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So as I am sure everyone remembers, yesterday in class, 3 creative writing teachers came into speak to us writing arts majors. I had class with one of the professors before, and really do cherish what he has to say. After the talk, I think most students felt a little discouraged as writing majors. It wasn’t that the professors told us not to major in writing with creative aspects, but they did tell us that creative writing can not be a career. One of the professors had mentioned that writing is a vocation, not a career. She talked about the visions we have of becoming famous writers which are mostly taken from television and film. I definitley see many of my life goals stemming from popular culture. After the meeting, I had the choice of being discouraged, or of taking the best interpretation of the event to heart. I decided that yes, it was quite diffucult to hear that my passion can’t also become my career, but as the professors said, incportating some other area of expertise with writing can ultimately create great results. Now I just have to choose one of my millions of interests to go along with my writing.
11:26 AM: Katie: so if we make things free, people will want to access them more, which will make them more well
known. why are we paying for things in the first place then
11:26 AM: Katie: *for things
11:27 AM: jky: what things do mean
11:27 AM: jky: ?
11:27 AM: Katie: like music, magazines, etc.
11:27 AM: alias: good question–why should we have to pay for information?
11:27 AM: jky: a lot of people don’t pay for music
11:28 AM: jky: but they are cheating the system, i still pay for it
11:28 AM: Caitlin: I think people will still pay to support writers and artists whose work they truly enjoy. Supposedly the
average download of Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” is going for $7 (according to some guy on the radio, so I don’t know if it’s
true) even though people have the option of paying whatever they want.
11:28 AM: jky: i don’t know why
11:28 AM: jky: ahhaha
11:28 AM: jky: yea, i buy cd’s of people i really love, but i also go to their concerts
11:28 AM: jky: so in some people’s minds, if you go to a concert you
11:28 AM: jky: ‘are supporting the band
11:28 AM: jky: so you don;t have to buy a hard copy of their music
11:29 AM: jky: we have to pay for info because someone wants the credit
11:29 AM: jky: i guess
11:29 AM: jky: what would happen if everything in the world were free? food, music, airwaves
11:29 AM: alias: so credit = money?
11:30 AM: jky: i think for a lot of people credit=money
11:30 AM: Courtney: i agree, if you put the time and energy into something i think you should get something in return….
if that is money then yes
11:30 AM: Katie: well i think credit is really talent and honesty, and if i want to see/hear more from a person i would
want to support them, and to support them i would give them money to continue what they are doing, so in a way, yes, it
does
11:31 AM: Caitlin: Who are we really supporting when we buy a CD, though? How much of that money goes to the record
label and how much goes directly to the artist?
11:31 AM: jky: in the music industry i think the record label gets more of the money
11:31 AM: jky: but more of the credit goes to the artist
11:31 AM: jky: in that case, credit and money are different
11:31 AM: Katie: you might as well download the music and send twenty bucks to the artist
11:31 AM: jky: yeA! but how?
11:32 AM: jky: i mean why are we writing majors? to make money, or to share our thoughts with whoever is willing to
hear them?
11:32 AM: alias: good point katie–why can’t i do that?
11:32 AM: alias: why can’t i just send Bruce 50 bucks
11:32 AM: jky: BRRRUUUCEEE
11:33 AM: alias: why does he get only 1 dollar per every CD or even less
11:33 AM: Caitlin: You probably could, but I think the majority of people won’t.
11:33 AM: jky: i don;t know but hes selling a lot of cds
11:33 AM: jky: so those dollars add up
11:33 AM: Katie: i guess if we did that, then everyone else who worked on the music wouldnt get their share of the profit
11:33 AM: alias: well, you just said above, C, that people are donating toRadiohead at a pretty nice level
11:33 AM: Katie: like the producers, songwriters, etc.
11:33 AM: jky: yea
11:33 AM: jky: and i feel for the songwriters
11:33 AM: Katie: kind of like the writers in hollywood now
11:33 AM: jky: yep!!
11:33 AM: jky: i was just thinkng that
11:33 AM: alias: perhaps the artist would distrbute the money?
11:33 AM: Katie: probably not
11:34 AM: jky: i think they would
11:34 AM: jky: when actors win awards think of all the people they thank
11:34 AM: Katie: if it were like jon bon jovi, who cares for everyone, then i think he would, but like britney spears? she
would just like buy a new car or something
11:34 AM: jky: hahaha
11:34 AM: jky: bon jovi cares
11:34 AM: jky: britney doesnt
11:35 AM: Caitlin: I think if more bands went around the music industry like Radiohead did and made their music
available for download directly from the band, then people would pay for it, but if they were just downloading it for free
and sending money after the fact then most people wouldn’t bother.
