GO BREWERS!

Non-Places and Solitude

Marc Auge wrote the book Non-Places: An Introduction to an Anthropology to Supermodernity. This week, I had to read a portion of his book. The portion that I read dealt with the difference between a “place” and a “non-place”. His references to non-places are that they distance the people from the place. These non-places are not places that people invest emotional value into them. It is just a place where people go, to either get to another place or use that place for a specific purpose and then leave. Some of the examples that we talked about in class are terminals, lecture halls, elevators, a drive-thru, and a bus.

My assignment was to go to a non-place and write my reflections onto my blog. Since I live far away from campus, I have had to use the Madison Metro bus system. So the last time I road the bus I paid particular attention to the people and what goes on in the bus. When I ride the bus I feel like I am not connected to anyone. I put on my headphones, listen to my I-pod and wait until I get to my destination. As I look around, I see that almost everyone else is doing the same. Some people are listening to their I-pods, some reading, and some doing homework. Even people, who get on the bus together, rarely talk. We had coined the term “shared solitude” in class and I think that it fits for this specific example. There are no relations on a bus; the riders are just using this service as a means to get where they want to be. In the side notes of my reading, my professor wrote that people “can become accustomed to non-places (if it is frequented enough)”. This is exactly how it was for me and the bus. I had never ridden on public transportation before I came to Madison. At first I felt really awkward, I didn’t have an I-pod so I had nothing to listen to and I didn’t know the “rules” or norms that are followed when riding the bus. Sometimes I felt like talking to people that I didn’t know but I never could because people are so engrossed in their own activities or rarely make eye contact. As time went by I became acclimated and accepted the fact that I would just mind my own business until I got off of the bus.

One question that I had about Auges’ book was on Page 87, when he talked about the difference between movement and solitude. I had a hard time trying to connect to the message that he was trying to get across.

Also, this week in class we are watching Lost In Translation by Sofia Coppola. So far I find it very entertaining. The first half had been a story about how Bill Murray, who plays a movie star, and Scarlett Johansson, who plays a newlywed, are strangers who meet in Tokyo and become friends. To me the movie makes fun of non-places and portrays them to an extreme. I think that knowing what non-places are, makes the movie better.

Spring Break

I just got back from Spring Break and I am finished putting away all of my stuff. I went home last Thursday and had to go to work right away. Then on Friday I had to work at The Greens, a restaurant/bar in my hometown that my mom manages. During work, I helped with bussing, doing the dishes, waiting on tables, and cooking. Then, the bartender wanted to leave so I had to bartend until closing time.

On Monday, I went to two movies. First, I went to the Hills Have Eyes 2. I don’t really know why I went to it but I went to the first one so I wanted to finish off the sequel. I don’t know if anyone else has seen it, but I thought it was pretty bad. It was totally predictable. At the beginning of the movie, I guessed who was going to still be alive at the end of the movie. But the bad part, is that they left it open to make a Hills Have Eyes 3. The second movie that I went to see was Blades of Glory. It was much better. But I didn’t think it was as good as I had heard. Everyone told me that it was really great but I don’t think it wasn’t even close to Will Ferrells’ best movie.

On Wednesday, I went to see TMNT with my nephew and my brother-in-law. I wasn’t expecting much because it was animated. But I had to see it because the cartoon is awesome and the first three movies are even better. I thought it was pretty good but I think that if someone didn’t really like the turtles they wouldn’t like the movie.

Then on Thursday, I got to go to La Crosse to see some of my friends that I haven’t seen in a long time. I had a really good time. I got to drink three different kinds of beer that I have never had before. I had a Scottish beer called Skull Splitter, Red Stripe, and a variety of Samuel Adams.

Then I had to work on this last Friday night. We were really busy for the fish fry because it was the last Friday of Lent. Then after work, I got to go out in Sparta with my sister and my brother-in-law.

Then today, I went to church and then I had brunch with my family up at our cabin. We had so much food up there and I ate way too much. That was about all I did over break. I worked and got to see my friends and my family. The bad part, is that I had a lot of homework to do and I didn’t get any of it done. Oh well, I guess I will just have a busy week. Now, I am going to finish watching Boondock Saints.

