6 of 12

So that animation was highly amusing. I feel like they hit on a lot of the problems with twitter. Especially in the fact that people who tweet really are talking to no one. When I post on twitter it is less of an intentional message and more of a release of randomness from me. I feel like in other writing environments there is a definite audience that you are talking to. I imagine that no one really is reading my tweets. Even if they are reading my tweets it probably just goes in one ear and right out the next. The purpose of micro blogging is to release a sort of knowledge from within oneself that one feels they must randomly use.

12 of 12

 Just you wait, this class will be very interesting. Prepare to think in ways that you might not have thought before. Prepare to see writing as more then just writing, more then just a form of communication. Prepare for zany ideas you might not agree with and amazing ideas that change the world for you. Don't expect to just be writing picture perfect 5 paragraph format papers. There is more to writing then your pre-conceived notions. Through the whole process remember one thing. Be yourself. Write how you feel comfortable writing. It is not about how you say it but what you say. Take a leap, a chance, a risk. You might actually learn something.

10 of 12

Jones could be arguing many things with this poem. I think he is arguing about the flightiness of language. One second you think of writing down something or some idea so you write it down.Then maybe you look back and want it again like the coconut/rum. But you already wrote that idea down you can't get it back again. or that idea that you put down is now stuck in your head and you cant take it back, you are forced to keep thinking about it. There is also a certain aspect of time in this poem. He lists a date and says  "time on the water" What we write over time maybe washes away and as we progress we get better and better. Those are just a few ideas of what Jones could be saying.

9 of 12

When I wear clothing I do it in anticipation for many things. First I check the weather outside. Then I think about what I am going to do that day and see kid it requires a certain type of clothing. From there I will look at my clothes and see how I want to present myself. If I want to be lazy I will wear sloppy clothes that could say anything, I won't care. If I want to seem more professional that day I will try and wear something nicer like a button down shirt of a t-shirt with a nice message. If I want to show pride for my crew tram I will wear my crew clothing. If I want to seem musical I will wear a band T-shirt. But some days it is just plain random. So whether or not I expect an audience depends on how much I even care if there is an audience.

5 of 12

The President and the poet are two completely different characters and must behave and communicate in really different ways. The difference is how serious each needs to be. The president is running a country and needs to behave as such. Many thousands of lives depend on the things that he says and does. The poet does not have this huge responsibility. The poet can sit and ponder life's mysteries and think about how things can be different. If they experiment in living it just affects themselves, no one else. Zadie suggests there is no difference in how they speak. Zadie says they both need to embody the voice of different people. The president needs to look at the situation he is in through the eyes of many different people. The poet also looks at things through other people's eyes. Zadie uses Shakespeare as an example. This idea that presidents and poets both use multiple voices is true but she ignores the differences in what each needs to talk about.

3 of 12

What I really think about twitter as a writing place is that it is meant to be an informal fun place. Something I have noticed on twitter is that it is kind of rare for people to actually write correctly. Grammar and spelling problems seem to abound whether on purpose or not. It really is just a way to tell you friends random thoughts that you have. With hash-tags people can now look and find funny things like first world problems and other things like that. It is a place to laugh and have fun. One of my friends tweeted just the other day "I'm trying to think of a tweet to put up now so I can laugh at it tomorrow".

11 of 12

Are the four letter word projects writing?

I don't think that the four letter word projects are writing. To me writing is expressing an argument or idea through words on a piece of paper. Writing is a type of communication. The four letter word projects are also a form of communication. Just because they are both trying to express something does not mean they are the same thing. Yes they are about using a word, but it is more using the word through visual images which turns it more to the artistic side of things.not to say writing isn't artistic, it is just a less visible form of art. Writing is not visible, four letter projects are.

8 of 12

Flexibility...
      IN VOICE:

• Communicate w/ different people
• "                     in different settings
• to get desired results

      IN ALL THINGS:

• Communicate in every area of life
• voice is used everywhere, but it is not always the same.

(before the bullet points there is a box that is checked)

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Is the writer influenced by the writing implement she uses?   Yes, she instead of writing a normal paragraph she made a sort of checklist for two different lists. I think the fact that she was using a crayon really made this seem like an informal writing(which it was) so she felt more free to use this alternative mode of writing.
Is the writer more expressive or less expressive as a result of the physical constraints of the crayoned page? The writer becomes more exspressive through the crayon by writing in multiple colors and changing the format of how she wrote. The writer was constrained by the fact that the crayon had her write large which made less space for information to be written.
Is the writing any good? The writing is ok, it seems limited. All it does is list the positive aspects of being flexible in voice and in all things. It did not engage deeply in the subject but it did cover the basics very well.

