your la la is a la la laa

so, i posted my slideshow and my paper on YouTube to cyberduck so if you guys want to check it out? feel free. and tomorrow break begins and i couldn't be more thrilled. i hope all of you enjoy your break :)

questions..

i think i'm open to answering questions any of you have about YouTube and its components. i mean, i think that's what we are supposed to do, but then again i don't do what i'm supposed to do a lot of the time. let me know if you have questions and i will answer them as best of my ability. my slideshow and paper is uploaded onto cyberduck if your curiosity leads you down that path. please enjoy.

social media revolution

this is a cool video I found during the research process. it's about the social media impact on world culture. I personally think it's geared more towards generation x, because of the fact, we are the generation that has used social media to our advantage the most. however, it also informs anyone who's interested.
check it out, its really interesting. I mentioned this video, which is found on YouTube, in my slide show, but I don't think any of you would have seen that.



here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

YouTu...

I have had enough YouTube the last 3 days to last me an awesome lifetime.

yo, chad

I have learned a lot about YouTube and everything behind it. did you know that the CEO of YouTube, the mastermind millionaire behind this cultural phenomenon is only a mere 33 years old?

"some guys just walk in the light, ya know?"
-she's the man

no audience, no game? not the case.

we not lost?
wigwam is lost?
i don't care if the wigwam got lost and i do not agree with the view that the man makes his own space and the idea of a human getting lost is absurd. i get lost all the time!!
what does he do? i don't understand how this is digital media culture, other than us gaining more "culture" by listening to the podcast on the internet. i'm kinda confused. is he a scientist? and it's berk-lee. not bark-lee.
newton discovered levity, not gravity. up-pull not down-pull.
i mean.....
le puuta?
weightlessness as means of solving transportation issues.
when you are weightless, would you see things upside down? the mode of human perception is upside down. so do Eskimos see everything upside down? ..i think was his philosophical question for that series of cliches?
is he a philosopher? a psychologist? an artist?
flipping the image.
i read the article you wanted us to read before we listened to the podcast, but i have not read the four chapters yet. maybe after i read those, i will have more of an idea of who marshall mcluhan actually is and what, in fact, he is talking about.
in the Eskimo world, their world is upside down. i have no idea what he is talking about.
despite everything else, i have always found cliches fascinating.
overall, i tried to pay attention, but he literally put me to sleep. in the beginning. it got a little more exciting in the middle of the interview and towards the end.
i do not agree with his statements that if there is no audience, there is no play, it is only a rehearsal. or with the absence of a audience, a football game would just be a practice. i agree with the guy interviewing marshall. "there is a game without a spectacle, maybe." although he is unsure, he does stand up against mcluhan.
you can definitely have a game without an audience, i mean, has the american/canadian outlook become that arrogant to think that we can only play a football 'game' if people are there to watch? what is a pick up basketball game then? what is friendly competition? does it always have to be the burly musclemen on sunday afternoons being paid millions of dollars because people pay hundreds to watch them play in the games to actually be a GAME?
i don't get it.
children are expected to participate not only as consumers, but also as producers. the idea that it is not only about the product, but about the process. I definitely agree with that. that concept comes across a lot in the graphic design world, as well as every other world, but for the point of this blog? i'll make it about the gd world. the idea that it is not only about the final logo for the harford cable network, but what went into to finding out how that logo came to be. the behind-the-scenes look. that information is usually the most interesting. that's why you make design briefs to show the process and explain one's thought process as they designed their final logo.
it's a very cool thing.
overall, marshall mcluhan, himself, does not interest me, but some of his concept and questions he raises are interesting.

marshall, please.

"i'm sure it's necessary to offer any clues as to who marshall mcluhan is..." i did not know who he was, but i also was not in existence in the 60's.
the message is the medium:
"where would you look for the message in an electric light?" what?
the message in an electric light is the light, but the medium is the light bulb, itself, so i don't fully agree with his certain view on messages and mediums. however, i do agree with his statement when he said, "most people think of space as static." the space being the distance between two people. i do not think as into the matter as marshall does, but i do see his point. space being such a vague, open concept.
frankly, i actually find marshall mcluhan quite boring and unenjoyable and from the interview, he seems somewhat arrogant. he was definitely set in his ways and that might be because he has backed up all of his theories and cliches with facts and science, but those types of statements are always subject to change. i didn't understand the chain of conversations. capsules to Eskimos to sir Isaac newton to..i don't even know.

first touchdown of the game for the bears

so, I am kind of just writing something in here, because I haven't written anything, in almost a month, but I am still here. I know about the readings and such. & I will let you know about such readings when I get to them. you better believe it.

I also wanted to give my final words and thoughts on Cary Peppermint. I thought he was a very interesting artist and I really enjoyed researching him and found his motives and what he believes very similar to my own beliefs and I know it's become cliche and a fad, but making the earth a greener, better place to live should in some way or another be a motif of everyone living in it. I thought his direction of reaching people and and getting noticed was very original and I could definitely see his passion played out through his artwork. Eclipse, as I stated, in my presentation, was one of my favorite pieces by Peppermint. I really enjoyed those images that it created.

So that is kind of an extended version of my final thoughts on Cary.

Even though, I have been behind on my entries and I apologize for that, I do plan on being more ahead of the game with the coming entries.

