Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Unit 1 Round Up
I will admit, I'm much happier with this blog (and the class as a whole) now that I'm five articles in. My greatest concern was that I wouldn't have anything to write about. Anybody who knows me personally will know that if I have something to say, I can say it (and I've spend the last 5-6 years honing the skill of translating what I would say out loud into what I need to write). However, if for any reason I am uncertain what to say (either because of a confusing prompt or a length requirement I can't naturally reach), I get stuck, go into a strong writer's block, and end up producing some of the worst work I have ever seen. If I ran out of things to say in a blog post, or I felt that I had nothing to say about an article, I knew this blog would suffer for it, but I've never felt like I've run out of things to say. In fact, there have been times where I find myself unable to stop writing once I reach the required length. Sometimes, what I write about is incredibly tangental (such as that post where I spend more time digitally griping at the author than answering the prompt), but those writings still feel fluid, and they are very likely some of my best pieces of writing in years. Still, writing isn't my strongest skill, and while I know I would rather be spending my time writing plugins for Minecraft or something, I found this blog assignment both engaging and fun. I can't wait for more writing assignments for this blog :).
Illiteracy in the Interwebs
Ok, so the last post was a post made out of frustration of a reading, but it seems that this time, we read the opposite side of the debate. I found I agreed with most of everything that was said in these articles, and I wish I could have just skipped the other two altogether.
Lunsford's article Our Semi-literate Youth? Not So Fast was probably my favorite of the two. I defiantly that although we may not be reading "formal" writings as much, our literacy hasn't degraded, but evolved. Take that, Hedges! I completely agree that the biggest problem facing our generation's literacy is using the wrong word (people dropping the second P in rapping is very common), but also the internet is a resource. There are tons and tons of resources that point out the common issues, and generally help improve literacy.
Literacy in Three Metaphors by Scribner made me think of a good point involving literacy that I want to bring up. It was sparked by the quote, "At one time, ability to write one's name was a hallmark of literacy." This made me remember that public schools weren't always a given. Publicly funded schools were only started being used to any significant degree during the industrial revolution where education of the working class benefited the companies. Before that, education was a luxury, and only the wealthy families would send their children to school to become literate. Today, with a mandatory 10-12 years of education, it's incredibly difficult to find someone who completely cannot read or write. Since nearly everybody (in America) can read and write, maybe the definition of literacy should be changed to apply to something that not everybody can do. For example, when my mom joined her current job, the office was loosing a lot of employees because they were unable to learn the new computer system. Computer literacy is a term used, yes, but the key is that computer literacy is becoming a central part of what makes a person able to fit in to modern society, and that's what should make literacy what it is.
So that's my two cents worth. Maybe sometime I'll give you my rant on why I believe the current education system needs a reform (something I wanted to say, but ran out of time and space), but for now, these are my thoughts on literacy.
Lunsford's article Our Semi-literate Youth? Not So Fast was probably my favorite of the two. I defiantly that although we may not be reading "formal" writings as much, our literacy hasn't degraded, but evolved. Take that, Hedges! I completely agree that the biggest problem facing our generation's literacy is using the wrong word (people dropping the second P in rapping is very common), but also the internet is a resource. There are tons and tons of resources that point out the common issues, and generally help improve literacy.
Literacy in Three Metaphors by Scribner made me think of a good point involving literacy that I want to bring up. It was sparked by the quote, "At one time, ability to write one's name was a hallmark of literacy." This made me remember that public schools weren't always a given. Publicly funded schools were only started being used to any significant degree during the industrial revolution where education of the working class benefited the companies. Before that, education was a luxury, and only the wealthy families would send their children to school to become literate. Today, with a mandatory 10-12 years of education, it's incredibly difficult to find someone who completely cannot read or write. Since nearly everybody (in America) can read and write, maybe the definition of literacy should be changed to apply to something that not everybody can do. For example, when my mom joined her current job, the office was loosing a lot of employees because they were unable to learn the new computer system. Computer literacy is a term used, yes, but the key is that computer literacy is becoming a central part of what makes a person able to fit in to modern society, and that's what should make literacy what it is.
So that's my two cents worth. Maybe sometime I'll give you my rant on why I believe the current education system needs a reform (something I wanted to say, but ran out of time and space), but for now, these are my thoughts on literacy.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
I AM NOT STUPID!!!
As someone who spends most of his time on the internet, I found this topic to be a little personal. The article "Is Google Making Us Stupid" by Nicholas Carr talks directly about the internet and what it's doing to our cognitive understanding, but I actually found that article unoffending and enjoyable to read. "America the Illiterate" by Chris Hedges, on the other hand, seemed to dance around the issue – never once saying the word internet – completely offended me on a personal level.
