Saturday, December 06, 2003
Finally, this is how me and Blogging became friends since the first day of my college !
English 1101 at Georgia Tech are the College Freshmen English class. Our professor, Dr. Charles Tryon, made us write a blog entry each week for the class instead of writing the papers or something like that. The topic on which we had to write the blogs differed from the rhetoric point of view on the readings to the personal view. These blogs' topics revealed completely what we did in the class.
This was the first time, I had ever written a blog (and I was not the only one. There were even students who had never heard of the blogs before). So, of course I was not comfortable with the blogs at the beginning of the semester. Slowly I got into them, and now it is not a big deal, yet there are some topics on which I still cannot write the blogs.
Similarly I faced several topics on which I could not write or found it difficult to write during the course, and there were many topics on which it was very comfortable to write on. In this wrap-up blog I will try to figure out four-five of my best blog entries and one-two of my worst entries. Before going any further I hope this last blog entries for the course turns out to be my best of all and I incorporate all the blogging skills I have learnt so far in this semester.
The topics on which it was very easy to write were the ones where we had to express our views. The most interesting one and, hence, the one with which I was most comfortable was an entry based on reading from William J. Mitchell's book E-topia. Of the seven pages I read from the book, the sentence, "long-established settlement patterns and social arrangements are remarkably resistant to even the powerful pressures for change; mostly they transform slowly, messily, unevenly, and incompletely, and human nature hardly alters at all (E-topia 71)". In this blog entry, I spoke completely on this particular sentence. The huge class discussion on this particular sentence makes this entry the reflection of some of the all-time memorable moments of my life.
Another blog entry were I think was successful is one that was response to the blogs written during the Iraq war period. In this blog entry, I replied to Salam Pax blog entries for the month of March 2003 because that is when the issue of War with Iraq was the hottest one worldwide. What makes me believe this entry to be a successful one is the fact that I very well analyzed the argument made by Salman Pax using the ethos, logos, and pathos method. Salman Pax seems to be a resident of Baghdad, and in the blog he describes the conditions during the bombing of Baghdad. By comparing the emotions of a resident of Baghdad during the bombing of their hometown to those of New Yorkers after 9/11 was something help make this entry a success. I have a very blur memory about some people in the class feeling that the character Salman Pax can be a fictional character and, hence, his blog cannot be taken seriously. But through my last concluding sentence,"Even if Salam in itself is not real, the experiences and the emotions depicted are not far away from the reality!!!!!!!", I gave the reply to those not willingly to agree with Salman Pax just because they were not aware of the existence of the character.
My fourth blog entry was a response to our first online reserve reading. The reading of excerpt from The Storyteller written by Benjamin W. Even though the reading was tough language wise, "Thanks to the comments from Lyn Hejinian, I understood little bit of what Benjamin has to say regarding the degrading of the art of storytelling with the entrance of the modern technologies and advancement". I did not agree with the views of Benjamin and I argued against. During the process, I very well quoted words for his excerpt to prove how contradicting Benjamin W. was. Also, there was room for me to incorporate personal experience to argue against. These helped me make a good argument and, hence, a successful entry.
When I started blogging this semester, the blogs to me were like diaries (just digital format) in which "people express their feelings, views, experiences, and so on. None of these can be right or wrong". But Rebecca Blood's Weblog Ethics challenged some of mine views related to blogging. I was not still convinced of having anything like Weblog Ethics . In the end, I found myself completely against her views and concluding my entry with "Morally all the ethics set forth by Blood are right, but logically either they are irrelevant or they are tough to maintain!". Second look at this point today, I find myself using good and convincing counter-arguments in that entry.
I can go on with the list of all of my best entries and most of my entries will make this list because what appears bad at first-look seems better at second. When I am reading the entries at this point, all of them seem good and if not good, then at least not that bad. But one entry still does not appeal me enough to make the list is one on the Gallery assignment. As we were required to visit a local museum and write an entry on the museum, I selected Science Museum SciTrek that was at walking distance of about a mile from my dorm. I do not remember myself visiting a museum ever before, so I was excited, but on entering itself I was disappointed. The museum seemed to be for kids because most of the displays did not tell anything more than what I learned in high school. Also, the museum was not big, as I after spending luxurious self-guided and lonely hour I found nothing else to see. One of the major focus for this blog entry was to analyze the organization patterns of the museum and the effects. However, on most part the organization pattern was not that relevant in this particular case, may be because it is not some historical exhibition. Finally, when I started to write the entry, I realized that most of the questions that formed our basis of the entry were left unanswered and, hence, leaving me nowhere near to write decent entry.
