christie's Weblog

Here it is

ravengirl — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:05:30 +0000

Well I am finally finished. i have sent my file as a PDF to the instructor and to the web site for the class. I tried to burn a DVD/CD but it did not work. So I guess I did not in actual fact succeed at the final project, because I could not burn a copy. I do not know if this is a problem of my OS or it is just me. I am going to go to the college and try to do it there. It has been so hectic that I did not really get a chance to enjoy the process. I was so twisted about the web site that I failed to get into the pleasure of learning new things. I am going to try to be much more pro-active about my media studies involvement. i am tired of being freaked out about everything I do notfinal-project.pdf final-project.pdf understand.

final paste up

ravengirl — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:40:50 +0000

OK here it is I am beginning the final creation of my paper. Just gotta put the images together and do the final scanning. I am going to do three things. Make a hard copy on a a set of pages, make a PDF file and send it to the instructor, and make a DVD and deliver it (somehow – in time) to the instructor. Here is a very rough idea. I am putting it together in a long running format . When it becomes a web page I will have more options for text and graphics I have sites that I would like to add also. Hopefully it will grow out of this organic process.

doing the paste up

ravengirl — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:24:12 +0000

Borderlands is on its way – I have almost all of my contributors stuff. I am just missing a poem and a picture. I am modifying my Borderlands comix for the newspaper. I am going to put together a composite piece that updates the work I did in the summer. (Update is a positive word for situations that have not improved at all since I addressed the issues!!) I did a bunch of very expensive colour copying and I am transcribing a couple of the pieces because my printer is not working yet (I have the cartridges I just need to put them in). My Web Page program says I can import things in three ways – from files, from scans, and from direct word processing. I am going to try to use my own images not a gallery, and I am going to retrieve those images in three ways – from a DVD or CD; from scanned pictures; and from pictures sent to my desktop by friends, etc. It seems fairly straightforward the only problem I have is that I do not actually know the procedures but I will talk my way through as I get to each and hopefully it will come together!!

I wrote another online exam for my other media studies class on Thursday and even though I gave myself 4 hours to write the exam it took me over 6. I was late posting (again!!!) and I did not know the correct procedures for posting to my instructor thru the WEBCT and so I ended up sending him an attachment in a personal e-mail just to be sure that I got the exam there. I also had to put the exam in a format I had not used before – I had to turn it to RTF – a rich text file- I have heard of them and even received them but I had never made one and I am proud of myself that I learned how to do it without asking my room mate for help.

Next semester I am taking advantage of the technology workkshops offered by the moodle guys at Malaspina. Last semester, they gave workshops on web site creation and design and powerpoint – both of which I had to learn to use as part of my media studies courses.
Hindsight is always better – if only I could time travel!! Oh well to work.

fear of media

ravengirl — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:41:10 +0000

I have been trying to understand my reluctance to do a web page without instruction. I am suffering from guilt about not doing my work on time and in a correct academic fashion and it is plaguing me. Why am I balking so much about such a relatively simple thing. I know a lot of my feelings surround my need to be shown what to do and my lack of incentive towards experimentation with things I do not understand. For example, I had to read about powerpoint and then get a demonstration and an involved explanation before I was able to feel free enough to navigate the site alone. After the project was handed in and I looked over my fellow students work I realized that I could have done so much more. I knew about the techniques but it is almost as if I cannot do what I have not seen done. This seems to be a disadvantage in this particular situation which demand working with new and unknown technologies. Is my reluctance due to my preconceptions about technology or my abilities to use technology. Or do I feel apprehension simply because I am unskilled or untrained. I do not feel incompetent I feel frustrated becasue I know that once I feel OK I will sail along doing what needs to be done to accomplish the task. So how do I break free of this restriction. From the beginning I asked for help and the person I really counted on to help me, someone who actually has an operating web site made arrangement to help and then never showed up. When I asked my room mate he said he did not remember how and that I should try to learn it on my own. I asked a student in my media studies class who had said that she knew a lot about web pages but she was not interested in a collaberation and we were unable to meet for even the most rudimentary instruction. It seems as if whenever I tried to step outside of my rote learning practices I faltered and now I face having to do the task and no real confidence about the assignment. I have known from the beginning what I want my web page /newspaper to look like. if i could just do paste-up or even a collection of digital files I would be OK but it transferring it into a web page that is making me feel unabale. Anyhow, I am not letting this mysterious lack on my part stop me from trying my best. I have all of the componnenet parts to complete the task and I am going to spend the rest of my time learning as much as I can. My room mate has offered to sopend some time with me showing me some of the techniques but neither he nor I have ever used the linux-based openSuse OpenOffice Writer program which is the program for creating web pages on my KDE desktop.
Anyhow, I have an on-line exam all day tomorrow and then I am dedicating my time to manifesting my newspaper!!!!

