To blog or not to blog....?

To blog, of course! This semester has opened up a whole new world for me, and I'm enjoying it. Next Child was a great learning experience. I enjoyed the research, and writing the posts, but my true moment of triumph was when I was actually able to play with the CSS and modify my posts! Granted, I was following steps that a two-year-old could understand, but I was really delighted.

Over the semester, and especially with the work on Next Child, I feel that I have become comfortable in an area that I never would have been without this class. I can talk intelligibly about web 2.0 and blogging, and the word "rhetoric" has been popping up in my conversations at an alarming rate.

I never would have thought that a creative non-fiction class could look like ours did, but I am very glad it did. Thank you all for a great semester, and everyone for your help. Not only could I not have learned this without Donna, but I couldn't have learned it without the crowd wisdom of my classmates!

Expandable Post Summaries!

Ok, I'm sorry to Jake because he did mention this site as a bad blog, which, visually, it is. However, it's also really helpful if you can get past its garish design. Here's the exact link for the expandable post directions. They'll be on the pink side on the left. Follow the instructions CAREFULLY, and it should work out! The only downside is that I'm having to copy & re-post all my old posts to apply this to them, because it won't happen automatically. Not a big deal, though, because after doing this, you can just post-date them to the right days and they'll re-order themselves accordingly. Good luck!

Next Child progress

Thanks to everyone's input in class, I've made a few improvements to "Next Child," so if you have a second, please check it out and let me know what you think! (Especially about the new header) Also, I've e-mailed Donna about this, but if anyone else can help, I'm trying to find out how to shorten the post clips that my blog showed, like we talked about in class. I know it involves code, but I wasn't sure what... Thank you!

Next Child News!

Ok, it's up and running. I know it took a while, but I've got a few posts and a few pictures and links up, so feedback is great if anyone has the time. It's at wildcalling.blogspot.com, so take a look!

Progress & etc.

Life is crazy, isn't it? Just when you think you have everything together, you don't manage to show up to class...

BUT even if I can't get that straight, I do seem to be making more progress. Everywhere I turn I am finding more exciting sources to link my site to, and that is definitely going to be a little time consuming! (At least for me, as these processes still aren't intuitive). I've also been doing a lot of reading, so what I'm hoping to turn to this week is a little more of the actual writing.

I'm scared to admit this, but I'm scared to start posting on Next Child. It's such a clean slate right now. That is admittedly boring, but it is also rather flawless. I want it to be a better blog than this one, and I'm nervous about how to make it that way. So I've started practicing at home, on my non-internet-connected-computer (that way nothing sneaks online before I want it to!).

I want to be honest that I'm not a pro on this stuff, but I don't want to give so many disclaimers that no one thinks it is worth their time. I want to be a lot of things... but I've been enough of them for Tuesday.

Camping with Kids

I was reading through my old issues of Backpacker magazine (admittedly to do research on my upcoming September-long trip through the West...) when I found a section devoted to family issues. I'll blog a lot more of it on "Next Child..." but I wanted to share some highlights from their Sept '07 issue:

Age: 3-6 years:

"Unexpected challenge: getting your child to poop in the woods. Many kids this age will hold it as long as they can, rather than do their business without the cool, clean comfort of the porcelain throne. Obviously, this is not a good or healthy option...

Pack This: Headlamps for every child. If you don't, they'll beg for yours..."

I love the insight shared by people who have obviously been there and done that! With their help, the rest of the world can be a little more prepared.

BDS for Thursday

My "BDS" (read: Brief Daily Session) for today was not as productive as I would like for it to be. The internet is just so darned distracting... even when I'm trying to focus!

Be that as it may, I did find some good websites with directions for some of the projects that I want to blog about. I'd like to give directions during my blogs, too, but another resource is always helpful, and these sites will allow me to skimp on detailed descriptions when necessary. One in particular, on how to build a scale solar system is excellent- it does all of the necessary calculations for you. Even though I'd encourage older children to do these calculations themselves, or with help, it's nice to have a back up reference!

More Progress...

Today I've been working on topics to discuss. I'm excited to blog about different things that you can do outdoors with kids- a lot of these things are projects that my mother did with my sister and me, and some are new ones I've been finding. Eventually I hope to try most of them to give detailed reports on the blog about my tips and how they work, but obviously that won't be possible for all of them... here's a sneak preview of activities:

1. Gardening (of course!)
2. Learning about xylem and phloem by dying celery, Queen Anne's Lace, etc...
3. Making a solar system to scale in the backyard/ball field/wherever.
4. Making your own compass with only what you could find in the woods. (Dirt & sticks)
5. Camping, including kid-friendly backpacking food & gear.
6. Field identification.
7. Studying pond scum.

I'm aiming to provide lots of details to make these & other ideas as user-friendly as possible. Tips, criticism, and suggestions appreciated!

Progress

Today I spent time looking for pictures to illustrate my blog title. Lauren's blogs always look so professional, so I'm hoping to make mine that way too!

Unfortunately, the picture that I found and fell in love with is copyrighted, so I've sent an e-mail to the photographer asking permission to use it. Otherwise I'm going to have to get busy with my own camera and see what I can come up with...

Also, I've been compiling "nature oriented" activities to do with kids so that I can start blogging about them soon, complete with detailed descriptions of the activities. Most of them are ones that I remember from my childhood, but some are new, and all of them are benefiting from some detailed revision.

Finally, I've decided on a blog name. Juanita suggested that I use some of Richard Louv's language to come up with a name, and so I did. For better or for worse, it's going to be "Next Child in the Woods."

Research

My weekend went something like this:

Saturday night: Went out to steak house for dinner, and of course had about 12 lbs of leftover beef.

Sunday morning: Decided to enjoy steak & eggs, but had no eggs.

Late Sunday morning: Went to Hy-Vee to get eggs... walked in the door & saw mounds of loose Brach's candy. Impulsively scooped up a bag of milk caramels & husband announced that if I got caramels, he could get ice cream. Headed toward ice cream and noticed display of seed packets. Decided it was absolutely necessary to grow tomatoes, carrots, and beans this year...

Sunday afternoon: Played in the dirt.