4 of 12

1. "we feel that our voices are who we are, and that to have more than one, or to use different versions of a voice for different occasions, represents, at best, a janus-faced duplicity, and at worst, the loss of our very souls."(180)  is this true? I understand that we feel that our voice is who we are, that makes sense. But the idea that we think that us using different voices is wrong? I disagree everyone changes their voice depending on their situation. It helps us to relate to others. It is not "the loss of our very souls"

2."This new president doesn't just speak for his people. he can speak them." (182) Is this Obama truly trying to speak like other people or is he just getting in their mindset so that he can better represent them?

3. "his story of a genuinely many voiced man. If it has a moral it is that each man must be true to his selves, plural." (183)   Does Obama break the mold? is he somehow better at having more voices then us? is it not to him the "loss of his soul"?

4. "to occupy a dream, to exist in a dreamed space, is surely a quite different thing from simply inheriting a dream." (183) Is Zadie trying to say that we take our aspirations and goals and change our voice to fit those? and that goals our parents try to force on us change our voice?

5."Everyone wants to be Barack Obama. Even I want to be Barack Obama" (184) Is this really how Zadie feels Obama thinks? I feel like she is leaving out politics in how he would have created this figure of Barack Obama intentionally knowing he cant be it but can still receive those votes.

6. "I further audaciously hope that such a man will not mistake the happy accident of his own cultural sensibilities for a set of natural laws, suitable for general application." (194)  Does Zadie think that the voices we have we look at from a distance and let decide what we do?

2 of 12

I'm not sure why so many people wear texts on their clothing and on their skin.  Perhaps they feel that such portable writing serves to identify themselves. I feel that what people decide to wear shows what they want to be seen as in life. Some people wear jokes on their shirts to try and seem more like the funny guy. They want to be that class clown sort of character. Other people might where shirts describing a place or university because they want to seem like a member of that community. Others where shirts with their teams or clubs so that people will know they belong in that and they are like that stereotype. I think this idea of people wearing what they want to be goes past words though. Depending on a style of what people choose to wear they want to be identified in that way. That is why I feel like people where words on their clothing.

Four Letter Word Revision

Blog 1 of 12

This poem by Robert Hass is interesting. The argument he is trying to make is that poetry is taking normal actions and trying to say what is going on in a new way. His example is the difference between a leaf fluttering and the motion of the heat of august protecting cells from drying out. Essentially these are saying the same thing but the poetic one sounds nicer. As Hass says it "disenchant"s us.

"Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will." I think Hass is very confused. Now that I read this again and have heard the   discussion I know he is trying to say that words just can't do it. This really doesn't resonate with me though because I feel like the rest of his poem is doing it. The aspen glittering in the wind is very enchanting. It takes our mind to another place. I feel like the italics section is him trying to give an example to the reader of what his point is. I don't feel like this is effective though. I feel like the italics section is very enchanting and takes the mind to another place through this interesting use of language. 

Four Letter Word Project

Baby with an Ipad

This video is very striking. It shows the difference between what we are used to using as a public and what the future will be used to. This is the perfect example of remediation. The old way of using magazines is changing into the ipad. It provides the new generation with the simplicity of using ones hands to scroll across screens.

My Audience

The Precipice of a mountain looms over head. This behemoth expectation that I try to conquer. The boulders and pitfalls of grammar and style. The handholds that form in the rock through my developing structure. The arduous climb of writing sentence by sentence. I reach a plateau and think I am finished. Then my attention is brought to the next cliff not seen before. I try and revise my path around this seemingly impossible rabbit trail. Again the trial continues but I am reminded that the peak is not so far away. As I reach the pinnacle quality of this paper my mind is exhausted. Looking back on the trail I have blazed a though occurs to me. Someone else reading the words along this path will traverse what I have constructed. At the same view I am looking from a different idea is seen through their eyes. A mountain range of possibilities is brought to their eyes. The effects of my written though stimulates their feet itching to put on their own hiking boots and explore their own intellectual heights.

