More Technotexts 2

I had a lot of fun playing with The Intruder. It was more of a game for me than a technotext. I don't think I actually read any of the words that were presented to me because I was concentrating too much on the game. It is kind of ironic though because the reason I wanted to concentrate on the game and not the text is because if you don't do well on the game you can't get more of the story. I don't even know what the story was about, but I knew that I got pretty far in the game. I played like ten of them. I think that's pretty impressive. It was fun looking at some of the technotexts. I thought this one was better than most because it was interactive. However, I didn't get anything more out of it than having fun playing the games. I didn't recognize the meaning of whatever story that was trying to be told. I just remember that I played a couple rounds of pong and caught things in my metal bucket. I also had to jump over phrases that I couldn't read because they were going so fast and I was concentrating jumping over them. This was a cool form of technotext. I'm really disappointed that I couldn't play with the Bad Machine one. That looked like even more fun. I just didn't want to spend time downloading something so it would work properly. Next time I decide to play around with technotext, I will definitely have to try that one.

More Technotexts

I think technotexts are odd and weird and creepy and deep and just something that I could never ever hope to fully understand. Some of the technotexts that we were to view as homework were just so out there that it was hard for me to take them seriously.

When looking at all of the technotext on Anipoems, I enjoyed just letting my eyes relax and watching the moving letters and words. It was enjoyable and very relaxing just to go through them all and watch the movement and make the connections about how the movement relates to the poem or word. However, I find them completely pointless with no meaning. It relaxes my eyes enough for me to fall asleep, but I really tried to find a deeper meaning to it all, but I could not find it. I think this particular version is pointless and pretty uncreative. I do not see a reason for it at all.

I really had a lot of fun doing the Field of Dreams experiment. I used to play Mad-Libs all the time when I was a kid and actually got a couple of books of Mad-Libs two Christmases ago. I love them. Some of them are so funny that one could never attempt to achieve that sort of humor without doing it through a Mad-Lib. They are fun and they also teach kids types of words and what they are.

I find a lot of technotext hard to read. Like the Neo poem that we had to look at for homework. It was cool because of the arrangement of letters and how they moved on the screen, but I did not successfully find a meaning to the poem. I just think a lot of this techno text is cool to look at, but I can never derive a deeper meaning from them. It just seems like a fruitless effort to try and be so abstract with whatever they are trying to say. I guess the Neo poem just went through the alphabet and did cool things with the letters and showed some words that started with those letters. Is there supposed to be a deeper meaning? Hopefully there is, because if there is not, I just think this is somewhat a waste of time. It is not a complete waste of time because it is fun to watch. That would be an even better point because then the creator actually achieved something.

Word Processors and Computer Word Processing

I believe that there is such a difference in computer word processing than in any other form of word processing. In computer word processing everything looks uniform and the words become so transparent on the computer screen. I believe that words lose their meanings and that the author in a way is lost. I think that handwriting is such a tell tale sign of who a person really is. It can tell a story without even reading the letters. It truly enhances the words on the page and having something tangible like a piece of paper that is being read off of is so much more meaningful to me than reading something off of a computer screen. It scares me a little that handwriting is being used less and less. I feel as if identity is lost. If handwriting goes, I believe that many facets that make us ourselves will be gone.

It is interesting that in one of the readings there is a quote that talks about how new innovations paves the way for another interpretation of art. “We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art.” This made me think a little about what I was just talking about and how if handwriting goes than identity might be lost as well. Well, what if we looked at losing handwriting as gaining art. I am positive that once handwriting becomes somewhat obsolete, we will have artist recreating handwritten works as art pieces. Since it will not be a common form anymore, handwriting will become a delicacy in the artists’ world. With the loss of handwriting, handwriting as an art form and not as a commonality is gained. I suppose that people got used to the new technologies and found new ways of indentifying themselves. If it so happens again with handwriting, I believe society will just find a new way of doing the same thing. This will create new and interesting things to study and it will have a huge impact on the lives of everybody involved.

This is a very rapidly changing time in our lives and I can only wait and see what comes out of this exponentially growing race of technologies. I am so happy to be living during this time to see the new and interesting ways people are inventing on doing new or even the same old stuff better. Computer word processing is only the tip of the iceberg.

Mobile Writing

Mobile writing has become part of our everyday life. Texting is always occurring and people can get e-mail and access the internet through cell phones. Mobile writing has become something that is constantly around us as a society. It has also become an object that society cannot seem to live without. It has become so important to us as a whole that we believe it to be some parasite that has defeated us and sucked out the life force in each and every person who owns a cell phone and now we are unable to live without it.

Text messaging has become such a big thing because it is quick and you can do something else and talk to other people orally while having a texting conversation with somebody else. Texting has become the secret chat because when you are unable to talk on the phone with somebody in fear of disturbing somebody or something you are able to have a complete discussion with somebody without anybody really knowing about it. Also, nobody can overhear a text message conversation. It is able to be fairly private and only viewable by the people in the conversation. That is not entirely true, but it seems more private than Facebook wall posts and more private than a phone conversation in which somebody could easily eavesdrop.

While reading some of the assignments for this week, I was completely freaked out about the readings that dealt with spimes. I cannot believe that we could be heading in that direction. It is just getting a little too close to home and way too close to me in regards of bursting my personal bubble. The technologies that Bruce Sterling mentioned in “When Blobjects Rule the Earth” have been really useful in society, but I would never want to see those sort of technologies used for tracking me down. I like the way I still have some form of personal space and privacy, but it seems that we are losing it by the second. I also am really opposed to parents having complete access to their children’s cell phone conversations and having a GPS on their cell phones. The children need to learn from their mistakes, but how are they going to make them if Mommy and Daddy are constantly holding them under their thumbs? It is creepy to me that parents are so concerned. I understand being concerned about a child, but stalking them? I believe that has gone a little too far.

Uncreative Writing

Uncreative writing is a very odd topic for me. I do not quite understand it all. I completely agree with Truman Capote’s thought that uncreative writing is not writing, but typing. That is how I felt when I did my own uncreative writing piece. I felt as if I was just entering data into a word processor without thinking about the meaning of the words I was typing. I also was not thinking creatively in the least. I do not believe that one creative thought entered my head. I was just completely in the zone of transferring the information I was reading to my hands to type which then translated the motions into words on a Microsoft Word document.

Also, when we were assigned to look at Kenneth Goldsmith’s Weather, I could not even get through the first line. I knew that there was not a chance in hell that this could be interesting so I did not bother to read it. That is another reason why I do not understand the purpose of uncreative writing. Well, at least, I do not understand the purpose of publishing uncreative writing. It is completely pointless because it just copied something that already existed. At the time of the first publication, not the uncreative writing copied publication mind you, the information was pertinent to the situation at the time and important to some people. However, when it is copied again, I do not see the reason for reading it at all. Why would somebody feel the need to publish that sort of work? I can sort of understand that simply typing clears the mind and you become sort of a robot in that you have no feelings or thoughts whatsoever while in the process of uncreative writing. It is somewhat relaxing to create an uncreative writing piece, but I do not understand why this would need to be made public.