Besides these blogs entries, the class was divided into six groups with each writing a Group Blog based on any theme decided by the group members. Our group decided to write a blog reviewing the food available on and near the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Being a vegetarian I opted the review on basis of what is available for vegetarians. The group blog entries were very easy to write because mostly they were written on something very one is interested in. Besides the blogs (including Group Project), we also had to write couple of traditional papers.
Today at the end of semester, I am amazed how the blogging and its benefits were incorporated into the course without even compromising any of the traditional course plus points. And I can conclude without any hesitation that blogging the best writing tool I have ever been introduced to because it not only provides the needed room for amateur writer but also save an awfully large numbers of trees. I can see that in the near future most of literature and communication classes using this tool where instead of submitting the paper to teachers, the papers are blogged and with the help of special comment function (that will allow privacy) teachers can comment and grade the paper like they do now with the only difference that the papers will be digital and published.
Work Citation:
Mitchell, William J. "Homes and Neighborhoods." E-Topia. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000. 71-82.
English 1101 at Georgia Tech are the College Freshmen English class. Our professor, Dr. Charles Tryon, made us write a blog entry each week for the class instead of writing the papers or something like that. The topic on which we had to write the blogs differed from the rhetoric point of view on the readings to the personal view. These blogs' topics revealed completely what we did in the class.
This was the first time, I had ever written a blog (and I was not the only one. There were even students who had never heard of the blogs before). So, of course I was not comfortable with the blogs at the beginning of the semester. Slowly I got into them, and now it is not a big deal, yet there are some topics on which I still cannot write the blogs.
Similarly I faced several topics on which I could not write or found it difficult to write during the course, and there were many topics on which it was very comfortable to write on. In this wrap-up blog I will try to figure out four-five of my best blog entries and one-two of my worst entries. Before going any further I hope this last blog entries for the course turns out to be my best of all and I incorporate all the blogging skills I have learnt so far in this semester.
The topics on which it was very easy to write were the ones where we had to express our views. The most interesting one and, hence, the one with which I was most comfortable was an entry based on reading from William J. Mitchell's book E-topia. Of the seven pages I read from the book, the sentence, "long-established settlement patterns and social arrangements are remarkably resistant to even the powerful pressures for change; mostly they transform slowly, messily, unevenly, and incompletely, and human nature hardly alters at all (E-topia 71)". In this blog entry, I spoke completely on this particular sentence. The huge class discussion on this particular sentence makes this entry the reflection of some of the all-time memorable moments of my life.
Another blog entry were I think was successful is one that was response to the blogs written during the Iraq war period. In this blog entry, I replied to Salam Pax blog entries for the month of March 2003 because that is when the issue of War with Iraq was the hottest one worldwide. What makes me believe this entry to be a successful one is the fact that I very well analyzed the argument made by Salman Pax using the ethos, logos, and pathos method. Salman Pax seems to be a resident of Baghdad, and in the blog he describes the conditions during the bombing of Baghdad. By comparing the emotions of a resident of Baghdad during the bombing of their hometown to those of New Yorkers after 9/11 was something help make this entry a success. I have a very blur memory about some people in the class feeling that the character Salman Pax can be a fictional character and, hence, his blog cannot be taken seriously. But through my last concluding sentence,"Even if Salam in itself is not real, the experiences and the emotions depicted are not far away from the reality!!!!!!!", I gave the reply to those not willingly to agree with Salman Pax just because they were not aware of the existence of the character.
My fourth blog entry was a response to our first online reserve reading. The reading of excerpt from The Storyteller written by Benjamin W. Even though the reading was tough language wise, "Thanks to the comments from Lyn Hejinian, I understood little bit of what Benjamin has to say regarding the degrading of the art of storytelling with the entrance of the modern technologies and advancement". I did not agree with the views of Benjamin and I argued against. During the process, I very well quoted words for his excerpt to prove how contradicting Benjamin W. was. Also, there was room for me to incorporate personal experience to argue against. These helped me make a good argument and, hence, a successful entry.
