Blogging Reflection/Link to my Media Project

First and foremost I'll just go ahead and put a link to my Bigfoot website, which is my Media Project for Writing for the Web

Now for the Reflection

What has Blogging Taught me about Digital Writing?
Blogging has taught me a lot about Digital Writing. Digital Writing is much different than standard writing for a novel or something of that nature. I've learned that to be able to be a "Digital Writer" one must be able to absorb all of the news around them and spit it out with their viewpoints/the parts they think are most important.

Blogging and Digital Writing both coincide by just making you able to speak your mind clearly and seem somewhat sophisticated doing so.


What have I Learned about Myself as a Writer?
Throughout this whole semester I've started noticing that my writing has clearly gotten more thought out as opposed to me just writing every letter that my fingertips hit on my laptops keyboard. I've come to the conclusion that the strongest point of my writing is my weird witty way of descriptions. I think I've really honed in on that this semester and it is something I can attribute to this class.


What have I Learned about Blogging?
First off I learned that just about everyone in the world blogs. It is ridiculous, yet so fascinating. I'm really glad this class forced me to create a blog and express simple thoughts I had going on that day. It really opened a more creative side to myself, which is awesome because I'm already extremely creative.


How Could the Blogging Experience be Improved?

The most simple way the Blogging Experience could be improved is by just noticing things around you in the world more, whether they be beautiful, lonely things, comedic things etc. Not everyone in the world sees things exactly the same way as another person, so that's why blogging should be expressed all the time. People would then start to open up their eyes to different thoughts, ideas, and theories.

Final Blog Post...but not really

The following are the 10 blogs I have chosen for being assessed for my course blog grade:

1. Examining Blogs, Posted February 2, 2009. I chose this post because it was one of the first few blogs I posted where I started understanding exactly what different blogs were.

2. Commercials, Posted February 18, 2009. I chose this post because I was noticing how terrible commercials were becoming (i.e. the terrible "Esurance" ones). And I was very happy with Jack in the Box's technique.

3. Music Time, Posted April 20, 2009. I thought this post was very insightful on how amazing this band actually was, as well as it being very descriptive on how they sound.

4. The ubiquitous internet featuring the beloved Google, Posted April 5, 2009. I chose this post because it was a very interesting topic we had to write about and I thought it was amazing how Google will always be there for us for minute information.

5. Musical Interest, Posted March 1, 2009. I chose this post because I gave a fairly in depth description of the band MuteMath and explained how they came to be.

6. Citizen Journalists, Posted February 23, 2009. I chose this blog because it just so happened we were talking about "citizen journalists" as the Oscars were going on and I found quite a bit of information on ordinary people being journalists during the Oscars.

7. Arizona Weather, Posted February 9, 2009. I chose this post simply because I love the Arizona weather and how it can change so quickly.

8. Ethan Zuckerman:History of the Internet, Posted February 4, 2009. I chose this post because Ethan Zuckerman explaining what the internet started out as and what it is now is just so fascinating.

9. Twitter is taking over the world, Posted April 13, 2009. I chose this post simply because the hype of Twitter was growing exponentially by every second.

10. Social Networking Websites, Posted April 20, 2009. I chose this post because I explained some of the reasons I use these websites and how it's unnecessary most of the time, but I was able to pepper in a bit of humor.

Thank you very much for reading.

It's been real.

Music Time

Last night I was crowded by around 35 other people in a small venue in Phoenix by the name of The Modified to see a band called Cage the Elephant. If you have yet to hear about this band then soon enough you won't be able to stop hearing them. Currently Cage the Elephant is getting a fair amount of airplay on the radio which has been turning people on to their raw rock and roll.

If it were possible for Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jack White to have some sort of freak love triangle without being "careful" then 9 months later Cage the Elephant would be a favored beautiful accident by everyone.
Cage the Elephant's self titled album is fantastic through and through. I recently heard about these guys no more than 2 months ago and within that time period I have not been able to stop listening to them and I tell anyone I know or meet about this band if I think they might just like them a little bit.

As I was walking into their very personal show last night I had a strong feeling these guys would be able to put on a great live show just because they seem like the type of band that'll just do whatever they want (the good kind of do whatever they want, not act like they're too good for everyone). I was 100% right about that. They were unbelievable and the whole band was so tight with each other, there were very slim to no missed notes or anything by the band and the lead singer sounded like a more refined Jack White with the lyrics of a small underground band of the 70's. They just did what they did best by playing good old fashioned rock & roll.

