Hi, I'm Georgia, nice to meet you. Just an aspiring media enthusiast living in one of the most extra ordinary cities in the world. Some would describe me as 'Rare' – an interesting term, that seems to sum up my life entirely. This can mean that either… I am not found in large numbers and am consequently of interest & value, Am unusually good & remarkable , Or that i'm lightly cooked, so that my inside is still red. Which definition is applicable? Who knows. Hopefully you can find out get back to me :)
I have no idea what this Koscodaddy program is at this point in the course, but it was nice to watch a few of the Multi linear films with my new buddy George Michael.
The first one we watched was entitled ‘Duet’ and encompassed the concept of ‘Invisible Threads’. This concept was about the metaphysical & emotional connection that bounds you to someone or something and was perpetuating that these bonds; whether they be familial, emotional or cultural; are far more stronger than physical Threads. I liked this concept however i did not like the way it was portrayed with a father, a dog and a cat. I would much rather one of the other demonstrations be a ‘Invisible Thread’ to a culture or the environment, rather than using the example of an animal bond twice. This would have explored the concept more in depth.
From this first analysis of Korsakow, i think could do some very poetic and interesting things with it! Lets hope its not to tricky to use!
When someone says the word hyperlink to me, I immediately think back to primary school. It was about 2002 when I was taught to embed a hyperlink into text, on this new and exciting program called ‘Microsoft Word’, have you ever heard of it?
The way in which hyper linking allowed me to network my stories about my favourite TV shows on ABC Kids to pictures on the web of the bananas in Pyjamas and Mixy the bunny, was an exhilarating concept for me that was quite peculiar compared to just the straight forward typical ‘write a narrative on a piece of paper’ type task.
As we have progressed not only in growth and age since 2002 but technologically this once modernistic cont of Hyper linking has developed even further into a whole new realm – Hyper texts and Hyper fiction.
Hypertexts basically add more complexity to the ideal of texts, and reveal a new organization of the typical narrative. These are some of the concepts that stood out for me in this weeks reading by Landow;
Hypertext redefines not only beginnings and endings of the text but also its borders – its sides, as it were.
That whilst indulged in a hypertext linearity becomes subjective to the reader, because narrative byted do not follow a typical narrative ‘page turning’ format.
To me, the way in which a reader is to follow a hypertext resembles a safari – an online safari! The way in which it encourages you to Explore the realms of a story and all different nooks and crannies of its content; just as I would imagine myself exploring a jungle.
I can only imagine what the world of ‘Hyper’ (links, texts..) will bring in the future, and perhaps looking back on this reading in years to come I will be baffled by the simplicity of a once complex notion of Hypertexts.
I don’t know whether it was my strict Ballarat upbringing (lol), or the fact that I have subconsciously developed trust issues throughout my life but today our tutor Mr Elliot Agatha Heatwole (I don’t actually know Elliot’s middle name..) , gave our class, full of post pubescent, hung-over, naïve and somewhat stupid try hard intellects the ultimatum of deciding our fate if we were to be dishonest in our blog audits.
I understand Elliot’s logic- “that if we are dishonest, we are only being dishonest with ourselves” and the guilt of lying every week on that A4 participation sheet would be enough to eat us up inside, and motivate us to do the work honestly. A lot of the classmates seemingly agreed with him, suggesting that we obtain no ramifications for lying on our participation sheet, because the guilt of not doing the work and lying to sweetheart Elliot Agatha, would be all too much to bare.
Im sorry classmates, I love you all (well most of you) but you’re full of shit. There is no way that you are going to feel guilty about not doing blog posts when you’re out drinking at the pub with your mates Wednesday after tute. I for one would not feel guilty, as id personally rather indulge in watching an Offspring episode on a Wednesday night, rather than trying to become engaged with boring readings and smash out an insightful and witty blog post. So, being the honest and somewhat pushover person that I am, I argued that we should cop at least some form of punishment for lying, even if its getting a few marks taken off here and there or even just a light spanking- nothing to dramatic. Unfortunately my fellow try hard hipster, free spirited, “just be honest with yourself dude” classmates were not feelin’ my suggestions. Okay, I even tried to appeal to the party animals of the class and suggested that if you lie, you have to do shots, or shout the class drinks, or just bring along a good old goon sack to class!
By and large, I was out voted. We ended up selecting the ‘no punishment’ method… Why aren’t I jumping for joy that I don’t have to do work? I should be stoked- not dumbfounded.
Maybe I’m just a naughty girl who likes to get punished.
Okay, seriously. Its not okay how completely and utterly distraught I feel due to a character dying of a TV Show. What TV Show am i talking about? Do I even have to tell you? Its obviously Channel 10’s Offspring!
