weddings and the Internet

I planned my entire wedding with the help of the Internet. How great is technology? I hopped on theknot.com and it told me everything I had to do, when I had to do it. I looked for reception sites online (although eventually had to visit it...). I emailed with the minister, the choir director, all online. I bought the invites online, found my dress, everything. it rocks. i did it all in my pjs in the middle of the night. i love the internet.

Electronic Field Trips

When I was temping at Broome-Tioga BOCES I worked in the Educational Technology department. During my time there I put together a 48 page booklet on Electronic Field Trips. They are so interesting. I wanted to try some of them. I think this is an important option for teachers, especially in districts that don't allot much money for field trips, to know about. The site I used to build this pamphlet was : http://www.cesa10.k12.wi.us/dl/trips/ Check it out if you get the chance. All school districts in the BT BOCES area should be able to access most of them... and the teachers in Cortland and what not should contact their local BOCES.

TANDYS ROCK

I loved my Tandy. I played sooooooooo many hours of SUPERPITFALL listening to Madonna's "like a prayer" and porno for pyros. I can't rmember what their song was, but I remember I liked the name of the band because it had the word PYROS in it. I was unsure what porno was then. I'm sure my memories are mixed up, I'm not sure if they were putting out music when Like a Prayer was out...but that's my serious vivid memory of my Tandy. Everything was cartridges, our diskdrive either didn't work, or there was the good ol' "operator error' working there. You could sit there, on the DOS program and type in lines and lines of commands. It took like an hour, if you were lucky enough to do it right the first time and when you hit "CMD>RUN" (or something like that) the screen would flash different colors. It was cool. I couldn't print on it or anything but I felt sooo advanced.....

Moore's Law, anyone?

SISTER'S 21st Birthday

It's my sister's 21st birthday. I remember the day she was born and my parent's brought her home. I was soooo happy! I remember feeding her a bottle... and tonite, more bottles. ha. okay that wasn't very funny. Its just bizarre and great. It's been the great divide with us, I've been able to go out to bars and what not for a long time now and she has always had to stay home or do something else. Now we can go out together for a good blue moon pale ale (iknow, i know its a COORS beer). Or the Ithaca Apricot Ale. ymm... I'm very excited.

digital cameras

What did we ever do before digital cameras? I guess there were Polaroids in the 80s for that instant gratification, but you can't delete a Polaroid. You couldn't hook your polaroid camera to your gigantor IBM computer and send the pictures all over the world. The only part I hate about the Digital Camera is that sometimes I think it might be smarter than me. Also, I can't get my printer to do what I want always. OPERATOR ERROR. ;)

weddings and the Internet

I planned my entire wedding with the help of the Internet. How great is technology? I hopped on theknot.com and it told me everything I had to do, when I had to do it. I looked for reception sites online (although eventually had to visit it...). I emailed with the minister, the choir director, all online. I bought the invites online, found my dress, everything. it rocks. i did it all in my pjs in the middle of the night. i love the internet.

Homer Simpson

Did you know one of Matt Groening's favorite books is THE DAY OF THE LOCUST? It was written in 1975 by Nathanael West. I had to read it for one of my undergrad classes. One of the main characters is, HOMER SIMPSON. This just goes to prove that there aren't many original ideas and as... that really famous person said... Good poets borrow, great poets steal... this just reminded me what we were talking about in class the other day...

caller ID

Yesterday at work I called a patient because she was late. It rang once and I looked up to see her walking through the door. So, naturally, I hung up. About 30 seconds later her husband called all huffy "what do you want?" Thanks, a lot, caller ID! This new technology has ruined slumber parties, the Jerky Boys and my ability to make a mistake.

