Riki Thinks: Presentation Reflection

I have heard it said that when it comes to presenting, going first is always your best bet.  You can go up there, clean slate, and even if you know your going to do horrible, you still have the sense of knowing that your done. you do not have to sit there, knowing your turn will come and you will have to go up eventually.  I however, and a coward, and would rather just sit there and never go up (but we can not all have that chance now can we).  But for some reason I decided I would go first.  Nice job, and thats probably the first thing I would change. Going second is a much better option.  My third change would be to ask the Professor what they wanted from the presentation, because even if she told us before, I had obviously forgotten and was thus just making things up.  For the most part, I do think it was a helpful experience, I gained a lot of insight for listening to others, and have made a number of useful additions to my paper.  That being said my paper is still a mess, much work to be done, no time to loose!

Riki Thinks: Reading; "Blogging" and your paper

Jill Walker Rettberg's book Blogging gives you a very general overlook of the process of making and maintaining a blog.  For the most part, I have had a bit of trouble finding a lot of information that could refitted for use in my research paper.  That being said, as the paper is on blogs, and the book is about blogging, there are a few sections that I can relate to.  The section I thought I could most relate to comes on under the heading of 'Social Network Theory' (59) and discusses the idea that 'weak ties' (such as those that might exist between a blogger and the person he has never met who just happens to be reading his blog) are more effective at introducing new information than the 'strong ties' you have with your close friends.  I found this interesting because this is exactly what we are doing with this paper, forming weak ties with various bloggers and gaining what new information from it.  This information will then be presented to the class (what you might call a strong tie?) and allow new information to enter the group.  Funny how that works out eh?  Another thing they mentioned (and I mention simply because it is legit, although possibly out-dated and flat wrong) is the 'Small world' experiments preformed in the 1960's.  Rettberg goes on to say how links on a bloggers site signify connections with others, helping to bridge between people. Interesting stuff...

Riki Thinks: Research Changes

Well It would seem I have a few things I need to change in my paper.  Need to actually figure out a thesis, which I guess would be a good start.  While I think I have a general Idea of where I am trying to go with it, a general idea is not gonna fly very far.  Also, I think it would help to begin refining my paragraphs so as to spend less time rambling and more time answering the question.  My only concern would be that without my rambling I may not have enough to finish the Four pages... But thats just how it goes I guess.  I can worry about making it to the end when I get my thesis set, because hopefully when I have that taken care of, finishing the paper should fall into place.

Fry Time: Fun with HTML

Well, HTML is pretty much just like I remember it being.  A bit tricky to get the hang of, mess one little thing up and low and behold you are missing a paragraph here, a title there and for some reason your background is hot pink instead of blue.  But that’s just how things work I guess, always have to change things up until you find what works.  On the plus side, I like being able to customize the page.  It also gives me a reason to use the < and > keys for things other than a , or a . Ha, that was a pretty weird sentence; the spellchecker is a tad miffed with me now.  Mostly, it is not something I think I would really get into, but it is pretty fun to mess around with. Besides, why would I bother taking the time to express my individuality and creative nature in making a web page when the web just makes them for me?  Wait... Did I just hear you say Big Brother… Who’s that?

Riki Thinks: Research and Progress?

Well, another week has passed and now it seems it is finally time to judge if I have actually made any progress on this Blog a paper.  I think for the most part it is going pretty well actually.  I was able to choose a topic that I think I will actually enjoy, and I also found a blog.  That makes two major points down, right?  The rest should be cake, right?  If only life where so simple and easy (the cake is a lie anyways).   On the flip side I have lot of information, and I have done quite a bit of preliminary scanning and examination.  I have what I can hope is a lot of “good” information to work with.  This being said, I will not actually be able to figure this out until I actually start… Which I may not be planning to do until later today (probably right after the lab, great plan right?).  But I am currently confident, and that is half the battle as they say… Or was it knowing is half the battle and confidence gets you killed… Anyways I think the hardest part for me will be taking meaning from all the photos, trying to get deeper information from them and all that. But I think It will all turn out for the better, and if it turns out I do have a metric but ton of problems, well we only need two pages for Tuesday...

Riki Thinks: Reading, Engaging, Quoting

Rettberg claims that “as people spend more time online they spend less time on other media. This means that the tried and tested sale strategies of the previous generation… aren’t working as well as they used to” (128). Basically, because we are spending more time on the computer and the web we have less time to spend watching TV or listening to the Radio (the once kings of advertising).  This particular excerpt was very interesting to me in part because I almost never watch TV anymore (which for some reason makes this all the more prevalent to me), but mostly because of how the blogging community reacted when ads began integrating into the web.  Chapter 6 speaks about blogs as a means to make money, and some of the methods to do it.  Adding ads to you blog is one of the mentioned strategies’, along with donations and such.  The thing that got me was that ads can bring a fairly steady income, like it has for Dooce and yet many people complained about the early addition of these ads (Rettberg, 132-133).  Now, I will not sit here and lie that I enjoy ads popping up in my face when I watch a YouTube Video, or the ones that play music while I am trying to read something.  Truly I cannot stand them and most of them are selling things I have no need for; but for the most part I will tolerate them simply because I can understand why ads are there, and I just enjoy the site to much to give it up over some ads.  Apparently I am not the only person to think this way because  this is exactly what happened with Dooce.  Even with the introduction of ads, her readership still continued to grow because people cared more about what she had to say then the annoyance provided by the ads.   So while people may dislike ads and people may complain about them, in the end the site gets needed income from them, they are for the most part easy enough to ignore and I guess we brought this on ourselves by spending more time blogging then watching TV.

 Btw, 364 words makes a serious wall of text. ^

Fry Time: Email Vs. Post Mail

I went to the post office the other day. Well okay, I have not been there in quite a few months, okay fine years... But I have BEEN to a post office. Outside they have a kind of drive by Mailbox drop box thing where you just drop your mail in to have it sent off. Thats pretty clever. Email is kinda like that, with the ability to simply take your letter you just typed (Another bonus because I have pretty horrendous hand writing) and just put a address on there and send it off. Quick, sweet and to the point. But they're some things that for the time being should still be sent regular post (Like those holiday cards that everyone loves!) but it just seems silly to send a letter when you can just type up an email.  

But then we have the similarity between reviving mail and email as well. When you go to open your corner mailbox on any given day you can expect a wide assortment of letters, ads, flyers and other less savory things (Like that Electric bill :o). It can often be that way with your online mailbox as well, the types of things you can receive over the web are limited only by the imagination of the people sending them. That, I believe, is what makes Email so great, that although you may not want most of what you receive, there is still really no limit to what can be sent to you.   

Riki Thinks: Writing & Research

My interests... What does interest me. Well I spend a lot of time online reading all sorts of things from various web comics to random news Articles. I also have spent many laughter filled hours Perusing The Chive. When I am not online, I enjoy long bike rides over hill and dale, mostly because it beats driving. Gas is just to expensive for a cheap guy like me and I really just do not like driving... As for the type of blog I would like to follow, I think it would be interesting to follow a an Entertainment blog, possible one about Video games. I figure since I spend so much time on them as it is, A blog based on things that entertain might be quite... Well Entertaining.

Hello Everyone!

What kind of writer am I? I am but a person who thinks they can write, but luckily does not do it often enough for people to figure it out. Maybe I will figure out how to do it eventually. I enjoy a good read and I really do not have any taste in music, just listen to whatever. All in all pretty dull.