Final Blog for Class

Here are the ten blog posts I have chosen for my course blog grade:

1. - Networking Personal Webs
I wrote this one in order to be fair with personal webs. On the previous web, I only added the negative about personal web pages, but never how they enhance me.

2. - Online/Hybrid Class 11: Social Networking
I'm giving examples of how social networking affects us, but how it can also help us to think critically through text messages which is similar to what personal web owners do when they write.

3. - The Meaning of Jesus and the Cross
This blog is my advice for people to live without pain. People will suffer with pains – physical and emotional – as long as they are living, but if Jesus already took all of our pains, then, why do we have to carry them all over again? I understand that there are people who wish to not suffer anymore, but want to look for another way to alleviate their pains, and I also have some advice here that do not have to do with religion.

4. - Love to Patiently Wait
This is my advice – from personal experience – for all those who want to wait for the right person, but do not know how.

5. - Online Hybrid Class #9: Are we More Stupid with the Internet?
This one gives my view of how the internet helps us. It gives an example about a friend who gets extra income through the internet, and another one about the different ways that the internet helps me.

6. - Looking for a Job and Trying to Feel Good
This one is about how we can feel good about looking for a job after several unsuccessful days of trying.

7. - Online/Hybrid Class 5: Bloggers and Citizens
This blog talks about the advantages of citizen journalism. Some of them are that they are fast, quick, and anyone with knowledge can write. Also, it gives advice on how to know if the person is a citizen journalist or not.

8. - Blogs that I read
These are particularly blogs that I read during that week – when I posted the blog – and it gives advice for how to love your partner in a healthy way without having by talking to your partner and suppressing your bad character, jealousy, anger, etc.

9. - Online/Hybrid Class 3: Changes and Transformations
This one talks about how people expect too much from the internet, such as, fast service. The post card is supposed to arrive on Valentine’s Day and not a day later. It also talks about the conveniences of the internet and who will have time to veg out all the extra information that people do not need.

10. - Online Class Activity #1
This one questions the following: What if the machine (computer) can control us? Also, it talks about the freedom of the internet: Can we enter without a subscription? Can we hack this web page? And the fears that people in the past think about the future.

Networking Personal Webs

Just so I can be fair with My Space and Facebook, this blog will show how these two have helped me not only in my personal life, but others, which makes our lives easier - less complications - and avoid people to work harder,

For example, “awareness tools [ambient updates] aren’t as cognitively demanding as an e-mail message” (I'm So Totally, Digitally ..., 2). Awareness tools gives us the freedom to pick what we want to read from a title of someone’s blogs such as pictures, news on their web updates, new comments, etc. These tools are better than newspapers because people’s updates appear on one page only where people can click on the tab “More” to look at someone else’s older updates of the day or of the week. "Awareness tools" are also called "Ambient updates" which are better than e-mails because they are indirectly posted for me, and are not asking me for my full attention to them like an e-mail does. Their advantage is that it saves me from the complications of constantly looking at everyone’s space for any updates, and saves me time. Lately, e-mails have become a more personal way to communicate, such as, banking transactions, shopping receipts, new membership information, etc.

Also, another way of how I see online blogs beneficial to me is that I found out that “[t]he act of stopping several times a day to observe what [I’m] feeling or thinking can become, after weeks and weeks, a sort of philosophical act” (6). This happens after rereading my personal posts and my peers’ comments where I become more aware of myself, and I start to realize how I can improve my lifestyle, personal life, thoughts, etc. Through my philosophical thoughts I give constructive critiques to myself, as well as, to the person I am having a problem with. Even when I usually do not post the juicy details about my letdowns through My Space, Facebook or in this blog, it has indirectly taught me to post more positive outcomes that avoids the sad thoughts.

Online/Hybrid Class 11: Social Networking

I actually do not need to know “the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update — each individual bit of social information —” (I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You, 2) that my friends post on My Space. It actually annoys me because when I meet them, we might not have anything to talk about; for example, when they post their pictures about a trip to France and they add a description on each of their pictures to let me know why, where, how, who/what they were doing, plus I add some comments on their pictures. By the time they come back to Arizona the excitement is lost because I know everything already. Another example could be if they feel so happy or so depressed that they write about how they lost their jobs, husbands, a family member, etc. There is nothing intimate to share because everyone (online people) and I already know it. I’m supposed to put the same effort that my other friends put on their blogs to keep updated with them, but I prefer not to do it because I’m afraid I might forget how to speak clearly in front of people.