First of all, politics is not decided by the campaigns. The most influential part of an election is who's on what party. Yes, the undecided voters play a part in who wins, but the actual vote a person gives almost always lines up with their political officiation, which is defined by permanently instilled beliefs. The ads may play a part in the election, but it's not going to make Texas a blue state or California a red one.
On the subject of our language supposedly getting lower grade-level, I feel that he's looking at inaccurate statistics. First of all, how do you define a grade-level of reading. The problem is that not only is it an ambiguous line, it also changes over time as language evolves. If the first 8 years of school cover conversational english – just what we need to know to talk to anybody – and the last 4 were on old english that nobody uses anymore, sure Shakespeare's work would be a higher grade-level than modern works, but also the language used in Shakespeare's work is not used conversationally anymore. Knowing Shakespeare's stories is fine, but it's not going to help you convince your friend to invest in your business idea.
Hedges misses the point in his writings, and it infuriates me. It's not that people are getting stupid, it's that you aren't keeping with the times, Hedges. Carr seems to get the point right by not blaming the people, but showing how the medium is changing the status quo. It's not that we're too stupid to read long articles, it's that the internet provides a way to get the facts faster, more engagingly, and provides access to related articles and anything else we'd want quickly. Some people are just afraid of change. Schools have suffered from this, as has the economic market in many ways. I think people need to stop blaming the internet, and starting searching for what makes it new, unique, and better.
Oh, and Micky Mouse is not the most famous figure. In 1990, a study with children found Mario more recognizable than Micky Mouse. At the time the article was written, the most famous figure was most likely Master Chief, and today, over 1 billion views says Psy might be it.
First of all, politics is not decided by the campaigns. The most influential part of an election is who's on what party. Yes, the undecided voters play a part in who wins, but the actual vote a person gives almost always lines up with their political officiation, which is defined by permanently instilled beliefs. The ads may play a part in the election, but it's not going to make Texas a blue state or California a red one.
On the subject of our language supposedly getting lower grade-level, I feel that he's looking at inaccurate statistics. First of all, how do you define a grade-level of reading. The problem is that not only is it an ambiguous line, it also changes over time as language evolves. If the first 8 years of school cover conversational english – just what we need to know to talk to anybody – and the last 4 were on old english that nobody uses anymore, sure Shakespeare's work would be a higher grade-level than modern works, but also the language used in Shakespeare's work is not used conversationally anymore. Knowing Shakespeare's stories is fine, but it's not going to help you convince your friend to invest in your business idea.
Hedges misses the point in his writings, and it infuriates me. It's not that people are getting stupid, it's that you aren't keeping with the times, Hedges. Carr seems to get the point right by not blaming the people, but showing how the medium is changing the status quo. It's not that we're too stupid to read long articles, it's that the internet provides a way to get the facts faster, more engagingly, and provides access to related articles and anything else we'd want quickly. Some people are just afraid of change. Schools have suffered from this, as has the economic market in many ways. I think people need to stop blaming the internet, and starting searching for what makes it new, unique, and better.
Oh, and Micky Mouse is not the most famous figure. In 1990, a study with children found Mario more recognizable than Micky Mouse. At the time the article was written, the most famous figure was most likely Master Chief, and today, over 1 billion views says Psy might be it.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Reading and Writing
Reading is the act of taking in literary text and bringing it into your thoughts. Writing is the act of taking those thoughts and putting them into text. Harris talked about how each rewrite changes each time, and that's because as you read, you add the author's thoughts to your own, making a unique collection of thoughts that then goes into your writings.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
ReBlogging
I believe that all writing is rewriting–even when you’re writing something down for the first time, it’s still an act of translation in a way because you’re trying to use text to bring life to this thing that exists in your mind.
