Final: Where there is light, there is shadow.

3. Write a blog post that focuses on separate examples of what you feel to be both the best and the worst aspects of the internet. You are welcome to use sources from the Scoop It channels or any other sources you find to be credible. You will be expected to provide two sources for both your best and worst example. If you use a source that is not available online, you will need to cite it at the bottom of your blog post in MLA format. 

 Internet is such a wide world -- maybe greater than the real world we live in. Huge amount of people go online everyday, and a lot of information are added at the same time. I use the Internet almost everyday for research, and getting in contact with my friends. Internet is very useful and convenient that nowadays, most people do not realize the scary part. Just like we say "where there is light, there is shadow", even if the positive aspects are very visible, there are negative aspects of Internet at the same time.

 

 One of the positive aspects that I think of Internet is that we are able to access a lot of information. If there are words we do not know, just go online, and we can get the answer. For example, go to dictionary.com for definitions of words, look up in our friend wikipedia for basic information about anything, or if you want to know how to make french toasts, just type it in google, and you will get the answer. Internet is very useful, that you can access a lot of information. It makes my life easy doing research for essays and papers for school. However, as stated here, if you use the information online in the wrong way, you will definitely get the wrong outcome.

 While being able to access a lot of information can be a positive factor, it can also become a negative factor at the same time. People can research and get information about making and accessing something outlaw. There has been incidents even in the peaceful country, Japan, regarding people sending handmade bombs to other people's houses for revenge. Not only you can find the process and photos, but you can even find videos regarding how to make bombs too. Also, Internet provides address and call numbers to some Japanese yakuza offices and drug dealers. Some teenagers think it is fun to access them without realizing that they are dangerous. Being able to access a lot of information would not always lead to positive outcomes. As stated on this website, although some say it was accidental, have accessed some sites that 'kids' are not allowed. Internet may be a very useful source of a huge amount of information, but they are at the same time, a very dangerous and influential source.

Edward VIII Post Box by Pimlico Badger CC Licencing

 Another positive aspect of Internet is about being about being able to connect with your friend. By using social networking services such as facebook or mixi, you are able to find your friends easily online. One of my professors use facebook for getting in contact with his students and commenting on their works they upload. I thought that this is a very convenient way of getting in contact with a lot of people at the same time. Also, some of my friends use social networking sites such as ameba blog to find new friends with related hobbies and interests. Since her hobby was somehow 'interesting', not much of her friends in school had the same hobby. However, through social networking, she was able to find new friends. This is the 'successful' way of using social networking or Internet world, but this is only one part of examples.

 While being able to connect with friends, it is dangerous that  you are providing personal information online.  For example of facebook, a lot of people show their names, photos, school, and on. Also, My friend once told me that he is worried about using twitter. He said that "if I tweet where I am, wouldn't someone follow me like a stalker?" (It was interesting that the person who said this was a man) I thought this was true. Some people upload photos along their tweets, and that can easily show where he/she was and is there. In addition, as there are websites like this, people must remember that kids who are surfing through Internet just from curiosity are the prey for some strangers online. I remember, back in elementary school, my friends were talking about online chatting with a person named 'stranger' and they were having fun talking to them. My family did not own a computer back then so I did not understand what they were talking about, but as I think back today, I feel very scared. We must rememmber that people you interact online are not always good people.

  Since our family did not own a computer, my thoughts about internet were always 'scary' until I actually used internet for myself. I was surprised to know that there are elementary kids who are already using internet for themselfves and playing whatever games online. Recently, I feel that internet is very useful and full of great information. However, when I research about it like this, I realize that it is a dangerous world. Where there is light, there is shadow -- internet may be very useful and good, there surely are negative points about it.

Why did I even try.

Song Story ds106


Back in 2002.
I was in 4th grade.

It is 2011.
I am 19.

My greatest and darkest history.


