Living a Tech Life

Ask my daughter what I do, and she will tell you that I am always on the computer or texting. Which is pretty much true.

A few months ago, I upgraded my cell phone to a Palm Pre, and now I can check e-mails and get on-line anytime I want. If the computer is turned off, and I get a sudden urge to look up something, I can. No more putting it off & forgetting about it. (hence my daughters thinking that I am texting since I am on the phone).

If you would have told me 15 years ago that I would be so vested in computers, I would have laughed in your face. My friends from High School can back up this sentiment as well. When I had a report due that needed to be typed up, I would get one of them to do it for me. I was your classic "two finger typist", and didn't think that I would ever be comfortable on the computer.

I still remember my first PC in '96. I was living with my boyfriend of the time, and we bought it, mainly for him. It was Packard Bell, and the BF thought he was computer literate, and was always messing with the stupid thing trying to re-format it and compressing it for more space. needless to say, it was always crashing. And being a guy, wouldn't let me touch it to try & figure it out. No, we would have to wait until one of our actual "tech savy" friends could make it over and fix it. At this point though, I had learned to like the stupid computer. I am not sure if "computer withdrawals" were common then, but I had them. And being the impatient person I am, waiting was not an option. When he was out, I started tinkering and guessing on what to do to fix his mess.

Now I own a PC & Laptop. Both of which are about three years old. The laptop is hooding up well, but the PC is shared with my husband & daughter, and needs some more RAM to keep up with things. In the last year, it has really become my daughters computer. In fact she is on it right now. Did I mention my daughter is only six? She can barley read, but put her in front of a computer and she is good to go. Most of the time, she doesn't even need me to read instructions.

The things I do on a computer have changed too. Back then it was Solitare and a typing tutor program. I thought we were pretty high tech because we used it as our answering machine, w/seperate voice mail boxes; one for me, one for him & one for the alligator. Eventually I was introduced to AOL, instant messaging & "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans". When I finally broke it off with him, the one thing I made sure to take with me right away was the computer, didn't feel like I could live without it.

Today, I still feel like I can't live without my computer, and some things are similar. AOL is out, Google is in; now "WoW" is the game of choice; instant messaging is here, the location though is Google or FaceBook; and now I am productive by creating Web Pages, promoting businesses and organizations on-line and volunteering for a web-based non-profit.

Earlier I mentioned my new cell phone. Seven years ago, my cell phone didn't even have a color screen, let alone a camera. I was soo upset when I had to upgrade my phone because I didn't need all the extras. Now I don't know how I managed for soo long with such a plain phone. Two years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of texting. Ask me if I could live without it now!

My poor husband is not as adaptive as I am, but was forced to learn texting for work. What an ordeal that was! He is some what of an odd ball in our family. Not only am I & our daughter pretty tech savy, but so is his dad. I have been trying to get him to open a FaceBook account, but unless he has to for a professional reason, I can't see it happening.

It is amazing how technology has come, and how we have all evolved with it. I am aware that I ahve become quite dependent on it, but I am fine with this. And I can't wait to see what the future has in store.

2010 Relay For Life

My Reason to Relay

Relay For Life is my personal opportunity to fight back against cancer by raising funds and awareness. I fight so one day no one has to ever face cancer.

It's amazing to think that millions of people will be diagnosed with cancer this year. But, by taking part in Relay, I am helping the American Cancer Society save lives by:

• 
  Helping people stay well by helping them take steps to prevent cancer or detect it early, when it’s most treatable
• Helping people get well by being in their corner around the clock to guide them through every step of their cancer experience
• Finding cures by funding groundbreaking research that helps us understand cancer’s causes, determine how best to prevent it and discover new ways to cure it
• Fighting back by working with lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and rallying communities worldwide to join the fight

Please support my efforts by making a donation or by joining my Relay For Life team. Together, we have the power to make a difference!

New Year

So, a New Year has started. I can't believe we are already 16 days into it. I had this plan at the end of last year of what I wanted to accomplish this month. And so far, I have gotten almost nowhere on this list.

Thanks to my friend Dave & the wonderful technology at my fingertips (FB chat & Google chat), I have gotten some motivation, and am working on starting this "to do list".

First step, get my blog back up, and to actually use it. So, here is my first post in over two years. I can't promise what I write will be interesting. But I feel like I need a place to just say a small portion of the scrambled thoughts in my head. Hopefully it will help me make sense of things and retain some sanity.

