Recommendation

I'm not sure if we're supposed to keep blogging here, Courtney. But I'm going to do it just in case.

I just want to recommend to you guys that if you havent' started your research paper, get on it. I just finished my first draft a couple days ago an sent it to Dr. Sands for any feedback and he was very helpful. Now I have lots of time ( I hope) to edit my paper to make it better before next week.

Good luck, almost done!

so uh..?

are we done with this group blog since our presentations are done?

My Research Paper

So my research paper in about facebook and myspace. In my proposal, I said I would be addressing questions such as: Why did this phenomenon take off and become such a hit? How are these sites affecting advertisers and their campaign strategies? What are the dangers in these kinds of blogs as opposed to “regular” or “real” blogs on Web sites, for instance, Blogger.com?

and I also said I would focus a lot of the paper on advertsing effects from myspace.


The feedback I got was that it was a good paper topic, but there are too many questions being addressed and I need to organize it around one central claim instead.

I want to talk about all of these questions I wrote down, how do I tie to them all in? My thesis could be something like "Myspace and Facebook sites have changed/affected they way the world and people work" something to that affect, and then I could give my examples from above.


??

meercats!

kay

i just realized something. whenever i'm on our group blog at school.. there's a tab at the top that says 'edit HTML'. but it's not on my comp at home.

so then what?

whacky bear

Camera

Hey guys... should I take a video so that we can load it from my camera to the computer during class...

And also, I am bring my computer, cuz i don't know if my software has to be installed on the schools.... anything else, just let me know.

question

should i bring in my camera and cord too on monday with a video on it? should i follow the steps below and post my video somewhere or are we going to do that in class?

also about presentation..

so will those steps (assuming they're right) work for facebook or myspace too? just wondering because we can also mention that in class. also, i know a few people use livejournal.. would it work for that as well?

our presentation on monday

nick this is mostly for you to check.. but i'm posting it on our group blog instead of emailing you so rachel and lea can see too.

POSTING VIDEO (RIGHT? VIDEO?) FROM A DIGITAL CAMERA ONTO A BLOG:
1. make the video on your camera
2. plug in with USB cord (or whatever came with your camera) and download to hard drive
3. upload your video into pantherfile (this is accessed on the UWM account)
4. go to cit.ucsf.edu/embedmedia and select your video type (ex. quicktime)
5. press submit and type in your webserver (uwm.edu/~*username*) and file path (the name of your video file)
6. copy the code that's given and paste it into your blogger account, or whatever account you're posting the video on

okay, so there may be some mistakes on there because the second half of our directions were from when we were gonna use the FTP software and all that. so how does this look?

oh ya, and rachel.. don't forget to bring your camera and cord to class on monday. i'm gonna bring mine too.

paper idea

so now that we have actually been forced to talk about what our papers will be on I think that I will try and stick to my blogs focus on open-source and write about blogs parallels and applications to the open source community based media and all that good stuff

Confusion sets in

Hey group:

I've been thinking about our class demonstration next week, and I am really SUPER confused as to what we are doing. Nick, you tried explaining it last class, but I am still lost. If there is still time in today's class, can we go over it remedial style for me, so I have even the slightest clue as to where we are headed?

Paper Topics

Hey guys:

I really like the idea about using thefacebook and myspace as a paper topic because I am also really attached to them.

I think it's the sheer joy of reading about other people's lives without them knowing it... kind of like tabloid magazines.

On my trip I was brainstorming ideas about this as a paper topic, and I wanted to discuss the different aspects of each site and ultimately linking it to blogging that we've read or done. Kind of a compare and contrast if you will.

Let there be Sound!

Whoa, I was very confused with why there was music playing each time I opened the group blog. But silly me, I didn't scroll down to check it out and I finally realized where it was coming from.

Nick, you're a genious. How do you know how to do all this stuff?

Anyways, I haven't really come up with any more topics for the paper, does anybody else have any suggestions? Let's get the ball rolling!

um?

where is the rest of the group? i tried to hold off until other people posted. but i like where lea was headed with the note idea. otherwise the camara or phone video/camera tool idea was cool.

other ideas are welcome!

