English 201

Dreamweaver Class Review

2006-12-07T06:17:00.000-08:00

I elected to take the Dreamweaver 1 course to improve my basic knowledge of creating web pages in the program. For the most part the class was elementary but the instructor had some valuable design tips like ensuring that menus and page banners stay in the same orientation on each sub page to maintain a consistent feel to the website.
We began by orientating ourselves with the work space. In the left most 2/3rds of the screen is where our web layout is. This the space where you can arrange the separate elements of text, audio, and pictures into the desired format. You also have the option of viewing the html code, the language that web browsers like Internet Explorer or Mozilla use to reconstruct the page when it is loaded.
At the right is the a number of project management tools that make the creation of the page more fluid. One of the most essential of these tools is the file manager. It allows for quick access to the files that are contained in the web page.
Next we began to layout the outline of our page by adding layers. Layers are shapes inserted into the document that will house things like the web site's banner, photo, or text. You can resize and reposition these shapes to improve the visual presentation. We made a horizontal bar across the top for a banner, a left justified verticalt bar for a bulleted link list and a third larger box under the banner for the page content. We then generated some random text at lipsum.com for the page banner and page contents. Once you click on a layer some tool bars appear at the bottom of the screen. Here you can change the way the text appears. There are 6 preset headings you can choose from or you can apply specific fonts and effects to the text. This serves to separate the titles of paragraphs and pages. We assigned Heading 1 to the banner text and Heading 4 to the headings of paragraphs in our content. We selected the three lines of text in the menu bar and converted them to a bulleted list using the font editing area at the bottom of the screen.
Once the initial layout was complete we added some media to the page. By locating the desired image in the file browser we could drag and drop the image wherever we wanted to insert it. You could also click anywhere on the document you want to place the picture and do so through the insert pull down menu.
After we finished a rough design for the main page, we followed the previous steps and created a second page we labeled "gallery". The purpose of this page was to begin creating links. There are several types of links. Relative links are links that connect pages within an individual site. For example, from google.com you can go to images.google.com, news.google.com, etc. Absolute links lead to outside sites and Internal links are used to bounce to different areas within one page. To illustrate the use of these we highlighted the word gallery at the top of the main page's menu tab. Upon doing this we are given the option (at the bottom of the screen) to manually type in the link address or to use a "point to" option by dragging a target symbol to the desired page/file in the file menu. In this case it was the gallery.html file. We made the second link in the list an Absolute link and pointed it to the UW main page by manually typing in the target address of http://www.wisc.edu. To create an internal link you must have an anchor point to direct the link to. To create an anchor point you simply click on the destination for the anchor and insert it through the insert menu. Once the anchor is in place, we scrolled to the bottom of the content and added the line "Back to Top", highlighted it and then use the "point to" option and dragged the target to the anchor point. On the gallery.html page we made the top menu item "Home" and linked it to the main.html page. After saving all links became active and opened the pages they were intended to.
Within the span of an hour and half I had made a very bare bones, 2 tiered website with images and functional links.
Overall I thought the program is a great tool for students tool for students and budding Internet frontiersmen.

#17 Everything is Illuminated.

2006-11-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

In the beginning of the book Emergence, Steve Johnson begins to illustrate how many of the systems we see every day are the result of single units sending and receiving signals to generate a larger entity for the benefit of the individual. He begins with a visit to Deborah Gordon, a behavioral ecologist who is studying ant colony behaviors. He finds that the ants have set an area to the side for their waste and for their dead comrades. Another point of interest is that the waste areas are an equal distance from the cemetery and from the rest of the colony making it seem as though “there’s a rule they’re following: put the dead ants as far away as possible and put the midden (garbage dump) as far away as possible without putting it near the dead ants.” (Johnson, 33) Among this giant swarm of ants there are numerous duties being filled and with a great amount of efficiency. Ants will leave pheromone markings as they walk indicating what they are doing and what direction they are going. “Ants can sense the difference between encountering ten foraging ants in an hour and encountering a hundred.”(Johnson, 76) So if an ant senses an influx of foragers in the swarm then he will begin to seek out new tasks.
He goes on to describe how cells function on a very similar M.O. They cluster together and exchange information through sugars, salts, proteins, etc. to multiply and gain form.
Just after these early examples I can see how present emergent systems are in my world. The way cities form, a tree grows, or political/ideological movements are all examples of constantly evolving entities being swayed by their parts, both inner and environmental.