Back then, my friends and I were really into this girls group.
called モーニング娘。 (morning musume, morning girls)

((Thinking about it now,
they were like AKB.
But a little bit different.))

I really liked them.
I don't know why.

But we were little kids.
We envied these shiny girls.

Back then, we were always talking about them.

My mother knew how much I liked them.

One day, she brings me this letter
that says that I passed the paper screening of the audition
for kids group (called Hello Project) of MorningMusume.

One of my friends who sent her paper also passed.

So.

I went to the audition.

On the letter, it said that
there is going to be singing and dancing test.
And to wear something that is easy to move.

I knew what I wanted to sing.
It was one of the newest songs they released
and I liked it very much.

However, I didn't know what to wear.

My mother told me to wear something good-looking and cute.

BUT
it said "wear something that is easy to move".

For me,
good-looking (formal) + cute (skirt) = school uniform

My mother rejected my idea.

So, I decided to wear "something easy to move"
which was

my basketball uniform.

My mother rejected again.

But I was like "No no no!"
since I heard from my grandmother that audition = battle.

And there I was.
Among all other girls who are wearing
stage costumes of MorningMusume shrunken to their size,
really frilly skirts,
cool looking pants, ...

I was there,

with my basketball uniform that says
"Jaguars 7" on front and "Kino 7" on the back.

My friends were like ".....haha"

This was the song I sang for the singing test.

I think this is a great song.
I think this song cheers you up.

However, when I listen to this song.
I remember the loneliness at the really crowded place.
I remember the cold smile on my friend's face.

But I do not regret!

It was such a great experience.
I will never forget that day.

(｀=ω=´)ゞ

Japanese is always hard.

Translate Fail
ds106


I saw quite a few people doing this assignment
so I decided to do one too.

I type in:

あなたが社長です。
（anata ga shachou desu)

You are the president.



I took this phrase from a Japanese book I bought the other day.
It looks simple.

But:

Is your president.







It's not even a complete sentence.

I wonder how this worked out.
I think it's like
あなた　＝　your
が　＝　is
社長　＝ president

and it somehow turned out like that.


I found another interesting fail.
Which is this:

やくそく　＝　suk quickly
（yakusoku, promise)


This came through when I was thinking of another sentence.

Type it in kanji, and it works fine.

Maybe the problem was with the hiragana I worked with.
So I try some words in hiragana.

They work fine.

But

doesn't change.

I understand that GoogleTranslate works with patterns of grammar,
but I couldn't understand how this worked.

GoogleTranslate is surely interesting.


(｀=ω=´)ゞ

"ToGetHer" sounds so sweet.

Valentines Alternative ds106
















The assignment was to make a Valentines card
targeted toward a particular person (real or imaginary).


My first plan was to make a card with the word "ToGetHer".
just because it sounds really nice
and it was easy to memorize the spelling back in elementary school.

I used our good old friend, Paint.

I really like Paint, just because it is really simple and easy to use.
Although some people say it's one of those crappy software,
it's really useful once you really know how to use it.

So.

At the top of the card, it says "Together Forever"
since it has to be targeted towards someone.

 Staying together forever must be hard
 unless you really love that person...
 I envy some old grannies who looks happy together.

Then there's that symbol of heart.

Below that are two circular "stuff".
They are stuck together
forever
but they look happy because they love each other.

 My first plan was to draw human boy and girl,
 but I wanted to express in the simplest form as possible.
 I thought of using stick figures too,
 but it became too simple.

The bottom Japanese line says
あいらびゅ。 "airabyu"
Short way of writing "I love you" in ro-maji.

 I chose to write it in this way because
 I thought that writing "I love you" is too formal.
 Since the circular figures are not formal at all,
 I wanted to express their looseness in this last line.



(｀=ω=´)ノ　あいらびゅ。

I might have used more than 4 icons.

the 4 icon challenge ds106



Please say that I only used 4 icons.


This assignment was to take one movie
and represent that movie in 4 simple icons.

