Turkle's Identity Crisis

• Page 256 is where she talks about MUD's and how they are used to create online personae
• Turkle brings up Gergen's idea of a "saturated self" and how communication technologies create linkages between people's minds on page 257
• Turkle uses the metaphor for the self of a home page acting like real estate, and connecting to each other by linking many pages all across the world on page 259
• Page 260 talks about crossing a boundary online when adopting a persona, with people feeling a wide range of emotions, and how these online personae are able to ultimately create different notions of identity
• On page 261 Turkle brings in Dennett and his idea that having multiple personalities is similar to having multiple pages open at the same time on a computer, where the user has the liberty to move between pages at will
• Turkle talks about virtual spaces and how they might provide safe spaces for people to expose parts about themselves they previously hadn't felt comfortable with, which in turn will make them more comfortable in reality, on page 263
• Page 265 talks about cyborgs, how basically people are made up of body and mind
• Pages 267 to 268 talk about how virtual spaces offer a new way to think about human identity in the age of the internet
• On page 269 Turkle comes to the understanding that if we don't have a full awareness of what is going on with created personae on the internet, they won't be able to be used to enrich real life experiences

I felt that the discussion helped alot with understanding this reading better, mostly because I couldn't figure out in my head what a MUD was, and Brittany did a very good job of explaining the format and what it was used for. That was very helpful since the first several pages of the article talked about MUD's and identities created in those spaces.

We talked about how MUD's allow people to play around with many different masks, and it gives people the opportunity to have multiple personalities but remain coherent at the same time. This is similar to how people will usually act different in front of different groups of people, perhaps because of an impression they wish to make or a level of comfortability they are not at within that group. And it is important realize that people are always playing multiple roles through those interactions. We also talked about virtual reality as a transitional space, which tied in nicely to the reading. This was helpful in understanding the part of the article that talked about the woman with the lost leg, and how she really was able to come to terms with the loss of a limb by becoming comfortable with that part of herself in a virtual space first. This is also an important idea brought out in the reading that we talked about, where people are able to take experiences from the virtual world into the real world.

"Yo momma so stupid when she saw the NC-17 sign, she went home and got 16 friends"

I know the show has been on MTV for some time now, but I've never really watched Yo Momma until the other day. I turned on the TV before I got in bed and then realized my remote didn't work, so there was no way I was getting up the change the channel. I ended up watching 2 and half or so episodes of Yo Momma. I was sort of under the impression that those jokes went away in about 6th grade, around the time when I thought I was a getting a little too old for them.
I suppose the show wouldn't be so bad, but I just feel that no one there could really think the stuff they're saying is that funny. The crowd gets really into it, booing at the bad jokes and cracking up at the off the hook ones. And it's not like the material is new, seeing as how anyone can go to a computer and literally find thousands of yo momma jokes. So I guess I'm just a little stumped as to how shows like that make it on the air in the first place, and how they are able to stay on for more than 1 or 2 shows.
Also I must say I'm a little disappointed in Fes. I liked him on That 70's Show, and I always pictured him like his character, but this show just made me lose most of my respect for him.

I just hope the next show on MTV is about Jeff Foxworthy's "you might be a redneck..." jokes, and it will be hosted by Dave Coulier.

Happy Halloween

Biggy Smalls, Biggy Smalls, Biggy Smalls

Rice Chapter 7

• Page 57 - Rice uses modern hip hop artists and rappers as examples of how musical styles can rhetorically construct meaning
• Hip hop DJ's and artists of the late 70's like the Sugar Hill Gang are shown as examples of combining other genres with their music from sampling to create new music on pages 58-59
• Public Enemy is used for an example of appropriation on page 60
• Will Smith is used as an example of appropriation of music for material gain as compared to conveying a message on page 61
• Pages 61 and 62 discuss the debate of whether or not sampling of music is considered stealing

This week was spent mostly in a computer lab for class, but on Friday we had a long discussion about what is considered plagiarism and outright stealing of others ideas. We talked about Beck to start with but then moved into other forms of music and writing that we experienced. We also were able to talk about tv shows like Family Guy and Disney movies as examples of how existing ideas need to paid for or OK'd to be used and how it isn't necessarily considered plagiarism if a story is redone as was the case with many Disney movies. The most important thing about the discussion was using these examples to form an idea of where the line should be drawn for using others works in your own and where the difference is between borrowing and stealing.