work on my paper

ravengirl — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:36:24 +0000

Did another visual scan of my comix – I am gathering pictures and news, I want to be really current with my comix and I want to address important stuff – ideas and actions that can be implemented to change things for the better for those who are marginalized in this world of wealth and technology. Here is a sample of my idea.

ravengirl — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:24:19 +0000

here is another page for my paper

ravengirl — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:22:59 +0000

After a harrowing day navigating thru the snow and narrowly missing mishap I have spent this day regaling in my new job. I have the best pop-culture job in the world if you support popular culture. I work at a place where the rich and those pretending to such come in and buy empty teddy bear (alligator, horse, dog, cat, duck, unicorn, raccoon, and almost any animal you can imagine) bodies which you stuff ( with environmentally friendly and non-toxic materials) yourself and then buy incredibly fashionable and expensive clothes, shoes, and accessories to clothe them with. Anthropomorphically speaking of course. It is so beyond reality as most of the world knows it that it is incredible.

So, how does this relate to technology – aside from the obvious involvement of manufacturings, shipping, and consumerism. My only digital attachment here is that I made a collage and scanned it and now I am going to try to send it for all of you to see. This is new ability for me – before I needed guidance and instruction from my tech-master room mate. Today I waited til he was gone to do it – hope it works. I had fun doing the paste up and I hope you can see that I am really engaged here. How odd!!

tasers

ravengirl — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 01:56:15 +0000

I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard an interview with a biomedical engineer, Dr. Mark Kroll, from California Polytechnic State University. He was attending a three day conference on sudden death and in-custody deaths with law enforcement and medical examiners given by the U.S. Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths this week.

Dr Kroll said this morning that people do not understand electricity and they do not understand how tasers work. He said tasers are safe under all circumstances – tasers do no harm!! With a understatement destined to send shivers down pop culture media watchers – he stated that tasers were safer than Tylenol. When I heard that I instantly flashed back to the Tylenol scare in the 1980s and the fact the people actually died from taking Tylenol. I wondered what he was thinking saying such a thing. Anyhow, he denied any influence from the manufacturers of tasers, that though he teaches several times a year, he is not paid by the company.

OK what is my problem. I hear the distinct voice of scientific determinism here – science is good, but we do not understand it. If we did understand tasers/science we would appreciate how useful it is. The company who makes tasers say they are harmless, police officers say they are harmless, and yet we have more than one death in context with controlled force used by law enforcement officials.

Technology is not just good and it is not always used to further the just. Studies can be used in such a way as to make things that are dangerous seem harmless – is this the case here. I think we need to insist that studies are done by people with less motivation than the manufacturers and police who make and use the technology.