I also thought that it was slightly humorous that Kenneth Goldsmith had this whole definition and meaning planned out to his crazy form of writing which he calls uncreative. It is uncreative all right, but it also seems dumb and pointless. I just could not believe that he put that much thought into something that can be so simply defined. Here, I will show you how easy it is. I can define his “uncreative” writing in one simple middle school word… Plagiarism. Yup, I said it. That is all uncreative writing is. I do understand that Kenneth Goldsmith cites his works, but are they internally cited? Well, I guess that the plagiarism is not a true definition of uncreative writing because some people (Kenneth Goldsmith) choose to waste their time actually writing down movements that his body has gone through during the day. Why don’t you do something meaningful with your life like save a third world country?

FLARF AND OTHER WEB-GENERATED TEXTS, March 21: Amanda Cook and Katie Kane

The presentation on flarf and other web-generated texts by Amanda and Katie was well put together in my opinion. I believed they had a lot of good quotes and other examples of web-generated text that went well with the presentation. I believe that their presentation was a little heavy on the web-generated texts rather than the flarf, but I completely understand since we were on the subject of technotexts again and for some reason it seems that our class does not remember class topics that were taught mere weeks ago. I really enjoyed watching and listening to the examples presented by Amanda and Katie. The Korean technotext was a very new experience for me, but I would have rather just watched the poem and listened to the music rather than try and read the poem and deduce a meaning from it that went along with the music and the way the text was being presented. I also like the technotext that had the letters that would form into words and change color. I thought it was really funny that the nonsensical words would turn red and then blow up. It was just amazing to me how somebody could write a program for that.

MORE TECHNOTEXTS, April 28: , Kevin Eure and Jennifer Kramer

The presentation by Kevin and Jennifer about technotexts was interesting. I really enjoyed watching “While Chopping Red Peppers.” It was a very odd thing for me and I found the audio slightly chilling. I was a little freaked out mainly because of the way the narrator spoke. It was almost emotionless, but it was also filled with a sort of sadness that she had become somebody her father had molded her into. I felt at times that the class discussion was very hesitant and was lacking for much of it. Eventually, we got to a point where we had pretty regular class involvement, but I do not believe that Kevin and Jennifer captured the class as much as the other presentations.

WORD PROCESSORS & COMPUTER WORD PROCESSING, April 21: Leah Wolfeld and Celeste Lohr

The presentation about word processors and computer word processing by Celeste and Leah was pretty good. It was a fairly well put together project, but I believe that Leah asked a lot of the really good questions that the class was involved in. I really enjoyed the discussion about how using the computer to write differs so much from using pen and paper. I also thoroughly enjoyed the writing prompt in which we all had to switch our methods of organization and either type and outline on the computer or write one by hand. That was a fun experiment that really had the class thinking. The class did not necessarily think about the topic in which it had to create an outline for, but we all thought of how switching to either computer or writing by hand affected the way of execution. It was a good thing to have our methods tested and see the outcome of the change of regular process.

MOBILE WRITiNG, April 14: Pauline Parikh and Victoria Mangam

I thought this presentation by Pauline and Victoria about mobile writing was very interesting. We had a lot of good class discussion about how cell phones are an extension of ourselves. Because of mobile writing we are able to communicate faster and this allows information to constantly be up to date. When the topic of cell phones is brought to the table, the class always has something to say about it. The topic of cell phones is always an interesting one that brings a lot of good intellectual ideas of where our society is going. This presentation was well put together and had a lot of good information that really got the class going in discussion. It was enjoyable to listen to the presentation and information that was presented, as well as the interesting class discussion that ensued.

I do remember we had a very good discussion about spimes and they introduced me to the wonderful website called mykidissafe.org. We had a lot of fun talking about how parents are overprotective and how it is absolutely crazy that there are ways of being constantly updated on your kids' whereabouts and even text messages. I very much enjoyed the fact that I learned a lot about spimes and other sorts of new technologies in this field. I believe that in our class discussion we might have digressed quite a bit and maybe that was a good thing because we did talk a lot which equals an A for the presentation.

UNCREATIVE WRITING, April 9: Sarah Kabi and Barry Wong

The presentation about uncreative writing by Sarah and Barry, but I did not take much out of it. Perhaps, it is due to the fact that uncreative writing is not a very interesting subject for me. I did not fully understand its purpose nor did I understand why anybody would be interested in doing this uncreative writing at all. It is simply copying whatever you choose to write about. I guess people would want to do it for the challenge that it creates because it is a very restricted form of writing. When I did my uncreative writing, I did not try and change anything, but I did not feel the need to elaborate in my own words about the clothing labels that I chose to wear that day. It just seemed like a waste of time to me to copy everything down and it was also slightly stressful. I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything the same for every article of clothing in which I was copying down its label. It was hard in regards to keeping the format the same, but otherwise, I found it pointless. I do not remember much class discussion on this topic during the presentation, but I believe that most of the class has the same sentiments as I do about uncreative writing.

UNCREATIVE WRITING, April 7: Abbey Verrillo and Scott Douglas

The presentation about uncreative writing was informative and interesting to listen to, but it kind of freaked me out because of the youtube videos of the uncreative writer, Kenneth Goldsmith. He was absolutely crazy. I suppose anybody who takes uncreative writing as seriously as he does would be a little crazy. The whole topic of uncreative writing is an anomaly to me. First, it’s uncreative because the writer is just writing down every detail of every action that the writer’s body goes through during one day, but then the idea of writing all of this information down is very creative to me. I do not see where we can have uncreative writing without creativity. The presentation did well to ask that question and the class discussion was very intellectually stimulating. Abbey and Scott were very informative and really knew their stuff on uncreative writing. I very much enjoyed the presentation, even thought I might not thoroughly understand the topic. However, this is not due to their lack of information on the topic, this is solely due to the fact that I am unable to completely wrap my head around uncreative writing. I understand the method, but I do not understand how this writing is fully uncreative.

PAPER, LETTERPRESS, BOOK ARTS, April 2: Lindsey Hawk, Matt Kiehl

I thought this presentation was VERY informative. It was very intellectually stimulating and I truly believed that I was being presented this information by experts. Because Lindsay is an artist herself, I really enjoyed hearing her personal opinions that came from an artist's point of view. I also enjoyed listening to the information that Matt provided about the history and beginnings of book arts. I also loved the examples that they showed. It showed a lot of different facets of book arts and how many ways one art can be achieved. It gave me a lot of inspiration for my own book arts project. The presentation really gave me an idea of how the media used to create the artist’s book really intensifies the message that the book is trying to convey.

I also thought it was interesting and really helpful to see Lindsay’s personal collection of zines. They were quirky and fun to look at. I also thought that the class discussion about zines was very interesting to listen to. I do not think that zines will ever be looked at as a reputable source of information, but they will be looked at with interest and an artistic mind.

Blogs and Social Sites

While reading “Facing my Facebook self,” I thought it was very interesting how he described his Facebook self as something better than he ever could be. He also claimed that it was a consistent version to which he could not commit. I do not understand this at all. I believe that people are putting their Facebook self on this pedestal which it should not be placed upon. Also, I believe I have mentioned this before in my other blogs, I really do not understand why people cannot be true to themselves on their Facebook profiles. I completely understand untagging yourself from pictures of you underage drinking due to the fact that you probably will get caught if you are involved in school activities or are trying to get a serious job. However, untagging a goofy picture because you are afraid of what people might think of you is idiotic. People need to stop trying to be what others want them to be and just be themselves. There is no way anybody could be happy living with these restrictions and with the guilt that their friends do not actually know the real person inside.