Moral of the story: Compulsive shopping yields delightful afternoons? I'm not so sure if that's always how it works, but this time it was great. PLUS, it's good research. One great way for kids and adults to get involved in nature is to have a garden, even if it's a teeny-tiny suburban one, like mine.

Nomenclature, continued...

I know that I'm harping on this, but I feel it is really important. I'd like a title for my blog that indicates an appeal to being in/with nature, and I'd like for it to be provocative without being misleading or overly descriptive, aka Natureisgoodforchildrenanddultstooandherearsomeideasofhowtointeractwithitalongwithresearchthatsupportsmypoint.blogspot.com
You get the idea.

So, here is my only current idea, and I'm asking for responses to let me know if I'm on the right track, even just a tiny bit.

"Call of the Wild"

Too Jack London-ish? Too misleading? Too dull? Archaic? Sneaky? Tell me what you think...

What's in a name?

I've always believed there's quite a lot in one, really. That's what I'm struggling with right now. It's a minor hurdle, as far as hurdles go, but I don't want to start my blog until I've got the right name for it, and so far I haven't got one.

I know that I want the blog to center around the positive effects of nature on people, particularly on children, and on how to gain nature exposure. But within that realm, I'll be talking about adults, children, education, local topics, general topics, etc... and I'd like a name to encompass all of that. Or, if encompassing is too tall an order, I would like for it to be a connective link. Plus, I want it to be clever. But not too clever. Or punny. Even though punny can be good.

I'll keep thinking...

Web 2.0 in the News!

On the way home from Iowa I was listening to NPR, and imagine my surprise when I heard this story!

If you have a few extra minutes, it's interesting to listen to, but if you don't, I'll put it in a nutshell. Apparently Comcast was actually trying to block BitTorrent sharing and uploading with techniques they called "traffic-shaping." All of this info "hit the fan" last October, and this past week it was announced that Comcast and BitTorrent will be working together to ensure peer-to-peer file sharing activities can be conducted. The NPR story does a great job explaining some of the details in layman's terms for Luddites like myself.

Here's where things get really interesting, though. Not only was an arguably more "Web 1.0" company interfering with the success of a "Web 2.0" one, but it could also be argued that Web 2.0 is the reason this behavior has been corrected. According to Adam Theirer in an article I read, "The Internet community has the ability to closely monitor service providers and call them out when they make boneheaded moves. The power of collective pressure can keep providers in check." He and others think that it is this pressure that motivated Comcast to become a team player. The moral of the story? Don't mess with Web 2.0, or you may get more than you bargained for!

Spring Thinking

As usual, I did not achieve the things I'd hoped to over spring break. I have only myself to blame for my plans to overachieve and my capacity to underachieve. Here is what I had planned to do...

1. Clean house from top to bottom
2. Post a bunch of new blogs
3. Hem up towel scraps to donate to animal shelter
4. Rest
5. Spend time hiking
6. File taxes (I tend to procrastinate...)
7. Read ahead for all my classes
8. Visit friends in Iowa

and here is what I achieved:

1. Did a few dishes
2. Posted no new blogs
3. Broke sewing machine needle on first towel
4. Got sick
5. Took two great hikes at Three Creeks Conservation Area
6. Filed taxes
7. Did not read... for classes
8. Not only visited friends, but also got lost in Iowa and discovered the American Gothic House & its accompanying museum, hence the picture.

So it wasn't a total loss.

Also while in Iowa, I had a great opportunity to talk to my friend TJ about education. He's getting his masters in teaching, and while we were there, the local paper ran a front page story about best and worst high schools in Iowa. Unfortunately, the school he has been teaching in was the second-to-worst in the state.

We spent time talking about why that is, and his frustrations teaching there. The conversation ranged from a lack of teacher and parent expectations (TJ has been reprimanded for putting application questions on his tests, as multiple choice ones seem to be preferred in this school), to lack of student engagement. Why aren't they interested? Why don't they care? What would help?

Although when we left, TJ was still dangerously teetering on the edge of leaving the teaching world for good, and we hadn't answered our own questions, we had started asking them, and I got a chance to think a little bit more about my topic.

Progress? Maybe not astronomical, but I engaged my brain cells for at least a portion of the week on a topic that I found relevant, so I'll take it.

Going to Extremes

It is hard to find any sort of balance in life. I am an avid subscriber to the pendulum theory: the idea that society has a tendency to swing back and forth between extremes, rather than settling for a happy medium. I honestly don't know if we can ever change that, but change begins on an individual basis, so it's worth a shot.

Keeping in line with the pendulum, much of what I find in research tends toward extremist views. To some, living a healthy life with exposure to nature requires living in an area best accessed by helicopters (except helicopters are evil), with no access to, dependency upon, or interaction with the outside world. Others perpetrate the belief that nature is outdated and we may as well accept the virtual world as the new reality and not worry about these things at all.

I'm hoping (in reality, and with my planned blog) to land somewhere in the middle. I want to live a life that is conscious of nature, appreciating it and caring for it as best as possible. On my own, I might develop a more extreme vision of what this means, but thankfully (as I mentioned to Donna today) I'm married to a Wii-addicted, internet-poker-playing, tech-loving math geek. He won't let me swing too far.

Projected Finality...?

As I attempt to progress toward my final project, I am experiencing some difficulty. I started off with the idea of discussing the idea of living sustainably, becoming a compassionate carnivore, hobby farming, and the like. All fine and good.

But the more I research this, the more I realize that it is not my primary motivation toward living such a lifestyle. My children are. They are also hypothetical, but that doesn't stop me from thinking ahead...

Books like Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods," call attention to an issue that I think about a lot. Kids just aren't spending the time in nature that they used to.

Not everyone thinks that is such a bad thing. Our society is changing. Indoors, children have access to things that their great-grandparents would never have dreamed of, all through the internet. They have video games, television, and a myriad of distractions that are a normal part of life today. Read my previous post, and you'll see that I'm not rejecting all of that, but I am still concerned.

Researchers have begun to study the effects of nature on children. They have found that kids with ADD & ADHD experience significantly reduced symptoms after exposure to nature, and they are exploring the implications of these studies.

