Everyday Things

I've found in my experience that the knowledge of how things work is purely based on past experiences. When I moved into my first apartment with my best friend my second year of college, we got so confused as to how to use the stove that we called maintenance. They came right over, looked as us like we were dumb girls and lit the pilot light. We had never been in a situation at our parents house where the pilot light needed to be lit upon using because they were new models. Needless to say, we felt stupid and went right out to buy a toaster oven. Plus, the handful of times we tried to use the oven that first month the smoke detector went off. It went unused for the remainder of the lease.
Some doors push out, some you need to pull, some revolve, some slide. It is a consistent issue where at times-- due to not paying attention or a state of frazzledness, we tend to forget. When walking with friends or strangers, I have been in the situation where "the door is locked!" when I simply was doing it wrong. Also, embarrassing. The same goes for bathroom stalls-- in interesting states, I have felt I was stuck at one point or another.
Websites can be challenging at times to use. My most frustrating example lately has been the Blackboard sight for my women's health class. There are a series of different links and modules and portions to the website. Some tabs we need for lecture, 2 we need for lab but none of us figured that out prior to our first lab class. Essentially, they had 120 people in a state of confusion due to poor website organization.
Also, when we clicked on links for various reasons, we were not taken back to where we had started a second ago, yet had to go back to the first Blackboard website and start the process of getting to the lab handouts etc. all over again. The few times I have failed to turn in an assignment was due to the confusion. The syllabus is in one place, the schedule in another and so forth.
Women's Health Website
When I was younger I made three attempts one night to make a banana cream pie for a dinner party my mother was having. The first step of how to make the filling was on the first page with the rest of the steps on the second. My first two attempts, I missed the first step because I wasn't looking at the bottom of the page, I just assumed the directions started on the next. The fact I am a terrible cook comes into play here, but if they would have just pressed return and sent it to the next page with the rest of the directions, I would have gotten it right the first time. Needless to say, the third pie wasn't spectacular either-- once I figured the direction thing out, but like I said I am a bad cook.
Another issue I have been running into lately with websites is the directions for how to process SAF-B information for my rugby team. I never had any idea of how things worked with student life and SAF-B due to their confusing nature of how to get money, allocate money and then get reimbursed. Because of this, we've had a lack of funding this year, forcing us to raise our team dues.
Saf-B/Student Life
I am a firm believer in user friendly information, which is an issue I face in my everyday life trying to make that aviable to my rugby team (do you know how hard it is to explain that sport to someone with no experience?!) as well as my peers.
When trying to make my own website, I came across this problem, trying to figure how how to make it user friendly and workable.
Women's Rugby
Come on, make things easier for those who don't understand.

Internet

We are in a time where we consistently have information. I sell back textbooks because I know I can find the same information from the Saint Martin's Handbook online, learn a quick fact on Wikipedia or get an explanation from webmd.com for how to help my cold. We are in an information age, with that comes certain responsibilities we must uphold in order to make it (somewhat) appropriate and user friendly.
I spent the weekend with a women from France who speaks English as her second language. While eating dinner last night, we were trying to teach her the many "ambiguous" terms for the word sensitive and sensible-- i.e. its a sensitive subject, she is a sensitive person, he is sensible, it was a sensible purchase etc. I was reminded of that when it was discussing in the article of how words are ambiguous, especially in the English language, and how that is necessary to know when browsing the web. I currently am doing a project now on the morning-after pill for my women's biology class. To do thorough research I had to search under morning-after pill, Plan B, Burr pharmaceuticals and emergency contraception to get the full range of information. While I searched for four different things all meaning the same thing, I was granted a wide variety of information all pertaining to the topic and my research.
www.google.com, www.ask.com (which I think sucks, even though it is essentially doing the same thing as Google).
I liked the part about different perspectives in relation to the Internet and computers as well. This summer, I interned for a friend of the family for his new website checkinsafe.com-- as safety based website that is currently in the beta process. It was funny sitting around with three or four different people all working on the project from different backgrounds and in different age groups for we all had absolutely different ideas of how the website should look, work and who is should be marketed to. Obviously, the owner of the project got the last say, but it was interesting because we all thought our ideas were perfect.
www.checkinsafe.net
As for organization, I am a fan of the logical. I never knew how complicated and confusing the Internet was until I had to make my own website for my www class. It was frustrating, annoying and what I thought a difficult and illogical process. Based on the way I think and work, I set my website (a mock rugby website) up in that fashion. I still don't know if that works for other people, I should probably find out. I think it was the broad and shallow approach (mainly because that is all I had to do to get an A).
http://students.depaul.edu/~rgilber3/Final%20Project/FInal.html

And on another note, "pitch" also means the field in rugby.

