Katric Frurphy's World

HTML 1

2006-12-03T15:21:00.000-06:00

The class was about how to write basic code that can be seen in an internet browser. The code we wrote was inside of the notepad program that is commonly found on most computers in the accessories folder. The first idea the instructor said was important was nesting of code. This allows the user to write code in a simple format that is easy to read and go back to to make changes and add on.
The start of every page should include a DOCTYPE! in brackets at the top to let the browser know it is a document. From there it's helpful to let the browser know it is html also in the same bracket as the DOCTYPE!. An important part of creating pages is tags, which is pretty much everything that we did in the class. Important tags are the header tag and the body tag. Inside the body is where most of the other tags are put. Each tag starts out with a and ends with a . We learned about tags that break lines, end paragraphs, and add a horizontal line.
After this we learned to stylize the code. This is inputting code that will change the text, color, justification, etc. We also learned how to add lists, and add pictures in the code. We then talked about hyperlinking, and also how to hyperlink a picture.
This was all very useful, because before this class I had no idea what any of the tags meant in the code that I would look at in the websites we were making. Now it is nice to look at the code and understand what you need to do to simply add something to the webpage. There are a few things you need to know about adding tags, and after knowing them, you can easily modify webpages. I feel this will be helpful in the final project when the time comes to add a line of text or add a picture, because it seems like it will be much easier to just go to the code and add it in where I would like it to show up on my webpage.

Apparantly I pissed off Satan enough to the point where he feels it's necessary to prank call me

2006-12-02T00:52:00.000-06:00

So It's almost 1 am, on Saturday December 2nd right now. On December 1st at 12:41 am I got an incoming call from 1-666-666-6666. I didn't pick up, but got a message immediately following the call, so I checked my voicemail. It was a recording that said something along the lines of "Hello, Andrew Dennis, you are now an official member of the church of Satan". I thought that was kind of weird, but maybe just some sort of prank call, or maybe one of my roommates signed me up for something weird (as they already had signed me up for the IBS pen pal list [which I receive e-mails from people with IBS looking for guidance, and I feel awkward because I don't have IBS but can't get my name off the list], and Psoriasis Connections). So since they do that, I didn't really take the call that seriously. But then all hell broke loose.
(That last sentence was a reference to the many end of the chapter cliffhangers R.L. Stine leaves his readers with)
The next morning I woke up to get ready for my English class that I have with my roommates Friske and Ryan. My phone was next to my bed charging and it was on silent. At 11:30 am, my phone received a call from the number 1-414-634-4622. I didn't see that call until later in the day. I thought I recognized the number, but when I called back I got an operator saying it wasn't a real number. My roommate Ryan's phone number is 1-414-534-4622. So there was a fake number that called me that was one digit different from Ryan's. That kinda freaked me out a little bit. At about 2 pm then, Ryan was at his girlfriends, and got a call from my phone that I didn't make. I wasn't by my phone, but it decided to call Ryan with a message asking if he wanted his name removed from a list. The same thing happened to Friske from my phone a couple of hours later. I made neither of these calls. Somehow, my phone called my two roommates, to leave a message from the Satan club thing. As I am writing this, it is now 1:04 am, and I just got another call from the 666 number asking me if I want my name off of the list to press 3, and I did, and will now wait to see what happens. But anyway, I just though it was weird that I got a fake call from a number that was nearly identical to Ryan's, and my phone called Friske and Ryan, but no one else, only the 2 people I live with. And they weren't the most recent calls I had or anything like that, Satan singled them out somehow to get them to join his club. I just think Satan should do something better with his time than prank call me late at night with his automated messaging system.