So... I've checked out a few books from the library, I put a bunch of bookmarks on my del.icio.us account, and I think I'm making progress.

Wii are busy...

Ok, the month of March is really getting to me, as my poor neglected blog can bear witness. My mother-in-law (she's a nice one!) decided it would be a good idea to celebrate Andy's birthday a little early. Not in and of itself a bad idea, but it was trouble! I was looking for a Wii, and I'd just lost a week in which to do so. Who knew it would be so hard???

Probably all of you. But I don't live in the world of video games. I don't even play video games. (Seriously. The first time I ever played one was when I was 20. I'm terrible at them.) So I spent the last week scouring every inch of Columbia, getting tips from small business owners and customers who overheard my plight, breaking speed limits and driving recklessly, only to see Wiis walking out the door in the hands of their proud new owners.

Finally I found one. I walked in, and there it was, under the glass counter in its little white box... surprisingly little for its ridiculous price tag. But Andy is turning twenty-seven and he's feeling a desperate need to reconnect with his childhood, and that is priceless. Right?

I have to admit, I've played it a little. I actually kicked Andy's butt bowling. I KO'd my boxing opponent in the first round. It's almost even fun... but I wasted a whole week finding it, so I'm determined not to waste this week playing it too! I think I'm back...

Happy Pi Day!

Not that there's a shortage of holidays this month. In my family we're celebrating my father's birthday, my husband's birthday, St. David's day, Pi day, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, etc. Pi day could easily be overlooked.

But today is 3/14. It's kind of like 3.14, which is awfully imprecise, but apparently good enough to celebrate. We're having chocolate cream pie and apple pie with friends, just because we can. So happy Pi day, everyone! More coming soon...

Five Mushrooms makes me hungry!

No that's not a typo, or a lousy attempt at Engrish. Five Mushrooms is the name of the wiki that I've finally decided to talk about! Check it out here. I've found a lot of wikis on topics that I'm interested in, but very few that I could endorse.

This one is a different story. It still seems to be a work in progress (follow the mushroom link to shitake, and there's no info), but that's a good thing. Wikis are works in progress, right?

The color scheme is basic and pleasing to the eye, with a simple brown bar at the top (recalling mushrooms?) and white background, with subtle advertisements on the right hand side, but my favorite aspect is the site's organization. Links are easily visible and accessible, and generally divided into food categories such as vegetables, fish, mushrooms, etc. Links under each of these categories lead to fivemushrooms.com, which is a culinary search engine extraordinaire!

Overall, I'm drawn to this wiki for its layout and topic, both of which I find appealing. Plus, it's got a great name. This is a wiki I could envision editing! (And yes, that's the sound of Donna cheering in the background...)

Wiki Woes

I've spent the better part of my free time today (only about an hour, but hey I don't have a lot of free time on Thursdays...) looking for a wiki that I like. Bad news- I'm having a really hard time finding any. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but my searches have yielded very few interesting results.

Google proved sketchy for specific wiki searches, so I turned to a few wiki providers like wet paint to search their pages. I tried searching for sustainable living, farming, goat farming, backpacking, etc, and I got a lot of hits, but what I found was a lot of pages with very little content. Many of the links on the pages led to nothing, few even had pictures, and content was a rare find. I don't know if they were all just very new, or whether they were just poorly maintained, but they were definitely disappointing.

I'm giving up for now. Wikipedia is the only wiki I've found that I like, and maybe that's my problem. I'm searching for wikis like I search for blogs, limiting my search to really specific topics. But with Wikipedia, I've found that its appeal is its far reaching capacity. Wikipedia doesn't specialize in any one thing: it has a little bit of everything. Is that just the nature of the wiki beast? I'm not sure. But that's all I'm going to get for today... more to come tomorrow!

Me, wiki?

No thanks. If it weren't for the assignment I see pending, its unlikely that I would ever edit a wiki. I really don't like changing things that other people have written. If someone writes an article that I disagree with or find gaps in, I'd much rather go to that person and give him or her suggestions than actually just hop in and edit. The whole idea makes me nervous. It's almost like crossing out passages in books that I think I could write better, or writing notes in the margins not just for me, but for the world! It feels so... presumptuous.

I guess I'll have to work on that. Maybe I can find a niche (there's that word again!) that I'll feel comfortable working with. Lets see where today's class takes things.

Virtually Communicating

So this one isn't in direct response to our readings, or assignments. But I think it's a good example of what can happen to communicating (or trying to) sans facial expression, vocal inflection, etc.

My husband has a close-knit group of friends that he has kept in touch with since grade school. Most of them are married now, and the couples are spread throughout the country. Recently, one friend announced (through facebook) that he and his wife of seven months are expecting.

I posted the following on his wall: Well we wouldn't have guessed that you guys would be first, but CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

He posted on mine: thanks! but who did you expect to be first? :)

I on his: I don't know... but come on, So & So* and So & So* have 4 years, and we've got 5 to compare w/your 7 months! Guess you guys just know how to get busy... PLUS So & So* have been married for what? 3 or 4 years? I guess I was counting on them. ; )

He on mine: I would have to argue that years married is not an indicator of readiness for children :) Plus we're all getting more around the age of childbearing anyway! I hope we all have little bundles of joy soon enough!

Wow- all of a sudden I'm afraid he thinks I was commenting on his readiness for childbearing... Note to readers: if you didn't already know, that is TABOO in any format! I'm also wondering why we feel so compelled to put little smiley and winky faces all over the place. Is this our indication of the emotion that posts lack? If so, is he indicating that he's not offended? I hope so!

Now I'm off to craft a carefully worded apologetic post that indicates my enthusiasm for his step into parenthood, particularly when compared to all of his other friends' relatively slow progress in that area. Maybe I'll even throw in a punctuation face for good measure. Or maybe I should just call him...

*Names have been removed to protect the innocent.

To Analyze a Blog...

...is actually quite difficult. I was just checking all of your (English 4040/7040) blogs, and discovered that you either agree, or are just slacking. But I have no internet access at home, so it has to be done today!

First thing first, I had to go and find a blog I liked, and it seemed best to look outside of class for this. (Not that yours aren't great, I just prefer analyzing strangers). After looking and then looking some more, I found myself inclined to agree with Jake: most blogs are dull and boring. Then, just when all hope was lost, I stumbled on The Cleaner Plate Club. Wow.