The thing is,
I couldn't think of any movie.

The first few movies that came in mind were
all disney movies.
But I couldn't come up with any idea for icons.

I wonder how many times I asked myself:

Are you really majoring in art?


The answer is,
unfortunately,
yes.

I lack idea.

So, I decided to think differently.
Not "art",
but "how to explain".

And I came up with our good old friend,
charades.

When you play charades,
you have to be able to "show" the word in some simple actions.
I somehow thought that charades and this assignment is similar where
you have to be able to "show" the movie in some simple icons.

I playback my memory...
back in middle school...
we played charades (in class, I don't remember why)..
I drew a card...
I read, "Matrix"

Everyone got it when I did the action for the 2nd icon,
but here it is.

I hope everyone understands. haha.


(｀=ω=´)ゞ

'malware' was a new word for me.

According to our friend Wikipedia, Malware is defined like this:

Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior.

First, I am not a computer kind of person.
The first computer I used was WindowsME, from 2002.
Had no idea what Apple and Mac was until high school.
My first interaction with Mac computer: last year (2010).
(didn't even know how to turn that thing on.)

This class was the first time I heard of the term "malware".

Despite the definitions on the web,
I still had a question.

What is the difference between 'malware' and 'virus'?

So I went on google,
type in
'malware virus difference'

and here it is!
Someone had the same question!

The chosen best answer:

Malware is any piece of bad software, like viruses, worms, spyware and trojans. So malware and viruses are the same thing.

Very simple and short.
I really like it!
So, if I was to take notes, I would write it down like

    Malware
      - virus
      - worms
      - spyware
      - trojans

(is this correct?)
Since I have never heard of 'malware',
I have no idea what 'worms', spyware', and 'trojans' are.
Also, I only have stereotypical image of virus (like those on dramas and movies)
so I thought I need a clear definition.

So, I go on google again!
And I find this question:

What's the difference between a virus, worm, malware, spyware, and trojan?

There was a very long, but very well-detailed answer by this person called N Smith.
I wanted to post it up here,
but this blog was going to be really long, so I'll just put the URL.

After doing some research,
I was glad that a lot of people had the same question I had.
They may have heard of these words long before me,
but I was still relieved. haha.

Malware = evil.

Malware is just another dirty word. 

haha.



Question for final exam:
-  Malware, virus, trojan, worms, spyware are basically the same thing. (true/false)
-  "Malware" is short for
     (malnutrition, warehouse) (malicious, spyware) (malicious, software) (malaria, software)



(｀=ω=´)ﾉｼ

I hope I "Haiku it up"ed.

ds106      Haiku it up


boushi

 mom will get angry.

 I'm told not to buy them, but

 ...i love them so much. 

 

← some of my hats I wear in winter.

For some reason,

I LOVE hats.

I'm somewhat addicted to them.

I don't remember when this began,

but when I realized,

I was surrounded by hats.

While my friends check out the clothes that the mannequin is wearing,
I check the hat that the mannequin is wearing.

I collected so much of them
that my mother told me not to buy them anymore.
If I buy a new one, I have to toss one away.

((I know. She is so cruel.

The assignment was to take a simple dailyshoot assignment 
and use that as an inspiration.
Since hats are always around me, 
I thought this would be a good picture (for me).

Writing haiku in English was hard.
I remember doing something similar back in elementary school,
thought it was fun,
but somehow I feel it is very hard.

Maybe this is because I already learned ways to write haiku in Japanese.
I am used to the rhythm of Japanese haiku,
and some words in English changed that rhythm.

Japanese characters each have distinct syllables,
as for English, one word can have 2 or 3 syllables.

While rereading my haiku,
I was always feeling that something is not sounding right
in the first line.

The words I use in the second and third line 
each has one syllables.
But for the word 'angry' in the first line, it has 2.

