InteractiveBlogosphere:
1. GeNdEr PlAyS a RoLe Or NoT
2. Introducing Weblogs to Students
3. Arguments: Is That What Blogs Been Reduced To?
4. Women and Children are Last
5. Genius or Conman
Topics:
1. Wikinews???
2. Thoughts on Wikis
3. Weblog Community
4. Visual Weblogs???
5. Reality Shows vs. Weblogs: Just a Discussion
Just Blogging Around
1. Individual Project Ideas
2. Death of Winter Experience: Playing The Whole Game
3. Playing Interactive Fiction Games for 15 minutes
4. Individual Project
Chris' blog entry start off stating,"According to interactive fiction enthusiast Doug Atkinson, "there are a few fundamentals of identity that every (human) character must have...and one of them is gender. Does interactive fiction really require gender identity to be enjoyable? Successful? Does this reflect modern interests?"
I think people have problems with playing the opposite gender because they feel they can't identify with the character. What I mean by that because people think a woman knows what another woman is thinking and the same for men. I think men have the most trouble playing a female role. I think it makes them think that there are not a manly man, I guess. They would probabaly wouldn't be comfortable saying to themselves, "Think like a woman. What would a woman do?" That's if they were playing a female role in an interactive fiction game.
Personally, I don't have a problem playing the opposite gender in a game. I play these games for assignments or just for fun. It's just a game. It's not like your going to wake up the next morning the opposite gender. Also, when reading Chris' entry I thought about the game Photopia. There were a lot of different roles in the interactive fiction game.
In Val's presentation she said,"It was shocking (or at least it was for me) to see how many students were not familiar with weblogs at first, but were more motivated to write for class because of weblogs. I know when Dr. Jerz first mention the word Weblog, I was thinking to myself what's that. I had never heard that word before in my life. I know if I mention that word to a couple of more people, they would probabaly do that same.
Val address the article, Remediation, Genre, and Motivation: Key Concepts for Teaching with Weblogs", by Kevin Brooks, Cindy Nichols, and Sybil Priebe in her presentation. Basically, students are unaware about weblogs. Students find out about weblogs through taking courses. That's when they are first introduce to them.
Also Val made reference to an article, "Moving to the Public: Weblogs in the Writing Classroom", by Charles Lowe. This man said, "By making their writing public in class, students begin to take responsibility for/ownership of what they have to say rather than handing it directly over to a teacher-reader-grader." I agree with him. By posting on my blog I am responsible for whatever I put there. I do have ownership over it.
Vanessa's Presentation was focused on Parody Blogging and the Call of the Real by Trish Roberts- Miller. This presentation made me think about my own blog and the comments I post, that tend to turn in conversations. I can agree with Trish Roberts- Miller to a certain extent. Sometimes blogs conversations are one sided. Blogs are suppose to be a place were people can express themselves and interact with each other. There might be a couple of debates, but that is expected. When I say debate I don't mean it as a synonym to the word argument.
Arguments between people seemed to be takin the place were debates use to fit. In debates, everyone has to a chance to express their point of views. Now people just want to argue. They want their opinion to be heard, but won't listen to anyone else's opinion. I think that's what Miller's message was.
This topic was very interesting to me. I really wasn't suprise when Viki's presentation mention that more teenager female bloggers than male teen bloggers. I consider myself as a young woman, but society would probably put me in the category of still being a teenager since I'm 18 years old.
So by stating that, I will allow myself to be consider a teenager.
Teenage females tend to go through a lot more drama than males do. I think females tend to express themselves more through writing or talking to someone about there problems. Not that females don't use any other methods, I just think those are most popular choices. I think males just play sports and clubs to express themselves.
As for as more adult male bloggers than adult female bloggers that isn't surprising either. I think adult females take on a lot of responsiblity as they go through adulthood. Females get married, have children, and also have career. They have to balance all of that. Women are the glue that holds their household together.
Truthfully, I think men don't have anything else to do. I don't mean the lay around the house and don't do anything. It's just "a woman's work is never done."