First Thoughts

This paper was a little bit of stress for me. This is because it was a little bit of a surprise on Friday when you told us a paper was due three days from then on Monday. To add on top of this friday night I was sitting down and I dropped my laptop. The screen broke. So I was in a situation where I had to find a computer to type on. Also I really wasn't confident in understanding what the actual assignment was. In the end though I believe I did an ok job. Nothing Fantastic, but I got the work done.

With just reading the first paragraph I feel like this draft is terrible. The Paper is not formatted correctly containing no heading or even a page number. The first paragraph is all of barely more then a line of the page. This line is just a piece of circular logic that I can not see heading anywhere. This is not an introduction to anything. This should be expanded.

My next rhetorical move will be to try and include more metaphors in my writing. At the moment I feel like it is just a lot of questioning and facts. If I include more metaphors it might be easier to understand what I am trying to get across. I also might bring the idea in my introductory paragraph full circle into the end of my essay.

Coney Island Of The Mind

Coney Island of the Mind was a video about one man reminiscing about Coney Island. He was looking back a the great times of the past. These memories were juxtaposed against the reality of how Coney Island has faded over time. The cinematography and choice of videos that were used truly fit what the video was trying to say. The speaker obviously cared about coney island a lot. To be honest it seemed to be a little over dramatized but it got across the point that the author thought about the place in two ways.

a sentence

A sentence starts out like a ray of sunshine. A warm brilliant idea shining through the writers mind as he contemplates his message. this idea is the catalyst for change in a paper. First the plant receives this idea with leaves facing up like open arms waiting for an embrace.  From there the idea is used, it becomes a catalyst. Combined with the carbon dioxide of syntax, grammar, and words a paper takes this idea and transforms it. It changes from an invisible feeling of warmth to the sensual impacting beauty of a flowering plant. From there the reader takes the waste of the process, it takes the leftover ideas or open ended questions and runs with it, like humans and the leftover oxygen.

If these walls could talk

College classrooms are seen as a place of learning. The universities and professors try and teach from a certain perspective that they believe thier students should learn through. Wesch thinks that this might not be the best way to teach. He decides that there needs to be a certain objectivity in the process so he goes outside of himself and acts as if the walls could say what they see. Through ideas and revisions by students a view of what really goes on in the classroom is made. Through the view that has been made Wesch makes the argument that the way education is now will not lead to greater learning but to stagnant students. This poses the problem of how education can be edited to truly bring knowledge to this large various body of students.

Home

A child is walking into a dreary old bank building with his mother. Always begrudging about having to go on these long errands. Drab boringness starts to fill his small being. But wait, what does he see on the counter? A LOLLYPOP! overflowing with joy he runs over and takes one. As he eats it sweetness begins to fill his taste-buds as all the monotony is forgotten. This lollypop is to him like home is to me. It is a retreat from the rest of the world. When working hard to achieve success drains my energy there is always that thought in the back of my mind. The fact that when vacation rolls around I can go back to that loving community and let the troubles of the world just slip away. Home is like a lollypop, not a bank.

Home is like...

Home is like a chicken pot pie. A chicken pot pie is smaller then a normal pie. DE where I am from is the second smallest state so I can see how they are similar. A chicken pot pie is warm and delicious like the ideas of friends and family.

The Medium is the Message

“The Medium is the message.” That’s what a high school teacher once reiterated many times. What did he mean by this? Why does he consider such a necessity to change how we see things?

            Just like Jay Bolter thinks, the audience is always aware of the medium. Depending on the audience the message you decide to tell might not be received well because of the chosen medium. A teller might be able to better impact the audience by intentionally using mediums that may change. The medium can strongly affect the point of a piece.

 A piece created where the medium disappears will be viewed different than a piece where the medium is noticeable. In many book, the medium disappears. Differentiating formats (paragraphs, outline, and image) can make the reader aware of the media. Bolter includes page cues in his book directing readers to other sections, much like hyperlinks. This makes the reader aware that they do not have to follow linearly.

 Incorporating the audience into the medium allows them to have a feeling of control. An example would be radio listeners who can call in to argue with a host (who is usually outspoken) on an issue like the status of Theo Epstein’s job. This incorporation is important and commonly found in many media forms.