#18 And you will know us by the trail of our phermones.

2006-11-27T16:45:00.000-08:00

In the beginning of chapter 6 Johnson illustrates that the human equivalent of the ant pheromone trails is body language. When interacting with another person there is much more than a verbal exchange that takes place. We are sending signals to our listener every time we lower our eyes, cross our arms or sit up straight, informing the sender on the strength of their message. If a speaker is receiving signal expressing disinterest she or he may alter the approach to make the message more effective. This, like most examples in the book, serves as a metaphor for an emergent system. Just as in the software industries developmental techniques the natural condensation of people into neighborhoods and cities we see individual units bouncing information back and forth, providing feedback to each other as to how to proceed.
He also sites an experiment where some children were ushered into a room and presented boxes of Smartees that were opened to reveal pencils. When the children were removed from the room they were told adults were going to open the boxes and what did they think the adults would be expecting to find in the box. The 4 year old test subjects all answered the Smartees would be expected. This shows our ability to separate personal knowledge (self) and the knowledge or behavior of others outside of the consciousness.
Johnson stipulates that selfhood or self-consciousness develops through this vital skill of being able to receive and predict possible thought processes of another person. With this information, we decide what role to take on in the exchange. We judge the needs of others and shift to fulfill the role the colony requires of us just as an ant receives pheromone information and adjusts its duties to provide the best for the swarm.

#16 How does it make you feel?

2006-11-27T16:39:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take this opportunity to side note about the alien nature of Air, the French prog-rock band that provides a bulk of the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola’s films. Although they were more prominently featured in The Virgin Suicides I found the ambient electronic tracks and robot/humanoid hybrid vocals served the landscape of Lost in Translation very well. The scene where Charlotte is on the train listening to her headphones and walking through the temple is soundtracked by a song called Alone in Kyoto. The steady hypnotic rhythm of the bells chiming mixed into a sea of melodies on different instruments all panned out to find their space to breath really conveys both the plain mundane day-in, day-out that we all experience and the lush and deep secrets held by each unique player. In the scene Charlotte is harboring her own problems while walking amongst many tourists and some locals at the temple, all experiencing their own alienation and wanting a connection. But because of the countless factors that have added up to create that alienation, we are making tainted guesses at how people would react to contact and in the interest of our self, we deny that urge for connection in favor of the illusion of wholeness.
The bands unique flavor of bi-lingual lyricists and blend of analog and digital instruments creates a mood that evokes the theory of non-places. At points it is hard to discern if the music is being played by computers or actual musicians or if it is live as apposed to looped. The gender or image of the band is relatively downplayed, especially compared to most modern “acts” that bank on their image conveying what demographic they would fall in favor with. Yet the music still has those subtle properties in it, it’s melodies and rhythms, that make it palatable and relatable despite the fact that a song may be sung entirely by a robot.

#15 Kore wa hon desu ka?

