the office" and return to home as a place of refuge and relaxation. Now the computer screen glows as a constant reminder that "there is always more to be done." For those who work at home, the only time they close business is when they turn off the computer and walk away from the desk. Yet instead of a commute, their office is a button and a few keystrokes away.

Dibbell enjoys working out of various Flying J rest stops, taking the time to pause and look around him in his quest to meet his April goal. And indeed, computer-based work does allow for mobility. Yet one can easily imagine family vacations interrupted by clacking on the keyboard, "just to read this one e-mail really quickly." I took an online class over the summer and brought my laptop with me on a family vacation to Colorado. While I wouldn't say that having the computer with me detracted from the "vacation" experience, I felt obligated to do work and communicate with friends from home (not that I DIDN'T want to communicate with them, mind you) just because I had access to do so.

My future career will involve writing in some (hopefully great) capacity. But if the majority of my work took place at home, I wonder if I'd begin to resent people who traveled to and from their jobs. I'd want the change in scenery. The people surrounding me. The ability to say, "I am DONE for the day!" and go...home.

Question for Dr. Reid!!!

If you can help me with this burning question, that would be glorious. It relates to another class -- Evolution of Writing -- but it's still "writing in cyberspace," no? :-)

I am currently making a webpage on Dreamweaver, and I want to insert a movie clip from YouTube and have it play right there on the page. I have seen you do this on several occasions. I embedded the link that YouTube gave, and a box shows up, but the box turns white when I press Play. I think I'm supposed to upload some applications and the like, but my experimenting has so far proved fruitless. So therefore...what do I do?

THANK YOU!

As the semester winds down,

I realize that one of the positive aspects of this class is that our accomplishments are posted on the Internet, easily accessible and difficult to lose. We can see who has been posting and who hasn't, listen to the podcasts, watch the movies, and perhaps read the articles if more get published on NeoVox. As someone who is very intent on getting all assignments finished at the proper time, I like being able to keep track of what I've done. (Besides, of course, in the cases where I couldn't find my Wiki entries, but I'm trying to be strong.)

Online education encourages self-discipline. The student has to remember to check the particular pages and complete the necessary tasks without verbal reminders in class. This class has also created a sort of bond for those of us who have found each other in person and asked, "You're in Cyberspace, right?" Heck, I've talked to some of these people more than I've communicated with classmates in face-to-face classes, like History 101.

On that note of self-discipline, the amount of fresh topics on the course blog has dwindled. I'm wondering if it's from a lack of posting, or perhaps a lack of new things to share. Although it's not my group's week to post, I followed Philip's lead and posted anyway. I was really intrigued by Play Money and may write my NeoVox article based on the conundrum of work and play.

Let's keep truckin'!

Scholars' Day

To everyone who came to the "Page to Stage" reading -- thank you!!!

I saw GarageBand hard at work at several sessions. I'm curious to know about the quality of the recordings. What will they be used for? Will they be put onto iTunesU? Any editing first? It's a unique way of preserving the day's events besides videotaping, especially since all of the events I attended relied almost solely on words rather than images.

Deeper into the virtual economy

Play Money has an addictive quality. I found myself at page 200 yesterday rather unexpectedly, curious to see what would happen next. I particularly like the "evidence" that Dibbell employs, such as the online conversations, blog entries, and letters. It's become an adventure story.

"For every new digital application we adopt, the same decision must be made, consciously or not: to affirm that some make-believe replica or another is, for all pragmatic intents, as good as real" (109).

This quote is the most succinct argument I've heard for, "Everyone needs to chill out about technology if we're going to use it." In a sense it's that willing suspense of disbelief required for reading fiction. If a new piece of technology seems useful -- such as the computer, as Dibbell points to -- then we don't need to hem and haw about the loss of paper. The computer will do the same job in a more efficient manner.

And so the same point goes for virtual economies. "It's ridiculous! It's pointless!" Etc. Dibbell doesn't deny that his quests is somewhat absurd. But at the same time, it's undeniable that these games are taken seriously by a good number of people who, within the context of the game, hone their craft and have a great deal of success. Who's to say it's not more ludicrous to devote one's life to the collection and spending of paper dollars? To have a job in creating webpages which, technically, are intangible? To work entirely online, for that matter? We're all heavily invested, to some degree, in cyberspace: an entity that is not really there.

But here we are anyway, and here are these words.

And at least gold coins are a lot cooler-looking than American coins.

