alliek414

Ahhh! I have been so stressed out this entire week I am sooooo excited that it is almost Friday!!! I have been having carnicus practice every day and night this whole week and it has been so rediculous. I have had so many things I have needed to do and I have to do them later than I normally would because of practice so that stresses me out even more! Well, now I am sick and am suppose to be at practice tomorrow at 5 before we got and finally perform it at 8 tomorrow night. I am so excited to just get it over with. I hope this weekend is really fun and relaxing and I really hope that next week is better than this one! My birthday is not this coming Monday but the next one, on April 14th and I am so excited because my mom is coming in town and we are going to shop in Atlanta next weekend!! I can't wait to eat at yummy restaurants and hopefully come home with a few new cute things! Every school year the hardest part of the year is coming back from spring break and having to go back to school work. It is like the end of school is so close but we have to do so many assignments, papers, and tests until then but it just makes the summer break that much more enjoyable! I cannot wait for summer and I hope that this weekend is really great and that I get a lot of sleep because I need to start feeling better! I hope you all have a great weekend and that we all make it through these next few weeks until summer!!!!!

Annotated Bibliography

Caldwell, John Thornton. Electronic Media and Technoculture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University, 2000.

I think that this book will be a great source for me to use in my paper and presentation because it addresses the society as a whole instead of just a particular age group. It says that we are all being taken in by this technological age. It has titles of chapters such as television and Internet, the technology and the society, and the circuit of technology: gender, identity, and power. I think that these chapters probably hold a good amount of useful information for me to use in my paper.

Clapp, Genevieve. Child Study Research: Current Perspectives and Applications. N.p.: Lexington , 1988.

I find the headings in this book to also be helpful topics. One of them is about 30 pages of “Television: Today’s Most Important Socializer.” I think that it will be helpful in providing me with information I will need in writing my paper. I want to focus on how technology has affected society in a positive and a negative way. I think this book will provide me with certain information needed in determining these two ways technology has affected us.

Gere, Charlie. Digital Culture. N.p.: Reaktion, 2002.

This book was written fairly recently so I believe it will provide a more accurate determination of how technology has made us into a “digital culture.” It defines digital culture in its first chapter and goes on to describe how it came about and the history of making a digital culture. It also addresses an important aspect of technology, the people who oppose technology and the changes that it brings to the world. This book also goes on to give a list of all possible ways that technology has helped us such as in war, music, art practice, the list goes on. I think this will be one of the main sources I will use in writing my paper and making my presentation.

"Effects on Physical Well Being." The Future of Children. 3 Apr. 2008
<http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/>.

I have basically narrowed my topic down to determining the effects that technology has on the cognitive and physical development of children. I also want to address our society as a whole and how we rely so much on technology in our day-to-day life, and how it is becoming more and more prevalent in everyone’s lives and jobs. I think this website does a great job of addressing the issues that technology may cause in children’s lives. I may not necessarily support the negative spin they are giving to technology, but I think it does hold a lot of useful information.

Well, never in my millions of years in the sky have I ever been as upset as I have been in the last two days. First I was hit by an object flying at a rapid speed in the sky. It knocked me so hard that I was forced to fall from my home in the sky to this horrible place called Earth. And just my luck this annoying boy, Tristian Thron, keeps forcing me to do things I do not want to do. I have a broken leg from the fall and he just does not understand the pain I am suffering. I guess it was nice of him to make me a crutch from a tree branch but it was certainly the least he could do after capturing me and chaining me to him. Finally, something has gone in my favor, I have been able to ride a unicorn for quite some distance instead of walking on my broken leg. Tristian was starving and had to go get food from a town so he had to unchain me from him. When he was out of site I began riding the unicorn by myself and trying to go away from him and his chains. I since that he is some where around us but it is starting to rain and I am becoming very upset! Finally I see some lights and a place where I can get out of the rain. I am so sad and cold and all alone. I always thought this Earth place was so nice and wonderful when I admired it from the sky, but now that I am here I hate it and everyone is so unwelcoming. I have come across one welcoming woman at the inn. She has the kindest voice and is inviting me into her inn to stay the night out of the rain! She is being so kind to me and letting me take a bath in warm water. I am starting to feel a lot better. She was even kind enough to ask how my heart was feeling. I have finally found a kind person here on this "benighted world."