When I read on in “Facing my Facebook self,” I read about how he made up his profile and how he put so much thought into it to make sure that his “favs” showed different, good qualities about him. When I created my Facebook profile, I really did not put that much thought into it. Some of the parts are not even completed because I got lazy. Granted, I am friends with a lot of people on Facebook, but the people who I really care about already know what I like and know who I am so there is no need to try and be at the top of my game when it comes to my Facebook self.

After reading “On Facebook Scholars Link Up With Data,” I thought it was very interesting (and goes along with my way of thinking about Facebook) that studies showed that people with 800 friends or more are seen as popular on Facebook, but they are actually insecure. I completely agree with this. How could somebody have that many friends. Well, I guess the point is that they really do not have that many friends, they just friend random people or they accept friend requests from people they barely know to look like they have a ton of friends. I think it is all so silly. Get over yourself, people!!! Stop trying to be somebody you are not!!!

Now on to blogs… When reading “Blogging, the nihilist impulse,” I could not believe the numbers of people blogging. I think blogging is ridiculous. Well, the personal diary ones that people make public so everybody can see how dumb their life is. However, I do think it is acceptable (notice my use of acceptable and not cool, neat, or awesome) when people document a trip via blog, so their friends can see what nifty things they did while in Jamaica.

More Technotexts - Class Response

Today's poet almost certainly can't help but think about how their poem looks on a page. It's easy to change line breaks, stanza breaks, word spacing, line length and fonts with a word processing program. And it's interesting to see hos changing the line length or a stanza break can slightly alter the meaning of the text. But what happens when we take the words out of the poem and the letters out of the words and play with their relation to the page? What happens when the visual form of the poem is as important as the words that make it?
- from "Poems that Go"

I believe that when the artist thinks more about the visual more than the meaning of the words, shaped poetry is created. Perhaps the words do not flow as easily as a more often seen poem in stanza form, but the visual aspect of the poem adds so much to the meaning of the words that are being presented. In a previous class, we played around with taking the meaning of the word and showing its meaning by relating it to its presentation on the page. I believe that when a poem is put in a more visual form adds to the poem's meaning, but perhaps it takes away from the reader's interpretation.

Technotexts - Class Blog Response

"While Chopping Red Peppers" combines all five NLG's (Natural Language Generation) basic modes of meaning - linguistic, audio, spatial, gestural, and visual. Which one of these elements plays the greatest role in your interpretation?

Audio definitely has the greatest effect on the way I interpret "While Chopping Red Peppers". The way the speaker uses her voice to explain how her father has fully influenced her life shows that she took so much from her father. Even though she is now 1000 miles away, she is still being influenced by her father's teachings as a child.

BLOGS AND SOCIAL SITES, March 26: Matthew Snyder and Alissa

The presentation done by Alissa and Matthew about social sites was very good. I thought it was informative and had a lot of good information from the readings as well as outside sources. I learned a lot about the psychology of social sites like Facebook and Myspace. The class discussion was very good as well. I thought that we hit a lot of good topic discussions, like the talk about how one presents themselves on their Facebook. I believe that many people in the class are not being true to themselves because they make sure that the “silly” side does not show on their Facebook. I really do not have respect for those who cannot be true to themselves. I understand completely that future employers look at their employees Facebooks, so one should not have pictures of doing illegal things like underage drinking, but untagging pictures that make you look fat or ones that do not show off your best smile is absolutely ridiculous. I also enjoyed the discussion about the differences of Facebook and Myspace. Even though both social sites are there for basically the same purposes, Myspace seems so much trashier than Facebook. I believe this is due to Facebook being started for college students.

BLOGS AND SOCIAL SITES, March 24: Ashley Scruggs and Scott Mason

I thought Ashley and Scott’s presentation about blogs and social sites was really cool. I very much enjoyed the fact that the presentation was set up as a blog. There was a lot of good discussion because this is a very “now” topic, but there was not as much information as I thought there would be. It was definitely all discussion, which is fine, because I guess that is what we were supposed to be doing for our presentation. I learned that there are blogs that people go to regularly to find new information and posts about current events. I really do not like blogs because I think many of the blogs that are created by teenagers are incredibly dumb. I do not understand why people would want to write about their everyday life and share it with others. Many times there are very personal posts that everybody has access to. I believe that blogs are just a way for emo kids to get attention. Anyway, Ashley and Scott’s presentation was well put together in regards to having a lot of discussion questions. Their topic kept the class interested due to the fact that everybody knew what blogs were. Well done.

TYPEWRITERS AND TYPEWRITING, March 3: Anna Acre and Alex Innes

I really enjoyed this presentation. I thought it was very informative and well put together. There were some interesting facts presented as well as good topic discussions. I thought that the discussion about how new technologies are always viewed with a little hesitance was very good. It is hard to believe that at one time typewriters were thought of as taking over the writing of the person doing the typing. This is much like the discussions we have in all of our classes. We always talk about how physically writing something is more personal and better shows the person's true work than if doing it through a machine. I also liked the presentation that focused on the history of typewriters and what first came out and how it was used. The failed technologies were quite interesting. For example, the eight foot tall machine that printed out text. How is that even practical? I guess it is somewhat like the really, really old computers that once took up an entire room and only printed out small sections of paper. Think of how far we have come in the past 200 years or so. Overall, the presentation was well put together and had a lot of good information to be shared.

Global Warming

Global Warming

Very real

o Not necessarily due to pollution

§ Pollution helping out the process, but not the entire reason for climate change

o Earth has gone through many fluctuations in temperature throughout its existence

o Just another phase in the Earth’s life

o We can do our part slow down the process by trying to be more green, but the warming in climate will occur anyways.

Word Processors - Class Blog

Oral cultures: always "referred to as socialized communication" (Heim, 113).

What benefits do preliterate cultures experience that literate cultures cannot?

How do word processors have an effect on our oral and literate culture?

I believe that oral cultures were able to experience much more intimate communication. Within a literate culture, the personal interaction does not occur as often. I also believe that the memories existing in an oral culture are much more able to retain information than in a literate culture. Because everything had to be passed along verbally, the information had to be memorized. Now, in a literate culture, we do not have to remember anything, it can just be written down.

Cell Phones as an Extension of Ourselves - Class Blog

Cell phones are most definitely an extension of ourselves. How many people can say that they can live without a cell phone? I know that there are the lone few who believe this and could achieve it, as well, but we as a society are so attached to our cell phones that they basically become who we are. Even in our choice of cell phones, we can see the self emerge. Also, in the ringtones we choose for certain people or even in general, the self is able to be seen. Cell phones have become a staple in this society and many people could not live a day without their cell phones. They have become who we are and it would take a long time or another better and more convenient invention to cut the cell phone out of society and ourselves.

Writing Prompt - Spimes

"Spimes are coming anyway, because every one of those menaces is also some kind of opportunity. Spimes will change everything because everything needs to change. Things need to change quickly and radically, because the industrial system we have today cannot persist. It cannot find enough energy and raw materials."
-Bruce Sterling

Do you think Spimes are benficial or an intrusion? Why? Are they an evolution from artifacts, machines, products and gizmos?

