extra credit blog

I feel that overall I had a very good experience in this class. And im not just saying that, I actually mean it. I really enjoyed showing up to this class everyday. I loved being able to listen to what every had to say about the many different topics that we discussed during class. It was nice being able to get other peoples view points on certain things and then being able to compare it with my own thoughts and ideas. I thought it was a very good idea to have discussion as a part of the class. it allows students to interact with others and show ideas. Along with the class discussion I also enjoyed the blogs. This was another way for everyone to express their own opinion on a reading. I feel that this was so effective becuase I feel that everyone no matter who they are likes being able to voice their opinions on something and having their voices heard. My favorite paper was the Facebook one. I found this one to be the most enjoyable mainly becuase it was a new way to view and look at my facebook which I never would have done before. I was able to learn alot about myself and I thought it was a very great idea for a paper. Also being able to revise the paper after we got our first grade was also a great idea. It allowed students to improve on the things that they had written, which normally a student never would have gone back and fixed it unless it was so you could boost your grade. Overall I thought the theme for this class was a great one, and it was a very enjoyable second semester for me. It made writing a lot more enjoyable to me since before this class writing was not one of my favorite things to do.

Final Project Obstacles

I think that one of my biggest obstacles in doing my research paper is going to be asking the best questions that I can. There are a million different types or ways that I will be able to ask my two freinds that I will be interviewing. However, finding the best ones, I feel is going to be very hard to do. The type of question I ask, and also the way I ask the question, all plays a huge factor into what and how my friends are going to respond to the quesiton. I have to do the best I can to ask the best types of questions to get the most information I can use from my friends that I am asking them to. And then finally taking everything they have told me, and putting it all together along with my arguement in attempt to create a very interesting paper to read.

Klosterman in class discussion questions

1) Depending on the type of person you are will influence or pseud how you answer questions when asked. this directly correlates to your identity. 2)Klosterman is trying to figure out HOW or WHY people answer questions the way they do. Why do you answer the way you do, do you answer honestly or directly or indirectly. Why do people even answer a question when asked? Human nature. 3)He gives 6 reason's to why he believes he answers questions when asked. Yes, different people may have other reasoning's for their answers. 4)When you are being interviewed and all eyes are on you, sometimes a person may stretch the truth or may state things to make themselves sound better. Also, we feel as though it depends on if the two people feel comfortable with each other, may have a direct influence on to how the interviewee answers. 5)In a sense it is unreasonable to ask random people to answer interview questions. But, in a way it could be reasonable to answer simple questions for a person if you are not busy. Overall it is up to a person and really depends on the situation.

something instead of nothing

This was a very interesting article and it got me thinking a lot about interviews. I think It was interesting when klosterman was talking about the reasons as to why he even answered question when they were asked. His reasons for this was that he felt he had something important to say, it was his job, he has some type of craving for attention, he had nothing better to do, he was a nice person and lastly when asked a direct question its human nature to respond to the question. I think that all six of these reasons are very accurate. I do not think anyone would be able to argue that any of these six ways are not why people answer questions when they are asked. I feel like most people when asked a direct question they like expressing their own opinion about a topic because people always feel that they are right and that everyone should agree with them. People like voicing their opinions to other people to get a reaction out of someone and to see whether or not they agree.

I tried to remember the last time that I was interviewed for anything. It was actually last year when I was a freshmen I was sitting outside the dorms one day and a girl approached me and asked me if I would let her ask me a couple of questions about being a freshmen and the transformation it has been moving out of home. And right now I am trying to think of why I said yes to her and allowed her to interview me. And honestly I believe that the only reason I said yes to her was because I wanted to be a nice person and I didn’t want to shut her down and say no. which is exactly on of the reason that klosterman had presented and talked about in his paper.

In-Class Cool

Both the simpsons episode we watched and the Malcolm Gladwell article connected the idea of the irrationality of what is cool. At the end of the Simpson's episode, both Marge and Homer are perplexed by what is considered cool and ask Bart and Lisa several times if what they're doing is cool, but each time the kids respond that what their parents are doing is not cool. The article also talks about how the "cool-hunters" could spot who they considered to be a "cool kid". What is considered cool is often influenced moreso by the person that decides it is cool, as that person is a very influential figure in style and has a peer pressure type of effect.

In class reading: Power Points

I feel that this author has some very valid points in his arguments and I would have to agree with what he is saying. I think one of his best arguments is that you are not able to put a lot of words to a slide and in not being able to do so the PowerPoint ends up being a million slides. Thus the audience will get very bored very quickly with the amount of slides that there are. Also I would definitely have to agree with him when he says that it makes charts and statistics a lot harder to see. Instead of just having it all on one page and being able to see it all at once, the PowerPoint will make the same information appear and a numerous amounts of pages. This I feel also makes it hard for the audience to remember everything the speaker was saying because there have been so many slides with a little bit of information on each slide and it is hard to remember it all. It would be a little less hard to remember it all if it was all nice and neat together instead of spaced out throughout 100 slides.

Am I cool?