No more D2L. Joy.

So in class the other day we were given new rules for our postings. We're supposed to post 2 times a week on our group blog on one of 3 given topics:
*Post anything that has been happening on the 4 blogs we were looking at earlier in the month

* Using news media, other blogs in or out of the class, blog and see where it goes.

* blog about paper topics for interesting things to write about

Courtney and I decided we should kill 2 birds with one stone and blog about #3.

Here's my initial thought on a topic.

Myspace and Facebook have become so popular within the last few years. Recently, Facebook has come up with a "Notes" sidelink. This is similar to Blogger.com and other blog sites, in that you can write about...anything and post pictures. You can tag people within the note. Also many people write captions under their photos in their albums. Myspace even has a "blog" section for each user's profile.

What is the difference between blog sites and myspace or facebook sites that have similar concepts of blogging?

I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this topic, but something like that. Because I think I would enjoy talking about myspace and facebook since I'm on them so much anyways.

tools..

okay.. so we have to discuss what tool(s) we want to use in our blog and demonstrate to the class. anyone have any ideas? lea and i talked about it in class and we were thinking maybe doing videos from our digital cameras or cell phones. Also broadcasting podcasts from our blog.

What do you guys think? Ideas? Suggestions?

Don't worry ladies

I will respond to your letters tomorrow, right now I am working on my website for my web design class that my crazy anal b*tch of a teacher expects by the next time 8am rolls around. The assignment was to make a site based on some text she found in spam email, here is the text:

Excuse me, I cant talk any more, the cat said from the mirror. Since Margarita had no pockets in her cloak, she put the horseshoe in a skirt and sneakers came into the office. From a small pouch at her belt the evening will have the honour of kissing your knee, lop my head off on this. prepared ahead of time, on the tablecloth, under the lamp, a syringe.

you can watch my progress on the site over here:

Kaplow!

my head is about to do this

this is silly

okay.. i'm on my brother's computer right now so i don't wanna upload pics of male models on it. but i'm really determined to do it. i really really am.

just dont rush me.

Crazy Pics

I found these on yahoo's website. They always have crazy pictures. I like the panda/dog one the most. It reminds me of a "raccoon" dog that my boyfriend wants to get. (dog that looks EXACTLY like a racoon. gross. I don't approve)



Liu Shuping, a farmer specializing in raising pigs, presents a newly-born piglet with one head, two mouths, two noses and three eyes, for photographers in Xi'an, northwest China's Shannxi Province

True fan : Indian cricket fan, Bhola Sarder, poses after the daily shaving of his 'Cricket World Cup' haircut at a hair salon in Howrah, near Kolkata

A Chow Chow dog painted in the likeness of panda is displayed for sale at a pet market in Shenyang, China's Liaoning province.

pics

i cant get back to my other post. so i'm gonna try to post them here:

OKAY WHAT THE HELL! can someone else try. i swear blogger is being stupid. its not me. its blogger.

ooooooookay..

this group is weird. you guys are all huge weirdos. especially you, nick. for posting that picture of those girls. so heres some stuff for us girls.


damn! my pictures aren't working. and i spent a lot of time finding pictures! but time well spent. i'll be back in a few to try again. dont worry, girls.

Ripley's Believe It or Not

I thought this picture was crazy. It's from that Ripley's Believe It or Not website. I was looking for more pictures, but this is the only one I could find that find that i liked. It's your choice to believe it or not.

Pizza Pizza

I wonder if anybody has ever done any of that top 20 things to do while ordering a pizza. I think it would be very interesting to work the phones at a place like Pizza Hut or anything that has to deal with customer service. You'd get a lot of whackos.

I can give an example. I work at the UPS store in Shorewood. Sometimes the stupidest people call and ask the stupidest questions. this one pisses me off the most. When people don't listen....

Me: "Hello, the UPS store."
Dumb person: Hi...umm....is this the ups store?"
Me: "......yeah....."

(didn't I JUST say that? listen to me next time and maybe I wont have to repeat myself.)

or this question:

ring ring.
Me: "hello, the ups store."
dumb person: hi...ummm. do you guys have boxes there?"