I believe that Spimes are very intrusive, but in some cases they can be beneficial. Spimes seem to have the potential to track people and have access to very personal information. This definitely pops my personal bubble. The thought of the capability of Spimes truly scares me. However, I do think it is beneficial due to the convenience (like having the credit card inserted in your finger) or having your child own a cell phone that is able to track them down if they happen to be kidnapped. Even though Spimes are beneficial in this aspect, there is too much personal space being violated.

When I become a parent, I would rather not have the constant vigilance of my child because I believe in learning from your mistakes. However, I might get the cell phone GPS tracker just in case my child is abducted. I would not try and use it to see where my child is at all times because I want to be able to have my child trust me enough to tell me the truth and not be punished for telling the truth.

Uncreative Writing Class Blog 2

I still see uncreative writing as a work that is completely copied, word for word, just in a different format. I don't believe my definition has changed at all. In writing my own piece, I made sure that I didn't leave anything out because I did not want this piece to become my own. I wanted it to be exactly like it's original copy just in a word document instead of clothing labels. The one thing that I did view differently about uncreative writing was the creativeness of the ideas to be uncreative with.

Uncreative Writing Experiment

Columbia Sportswear Company ®. PORTLAND, OREGON U.S.A. CORE. M. WOMEN’S. INTERCHANGE. MADE IN CHINA . FABRIQUE EN CHINE. F1 XL7255. SHELL/EXTERIEUR: 100% NYLON/POLYAMIDE. LINING/DOUBLURE: UPPER BODY/POITRINE: 75% POLYESTER/25% RAYON/RAYONNE. LOWER BODY/PARTIE INFERIEURE: 100% NYLON/POLYAMIDE. INSULATION/ISOLATION: 100% POLYESTER. MADE IN CHINA. FABRIQUE EN CHINE. RN 69724. CA 05367. CARE ON REVERSE SIDE. INSTRUCTIONS D’ ENTRETIEN AU VERSO. MACHINE WASH COLD IN MILD DETERGENT WITH LIKE COLORS. REMOVE PROMPTLY. DO NOT BLEACH. TUMBLE DRY LOW. TOUCH UP WITH WARM IRON. FACE SIDE ONLY. DO NOT DRY CLEAN. DO NOT STORE WET. LAVER EN MACHINE A L’EAU. FROIDE ET AVEC UN DETERGENT. DOUX AVEC DES VETEMENTS DE MEME COULEURS, RETIRER PROMPTEMENT, NE PAS JAVELLISER, SECHER EN TAMBOUR A TEMPERATURE MODEREE REPASSER AU FER TRES CHAUD SUR UN SEUL COTE, NE PAS NETTOYER A SEC, NE PAS RANGER HUMIDE. CTX.

perfect fit. OLD NAVY BRAND. L. MADE IN VIETNAM. OLD NAVY. 75% COTTON/COTON. 25% POLYESTER EXCLUSIVE OF DECORATION/A L’EXCEPTION DES CARNITURES. MACHINE WASH COLD. GENTLE CYCLE. WASH AND DRY WITH LIKE COLORS. ONLY NON-CHLORINE BLEACH WHEN NEEDED. TUMBLE DRY LOW. COOL IRON. DO NOT IRON ON DECORATION. DO NOT DRY CLEAN. RN 54023/CA 17897.

FRUIT OF THE LOOM ®. HEAVY cotton. G. 100% ALGODON PRE-ENCOGIDO. HECHO EN EL SALVADOR CON TELA IMPORTADA DE LOS E.E.U.U. G. 100% COTON PRE-RETRECI. FABRIQUE AU SALVADOR AVEC TISSU IMPORTE DES E.U. L. 100% COTTON PRESHRUNK. MADE IN EL SALVADOR OF U.S.A. FABRIC. MACHINE WASH COLD. WASH DARK COLORS SEPARATELY. USE NON-CHLORINE BLEACH ONLY IF NEEDED. TUMBLE DRY LOW. DO NOT IRON DECORATION. DO NOT DRY CLEAN IF DECORATED. RN 13765. LAVAR A MAQUINA O A MANO CON AGUA FRIA. LAVAR COLORES OSCUROS SEPARADAMENTE. USAR BLANQUEADOR SIN CLORO SI ES NECESARIO. SECAR A TEMPERATURA BAJA. NO PLANCHAR LA DECORACION. NO LAVAR EN SECO SI ES DECORADE. RFC DFL-921106-CT1. LAVER A LA MACHINE A L’EAU FROIDE. LAVER LES COULEURS FONCEES SEPAREMENT. UTILISER UN JAVELLISANT SANS CHLORURE SEULEMENT SI NECESSAIRE. SECHER A BASSE TEMPERATURE. NE PAS REPASSER LES IMPRIMES. NE PAS NETTOYER A SEC SI DECORE. CA 18345.

Maidenform ®. Body & Lace/Corps et Dentelle/Cuerpo y Encaje: 84% Nylon/Nylon/Nilon, 16% Elastane/Elastane/Elastano. Made in China/Fait en Chine/Hecho en China. 7749/SCC. RN# 27701. 38C/85. 107 357.

OLD NAVY. GENUINE ITALIAN LEATHER. CUIS VERRABLE. MADE IN U.S.A. FABRIQUE AUX ETATS UNIS. RN# 54023. CA# 11897.

12 REG. RN 54485. CA 03873. MADE IN HONG KONG. FABRIQUE A HONG KONG. 99% COTTON 1% SPANDEX. 99% COTON 1% SPANDEX. MACHINE WASH COLD WITH LIKE COLORS. USE ONLY NON-CHLORINE BLEACH WHEN NEEDED. TUMBLE DRY LOW. REMOVE PROMPTLY. COOL IRON IF NEEDED. OVER/VERSO. LAVAR A LA MACHINE A L’EAU FROIDE AVEC DES COULEURS SEMBLABLES. UTILISER SEULEMENT UN AGENT DE BLANCHIMENT NON CHLORE AU SESOIN SECHER PAR CULBUTAGE A BASSE TEMPERATURE RETIRER DES QUE SEC REPASSER A TEMPERATURE BASSE AU BESOIN.

AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS. Low rise. L/G. RN 54485. CA 03873. 93% COTTON/COTON. 7% SPANDEX. Exclusive of Decoration. Sans les Decorations. Made in Macau. Fabrique au Macau. over/verso. Machine wash cold with like colors. Only non-chlorine bleach. Tumble dry low. Cool iron when needed. Lavar a la machine a. Feau froide avec couleurs similaires. Chlorure decoforant seulement. Secher par culbutage a basse temperature. Repasser a basse temperature au besoin.

I copied down every word/letter/number on each label on each item of clothing that I wore on 04/08/08.

Uncreative Writing - Class Blog

I believe a creative work must be an original piece or it could use previously created works and publish them in a way that is the author's own. (Sort of like flarf or book arts.) I believe that an original work can never be considered uncreative because it is something new that the author had to create. I just see this as an impossible feat. However, I think uncreative and creative can be quite ambiguous terms because some uncreative writing can be pretty creative. For example, if someone took a previously written work and treated the text, that seems like it could be a piece of uncreative writing as well as a new and creative work.

