We went to the computer room and started accounts on two web sites. One web site was called Pandora and the other was LastFM. Both sites helped you create your own radio station that will play music you have requested. When you type in a band or genre, the site automatically gives suggestions of other bands that fall under the same category. I really like these sites because I love to listen to music all the time. I also like to find other bands to add to my list of music. I never liked to listen to the radio because they always play the same mainstream medeocre crap over and over again. It is hard to find a radio station that plays the music I like becuase a lot of it has an aquired taste. I have never heard of either of the sites but now that I have I will be on them every chance I get. I like the fact that they gave you the lyrics becuase some of the bands I listen to have very powerful growling vocals and alot of distorted sounds making it a little hard to understand what they are saying. This also helps to understand the band a little more and to get an idea about what they stand for. Im very picky when it comes to the music I listen to . Another thing I like about the sites is that it tells you if the band is touring or not. I like to go to concerts every chance I get and most of the bands I like hardly play in San Antonio so tour information is very helpful. The best thing about these sites is the fact that there are very few interuptions. That is one thing I hate the most about the radio, all the talking. The sites are pretty much the same in comparison, but I like Pandora a lot more because of the fact that it seems to be easier to set up and use. I am actually listening to music on Pandora.com as I am writing this blog. The name of my station is "Agianst the Majority" and it has a lot of industrial so far, I need to do a lot more searches.

Comments on blogs

In class we had to comment on another students blog. I had one student comment on one of mine. It was a blog I had written about a bad grade scenario. The fact that other students were going to read my blogs did not bother me. It's not as if they were going to read a page from my journal, if I had one that is. I did not mind someone commenting on my blogs either. It would help me know that what I wrote made some kind of sense and that others felt the same way. It's one thing for a professor to read your blogs but for another student to read it is less pressure because they are in the same boat. There are no right or wrong answers when it comes to writing a blog. It's only the matter of reaching the minimal word count and making sure to address the topic at hand. Even though we all had the same topics to write about, we all have different answers or ways in which we express them. It is really interesting to see how other students went about completing the assignments and what their views are. From this we can either gain something that was missed or change our views on the topics completely.

Reflection on timeline

In class today we had to get in our groups and make a timeline about the vlog I chose for my descriptive essay. We started off with three main points in the timeline. The points are the beginning, the middle, and the end. The starting point of the timeline is supposed to represent the beginning of the vlog. The middle point is the minute that lies in the middle of the vlog and the ending point is the last minute of the vlog. We had to write a single description of the vlog at each one these points. Then we added points between each of the first three along with a single description. This activity was to help us develop the main points we would then turn into our paragraphs by elaborating on each point. This timeline helped a lot to better organize my essay and to come up with topic sentences easier. It also helped to give my essay a better flow with what was actually going on in the vlog. I often have trouble trying to start off an essay, even a paragraph for that matter. This activity helped to put my main topics in a more simplistic yet very organized format. Once I had the main topics, all I had to do is just elaborate on each topic by adding more details and descriptions of each of them. This would have been more difficult if I had just went right into writing the essay with out any basis on what I was doing. Another thing that would have helped with me writing this essay is to see an example of a complete descriptive essay. I find that when it comes to writing it is easier to see examples of what is expected in the essay. With any other topic it would not have mattered but I have always had a hard time writing. Not really in coming up with ideas , but in organizing them so that they flow together. Once I can get beyond that barrier writing would be a lot easier for me and I wouldn't procrastinate when it came down to it.

Vlog description

I chose a vlog titled "My First Vlog+Most Embarrassing Moment" to write my descriptive essay . It's by a guy named Steven from Canada and is quite the character. I chose this vlog because out of the thirty vlogs I watched, this one was the most active and entertaining. The whole video takes place in his room. He pops up from the bottom of the screen and introduces himself to the world. Then he talks about how he found out about vlogging. He does this by adding a few articles of clothing and saying what his friend told him about vlogging in a snobby British accent. He then goes on to talk about the things he likes starting with his favorite movies. A names a few movies but hides behind the last one as if though he's embarrased to have it in his collection. He then states that his favorite animal is a bear while holding a picture of a bear. Then he does a quick cut to a scene of him posing as a bear as a sample of a bear growling is heard in the background. After that he talks about how he has always wanted to play the accordian. Then it cuts to a scene of him playing the accordian but not doing a very good job and he just gives up. He says, "Maybe another day" and goes into another topic. The next thing he talks about is his plants. He gives the names of his plants, which are Phil and Lil. Then you can hear the theme song from The Rugrats as he sways his head back and fourth. After he talks about the things he likes, he mentions that he has always wanted to do a backflip. Then the camers cuts to his attempted backflip and quickly cuts back to him with a dissapointed face. The next topic is about his most embarrassing moment and he tells everyone to keep this to themselves, as if trying to be funny. He talks about a chior recital that takes place when he was twelve. The day of the show the lead got sick and Steven was asked to replace him. What his teacher didn't know was that he started puberty the day before, so when he went on stage to sing he sounded like a teradacktyl. He then says that he hopes everyone that views his vlog will injoy it and he promises to keep up the entertainment.

