Pie, Please. I'll Pass on the Hot Pockets!

Confused? You should be. It involves a conversation between me, Gin, Josh, Bryan, and Tom; I refuse to repeat it!

In other news, I long for Monday when we talked about remediation while eating Gin's delicious pies. I took some photos rather non-discretely, might I add. Here they are so you can remember how delicious the pies were!




I <3 Gin and her pies!




Elise is a fan of Gin's baking skills as well!




Steve, enjoying his pie. Thanks for having a birthday, Steve!

A Link to the Past

I'm a slacker. Here's my response that was due Monday. YIKES!




My idea of vacation time: Drinking an excellent beer and playing excellent emulator games!


I recently downloaded a Super Nintendo emulator for my Mac; a remediation of my childhood video games, if you will. I have found that playing the SNES games on my computer just doesn't cut it for me. It makes me miss the feel of my old SNES controller in my hand and sitting too close to the TV screen while playing Zelda. I went so far as to finding an SNES controller that has a usb output so you can feel like you are playing on your old SNES console. I was just about to buy it when I realized that it was such an inconvenience for me to download emulators, roms, and purchase $20 replica controllers. I still own my SNES and a few games for it. It would be much cheaper for me to buy the SNES games that I want to play from Amazon.com and play them at home on my SNES than it would for me to recreate my SNES on my Mac (which is never as good as the original SNES).

A combination of video games and childhood nostalgia made me get the SNES emulator in the first place. In the time that I spent downloading games, I could have just as easily walked over to the next room, grabbed my SNES console, dusted it off, and plugged it into my TV. The necessity to remediate something from my childhood is mind boggling to me. I realized that I have been a sucker for remediation of my favorite video games for years now. When SNES was the latest in video game technology, I bought Super Mario All-Stars. The selling point of Super Mario All-Stars was that all of the previously released Mario Bros. games were included in one game. It was an excellent way for a new gamer to play catch up in the Mario games department. The problem with me buying the game was that I already owned all of the games that were included on it. I convinced my parents that I absolutely needed to get the All-Stars game because it was for the latest console and it was better. In all reality, the games were still in the old 8 and 16 bit fashion and nothing was different about them whatsoever.

New technology automatically assumes that it is better than the pre-existing technology. Toys and relics from our childhood will bring back that warm and toasty feeling and harkens back to a day when things were less complicated for us. The SNES emulator for my Mac and the All-Stars game are proof that I participate in this phenomena without being aware of it. I am eager to see if I continue to do so now that I am aware that I seek out remediated artifacts that take me back to my childhood memories. One thing is for certain, Gin and I are against this new version of the Lite-Brite and I will definitely not be purchasing one for myself or for any kids in my life!

"Oppression Never Tasted So Good!"

That was a quote from Jackie Rhodes as she was eating one of Elise's Girl Scout cookies. For the record, Gin is against the Girl Scouts.



Thanks to Gin, half of our class (and Elizabeth) went to the Tunnel of Oppression in the student union. It was a very depressing and painful exhibit to be in, but I recommend that everyone go through it. Each room had a different type of oppression: Religious oppression, image of perfection, classism, sexism, racism, ignorance/prejudice, and heterosexism. The roughest part for me was the heterosexist room. I guess that's why they saved that one for the last room. Kudos to the CSUSB students who acted out scenes in each room. The fact that we were all silent made everything so much more emotional. After we spent today's class talking about being desensitized through remediation and video games, the tunnel shed light on a different type of desensitization: dehumanization and creating Otherness. Anyhoo, we decided to take pictures on our little class adventure and I will post the ones that I took on here. They are already up on my facebook if you would like to check them out there. As soon as Gin sends me the picture from the end of the night, I will post that one too!


Our ticket to enter the room, Gin's lovely nails.


Entering the tunnel.


The pledge that we recited after our tunnel experience. Afterward, we got free beverages and...


This super cool shirt!

To see the picture of us after the Tunnel of Oppression, go to Gin's Blog.

Spreading the Knowledge Like It's Contagious!

I went to my cousin's house on Monday night to celebrate her birthday with her. I showed her all of the cool stuff that we have been learning in class like Twitter, Skype, and making movies with xtranormal. My cousin is a Twitter nut, so I didn't teach her anything she didn't already know. I had her download Skype and now she is cursing me because she is obsessed with it! In return, she showed me how to use zamzar to convert youtube files to mp3 files. The group presentation in class today was very similar to that concept of getting music without downloading it through a p2p sharing network. All you have to do is search a song that you like on youtube. For example, I used Paramore's cover of "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon.

1. Under Step 1: Click URL. Copy and paste the url into the box provided.
2. Under Step 2: Select what type of file you want to make the file into. For example, I made the song into an MP3 format since that is the universal music file.
3. Enter your email address: Zamzar will convert your youtube selection into an MP3 file and they will email you when it's available for you to download.