In fact, I think I already lost my ability in how to speak to people because for some reason, through the last time occasions I was shy to fight for what I believed in front of my friends, but instead, I used text “messages [because they] felt even more intimate than a phone call” (3), and even more intimate than talking face to face because through silent communication I wanted them to remember the words I wanted to convey, plus I was afraid I might offend them when talking because my words – and not only mine, but all humans – are said without too much thought than what we actually want to mean, but our true meanings change after we write them down.

This is what I learned in a past occasion when I tried to respectfully disagree with what one of my friends thought about doing such, ife is and how everything is precious because it has only then she became outrageous, and I think that she is also affected with the inability to say what she wanted to say at that moment, but instead she reacts with a frown and with a winning fussy pitched voice, as that of a little girl, when she is actually 25 years old. In some part, I blame her My Space account where she only adds comments about how wonderful life is how everything is precious to her. My conclusion is that her My Space account has only helped her to wisely react to the good stuff and not to the bad ones. After surfing so much online for fun and gossip about someone else’s MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and other personal webs, I think humans are affected with the inability to not put too much reason in their words through their personal web spaces leading them to only post the positive: How happy life should always be and forget how to react to the disgusting and unwanted situations of everyday life.

The Meaning of Jesus and the Cross

It is of sad that many people take the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection so shallow because all people still live in pain. The Bible says that Jesus carried all of our pains and illnesses on the cross. But the meaning of the word pain is not always a physical one and it can be problems in marriage, children, family, work, unable to pay the bills, which is a shame, and all other life's problems. If Jesus already carried the cross that nails down our pains and illnesses for us, why do we humans have to carry it again? Regardless if you go to a church or not, you are rich or poor, smart or not too smart, we all have the same problems and they are going to keep coming as long as we are living. But why do we have to deal with these pains for a long period of time, or why do we think it’s impossible for us to overcome our pains? Most people say that it is normal to suffer, but I bet that the Father does not want to see his children to suffer, just like our parents do not want to see us that way either. It’s a matter of decision: you continue to suffer or seek some help through your church, psychologist or through other program in order to help you overcome your pain. Personally, I got some help by reading the Bible at my Spanish Speaking church, but I understand that other people prefer to look some other ways to alleviate their pains. So I recommend that you run, walk, exercise, seek help through a friend, or do something to better yourself, and feel good about truly enjoying life without pain.

Online/Hybrid Class #10: Writing for the Web

In How to Write for the Web by Jakob Nielsen and Writing for the Web by John Morkes are way different from each other. The first one is all chunky and the second one is more organized. They both teach you how to write for the web in order to attract readers to READ instead of scanning.

Nielsen gives readers an additional link in the chunky text in order to avoid reading the print text that he shows in his web; he probably does this to make sure that we readers know the difference of reading text from a book and reading on the web; also, Morkes shows and tells (in web text) readers some advise where web readers like me enjoy reading because it has bullets and it is easier for the eyes to read and friendlier because Morkes is having web surfers to read his website.

In Nielsen’s link and Morke’s web both show that they are short in length giving readers the advantage of not scrolling down or up too much. But the best one I’ll use as basis for my Multimedia Project will be Morke’s because it caught my attention into reading more for it was shorter. But thanks to Nielsen’s link, I know what to avoid in my multimedia project, such as, having a table for math differences and percentages instead of having math problems in huge paragraphs and get web surfers o figure out. However, I think that Jakob Nielsen did a good job from having the printable text web to the readable one.

As for my Home page, I will have a brief introduction and a “Table of Contents”, just like Morkes has on his web, because it is easier to surf on the page site, plus readers are able to choose which ones they want to see first. But the usable feature that he does not show is that it lacks a table of contents on the top of each of the themes. And this is one of the things that my Multimedia Project will not lack.