(I hope this is making some sense)

Also,
What we call haiku must have some seasonal word in it.
i.e winter: ski, snow

I thought about this before writing this blog,
but after looking at other people's works, 
I decided to submit this haiku.

In Japanese, these writings with no seasonal words are called ' senryuu ' (川柳)

Senryuu are very interesting,
because since there are no rules of seasonal words,
it can be based about anything.

I feel like I am going off topic so I guess I should end here.

I had fun doing this assignment.
...I hope I did the right thing. haha.

(｀=ω=´)ﾉｼ

My friend's nickname was Timmyboy too.

His name was Timothy.
Everyone called him Tim.
My English teacher said he is still a kid.

He became Timmyboy.


Going back to topic.

Tim Owens (Timmyboy) talks about art, how people can all become artists.
Being in a 'creative' environment
can make people become more 'creative'.

Honestly, I think this is not true.

My maternal great-grandfather was a professional camera-man.
My maternal grandfather takes photos for his hobby, and is sending his photos to competitions.
My mother also takes photos for her hobby, and is sending her photos to competitions.

My paternal grandfather took photos for his hobby (didn't enter any competitions, but sold them)
My father was a police officer in the identification section, using his camera.

My brother loves his camera and was the camera person for the yearbook from middle school to high school.
I lived through my 19 years with these I-love-camera-and-photos people,
and yet I have no talent in taking pictures.

I live separately with my mother now,
so I usualy e-mail her whenever I find something interesting.
I take a picture of that object and send it to her via email.

my mother's reply:

あんた文章は上手いのに、写真はいまいちすぎる。
you are good at writing, but your photos don't look good at all.

Thank you, mom.
I knew that.
Thank you for reminding me.

If what Timmyboy said was true,
don't you think that I am one of the I-love-camera-and-photos people?

However, I agree with Timmyboy that ds106 will be a good environment to enjoy art.
There are a lot of genres that I have never thought of before.
It will be a good experience, and people can be called artists within that environment.

(｀=ω=´)ﾉｼ

Midterm--Mashup (MovieTrailer)

  Although I am majoring in Art, I am NOT what people call 'artist'. I decided to major in art just because I want to learn how to draw or design. In addition, I am not a computer-person, so I have no idea how to edit pictures digitally.
  So here, I have decided to chose ds106 assignment that is totally not in my medium of art.

  I decided to concentrate on the category of Mashup, and dig in even more, by focusing on this one assignment -- Movie Trailer Mashup.

  Here, you are to take your favourite movie trailer, and mix them with another trailer that has a totally different theme. For example, take the video from a horror movie trailer, and mix it with the audio from a comedy movie (if that makes any sense).

  This might be hard, as you have to find good trailers that would match. Only thinking about one of the trailers would not make the whole outcome successful. Just like mixing your voice with audio, matching is the hardest, and the most important part of this process.


< image: Mixing Desk takeb by cjsimmons CC right reserved >
Here is one sample made by mixing video from "Toy Story 3" and audio from "Inception".


  It's pretty interesting if you know both movies.
  In addition, the combination with the seriousness of 'Inception' and the so-called-childishness of 'Toy Story 3' is interesting as well.
 I feel that this is one of the fun parts of this assignment, and as I have mentioned before,
the mixing part and how the video and the audio match is very important part.

Here are some more examples of movie trailer mashups. (audio ; video)
Elf ; 300
  - "300" is war movie, and "Elf" is a comedy movie. The gap between the dialogue and the person speaking is matching really well. Also, I really like the movie "Elf", so I personally enjoyed watching this video a lot.

The Ring 2 ; The Runaway Bride
  - "The Ring 2" is a famous horror movie, and "The Runaway Bride" is a romace comedy movie. I have never watched both movies, but it was still very interesting to watch. Since I had no clue what "The Runaway Bride" was about, without being notified about this assignment, I would have thought that this movie is scary.

