Something instead of nothing

I'll start with this quote:

"It's hard to resist when someone really wants to listen to you. That's a very rare thing in most of our lives."-Ira Glass

I think that's for sure one of the reasons people do interviews. You feel encouraged to speak when someone engages in conversation with you and makes sure they hear every word you're saying. It gives you a sense of affirmation in a sense. They wanna know what you're about and how you feel, so you feel honored that they would ask to interview you. I see that so many times in magazine interviews with celebrities or on talk shows. The interviewee allows permission to be interviewed because they know that someone wants them to be interviewd. Someone cares enough to hear about their life experiences.

His essay makes a good take home point I think about how to be a successful interviewer. (Paraphrasing kind of) If the interviewer let's the interviewee know that they're interested in their answers then it's a success. And if you don't let the interviewee know you are fully engaged in hearing their response, then the interview turns toward failure. So that's something to think about when I conduct my interviews next week and also something to remember when I make up questions.

I don't know if I agree with Errol Morris when he says if people were reasonable, they would never give interviews. I would modify that statement and say, "If SOME people were reasonable they wouldn't do interviews". Take Charlie Sheen for instance. He shouldn't do interviews. It just affirms his deep, deep craziness. Or Gary Busey...or basically anyone on Celebrity Apprentice right now.

Klosterman Group

1. Klosterman talks about how he'd prefer to ask questions rather than answer questions. Answering questions requires that a person be somewhat engaged with their own thoughts and sort of "know them selves." Asking is much easier because one can avoid being misunderstood. With respect identity, talking is a portrayal of oneself (accurate or not).

2. Why do people feel compelled to answer questions in the first place?

3. Basically, people talk just to talk. Morris mentions that if people are expected to talk, they do. It is exactly as Klosterman says, "something instead of nothing."

4. To an extent, you can trust an interviewee and to some extent you can't. Morris says that self-deception makes the world go round. People are generally going to try and put out what they think is true even if it is not. They create a narrative that they honestly believe in and therefore the interviewee is being dishonest with themselves first and then the rest of us as a consequence. People are constantly giving their view and position on the world and from another perspective the world appears very different. So this is why we are not usually the best informants of ourselves because we can easily deceive our self. At the same time other people will see the version of you they want.

5. Klosterman says that when interviewed people want to do two things: say something interesting and be perceived in the way that will be likable. Morris and Klosterman claim however that rarely can the both of these be accomplished, usually one is accomplished at the sacrifice of the other. Being interviewed allows the interviewee to become misunderstood and misrepresented. So if people were truly reasonable, they would indeed avoid interviews and avoid this dilemma altogether.

Simpson's Coolhunt - In Class.

Homer was just basically trying to find a way that he could be cool, but according to the article, in order to be cool you must be instinctively cool. In the Simpsons episode, we learned that if you don't care if you're cool or not, you aren't cool. And, if you have to be told that you're cool, you're not cool. This is the same idea portrayed in the article. The "cool" kids that Baysie and DeeDee sought after were just cool - they didn't try to be cool, and they didn't have to be told they were cool.

Homer finally realized that what was cool when he was young isn't cool anymore - he was made fun of for being his version of "cool." This coincides with the fact that the word "cool" is very, very subjective, and what it defines is ever changing.

Cool Hunting

My Zumba Instructor says that when anything cool comes to the United States it's gonna be from New York or Los Angeles. She was talking about Latin and other styles of dance, but I also think that's true for the majority of merchandise.

I definitely think it's true about the innovators, early adopters, early majority, and late majority. First it's just a few people that start using or wearing a trend, then it catches on and they have followers, and then those people have followers, and then those last people figure they should "get with the times" and join the wagon. Walk into any suburban high school and you'll see this. I remember when leggings came back into style when I was in 9th grade. First there were just like 3 girls at school who wore them. When I saw them I wasn't quite sure I liked them, but then I started going to Hollister and Wetseal and seeing them on the racks so then they started to appeal to me. And sure enough, by the time sophomore year rolled around, every girl including me had a pair. Most of the early adopters were cheerleaders or track stars who ran for student council and whose parents never failed to drop them some cash for shopping. Once I got to college, I realized those girls weren't cool, though! Most likely because they weren't really unique or innovators at all. Cool to me is being comfortable in your own skin and thinking outside the box.

