Tremblaye’s Weblog

Converging cultures is so obvious in my everyday life. I use my ipod everyday and I would not dream of using a cd player with a million different cds. I think that the ipod caters to the new consumer that has a very small attention span. They want something new and different and my ipod gives me that. I like that I can listen to so many different groups that carrying around cds would be annoying. I think that the ipod made people listen to some many different groups because they do not have to have the groups entire cd but onyl a few they like. Downloading MP3s  plays a major role in the success of the ipod.Without the ability to downlaod the ipod would not work as well.

My cellphone is my life. When i loss my phone I feel like I am missing a part of myself.Phones today can do so many things and when you dont have it, it is terrible. On my phone i call people, text, take pictures and vidoes, listen to music(sometimes), play games, and use it as my alarm. The clock in my room is rarely looked at because I use the time on my phone. The phone creates a easier world for me because there are so many functions it does. It is my little black box because it carries out most of my things I need with electronic.

My laptop is also something very important to me. I listen to music, use the internet, play games, email, take pictures, watch television and movies. My laptop is so important to me because without it I could not do my homework and I could not go and check my email. Without my laptop I do not think I would be successful in college because I computer is needed to get the homework done. Also, computers are neccessary for my social life and my educational life.

Part I
Posts
1. Digital Wild- August 30
2. The Future of the Internet – September 4
3.Hopes and fears for the digital culture - September 4
4. Media Unlimited- September 9
5. Ender’s game September 11
6. Enders game pages 54 to 119 September 14
7.Working with another student’s piece September 18
8. Strange Days September 25
9. Intro to Slideshows October 1
10. Review of slideshows October 3
11. Reality as we know it? my slideshow October 4
12. Hapland!!! October 9
13. Leo@fergusrules.com October 16
14. Wikis October 17
15. Our own Wiki October 18
16. Words in Converging Cultures October 25

Comments
set one Lindsey September 4
Liz Ball September 10
set two Aliyah September 12
Liz Ball September 18
set three Missy September 18
Kerri September 25
set four Missy October 2
Sam October 2
set five Lauren October 11
Liz Ball October 25
set six Jen October 25
set seven Kristen October 30
Kerri October 30

Part II

Passage one
“Media unlimited spoke of the dangers of the internet and both points are very similar.
A quote that I actually enjoyed was, “Surely media have effects on behaviors and ideas, not so much because of any single exposure is powerful but because they repeat. And repeat. And repeat.” I do not agree with Todd Gitlin in many cases but I do agree with him in this instance. Marketing is one of the mediums that Todd Gitlin is talking about. I do feel that different mediums broadcast their opinions so many times that it is like subliminial messaging.” Media Unlimited
I think the idea of subliminial messaging is important in understanding media. Also, it helps to understand the adverstisment world and how they use certain techniques to get potential buyers.

Passage Two
” The society seems to follow the ways of the government because Ender’s parents were willing to have Ender because the government told them to. Also, it shows that the government has a lot of power because the government is influecing people. There is now a social stigma against people who do not comply with the laws of the IF. This shows that Ender is questioning a lot of things in his life and is not very sure that his exsistence is worth anything. The government with the action of removing his chip took all of Ender’s self worth. “ Ender’s game
The role of government is a very important concept in the digita culture. Where does censorship begin and end in the digital culture? Should society listen to the government about everything in life and were should the government draw the line in the digitual world?

Passage Three
“These children are not getting play time like children should get. These kids are playing war games and video games that they have to kill in. I think the author put this passage in the book to stress that these little “warriors” were not being treated as children anymore. I think that book has many of the same opinions that i feel, that these poor children are not having a childhood and there will be serious consequencse in their mental state. The children are absorbed by this game and this becomes their lives.” Enders game page 54-119
Children is a theme that has been coming up a lot in my blog posts. I think this is beause one of the major themes in Enders game was if a normal childhood was needed in order to raise a well adapted child. This idea has become very important in recent history because of violence and sex in the news and video games.

Passage Four
“I thought another technique that was very persuasive was showing pictures with children in it. One of the pictures showed a child holding a gun toward the camera. I think when the pictures contained children it shows how the society is effected the children. This is because the children are being turned into what they become due to their surrounding. The media is a factor in their development and pictures with children and guns and children being sucked into video games are very telling of today’s society.” Blog post#9 slideshows
Children once again showed up in one of my posts. This time it delat with war and violence with children. This is when I was discussing other peoples slideshows. I still agree with my point that kids are getting drawn into the digital world of video gamse instead of the real world.

Passage Five
“People are hedonistic, pleasure seeking, and Johnson says that people play these games to receive rewards thus receiving pleasure. I even went so far as saying “I do not like to figure games by myself. I was frustrated but then I was trying to beat the game…I feel like if I had a cheat book in front of me I would have used it. I was so desperate to beat it that I would have kept on trying.” Johnson talks about how the games become addictive and when rereading what I wrote after playing the game I can see that I was addicted.” Hapland
Hapland was a great example of what the video games to do to peoples brains. It shows the drive people have in order to win games. I think this is a very important theme, where is the line? Are there ethics when it comes to video games?

