Paradise city?

Feedback

2006-11-26T21:45:00.000-06:00

In Chapter 4 of Emergence, by Steven Johnson, I was not sure what negative and positive feedback was and how it related back to real life. Johnson's example to help readers understand this concept was based on the temperature in a room. He said that negative feedback was when a room's temperature stays the same. If the room gets too hot then cold air is brought in and in it gets too cold then hot air is brought in. No matter what, the temperature remains constant. Johnson then explained positive feedback as a room where there is hot air being continuously pumped in. The temperature continues to rise at more hot air is pumped in. This is the opposite of negative feedback. Instead of the temperature remaining the same, the temperature is being pushed in one direction.

We discussed the differences between the two in class. One of my classmates described positive feedback as an amplified effect because it continues to be pushed further and further in one direction. This same classmate described negative feedback as a balancing effect because it is stabalized at one particular point.

My class began discussing specific examples of negative and positive feedback. This was very difficult for me because I didn't know how to connect this concept of "room temperature" to other aspects of life. Someone suggested that Google was negative feedback. Their defense for their opinion, was that google doesn't push a web surfer in one direction. It only gives results for a particular search. A surfer has to redefine their search to get more specific results. I agree with this because google doesn't give results that push me in a certain direction, it just gives me all results that have that word somewhere in the website.

We decided that the web as a whole was positive feedback because there are always sites being added as a result of sites that are visited. I agreed with this too because I can visit a website that I think is interesting and then that site directs me to other site that might be interesting to me.

Although I found this concept really difficult to understand, I did think that the discussion in class helped to to wrap my brain around the general definition of positive and negative feedback.

Bottoms Up

2006-11-22T10:23:00.000-06:00

"...we are steadily learning how to think from the bottom up." (Pg. 67 Emergence)

Are we really leaning to think from the bottom up? What caused this change? Classrooms, the government and fashion all work from the bottom up. In class, teachers can ask students for their opinions about how the class is going and what improvements can be made.The teacher is asking for input from the students to help create a class that the students will enjoy. The government officials are elected based on a bottom up basis. The "people" elect representatives from each state to speak for them. The officials then have the responsibility to learn what the people want and they must represent them accordingly. This is bottom up also because the common people are affecting what their representatives say. Fashion is another example of how bottom up affects out world. Fashion designers create clothes that people will like. The usually send fashion designers out to look for cool people, hoping that their unique sense of style will be enjoyed by the World. This, once again, is bottom up because the common people are making decisions for large corporations.

Bottom up can affect our country greatly. In Emergence, Steven Johnson discussed how corporate America is replacing quality management with bottom up intelligence. A trickle down effect has begun to take place and bottom up tactics seem to be taking over real management. Authorities don't speak for themselves. The listen to people below them and they allow those people to make big decisions for them.

When I think of the bottom up effect, I think about a specific South Park episode where the entire town starts dressing metro sexual because of the popular show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. In the episode, Kyle decides that he isn't going to dress metro sexual. All of his friends abandon him because he isn't as metro sexual as they are. The men in town get carried away and start a metro sexual parade. Their wives are furious because their men have become wimpier then ever. They decide that they are going to go to the TV network and have the show canceled. At the end of the episode, you find out that the stars from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy are actually crab people from below the Earth's surface who are trying to take over the world. Unfortunately, the bottom up effect wasn't so great here.

Photoshop 1

2006-11-17T11:47:00.000-06:00

I went to a photoshop software training class this past Monday. The class taught me about how to creat photos but it also was a good review of Dreamweaver. A lot of the concepts that were covered in that class were similar to things that can be done in Dreamweaver. They showed us how to create templates, layers, and basically doodle. I thought that the best part about the class was the tricks and shortcuts that were shown. It made photoshop seem easier to work with.

I hope that I can use what I learned in photoshop to create graphics for my final project in my English 201 class. I think that this class has also helped me to review basic ideas and techniques that were similar in Dreamweaver which will help me to feel more comfortable when greating my final web page.

