Using Xtranormal For The Kids

I love Xtranormal.com and have decided that it's a cool place to make skits with lessons for kids who are tired of being simply told what to do. To help with the bullying issues, both in general and online, I've created two movies using this site. It's pretty easy and fun. Anyway, I'm going to make more and leave some open ended for the students (at my mom's school) to finish depending on how they see fit and what they have learned about various relevant topics. You can check out my videos and maybe make your own. The site got popular now, so you have to pay for a lot of content, which is sad :( Anyway, this is part of my final project. I just want to share the site because I think it's a great idea. Thanks, Shareen.

Carlito the Bully: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8013117

Johnny and the Cyber Bully http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8013997

Forgive my boring titles.

Genreffic. Responding to a Prompt or Two

Q: To what extent can you see the "complicated intersections" of genre and the "irrational/logical" explanations play out in the public sphere, especially as that sphere "works" online (in blogs, websites, news sites, etc.)?

I'd say that genres are definitely mixed all the time within various spheres online. I do consider various media different genres, as they require such different approaches to be handled correctly. Film has certain do's and don't's that might intersect with those of writing an essay, but they don't perfectly coincide. The same goes for other mediums as well. And you really don't have any other field that combines so many different mediums/genres like you do on the internet. Blogs might use a video, or a chunk of text, or even combine the two. Podcasts often rely completely on sound so tone and and timbre become the forefront and other aspects are ignored. Photography is another big one that has a significant role online that is used in conjunction with many other genres but is also very capable of evoking a lot all by itself. And just as these various mediums serve as genres in their own right, each of them as its own independent sphere has many sub-genres inherent within them.

I'm almost tempted to argue that irrational explanations almost outweigh the logical (just look at Youtube comments or any responses to a political blog). However, that would be unfair as there is a lot of well thought out and intellectual material present as well. While there are occasions where the logical and irrational very much beat each other down into such a state that neither is worth digging through for meaning, sometimes the tension between them creates the possibility of discovering a new angle, switching sides, or even finding evidence to support your original thoughts.



Q: How might we productively and deliberately use different genres (and rational/irrational explanations) online to help us portray the "truth" of an ongoing situation?

I think that the combination of irrational and rational explanations is the only way that we can really discover the truth of a situation. Just like you can't really claim that a certain store has the best price in town for a product if you haven't, indeed, encountered the prices offered from any other stores. Irrational explanations might help motivate (rather by stirring anger or more positive passions) whereas logical explanations will help strengthen causes and direct the flow of emotion. Sometimes pictures and videos can do more than just the written word. Seeing a starved child withering away is much more effective to most people than just encountering a sentence that attempts to describe it. Occasionally a song might be better suited to rally people to a cause than a few pictures could. Oftentimes more viable evidence can be provided in an essay or report than any tune could carry. They are tools that can work independently or together. There is almost never a right tool for any single occasion, but rather it depends on the artist crafting the communication.


The truth is almost never wholly revealed by any one source. Rather, it is by the combination of varied communications that we, as receptors of the truth, can begin to paint its image more clearly.

Juarez

Continuing the spirit of many of the class blogs, I too was quite sickened by the events happening in Ciudad Juárez as portrayed in the documentary.


However, I think the part that made me feel the worst was when the FBI went done to investigate, but since they only found eight bodies instead of two hundred they left.


Now, I understand that we can't just sent the FBI out willy-nilly, but I feel like helping out Mexico would have been a worthwhile investment politically, and that's not even considering the moralistic ramifications. When that sort of thing is happening just across the border I feel we are politically justified in offering aid. I feel that our cooperation and services could better the condition of the city and make it a safer place for all the women (and men) that live there.



Now, this next bit is very biased from my personal opinion, so I understand if you feel differently. Recently it seems like our government has been making politically unstable moves and moving into situations that we aren't really capable of handling because our motives are either vague or unrealistic. For most of the activity in the Middle East I know that both many of my associates and I were never really sure why we were where we were or what we were trying to accomplish there. Look at all the money, resources and manpower that went into (and continues to go into) that.

Now think about Juárez. We know what the problem is and we have people that are good at solving those sorts of problems. If the local government agreed, we could delegate some task forces to go in there and help solve the problem.


I don't deny that I'm making many political simplifications and taking a lot of the grey out the situation, but I really do feel that that would be an action that I'd be proud to see my nation take.


How do you feel?

A good citizen, city and life.

A good citizen is supposed to involve in public issues and try to be interested in that. That is all the author talks about. If people only care about their business and are indifferent what is going on the society, the city could not be a good city. And the citizen could not live satisfied life in the city. Since every people cannot participate in politic directly, citizens should be concerned about public issues and voice their opinion. Some people just complain the political affairs when they don’t even vote. If somebody does not go to the polls, they might lose the right that get involved in politics and complain. When every citizen takes part in politics in either way indirectly and directly, a good city can be built up and the citizen can enjoy their good life.

