Chalkboard Chat

twitter stalker

ashleyu7 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:23:34 +0000

One of my favorite celebrities is Chelsea Handler. She a blunt comedian who tells it how it is on her talk show and in her articles in Cosmo. She constantly interrupts her guests and cracks jokes at them (and herself) so I thought following her twitter would be beneficial to my entertainment. Boy was I right. Surprisingly she updates a couple times a day, but every tweet is a treat. Her page is full of funny jabs at celebrities in the news. Sometimes she just make comments about things that she notices or annoys her, or she’ll mention a celebrity topic and pot a link afterwards. I’m not a celebrity junkie, I just get pleasure out of her making fun of them. Her twitter of about 600 tweets is definitely chock full of Chelsea’s personality. She also posts links to other twitter pages such as #willgetyouslapped in which she previews that hash tag with “dating Chris Brown, or in #thingsILIKE she posted grey goose and little nuggets. Other things about her twitter is that she’s following 22, but has over a million followers. Id say that’s a pretty impressive number for anyone. I’d recommend following her, she’s pretty funny to pay attention to.

writing as technology

ashleyu7 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:58:21 +0000

Writing, writing, writing. This used to mean pen and paper. Jotting down grocery lists, phone numbers, college notes. Oh how writing has evolved over this century. It seems once it got momentum there was no stopping it, and there’s still no stopping it. Writing has moved on to bigger, better things involving the internet. We now have writing spaces and domains that represent us as individuals and collaborators. We can communicate in ways that were only considered in science fiction. It can be controversial whether this is a good or bad things, but it’s changing the way we see ourselves and society, so we have no choice but to embrace it.
Take for example a book. The writing is confined to that space. Sure it documents what this person’s imagination invented at this point in time, but access to it holds it back. A book is a way to lose yourself in reality, but now you can lose yourself in virtual reality. Books can get lost or misplaced, and without another copy could get lost forever. Written materials on the internet are chronologically saved and have a wider audience. Not only that but you could videotape yourself reading said book, and post that on the internet. It gives it a new life and a new meaning, as you read the book with infliction and tone.
Writing spaces are changing the way we view writing completely. Bolter’s article “Writing as Technology” discusses this much further, but, the World Wide Web is seem by some to be “an extension of man”. Technological determinism is a theory that presumes that a society’s technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. Does this mean that without our involvement in technology we are missing a vital part of our culture? Or that without this extension we aren’t living our culture to it’s full potential. In technological determinism there is no escaping technology once it’s introduced, and it’s now rooted in our society. Therefore we have no choice but to participate in this growing trend of the web, because without being able to use it we’ll be left in the dust.
Another important aspect in Bolter’s article is remediation. Remediation is when a newer medium takes the place of an older one. This is constantly happening everywhere. Cars instead of horse and buggies, bathrooms instead of outhouses, etc etc.. I wonder if one day the computer will completely take over physical writing. If we will one day have no need to waste paper and our time writing things down. If everyone would have an electronic hand-held notebook that would serve as a transportable Microsoft Word. “Remediation is a process of competition between or among technologies” according to Bolter, and it seems that electronics are in the lead. It’s obvious that writing technologies change over time, that writing is a part of our culture, and that technologies are agents of our culture. The computer used to be not seen as a writing technology, and now we see it as immoveable from our society. I’m interested to see how we will continue to shape this technology as it continues to shape us.

Twitpics- Keep or Obliterate?

scrutan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:14:35 +0000

For me, personally, I love the idea of Twitpics! I think that they are a fantastic invention of the “Twitterworld.” I’ve added quite a number of twitpics to my Twitter account over the past few weeks because to me, a picture is worth a thousand words. and that is 860 more words than allotted on Twitter. So it is more beneficial to all involved. =]

Twitpics tend to be able to show the individuals “following us” rather than us just coming straight out and saying exactly what is on my mind. Instead I can send a series of pictures to ensure that my point comes across to all of the readers out there. Twitpics, to me, just seem to be a more beneifical way of allowing our readers to grasp the concepts we want them to, instead of having to adhere to the 140 character limit that Twitter has us blocked on.

Following Doug Covey

scrutan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:11:11 +0000

Throughout the last few weeks in the semester, I have been given the opportunity to follow, on Twitter, Doug Covey. He is the CEO of Blueprint Education, a non-profit organization. Most of the tweets he has produced within the last few weeks are specifically geared toward Education and the development of it through the weeks. He focuses mainly on Technology with children or at least he has for the past few weeks. He has said that “technology in the hands of children makes them better writers”.

Anywhere but Here

scrutan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:20:11 +0000

I guess I never really thought about it from a logical stance, but maybe it’s true. I’ve grown up in a bubble all of my life. I mean I grew up in a suburban town in Texas and then in NJ. I grew up learning all about how to speak to adults and the meaning of respect. My parents always taught me that there were things outside of my little bubble, but I guess I never thought that they’d be able to affect me. I mean, come on! A 22 year old college student affected by the goings-on of the outside world! Pscht.

But man oh man, was I wrong. I’ve learned through experience that life isn’t fair. That things don’t always happen the way I want them to but that I have to continue on, because if I don’t, I won’t accomplish anything. As previously stated in past blogs, I’ve wanted to volunteer abroad for a few years now and just haven’t been able to find the time to do it. I don’t know how true that statement is, or if it is whether or not I’m terrified that I wouldn’t be able to handle the elements. I think that I’ve taken a lot of things for granted in my life. I mean as I look around my room now, I see that I have a cellphone, laptop, computer, light!, TV, a bed, a working toilet, and even clothing. I know that I’ve taken this for granted and especially since it is around Christmas time, I think we all become a little more stingy than in most other times of the year. And it’s sad when I actually think about other people who don’t have things like that. Who don’t have water or a bed or clothing to put on themselves.