Changing Identity

2006-11-12T23:47:00.000-06:00

"Place and non-place are rather like opposed polarities: the first is never completely erased, the second never totally completed; they are like palimpsests on which the scrambled game of identity and relations is ceaselessly rewritten."

This fragment in "From Places to Non-Places," by Marc Auge, can be divided into three groups which express key aspects of place and non-place.

The first part describes places and non-places as opposed polarities meaning that they are opposites of each other. Places involve interactions with other people and non-places do not involve interactions. Non-places are solely based on the individuals whereas places involve groups of people.

The second part talks about how something can never totally be a place or a non-place. It shows how ambiguous something can be because it can be both a place and a non-place based on the situation. A good example of this is a store. The customers walk around by themselves and they do not interact with others making it a non-place. But the employees are forced to interact with others so it becomes a place for them. Calling something a place or a non-place describes how the individuals interacted during that specific situation.

The third section talks about how something is constantly fluctuating between a place and a non-place. The identity is always being rewritten because the interactions between individuals are also constantly changing.

This particular piece from Auge shows how complicated places and non-places are. It shows that they coexist together since it depends on the interactions of individuals. This explains how somethings produce more memorable memories compared to others. Places are more memorable because they can be connected to actual interactions whereas non-places cannot be connected to interactions at all.

Against Pain Meds?

2006-11-09T18:52:00.000-06:00

My morning started off pretty rocky...

I woke up this morning at 7:30 because I had to take my cat to the vet to get spade. I was extremely tired because I had to work the night before. I put her in her carrier and headed to my car. I set her on the front seat next to me and I covered the carrier with a blanket because it seems to calm her down. 30 seconds into the trip, she was crying as loudly as she could.

She wouldn't stop crying which made me feel like this demon person that punishes my animals. I tried talking to her. I tried petting her. I tried everything I could think of. Nothing worked.

Finally, we made it to the vet. Once I carried her into the lobby her crying stopped. It was almost as if she had lost all hope. She knew there was no going back and she was pissed. I set her down on a chair and told the secretary that Voodoo had arrived. I walked back to the carrier and opened the door so she could come out for a little while before the doctor came. She wanted nothing to do with me. She sat in the carrier and stared at me. I tried to take her out but she was resistant.

The secretary walked over to us and handed me a consent form. The front page was general information and the back was specific to the surgery. While I was filling out the back page, I noticed that pain medications was optional. Naturally I checked it because I don't want my kitten to be suffering. But I'm curious, how many people don't check the option for pain control?

My train of thought was cut off when the doctor entered the room. He took Voodoo and told me that I could pick her up tomorrow morning.

Hopefully when I pick her up tomorrow she'll appreciate that I paid extra for pain medication and maybe look over the fact that I had her fixed.

I NEED MY SPACE!

2006-11-06T10:43:00.000-06:00

Last Friday in my English 201 class, we discussed Marc Auge’s descriptions of a place and a non-place. He thought that a place was where interaction takes place between individuals. A non-place was described as a place where interaction does not take place and where other people do not affect an individuals experience there. Auge thought that gas stations, supermarket and even malls were places that could be considered a non-place.

We began to discuss how people have become more antisocial and how people have become more comfortable in non-places. People don’t interact with each other at bus stations or even at stores. Instead people are preoccupied with their Ipods, cell phones, or palm pilots. They would rather talk to someone miles away on the phone or listen to music than interact with others around them.

When class was over, I headed o my Stats class across campus. I like to get to class early so I can read through my lecture notes for that week. I started thinking about how I was interacting with other individuals in my class. I realized that I had a particular spot that I liked to sit in. Since my last class on Friday is my Stats class, I like to be close to the door because I can leave as soon as class is over so I tend to sit in the back of the room in the corner. I also like to have an open seat next to me so I can put my stuff on it and so I don’t have to socialize with others.

