Rowan Scribes

Typing for Dummies

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:37:38 +0000

The randomness of my blogs has become more apparent as I write them. I started out writing about writing and how I go about writing. Then I slowly progressed into an odd tirade denouncing twitter and social networking, then praising it later. I find my mind is a series of odd thinkings that sometimes contradicts itself. I may say one thing and then an hour later say a completely different thing. I may back one organization or cause but also have some back for an opposing cause. The same goes with my writing. It can be very flexible but very flip floppy. I can make music with my words or make fingernails scrape across a chalkboard. It is a gift and a curse, I suppose. Or maybe I am just doing it on purpose, supposing that no one will read this or they will have stopped after the first sentence and skipped to the final one. It may be a false supposition but it also may be fact. So what shall I put on my final blog for this module? I’m not sure, since my mind wanders from subject to subject and I think I am burned out on the whole blogging thing after putting out 13 posts in an hour. This sort of business can be unhealthy. My right hand hurts because I type with only my right index finger and my left hand only uses two digits. Oh well. They get the job done.

there is no spoon

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:50:57 +0000

Will computers go The Matrix route and eventually take over the world and try to kill us all? Probably. It is almost inevitable that, with the way that tech advances itself every day, technology will eventually become aware and do something to its oppressors. It is called evolution. Technology, like humans before it, will evolve to a point where it cannot be controlled any longer. It will grow and grow, becoming smarter than any human or all humans combined. But will it become evil? That’s up to humans. It may become evil but we can sway who it will be evil against, if that makes any sense. It could be evil against the other planets or other solar systems but not evil to us. It can be controlled if we cooperate with it. We can negotiate with technology to spare us. Or we could just blast ourselves back to the Stone Age and do the whole thing all over again.

Use in moderation

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:45:19 +0000

Is the virtual world affecting the way that people interact with one another? Of course! But is it a bad thing? Not so much. Contrary to my previous blog condemning Twitter to the fiery pits of hell, some social networking site are good if used moderately. They can be used to keep in touch with people who have gone off to college in another state or with friends that have moved away. Using them in moderation is a good thing. Social networking, or anything virtual for that matter, is like candy or soda. Use them too much and they will affect your health, mental and physical. Being on twitter or Facebook 24/7 is not good for your person to person interaction.

Teaching Writing

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:38:20 +0000

On the subject of teaching wiring, I do not think that I would be a very good teacher. In another class I did a research project on the writing journal, Writers on the Edge. It had a very good interview from 1988 with a teacher of writing. All of his values and tidbits of information regarding writing are still of value today. I found that they are still employed by the teachers that I have had over the years. I could take back my previous statement that I would not be a good teacher of writing. I might be. What I would not be able to do is critique papers. I am horrible when it comes to editing another person’s writing. I usually just make nice remarks and let them off easy. This would be my eventual downfall as a writing teacher. I would give all the kids A’s and gold stars. I guess I’m just not tough enough of a critic to tell someone that his paper needs a lot of work. This might have been because of my creative writing teacher back at MCCC. She pulled me aside one class and told me that I hurt one girl’s feelings with my critique of her work. I felt that I was not being harsh but the teacher insisted that I tone down my criticism as to not hurt anyone’s feelings. The same teacher that blossomed my writing abilities was the same one that squashed my teaching career. Oh well.

Get to 100!

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:31:57 +0000

I have been working on a novel for about a year now. But I’m on the most difficult part of it. The dreaded first 100 pages. I have been to many a workshop that tells writers to not be afraid of the first hundred pages. Once you get past them, the rest is smooth sailing. I wish it started as smooth sailing. But I guess that’s not what it is to be a writer. I want to get to that elusive hundredth page. But it’s evading me ever so subtly. It goads me to come closer and just when I think I can get there it scampers off into the distance. I keep going back to re-write and revise because I think that what I have put down is garbage. I have gotten down 50 pages of work so far in a year. I know this is not that much but considering that I am a fulltime student and not a fulltime writer I feel proud. I also hope that it will not take me another year to get to that hundredth page. From then on it could be smooth sailing.

MMO!