As I am typing this, I am noticing my outdated punctuation. I can't seem to stop putting two spaces after a sentence. When did this change happen? How many of us "oldies" follow the new rule? It sure makes typing hard when you are so used to doing it a certain way. Please forgive my posts, until I have trained myself all over again (if it is possible).

Well, goodnight all. Here is to a New Year full of hope & change.

Let give thanks

(an old post from last year on my myspazz page)
W/Thanksgiving around the corner I thought I would look up the "real" history. Not just the happy, fuzzy warm feeling one we have all grown up with. You know, the one where the pilgrims came over on the Mayflower, landed on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. They had a hard winter, the next spring, Squanto and his friendly Indian band helped them learn about the land so they could grow vegetables and fish. Then that fall, there was a big feast for three days. JOY

So, I found this nice little story that sums it up pretty well. See what you think.

THE
REAL
STORY OF THANKSGIVING
by Susan Bates

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.
The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.
But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.
In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.
(That's nice, Thanksgiving Day is named after a day of slaughter. Lets go eat.)
Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.
Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.
The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.
This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.

No wonder I am not big on these Holidays. Feasting on days of massacre. Our Presidents naming days as National Thanksgiving Days to cust back on the amount, but it doesn't sound like they cared about the reason behind it. So this Thursday when you are gathering w/your loved ones giving thanks, maybe you should take a little time out and remember the past and how this day came about.

Suggestions

I would really like to keep this blog site going. So I decided this will be a blog dedicated to learning.

I enjoy researching and learning new things. And will probably put up some of my old myspace blogs that I have already researched. But if there is an topic that you might like to know about, let me know. I will gladly do some research and do the work for you.

Can't wait to hear some suggestions.

My learning experince

It seems this will be my last post for this class. It has been fun and very educational. And I will miss doing research for this blog. I enjoy learning new things as well as the research that goes into. My life has been so crazy that I don’t get to do things like this for fun on my MySpace blog anymore. And with having three other blogs (on MySpace) to maintain as well as a CafeMom journal, I don’t see this site living on past this class. I hope anyone who has come this blog has enjoyed it and hopefully leaned a little to in the process.

And now to answer my last blog project questions:

1. How did actively participating in online research and journalism through blogging affect you?

It was fun and a learning process at the same time. I never really looked at other types of blogs or cared before. Also, it was interesting to learn about E-Zines, newsgroups and the like.

2. Do you feel this project was worthwhile as learning tool in this class? Why or why not?

I definitely think it is a great learning tool. In this day and age, most people are on the Internet for everything. I use it to look up things, research places and items. And I use it for all my news (with the exception of all the fires we had last week.)

3. Looking back on your ratings and your research, what is your final thesis statement? Did it change from your initial statement?

My final thesis statement stays the same, “I believe blogging has significantly impacted the print journalism industry”. Not only from the things I learned for this project, but what I have learned about in other classes and my own personal experience.

Vanity and Information blogs

A vanity blog is a web log that the author uses to talk about their life and discuss their views about whatever subject grabs them. I decided not to blatantly self promote myself and my own personal MySpace blog, so the vanity blog I chose is one of my MySpace friends that I subscribe to; Chris (the political scientist). Last Wed he had a joke blog about our age group and what we remember or lived through. He has one about tipping in restraurants and what he experienced and feels is right. He even talks about his political views and encourages his readers to get involved in his discussions.

An information blog is a forum for the authors own personal interests, like football or Notre Dame or in the case of the blog I picked, Notre Dame Football. Since I love Notre Dame football, I thought this would be a great one. A Kevin Donahue writes this blog for the most part. I was impressed with the professional layout it had. It is almost like a news blog, but it is dedicated to college football and has different features and sections, one of them being my favorite college football team, Notre Dame.

And now to answer a few questions on this module:
Do you feel blogging particularly supports this type of journalism as compared to print media? Why or why not?
I think it does. When most of us read blogs or decide to subscribe to one, we pick ones that interest us. The vanity & information blogs still talk about current events or news articles. And they have an open forum so anyone can join in and discuss their views and help educate the masses.

What makes for a good info? Blog?
I think a good information blog consists of accurate information. On the ND blog, the author mentions the hideous uniforms they wore this last weekend against USC. Now if that were all he said about it, I would say eh. But he talks about where they originate, whey the supposedly brought these out and so on.

What makes for a good vanity blog?
A good vanity blog interacts with its audience. It talks about a multitude of things. It doesn’t repeat the same sentiment over and over again. And it is fun and entertaining.

In closing, I would have to say that my research done for this assignment supports my thesis statement on a level of five (based on a 1-5 scale).