Today's You Tube Video

In class we watched a video titled " An Anthropological Introduction to You Tube" by Mike Wesch. It explained how You Tube was formed and how it grew so rapidly. I often log onto You Tube to watch movies or listen to music, but I never really thought about how it was constructed. It's amazing to find out how the web page was made. It is a real good example of how fast information can travel over the Internet. Another thing is that people can relate to each other through these videos. Not only can I look up movies or music videos, I can also look videos that are very informative or D.I.Y based. It was interesting to see that videos done right out of your home that cost nothing can overcome the mainstream mediocre videos that cost thousands to make. Wesch talks about how his video that cost nothing made it to the top ten videos viewed in almost a week and how it won over the Super Bowl commercials. Then he talks about how a boy created his own song and video of him dancing to this song and how it spreads over the world in just days. He becomes famous and actually makes an official video that explains how it was spread through mass media. I sometimes get nervous talking in front of crowds of people I don't even know. You Tube gives people in the same situation a chance to express themselves in their most comfortable state . Other people can watch your videos and react to them in their most comfortable state making it very intimate without the awkward silence and embarrassing moments. Some people can argue with your points and views and others can agree with them without caring what other people think. It is just cycles of information going on and on and passing on to other cycles. Wesch also talks about how people start to create other personas and how others got upset by this. I don't see why people should get angry about this. Getting infront of a camera can often drive a person to act out in ways they usually don't in person, especially in the comfort of their own room.

Reflecting on Blog 3's email and the etiquette essay

When we started doing the blogs, I had no idea what to write. In blog #3 we had to write to a friend about a bad grade that was given to us. I didn't have to indent my paragraphs or come up with a thesis statement. It was very easy to complain to friend about the grade. There was no outline or rough draft and we didn't have go to the writing center to have it proof read. At that point I thought this class was going to be easy. Then the blogs started to get more specific and the minimum word count was getting larger. I see now that they were short just to help us build up to where we are now. When we had to the email etiquette essay, we had to pretend to write to a professor about a grade we thought was wrong and had to convince the professor to reconsider it. This was something I have never done so it really was a challenge for me. We had an outline to follow and we had to come up with a thesis statement. I had to actualy think about what was being said in this email. We also had to make very specific and logical points in order to get the professor to change his or her mind about the grade. Another thing that was new in this essay was how we had to thank the professor for taking the time to read the email and sign type our name twice (one in fancy font and the other in a regular font). This excersise helped me learn more about how to write a paper to get my point across and it should prove useful in the future, if needed.

Workshop experience

In class we had to get in our groups and read our papers to each other. We then had to help each other with our mistakes. At first I was a little nervous to read my paper but after the first person in my group went I realized that others were in the same boat. Most of them only wrote a paragraph when it was supposed to be three or more, so we each had to help each other to expand and seperate our ideas. This would help us to create more detailed paragraphs. During the workshop we all came to realize that we were having the same problems in developing our essays. The thesis statement was the first one we helped eachother on. Then there was the issue of when to put a comma before but, because, and so. "I think" and "I believe" were also a common mistake in our papers. The whole process with students helping students was, for me, a great experience for the fact that we are all on the same level of understanding. We were each able to understand better this way because we knew how to explain it in a way we would understand. To me it's a lot easier for a person to point out the mistake of others than their own and in this way we were able to help correct eachothers mistakes. The hardest part of the essay for many of us was the fact that we had to create this whole scenario and come up with fake facts. I figured it would be easy being that I did this all the time when I was a kid to keep from getting in trouble with my parents. I should be a pro at this.

Summerization on internet dating

The article "Internet Dating 2.0" talks about many internet dating sites and what they offer for the socially inclined. It first talks about this site called HonestyOnline that offers a certification system that "takes the lie out of online". The check can dig down to confirm that everything you put in your profile is the truth and that you are not some serial killer with families spread thoughout the U.S. They can also show up to your house, snap some profile pictures, stand you on the scale, run a tape measure from head to toe, and even give you a urine test. The next site is called OmniDate. They can place you in a virtual reaturant with an animated date while both parties work keyboards. These animated figures called avatars move, speak, and even kiss goodnight for you. Then it just goes on about the percentage of people who are actually taking advantage of all these internet dating sites.