Networked Telecommunications

This week I read a chapter called “The Web” from the book Writing about Cool by Jeff Rice. He talked about how the internet has transformed the media. Rice said that corporations use digital media to: “establish a common customer base” and “advertise two or more products simultaneously” (page 140). It is obvious how much advertising is being used on the internet. You can’t go to a site, unless made for personal use, without finding multiple advertising pictures or slogans. The subliminal messaging is phenomenal. Rice also talked about how the internet is highly interactive, while talking about McLuhan and his “hot” and “cold” media. I felt like this chapter was an updated, albeit shortened, version of Understanding Media by McLuhan. Rice talked about how the internet is a definite “cool” media.

Another chapter that I had to read is called “March of the Meganets” from the book E-Topia by William J. Mitchell. I found this to be more confusing to read than the Rice text. Mitchell talked about the “digital revolution”. He feels that the “digital revolution” is similar to any other revolution that this country/world has gone through. For example, the introduction of the train to connect distant places. Then roads and interstates are made and then personal cars are sold so people can travel. One question that I had was on page 19, Mitchell talked about backbones, POPs, and gigaPOPs. I tried reading them all in context, but I couldn’t really figure out what these terms meant. Mitchell also talked about how the internet has been able to connect urban and rural lifestyles. He talked about how life conditions outside of a city were sub-par and how “rural electrification and telephone systems” have drastically improved those conditions. It also gave farmers a better selling market because it put farmers in direct contact with their buyers, even if they were far away.

Last week, we had to look at a site called Stelarc. I don’t even know what to say. The whole site is dedicated to this guy, who has successfully attached metal parts to his body. On the site, it says that his work “explores and extends the concept of the body and its relationship with technology…..”. He has attached a prosthetic limb to his left arm as an addition. So know he has use of three different arms. The site is creepy but I found his concepts pretty interesting.

This week I had to view another site called Benjamin Edwards. I don’t really understand what he is trying to accomplish. I believe he is an author/artist and the site showcased his works. On the main page, I believe there is dialogue from an MOD game, but I could be mistaken. I found this site to be very sporadic and kind of plain. Maybe it is just because I don’t understand what is going on.

What to do?

Well, now I don't know what to do with my life. Football, hockey, and basketball are all over and so ended my season tickets for each. Now, I might have to start doing more studying. HAHA. I am sure that I will be find something better to do with my time. It is sad but I am glad that for my first year here at UW-Madison, all of the sports have had relatively good seasons.

"Natural Born Cyborgs"

This week I had to read an introduction to the book "Natural Born Cyborgs" by Andy Clark. I enjoyed this reading. It was about the increasing role technology plays in all of our lives. Mostly the introduction talked about cell phones but it also talked about other forms of technology.

On page 4, Clark wrote, “The mind is just less and less in the head.” He had talked about how he had lost his laptop for a day and how he felt disconnected from the world. It was like he lost everything, when he lost his laptop. He also talked about how people feel disconnected when their cell phone batteries die.

Clark also talked about how “educationalists” fear the consequence of technology is doing the thinking of their human counterparts. I find this very true for me. If I don’t know what a word means or I don’t know how to spell it I can just go on the internet and find out. I find it easier to look something up on the internet than to think about it. I think that this could be a very serious problem if the continued rise of technology leads to a lowered state of thinking.

The last thing that I found very interesting is when Clark called a cell phone like a “prosthetic limb”. I find it amazing to see people using their cell phones to talk more than talking face to face to a person. I hate having a cell phone but I find it necessary. I was in the late majority (of getting a cell phone) in the bell curve because I didn’t think that I needed one. But now I don’t know what I would do without it.

Sampling and Appropriation

This week, I had to do a couple of readings by Steven Shaviro and Jeff Rice. The reading from Shaviro was a passage from Connected, or What it Means to Live in the Network Society. The majority of the passage that I had to read was about sampling or appropriation. Sampling is the art of taking a collage of other peoples work and putting them together to make your work. An example of this is found on youtube. Apple, make a commercial called “Think Different”. They took a variety of videos of different genius icons and put them together in their commercial, which associated Apple with the geniuses. They used words like, rebellious and not normal to make their product “cool”. Then Shapiro, talks about sampling in rap. On page 68, he says that, “….sampling in rap is a way of making new connections between the past and the present…”. He also makes reference to how sampling “revitalizes” old songs by looping the old song throughout the new song.