Emergence Chapter 4

2006-11-26T15:50:00.000-06:00

Pages 130-131, Johnson uses the Bill Clinton/Gennifer Flowers story as an example to set up his discussion on feedback
Johnson talks about feeback loops and reverberating cycles and why they happen on page 134
Page 137 shows the differences between positive and negative feedback
Johnson talks about Mumford's critique of Jacobs and the idea of metropolitan centers having the ability to self regulate on page 146
Page 149 talks about ECHO and Well, and how their communities were at small enough scales where self-regulation wasn't a concern for the software
Page 152 and 153 introduce slashdot.org as a self organizing community

The class discussion opened with final thoughts from the previous class session. This tied in nicely to the introduction of chapter 4 that we talked about on Friday. The part about discussion that we spent a long time on was positive and negative feedback. This made more clear some examples of positive and negative feedback and how they are helpful for different situations. Negative feedback seems to take over from positive feedback after a while in some of the examples we went through. This was beneficial because it helped to think of some ways in society that this occurs, and where negative feedback is present in self organizing systems.

Johnson's Emergence Chapters 2-3

2006-11-21T15:29:00.000-06:00

Johnson talks about ants and the central intelligence of a colony with relation to swarm logic on page 74
Gordons 5 fundamental principles of bottom up intelligence is on page 78
On page 84 Johnson talks about how complex organisms come from simple beginnings
Krugmans system is discussed with its 2 axioms and business example on page 90
Johnsons talks about Jane Jacobs and the idea of sidewalks being important for flows of information in cities on page 94
Johnson discusses cities and thier ability to store and retrieve information on page 100
On page 104, Johnson talks about how cities are a pattern in time, which is like all emergent systems
Page 108 is about clustering and how neighborhood systems function like a user interface
New flows of energy cause new kinds of cities to develop, and this is on page 113
Johnsons talks about how intelligence requires connectedness and organization on page 117
Page 123 - 124 talks about Alexa, and how it has bidirectional linking which is different from the internet and its one directional linking
On page 125 Johnson makes the claim that smart technology makes us dumber

The class discussion was helpful with talking about the idea of emergent systems with respect to the any colony. We talked about swarm logic to begin with, and asked the question as to how the entire organism was able to survive and grow with individual parts being short lived. In this case the individual parts were the ants, and the colony was the larger organism that evolved over time. This idea was unclear to me before we went into class. I understood what Johnson was saying, but I was having a hard time figuring out exactly how the system could grow with a completely new set of ants each year. I think we came to the conclusion that with the colony growing and living through the course of the queens life, it builds up information that helps it survive, and therefore doesn't necessarily need the same ants each year. It doesn't matter so much about the individual short lived parts, because the colony is also an organism that grows and evolves by itself.

Another thing in class that was helpful was the discussion about Alexa. We came to the conlusion that although Alexa and similar programs that have this bidirectional linking, they don't necessarily make the internet as a whole an emergent system. This showed that although on a smaller level a program can show emergence possibly by looking at user interaction and making connections, the internet is just too big and chaotic with too many websites and programs for it to be able to be considered an emergent system

Comedy Club

2006-11-16T18:10:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I went home to South Milwaukee because my friend Ashley got like 15 $1 tickets to some comedy club called the Comedy Cafe. I wasn't sure what that meant with the prices, because someone said they were free, then it was one dollar, then it was one dollar and a two drink minimum ticket. It ended up being the last one, and was overall about 10 bucks only to go to the show. The only live comic I have ever seen was Lewis Black at Summerfest, and that was pretty funny, but I wasn't sure what to expect at a comedy club. We ended up having reserved seats or something on the inside, which was just 4 tables pushed together. The club was smaller than I thought it would be, and it seemed like there was maybe only between 100 and 150 people total.
The first comic out there was not very good. He would tell a joke, and then look around the room and count out how many people were laughing. I think he thought it was funny, but it was just sort of awkward. And Eric Friske (from class) said the comedian kept looking at him to see if he was laughing, and made him feel pretty uncomfortable. He was only out there for like 10 minutes though, so that wasn't too bad. The second guy out was much better. He was a big guy from the west named Bob Bledsoe. The 3rd guy out was the main act, and I had never heard the name before (it was Kyle Cease), but as soon as I saw him I recognized him from a couple movies he had small parts in. He Bogie Lowenstein, the guy who threw the house party in 10 Things I hate About You, and the slow clapper in Not Another Teen Movie. From those movies I thought he would be nerdy, or dorky or whatever, just from the characters he played, but he ended up being really funny to the point where I was laughing/crying from laughing too hard for most of the show. That's it, that was my first time at a comedy club, and it ended up being well worth it.