When class was about to start, I began to take out my folder and my notebook so I would be prepared for class. While I was busy doing that, a girl (I will call Tammy) in my class came in and began searching for a seat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tammy heading my way. She stopped behind the chair that I had placed all of my stuff on. Although I was extremely irritated, I moved my stuff so she could sit down. After I was done moving my stuff, I looked around the room to see that there were plenty of open seats left in the classroom. Somehow I decided to let things slide and I concentrated on what was going on in class. Maybe five minutes into class, Tammy turned to me and tried to start a conversation with me.

Tammy: It’s really beautiful outside isn’t it?
(Seconds passed as I tried to refrain from saying what I was actually thinking)
Me: …..yeah…..

Now I was irritated. Not only did Tammy sit in the one spot that was designated for my coat and my bag, but she was trying to inhibit me from learning. Auge popped back into my head and I realized that I had grown accustomed to sitting by myself and being anti-social. When someone disrupted my usual routine, I became infuriated. I was living a life that was a continuous cycle of non-places.

“In the concrete reality of today’s world, places and spaces, places and non-places intertwine and tangle together.” (Auge pg. 107)

Auge’s words become more relevant than they had been when I first read them. Places and non-places cannot be labels indefinitely. Specific moments in someone’s life can be labeled as being a place or a non-place because they can not be re-lived. But the actual place can be revisited and therefore it can never be labeled. People can have different experiences in the same place depending on how they are interacting with the individuals around them. If a person chooses not to talk to someone at the gas station while they are waiting in line to pay for their gas and coffee, they are choosing to make the gas station a non-place. But if that same person decides to strike up a conversation with the person in front of them while waiting for a credit card to go through, they are making meaningful interactions and making the gas station a place. It all depends on the people that are at the specific location at that time.

Although I had grown accustomed to my Stats class being a non-place, I realized that it can also turn into a place when other individuals choose to interact with me and others around me (even though I may dislike it).

World of Warcraft Controlling Your Life?

2006-10-29T21:19:00.000-06:00

"The persona thing intrigues me. It's a chance for all of us who aren't actors to play [with] masks."

I have always wondered why people, especially males, become addicted to video games. As usual, a South Park episode came up in a conversation today that I was having with my sister. This particular episode involved a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game called World of Warcraft. The point of the game is to build up your character by killing others, completing missions, and gaining experience. This specific South Park episode was mocking this game because people are becoming extremely addicted to it. People have become so addicted that they have even lost their jobs. What is it about this game that makes it so fun and so addicting?

By chance, I knew someone who played World of Warcraft. I went over to his house to hang out and he was sitting in his computer chair playing video games (surprise, surprise). He looked like he hadn't even taken a shower that day. Apparently, the only thing that could get him out of bed that day was video games. I decided that I would stay for a while to see what this game was all about. Fortunately for me, I was bored in five minutes. I had no idea how this game could keep anyone entertained. I decided to look for answers.

In "Identitiy Crisis", Sherry Turkle discussed how gamers create an alternate persona online. These gamers create "clans", group of people who travel and fight together, who they talk to while they play. "Extreme gamers" buy microphones so they can type while they play. They can talk to others online and make friends. This helps gamers express themselves and their opinions. Because their is no direct contact, gamers can be whoever they want to be online. My friend, for example, acts like a hardass and he says things to other people that he wouldn't say to their faces. He doesn't have to worry about people getting pissed off at him. He can take on a totally new personality because it feels like it's not reality since he is sitting behind a computer screen.

Turkle compared these online personalities to Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). In MPD, the alternate personalities are similar to each other but they express different traits more than the host personality (the original personality) does. Online personalities seem to share that same trait. One person can have different online personalities but they all seem to reflect the original personality in some ways. These personalities can help people express feelings and thoughts that they may have trouble expressing in their every day lives.

After only a few minutes of watching him play World of Warcraft, I decided that I was going to go home. Being the nice friend that I am I called him a loser because he was so into the video game and I left. I guess I'm not as into video games as some people are.

