automaticable

I know correlation does not imply causation, but I still want to apply fuzzy logic to this post I found on clusterflock. Excerpt below:

How Some Bloggers Feel About Talking on the Phone

Yglesias: “I couldn’t be more thrilled with the phone’s decline. I used to be painfully shy as a person, and while I’ve largely gotten over that IRL I still find it incredibly stressful to talk to people on the phone.”

Atrios: “I think I enjoyed chatting with girls when I was 13 or so, but since then I’ve pretty much hated the phone.”

Alan Jacobs: “This is a loathing I share, and have for a long time.”

McMegan: “Weird fact: every single (successful) blogger I know hates talking on the phone. I’m gregarious face to face, and I’m an inveterate user of various kinds of textual messaging, but I would rather scrub my floors with a toothbrush than get on the phone.”

The logic I want to apply is this: I am a blogger by definition since you are reading this post. I also very much dislike talking on the phone, but consider myself socially competent both in face to face interactions and through text. These facts combined imply (fuzzy logic incoming) that I am a soon-to-be successful blogger.

I know, I know. This makes no sense. But if successful bloggers hate the phone, and I blog and hate the phone, there is at least potential, right? I wonder what the real reasoning behind the correlation between bloggers and their hatred of the telephone, if there even is one. Anyone want to do an in depth study on this? I’m sure there is a psychology major out there that needs a thesis or term paper topic.

We have all read the news stories: students kicked off of sports teams for incriminating pictures on Facebook or recent graduates not getting jobs because the employer Googled their name and found controversial discussions on message boards. These kinds of stories are generally met with frustration, but are ultimately accepted as OK since it was the individuals decision to incriminate themselves on the internet. But what happens when activities that happen often offline, such as student study groups, start moving online? According to TheStar.com (via Slashdot), Ryerson University believes these actions should end in expulsion.

I’ll give you a quick overview, but for a full understanding of the story check out the link above. One student set up a Facebook group where he and other students would ask questions and provide tips, not solutions, to homework problems. Over 100 students had joined the group and have treated it as a virtual “study group.” They even named the Facebook group the same as the popular group study hall on campus.

Because the actions of the students are nearly identical to how students have been studying in groups for decades, this issue is a slippery slope. What if the students were to bring a tape recorder to their offline study sessions so they could refer back to the conversations? What if copies of this tape were made for all the students that participated in the study group? What if this tape were then shared online for other students wishing to participate in virtual study groups? Where is the line drawn here. Because this started as an offline medium, is it ok? Or do these faculty members think students should only be working independently in the first place? I can’t imagine what college would have been like without guidance from my peers.

What this comes down to, in my mind, is a lack of understanding on the part of the faculty. If precedence is set here, then I don’t know a single student that has not “cheated” his or her way through college. Everyone relies on their peers for help, and any university that tries to quash this is in serious denial.

Jokingly, I told my girlfriend Stacy to write an article for the blog instead of study for her big test on Wednesday. She’s been really stressing out about it lately, and I knew she wouldn’t have time to take a break. However,  she did have time to write this short article…

So my boyfriend asked me to write a little something to post on his new blog. After reading all of the computer science/tech savvy articles by him and his brothers, I felt a like anything I would write would be out of place. Instead, I decided to do the opposite of their trends and move a little closer to the stone age, away from computers – where I technologically fit.

I guess I should add a bit of history about me first. I am a junior in college at UIUC. I am studying psychology, but pursuing a career as a physician’s assistant. I hardly have a background in computers, although I’ve always been considered good at fixing electronics since I was young. Currently, my boyfriend is helping me fix up a web page for a club I am in. Other than that, when it comes to computers I know how to write a paper and play freecell and I wouldn’t give myself much credit for anything else. Back to the point I started making, moving back to the stone age makes me feel more comfortable that I don’t rely on technology everyday. Even though the medical field is increasing their reliance on technology, I’d rather rely on what has been around for a long time and what I know works.
For example, I volunteer at the local hospital in the ER. Just the other day I got to watch a guy’s head be sutured. This is a pretty good experience for a volunteer because most of our experience is restocking shelves or changing linens. When the nurse began to suture his head, the patient’s hair kept getting in the way of the knot. If she continued, this would have led to a very irritating healing process with hair stuck under the knot in the scab. So how did she solve this problem? A paper clip. When she first asked me to fetch a paper clip, I was surprised that the suture kit didn’t come with some kind of sterile clip that can hold back anything that will get in the way. But I guess you can always rely on paper clips.

Maybe it’s just the psych major in me, but this reminds me of a term — functional fixedness. It means that if you ‘suffer’ from functional fixedness, you can only see an object for its intended use. So for people like this, a paper clip is only an object to hold papers together. When I say ‘suffer’, maybe it’s a stretch, but I mean that these people lack the creativity and find a hard time deviating from norms, making their life less efficient. I learned this term in my first psychology class about four years ago. This was around the time that I also found another use for a paper clip. As much as I hate to reflect upon it, I worked at Subway for what seems like a lifetime. But I actually learned a lot from that place. Anyway, in our less than classy store, the toilet in the men’s room broke very often. However, a coworker of mine replaced the rusty/corroded part with a paper clip. I probably wouldn’t have thought of this idea myself, but needless to say, for the following four years that I worked there, we never had a problem with the toilet again.

Maybe these are just two examples of other uses of paper clips, but my point is that if you look around, there are a lot of things that have multiple purposes. And not all of these things are new. They are reliable tools that have been around for a long time. As I slowly pull myself out of the stone age and transition to a new era, I want to not only learn about computers and new electronics, but also how to use our past tools more efficiently. As a last thought, I leave you with the famous problem of fixing a candle to the wall and lighting it given only matches, a candle, and a matchbox filled with thumbtacks. Solve that and maybe you’ll see things a bit more in my light.