2006-11-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

In Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are cast as two Americans adrift in the neon sea of Tokyo. Having no background in Japanese the characters find themselves at odds with the symbols and customs of a culture that seems only vaguely familiar to them. In his book “Non-Places”, Marc Auge describes the theory of a non-place as a place without a relational or historical context that is generally the product of a capitalist society. Coppola uses the ad-saturated landscapes of Japan to create an environment that was at once both dense and sparse. Putting American characters that felt isolated and confused about their identity and place in the world into the middle of a land that serves as a giant metaphor for the misdirecting and polarizing messages present in the American experience.
Each character struggles with their position in life and is currently at a crossroads of sorts. Bill Murray seeks to revive an acting career that he can barely stand. He is recognized by some fellow Americans in the hotel bar and they only can relate to him on the viewer-actor level and don’t make any sincere connection. He and his wife are having struggles and he is primed for the proverbial midlife crisis. Scarlett Johansson has just married but is unsure if the spark is still there with her husband, a traveling photographer (capturing non-places and pretending they are places). She was a philosophy major and has yet to decide what direction to take her career or personal pursuits.
When the characters are united in the film, they begin to make more connections and find themselves in places. For example, the first time Charlotte (Johansson) goes to a temple and listens to monks chant she says she feels nothing, but on her second visit to a temple she is more contemplative and witnesses a wedding procession. She steps to the side and observes the bride and groom, taking in the detail and subtleties of the couple, creating a place.
Both characters come to find Japan as a place of their shared experience and not as such an impersonal and alienating non-place.

Blog #14: The Official Score is: Dogs 1 : Jerks 0

2006-11-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

I’ve been an animal person my whole life. I remember picking up strays off the street with my mom and taking care of them at our house until we could find good homes for them on a regular basis. My family’s house even became part of a program for finding homes for abused golden retrievers. I have two wonderful golden retrievers at home that were both abused but now live happily at my parents’ house where they have lots of room to run and woods to explore.

Now that you have a little background about me, maybe you wont judge me so harshly when I tell you about what happened to me earlier this week. It all started Wednesday evening when I was walking down lakeshore path listening to my headphones after hanging out with a couple of friends at the Memorial Union terrace. I saw this gruffly looking middle-aged guy in a flannel shirt walking a black Labrador towards me. The man had a choker collar on the dog and was pretty much dragging the dog along with him. After a few seconds I saw the dog stop in its tracks and this dude just went freakin’ nuts. He must have been having a bad day or something because this dude just started kicking his dog. Hard. I had never seen anyone treat an animal like that in person and I told the man to quit being such as ass to his dog. That’s when he got real aggressive with me and started yelling and getting right up in my face. Long story short, I knocked the guys nose back into his face. After he was done screaming expletives we both simply walked off in separate directions. In retrospect I’m really glad I didn’t get in any legal trouble for what I did but I do feel a smug sense of satisfaction that this guy got exactly what he deserved. If the dog would have been able to, I’m sure it would have loved to do the same thing. My only regret is that I didn’t steal they guy’s dog. My parents could have found a real good home for it.

Blog #13

2006-11-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

I found this week’s articles to be some of the most difficult material we’ve covered so far this semester. If it weren’t for discussion section last week I wouldn’t have even tried to write this blog entry.

This week I chose to write about Marc Auge’s, From Places to Non-Places.
While I was reading this article I found myself not taking as many reading notes as I normally do. Maybe it’s because important passages were already underlined throughout the article or it may have been because I just didn’t understand what I was reading. In reality it is probably a bit of both.

One of the few passages I did highlight I remember thinking to myself, hey, this is the first sentence I’ve read that seems to say something concrete.
"If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place," pg. 78. It wasn’t till later that I started to think more about this statement and I realized I didn’t understand it at all.

From what I gathered during discussion, a non-place is somewhere where you kind of exist within your head. You don’t interact with others in a non-place. Whereas a place is somewhere where you definitely interact with others, like going to a friend’s party or even our English 201 discussion section.

The example I like to think of is people walking around to and from class plugged into their ipods. By doing that people are turning what would normally be considered a place [campus] into a non-place.

Auge says the same things apply to a non-place as a place. "It never exists in pure form; places reconstitute themselves in it; relations are restored and resumed in it;” pg 78. He goes on to say, “Place and non-place are rather like opposed polarities: The first is never completely erased, the second never totally completed; they are like palimpsests on which the scrambled game of identity and relations is ceaselessly rewritten,” pg 79.