Social Networking Websites

As of now I have talked about Social Networking sites a few different occasions on my blog, but why is that?
Is my subconscious being controlled by Social Networking?
That's the way it seems the more I think about it.
I check my Social Networking sites all the time throughout the day, and when I say all the time I mean it. Whenever I'm just sitting at home watching television and I look on the coffee table in front of me and see my black little MacBook sitting there it's almost like it's calling for me and telling me that there is something very important on my news feed wall on Facebook. Even when I'm at work and I know for a fact there is an important video needed within the next couple of days, but I still make time to check my sites.
I check my Facebook and Myspace more times than I check any of my emails. It almost makes me sick thinking about. But I don't know what I would do if I didn't have any sort of Social Networking website to check (well actually I would probably do more productive things, but thinking about that just makes me tired).

I guess my thoughts on Social Networking websites is so "we can all stay in contact with old friends". Let's be honest your old friends don't really want to see how you rated your top 5 favorite 80's pop songs. To be more realistic, it just helps you kill some time/boredom.

That's some of my thoughts for right now, I'm going to go check my Facebook and update my Twitter while I'm posting a blog on my Myspace right now.

Twitter is taking over the world

So the other day I was asked by my brother and his wife if I had a Twitter and I quickly replied with a disgusted "no". I started telling them how twitter was taking over the world. I mean honestly, how many more social networking sites do we need?! It's been getting a bit ridiculous lately, I currently have a facebook and a myspace like most of you out there.

I always find myself checking both of those websites constantly and I don't know why, it's just another way to be a Pro at Crastinating (sorry for the lame joke).

With twitter you can even have updates directly to your phone and you don't even have to have a smart phone. Those twitter people knew exactly what people wanted and made it so they could change their updates on the go.

Either way, well done on ruling the world twitter and other social networking sites.

I now have a twitter as of last night. Thank you twitter.

Multimedia design project

I'm thinking for my multimedia design project will be different but simplistic. I will make it easy to load by not having a thousand different colors on the page or just having everything scattered on my website, much like this one. Also I will not have a website like this one.

I just really wanted to put that last website in because I thought it was funny.

But back to my multimedia design project, I plan on making it very simple because as we all know people aren't okay with waiting more than 10 seconds for a website to load. It's funny how impatient we can be as consumers. Which reminds me of a comedian by the name of Louis CK, he is a very comical individual who has the best rant ever on technology being amazing but nobody being happy.

Enjoy.

Spring time sickness

I share a house with 4 other male roommates, which is pretty fun, but the one bad thing about it is whenever one person gets sick, we all get sick.
This time it wasn't just a runny nose, this one made us all feel like we were dying.
It has been awful. Just about anyone that has come in contact with us this past week now has the sickness too, including family members and girlfriends.
As much as I hate feeling so sick and miserable, I still don't think I would ever want to pass on this part of my life. It's just full of so much learning experiences.
Like not sharing drinks or utensils as much.

The ubiquitous internet featuring the beloved Google

After reading "How Google is making us Smarter" by Carl Zimmer and "Is Google making us Stupid" by Nicholas Carr I have come up with my own opinions on whether or not Google is helping or hindering our brains.

I don't actually think Google is making is stupid, if anything it is helping our minds expand with endless information. Without Google we would all be confined to going to the local library to obtain our information, which that's not a bad thing at all, but the library isn't open 24/7 like Google is.

If you need a recipe for the Best Banana Bread Ever then that's all you have to type into your Google search bar and just like that you can have that recipe no matter what time of the day it is.

Or if you get into a debate with a couple of friends at a party and you just so happen to have a smart phone with the internet you can very easily settle the debate by going to Google.

So is Google really making us stupid? Definitely not, you are able to obtain so much information just by the touch of your fingertips.

Google is actually our savior for answering questions via the online world.

Thank you Google.

The Web Among Us

It's amazing how much our society relies on the internet. Without it people couldn't really work from home or work with other companies hundreds of miles away by using FTP or even Video Conferencing. Not only are people able to work from a computer at their homes, but they can also carry a laptop and get internet almost in any heavily populated area. People can even buy a wireless card from their cell phone company to plug into their computers so they can get internet anywhere their phone has service. And on the topic of phones, we can even use them to send emails to business partners or even turn in a file for school.

Really try and think hard about what we all used to do 10 years ago before the internet was the mega powerhouse it is today.

I'm trying my hardest to think about it, but I just can't seem to think how people were able to survive, because now it just seems like if there is no wireless internet or their cellphone isn't getting service then they might just die because they can't see what their friends are doing on twitter, myspace, or facebook.