If you didn’t hear about this topic enough on Facebook, Twitter and pretty much any other media outlet in Australia, last nights episode of Offspring was absolutely, inexplicably and vehemently tragic… TO SAY THE LEAST! The biggest hottie of the show ‘Dr Patrick Reid’ played by the highly attractive Mathtew le Nevez, died after being hit by a car; initially being okay; until arriving at the hospital where his condition became critical. By gosh, was it a tear jerker, or should I say a tear worker!
Sitting by my computer with my bestfriend and my roomate, covering my mouth with disbelief and shortly after sobbing like I had just lost a loved one myself, was truly traumatizing. I literally contemplated ringing up my boss to see if another colleague could cover my shift at work because i knew that the thought of Patricks demise would be to much to bare whilst trying to sell Ugg Boots.
Although I’m extremely distressed over Patty babes death, I can’t say that it wasn’t a strategically brilliant idea by channel 10. In fact, ill hand it to them- it was television genius! Now, they have left thousands of adoring women fans ( and some men I imagine), all forlorn over Patrick, and literally waiting by the television for next season – ready to follow the painful journey of Nina grieving over Patrick whilst trying to cope with the new concept of motherhood.
All in all, damn you scriptwriter of offspring, whoever you may be… But good on you at the same time.
You’ve done it again Australian television… You’ve done it again!
In an age where it seems as though technology permeates the lives of us all, It was incredibly predictable my number one personal problem of the week revolves entirely around the advances of technology, which in this case is Social Media; The Fantastic world Of Facebook.
Yes boys and girls, your immediate assumptions about this blog post are correct, the time has come where I, Georgia Grant am embarking upon an exciting new relationship with one of the Male kind, (Yeah… bitches be jealous). So, you would think that once a girl has past all the ‘Dating Drama’ – the nervousness whilst getting ready, the hours deciding what to wear when you don’t even know where this random stranger is going to take you, the first greeting “do I just say hello, or hug him and say hello?”, the uncomfortable small talk and of course the awkward lead up to your first kiss – and once he’s FINALLY asked you to be his girlfriend, all of the anxiety would be over right? Pfft, NO… Of course not! we live in the age of 2013! We are not yet -how do I put this without sounding extremely lame- “Facebook Official”.
These are the times in my life where I wished I lived in the 1850’s, where the only technology around was those groovy wooden toys, the tough decision of deciding whether to buy the Samsung Galaxy or the IPhone was not prevalent and the pain of trying to redeem 20 dollars from your Itunes card onto your account to pre order One directions new single “Best Song Ever” did not exist! But unfortunately for me, I don’t live in the 1850’s and those previous problems along with the challenge of approaching the delicate subject of becoming ‘in a relationship’ on Facebook is exceedingly present.
As Ironic as this sounds as I am currently sitting here typing a blog post on my nifty Mac desktop, an overriding question seems to flow in and out of my consciousness quite frequently- was humanity more simple and effective before technology and social media existed? There were no computer viruses, your school work never deleted itself due to a device crashing and instead of sitting there numbingly waiting by the phone for a guy to call, you would either see them again orrr you wouldn’t – SIMPLE AS THAT. Not to mention that these days one does not only physically exist on earth, but also exist in this crazy place called the “World wide web”! What, was the fact that we were only given one physical human body each, not good enough or something? It completely baffles me that not only do I have to establish a relationship with someone in the real world, but I also have establish it on Social media. Quite frankly, it is quite exhausting and perhaps unnecessary. Especially because there are so many options to define a “Facebook relationship” as well; Am I in a normal relationship? Is it Open or complicated? Gosh, I don’t know it only started a week ago! Does the amount of Facebook likes it receives define everyone’s approval of the relationship itself? If so, what is the appropriate time of day it should be published it in order for the status to obtain the most exposure? But most importantly HOW ON EARTH do I approach the subject without coming across as materialistic and freaking the poor kid out.
This all sounds so ridiculous, and quite frankly- kind of is. Yet Thousands of intelligent emotionally capable human beings stress over these types of problems every single living day. Maybe Mark Zukerburgs’ “Fantastic world of Facebook” is not so fantastic after all, but should rather be described as the “Frivolous world Of Facebook.”
I guess I should probably stop talking on my Iphone to best friend and wasting hours of my time pondering over such nonsense. I probably could of figured out a way to cure cancer or stop Global Warming ,with all this brain stimulation.
Ps: Lets just hope the guy this is all about does not lay eyes on this post. But if so, I apologize sincerely. Oops.
Okay, I don’t know about you- but when it comes down to analyzing psychological processes, recognizing your brain cognitions and well essentially Thinking about thinking, it tends to leave me quite flummoxed and perplexed.
But then again, even pondering about my existence leaves me feeling like im drowning in my own brain activity. Lucky I’m studying media and not psychology or physics ey!