This makes sense to me because I can relate it to my traveling experiences. I know how strange it is to be in a bar and not even speak the language of anyone there. In my case, linguistic barriers converted the bar from a place into a non-place. All it would take would be one person who speaks English to walk into the bar and then some would consider it a place. I think Auge is saying that it is still mostly a non-place with some place mixed in there too.

Blog #12

2006-10-29T22:55:00.000-08:00

Blog #12  

To be perfectly honest, I had trouble understanding both of this week’s readings. Even after our discussion, I left feeling perplexed. Naturally, I’m not sure which reading to write about. Anyways here it goes. Eenie meenie miney moe. Catch the tiger by the toe. If he hollers let him go. Eenie meenie miney moe. It looks like Sherry Turkel’s “Identity Crisis” wins. Yay. [Insert  sarcasm here]  

Although I found this text difficult to understand, I think Turkle  makes good points connecting personality, adaptation and the  internet. I think most people create alter egos on the internet to show a side of themselves that they would otherwise be too shy to let the world see. Others use these alter egos as a way to delve deeper into  themselves and show others who they really are. As long as one doesn’t get too carried away with it, I think this can be a healthy form of self-expression.

Last week’s discussion section was helpful for me because we talked so much about what exactly an MUD is. I was confused by page 256 where Turkle talks about how MUDs are used to create online personas.

The problem I had while reading this article is that I often found myself re-reading paragraphs and losing sight of the bigger picture. Maybe I have ADD, but I just couldn’t seem to focus my thoughts hard enough to really plow through this week’s more difficult readings. I consider myself a science-minded person and I like to read things that are clear and concise. My personal philosophy is if you can get your point across in a paragraph why would you write a whole freakin’ book? Grrrrr.  

Instead of ending on a sour note, I thought I’d invite you all to comment on this reading and help me understand it a bit better. I could definitely use the help.

Halloween Sucks

2006-10-26T17:11:00.000-07:00

This year is going to be the worst Halloween ever.

I was on State Street last year when the police started machine-gun pepper spraying everyone in order to get them to go home. [Keep in mind there was no rioting going on-just a bunch of drunk kids being loud] The police claim they used the pepper spray in order to get people to leave. I was standing by the bus stop when I was sprayed completely out of the blue. No warning. Everyone around me got sprayed too and panic was soon to follow. The pepper spray made my eyes water so bad that I couldn’t see and the spray was so thick it was nearly impossible to breath. People were coughing and knocking each other over just to get away from the army of pepper spraying cops. I thought the cops were supposed to maintain order, not cause chaos.

This policing strategy seems ridiculous to me. I can understand why the police might need to pepper spraying angry rioters or something but treating college students like that seems unnecessary. I honestly wanted to file suit against the city after what happened last year. This year I’ll have my camcorder on me and if things get handled like they did last year I’m definitely calling my lawyer.

I knew some of the people who started fires in years past. They were kids from out of town who did it solely because they were pissed off at the cops. They drove in from 4 hours out of town only to get treated like shit by Madison’s finest. It goes to show that more police force is not the answer here.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I know for damn sure that I don’t like being pushed around. If someone pushes me, I’m going to push back. It shouldn’t be surprising that since you can’t push police back, that anger gets displaced. Unfortunately this displaced aggression lands squarely on the shoulders of Madison’s business owners who, if they had a choice, would most likely have no problem with everyone having a great time on State Street.

Instead of going to State Street this year I hope everybody goes to house parties instead. I know I will.

Blog #10 (Reading Notes)

2006-10-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

This week’s excerpt from Steven Shaviro’s book, Connected, or What it Means to Live in the Network Society, takes a fresh look at appropriation within the mediasphere in terms of music and art.

The excerpt begins by attempting to explain what a mediasphere is. Shaviro depicts the mediasphere as our new “natural” environment that consists of things like images and sound bites rather than forests and mountains. This is obviously in stark contrast to the wilderness that was our natural environment 100 years ago. The mediasphere is the world of “electronic media that provides the inescapable background against which we live our lives and from which we derive our references and meanings” p64.