I'm kind of excited, yet nervous to see how we keep up with the changing internet in the next 5 years.

Musical interest

This post is dedicated for a little band called MuteMath and their much anticipated album coming out later on this spring. They are a band from New Orleans, but originally started as a small Christian band called Earthsuit in the early 2000's.

While the band was Earthsuit they had a large influence with reggae and jazz music. But like any other small band that wasn't going anywhere, they broke up and a few of the guys started MuteMath.

Once MuteMath got signed to a major record label, they soon realized the label was screwing them over quite a bit, which in turn made these muically genius graduates from The Julliard School do was to sue their record label. This was probably the best thing to happen to this band because it caught the attention of a lot of media and other bands. In the end this band won the settlement against their record label.

MuteMath is definitely one of the best live shows I have ever seen in my life. The lead singer, Paul Meany plays a large array of instruments on stage, including custom made keytars (which are extremely expensive) and he usually ends up breaking one of them by accident in the middle of the show. Another strange thing this band ends up doing is running all over the stage switching instruments and figuring out new ways to play the instruments/whatever is on the stage around them.

I highly recommend checking these guys out on their youtube video blog page.

In the meantime just check out how amazing/pseudo nerdy the drummer Darren is with the drums and hooking up triggers to the lights in the room to his drumkit.

Citizen Journalists

I have been rummaging around the internet all day today looking for "citizen journalists" blogs. Seeing as how the Oscars were on last night I have found endless blogs about what went on during the Oscars. One blog I found was very appealing to me, mainly because it is full of sarcasm and wit.

Citizen journalists is actually kind of a good idea due to the fact that the world is constantly changing and there is always news being made everyday and changing right before our own eyes. Everyone sees things differently thus meaning everyone has different thoughts going on through their head while they watch a historic event happen.

Katherine mentioned a blog about someone who witnessed flight 1549 from their office window. It's kind of ridiculous if you really think about how fast something can happen and moments later that person can instantly blog about it using their smart phone or laptop. Many people end up blogging about the same thing, but end up experiencing the event in totally different ways. 

The beauty with being a blogger is the fact that everybody can do it and become a citizen journalist and write about what goes on around them.

Commercials

As I sit in my living room finishing up on some homework a commercial for Jack in the Box came on television and it got me thinking of how brilliant their commercials have been since the Super Bowl. In case you haven't seen the commercial aired during the Super Bowl, check it out. 

I started thinking about their new tactics for advertising and I couldn't help but laugh. It's really extremely genius.  They always have Jack in all of the Jack in the Box commercials, so in hindsight he has become an icon that we all know and maybe even some of us love. I mean if you think about it just about every car around Tempe has a Jack head on their antennas of their cars. So why not make people feel worried about their favorite late night mascot?

They continued to have 2 more commercials and created a website for this whole fiasco. The greatest thing I've noticed about older Jack in the Box commercials that aired after the Super Bowl commercial had small text towards the bottom of the screen that said (shot before Jack's accident).

Jack in the Box wanted to go all out for this one, and you know what...they did. Well done Jack in the Box team, you guys have successfully dominated the advertising industry as of right now.

By the way I think Jack in the Box has always had great commercials, especially this one.

What kind of blogger am I?

After reading what Winer and Blood said about blogging I realized I am a blogger who searches for information. The way I find out about what's going on in the world is usually by searching Digg. Digg is a fascinating website that is linked to many different websites like CNN with random news stories. Digg has stories ranging from the best video games of all time all the way to the infamous picture of super human Michael Phelps smoking weed from a bong.

I think in the long run what I hope to become as a blogger is to stay in touch with family members and friends through telling them about my week or the latest funny video on youtube about being on a boat.

The internet is a wonderful tool that has endless information of what is going on around the world. I just hope I will always be able to stay informed of what's going on in the world.

Arizona Weather.

I have been living in Arizona since 1999, and the weather never ceases to amaze me.

One day in January I can wear a tank top all day and be extremely comfortable, and then the next day it can suddenly be fierce thunderstorms much like it was the past couple of days.

The weather always affects my mood, the good news is that I'm generally always happy to experience the weather. So no matter how much it rains or how windy it is outside I will just be very happy to be able to experience it all. The only weather that kind of upsets me is when it's 115+ degrees outside in the summer.

How could anyone hate this kind of weather?

This is beautiful.

