Blog- First 15

I would have to say that I see my interviews being the longest part of my process and probably the most difficult. So far I only have two and am looking to get 5. The problem being that the first two I had became more of debates and discussions than interviews. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but when I talk to my frineds about things of this nature that is what tends to happen. Clarification was actually pretty clear, although I'm not sure on a required length/ optimum one. My main concern is just getting it done, but I think in the end it will turn out well and hopefully Prof. Sloan thinks so as well.

Something in Class

1. The point we often get to is that we all show ourselves differently to people and situations. Getting to the core is what often needs to happen and the article really focuses on getting to that point. Like the Norwegian saying that no one really cares about what he has to say and that he wont care what those people think. People unconsciously lie like Morris said.
2. Why should he answer questions that others have about him and why do they even care. There is no reason that it should even matter to anyone. Why would anyone care.
3. People just have a natural or innate curiosity to find things out and to seek out new information about people.
4. No we cant trust interviewees, even if they have the best intentions, they may be having self deception and editing what they are saying to make themselves look better subconsciously. In theory you should be able to ask questions to yourself and get different answers every time and from different people.
5. It makes sense, no one who is being interviewed will ever really be entirely honest and open themselves to attack. Thus, what they say isn't really factual or useful. And secondly, people who read interviews are therefore not really all that real or useful. Its no substitute for spending time with them and actually getting to know them.

Unsaid

This was a very interesting article, as speech in general really interests me, especially things people say sometimes. I like to think that often times people say things that they don’t mean to say of at least shouldn’t. The more that people open up the better a story it may make, but often times it is difficult to get people to do so. I think that all the questions asked by the journalism students as to how to get people to open up make a lot of sense. It is hard to get people to open up, but that is when the best interviews occur. Making people feel comfortable is the best way to do this and I think to be a successful journalist you have to be able to get people to say these things and be comfortable saying them. The whole article really makes sense when you think about it. A simple concept of getting people to open up can be so complicated. I'd like to try my interview skills and then reflect upon this article some more.

Simpsons/Coolhunters

Both the article and the show demonstrate that cool is being sold to you. In the Simpson's episode, the festival that Homer went to had ads and flyers everywhere showcasing the "cool" things.

Also, in the article he talked about how you can't really force trying to be cool, and in the Simpson's episode, that was exactly what Homer was doing with the cannon.Cool can't also just be "explained", for example how Homer just stumbled onto being hit by the cannon.

Gladwell also mentioned in his article how it's the cool people that decide what is cool and that was reflected in the Simpson's episode well with the Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill, etc.

Power Point

I would have to say that this article makes plenty of good arguments. Arguments that I feel the general public and especially the student audience member already knows and understands. We have all felt belittled be a power point at one time or another in our educational careers. I would have to say that power point for me is one of the most boring ways to get across information and inform me of a topic. It is easy to space out or simply not care about what is coming next or how it pertains to the previous slide. Overall I would have to say that this article just said what weve all been shouting in our heads for years. "Im not a boring teacher, I'll present using .ppt files, that'll show 'em". Are there better ways to say things? In this mans opinion yes, there is. But is there a better way to condition students for corporate America? Probably not, and thus the trend continues.

Billy Sim - Group Questions

1. We thought that it was interesting that people in real life would like to view themselves from a different point of view and sort of live their lives through a computer. Its also interesting to see how Chuck, in reality, was someone who didnt value many material things and when he created his Sim Chuck he strived to be very rich and materialistic, therefore his real life identity was different from his simulated one.

2. We connected Klosterman's piece to the vanishing story. Like the man who tried to change his identity and lead a new life, it corresponds to the concept of the Sims game by creating a new identity and living your life in a different way.

3. We don't agree that the statement about children thinking like computers is true. Unlike being cold and rational like computers, humans still and will always have emotions and humans still act upon those emotions.

Reality

I played the Sims games for a short while back in my formative years. I would have to say that I agree that these games and vidoe games in general are just a waste of time and a simulated reality. It allows people to escape from the mundane tasks of their everyday activities. I think that these games allow people be who they want. This allows them to escape from who they really are.These games become so engulfing because they soon overtake and best reality. I can see the addictive potential, and it makes sense that people would spend so much time with these fake realities and identities. I think that this article really made me look at my own gaming habbits. I dont play the sims but I do play xbox and CoD. These types of games dont let you creat a reality but the anonimity of the internet allows you to be whoever you like to the people you are gaming with. I can see the appeal and I think in the future I may not look at gaming quite the same as I have in the past.