Wednesday

I'm a pretty big stalker and noticed that Liz had this on her blog. Come to "Page to Stage" on Scholars' Day!!! :-)

Dear Wiki,

Thank you for consistently refusing to load the page and losing my changes.

Blacksnow had particular success with items from the Dark Age of Camelot, a game produced by Mythic Entertainment, Inc. Blacksnow ignored the end-user license agreement, which explicitly stated that "playing the Game for commercial, business, or income-seeking purposes is strictly prohibited" (15). When Mythic received wind of Blacksnow's business, it contacted eBay and had the auctions shut down in the name of violating intellectual property rights. Blacksnow in turn filed a lawsuit against Mythic, citing "unfair business practices" and "interference with prospective economic advantage" (16). -- To store here and re-paste when the page is functioning again.

Must be all that snow.

Video Project

Before the snow arrived, Liz, Philip, Rachel, and I met at the library to begin (and end, as it turned out) our video project. We received a key to a small room where we would not be disturbing other patrons. Initially, Liz and Philip did research on two dating websites, creating profiles on eharmony.com and match.com. Rachel and I filmed and asked questions about their thoughts on the process, and how online matches compared to meeting someone in person. The latter hearkens back to Rheingold's thoughts that youths are especially inclined to meet/communicate online.

I was impressed with the video and sound quality that the digital cameras produced. While they could not support a lengthy recording, they worked well for our short project. We uploaded clips as we went along in order to open up more free space. I have experience from editing movies in high school, and I must say that iMovie was much smoother and faster than the program we'd had, which often croaked and crashed. We had about eight minutes of footage. Some carefully cutting and rearranging put us at five minutes exactly. The entire process of research, filming, and editing took nearly three hours. However, it was a relief to know that the project was finished and safely uploaded onto iTunes.

Although the project was a positive experience, I'm not really sure how it was necessary to our Cyberspace experience other than as another way to use iTunes. I'm also not sure of how in-depth of a movie can be made within three to five minutes. After our first interview with Liz, we had about one minute of uncut footage already.

Then again, perhaps we're learning to write, talk, and now physically present ourselves online.

Play Money begins

As soon as Chapter One unfolded, I was psyched about the book. "Yes! I KNOW this!" I cheered inside as Dibbell chased lizard men, fully aware that his cause was slightly ridiculous yet completely addictive.

I am in no way a video game connoisseur, though I did dabble in World of Warcraft for a time. However, I can draw upon the experiences of my boyfriend and his brother, who have played World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Gears of War, and plenty of non-Internet-related games.

"How was your birthday?" I asked my boyfriend, Brian.

"Oh, it was good. Matt and I drank beer and played WoW until 5 in the morning."

"I had the best Sunday ever," Matt randomly said one day.

"Oh, yeah?" I asked, thinking that it had something to do with his girlfriend.

"I got up at 12, played World of Warcraft until 8, and went to bed. Amazing."

But as Dibbell points out, the joy is not perpetual:

"And everyone, of course, must make a separate peace with the profound ambivalence of the 'grind': the tantalizing, enervating treadmill of monster bashing, which promises a never-ending daily burst of experience points, gold, loot, and other tokens of self improvement but all too often leaves you feeling sick, unhinged, and inexplicably compelled, at the end of a long, late night, to try for just one more mongbat or ogre lord or lizardman when every rational fiber in your body is cringing at the sound of dawn's first songbirds tweeting outside the window" (39).

In an infamous turn of events, Brian quit WoW after his "guild" dumped him because he had not yet hit Level 70. Brian had recognized that he needed to go to class and do homework, which lessened the time he had to "raid" with the gang and gain experience points. There was, of course, one night over the summer when he was unsure if he'd be able to hang out with me because of a very crucial raid. I smiled and kept my mouth shut. He realized on his own that there was something to be said for the tangible, rather than struggling for fantastic manna.

Video Project

Rachel, Liz, Philip, and I managed to find a common time to meet. We perched on the couches outside of the Caleion Room and brainstormed. The objective: Create a mutually agreeable video proposal that would also be entertaining.

After tossing about some ideas, we decided to explore online dating. Philip and I will research and create profiles at a dating site. Testimonials will be featured from individuals such as Liz's sister, who met her husband on eHarmony.com. We'll track the sort of responses we receive and compare our experiences to going out and randomly meeting someone in person (i.e. at a party), from the male and female perspectives. We'll also explore the rhetoric of presenting one's self to an Internet audience that may be filled with predators or the just plain desperate. There may be a bit of a creative nonfiction twist at the end -- we shall see. :-)

Should we be approved, we shall begin shooting on Sunday night. Yay!