Happy F#$%ing Halloween!

2006-10-26T20:34:00.000-05:00

Halloween is finally here! The very anticipated weekend where college students go out and get trashed in celebration of a wonderful holiday. I haven't decided what I am going to do this year. I'm sure I will end up going to some house party, but in the back of my mind I know that my friends and I will eventually get drunk and stupid and decide that going to state stree might be a fun time. Fortunatly for me, I will be with a lot of other guys so I have no worries about saftey.

This Halloween is going to be interesting. Not only is it going to be interesting to see how the police have decided to keep most people off of states street. It will also be interesting because the weather this weekend is going to be crappy...cold, snowy, and crappy.

Either way, Halloween is always a fun time. People think up crazy costumes (sometimes slutty ones), they eat and drink all day, and then head to the streets to mingle with other crazy drunk people. Hope you enjoy Halloween. I know I will.

Stealing Music

2006-10-23T09:06:00.000-05:00

Before reading “Writing About Cool” by Jeff Rice, I had no idea what sampling was. I knew that some artists used other songs to make their own music but I didn’t know that it was called sampling. Jeff Rice defined sampling as “the process of joining pieces of different songs together to create new songs.

In my English 201 class, my small group discussed the positive and negative aspects of sampling. After some debate, we decided that sampling was a good music genre because it’s an interesting way to send a message to people. Instead of creating brand new material, the artist uses popular music that many people have already heard to help defend their ideas. It’s almost like writing a research paper. The citations are like the many different artists that the sampler uses. Sampling can also be bad because some artists don’t give proper credit to other musicians. The artist uses these musicians music but they aren’t acknowledged. This could cause many problems including younger generations be unaware that the sampler’s music isn’t original material.

Jeff Rice brought up an interesting question: Is sampling stealing? Where do you draw the line between using someone else’s work and stealing it? What do samplers need to do to properly cite other musicians work? My group did not come up with concrete answerers to these questions but this idea brought up many other similar ideas that we discussed including downloading music off the internet. Is it stealing when people download music off the internet for free? Many people use different programs including Napster and Lime Wire to download music. Does it actually affect the musicians? How much money do musicians actually lose?

While my group was discussing, an episode of South Park popped into my head. Stan, Kyle and Kenny decided that they were going to start a band. They downloaded music from the internet to decide what kind of music genera they wanted to be in. They realized that they weren’t going to make money from starting a band because people will just download their music for free on the internet. Their band goes on strike which causes many popular bands and artists to go on strike. At the end of the episode, the boys realize that they are artists and they want to make music. They also realized that if people really like their music, they will buy their CDs, go to their concerts and buy their merchandise which is more than enough money. My question still stands: How much money could artists actually be losing? This episode brought up another good point: Musicians do what they do to make music and not to make money. They shouldn’t make music to become famous or rich. They should make music because they want to express their ideas, opinions, and thoughts through their lyrics.

Therefore, I have decided that samplers should be appreciated because they are paying tribute to musicians that agree or have similar ideas and opinions. In actuality, these musicians aren’t losing a ton of money when samplers use their music. Because of samplers, their lyrics reach a new audience and their ideas become more prevalent (which should be more than enough to cover the money that they lose in CD sales).

The Hunt for Cool

2006-10-15T23:44:00.000-05:00

How do you decide if someone is cool? Is it their personality? The way they act? Their opinions about things? Their rebel attitude? Malcolm Gladwell, in "The Coolhunt", discussed how big corporations make products that the public finds cool. These corporations, like Reebok, have "cool hunters" that go to urban areas and take pictures of people that look cool and then bring them back so they can make products that are similar to what these people are wearing. Gladwell also talked about how "coolhunters" talk to kids and find out which products they find cool. These "coolhunters" show cool kids different products to find out what they like.

Gladwell also discussed how important product lables were. I was really amazed when Gladwell told an experience in which kids decided that a product was cool mainly based on what company produced it. I didn't realize how powerful product names were. I also found it really interesting that products can become cool and stay cool because they had one huge hit that everyone liked. I didn't realize how important a corporations reputation was.

