How the Digital Age Helped Fascilitate My Thanksgiving.

My husband and I are in our first year of being married. Even though we live only one city away from both sets of parents, we decided to do holidays on our own this year. We want to establish ourselves as a separate, new family with our own traditions, and we felt that one way to do this was to spend the holidays away from our families. I think both my Mom and my mother-in-law were slightly disappointed, but they were both really good sports about it.

Last week was our first big holiday alone together: Thanksgiving. The week before last we made a list of things that we had to have or it wouldn't be Thanksgiving, and pretty much left it at that. I'm not the greatest at planning ahead for meals, and my husband and I both had big assignments and projects due right before the break, so we didn't think about shopping or gathering recipes until about Tuesday night. By then it was crunch time, as we wanted to brine the turkey for at least 12 hours before cooking it. In a panic, we called our mothers and asked them to email us recipes and methods. 

Now, we could have simply done a Google or Pinterest search for what we needed, but we wanted to have the specific recipes that we loved, so we started with asking the experts. Then, when we were unclear on what to do beyond our mothers' instructions, we turned to the internet. We did end up doing several Google searches to supplement the turkey advice that we got, as well as finding a sweet potato recipe.

On the day of, we both called our moms several times for tips and tricks and then again to report on the overall success of the endeavor (in case you're wondering, my stuffing came out slightly soggy and we didn't have any rolls because the turkey cooked an hour faster than anticipated, but otherwise we succeeded fully! )

I realize that emails, Google, and cellphones are no longer considered to be revolutionary technology and the ways that they helped us were relatively minor, but I am still grateful for them. If our first Thanksgiving had been as late as 15 years ago, all we would have been able to do short notice would be to call our moms on a land-line, making it much harder to have the Thanksgiving that we wanted.

I'm looking forward to the way that the Digital Age will bring my family together on Christmas: a Skype call from my missionary brother.

An Update: We Have the Power (?)

Last week I saw this article about one aspect of Twitter reaction to the election. Specifically people saying things like "Obama won! We get to keep our foodstamps!" I've been think about it and trying to find a way to talk it ever since then.

But then I realized! This is one small way that I already resolved the dilemma that I raised in my last post: The possibility of using the internet to inform ourselves despite the biased media. 

When I read the article, I realized that this was coming from a biased source (everyone is biased in one way or another, ammirite?) and was worried about taking what I saw at face value. So, I read the comments. I got a lot of agreement with what was being said, some disagreement and points raised that disputed what I had seen in the article (for example: were these people being sarcastic?); basically what you'd expect. But that wasn't good enough for me. So I did my own search on Twitter: I searched for #foodstamps. I saw for myself what people were saying about foodstamps. I saw the "raw data" as it were, and was able to draw my own conclusions.

The point it that the "raw" information was out there for me to examine, I just had to find a way to find it. In this case it wasn't all that hard, but I'm feeling encouraged that it's possible to draw our own conclusions. 

Are We He-Man or Not?

This relates somewhat to my last post.

So, I know next to nothing about He-Man. I think his nemesis is called Skeletor. But one thing that I know for sure is that he yells "I HAVE THE POWER!" periodically, though I don't know why.

In general, I kind of feel this way about the internet. I can learn about ANYTHING. If I want to know about iterative and incremental development, Goolge and Wikipedia can tell me. And, even if Google or Wikipedia doesn't have any direct results on what I am looking for, the knowledge can probably be found on the internet somewhere, somehow. When I find something that I'm looking for, I feel like He-Man:

But then I read this article by Orson Scott Card. In it he berates the media for covering up one of Obama's serious mistakes (crimes) until it couldn't affect the vote anymore. He goes on to describe the way that the media is biased towards Obama and so on and so forth; stuff that we've all heard but maybe not as eloquently as Card puts it.

But it made me wonder: are we, despite the internet, still dependent on the biased (in either direction; I'm looking at you, Fox News) media? I think most people acknowledge that we are heavily influenced by the media, but how much are they stunting or unfairly influencing us in important ways? How can we know if/when they are withholding information? How do we combat it? Does it just come down to comparing two or more different sources of differing opinions and weighing them against each other?

The problem with that is that I feel like I'm still not getting the whole picture. It may be that information about Obama's mistake was available through the internet before the general media let it out, but if that's the case how would I have found it? How would I have known to look?

Do we, as internet users, truly have the power to get at all the information that we need?

The Success of a Failed Coup

Our group started out with some fabulous ideas. But then we struggled a little bit. When it came to be mid semester and we didn't have a concrete idea of what our "thing" was going to be,  I was getting worried. So, I decided to hijack the group project and start working. My hope was that my group would love what I was doing and jump on board, or that they would hate it and come up with a creative alternative. Guess what! It worked. They came up with something far more creative and less ho-hum than what I was working on (I say this in all sincerity- my feelings are not hurt in the least).

So, here is what I came up with.

This was the first step.

Then Curtis sent me the relevant videos, and this is as far as we got before the project was reborn in a more beautiful form:

The Internet and Politics

These thoughts are a little late in coming, seeing as the election was last week, but I've been thinking about them anyway.

I hate talking politics with people. I'm usually insecure about my views and don't like having them shot down, even kindly and legitimately. In addition, I find that politics brings things out in people that I don't care to see. Politics are a little like the internet in that way. People say things and think in ways that may not be totally in character in any other circumstance. So, when my husband, or especially my mom, brings up something political, I nod a lot and then change the subject as quickly as I can.