For all the wonders

of "Spell Check" and Microsoft Word underlining (some) of your errors, we can't ignore the need to learn grammar.

A small part of me dies each time I see "in it's home," "your pretty," "over they're," excessive comma splices, and semi-colons strew at random to create an "intellectual" effect. (Affect?) I'll have to jump on the bandwagon here and say that AIM certainly does not improve these errors. However, instant messenging gets people to read, write, and interact. For these reasons, I will not point to AIM as the downfall of grammar. The medium simply allows any sort of writing to pass through. Frankly, students should know, somewhere deep inside, that writing "lol" or "btw" in an academic paper is not acceptable.

I become especially concerned when people who wish to be English teachers or editors consistently make errors in their online postings. Do they proofread? Do they just...not know? Just before, I skimmed through NeoVox and noticed numerous grammatical errors. I can't bring myself to read The Dragon Chronicle.

I apologize for any errors which may appear in this post. I am not the Know-All of Grammar. But poor grammar distracts from clarity, regardless if the writing piece is printed on paper or published online. Writing can be bolstered by computers. But it begins in the mind.

A Whole New Mind, in review

As Philip and Lizzi mentioned on the course blog, Pink's book gives the reader a sense of empowerment. He's not knocking the "traditional" left-minded occupations, but he shows that everyone can afford to tap into his inner capacity for storytelling or empathy. We often look to office work as "dehumanizing," and the idea of sitting in a cubicle makes me cringe. Yet Pink describes a shift in the business world -- one towards aesthetic and emotional appeal rather than just numbers and dollars (although those will never cease to be motivating).

Although they weren't "mandatory," in a sense, I enjoyed reading the Portfolios between each section. Through these areas of additional information, Pink shows that the qualities he endorses are indeed attainable. The section on detecting a fake smile was especially revealing. I looked through the pictures on my computer and wondered how many of my friends' smiles had been fake for the moment of the picture (probably many, including mine). In regards to "Meaning," I actually walked in a labyrinth in New Mexico. While I wouldn't say that I had a transcendental experience, it forced a girl like me to slow down the pace and follow the lines that had been dictated for me. Granted, at any moment, I could have broken from the path and walked directly to the center. But that's not the point.

Why, Wiki?

I signed in, wrote a Wiki entry, and saved the page.

Why is there no proof of this effort under the "history?"

Wikipedia and I are about to fight.

Podcast and Pink

Being the overachievers that we are (or as Rachel phrased it, "We're just too lazy to do it later in the week"), Rachel and I performed Podcast #3 today in good ole G-17. The process moved quite seamlessly; the sound levels cooperated, we had plenty to discuss, and the file saved and uploaded easily. Our first podcast was such a planned production. This one took about an hour at most, with uploading the file.

Rachel and I discussed how we find A Whole New Mind to be encouraging to people like "us," the Professional Writing/English majors of the world. I was especially interested in his sections on metaphor and story -- two things that writers clearly focus on, and two things that the world needs. "...Only the human mind can think metaphorically and see relationships that computers could never detect," Pink points out (139). In an increasingly technological world, we still struggle with the ageless quest of finding and making mean from our lives. The metaphor makers find connections. They draw together everything that appears random and distant. They make sense out of what would otherwise be a cold world.

Stories are indeed more memorable than a string of numbers. I think that the number of moles in a molecule is 6.02 x 10 to the -23 power. I can't remember what's after Pi beyond 3.14. But I can certainly recall the crazy Spanish story, "El ramo azul," in which a stranger tries to get the protagonist's eyes because his girlfriend wants a bouquet of blue eyes...

I especially like the idea of narrative medicine. To be sure, plenty of hypochondriacs will be spilling their life stories. But if you're alone and frightened in the hospital, you need empathy and compassion. "Story," says Pink, "represents a pathway to understanding that doesn't run through the left side of the brain" (115). We all have stories. It's not longer just about the numbers.

..

Apparently it's just to the 23rd power, no negative sign. And the next number in pi is 1, according to Wikipedia.

..

As a response to Dr. Reid, I did indeed log in before I made the changes on the course Wiki.

Wiki concerns

I've done at least six Wiki posts and created the topics on behalf of Group Three for Snow Crash. Why are only four changes present in the "History?"