After reading "The Coolhunt", I noticed several problems with cool hunters. The first problem with cool hunters. is that corporations need to find someone who knows what is cool and can find kids that are cool. This means that the cool hunter needs to be cool themselves. If a big corporation hires a cool hunter who isn't cool and doesn't know what's cool, then the corporation will end up producing products that no one will buy. The second problem with cool hunters is that they need to stay cool to keep their jobs. If a cool hunter has an off day and suggests something that isn't cool, the corporation will end up losing money because the product won't sell. This could also cause the cool hunter to lose his/her job. The last problem with cool hunters is that only big corporations can afford to hire a cool hunter. Smaller corporations will have a harder time creating products that consumers will like which could eventually create a monopoly.

Those things aside, cool hunters are a smart way for corporations to make good products that consumers like.

Mystery of the Urinal Deuce

2006-10-12T22:12:00.000-05:00

This week started off being extremely unpleasant. I had spent the entire weekend studying because I had two midterms this week so I was exhausted by Monday night. Not only was the weather crappy, but I was going to miss the new episode of South Park on Wednesday. To say the least, I was pissed.

Luckily, I got out of my midterm today (Thursday) early so I was able to watch it. To all South Park lovers...."Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" was a fantastic episode! One you don't want to miss.

Mystery of the Urinal Deuce

"The world’s biggest conspiracy of all time will finally be uncovered when Eric Cartman exposes the true culprit behind the September 11th attacks. No one in South Park is safe from the people who are the real brains behind the 9/11 conspiracy. When Kyle and Stan hit the road in search of the truth, they come face-to-face with the masterminds who pulled off the most elaborate, intricate and flawlessly executed operation in American history.." (Taken from www.southparkstudios.com)

See a preview...
South Park Urinal Preview

Viruses

2006-10-08T14:11:00.000-05:00

Like most of you, I have had my share of computer viruses. While reading “Epidemics and Failures,” by Duncan Watts, I began to wonder why I got these viruses and other people have not. What was I doing that was making me more susceptible? I know that people can get computer viruses through emails and downloads, but how could I protect my computer from these viruses?

There are many different anti-virus programs that are supposed to protect computers from getting a virus. If the virus is some how downloaded to your computer, the anti-virus program is supposed to detect it and destroy it before it causes too much damage. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way. Hackers have learned to get by these anti-virus programs by making more complex viruses that are harder to detect. Watts compared computer viruses to biological viruses. He pointed out that both types have the potential to spread quickly. Watts also talked about how some biological viruses can burn out because they attack small populations too quickly. In other words, the virus is so effective that it “kills” off its targets to quickly and they don’t have time to infect others. Computer viruses also burn out but it happens in a different way. They burn out because anti-virus programs learn how to detect these new viruses and protect computers from them. This causes the virus to become nearly extinct because susceptible targets are harder to find.

Watts introduced the SIR Model which attempts to explain the stages of viruses. S stands for susceptibility, I stands for infectious, and R stands for removed. Watts believed that people go through a continuous cycle when they become infected with a disease/virus. A person becomes infected depending on how susceptible they are. Then the person either recovers or dies from the disease. Lastly, the person’s immunity to the disease is lost which in turn increases their susceptibility to the disease and the cycle is continued. This model has one major flaw when explaining computer viruses. Different computers are more susceptible depending on what anti-virus programs are installed on to the computer. After the computer becomes infected, it either detects the virus and destroys it or the computer crashes (dies). This model doesn’t seem to explain a computer’s susceptibility to viruses after recovery. Computers don’t seem to lose immunity after recovering from a virus. This model seems to have a small flaw that may need more consideration if it is going to explain a computer virus’ cycle.