Is Debbie Swenson are criminal or just a gifted writer? So, she invented a character named Kaycee Nicole, who happened to be a woman dying from the disease leukemia. She happened to post it on her blog. The story became bigger and bigger. She didn't mention that Kaycee was just a character from her imagination The blog readers became attach to this character.
Does this make Debbie a criminal? No, it doesn't. No one was hurt or con out of money. This shows that she is a talented and skilled person in the writing field. It shows that she has a fiery imagination. She was just expressing herself as a writer. Controversey just became the ending point for this story.
On Moira's blog she wrote "Maybe, you could argue, Debbie did it all on purpose, intentionally manipulating the emotions of her readers in order to hook them in, get them addicted to a potent poison that only she could provide. I think, however, that it was an accident."
I agree with Moira, I don't think she intentionally create a character to see how many people she could fool. Like I said before I think she was just expressing herself.
I have one question for my audience who reads my blog. How do you get emotionally attach to a person whom you never met? I don't understand how many people became attach. If I were to have read her blog, I probably would have been moved. That's it. I wouldn't have kept going to back to the computer to read a blog about a woman named Kaycee dying of leukemia. I have enough drama in my life that involves friends, family, and school to be concern about someone whom I never met. That might sound mean, but that's how I feel.
Calling all bloggers, did you know Wikipedia is attempting to go into the journalism field? Wikinews is coming with a thunderous entrance. Wikinews will follow the same format as Wikipedia. Anyone will be able to edit and correct to entries. Wikipedia and Wikinews are similar, but the have differences, too.
Wikipedia vs. Wikinews
Wikipedia consists of encyclopedia articles. It posts entries thst tied into current ties. The background articles are strong about subjects in the news. Wikipedia compile and summarize information Wikinews is developing a different writing style and approach. Each story will be written as a news story. It will have original material.
In this article, the co- founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales said, "...wiki is to write in such a way that your writing can survive...it can only survive if your writing is acceptable to an extremely wide audience." I agree with him. Wiki writing is a good example of survival of the fitness. If you can't cut it and don't appeal to the audience, your entry will be edited by another person.
Alex Halavais, graduate director for the informatics school at the University at Buffalo, has also had something to say. He said,"One of the things mainstream media does, for better or worse, is to report on news they expect will drive sales... this means ignoring foregin news, for example, for example, in many cases, because a local audience is not as interested. Since there is not the same economic incentive, the question is what the agenda of Wikinews will look like. I suspect it will reflect the interests and lives of its citizen reporters."
I don't agree with him. If anything our society is exploring foregin places and culture. That involves foreign news also. After Septemer 11, 2001, in the United States' news channels were always talking about foreign places like Iraq and so forth. That was a couple a years ago, but still if you watch the news you are bound to hear something about some foreign place. The AIDS epidemic in Africa is all over the news. As matter of fact, the AIDS epidemic nation wide wide is on the news. I am from Pittsburgh, PA and I watch the news frequently. I always see something about foreign countries.
Anyway, back to the subject about Wikinews. Peersonally, Wikinews and Wikipedia still seem like the same thing to me. A wikinews is an offspring of Wikipedia in my opinion. They don't seem different at all, even with some of the minor changes that were made.
This was my favorite interactive fiction game out of the four I played. My objective in this game was to find and save my boyfriend, Saul O. He was kidnapped by the Ice Queen when he was sleeping. I woke up and a snowflake in his place. I guess I just knew the Ice Queen had him. I found her and followed her into her cave of ice. The Ice Queen told me if I want my boyfriend back, I had to do something for her. She wanted the Heart of Winter and of course a dragon was guarding it. The Ice Queen opened an exit in the cave.
I walk through it and there was the Gorge of Despair. A little demon was flying around my head. The demon said he could help me get across the gorge if I gave him the blue crystal I had. I didn’t give the crystal to him and he got mad. He called me an ungrateful wrench and grew in size. He turned his back to me and whipped me with his tail. I lost my balance in fell into the gorge. I thought I was going to died at this point. Luckily, a branch broke my fall. I’m half way down the gorge. I decide to jump off the branch into the River of Storms. A strong wind current is carrying in mid air. I end up at the Ice Bank.