The article "Is eHarmony Biased Against Gays" goes over the fact that eHarmony helps in opposite sex dating but not same sex dating. The founder of eHarmony, Neil Clark Warren, is a conservative Christian who apparently believes that gays are some kind of different species. He states that the priciples are probably different so they wouldn't know how to help two people of the same sex and so they just won't try. Then it talks about a lawsuit filed by a lesbian claiming that eHarmony's no-gays policy is discriminatory under California law. The company then replied that it might offer gay matching services in the future and denied that it discriminates. The writer states that the lawsuit is a mistake for the fact that their are many sites other than eHarmony that are strictly for same sex dating. He then talks about how a straight person should file a lawsuit against the same sex dating sites because they discriminate against straight people.

Reflection

Today in class we discussed how to write our email etiquette essay. We went over an outline that went over the steps on how to go about doing so. This was very informative for the fact that I haven't been to school in about seven years and have not written anything since. I had forgotten many important steps in writing an essay such as the thesis statement. The thesis statement was something I always had trouble with during my high school years. I also had a lot of trouble just starting off the essay but the outline gave me a better veiw on how to go about both. The essay was to be in a email format. I have written many emails before but to my friends who really didn't care about the formating. In the email we are supposed to pretend that we are writing a professor about reconsidering a grade that was given to us. This is something that was very new to me because I have never written to a professor about anything. Each student in the class had to take turns reading two lines from the outline. I think this gave us a chance to ask the teacher about certain points we didn't understand. If questions didn't come up, the teacher would stop us anyway to go over topics she thought we would need closure on just to make sure we knew what was going on. It was difficult to comprehend that all these steps were nessessary to write something as simple as an email. Once we got more than halfway through the outline everything started to come together and make more sense. In the end I learned that all the points of the outline, although many, were and are very crucial to getting the point across to the person reading the email/essay.

Summarization #6

In the article " Al Gore: Should Schools Be Wired to the Internet?", Al Gore Talks about how technology has changed the way we work, but most importantly how it has changed the way kids perform in schools. Students in classes that use computers outperform their peers on standardized tests of basic skills by 30% based on a decade-long study by the Education Department. He also states the a 1996 study showed that students with access to the internet not only presented their final projects in more creative ways but also turned in work that was more complete and had a better syntheses of different points of view. They also showed more enthusiasm, had higher attendance rates, developed better writing skills and displayed a greater capacity to communicate effectively about complex problems in technology-rich lerning environments. He then goes on to talk about the E-Rate program which gives crucial discounts to schools and libraries, with the steepest discounts going to the neediest communities ensuring that all childrencan have an equal chance to learn and succeed.

The article "New iPod rules touch off heated debate" talks about the pros and cons of the new policy by the University of Missouri School of Journalism requiring incoming students to have an iPhone, iPod Touch. Although these devices help students escape the pressures of the classroom, a growing number of institutions also use them for acedemic purposes. The oldest journalism schoolis asking students to buy these devices so they can download classroom lectures or confirm facts on the web while reporting from the scene of a plane crash or town council meeting. Some professors are voting against the policy saying that it will add additional expenses to the students and question whether or not these devices will be used to embrace the journalism school's intended uses. Students are even saying that they use these devices to get away from the professors and the stresses of school life.

Summarization #1

The article " Reading, Writing, iPhoning", Elizabeth Woyke basically talks about how some universities are giving either an iPhone or a iPod touch to students. It also says that some universities are pairing the devices with MacBooks. This is supposed to help students out in school, and change the way professors teach and keep track of students. The students will be able to check their syllabi, course calendars, and keep up with city events. They are also adding a panic button that sends an alert to local cops along with information of the student's location. The professors will be able to keep track of attendance and give lectures on the devises, changing how classes are held. The article then states that having these devices in the classroom could just be another distraction, meaning students won't listen to the lectures while they have these in hand. In this case the schools are letting faculty set rules on device use such as other cell phones and laptops, and penalties for inappropiate use of the devices during class.

In the article "Tech helps students adopt good study habits", Dennis Carter talks about Purdue University using an online system called Signals. The system is apart of Blackboard. It uses red, yellow, or green lights to indicate a students standing in each of their classes. The red lights are for students with low grades and with the warnings, students will also get critiques and suggestions from the faculty on how they can improve their grades. The yellow lights are for students with fairly good grades. Green lights are to encourage the students who are at the top of the class to stay at the top. These warnings and critiques can also be sent via eMail, voice mail, or through text messages. The system doesn't wait until midterms to warn students about low grades, it gives their first stoplight updates in the first few weeks of the semester.