As you may have noticed, this site is capable of converting files of all sorts. It's pretty handy and my cousin said she's never had any problems with it. Since I like to embed videos, here is the Paramore cover that I mentioned earlier:

In-Class Assignment

In class, we learned how to make these little movies:

A Lazy Sunday Interlude

I usually don't like to read reviews. I would rather read, listen to, or watch something for myself if I want to know an opinion; friends are also reliable sources. When your homework assignment is to read a review, you just have to suck it up. I didn't care for the review by Jan Baettens although it was more appealing to the eye with its colored background. Call me what you will, but I can only read so much criticism on a Sunday. As I learned being a rugby fan, "Sunday is the Lord's day,"; He also can't play rugby because he wears illegal headgear.

I digress.

My favorite portion of David Blakesly's article is: "Remediation (pronounced REmediation) is the process whereby computer graphics, virtual reality, and the WWW define themselves by borrowing from and refashioning media such as painting, photography, television, and film. Remediation works both ways also; as digital media gain in popularity, for instance, television remediates the windowed world of computing."

On a non-academic level, myspace seems to be more like facebook and facebook is more like myspace. I think that someday they will merge into a MyBook of FaceSpace. Maybe not FaceSpace, that sounds like something that you are reminded of when people from other cultures get all up in your space.

More digressing. This time I slipped out of my academic voice. Mind the discourse!

I think it's good that television is mirroring the world of the internet and websites. Not everything is always user-friendly, so when things look familiar, people are more likely to be drawn to it. When I am explaining how to navigate a website to my sister (as I was this morning), I will often say "It looks like the place where you log in for your email." Through this common ground, we can function together as a team. If something were entirely foreign and alien, people like my sister would be in even bigger trouble. The sense of familiarity makes things less intimidating and they make my job as the family techo-ambassador a lot easier.

I feel like I should post a picture so I can practice what we learned in class on Wednesday!

Teddy Ruxpin, My Childhood Friend

I love Teddy Ruxpin. Do you?

My Visual Essay

Since Youtube was being a crabby jerk, so I had to upload it to facebook instead. Enjoy watching my Techno-Literacy Evolution! If you want to watch it in HD (Yes, please!), all you have to do is watch it directly from my facebook page by click on this fancy link. You do need to have a facebook account to view it, so it may prompt you to log in first. If you don't have a facebook account, you are stuck watching it in standard mode, which is a little blurry. Wah-wah.

Deleted Scene from my Visual Essay

I'm totally a youtube bandit now. Before I decided to do an iMovie, I was going to do my visual essay in a website using either MySpace or something similar. I took this video a few weekends ago and thought it was worth sharing with the class. Professor Rhodes was surprised that I still have these books. At times like these, I'm glad my mom never throws anything away.

Twitter > Blogging

I have been neglecting my blog. I'm a bad blog-mother. In my defense, I have been tweeting more often than I used to. I find that microblogging is much more effective than regular blogging. Plus, I can microblog from my phone or iPod, so it is more convenient. Blog, your days might be numbered. As I was tweeting about this, Gin suggested that I should post my last 10 tweets. I liked her idea, so here it is!

1. This is one of those moments. Those moments that make @katnotcat avoid eye contact with me. Hello, Monday! SSDD I see! Wonderful. 12:54 PM Feb 1st from txt

2. Learning how to use iMovie for my project. @LadyGreyGin and I are gonna join Steve and Josh by making movies too! Hooray for Macs! 9:19 PM Feb 3rd from web

3. Grey's Anatomy, you are my muse. 9:05 PM Feb 4th from web

4. Strawberry Fields Forever Bubbly In My Head If I Had Eyes. (The Beatles, Colbie Caillat, No Doubt, and Jack Johnson collide!) 10:32 AM Feb 5th from web

5. Pizza hut. Colton CA 9:13 PM Feb 6th from txt

6. Congrats to Bryan! 11:42 PM Feb 6th from web

7. I'm thinking about @MMCoursol today. Wishing you the best, Megan. Jaclyn and Kevin love you! (I speak for him now, haha.) 8:43 AM Feb 7th from web

8. I'm at Rite Aid and I'm the 17th person in line. GOSH! 2:21 PM Feb 7th from txt

9. I'm about to eat breakfast, do homework, then go to school. Goodbye, day; tonight is Lost! 7:42 AM Feb 9th from txt

10. I hope tweets count as blogging, but I'm thinking it doesn't. Although, I could make the argument that it is MICROblogging! #ENG 658 about 1 hour ago from web

I would like to point out that I totally messed up the #ENG658. Darn you, space bar, for sabotaging me!

Here is my in-class visual essay. This is my first youtube video upload! Hooray!

Tweet, Not To Be Confused With a Twit

Over the weekend, I was curious to see if anyone would actually use their Twitter account. Jasmine, Gin, Steve, and Margaret tweeted a few times and I personally tweeted Steve and Jasmine. We were primarily concerned with our assignment that is due tomorrow. It made me think that students and teachers would benefit tremendously by having a twitter network to discuss classwork. If more classes had the ability to communicate in such a networked way, it would build a camaraderie amongst the students. The teacher would also be able to see what the students are talking about and how they are progressing in their studies.