I climb a mountain and when I reached the top there was the Castle Courtyard in front of me. I saw the dragon and began to talk to it. The dragon knew I was there for the Heart of Winter. He told me he would give it to me if I gave myself to him that night. Excuse my language, but what the hell. A dragon asking for sexual intercourse, that a little over the top. Don’t you think? It was surprising and humorous at the same time. I decline his offer. The dragon just smiled and said come with me child. At this I was surprise. I thought I was to die by his hands (claws). He took me to a chamber and there was a mirror. I look at the mirror and only seen my reflection. The dragon told me that I was the Heart of Winter. The dragon waves his hand and I ended up outside the Ice Queen’s cave.
I went into the cave. The Ice Queen asks for the Heart of Winter. I told her the she was looking at it. She didn’t believe me. Magic left her fingertips and attacked me. Nothing happen to me. Then the magic left me and hit her at full force. She exploded. Then my boyfriend appeared. He was holding and kissing me. We walked out the cave and made our way home. This appeared on the screen as follows “A young couple, Saul O. and an unidentified woman were caught in the storm and lost control of the car. They crashed into a tree. They were found frozen to death holding each other while kissing”. My boyfriend and I died. After what all I did. I was dead. Can you believe that? This was not the ending I was expecting.
Death of Winter:
This was my favorite interactive fiction game out of the four I played. My objective in this game was to find and save my boyfriend, Saul O. He was kidnapped by the Ice Queen when he was sleeping. I woke up and a snowflake in his place. I guess I just knew the Ice Queen had him. I found her and followed her into her cave of ice. The Ice Queen told me if I want my boyfriend back, I had to do something for her. She wanted the Heart of Winter and of course a dragon was guarding it. The Ice Queen opened an exit in the cave. I walk through it and there was the Gorge of Despair.
Voices:
This story was very interesting, but it confused me. This game is similar to Photopia. The story line jumps around like it. Basically, this story was a romance story wrapped in a religious story as well. It starts out with this guy named Pierre who is in the field with me. We walk into his home town and he sees this girl he knows. They have a long conversation about what’s going in their lives and the war that they are having against the English. Pierre says he would go into the war if his father would let him. They talk a little more. Then we walk to the church and pray a few times. Next thing I know Pierre and the girl are in the war. I think a couple of years go by. Pierre is a soldier. The girl is the Commander of their. They have conservation, but this one was different. This time the girl tells Pierre that she has been chosen by God. She hears voices all the time, but she’s not crazy. Pierre asked if she ever thought they could be more than friends. She said if God didn’t choose her, she said yes. She said there is always time in the after life. He told me it was my entire fault. I was thinking, my fault? What do I have to do with it? Then it dawn on me, my character was God. I couldn’t figure it out what my role was in this game until he said that. They went to war and Pierre died to save her. He was a ghost of some sort. He watched her burn because the enemy caught her. Anyway, he asks me (God) if I would let them see each other in the after life and I said yes. Well the ending surprise me. Instead of those two getting together, I received this message as follows “You sick old bastard. That pervert pretty much said her virtue hives him a hard- on, and you reward him? Let me tell you, I glad you sent Gabriel to Mary instead of Pierre”. I was shocked. I thought it was humorous, but in a religious prospective I wouldn’t think it was funny.
Wedding:
Basically, my friend didn’t show up for his wedding yet. I get a phone call from a mysterious woman telling me to come get him. I go to the mansion to get him and I can’t get in because a security guard won’t let me in. So, I went around to the back the door was locked. So I go into a garden to see if I can find a key, but that was a dead end. This game was sending me on a wild goose chase. I never finished it or seen my friend.
Fear:
In this game I had a terrible nightmare at first and I woke up in night sweats. I was scared when I woke up. I started being afraid of various things around my house. Any noises that occur I was scared. There were pills on the table so I put in the command to eat the pills. Well, that wasn’t a good idea. The pills dissolve on my tongue. I become disoriented and I started hallucinating. I felt as though the walls were closing around me. I started running towards the stair because I thought I was being pursued by horrible things and I heard screaming in my ear. I went the stairs in fell head first into monsters at the bottom of the steps. I died. I was found with a broken neck. If that wasn’t interesting I don’t know what is.