I also had to read a couple of chapters from Jeff Rices’ book, Writing about Cool. These two chapters were about popular culture and technology. On page 56, Rice said, “Popular culture is a realm in which a considerable amount of expression takes place. Most of us receive the bulk of our information through the media of popular culture….”. Another thing he talked about, and I found very interesting, is how major networks programs are “transformed into entertainment”. I find this comment to be very true, although, I wish that weren’t the case. Today, media can’t put on stories that are “good” because not very many people would read or want to hear about them. They only want to hear the death stories or if someone committed a crime. So the media is forced to publish gruesome stories or to face bankruptcy. Jeff Rice also talked about when you choose to sample someone else’s work, you need to have your audience in mind. An example that totally captures this idea, is when Public Enemy addresses segregation they sample Martin Luther King, Jr. It connects with their audience and emphasizes the point that they are trying to get across.

Today, as a class, we were asked if we believe that sampling is plagiarism. I think that in the traditional writing sense, it is. I think that it is illegal because I would guess that most of the time the old work, that is sampled, is not cited. But then, I also understand that if everything was protected and only in private hands then creativity would end. People have been using other people works for inspiration for centuries. I believe that the line between sampling and plagiarism is very thin is dependent on the person who is sampling.

Cool hunt. Whats that?

For this Thursday, I had to do a cool hunt. A cool hunt is a “collection of spontaneous observations and predictions that differ from one moment to the next ……” (The Coolhunt by Malcolm Gladwell). Well, considering that I don’t consider myself a trendsetter or a fashionable dresser, I thought that I was going to fail miserably with this assignment. I actually hope that in the future, my spouse will like to lay out clothes for me everyday so I don’t have to decide. I don’t pretend to know what goes with what or what looks good on certain people. I wish I did. I don’t watch MTV, VH1 or BET. I feel like a moron when topics of fashion or the new trends comes up in conversation because I have no idea what is going on. I am amazed with people (in a good way, actually more of admiration) who have fashion savvy. I have pretty much wore the same kind of clothes since I was in middle school Alright, now that I got my little rant out of the way, I can tell you about my cool hunt.

I sat on the first floor of the Helen C. White library for half an hour. Now just as a warning, my findings could be totally incorrect. It seemed to me that what is cool for girls is the typical “coastie” look. You always hear about coasties and how it seems like anybody who doesn’t live on a coast hates them. I have to admit that I don’t really know any girl coasties but I kind of like the way that they dress. The big winter boots, sweat pants with words on their butt, puffy coats, and huge sunglasses. The only thing that I don’t really like are the huge sunglasses. Sunglasses are okay but do they have to take up half of your face.

I had a hard time trying to find what was cool for the guys. It seems to me like the bad ass look is cool for guys. Wearing blazing white sneakers, having a hat brim perpendicular to the rest of your body, having pants that come up to your thighs, and big puffy coats. I don’t really think that this style of clothing fits me so I don’t wear it. So I guess that I am just a not-cool dresser. Who knows?

Well, I guess that is all for now. Hopefully, my expertise on fashion will not be challenged too much more in the future.

Congratulations

I just wanted to send out a congratulatory note to Brian Elliot and Alando Tucker. Elliot was awarded his second straight goaltending title in the WCHA and Alando Tucker was awarded the Big Ten Player of the Year. CONGRATULATIONS. You both deserve it.

Watts, Barabasi, and Rice

For this Tuesday we had to read a couple of readings. The first one that I read was a passage from Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan J. Watts. As a class, we have had to read some of Duncan Watts writings, and for the most part I enjoy what he has to say. He finds a way to connect what he wants to say to his audience. Reading through this passage though, I found it to have too many examples. It just seemed like he was trying to take up more space in his book. For me, it helps when authors use examples when something is confusing, but in this passage, I thought that Watts used too many.

There were many parts of this section that I enjoyed or found interesting. Watts talked about the power of exponential growth and the internet (page 165). The first thing that I thought about was chain mails and forwards. I normally hate receiving forwards in my inbox because I think they are a waste of time. But then I thought about the tactics used by forwards to get people to send them to others. Some examples that I have found after reading the forwards are that if you don’t send to at least so many people, you will either have no friends, have no love, lose money or are unpatriotic. I find these reasons pretty ridiculous when you could be talking about how your favorite color determines what kind of person you are. Another thing that I found very interesting was the “mathematics of epidemics” (page 168). He talked about the SIR model and the three primary stages of an epidemic S stands for susceptible, I for infectious, and R for removed. Then Watts wrote, “a spreading disease is continually being forced by the network back into the already infected population” (page 175). When I read this I thought of computer viruses and how they can be very hard to prevent, especially without anti-virus hardware. It seems like that viruses, technological or intrapersonal, always seem to find a way to infect something else and survive. Even though, the passage talked about how many different diseases end up burning out or being cured before they can infect too many things or people.