As I was looking through MSNBC, I found pictures of East Africa’s refugee camps and how they are scrummaging around where the littlest bit of water. I actually had to stop and think about that for a minute. I mean here I am, taking 20 minute showers in the morning, leaving my water running when I’m brushing my teeth and taking for granted something as simple as water. It actually disgusts me the way that I have acted over the past 22 years of my life when there are obviously hundreds of thousands of people who don’t even receive that!

These are the pictures that I found and maybe they’ll make you rethink the things that we hold so close to us when there are people who don’t have such items:

Christmas Ideas for 2009

slwagner15 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:40:49 +0000

Here are some toy ideas for buying children this Holiday Season! Here are two different lists from two different websites. I wanted to compare and see if any gift ideas were similiar and there were two or three. Click the links to get a further information about the toys!

TOYS R’ US

1. Bakugan Battle Brawlers

2. ChixOs Pink Design-A- Luxury Loft

3. Color Me a Song

4. Disney Netpal

5. Disney-Pixar Toy Story Interactive Buddies Talking Action Figures

6. Disney Princess: Just One Kiss Princess Tiana Doll

7. Fast Lane All Terrain Vehicle

8. Laugh & Learn Learning Farm

9. Little Mommy Baby Ah-Choo

10. Mindflex

11. NERF N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS-35

12. Star Wars Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser

13. Transformers Constructicon Devastator

14. Wii Sports Resort

15. Go Go (Zhu Zhu) Pets Hamster

POPULAR GIFTS FOR 2009 WEBSITE

Top 5 Christmas Toys for Girls 2009

Barbie Twilight:

Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster:

Littlest Pet Shop Adoption Center Playset

Moxie Girls Doll Sets

Webkinz

Top 5 Christmas Toys for Boys 2009

Lego Track Turbo Remote-Controlled Car

Transformers Toys Action Figures

Bakugan Brawlers

Mega Bloks Magnext Battle Strikers Tournament Set

D-Rex 2.0 Prehistoric Interactive Dinosaur

Top 5 Christmas Toys for Toddlers and Babies 2009

Elmo Live Encore

Smart Fit

Kid-Tough Digital Camera

Laugh & Learn Learning Farm

Elmo Tickle Hands

She believes in Santa: do you?

summrlove — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:25:40 +0000

This is in response to a previous blog post by a classmate. Some commericals are making it out that Santa is not real. I figured I would upload a video about someone who clearly believes in Santa.

this video is so funny

Have You seen the Christmas 2009 Target Commercials?

slwagner15 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:51:27 +0000

The past few weeks we have been seeing more and more Holiday commercials to advertise for Christmas products. The few commercials that disappoint me this year are those made by Target. As I watch a different variety of commercials they all present the same thing to me : No Santa Claus. The way the commercials are worded are giving me the impression that they are saying there is no such thing as Santa. Unfortunately, I cannot find a YOUTUBE video or an online source but be aware the next time you are in the car listening to the radio or watching TV. Let me know if you have noticed these same commercials! What do you think? Is the media slowly ruining Christmas for young kids? Or do they just think kids won’t understand? Let me know your thoughts!

I found the answer! No more Twitter Rampages!

slwagner15 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:07:01 +0000

For all of you, in our class, and maybe other classes that are assigned to tweet a certain amount of times a day and truly dislike it, I present to you TWUFFER! With this application on Twitter you will no longer need to have a “Twitter Rampage” because you “pre-post” your tweets. All you need to do is sign into Twuffer and create a tweet, choose the date, and the time and your tweet will appear without you having to actually log on during the day and tweet. Too bad I didn’t find this sooner because like most people you do not have a computer at hand to tweet during the day.It is still possible for you to sign in a post about your blogs and other exciting things that you would like to share but if you know on Mondays you will not be by a computer till night time just type your tweets the night before!

The only con that I have found so far, is that I programmed my tweet to go off at 2 and it definitley went out like 40 minutes before but that is okay with me. Also your time choices are only on the hour. You cannot say 12:15 or 12:30.

This application will be useful for teachers because you can post tweets for your day, such as “Lunch at 12:15″ or “I have a break at 1:30 while kids are in gym class” , this will give people around you a good time to see what your work schedule is like.

I’m definitely using this application for the last week!

Start following her on Twitter!

slwagner15 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:02:11 +0000

DULCECANDY87- I follow DulceCandy on both Twitter and Youtube. I first found her through Youtube because she gives hair and makeup tutorials. I love her fashion sense and she is very inspiring. The way she gives tutorials are extremely easy to follow because she is so precise with it. It seems like she uses a HD camera so you are able to see everything so clearly. When we received this assignment in class to follow people that interest you on Twitter I knew she was going to be one right away.

As I look at DulceCandy87′s page I find that she follows 96 people and she has 17,749 followers. WOW is all I can say. Those two numbers are extremely different from each other. As I look through her 96 people I find celebrities like Khloe Kardashian and Jessica Alba. She follows the US Army because she was in the army and overseas for a few years. Since she is into fashion she follows magazines such as US Weekly, InStyle, and Allure Magazine. She is also into all cosmetic stores/lines like Sephora and Lush.

Before I looked at who she follows I knew her interests were fashion and cosmetics but looking through her Twitter friends I found out that she is mostly following Magazines, brand-names, celebrities, and other gurus. She isn’t looking at what her friends are doing or family but its more of looking for more ideas and keeping with the trends of her fashion world.