Shaviro’s excerpt goes on to question where the line is drawn between an artist’s creative right and copyright infringement. Over the last century, “copyright law has evolved from something that balanced the rights of ownership with the rights of the public, to something that seeks to maximize the economic incentive to produce new works” p65. This is unfortunate because it means that modern copyright laws support companies that produce artistic commodities rather than protecting the artists that create them.

If a cartoon sketch artist uses a picture of Mickey Mouse to inspire the look of his latest comic book character, should they expect a letter from one of Disney’s many attorneys? The answer depends on how much the cartoon resembles Mickey Mouse. It’s a grey area of our legal system. According to Shaviro, “Pure originality is a myth, in any case; art and culture can only be made from previously existing art and culture” p64. “Nobody can create [art] without materials to work with. When the very fabric of our culture is copyrighted and trademarked and placed in private hands, then creativity dries up altogether” p65. This is absolutely true. Real artists use the world around them for artistic inspiration.

Constantly bombarded by sounds, many of today’s artists use sampling as a form of musical appropriation. Shaviro uses Beck as his primary example. Beck is a master sampler, arguably one of the best in the business. Beck’s label, Universal, has a large enough budget that it can afford to pay all the royalties that are required to legally purchase the samples Beck needs to make his albums. Unfortunately for most unsigned artists, however, being able to pay sampling royalties is out of the question. That’s where Deconstructing Beck comes on the scene. Deconstructing Beck is Shaviro’s example of how sampling can be used as a form of cultural jamming. By blatantly sampling various artists (including Beck himself) and not paying the proper royalties, Deconstructing Beck is in essence daring a whole army of lawyers to sue them. “As the contrast between Beck and Deconstructing Beck suggests, the practice of sampling can take many different forms and has a wide range of implications and meanings. At one extreme, appropriation can be seen as a kind of complacent submission to the dominant form of the commodity.” (i.e.: Beck) “At the other extreme, appropriation can be seen to work as a disruptive act of ‘culture jamming’” (ie: Deconstructing Beck) p67.

Lies! All of them! Lies!

2006-10-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

Blog #9
Jeff Rice, Writing About Cool, Ch. 3 (“Advertising”)

I think it would have been really helpful to read chapter 3 before reading chapter 5. I was “discussion leader” for chapter 5 and I don’t see how anyone could understand the concept of appropriation without going back and reading chapter 3 first. Rice put the chapters in numerical order for a reason and I think we ought to read it that way. Now that I’ve got that off my chest I think we can move onto the reading.

In my opinion, the following quotations are the “meat and potatoes” of Rice’s argument.

“Appropriation means taking an idea, object, or style from its original context and redoing it in a manner different from it original purpose” (p23).

“Advertisers have been quick to understand that terms familiar to youth culture can be appropriated and redone in order to serve their own economic interests” (p23).

“Using cool to sell a product creates an identification between the customer and the product, an identification that tells the customer, ‘I am cool because I’ve made this purchase’” (p37).

A good example of this is Sprite, which identifies itself with typical teenage attitudes. Sprite urges their consumers to identify coolness and freedom of choice with their product. They want their customers to think that they are cool because they’ve purchased Sprite. As ridiculous as this sounds, I think on a subconscious level this sort of advertising really works. I think the price of commercial airtime is an excellent indicator of exactly how successful these commercials can be. Companies could not justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few seconds of airtime if they weren’t making their money back hand-over-fist.

