Oh well

So the entire post I put on the course blog was meant to go here, I guess I really am slipping! I was going to delete it and paste it here, but I thought that it was something the rest of the class could talk about.

As I mentioned on that post, I'm looking for a summer job, and the internet is really helping me out a ton. I don't think I would be as sure about my future if I didn't have this technology readily available. With the internet, I can look for jobs at my leisure, whether it's now at 2pm or even at 2am. It gives me access to thousands of job listings in my area. The same could be said for apartments and colleges. Although many people fear that the internet is some huge cybernetic Godzilla-like monster that will take over the world, I am very happy that it is available to me. We are driven by the clock now more than ever and having a device that allows us to break out of that cycle even on occaision is a wonderful tool in my book.

I think that also holds true to this course in general, and perhaps that's why a lot of people have not been contributing as much as they would if it was a "normal" class. Without a set time period in which they sit down and face the professor, they are unsure as to how exactly they should budget their free time in order to complete the assignments. This course was definitely harder than I was expecting on more than one front, with the time factor being one of the biggest challenges. Unfortunately because we do not feel that same pressure here as we do with other classes, the readings and work become pushed back so we can do the work for our other classes, even though this class is as important, if not more important, than the others. This class is extremely modern and helps show us how to adapt to the changing world.

Anyway, I hope I can pull myself together and get through the next month and few days with my normal vigor.

A Whole New Book

I picked up Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind over Spring Break with some interest. In fact, the book caught my eye when I first bought it in January. I had heard of the contention between left-brain and right-brain thinking and was quite intrigued by it. In fact, in high school a few teachers told me that I was a "right-brain thinker", but I didn't quite know what they meant. I read through the first 100 pages of the book quite quickly and with interest. The best point Pink has made so far is that:

. . . logic without emotion is a chilly, Spock-like existence. Emotion without logic is a weepy, hysterical world where the clocks are never right and the buses always late. In the end, yin always needs yang.
This is especially true when it comes to our brains. The two sides work in concert--two sections of an orchestra that sounds awful if one side packs up its instruments and goes home . . . In other words, leading a healthy, happy, successful life depends on both hemispheres of your brain. (25-26)

Although most of this book is dedicated to educating readers as to the functions of the right side of the brain, Pink emphasizes the importance of utilizing both sides together for a "healthy, happy, successful life." The right side is not to be ashamed of or ignored, but embraced.
Pink also discusses outsourcing and its effects on our brains, in a sense. Although I consider myself a liberal, I'm not entirely against outsourcing--although there is much more to the topic, outsourcing allows for people to be freed from the mundane jobs and are able to focus their efforts on the "big picture", as Pink suggests:

[Outsourcing] is precisely what happened to routine mass production jobs . . . and just as those factory workers had to master a new set of skills and learn how to bend pixels instead of steel, many of today's knowledge workers will likewise have to command a new set of aptitudes. They'll need to do what workers abroad cannot do equally well for much less money--using R-Directed abilities such as forging relationships rather than executing transactions, tackling novel challenges instead of solving routine problems, and synthesizing the big picture rather than analyzing a single component. (39-40)

Pink also spends a lot of time discussing Design. The fashion industry is perhaps one of the largest operations in America and Western Europe. Designer jeans can sell for as much as $1000, and people buy them! Pink suggests that design appeals to our right-brain tendancies. This brings to mind art and even writing, as writing is "designed" in a sense. Design is undoubtedly something that makes us human, as everything around us was designed and we yearn for even more.
So far I've thoroughly enjoyed Pink's book and I can't wait to read more!

Page to New Age

So again, in an attempts to find a topic to address in this post, I went to cnn.com's Tech section and came across this article: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/02/28/book.browsing.reut/index.html.
It is about two very large Publishing companies, Random House and HarperCollins, now allowing customers to look at actual pages of the book online.

In a way, this seems really silly to me that this is big news. I mean, you can go to any library or bookstore in the world and they want you to look through the books. Why would this be that much different?

And yet, as an aspiring editor and author, it makes me nervous. I'm only 20, yet my career area has changed so much in the past few years that I'm worried I won't be able to keep up. My traditional sense of books, editing, and publishing are going to need to drastically alter if I am to keep up in this internet-based world. In a way, it makes me sad, and I really hope that books will not fade out. Having a book in my hand isn't the greatest joy in my life, but I couldn't imagine it being any other way. I've tried to read books online before and I'd rather just go to the store and buy it then read it for free online. Really, I'm not sure why, go hire a psychologist, I just know that I prefer the books. There's something about going home and looking at my crammed-full bookcase that gives me a wonderful feeling inside (as corny as that is) and I know no amount of book-files could compare to the thick spines of my adored books. I am way too possessive of my books, for reasons unknown to me, to the point where I yelled at my boyfriend for accidentally tearing a page in one. It wasn't even a big tear either, just a small little rip that most other people probably wouldn't have noticed.

So in the technological scheme of things, this step for the publishing companies seems logical and intelligent business-wise. Emotionally, however, we'll see how I cope.

Snow Crash Chapters 43-71

Overall, I really loved this book. It was such a change from Smart Mobs and definitely something more in the genre that I love to read. That being said, I felt really jipped by the ending. It was so quick and there was almost no character resolution at all. No, I take that back, there was none. So as a piece of fiction, I really feel that that was something Stephenson should have addressed. Yes, it is open-ended, but what the hell happened to Raven? Does Y.T. reconcile with her mom? Does her mom quit the Feds? Do Hiro and Juanita get together? How does that go? What happened to Da5id? What happens to all the people on the Raft? What about the Pearly Gates place? Stephenson leaves us with so many questions and as an author he really should have known better.

Regardless, I really enjoyed his writing style. A little bit that I found especially hilarious was: "A couple of youths are playing video games inside, and they barely look up at the astonishing sight of the chopper" (441). To me, that was a humongous piece of social commentary, that the kids were so wrapped up in their games that something as crazy as a helicopter landing in their backyard doesn't phase them.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say in terms of technology and stuff. In fact, I'd say that some things will always be the same ("history is doomed to repeat itself"). It's interesting that at the base of it all this scifi novel is about a virus that is transmitted through the most basic of forms.

As a really extreme side note, I love the About the Author in the back. Did anybody else read that? It's great.