If you randomly stumbled upon this blog or are an extraterrestrial trying to understand human writings, Rewriting by Joseph Harris is the required reading for this writing class. The main goal of the book is to explain methods of interpreting writings and to write based off of another writing. However before he does that, he spends an entire chapter trying to define what writing is. One key point he makes about what writing is comes when he defines the word text. "A book is a text, but so are movies, plays, songs... as well as objects like buildings, cars, [ect.]" I completely agree, and writing itself plays a major part of these. Movies and plays have scripts, songs have lyrics, and buildings and cars often start as written schematics or even a design proposal. Writing even makes its way into places that don't seem obvious like video games (it's so not obvious that many people that make them still struggle with it). Another point he makes is that the word interest has a lot of meanings, but most of them apply to writings. "(1) How does this writer add interest or value to what has been said before? (2) What is [his or] her interest in this issue, what perspective is she speaking for? and (3) How is [his or] her style in writing of interest or note?" This applies a lot to what makes a blog good or not. Unlike a more formal publication, A blogger writes from a personal viewpoint of one person, giving it a strong interest in the issue and an interesting style. By using hyperlinks, the blogger also gives context to what has been written before, and easily expands on it. Blogging holds a lot of interest, and like most things, has text, making a very strong writing medium.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Halo AI
Ok, so this isn't my post for the class assignment (I'll get to that a little later into the weekend), but I know I want to say this. When thinking about to whom I wanted to talk about this with, I remembered this blog. I first worried it wouldn't be a good idea because it's the class assignment blog, but then I said, "hey, the goal of this blog is to get us to experience blogging, so why not."
So I was playing Halo Anniversary – a remake of the original Halo game – and I noticed something that made me think. For those of you unfamiliar with the original Halo trilogy, there are three major groups: the humans (which you play as a part of), the covenant (a collection of religious alien species that want humans destroyed), and the flood (a parasitic creature that consumes sentient beings), all of which end up fighting each other. There's a few parts in the original (and maybe in the later games; I haven't played them all) where all three fight at the same time, with you being the human side. I ended up in a situation with me, an elite (one of the more powerful species in the covenant), and a flood zombie when I was playing. The elite and the flood zombie were fighting it out when I got there. I shot the flood zombie with my shotgun, saving the elite, and while I was reloading, the elite started shooting at me. This took me out of the game a little bit, because that wouldn't happen in real life. If we were to say that this situation happened with three real people from different warring nations, let's say, I do not think someone would start shooting at someone who saved their life and wasn't immediately threatening them. I would think the party saved would have mixed feelings about attacking him and would wait to see what the party that did the saving would do next. When mentioning this to my roommate, he said, "Well, the covenant think of Master Chief as the devil." An interesting point, but I think having your life saved throws any preconceptions out the window.
What do you think? Please leave a comment saying what you think.
So I was playing Halo Anniversary – a remake of the original Halo game – and I noticed something that made me think. For those of you unfamiliar with the original Halo trilogy, there are three major groups: the humans (which you play as a part of), the covenant (a collection of religious alien species that want humans destroyed), and the flood (a parasitic creature that consumes sentient beings), all of which end up fighting each other. There's a few parts in the original (and maybe in the later games; I haven't played them all) where all three fight at the same time, with you being the human side. I ended up in a situation with me, an elite (one of the more powerful species in the covenant), and a flood zombie when I was playing. The elite and the flood zombie were fighting it out when I got there. I shot the flood zombie with my shotgun, saving the elite, and while I was reloading, the elite started shooting at me. This took me out of the game a little bit, because that wouldn't happen in real life. If we were to say that this situation happened with three real people from different warring nations, let's say, I do not think someone would start shooting at someone who saved their life and wasn't immediately threatening them. I would think the party saved would have mixed feelings about attacking him and would wait to see what the party that did the saving would do next. When mentioning this to my roommate, he said, "Well, the covenant think of Master Chief as the devil." An interesting point, but I think having your life saved throws any preconceptions out the window.
What do you think? Please leave a comment saying what you think.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Why I (don't) Blog
Why I Blog by Andrew Sullivan is a well written article about why he blogs, and while I don't agree with all of it, I do think he has some good points. I agree that hyperlinks play a large part in blogs, but that wasn't something I didn't already know.
The main thing I feel he got right was the community. I'll admit to spending more time with vlogs over blogs, but the same principles apply. The comments section is a great place for you to add to my post. If anything, a blog's community is a sort of variant of the forum. In a forum, anybody can strike up a conversation topic and get feedback instantaneously, while in a blog, the conversation is started and controlled by one person – the blogger. How bloggers interact with their audience, how their audience interacts with each other, and even how different bloggers interact makes up the integral body of what blogging is.
There was one thing he said that I think is wrong. He said that a blog is a place for rapid-fire posts and not a place for thoughtful thinking. I think there is a place for that type of blog, but I don't think that's the only type. My friend from high school's blog is a good example of thoughtful and inquisitive posts that work well. He posts about philosophical ideas and says a lot of amazing stuff, but he puts time and effort into his posts, sometimes taking weeks before publishing. I don't think that hinders his blog in any way. A more famous example is the VlogBrothers. Although they started with "Brotherhood 2.0" using it as a communication between the two of them, it grew, and they started doing a lot of very thoughtful posts. I don't think blogs have to be instantaneous and thoughtless. In fact, the better posts are the ones thought through rigorously.