Strictly Ballroom ; Saturday night Fever
  - "Strictly Ballroom" is a comedy movie, and "Saturday Night Fever" is I believe... comedy too? (looked for it, but is still not sure). The two movies are both about dancing and music, so I think it was easier to match.

  Looking through the blogs, there seems to be a lot of ways you can edit the videos and mix them together. However, all of them look unfamiliar, and hard for me. I think I would only use Windows Movie Maker and see how it turns out.

  This assignment looks interesting, just by looking through the videos that are uploaded on YouTube. I feel they take a lot of ideas and technique, but anyone can do them. I recommend people to do this assignment because it looks, and it is  actually interesting.

...and, just because I want to see a lot of these videos. haha.
(｀=ω=´)ノ

Artist2 social networking in Japan

I never left Japan,

and I don't really know much about American culture,

so I will focus on social networking and artist only in Japan.

 

A lot of Japanese artists use social networking services such as 

ameba blog (jp)

mixi (jp)

twitter (eng)

GREE (jp)

and a little bit of

facebook (eng)

 

Artists use these sites other than their official homepage

to interact with their fans by

 writing about their daily life

   (fans can comment)

uploading photos

 　(fans can comment)

 advertizing

   (fans can be notified)

 replying to @tweets and direct messages

   (fans are happy)

 

I actually got a reply from this one singer

when I sent him a direct message,

and I really got excited.

 

The message was only 2 or 3 sentences

but it made me so happy 

that I wrote on facebook

 

            "  I am so happy that I am going to die.  "

haha.

 

There are a lot of ways artists can use social networking services to interact with their fans.

 

It is interesting, 

that just by posting blogs and pictures

you can also become an 'artist'

receiving comments

and replying to those comments.

 

'Artists' are not just famous people you see on TV everyday,

but are people you admire.

Those 'artist' doesn't have to be a professional.

A 'fan' can turn into an 'artist' someday

just like producers and singers that are now famous in NicoNicoDouga (jp).

 

I don't know where I am trying to end up now

so I think I should stop writing...

Social networking sites are some ways that Artists can

directly interact with their fans,

and they can connect closer than when they are on TV.

 

...I think.

 

(｀=ω=´)ノシ

I thought PopCulture is PoppingCulture or something.

It had nothing to do with Popping.

Here is a definition given in our friend, Wikipedia:

Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, image sand other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.

I think this is too long.
Did you notice? ↑is only 2 sentences.

So, I looked for a shorter definition.
"pop culture", by definition of this website
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/teachers_definitions.html
is

("Pop" comes from "popular.") Mainstream, or widespread, features and trends that tend to define a society at any given time, including such things as language, fashion, entertainment, literature, and music.

After reading these two definitions, I will say this again.

"pop culture" has nothing to do with "popping".

So.
My definition of "pop culture" is

 Culture made by the 'younger' generation, featuring music, film, television, comics, toys, and more.

Maybe I made it too simple.
What I want to say is, is that the 'pop culture' is somewhat different from 'culture'.

From my perspective,
'culture' is more.... serious.
--they have traditions and special rules to follow.

However, 'pop culture' is free.
Not 100% free, like you can do anything you want to do,
but there are no strict rulings of what you have to do.

... does that make any sense?

...I hope it does... haha.

I have read other people's blogs too,
and some of them have links to the same sites.

But I am posting the same site too!!

Just because I like this website so much.
It is one of the largest Japanese 'pop culture'.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/

This website is called ' NicoNicoDouga'
and it is a video sharing website, like Youtube

The users would make original video clips, share original songs, dance, music, and so on.

I made a lot of friends through this website,
and I think my interests changed dramatically by meeting this website.

So, 'pop culture' can be very influential.

I personally hate Japanese traditional culture, just because I have some family issues regarding that,
but I like 'pop culture' so much that I am enjoying it almost everyday.

(｀=ω=´)ゞ

'Memex' is such an interesting name.