Love to Patiently Wait

Since I broke up with my boyfriend two weeks ago and was in a sad mood where I thought about the end of the world, I went into True, an expensive online dating – where out of curiosity I signed up only for the free trial, of course – to look for any matches in order to end my idle life for good, and to imagine what I had missed in the previous two years. Well, guess what. It did not help me at all because I found 0 matches for me. I was amazed, but then I thought, why not enjoying of having a real life? And besides, I did not want to make the mistake that I was desperate which I kind of did, but I did it because none of my friends were available to give me some sentimental support at the time, and I was hoping that True would give it to me. At the end, I got sick and tired of the shallow e-mail messages that True members sent me because I realized that my heart was not open for any of them. This should be obvious after a two year relationship, but today I want to have fun with friends only. The lame excuses of my friends of why they were unable to meet me were because they were all busy with their boyfriends, husbands, exams at college, travels, etc., so I had no other option until I went into the famous and overused craigslist. I found out that there is a platonic section (only friends) and posted an ad to hang out with any women who were available on Saturday night in order to meet at a nightclub or bar in order to celebrate my freedom. But guess what. Not a single girl contacted me except for a creepy man who did not read the ad “only for women”. But now, I feel much better because I know that someday that man will find me and will love me unconditionally. I don’t need to look for men anymore like I found my ex at a coffee shop, now the man needs to find me and I can patiently wait for him. I believe he will meet me someday, but for now, I need to enjoy being single again.

Online/Hybrid Class #9 - Are we More Stupid with the Internet?

First of all, according to Perez, people between thirteen to thirty one years old are into the era where “[w]ork isn’t [our] Whole World: Sure, [we’re] going to go to work, but it had better be fun. For Gen Y [the age gap], work isn't [our] identity. It's just a place. [We’re] also not going to blindly follow orders just because you're the boss” (Perez). Even if today is not the right way to say this because there is a world wide crisis, I have two friends who are hopeful on finding another job because they are sick and tired of their current one. This is what one of them would repeat to me over and over again: “I have so many ideas for the company to advance, but they would not compensate me for this.” He is currently an engineer, but makes extra money with his small construction company. He uses the internet to advertise his construction company because he is unsatisfied with the current job he has because it is not fun for him anymore and does not let him advance through his career goals. From his point of view, the quote above confirms that this is a reality and that it is happening.
Second, I agree and disagree with the following quote: They (websites) supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. (Carr) I agree because I am aware that they’re changing how we process all of our thoughts because they (internet’s websites) give us the answer right away, but I also disagree because I think that they are helping us to develop our minds with knowledge and understanding which helps us to fix the puzzles that no one else can solve.

Just like Zimmer discusses on his article that the Internet seems to be crashing the gate of the mind, taking over its natural work and leaving it to wither away to a mental stump. Through my personal view, I am not perplexed anymore since I have been using the internet since 2000, but today, I constantly use dictionary.com, google.com for images and English/Spanish translators. It makes me to get rid of any doubts and any useless thoughts too. It also makes me save time because I do not have to flip several dictionaries’ pages anymore. It is an advantage because it let us focus on other important things that we all have to do: such as work, school, localization of addresses, etc

Online/Hybrid Class 7: Ezines

It is interesting to read that zines have been around since the late 1980s, such as, “The Match: An Anarchist Journal” (Zoning in on Zines) worked on by the comfort of Fred Woodworth’s house. Also, I like the “Invert Pyramid” (Writing for a Web Audience) style where you start with the conclusion; “[t]hen build upon the conclusion by summarizing the most interesting and important supportive information. Next provide detail about each important point. Then close with background information.” It is good for scanners and it makes sense because we are busy all the time and want to get things done as accurate and as soon as we can.

Also, for my zine project I want to discuss about any details that makes our work a happy place to stay or just happiness vibrations at work to make ourselves feel better. I understand why many people don’t like their jobs because their bosses don’t let them advance in the company. One of these people includes my boyfriend whose boss thinks he is doing him a favor to work for him, when in reality my boyfriend is applying for other jobs in order to feel appreciated.

In my case, I love my job because I’m only working five hours per week as a Spanish tutor - I currently teach two students, but need another one. My apologies for the previous title misunderstanding where I'm actually looking to work with an extra student and I'm not looking for any other job - and it is fun because they tell me about their exciting personal lives that include some gossip. I sympathize with all people who have trouble at work because I had some similar experiences, such as the one where I worked at a small bank as a teller. The supervisor would get desperate to teach me, and at the end, she would not teach me any of a teller’s duties. When I was transferred to another store, I was finally taught by another supervisor how to do other teller’s transactions that the previous one did not teach me. I always thought that she felt that she was doing me a favor for allowing me to do some type of transactions.