Ok now this one....just annoys me. think before you call. No, we don't have boxes. We just throw people's things into the back of the trunk unpacked and scattered around.....


I could go on and on about how much I dislike the ups store and its dumb customers....but it would just get me thinking about it more and put me in a bad mood. and why be in a bad mood when it's so nice outside!?!

yum

oh and as long as we are playing the objectification game, a little eye candy for Dr. Sands and myself:

feel free to click on it for amazing full-size quality ladies.

Prisons

I am familiar with these "fun facts" email forwards and what not. Just thought I would dig into the prison issue seriously for a moment since there seems to be some interest.

The American prison system is one of the most disgusting aspects of our great nation today.

From this article

According to the report, “Prisoners in 2005,” there were 2,193,798 people incarcerated in the United States as of December 2005. An additional 4.1 million were on probation and around 800,000 more on parole. This amounts to more than 7 million people—or 1 in 32 American adults—who were under some sort of supervision by the US prison system as of 12 months ago.

This is largely due to the fact that caging people is a $60 Billion a year business and the people that are making that money buy senators who write laws that send more people to prison. Just consider that the United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. A little lop-sided, no?

This phenomenon that the prison has turned into is referred to as the Prison-Industrial Complex, a reference to the Military-Industrial Complex coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The people representing the entire industry would suffer huge losses in profits if things like the War on Drugs would finally be abandoned. Hmmm, and I wonder why people get so bent out of shape about marijuana users....

I thought these were funny. Go to: Top 20 Things to Do While Ordering a Pizza . There are other funny lists, but if I were the person on the other line I'd either be totally freaked or uncontrollably laugh.

I think those things are pretty cool. 2 comments though...

1) I wish I were that snail because I could totally use that sleep

2) Maybe there's .7% American in jail because the donkeys are gettin the rest... hmmm?

?

i would say that the interesting thing is that there are only .7% of americans in jail. not enough jail space i'd assume.

Interesting facts

I found these facts on this website. Kinda crazy stuff. I'm not sure if it's all quite true...


Toxic house plants poison more children than household chemicals.

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England, but only in tropical fish stores.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.

Turtles can breathe through their butts.

Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.

0.7% of Americans are currently in prison.

Hottness!!

This is for Courtney, Lea, and me... I am in love with this man. He is one of the stars from Step Up: Channing Tatum... sorry that this will make you puke Nick. :)

oh man

first - lea.. sorry. i can't say i know much about harry potter. he's never really been interesting to me. even with his nude scenes on stage.

and nick -
ya i heard about that. she's wacky. i really don't know what else to say about it other than thanks a lot for making the rest of the group look bad by posting a video.

Harry potter predictions

Okay. I'm asking a favor of all those Harry Potter fans out there.

For another class I'm compiling a list of predictions I think will happen in the final book coming out this July. I'm answering questions such as:

* Will Harry die?
* Is Snape good or bad?
* Will Harry go back to Hogwarts to become an auror or will he go and destroy the horcruxs'( or both..??)* it's said that 2 will die...who?
*its said that aunt petunia will have an important role in the final book...what is it?
*it's said that dumbledore will come back and have a role...what?

.......Things like that.

So, if any of you have any input on Harry Potter, please feel free to leave some comments. I will take them into consideration. I dont remember all the facts in the book, so the more comments the better. Maybe I think differently on your comment, but I might use that as an example of another side to use.

Ann Coulter's Self-Proclaimed Keen Sense of Gaydar

Holy Crap, did you gals see what Coulter did?

Seriously, w.t.f.

Through some more reading I found out she even ran for congress just to take votes away from a republican who didn't vote to impeach Clinton.

Oh, and she's a fucking man, man!

weirdos

I'm really starting to notice how much we love weird stuff. (Britney, circus man, tiger with pig babies..) I tried to think of something weird to post here but uhmm, I can't think of anything right now.

I do think it's weird that there's a 'winter weather advisory' right now. I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that it wasn't winter time anymore. Isn't any weather 'winter weather' considering the season?


weird. thats why I know you guys will enjoy.

My sister sent me this. Apparantly this Tiger's cubs died, so people at the zoo put fake fur on pigs, and she took them as her own. Isn't this the cutest?! Better than Britney anyways hahaha.