Taylor Mali

To some the revolution of his or her spoken  word happens without even knowing. Taylor Mali wrote a poem to speak in front of a crowd. He had a statement that he was trying to get across. Someone elde decided to shanghai this poem and turn it into a digital textual message. Did this change the message? Was this unseen advancement in his work appreciated by Mali?
Yes, this new introduction of the work improved the message and how it could be understood. In the new digital version Taylor's voice is accompanied by a traveling band of words that change in form and font. Following his intonation and ideas the words would hang off the edge of a sentence or change to a more ambiguous font. All of this new text was visible and easily understood. Making the message more understandable it then could reach a wider audience and be more impactful. This brought the message to more success, and even to Taylor Mali's attention. He posted this new form of the message on his blog which indicates that he approved of and agreed with this new form of the message.

Derrida Interview

Are you ever afraid to write? Do you take writing as seriously as Jacques Derrida?

Jaques Derrida exudes confidence. He states that he will never back down from something he writes. That the fear of consequences will not stop his publishing. It seems as if he has a responsibility towards his beliefs. Just like with Jacques everyone has beliefs that they feel inside. The difference between people is in who decides to say what they feel and who doesn't. When it comes to writing these feelings many people get nervous in how other people will react. This fear can drive people away from writing what they believe.
Personally I generally do not stand back from telling my beliefs. With this said I usually talk to people and try and illustrate my point through conversation, but not writing. This might come from a certain fear of writing that I hold. My fear is not in how people will react, but in my skill level as a writer. At this point as far as ability to express my thoughts in text I am not as adept at talking. So when I write there is a certain fear or nervousness about whether or not I am expressing myself well. This is a fear to writing, just not the same one that Derrida deals with.

Is the Machine using us

In class we watched a video made by a anthropologist about technology. He showed us a basic map of the history of technology and the internet. In this is a massive network of people making things with technology. This machine grows larger and larger everyday by people adding to it. Now the real question is do we use it or does it use us? Who is really in control?
I think because of our nature as humans we would like to say that this is our creation and we dominate it and form it. This statement is becoming less and less true as time passes. Our society is becoming dependent on technology. Almost every business uses the web for their daily operations. Undoubtedly the web controls our society, and without it our culture as we know it would fail. The real question here is does this machine control our personal life? I think it does to an extent of how much we let it control us. We use the web to socialize and tell others about ourselves. If we really wanted we could not use technology. The post office still exists even if it is hardly used. Some people have been so engrossed in modern technology that if they tried to not use it there would be a struggle. I think the machine controls them, but not all of us are controlled by it.

Diction

In the sixth chapter of John Trimble's book Writing With Style he trys to tell us about diction. There are many things that he says in the chapter, but there are a few that really apply to my writing. The first thing he talks about and probably the most important for me is about being concise. He says on page 49 that a writer should act like they earn a dime for every word that they delete. I need to take this advice not because I am overly verbose but that I use just a little too many words. I like to make things sound nice by adding words, which isn't overly too much, but it is not perfectly concise. Another thing he talked about was freshness; using nice words to make the whole piece of writing sound better. I feel like I try to make things sound interesting through my words, but I tend to overuse certain words or cliches. Those two things are ideas that Trimble introduced that if I used I could take my writing up to the next level.

In class work

This is a variety of questions and observations that we have made during the past few weeks of class.
10 things baseball players do: Eat, Sleep, Run, Walk, workout, practice, throw, catch, spit, talk on tv.
list of nouns: book, fan, water bottle, balloon, dog, aardvark.
combinations: spitting book is a description of an aggressive writing. a cursing fan is probably broken.
10 questions about Heineken commercial: Whose living space is it? what kind of living space? is it a party? why is the guy on the left so funny looking? does the girl in the scarf want to try something on? is the living space new? Why the order from men to women? do women scream for Heineken? why do men need a whole fridge just for beer? What is the commercial saying about women?
10 questions for AT&T commercial: Why pick the city setting? why use a childrens story? Why the background music? what are they trying to sell? skipping vs walking? why use breadcrumbs when they had the cell phone the whole time? why dressed in so old fashion? what city is it? who is the target audience? why does she have a cell phone? why no dialogue?

Salsa or Guacamole?

One very simple question asked from one friend to another. Guac or salsa? You would think that this would be quickly and easily answered. Not in this case. The question lead to a chaotic stream of consciousness with random statements and questions. This madness concludes with one of the spitting guacamole during a massive food fight. Now did these crazy shenanigans accomplish anything? Did the man ever decide between guacamole or salsa? Do events like this actually happen in real life?