This reading really made me think about how influential advertisements are to our everyday lives. I find this a bit disconcerting because commercials are rarely honest and objective regarding whatever they are selling. When I was a little kid I can remember when my mom would tell me that T.V. advertisements were not true. At first I wouldn’t believe people were allowed to lie on television. [At the time I also thought WWF wresting was real] It seemed really underhanded to me that people would get in front of a camera and endorse a product that isn’t as fantastic as they claim it to be. Fortunately, I like to think that being beaten over the head with advertisements for over15 years has made me a savvier consumer. For those of you who find yourself ordering “the Magic Bullet” at 3a.m because those margarita cups are so cool, you are not the savvy consumer to may think you are. I don’t have to name names, you know who you are. And please, do yourself a favor and cut up your credit cards before it’s too late.

rants

2006-10-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

I’m glad our blog can be about anything on Friday’s because I think this one is going to be a series of short rants.
Rant #1:
This week my friends and I planned a trip to Amsterdam for next month. For those of you who’ve never been to Amsterdam before I am truly sorry. This will by my fifth trip in the past three years and I have more fun there than anywhere else in the world. This trip will be really great because I’ll be traveling there with two friends and meeting another couple of guys over there. This will be my second year judging the cup and I must say that I’m excited that my friends will be there to party with me. [If you don’t know what “the cup” is I’m sure as hell not going to tell you]
Rant #2:
When did it become winter all of a sudden? I wake up this morning and my apartment it literally 54°F. It’s snowing outside and I don’t even own a winter coat. I had to wear four layers just to walk to class today. I want someone to take responsibility for this nonsense.
Rant#3
If you’ve bought a bed before you also know that it is not a very cheap thing unless you want to sleep on a squeaky metal spring “reminds you of summer camp” matteresses. Yesterday I bought a brand new double-sided pillow top mattress. It is extra freakin’ soft and six inches longer than a normal queen size bed. For a guy that has spent the last six years with his feet hanging off the bed this is a welcome relief. Tonight, nothing is going to wake me up.

On that note, I have one seriously long overdue nap to take…

Tip This

2006-10-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

Malcom Gladwell, The Tipping Point, “Introduction”

I thought this was a relatively enjoyable read when one considers the possibility that we could be reading another piece by Marshall McLuhan.

This week’s excerpt from the book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Gladwell drives at the issue of what exactly the “tipping point” is in regards to an epidemic. First, Gladwell outlines criteria for an epidemic and uses examples to illustrate what would define the tipping point in each particular situation.

Epidemics, according to Gladwell, are distinguished by three main characteristics. 1) contagiousness 2) little causes can lead to big effects and 3) that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment (i.e.: the tipping point).

These are very similar characteristics to viruses. Everybody knows viruses are contagious. Viruses are also microscopic but can have disproportionably large effects on their hosts. Finally when a virus overcomes an immune system, the effect is fast-acting and dramatic.

The definition of “tipping point,” according to Gladwell, is the name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once (p9). In other words, “The Tipping Point is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point” (p12).

Although he only touched on it briefly, I think how Gladwell explained the fax machine phenomenon was a good way to shine some light on tipping points in a really simple way. Sharp sold only about 80,000 units each year from 1984-1986 but in 1987 a tipping point was reached. All of a sudden enough businesses were using fax machines that it was an asset to own one. Businesses were theoretically losing money by not taking advantage of this new technology. Over 1,000,000 units were sold the next year. Over 2,000,000 were sold the year following that. You can’t argue with fiscal logic.

Gladwell also uses a Hush Puppies example but since I don’t really like Hush Puppies we just won’t talk about them. I would hate to accidentally cause another fashion epidemic. Seriously, I would really hate that.

I also thought it was interesting how the phrase “tipping point” is rooted in suburban integration. In the 1970’s sociologists observed that when the number of incoming African Americans in a particular neighborhood reached a certain point almost all the remaining white families would leave immediately. This percentage is that neighborhoods tipping point.

A few questions come to mind. Why do some ideas create epidemics and others don’t? Are we influenced by these epidemics? Maybe unwittingly?