I think it is the funniest thing when I’m listening to my itunes with headphones on in the library. Well, that’s not the funny part. What’s funny is when someone walks by and they walk to the beat. Whether it’s Kelly Clarkson or the Black Eyed Peas, I can’t help but laugh. I mean, it happens on the street all the time. Like, when you’re in your car and a pedestrian walks in front of you to the music on the radio. But when you’re in a library it just seems to be even more humorous.
Since we’re on the subject of libraries, I will talk about my favorite spot in ours. On the second floor, across from the reference desk, there’s a little section with a globe and a few chairs and tables. There’s also those rooms you can go in if you have to do a group project. It’s the perfect spot for people-watching without getting too distracted. Plus, if I need references, the lady is right there! The only problem with it is that I have to choose between looking out the window or people-watching. Unless its snowing, I vote for people-watching all the way. Maybe it’s because I work in the mall.
Today for my photography class, I completed a book. It is a book of all of my best work from this semester, put together in a stylish manner. We used a website called My Publisher to create the books. I must say, the preview of the book looks pretty fantastic. Though it is the holidays. We’ll see if it gets here on time to count as my final for my photo class. Anyways, I decided to share this in a post with you because I found the website pretty cool. Its like an online photo album that you can print out. You have to download layout software which is pretty easy to follow. You can make photo books for yourself, or as presents. You can add captions and funky wallpapers. Or you can keep it simple, silly. You should at least check out the site to view some examples. Why not!?
In class today, I mentioned something I discussed in my Aesthetics class last year, about objects and ideas and there “thrice” removal from their true forms. I looked up Plato on Wikipedia, but found a section about his relationship with Socrates. Under the metaphysics section, I found this, “according to Socrates, physical objects and physical events are “shadows” of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves. Just as shadows are temporary, inconsequential epiphenomena produced by physical objects, physical objects are themselves fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, the ideals of which they are mere instances. For example, Socrates thinks that perfect justice exists (although it is not clear where) and his own trial would be a cheap copy of it.”
Being able to know what something is inside of your head and draw a picture of it is an amazing feat. Hopefully someone else will be able to determine what you drew is the same object that was inside your head. As a writing major, and I discussed this in my final paper for Tweedie, I think being able to describe a thought in your head is pretty much just as cool as being able to draw it. Describing, through words what you see allows the reader to be the artists and paint their own picture in their head. I guess it all depends on if you want the audience of either a painting or an essay to see exactly what you saw in your head, or their own version. However, I bet plenty of artists get frustrated when their paintings don’t look exactly the way they want them too. In this regard, I can finally understand why our major is titled writing arts.
If you don’t understand what Socrates is trying to say, give this a look.
Okay, so I have been checking out the netvibes website. I made a username and I think I might become addicted. Actually, I’m already addicted to the Internet. This website will either feed my addiction because I can’t stop adding widgets and looking at my home page, or it will end my addiction, allowing me to view everything in under a minute. Hopefully, it will end it. However, it doesn’t seem good at this point. So far, I have a countdown until my birthday, a facebook update, the weather, a to do list, youtube and wikipedia. I’m still trying to figure out how to get my school e-mail to work through this site. Also, I’m probably going to add a fish tank (as if having a real live one that I have to clean isn’t enough), and a photoalbum. Also, the top of my page has Christmas lights and ornaments and evergreen branches, to get me into the Christmas spirit, which isn’t hard to do anyways. It kind of clashes with the hot pink orange, yellow, green, blue and purple widgets all over my screen. Oh, a quote of the day widget!! Gotta go!
-applejackie
I know it’s a little late but i figure now is better than never. This post is a in response to articles we read 2 weeks ago for class.
On page 3 of this article I found a statement that really caught my eye.
“One study found that only 40 percent of the Web is commercial. The rest runs on duty or passion.” This means that less than half of the whole entire internet is paid for by huge companies. The rest is run by people like us who have to have blogs for a class, or for some of us who want to have blogs for our own interest, or kids like us who want to go on youtube and “brodcast ourselves” for free! I like to think it’s really cool that a bigger percentage of the internet is run by passion than commercial conglomerates or duty.
On page 4, I discovered,
“A simple extrapolation suggests that in the near future, everyone alive will (on average) write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a weblog, and code a program.” This quote sums up how I currently feel about eventually graduating college. I am terrified to have a writing degree. Anyone can be a writer. Why should I focus on doing it for the rest of my life, as a career? I don’t just mean writing. What’s the point in majoring in anything? Anyone can be an author, a graphic designer, a music producer, the possibilited are endless. I find it quite scary that anyone in the world can be something through the internet for free that you (or I) are paying tons of money to become.