Final Draft

First, let me say, what a great philosophical question. I'd assume that this question is directed at the idea that we are ever changing beings. I would have to say that there is certainly no final draft to any person. Some may come close to a fianl draft in their death but most will continue to be thought of even after death. Our personalities are ever changing but they become more solidified over time and less wavering. The final draft of who we are can never be complete in my opinion simply because as we continue on in life our experiences are always shaping us and changing us everyday. And in death we are shaped by what others think of us or who we were.

So, no, there is no final draft of who we are. Just an ever changing template that gets close to that final draft.

Slumming

This article to me was a bit strange and especially in the manner that it began. I liked the article and related to the idea of wanting a more simple and pure life as opposed to the fallacies they faced as rich people. Witnessing the murder must have been very traumatic and really explains the beginning of the article once you read that. The charities in the beginning also sounded a bit silly but I can understand why she would want to help people from that point on in life. But sitting around all day and never getting word from the outside world would be like torture to me. I think that it would eventually become a miserable experience to basically be locked inside of ones home and to not get any sort of details or happenings.

The idea that homelessness would be cool and would be a good thing is kind of an abstract concept to me, but I can see the appeal. All the fads nowadays have to do with ripped jeans and holey cloths. Its easy to see that the new cool is with grunge and looking generally ruffled. Living as a homeless person would also appeal to simplicity I think. Having the only problem in your life be food and shelter would kind of simplify things. I might like to try it sometime, but personally I like amenities. This story was probably the weirdest one we have read so far in this class, but I think it speaks to everyone. Honestly, would we be better off homeless...?

Vanish

This has to be the best reading we have had so far. I just like the premise of dissappearing and haveing people try and hunt you down. I would love to have been in his shoes, or at least know about this contest while it was going on. He is reather clever in all of his actions and I wonder if most people would be as clever as he was if they were trying to hide. Id like to think that in this day and age you can still dissappear if you want to without people being able to find you, but its obviously harder than I had previously thought. Making yourself disappear is a strange thing to try and do to say the least, but to then orchestrate people to hunt you is genius.
One of my favorite parts of this story is all of the twitter users working together to hunt him down. Sharing information in the digaital age is easier than ever and these people did just that. Hunting somone down only using digital paper trails is such a weird concept to me because its so abstract. People dont realize how easy it is for them to be followed and traced simply through everyday actions. Personally I would like to hear a story about one of the people tracking him and all of the methods and means they used to do so.

I like thinking the world is big enough to hide in but the old idiom holds true, its a small world after all.

Writer?

I would not call myself a writer. In my definition of the word wirter lies a person who wirtes for work or pleasure, I do neither of those things. I write because I have to and I wirte when it serves my own purpose, but I am not a wirter. The job of a wirter is to make content for others to enjoy and to publish those works to a public audience of some sort. The person who writes in a blog or makes their own voice heard through writing writes for a personal and sometimes fufilling reason.

In my definintion of the title wirter lies those two sorts of people. Do I wirte? Yes, yes I do. Am I a "wiriter"? Why no, no I am not. Cynical as it may sound, just because a person writes somehting down they are not a writer, that is a title, one that I gladly don't bestow upon myself.

Questions 2-16

1. Being literate today means being able to navigate around and actually do what is required with modern technology. Juts being able to do the basics would probably make you literate in that area, especially in looking at older generations.

4. Its more ambiguous to find your voice amongst the crowd, especially when you are active in so many mediums. There are a more influences now than ever that affect your "voice" and they are more easy to access than ever before. Its harder to make a unique voice but having a personal voice is still possible.

5. Obviously voices that dont follow the rules or are on the outside of normal are more authentic than others. People who dont just ramble off all the same word garbage as everyone else seem to be more authentic. Only the people who go directly with the flow seem to have become caught up and less authentic with the devloment of technology.

6.It seems like people use imitation of other to shape what people think about them. They are doing this to shape their outward sense of self in order make others think things about them. The idea being that others will like what they have said and they will be more relateable. Mimicry also show what we identify with and shapes our self to things similar to that.

Why Write?

The most obvious and excellent answer I can think of to this simple question is that we write to communicate. Wether to tell a fact, or a lie, create a story or take a note. All of the things we write are for communication. Whatever we write is always meant to be used. Wether to remind ourselves, or to inform others, our writing tells somone something. I find that writing is often the most simple form of communication because it is literal and everthing about it is pronounced. Writing is how the world saves and trades information with others and with future generations. So if you ask me “Why Write?” I would have to say because without written language we’d never have gotten to this point as a species, let alone as individuals.