When I started blogging this semester, the blogs to me were like diaries (just digital format) in which "people express their feelings, views, experiences, and so on. None of these can be right or wrong". But Rebecca Blood's Weblog Ethics challenged some of mine views related to blogging. I was not still convinced of having anything like Weblog Ethics . In the end, I found myself completely against her views and concluding my entry with "Morally all the ethics set forth by Blood are right, but logically either they are irrelevant or they are tough to maintain!". Second look at this point today, I find myself using good and convincing counter-arguments in that entry.
I can go on with the list of all of my best entries and most of my entries will make this list because what appears bad at first-look seems better at second. When I am reading the entries at this point, all of them seem good and if not good, then at least not that bad. But one entry still does not appeal me enough to make the list is one on the Gallery assignment. As we were required to visit a local museum and write an entry on the museum, I selected Science Museum SciTrek that was at walking distance of about a mile from my dorm. I do not remember myself visiting a museum ever before, so I was excited, but on entering itself I was disappointed. The museum seemed to be for kids because most of the displays did not tell anything more than what I learned in high school. Also, the museum was not big, as I after spending luxurious self-guided and lonely hour I found nothing else to see. One of the major focus for this blog entry was to analyze the organization patterns of the museum and the effects. However, on most part the organization pattern was not that relevant in this particular case, may be because it is not some historical exhibition. Finally, when I started to write the entry, I realized that most of the questions that formed our basis of the entry were left unanswered and, hence, leaving me nowhere near to write decent entry.
Besides these blogs entries, the class was divided into six groups with each writing a Group Blog based on any theme decided by the group members. Our group decided to write a blog reviewing the food available on and near the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Being a vegetarian I opted the review on basis of what is available for vegetarians. The group blog entries were very easy to write because mostly they were written on something very one is interested in. Besides the blogs (including Group Project), we also had to write couple of traditional papers.
Today at the end of semester, I am amazed how the blogging and its benefits were incorporated into the course without even compromising any of the traditional course plus points. And I can conclude without any hesitation that blogging the best writing tool I have ever been introduced to because it not only provides the needed room for amateur writer but also save an awfully large numbers of trees. I can see that in the near future most of literature and communication classes using this tool where instead of submitting the paper to teachers, the papers are blogged and with the help of special comment function (that will allow privacy) teachers can comment and grade the paper like they do now with the only difference that the papers will be digital and published.
Work Citation:
Mitchell, William J. "Homes and Neighborhoods." E-Topia. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000. 71-82.
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
"Human nature hardly alters"--William J. Mitchell
Guys, very interesting views expressed by William J. Mitchell in the book E-topia. How I happen to know this? Well, for our Monday reading assignment in the English 1101 class we had to read pages 71-77 of this book. That's how I know.
Lot of optimist expectations by Mitchell do not appeal my rationale, but one sentence that struck me is "long-established settlement patterns and social arrangements are remarkably resistant to even the powerful pressures for change; mostly they transform slowly, messily, unevenly, and incompletely, and human nature hardly alters at all (71)".
This is an excellent observation. I completely agree with it. From the history I have read, the industrial revolution in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was criticized and opposed, and today the technological evolution and revolution face the similar situations.
But the most important point the first part of this observation makes is the fear among human towards change. We human always have desired wealth, fame, beauty, and all these materialistic things. We, as Americans, valued freedom, equality, privacy, and so on when the nation was created and even today. Only thing that has changed is the extent and the degree of these desires. Still today we want a very comfortable life with awful lot of material wealth after the least possible effort and again awful lot of time for leisure. Our ancestors tried to invent new things for the purpose and brought the industrial revolution and today the technological revolution.
So, our actions are shaped by this greedy nature of ours, which is same since we exist: it was the same for our ancestors and it is same for us, and might be the same for the future generations. So, I completely agree with the claim that ‘human nature hardly alters’ even though several people in the class during the discussion cannot swallow the phrase.
