$$$...

Wow, I just went to the link that Shan-Estelle posted on her blog. I've always thought that Globalization is firstly the matter of money and then maybe some other ideas, but that web site is an example that clearly supports that. Just looking quickly over the text, the only things and values they talk about is money! That's terrifying.

Oh, and I just tried to search on living in the Czech Republic and it feels like they are trying to sell "my" country! I mean I support tourism in the Czech Republic etc., but how it is presented here (there?) is just awful.

Presentations

So far we have had four presentations about the books we are supposed to read in the course. All of them were really interesting, and also very different. It is incredible how many different topics relate to the cyberspace.

In this post I just would like to go briefly through the ideas that appealed to me the most in the presentations. After Amazon.Com I was thinking what a big role play such internet companies on the Net and in our lives. For many people now shopping on Internet is a part of their routine (viz Emily's post). I've heard about some people that do not even go Christmas shopping anymore; instead they purchase the gifts over the internet and have it shipped directly to the recepient! It is incredible that in this way the cyberspace can influence or change people's traditions. People are more and more dependent on the Internet, so the visions introduced in the "Life without a Net" seem to be really rather dystopic than utopic (here I agree with Amanda's post). The stories in the "Life without the Net" are supposed to be a science-fiction, however, the experiment we talked about in the Newsweek magazine about the people that were forced to live without the Net for a few weeks was the reality.

The other two presentations were very informative. In "Steel This Computer" I enjoyed learning about the dark side of the Internet, mainly about the viruses, worms, and other things that bother me. Well, they still bother me, but now at least I know where they come from. "Rad me First" was very practical and now we can use some of that knowledge in creating our final project web sites.

weather.com

The Weather channel is probably my favorite channel here in the US. The concept of immediacy is very transparent there; the reporters take the audience to the scenes of hurricanes, floods, storms and so on. I was wondering whether this immediacy is also provided in their web site. Browsing through the Weather.com I found out that that immediacy is imprinted there, however, it's mainly thanks to my discipline: I was able to read their web site easily because the content is very similar to the one seen on the TV. I knew that if I clicked on the national forecast or local forecast it would show the video that I am familiar with from the TV channel. Through the number of videos they achieve the immediacy, e.g. watching the video about Mount St. Helens made that impression.

However, their main page is strongly hypermediate. It is full of links and one needs to be literate in the genre of weather broadcasting to know where to click. I tried a few links and all of them successfully keep you within the weather.com site, with the navigation bar on top of each page. In that way they still keep you in; there is no a run-away link.

I also realized that I paid some attention to the adds on the web site (usually on the right side of the page). It was mainly in the time when I was waiting for the video to come up. It is almost the same as when I wait on the Weather channel for the "local on the 8's." If I don't won't to miss it, I have to watch the commercials before it.

I made the posting about the weather.com mainly because I wanted to find out whether I am able to apply some of the concepts that we come across in our 666 class. The only thing I am not sure about is, if the weather.com can be considered as a remediation of the Weather channel or not. To me the web site seems to be so dependent on the concept of the Weather channel, that I would say it is, however, I would appreciate your opinions.

My comments

This post lists the links to other people's blogs where I made a comment:
see my "bike" comment, and "Navy wife" comment.

The First Flight

This weekend I had a chance to make a trip to The Outer Banks, North Carolina. I am having over for a few weeks two of my friends from Europe, and Kitty Hawk was one of the places to see on our agenda. We visited Wright Brothers Memorial, climbed the Kill Devil Hill, heard a talk about the Wrights by one of the park rangers, and also walked on the largest living sand dune on the East Coast in the Jockey's Ridge State Park. Alltogether it was a great experience and I recommend a trip there to everyone. The Outer Banks also offer some cool bike paths, and that will be probably the reason for my next trip there.

I am writing about the Kitty Hawk partly in connection with my ENGL 666 class. When I was listening to the ranger's talk about the Wrights' struggle to make the first successful flight in space, it reminded me a bit of my situation that taking this one class is helping me to make my first flight in cyberspace.