Ethan Zuckerman: History of the Internet

I have seen the video of Ethan Zuckerman many different times and I absolutely love it even though it is quite nerdy. I find this video extremely interesting just to see how the internet used to look (the bottom picture with just text)....and what it can look like now (the top picture) with all the different search engines and internet browsers and how you can even use them all at the same time.

It's also extremely awesome how there was pretty much just a handful of people using the internet when it was created. Now just about everyone uses the internet. It's so fascinating to see how the internet can change so rapidly with my own two eyes.

Examining Blogs

After checking out some of the blogs Katherine had for examples I noticed something...I look at blogs more than I thought. Granted they aren't blogs with a lot of substantial information, but they are blogs nonetheless. 

I frequent the blog Katherine posted called ICanHasCheezburger just because I find pictures of animals in weird situations quite comical. Another blog I go to quite often is failblog.org. Failblog contains tons of hysterical pictures of things that go horribly wrong (resulting to failure).

After reading over Meredith Badger's assertion in Visualblogs I wondered if there were more Visualblogs than regular text blogs. Because let's face it, the generation we live in now is always moving. Not everyone wants to spend their time reading someones thoughts on politics or the latest movie review, but if it's a picture of a pickup truck with flames painted on it that is ironically on fire then the person will take time to look at it, laugh at it, and possibly even "forward it like it's hot".

I made an assumption today about Visualblogs as I was on my way home from work. I was driving from Chandler to Tempe and on the loop of the 101 from the new San Tan Freeway I noticed a car that was pulled off the road as if it broke down. Standing next to the car was what appeared to be a Mother, a daughter, and an infant in his car seat. That all seemed normal to me, this is where it got strange. The mother was holding a camera and taking pictures of not the car, but the girl as traffic passed a mere 6 feet away at 65 miles per hour. All I could think after that was, why are you taking pictures of this young girl next to the broken down car while you could be calling a tow truck or someone for help.

After I thought that I quickly assumed that maybe this was an epic event for these people so they wanted to document it and put it in their blogs for all of their friends to see.

I normally don't make such broad assumptions like that, but the visualblogging idea was fresh in my mind and instantly it jumped to that idea. I actually began laughing quite a bit after the thought when through my mind.

Mundane Day

It's weird how a very mundane day like today can get so interesting.

So way too early today I got woken up several hours before my alarm went off because one of my roommates forgot how my room shares a wall with the laundry room. As I lay in bed I thought I was going to have a terrible rest of the day. That did not happen.

I am still not sure why I had such a great day today, but I am extremely glad it happened.

It was interesting. I worked all day today and any other regular day I would have been so upset.

I really hope more days like today happen more often.

Actually no, they will happen more often...I'm sure of it.

Blogger

This whole blogging thing seemed a little sketchy at first, but now that I've been experimenting with the website and looking around it for the past week or so I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.
It's really interesting how we can all just speak freely on the internet and virtually get away with it.
I mean really think about it. We all can be whoever we want on the internet. But the truth of the matter is I will be the same online as I am in real life.

I am a very simple person. I work for a "mega-church" in Chandler, Arizona as a video guy (I don't really know my real title). I enjoy working with video production. I've been working in this field for about 7 years now. I've worked on numerous commercials and music videos ranging from Nelly, The Killers, wii commercials, etc.
I enjoy my job field and can't wait to work more in it after college.

That's enough for now, I will definitely write more later.

Cyberspace Mayhem/Independence

Barlow and Whalen's articles were very interesting.

Barlow was predominantly talking about how the Internet is the only thing the government can't really control. Barlow also stated how Cyberspace is a great way to utilize the freedom of speech we were all meant to have.

Whalen's article on "jamming" the media seemed very appealing. Whalen talked about a man named Joe Matheny and what he was doing to get advertiser to stop shoving ads/billboards/any other media type publicity down his throat. What Matheny would do along side many other people was change billboards to say something more clever. Granted a lot of the companies who had their billboard vandalized received more sales coming in because it made the public remember that item being advertised.

The internet seems way different now compared to the mid to late 90's. But at the same time the internet hasn't changed much. For example, when Barlow wrote "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" he was just writing freely. He was speaking his mind and recommending everyone to speak freely on the internet just because it is out of the governments jurisdiction.

Nowadays everyone is constantly expressing themselves freely on the web. I'm even doing it right now with this blog. The internet is a wonderful tool for people to talk to each other about theories, ideas, and thoughts.

Whalen and Barlow knew exactly what capabilities the internet had for freedom of speech.