My Second Life character is just like a normal human. I am wearing a pair of blue jeans, and a polo t-shirt. The shirt is gray and has two blue stripes on it. I am average height, I have blue eye, just like in real life. When I made my avatar, I made it to look as much like me as i could. I did not know how to do everything perfectly, so i did my best. As I was playing second life I learned a lot about the different ways to interact with different people. My favorite thing to do in Second Life is to walk around in the different cities to see how they are similar or different to real cities.

My Aunt Mary

If I had to pick a favorite relative, it would be my grandma.
Dear Grandma,
I have heard you found out about the new social networking systems. Myspace and Facebook are a way that people can stay connected and always talk to each other. You also said you might like to get one, but I think it would be way to complicated for you to use and you would also not really like it. You have to get friends, but if you don't have any friends its not any fun because there is no one to talk to. I guess if you had to get a social network I would say get a Myspace, because it seems to be a lot easier to use. I don't think you should get all up into Myspace, because it can really get addicting and you should not always be on the computer.
Your Favorite,
Steven

TV Concerns

When I was younger, I watched a lot of TV. I watched many of the shows that were on in the morning, and i watched shows that were on Disney. I think growing up, there were a lot of shows that i could not watch, and now that i think about it, my parents made a good decision. When kids are younger, they should have some sort of rules on what they can watch. If kids could watch whatever they wanted, the kids could be influenced to do things. When kids see things on TV, they sometimes like to try and be that person. An example of this is when i was younger i liked to watch power rangers. I wanted to always be the red ranger, just like everyone else who watched the show. After the show I would ask my friends if they wanted to play power rangers outside, so we acted like we were on the show. Now imagine if UFC fighting was around back when I was younger, and I wanted to try and act like them. I would watch UFC and then ask my friends if they wanted to go fight. I don't really think that sounds like something kids should be doing. There were also a lot of shows like Southpark, and other shows that were meant for adults that i could not watch.

The next part I have noticed about TV, is that they allow just about anything on. Over the past few years, the characters on TV shows can say just about anything. I found this to be kind of weird. Some kids can just watch any channels, and then they will just start saying things that kids should not be saying. I have also noticed that on Comedy Central, past midnight, they can say anything they want on some shows. This is fine with me because I'm older, and I guess most of the younger kids are sleeping. I just think that TV has really been opened up to just a bout everything now.

Wiki Discussion

The wiki discussion I looked at was on Pop-Punk. I thought this was very interesting, because it talked about how when you blend two genres of music together, it makes a whole new set of bands that can be in the genre. As you can probably tell, this blends together pop music, and punk music. The discussion mostly just talks about how the band that are in the wiki. Many people do not agree at all on what bands should be in the certain genres. The two bands that people do not think belong in the wiki are Fall Out Boy, and Panic! At the Disco. The discussion says that these two bands are not Punk, so they can not be in this genre of music. Next I looked at how pop punk is an oxymoron. They say this is an oxymoron, because pop is a mainstream type of music, and punk is the exact opposite, where you do not want to be in the mainstream. I think that this was very interesting, because the people really talked about how they didn't like the list of the bands and they also didn't like how the wiki was talking about how they describe the music.

Exercise 2

When I think of the news, I usually like to watch it on TV. Sometimes I read the news paper if I see something that catches my eye on the cover. The only other thing i read is the news on yahoo because it is sometimes interesting. When I watch the news on TV, I normally watch the national news, but sometimes I watch local news. I personally don't really watch the news very much, because right now all people are talking about is how bad the stock market is doing, and the election. I think that this is all very annoying after a long time of listening to it. If i ever need to know what is going on in the news I can ask someone in my family, because they always know whats going on. I sometimes watch MSNBC to see how the stocks are on some days, because I like to see how I would do if i ever put money in the stock market. The other thing about news that bothers me is how everything is opinionated. You always hear what the other people think, but usually I don't care what someone else thinks.
When I think about a good reliable resource for news. My news resource would have sports, because I like to know what is going on with my favorite teams. I would want the news for the different stocks for the day, so I know how the economy is doing. I would need the weather for sure on the news because I need to know what to wear and what to do that day. So overall I don't really like to watch the news, but I would rather read about whatever I would like on Yahoo.

Class Wiki #2

I think that we should have some sort of organization in some way. We should get into groups and each group gets assigned a part of the wiki. If we do not have any organization, then we could have some problems with people writing about the same things. If we all just do our own thing I don't think the wiki would be as informative, because it will lack a lot of good information. The best way is to get the classmates in groups and then just start making that section of the wiki as a group so there is no overlapping.