Blogging

2006-09-29T18:13:00.000-05:00

Webloging is a new fad that more people are getting involved in. Meg Hourihan wrote an article, “What We’re Doing When We Blog,” discussing similarities between blogging today and blogging in the past. Hourihan described blogs in the past as a “personal online diary” and now as a “web journal that comments on news.” She made a point to show that blogs have evolved. Hourihan believed that blogs became more important after 9/11. Hourihan discussed how blogs seemed to unit people and make people feel connected. She thought that because blogs are updated so frequently that the reader feels more connected to the author because they are always informed about new event in the authors life. Blogs also use links which connect the author to other people. This can make the reader feel more connected and apart of the authors life because the reader discover other things that the author thinks are important or are infesting. These moments are strong connections that make blogs so popular.

During a discussion about this article, my classmates in my English 201 class had some interesting ideas. The first question that was brought up was whether or not blogging became popular after 9/11? Were people so emotional that they needed to talk to people about what was going on? Did people start blogging because they were hoping to get support from others who were in the same situation? Were people angry about what happened and they were just trying to vent? People could have started blogging for a number of reasons. Some people thought that maybe it wasn’t 9/11 that caused people to blog more. It could have been a number of events that caused people including the presidential election. No matter what influential event caused blogs to change, news articles and popular rhetorical ideas are constantly being discussed in blogs.

Unfortunately, this article is old which makes it very difficult to understand where Horihan is coming from. I did not know about blogs in 2002 so I can’t make my own opinions about it. I just have to take Hourihan’s word for it. All I know is that today people are using blogs to talk to others, get support when times get rough, discuss influential events, or even talk politically with others around the world. I think that blogging started to take off ever since people realized that chatting online was so fu. People realized that they could connect with people electronically. They started to discuss topics by posting opinions and hoping people comment. Although I am not as comfortable blogging about personal information as some people, I feel that it is an important aspect of society today. Things are changing rapidly because our society is getting even more technologically advanced. There will continue to be more fads that people engage in online.

Medium Madness

2006-09-24T23:43:00.000-05:00

After reading �Material Metaphors,� by N. Katherine Hayles, I felt
extremely confused. I had no idea what she was trying to say. It was
like I had read the entire reading but I really hadn�t read it at all.
Everything she said went in one ear and out the other. I had no idea
how to make sense of what I had just read.

I went to class, the next day, hoping that my classmates could help
shed some light on this reading. When I began talking to my group, I
realized that they were just as confused as I was. We started by
looking at different definitions that Hayles had put online. This, some
how, made me feel more in the dark than I was before. Eventually, Scot
came to the rescue and helped me understand what she was trying to say.
Scot said that Hayles is saying that the tool that is used to present
the information is more important than the content itself.

Marshall McLuhan�s words came to mind (�The Medium is the Message�).
Katherine�s concept seemed much clearer than McLuhan�s. Although her
way of writing was a bit �scatter brained,� the message was easy to
understand once I got past all of that. She was saying that the way you
present information is just as important as the content itself. For
example, if you place an add for a music store online, the medium (the
internet) influences who looks at the add and how they perceive the
message. Putting as add in a woman�s magazine may not be as effective
because it will limit the audience to women who read the magazine. I
left class that day feeling like I had cracked a code. I had discovered
the secret that was protected by all of those scattered thoughts.

After I reevaluated what happened in class, I realized that I too
thought that the medium was just as important as the message. Choosing
which medium to use should be just as important as choosing what to
say. Different people are drawn to different mediums. A writer needs to
know the audience that he wishes to attract and what this particular
audience is interested in. The writer will not attract the right
audience or an audience at all, if he doesn�t project his message in
the right form. Everyone looks at things differently when they are
presented in different mediums. If an add for toothpaste is presented
in Cosmopolitan, it will not have the same affect that it could have if
it was presented in a parenting magazine. Teens and young adults are
not as concerned with dental health as parents are. Why? Because
parents are primarily concerned with their child�s health.

I will continue to contemplate this issue and use it to benefit me and
others around me.

