blogging

So before this class I never had a blog of my own. I guess I filled out a MySpace survey at some time or another, but thats about it. Does that even count as a blog? I’m not quite sure. But I found it to be kind of interesting and fun. I really liked watching people’s video blogs on YouTube too. I like being able to read about people and see their feelings without really seeing them. It’s a little bit odd, but at the same time I like it. I don’t think I could bring myself to writing down my feelings everyday online without knowing who would see them, but I like that some people can, because I like reading them. haha. But really, blogs are a very interesting take on the internet. You can be reading what a person did during their day that lives across the ocean from you. This may be the last time I ever  blog, or it may be the start of a new hobby. I don’t know for sure yet, but now I know a lot more about blogging than I ever have.

 

Categories versus Tags – What’s the Difference and Which One?

I read this article and realized how little I know about the internet. I also realized that I probably will always know, aside of course everything I learned in this module, the minimum amount there is to know about the internet. I am just completely uninterested in it. It does not phase me in the least that there is a difference between a tag and a category. I can’t help but wonder why can’t a tag have just as long of a name as a category? I think it’s probably something I should know, being a college student and all, but it’s kind of like math to me. It is there, some people like it, I am uninterested and don’t really care to find out more than I have to. Maybe one day something on the internet will spark my interest and I will be motivated to create a website using html and all of that other stuff. Until then, however, I like being blissfully unaware.

 

Diigo

Diigo link

 

magazines

I was in RiteAid today and as I was on line to pay I began to look at the magazine rack. I really think Britney Spears was on the cover of every single magazine in one form or another. Whether it was about her kids or her weave, she was on the cover looking ever so unkempt. It is getting to be a little bit ridiculous. Yes, she was once seen as a Pop icon and yes, she is now sort of a train wreck, but how much can you say about that? Apparently a lot. I personally really don’t care whether she keeps her kids or not. I am so sick of it. I am the person that reads every single one of these gossip magazines and even I am completely sick of her tired stories. I guess it’s people like me who buy magazines like Us Weekly and Star every week that fuel this Britney Spears fire, but honestly, it’s done. Everyone knows her story..enough is enough.

 

lost phone

So this past weekend I did something that in turn effected, well, my entire life. I lost my cell phone. This is, surprisingly, the first time I have lost it. It was Saturday night and it literally vanished. It was sitting on the coffee table one minute and the next it was gone. It is kind of a little bit sad how much this effected my entire weekend. I had no way of getting in touch with anyone, because God knows I have not a single number memorized. Even if I was able to remember a number, it isn’t like I have a hard line to use anyway..I felt like I was stranded on a deserted island, with no way of getting in touch with civilization. Unless of course they signed on to aim, then it was another story. But for the most part, I was completely lost. I don’t know how anyone can handle not having a cell phone. I was phone-less for almost two days and it was positively dreadful. I didn’t even have an alarm clock to wake me up because I use my phone for that as well. I have been unaware of what time it is too. I don’t like to think that my life revolves so much around my cell phone, but it does. Without it was a pretty rough time..but it’s back and, therefore, so am I.

I wonder where my trusty old cell phone is right now..maybe in someone else’s pocket or in a trash can somewhere..

 

Photo essay

I was just surfing around the internet today and I came across a photo essay from Time Magazine. It was entitled Men of War. As I just grazed through it I found it interesting and decided that I wanted to write about it. It took me from World War I all the way up to the War in Iraq and covered every American war that has taken place in between. Without using words, aside from the description of where and when the picture took place, I felt like it told a story of American soldiers. Every one of them had the same glazed over, stern expression as the person 50 years before them did. It’s interesting to see now because I feel like I know these men, even the ones from wars I have not lived through, just by seeing their picture and imagining what they were going through and what was going through their heads. They were probably thinking the same thing that many soldiers are thinking right this second over in Iraq.

I have never made a photo essay or even seen one for that matter. I think in the future I would like to make one for something, I don’t know what yet, but it is a really affective way of getting a strong point across without saying much. The website had a few other photo essays, I also found the one on The Crash of ’29 to be really moving as well.

If anyone wants to check it out this is the website: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1682713_1483727,00.html?cnn=yes

 

plagiarism

So throughout this module we talked a lot about plagiarism. It happens everywhere and I’m sure everyone is guilty of it at one time or another. Whether you got an idea off of someone or whatever it may have been, and you probably did not even know you did it. After reading and talking about this so much I realized that I have, sadly, been guilty. By no means in a huge sense where I purposely took someone else’s work, but in little things that I did not realize was plagiarism at all. I’ll admit, I’m downloading a bunch of songs off of LimeWire right now as I am typing this. But is that really plagiarism? Some people say it is and others say it’s not. I am kind of indifferent to it. I mean, I can understand the reasoning behind both sides. Yes, I am taking someone else’s music without paying them for it, but I’m not publishing it as my own. I have yet to make a C.D. off of LimeWire and sell it as a greatest hits album. I do not know where I stand on this issue but I don’t think I’m going to stop anytime soon. All in all, I think plagiarism is bad. The end.

 

the weather

Does anyone else feel like it turned into winter over night? Honestly, I feel like I was complaining about how hot it was in my apartment and wearing shorts one day and the next day had to whip out my Uggs. What happened to fall? I LOVE when it is in the 60s or lower 70s outside and you can walk around in pants and a t-shirt and be comfortable. Did I miss that this year? Maybe it happened for a few days, but only a few, not a season! It’s getting cold too fast..I did not get my nice in between weather to ease me into this. I feel like this is culture shock with the weather..weather shock. I don’t like it.

 

social networking

All of these things that have to do with the internet utterly confuse and baffle me. I see what people do online and think why? and almost automatically become disinterested. Yet at the same time as am looking down upon all of this talk, I have Facebook and MySpace accounts. It is kind of hypocritical. I watched the YouTube video Social Networking in Plain English and it was just that, it was in plain English and I understand why this is such an internet phenomenon. I use these accounts for the same reasons anyone who goes online to network does, to stay in touch with people. When I really think about it I would not be friends with a lot of my friends from high school still if it were not for these networking sites.

 

social bookmarking

I watched the YouTube video Social Bookmarking in Plain English. It actually really helped me understand a little bit more of what websites like delicious can do to make the internet a little bit easier. The video brought up how convenient it is for teachers to use this and went even so far as to tell me how it can help other people. I was a little bit confused as to how exactly this was social but now I think I get it, finally. Everyone can see what you bookmark. I’m not going to lie, it does seem a little bit creepy at first, a whole network of people knowing what I am doing online, but if it is being used for something like teaching, I can really see how it would be useful. Me being my computer illiterate self, this video made it a little bit more clearer to me the exact purpose of why anyone would use these sites.