So how do I even come up with an opinion? It comes down to what we were talking in class about a few weeks ago: how asking a person for information can be more useful than Googling it because with a person you get specific experience and opinions. You can also ask more specific questions. In this case, the opposite is useful for me. When I Google something like "Obama vs Romney," I do get A LOT of opinions, but I can also find something like this site: something that at least on the surface, is just raw facts rather facts torn askew and bloated with opinion.

And, when I do come across opinions, I can interpret those biases without the discomfort of passing judgement on someone that I actually know.

So, to sum up I guess, I'm grateful for the ability that the internet gives me to form my own opinion.

Frankenstein/Remix Thoughts

(Because if it has a pretty picture, you'll read it, right? Also because this is what my brain is currently doing with Frankenstein and Remix)

In the spirit of RERO I am going to record my thoughts on Frankenstein as I have them and hopefully glean something coherent from them in a later draft or post. So this is less of a post and more of a research log I guess. I put my most coherent thought at the top.

One thing that we do when we study literature is make connections between texts. We highlight how they are similar, how they are different, and how they matter. Remix is one way of drawing connections between digital "texts." A visual (or auditory) demonstration of connections.

This thought was inspire by this video, titled "Inception-FRANKENSTEIN: Mashup trailer 2011"

When I saw the description I was interested in watching it because I wondered how the creators were going to connect these two stories. As it turns out it was just the Inception music laid over the famous creation scene, but it got me thinking.

A Frankenstein Rap: 

Really not my thing. But, from the little that I was able to listen to without sticking sharp objects in my ears, it is clear that this guy read the book and isn't just rapping about the pop culture version. I don't much like it, but this guy has remixed the story in a way this is (apparently) fun and meaningful for him.

So, what? The usefulness of remix doesn't just have to lie with the end user. It can be useful for the creator, who can explore a topic in a way that is meaningful to them, rather than just dry or forced academia which might not be useful or interesting to them.

Remix supports Web 2.0: " In a Read Only culture, a small professional group produces all the culture that is then consumed by the masses. The public can only absorb and take in the culture, but it leaves no room to interact with the culture. " (Wikipedia). So, remix allows us to engage in the conversation rather than just viewing boring, non dynamic Web. 1.0 pages, as it were.

Other Assorted Thoughts

The  R. Walton (the explorer guy) goes looking for one thing in the arctic, but finds quite another. Similarly, sometimes we go into the digital world looking for one thing and find another.

"...I shall certainly find no friend on the wide  ocean, nor even here in Archangel, among merchants and seamen.  Yet some feelings, unallied to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged bosoms," (5).

"One man's life or death were but a small

price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for

the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of

our race.  As I spoke, a dark gloom spread over my listener's

countenance.  At first I perceived that he tried to suppress his

emotion; he placed his hands before his eyes, and my voice quivered and

failed me as I beheld tears trickle fast from between his fingers; a

groan burst from his heaving breast.  I paused; at length he spoke, in

broken accents:  "Unhappy man!  Do you share my madness?  Have you

drunk also of the intoxicating draught?" (13)

-Two views on the sanctity of life


"I spoke of my desire of finding a friend, of my

thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever

fallen to my lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of

little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing.  "I agree with you,"

replied the stranger; "we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up,

if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves--such a friend ought to

be--do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures,"  (13)

-Walton had expressed earlier his desire and inability to find a friend on his voyage. By travelling into this Brave New World, he finds one-just like the long tail (right way to describe it?) of social groups


Frankensteinia-a blog dedicated to Frankenstein

Looking into some Frankenstein Remixes:

 I, Frankenstein.

A new Frankenstein movie (with some pretty big names) Imdb's description reads thus: "Frankenstein's creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans." I'm wondering why it is useful to have the creature as the one getting caught up in the war as opposed to someone else.

Thoughts:

All of the pop culture versions seem to portray Dr. Frankenstein as the quintessential  mad scientist type. However, he does not seem to be a mad scientist in the book. He's tormented certainly, but not mad. Why the differences?

The Horror of Transformation: Remix

Quick side note: our group has been working under the assumption that there are people out there who don't like remix. I've yet to search for or find these people, but this post is working under that assumption.

Today in my 495 class we discussed The Island of Dr. Moreau. In the book, a man is shipwrecked and ends up on an island with strange, beast-like men. It turns out that Dr. Moreau, who owns and lives on the island, takes animals and operates on them in an attempt to make them human. Totally gross out worthy and horrific. I highly recommend the book.

At one point in the discussion, Professor Horrocks asked us what exactly was so horrifying for us about what Dr. Moreau was doing. Was it the ethics of the thing? The subsequent degeneration of the animals back into their animistic natures? The lack of anesthetic and the screams of the animals being vivisected?

For me it was the transformation of something from its natural state to something tortured and unnatural. I've always been squeamish about human transformation. The first time I saw the movie Willow, I had to leave the room when they all got turned into pigs. It was unnatural. They were in pain. It honestly made me sick to my stomach. During the werewolf transformation scenes in Van Helsing I still have to close my eyes and plug my ears. I can barely watch Bruce Banner's first transformation in the Avengers. What really bothers me about these transformations is how painful they seem. It just plain freaks me out.

I think the same sort of principal works for our horror at what is going on in stories like these:


The Wolfman/Werewolves
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dracula
Frankenstein

i.e., something natural turning unwillingly and perhaps painfully into something unnatural.

Does this apply to remix? Might some people not like it because they see something they like and are comfortable with (read: natural) twisted into something new and uncomfortable (read: unnatural)? That the original way something is is its natural and correct state and that should not be tampered with?