School's Out!

Whoo hoo, its only for ten days, but I'm still very excited.  I learned a lot this semester, like too much.  I really enjoyed New Media, it's inspired me to want to take a web designing class.  Also, to be a blogger, but I might start to make a video blog instead of using a written blog.  Regardless, I will continue to use new media :) just like all of my peers (generation digital, whoo hoo)! This was a really hard term for me :/, I don't know about you guys.  I'm going to celebrate by going shopping and SURPRISE, drinking tons of coffee :).  Have fun this break!!!

So all the other pictures I wanted to use for this post were protected by copyright :(, so I am kinda bummed I couldn't post a cooler picture, but I guess I understand why things are copyright-ed.  Artists gotta get paid to do their stuff, and even though its online, they still gotta get paid.  I still wish I could use anything and everything I want to online.  Personally, I think we get too much information online and a lot of it is incredibly useless.  Cute pictures are super useful, especially if you are on .http://pinterest.com/.  I think pinterest is an very creative way of using all the "free" pictures you can get online and share them with all of your loyal friend fans :)!! I don't think we would have pinterest if we couldn't steal all of those pictures.  I don't think we could come up with so many pictures all by ourselves.  Also, I don't think we would come up with all the "do-it-yourself" material by ourselves.  Some people can get very creative, they have actually inspired me to clean my room and make new things out of all the junk I am going to find, because there is tons of it! < so my break actually looks like a glorified spring cleaning session with lots of coffee on the side.

Tight Pants

Pants have totally been on my mind for a while, because a lot of people wear them... :). But also because a few years ago girls started to replace their pants with highly reinforced tights without feet....or what is called "leggings."  I was totally against the legging movement, but some people can really pull it off.  I am happy that this trend is dying, though, because I was exposed to things I did not want to see when it was in full swing.  I do dig skinny jeans! I wear them pretty much everyday, because I'm short.  Pants are just not made for people like me.  Buuuuuut, skinny jeans cling to your ankles at the bottom which keeps them from getting stepped on or dragged around.  Plus, skinny jeans are totally classy, and I don't really know why, but they just bring outfits together :).  I typically am against wearing sweats or yoga pants for non-athlethic activities, but finals week is an exception, so that is what will be going on with the pants for a while :).

Smiling Happy People go Outside to Hold Hands

It's getting super nice outside, which makes everyone super happy.  I work at Walgreens and so many more people are buying chocolate! So they must be happy, because chocolate goes awesome with being happy :) (or they are incredibly depressed, bored, or super hungry for a Snickers).  Sunny days are way better than not sunny days, and I dare you to argue with me on that point.  Did you know that Seattle has the highest suicide rates in the country! It's because of all the fricken rain, people don't like rain...so they would rather not be in a terrible, gloomy, disgusting, rainy place. (I apologize to all people in Seattle who I just offended- I'm sure you're doing awesome because you love where you live).  I just want a bike really bad now! But I will only use it for a week and then it will rust in my garage, because bikes don't hold as much as cars do, also, bikes are way more demanding than cars! (which is probably untrue considering that gas is more than $4.00 a gallon now). I know I'm ranting now.  Enjoy the sunshine :)

Step 1: Study, Step 2: Distract Yourself....NOT

It's time for finals! And all of my finals are today! AAAAAAAh....so much information in so little time.  So, I would like to suggest to everyone that you DO NOT take up the study method of "start studying but slowly work in distractions."  If you're studying on your computer is is super easy to get distracted, so doing your studying online is the best way NOT to do what I am telling you to do.  There are so many different options for distraction, there's netflix, if you have netflix, there's Facebook, which means you can check out what awesome things you're friend did over the weekend, and there are several other options which may or may not take more concentration that you can allocate to them in order to be an effective double-tasker....SO just DON'T do it.  Do not double-task on studying, it doesn't work that way!  You're either wasting your time with study material that is going in one eye and falling out the side of your head or you are missing some really awesome scene in "How I Met Your Mother."  And nobody wants that, so STUDY but don't pair it with destructive internet behavior.  Like this link here that I am going to give you, its free Tetris! But RESIST IT! DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK!