Reflections on a night out

Music blares. Festive bubbles shower down from the ceiling. Lights distort and blur. Strangers bump and grind in the habitual mating dance, while "long-lost friends" reunite. Besides maybe the bubbles, the scene is more or less a classic one through the ages.

It is in this scene, and this scene only, that I can find text messaging to be vaguely useful.

Your phone jingle-jangle-vibrates. Your friend wants to meet up. Mom wants to say hi. An "urgent" social situation is on the rise. Problem is, you can't hear a damn thing over the screaming girls and 80's music tribute. You shout, "What? What? I can't hear you! Call me back!" and hang up, knowing that the situation won't change unless you go outside.

Therefore, our fine feathered technology of text messaging does indeed come in handy for intensively noisy situations, such as nights at the bar or for someone who works at rock concerts. "xoxo to you too, Mom," and there you go. Close your phone and go rock out.

For myself, however, I'll just let my breathren of callers desperately wonder why I'm not answering.

Left and right

A Whole New Mind has the rare combination of being easy to read, interesting, and informative. The book also provides comfort that people like "us" -- Professional Writing/Art/Philosophy/Music (etc.) majors not only have a purpose, but will be necessary in the coming world.

"Edwards rejected the notion that some people just aren't artistic. 'Drawing is not really very difficult,' she said. 'Seeing is the problem.'" (15) I especially like this quote. People seem too quick to limit themselves to what they can or can't do. These notions hearken back to the popular myth that "lefties are more creative/artistic."

Well, what if you're ambidextrous? Or what if you physically use different parts of your body for different tasks? For example, I write with my right hand. In gymnastics, I enter moves with my left foot first and twist to the left. (This "right hand writer/lefty gymnast" combination is not unusual.) I'd say that both sides of my brain are getting a hefty workout. The same can be said, of course, for many physical activities (Pink uses the example of the head turning from left to right while reading).

Therefore, I agree with Pink. Enough of the excuses that attribute your characteristics to being right or left brained. It's a whole new world out there.

Set in stone/Assignment Zero

"Well," my brother cautioned after explaining his plans, "it's not set in stone."

The idiom caught me. Set in stone. Stone tablets were the "permanent" (and quite hefty) alternative to words on papyrus or paper. Now, the printed page has a connotation of finality when compared to the ease of publishing and editing text that remains on a computer screen.

Will we develop a new phrase, then? Perhaps "put into print" to acknowledge the solidity of one's words?

..

I'm pretty intrigued by the results of my quick scan of Assignment Zero. It reminds me of Wikipedia, but with an emphasis on current events and suggested guidelines for the direction of a piece. The fact that the editors/creators of the site can choose from applicants shows that this compilation is more concerned with demonstrating authority.

If I find a topic on there that I could report intelligently on, I'd like to contribute. I'd never heard the term "crowdsourcing" before, though I had heard about a project where anyone could contribute to shaping a movie. And now the same is being done for a novel? Heck, maybe I'll throw in my two cents. :-) And what about "open source religion?" (I see at the bottom that another contributor has offered stylistic suggestions.) These articles will, at the very least, be educational. I wonder if NeoVox has considered experimenting with this sort of interactive, constantly shifting format. It'd be an interesting forum, and especially effective if all of the contributors were voluntary; that way, the writers would put consideration behind their work rather than tossing up words to meet a minimum requirement.

Dartfish

I still tend to think of "technology" as something profound and separate from me, despite my frequent use of my cell phone and computer. I'd forgotten about the video camera: that rectangular object which has dropped in mass and bulk over the years, capturing family events, my personal "artistry" as I filmed in high school, and all of my gymnastics meets.

Our coach at Cortland breaks out the Dartfish program from time to time. The website boasts that the program can do all sorts of grand things. I've experienced Dartfish as video feedback playing on a computer screen. A certain amount of time will be incorporated as a delay -- for example, ninety seconds -- which gives the athlete a sufficient amount of time to perform the skill, then walk over to watch it on the screen. The experience is more immediate than recording the skill on video and watching it later.

Then again, one can't knock the family video camera. Yesterday I watched a meet that my mom had taped. While actually doing the routine, I felt like death was imminent as I went into the air for my last tumbling pass. I landed safely and a bit surprised.

On screen, Diana ran across the floor. There she goes...hey, that didn't look nearly as bad as I'd thought! (Of course, the reverse can often be true.)