Delicious & Keynote

Last class, which now, was over a week ago, we received our first project which requires us to research a digital artist and produce a slide show in keynote. The slide show should include information about the artist and what we learned about their specific work. I requested to get Cary Peppermint and from what I have found so far, I really like his work. It is very original and has a strong sense of the natural world. You can tell that he likes to involve nature within his artwork.
I could not get the Delicious link to post onto my blog last week, I apprarently "broke" something while it was trying to load. However, I did post the link onto my blog, the same way I am posting this, as you can obviously see. Anyway, it is extremely helpful how I can access my Delicious account from any computer, whether it's a pc or a mac. Keynote, on the other hand, I have used before in a other classes and find it very easy to use. And I just want to say that my favorite part of keynote is how it gives you ruler lines when you want something perfectly in the middle or you want to line up text or anything. that feature is extremely helpful. More later, I'll update you with some more information and research I find on the wonderful, Cary Peppermint.

my delicious is broken, con't.

that was for the "adding a gadget" feature on blogger, so i guess i'm just gonna live without one. you can still get to my delicious, it's just not in "link" format, you have to type it in. i wish you all good luck.

my delicious is still broken.

i tried deleting my account and signing up again with the same username and password and it still said it was broken and will not work until fixed. it says something in the XML is unreadable or something. ill try again later.

delicious.

http://delicious.com/bluetalkandlove

9/8

In regards to the question of whether the Internet has augmented or stifled the senses: i would say that it has bone both to all senses. Because philosophically, the Internet has ultimately either helped us or has hurt us, whether it has gotten someone involved in a personal or familial struggle or hasn't aided in the quest to find who built the armature for the statue of liberty. There is a never ending mass of information within each byte of Internet. I like what someone said in class when they said, it's basically the world in a computer. That concept goes along with what William Gibson says in his book, Neuromancer, when he states that cyberspace is unthinkable complexity; because, in itself, complexity is unthinkable, that's why something or someone is complex. I could go on and on, in fact , I'm getting a little overwhelmed with all the thoughts floating, sprinting rather, in and out of my head at this very moment.

The idea of human interaction and the Internet is somewhat redundant because it is humankind researching, creating, etc. everything within cyberspace, which is all being housed by the Internet. However, with humankind improving and advancing within technology, the Internet and computers, themselves are and will continue to be extremely important, for lack of a beater word, in the world we are living in today.

Technology has become such a stronghold for people and the computers and the Internet are extremely influential reasons for this dependence.

Within the very near future, a culture will emerge that is even more dependent on technology than we are now. This is the trend that has been started for a long time now and will just become more and more engraved within the motives and views of people and the culture surrounding each individual. Furthermore, the trend that is becoming more influential and reaching more of the population everyday. Prime example, being grade school students in Africa are able to obtain laptops through different organizations and charities, thus being more in tune and up to date within the world surrounding them. Which, going along with my whole view on this subject, can be helpful or a hindrance.

My final thought: newer, better, faster, stronger, more efficient is all the world is feeding us, it's only in our nature to want more so why wouldn't we? [want more]

"Is Google making us stupid?"

"WE ARE HOW WE READ."
I want to first point out the obvious irony of this article: Nick Carr plainly states that he "... can't read War and Peace anymore... I've lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it." Yet, he writes a lengthy article to of which he must have edited himself, thus showing his capability of reading, comprehending, and following a subject he actually finds intellectually stimulating.
When I read his simple metaphor: "Once I was a scuba diver in sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski" very appropriate to the subject matter. I like this metaphor for two reasons. One: I find this visual representation of his literary history very easy to understand. Two: It justifies a lot of peoples' relationships with the Internet and how easy it is to use or obtain any and all information.
Also, while reading this, I can't help but think about the fact of Americans and the concept of "instant gratification." The Internet is a huge supplier of instant gratification and people find that very appealing. Instant being fast and the Internet having results in 0.12 seconds, according to google.com and searching for information regarding "typos."
"It almost seems they go online to avoid reading in a traditional sense."
Spark notes: exhibit A.
I really enjoyed reading this article. A lot. I become another statistic dealing with the subject of reading and it not being one of my strong suits, let alone, one of my favorite hobbies. I am a lot of those people that psychologists and researchers point out. I skim everything, if I can, "mumble reading," only saying a recognizable word every 30 words or so, as I speed through the media. Although, in my defense, I am reading a lot more nowadays, for recreational purposes. I have to thank Stephanie Meyer for that because it was her Twilight Saga that made me fall in love with the written word again. but, then I fall right back out with an assignment on the character flaws that led to Reverend Dimmsdale's fall in the Scarlet Letter, having to read The Scarlet Letter.
It's horrible.
When I was little and we had the standardized testing in elementary school, I always scored the lowest on the reading comprehension portions, despite the math portions, but that is a whole other battle. Furthermore, I was "diagnosed?" with ADD in, comically enough, my second attempt at fourth grade. I can definitely, without a doubt, see eye to eye with Nick Carr and understand completely why he cannot read War and Peace anymore. It's so clear. I mean, according to Ms. Wolf, my neural circuits really must work hard to translate symbolic characters found in books, etc.
I believe, according to this article and my own personal struggle with other types of learning, a large part of the population are visual learners. (I am a visual learner.) Books and lengthy articles, etc. require our minds to go places that require us to use our imagination, but sometimes, we can't get our brain to go to those places because the stimulation is so weak and "boring." I can read a whole chapter, but not comprehend any of it because I was thinking about that time I ate food off another person's table at that sushi restaurant. That is the story of my life. Therefore, instead, I skim and give my brain no room or chance to think about anything else, because it knows that I will be done the "torture" in a matter of seconds or minutes, as opposed to a lot of minutes or hours.
And like the article states, in one way or another, I don't believe Google is making us stupid, but how much individuals depend on Google and how they utilize their "Internet paths" is not as bright, I don't want to say stupid because there are many things in this world that are worthy of being labeled stupid.
I was just writing whatever came into my mind, thus the sporadic spurts of opinions and information displayed here in an essay-like format.

sea of words < jet ski