Auge in Translation

2006-11-12T13:51:00.000-06:00

From Auge page 103: "The space of non-place creates neither singular identity nor relations; only solitude, and similitude."

This is much like the way the characters in Lost in Translation seemed to feel when they were separated from each other. In an area where they knew no one else or had no one else to really communicate with, their hotel rooms became non-places. While spending time in the hotel rooms the audience gets to witness first hand how a space made into a non-place emphasizes the solitude that the characters felt.

2006-11-09T18:34:00.000-06:00

I just realized nothing exciting or interesting at all has happened to me recently. This makes it hard to blog about whatever. The most exciting thing to happen to me was on Tuesday night I realized that there would be no way I could graduate next semester by looking at my DARS report.

Basically I needed 3 more credits in one category, and none of the classes required were offered next semester or in the summer. This was just terrible because the day had been going so well, Guitar Hero 2 came out, the new Foo Fighters live CD came out, which I didn't buy, but still it did come out so that's exciting, and then all that happiness I felt quickly went away because I overlooked some things on my DARS last semester. I was a little edgy Wednesday and Thursday morning, but then after talking to some guy today I found out that there can be an exception made and I can take a different class instead and still graduate, and I also found out I can double up on majors now. So no matter what happens, don't worry, everything always works itself out in the end.

This was pretty short, so I'll leave with an inspirational quote:
"Abe Lincoln once said, 'If you are a racist, I will attack you with the north.'"
- Michael Scott

2006-11-07T21:15:00.000-06:00

Bball/reverse

Trying out some new video editing stuff

Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Notes

2006-11-05T15:16:00.000-06:00

On page 1 Jameson introduces many artists and musicians that contribute to postmodernism.
Page 2 has Jameson talking about postmodernism in architecture and states that it is a kind of aesthetic populism.
Jameson talks about postmodernism in culture as being associated with a political stance on multinational capitalism on page 3.
Jameson brings up the importance to think about postmodernism not as a style but instead as a cultural dominant that allows coexistence on page 4.
On page 5 Jameson says that thet more powerful the vision of something logical the more powerless the reader starts to feel.
Jameson analyzes Van Gogh and a Utopian outlook on page 7.
On page 8 Van Gogh is compared to Andy Warhol.
Page 9 is where Jameson talks about Warhol and new postmodernism represented by flatness or depthlessness.
Jameson talks about how in postmodernism depth is replaced by surface or multiple surfaces on page 12.
Jameson talks about how fragmentation replaces alienation in postmodernism with the shift in cultural dynamics of pathology on page 14.
On page 16 Jameson describes how our psychic experiences today are dominated by categories of space rather than categories of time, which differs from modernism.

I wasn't able to draw a very distinct line on modernism to postmodernism after the reading, although I didn't really spend a lot of time trying to do so. Class was helpful because we ended up making categories on the chalkboard with aspects of both postmodernism and modernism and how they differed with each other based on what Jameson discussed in the reading. We learned that there was a high end of modernism which was characterized by Van Gosh, and compared that to postmodernism which was characterized in Jameson by Andy Warhol. Modernism was then described to be about detail, depth and richness, to be significant to social aspects of the time, having importance in content and meaning, and to be very contextualized. Postmodernism was thought to be more abstract, flat and containing depthlessness, to be more of a commodity, more about form and style, and to be very decontextualized. This drawing on the differences was beneficial because I wasn't so sure how the paintings Jameson showed from Van Gogh and Warhol were that much different of each other, but then after drawing this list it was easy to see all of these differences portrayed in just two paintings.