Another reading that was assigned was Viruses and Fads by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. Mostly this passage was about AIDs, innovators and hubs. The thing that I found the most interesting from this reading was the continually talking about hubs and the creation of epidemics. Barabasi wrote, “Once infected, a hub can pass the virus to all the other computers it is linked to” (page 135). I know this is referenced to computers but it can be applied to everything from AIDs to technology. Once a hub, a very well connected individual, has something the easier it will be to give it to other people. Another quote that I found interesting was about curing an epidemic. “The more hubs we treat ……..the higher the chance that the virus will die out” (page 139). The reading talked about how if we can cure the people who are most likely to spread a disease like AIDs the more likely we will be able to significantly decrease the amount of people with AIDs. He did also note though, that this may be “rewarding promiscuity”.

The last reading that we were assigned was Advertising in the book Writing about Cool by Jeff Rice. In this chapter, Jeff Rice talked about how “cool” is used in advertising to lure in people. I think that most successful businesses are successful because they know how to use this phenomenon. Rice also talked about how icons are used as symbols for “cool” instead of just saying that a product is “cool”. The main example that he used is Nike. As I think about it, Nike may be the company that has used icons and the cool factor better than any other company.

#1 ?

Way to go Badger Mens Basketball team. We found a way to pull it out again, even though the little skinhead rarely missed. Congratulations also to Kammron Taylor, who made the game winning three pointer and hopefully gave him some of his confidence back. Way to go guys!

What am I up to?

Hey all. For my homework this week, I had to do an open blog about anything that I wanted. But, there isn’t really anything new in the life of Kurt. I am actually at work right now (working very hard obviously). We are pretty slow, so I thought I would get some homework done. I am typing this blog on half of my computer screen and watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 movie on the other half. And let me tell you, no matter how many times I watch this movie it never gets old.

I am kind of getting worried about this weekend. We are supposed to get 10 inches of snow/rain mix. That, on top of our foot and a half of snow, will probably make for really crappy driving and walking conditions. I am watching my Uncles house and dog this week and it is about a half an hour drive from my apartment. Hopefully, if it precipitates a lot in the next couple of days, class will be cancelled.

Well, I don’t know if any of you have been paying attention, but it seems like our Wisconsin teams have seemed to let their season slip at the end, yet again. Mens’ basketball has just lost two in a row, granted one being to the #1-2 team in the country. Hold on, I have to wait on some people…………... okay, I am back. So anyways, the team was 26-2 before the two consecutive losses, so I didn’t think we were going to get a #1 seed. But last night, Tennessee bailed us out and beat Florida who was ranked #4. So we should be #4 if we beat Michigan State this weekend, hopefully, giving us a #1 seed in the tournament. The other Wisconsin team that has slipped is the Mens’ Hockey team. They have had a very mediocre season, being riddled with injuries, losing to teams that they should beat and beating teams they should lose to. But they had a chance to get home ice for the playoffs. But then we end up getting swept by a team that isn’t very good, knocking our team back to 8th place in the WCHA. Mens’ hockey still has one more weekend but I am guessing that we won’t get home ice for playoffs, meaning that I won’t get to go to any more games this year.

Well for some reason my TMNT movie is screwing up in my computer. So know I have to watch Grandma’s Boy instead. Not too bad of a trade off because it is hilarious.

It is just starting to snow outside. It probably won’t be very busy for the rest of the night. I guess I shouldn’t say that, though. It seems like we are pretty busy when it is really cold or snowing a lot. It doesn’t really make sense to me because we are selling cold products. Oh, well.

Well I guess that is all for now. Be back in a couple of days.

The Connected Age

For this week, we had to read “The Connected Age”, Six Degrees by Duncan Watts. This is probably the reading that I have enjoyed the most this semester. I am pretty sure that I understand the message that he was trying to get across and I got a lot of information from the reading. It was pretty interesting reading about electric power and the “blackout” in the western United States in the summer of 1996.