This is the question everyone wants to find the real answer to. What is cool? The only thing about it is that it is always changing. One month some item might be the “cool” thing to get or to have, and then a month later, something new will have come out and then what you have won’t be cool anymore. Sometimes I will be one of those people that if someone has something cool then I will go out and get it myself, but usually I do not really care. If everyone has something but I do not like it or anything then I don’t care I am not going to follow everyone else and get it myself. I only get stuff based off of my opinion and not what other people have to say about it. I will use the example of shoes. I just recently bought a pair and my one friend was saying how he did not like them that he thought his were better or more “cool”. But that really did not bother me in the least. I did not like his shoes at all. I liked mine so much better. And since the shoes I bought were for me, I made sure that I liked them and that’s all that matters to me. I would not care if everyone in the entire world did not like them, I do, and that’s all that matters to me. This whole article reminded me of the south park episode called chinpokomon. It was all about the kids getting new toys and Stan would always get the toys too late, he would get them when they were not cool anymore and the next best toy has already come out and everyone makes fun of him for having the toy that was “so yesterday”

In class, google questions

1.) His mind is changing by the way that he reads and processes the information that he is getting from the article. 2.) The ability to find what you are looking for as fast as possible. 3.) "I had almost lost the ability to read and absorb a long article" -Bruce Friedman 4.) Since google is so easy to use and always readily available, we are becoming very dependent on it and it is making us so used to it, and become less familiar with the old way of just reading.

Google

I found this to be a very interesting article. I would have to disagree with some of the things that Carr had to say though. He was saying that he is not able to concentrate anymore because of the Internet. I kind of find that hard to believe. I have trouble on concentrating what I am reading pretty much all the time. The only time I am able to really concentrate is when I am super interested in the thing that I am reading. If I don’t really care about it or find it interesting to me at all, the chances are im going not going to want to read it at all, or just zone off while I was trying to read whatever it was. So I do not think I would blame that on the internet or google. I really do not think that has anything to do with it. I think it all has to deal with something that interests you. I feel like if you have anything that you find very interesting you are going to be able to read it very easily and not get distracted by anything or anyone. So I do not think that google is making us stupid at all. I think it is just an easier way for us to find any kind of information that we want to find quickly and very easy. Google just makes everything that we need to find short and sweet and to the point and its quick and easy and that’s why we find it so useful and turn to it everyday.

"Billy Sim" - Group Questions

1) In this article the most interesting aspect related to identity is the fact that people are very materialistic in nature. In the game the only way to make your Sim happy is to buy him nice new expensive things.

2) This article relates to another article we read earlier in the year "All my life for sale" because of how each object a person has represents certain memories or happiness related to the object.

3) We believe that computers help to make children advanced faster. We also can see how it makes children think as computers such as not having as good as an imagination as they could if they were not always on the computer. Also, children are always using electronic forms of communication and lack interpersonal communication skills.

Sims

I thought this was a very interesting and also a very humorous article to read. While reading it the entire time all I could think about was when I would play the game a long time ago. I did the exact opposite of what he did though. I would never to try to make the character I had anything like me. This might be because I was just a young kid and this guy was a mature adult. Nonetheless, when I played I would just try to create the best sim that I possibly could. I would try to make the house that I bought as big as possible. I would always to have the nicest and most the most expensive things that I could possibly buy. I guess in a way I was trying to make the character be as successful as I would someday like to become in life. I made my utopia in life through a Sims character. I would have an excellent job that would be a super high paying job, so that I would be able to purchase any of the luxuries that I wanted. I would put so much time and effort into the detail of my house. I would go room by room buying some of the items that looked cool to me and things that I would want in my real life. I just remember that I would always be adding and buying things to make my house bigger and more prestigious then ever. I guess the sims was my way of living my “fantasy” life.

Am I a final draft?

I think that there is no “real” final draft of who we are, because of the many different stages that we go through our life. I think we have a very sturdy foundation of who we are, but I feel that parts of us are always changes. I think we are different from our teenage years and then we change a little when we are adults. And we change even more when we have a family and kids. So I feel that we continue to change and form ourselves into a little different then we were before. And I feel we continue to change even more when we get old. But I feel we have the same basic foundation of who we are our entire life, but little pieces of us and some of the things we believe in are going to change throughout our life and the stages that we go through.

slumming

This was a very interesting article to read. It was mainly about these two rich people who were sick of the everyday lifestyle that they were living and decided to pretend like they were poor and homeless. They did this because of a woman they saw was doing it and she was actually I believe a writer for a paper. She told them how great it was and how free you are. And nobody really notices you because you are homeless and they just do not care about you at all. So they tried this new fad I guess you could say and they really did enjoy it. Except one night while they were sleeping under a bridge they witnessed a young girl get out of a car and she was in really bad shape and a man in all leather came out of the car and took her back into the car. Later they found out it was some girl that was kidnapped who was eventually killed. And the man who killed her was looking for the homeless people that saw him grab the girl and he was killing all the homeless people that he found. So they ended up not doing this anymore. I guess this just gave them a new thrill in life and more enjoyment then they were having in their redundant lifestyle that they were already living in. they wanted to do something out of the ordinary and experience life in a whole new way. In a way they wanted to change their identity and become new people. And for the most part they found this very enjoyable.