On a related note, in a previous post, I mentioned I don't like to blog too much, and I feel like I know why after reading this. If there are two types of blogs – rapid and thoughtful – then I have trouble doing both of them. You will soon learn that If I don't know what I want to say or haven't thought it through enough, I cannot write anything, taking rapid blogging out of the question. The only thing stopping me from creating a thoughtful blog is mostly laziness, but I guess that can be overcome, seeing as this post is already over 400 words long :P.
Anyways, that's my thoughts on the post. If you disagree with anything I said or want to add to it, comment in the comment section below, and make sure to subscribe.
The main thing I feel he got right was the community. I'll admit to spending more time with vlogs over blogs, but the same principles apply. The comments section is a great place for you to add to my post. If anything, a blog's community is a sort of variant of the forum. In a forum, anybody can strike up a conversation topic and get feedback instantaneously, while in a blog, the conversation is started and controlled by one person – the blogger. How bloggers interact with their audience, how their audience interacts with each other, and even how different bloggers interact makes up the integral body of what blogging is.
There was one thing he said that I think is wrong. He said that a blog is a place for rapid-fire posts and not a place for thoughtful thinking. I think there is a place for that type of blog, but I don't think that's the only type. My friend from high school's blog is a good example of thoughtful and inquisitive posts that work well. He posts about philosophical ideas and says a lot of amazing stuff, but he puts time and effort into his posts, sometimes taking weeks before publishing. I don't think that hinders his blog in any way. A more famous example is the VlogBrothers. Although they started with "Brotherhood 2.0" using it as a communication between the two of them, it grew, and they started doing a lot of very thoughtful posts. I don't think blogs have to be instantaneous and thoughtless. In fact, the better posts are the ones thought through rigorously.
On a related note, in a previous post, I mentioned I don't like to blog too much, and I feel like I know why after reading this. If there are two types of blogs – rapid and thoughtful – then I have trouble doing both of them. You will soon learn that If I don't know what I want to say or haven't thought it through enough, I cannot write anything, taking rapid blogging out of the question. The only thing stopping me from creating a thoughtful blog is mostly laziness, but I guess that can be overcome, seeing as this post is already over 400 words long :P.
Anyways, that's my thoughts on the post. If you disagree with anything I said or want to add to it, comment in the comment section below, and make sure to subscribe.
Blog b = new Blog("Lewis Fox");
This isn't my first blog I made, however this was my first blog on the blogger platform, so this was new. My first experience with a blog was when I used a small free hosting service to post my flash games that I was experimenting with. I used Wordpress to keep everything organized, and did some blogging on it while I was at it. Sadly, the web server had issues and it is no longer hosted, but I might be able to get some of the posts back if I find my backup. The other blog I've made was for a school sponsored trip to Scotland. You can read it here: http://foxscotland.wordpress.com. I never really felt like a good blogger personally. It may have something to do with my general laziness of writing, but I don't feel like I would be a good vlogger (video blogger) either, so it just may be that I don't like sharing everything.
When Eric Leake said we were using Blogger, I was unsure, as most of my blogging experience was with WordPress, but after fumbling through the settings, there doesn't seem to be that many differences. WordPress has a larger library of themes and can be used on a personal site, but otherwise it's pretty much the same. The biggest difference I could find was Blogger was linked to Google accounts and Google+ while WordPress uses it's own login system that can be linked to Facebook (but only optionally). Blogger would be easier to share with Google users, while WordPress seems to work by generating a user-base for the interaction. The person to person interactions seems to be what makes blogs (and vlogs) interesting, so make sure to comment and make the conversation interesting.
When Eric Leake said we were using Blogger, I was unsure, as most of my blogging experience was with WordPress, but after fumbling through the settings, there doesn't seem to be that many differences. WordPress has a larger library of themes and can be used on a personal site, but otherwise it's pretty much the same. The biggest difference I could find was Blogger was linked to Google accounts and Google+ while WordPress uses it's own login system that can be linked to Facebook (but only optionally). Blogger would be easier to share with Google users, while WordPress seems to work by generating a user-base for the interaction. The person to person interactions seems to be what makes blogs (and vlogs) interesting, so make sure to comment and make the conversation interesting.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Welcome
Welcome to my blog. I'll be posting here as part of my writing class, but I hope to make this interesting nonetheless.
In case you didn't get it, the title is a reference to this meme:
In case you didn't get it, the title is a reference to this meme:
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