Writing Response: Why the Book?

For today's project, I decided to do a rendition of treated text like "A Humument". I had a lot of fun doing it. The text that I decided to "treat" was a lab from my ecology class. The lab is designed for the study of the behavior of squirrels in regards to food foraging and food choice. I thought that this would be a good text to treat because it is completely different from what we are studying in this class. I tried to make every page that I treated show as little relationship with the actual topic of the text as possible. I did a couple pages that are very much like "A Humument" and the others simply pick out words or letters that have to do with the same theme. In my Humument-like pages, it sort of turned out a little bit like flarf because I picked and chose words that created sentences. Some were funny and others I just tried to make them understandable. I hope that what I did is correct.

The Pyramid Atlantic Experience

At first, I was a little skeptical about going to Pyramid Atlantic. I did not like the idea of having to drive up to Silver Spring, Maryland (meaning paying for your own gas money) and then on top of the extreme gas prices that are occurring at this very moment, we had to pay twenty-five dollars just to get in the place. I understood that this fee covered our materials and would also pay the artists that would be helping us there, but I was still upset.

When I turned onto Georgia Avenue, I began my search for the ridiculous red building that is Pyramid Atlantic. Well, let’s just say that even though it was red, I missed it about five times. Then, I had to find parking. Fortunately, there was a parking deck right behind the big red building and it was FREE!!! Molly and I walked up to the building and found a door. Unfortunately, that was the incorrect door because it had a “Please use other door” sign on it. So, we walked around the building again and found the correct door. So far, this trip was not going well.

After I got in the building and started looking around while the staff there was clad in colorful rain boots, I asked myself, “What is this place?”

Fortunately, I had a lot of fun doing all of the planned activities at Pyramid Atlantic. I really enjoyed making my art book. I thought the place was really trendy and must be a fun place to work.

With my art book project, I was not completely sure of what I wanted my book to be about. I kept finding cool things in the recycled paper bin and I was trying to figure out a way to tie everything together. I found some really cool blue paper that was similar to tissue paper. It had flecks of gold in it surrounded by different shades of blue all melted together. Then, I found a card that had a white background with red polka dots. After that, I found some prints of flowers that I wanted to use. Suddenly, I thought of my theme. Things we smell. So, I put together my art book with pictures combined with text of things that we smell. It is cleverly titled, “What a nose… knows. I had a lot of fun putting the rest of the book together. It was pretty easy finding stuff to put in there once I was set on my theme.

I also thought the printing press was really interesting. I really enjoyed putting my text together. It was like putting a puzzle together because you had to find the pieces and then fit them in a way that you are not used to (upside down).

I thought that our “poem” came out pretty well, too. Even though they were randomly selected sentences, the poem sort of makes sense in a very odd and twisted way.

I cannot wait for the handmade paper to come in. I thought that was so cool that we got to make our own paper in really pretty colors. I am so excited to see how they came out.

Overall, I had a great time at Pyramid Atlantic and I really enjoyed learning about art book and printing.

Facebook II Profile

I have love handles.
I am a horrible dancer. Look me up on youtube.
Everything I eat turns my stomach into a danger zone.
I have dry skin.
I am disgusting.
I like to eat onions.
I am obsessed with polar bears.
I like Saturday morning cartoons.
I whine a lot.
I have a horrible temper.
I watch Hannah Montana with Liz.
I am friends with Liz Weiderhold.
I don't dress up a lot. My daily wear is an old sweatshirt and jeans.
I am not attractive.
I like to watch the same movies over and over again.

Flarf Poem

Not appropriate for all

Gathering of Eagles or venereal disease has creditability.

Meet the jerk that can cause effects on the reproductive system.

Treatment guidelines contain graphic images,

From the potential threat of a MySpace account.

Inflammatory audiences can be prevented.

Health problems attack terrorists.

Oscar-winning counterprotesters sent the symptoms of animals.

Pay-Per-View transmission,

As we have experienced,

is no longer a scam.

Requires this situation to stop.

I Googled "bomb threats" and "sexually transmitted diseases".

Flarf

I really like the idea of flarf. I believe that this is due to the fact that I am unable to fully understand deep and meaningful poetry, therefore, I do not enjoy it. It is like with anything else in the world, when people do not understand it, they tend to have hostile feelings towards it. That is how I am with poetry. The reason I like flarf is because it takes all of those things about poetry that is, in its own way, humorous when it is taken seriously and makes it into a complete joke. All of the poetic licenses are made into an exaggeration and produced in order to be laughed at.

The history of the origin of flarf is quite interesting to me as well. Gary Sullivan first submitted his “bad” poetry to Poetry.com to see if there was an actual filter in what was being presented or if anything could be posted up with an extremely large fee. The spam poetry was being spammed. And, of course, Sullivan’s bad poem was “published” even though it technically did not have merit. When it was sent to Sullivan, the people from Poetry.com made it seem like his poem was mulled over and reviewed very critically before it was chosen to be displayed in some sort of book. I think the idea of spamming these people with poetry that is “unfit” to be considered real and they in turn accept it as something that is wonderful instead of the joke that it is shows that the people at Poetry.com are simply out there to get your money.

I love this aspect of flarf. I am a very silly and goofy person and I love the fact that flarf is basically a huge joke that is being played on the poetry world. I suppose I enjoy this so much because I cannot take “real” poetry seriously because I do not have the intellectual capacity to find it meaningful that I find the joke on poetry hilarious.

Since this class is about writing tools and how they affect what is being written, it is important to talk about that aspect, as well. The internet has a lot of impact on flarf because search engines are used to produce the words that will be used in the poems. The interest of flarf has also grown due to the internet which causes people’s works to become more accessible to the public. So, obviously the computer is a main writing tool of flarf. I was about to comment that flarf would be impossible without modern writing technologies, but I am sure that this could be done by taking random phrases from letters and newspapers if it were 100 years ago. Flarf can be achieved through many means. Even though flarf has come about quite recently, it could have been achieved many years ago. The only thing needed for flarf are words from another source that an author can string together to make something goofy.

Visual Text

I actually decided to change my visual text to something a little more meaningful to me. Instead of the silly poem that I wrote with different fonts and colors, I did a visual text that is in remembrance of the shootings at Virginia Tech. One of my best friends from high school was killed on April 16, 2007 and it really meant a lot to me to do this visual text about that. With the anniversary quickly approaching, I wanted to make sure that people have not forgotten what happened nearly one year ago.




I love and miss you Mary.

Article Experiment

In the West Bank, I joined the crew of a sailboat partway through a circumnavigation of the globe. Palestinian militants in Gaza all are dangerous. Overnight, the Israeli Air Force struck the most widespread human fingerprint. Below me, drunkorexics fired rockets into Israel. Israeli forces dived over the side, swimming in sewage. Damage from carbonic acid and stone-throwing have become glamorous. A troubling phenomenon is suffering therapists vanishing. Science is the first official medical term. Psychologists say buzzwords around the world seemed forceful. Sexual abuse, neglect and other sources of mental anguish are often driven by forest burning.