Too Wet

Most every year until now my roommates and I are on some sort of rec football league, but this year we either forgot to sign up or we all were just too lazy to go down there and do it. So Eric put himself on the free agent list and got picked up by a team. He played last week with them, and the "coach" of the team didn't really utilize him very well, and they ended up losing pretty bad. This week me and Ryan were picked up to play, we thought because maybe they needed some football players, you know, like they were short on people. Then I get an email from "coach" saying that me and Ryan were going to split the game playing on the defensive line, meaning that for one half Ryan would play the line, and for the other I would play the line, which adds to me playing roughly 1/4th of the game. This would be fine, except I'm stingy and don't want to pay the guy 3 bucks to play that little of a game because he's anal about having a football team and gets 14 guys so he can have a player for every position offense and defense, which no team does.

So already it's kinda sketchy to go down and play, but we had a game tonight at 8 30 (but had to show up at 7 30 to practice) and we decided to go there anyway. But to our surprise when we got there the lights were turned off and some guys told us the game was cancelled because the field was too wet to play on. I have never heard that before for a football game, because I always thought that was the sport where they play in snow and rain all the time. And the field didn't have standing water or anything, it was just cancelled. And no one told us so we drove down there, got dressed in layers for the 18 degree weather, listened to some music to pump us up, just to come back home and watch The Office. That's it, kind of a bad story, but it works.

Bierbachstrobing

"It's a snow day, anything can happen."

Tipping Point

• On page 7 Gladwell talks about how ideas and products, as well as messages and behaviors can spread in the same manner as viruses.
• Pages 7 through 9 talk about the 3 characteristics of epidemics as being contagiousness, little changes and big effects, and a dramatic moment of causation.
• Page 8 talks about little changes having big effects, and things happening in a hurry as opposed to building steadily and slowly.
• On page 9 Gladwell says that the idea that epidemics have the ability to rise and fall in a single dramatic moment is the most important trait.
• On page 11 Gladwell talks about epidemics as an example of geometric progression.
• Page 11 also talks about how people are trained to think that what goes into any system or relationship must be directly related to its outcome.
• Gladwell relates the tipping point to the idea of critical mass, or a threshold or boiling point on page 12.

I thought that the most important part of the article was the description of the 3 characteristics for epidemics that Gladwell gave. We also spent a good amount of time in class discussing those 3 characteristics. I think that they are important because it is very easy to realize that they apply to many real life situations of making decisions on products to purchase and trends to follow. Contagiousness is important because an idea or fashion spreading and becoming more available to other people is what ultimately lets other people know about it and gives them to opportunity to decide if they want anything to do with it. The idea of little things causing big changes also relates to the butterfly effect that we had previously talked about in class, and it's important to see how what we learned earlier about that theory of the butterfly effect can be applied to economics. And also the most important point Gladwell made was of the tipping point, that one dramatic moment that can cause massive changes. I thought the most interesting part about this point from what we talked about in class was the pregnancy rate in low income areas and how it almost doubled when it reached that tipping point value.

A wonderful, magical animal

My roommate just informed me that there was a world's ugliest dog contest. I've never heard of this before but when he described the winner from the past few years I had to google the picture. He has no hair except for that little patch on the top of his head.
Apparantly he died, so hopefully he was able to make some puppies before that happened.

Halloween

I couldn't sleep last night, and for some reason it just occurred to me that I don't really look forward to Halloween all that much anymore, at least not as much as when I was a kid. Growing up there were so many cool things about Trick or Treating, and people who leave candy in a bowl in the driveway with a take one please sign, even though you're going to take as many as you can before you think they're peeking out at you from their window, and all the decorations associated with Halloween that I just don't get too excited about now. Think about how great it was getting a bag/pail full of candy and carving pumpkins. Now the candy is replaced with beer and the pumpkins get smashed right away by drunk people. The only thing I really like about Halloween up here in Madison is going to State Street and seeing thousands of different costumes, which I won't do this year because I'm not going to pay 5 bucks to just to see that and then try to get out of there before the riots start. When I was a kid, the only bad part about Halloween was when I would get home and empty my candy bag and find 3 pennies someone decided to give me and a pencil or toothbrush/floss combo. It is fun drinking and getting together with some friends though, especially ones you don't get to see that much, so I guess Halloween for me will just be another really good excuse to do that.