http://dr-memory.livejournal.com/2002/09/11/

In unit two we discussed all kinds of multi-media ranging from diaries and journals, to music and dancing. We learned about the influences that each one brings to the end result. Every kind of media we learned about has something to offer. Two that I felt had a significant amount were the online blogs/journals of different historic events, and the paper journals in the special collection library. I found the paper diaries felt like you were really there because at one time that person was actually holding those diaries and those papers and that was very interesting to me. I also have continued to really appreciate the September 11th blog that I read when we had to choose one. It was by a man who calls his blog “Purple Vengeance Version.”
When I first read this blog entry I was sitting alone in my dorm room where it was quiet so I could actually think about what the writer was saying. I think I gained a whole different perspective of how the people who were actually in New York, living there, were thinking and acting. I always knew that it was obviously a horrible and tragic event for everyone and that the people in New York really were suffering from this wound in their city, but I do not think that I had the complete perspective of how someone living there felt until I read this entry. Maybe it was because I had not researched people’s personal reactions, or had not cared to at the time. Maybe it was just the way this author wrote so personally in his blog. Whatever it may be I am glad that I gained this other perspective of the tragic events of September 11th.
The author’s portrayal may not be entirely objective because of the way he has stated everything. It is about his day and what he went trough as a person. He does not generalize all of the New Yorker’s days (other than saying it was a horrible day in their city) but rather just says exactly what he went through on this tragic day. He shares with his readers his every day events and makes them connect on a personal level with him. I think this is one way I have become so obsessed with this blogger’s story about September 11th. When reading anything readers want to have a personal connection with what they are reading. That is why people become so emotional when reading certain things or telling certain stories, they have connected with the author in some way. The author here has unintentionally connected his readers on a personal level. While he was just merely sharing the story of how his day went on that day, the readers are able to connect by having similar daily events in our lives. He starts out saying that his girlfriend left for work and he slept in, then he said her roommate came running in and told him about the event. Then he goes on saying that he watched the event on the news for a few hours and sat there in shock. Then, he realized that it was happening in his city and he had to go out there and see it or try and do something. When he looked out he saw the plumes of smoke rising over the city and he realized it was all real. He ends his entry with pictures of the images he was actually seeing (another way he connected us to him personally) and has lyrics corresponding to each picture that he has taken. Overall, I would say the author’s portrayal is not entirely objective but it does not really state an opinion on the matter. He expresses fear and dumbfounded ness after hearing about what has happened, but he does not state any opinion directly in his blog entry.
I think the authors main purpose in writing this blog entry was to share with the world what people in New York were going through. I think he did an excellent job portraying this and I find it a very interesting blog that accurately represents the effectiveness of multimedia through its words and pictures.

Well, 11 hours after leaving our hotel we got back to Nashville. It was suppose to take around 8.5-9 hours, but the people we were following went all of the wrong ways. First they accidentally took the scenic route which has the most traffic in the world on it and took an extra hour to get through. Then, we went the way that does not get on an interstate until 4 hours into the drive so we were at stop lights every 200 yards. Then, there was a horrible wreck that caused an hour and a half of traffic. I started getting really nervous about the wreck because it was freaking me out. We saw people who were sliding off the roads every few miles and there were cops everywhere. I made Jack drive the whole way because I was too scared and then I started being a horrible back seat driver haha. I told him to slow down almost every second, but the wreck and just scared me...anyways, we made it to Nashville safely even though it took a little longer than we expected it to...Panama was really fun but I'm not sure it's something I want to do again. It was fun for a week but I am definitely ready to curl up in my own bed at home! I can't wait I love being home! I hope everyone made it back safely and had a good time!!!!