http://www.freetetris.org/

Comments on Class Presentations

The issue talked about in class presentations that stuck out to me the most was the idea of cyber bullying.  I feel like this links back to the when we talked about how kids are getting more involved online.  It takes a certain amount of emotional maturity to participate appropriately in social networking activities.  Means of online communication can be as isolating as they are social.  Kids are more prone to bullying online because they are not mature enough to deal with the isolation that comes with using these social networking sites.  Also, kids have not fully developed into adults, so they are more likely to be affected by negative comments posted onto social networking sites and email.  This makes me rethink the restrictions needed to be placed on kids for using the internet.  It is much harder for adults to monitor kids behavior when it is online on personal websites that are password protected by kids.  There is a clear need for some kind of internet regulation where kids are concerned.  It is appalling how high suicide rates among kids have risen, and, I believe, this is in part to the way kids are communicating with each other.  Messages are easily misconstrued online.  This issue is related to how text messaging and social networking sites are changing how we use words and stripping down language to a raw, symbolic form.  This affects how kids think because it is direct relationship to how they communicate using written words.  Communication techniques also affect how kids' patient.  When kids can communicate with anyone faster and get any information they want fast.  They get used to this speed of attaining information.

Little Pick-You-Up

I know I have already shared a Jenna Marbles youtube video, but watching another one will make you happy :).  If you have not seen "How to trick people into thinking you're good looking, you should.  This is for in between all of those really obnoxious final projects!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYpwAtnywTk

Also, just a few tips to makes your stress less: (haha, that rhymes)
1. Eat Healthy
2. Laugh at how funny it is that your finals are so stressful
3. Exercise
4. Spend time with people who are awesome (make them sit next to you while you study, so that you can soak up their awesomeness)

Trust Me, I'm a Historically Significant Philosopher

I'm currently completing a project for my psychology class that requires me to define trust.  I feel like trust a a huge part of life because so many things are uncertain.  Trust is what fills in the gaps of uncertainty.  Also, this is a funny cartoon :)...its Aristotle.  It also reminds me of "credit," because it takes years to build good credit but it can be destroyed very easily and very quickly.

Its the End of the Term as We Know It

Winter Term here at North Central is almost over.  This feels a tad bit cliche that I am blogging about it, but there is honestly nothing else on my mind.  I cannot think of anything but my finals and finishing up all of my final projects this week.  I hope everyone else is having a happy end of term.  Its just super rough for me, I think it has something to do with a lull a felt in the middle of the term where I did not want to do anything at all related to school.  I can see the end, though, there is hope :)

Virtually Awesome

I'm always watching Netflix...when I turn on my computer.  Its as if I do nothing without that extra voice in the background.  I feel like I never give my full attention to the things I do online.  The internet offers the perfect venue for multitasking.  I can do so many things at once...in so many different windows.  My attention is never fully committed to a single task.  Being able to do so much in one place appears to be awesome, however, this multitasking spreads us too thin.  Most everything we do online is half-assed when we are virtually multitasking :/.

Obsessed with You Online

The internet is really interested in me.  Everywhere I go, it wants my time.  It wants my time on Facebook playing endless games of Tetris against my friends.  The internet wants me to Skype my friends, blog to people who aren't really listening, and watch ever TV show I saw as a kid in online versions on Netflix.  There are so many activities online!  And they just keep getting better and more interesting and resemble the things that used to exist in my non-virtual life. I just joined Pintrest!  I don't know why I did this, I spend enough time doing useless things online, I do not need Pintrest, but its like a magazine!  Everything I want to look at and short descriptions of what I should think of these pictures I see.  Right now, I have mostly pinned pictures of puppies at this point...because I like to look at cute pictures of puppies :).http://pinterest.com/

Withdrawl???

Ok, I know that I talk about coffee a lot.  Its just because its a big part of my life and plays a role in everything that I do.  I tried to cut back on my caffeine intake (which is mostly coffee), and it was by far the worst idea I have had in a long time.  I'm not doing it anymore, cutting back is not for me.  I broke down and got a latte today... I don't feel remorseful at all :)

http://www.caffeinedependence.org/caffeine_dependence.html#withdrawal

Here are all the terrible things that will happen to you if you are an addict and try to ween yourself off of your drug.

When Coffee Attacks

Now, I'm sure most of you have heard of the infamous story where a woman sued McDonalds because she spilled McDonalds coffee on her lap and it resulted in 2nd and 3rd degree burns.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants Well, I love coffee, but it really hurt me this morning.  My arm knocked it over onto my lap this morning in my car...and while I did not get burned, I still think I should sue someone...just to feel better about the situation. I have decided that my best course of action would be to sue Ford, because I drive a Ford Taurus. I will sue them because the cup holders they install in their vehicles are stupid! They don't work! And I'm kidding, but not totally because I hate my cup holder in my car, part of it is rotting because the thing was manufactured in 2004. The rotting part is where the issue comes in, the thing cannot hold a beverage. I think I have a pretty good case :) Don't you?