I said that ” Wikis are good concepts because the idea of collaboration and participation from many different people but I still don’t like it. The idea that a piece of work with my name on it can be altered without my approval. I guess there is no copyright when it comes to Wikis.”Henry Jenkins said that “No one group can set the terms, No one group can control access and participation” (Jenkins,23). His concepts about participation are stressing the same issues and fears that I feel. He states how their is no one governing body that has control over converging cultures and I spoke of how I feared that there was no one controlling the wikis so anyone could edit my page. The idea of losing control when anyone can participate is something we both discussed. I was not happy that I did not have control over others because I did not want my work to be altered. Jenkins describes that the participation of many facts creates a sense o uncertainty in the world of this converging culture.
Participation was crucial for our group. The problem was everyone did not have an opinion on what section we choose for the project. I knew I did not want to do the last section of the PEW research but other members did not know which one. The participation grew when we were discussing the Johnson piece so we decided this should be our first choice because the group seemed most interested in this section. The section that the group did not like as much the discussion was not very long because people did not have enough opinions to participate in the discussion. It is easier to participate when you like a topic.

I think that this was a new experience. It is similar to writing a blog post but knowning that someone can edit it is weird. I do not want my ideas to be completely changed by another person. I am not sure if i like the idea of a wiki but I did not like blogging before and its not to bad now. Wikis are good concepts because the idea of collboration and participation from many different people but I still dont like it. The idea that a piece of work with my name on it can be altered without my approval. I guess there is no copyright when it comes to Wikis. There is so many things changed on all the webpages that I wonder if the writers of the page even notice the small changes people make. Information is not exactly as always true and this can serve as a problem. When doing blog post number 14, a guy thought that a fact was true when it was clearly added as a joke. Wikis can be easily changed and misinform many people. Information. collaboration.info collaboration. i never really looked at wikipedia as unrealiable source. I was always told be many of my teachers that wikipedia was not a good source of info. I never really believed them until i saw a joke within a very long entry in wikipedia. I think that wikipedia is a pretty good source, but i would never try to use info from them to write a paper. In high school i would use it for random info about the history of spain but not for my research paper for lit. I think that wikipedia is great and kristen is not. she writes mean stuff that are not true about people in her blog. This is much like wikipedia people put stuff that is not true but thats the problem of it.

I was wondering what topic I wanted to pick but then I thought I should do the obvious choice. I know a lot about basketball and the history of it. When reading this article I was surprised that I did know most of the history of basketball. I thought I would not know most of the famous basketball players from the past but I did. Wikipedia was a brief overview of basketball history and I know the history basketball pretty well. The rules and equipment for basketball are something that are common knowledge. It was weird to think that basketball is a relatively new game, considering the NBA started in the late 1950s. I think that the content was nothing very new to me. The process I went while reading it made the difference. I was actually looking about the facts and thinking about it. I knew the facts but I never really thought about it.
I think that the website did a pretty good job explaining basketball. There are so many aspects of basketball that it becomes hard to explain everything it takes to understand the game. I think if someone who did not know basketball read this, they would understand the game a lot better. This is the main object of the web-page so it does a good job. I think this website should include more information about who women’s and men’s basketball differ. There are so many differences between the two games that I think that should have been addressed. The problem might be that it could be opinion but I think it should be there. The first couple of edits were taken out by the person that made the web-page. The person felt that the information was not very important to the overview of basketball. The writer felt that trivial basketball facts were not needed and this would make the page too long because there are so many. There are a lot of debates about this page. There was vandalism on the page and someone believed it, stating why was the history of the two gay inventing the game taken out of the web-page? This is what can happen people take the misinformation on the pages as fact and are then confused. Also, people are seeking more information about the size of the hoop and the dimensions of the basketball.

The scene I choose is when Leo is Dlon and she appears at her grandfather’s shop. It occurs on pages 78 to 82. Her grandfather put her to work in the assembly line but the other workers felt that she was too slow. A big man named Carl, brought Leo to a bathroom and made her clean it. Leo was furious because she has never had to clean a bathroom. She has been pampered all her life and in this game she had to clean this disgusting bathroom that has not been clean for a long time. She had cleaned the bathroom but when Carl and the other workers came back, they were not impressed by her work. When she was being yelled by the other workers a large “rat the size of a tiger” came from the toilet and starting eating the male workers. Leo later figured out that this rat was her grandfather.
This scene was an insane. I think it shows that what happens in this virtual reality world does not have to make sense. This scene was a perfect example of how Leo tried to be reasonable when in Aperion but reason does not work here. She tried to do what she is told and clean the bathroom but the man do not care. They are cruel and mean to her. I think that in Aperion, revenge occurs a lot. This can be seen in this part of the book when the “grandfather” eats the men that are being mean to Leo. The problem is that the rat has no control over itself and Leo slowly realizes that if the rat sees her, she will also be eaten. This does not make sense in the real world because why would her grandfather want to eat her? This is the problem reason does not exist in Dlon.
The reader learns about the Dlon world threw Leo’s eyes. We, the reader, learn as Leo learns about this unfamiliar place. I think one of the most important ideas that Leo learns while in Dlon is “Dlon was not a place but a time–right now. And maybe right now for me could be never be right now for Bri”(80). I think this idea is very important to understand the uniqueness of Dlon and how things are not like the outside world we know.
I think the process and the context are both important for the flow of the novel. I think that the process is the most important because Leo is the insight to this world. Her analyzation of this place leads to better understanding. I think that the context lets a reader to see the concrete surroundings but I feel that the analyzation is the most important thing in this novel.