Genre 2

Creative writing as an online two can be used in many forms for people to be able to express themselves, receive feedback or essentially just "post" for people to read such as in blogs. One genre of creative writing online is the critique websites; members of the website upload their papers to the specified website and then other members critique as well as provide feedback and suggestions.

www.critiquecircle.com
Critique circle is a free online community designed to offer writers of all different levels and experiences the opportunity to post and share ideas. Its a non-threatening way to approach the situation, as sitting in a room with a handful of people talking about your story.

On the sign up page, there is a location to hear feedback from the users about Critique Circle. Through the handful I looked through, it seemed that everyone had positive things to say about the websites process and appreciated the level of outcome users got in their feedback-- as well as how it help improved their writing.

"Knowledge is Power. I'm thinking it should say Critique Circle is Power. I've learned so much from here, from everyone that's ever come to read my story. Without the help of Critique Circle, I don't think my book would ever even have a CHANCE of being published. I owe so much to this site!! Thank you Critique Circle!"

www.critters.com
Critters is the same idea of critique circle, with a concentration on horror, science fiction and fantasy. It also employees the idea of you critique my work-I critique yours. They have a specific criteria lined up users must follow. They pride themselves on having an expert of something (nursing homes, being 15, various locations etc) for almost everything. They work in a "que" form. Many join not only for literary advice, but to meet friends in their fields of writing. Their website includes bios of its members.

www.thenextbigwriter.com
The Next Big writer is like the first two, but in total offers different genres of writing, novels, short stories and poems which is something the other two websites didn't do. Also unlike the others, this website is not free having a yearly fee of $39.50. With this fee, you are guaranteed feedback on your work, a place to save copies and drafts, seek motivation and meet other writers. Works are also reviewed and then ranked compared to the other pieces that have been submitted.

"I'm looking forward to dipping my toe into the white-water of the publishing industry Just remember I acquired the confidence HERE!" Elle Locke digs it.

Genre

I liked this reading on genre since it relates to a lot of things we do in life: movie stores, book stores, neighborhoods even. I did a research paper when I was a freshmen about how the brain needs to stereotype people in order to remember them. Essential things such as Rachel has red-hair, she is white, she is short, she is a college student. In this context, stereotyping didn't have necessarily have the negative associations of the word, but showed not only how the given negative and neutral stereotypes helped our brain function. With that, genres do essentially the same things. Each thing whether is be a movie title, book section at Barnes and Nobles, where someone lives, how someone dresses brings to mind certain genre-esk ideas about the object or person.
I also thought the differences between "bed" and "rack" were interesting. I play rugby and we also have different terminology for many things. Our cleats are boots, athletic bags are kits, the field is a pitch. While all of those things mean the same thing essentially they conjure up different meanings. If someone on the street used those words to me, I would assume they were a rugby player. Not only is rugby a sport but a lifestyle and do compete with that lifestyle you not only have to know the rules of the game and the lingo but the tradition and networking behind the sport.
While these ideas I find interesting on a personal level, I also think it will relate well to the creative aspect of my final assignment. We'll be working on creative writing and the Internet which I feel takes on a much different tone from normal hard copy assignments. Its as if there is more of a conversational aspect to it. For the groupies-- keep in mind our final assignment still hasn't been fully outline so I am kind of shooting in the dark I would loosely do this: basic creative writing (such as short stories that are uploaded online out of hard text), personal creative writing (such as blogging or personal websites) or professional creative writing (professional blogs, creative pieces for online websites, "about us" sections etc). Like I said, not entirely sure but that is my guess. I'm sure many more ideas will come up shortly. I think the basic structures of the pieces will depend on the formality or informality of the assignment, website and topic.