In a weekend that I spent thinking about literacy and technology, I couldn't help but realize how attached I am to technology. I sleep with my iPod, phone, and computer all right next to me on the dresser. I hope I don't have some sort of psychological complex regarding technology. While technology has made my life a little more colorful, I am more than ok with not answering the phone or emails. I know some people that would be absolutely devastated if they couldn't check their myspace, twitter, facebook, email, and text messages. Heaven forbid we go off-line. Imagine a situation where we have to go without power for 24 hours. How would we be able to survive if there was no way for us to charge our electronic devices? For me, it'd be even worse since we have an electric range (not a gas stove), so I might starve without the ability to make Mac n' Cheese (Blue box style). The idea of starving is definitely a lot scarier than going off-line. I hope everyone would agree.

Because Everyone Could Use A Laugh

Embedding a video. Snarf snarf. If it works, you'll get to see a hilarious Muppet video! If it doesn't, I will attempt tomorrow. Technology has worn me away on this evening.

Ownershipless

Now that I look at that title, it is pretty ambiguous; I'm referring to the conversation that we had in class on Wednesday. I find myself in a bit of a predicament. I want to put together a picture book that shows grammatical faux pas, blunders, and other acts of language misuse. It may sound like a relatively uncomplicated matter, but [even I had to] think again. I know that there are sites (such as engrish.com, failblog, and unnecessaryquotes.com) that I could go to and I would find an abundance of photos I could use. I am no thief, however, so that's not realy an option--not to mention I'm pretty sure it would be illegal!

I would like to create a blog where I can upload the photos that I find and other people can post photos that they have found. I have a vision of this glorious blog that is run by me and is composed of contributions by many. If the photos make it into my (currently hypothetical) book, I would put the person's name underneath the photo they submitted because I wouldn't want to take all the credit for something they provided me with. The problem is that if I made my own page on blogspot or some other blog, I'm sure that they already have some sort of legalities that you agree to that says they own the content of your page. Ok, so becoming a member and posting my photos on those sites wouldn't work for me.

Time for Plan B.

I was just about to create a photo album on facebook, when I remembered that there was some talk about facebook owning your pictures even if you have deleted them off of your account. Although I only have 2 pictures so far, I feel like there is nothing I can do with them. If I can't even post them anywhere, how can I get people to submit the photos that they find to me? Would have to get my own website that isn't part of a pre-existing site? I want to make sure that I own my photos and not some faceless corporation. Everything needs to be done through legally-proper channels. It's a little defeating, honestly. Technology and I get along fantastically until technicalities and legalities [inevitably] show up uninvited.

Thoughts, Courtesy of Faigley

I've noticed that an electronic piece of writing compared to an actual physical copy is considered to be less reliable or valid. I could very easily go and print out the material that I find on a website; does my printed copy somehow gain credibility once it is printed out on a sheet of paper or is it still lacking because it was not mass produced and bound in a factory?

The assumption that a book found in a bookstore/library has gone through the proper channels to ensure that it contains accurate (and verified) information. Instances where research was not conducted and information was falsified are less frequent(as in the case of the Oprah fiasco with A Million Little Pieces by James Frey). Online, however, there is no system of checks and balances in most cases because anyone is able to be a publisher of content (i.g. wikipedia).

Relevance in Selfe

Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century (or as I like to call it, Techno and Lit) may have been written approximately ten years ago, but the issues and concerns that it raises are still relevant. The children that I interact with cannot fathom the idea of not having personal computers, DVDs, or cell phones. The books of The Berenstein Bears, Fraggle Rock, and Goosebumps have seen their prime and have been replaced by online video games, Disney Princess DVDs, and MySpace. As Selfe says, "Young people... are becoming prisoners of electronic media" (Selfe 33). My boss's five-year-old daughter--although she cannot read--knows how to go online and play educational games and not-so-educational games. "Did you used to play Barbie games when you were a little girl?" she asked me as I stared at the unnecessarily pink page. "When I was a little girl, the only games we had were on Atari and the original 8-bit Nintendo. Back in the stone age, we used to have to read books or watch old episodes of The Muppet Show." I showed her this Muppet video because I wanted to show her what real comedy is. I soon regretted doing so when her little brother's first words were: "Mannah Mannah," followed by his next learned words, "Doo doo doo doo doo!" Digital books, online "coloring" books, and seemingly educational internet games seem to have replaced the traditional books of my childhood. I deeply hope that the number of children who aren't attached to electronic devices are a minority to those who read stories before bed after a long day of rolling around in the mud and playing hide and seek.

Fringe English: A Thing of the Future

"Proper" English is a thing of the past. I must have missed that embarrassingly accurate memo somewhere along the way. I just heard my sister's mother-in-law tell the dog, "You belong in a KETTLE!" As tempted as I may have been, I refrained from making my usual sarcastic remarks that would have undoubtedly lead to unresponsive blank stares in my general direction. Once I gathered my bearings, I spent the rest of my evening re-reading the Faigley article. Now it's time to go to bed to prepare for work and school tomorrow!