Spring break is going pretty well. We have been having an awesome time in Panama. My friends are staying in a villa with there sorority and I am in one of the condos at Sandpiper Beacon. Im staying on the 6th floor, which is the same floor where a security guard raped and threw a girl off the balcony. It was really scary that that was happening right down from me. The man was loose for two days and it was freaking everyone out. Then they finally caught him. He was a convicted murderer from Indiana who was not suppose to be able to get work in Florida, but they hired him without doing a background check. So, today I am in Seaside taking a break from the dirtiness of my hotel and all of the partying visiting my mom and brothers. Today it is raining and kind of cold so it kind of sucks that we can't really go to the beach or the pool. We're about to go back to Panama and get back into the spring break scene. Hopefully the weather will get better by tonight and it won't be raining throughout the night. And I definitely hope the weather will be better tomorrow so we will be able to hang out on the beach again. I hope everyone's spring breaks are going well!!!!

Well, its the first day of spring break, Friday March 14th. I am still in Knoxville in my dorm. I was going to leave for Panama at 1:30 today and then last minute one of my friends who was riding with me called me and told me she was driving now. To most people this would be a relief, but for me, I was pretty mad about it. I have to have my car most places I go, its a huge comfort/control issue I have haha...so, anyways, here I am still in Knoxville waiting until 3:30 AM when I am going to drive my car to Chattanooga to pick up my boyfriend, Jack, so he can ride with me to Panama. Jack is in Chattanooga because on Wednesday he went to Miami of Ohio for green beer day and celebrated St. Patrick's Day with his brother and a few friends. Then he was going to drive down to Panama with his brother but now he is riding with me since I am rediculous and have to have my car. It is so weird to be one of the last people in the dorms. I feel like everyone just vanished. All of my other friends are gone except for one of my best friends who is also leaving tomorrow morning with girls in her sorority. Today in presidential I probably have seen at the most 5 people all day. I have seen the cleaning crew, the RA who sits at the front desk, one boy walking around the courtyard, and Clare (my friend who is still here). Clare and I were taking a nap in her room and when we woke up we looked out the window and there was literally no life in the dorms, we even screamed out the window "can anyone hear me?"...no reply hahah...but anyways I'm off the Panama tomorrow morning bright and shiny...hope everyone has a great spring break!

Songs evoke memories almost the instant you hear them. Everyone has the song they were listening to when they first drove their car, the song that was playing when you took your first sip of alcohol, a song that reminds you of a party you went to, an embarassing dance you did, friends you were with, a song that actually seems to say everything you have been thinking in one lyric, the song that reminds you of the first time you fell in love, the first time you broke up, that one spring break that you will never forget, a song you laughed at for hours, a song that makes you cry, one that you play whenever your felling bad about something, the one you listen to when your with close friends, some lyric you wanna hear that reminds you of everything you did in high school, your first favorite song, that one you listened to everyday on the way to school, the overplayed song that was always on the radio whenever you turned it on, the one that reminds you of when you were little, the one that actually tells the story of your life, one that makes you remember friends/family who have past, the song that can only be played at the beach or on the way to the beach, the one by that embarassing band you liked....the list goes on. Songs have always been a huge part of my life. My dad is addicted to country music and has played it for me ever since I was born. I have "music videos" I made when I was 5 dancing and singing to Song of the South and Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox. I have another homevideo that my friend and I made of us wearing matching outfits (black leggings, platform tennis shoes, and oversized t-shirts with Shania Twain's face on them) and singing in microphones the song Spice Up Your Life by Spicegirls. All of these songs have played a part in our lives and are there to help us remember all the great times we had when we were listening to them!!!