I guess Warner's point is..

Warner’s point is an individual becomes subject when he or she enters the public sphere. He says “public opinion is understood as belonging to a public rather than to scattered individuals. So it is only meaningful to speak of public discourse where it is understood as the discourse of a public rather than as an expansive dialogue among separate persons.” In order to do that, he suggests people to be idealized public speaker, identified as self-abstraction. , that represent people. When they voice opinion in counter sphere, they are not private individual anymore.

Even after I read the Warner's writing, I couldn't understand his point. So, I put "guess" on the title. I do not like to read that kind of complicate writing that make the point ambiguous and hard to understand.

Dear eCitizens,

This is about privacy. It doesn't get any less important online. Arguably it becomes even more important.


Some people (I included) believe that once anything of value is released online, it's there forever. Files, photos, phone numbers, anything. The internet has shrunk the world to a manageable level. Unlike any other point in the history of the world has someone been able to connect themselves globally practically instantly. Once something gets out somebody can save it / share it  / replicate it. Once something gets out it belongs to the online world.


So how do we get these things back? How do we round up information we've accidentally released into cyberspace? The answer is simple: we can't. Despite the stories you hear of people with cash (celebrities come to mind) getting their sensitive content (like nude photos)  offline and gone forever, it's a fairy tale to appease the posh. Those files are still out there somewhere and they can be shared and spread all around the world again.


The only way we can really stop people from spreading our private information around is by not letting it out in the first place. To prevent an outbreak you have to get to the source, and we are each our own focal point. It's true that sometimes information is stolen, and that is out of our control. However, the majority of sensitive information lost and sold is given with our own consent.



Read terms before you agree. If you find the terms are confusedly written, rally with others of like mind and petition for simpler terms. If you find a violation of privacy in a contract, rally with those who agree and fight for your information. It takes the conscious effort of individuals bringing the fruits of their separate labors together to keep the system fair and just. There will always be those looking to rob us of what's rightfully ours, but we don't have to keep making it so easy for them.

Club Activity Survey

Have you ever thought about club activity at CSUSB? Have you ever complained about that?
What is the problem of this issue? Get involve in this issue !

Click this link and answer the questions please. It will take only 1minute. The result of this survery will be used to resolve the issue. Thank you :D

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEwtbjhNVHkwSGo1OWdOMjZhbFh0SVE6MQ

Habermas v Warner

Here's a comic I drew for a comparative look at the Habermas and Warner readings.
(click for larger pic)

Interesting...

The privacy section of the Capitalism Magazine website linked to in my previous post (see previous post) no longer works.


Bad programming, or shameful conspiracy?



Probably "C. None of the above", but it is interesting, nonetheless.



EDIT: For all those who voted C, congrats. The link works once again. Order is restored.

Political blogs

I looked up some of the website. But, I couldn't find any interesting issue for me. So I will just focus on the features and differences between the websites. The blogs are more like a voice of individuals. It is good that somebody has own opinion but some of the writings seem lack of grounds or rational something. Also, one of the blogs looks like.. He or she doesn’t have any reader because I could see few comments. It reminds me of “access” to public sphere. Even if writer has a good opinion, it can be a brilliant piece of writing or just covered up.

Dangerous Thinking

A few hours ago I checked out this post on the Capitalism Magazine website:

http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/politics/law/privacy/4524-Spying-and-Privacy-Rights-Spying-Absolutely-Always-Wrong.html

I saw that they had a PRIVACY section under politics, and thought that since privacy is such a keen concern of mine currently, that it was worth checking out. Unfortunately, the latest posts dated back to 2006, but one caught my eye and I thought it worth discussing.

In his posts, Mr. Hurd argues for the invasion of privacy to catch terrorists. It seems a decent argument at first, and I do agree with some of his points. But near the end of the article his dangerous thinking pours through.



"I want my government to spy and do whatever else it takes to catch terrorists."


And in the final paragraph he states, "I have no problem with the standard of spying President Bush has drawn."


In my opinion, these two lines reveal the two major thoughts that are wrong with his picture.


1. A by-whatever-means-necessary approach is thoughtless and hardly ever considers the ramifications that it might impose on the larger public.

2. It shows that a STANDARD for the INVASION OF PRIVACY has been set, and believes that to be perfectly fine. If a government invades privacy, it should be deemed a necessary action that has to be made in an instant. There shouldn't be a standard for the regular government invasion of privacy.



What do you think? I'm a just a crazy conspiracy nut, or is it possible that many US citizens don't put enough value on their privacy?

places invoved in my topic.