In Class Power Point is Evil

I think that a PowerPoint presentation can be executed well, but it can also end up cheesy and unprofessional if you get carried away with all the effects or don't provide relevant information. When I see someone's powerpoint slides, I can tell how long the person spent on it by the neatness of it and also how much content is there. Even if someone has 20 slides it could in reality only be 2 sentences worth of information.

Google Stupid Questions

1. Carr says his mind is changing by the way he gathers information. He used to be able to read articles in depth and want to investigate and find out more about the subject. Now he finds himself having a hard time reading more than a few paragraphs without losing his concentration.


2. He says that researching through the internet is obviously much faster than researching through a library. What was once done in days and weeks can now be done in hours.


3. Carr talks about one his proffessors that once was an avid reader who now does all his readings through the internet. Another example is the author who switched from writing with a pen to with a typewriter. After switching it was apparent that this author's writing style significantly changed.


4. We think that Carr is worried that we will rely on Google too much and that it will do all the thinking for us. He fears that eventually we will lose our original thoughts.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

If we don't know something, what do we do?-We Google it! Google is like this all-knowing and universal god whose got all of our answers. I Google something almost everyday I'd say, and I think it's such a great tool. I like the fact that people have taken so much interest in doing research on the web, but I agree with Carr and his annoyance with what Google has done to our brain wiring. The author brings up some good points. He mentioned that throughout history men have been concerned that "easy availability" to written information will make people unmotivated to exercise their memory. So this problem with humanity has been going on since Socrates roamed the earth!


'"The more pieces of information we can “access” and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers."'

I think that once we extract and take what we need from an article or website, we move on quickly, and drop it like a hot potato. The Google mindset does make it harder to sit down and read a book because we are just used to moving on in a matter of minutes. Society would rather skim 10 articles in the time it takes to completely read 2 or 3 articles. We wanna learn the most in the least amount of time, but what happens is we end up learning a bunch of vague and unfocused information.

Billy Sim Questions

1. Klosterman almost got sucked into The Sims in a sense trying to recreate his identity. So much that it made him take a closer look at his own identity in real life.

2. Klosterman's piece reminded me of the Vanish piece because both men got frustrated about the new self they were creating. Klosterman because of the limitations of Sims and how he couldn't make a replica of himself. Whereas Ratcliff wasn't trying to duplicate himself at all, and was losing his identity in that respect.

3. I agree with this statement. Children are advancing, but they aren't using their imaginations as freely because computer games have cut and dry rules to get a score. Like a computer, they can be more focused on the outcome or score than they are on the experience.

The Sims and their Electronic Pathos

In the 8th grade, I got The Sims for Christmas and never really played it much. It frustrated me to the max. All I was doing was making sure they slept, ate, went to the bathroom, showered, and looked for a job. I apparently never learned how to play The Sims correctly though because my characters kept dying on me within 20 minutes. This was no fun for me, with the exception of watching the characters interact with goofy babbling.

I thought Chuck brought up a good point when he said his niece would be a more imaginative girl when she played with her Barbies than when she played Sims. There are no limits and boundaries in the silly little scenarios you develop on your own when you're a 6 year old playing house. Growing up, I remember my mom getting a kick out of the things my sister, the neighbor kids, and I would come up with to entertain ourselves. I don't think she would've had much fun watching us sit on our butts for a couple hours staring at a screen. And this kind of goes along with the whole Facebook thing. I myself don't think in 10 years I'll look back on the thousands of hours I will have spent on fb in my life and say, "I'm so glad I made a Facebook! Sitting indoors and staring at a website was always the best choice."

While Second Life is an interesting concept because it's so elaborate, I can't believe people spend money on it. The biggest thing for me is that they hide behind it. Whatever they're doing on Second Life, they should be attempting in real life! :)

Final Draft

I think we choose when we want the final draft and mission statement of our lives to be drawn up. For some, it's written years before they die. As people get older, they can sometimes become set in their ways and say, "I've tapped out, I am who I should be, and you can't teach me any new tricks." These people aren't necessarily pessimists or underachievers, but they're definitely comfortable with where they are.