Sunday and today were the prettiest days. It felt so good out today! This time of year is my favorite because spring is coming and everyone is going to start wearing spring colors soon. Also, spring break and then summer! I realized that today and yesterday everyone was feeling good. I was driving around for several hours yesterday with my boyfriend and two of his friends and we were looking around and everyone was outside playing. We drove through the park and everyone was doing something active. The weather like this just gets everyone outside and feeling good about themselves. It makes everyone smile and hopeful that the cold weather is stopping (unless you are one of the people who feels this way about cold weather instead of warm weather). I think that the weather can really dictate people's moods. When I got frustrated yesterday it was hard to stay that way for long because I went outside and I just couldn't help but feel at peace with everything. It was so great that the end of the weekend ended up being pretty. I can't wait for spring to get into full bloom! I have always loved these months before it gets too hot and but is no longer cold. My birthday is in april and all my little birthday parties have been outside because it is so pretty! This weather has just put me in a really good mood and has gotten me really excited about spring...I hope everyone has enjoyed these past 2 days outside because tomorrow is not looking so pretty... (36-56F high chance of storm)...but hopefully the storm will hold off! Yay for spring haha

Weblogs, blogs, journals, filters, notebooks, and diaries are all different ways of personal writing. It can be very beneficial to maintain one of these types of “story keeping” journals in your life. We have been asked to keep a Weblog as part of this class. Keeping a Weblog has been very interesting for me because I was never interested in keeping one before, but I do keep a diary and it has been interesting comparing some of the aspects of them. There are several benefits to keeping a Weblog which include obvious reasons such as people are going to read this, but there are also two others that I would like to address: How it has helped me become more organized in my writing and how it has helped me maintain writing skills.

Writing for a Weblog is very different than writing a paper and turning it in to your English teacher or writing about what has happened to you in your diary. When you write on the Internet anyone can see it, and anyone can make a comment about it. At first I was intimidated by the idea that everyone could read what I was writing and be able to critique it if they wanted to. However, after actually putting some writing out there I realized that it is really nothing to be scared of. I have learned that it is not a big deal if no one comments on my posts and that I can just write about what I want to whether others find it interesting or not. Because of this I like to think I am more carefree about people reading what I write because of the realization that everyone has some of their writing out there as well. I think that even though it is early in the Weblog process, I have become a more confident writer, and have learned which topics interest people and which topics I write because I want to. Since we have been writing in our blogs every week and writing something in out class blogs as well, I have also learned how to organize my writing even though it has just been in a few minor ways.

Another benefit to blogging is learning how to organize your thought process and deal with writer’s block. Through blogging I have learned that even though you may think you have nothing to write about, you should just start writing and it will evolve into something. Almost all of my blogs that I have written were unfinished topics. For example, in my “driving” blog I started out writing about my favorite song and then realized I love to listen to it when I drive, and that I wanted to write about how great driving is. The effectiveness of this in blogging is very useful and may seem like it may not apply to other forms of writing, but trust me it has helped me through some pretty difficult papers that I thought I was not going to be able to finish.

Even though writing on a Weblog uses a more relaxed type of writing it is still beneficial to maintaining writing skills. You still use your skills every few days and are forced to come up with something different to say. This is very beneficial in comparison to not writing anything for weeks until a huge term paper is assigned. “Everyone needs to be writing at least once every three days, whether it is in your diary or just a story you are telling, write!” My third grade teacher told my class those words. She said to write at least every three days. It was not something I ever got excited about or ever really listened to. After keeping a Weblog and having to write every three days, I have realized that maybe I should have paid more attention to what my little third grade ears were hearing because just these few weeks have been beneficial to me as a writer.

I think the overall process of weblogging has been beneficial to me. I have the expectation that even after this class is over I am going to maintain some type of writing in my life because I have already seen some benefits from it.