Note: My apologies for not adding any link, but blogspot did not allow me.

Looking for a Job and Trying to Feel Good

The other day, I started desperately looking for a Spanish Tutor job, after posting every two days through the famously craigslist website. After constantly posting for two weeks in a row, I finally got a call from a man who wanted to be taught at the Library; of course I wasn’t going to teach him at his home unless he lived with his family, and that includes having kids and wife present at the tutoring session. I do this for my safety. But before that, I did not get any e-mail replies and not even interested people with some questions, except two scammers who wanted to pay me by money orders and one of them offered me $100 per hour. Ha ha! I was so disappointed that not even after posting my beautiful and almost professional resume (compared to the ones who did not have enough information at all), no one was interested and I was wondering that it might be because I was competing with other two companies who provide unlimited online tutoring for $100 a month. I needed to cheer myself, so I visited a blog and watched the video - the same one is below - in order to try to make me feel better. After watching it, I was thinking about an outfit to wear on Wednesday church, which could make me feel good after an unsatisfying day of trying people to hire me. When I finally made up my mind, I wore my favorite green jacket because the church gets cold inside for the air conditioner, and it was better than wearing my classical and comfy black sweater, which would probably not have been enough to give me a complete hundred percent warm.

Perfection and Love for Zine Project

I truly loved the post where I talk about Love. I would like to know what does Love have to do with perfection. I want to make a mix of ideas when we think about finding the perfect man or the perfect woman. This leads us to be desperate and no one likes it. It can also lead us to depression. Just as this blog says, "[t]he problem is in our continual search for perfection we create a perpetual state of insatiability. And the more we look for perfection, the more we require it, and unfortunately, the less we are apt to find it (actually see it, that is)."

Online/Hybrid Class 6: The Web Among Us

“What have been some of the ways in which internet technology has changed our lives--how and where we work, learn, live, etc?” (Heenan) We can change our ways of thinking by opening our minds when we share information. When we open our sources to be criticized, or show them to the internet world in order to receive some suggestions. Also, I absolutely agree with Dan Gillard when he said on Chapter 12 about writing his book, “Locking down heritage means locking out vital innovation, and I don’t want to be one of the people who turn reasonable protections into absolute control.” Dan Gillard wants suggestions. He truly enjoys getting feed back from the community and complains that journalism does not “listen” to the community when they have opinioned comments to say, insights, adding to the reporting, etc. And when we (internet users) go public with our projects and are genuine about having someone else’s insights, we are liked by people because we are humble enough to accept what other people say. In order to do this, we need to leave our egos behind and that is what most journalists do because they often complain that they run out of time.

That’s why all of those who are citizen journalists, or have a truthful weblog that doesn’t sell ads and is not manipulated by companies – which is what most journalism business do – we trust in ourselves. Lately, news readers and watches have become more skeptical about news. Sometimes they are biased and we don’t enjoy it. For all those who are bilingual in Spanish, you can go to Univision, look for “La Santa Muerte” report which was given on the weekend. It annoyed me because it only talked about the good stuff that this “Saint of the Dead” does. It did not talk about the bad stuff. It was definitely biased.

It’s sad that most Hispanics who live in the U.S. do not know that news need to be objective all the time giving both sides of the news. But also Mexico still gives subjective news which is wrong. I am glad that the U.S. has so many different blogs that makes people to have better resources of having, adding and contradicting of ideas in order for people to know where the truth lies. It is sad that Mexico does not provide any of these.

Online/Hybrid Class 5: Bloggers and Citizen Journalists

The issue that citizen journalists have is that most of the time, they are unwilling to put the time, the work and the objectivity to the story. Shel says on “More Thoughts on Blogger/Citizen Journalism” that social media is changing most institutions and that includes journalism. This statement is true, but it is not going into the right direction. For example, Shel wrote a story in his blog about NotchUp where they “claimed, in their presentation, that word-of-mouth among enthusiastic alpha users had taken its new service viral… Within minutes, [he] received a significant handful of Twitter responses, from readers on three continents, saying these guys were spammers and their claim was highly misleading.” Now because Shel does this for fun and does not work as a journalist anymore, he did not mind getting back with NotchUp Company in order to know what they thought about the stuff people said about them.