Every Fishy in the Mainstream, Please

Speaking of common experiences online, how many sites do you visit that are not mainstream.  Sure, you're online using Facebook, google, and youtube like it's going out of style, but who visits other sites??? On a daily basis? Now, I know that this is a tad contradictory because google is a site designed to take you to other websites, but the content you get from the list google offers you is mainstream.  Its the most popular, most used, most likely to apply to you content. And, although google knows you are an individual with your own likes and dislikes (aka things you will buy and things you will not buy), it is the aggregate data received by google from all of its users that ultimately determines what shows up on your screen. Some people who are avid users of the internet and readers of diverse content and visitors of obscure online material, but I am not one of those people. I actually only use a few sites that are relevant to my daily life. Even though we might think that the world is online now and we are all using the internet, in truth, we are not all true "internet users." The internet has so much more to offer than people use it for. So go surf the web! What ever happened to that? Oh, yea, so like facebook can offer you all the entertainment you need online...that's why you friended that one girl, because she's always posting....interesting pictures of herself. Who really USES the internet? When was the last time you went exploring without the use of a site like stumble upon.com?

Internet Domination

I cannot imagine my life without the internet, now, and, especially, as a student.  I do everything online! I even have to email my papers to a different computer because I type them on my laptop.  There is almost nothing I can do for class without the internet.....wait! Whaaaat? So, like what did people do in school when there was no internet??? I guess there were still libraries...so they looked things up in books.  That must have taken forever, I do not think I would have survived in college when there was no internet.  I just would not have had the patience. On another related note, how did anyone socialize discretely and without any human con act what soever, but still be super popular and have five thousand friends without the internet? I know I keep asking rhetorical questions, but these subjects just seem so blatantly obvious and worth asking.  How is the internet affecting your life? Is it a big part? Is it a small part? Could you actually function and be ok without it? :) Think about it.

Kiddies on Facebook

I think that the internet is becoming difficult for parents to understand and regulate.  I also believe that more bad comes out of kids under the age of thirteen joining social networking sites than good.  If you consider the amount of cyber-bullying that goes on between kids online, you can see how kids can be incredibly destructive using the internet.  It bothers me that kids under the age of 13 have a Facebook page because it taints the credibility of Facebook and everyone who uses it for legitimate purposes.  I, personally, started using Facebook because its upheld by a certain standard which is why it is so useful to me in communicating with my friends.  I also do not agree with dogs having Facebook pages because they just get to be so excessive.  When does this end? Who is actually using the internet? What are we supposed to trust? Facebook used to be credible because you could contact people you knew existed and that you had some kind of real-world relationship with. Now, Facebook is less credible because there are so many pages taken up by pets and other non-humans or duplicate human who have more than one Facebook page.  I think that in order to solve this issue Facebook should come up with better ways of filtering out these "fake pages." I think that there should be a limit to the number of people allowed to register Facebook profiles per electronic device so that those who create these fake pages will be deterred from doing so.

But I want it now!!!

In today's fast-moving world, we no longer have to wait to communicate with each other.  It is almost an invasion of our privacy to carry around a cell phone which gives anyone with our number access to us. We are expected to have cell phones and to keep these devices on us at all times.  This takes away our need for patience.  We should be able to get ahold of anyone whose cell phone number we have in our phone.  Which is electronically kept, so that we don't even have to remember the number. In addition to our cell phones chiseling-away at our capacity for patience, Google makes it so that we don't even have to wait to get information. We can instantly get what we want and where we want to be on the internet.  We even have mobile devices that can access the internet anywhere we happen to be! Gimme gimme gimme! And if you don't get it for me, I have google :)... that is, information, of course, we still haven't figured out how to instantaneous transport material goods right when we want them...but in due time, friends.

WARNING: ELECTRICAL OBJECTS ARE INCOMPATIBLE WITH ANY LIQUID

Over the weekend, I had a little technology crisis.  I spilled liquid all over the keyboard and in the ports of my 2 and a half-year-old macbook pro :(.  The day after the incident, I took it to the apple store, where it was pronounced dead.  I bought a new macbook pro, took my new computer baby home, but failed at connecting it to my home internet.  I do not wish to take the laptop out of my house yet because it is still very precious to me, so this meant that I had to live without my laptop.  This is harder than it sounds, I could only use computers that weren't mine AND did not have all my passwords and personal settings saved :/.  It was a tough three days that I spent as a technology cast away (but not really, I'm just being a brat about this).  I'm back now :) all is well in my little online world on my own computer.