I also enjoyed reading about networks and how individual parts interact with other parts to make up a complex system or network. The text also talked about synchrony. I didn’t really get that much information out of that section other than the runners’ analogy.

It was also really interesting to learn about the six degrees of separation. I had obviously heard about it before but I couldn’t remember if I had ever learned how it had originated. I thought that Milgrams’ experiment testing his small-world method was a pretty ingenious experiment. I would have never have thought about trying to doing anything like that.

I did have one question, though. The term oscillator was used throughout the text and I had a hard time trying to get what Duncan Watts was trying to mean. I think that he used this word to talk about networks and how they are very dependent on all of the parts that make up that network, but if someone else has another interpretation I would like to hear it.

Well, I guess that is all for this blog. I know that it is a little shorter than normal but I don’t really have much to say because I don’t have that many questions.

Dreamweaver 1 class

I ended up taking the Dreamweaver 1 class last Thursday night in the Computer Sciences building. I really had a good time. I almost had my first web page completed, from using time in class, so it was a good time to troubleshoot some of my problems to people who really knew what they were doing. It worked out really well.

I really wish that I could have gotten into the Dreamweaver-in-a-day class because I think it would be a lot of fun. In Dreamweaver 1, we barely went into CSS, which is (I think) the best part of making a web page. I thought about going to the Dreamweaver 2 class that they had a couple days later but I just didn’t have enough time. I think that I might watch to see if they have any Dreamweaver-in-a-day classes available in the rest of the semester because I think I would enjoy working more with CSS.

I would definitely recommend taking a Dreamweaver course because you never know when those skills could come in handy.

N. Katherine Hayles and Lexia to Perplexia

There seems to be a reoccurring pattern, for me, at the beginning, middle and the end of most of the readings that are assigned for English 201. Most of the time I have no idea what is going on or what points are trying to be made. I leave the reading feeling more confused than before I read it. So once again I have a lot of questions that maybe some of my classmates will be able to help me with.

For this Tuesday, we were assigned to read a couple of chapters of Writing Machines by N. Katherine Hayles. I had a very hard time trying to decipher what she was trying to say. Maybe it is because I am not familiar with most of the technology terminology that she uses throughout the reading. I think that she tries to explain what some of the terms are but I get even more confused after reading the definitions.

There are three main terms that I couldn’t figure out what they mean and maybe some of you who read this will be able to help me out. On page 75, of the course packet, she makes use of the phrase inscription technology. On page 77, CP, she says media-specific analysis or MSA. And throughout the readings that were assigned she uses cell.f or cell….f. If anybody knows what any of these terms mean, I would greatly appreciate a response back.

One thing that caught my attention was on Page 75, CP, when she says, “the physical form of the literary artifact always affects what the words (and other semiotic components) mean.” This sentence brought me back to last week when we were reading The Medium is the Message and Media Hot and Cold by Marshal McLuhan.

She also talked about HTML throughout these readings and let me just say that I am glad that we don’t have to use it. I am also glad that someone, who is a lot more techno-savvy than me, came up with programs to allow those less fortunate people enjoy the luxuries that techno-savvy people have. It allows many more people to use blogs or create websites.

One of the last things that we had this week was look through the website Lexia to Perplexia. I don’t know if we are going to go over it in class but I had absolutely no idea what was going on or even the subject matter the website was about. I honestly think that if it was in a foreign language I would have understood it better. Maybe it was supposed to be like that or maybe if I knew what was going on I would have been able to enjoy it better.

Well I guess that is all for now. Maybe if we talk about it in class tomorrow some of my questions will be answered and I will be able to write back on what I have learned.

You Want Me To Do What?

This semester I am taking a Spanish class, a Geology class, Intermediate Composition, Weather and Climate, and a Math class. I am an undergraduate in my third year here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Some of the things that I have learned this semester are about different parts of the earth. I have also learned about the varying climates that affect all of the different countries around the world. And, while we are talking about countries, it is safe to say that different countries use their governments in different ways.

Also, in my other classes, I have to deal with formulas and translations. The homework load has been tremendous and hopefully some of my professors will start to withdraw some of the onslaught of homework.

Hopefully, if we have to do this again, I will be better prepared. I can definitely tell whoever reads this that these couple of paragraphs are not my best writing. I don’t even understand what I am trying to say.