One of the advantages that Citizen Journalism has is that it can provide the most current information on an event. For example, a plane crash (Heenan) where you’re the first one to experience because the crash happens outside of the window, a neighbor’s wrongdoings of beating a dog and recording it with a phone camera, or pressing the government about a particular issue for the betterment of the community, where the blogger gets a bunch of responses and links about the same issue. These and many more instances where paid journalists can’t be at the scene is an advantage to all.

On the other hand, Astrochicks is a blog that does not have an “About” section. It has a few advertisements on the top and on the right hand side of the page. But is the person a truly a journalist or a citizen journalist? The writing is professional; I suppose that all celebrity’s pictures are not from the web blogger, but from other websites. However, it provides its own horoscopes, tarots, gossip and so on. The author of the blog can be a citizen journalist with good skills, and who gets sponsored by some other companies with advertisement in order to keep providing all of the celebrities’ news. I placed this particular website because just as the candidate is helped to promote his campaign by a citizen journalist – the Citizen Journalism: From Pamphlet to Blog presented on the video below – this web blogger from Astrochicks might be the same unprofessional journalist who gets paid by some companies who trust him/her.

Blogs that I Read

Please never replace these blogs for any love therapy counseling, but take them as the basics from an expert’s advice.

I think Jennifer Jones’s blog is part of what citizen journalists do. Even if she does not link to other websites on her posts, she links to the stories she writes about a specific category in order to find them easier. Also, she has some links on top of the page and they go directly to her work. She obviously writes from what she is taught in college in previous year and from her long-time experience in her career.

I read her blog and I found out that it helps people for anything that have to do with love and not so much loving issues, such as, affairs, anger, and how the partner or both can get over them, plus all those negative behaviors that could affect anyone’s relationship with their loved one. This is for people who are in love, want to better the relationship to not only satisfy their significant others, but themselves through a happier loving style.

Also, I read Doctor Becky’s blog and it has many advices from what happens in everyday life with a loved one to what might cause depression in a relationship where the problem is actually outside of it. I recommend you read the article Dating with a Brain, Vintage Column: Is it Heartache or Heartbreak? The first one gives you tips on how to go step by step in the needed dating issue and the second one gives the difference between a Heartache and Heartbreak and when it is time to move on.

"I Blog, Therefore I am a Blogger" (Hennan)

What Sullivan says is hard work. It is similar to the “Social Networking Wars” video because many times we are overloaded with information on what other bloggers comment, critique, add or suggest to our Posts. We don’t have the time to answer to all tiny questions. Some of these examples are journalists and professors who do their work online and whose jobs require them to work hard and to be attentive at people’s need. It would be nice if these journalists and professors get pay all the time for answering at each of the online news’ readers’ questions, as well as, the online students. Journalists will always have unsatisfied readers and professors will always have unsatisfied students. But there is simply no time, no pay and no energy to satisfy people’s needs. However, both professional workers do the most important stuff that their job requires them to do.

“Writing in digital spaces” (Heenan) is in fact better than writing outside the internet where most of my stuff would go to my professors, boss or loved ones. This is because I can have corrections, questions and clarifications from other bloggers. It will help me to expand my work in order to make it better. I think of blogging as a Creative Writing Class Discussion in the ENG 210 I took last semester. This is because we would discuss each other’s papers having the professor as the one who would correct students and sometimes give an insight to what students said on their comments. Also, she would also give an insight to the author of the short story that is being discussed. The only disadvantage bloggers have when they Post their work in order to get some feedback and discussions, the author does not know if the person is to be trusted or not in their comments. But before the blogger takes any step further, such as making corrections, improvisations, etc., it is the blogger’s job to identify who wrote comments on their post in order to know how much importance or seriousness he/she would give to the comment.