My topic is “Encouraging club activity at CSUSB”. So, this issue can happen everywhere on campus or even off campus if students think about that outside of campus. If I have to pick one certain place to talk about “where”, I will say student union without hesitation. That is because club advertisement or meeting occurs inside or around the building. When students see that kind of gathering people, they could think about involving some clubs. Also, the office that in charge of club is located on second floor of the building. If I display something about club activity to make students know about the information, Student union will be the first place to start.

"Are You in Control?"

Hello, hello. I found this great video about internet privacy. I think its artfully done, and although it almost sings like propaganda at moments it's a sort of propaganda for user awareness.



What do you think about your role on the internet? Are you aware of what kind of ripples of information are out there on you?

Expected audience for my topic?

It would be any college students. But, it is especially for students at CSUSB becuase they might have wanted to join any clubs at this school and couldn't find certain club to join. Students might not be active to try to find a club that they are interested in. But, it would be fault caused by this school too. I am really curious why this kind of situation happens. I am going to make a questionare to know the reasons and have an interview with some staffs of the student union office. And, I want to post my writing and share the information after I solve the problem and establish the information.

Narrowed down topic.

My topic was "how to make college life more enjoyable and memorable" Even though I knew I had to make it more specific and detail, I did not know what point I should start from. There would be a lot of things to think about college life such as academic life, building social network, volunteer works, study abroad programs, various school activities or someting like that. Among them I decided to focus on club activity because it was hard for me to find some clubs that I can join. The clubs at this university do not seem to be active and suppoted by this school except for Greek clubs. I was trying to know what kind of clubs this school has and what I can do in some clubs. I went to the office in student union builing, got the list of the clubs and emailed about five presidents of the clubs. Some of them did not reply my message and some of them said "our club doesn't exist anymore." I felt weird because I could see many people enjoy school life through joing some clubs in my country. But it seems not to be common at this university. I don't know why this problem happens. But, I want to solve this problem and encourage people to join some clubs for their more enjoyable college life at CSUSB.

Maybe Finally Probably Have A Topic... Maybe

I don't know why I'm so indecisive... or maybe it's because I've been trying to pinpoint what problem I actually want to focus on. In my writer's notebook, I ranted for pages about the general issue of the negative reputation that the U.S. has been getting based on our media, entertainment through television, current music trends, internet interactions, movies, magazines, etc. Having lived for a few months in Italy, I was bothered by what television shows were selected to be shown on MTV which, at least in my apartment, took up 2 of 8 channels available. I remember watching Teen Mom, Jersey Shore, and The Hills. The image Americans were getting was that we were all trashy, immoral, stupid, and care too much about celebrity life to take a stand on real issues. I remember some angry Italian college boys screaming at my friends and I that we should take our stupid selves back to the states. Even a priest said in front of the congregation that Americans are like King Herod and all we do is kill babies. Hmph. Anyway, I realize there are enough people focusing on the TV shows that are promoting negative behavoir and projecting a negative image of the general American public, so I think I might switch gears and focus on the internet. Specifically, youtube.com. Now I spend plenty of time browsing random videos and enjoy it as much as the next person, but it's what is in the comments that really bug me. Why is it that comments on a simple music video turn into heated battles between racial groups or countries spewing hate at each other? I believe the fact that these problems are so frequent means there is no hope for any of us. J/k. I'm just in a bad mood. The fact is that a great deal of people, including a large chunk of the world's youth, have taken a stand on many issues. However, this enormous public forum called the world wide web has shown that they are expressing opinions in the wrong way, communicating with slurs, ignorance, and impatience. Ignorance may very well be the key issue. How can we stop or at least decrease the lies told about each other, whether about religion, race, or nationality, to be able to conduct ourselves in a civilized manner?

I understand I still need to find a better focus. I'm still brainstorming trying to get it right. Hmmm...

Looking for some Interaction Traction

This blog post is just sort of a fishing for feedback sort of deal. So here's what I'd like to know if you can spare the time:

How aware would you say you are of the conditions and terms you agree to to gain membership to sites such as facebook? 

How concerned (if at all) are you with these terms?

What do you know about HTTP cookies?

How do you feel about information sharing between sites?

These are just basic sorts of questions. If you have any further random thoughts or opinions about the internet and/or privacy on the internet, let me know!

Why is the history important to his definition?

That's because his definition with the history gives us important lesson. In the past the access right is limited for someone because certain representative groups take charge of the affairs. now, people can get the access to join public sphere and speak aloud their voice if they want. However, some people are not interested in public issue or even indifferent. If this kind of people increase, only few people can affect  public issues. As the result of that the others have to just follow the decision of the people. They would complain about that. But it would be their fault!

To prevent this situation "WE" have to involve in public issue ! Don't let it be!