I don't know who this woman is, but I think I'm falling for her. Just go to her site and hover over the hyperlinks: a little picture pops up! How does she do it? (Seriously, if anyone knows, tell me!)

So the first reason that I've chosen to discuss The Cleaner Plate Club is for the obvious mastery of technology on the site itself. It oozes professionality, but not in a "big-businessy" polished presentation. It's more of a "snarky stay-at-homer puts her brains to good use in more ways that just how to feed the family" sort of presentation. Although now that we're talking about feeding the family, it would be relevant to note that food (particularly for the family) is the primary topic of this blog.

Cleanerplateclub doesn't stop with food. She uses it as her "niche," but lots of other ideas satellite around food in a clever and effective manner. For example, Barak Obama, Ashton Kutcher, and Oscar winners are discussed comfortably alongside the weather, ethical eating, parenting, and beef recalls. Because of this, I feel that cleanerplateclub has created appeal to both a niche audience and to the world at large, and that is difficult to do.

Graphically, the website is very simple. It is virtually monochromatic, with gray, white, and black dominating the arena. The textual content is centered, with large open spaces on each side. This frees up the format for the insert of colorful, informative, and humorous pictures to illustrate points, or recipes. (Which look delicious!)

The style of the posts is deliberately informal. I say deliberately, because there is nothing accidental about this blog. Its author is clearly proofreading her posts and designing her page as she goes along. This is important, because there are many informal blogs out there, and like Jake and I think (hope I'm not presuming here), they can be dull and boring.

Poorly thought out posts with frequent errors don't grab reader attention. This blog grabs it and won't let go. Case in point: I've been trying to type this up for an hour and a half now, but I keep reading the interesting stuff on The Cleaner Plate Club instead.

Technowhati

I too have been exploring the world that is Technorati. So far, my results seem remarkably comparable to Aaron's: fascinating, but not really what I was looking for. Just out of curiosity, I decided to see how many people out there are really blogging about goats. I had to keep tweaking my searches, but I eventually came up with a few relevant blogs.

Technorati is not entirely to blame here, as I also may just not be sure of the necessary lingo to communicate that I'm looking for blogs that are about real goats, and life with them, not just references to goats. But for any of you who are not so sure about the world of "los cabritos," check out the film clip under Feb. 25th at this site. What fun! I laughed out loud in the library...

We could be heroes?

Someone else in the class mentioned that our Tuesday readings felt a little like a review or "blogging 101," which seems strange now that we've been writing our own blogs for weeks. That is at least a little bit true. We read a lot of "What is a blog?" discussion, but for me it was very timely.

I've decided that this blog isn't really my blog at all. It's a pre-blog of my blog. Or maybe blogs. I think I might need more than one. See, there's a lot to blog about, and the idea of the "niche" blog really resonates with me. I'm not especially interested in most people's "Story of My Life" blogs, but the niche ones get exciting, if I'm in their niche. (Great word, niche... I noticed that Jake pronounces it "neesh," whereas I've always leaned toward "nitch." As in stitch. Or bitch. Anyway, I looked it up and it seems that both pronunciations are acceptable, however the French will appreciate Josh's finesse, as he is preserving their influence. My French ancestors will meanwhile roll over in their graves.)

Speaking of ancestors, St. David's day is coming right up. That's right, Welshmen! Seeing as I've married into a Welsh family, I like to claim it for my own, and I'll be serving leeks on March 1st for lunch. Unfortunately there are no daffodils to decorate with, but we'll do our best.

See what I mean? It's so easy for blogs to lose focus! So I'm thinking about my niches. Not necessarily to make a profit, although if the farming ever takes off for me, it could help. More just to improve my writing. Like sentence fragments. And stuff.

The freedom of blogging is to do a lousy job about whatever you want, and nobody cares. But you can also do a great job of blogging about exactly what you blog about, and let the market (or lack thereof...) come to you. Allons! Dal ati! Daliwch ati!

Ethics of Eating

According to assignment, I'm working on a concept map that can help me with a final project. The issue that I've started with is that of eating ethically. This concept map shows some of the issues that I am debating. It is (obviously) a work in progress, as I'm still trying to figure out how to label links appropriately and how to cover the issues, as there are even more that I'd like to add. Now let's see if it takes me anywhere...

Bottleneckers

Cross & Parker's "Hidden Power of Social Networks" really made me think. Social networks are all around us, but we (or at least I) rarely actually pay attention to them. The book was particularly centered around social networks in business settings, so it naturally made me think of work.

I used to work for Barnes & Noble, and in my years with them I was cross-trained in all of their different departments. Thus, I could cover receiving when the manager was gone, or fill in a cafe shift, work in the music department, kids department, main floor, etc. Because of this, a lot of my coworkers would come to me for information. On one of Cross & Parker's social network diagrams, I would probably have had a lot of lines coming and going. Usually I would think of this as a good thing. Who doesn't want to be a bit of an "expert," even if it is just in book selling?

However, Cross & Parker bring up an interesting point that it is not always a good thing to be centrally located. Sometimes it overloads the person who has become a network "hub," and their work performance is compromised because they end up meeting a lot of needs that aren't a part of their job description. Other times a person is centrally located because they like to dominate and control information, rather than helping it to flow freely throughout the network. Cross & Parker called these scenarios "bottlenecking," and suggested a careful analysis of these centrally located figures to ensure that they really were in healthy positions, and if they were not, to help them share their workload and information in more constructive manners.

So was I a bottleneck? Probably at least in some aspects. Although I liked to think of myself as an essential part, it may be that I was not helping as much as I thought I was. It's food for thought for a sometimes-over-achiever.

The Cartography of Concepts

I really enjoyed reading our article on underlying theory in concept maps (so Dr. Strickland and the rest of the class can now relax!). Concept maps are so familiar to me that I was really surprised to learn that they were only developed recently, in 1972. However, I was also familiar with the fact that seasons are caused by the angle of the earth's axis rather than its proximity to the sun, so it surprised me to learn that 21 Harvard grads were not. (In all fairness, a survey of 23 hardly presents a statistically significant result, plus research and selection methods were not mentioned, but still...)