For others, they aren't done working on it until the day their souls leave their bodies. They won't stop at life, and learning, and bettering themselves until they are satisfied. I would fall into this category because there's a lot I ought to and want to learn and experience before I reach self actualization, as Maslow would put it.

I'm a Writer

I think some people have the "writing gene", but they don't always have the "writing bug" that drives them to write. So I say you're a writer only if you say so yourself.

I would call myself a writer because I'm interested in writing in my spare time.When I'm freely writing, it's not tedious work at all to me. Infact, it's therapeutic and fulfulling. Writing can go in any direction I want it to go and it can be for many different reasons. I journal, I write songs, and if I could, I would write scripts for TV shows. I sometimes think with the intention that my ideas will be read or heard by an audience.

Evan Ratcliff Disappearance

So many people were interested in finding Evan. It's like an epic game of hide-and-seek. I think because it was like a game, and also the money incentive, these people were hooked on hunting him down. They wanted to be a part of something and have stories to share. Some of these ordinary people found a lot of information. Even that 16 year old girl found some leads.

Evan was COMMITTED to his disappearance no question. He didn't even tell his family and girlfriend before hand and he planned everything out months in advance. He probably felt like a genius spy turned fugitive.


Evan felt "anxiety" at one point. "Absurd ideas suddenly seemed plausible. They’d contacted my cat sitter; would they kidnap my cat?" It was almost creepy that all these people studied his life and made dozens of phone calls to all the people he'd ever been in contact with. Towards the end, it sounds like he got really worn down and lonely. He was happy to get back to reality once he was spotted by those two guys.

I like the fact that he toured with a band and slept on grass for a night. This was a guy who obviously had some disposable income, yet he went and slept outside.

Why I Write

I think it's cool that Didion pieces together her novels rather than writing them completely from beginning to end. Instead, she fills in gaps. It doesn't matter how you write something as long as you have a finished product when all is said and done. She writes whatever comes to her first. She writes fiction, and not everyone has the brain for writing fiction. She's very keen to her surroundings, or at least her characters are, and I think that she captures those descriptive moments well. It's interesting that she makes up a scene, and then she creates the characters bios. Also it's a bit humorous that she's basically saying that the only thing she's good at is writing. That's why she writes. I think she has this impulse to write and to keep "pictures in her mind" and to turn those pictures into words and scenes.

I have to admit that if you don't follow along closely in the the Didion piece you can get lost easily. Or should I say, I, Allison, can. I found myself rereading Why I Write because, at first, I just skimmed it. One minute she's talking about things shimmering, and the next, she's talking about cannibalized Fairchild F-227s. Maybe she's too descriptive. Sometimes I just want her to get to the point. I don't always need to know that her character's sandals are sticking to the asphalt(we get it, it's hot outside), I just want to know what her thoughts and intentions are as she's walking on that asphalt.

Why Write

One of the main reasons to write is to communicate. Even with telephones being around for so long, a lot of people's favorite ways to communicate with others are through texting, Facebook, and Email. Partly because you get to plan out what you're going to say. Some people feel more comfortable, for instance, writing someone a letter, instead of communicating by telephone or in person. They may even say more through their writing than they do through their words said out loud.

I write because I have to and because I want to. There's no way around it for 99% of anybody whose ever been or ever will be successful. Writing is just a part of life. A reason I like writing is that even if it's a research paper, you can still be highly creative. You get to choose the words you write and it's freeing.

Obama speech

We think he made the revisions that he made to make the speech more personal and relatable to the audience. For example when he says “But those of us who knew Teddy” The way he says us and Teddy. We also think he made the speech more comprehensive to the audience. Also he gave very relatable examples for the listeners. We also agree with the blogger when he says the government "has to step in to help deliver."

Updike Discussion

1. The ending is liberating and risk-filled and it's kind of a writ of passage for Sammy because he made a change in his life. He's moving on to a new stage in life.

