Total.mind.fuck.

Woah I was redditing and I found this article. I have no words. I have none at all. My mind is blown. I am going to try my best to write about this though.

Basically the article is trying to figure out if we are in fact real or a simulation from the future. The question is are we the future's Oregon Trail?

I have no answers to that but I hope we are real. I really do. I feel like if we weren't then I would feel very sad and that I am really of no importance. To be perfectly honest I am okay with not knowing this answer. I really want to be real and this world to be real but I am too scared that it isn't.

This makes me wonder if we aren't real are we even in control of our actions? Or even our emotions? Is someone controlling those as well?

Maybe Christianity is right, except it isn't a God controlling us but the future has come to fuck with us.

My mind is way too fucked by this right now to even function.

Holy.crap.

People skills with video games

So I read this article that says video games are used to help people skills. To be perfectly honest I had trouble believing this at first. When I was younger a kid would play video games when they were alone and bored. It used to be something that very few people would take part in and even less would do socially. The place to develop people skills was either outside with the rest of the kids or at school. Never video games or anything like that. It really makes sense now though. When you think about it most games are multiplayer now so more than one person can play at once, unlike popular games of the past. Games are also now found online where you can communicate with other people via forums or a headset. It is quite interesting how video games evolved from a solitary pastime to a social activity. Personally I do not play many video games, because I am involved with many different organizations and have trouble finding the time, but when I do play video games I enjoy playing ones that I can play with other people. I do like to play Halo when I can. I am not very good but it is fun being able to play a social game. I think that is how video games have become a social activity. It is much more enjoyable being able to work together to accomplish a goal than to work alone to do it. I do not enjoy playing Halo by myself but in a small group I find it beyond enjoyable and quite relaxing.

Web 1.0/2.0

The idea that there are two different types of web intrigue me. I never thought of it that way. Maybe I am just too young to remember a time before the internet was interactive or I have just integrated it into my life so much that I cannot remember, but I never thought of the web as an uninteractive source before. To me I interact with almost everything I see on the web. Even when I am reading I feel like I am interacting. I do realize I am a very active reader though and I think a lot while I read, but I still feel like if you try you can interact with anything on the internet. I feel like I only see web 2.0 and never web 1.0. To me I feel like web 1.0 is more like my radio in my car or the TV in my house. It is something I can see or hear but I cannot truly interact with. Maybe that is what is more meant by web 1.0 or maybe web 1.0 is so obsolete that it no longer exists any more. I'm not entirely sure but I feel like it is a rare time of the world to find anything that you cannot interact with. Even television shows and radio shows are interactive now. things that you have never thought to be interactive before are slowly becoming interactive sources and media types. Maybe one day there will not be a web 1.0 anymore. Maybe we are quickly migrating into a world of entirely web 2.0 interactions and perspectives. Maybe web 1.0 will stop existing.

Election? What? I thought we were over this!

First of all I'm going to say I wish I got the chance to post about this earlier

Second of all I really wish that we were over this! This is the United States of America! Can't we trust that when everyone votes we should be able to trust that as one giant unit we can make the right decision for president.

Thirdly we should be able to trust that our votes are being counted correctly

This is what I am talking about

Yes. This is unacceptable in my eyes. I don't think we should have to worry if our votes get changed or if our vote doesn't get counted. The fact that a machine can alter the votes makes me worry. It makes me concerned that maybe the president didn't really win the election. I honestly hope that this does not happen again. Voter fraud through technology is probably one of the last things our Founding Fathers would want for this country.

Website Design Plan.

Plan of action

Statement of Purpose

I am going to create a website to promote my Mother’s business and to help her increase sales through the website. I want to do this by making my website as interesting as I can make for a person who is going to be learning about web design along the way. I also want to include a way to have an online ordering system. I am thinking I may set this up through pay pal or some other third party.

Audience

My audience will be the local population who currently have access to the internet and want to buy my mother’s products. This site will, mostly, cater to those who are not as technologically advanced, because that will probably be my mother’s costumers. This is because mostly older people are interested in homemade goods and she is starting her business by going to craft shows to sell her product.

Medium

I chose to use a website for this project, because it is a beginning business, so she does not have a shop or a phone. This will allow her to be able to promote and sell her product much more. This will also allow her to cater to her customers, because they will be able to get her product all year round.

Arrangement

I plan on this being a very simple website. I want it to be four pages. I want one page to be the welcome page and say what the business is and what kind of product they sell. This is so people who find the website online will know who they are and what they are selling. I then want to have another page with their products and a description. That way the costumers will know exactly what the product is. I will probably have another page for ordering with an order form on it. This is because it will make it easier on me, so I do not have to worry about getting the order form and products on the same page. It will also make sure that the page with the products and order form does not end up getting too big. The last page will be a contact us and who we are page. This way the costumer can contact us if they have any problems or if they need something specific.

Description of completion

I will be making this website on Dreamweaver. I will be learning this as I go along. One of my friends has made websites before too and I plan on receiving some help from him on how to do some of the more complex tasks in Dreamweaver.

Testing

I plan on asking fellow classmates to test my website before it goes up so I can improve on it and help it become a better website. I want to be able to show this to my mother before I put it up if I can show her it, or afterwards and hopefully I will still be able to edit the website.

Resopnse to Wysoki and Lynch

The most useful part of this reading that I encountered was the part about the statement of purpose. This is something I have problems with, because I usually have too much I wish to argue. Reading through this part made me think of exactly what I want to argue and how to go about refining the argument. The step by step directions were really helpful. I do not have a purpose statement quite yet, but it is helping me figure out exactly what I want to do my project on.

One of the biggest things I saw in this text was the emphasis on testing your material. It seems like in all steps of creating any rhetorical argument, you need to test it out before you let it loose. After testing you need to refine and test again. This needs to be repeated until the best argument that you can make. I usually do this when I am writing a persuasive paper, but not to the extent it seems like creating a visual rhetorical argument is. Looking at these chapters I think that this project is going to be a lot bigger than I originally thought it was going to be.

Teacher Technology

So this happened....

This is absolutely crazy! I mean of all the things that could happen when you play with an ipad in class. Quite honestly this brings up the fact that teachers need to know how to work the technology that they are using in their classrooms.

This is a problem that is not so easily fixed. How do we get teachers of all levels up to par on all technologies? Do we take one day out of the year to teach the teachers how to use new technologies? Is that enough? There are so many questions about how to teach teachers technology without interrupting the learning process for students.

I think the best solution to this is to require teacher development for at least 2 weeks at the beginning of the school year. That way teachers are not intimidated by the technology and have the capabilities to use it. It also allows the teachers to stay up-to-date with new technologies so they can monitor the activities students are doing and making sure they are not distracted by new technologies.