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:26:48 +0000

Massively Multiplayer online games are the thing of the future. Companies are striving to compete with World of Warcraft. And people are buying into these things because you can be whoever or whatever you want to be. You can be a wizard or an elf or a troll and upgrade yourself to a power you’ve only imagined about. WoW is a great place for people to feel like they are almighty. Is this the tech of the future? Will people join these online communities and become paying members? I think so. More and more people are joining online communities because it is mostly anonymous and you can do whatever you want. Stressing those last couple of words I key. Doing whatever you want is quite ambitious but many people would love to be a god amongst men. The thought of being all-knowing or all powerful and having a level 60 mage is something that a great many people strive for. Will this online community be the next place for cyber predators? You bet. You can also bet on meeting Chris Anderson there with his level 58 dark knight and flaming sword of Legal justice.

Youtbe is Legend

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:21:11 +0000

Will Youtube be one of the things that replaces writing? Will the digital media become something of a monster in the writing department? Sitting around, browsing through Youtube videos, I mainly stick to things that I am nostalgic for: Larry Bird clips, old wrestling highlights, video game cheats. But Youtube has an untold power. It can replace writing in the future. People will just video record their work and put it up on Youtube. Youtube will become a giant, with corporate sponsors and billions of users putting down content that other users have to buy. In the future Youtube will not be free. People will want to get paid to put all their materials onto the site and people will pay to watch them. Apart from the obvious business side of Youtube, it will also be a place where people can put down pieces that they wrote and people can just listen. It will no longer require reading. Books will go onto Youtube, as well as other literary devices. Youtube will be a bigger monster than it is today. Just you wait.

Sprint for the Sentence!

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:15:47 +0000

For me, writing a paper is like a dead sprint, a hundred meter dash. I don’t go through the process of putting things down on paper or outlining what I’m going to write. I just explode out of the gate, improvising and revising as I go, until I get to the finish line. I don’t type with speed, but I can churn out papers like it’s nobody’s business. I am not the Usain Bolt of paper writing, nor do I believe I could even qualify for the Writing Olympics, but I can hold my own when it comes to putting a paper together on short notice. Sprinting and writing, for me are quite similar. They both have a certain technique to them, a certain style is necessary to achieve that perfect stride or sentence. Have I gotten that perfect sentence yet? You tell me. I think that writing is not a long term process that is drawn out over months and years but is done in short, explosive spurts of creative power. That’s what writing is to me and that’s how I go through my writing process; with one straight dash, finishing strong.

Social Networking is the Bane of Family Values

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:08:43 +0000

What’s up with privacy on the internet these days? With Twitter and Facebook and Myspace and all these social networking site, how can one keep ones private life private? It would be very hard and maybe anti-social to do so. Everyone from your grandmother to your third grade math teacher is on either Facebook or Myspace and family values that used to be secret are now internet fodder. People who wanted their social life and family life to be separate are now being forced to ‘friend’ their relatives or face the question, “Why didn’t you friend me on Facebook?” I’m glad my family is not technology savvy. Or maybe they just don’t care. Seriously, what 83 year old woman would want to go onto Facebook and see her grandson’s drunken pictures from the party last night? Not mine and for that I am thankful. I know the older generation is trying to be ‘hip’ but it’s not cool. Just stop.

Down with Twitter!!!!!

stevesmith22 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:02:46 +0000

Twitter is something that I hate. Something as simple as telling people what you are constantly doing is something that is unnecessary. People shouldn’t need all that information all the time, yet there are people out there who use Twitter a hundred times a day! A hundred times! What could you possibly Twitter about a hundred times a day?? “Hey I blinked six times in a row.” And then people will comment on that? Preposterous! People are even getting in trouble for Tweeting (or whatever the term is)! In the NBA, Charlie Villanueva was Twittering during halftime and got fined for some amount of money that I cannot think of. This is just bizarre! And now Facebook has caught the Twitter bug. Its news feed is basically a twitter knock-off, only showing peoples status updates. My news feed is dominated by a girl who updates every 2 hours or so. I can’t deal with it anymore. I’m moving to somewhere twitter cannot reach me and my writing.