Go Ninja! Go Ninja! Go!

I can't wait until March 23rd. Hopefully it is as good as the last three.

"The Material Medium"

I guess the first thing that I have to say is WOW! I think that if I didn’t know that The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan was written over 40 years ago I would have read/absorbed the information differently. It seemed like these passages were ahead of their time. I wonder what he would have to say about today; especially with the internet and the connection of people worldwide.

Well now that I got that out of the way I can talk about some of the passages that I found either interesting or confusing. These passages were very hard to follow and read but the summary on Wikipedia helped.
The first quote that I found interesting was when Marshall McLuhan in the first paragraph said that any medium is an extension of ourselves. I totally agree, especially in writing. It allows a person to collect and put their thoughts on paper and (like in this class) show other people.

One thing (I am worried it is one of the main points of his passage) that I was confused with was the comparison with the light bulb. It was hard to follow his examples and hard to make some of his connections.

Another passage that commented on what we have talked about over the course of this class was by Napoleon (pg. 63). He said, “Three hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” This comment attributes to the fact that words are very powerful. It also shows how some people can use words to have control over or command legions of people (an example may be Hitler).


“We are as numb in our new electric world as the native involved in our literate and mechanical culture” (pg. 64). This quote really stuck out to me because I feel like this all the time. I finally learn to master some kind of technology or technique just to find out that it has already been outdated or obsolete. This is especially seen with computers and cell phones. You can watch movies from the early 90s to see the characters using cell phones that are as big as their heads. Or when they first came out with computers they were the size of a room in a house. I know that these examples occurred over many years but I just feel like I can never keep up with technology. I always hear my older family members complain about how they don’t know how to use technology or for example don’t know how to turn off televisions or cell phones. I don’t even want to imagine what I am not going to be able to do if I eventually become a parent or a grandparent.

The last thing that maybe stuck out to me the most was at the very end of The Medium is the Message. The psychologist C.G. Jung wrote, “….. Because living constantly in the atmosphere of slaves, he became infected through the unconscious with their psychology. No one can shield himself from such an influence.” I want to take out the word slave and put in the word technology. I think that quote encompasses our lifestyle. Nobody in this country can go through a day without using some type of technology. Nobody can be uninfluenced by the world of technology that surrounds each and every one of us every day.

What a Thursday Night!

Well I had a rough Thursday so I was looking forward to relaxing with some of my friends. I went to La Ciel and was ready for a couple of drinks. Well a couple turned into a few and a few turned into many, incorporating pong and Mario Kart on Nintendo 64. About 11 o clock I thought it was time to go home because I had class early on Friday. I got on the bus and went home just to realize that I had left my keys at my friends. I didn’t know what time the bus would be going back so I had to walk back to La Ciel which is a little over two miles. By the time I got to La Ciel the busses weren’t running anymore so I eventually decided to stay there and get up in the morning and go to class. Went to sleep and woke up at 8:30 just to realize that all of my school work that I needed was at my apartment. So I planned on catching the bus again (this time I made sure that I had my keys) but I missed it by about 30 seconds. So I had to make the hike again to get to my apartment. By this time I had already missed my first class but I did make it to my last two. And now I am getting ready to go watch the hockey game for the last time this year :(. Hopefully tonight will turn out better than the last. Catch you on the flip side.

"Academic Writing" vs. New-Aged Media

I have had bad experiences (well at least never a good one) with “academic” writing. When I first signed up for this class I thought I was going to hate it. But I had to take it for a pre requisite for the Business School so I was just going to have to grin and bear it. Before I knew anything about the class I thought we were going to have to write a few 5-7 paragraph, boring papers but I was pleasantly surprised. So far this class has allowed me to write/type relatively freely. We write two two-page papers a week and I am much more comfortably doing that. I don’t have the pressure of having two or three papers that make up the whole grade for the class. I don’t feel like I need to use an outline (which is where I normally get frustrated). I feel that I can write what I want to and get feedback from the teacher and from my peers.

New media has brought about typing. Some people even take laptops to class to take notes, which was probably unthinkable 10 years ago. With the introduction of computers and typing I think that my writing skills have suffered. I can type faster than I can write so when I am writing I think faster than I write and screw up words. For example, when I am taking notes in class and writing down a lot I screw up letters and get words all mixed up. My notes are messy and the words barely recognizable when reviewing. So that would definitely be a huge bonus with typing on a computer. Plus you have one of the greatest tools in MS Word, the spell check.