Watts: Epidemics and Failures

• Page 165 - Watts shifts from talking about real world viruses to that of virusus on the internet.
• On pages 168 and 169 he starts to talk about the SIR model for epidemics and shows a chart to go along with the idea.
• Pages 169 through 172 talk about the 3 phases of growth for an epidemic. He discusses all three (logistic, explosive, and burnout) and has diagrams again to show the differences between the three.
• Watts talks about thresholds for epidemics and the importance of reduction rate in relation to thresholds on page 173.
• Page 175 talks about the small world network and disease spreading on a one dimensional lattice.
• Page 179 discusses diseases spreading on small world networks.
• Watts shows how worst case scenarios arise when a disease cluster reaches a shortcut on page 180 and 181.
• Page 184 - Watts talks about disease flowing along open bonds, and spreading until there are no more susceptible sites to spread to.
• Pages 188 and 189 talk about Microsoft and what their approach to viruses is.
• On page 190, Watts talks about robustness of connectivity that is important to preserve.

In class we discussed and compared viruses in a biological sense versus electronic viruses. The discussion showed that an electronic virus has the ability to spread much faster because of the network it is in, and that electronic viruses won't reach the burnout phase Watts talked about whereas biological viruses will eventually reach the burnout phase. We also talked more about clustering and shortcuts. I thought the shortcut was the most interesting part of the discussion, because I didn't really think too much about it during the reading, but I didn't realize how simple something dangerous could spread so fast and pop up in random areas just because of transportation. We also talked about Microsoft and how a way to reduce the risk of viruses would be to not make identical products, or make it so that an office has different formats for each computer so viruses wouldn't be compatible from station to station, but that would also make the office less efficient because their programs wouldn't be compatible with eachother, and I thought that was an interesting fact.

Tony

I live by Camp Randall. The closest workout facility is the Shell, which is about a block away from where I live so it's really convenient. Most of the reason I go there is to play basketball, just some pick up games with some friends and whatnot. Lately though, I haven't felt much like going, and I think part of it is that there is this kinda creepy old guy Tony who goes there to play basketball. If anyone has gone there to play basketball I'm sure you've ran into him, or even just working out around the track you might have too, he talks to anybody within earshot for no apparant reason. Take this as a warning to try to avoid him if at all possible. You will know it is him if he:

1. Takes his shirt off even if he is on the shirts team, only to reveal the carpet of hair he has on his front and back
2. Seems to always have just brushed his teeth with too much toothpaste, you know where some of it gets on the sides of your mouth
3. Is challenging someone to a game of full court one on one basketball
4. Tells you you're just too fast, like the Mavericks
5. Always insists the game is tied, even when his team is most likely losing by about 10 points
6. Constantly yells "We gotta press!!"

That last point is the major one to watch out for. I guess also he kind of looks like Larry David, so keep that in mind when visiting the shell. Nothing against him though, he seems like he means well, just a little awkward.

From Grid to Network

• Page 20 - Taylor explains movement to network culture and shows that he will define that by using architecture as examples.
• On page 23 Taylor uses Friedman to show how globalization has changed from the shift of grid culture to network culture.
• Page 25 - Taylor defines teh grid as the figure of modernism.
• Page 26 is where he uses the Pack Donkey as an example in comparison to Man. He uses this to show that man considers results in advance to building.
• From page 27 - 28 Taylor shows grids as graphs in Cartesian space, and shows that it is always rational and efficient.
• Page 30 - Taylor talks about modernity, and how the grid as a way to level social hierarchies.
• Pages 32 and 33 show van der Rohe as an example of an architect with clear understanding and usage of the grid.
• Taylor talks about Venturi and superficial complexity on page 35, where he claims architecture anticipates the moment of complexity which leads then to network culture.
• Pages 42 and 43 show examples of the Guggenheim Museum designed by Gehry.
• Page 44 shows the importance of network as being other than preprogrammed or permanent.

From class we gathered some definitions of chaos and complexity theory along with definitions of grid and network from the Taylor reading. The understanding of chaos and complexity theory was shown as a relationship between cause and effect. Chaos basically entailed simple things generating complex outcomes, and Complexity had complex things generating simple outcomes. An example for chaos theory was the butterfly effect, where a butterfly flapping its wings can cause an enormous change somewhere else on the planet. Complexity was described then as being on the "edge of chaos", which I had a little bit of a hard time understanding.

The class made it easier to understand Taylors reading by drawing a clearer distinction between the facets of network and grid culture. The use of architecture was used very well to show how culture was set up in a larger picture. By defining and reading about chaos and complexity, we were better able to see how network culture and grid culture could be easily defined by the architecture and styles that were used.