Anyway, the part that I really appreciated was the discussion of the human brain not as a "...single 'vessel' to be filled, but rather a complex set of interrelated memory systems." This hearkens back to our class discussions about the internet as an extension of the human brain, and to one of my earlier blogs about how none of this is really new. However surreal the internet may seem, it is really just a different medium for the patterns our society is based on. Our brains have been using interrelated memory systems for quite some time (presumably!), so it's only logical to apply that to the way we use, store, and access information outside of them, hence web 2.0.

Connected?

Well, here goes. As a whole, "Connected" has served to make me quite connected. Within class, my negative reaction provoked me to be more interactive in discussions, bringing up my questions and difficulties. After class, I talked about it with my husband on the way home. That can't be a bad thing, right? In fact, I like that a lot.

But it still doesn't make me agree with the work as a whole. Like Lauren, I can appreciate Shaviro's approach, but I just didn't find it to be convincing. One of my problems is the voices of authority that he refers to. Foucault and Baudrillard are both highly respected philosophers, but they are both philosophers of post modernism (or, some would argue, post structuralism). Spicer is a poet that echoes their philosophies. None of this is bad (to me) on its own, but I felt that there was no balance of reference.

For example, Shaviro uses Baudrillard to say that "...the technosphere, or the mediascape, is the only 'nature' we know." Not only do I disagree with this, but because Shaviro doesn't mention any other support for this point besides Baudillard's philosophy about reality, I'm not convinced.
Similarly, when Jack Spicer says that "poems following the dictation of language" is "nonsense," or that poetry is a message that does not concern us, I find myself disagreeing and not being persuaded otherwise.

Ultimately Shaviro chose to use single voices without other examples or reference when he made his points, and he chose to reference voices from a single philosophical and historical perspective. This one-sided (in my opinion) approach was where the connection broke down. Even though he chose many different topics to discuss, I felt as though they were all presented from the same perspective, with little recognition of other perspectives. This in turn made me disagree with all of his little points, which sacrificed the effectiveness of the work as a whole.

BUT it challenged me. And that's a good thing, no matter how you look at it.

Google Reader

One more piece of the cyberworld has won me over! I think I may be even more enamored with Google Reader than I was with del.icio.us, although I'm disappointed by it's mundane name.

I've subscribed to a handful of updates that I thought might be interesting, and not only am I getting what I was looking for (like knowing when people post new blogs), but I'm finding fun things that I never would have looked for. For example, my parents hometown news posted their favorite restaurant's special lunch menu for Valentine's Day. I'm guessing my mom will end up with the cream of tomato soup and veggie pizza while my dad will opt for the "Nasty Nick with Fries," a "...chicken patty tossed in homemade BBQ sauce- topped w/bacon, swiss, lettuce & tomato."

So it may not be the most exciting news, but it made me feel more connected, just for a second, to my family that lives halfway across the country. I'll have to ask if they got the white-chocolate dipped heart-shaped cookies for dessert.

Collective Behavior

In chapter one from Six Degrees, Norton mentions how Leonhard Euler developed the first theorem in graph theory, by proving that one cannot walk across all seven bridges in Königsberg without crossing the same bridge twice.

Euler happens to be one of my husband's favorite mathematicians. I'm told that the next dog we get will be named Euler, which I have no problem with except for the fact that we'll be pronouncing it like "Oi-ler" because that is technically the correct way to pronounce Euler's last name (those crazy Germans!). I can just see taking the poor mutt (I always get mutts) into the vet, and the vet saying "Hi "Yu-ler," and I'll have to say, "Actually it's pronounced 'Oi-ler,' he's named after Leonhard Euler, the famous mathematician. My husband is a nerd." Then maybe I'll go on to tell the story about the bridges.

Then my dog, my husband, my vet, and I will all have connections to the same piece of knowledge, but each of us for slightly different reasons, and each of us with different connotations. We'll have our own mini-Euler network, and all of you will be a part, now that you've read this post.

Now the next time someone mentions Euler, an odd thought may pop into your head about dogs, or about blogs, or about people who are really big nerds. Well I suppose that the nerds are the natural link there, but you get what I mean. This is just one tiny example of the way that we get and receive and link information in our minds. It's amazing, really if we think about it.

I think that it is also a great example of how the internet works, with networks formed by myriads of links. Just think back to the last time you followed all the interesting links in a Wikipedia article. If you're anything like me, you ended up on some page about fruit farmers, wondering how you got there from Northern Irish Murals. So there is the internet as an extension of our brains. It mimics patterns that we have always used. It gives me a sense of wonder, and also a sense of comfort. Sometimes it seems like a strange new world, but there's really nothing all that new about it.

Change is Good!

Well, I couldn't wait any longer. I know this template doesn't reflect what is going on outside, but it's a good representation of what I'm thinking these days.

I went to the grocery store yesterday, and there were flower seed packets for sale, a sure harbinger of spring!

Today I went to the post office to mail Valentines (I spent yesterday evening making them instead of planning my menu for the week...), and buy stamps. I ended up with flower stamps, and mailed cards bursting with Zinnias, Tulips, Irises, Gerber Daisies, Magnolias, Cone Flowers, Water Lilies, and Poppies.

So it may be 18 degrees out today, but it is February, and in Missouri that is only a month away from life and vitality.

It is time to wake up and to come back to life. I’m ready.

Life as an Amateur

I loved Lauren's post full of McLuhan quotes, particularly the last one which read, "the amateur can afford to lose." In the original context, McLuhan was praising the freedom of amateurs. They are not obligated to succeed, so they can take risks and break rules if it pleases them, which can at times lead to great success. What an inspirational way to approach daily life!

However, when I originally read the quote, I took it out of context. I read it to say that being an amateur is a safety net. It is the exact opposite of taking risks, and this is the type of amateurism I have banked on in the past.

Take a few steps back to high school. I went to a really small high school (graduating class of 12), so sports were something that everyone participated in, regardless of talent. They were more of a social thing. Now I'm going to admit something embarrassing. I ran on the x-country team, but I am a terrible runner. I'm over 5'8," I don't weigh a lot (even less back then), and I look like I could be OK at it. But I'm not. I am truly awful.

