With an essay looming...

Jane (Daria's best friend) - "You think Daria. I can tell because you don't smile. Now this guy died and it makes me think and that hurts my little head and makes me stop smiling. So, tell me how you cope with thinking all the time Daria until I can get back to my normal vegetable state."

This week we were so helpfully provided with some tips for our New Communication and Tech. essay (no sarcasm involved, I really am pleased!). Only problem is, I now feel as though my chosen topic is too 'broad' and with less than two weeks to go before submission my little head is beginning to hurt and this makes me stop smiling.

At least in this list of wonderful hints I was reminded that perhaps I even need to back up my blogs, just in case an Internet dog decides to deleat them (pun intended). I'd never thought of that before. It was a timely reminder too, seeing as only yesterday, during the tutorial for this very subject, i was so ENTHRALLED with what I was doing that I stupidly left my USB stick in the computer. I always back up my files so luckily, even if I don't end up finding my USB, everything is saved to the uni computers. Anyway, whilst saving all my blogs into word documents this morning I went to the trouble of counting my words (not manually, of course!). It turns out I have more than enough to pass this 'blogging' assignment! Excellent!

This critical academic essay is going to be a doozey so I better get it done before my head explodes and I lose the ability to smile, forever..

If there was a word that stood for both incredibly ridiculous and time-wasting, it would be 'Virtual Reality'

...but that is simply my personal opinion. I'm sure there are plenty of well-respected, intellectual human beings that enjoy living through 3D graphic forms of themselves. *cough*

Give me a break! Like we don't have enough to do here in the real world! Today's Tutorial task has sent me unwillingly into some 3D environments. Maybe I'm so cynical because, quite frankly, I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to be doing. But i ventured into "Active Worlds" non the less and wasted some of my precious time trying to participate normally. Things only started getting interesting when I made my virtual self free fall from a hover craft into a pointless (very deep) pond, and then repeatedly force myself to bang my head on the side of the pond wall as that seemed like the fun thing to do. I couldn't swim up and out of this pond so I decided a quick trip to America would solve the problem. So I clicked a button and I was there. It was, unsurprisingly, shit. Far rather using Google Earth.

I admit to using msn. In my eyes, msn is a communication devise that lets me talk to my friends in a private online conversation (as I only add people I know in person). 3D environments are just another place for the creeps to hang out. I personally don't have the will-power to check out all of these 'communication spaces' but here are the links in case you feel the need to suspend yourself in a "Second Life"...

http://www.activeworlds.com/
http://www.imvu.com/
http://www.there.com/
http://www.habbohotel.com.au/
http://www.secondlife.com/

Stand firm for what you believe in, until and unless experience proves you wrong. Remember, when the emperor looks naked, the emperor IS naked. The truth and a lie are not sort of the same thing. And there is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can't be improved with pizza. Thank you --- Daria

The truth is, the Internet has brought us some wonderful things; also some not-so-wonderful, and this is one of them. Unless they introduce free pizza with every download, steer clear.

Video Games

I'm trying to write my blog on Video games (as this was the miscellaneous topic for the week 7 tutorial task) while in the lecture. I thought this would make it easier because I could type what I was thinking as I thought it, if that makes sense. Turns out it is EXTREMELY hard to type and listen, and therefore think, all at the same time (well for me, anyway).

So instead of discussing video games, I'll just show you the video Adam found on You Tube (which I have recently discovered to be a most wonderous website!). It just shows the happiness that video games can bring. And though we all love our kids to be happy on christmas, or any day of the year for that matter, I pose to you this question: are we, as a younger generation, becoming too consumed by new technologies?

Everyone is a photographer these days

Don't you love it when every Tom, Dick and Harry who takes a photo and posts it on the internet calls themselves a "photographer"? Well I think it's hilarious....anyway....

Week 5 tutorial tasks asks us to take some basic photographs representing or "communicating" the concepts of: Friends, high-tech, news, summer, unconventional and university life. Although I don't think of myself as a photographer - I'm opting to use my own collection of photos for this task to make my blogs, as Jules put it, "more interesting". I don't know if this will be achieved but at least, by week6, I will have completed the week5 task :)

Friends - Amanda and myself, best friends catching up for lunch at one of the uni's cafes (taken by me with my Cannon PowerShot A400)

High Tech - Almost as High-tech as you can get, a Space Shuttle. To see the original source of this picture go to: http://www.freedesktopwallpapers.net/space/space-shuttle.shtml

News - This photo displays news in the sense I had just graduated from highschool (which was big news at the time), and Le Shay and I pose with our certifictates of graduation... its the best I could do...(Taken by Le Shays mum with whatever camera she owns...)

Summer - Yours Truely at Rainbow Bay during the summer months (taken by me with my Cannon PowerShot A400)

Unconventional - My brother Lachlan playing with his band at the PRO SHOW 2007, the most unconventional child I know.. in a good way :) (Taken by some proffessional with some proffessional camera I suppose..visit www.myspace.com/rogerthatofficial )

University Life - A typical lecture with the crew. Steve, Yazza, Aaron and Rhyan (taken by me with my Cannon PowerShot A400)

Excuses Excuses

"I don't take checks from college students" -- Daria
Smart idea as most of us are broke. When i make that generalization I'm in the hope that others are in the same situation as me. If I had lots of money, I would quit my job - but I don't and therefore I must painfully find time for studies in between shifts, and that is my poor excuse for why my posts have been late/wrong/non-existent. Wah wah wah. Anyway I guess its time to get cracking and catch up with all that has been ignored lately.

I will start with Tutorial Task WEEK 4. I did questions 2a and 2b (see posts below) but skipped question one as I had yet to figure out what exactly I wanted to write my essay on. Now I am heading in the direction of how communication and new technologies affects our once socially acceptable behavior for my topic. This includes things such as language and inter-personal skills. I'm hoping this is a good choice as it interests me and i have even mentioned it in previous blog posts.

Below are my Catalogue and Database searches for Question 1 week 4 tute task:

CATALOUGE
Netiquette / Virginia Shea ; foreword by Guy Kawasaki. Author: Shea, Virginia (Virginia G.), 1961-Edition: Ed. 1.0.Publication: San Francisco : Albion Books, c1994.

The Internet and social change / by Carla G. Surratt. Author: Surratt, Carla G.Publication: Jefferson, N.C. ; London : McFarland, c2001.

The Internet playground : children's access, entertainment, and mis-education / Ellen Seiter. Author: Seiter, Ellen, 1957-Publication: New York : Peter Lang, c2005.

DATABASE
How Technology Can Promote Social Change.(Letter to the editor). Chronicle of Philanthropy 17.18 (June 23, 2005): pNA. (341 words)

Examining characteristics and associated distress related to Internet harassment: findings from the Second Youth Internet Safety Survey.(Survey). Michele L. Ybarra, Kimberly J. Mitchell, Janis Wolak and David Finkelhor. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 46.2 (Feb 2007): p187(1). (542 words)


Well that's all I can find for now. I have just come to the realisation I am personally going to find this essay extremely difficult! uh-oh..