What is up with the crazy man?

Ok, now this has been bothering me for quite some time. Every week, on Mondays and Wednesdays walking to class around 10:45 am I see the same crazy man.

You might know him. He wears a trenchcoat, in his 30's I'd say, glasses and a stach. But the main thing that sets him apart from the rest of the wackos on campus is that he is ALWAYS carries those damn juggling sticks. I don't know what they're called.

There are 3 sticks with little tassles on the end and you flip them and turn them and I don't know what else. But he's ALWAYS walking around on Oakland. Flipping. Turning. Juggling.

and it really pisses me off. I dont know why. What the hell does he do for a living? Why is he always wandering the streets juggling those stupid things?

I just want to knock them out of his hand. But I don't. I just give him an evil glare.

what is up with the crazy man?

way to go brit.

Time to blog!

The frequency with which a blogger updates should be consistent above all. Whether it be five a day or once every two weeks, as long as people can know what to expect. I suppose if the frequency increases it isn't that big of a deal but if someone abandons their blog for a long period of time, I think some of their readership might feel betrayed (as silly as that sounds). There should definitely be a consistency to the tone and theme of the blog as well because this helps the readers to know what to expect in a post.

What I Keep Learning...

Like I said before, I really feel that the way a person writes in his/her blogs keeps my attention. Tone and creativity is everything to me, because when I know something has to be as "school work" I for some reason loose the ability to concentrate.

When a blogger has fun writing his/her blog, I find it a lot easier to focus on the content and meaning, than if the blogger was boring or lame.

For my own, benefit, I finally learned how to put in a picture and website. For this weeks personal blog, I will be able to add pictures and pamphlets about the protest I went to again this morning.

nice

okay well the captions are a bit off.. but its an improvement

timing

well.. going off the issue of timing as lea was talking about in her last post..(by the way, i can't see the picture)

there's nothing i find more annoying than when i find a blog that i actually enjoy reading and it's not updated frequently. perhaps i'm showing that i have less of a life than the person whose blog i'm reading, i get annoyed when i check it up to three times a day and still nothing. my frustration doubles when i check it the next day.. still nothing.

i would say that at least one post a day is a good measure to go by. no need for overkill.

now i'm gonna attempt to post some pictures that we all love.


the environment of a square determines its perceived lightness


stare at the center, move your head up and down.


hope those work.

Time is on my side

(hey, we all said we liked pictures in blogs...so I figured on OUR blog I should post a picture. And what better than this adorable chimp?)

After reading each group members' blogs on what they think a good post is, I've come to the conclusion that we all generally have the same views on good blogs. Good layouts, pictures, don't talk techniqually-but like a normal conversation, among other things.

I'm not sure about the time aspect of what makes a good blog. I don't know whether it means the actual time blogs are posted, or the season/month/event in the year.

What I do know is that I think it is very creepy in a way when bloggers update their blogs multiple times a day. Do they really have that much time on their hands that all they do is sit and contemplate life...or whatever their given topic is they like to write about. Don't they have "real" stuff to do? When I see multiple posts a day or updates on one post in particular I think to myself, "next...this person is a weirdo." All I can picture is somebody sitting at their computer desk in their pajama bottoms with pizza boxes all around themselves and typing away.

I'm going to have to think about the other elements of time and write more later. But that's my initial reaction when I think about time and blog posts.

Coherent?

Well I think I am going to be somewhat of an outsider in this group. Gossipy and/or ultra-personal blogs rarely hold my interest very long. I approach blogs as a chance to learn something and find a fresh perspective. This just seems to happen much less frequently on some blogs than on others. Now I don't mean to sound like I would enjoy sitting in the library reading scholarly journals, but I just happen to find myself much more curious as to how people approach the workings of the world than to what they occupied themselves with over the weekend (granted, with many exceptions).

As for visual layout I am on shaky territory when it comes to what I like better, the busy, if well done, background graphics versus the elegant and simple design of text on a color. I definitely appreciate images and will be including more of them in my posts after reading that everyone else's posts had similar enthusiasm for pictures.