Well, I guess I can take ahold of this new place in line as the “New Guy.” Let me introduce myself, My name is Doctor Fraiser Kraine, professional radio psychologist. No, actually, I kid. My name is Brian Wegner, brother to all three of these other crazy bloggers that you have met so far. I reside in a cold cabin that I like to call, a bedroom in my parents house located in Downers Grove, IL. I’m currently attending College of DuPage, the local community college going for a general AA (Associates of Arts) degree and hopefully transferring off to one of the cardinal colleges to obtain a bachelors degree in Recreation Management. I, much like Scott (because he is my twin), am 21 years old. Let me talk about this a little bit actually.

Warning ahead of time, there are mention of underage indulgences ahead, so if you disagree with this, then stop reading now and please visit www.disney.com they’ve been waiting for you.

When I turned 21, I feel as if I changed a full deal more than I ever have before. When I first started college, attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale, I did as most freshmen did on their first weekend of college; I went out to find the best party in town and drink the night away. Needless to say I succeeded and was glad that I picked the college that I did. As time went on, and the weekends kept coming up quicker and quicker, and the parties got rowdier and rowdier; I realized that I loved the party atmosphere, but I didn’t like the skunk beer. So I started to have my friends buy me my own beer. I would make sure that I indulged in enough of my better, non-skunk beer to where when we went to a party, I was unable to taste the bitter beer. This went on for about two semesters, and when I came back in the fall of my sophomore year, I had my own apartment, my own fridge, and my own beer crisper (vegi-tray). I had also turned 20 that semester and decided I was against the house parties, and more for the bars, so that’s what I did. I frequented more bars than house parties. I enjoyed this new setting, it gave me a new sense of belonging and the atmosphere was amazing, but best of all, I didn’t have to drink skunk beer if I didn’t want to. I kept frequenting bars, and enjoyed every minute of it. After my sophomore year, I moved back home to finish up my AA. I turned 21 on a weekend and spent the majority of it with my girlfriend (Lindsay), my twin (Scott), his girlfriend (Stacy), and the rest of his roommates down at UIUC (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). The rest of the weekend is obviously a blur, but it was definitely one of the most memorable weekends of my life (ironic huh?). Now that you have the background and lead-up story, I can now explain the change.

Since turning 21, I’ve noticed that drinking just to get drunk is really immature. The parties, the beer bongs, the drinking games, they all seem so…childish. Yeah, it’s fun to indulge in your young side every once in a while and do these things, but I have no real motivation or wanting to do this on a regular basis anymore. Instead of drinking every weekend of the semester, like I did freshman and sophomore year, I now only indulge in a tasty beverage every once in a while and haven’t been to a bar since my 21st (which was in October). I don’t drink to get drunk, I drink to socialize. Basically what I’m trying to say is I’ve lost my desire to be a “party animal” and now love just drinking on occasion, and this is by no means, a bad thing.

I hope this first blog doesn’t make me seem out to be an alcoholic, because I’m not. I’m just another 21 year old, living life day by day, and changing with the world around me. Enjoy the rest of your day, because I know I will.

-Brian

A while ago my friend showed me a few episodes from the Planet Earth DVD series, and I fell in love with them. It’s a five-disc series put out by BBC, that explores extraordinary wildlife all over the globe. The filming style follows the animals which illustrates in animals’ behavior as well. I think it’s safe to say that the series is probably the most complete and high-resolution collection of wildlife footage that exists to date.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend giving it a try. And if you have seen it, you should check out Blue Planet, which is a similar documentary series that catalogs the wildlife in our oceans.

I just watched about 5 minutes of the TV show “MXC,” which, if you’re not familiar, is pretty funny. The premise is that they take footage of a Japanese game-show where they compete in ridiculous stunts. Then, we add American commentary spoofing whatever is really going on, reminiscent of Mystery Science Theater 2000.

What brings me to post, though, is the underlying irony of it all. If you look at the Japanese economy, industry, and entertainment, you’ll notice that they are in fact emulating the American market. Because of their growing free market, the Japanese are in an era where the middle-class have more money, and so their lifestyles are influenced by that of America. You can see it in their clothing, their technology, and even the vacations they take. Most specifically, you can see it in their television programming.

So what strikes me as funny here, is that the Japanese make television programming that mirrors Hollywood, but we dub it over and it becomes a comedy in the States. I think if we put the same cheesy dubbing on some of our own shows, they might be equally popular. Moral of the story: the reality TV content put out today is garbage.

Related Rant: How there exists an Americanized version of the “Planet Earth” series, because the United States as a whole just wouldn’t understand a British narrator.

For the most part, I’ve been unaffected by the writer’s strike. I don’t have a lot of time for TV during the semester, save The Office on Thursdays. Losing The Office was a major blow, but I didn’t realize how bad things really were until I got home for the holidays.

My parents have Tivo at home, and it’s generally chock-full of mindless programming to keep you entertained (read: comatose) for hours. But the only programs still recorded are movies, reality TV, and the news. It’s pretty sad.

So what does this mean for the entertainment industry as a whole? Well foremost, it’s unfortunate for all of the people striking, and also those that lost their jobs because there’s no more work. But people just haven’t been watching as much live TV as a result. It’s an opportunity for people to catch up on all those old movies, previous seasons of sitcoms, and even blogs and video blogs.

With the downplay of traditional TV, I think this is a great time for amateur-based video blogs, and content of all sorts. This is a big opportunity for applications like Miro that aggregate alternative content. Although a few shows are coming back, there’s still no end in sight for this strike. This could be the beginning of a major shift in how we get our media entertainment.