Monday, November 10, 2003
In her essay “Reload: Liveliness, Mobility And the Web”, Tara McPherson was against the credit of ‘liveliness’ being given to the Internet. McPherson says that these two media of communication even though serves the same purposes of entertainment, information, commercialism, and others each have different characteristics. While Internet provides the sense of mobility, the Television provides the sense of ‘liveliness’. With Internet one can be in the 1800’s at one moment, 21st century another, and prehistoric era next. One can be in Washington at a moment, Tokyo another, and somewhere far in the solar system next. These capabilities provided by the Internet gives user the sense of mobility. Also, with Internet one do not have to fear about missing something because he or she can always get an access just by visiting the archives. Internet let one skip the part he or she does not want to see or hear, like horoscopes. On Internet if one has to find out his or her horoscope, just need to go to appropriate website and there click for the respective Zodiac sign. While on television one has to wait for the particular show, and then watch the show at least till the forecast of the respective sign is presented. Thus, a sense of emergency is added. Also, the scan-and-search feature of Internet makes one feel more active than the glance-or-gaze feature of Television. All of these make Internet ‘mobile’.
But this mobility is just virtual like while using the search engine one is just accessing about thirty to forty percent of the whole web. Also, with no fear of missing, the sense of liveliness is gone.
Tara McPherson also discusses the corporate involvement in conducting the wedding of the two media.
But this mobility is just virtual like while using the search engine one is just accessing about thirty to forty percent of the whole web. Also, with no fear of missing, the sense of liveliness is gone.
Tara McPherson also discusses the corporate involvement in conducting the wedding of the two media.
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Hi again!! I know it is another blog in less than 24 hours after 12 days without any. It is like as Hindi saying goes, "upperwaalaa jab bhi detaa, detaa chhappar phaadke" meaning whatever it be comes together and not evenly scattered, be it sorrow or happiness.
Anyway, we read some online reserve on photography originally written in French by (...oh man I forgot the author's name....let's say) French author and discussed about it during yesterday class. Warning!! This blog is pretty much about the reading and the discussion !!
The author seemed very critic of photographs and photography. The best way he explained photography was using a Sanskrit word 'tathata' with 'tat' meaning that like 'the gesture of the child pointing his finger at something and saying: that, there it is, lo! but says nothing else (page 5)". I fully agree with that reference and his point that photographs are like corpse ( i guess that's the word for dead body) which even though relate to the person it used to be, but is not that person.
The author is neither anti-photography nor is he who do not appreciate the photography. He pretty much criticizes the posing, an integral part of photography. With posing the originality is lost, which he better explained through his experience with his mom's photograph. The author says that when he look at his mom's photograph he knows the person photograph is his mom but he do not see his mom in that photograph. This explains how the lose of originality/naturality in posing deprive the presentation of the what and who the person photographed is.
In fact, I can go on about the article... in fact it is the book.... but one thing that surprised me was that the book did not touched the point of whether photography is art or not; the technical aspect of photography and the emotional feature of the photographs are very well presented. Rest? Go find out yourself!
P.S.These views are based on the parts of the book I read. I will add the name of the author and the book later on.
P.S. (11/06/03) Author with Book Name: Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida
Anyway, we read some online reserve on photography originally written in French by (...oh man I forgot the author's name....let's say) French author and discussed about it during yesterday class. Warning!! This blog is pretty much about the reading and the discussion !!
The author seemed very critic of photographs and photography. The best way he explained photography was using a Sanskrit word 'tathata' with 'tat' meaning that like 'the gesture of the child pointing his finger at something and saying: that, there it is, lo! but says nothing else (page 5)". I fully agree with that reference and his point that photographs are like corpse ( i guess that's the word for dead body) which even though relate to the person it used to be, but is not that person.
The author is neither anti-photography nor is he who do not appreciate the photography. He pretty much criticizes the posing, an integral part of photography. With posing the originality is lost, which he better explained through his experience with his mom's photograph. The author says that when he look at his mom's photograph he knows the person photograph is his mom but he do not see his mom in that photograph. This explains how the lose of originality/naturality in posing deprive the presentation of the what and who the person photographed is.