Class Blog - Visual Type Experiment

I had a lot of trouble with this assignment. I have yet to complete it because I had a lot of trouble trying to get the words to go where I wanted them to go. It was also hard to figure out exactly what was wanted. In the articles it said that visual text cannot be concretely defined. I am a very literal person and it was hard to be creative. What I had in my mind for visual text was making only text visually pleasing. I didn't realize, until I read the articles, that visual text could also include pictures and designs that weren't solely letters. I just remember in elementary school when we were going over our poetry unit we had to do a shape poem. This poem was in the shape of the subject of the poem that was being written. I suppose that is what I was trying to do with mine, but it's a little harder to try and do it on a word processor. I guess colors and fonts can add a lot to the text and I tried using that to make the words pop. This was not an easy assignment simply because of trying to figure out formatting on the computer. However, I did like it because it's fun to see text out of the double-spaced, black and white lines.

Class Post - The Iron Whim

When WH states his argument that typewritten texts often turn out to be riddled with errors, but people don't seem to care because there is a nostalgic feeling when a typewriter is thought of, I completely agree. So many writers often like to use typewriters because they feel as if they are going back to a more "real" form of writing. This slightly makes me laugh because it seems that typewriters are such a hassle to deal with than computers or even handwritten script.

Another writing technology that I think brings back a feeling of nostalgia is a quill.

Class Blog Post - "Death of the Author"

What connections do you make between Barthes' "Death of the Author" and your thinking thus far about hypertextual writing?

In Barthes' "Death of the Author", I thought it was very interesting how once writing occurs, the author loses his voice and henceforth dies. Barthes' claims that in more primitive societies, the oral storyteller was revered for his art of speech, but now with writing, the author loses his face, and the story is simply text on a page.

This can relate to hypertextual writing because this hypertext and idea of internet links can bring the reader to something new that he has never witnessed before. The reader knows not of the author of the page that a link might bring him to because this link was made at the discretion of the author of the first text the reader was glancing at. I believe that hypertext can bury the dead author even further into the ground due to the randomness of links.

Also, when I was thinking about this topic for this blog response, I thought of trying to cite websites for research. I always have the hardest time finding the author of a page. This problem makes me have a funny feeling in the back of my mind. Was there actually an author at all? Well, of course there was, but it seems as if the author is nonexistent.

There is just an odd thing about hypertext. It is so easy to create and have it accessible to people around the world, but nobody really pays attention to who the person is behind the site.

Class Blog - Linking Experiment

This morning, I had a lot of trouble waking up. I pressed the snooze button about 50 times on my alarm. Even though I had a horrible time getting up, I was glad I did because I had a quiz in Ecology. After my 9 am class, I got some breakfast at the JC. Once I got my coffee, I went back to my dorm room in Blue Ridge. I sat down at my desk and typed up my blog. Once I finished that, I packed up all my books in my backpack and headed off to the Lecture Hall. This is where I have Microbiology. Just like in Ecology, I had trouble staying awake. After that class, I picked up my exam. Then, I came to this class where I am sitting writing this blog.

For this experiment, I tried to use words at the end of sentences that could be visually expressed, or had a specific site that I could link it to. I enjoyed using my classes as the last words so I could link them to the class sites.

Link Test

Link

Response to Links, 20 Min, Electronic Millennium, and New Dialogue

“Links”

In “Links”, I was pleased to read about slang and how these terms squeeze into our vernacular. It was funny because at dinner last night, I was eating and talking with Liz’s dad about Ebonics. The term is understood as its own dialect and people know exactly how this dialect sounds and the slang used in Ebonics. It even shows up as a properly spelled word on Microsoft Word.

Even though slang was created because it seems easier to say or it makes more literal sense, slang can be quite confusing, as we have learned from this excerpt. It seems to be that some slang words can be used in different ways, meaning very different things. The word “surfing” was used as one of these examples, but I believe that “surfing” simply means “browsing” whether it be surfing the web or surfing channels. The media that one may be “surfing” is quite different, but the meaning remains the same. I am trying to think of a better example to come up with, but all that comes to mind at the moment is “shorty”. I believe that it could be spelled differently when this word is used to describe a cute girl, but I am not quite sure of the proper spelling.

Back to talking about links…. These links alter our organizational practices. No longer are we simply categorizing books or articles in a very flat manner, things are now in this web that can be accessed from many different routes. I suppose that is how one’s slang can travel to another group of people who are able to use the same word to convey a completely different meaning, or use a completely different word to describe the same idea.

“Twenty Minutes into the Future, or How Are We Moving Beyond the Book?”

In this excerpt, the reader learns about how society is moving beyond the age of books and how society might already be there in some aspects. I believe that there are numerous ways that we have passed this book age and we have moved on to that of the digital one. I might be mistaken with this, but I believe that there is such a thing as a “Smart Class” where everything is done electronically. Does this mean textbooks are on a laptop? I know that each student must have one in order to properly learn from the class. I also know that barely anybody goes to the library anymore to do research, unless the professor tells the class that they need so many BOOK sources for their research paper. I also know that when I start my research paper for Ecology, I will not be going to the library, but simply searching scientific journal articles from my desk in my room.

However, we have not completely left the age of book behind. This is obvious due to the fact that we still have circulating libraries full of books, students still have to purchase textbooks for their classes, and some people simply cannot read off of a computer screen.

“Into the Electronic Millennium”

I thought this piece was quite interesting. I believe we have talked about the notion that kids today cannot read or grammatically write as well due to the fact that there are so many resources that can do that work for them. The youth of today is not used to writing letters to communicate. Now we have an electronic instant messaging system with its own rules of spelling and grammar. Also, nobody of this generation is used to writing out papers by hand and having to revise it themselves because now there are such things as spelling and grammar check. Also, I believe that our vocabulary has gone down because of electronic dictionaries and thesauruses. These resources are at our fingertips, so what is the point of memorizing anything? It only takes a second to look it up again.

“The New Dialogue”

I thought this piece had some interesting points about reading words versus listening to them. In the piece, it said that a listener can just let the words come to them without much of an effort, but readers have to do a little bit more work and have to make the words move for them. It made me think about study habits and how reading something yourself makes it easier for the information to sink in better than listening to it. However, reading the information after listening to it first reminds the reader of what he/she heard before. Because reading takes more effort, I suppose that is the reason why one remembers it better. Just like if you write something down (not typing!!!!), you will remember it better than reading it. In writing, not only do you have to think of the information or read it from somewhere, you have to make the physical effort to put a pen to paper.

Response to Writing Machines

When I first saw my Writing Machines book, I was slightly upset. I knew I had gotten the book used, but I did not appreciate that somebody had written all over the sides of the paper. Then, I noticed that it was not somebody trying to mark up a book with a Sharpie, but it was actually printed on the book! I knew from there that this would be a very different book than I was used to reading.

I opened the book to begin reading and I saw that the font was getting larger throughout the page and then decreasing in size. It was as if an invisible magnifying glass was on the page highlighting the important parts the author wanted to emphasize. This sort of use of materials and presentation of the text ties right in with the author’s discussion of how images strengthen the written word. I know that the increase in font size is not really an image, it does strengthen the words and the points the author is trying to make because it attracts the reader’s eyes. In regards to images strengthening the written word, it reminded me of the old phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Another point in the reading that I found interesting was about literary critics. In the book it stated something about how literary critics think that verbal expression is more real than printed text. This is surprising to me because in earlier classes we discussed that written word is considered more permanent and professional than verbal expression. However, I believe that verbal communication has more of an impromptu air about it, so I guess there is no time to review what one is saying allowing it to be more “real”.