Discussion

Well we are approaching our third week in this class, which went by pretty fast I might add, and it keeps getting better. Friday we discussed our syllabus and the writing assignments we will have in the upcoming week. The assignments our growing slowly in their complexity, which is good for me being that I haven't written anything in about seven years. The blogs we have to do really helped to get me back into the writing process. I can write my own thoughts down without having to do research, which makes it easier to put myself back into writing mode. This is good considering we have some essay's coming up. If I need help on the assignment or forgot what the assignment was I can ask someone in my group for further assistance, which is very comforting. My group, in which I am the only boy with four girls, is very helpful and trustworthy. I thought, at first, that being in a group with all girls that I've never met before would be a little hard to get used to. Once we got together and started to converse I knew right away it would be nothing of the sort. They are very nice and open to all suggestions, and it's never a one sided conversation. We just recently got our first group presentation on four articles assigned to us, and I believe we will ace it with no problem. The articles are on interesting topics that I think all students can relate to or learn from making it easier for us to present to others and get feed back. I still get nervous sometimes going in front of people and presenting, but I know my team will be there for support. Two other teams already did their presentations, and they seemed to be just as nervous as I assume I will be. Knowing that everyone else is in the same boat puts my mind to ease.

Bad Grade scenario

Hey man this is Rob. How the hell have you been doing? I on the other hand have been pissed off all damn day. My asshole of a teacher made us write a 5 page paper on the kind of music we are interested in and why we are interested in it. You know me I love to listen to music of all genres, and I am very passionate about all of it. I can go on for hours talking about music maybe even days, but I am not pissed about the topic. I'm pissed because of the grade I got on the paper. He gave me a f#$%!*% big red C. A big red C not a small C, but a big red C. He could have just put a small C in black ink, but no!!!! It's like he was rubbing it in my face. "Oh well, I'm the teacher and I think your music sucks, so I'm going to give you A BIG RED C."
He didn't really say that, but he might as well have. He's into disco or something of the sort. I put a lot of effort in that paper, and I think I made some very good points. It actually came out to be 7 pages long, 2 more than what was required. Maybe that's why I got a bad grade, because he had to read 2 more pages than he wanted to. He probably didn't even finish reading the damn thing. He does have to read about 80 other papers. Mine must have been one of the last one's, and by that time he was probably tired and so frustrated that his emotions blured his grading process. I actually gave it to another teacher to proof read it, and she said it was an A paper. A "Big Red A" paper. Anyway hope you are doing better than I am, and thanks for reading this fake letter.

Writing Process

The way I start writing is the same way I start a painting. I make sure that I find a comfortable spot where I have plenty of space to stretch out. I also need to have something to drink throughout the whole process. Then I just sit there for a while and stare at the blank page until some form of an idea pops into my head. By the time that happens an hour has probably gone by and its time for a stretch. A stretch usually means going outside and smoking a cigarette while conversing with my girlfriend. In doing that we sometimes strike up a serious conversation that last for a long time. Our views are very different when it comes to a lot of topics, so we both like to get our point across. After the headache is gone, I smoke another cigarette and clear my head so I can get started on my paper. I then go inside to get something to drink, usually water, and find my spot again. Most of the time when I return to my paper I read what I came up with, so far, and it just doesn't seem to sound good anymore. I always end up rewriting the first couple of sentences many times until it clicks. When I get atleast a paragraph done I get up again to get something to eat. Sometimes the cook ware I need will be dirty so would need to wash them, which means I have to wash all the dirty dishes. When I'm done with that I make something to eat, smoke another cigarette, then find my spot once again. Finally I can finish my paper.

How does technology help us advance?

Today everyone uses some form of technology. When I need to find out information about school I can use a computer to go online and search for the answer. If I can't find the information I need, the phone would be my next form of technology. I can call or text a fellow student and ask them what it is I need to do. If I'm bored or out and about I like to listen to music on my ipod or stereo. If I feel like making music I can use my keyboard to create samples of sounds. I can then transport them on to my mixer to combine them, distort, etc. This can also be done on a computer, which is better for the fact that you have a lot more options and tools to work with. Another pass time of mine would be playing video games. In order to do this I use a playstation 2, which is hooked up to my television set and stereo. When I get hungry and don't really feel like cooking I can just pop something into the microwave to save time. Since I started school I've had trouble waking up in the morning, but thanks to my trusty alarm clock I can still make to class on time.