A bad consequence of new media and writing is that people don’t really know how to write “traditional academic” papers anymore. But then again, maybe there isn’t a great need for “traditional” papers. My dad used to judge papers for scholarships for high schoolers 10 years ago and he would always say how the essays were horrible and that kids don’t know how to write anymore. And I could guess that what he said was right because I suck at “academic” writing (although I know I’m just one case). I don’t think that I have enough creative style to be a really good writer. Maybe I have been desensitized through too much television and video games. Who knows?
Another consequence would be the lack of writing technique that people may have lost (never really learned) from using a computer. Talking on instant messengers, people have learned to abbreviate and most of the time never using appropriate punctuation or capitalization. I have noticed this in my writing and typing skills. I find myself making abbreviations and using poor grammar that some people may not understand.

But I really don’t see any need for talking about bad consequences because I really don’t think they matter anyway. I can’t imagine computers dieing off in the next 50 years (or ever) so talking about consequences may be a mute point. I think what our society needs to work on is incorporating the good qualities of actually writing into computing. I think that some “new-aged” teachers are already starting to do that (a.k.a. this class and other articles/movies that we have read/watched in class). I think that meshing new media and English curriculum is necessary because I believe that the merge will happen anyway. We need to act know before our writing literacy has totally vanished.

What is writing? - Collage

Sparta made the map!

Hey all,
I just wanted to pass this along. It came to my attention a couple of weeks ago that my little hometown (Sparta, WI) was on a Jeep commercial, so here it is.



It is on with 10 seconds left in the commercial. Thats all for now.

Prosumers and Wikipedia

A couple of days ago I watched “Prosumer Approaches to New Media Composition” by Daniel Anderson. To tell you the truth I wasn’t very impressed and let me tell you why. I don’t know if he was just trying to show all that you can do with a little knowledge of computers but I just thought that there was always way too much stuff going on at once. It was very hard for me to follow what was going on and concentrate on the message that he was trying to get across. I had to go back and listen to things over many times and I still didn’t understand most of what was going on.

I did pull out some information from the site though and what I understood I thought it was very interesting and he had some good ideas. The first thing was called the “computing prosumer” which I understood to be the “convergence of professional and rookie digital equipment.” This has been assisted by relatively inexpensive and consumer friendly digital (computers, editing equipment, video cameras) equipment. I think it is a great idea to introduce low-level technology to people who aren’t very good with technology. It may give those people a foot-in-the-door and maybe they will come to enjoy using digital equipment.

One statement that kind of stuck out to me was by Diana George who said, “students have a great deal of experience with new media communications technologies such as visual communication.” As soon as I heard this I linked it back to the end of our class on Thursday where we talked about technology being implemented in schools as soon as kindergarten. I think that the more people use computers, video cameras, etc. the more they will be comfortable with them and want to use them. Going back to the end of Thursdays’ class I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed it. I feel like I can talk about stuff like that for hours.

Another thing that we talked about it class was the use of Wikipedia when doing research in the article “A Stand Against Wikipedia”. There were two comments from Becky Bs’ blog that I found really interesting. The first one was when she said that a student has to start researching somewhere. I totally agree with her. I think that it is ridiculous to ban an educational (yes I know not all of it is correct) site when researching a topic. It could be a good way to get some other resources for the topic you are interested in. The other thing that I found interesting was when she questioned why people would even want to cite an encyclopedia. I don’t ever remember being told by a teacher that a student shouldn’t cite encyclopedias. And maybe I could have been spacing out but our class discussion on Thursday was the first time that I have ever really talked about Wikipedia. I never knew that anyone can go on the site and put whatever information they wanted. Which brings up a question that I had about Wikipedia. I was always taught (I guess I was taught wrong) that if a website ended in .org that it could be counted on as a truthful website. Maybe whoever reads this can comment and maybe explain to me why I don’t understand.

The last thing to kind of sum up “A Stand Against Wikipedia” was the last couple of paragraphs when Steven Bell commented on the use of Wikipedia. I thought the best statement was when he said, “a better approach would be to teach students how to ‘triangulate’ a source like Wikipedia, so they could use other sources to tell whether a given entry could be trusted”. That in a nutshell is how I think teaching should be handled. Not to just say that something is banned but teach how and why not to use whatever is in question.