Mmmmm.....melted brains

2006-10-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

This week’s reading notes entry will be quite brief. I just finished my third exam of the day and the last thing I feel like doing is writing a paper. My brain is exhausted. In fact, I think parts of my brain may actually be melting. Since most of my time has been spent studying the past few days, I haven’t had a chance to give this past weeks reading the attention it deserves. So please take my interpretations with a grain of salt (or two). All in all, I don’t think I should even be writing this but I’m going to do it anyway. Oh well, here it goes…

Grid---------------Network Culture
Le Coibusier-------Frank Gehry
linear-------------Fluid
anti-natural-------non-linear
repetitive---------unplanned
rigid--------------Natural

Industrial society (grid) --------------Network culture

The “From Grid to Network” excerpt from the book A Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture by Mark C. Taylor focuses on how our society is changing from a grid culture to a truly integrated network culture. Taylor provides evidence of this transition using a number of examples including a lengthy comparison to architecture.

Taylor uses Le Coibusier’s architectural style to reflect the grid-like nature of the pre-network culture. When you look at one of Le Coibusier’s buildings it looks completely linear in every way. There are no extra frills because “less is more.” The buildings are also very unnatural looking as a result of their rigid, repetitive linear design in contrast to their natural settings.
Taylor then contrasts this to Frank Gehry’s building style. Frank Gehry’s style reflects modern network culture in the sense that his buildings are totally non-linear and seem to flow in a natural (or unplanned looking) way with the landscape surrounding it.

Throw a little spice in there and BAM! That’s all I got.

Blog #5

2006-09-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

• “Words that we use daily without careful consideration can be manipulated for ulterior motives, in this case, monetary gain.” Pg. 15
• “We can use common words (like cool) in order to be persuasive.” Pg. 15
• “Early users of the Web used cool as a reminder of the antiauthority idealism of their youth while current application of cool are designed to appeal to teenagers with purchasing power.” Pg. 17
o “Prior to the Internet-cool means rebellion, individuality, mystique.” Pg 17
o “After the Internet-cool means an attractive tool for luring potential customers.” Pg. 17
• “Cool, therefore, functions as a verb and not just as a noun; it describes a way to write.” Pg. 19 (in reference to Everything2.com

Jeff Rice’s book Writing About Cool illustrates some really interesting points regarding how authors carefully choose their words in order to accomplish a specific objective. This objective varies, of course, depending on who the author is and why they are writing. Whatever the objective is, the most important thing is how the author has manipulated a word, in this case cool, to their benefit. In Rice’s words, these authors “have developed a rhetorical application of cool, one that draws upon the word’s cultural connotations in order to attract an audience.”

I think everyone can agree that manipulating words can be a very useful and powerful tool. Web-based companies like Yahoo and Netscape have used words like “cool” to help younger readers identify with their websites. Using carefully chosen words to harness the purchasing power of a younger audience, these companies are making more money than ever. Now that’s a real-world application I can appreciate.

Of course this is not the only way to use the word cool. Everything2.com connects the word cool to writing in hypertext. Everything2.com is a content-based website that people use to discuss a wide array of topics with each other. “On a typical entry in Everything2.com, you may be reading one user’s short essay on a topic, and in that essay each word may link to another essay written by someone else. Everything2.com calls this interlinking cooling.” (Pg. 19) “Cool, therefore, functions as a verb and not just as a noun; it describes a way to write.” (Pg. 19) By referring to interlinking as cooling, Everything2.com harnesses the cultural connotations of the word cool and promotes interlinking on their website. This will of course bring more “hits” to their website which will make them more money.

The overall message I’m taking away from Jeff Rice’s book thus far is that the word cool has many connotations in our language and a good author is going to use that to his/her advantage in whatever context suits them best.

Blog #4

2006-09-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

I’ve come to the conclusion today that the most outstanding characteristic of all these readings is how unbelievably difficult they are to read. I find myself reading page after page and just being totally dumbfounded as to why anyone would possibly choose to use these combination of words in an effort to communicate with another human being. I know it sounds dramatic but I think most of you would agree. It seems to me that some authors like Hayles and McLuhan have become so advanced in their writings that they forgot about the average reader. I feel like these articles are the sort of things an English major would write for another English major to read. It isn’t until after we have discussed everything in class that the true purpose of the readings comes to light.