The video camera is a technology that keeps quietly reinventing itself, now recording to mini tapes or DVD. It's also a technology that actually serves a purpose, either for education or for simply capturing memories. (Which may not be so "simple" after all.) I'm excited to be working with a camera again for this upcoming project, and I'm thinking about proposing an idea that involves athletics.

What a world it is

when you can find David the Gnome on YouTube.

This discovery came about from a chatroom last night. I was never the "promiscuous" sort to participate in random chatrooms with potentially sketchy old men. I knew better than that. Why preteens think that sort of situation is okay is beyond me.

But three close cohorts and I were talking to each other simultaneously on AIM. We continually copied and pasted sections of conversations to each other. Finally, someone suggested that we all just chat together. We created our own chatroom, which echoed back to the days of, "Let's all discuss our crushes together!" in high school.

I'd forgotten, however, how quickly the conversation moves when it's more than an exchange between two people. It was as if we were together, sitting in a car trying to find something to do and making fun of each other all the while. I wondered why we'd never thought to do it before.

Then David the Gnome was found on YouTube. Clearly, someone out there was feeling nostalgic. We tend to think of "future things" as having flashing lights and frightening background music. But seemingly everything put on film, ever, is now being transferred to DVD and perhaps to the Internet, as well. In many ways, technology is not manifesting itself as something new and alien. It presents what we already know in a different format, such as connecting physically distant friends and, well, capturing children's shows from the late 80's.

Associative logic

The themes of Dr. Franke's Evolution of Writing class often cross over with those of Writing in Cyberspace. A particularly interesting point that we've been discussing lately in class is the idea of hierchical v. associative logic, as well as linear v. multilinear reading and writing. Hypertext has been at the heart of this discussion. In theory, it links us to connected pages that are not dependent on the main idea of the first page, but can stand on their own.

Sometimes I find hypertext distracting. It can be difficult to focus on one article when underlined words are emphasized so frequently in a sentence, almost implying that you're missing out by not clicking on them. Hypertext can also easily lead the reader astray, if the reader chooses to keep clicking and finding tangential concepts to explore.

Yet such "surfing" can also prove educational. Today I decided to explore what the news was on Long Island, so I went to newsday.com. In the "World" section, beyond news on Iraq, I found an article about British people being allegedly kidnapped from Ethiopia by people of Eritrea. That was a new name. I googled it for an answer and found it on Wikipedia. This search then led to Oriental Orthodoxy. I got as far as Ecumenical council, and then realized that I had to find some sort of focus in my life.

While entertaining to find new facts, I often stray too far from my purpose and find that I've lost time in which I could have been "useful." I don't think we can abandon the purely linear page/book just yet. We need something that will keep our attention in line, after all.

Snow Crash time

Okay, now that I have regrouped...

I'm not disappointed in an "opening ending;" I just did not feel that all of the connections and the characters came together in a coherent manner. Hiro's retelling of the Sumerian legends, especially the me, were easier to follow than the original exchange with the Librarian. I suppose the implication of reading the nam-shub is that all of the listeners will speak in tongues, and eventually diverge into separate languages. Or is it? Either way, the people of the Raft will be freed by words. Almost an enlightenment, of sorts. It's only through something ancient that these people can be released from their present state.

Yet...the narrative began to feel like a video game or an action movie with historical facts tossed in here and there. Is this the future that Stephenson envisions, one more focused on movement and dazzle rather than reflection and substance? Our society is indeed fixated on all that appears deadly or fascinating. We embrace both danger and comfort. But I can't imagine a lawless state rising in place of a government. How can jails exist in the novel if there are "rules" but not laws?

In the end, some things will remain fiction.

I must say that I'm not too impressed with the ending of Snow Crash.

More on this later.

Nearing the final crashes

Less than one hundred pages remain for myself and the ending of Snow Crash. The transition from the Librarian to the Raft shenanigans was jerky and not entirely clear to me. In a sense, the style of the novel echoes the technologies used within the story: rapid, nonlinear, superficial, changeable.

It's indeed a scary world when the reappearance of the Mafia gives the reader (or at least this one) a sense of relief.

"You know that chick Y.T.? The one you have been using to spy on us?"
"Yeah." No point in denying it.
"Well, we have been using her to spy on you."
"Why? Why the hell do you care about me?" (334)

Hiro isn't at all phased that Y.T. is, in fact, a "double agent." Alliances seem superficial at best, and friendship and trust have fallen by the wayside. If someone gets shot or horribly mutilated, as seen later when the Mafia group approaches the Raft, the others react indifferently. Life moves too quickly for mourning. As networked as we may be to each other -- more intensely than ever before, in fact -- we still seek our own survival above the needs of others.