Bolter/Grusin

Like I said before, I still like getting mail. Even if it is just from my grandma in Florida who doesn't know how to use a computer. I don't like the idea of skull caps that can penetrate my brain or video conferencing with a hot new date when I am in my pajamas. It makes me wonder when technology really just is infrindging on our privacy...or has it already? I enjoy some of the aspects of course; I will not lie that I partake in facebook and myspace stalking (in the most innocence sense, of course) being able to look up addresses online and instant message but the level of distance and informality in a emotional sense kind of freaks me out. Just think of Disney movies that I was raised on with the shoty graphics and now Fiona (in human form) from Shrek looks so real its scary.
My aunt worked for Sprint when cell phones were the hot new market item and no longer came in shoebox size. She went to a conference at the headquarters and reported to me that one day we would be able to see people we were talking to as in video conferencing. I didn't believe her. Granted I was like ten but wow, was I wrong.
"[...] in a sense the whole World Wide Web is an exercise in replacement". I found that to be an interestingly basic statement, yet very profound. Just think of the things its replaced: phone books, letters, the phone lists we used to magnet to our fridge, dictionary's, newspapers, translators, shopping in a mall and having hundred dollar text books. That is absolutely right. What else will become replaceable? Telemarketers don't even have to dial now to be annoying. Classic works of art can be downloaded, pictures manipulated to get out the red eyes or add a person. Again, it freaks me out. But the opportunities because of these things are endless. Just read about the Howard campaign for president.
I think the idea those of an interactive and immediacy as a way to get more people involved (if emailing is so much easier then writing letters, why not teach grandma and make it easier to communicate) to be an important one. We are suddenly given the resource for all of us to get out our ideas whether good or bad and that means something.

Assignment #1: Here we go

In reading McLuhan's article I almost had to laugh. If my parents were sitting behind me watching me do homework they would loudly be debating the fact that their daughter is reading the information for class online from a wireless connection in her apartment and blogging her response (such a foreign concept for them) instead of sitting with a text book and a pencil. I almost find it amusing myself. They used to stand in line for hours to register for classes only to find that it was full while I sit at my computer instantly finding out if that political science class I need to graduate is not only available but on what campus and at what time. It amazes me that I am a part of such a new generation. One that is quickening the communication process from snail mail to email to instant messaging. Anything that we need to find out or buy or learn or change is all at our finger tips with the help of an Internet connection and a computer.
The part I found the most interesting about McLuhan's article was the idea of speed. At one point, trains were the fastest way to travel but with the invention of the airplane my commute home to Minneapolis was cut from nine hours to one. It seems to me that these inventions are not only quickening most processes but also severely limiting human contact. I was talking to my roommate the other day about when we were in grade school. Our parents usually didn't know where we were, our friends would call around to different houses until they found who they were looking for and when we were picked up by friends at our house they had to come knock on our front door. Now with cell phones everyone always knows where you are (and if you don't answer it, you must be dead) and neither of us could remember the last time we knocked on the door of our friends parents' houses, or any house for that matter, to say hello and hurry up. We realized that because of that, most of us didn't even know the names of our friends parents or roommates. In one sense, we are closing the extensions of people but at the same time broadening them. We are not "reinventing the wheel" just altering it to the point that at some point, it may not be recognizable anymore.
The idea of "hot and cold mediums" is an interesting one although I find it somewhat difficult to thoroughly grasp. Hot mediums are ones of high definition but low interaction; a concept that seems to be more popular these days resonating with the idea of exclusion. I found the idea of the Australian natives the most interesting; when everyone was given the ax it not only reduced the idea of manhood but also made daily tasks either. It boils down to the idea of the tool verse the machine; tools create beautiful handmade objects that are one of a kind while machines make the same thing in mass quantities that are sold at Target. While the first is an individual craft and responsibility (much like the men's tasks with the ax), the other provides for necessity. The cold medium seems to be the tool and the hot the machine.
As I finish this assignment, I will spell-check instead of getting out the dictionary and understand the media is the message but sometimes I do miss the good old days: birthday cards in the mail, no cell phone and dvds instead of tapes. But then I think again.