Another common theme I’ve noticed is that all these readings are attacking the issue of how technology and media are changing the way we view information. It seems that McLuhan and Hayles share the common viewpoint that how a message is conveyed is of equal if not greater importance than what that message conveyed.

McLuhan believes that it is not the content of the message that is of greatest importance, but rather how that message is being conveyed to its audience. On the other hand, Hayles argues that both content and medium are of great importance. “…my claim is that the physical form of the literary artifact always affects what the words mean.” (Hayles. Material Metaphors, pg. 68) In my opinion this is Hayles’ most clear description of how important the physical aspects of a text such as images affect the literature and how it is interpreted by the reader.

In conclusion, while I’m not a huge fan of the reading we’ve completed thus far, I must admit that our discussion section is clutch. If I had to write this without having discussed it first in class my blog would only be about three lines long. So kudos to you guys for helping me make sense out of all this. Muchas Gracias!

Blog #3

2006-09-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

Marshal McLuhan’s article “The Medium is the Message” was the topic of most of our class discussion this past Thursday. I must admit, I found myself reading and then re-reading many paragraphs because I simply lost track of what McLuhan was trying to say. As a science major, when I read something I would like the message to be simple, clear and to the point. I also realize that not all topics lend themselves readily to this kind of writing. However, I don’t McLuhan would have any intention on writing an easy-to-understand article regardless of the topic. His style of writing is, for lack of a better word, too artistic for me. Fortunately our discussion this Thursday helped bring to light McLuhan’s message for me.

As it turns out, the point of the article is illustrated quite boldly in the title because medium truly is the message. From McLuhan’s point of view, content takes a back seat relative to the medium through which that content is being communicated. In other words, his interest lies in the “psychic and social consequences” of our evolving human network. A good example of this is when McLuhan refers to how railroads changed American life. The train system did a lot more for America than simply move things from point A to point B; it changed the way people think. McLuhan argues that it is not important what the trains were carrying, but how that network changed our society as a whole.

If you take a step back from your everyday life, it’s easy to see that technology has changed the way we think. Take www.mapquest.com as an example. Taking a road trip 10 years ago was nothing like it is today. Now all anyone ever has to do is take a few minutes out of their day and they’ll have instant door-to-door directions to anywhere in the 50 states. And that’s only if that don’t have a GPS unit built into their car. Technology like this does more than just make traveling by easier, it changes the way people view it altogether. It’s making the world seem smaller and people are realizing it. That is a big deal and I think McLuhan would agree.

Bowling

2006-09-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this blog entry so I figure I may as well see who likes to bowl.

Did any of you know that Village Lanes has $1 games and ½ drinks after 7pm every Monday? Well now you do. My friends and I have made it a tradition to make the 10 minute drive out there every week. Monday is fast approaching so if any of you guys want to slap some bowling shoes on I can guarantee the night will be filled with the sounds of rhetoric in one form or another. So maybe you could even consider it a study session.

Blog #1

2006-09-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

Until today, I had never seen the word rhetoric used so many times in my life. In fact, until I read this article I wasn’t really sure what rhetoric even meant. My only notion was that rhetoric meant something similar to propaganda. Herrick is clearly really interested in dispelling these common misconceptions about this word. In fact, I think he uses about 25 pages of his own rhetoric in his effort to redefine the word. In summary, I think Herrick’s argument linked persuasion, language, symbols and rhetoric together with the common threads of everyday life.

First blog post

2006-09-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

Howdy everybody,
I just joined your class this past week so I guess that makes me the new kid.
My name is Mike but my friends call me Big Hank and and I must admit this whole blogging thing is totally new to me. Some of you guys really enjoy writing and it shows. Writing is not my strong point but hopefully this class will help me improve on that.