Brett Favre

Way to go Brett. Good decision. We got him for at least another year. Woohoo. I don't know if anyone has seen this clip on You Tube but I think it is pretty good.



This ones for you Holly.

What about me?

Well this is officially my third blog and I am surprised at how much I like it. I never really knew what blogging was or had any interest in doing it. But enough of my little introduction, here is a little about myself.

I was born and raised in Sparta, Wisconsin, which is 20 miles east of LaCrosse. It is a town of about 8,000 people and the town is known as the Bicycling Capital of America. I don’t really know what that means except that we have a pretty famous bike trail that a lot of out-of-towners come to ride on.

Heres a little bit about my schooling so far. I went to all of the public schools in Sparta from Kindergarten to 12th grade, obviously. Then I went to UW-Whitewater for two years and then transferred to UW-Madison this year. I definitely like it here more than at Whitewater. I guess the biggest reason for that is because there is absolutely nothing to do in Whitewater unless you are 21 and if you’re not the cops are complete assholes. This semester I am taking a Spanish class, an online Geology, Intermediate Composition (why I started blogging), a Math class, and Weather and Climate which is a total of 14 credits.

I enjoy pretty much all of the Badger sports. I got pretty lucky this year and got season tickets to football, mens hockey, and mens basketball. Mens hockey is the sport that I love going to the most. I just wish they would play up to their talent level (it seems like we always lose the games that we should win). And I know I am just making up excuses but we did lose our five leading scorers from last year. Anyways, this year my roommate, his girlfriend and I waited in line for hockey tickets for over 67 total hours. A lot of people complain about it (some have a good point) but I had a great time. The only thing I wish they allowed was blankets or sleeping bags. But on the nights that it got really cold, people brought blankets and they didn’t seem to care.

Right now I am living in a two bedroom place with my friend from Sparta named Lucas. We live on Livingston Street, which probably people who go to UW-Madison don’t even know where it is. It is on the other side of the Capital so I would guess it is a good two and a half miles to campus. This past week I just signed a lease for a one bedroom place on Main Street. I think it will be good place to live but I am so surprised how much people have to pay in Madison to get a semi-good apartment.

I have had four total jobs my whole life. My first job was working at the Sparta movie theater called Star Cinema. I worked there for over four years. Over those four years I worked in concessions, as an usher, and as a projectionist. I went through three different general managers during that time, some were cool some weren’t. My second job was working at a restaurant/bar in Sparta called The Greens. My mom runs The Greens so that means that I have pretty much done everything there. My favorite job would have to be bartending or cooking. When I went to UW-Whitewater I also worked at Target for a month. I would have to say that working at Target was and will probably be the worst job I have had. Nothing against Target, it is a lot better than Wal-Mart, I just don’t think that I like working as a stocker. Starting this semester, I am working at Chocolate Shop on State Street. So far I like it, but I have only worked two shifts.

Well I guess that is all for now. Catch you on the flip side.

What is rhetorics?

Well to tell you the truth I really didn't know what rhetoric is. I had heard about it before but never really found out what the actually definition was. I had pieced together that it maybe had something to do with persuasion and deception. And, obviously, as I look back I always remember rhetoric being associated with bad connotations.

I had to do some readings for my English 201 class (Silva Rhetoricae and James A. Herrick, "An Overview of Rhetoric") and to tell you the truth, I had no idea that rhetorics was so broad. I guess the biggest shock to me was that rhetorics are involved in almost all daily activities. It was just amazing to realize that rhetorics are a huge part of my life and I didn’t even know what the word meant. The biggest theme that came from the Silva Rhetoricae website was the line “how one says something conveys meaning as much as what one says”. Now that I am more aware of the power of rhetorics I will be able to safeguard and propel myself in the future.

FIRST BLOG EVER!!!!!

Hello all. This is the first time I have ever written on a blogging website. Actually this is the first time I have ever been on a blogging website. I was surprised at how easy it was to set up an account on blogger. I have created this weblog account because of my enrollment in English 201 at UW-Madison. During the course of this semester I will be writing about readings and maybe even throw in some stuff about me. Another way to contact me is through Facebook or my email at kraddatz@wisc.edu. Well I guess that is all for now, class is almost over. Catch you on the flipside.