Johnson’s book “Everything that is Bad is Good for You” made me examine my opinions about the media. After playing the game Hapland, I saw Johnson’s points very clearly. Without even thinking about what I was doing I was trying to figure out how to win this game. I was pushing every point and “probing” the area for new and different actions. Every time a man died in the game I was full of anger because I wanted to win. The sense of gratification was gone because I would not defeat the game, I was defeated. I had done all this “work” but one move erased all of it. I then made a list of what were the right actions and Johnson describes this as telescoping. I did many of the actions Johnson spoke of without trying to and this Johnson also describes in his book. There is a “natural reward circuitry” (34) which people act according to this. People are hedonistic, pleasure seeking, and Johnson says that people play these games to receive rewards thus receiving pleasure. I even went so far as saying “I do not like to figure games by myself. I was frustrated but then I was trying to beat the game...I feel like if I had a cheat book in front of me I would have used it. I was so desperate to beat it that I would have kept on trying.” Johnson talks about how the games become addictive and when rereading what I wrote after playing the game I can see that I was addicted. Once I leave this class, I will go back to my room and with the answers win the game. I feel once I do that I will have beaten it, even though I did not do it on my own. I really do not care as along as I did it.

image one:stack of magazines:fairfax digital. the sydney herald
image two:picture of a girl in a magazine thats photoshopped:no copyright
image three:cartoon about photoshopping:no information about copyright. the only thing was an orignal website http://fno.org
image four:picture of a regular woman being photoshopped:copyright for this website is it can not be for commercial use. its from a dove campaign
image five:picture of a model being photoshoped:copyrighted by phu ly of dreamhost
image six:the unrealistic standards that media presents: in an article by the age magazine. no information about the picture
image seven:an actress in real life and on a magazine cover:http://humor.beecy.net/misc/celebs/
image eight:children being photoshopped:no information about copyrighting only the website. www.naturalbeautiescontest.homestead.com
image nine:how i see myself before media:my own image
image ten:then after the media:my own image

After long discussions with my partner and after the suggestions from other people, I am choosing the topic of reality vs virtual reality. I think I can do this topic and be very persuasive through the medium of photographs. My argument is that Media, with the help today’s technology, distorts reality and the effects this has on people. There is so much support out there and so many different examples. I can use a lot of different examples to get my point across. I can also, use the technique of surprise to keep the audience on their toes. Most of my pictures do not deal with this topic. Some deal with the media but they would just confuse the audience. the picture of the mother yelling on Th. cell phone is a good visual argument but does not support my argument. After looking at my slideshow again, I only want to keep three pictures. The three pictures are the only ones that actually argue my point but also do not confuse the audience. This is one thing that I do not want to do, confuse the viewer.
Something that will make my argument stronger would be pictures that magazines have on their cover than show that same person looking completely different. I think I want have pictures that show what teens with dysmorphic disorder have. I did not start with this but after seeing the slideshow in class, I want to show the effects from this. I think this will bring the agrument more finished. If I show what and how they distort images then show the effects this has on society. This would follow the same line of a person seeing themselves as who they really are then at the end seeing someone that looks uglier than they really are. I think that my slideshow will need a lot more pictures than it has right now!!

The were many different approaches to this project. People felt that different types of pictures would be effective. Some people used images they took themselves. Others only used picture that were from the internet. Also, people used a combination of their own photographs and ones from the internet. I think people that used both were the best because it showed real humans with the idea they were trying to convey. I also, found the technique of using humorous photos very persuasive. Certain slideshows had cartoons that made me actual look at the problem they are addressing in the cartoon more carefully. One of the cartoons was a child surrounded with media and him ignoring his mother as he killed aliens on a video game. The image was kind of funny but it was potent. I think cartoons are very persuasive because they show how ridiculous the things people do. This makes a person really examen what they are doing. I thought another technique that was very persuasive was showing pictures with children in it. One of the pictures showed a child holding a gun toward the camera. I think when the pictures contained children it shows how the society is effected the children. This is because the children are being turned into what they become due to their surrounding. The media is a factor in their development and pictures with children and guns and children being sucked into video games are very telling of today’s society.