The Vanishing Act

This was a very interesting reading to me, however I did enjoy reading it very much. Even though he did have some rules or guidelines that he was not allowed to just live in a cabin or something, he still only managed to hide for a couple of months. After reading it showed me that he did put a lot of time and thought into how he was going to try to stay off the map and use prepaid things and gift cards. The thing that amazes me the most is that I have seen man hunts on cop shows and stuff like that where people have been able to hide many years without anyone finding them. And yet this guy was only able to survive a couple of months without being found. The steps and the precautions that you have to take in order to not being caught are literally crazy. Just the slightest mistake or slip up will be the end of you. You have to be so careful in the things that you do. Because if you are not then you have pretty much given yourself up. That’s why the genius behind the fugitives that I have seen who have been on the run for up to ten years, I just cant believe that they have been able to do it for so long. This guy seemed like he had a really good plan and strategy to go about this, and he seemed like a very intelligent guy, and yet he was only able to be on the run for such a short time.

Am I a Writer?

If someone asked me whether I considered myself a writer or not, I would probably have to tell them that I do not consider myself a writer at all. I am not going to lie, I do not even like writing that very much. Mainly because I just don’t find myself to be a very good or interesting writer at all. I do not think that anyone would be interested in what I have to say because I do not believe I project it very well onto paper. Every time I read other peoples paper I just think to myself that every single one of theirs is better then what I wrote. I feel as if they can write about things a lot more interesting than I do and they make their paper seem more intelligent and well written a lot better than mine. I don’t really know why but I just never think that any of my papers are that well written and hence, I do not consider myself a writer at all.

In Class Questions 2/16/11

1) To be "literate" in our world today a person must be up to date with technology, such as face book, twitter, texting, having a smart phone. Being fluent with all medias.
4) It is hard to find your own voice when you feel like everyone else has already said everything that could be said or done. Just like Mr. Cash said you can take some things that other people do, but you have to do it in your own way. People need to put their own twist on what they do to make it theirs or create some individuality. It is very possible, the challenge is making something seem as though it is your own.
5) Yes, some people project themselves in their own ways better than others. For example comedian's must have their own individuality in order to draw people to them. Also, a persons ethos has allot to do with how a person projects themselves. If you walk the walk, you gotta talk the talk.
6) In order to base who you are you have to look up to someone or have an idol. This sets the foundation for who you would like to be, but you are able to be yourself at the same time. For example, if you want to be a musician, you cannot just come up with your own genre, you have to have something to base your style on.

In class blog, why write?

I feel that there are many different answers to this question and I feel that every single person in the world is going to have a different response to it. I feel that writing things allows you to express your ideas and your opinion and anything that you want. And you just want to get your opinion down on paper and also you want to share it other people. You want them to read what you write and see if they have any comments for you or anything to add or even something that they do not agree with. A very good way to get your voice heard is to write it down and publish it and share it with the world to see what you were thinking about or what was on your mind. alot of people just need to get something off their chest and one of the best ways is to just write it down.

Why I Write

I thought the interview with cash was a very cool little thing to watch. He was just explaining how when he would sing other peoples songs he would sing them in his own way. He knew it was not his song, and he knew he would not be able to sing the song like the original singers could, but he just wanted to sing it in his own way and he became very famous doing that. As long as you do things in your own way and not the same way other people do it, you are making yourself stand out and get noticed. If he would have just tried to copy how the original person sang it, then noone would have wanted to llisten to him. But since he did it his own way, he became very popular.

The other short video was about the new medias that people are dealing with today. It was a lot different back in the day but now everyone has so many different ways of getting in touch with someone else. And people are learning new things and trying to create new ways of media and to get information or advertisement out every single day.

After reading the “why I write” I was left a bit confused. At the end she had the twist that she really had no idea why people write and if she did she wouldn’t have to write novels about it. She was writing her novels based off a picture that she had in her mind and wrote based off that

Obama in class readings

We think that he made the changes mainly becuase he wanted to make his speech more personal to the reader and make it more engaging and captivating to the audience. It tugs on the heart strings.

We as a group agreed with what the blogger was saying. We think he hit the ball on the head with his thoughts and ideas of what Obama had in mind in why he did what he did. We agreed alot on the blogger saying that Obama wanted to add more detail and more of a personal touch to his words. He really wanted to engage the readers and make it as personal as he was able to.

A&P In-Class Questions

1) He was making a huge deal about quiting his job, when realistically he was only 19 years old and will have plenty of other opportunities to get a better job. We think he will get over it and it is not as bad as he thinks it is. It is sad in his perspective, but to us it is liberating because now he can pursue a better paying job.



2) His boss told him that he was making a mistake by quiting, but he didn't care and proceeded to quit. When he could have sucked it up and just kept his job and not try to impress the girls. We disagree with Gilbert, because it was more of a naive decision, trying to be the big shot. It came down to him being left by himself.



5) If it came down to us being in this position, we would not have gone about it the same way. We would have reinforced the managers orders to the girls and then continued to work.