Turkle's Identity Crisis

2006-10-29T16:09:00.000-06:00

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"

2006-10-26T18:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-22T14:02:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-19T19:59:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-10-18T02:06:00.000-05:00

Bierbachstrobing

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

Tipping Point

2006-10-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-11T15:13:00.001-05:00

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

2006-10-10T16:26:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-08T11:43:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-05T20:10:00.000-05:00

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:

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
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
Is challenging someone to a game of full court one on one basketball
Tells you you're just too fast, like the Mavericks
Always insists the game is tied, even when his team is most likely losing by about 10 points
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

2006-10-03T15:07:00.000-05:00

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.

Writing About Cool Intro, Ch 1, Ch 2

2006-09-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

page 1 Rice talks about cultural dimensions of electronic writing
on page 3 Rice shows how cool is used to related to youthful attitudes
on page 7 Rice tries to explain that he will talk about using each definition of cool as a model for writing in hypertext??
page 9, Rice shows how cool as a form of approval for urban youth
on page 10 he talks about popular perceptions of cool, like individualism and rebelliousness
page 14 points out early groups like TheWell and their help in moving the word cool to the internet
page 16 talks about attitudes associated with words like cool and how their subject to being used rhetorically for consumer purposes??
pages 20-21 talks about everything2.com and the movement of the word cool from a marketing tool to a writing system

This reading was easier than McLuhan, but I still wasn't quite sure how Rice was trying to make connections to the word cool. When he uses hip hop as an example of cool in our culture, it just confuses me as to what he is using cool for. Sometimes it seems like a way of doing something, other times it seems like he's just using examples of things that are considered "cool" to prove a point, but I really don't understand it too well.

We discussed in class a little bit about this reading. From class notes I got a better understanding that he is pointing out relationships between sites can have different motives, like some for being cool or others might have financial gain as a reason for linking up with other websites. We also talked about hypertext, and linking that goes throughout that which is used to create a perception for the users to buy into. I still wasn't sure from class with the term "cooling". We talked about it being linking with unexpected relationships among sites, but I really still don't understand the many different ways the word cool is being used.

Participation

2006-09-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

I would like to talk about what I think about classes where participation is a large part of the grade. I actually don't mind it as much in really small classes, but the larger it gets the worse off everyone is. People start to feel like they have to speak and just say whatever they want just to get those points, or marked off for the day for participation. This doesn't necessarily mean that they contributed anything meaningful to the discussion, or enlightened anyone in class. I have this class (not English 201) where participation is pretty important, and its about 40 people, and just listening to some of the people talk really bothers me. I'm not saying their unintelligent, but because of participation being forced many people speak, and ramble on until the teacher nods their head in approval of what their saying, so they can feel like they made a point, when really they just reiterated what someone else just said, or copied what they said just using some different words.
If classes like that put less emphasis on participation being needed for grades I feel the discussion would be much more beneficial to everyone in class. Again, a class like ours of about 20 is good, I haven't felt pressured to talk out of place for no reason yet, and I don't feel that it has been an issue or anything, it's just my other class where too many people talk for apparantly no reason. It just seems it would overall be better in midsize classes like that to let people talk when they want, not ramble for 4 or 5 minutes and throw in the point they were trying to make at the end that had nothing to do with what they were just talking about.
What's much worse than classes like that are ones where it's a large lecture, and there's always that kid that has to ask questions, about clarification, or something that hasn't been covered yet, just so the teacher will remember they asked the question and seemed interested. I'm sure everyones had classes with someone like that in it, where everyday you just expect them to raise their hand with 5 minutes left to get their 2 cents in for the day. If anyone reading this is that person, it's nothing against you, I just want to get out of class as soon as possible.