However, I wasn't willing for everyone to know that. Instead of admitting that I'd be lucky to ever run a sub-8-minute-mile in my life (10-12 minute ones suit me just fine), I set myself up as "the encourager." I ran at the back of races and came in dead last. Every time. If a girl was having a rough race, I'd just jog next to her and talk her through it. That may seem nice, but my real fear was that if I actually tried to be good, I wouldn't be. So I just didn't try. How pathetic!

So this will be my new goal: I can still embrace being an amateur freely (thank God, because odds are I'll stay that way for the rest of my life, like most of the world does!), but instead of using it not to try, I can use it to try things in my own way and have confidence that I can afford to fail. Or, as Juanita pointed out in Thursday's class, maybe it isn't failing so much as it is discovering that one approach didn't work. (Isn't there a famous quote about that, too?) Now lets try the next theory...

A Million Little Pieces

I know that the wordplay is probably getting old, but I just can't help it. Small Pieces Loosely Joined and A Million Little Pieces seem distinctly interrelated, at least in titles. Also, the typical cover shot on AMLP is of a hand covered in ice-cream sprinkles, and that serves as a striking image of the loose joining of small pieces. But I digress.

In reading the first chapter of SPLJ, a question struck me. It relates quite naturally to both books, so I'll keep heading down that path a little longer. It rotated around the quote, "The very basics of what it means to have a self-identity through time, an "inner" consistency, a core character from which all else springs--are in question on the Web," from chapter 1 of SPLJ.

Now, to me this is a chicken-or-the-egg sort of an issue. I think there is a lot more at work here than the internet revolution (large as it is). The ideas of core character and inner consistency, or even one self-identity through time are all up in the air, and this does not seem to relate solely to the web.

Take, for example, James Frey's book A Million Little Pieces. At the time this book reigned supreme on the bestseller lists, I was working for Barnes & Noble. I was also there to witness the book's fall, Oprah's humiliation, and enraged customers looking for their money back. All of this centered on a book marketed as biography, detailing the amazing pulling-myself-up-by-the- bootstraps story of James Frey's recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. The only problem was that this book was not biography. Frey certainly had been a substance abuser, but many of the "facts" he related were simply not true, or even close to the truth, as the truth came out. (What is truth?)

Frey's was an extremely embellished persona which perhaps developed out of lack of publisher support, out of Frey's black heart, or some unknown. But this persona was probably a lot closer to reality than the personae that many present on the web. But this time people got angry.

One defense Frey attempted was his plea for the "truthiness," of his book, rather than factual details. He was presenting his feelings, trying to capture the moments and emotions rather than the literal narrative of his life. Many accepted this as a valid explanation. Others would say that he had taken the concept too far.

But this brings up greater questions of our societal standards for truth and identity. Post modernism could certainly be a factor, as are the media, globalization, the web, and any other factors of "the now.” All of these deserve much more credit than I can give to them.

As humans in the twenty-first century, how do we reconcile our identities with the world around us? Is the idea of an inner consistency or core character outdated? What does it mean for a person to have one identity in class, another on Facebook, another at work, and yet another at home? Are we living in a technologically inspired state of schizophrenia, or is there an underlying unity to be found? Perhaps, as Aaron suggested, “What […] Web2 allows is that movement from ‘this is what people see me as’ to ‘this is what I've always really been,’” and we are just now beginning to grasp some of that complexity.

Yum

I have to admit, the first time I saw the url for del.icio.us, I was hoping it had something to do with food. But that's because I really like food, and it would be such a witty website. Like Epicurious... I love it! Who thinks of these names?

After my initial disappointment, I had a "rappelling moment." The first time I ever went rock climbing, my friend Logan took me up Ragged Mountain (no joke, what's with the Ragged stuff?) and set me up. But instead of having me start by climbing, he wanted me to rappel down first to learn the feel of the ropes and to trust my harness. So he instructed me to balance my arches on the edge of the cliff (standing back-to), and to lean out until I was perpendicular. I was NOT to hold onto the rope. At that moment, I knew that I was doing something really scary, entirely new, and I still wasn't sure if I'd like the end result.

That's how del.icio.us feels. I've set up my new account and dutifully bookmarked a few sites, but it is a whole new world and I'm really not sure what to do with it yet! I've got a funny feeling that I just might like it...

Mass Intelligence

This morning I got up, showered, dressed, made a cup of tea (green with Jasmine), ate breakfast, packed lunch, and headed out the door for school.

I hopped in the car, turned the key, and the engine turned over (and over), but wouldn't start. In my 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit (RIP, "Leila"), this meant I needed to pump the gas a little, but my like-new 1999 Toyota Corolla ("Zeke") has that newfangled fuel injection stuff, so that wasn't the problem (I don't think...). It was a damp morning. Maybe the distributer? But the cap wasn't cracked or loose. Maybe condensation in the fuel line? Spark plugs? Maybe anything...

It never started, so I hopped aboard my trusty bike (1995 Gary Fischer Nirvana, "Gary") and sped off to school. I arrived at school covered in sweat and mud (remember, it's a damp 45 degree February morning), thirty minutes late to class (I live on the other side of the city), but just in time for my first quiz. Score one for me.

Plus, it's free coffee Monday at McDonald's, so today really can't be that bad. I called the shop, and they're going to tow Zeke over and take a look at him. I'll bike by after school. But I'm wondering, if I could actually poll everyone (say, in all my classes), would they know what the problem was?

I know, it sounds far-fetched. But according to Surowiecki in "The Wisdom of Crowds," perhaps not that far-fetched.

If the stock market could figure out who is to blame for the Challenger explosion (that gives me goosebumps!), I think a group of college students might be able to guess Zeke's ailment. Yes, Meredith, I'd like to poll the audience. Any guesses, people?

In all seriousness, this information just amazes me. I love the fact that Google works on this principle. It's fascinating that tagging can function the same way. What would happen if the two technologies married, as Laura Gordon-Murnane suggests? Super-brilliant offspring with the knowledge of the masses only a click away, that's what.