This section, however, was great:
"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad." (271)

Note that it's not "China Burbclave" or "Neocolombia" or anything along those lines. It's the world as we know it. It's why some people gravitate towards video games and any sort of virtual reality/fantasy that they can participate in -- to be the hero, the villain, the most famed or feared person in a "biomass" of anonymous faces.

Love and Facebook

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_12/boyd/index.html <-- I took Dr. Reid's advice and googled Danah Boyd, and found this research piece on the importance of "Friendship" on websites such as Myspace. It's interesting, funny, and true.

My best friend and I bounced around a few ideas about social networking. She pointed out the importance of one's relationship status in a public profile. The jump from "In A Relationship" to "Single," and vice versa, is a significant public annoucement. Additionally, college students often joke in Facebook about being "Married to" or "In An Open Relationship with" someone of the same gender. Regardless of whether we're taken or if "It's Complicated," there's something about the public declaration of a relationship status that fascinates us.

I don't have too much to say about Snow Crash at the moment. I've hit the wall in the middle of the book, where Hiro and the Librarian have seemingly endless discussions about Sumerian legends and writing. It's started to feel like The DaVinci Code or some sort of international intrigue novel, with the obligatory "true historical backstory." But fear not -- I shall push through!

Online class and snow days

The good thing about online classes: you can get to them regardless of weather conditions.

The downfall of online classes: weather conditions are no excuse.

--

Which returns, really, to the pervasiveness of technology: We are expected to be "on" all of the time. Shut off your cell phone and turn off the computer. What happens now? Who can find you? Who will try? Who will be concerned?

--

Another assumption about an online class is that every student has his/her personal computer. What if you had to "commute" to the library or a computer lab? Some of my friends prefer to do work on the computers at the library, though they own computers. As the library tends to be more of a social gathering place, I'd rather work in my room. Yet I'm distracted by messages from friends, the idea to Google something random that I might not do with a stranger sitting next to me, etc.

All of our work turns social, in some way, it seems.

And if you do "commute" to a computer, can you legitimately get a day off for poor weather? :-)

NeoVox considerations

I don't pretend to be "in the know" about the latest technology, software, etc. Only recently did I discover how wondrous Youtube is, and I didn't have iTunes until this class.

But I do know about the urgency of social networking/feeling the need to be in constant interaction with others through AIM, Myspace, Facebook, OpenDiary, Blogger, etc. I'd venture to say that the majority of college students have either used one or many of these networking sites themselves, or have friends who do (and perhaps that's why they stay away from it). I'd like to write about my observations of social interactions from this networking, though I don't have a particular thesis in mind yet.

Snow Crash on a snowy day

"That's okay, really," Hiro says. "You're a pretty decent piece of ware. Who wrote you, anyway?"
"For the most part I write myself," the Librarian says. "That is, I have the innate ability to learn from experience. But this ability was originally coded into me by my creator." (109)

The innate ability to learn from experience. Haha. The further the novel takes us into Metaverse and technology-operated Burbclaves, the more we see that technology cannot compensate for basic humanity. People can and will be assholes, expecting a "cyber shield" of sorts to protect them. As Hiro's victorious swordfight over the Nipponese businessman demonstrates, being an avatar does not make you safe to do or say what you want.

"This is the gender that invented the polio vaccine?" Y.T. wonders (80). Instead of an androgynous, machine-like future being, the characters have clear genders and personalities. Stephenson implies that gender divide will persist, even if both sexes have equal technological knowledge, like Juanita and Hiro.

"You spend too much time goggled in," she says. "Try a little Reality, man."
"Where we are going," Hiro says, "we're going to get more Reality than I can handle." (120.)

The "Reality" of the Burbclaves, Mafia, taxis, and intense advertising seems to be more garish and unnatural than the software-constructed environment of Metaverse. At least in the Metaverse, people can walk and converse with each other without getting run down or attacked with loogie guns. Here, technology has created a haven for humans to express themselves through "natural" interactions.

The first Crashings of Snow

"He is supposed to use the intercom to talk to drivers, he could say anything he wanted and it would be piped straight into the Deliverator's car, but no, he has to talk face to face, like the Deliverator is some kind of fucking ox cart driver" (10).

First off, this novel is a great deal of fun. Good choice, Dr. Reid!