Something that I was confused about when I read it was about how some printed text or written word can bring the machinery that created it. Does this mean that if you read a newspaper, one can picture the huge printing apparatus that spits out thousands of newspapers? I suppose that when reading something like a newspaper, one can picture that the reading material is mass produced as opposed to a personal letter that only one person might read. This can put into view the purpose of the text that one is reading.

Another point mentioned by the author that I found interesting was about “hypertext”. It was said in the book that hypertext is printed text, or virtual text, that can be accessed through many different pathways. Links on the internet, Google searches, a website with the text are all different ways that one piece of text can be accessed. This made me think how easily people can access text. My mind immediately went to accessing newspaper articles from around the world from websites from the comfort of your home computer. The New York Times are no longer just for the people of New York. Hypertext allows the easy transfer of information that can span thousands of miles.

In the section about House of Leaves, I was surprised to find that it was advertised as a typical “haunted house story” so people would buy the book, even though there was much more to the book. It reminded me of movie trailers that you watch and then when you finally see the movie, it is completely different than the tone of the trailer. I suppose even books sometimes have to be sold short in order to get the public to recognize it.

Layout - John Ashbery Poem

I chose the poem "Some Trees" by John Ashbery. When I was deciding what to do with the poem, we were discussing as a class why poems are formatted the way that they are. For example, why the lines are broken up and what effect does this have. This influenced my spacing of the poem. At first, I had each stanza kept the same way, but chaotically arranged on the paper. I also wanted to accent certain words of the poem; words that I thought were important or words that I thought could be personified by the use of different fonts. Many of these words were verbs and adjectives. I went through changing the fonts of these words that I wanted to bring special attention to. Then, I started reading over the poem to try and find the full meaning of it. I found it somewhat difficult to read because of the awkward (it seemed awkward to me) divides in the lines. I decided that I would try and separate the lines by punctuation. Whenever there was a punctuation, I started a new line. The margins of these lines varied, as well. I tried to be artistic with it. I found that even though I broke up the lines much more than Ashbery did, it was easier to read for me and flowed better in my mind. In the readings, I read that the way a piece is formatted can really change the way it is read. I was tired of seeing the typical poetry layout so I created a different one to suit the way I needed to read poetry in order to understand it.

Response to Thinking With Type

In Thinking With Type, there was a quote that stated, “Text can be solid, liquid, body or blood.” Why blood? I understand the solid, liquid, and body. The “blood” part, however, took a little longer to understand. For some reason, I paired the solid and body form of text together. I do believe that they are different. In the reading, it said that text in body form is so much more that just text. It includes pictures, page numbers, headers, footers, etc. Instead of looking just at the text, the reader must look at all the details that surround the text. This is the entire body of text.

When looking at text in the solid form, I see the typical page in a book that has all the same margins and spacing. Text in solid form is very uniform. I believe it is looked at as a solid because when in a uniform format with margins and the same spacing, it looks like a solid being. The text becomes somewhat of a block of letters.

Text in liquid form is more abstract. The spacing is customized and the margins perhaps have a wave to it. By utilizing these formatting abilities, the text can actually gain phenotypic properties of liquid. Perhaps text in liquid form does not even fill up a full page. Maybe it just trickles down the page in a small wavy line. I like the liquid form of text because it allows a little bit more freedom than solid and body. I know that one could be abstract with solid or body forms, but I think that it would be a little bit harder. Maybe in order to be artistic with text in solid and body forms, the artist will create something like the picture on page 62. It is an actually body formed by words that are overlapping creating an actual solid body form.

Now on to blood… What does this mean? I interpreted it as something that is truly a part of you. This is a creation that came from the artist’s deepest darkest places of creative ability that when it is placed on paper, it is like a part of you is taken from your body and set free.

I thought that the point of typography is to “help readers avoid reading” was quite humorous. The point is true. When looking at my textbooks and books for school, the bolded words and italicized words are always what I jump to first. It helps outline the entire subject that the reader is trying to learn without having to spend time going through all of the fluff.

Another interesting tidbit that I came across was the Kerning effect. It was interesting to me that when the typed text tries to be too uniform, the spacing between some letters actually cause spacing that looks awkward and takes away from the uniform effect that it is trying to achieve. Even with the Kerning scaling applied, to me some of the letters still did not seem in line. Maybe by modernizing text, we are still unable to make it look completely proper.

Class Blog

How does writing create distance?

In my opinion, writing creates distance simply because writing is a form of communication that can be done over a long distance. Even though talking on the phone can be done at great distances, when talking on the phone you are able to hear the voice and feel as if they are right next to you. Writing, as in writing letters, takes a day or two to be received. This causes a lapse in the communication process and definitely distances the people. There isn't the instant gratification in writing as there is in speech. Writing takes a thought that is then processed and actually written out on some object and then it is read by another. This causes the reader to have to read everything before a reaction can be followed through with. When I am writing emails to people, it seems so hard to try and fit everything into a flowing manner when so many questions are asked. It would be so much easier to just answer them one at a time in person.

Second Response to Orality and Literacy

When first reading the selection for today, I was a little confused by the points that were being laid out in front of me. For example, “Print suggests that words are things far more than writing ever did.” I still am not entirely sure on how to interpret that quote. I look at writing and print similar things. Print is just a little more technologically advanced than the actual form of manually writing.

I guess the best way for me to interpret this quote from Ong is to assume some things. He talks about how the printing press has each individual letter before a word is formed on a page. Whereas, in writing, letters are simply figments of our imagination before the ink touches the page to begin to form them. The printing press made letters and words tangible objects before they even made a mark on the paper. I suppose this is the beginning of the transition between oral culture and sight culture/written culture. Actually, Ong would probably disagree that sight and written culture go together. It should probably be printed culture. This is Ong’s whole point that writing did not lead to a sight oriented culture, but printing did.

I thought it was amazing how accountants used to listen to numbers and figures and be able to do taxes based on that. I cannot imagine being able to just hear numbers and be able to figure out whatever it is they figure out. I know that I am a visual person, so I would never be able to do that. I cannot even spell words orally, I have to write them down to make sure it looks right.

That brings me to another topic that comes to mind when I read over this. Since people were very orally drawn, does that mean that “visual people” did not exist before print became such a common practice? Did these “visual people” have to sit and deal with hearing things orally without the use of print? Maybe they were considered the learning disabled because they could not function without something visually stimulating. I know there was not such a thing as a “learning disability” long, long ago, but perhaps these people were considered dumb and were not able to truly show their intelligence because the world they were living in did not function in a way that they were best able to. Now that I think about it more, people were probably just used to functioning orally and writing things down for record purposes only that it did not even cross their mind to do such things differently.

I suppose writing and printing has really changed a lot of things that are so transparent to us. For example, the idea of the a-typical plot did not even exist in oral culture. Ong states that the plot diagram that we have been taught since elementary school was obsolete in oral culture. He says that the plot was more like a knot being tied and then untying that knot. In stories that were expressed orally, people would tell of the problem that occurred in the story and then later explain how that problem came to be, rather than laying out all of the details as the plot progresses. This supposedly helped with being able to memorize the stories or poems being retold. I guess it is easier to remember the main points and fill in the details later.