Media Hot and Cold

2006-09-17T16:03:00.000-05:00

"Page 36 McLuhan describes the differences between hot and cold mediums and also gives examples of each."
"Page 37-38 McLuhan uses tribes to explain how a hot technology will succeed a cool technology with a disruptive impact."
"On page 39 McLuhan states that it is a concern with effect rather than meaning as a basic change in an electric time, I don't really understand this."
"Page 40 discusses more areas of hot vs. cool media."
"Page 43 has McLuhan describing the importance of hot or cool media being used in certain cultures and how where they are being used makes all the difference."
"Unsure how example of meeting a person for the first time used on page 44 is showing difference in hot and cool media."
"Last two paragraphs, page 44 and 45, I do not really understand anything that was being talked about."

From class we discussed that hot and cool must first and foremost be used with the different media that are able to transmit messages to the public. We then went on to talk about Media vs. Content of the medium where we brought up the point that the medium of transmission and moreso consequences of the medium is what matters*. We also talked about remediation, like a story going from the book to the film as an example. And to close out the discussion on this reading we made a list of what was hot media and what was cold media according to McLuhan, both definitions of what would fit into those categories and then specific types of media he introduced.

Following discussion I had a slightly better understanding of the readings. When I was doing the readings there were many areas where I wasn't quite sure what McLuhan was talking about, and I think it was because I didn't understand what he was trying to say at the very beginning of the chapter about hot and cold media. After class and discussion about some hot and cold media I had a little better understanding, but was still overall confused because in class we couldn't even come up with a straight answer about what McLuhan meant throughout the chapter. I understand some of what he says is hot and cold media, but I still don't really know the importance of what the media vs. content of the medium part was about.

Concert

2006-09-14T01:10:00.000-05:00

Tonight I went to the Jack's Mannequin concert in Milwaukee. I went with my roommate and his girlfriend and we ended up meeting up with a few of my friends from home. Before the concert we went to the annex on the Marquette campus just to get some food and drinks. We got there pretty late because we didn't really care about the opening bands and found out that a bottle of miller lite was 7 bucks, so we decided to not continue drinking. When the concert started I tried to sing along to the first song, but my voice went out, in part because before it started I was trying to talk over the music, but also because of my job. I'm an operator for deaf people, and I basically have to speak like a robot for how ever many hours at a time, and so I just had no voice. Because of that I just kinda stood there, I felt a little uncomfortable, but I think if you like a band and you're at the show you should either sit back and enjoy the music or do the more fun thing and get really into it, I mean there's no middle ground, you can't just mouth the words to a few of the songs choruses and feel like you're getting into it at all. But all in all it was a really good concert, he finished with a cover of My Name is Jonas and then probably his best song MFOE. It was well worth the money, that went toward cancer research anyway.

Blog Assignment 1

2006-09-10T12:15:00.000-05:00

I did not have a good idea of what rhetoric was before the reading. What I thought it was was some sort of use of speaking or writing that was there to try to persuade the listener/reader. After reading Herrick's introduction I have a somewhat better understanding of what rhetoric is. It seems that the same basic definition of what I believed rhetoric was is an important part of rhetoric as a whole, but from the readings there is much more to it than simple persuasion through speech and writings. Herrick describes it as "intentional practice of effective symbolic expression", and explains that what rhetoric is used for is just as important as how it is being used and goes on to state several characteristics of how it is commonly used. From my understanding from the reading I would extend the definition of rhetoric to say that it is also used to convey ideas or messages, not jus tpersuasion, through a number of means beyond speaking and writing with an added importance of how it is being used in different situations.

Naming the Website

2006-09-08T12:47:00.000-05:00

Hello my name is Andy. This is my first time writing a blog, but my brother has a blog that I check out daily so I am somewhat familiar with them. The name Katric Frurphy is a combination of my roommate and his ex girlfriends names which came from the Colbert Report's usage of Filliam H. Muffman for William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman. At this time I am unsure of what the content of the blogs will be, but we'll see where it goes.