Page 7, ““When I play a woman I don’t really take it too seriously,” said 20-year-old Andrei. “I do it to improve the ratio of women to men. It’s just a game.” My thoughts on this…well let’s put it this way, in real life, people don’t usually cross-dress to improve gender ratios in the world. There was also a mention about how it’s easier to speak to the opposite sex in MUD’s. What I find humorous about this is that, if you are a woman in real life and in MUD’s and find it easier to converse with MUD’s men, half the men you are talking to in MUD’s are probably women anyway!!
My general viewpoint of MUD’s:
Playing as someone in a game vs. becoming someone real.
Okay, so I am a fan of all music. I can’t pick one decade as my favorite. However, I came across this online quiz. If you want to know if you’re an 80’s lyrics genius, take it. It’s pretty fun and the answers you don’t know will be given to you at the end. Once this happens you will say, “HOW COULD I FORGET THAT!!!?” Also, if you think you’re a pro at 90’s music, or if you’ve mastered the 80’s quiz, there’s a 90’s lyrics quiz too!! I tried the 90’s one and I knew less of the answers than I did on the 80’s quiz. It’s pretty funny considering I was born in 1987. My mom is always curious how I know the words to some of “her music.” After taking both of these, it really makes you wonder how you could know more music from past generations than your own.
Well, today I am celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. I came home to a quiet house with birds chirping and the wind rustling the leaves. Yea right!! I walked in the door, my two dogs daisy and paco were barking. I think they were saying “Get inside and play!” My sister was watching tv, running around AND simultaneously asking my mom if she could help. My mom was screaming that the house was still a mess, even though she had been cleaning for a week. My stepdad was watching the Eagles game in the living room, and yelling. And this was just the beginning. My mom’s cousins still had to come; one with two kids, another who’s engaged to a girl I’ve met once. My grandma and her new husband had to come. My aunt and uncle with my two cousins. My great aunt and great uncle bill, AK and UB, for short. AND, the food wasn’t even near done. (As I am writing this, my mom is pacing the floors saying “I feel like i’m forgetting to do something major” under her breath.) I had only cut slices of cheese for cheese and crackers, and I already felt overwhelmed. Plus, this was only one of the three Thanksgiving’s I was going to celebrate this week! (that’s what happens when you have divorced parents). So, I went on my mom’s laptop and started to type. I’ll keep you posted if anything crazy/ier happens.
I actually find it quite humorous that even a few years ago, people were just learning how to use the internet for its loveliness. The Berners-Lee article, “The World Wide Web” was almost shocking to me. Who knew there was so much complexity to the different, little parts of the internet; HTML, HTTP, URL? These aren’t just abbreviations for they are letters that stand for something important which was difficult to perfect. However, the way the World Wide Web is described in this article, doesn’t even seen archaic to me. It seems like someone is trying to describe something so simple, in such technical terms. Growing up with the internet by my side, I never had to learn the definitions of HTML or other seemingly simple internet terms. I didn’t have to know exactly what they meant. All I had to know was that if you wanted to go on a website, you had to put HTTP in front of the URL link that you typed in the empty box. Although the end of the article promises an exciting future for the internet, I can’t help but wonder how excited people must have been to realize the effects the internet could have. Not only its effects, but its abilities. Vannevar Bush mentioned in his article, “As We May Think” (1945), the ideas of compressing an entire encyclopedia to a minuscule amount. He talked about a desk with screens of information at the click of a button. In a way, my generation takes the internet and all of its abilities and effects on our society for granted. If you try to think about how much information is online, it is pretty close to unfathomable. They weren’t lying when they said we had the world at our fingertips.
Also, “Doug Englebart’s 1968 Demonstration” videos were either terrible quality or in their beginning stages. We’ll pretend that the videos were good quality for their time. I couldn’t help but think of a Saturday Night Live episode where one of the comedians is a news anchor in the TV station, and one is out at the site of the report. The news anchors keeps asking the reporter questions, but everything is delayed and their conversations get overlapped. The reporter can’t hear any questions she is being asked. Eventually, the two just give up and the audience, including myself, laughs at their frustration. These videos seemed to lag so much that it was hard to keep up with what was going on. Listening wasn’t as bad as trying to figure out what was going on on the screen. The example of early word processing, a keyboard and a mouse, were so much in their beginning stages that I could barely recognize what was going on. However, let’s thank God that Doug Englebart and the people who created all of these technologies didn’t just give up like the SNL comedians.
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