February

Ok, so I know that the title doesn't have a lot to do with any of our readings. But here is my recognition that I'm a product of something bigger than just what I am reading, or studying for class. For example, today I am not only my mother's daughter, my boss's employee, my husband's wife, my dog's owner, and a woman from a small town in Maine who when she was fifteen years old worked on her Uncle's lobster boat and developed an interest in Marine Biology while retaining her first love of reading, etc. *thanks Aaron* I am also influenced by my more immediate environment.

It is Friday. I'm frustrated that my main accomplishment last night was playing in the snow with the dog. That means I need to catch up on reading, cleaning, cooking, and all of my other responsibilities today. But it's February, and I'm happy that the month is turning. I want to make Valentines and send them to my family. I want to celebrate that we are progressing out of the dark months of winter, and that each day has a little more light. I should be in a good mood, but I'm still cranky about not getting more things done last night, so I'm feeling critical.

Unfortunately this is all going to influence my writing a little more than it should. In my mind, I know that after re-reading the Edbauer piece I should be discussing rhetorical ecology (that intro was my half-hearted nod to it), so here goes...

The first time I read this piece, I noticed some errors, namely in the are of calling Cingular "Gingular," and other oddities. This time, they practically screamed at me. Isn't style an important part of any rhetoric? The pinnacle of my frustration came after reading the lines, "Upon seeing a picture of this homemade sign, my friend laughingly commented, 'Doesn't this person realize just how toetrc! this sign is?'"

What does that mean??? I even googled "toetrc," just in case the friend was speaking Klingon. She wasn't.

I still got the point. But I have to admit it was heavily compromised. I know that Edbauer could hardly have planned on my grumpy reading of her piece, but she (or whoever reproduced it for LION) might have known that such blatant errors are hardly professional. It is hard to trust an argument when it does not even seem to have been proofread.

So there it is. Be productive in your homes so you don't end up in a mood like mine. Happy February everyone.

Reciprocal Communication

I shamelessly lifted this phrase from Anne Wysocki for several reasons:

1. I like the word reciprocal. Its sound is at once playful and refreshing.
2. The use of reciprocal to modify communication makes perfect sense to me, until I try to explain it. Like tracing an infinity symbol.
3. Wysocki argues that all communication is reciprocal, whether we are fully aware of its reciprocity or no. (e.g. the falseness of viewing "... a woman's lovely in-soft-focus-so-as-to-almost-glow white ass..." as if it were "... without social or other consequences [...] of us somehow being shaped by the viewing."
4. This seems to strike particularly close to the [he]art of blogging.

This concept holds meaning for the blogger. Wysocki presents the idea (quite persuasively) that form and content are never truly inseparable. Not fully. Even if we would like them to be. She furthermore urges that we view ourselves as “…capable of making change, of composing work that not only fits its circumstances but that also helps its audiences—and its makers—re-vision themselves and try out new and more thoughtful relations between each other.”

The whole “conversation” at hand is centered on this issue of beauty: creating, appreciating, and understanding it. In this, I think that my husband and Anne Wysocki would get along well. He is particularly fond of telling me that I am beautiful (as many husbands tell their wives), but he generally does it in such a way that shows the beauty to be a thing of his creation, rather than my possession. For example, he will say it after I find something stuck in my teeth, or when I have just woken up in my own drool. Before the women reading this induct him into sainthood, I’ll mention that he at least partially does this for kicks. It never fails to make us laugh.

But people “in love,” or those choosing to practice the art of loving others have long participated in the tradition of building beauty. Parents find their children beautiful. Spouses find each other beautiful. Dog owners find their mutts beautiful. Many children, spouses, and dogs (to make an odd collection) may possess the kind of beauty (abstract formality?) that would win them facebook contests and endorsements, but not all of us that have found ourselves lucky to be loved in one of these ways could make that claim!

So beauty is (or ought to be) reciprocal. It involves communication. Communication is reciprocal. Even blogging.

How will I understand this union of form and content that I call my blog? Is it beautiful? Will I be able to make “day-to-day particular[s] stand out against the background of the larger realm of steady social practices”? Can I make that change?

Customization

I used to be really into customizing. You know the sort: my car had to have lots of bumper stickers. I occasionally painted it myself. My hair didn’t stay the same color or length for long. I added piercings according to my mood. Notebooks couldn’t just be notebooks. I had to collage the fronts. My book bag had hand-sewn patches. I daily announced to the world that I was different. Special. Better, even?

None of this to say that I no longer like customization. For a time, it was really important to me. But I’m just not there anymore. In that time I was re-assessing myself. Trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted. I haven’t got it all pinned down now, but somehow it doesn’t bother me like it used to.

If you catch me when I’m feeling honest and ask what I want to do after graduation, I won’t give you the slop about teaching, maybe editing one day. I’ll tell you that I want to have babies and raise goats. That’s about how far I’ve gotten. I talk enough for myself, though. I don’t need my blog background to be kids and “kids” (pun intended) to tell you what I’m thinking about.

After reading Juanita’s blog, I did change to Central Time, a detail that I’d completely overlooked before. (Thanks, Juanita!) These things need to be accurate.

After all, this blog is for a class. I’m going to squeeze in plenty about myself, but I want it to be simple and accessible, so that the teacher won’t have to search for my entries. I want my words to speak louder than my template.

I like what my blog is saying. I thought about it a lot when I selected the template, which made it pretty hard for me to change anything. I’m in my January mood right now, so the dark background is appropriate. I’d prefer it was deep brown, but I didn’t like the browns in my palette options, so I stuck with the black. I even like my picture. It’s me and the dog. Winter. Nothing fancy.

With much apprehension, I changed my title from pale blue to dark purple. I think I can stick with that for now. Soon it will be February, and my mood will shift. I already know what I want the blog to look like come March, maybe even April. Colors and organization will change with the seasons, but the basics will stay the same.

Rhetorical Blogging

Rhetoric has a bad name. RET-OR-ICK. Not appealing. Or Rhett-o-rick. Like Rhett Butler. A guy you could admire without liking. Slippery. And that "or/o" in the middle keeps the first and last syllables from ever having to settle. Do we have to choose one or the other? Who is Rick?