"Face to face" immediately caught me, referencing back to Smart Mobs and our discussions. Face to face is slower, more time consuming, and has more meaning than a quick digital message or a soundchip traveling through a medium (i.e. a telephone). We try to come as close to face to face as possible without human contact.

Metaverse is an excellent example of attempting to bridge the "face to face" gap without interacting in real life, and therefore creating a commons. It requires a certain sort of integrity -- people can't create digital selves taller than who they really are. This commons also creates a class hierarchy, with the black and whites and "Wal-Mart Brandys" at the lower end of the technological spectrum. It reminds me of World of Warcraft, an interactive computer game that my boyfriend is quite the fan of. People create characters who play certain roles and have distinctive looks and clothing. They can communicate and work with other characters to do all sorts of questing/killing/noble things. The players all seem to speak their own language, through various abbreviations, commands, and fantastic names of places in the game.

And though Metaverse is conveniently programmed to allow people to run through one another, the opening chapters of the book demonstrate that despite, or perhaps because of, the overload of technological developments, traffic will always be a problem.

Chapter Eight

"They found that although people claim that they know the difference between humans and machines, their cognitive, emotion, and behavioral responses to artificial representations of humans are identical to the reactions they have to real people" (Rheingold 192).

This, again, begs the question: Do we risk losing our humanity as our lives become increasingly dependent on technology?

We yell at our computers when they freeze (nothing like the good ole, "Fatal Error" -- you've all been there) and cell phones when they lose service. But they cannot respond. Nor can people in the same way when we argue with them, besides face-to-face. "Anyone who has experienced a misunderstanding via email or witnessed a flame war in an online discussion knows that mediated communications, lacking the nuances carried by eye contact, facial expression, or tone of voice, increase the possibility of conflicts erupting from misunderstandings" (192). One of my friends was once yelled at by another friend because she had the audacity to "put up an away message in the middle of the conversation and leave."

We come to know people by their user name, screenname, ringtone, number on speed dial, misspellings, and even font. Something mechanical and anonymous takes on a personality and a name. Someone cracks a joke or writes especially clearly with the bland text of WebCT. Sometimes "fighting" online gives us time to reflect on exactly what we wish to say, and edit it before sending.

Certainly, colors, noises, and images which come from all directions threaten to overwhelm us at times. But their intent is to appeal to us. All strive to make machines human, rather than vice versa.

Pod(/RaD)casting Reflections

As the lovely Miss Rachel discusses in her blog, we found ourselves surprisingly entertained by the podcasting process. Once we oriented ourselves with Garage Band and the recording/editing process, we were able to add the "cool special effects" and festive photos.

I really had no comprehension of what a "podcast" was before this class, though Dr. Boynton mentioned them several times last semester. Unfamiliar computer programs make me nervous. I think I've figured something out, and the person next to me is doing all sorts of insane things that make me want to go back to drawing on a literal piece of paper.

But due to editing movies on the computer in high school, and DJing here, I found Garage Band to be extremely accessible, fast, and unintimidating. It's the sort of technology that you really do participate in -- through audio, photos, and video -- and can personalize. For me, these sorts of recording/editing programs are easier to use than a strictly graphic design program like, for example, InDesign. It's another way of communicating. Though I don't know if anyone would pay me to make podcasts all day long, it's a medium that I've never thought of before and look forward to using again in the future.

--

New York City proposes banning the use of iPods, cell phones, and similar devices in crosswalks, as per msn.com. Is this realistic? Packs of thirty people often roam across the street in the middle of traffic. While headphones mute outside noises, it's often so chaotic that one may not be able to pick out the sound of an oncoming vehicle, without headphones, until it's too late.

Any thoughts?

Who technology is for

A few words have jumped out at me in the midst of Rheingold's technical descriptions: translation...health...defense intelligence..."His frequent travel to India and the entire Digital Nations consortium is based on a belief that pervasive computation can provide relief to some of the more urgent problems in the world's poorest countries."

Why hasn't technology been cultivated to help those who may truly benefit from it?

The idea of "wearable computers" especially poked me. Wearing headgear that explains everything about all of the items around you seems to be an inundation of the senses; unless, of course, as Rheingold mentions, the words can be translated. Wearable computers overall, however, are toys for the rich and technologically savvy. The "Wearable Internet Appliance, combining a head-mounted display and eleven-ounce computer...was around $2,200" in 2002. Are they necessary for, well, anything? Who wants to converse face-to-face with someone while that person is constantly distracted by e-mail and answering questions with the help of a search engines?