Online/Hybrid Class 4: Blogs, Blogging and Bloggers

All I’m hoping to find while I’m blogging is“[to discover] my own interests” (Blood)I would probably say just as Blood said “I thought I knew what I was interested in, but after linking stories for a few months I could see that I was much more interested in…” something else. Also, I am hoping that my readers leave comments and see what they think about it. Maybe it can help me to grow as better person with the new quality that my commentator passed me. I’m a blogger who searches from everything from the simple things to what to wear to seeking advice in order to help me choose better decisions in my personal life with my boyfriend, family, church, etc. I just want to know what’s out there and see if that fits me spiritually. But most of the time I enjoy finding those answers outside of the internet because it does not feel the same as when I seek advice from those I love because I expect their answers to be accurate. It is probably because they’re sympathizing with me right after I tell them what my problem is. I see their face expressions, I see their eyes, and it is something that blogging cannot offer me at this time. “­­­­­­­­­­Let me propose a radical notion: The weblog's greatest strength — its uncensored, unmediated, uncontrolled voice — is also its greatest weakness.” How do I know if the blogger who’s advising to do this, when he/she does not even do it? If bloggers want to help others when they do not even help themselves, I call them weak. Therefore, I agree with what Blood says in that bloggers give powerful information, but it can also be weak in the sense that they are hypocritical.

This also goes with what Winer says about “stories that are passed from department to department in a professional organization can morph into something that bears no resemblance to the facts, or to the original author's point of view.” It is hard to be a public person who wishes to advice others and does not practice it.

Blogging for Money Or for Genuine Fun?

I was looking for a blog that talked about Hawaii, and as I was looking on this website, I was wondering how the blogger – a guy because he mentions that he has a wife – had so much time to invest in his blog. But as soon as I was starting to feel comfortable with the page – that I relied as a truly friendly relationship he has for his readers – then I saw the sponsors. He gets paid to write his experiences in Hawaii, which is not bad at all, but I think it is forcing the person to write his personal experiences with friends and family for a living, unless he truly loves blogging, then it is okay. If not, then why would a person work for something he/she does not like? This disappoints me. If you have a blogging account is to be in contact with friends and not to satisfy the needs of a company who wants to use YOUR persona to make ends meet. I know it is none of my business, but how can you sell your personal life to others? I think that all those who keep blogging their personal life for money, at the end it could take sides of what to tell and not to tell because of what the advertisers think. I’m not saying that he or any other blogger should denigrate advertises if these provided bad service about a particular experience they had in Hawaii, but in my personal opinion, blogging your personal life to others for money is hard to do because you want to expose yourself as a free blogger, but there are still limits because employees want to please their bosses.

I worry about this because how can one trust if the blogger is genuinely telling his experience online? I would like to know from the blogger if he would avoid buying costumes from the advertisers he has in his blog in order to avoid any biased experience? Or does he buy from these shops and never writes about them?

Ethan Zuckerham – History of the Internet

Ethan was telling us that “a lot of the really interesting community stuff were invented in 1982 or 1979, are we all suddenly putting attention to it? … they all look like this one…” He was saying that all the good blogs, information and entertaining while being educational at the same time, are now kind of gone. I think it is true because we can find more stuff online that are not made by reliable company. Users, such as My Space, Blogs, Face book and others outnumber private companies. And even private companies are not supposed to be trusted a lot. Whose information are we supposed to rely? It leaves me with the thinking of what’s going to happen to my future children. I hope they do not get fooled by trusting the internet. I also hope that the government gets more involved in it. But whose money are we going to use? We are in a recession right now and will probably not get out of this one until we get old. I remember there is a popular case called Megan Meier story where the girl killed himself because Josh (a guy who never existed and Megan fell in love with) told her on My Space that “the world would be better without her.”

Peaceful Message

This post made feel so calm not only by reading God’s Unconditional Love, but it made me feel at peace. I would like to know why we humans still judge others for who they are and what they do if we are not anyone to judge? The only being who judges is God. Of course we need to have lawyers, courts and all that, and that is good. But who has a right to judge others for the way they dress, the way they love or the things they like?

Also, through Contemplative Prayer: One Step Beyond post sounds a comforting one. It says the following:
“… life and growth are founded on faith in our own basic goodness, in the being that God has given us with its transcendent potential. This gift of being is our true Self. Through our consent by faith, Christ is born in us and He and our true Self become one. Our awakening to the presence and action of the Spirit is the unfolding of Christ's resurrection in us.”