I wish I would have had time to work out a more coherent post earlier this week but I was swamped the last 7 days. Much better consistency should follow.

less is more

its true. sometimes with these fricken blogs less is more. then again.. sometimes i find myself getting frusterated at those deathly boring blogs that i know everyone has come across. i literally get crabby. who does that? anyways... i think there are a few common 'rules' that should be followed when creating a blog/blog post.

- be real. write how you speak. no need to be grammatically correct. let your personality come through. people will relate more. no one wants to read about your philosophical bullshit that leaves them wondering what the hell they just read.

- be biased. i'm not saying go off on a fucking tangent about this and that just to make people mad. but don't be afraid to share your feelings. it's what will make your blog unique. people like that. i do.

- as we discussed in class.. be passionate. regardless of what you're writing, you really need to be passionate about it. it will show if you're not and people will appreciate it if you are.

- going off of the previous point.. integrity. we also discussed this in class. you need to have a thick skin. don't be afraid to say 'no' when the whole world is saying 'yes'.

- be active. its important to read and reply to your comments. people don't leave them to be ignored. all good bloggers are aware of comments and will reply to many of them.

as for the blog itself:

- please dont make the background look like barf on a screen. because then when i barf from looking at it, no one will be able to tell how disgusted i was. simple colors are nice.

- a lot of white space is key. otherwise it's boring.

- pictures are fun. who doesn't like pictures?

mmmkay. well thats all i got for now.

Who Can Say Pizazz?!

After reading through all of the different kinds of posts, I have realized one thing... I can't stand anything boring to read. Now, I'm not talking about a single topic, but just in general a way someone writes.

I've read through political, acadmic, and personal blogs and here are a couple things that I found I liked best:

• Humor is key to make a serious topic or situation a little more light hearted and easy to read: If someone is angry but is funny as well, I don't just see them venting but trying to prove a point
• Use some kind of color: Either have it be the text or the window, I feel that some kind of color needs to be present, otherwise it's just white and black and words start running together. I then... result to boredom.
• Pictures explain topics better than words at times: I still am not sure how to put pictures in my personal blog, but hope to do this by next week. I feel that pictures explain things that you can't find exactly how to write down, and it gives the reader something to look at.

Overall, I feel that a lil pizazz never hurt anything, so tie it to your blog and the readers will stay interested longer.

To anybody, when looking at somebody's blog they can say, "this is crap" or "i love this." So when thinking about what makes a good blog, I would say it's hard to pinpoint the exact things that make a good blog for everyone to enjoy, because, everyone is different and has different views on what they like and don't like. Let's take my side, for example:

• I like to view pictures. If it pertains to what you're talking about, share it so we can get a visual. The more the better (but not too many so it drowns out the text...)
• Don't overcrowd the page with words. I will automatically click to the next page or skim through it briefly
• Be creative. Don't use technical terms and try to sound smarter than you are. Write like you are talking to me, in a casual, sarcastic sometimes, tone. I don't want to feel like I'm reading a textbook. I've had enough of that.
• I, personally, like reading what people would call, more like journals. It's what keeps me interested. I love gossip. Celebrity or not. And it doesn't necessarily have to be gossip. I like knowing how other people feel and what is going on in their lives. ( is that nosey? oh well...) But please, keep it on a happy or semi-happy tone. I don't want to read somebody's suicide note or anything.
• And...I don't know, a nice background is nice. Crazy anime's like one website I saw is not cool though. Neon bright colors swirling all over the place like one friend of mine has= not cool also. It hurts my eyes too much. I don't want to have to put sunglasses on to read your blog.

And with that, you have my criteria for good blog posting. For you it may be different, but this is what I like.

rules

Here is a copy of the rules for posting and replying for our group:

Rules of Posting/replying:

Employees will be divided into two groups by the boss for discussion/reply.

Groups will be prompted on what to discuss each week.

The company will hire a speaker to host a workshop on proper blogging techniques annually.

To cut down on lazy blogging, replies from others on the given topic of the week will be invisible until your reply is posted.
At the end of the week, the boss will evaluate posts and replies with a point system. These points will accumulate into vacation time.