In my project I am focusing on setting up my pages. My homepage will have the word caution on it. It will serve as a warning of the content on my site. The last sentence in this warning will state “Don’t Be Offended” by my thoughts, emotion, and views”. The words Don’t Be Offended will be the link into the rest of my site. By clicking this link, it will take to a poem title “Don’t Be Offended”.
On the left side of the screen there will be links to the other poems on the site. Each link will be categorized by the genre of poems. I haven’t decided on how many poems I want to place in each category. Also, this idea isn’t craved in stone, but I think I will have links to quotes by famous poets or poems by poets who inspired me. Not only will I have poems that inspired me to write, by ones that I just enjoy reading. Another there idea was having a biography page about myself. I haven’t decided on that just yet.
As for the wiki page, I really would like have that type of page. I don’t think anyone else has come with the same idea as me. So this would be an original idea as far as individual projects are concern. That’s were you come in Dr. Jerz. Basically, I have chosen the poems from my own collection that I am willing to let people change. I think this will be the highlight of my site. I really interested in how people will choose to revise my original poems. I am looking forward to this part of the project. I think I will allow about five to ten poems that can be change. I haven’t decided yet. It is still pending.
As for the colors that will be I on my site, I think I will be using the colors red, white, blue, and black. The background of all of my pages will be blue. The words will be white. The links will be colored in black. I guess you can say I am color-coding my page.
I think wikis are great. I have mixed feelings about them though. Personally, I open to wikis as far as the idea. I wouldn’t put anything on a wiki that I didn’t want to be change. I would post some of my work on a wiki page, but not the important things or anything close to my heart.
By stating that I have mixed feelings about wikis, this is showing I am open minded to them somewhat. This just shows that I am a writer who doesn’t want all of their work changed on a daily bases. I write poetry. I feel as though no one should be able to change my poem because the poem is about my thoughts, feelings and point of views.
I would like to apologize to my fans for not blogging more frequently. Well, I’m back. It’s that time again, Portfolio Time. That means I will be blogging like crazy the next couple of days. Ha Ha Ha.
Seton Hill's Academic Weblog Community
Being apart of this community I know there are bloggers that blog everday. I don't blog everyday. I would say I blog when I want or need to. I don't spend my time in fornt of a computer blogging my life away, not that there is something wrong with that. That's just not me. If I write anything it's on paper and I can choose the audience that reads it. Not that I'm afraid of what people might say. It's the fact that's just not me. On occasions I might post something for the fun of it. That's rare for me to do. Just look at my weblog, I go weeks without posting anything. This doesn't mean my weblog is quality work. This just means that I'm not going to spend all of my time to perfecting my blog. I congratulate anyone who does want a perfect weblog.
Visual Weblogs seems like the way of the future. I think it is pretty good idea. Visual blogs would be probably easier on the eyes. I know sometimes when I read online my eyes start to hurt and I have to take a brake. Most of the time I end up printing it. Pictures are alot easier on the eyes in my opinion. With visual blogs you wouldn't have to write in detail to paint a picture for the reader, it would already be there.
On the other hand, would visual blogs be a sign of laziness,instead of the way of the future? We should think about that. Just because it's easier doesn't make it right. People are always looking for the easy way out.Many people don't read books as is. Now we are going to take away weblogs and turn them into visual blogs. In my opinion this would make our society into a society of illiterate people. Fools and slaves for the internet (don't take that personal, just a metaphor).
Well, just siting in class today listening to the opinions of others just made me think about my own personal opinion. I know some people our going to disagree with me, but I don't care. This is my opinion. I don't watch reality shows, they are just a trend for right now. Blogs are not a trend. I believe people will keep their blogs throughout life. A blog is like a document of your life depending on how personal it is.
Blogs and Reality Shows are similar. People believe that blogs don't have rules or certain format to follow. Blogs do have certain rules. If they didn't we wouldn't have to censor ourselves as writers. We could post whatever we want to and have no consequences. But there are consequences and flame wars will start. To be continued...