FINAL BLOG!!!... of the quarter...

This week, I saw the movie Eagle Eye. The movie was about how a computer became really smart and took it's programming over. It began to control life around it in order to satisfy it's own wishes for it's interpretation of the computer's own purpose. This is not the only movie of it's kind. From I Robot, to Smart House, computer's are becoming too independent left and right. I decided to look up a few articles and see what I could find as to the reliance we all put in our technology. The websites stated the same message; that an over-reliance on technology could be dangerous. If my mom takes away my cell phone or my computer, it usually hits me pretty hard as it disables me from instantaneous contact to the world outside of my house. I feel as though my generation grew up with the technology that used to be incredibly rare. At least, for me, when I have no access to anything, I feel claustrophobic. Some people might think of that as weird, seeing as I could get up and go take a walk outside, but it's different when you're on a computer. The user is immediately linked to something much larger than themselves, or even the path around the lake. It's the largest link around the world and none of it is tangible.

Why do we put so much faith in something that we can't even really see? We see our screen but have no knowledge as to how our emails appear in China. If the internet suddenly crashed, worldwide, people could lose everything. Family pictures, to their life works, to control of missiles. The reason why people continue to use the internet is simple. Because everyone else does it. If any one person suddenly refused to enter the cyberworld, they would be left in the dust. Business is done online, as money is made. Students turn in assignments via email and blog posts. The stock market, though not entirely online, appears a great deal on google/finance.

One of the articles I read talked about the blackouts in California. I couldn't even imagine how much production of entertainment and exports that caused. California is one of the most populated states and suddenly, it just disappeared.

I'm not saying that the use of technology should be stopped, or even hindered. To do so would be to hinder the development of society. These thoughts have been causing me to consider downloading things and saving them in a more permanent place. It's just gives me a slightly larger sense of security. From communication to business to entertainment, technology helps us in every way and hopefully, it'll stay that way.

Grohol, John M. "Why Reliance on Technology is a Bad Thing." Psychcentral. 21 Apr. 2005. The American School of Professional Psychology. 28 Oct. 2008 .

Blog #6

This week I decided to read an article about the only thing that I hear about anymore. The economy. My mom sent websites to the rest of the family saying ways we can all save money during hard times. I skimmed the list quickly before getting into an argument with her over the differences between her saving money and my saving money. Somehow, in her eyes, her manicure every two weeks was more important than my buying of my favorite brand of rice that was a few cents more expensive. I countered that I don't mind cutting back, as long as I'm not the only one. It seems to me that people are willing to cut out the little details of things that are actually necessary, like food brands and sneakers, but not cut out things that improve their own self image.

We had a guest over to dinner last night and the four of us talked about the issue. She speculated that people wanted to feel good about one aspect of their lives during the economic crisis that has consumed their minds. I understand the importance of turning off the lights more often and using cold water to wash clothes, but it seems like along with those, people could double the money if they got down to the real luxuries and cut those out too. My dad is very specific about his nuts, as he always has to have to most expensive and natural brand. At a glance, this wouldn't seem much different than my rice dilemma other than he get's a bag of nuts everyday whereas I get a bag of rice once every month or so.

My mom is big into her own self-image, mostly because she has one of those jobs where she works with people she's never met before on a day-to-day basis where first impressions mean everything. This means the best clothes and hair and everything else that comes with looking professional and modern. Yet somehow, I seem to be more to blame when I go get my gum or a pair of discount gloves than when she purchases the latest outfit or goes to the best-of-the-best in hair cutters.

My thoughts on all the economy chatter is that if people, myself included, focused on buying the $12 discount jeans instead of the $112 dollar designer jeans, along with focusing on the smaller details like gum and electricity, we could double or triple our saving efforts and rescue families from the common conservation-of-money disputes.


Dyre, Civita. "How To Save Money in Today's Economy." EHow. 20 Oct.. eHow. 21 Oct. 2008 .

Blog #5

Blog #5

This week, I chose to read an article about the Rubik's cube. This past summer, I learned how to solve one of these puzzles and it instantly became a hobby. I was solving it a few days ago and I realized that in order for all six faces to spin, there had to be a center within the cube. So I pulled off some of the blocks and sure enough, there was a central core much more complex than I had anticipated. I realized that someone had to have thought of the toy and had to have figured out a way to make each color move independently without falling apart. I went online and read an article about the history and creator of the Rubik's cube. The inventor had a quote that I liked.
"It was wonderful, to see how, after only a few turns, the colors became mixed, apparently in random fashion. It was tremendously satisfying to watch this color parade. Like after a nice walk when you have seen many lovely sights you decide to go home, after a while I decided it was time to go home, let us put the cubes back in order. And it was at that moment that I came face to face with the Big Challenge: What is the way home?" - Erno Rubik. As you get pulled into the cube, the colors start to inhabit your mind and take over your senses so that all you want to do is see them match.

When I first started solving my cube, it would take up all my concentration. It completely cleared my mind of other distractions. As I got better, my time decreased. I started to time myself, but whenever I would turn on the timer, or sit in front of a parent and ask them to time me, my hands would move slower than they usually did. This made me wonder if this happened to everyone. If people never got to see others' absolute best performances because they could only do as well when completely alone. Although this doesn't have much to do with my reading, the text sparked my thoughts about my own experiences and led me to believe that we have a sense of others' presence that makes us more aware of our own actions.

Bellis, Mary. The History Of The Rubik's Cube- Erno Rubik. n.d. 14 Oct. 2008 <http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/Rubik_Cube.htm>;.

Blog #4...5?...4?

This past week, I finished up The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne. I usually wouldn't pick up a book that was as short as this one, especially with a title like the one it has. It comes across as a children's book. However, I went far enough to open the inside cover. Instead of the regular summary of the storyline, it had this.
"If you start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.[...]"
That caught my interest and I started reading. Then entire book only took me about five collective hours. It ended up being a book about the Holocaust. What I found interesting was that the protagonist is the son of a German Nazi General. Normally, in Holocaust books, the point of view is that of a Jew with five brothers and sisters hiding somewhere or escaping. Bruno, however, moved to a nice home on a new plot of land. The reader doesn't find out until a little over half way through the novel that the land is actually a concentration camp.
After reading this, I started to think about perspective. Although Bruno is only a young boy, his friendship with the boy on the other side of the fence made the most moving of all the stories I've heard or read. The simplicity of the story makes the reader wonder about the other side of the war, the side that wasn't told. It's important to change perspectives from time to time. Even just trying to visualize how something looks from another's eyes will give one a new perspective on their lives.
Another interesting quote was, "Bruno started to think more and more about the two sides of the fence and the reason it was there in the first place." In the eyes of the two boys on either side, there is no difference between them. In the eyes of everybody else, the difference is life or death.
From the mysterious beginning, to the unexpectedly tragic ending, this book had my mind racing from the point of view of every single character.

Boyne, John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York: David Fickling Books, 2006.