Wikiflection

http://freeworkshop.pbwiki.com/ the site

At the beginning of this project I was immensely frustrated with it. I had no freaking clue how to use a wiki, let alone use it to create something that looked half way good. After hours of cursing at my computer and deleting wiki’s I finally figured out how to use one! Whew, because I did not want to do a blog for this project. No offense to blogs! It’s just that the format garbage for short stories and plays. I discovered this by experimenting and posting a short story I wrote on my blog here. It didn’t look that good. Live and learn. I think that if you teach this class again, Donna, if you could take a class period or two and show some basic tips to using some wiki and blog sites, such as how to add content and change pages, it’d be helpful for everyone and the end results would be even better.

I tried pbwiki after it was talked about so often in class and I have to say I’m satisfied with the website. There’s a few things I’d like to do differently, they probably have a payment option for that…but in the end I think it had the tools available to finish the job properly. I’m currently satisfied with the wiki I created and now I’d like to make it more accessible to more people. I really like my idea and I’m pleased that I didn’t pick something I’d end up hating. Most of the people who I’ve talked to about the site seem to like it and think it is a good idea, that is unless they’re lying to my face. It happens. :)

Joking aside I really liked this class and what I learned in it. I had no freaking clue what web 2.0 was when I entered this class and now I think I can at least adequately use it in a successful manner. I’m going to stick with this project of mine and begin my bombardment when finals are over and everyone’s less stressed. That’s the consensus I got from the people I talked to, they like it but they’re too busy to try and figure out web 2.0. I can’t blame them, it can be a little much at first go.

No need to cook, I picked up fast food on the way, And it's finger-licking good

I was talking about music, so I'm going to post two songs I really like that kind of deal with issues we've talked about in class. These are reposted, but still good. Now with explanation!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NQ_13k9f4a0&feature=related
This first link here is to the song Connect the Dots by Ayreon. Ayreon is essentially the Alan Parson's Project of progressive metal. This song has an older sound that's actually quite cheery despite the message. The story follows a man living in today's age and how he and his family are becoming disconnected from each other and the rest of the world because of technology. The only way he and his son connect is by playing video games. Almost every line in the song is gold but this is one of my favorites:
"I checked the mac I left it on over night,
Downloading all the latest files.
Peer to Peer, the torrent flows into my lap
And I disconnect."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sUnAxegUJu0

This second song is darker in both message and delivery. It's Porcupine Tree's song Fear of a Dark Planet. Off the same titled album released last year, which is probably one of the better albums released last year. The song's about the youth of today and looks at the increase of technology in school and their lives in a more negative light. Were as some view it as a great way to teach the kids, this song points out that an increase in technology in their lives can disconnect them from each other and society. Parents in seeing their kids act this way prescribe drugs to help with their kids attention spans, instead of trying to parent their kid, which has been destroyed due to their use of instant stimulus from television, video games, music and the internet.

in defense of shuffle mode

This is something I forgot to write about awhile ago. We talked about the shuffle mode on iTunes and just shuffle in general for music. Several people were seemingly appalled by the concept of listening to their music in such a way. That’s ridiculous, what’s wrong with listening to shuffled music? Someone said that the albums were meant to be listened to in that order. No. This is not true, unless the album is a concept album. A concept album, for those of you who don’t know, is an album that follows one story or character and tells that story. Each song is basically a different chapter in the story. Those are some of the few albums that can only be listened to from start to finish to properly enjoy the album. For any other album it doesn’t really matter. Have you ever been to a concert? Do they play an album from start to finish or does the band choose songs that they want to play and you want to listen to? If the album is meant to be listened to from start to finish does that mean the musical group doesn’t understand their own music? That they’re doing a disservice to themselves? Shuffle mode is great because if you have a lot of music, like me, it’s a good way to hear something you may not have heard in awhile or thought about listening to. Plus it’s funny to see how the shuffle mode groups songs. Mine is surprisingly good at capturing a mood or playing somehow playing songs that have the same theme in little blocks. You ever listen to the radio? Think of that as shuffle mode of a library that’s bigger than yours (assuming you listen to KCOU. Network radio stations only have about 250-300 songs in their library at any given time. I have about 44.3 times that much.). So give shuffle mode a shot if you dislike it, you prude.