In fact, I can go on about the article... in fact it is the book.... but one thing that surprised me was that the book did not touched the point of whether photography is art or not; the technical aspect of photography and the emotional feature of the photographs are very well presented. Rest? Go find out yourself!
P.S.These views are based on the parts of the book I read. I will add the name of the author and the book later on.
P.S. (11/06/03) Author with Book Name: Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida
Friday, October 31, 2003
American Memory Project by Library of Congress
It is long time since I posted a blog. Last Monday, 10/27/03, in our English 1101 class we watched some short movies. They were in digital prints. These digital prints are possible as a result of the American Memory Project undertaken by Library of Congress. Under this project not just motion pictures but also ads, photographs, sound recordings, manuscripts, maps, prints, and texts are converted into digital prints for preservation. The aim of this project is to serve as "a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States".
From the movies that we watched in the class, I observed that the old movies were very short of about 5-10 minutes. Despite the length very less, the movies were pretty good in conveying the message. Even though many old movies are preserved, the quality is diminished. Also, these old movies lack outdoor shootings except on few occasions. The project has collected a variety of documents with focus ranging from Hitler to Gandhi to Washington. Such a huge collection of not just articles but also pictures and photographs American Memory Project is a resource for not just American history but also whole world's history.
It is long time since I posted a blog. Last Monday, 10/27/03, in our English 1101 class we watched some short movies. They were in digital prints. These digital prints are possible as a result of the American Memory Project undertaken by Library of Congress. Under this project not just motion pictures but also ads, photographs, sound recordings, manuscripts, maps, prints, and texts are converted into digital prints for preservation. The aim of this project is to serve as "a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States".
From the movies that we watched in the class, I observed that the old movies were very short of about 5-10 minutes. Despite the length very less, the movies were pretty good in conveying the message. Even though many old movies are preserved, the quality is diminished. Also, these old movies lack outdoor shootings except on few occasions. The project has collected a variety of documents with focus ranging from Hitler to Gandhi to Washington. Such a huge collection of not just articles but also pictures and photographs American Memory Project is a resource for not just American history but also whole world's history.
Sunday, October 19, 2003
OOPS!!! I thought that the update blog on paper dues on monday.
Anyway, i have changed my mind on the paper topic. Wait!! It is still on a hindi movies. It is just that I changed the movie from "LAGAAN- once upon a time" to "SARFAROSH- a reason to live".
This movie is about ACP Ajay Singh Rathod working for Mumbai Crime Branch solving the case on the terrorist activity killing bus travelers in the state.
Through this plot the debutant director John Matthew Matthan has successfully explored the terrorism against India by pakistan sponsered secrect agency ISI.
Even though the movie has fictional character its claim about Pakistan's involvement is not fictional.
Like rest of the hindi movies, this movie also has the songs. there are 6 songs and each of them are of different genre ranging from ghazal to qawwali to folk to cabre to romantic to comedy.. Also each of these songs are well placed in the movie.
With the original plot, this action movie has some eye caressing scenery ranging from greenery of southern forest to dry arid desert of west.
The excellent acting from the star Aamir Khan with great acting from other cast makes this film a great one!
For more details hold on for my paper.
Anyway, i have changed my mind on the paper topic. Wait!! It is still on a hindi movies. It is just that I changed the movie from "LAGAAN- once upon a time" to "SARFAROSH- a reason to live".
This movie is about ACP Ajay Singh Rathod working for Mumbai Crime Branch solving the case on the terrorist activity killing bus travelers in the state.
Through this plot the debutant director John Matthew Matthan has successfully explored the terrorism against India by pakistan sponsered secrect agency ISI.
Even though the movie has fictional character its claim about Pakistan's involvement is not fictional.
Like rest of the hindi movies, this movie also has the songs. there are 6 songs and each of them are of different genre ranging from ghazal to qawwali to folk to cabre to romantic to comedy.. Also each of these songs are well placed in the movie.
With the original plot, this action movie has some eye caressing scenery ranging from greenery of southern forest to dry arid desert of west.
The excellent acting from the star Aamir Khan with great acting from other cast makes this film a great one!
For more details hold on for my paper.