3. We think the piece fits with identity by his observations of people and giving them instant identities. He identifies people by how they dress and how they move and then gives everyone a profile. For example, there's a queen bee and she has two worker bees following behind her. He also gives the people he's annoyed with identities.

5. If we were Sammy we would probably still have quit, but looked for another job first. His decision was very spontaneous, but we think he wanted to be spontaneous for once because he was afraid he would end up like his boss.

A and P

I'm jealous of the characters in this story just for the fact that the story is set in the summer! I hate the winter haha. I hate it so much that I may move south someday. I might be exaggerating a bit, but it's quite a production to get ready to go outside sometimes. You gotta put all your gear on and psych yourself up for the weather that awaits you. I like the line where he explains it's much cooler to make an exit in the summertime than in the winter.

"One advantage to this scene taking place in summer, I can follow this up with a
clean exit, there's no fumbling around getting your coat and galoshes..."

I think the funniest part of the whole thing was when he thought those three girls would hear him say "I quit!" and think he was the most dreamy guy ever.

I find it amusing that he nicknames everyone not 5 seconds after they come into his line of vision. Then, he varies people's nicknames between Queen and Queenie or Stokes and Stoksie. The way he describes things is amusing as well. It's very descriptive, and I can picture and recall the scene very well.

It would be a bit of a spectacle to see girls in their swimsuits at a grocery store, at least when you first seem them. I imagine young people and old people have different views on this. We know the narrator didn't mind it. I would probably say, "Eww gross, they don't have shoes on. That's disgusting." Haha. Other than that, it's not a complete shock if it's a beachtown. Though, the girls were being rebels and not adhering to the no shoes, no shirt, no service policy the A & P probably has.

I wonder how old those three girls are supposed to be. My best guess is 15 bare minimum... since the narrator is 19.

Williams Error

A lot of the mistakes I make in writing, I don't even know I'm making. For instance, I would use "different than" instead of "different from" and not think that was wrong. There are many words and phrases in this language, so we're bound to make a mistake unless we're grammarians who really do our research about correctness.

I think, if you make enough common "errors" that the average person can recognize, that average reader will think you're lazy and judge what you have to say more harshly than if you made less mechanical errors. I personally think the error can be both in the writer and the reader. Though, Williams is saying the error is in the reader. He is saying this because he looks for the quality of someone's ideas, instead of the quantity of their errors.

"It simply feels more authentic when we condemn error and enforce a rule. And after all, what good is learning a rule if all we can do is obey it?"

Electronic Writing

I have blogged on and off since 2005 and, fairly recently, in 11011 last spring. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that in the last 10 years, I haven't gone more than 10 days without writing electronically. AOL instant messenger, email, Xanga, Myspace, Facebook, text messages, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint...All of those things I've used quite frequently at some point in the past or present.

I have written substantially more electronically than I have on paper, and spend more time writing electronically. Since high school, my main reason for pen-and-paper has been to write down my homework in a planner, make a to do list on a Post-it Note, or answer questions on loose leaf for homework assignments. I do prefer checking things off of a list with a pen because I physically have to cross it off the list and I feel more accomplished than if I just highlighted the word and pressed strike-through. Other than that, typing is the way to go for me. It looks cleaner, is more eco-friendly, and it's harder to lose things when they're on my computer or phone.

Writing electronically speeds up the writing process for me sometimes. If you don't like something you write, you just delete it. No messing with erasers or crossing it out. Although, I also edit as I go when I'm typing something out, which sometimes takes longer because you're not writing as much. Pen-and-paper isn't as good of a medium for editing as you go because there's just not enough space (at least with my large hand-writing). As far as getting my ideas down, I have the same thoughts whether it's pen-and-paper or typing it out. I guess I just use electronic writing more because I can't get away from it, and a lot of times, am required to use it.

The first item we looked at was the half-empty bottle of mouthwash. We assumed that the type of person that bought the mouthwash was most likely already following the website and wanted to be a part of the project. The buyer was probably intrigued by it because they thought it was a funny piece of memoribilia.