Voodoo (AKA Spaz)

2006-09-21T17:01:00.000-05:00

While I was contemplating what to write about for today's blog, I was distracted by my cute but also naughty kitten, Voodoo. My boyfriend bought her for my last birthday. Voodoo is a 6 month old black kitten. She likes to do just about everything that she is not supposed to including knock down my plants (which she conveniently did last night). I hope you enjoy my photos.

This is a picture of Voodoo hiding in the bathtub. When she gets scared she jumps in the bathtub and peaks over the edge.

Voodoo hiding under the shower curtain

I bought Voodoo this toy a couple of months ago. It's a small mouse hanging from a string that hangs from the door. When she gets really rowdy, she tries to catch the mouse by jumping up in the air after it.

Blog #3

2006-09-18T08:30:00.000-05:00

“No one is forcing this public to write.” This phrase really caught my eye when I
was reading “Made not only in words: Composition in a New Key” by Kathleen Blake Yancey. A few questions came to mind: What does she mean? Who is she talking about?
What are they writing about? As I continued to read, I realized that
Yancey was talking about children and about students that she has in
her class. Yancey’s argument was simple. She thought that English
teachers need to broaden their curriculum to make room for more
technologically advanced writing like web logs and instant messaging.
Yancey also thought that if teachers show students different mediums
that they can write in, then students will learn how to use different
skills that they learn, in one medium, in another medium.

I really connected with Yancey because I could relate to her students.
I saw myself, in her classroom, wondering how her class was going to
benefit me. I thought back to when I started high school and about the
class that I took. I could remember some of the classes and about 1/3
of the teachers. I realized that I remembered those classes and
teachers because they had figured out how to connect to me. Some
teachers had similar personalities, while other teachers just knew how
to make the information, that I was learning, fun. I started thinking
more specifically about the English classes that I had taken. Hmmm…
boring, boring, and boring. Could those classes have been more
interesting? Could the teachers have done something different? Could I,
the student, have done something different? Yancey’s point popped into
my head. If my teachers would have connected instant messaging into
their classes, I would probably be an English major. This is where
Yancey’s problem becomes clea
r: how can teachers connect to the students and make the information
fun? I think that if teachers are up to date on what kids like, they
can incorporate these interest into the class to engage students. It
doesn’t matter whether a teacher uses music, instant messaging, movies,
magazines, etc. but that they can connect these popular mediums to the
curriculum.

In class the next day, our discussion basically summarized the article.
Many of my classmates were confused about what Yancey was suggesting.
After much deliberating, we came to the conclusion that Yancey felt
that technology should be incorporated into English classes. Some
people were concerned that social status would affect the kinds of
mediums that could be involved in classes. One person brought up the
topic of money. She thought that people that couldn’t afford a computer
(or any other piece of equipment necessary to understand the medium)
would be at a disadvantage compared to the other students. I then
brought up the idea that some people may not feel comfortable with the
equipment and that this too would put those students at a disadvantage.
As the discussion continued, many other problems and concerns were also
brought up.

After class, I looked over my notes. Yancey’s argument became clear to
me because I had other people’s opinions about what Yancey was saying.
It seemed that, although some of us had some concerns about bringing
more technologically advanced writing into the classroom, we all agreed
that it would help more students learn new fundaments of writing. I
wonder if Yancey’s words influenced other English teacher the way that
they influenced my class. Are teachers and students so set in their
ways that they won’t embrace change? Or will teachers bring new mediums
into the classroom that will create a generation that can transfer
ideas from one medium to another? Although these questions may be
somewhat rhetorical, they are interesting to debate.

Devious Dentists

2006-09-14T11:49:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning realizing that I had a dentist appointment at 1:00 pm. Like many people, I dread going to the dentist. Although it was painfully difficult, I managed to force myself to go to the appointment. When I walked in the door I sensed something was different. I got the feeling that I was surrounded by this great fog of rhetoric. Instantly English 201 popped into my head. I realized that I had to be careful or I could be manipulated by rhetoric.