Oh my God! This might be the answer to be happy. All we have to do is to let God to live in us.

Online/Hybrid Class 3: Changes and Transformations

By answering Tim Jackson's question of "[w]here do we want these technological vehicles to take us, and why?” My answer for this is that we humans expect both technology and internet to take us away from our real and hard world. We hate to go to the bank to make a payment, so instead of spending gas and time to go to the bank, we do it online. Obligations that once were a hazard to do, such as, sending payments by mail and the company not getting these letters on time, it is over. Now, we can rely on the internet that will give us at least a confirmation number as proof of the online payment. Another example is when we want to do our chores in less time, so that’s why students like me buy our books online avoiding us to stop by the bookstore.

But I think that many times we expect too much from the internet in which it is supposed to have a fast service and free stuff. One of the free e-cards companies that send late electronic cards are Gusanito because I think that they are swamped by so many customers that many of the receivers get them late on special days like Valentine’s Day or Holidays. We also expect the internet to fulfill the needs that we love and care for that special person when we could actually buy a real Valentine’s Card at Wal-Mart.

On the other hand, I agree with Kevin Kelly that we will be “dependent … on what the Machine knows about us and about what we want to know… It will become our memory. Then it will become our identity” (Kelly, 5). It’s already happening, if we are in google and type the word “eat”, next time when we write a word that starts with the letter “e”, the internet will gives us the option to choose the word “eat” or we can still continue to type the different search we want to know. This helps as a memory and a nice reminder of what we are looking for in the past. But this can also become our identity because when we sign up for a website magazine, or any other type, we end up having a bunch of e-mails that sometimes we do not even have the time to read in order to find out what are in those. We’re probably becoming too dependent on the internet, especially on news that keeps updating everyday. It’s a distraction for students who do their homework or when they have a purpose of finishing an online chore, but when they turn on the computer, the distraction appears on the Home Page of the web window.

People who will have time to veg out all the tons of information out there are the ones who will get paid, love to correct others, and get upset if they don’t do it. For example: ASU librarians get paid by students’ tuition. The librarians’ jobs are to find out who wrote the information that they look at and if it’s reliable for students to use. Also, Wikipedia is as good as the Webster’s Dictionary because even if we do not have people who get paid to sort through the infinite information, there are so many professional people who get into the same information others are viewing and make corrections. The consumers are still us, web users, who have the responsibility to make good transactions at our own risk and need to verify if the website is reliable to give our bank account numbers.

Reflection upon the Blogs I have Examined & Badger’s Claims

The kitty blogger tells me how much she – let’s say the blogger is a woman – enjoys playing with cats. At first, the impression I get from her is that she looks obsessed with cats because she has pictures of them showing off their bellies and not any other position. In fact, her persuasive introduction to see the blog is Come worship kitty belly with us! As I scroll down the blogger’s page, it tells me that she might just be a fake cat belly rubber because on her Friend Links she included the Hepper website which is a tall stand that includes a bed for cats. It made me rethink if she had a cats’ fanatics’ blog for propaganda. Is she actually the person who sells these especial tall beds for cats? Then she has another one that seems to be only truly interested cats’ fans’ bloggers without giving any advertisement. I’m not sure what the blogger’s interests truly are for creating a cat lover’s blog, but they could be for advertisement, for fun, or just to be a productive and creative person who advertises for free in order to help cat owners to solve their problems.

But who needs a tall stand with a fixed bed on it? My Chihuahua who acts like a cat needs one because she loves to lie down on the sofa and on a rocking chair, but never on the floor. For this reason, I could say that the blogger seems to be a sincere person who only wants to help others, but one never knows. My conclusion is that I agree with what Badger has to say that “[t]he information imparted by the blogger’s photograph inevitably influences how we react to the words that surround it.” This depends from the point of view that we criticize or start to opinion about.

Does Blogging make you a better writer?

I like how Jenny Cromie describes each of the “five ways that blogging” (Heenan) can improve our writing. As a student who has been speaking English for three years – where not only reading my first ESL stories persuaded me to become an English student – I agree with all the five points where she says that blogging has “helped her:

discover her voice;
connect with readers;
get feedback;
get disciplined; and
write faster.”