Today I visited local Science Museum SciTrek. It seemed to be kids’ museum. I spent there about an hour self-guided and alone. As I entered the exhibition center, to my right it started with the display of the experiment representing the magnetic properties. The first one was ‘Pole, Push, and Pull’ presenting the attraction and repulsion properties of the magnetic poles followed by ‘Magnetic attraction’. ‘Magnemaze’, and ‘Natural Magnets’ displaying the various ‘cool’ properties of magnets. The next few presentations were regarding how the electricity is generated using magnetic properties. The next section began with the exhibition explained through the use of the magnet how the television set works. It was a smooth transition and also it seemed to be part of the earlier section. The electron beaming in television sets was further explored in the ‘Plasma Walk’ display. After the section on visual effects came the section presenting the properties of light through ‘Colored Shadows’, ‘Frozen figure’ and many others displays. In the other sections, the concept of force and lever were explored.
After that I did not continue with the museum because it was not that cool as I imagined. But as far as I explored the museum the arrangement was in circle with the smooth transitions between the sections such that it is tough to single out the sections. These sections are not visible until the museum is explored for long time.
After that I did not continue with the museum because it was not that cool as I imagined. But as far as I explored the museum the arrangement was in circle with the smooth transitions between the sections such that it is tough to single out the sections. These sections are not visible until the museum is explored for long time.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
"LAGAAN-once upon a time in India", the Hindi movie released in 2001 and nominated for the Best Foreign Language film at Oscar, forms my visual text. Why a Hindi movie?
Well moved from India just couple of years ago, I have watched more Hindi movies than English movies. So, I know more about Hindi movies and the trend in Hindi movies. Hence, I can better evaluate them. And why that particular Hindi movie?
Well it is one of my favorite movies and also it is really a good movie proved by its being an Oscar nomination.
The movie is based in 1893 India, when it was under the British rule. The movie has the game of cricket as its climax. There would be hardly any Indian who is not passionate about this British game. And another passion of a hardcore Indian can be demonstrated by the fact that Indian film industry even surpasses its Hollywood counterpart in number of movies release every year.
With so many movies on screen and many more songs out, the competition is very high. But very few films succeed in creating movie where the songs coordinate with the movie and also that they do not disturb the flow of the story in the movie. The songs of this movie pace up the movie instead of just holding up the movie. Each of them have definite role in the movie without which the movie is not complete.
Of course there have been several good Hindi movies, which succeed in putting the songs in right place and right amount, but what makes this particular movie take a lead? Besides the use of songs, the use of three languages in the dialogues adds the sense of antiquity to the movie and thereby, it succeed in taking the audience back to that era. What else? Well, the settings! The direction!! And lot of other features!!!!
For all that hold on still my paper is ready, but I am right now worried how I will express all what I have in my mind and how I will corporate all the factors so that the focus match with that of the assignment.
Well moved from India just couple of years ago, I have watched more Hindi movies than English movies. So, I know more about Hindi movies and the trend in Hindi movies. Hence, I can better evaluate them. And why that particular Hindi movie?
Well it is one of my favorite movies and also it is really a good movie proved by its being an Oscar nomination.
The movie is based in 1893 India, when it was under the British rule. The movie has the game of cricket as its climax. There would be hardly any Indian who is not passionate about this British game. And another passion of a hardcore Indian can be demonstrated by the fact that Indian film industry even surpasses its Hollywood counterpart in number of movies release every year.
With so many movies on screen and many more songs out, the competition is very high. But very few films succeed in creating movie where the songs coordinate with the movie and also that they do not disturb the flow of the story in the movie. The songs of this movie pace up the movie instead of just holding up the movie. Each of them have definite role in the movie without which the movie is not complete.
Of course there have been several good Hindi movies, which succeed in putting the songs in right place and right amount, but what makes this particular movie take a lead? Besides the use of songs, the use of three languages in the dialogues adds the sense of antiquity to the movie and thereby, it succeed in taking the audience back to that era. What else? Well, the settings! The direction!! And lot of other features!!!!
For all that hold on still my paper is ready, but I am right now worried how I will express all what I have in my mind and how I will corporate all the factors so that the focus match with that of the assignment.