youtube

ravengirl — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:36:31 +0000

Last night we went on YouTube to see the latest news and guess what, we could not figure out how to see the videos. My techie roommate, who is comfortable anywhere there is a cyberspace, was at a loss. And we ended up returning to CBC.ca for our news on-line. I have CBC on constantly on my radio, we do not have cable or satellite TV, as a matter of fact, we have no TV at all here. We actually watch a lot of TV DVDs, just no overt commercials. of course I acknowledge that we are not in any way avoiding the pop culture infiltrations of our psyches. commerciality and consumerism are after all insidious, but we control the input of advertisements run by and for and on big media. Because we listen to and wach the nations broadcaster we are liable to hear very biased news considering the provider and who controls the purse strings at the corporation. CBC has always been a place for radicals to rest on their laurels before passing into relative oblivion and as such it is venerable. But it is NOT cutting edge in the sense that it is out there on the edge of technology. But it does have a competent web page and access to information not generally provided to listeners/viewers. For example, it has direct links on its main page to topics of concern for and about First Nations issues. CBC has also been in the forefront of the demands for clarity and truth in the taser incident at the Vancouver Airport, and CBC has done some excellent work towards child advocacy and protection. OK, the luddite speaks but just the same, if even my tech room mate cannot figure out how to get some satisfaction from You Tube and Paris Hilton can – I have to wonder what kind of world I am living in.

scanning my ideas

ravengirl — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 02:31:19 +0000

I have been working all day on a paste up for my newspaper. I am going to take pictures of the people who have submitted their works for me. I am going to make my comics but I am not sure if I will do them in one big picture or in frames like I did this summer. There are a lot of topics I could address such as poverty, child advocacy, treaties, reform of the child welfare system, children in care, etc.

This has been a very exciting week for me technology wise. Last week \\\i did my very first powerpoint and I was amazed at how easy it was to access and use. Linux Open Office has a program for the web called Impress which is a clone of powerpoint but for open source users (like me). When I have time not dedicated to school work i am going to experiment with it to see if it is as easy as ppt. Also i was veery impressed (ha ha) with the students nin my class and the work they submitted for their projects – they utilized many aspects of the program that I did not know how to access. Such as the use of clip art – I made acollage and scanned it and added it to my project but they got pictures off of the web and added them and they looked excellent. Also they experimented with colour backgrounds, text, and graphics too. I will be more open to using thes themes now that i know a little of what powerpoint bcan do.

I have also been using google to find out about things that I would normally look for a book to reference. For example, i was playing poker with my roommate and we were not sure of the sequence of cards and their worth so I googled it and we kept the visual list on the screen while we played through the night. It is this kind of instant answers to questions that makes google so useful to me. I would not depend on it for academic referencing but a source to find out anything about just about anything it is superb!!!

I have been avoiding signing into facebook here at home. I feel as if it is too invasive of my privacy and even tho it probably does not make a difference I am keeping my use to the computers at the college. I see the computers at the college as different from my own home computer. I feel protective towards my privacy and my space here at home. At the college I feel as if everyone is on-line and I am just another one of many. Here at home I feel as if I am under surveillance for my use and that the trail that I leave electronically leads right to my inner sanctum. I know it sounds paranoid but that is how I feel. Of course doing technology at the college means I have to have a relationship with microsoft and one of the things I notice right away at the college is how long it takes to boot up and allow me to use it. I clocked it at 1:55 mins. one day. Here, with my linux – openSuse OS I am on-line in less than 30 secs.!!! OK so its slow – but the moodle tech told me it is because it is loading all of my personal settings – so that is why it takes so long. Who would have thought that there would be such a technological discrepancy between the two systems.

This monday in my poetry class we got into a very loud and assertive conversation about facebook. The teacher, who had asked students in two other classes to sign up to make communication between the group easier but when she asked our class we rebelled and said we did not want to do it. That was at the beginning of the semester when we refuse the sign in and now she says that she is very unhappy with the invasiveness of the site. She did not get the benefits she was looking for and many of the students refused to keep up their correspondence because of the endless e-mails from people they did not know asking them to join groups they would never think of joining and sending messages to their fun walls and all sorts of popular culture stuff that hopefully I do not have to get involved in after this class is over. My room mate has assured me that I will be able to close my facebook account and there will be no repercussions or continuing attachment to the site but I will believe that when I see it. Well gotta go and do some work on my page. heres a rough idea of my layout