Question 1 & 2

#1 The ad that I used was an ad by McDonald's. In my ad I had a thin person walking into a McDonald's, then the next part of the picture was a fat person on a scale. On top of the ad it says "I'm lovin' it" then at the bottom it says "Too Much." I said this because if you love McDonald's too much then you could gain a lot of fat from eating their food. I think this ad would be effective because it shows people what happens when they eat a lot of McDonald's. When i moved from concept to design, i had to find pictures online that would work for my ad. It was hard trying to find the right pictures.

#2 I learned that it is very difficult to make an ad that would be seen by everyone. The ad would only work for a select amount of people. Communication just shows how you feel about the product that you did the parody on. If someone is looking at the ad, they may not feel the same way as you do about the product. I learned that advertising is not always true, the product will always appear nicer than in real life.

Social Networking

I think that social networking through Myspace and Facebook really effect politics. I think this is because if one person starts to tell their opinion, then a lot of other people will read about it. If a lot of people read what one person has to say, then their decision could be changed. It mostly just gets people involved and tell how they feel about things. It is a lot easier to tell how you feel online, because more people see what you have to say. I think that Myspace and Facebook would also get more people involved in politics because younger people are into these types of social networking.

As i read online about McCain and Obama using Facebook i learned a lot. I learned that both of them are using Facebook as a way to reach out to the fans and try to get more people on their side. The vice president candidates also have Facebook's. So far Obama is winning in the popularity on Facebook with 1.9 million supporters. McCain has 340,000 supporters. The reason i think this is because Obama has reached to the younger geberation and almost all of the younger generation has a Facebook.

I read an article about Obama and how he has control of the social networking. He is beating McCain on Facebook, Myspace, and YouTube views. Then I read another article about how McCain is now doing a lot better with social networking. It said that his Facebook supporters went up 15% in just one week. While Obamas Facebook supporters only went up 5.2%.

When Professor Troy Murphy came in to talk to our class he really taught me a lot about how the MiVote works. The MiVote is a very good way to get people out there to talk about how they feel about different subjects. People can go online to check out what people have to say, and anyone can make a video of their thoughts.

Advertising

The location where i spend a lot of time where i see advertising is in my family room. When i'm in my family room i watch tv. When i'm watching tv there are a lot of commercials. Just about every commercial is trying to make you buy something the commmercial that i see the most is Comcast. My family has Comcast, so they already sold their product to my family. The next one i see is Verizon. I have Verizon, i agree with what they say about being a good wireless provider. A commercial that i see a lot is Sonic. I have only had Sonic once and it was in Kansas City. I thought it was good. I just wish there were Sonic's near my house. The last commercial that i see a lot is Aflac. I think they are funny to watch, but i don't really think i would buy their insurance because it is expensive. In conclusion, i see commercials a lot. Some have an effect on me and other do not.

Tim Kiska's Presentation

I thought that this presentation from Professor Kiska was interesting. I learned a lot about ways to blog and learned how people blog on just about everything. I also saw that people can say anything they would like to say in their blogs. He also told the class that anyone can get their voice out there to be heard now a days, but in the past not everyone could be heard. Even people that make shows for national networks like Ken Levine have blogs. Overall i think this presentation helped me understand more about blogs.

Question #3

I would have to say that most college students like to be creative in their own ways. Many college kids these days make all types of art. All you have to do is look on a facebook or myspace, then you will see what I'm talking about. People take pictures of just about everything that looks cool or interests them. Just everyone wants to be rich and now just about anyone with a good idea can be rich. This means that the person would have to be driven to get what they want. This would mean they are in the experience and not just watching what others are doing. In the end i agree with what Conner says because the students now are making the experience.

Text Messaging Ch. 1

I hear a ring coming from my cell phone as i'm waking up on Friday morning. I opened my phone to find a text message from one of my friends about going to see a movie. I sat back and thought about what i had to do Friday... well no school, no work, so i was free. I said i was able to go to the movie. The next thing we discussed was what movie we wanted to see. We went back and forth, then decided to see Step Brothers. I went to get ready to go. I cleaned up, and looked through my clean clothes. I picked out a Hollister t-shirt and just a random pair of jeans. I went to get my Nike shoes, but when i looked at them i decided that it would be nice to get a new clean pair. Now that i was all ready to go i jumped in my car, plugged in my ipod and turned on shuffle. I was on my way to a fun day. After the movie, we talked about it; just like everyone else does. We both thought it was a great movie. Later after the movie, i found myself getting a little hungry. I called and text some friends to see what they were up to. I found some friends to go, then it came to the same question as always. "Where do you want to go?" It seems like that question always comes up. So after some time we decided to go to a hang out place around here; Buffalo Wild Wings. We watched some of the sports games that were on the tv's around the restaurant. After eating and just hanging out; i went home to go sleep because i had to be up early the next day to do a duathlon.