Why?

My favorite part of this article was the idea that the writer is infiltrating the readers mind, their most private space. Putting ideas into peoples heads, and using abstract concepts to come up with your writings.

Taking abstract thoughts and tieing them to real things is what I usually what I do just the same as our auther this week. I like how she decides to travel around to get inspiration and gather ideas and concepts to help her write. It makes me happy to think that someone has such a passion about them to work for their art.

Using picture to express ones thoughts in the mind is such a great analogy for what actually happens to me when I attempt to write. In the long run though, it makes sense that no one knows what process writers use. However, going to the extent of writing a novel is sort of silly.

Obama speech edits

As a group we noticed that a lot of Obama's edits added a mixture of emotion and accountability to his speech through the edits. He often tried to convey to the audience that his statements were not broad generalizations, that they were from real people with feelings. Obama made many attempts to unify American belief on politics, that no matter which party one is from, everyone can agree to values such as good will. On top of this, Obama tacks on his own political agenda to these 'unifying' statements. For example, adding on "that only government can ensure" to an example of something that everyone stands for.

A & P Questions

1.)We think that the ending of the story kind of sucked for Sammy. he ended up not catching the girl's attention and subsequently did not have a job. The end of the story was both liberating and frustrating because you put yourself out there and get shot down by the girls and don't have a job.

2.) We disagree with Porter, because Sammy put himself out there honestly and got nothing out of it.

3.)Sammy changed his own identity from being a reserved person but then came out and spoke up in front of the girls.

4.) The purpose of the details in the story is to bring meaning to Sammy's decisions in the story. If there were not any details we would question the decision making of Sammy. On the other hand, he might not have wanted to end up like his friend who was 22 and was already married and had kids.

5.)If we were Sammy, we wouldn't have made the same decision because it was a such a small thing for him to quit his job and be left out in dust.

A&P

I rather enjoyed this piece of writing. The overly critical and detailed descriptions of the girls really made me connect with this piece. I often find myself describing people in much the same way in my mind, but not so much in my writing. If my inner thoughts were to spew onto paper it would look something like Updike's writing.

I also feel that being kind to people is far more important than any job in the world, although he may have been intereseted in being more than kind. In my experience being a good person gets you alot furthur in life than always being a stickler for the rules or even being arrogant.

If givin hte same situation I probably would not have done the same as him, and thats simply because he overthought the situation. I liked his passion but it was a little misplaced. He was hoping to impress that girl, but personally I have bigger problems than that, bills and what have you. In conclusion, I like the writing, like the personality behind it, but would not have the guts to quit myself.

Rhetoric Appeals

In the introduction, the writer trys to seem credible by saying that he is the Senior Staff in the File Department at the African Development Bank. This is an example of ethos because he is trying to show that he is an important and credible person. He also tries to appeal to the reader by saying that the operation is confidential. We think that this makes the reader feel important and more willing to cooperate. The writer mentions that this transaction would have no risk since he is an insider which makes the reader feel safe about going through with this. These are both examples of a pathos appeal.

Errors, not really that Phenominal

Well, first of all, I think errors are "wrong" depending upon who is reading the paper and their level of knowledge about the English language. My level of critical reading would certainly be lower in criticism compared to the author of this article, a professor, or perhaps even people in this class. We all view error on different levels and see things as being "wrong" in different ways. This is especially apparent when you compare what a person or ordinary knowledge's criticisms to that of an English professor, or like minded practitioner. I think William's main point about mechanical errors is that overall they are not all that important because everyone sees them in a different manner and light.

He shows the errors of the professionals to illustrate the futility of making abstract grammatical rules. Also, it shows the importance of differences between these experts theory and actual practice of the English language. I think that he is locating errors in both the readers and writers in this essay and is trying to show that everyone is at least guilty some of the time and that being super critical of simple mistakes is arbitrary.

Half-Empty Mouth Wash

1. One possibility is a person who mistook it for an unopened bottle. Or, a person with low income and bad oral hygiene. Possibly a person just looking to help him out, or to do it for the thrill. Then again, it could have been an underage alcoholic.

2. It probably sold because people wanted to help him out. People may have bought it to brag that they have an item of this mans life.