One of my friends had to go to starbucks or a place similar to it and just sit and observe people for 30-45 minutes for her english class. This made me start thinking about how someone is always watching you when your in public even when you dont realize it. I really started to think about it so i looked out my window. It was so true! I was watching all these people and they had no idea i was watching them. I saw people who thought no one could see them pick their nose, scratch their butts, trip and look around frantically to see if anyone saw and have a since of reliefe when they thought that no one was watching...doing this was hilarious. Then, the other day my best friend clare and i had just pulled into a parking spot and were dreading getting out in the cold and walking with all of our groceries all the way to our dorm...so we just sat in the car talking about the night before and then we were about to get out of the car when we realized there was a girl walking by that we didnt want to say hey to because she is so awkward... so we just shut our doors and waited for her to leave. We thought waiting for her to leave would be a quick thing, but then she could not get out of her parking spot so we started to time her on how long it took. We sat there for 17 minutes while she went one inch forwards and one inch backwards until she finally got out of her parking spot. We were just sitting there laughing and then we realized how creepy it was that we had been watching her for almost 20 mintues and she had no idea. scary!!! So next time you think no one will see if you just do a little something in public, just remember there might be someone watching (not to be creepy or anything haha)

Music has always been something that I have loved. I love to listen to it, to sing along with it (even though I can't sing at all), and my favorite thing to do is to drive/ride around with the windows down listening to music. Driving is one of the most therapeutic things for me. It is what I do whenever I am sad, mad, stressed, or bothered by something in my life. Driving, combined with good songs that make you think, is the recipe to helping me deal with things going on in my life. At home there were certain roads that I would drive on and a certain route I would take that would be just long enough for me to feel better... one of the hardest things about being at college for me is to not have that comfort anymore. I can still go driving because I have my car here, but its not the same because I don't usually pass people I know, or drive by places where I have wonderful memories, or know the best places to go driving. I don't mind going on long car trips by myself, or driving anywhere by myself, in fact it is pretty much the only place that I like to be alone. Whenever I am not in my car concentrating on a song or a problem, I love to be with people and have to. I don't really like to be alone I like company and am always sitting in my friends’ rooms or having them over. Overall, I think that when dealing with problems in one's lives, they have to develop their own type of "therapeutic thing," everyone has something they do when they aren't feeling their best or when they are stressed... shopping, talking, eating, driving, thinking, blogging...

Not only am I a very superstitious person, I am also a firm believer in timing. I think that everything that happens throughout the day causes another thing to happen... for example, a few weekends ago I was driving back to school from Nashville and I had a blow out tire that made me loose complete control of my car. I was with one of my friends and she was late getting ready and then we decided to get some food before we left Nashville... these things caused us to be 30 minutes late in getting on the interstate. There were two giant trucks behind us but were a good enough distance behind us to not wreck with us... we were luckily not surrounded by anyone, but there were many cars in front and behind us. I eventually got enough control to be able to pull the car over to the shoulder and did not hit anything or anyone. A situation like this just makes you think about what if my friend had been ready to go on time, or what if the trucks had left their last stops just a few minutes before it did... we would have been much closer and something horrible may have happened... Timing really is amazing!!! As for my overall belief on timing... it doesn't have to be something as big as life or death to make you realize... it could be something as small as missing your ride somewhere and getting to your destination before them because they ran out of gas... I think our whole lives are a series of chain events... everything we do affects what will happen next...

I have contemplated several different themes for my weblog...I have considered superstitions, music, photos, and fashion. I think I am pretty confident in the theme of superstitions and hope to stick with it. I am the most superstitious person you will ever meet...I have to knock on wood several times a day, I skip the cracks in sidewalks, I don't open umbrellas in the house, I refuse to walk under ladders, and several other personal superstitions I have developed over the years. It first started when I was little when my mom just simply said, "knock on wood" when she was talking about how everything was going smoothly for a party she was having. Then, it escalated over the years into something that I HAVE to do, or I start to think what I thought would happen will happen. Even when I am just thinking it to myself and not saying it out loud, I feel the absolute need to knock on wood about what I was thinking. Also I think about something happening while I’m walking to class and in my head say, it’s going to happen if I do not step on this crack right now!!! I think it has actually become a necessity in my everyday life. It happens with several things I do, like washing my hands or reading a book, or looking at the clock...I just started to psych myself out that what I am thinking will happen in my head, will happen unless I do one of those things I have convinced myself is necessary...I know what your all thinking. I must be obsessive compulsive or something...its nothing like that, its just a mental thing. I have so convinced myself that I have to do certain things in order to make negative things not occur...