The company Bing thinks so. not necessarily in active life, but that is more of an allegory to how search engines like to answer questions.They are stating that if you use one of the normal search engines you will not find an answer unless you wade through a thick swamp of random pages. Bing knows this is not fun, and see this as an opportunity. They want to make you think that if you use Bing you will quickly get to an answer and skip all the commotion. If this is true or not who knows; at least they want you to think that it is.

The Symbol in the City

Bright lights, large billboards, throngs of people, speeding cars, chaos in every direction. The city can be very overwhelming for most people who go there for the first time. Why would anyone want to venture out into this giant mass of seemingly unorganized movement you might ask? Well there is a certain charm to the city. The city is a place of success and opulence. You could say this is where all the magic happens. Cities are the cutting edge of all society. Anybody who is anybody wants to live in the city.
AT&T can see the attraction to this idea of grandiose success. They probably even have some large buildings in some cities. They want the public to think that if they have an AT&T phone that they are on the cusp of greatness. They try and get across this idea by juxtaposing this brand new city against two children presumably named Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel is the antithesis to this idea of brand new and successful. They are two poor children from one of the worlds most old and dated fairy tale. Wait a second, even they have an AT&T phone. Wow if they have one and you don't you might want to go out and get one. You don't want to be that person with the outdated technology do you?

FFW 9/16/11

What is your writing process like?

           My writing process is not as extreme as Chel White's. What I like to do first is just brainstorm a few ideas for what I am about to write. From there I weigh the pros and cons of each idea that I thought up. Once I have decided on an idea I then either on paper or in my head build a set of points that I want to get across. Then I structure them all so each piece fits together like a puzzle. My last step involves brushing up my sentences. This is when I try and make it sound nice, and check for grammatical errors. My writing process may not involve almost driving off a cliff, but it works for me.

Bing Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx9Cmp6qQzY

Heineken Commercial

           Beaming smiles are seen across men's faces. Pure delight is gained from the sight they beheld. In this room sized refrigerator all around them they see one thing. Bottles upon bottles of refreshing cold beer. But wait, all of the bottles are the same brand. Heineken is all that they have. Maybe it is this Heineken that is bringing them all of this joy. Maybe if we buy Heineken we can also be filled with this overwhelming ecstasy; or maybe that is just what they want us to think.

Extraordinary Pantene Commercial

In class we were shown a very long pantene commercial from Thailand. It has many messages and great examples of visual imagery. She told us to find one observation and to expand on it. The following is a link to said video, and my essay is here also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um9KsrH377A

          During her performance the deaf girl imagines herself walking through a field of wheat. From this one can infer that her focus was not on the crowd or vain pride, but on feeling the music in order to perform the best she could. Now this is obviously an important performance, why would she focus less on technical skill and the crowd's reaction, than the emotion of music?
          There are many ways once can view the way she performs. One could say she after all she can only feel the music given her deafness, but there is another way to interpret this. That would be to see this focus on emotion as a way for her to perform her best in honor of her mentor. This is more likely because during her performance she has a flashback from when she was next to her mentor's bed, where he is dieing. This would indicate that her focus on the emotion of music is really a telling message of love to her mentor. Another more cynical interpretation can also be gained from this commercial. This is that the company pantene set up a very joyous,inspiring story to try and leave viewers happy and more willing to buy their shampoo. Unforunatly this more depressing interpretation is most likely the accurate one.

FFW 9/12/11

John Trimble makes the case that all writers are like warriors, defending claims and fortifying arguments. How do you respond to this trope, this figurative turn?

I completely agree with this idea. I think a week ago I probably would have disagreed with this statement, but in one of my other classes we are reading something that changed my mind. The book we are reading is about the romantic poets and their lives. This is mostly about Leigh Hunt and Shelley. In all of their writings they had an underlying, social, political, or emotional point they were trying to get across.They always put evidence in their poems and novels of these ideas. This is more prevalent and seen when The Quarterly Review attacked their writings and the poets had to defend their claims. These scathing attacks seen between writers to me truly appeared like two intellectual warriors battling.

So Here I am at Hofstra with a Blog...

Writing online makes me feel very curious and/or adventurous. This is probably because I really never do too much online. Even with Facebook I didn't get one until a few years after all of my friends. I guess it is just part of my personality. I would much rather have a personal face to face conversation with someone then to do it with technology. This kind of turns out to not work well in our modern culture where every teenager and their mother is constantly texting. That is besides the point I guess though. I am excited that I can put up the work we do in class here so we can view each others writings. Also I need to make a twitter for the class so that should be exciting.