This topic was talked a little bit in class -- the meaning of the name 'memex'
According to this website:
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/08/ajb/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Memex.html

(memory) + (index) = (memex)

... I just thought this was interesting.

(｀=ω=´)ゞ

Personally, I think Facebook is useful.. in some ways.

As some of the people in the class knows,
I am not a big user of Facebook.

I created my account while MSN chatting with my friend when I was in 5th grade.
That time, I had no idea what it was,
plus, I was not using internet so much, because the time I will be able to connect to internet was limited.
So, the conversation I had with my friend when I first encountered Facebook was:
Friend: I think you should start Facebook too!
Me: ... ... is it free?

Friend: ... ... it is free.
Me: but is it safe?
Friend: just go to this website Facebook.com
            and I'll tell you more about it.

And so, I created my account on Facebook.

Since I was still in 5th grade, using WindowsME, with limited internet time of 30minutes,
I did not use Facebook so much.

However, when we changed our internet connection and the limit were gone,
I started using Facebook more.

My good old friend who taught me about the existence of Facebook
told me how my friends from elementary school are using this as well.

Since I moved to Tohoku region when I was in elementary school,
and I did not have computer at that time,
and so I did not have emails,
Facebook was the only way to get in contact with those friends.

I thought Facebook was an interesting way to have connection with people around the world
since we can not only share our status, but photos and interests too.

When I entered Temple, the first thing my friends asked for were my cell phone address
plus, my Facebook account.

I was glad that my good old friend told me about Facebook.

So, aside from emails,
Facebook is one of the biggest social networking that came into my life.

(｀=ω=´)ゞ

'Mouse' or 'Pointer' or whatever you call that clicking thing.

After I changed my computer from desktop to laptop,

the 'mouse' or 'pointer' is gone from my room.

Haha.

The era of 'mouse' has now been history for me.

'Mouse' are very useful.

They move around very smoothly, and just double-click to open a document.

However, some people, like my mother, prefer using 'mouse' even though they have a laptop computer.

So, who is the father of all the 'mouse' that is being created even today?

 

This person
Doug Engelbart                                 

 

Doug Engelbart

It is important. So I will wrote it twice.

Maybe I'll write it again.

Doug Engelbart.

Born in 1925, Oregon.

Went to Oregon State University to study electrical engineering.

His studies were interpreted in the WWII.

Joined the Navy in Philippines as a radar technician.

Went back to school after the war.

1968, Doug Engelbart and his group of 17 researchers present the first debut of computer mouse.

   plus, the idea of hypertext, object addressing, and dynamic file linking were also presented.

Here are some websites that introduce Doug Engelbart and his works.

http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html

Has video clips of the Demo that the researchers presented in 1968.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/englebart.html

Introduce "Internet Pioneers" such as, Doug Engelbart, Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson, and more.

http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/pitch-prod-co.html

Has a lot of information about Doug Engelbart, including documents, video clips, and more.

Yes.

And I have a feeling that my computer seriously hates this website

because it is now past 7o'clock,

 and I began writing this after I came back from school today, which is like.. 4.

It once froze. So I waited until it will work again.

And I waited..

And waited..

Suddenly, the page minimize..

I waited..

I maximize... but nothing happens.

So I decided to wait again.

I open Word, and decided to work on other assignments..

MicrosoftWord is working fine.

Blogger is not working fine.

I have waited....

so long...

Blogger started working around 6:30

and I finally finished it around 7.

Is this how everyone's Blogger is working?

Or is it just my computer that's like... not good..

(｀=ω=´)ゞ

Hello World

Hello World, this is my blog for CIS class.

Testing..

just testing..

 

My computer at home seems to hate Blogger

and rejects logging me in.

Also, my computer at home seems to hate Twitter either,

and suddenly freezes when I try to log in.

maybe i should just not do the assignments..

haha

Oh well...

I hope my blog is working now..

(｀=ω=´)ゞ