Linking (to the poetry)

This blog was created mainly as a part of my participation in ENGL 666 class that I am taking this semester at ODU. It is just few of us in this class, but each of us has our own blog. The purpose of this post is to give you a link to one of my classmate's blog. I chose that particular blog because it partly talks about poetry and you can always find there a poem that may highlight your day. If you would like to know more about the background of our class, you can also visit our professor's blog.

Is being a "Navy wife" the toughest job in the world?

I don't think that being a Navy wife is one of the toughest jobs in the world, however, it's also not one of the easiest.

Me and my husband just celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. Fortunately, we were lucky to celebrate it together (we went to see Jimmy Buffett's concert in Chicago- really cool!!!), partly because I was able to spend this summer with him in Great Lakes, IL. Now, he is gone again. He just left few hours ago to train with the Marines in San Diego, CA. Him joining the Navy was our mutual decision, about a year ago; both of us were really attracted by the opportunities to travel around the world. Now, when the reality is here, it is tougher than our dreamed visions. We are still glad we have made such a decision, however, any time he leaves it evokes mixed feelings. On one hand, it is the excitement of traveling, and on the other hand it is the misery of separation from each other.

I recall the first time I saw a sticker saying: "Navy wife - toughest job in the world" and I was wondering how someone could consider it a "job." Now, being the insider, I understand it much more: I take care of the house, my car, my dog, (no kids yet), my life etc., and I also get paid for it. My husband gets some extra money for being married to me, although in the goverment terminology it is for having a "dependent." Studying for my master's degree in sociolinguistics, I really hate that term for number of reasons (partly because it is nothing like that in our relationship), but - the extra money is handy.

For a few of those who had the patience to read my little "Fleck in Space" post I have a couple of ideas to comment on:

1. Can being a Navy wife be considered as a job?
2. Is the term "dependent" appropriate for a Navy wife?

To me it is just weird that there are two completely opposite terms for one thing: "dependent" and "a job." I just know that I am never going to put that sticker on my car and I also hope to keep all my relationships on an independent and equal level.

Wild Things

Out of the four essays we were supposed to discuss, this one comes the last, partly because I enjoyed it the least. It's a shame, because I really like fairy-tales. I've never read this story before and seeing it only in hypertext I found it rather chaotic. By clicking on the underlined words (e.g. sailing, tents, control etc.) I managed to get bits and pieces of the story. However, I was missing the linear development of the story, a feature typical for a printed version of any fairy-tail. In my opinion, this type of a website design inclines to be more a repurpose of a story than just the retelling of it. The only thing I liked were the falling leaves. However, this effect somehow does not go well together with the name "Where the Wild Things Are;" it's rather relaxing than wild.

Green Squiggly Lines

This essay gives us a thorough insight into the problematics of implementing electronic writing into the classrooms. I really enjoyed reading the abstract, which is a well-organized introduction of the issue. I also liked the look back into the history of electronic writing. I agreed with Patric J. Finn's theory that computers can't replace human evaluators, but they are a useful pedagogical tool.

Further, I don't think that using the word processor would make students stop revising and rethinking; it just makes this process easier. I personally prefer to write in hand, but for example when I had to take the TOEFL examination I chose to use the word processor because it was easier for revising, reorganizing and faster for copying.

In summary, I agree with the idea of portfolios because it is a convenient way how to track individuals' development in writing. Still, I understand it as only another pedagogical tool and it should not fully, in my opinion, substitute the teacher.

Orbital

Orbital, a poem-engine, was my favorite. It's incredible how one can give a new dimensions to the poem by using hypertext. In the print text, main ideas are expressed mainly by words. In this poem-engine, other tools were also used: numbers provide the idea of anonymity, 3D effect represents the space, xyz coordinates give the location, and the distribution of the words can be viewed as a correspondence. I think there is also an idea of perspective, because any time we move the cursor we change our perspective of the words in the plane (space), but the pattern of the xyz coordinates stays the same. Generally, I just like anything that looks simple on the first look, but carries hidden meanings.