My paper topic

Actually I was going to change my topic. it is very similar to drey's topic. So, I just decided to keep my topic. My topic is " How can I make my campus life more enjoyable and memorable?" I chose this topic because this is the most important issue for me recently. Before I came here, I planned my life here. But, something is so different from what I thought that I coudn't carry out my plan. For this quarter I have to reorganize  my plan and act. I am panning to joining some interesting club, learning culture, making friends from different country, traveling to southern America, cooking for my healthy diet and something like that. Everyone might think about their plan for school life. So, I think this topic can be public issue even though it is not arguing topic. At least I can get some advice from others and share the idea with other people.

Anyone who give me some advice or tell me your school life at CSUSB? It will be really helpful for me to solve this problem.

If this topic is not good to invite people to public discoure, I will consider changing my topic. It might be not totally different topic but just narrow downed topic like culture difference or leaving "campus" out as in " my campus life " to make people more interested in my topic. I will see..

Follow up to TOPIC CHANGE

Well, I think I'm now definitely headed towards the internet privacy topic.

I figure that that topic has the most potential and is relevant to a lot more people than taxes on in-game items for gamers. Don't get me wrong! I think that the taxation issue if unstopped will hurt a decent amount of people right away, and might sort of evolve into a sort of meta-issue that will endanger the internet using world's wallets.

Yet, with that said, the problem with internet privacy affects everybody now! And on top of that aspects of companies selling priority results (like with Google as displayed in class, for you fellow classmates) and accepting bids to look the other way on bias (as Wikipedia has been accused of in the past) definitely affects the internet's ability to function as a useful public sphere. Technically people will still be to get together and discuss on the internet, but with the way things stand now, any site that gains too much public attention runs the risk of becoming somebody's money-making scheme. And interference with public discourse too often follows that industrial greed.


That said, I'm still up for ways to make my first issue into a matter of public importance (see former post) if anybody is more creative than me. If nobody has anything to say though... internet issues, here I come!

TOPIC CHANGE

My topic was the taxation of virtual goods, namely those in videogames. However, this proved intensely difficult to relate back to the concepts of the public sphere and other such topics discussed in class. So I'm considering a topic change. If anybody can think of any way I can relevantize this topic, please do so. And, no, relevantize is not a real word, but, yes, you like it.

Anyhow, I'm considering changing my topic to the concern that has recently come to plague my every internet-consumed moment, which is privacy. More specifically the guarantees of privacy within user agreements for sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Google. I feel that this topic is much more of an issue that may drastically affect the way the internet functions as a public sphere, and probably not in a favorable way.

Both topics are up in the air. The privacy contract is sounding a bit more appealing, but if anyone happens to read this and makes a super-duper-pooper-scooper argument for the virtual taxation, I'm still game.

The Blue Coyote Pub & Eatery

On campus, the wind sometimes blows so hard you get thrown into buildings or debri blinds you on your way. Other times, the sun is simply too hot to handle. Where better to escape nature's mood swings than a pub? Frankly, beer and potato skins aren't the best recipe for acing a test, but we're not talking about education here. This is about public spaces. The Blue Coyote is centrally located in the Student Union and offers a relaxing, fun atmosphere for students and teachers alike to get together and relax. The school spirit is in the atmosphere the minute one steps inside the pub, with jerseys in frames hung along the walls. There are several large TV screens inside, perfect for watching sports with friends (and being ridiculed for liking the Phoenix Suns). The setup of the tables further stress human interaction because they are all near each other and you can clearly hear the conversation of another party next to you, butt in, state your opinions, and possibly make new friends (or enemies). Want to know what's happening on campus? The fliers in the pub will provide answers and more opportunities to get together with the population. Something bothering you? The comments and suggestions box is ready to accept your complaints. Even the appetizers on the menu are created with sharing in mind (wash your hands). There are study rooms in the vicinity and a great view of the downstairs area for spying- I mean, people watching. The air conditioned pub is a great place to escape from the pressures of class and get to know classmates better.

Pub is the most cozy public sphere on campus.

The pub located in SU is easy to access because people usually look up to see what there is on upstairs and it evokes curiosity for the people to visit the pub. This place has televisions showing sports games which may give some people a topic to talk about. And, drinking some beer makes people be likely to talk to somebody or invite them to their public discourse easily. Also, the rounded table and comfortable chair help people start talk about any interesting things. Everyone feels comfortable to talk to somebody and anyone can join the talking.

Pub?

On campus, one mustn't forget the pub for their list of public spaces. It's got good amount of resources as far as communication is concerned. Students are able to leave flyers on tables and leave service feed back in a drop box. The tables aren't so small as to feel cramped, but aren't too overly large to create a feel of distancing. Everyone has access to it, and what a better way to start some good ol' public discourse than downing a bit of liquid courage?