Even five years ago – as an ESL student – when blogging was a nonexistent meaning because people did not talk about it, besides I wasn’t a technology know-it-all, I think that ESL tutors helped me with all the five qualities above. But as I keep writing on MySpace or either in this blog, I have noticed that it still helps me to connect with all of you. Not only does it feel good, but it is a faster way to get both new insights and feedback from readers which makes me disciplined. And yes, every time I write, I think I become faster and that makes me feel proud of second language skills.

Planning for the Future (My Own Perspective)

Yes, I'm planning for the future like all of you. But I'm not planning to save money until, at least after a year or two after getting out of college. I am getting my English degree with a concentration in Literature by December of 2009 and after that, I'll start with journalism again to finish the one year left I have to get my second degree. I'm bilingual in both Spanish and English and I was planning to study Chinese, but I realized I'm not the typical type of person who is not satisfied to learn just the basics of another language. That's why I preferred to stay in the U.S. to go to college, so I could not forget the new idiom I learned with ESL classes. After thinking about learning Chinese, I was like no way. I would need to live at least for at least a year to master the language.

So the moral of the story is that if you want to learn a new language, you would need to live in the country that is being spoken.

Online Class Activity #1

Barlow’s article reminds me of the movie Eagle Eye that was in cinemas in December of 2008. This movie is about two people whose lives are commanded by a computer. The computer - she - has its own aesthetically laws. Barlow article says the following below:
“We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge. Our identities may be distributed across many of your jurisdictions. The only law that all our constituent cultures would generally recognize is the Golden Rule. We hope we will be able to build our particular solutions on that basis. But we cannot accept the solutions you are attempting to impose.”

Maybe in 1995 there was a fear that cyberspace was to control us. Or that we people were going to have the capacity to command through online communication, which is what we do today through online banking, purchases, e-mail, IM, etc. But Barlow was speaking through the cyberspace’s voice which it indirectly said that it was going to control people’s lives. His article does not have sense of freedom for humans. As of today, that has not happened and we humans still control cyberspace and not vice versa.

On the other hand, “Whalen’s description of Joe Matheny and other ‘culture jammers’” (Heenan) talk about how destructive freedom can be for humans. Matheny is one of the many who could do “pirate radio and TV, computer hacking, counterfeit desktop publishing, media hoaxing, and, of course, billboard editing.” Whalen is placing a fear to readers of 1996 all the bad stuff that could happen if people start using cyberspace which is a wrong freedom. It is still seen as a wrong freedom. But the Telecommunications Reform Act “is to let anyone enter any communications business -- to let any communications business compete in any market against any other” (fcc.gov). Maybe this is the only good thing they were doing, but the Act should be rewritten to protect us from wrong deeds that harm us from wicked people who use the internet.

“Matheny and other ‘culture jammers’ are doing fit with Barlow’s idea of freedom in cyberspace” (Heenan) because they can “spread … across the Planet so that no one can arrest” (Barlow) their thoughts. But these culture jammers would go too far if they did hacked or used someone’s bank account to purchase online.

therottenlittlegirls.com

This website address the issue of feminism. It is interesting how they address it by publishing a "Guest Post". This website really cares about what their blog watchers comment on, as well as, they try to get the most of their website. This guest's posts tells his experience about why he enjoys being a feminist and what were the circumstances that led him to make that decision.

Also, if you scroll down there's a picture about Michelle and Obama planning to have sex on the big day of January, 20. The blogger gives us a website where she complains about the lack of respect they show for Michelle Obama: They only talk about her ass and not her intelligence or morals. But it's interesting that the blogger does not address that the website she/he is complaining about can be also play the role of being a feminist - althought his one tells us in a broader sense - because it tells us about "Analytically speaking, what Mendible wrote is what Aubry Kaplan should have written: a more nuanced reflection on the history and meaning of the colored butt in the erotic imaginations and racial and gender definitions of white people and Black men and Latinos and how that loaded image became a policy of exploitation for both groups."

This is my first blog at blogger.com It's exciting!

This is better than myspace and facebook. Yes, it is. We can play around with it and find out that we can have our e-mail adress, our favorite websites, our Online Bank Accounts - hopefully, I'm new to this, so I'm not sure - and so many other things as online tags.