So when I was practically forced to read an article about this random dude Chris Argyris, and his ideals regarding theories of action, double-loop learning and organisational learning, I knew understanding his knowledgeable words wouldn’t exactly be a walk in the park, but rather a marathon situated in a foam pit (that would be a bloody challenge to say the least!).
In trying aid myself to grasp Argyris’ wisdom which in my experience felt like trekking through an infinitely vast pool of foam, I had to figure out a way in which I could not only get through to the other side of this foam pit, but also to discover a way to strategize, retain and understand this info as I trekked along- I first thought that My goal was fixed- I just get to physically read the words on the paper and then write a blog post about it. But the comprehension of the words that I read did not come along as easily as I expected and therefore the inspiration for a enlightening Blog post to impress my witty tutor Elliot (oh hey Elliot!), was hard to come by.
First of all, i thought ugh well I guess ill just read it again, and maybe after the second read I will become inspired and cover some distance in the foam pit! So reading it again I did. This approach sounded logical in theory, but it didn’t exactly hit the nail on the head when it came to understanding the intricate mind-boggling words and concepts on the screen in front of me. So, as my goal was to basically get to this other side of the reading or foam pit, I just kept smashing out this approach of reading Argyris’ words over and over and over again- reading it out load, singing it, stopping at every single word I don’t understand and pretty much operationalizing this method to make it work for my planned and fixed goal to reach the end of this bloody foam marathon.
After hours of multi tasking between talking on the phone to Mog, trying to read and watch the latest Offspring episode I suddenly realised… what am I actually doing? This approach obviously isn’t working for me. I have not even covered half of the distance to the end of the foam pit, I’m all sweaty iv pulled a hammy and have nothing to show for it. I still did not understand what on earth double and single loop learning were, and thus this blog post was not getting any easier to write.
Then I had an epiphany! It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I was being slightly lazy in my learning and quite narrow minded on how I was to achieve what I set out to do. I questioned my method- why isn’t it working? Why don’t I understand the words on the page? And honestly, why have I made such a big marathon out of such an insignificant task that ultimately is not a big deal? So, I came up with this ideal that maybe its not me that has to conform to the language of this reading, but rather the reading needs to be transformed into an easier and less intimidating format AKA ‘Georgia language’. So, as I am an extremely visual and dramatic being, I thought of this outrageous idea of comparing the reading to trekking through a foam pit! And the methods to getting to the other side were the concepts of Single and Double looped learning! CRAZY DAYZ.
Wait a second, did I just understand Argyris’ reading and write a blog post about it? Did I just feel the edge of the foam pit on the tip of my finger? Did I reach my goal? How Ironic!
This is the most confusing and paradoxical blog post in the history of blog posts.
Wow, okay… I have a blog now. Sick. Ive always wanted a blog! Wait… have I? I think i have. I like fashion blogs, and one of my friends from high school has a blog so they must be pretty cool right? Apparently Blogs allow us to develop an online personal as well as a physical one and a can be a cost effective way of ‘getting yourself out there’. So as this is all extremely exciting and i’m finding it quite hard to express my level of excitement on the subject, I wrote a rap. It is entitled “Blog Doggy Dog”. Enjoy.
So I’m Studying this subject, its called networked media, Apparently we’re not allowed to use Wikipedia,
Instead were asked to make this thing called a Blog, I discussed this subject deeply with my best friend Mog,
We said, how . on. earth do we make this, to make our thoughts relevant, we gotta create shit.
But sucsessful blogging doesnt just take place in class, you gotta work consistantly, put your social life last.
Were like, “Elliot Eliiot cant you see, we’re struggling with this, you gotta work with me,
We know weve gotta focus on this subjects content, but please Elli please To what extent?”
Hes like Lesson 1 : Whats a Blog? In order to conceptualize please shut up Mog!
A blog is basically a web publication, reverse chronological is the posts illustration.
Blogs- they allow us to create this medium, to strengthen hypertexts, sorry girls bout the tedium.
This mediums loqacious, informal and capacious, and to make a really good one youve gotta be audacious.
Blogs can be conversational, proffessional, or personal, scholarly or humorous or just damn cynical.
Now to know why they’re useful we gotta move to lesson 2, how to express your online voices- ill show ya what to do.
They help you document your practise, to reflect and learn, to nurture peer support and express your concerns.
Im like ” Elliot, are blogs kind of like journals?, sorry to be annoying i just need to be verbal.”
He says yes, its kinda like a dear diary sitch, except it is a public document so don’t be a bitch!
Its sorta like youve gotta just imagine your audience, initially they aren’t there to give you ‘applaudience’.
Last but not least we gotta move to lesson 3: about the benefits of blogging- contributing the community.
but ultimately – it acts scaffoldingly – expressive ‘viroments emerge, making a networked family.
So to all you try hard hipsters out there in my tute, i hope you’ve listened carefully, don’t want a dispute!
Have fun blogging along, and singing your song, and no matter what you post just know its not wrong!