KCOU

In reading some comments on my posts, it seems people don't know about kcou, the MU student run radio station. Ok, apparently I don't know about it. I just loaded up the website to give you all a link and I found this message:

So the website s http://kcou.missouri.edu/ You can still go to the old site where we have a live stream of whatever is being played. You can also listen to the station by tuning to 88.1 on your radio. I know radio? And isn't that the preset for my iPod? I think it is, I have a cassette adapter myself. The station is about to hit summer mode though so there's going to be very little programming, that you can also find on the site. Assuming they post the summer program.

seat back

People are vultures. Just saying. I got to campus early this morning to do some work on all my finals crap and I managed to get a good spot in Memorial union near a power outlet for my computer. I was typing and doing work for about seven hours straight when I got really hungry and decided to try and bum some dinner off a freshman friend of mine. I called up Justin and he and I got dinner at Rollins. When I came back my seat was gone, or about every seat in Memorial. I walked to Brady commons, every seat there was taken. I went to the library, every seat there was taken. I went to A&S and went to the top floor, where’s this obscure library, that to was taken. So I got annoyed and I’m typing this at home. Where naturally, my roommates have tried to distract me. Sigh, I’m done after tomorrow though…just need to make it.

bats in the belfry

So I joked in class today that I'm lazy, it's true. But once I get excited about something or begin working on something I don't stop until it's done. I've been working on the wiki, time allotting, since class and I'm sitting in KCOU right now doing my Thursday night show and pbwiki is currently having some issues and I can't access my account. Which sucks hard. I've began working on the suggestions that were given to me in class, thanks for those! I really had to agree with everything everyone said and I'm going to fix up my site, sometieme...

oh ya

http://freeworkshop.pbwiki.com/

link to my site

pb wiki & changing colors

There was some discussion in class about changing the colors on pb wiki, which I didn't know you could do. Actually, I changed it before then forgot and disregarded it because the color scheme you pick only lasts for three hours. Ya, seriously. I fail to see what the point even is to allow us the opportunity to change the colors. It can change permanently, if you pay them... If anyone has found away around this then please let me know. Also a few tips for using pbwiki. You can't right click and paste work, you can click on edit at the top of your browser and do this however. Also if you want to change the title of a link, like Donna was saying, create the link as you normally would, then when the link is first in the edit, change some of the wording to what you want it to be, then erase the rest. You have to add text before you delete the original link.

Side Note and Skittles

This has nothing to do with the class, just a general observation of the room. This room hasn't been cleaned in at least a month and a half. About that long ago I bought some Skittles from the vending machine down the hall then proceed to enjoy them before class. I dropped a purple one, it hit the ground and basically disappeared. I couldn't find it, so I shrugged my shoulders and no longer cared. The next class period I came back and found it on the floor. I laughed and left it there. That same Skittle has been there, same spot, since then. Seriously. I can show anyone who asks. It's right under my desk here.

Boo Tarantino

I’ve definitely made fun of Quentin Tarantino in the past for being obsessed with himself. I bring this up because I recently bought the Grindhouse movies, Planet Terror and Death Proof. I bought them at Blockbuster because they occasionally do the 3 for $20 deal and that’s a good way to get some good movies for cheap. I picked up both of those there and my roommates wanted to watch Planet Terror yesterday and we did. After that we noticed that the fake previews from the movies weren’t on the dvd’s so we put in Death Proof in hopes that they were on that dvd, which in the order of the movies at the theater would make sense. Well they weren’t there either! It turns out that aside from ‘Machete’ all the other fake previews were not released on dvd. Instead that douchebag Tarantino is holding off on putting them on a dvd until a multi-disk special edition of both the grindhouse movies are released this summer. For an exuberant fee. Boo Tarantino! Boo.