Class Response

Respond to Ong's assertion that "all verbal expression is bound to sound forever."

I would agree with this assertion only because speech is natural. No matter how primitive it is, some form of speech has always been present. It does not matter if this speech is formal or not, it is simply the fact that there will always be verbal expression to hear. Unless the human population evolves into a vocal chord-less species, than speech will forever be present.

However, I believe that perhaps the importance of verbal expression might change over the course of time. For example in the chapter about how Homer was able to memorize the Odyssey and the Iliad in order to tell his stories, I think that the reasons for oral communication will change. This does not mean that oral communication will cease to exist. I just cannot believe that there would ever be a time in which there would be no verbal expression.

Like I said before, verbal expression is instinct. When something scares you, you may scream or make some sort of noise out of habit. This noise is actually warning others that there is something dangerous near. Nobody would be frightened by something and rush to a pen and paper to write down, "AHHHHHH!!!"

But I suppose there is always room for change.

Response to Orality and Literacy

In the beginning of the first chapter, the idea of language is very different from other readings we have had. In the reading, it talks about how language is not made up of letters and symbols, but of sounds and pronunciation. This seems to be so different from reading about writing technologies because now I am seeing the counterpart to writing.

Another interesting tidbit in the reading today was this quote on page 7.

“The basic orality of a language is permanent.”

In classes before, we were discussing the lasting power of handwritten or printed text. They say that some spoken languages today are not even written because they have not found a way to put the language on a tangible object. How can this be? I guess I never realized that there were still languages out there that did not have a written counterpart. I know now Latin is taught in schools without oral testing, but that is only because barely anybody speaks Latin in normal society. How can a society function in today’s world without a written language?

Another point about the quote above is that it was mentioned that the orality of a language does not mean the new age “computer” language. Well what does it mean? I suppose that it is true that the basic orality does not change, but I believe that the common vernacular is ever changing. The only time the true form of language comes out is in writing. However, basically the oral form of the language remains the same. Most of the basic words are still used, with the same meaning. Geographically pronunciations can differ and words can be used very differently, but people are still able to communicate orally, so I guess that is the main point.

In the second chapter, there was a section called “The Homeric Question.” Robert Wood is cited as claiming that he thinks that Homer was in fact illiterate. He was able to tell the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey by memory. Wood says something about how memory played a very different role in orality then than it does in today’s world. Wood is not sure how Homer was able to memorize these epic novels, but he claims that he did so without having it written down.

I just keep thinking that people must have had a great memory thousands of years ago. How can some people remember these long stories without missing a heartbeat? I would be stumbling over the words, trying to remember exactly what was said. Then again, these stories change over generations and generations. It is just amazing to me that people can memorize these things. I have to write down simple three to five word reminders on post-its just so I remember them.

In the fourth chapter, when I came across the title of it, I simply read over it without truly comprehending it, but then I read over it again and realized how powerful it was without having read the chapter yet.

“Writing Restructures Conciousness”

This is similar to what I have talked about in a past blog about how we are able to get our true feelings out without leaving bits and parts of the point out. I truly believe that even in personal writing people have to think whether or not they want to actually write down what they are thinking.

Response to Reading

It is quite apparent that over the many years of human communication, there has been a great shift from oral to written forms of it. As we have learned in our history classes, oral culture has been passed down from generation to generation. However traditional this may be, things become altered during the transition process. In writing, things are much more permanent and can be easily documented for many generations to come without being altered in any way.

I found it very interesting that Elbow thought speech was more automatic than writing was. He claimed that writing took more of an "effort." For me I believe that to be very true, but for others I am not so sure. I am positive that there are people that cannot express their thoughts and feelings orally, but express them quite eloquently in writing.

When I am writing in a journal of some kind, even though a journal is a place to keep your deepest, darkest secrets, I don't write everything that I'm feeling. Even in my journal, I need to make sure that I am not being too cruel to others, etc. Whereas in speech, I can say many things that I feel at the time even if they are hurtful. I think that writing is much more inhibited than speech just because it takes a longer thought process to form words on a page than orally.

An interesting point was also made about how spoken word cannot be erased. There is no white-out for verbal communication. However, unless there are many witnesses, it is hard to truly believe the "he said, she said."

Class Post for Discussion

What superstitions or strong beliefs do you have about writing and writing technologies?

This brings me back to my earlier post when I stated that I believe that perhaps the art of writing will be extinct in years to come. I believe it is so important to try and continue writing even in the midst of this technological age. Writing individualizes us. It's an art that cannot be duplicated. Well, it can, but that's due to forgery.

I've heard in reports that we can tell what kind of person we are by the way each individual letter is formed in our writing. If we were to lose that, it would be very unfortunate.

New writing technologies such as keyboards and texting on cell phones are very helpful, but I would not want to see them completely take over. It would be so odd to never see a spiral notebook or an ink pen in the stores anymore.

I understand that children of this day-in-age need to know from a very early age how to operate a computer in order to do schoolwork, but can you imagine not having those silly writing projects from elementary school with the juvenile handwriting? This is a part of childhood and fond memories that would likely be lost in the new age of digital text. It would be very difficult to see the individual in a digitalized form.

I guess my biggest problem with losing the art of handwriting is the fear of losing the self behind the pen.

Response to "From Pencils to Pixels"

After reading Dennis Baron’s “From Pencils to Pixels”, I was made quite aware of how much I take technology for granted. We may think, “How was it possible for people to live without this and that?” I believe the better question for us to think about is, “Do we really need our computers and cell phones to ‘survive’?” The obvious answer should be, “No.” but rarely do we think that way. We think of how much of a hassle it would be without these objects of communication rather than truly appreciating the ease of the tasks done with our new technology.

When Baron was explaining how handwriting a short memo was “constricting” and “overwhelming”, I could easily relate to that. I am pretty confident that most of my generation has never written a full paper by hand. If so, I believe them to be out of the norm. When will handwriting become a lost technology, like that of the vinyl records and beta tapes, even VHS tapes? I don’t think that I will ever see the day when handwriting becomes obsolete, but I am confident that pencils and pens will become a rarity in years to come. Perhaps these “old technologies” such as pens and pencils will only be used to formally sign paperwork, but nothing else.

I thought that it was very perceptive of Baron to say that we adapt our lives to the technology that surrounds us. This is entirely true. Think of the vernacular that has been created from technology.

“I’ll Google it.”

“We’re Facebook friends.” Meaning that you are not really his/her friend, merely an acquaintance.

It is quite obvious that technology affects our vocabulary and the way we think. The whole point of technology, at least what I have come to learn about it, is to make the user’s life easier. Some people believe that technology has made people lazy, which is probably true.

How many people handwrite letters anymore? Not many. Why waste time writing a letter, finding an envelope for it, and then going out to purchase a stamp, when you can get the same task done by quickly typing up what you want to say and clicking send?

It also amazes me how impersonal communication has become. I can’t imagine a day-in-age when people thought that talking on the telephone was not at all personal. To me, that is second-best to talking to a person face-to-face. By easing the forms of writing, does it in turn remove personality from the communication?

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