Since technology is indeed for the rich, I suppose I can see why companies don't strive to be philanthropic. But the offshot of these advancements seems to be to further our personal communications and knowledge, relying on the recommendations of those like us instead of holding a more global perspective.

the intellectual commons of the classroom

Is the classroom for everyone or only for some?

Are all students, in some sense, free riders on the knowledge of the professor? In some classrooms, it surely appears to be so. He nods at everyone's point, but then follows up with his own interpretation. I take notes on the intelligent things he says that seem appropriate for a ten-page paper. There are times when students have nothing original to add to the subject. Heavily-cited research papers exemplify that students ought to look to the opinions of others before their own.

Is it free riding when we develop a classmate's or professor's point that we found interesting? Not plagiarizing, mind you, but running with a phrase that we realized we agreed with, or that sent our argument in a different direction. Or is this only free riding when nobody takes an interest in your ideas?

How can one truly write a "creative, free piece" when the professor ultimately makes the judgement and assigns the grade? There appears to be a limit to the amount of intellectual property that a student can contribute to the commons within a classroom. Without grades, perhaps, there would be more freedom and less emphasis on an "absolute" response. Yet grades also provide a motivation and sense of competition. Our responses become self-serving, as Rheingold discusses in Chapter 2, striving to be more articulate than those of our peers. The better we define and defend our thoughts, the better chance of receiving a higher grade. If our thoughts happen to build with those of our classmates, and together we reach a greater understanding, that's excellent. If not, then we could care less about the grade they receive, as long as ours is higher.

Okay...

There is way too much chaos going on in this Typepad blog-thing.

An "unfortunate" incident

"Verizon reports that they had a hardware failure at their Cortland central switching site. Additionally they experienced a breakdown in their internal communications hierarchy, leading to an unfortunately long downtime."

Ironically, this e-mail was sent while many on campus did not have Internet access. I find the use of the word "unfortunately" especially interesting. Was it really so unfortunate? Although it's only the first week of classes, I'm sure that several Internet users were unable to find research or partake in online classes such as this one. For everyone else, it's more of an inconvenience. We cannot check our e-mail for the fifth time today. We expect that the Internet will always be functioning. If the page is slow to load, then we refresh it and try again.

A couple of years ago, Cortland's system went down for a day or two. I received at least two phone calls from friends concerned as to my whereabouts, or if I was purposely avoiding them. I'm the first to become frustrated when the Internet fails to load, even if the outtage is brief. The vast majority of the time, I don't really "need" to be using the Internet. Word serves most of my academic requirements just fine. But we've come to both take this technology for granted and find it essential.

public and private speech

"We believe that talking on a mobile phone in a public place is in part a matter of conflict of social spaces in which people assume different faces. ... This changing act brings to the fore that faces are publicly assumed, which then gives rise to the feeling that the new face and perhaps even the old face are false" (28).

As we build our private, isolated space, our words become less personalized, emphasizing what should be said instead of, perhaps, what we want to say. We think of security issues as coming from a foreign hacker, but documents and conversations can be easily observed by our friends, as they forward e-mails or copy and paste text from one conversation box to another. My style changes dramatically if someone glances over my shoulder. I may cease to write at all until I am alone. I walk away to make a quick phone call, for quick it must be; nobody can be permitted to overhear my mundane, "So how was your day?"

Lizzi brings up the interesting issue of cowardice or courage when it comes to electronic messaging. Is it more noble of us to labor over our responses, or do we fear confrontation? (I know that I am of the latter category.) Our technologies through the ages, though meant to "bridge the gaps," have, to a degree, aided us in avoiding direct contact when necessary: letters, the telephone, answering machines, voicemail, e-mail, IM, text messaging. Yet paradoxically, our private space is accessible by nearly all we know. It appears that though we may postpone our responses, we may never say precisely what it is that we mean.

Te presento a...pues, mi.

For all this talk of wikis and podcasts, I felt that quality lines from movies such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail shall never fade away.

My name is Diana and I am a junior with a dual major in Professional Writing and Spanish. I have another blog, so I'm familiar with the blogging process, but sincerely felt that nobody would be interested in its contents. I'm a member of the gymnastics team, meaning that I enjoy hurtling myself into the air and doing other odd things to my body.

I would love to make a living through writing. I'd also like to get my Ph.D, travel in Europe, learn various languages, figure out how to relax, and manage to shower without tapping out the hot water. We shall see!