I'm not alone, I have a cell phone

Wow! Has anyone ever lost or left their phone somewhere and been out of touch with the people they normally keep in touch with while using their phone or other device? I experience this feeling every time I miss place my phone or it loses battery power and I have no way of charging it. When this happens, I have the eerie feeling that I do not exist.  I am lost and no one can find me.  It's scary...and strange to think that at one time we survived without cell phones. At one time, a world existed where you couldn't just casually text words to other people to let them know that you were good...that you were cool, chillin, and LOL-ing. SOOOO weird.

Response to Prompt 2

Google has take over my experience of the internet.  I don't have google chrome on any of the computers that I use at my home, however, many other places I go to use computers have google chrome.  Even before the browser was available for use, I used google to search for everything.  I used google maps to find addresses  before I had a GPS.  Google is what I use when I need to learn how to spell things.  I have a special bar next to the browser on my mac that is specifically a google search bar.  I use it all the time to find anything from random answers I need for homework to vocabulary to how to treat a common cold.  You name it, if I have had an issue with it, I have searched for it in google.  Also, since a lot of my time, especially during school terms, is spent on a computer, it makes sense that I would use google more often to find random things that I need or that I want have information about.  I watch youtube a lot, but not as much as I use netflix on my computer.  I only really use youtube when I am recommended videos to watch....or I want to watch Jenna Marbles, but I also use youtube to listen to music that I do not have in my itunes library because I don't want to buy it and I am afraid of getting caught stealing music from sites that help you steal music.  Since I have been in Steve Macek's New Media class :) I have been using blogger, but I have not used this feature online before the class.  I am quite enjoying blogging, though.  I probably will keep it up after the class is over.

I think I am addicted to google. I, honestly, do not know what I would do without it.  I do think it is becoming too powerful.  SOOOO many people use google.  And, I think, those people would be lost without google.  This would mean that google has the power...to show the people the way...to live and make everybody technology zombies!!!!!  But seriously, something like that could happen, damnit, google!!!!

I also share Vaidhyanathan's concerns about sharing personal data online.  We put so many personal things on the internet.  We are too trusting of the technology that we use.  We put our thoughts, our pictures, our videos, our credit card numbers, our problems, our interests, and our general everyday lives in the hands of google.  They totally have the power :/

Response to prompt 1

I read Rebecca's interview with Fred from Fred First.  I found the interview interesting because of how Fred became interested in blogging.  The way he is inspired to blog because he feels like he should communicate with the world is inspiring to others.  His blog is proof that if you have voice and have the desire to be heard that it is possible.  The validation that Fred got from other people in his blog urged him to continue to speak his mind.  I think that Fred's success in blogging is an example of how democratic the internet can be.  Fred uses his blog to share his ideas and give them life.  Blogging has become a habitual part of his life.  I think blogging can be very cathartic and beneficial, because, even if you don't have as many people reading your blog as Fred does, if you blog, you have voiced your thoughts and they are available for other people to interpret and take into account. :)

Coffee Addicts Not-Really Anonymous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ssxF8EaMO0
So I know a lot of people have seen Jenna Marbles Videos...because there are commercials preceding them now! (Also, there are large numbers beneath then indicating how many people have chosen to view each individual video :) )  This one is called "What caffeine does" and it's my favorite.  It compliments the theme of coffee-addiction that I have started on this particular blog.  Like Jenna Marbles, I have experienced the consequences that accompany consuming large amounts of caffeine from a variety of different sources during a short period of time.  If you haven't tried it, you should, it's actually quite exhilarating.  But maybe you really shouldn't try this, it's not good for you in any capacity...you can't even really count the vitamins in energy drinks as real vitamins (which is sad, cuz I know you want to).  Watch the video!  And drink responsibly :)

How big do you love coffee?

From college students to business people to just plain caffeine addicts, coffee seems to be the beverage of choice for fast, tasty energy.   Coffee is the pick-me-up that gets you going...sometimes in more ways than one.  I am a college student, a business person... and, unfortunately, a self-proclaimed coffee addict.  For those who are less well-versed in the lingo that comes with struttin into Starbucks and ordering a beverage, starting any kind of coffee-habit could pose a challenge.  The foreign words "tall," "grande," and "venti" are enough to intimidate any patron to run for fear of being judged by everyone else who is in the loop when it comes to claiming a cup-size for their coffee.  To be totally honest, I had to guess what size I wanted before I figured out that I an addict and, therefore, should always order the largest size.  At Starbucks, it's called a venti.  That's twenty ounces of any delicious coffee-filled and/or sugar-saturated beverage :).........OR you can hit up Dunkin Dohnuts because their largest size (which is an extra-large) is twenty-four ounces! You look sleepy, drink up!

What's up?

Hello, internet people!