I began thinking about my first encounter with this dentist. I had called a week ago to set up the appointment. When I was on the phone with the secretary, she reassured me that the dentist was more than qualified to complete the examination. On the phone, she told me that she was going to send me some new patient information and some pamphlets for me to look at before my visit. When I received the pamphlets, I was once again reassured that the dentist that I was going to see the next week was qualified and professional. Is rhetoric in use? I think so.

When the day of the appointment arrived, I was hesitant to go to the dentist. I decided that it was time for me to get a check-up and that I should just go. I walked into the clinic and saw many smiling faces. As I walked up to the front desk, I was pleasantly greeted and once again reassured that my visit was going to be pleasant. After waiting about 15 minutes, a nurse walked into the waiting room and called out my name. Knowing that I could not escape, I followed the professionally dressed nurse into the examination room. I realized that her outfit had given me a sudden sense of relief because she was persuading me to believe that she knew what she was doing. I wasn’t fazed by her tricks of rhetoric. Instead, I was embarrassed that her outfit temporarily made me feel more comfortable. In no time, the nurse was again trying to use her sly techniques to calm my fears before the doctor came in, but I ignored them.

After some time, the dentist finally arrived. He, like everyone else at this clinic, tried to fool me with his rhetorical tricks. By now, I had caught on to their plan and was devising a secret plan of my own. Fortunately for the dentist, the examination went well. He did try to persuade me to brush and floss more by giving me a “free” toothbrush and some floss. The dentist told me to have a good day and said that he hopes to see me in a couple of months. “Oh we’ll see about that…” I said to myself. I drove home feeling triumphant in my experience at the dentist. I know now that I can never be too careful because rhetoric is everywhere.

Rhetoric?

2006-09-11T09:39:00.000-05:00

I would define Rhetoric as the discussion of verbal and nonverbal communication concerning certain subjects or topics. The ideas that are expressed in the rhetoric are not always factual and can be opinions. Today’s reading, “An overview of Rhetoric” by James A. Herrick, has shown me what rhetoric used to be and how it has changed. It has also shown me that rhetoric can has a wave like effect that can eventually influence societies.

The reading hasn’t changed my definition but it has forced me to look at different aspects that could influence rhetoric. I learned that a rhetor needs to plan out the ideas to achieve the desired goals. I also know now that rhetoric can persuade an audience using arguments to defend its ideas. Rhetors try to stir up emotions by discussing touchy subjects such as loyalty or commitments which cause the audience to evaluate the ideas themselves. At times, rhetors also try to arrange their arguments and use catchy techniques to lock in the audience’s attention and receive the best response.

The art of rhetoric, a term that is new to me, is introduced in this piece as being “the study and practice of effective symbolic expression” (pg. 28). Herrick said that there are six functions of the art of rhetoric: testing ideas, assisting advocacy, distributing power, discovering facts, shaping knowledge, and building communities. To be successful, rhetoric has to have each of these functions.

After Herrick’s conclusion, I realized that rhetoric can affect entire societies. It influences power, people’s beliefs, morals and ethics, and development and maintenance of societies. The ideas that are introduced and argued can be a substantial influence on society. Rhetoric affects communities as a whole because they influence the ideas that people have and the topics that people talk about. Whether they like the ideas suggested in rhetoric or not, they are influenced by it.

Day 1...

2006-09-08T12:46:00.000-05:00

Hello. My name is Aleice. I am a sophomore at UW Madison. I started blogging because I am taking an English class that teaches students what blogging is and how to blogg. Although this is my first experience with blogging, I am catching on quickly. A little bit about me...I grew up in Wausau, WI. I moved to Madison, WI a year ago when my freshman year of school started. I am a Psychology Major and also a premed student. I am hoping to become a clinical-forensic psychiatrist (which basically is a criminal psychiatrist). I have a job and I work three days a week. Unfortunately that cuts down on my free time but I always find time for friends. I'm not sure what I will be posting but I do know that I will take into account my personal and class experiences.