Seriously though. The one other class response I read about rhetoric spoke of politicians, and it wasn't trying to pretty them up. This was "politicians" in the negative sense of the word, using "rhetoric" in the commonly understood sense of the word, also negative.

Rhetoric doesn't have to be that way, though. Much of it is common sense, stuff we use on a daily basis. If you google it's definition, most entries will say something to the effect of using language pleasantly and persuasively. Aren't those typical goals for everyone? Who would prefer that their language was unpleasant and unpersuasive? (Is that a rhetorical question?)

When we speak, write, text, or do whatever it is we are trying to do to communicate with the outside world, we're using rhetoric. Each time we interact, we are naturally considering our audience, our timing, and our decorum. Things that are appropriate to say to classmates aren't always appropriate with professors, and we know that without being told.

This (of course) is an over-simplification. Certainly rhetoric can be used manipulatively. But it is also a necessary part of communication, and one that most of us could stand to study a little bit more.

Anne (from Anne of Green Gables): "I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I was never able to believe it. A rose just couldn't smell as sweet if it was a thistle or a skunk-cabbage."

Raggedy Anne: "Maybe rhetoric is like a skunk-cabbage rose. Its odious name is covering up its sweet side. But I always liked the word 'thistle.' It's kind of soft and pleasant, like whistle with an odd lisp. Not even remotely prickly."

The Times, They Are A-Changin'

Before this class, I had never heard of Web 2.0. Really. But to be fair, I also had never heard of del.icio.us, folksonomy, RSS, or most any other buzzwords and topics related to the concept. To my credit, I was aware of flickr, but this was from my techno-savvy friend in Suriname. She e-mailed me the link so I could see her pictures.

A coworker of mine who shared my interest in English as a subject used to call me a Luddite. To my shame, I had to look up the term (though I never admitted it to him), and after discovering what he meant, I’d have to agree. Most people would just say I’m a technophobe. Not an extreme case (I’d like to think), but I just got rid of my phone line and internet yesterday. They cost too much, and I don’t really need those amenities at home. I can get online at school any time. I like to write by hand. I like to bake bread, kneading it by hand. I like to grow my own food. What can I say? I feel more connected, more alive somehow by doing things the “old-fashioned way.” Canned broth? No thanks, I’ll make my own stock. It tastes better.
So this is a prime time for me to rediscover the internet. The first thing that drew my attention was the term “folksonomy.” The more I read (and Googled) about it, the more I liked it. I like folk. I like folk music. Folky things in general are right down my alley. The idea of collaboration for something larger, some sort of “greater good,” is what I like. It may just be a glorified word for tagging, but it helped me to see things in a different light. Suddenly it isn’t big, scary, faceless technology, its ordinary people giving their ordinary contributions. Sharing what they know.
The idea that business models can be founded on an “architecture of participation” was another exciting one. I like to think of software as a service, rather than a product. I like the unity that comes from these concepts.

To me, technology has often been a means of isolation. Computer geeks shut themselves in their apartments and don’t know how to behave in society. Kids play video games and don’t talk to their parents or play outside. Families watch TV instead of interacting with each other. It becomes possible to live a live where we no longer know that apples grow on trees, or potatoes underground, or that hamburgers come from cows. It becomes possible to go through a whole day- working, paying bills, shopping- without ever stepping outside the front door or seeing another human. It’s no wonder I’m afraid.

But maybe the winds of technology are changing. Maybe there’s hope for a balance where people can interact in more than one way, that our lives can be enhanced by these networks instead of warped by them. I’m exaggerating, I know. These things have been possible for a long time, but right now they seem a whole lot more likely.

Faces in the crowd

I have been a facebook user for a few months now. Within this short period of time, I’ve used facebook to rediscover old friends from my first college. My virtual reunion with "Will" came just in time for his wedding. Andy and I hadn’t talked with Will in two years, but a month later we were down in Greensboro, GA to celebrate with him and his new bride.

This experience cemented my infatuation. I like the purported privacy of facebook: people can find my name, but unless I consent to being their “friend,” they can’t access my information. What’s more, I like the little sneaky feeling that I get from checking out other people’s “Walls.”
For example, when I found out Will was getting married, I became friends with his new fiancée. Then I began to snoop. I didn’t have to ask this girl about herself, I could find things out. I read the quotes she had posted. I looked at her profile. From comments posted on her Wall, I found out that another old friend would be at the wedding. Another comment tipped me off that she was studying to be a pediatrician. What really won me over was the picture of her with her Chocolate Lab and three-legged Corgi mix. *Aww.* Instant approval.

But I sense a dark side. I expect that this girl probably snooped me out too, but what would have happened if we actually e-mailed, or *gasp* talked on the phone to get to know each other? There is something rather voyeuristic about the whole thing. I am more in touch than ever, but it’s been a really long time since I've heard most of these people’s voices. Or interacted with them face-to-face. Most of the time, they don't even know when I'm checking them out.

That isn’t all. The funny thing I have discovered from facebook and blogging and other applications of Web 2.0 is that I am a narcissist. OK, maybe that shouldn’t have come as such a big surprise, but all of us out here are talking up storms with the expectation that we are important enough to listen to. Just listen to me. I like the sound of my own voice. I want you to like it too. It’s OK if you peek through my windows. Don’t expect to see me, because I’ll be out looking into yours. It’s a brave new world, people!

Why Raggedy?

1. This blog is for a class. As such, I had less than five minutes to decide on a name.
2. My name is Anne. As a child, I was often given Raggedy Ann dolls, despite the difference in spelling, which annoyed me. Worse yet, those dolls have ugly red yarn hair and triangle felt eyes. My older sister got pretty dolls with hair that looked real, all because her name wasn't Anne. Or Ann.
3. My husband's name is Andy. This is just one of God's many tantalizing ways to make me laugh at myself. Out of all the men in the world, I fell for one named Andy. We got Raggedy Ann & Andy quilts, candlesticks, figurines, picture frames, Christmas ornaments, and dolls for our wedding. I still think they're ugly.
4. When I look honestly at myself, I am a rather Raggedy character. A work in progress at best. It seemed applicable.