project 4

I have finally found a good "keyword" to my research page that is: DIGITAL DIVIDE. I am really excited because I spent most of last class trying to search for information on computers and education. Then suddenly it came to me... search words: computers education socioeconomics. VOILA! I found a site that led me to the phrase "digital divide". I wish I knew how to record sound on to this because I would have this page say "DIGITAL DIVIDE" like someone reading about the creation story where God creates light. You know, that omnipotent sounding voice? Anyway to get the WIKIPEDIA definition of "DIGITAL DIVIDE" please visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

comment on my own post

I was just re-reading my "well written *sarcasm* post about baseball. I do rely on media to bring me the scores. During the games, when I can be I am constantly by a TV or radio (mostly radio, i don't have cable for the YES network). I even had a (small) argument with my husband last week because before I got home from work he went to buy a rake and took the portable radio with him to hear the game. When I arrived home I grabbed a refreshing drink from the refrigerator and was all set to sit in my yard in the bright sunshine and hear some Yankee baseball. But where was the radio? Grr! :)

I remember at the end of last season, there was something said about the commentators not being good journalists. They were biased, someone was accusing them of. Very biased. HELLO! all of the commentators said. We are broadcasting in a a market where the majority of listeners are Yankee fans. Why wouldn't we be biased? We are on WCBS 880 which is "THE HOME OF YANKEE BASEBALL". I was interested that there was such an uproar about these commentators being biased. Was it going to get people thinking about markets? Was it going to get people thinking about the media and how there are MARKETS and your news is selected for you? Alas, it didn't, really. I wish people would get more fired up about the media. I wish people would get more fired up about the filters, who is filtering your information and why.

why i don't own a cell phone

I don't own a cell phone. I used to, but I don't anymore. They shut off my service because I had a GIGANTIC bill. They pulled a fast one on me (that is, AT&T) and changed the start time of my night minutes from 8 to 9. This was when I was living in Baltimore and everyone I knew was living anywhere but there. But that's not the entire reason why I don't own one. Aside from television and the Internet, cell phones are making our world and the people that live in it less comfortable with being alone. On my way from the parking lot to the computer lab (which is, let's say, a 4 minute walk) there were at least 7 people on their cell phones out of the 10 I walked by. People drive when they are talking on the phone and when they do they are driving approximately 50 mph, when the rest of us are driving 70. Just today on my drive up here I was behind a driver who was coasting along going 75. Then suddenly the car's speed dropped to 60. My thought was...uh-oh cop. Then I saw the antenae coming out of the head of the driver. Annoying! Cell phones are ringing every where I go. At work... people are getting their TEETH CLEANED and their cell rings. At school...phones ring in classes. When I'm hanging out with my friends... hold on, it's *insert person of seemingly more importance here*. UGH. I also think that, sadly, we are going to see in the next 20 years an increase in brain tumors due to these devices. Do I sound like my Gram? Heck, yeah! And I like it that way. We keep stressing that we need more one on one/personal interaction. Maybe smashing the cell phones would be a start.

I will say that cell phones are great for emergencies. I'll give it that.

i can't help my baseball fever...

I was born in October of 1979, that was the year that the Pittsburth Pirates beat the Orioles to win the World Series. My parents (when the spoke) talked about bringing me home from the hospital and propping up my baby holder (or whatever they call it) up on the card table in front of the World Series. This was a rite of passage, they made me feel, that I experienced within my first days of living the Wold Series and wasn't I lucky. I mean LITERALLY the World Series that year began on the DAY that I was born... and the next year I was given a Yankees cap...I will post a picture of it in the next blog. This has greatly influenced my life. Does this relate to computers and the study of English? NO. Does it relate to my professional life...directly, I'll say NO again... but it is so much of EXACTLY who I am it might be a little bit disgusting. I live for April. And now, this year, the Yanks have a new FEMALE commentator...she rocks, she has my intensely LITERAL DREAM JOB. So maybe this does relate to my PROFESSIONAL LIFE...I should have had a COMM major at THE Pennsylvania State University. but at least I can use this COMPUTER in my STUDY OF ENGLISH to realize that I invest so much in the MEDIA to relay me the score...?

Big Media Hall of Shame

Last week in class we were discussing media's control over our minds. Well, the site http://www.freepress.net/hallofshame/ is dedicated to voting for the most controlling person in Big Media. It's very interesting and describes the top 5 most manipulative people in Big Media. I thought it was interesting and informative.