yWriter

I found this word processor someone made specifically for writers, it has different sections for chapters, scenes and characters. It’s always good to be organized in writing, I’ve lost a lot of pieces to the endless ‘My Documents’ file on my computer at home. That’s one of the coolest things about blogging, it’s all pretty well manageable and you’ll never lose these posts unless the website disappears or something. All and all though I’d say blogging hasn’t come naturally to me, it’s kind of difficult to think of topics every day but I’ve learned that i just need to step it up and start reading the news more and over all just write more. The more I write these blogs the better i get at thinking of topics and ways to write about them so it really is a positive tool for aspiring writers.

Speech Writing

I stumbled across this article on the Time website about how Barrack Obama writes his speeches.

“When you’re working with Senator Obama the main player on a speech is Senator Obama,” Axelrod said. “He is the best speechwriter in the group and he knows what he wants to say and he generally says it better than anybody else would.”

I think this is a powerful way to view Obama, I’m not much for political talk but he is clearly an exceptionally literate person. If Obama does win the election it’s going to be a huge shock for American’s to go from President Bush, a figure head who most of us have taken to ignoring, to a well-spoken Barrack Obama.

Final Thought on New Technology

    While I’ve said before that it is hard to have privacy with most new technologies, they do make it easier to communicate with people you barely know in a less awkward way than randomly walking up to them and talking.  For example, I wanted to see if a girl in one of my classes wanted to get together and do a review sheet for an upcoming test.  I was able to Facebook message her within seconds of making my decision, and hear back from her quite quickly.  However, if it were not for Facebook or some other form of internet messaging, I probably would not have contacted her.  It’s not entirely normal for people to just knock on the door of someone they barely know and ask to do homework with them, but it is totally normal to ask via the internet.

     This then got me thinking that without certain new technologies like texting and Facebook messaging, I may have missed out on meeting a lot of cool people because I would not have been comfortable just talking to them in person.  The same goes for everyone else I’m sure.  These types of technologies allow us to expand our social network rapidly and in greater numbers than anyone has been able to in the past, and being a pretty social person, I’m glad to be a part of it.

Blogging

     Now that this module has ended, I’d like to give my opinion of blogging and hope that it does not affect my grade for this class.  I’m not really a fan of factual writing, so being forced to do it five times a week was a bit of a hassle for me.  It was hard for me to find things to write about and sometimes I would sit staring at the computer screen forever trying to think of anything that I could write a blog about.  I pretty much only do creative writing in my free time and that is what comes naturally to me.  Blogging, however, did not.  I felt like it took up a lot of time, and I could not be entirely open because I wasn’t sure who was really reading it.  Sometimes, though, it was nice to get some thoughts down.

     Overall though, I enjoyed the amount of stuff I learned about new writing and communication technology, and I did look forward to coming to class each week.

Writing

      There is one thing that annoys me about being in school for writing.   There are often teachers who grade based on their personal opinion only.  These teachers give bad grades because they do not like your writing. It’s not even that the writing was done poorly, but it’s not something that they would normally read, therefore they don’t like it.

      A lot of the time teachers like what I write, or at least they read it from an objective standpoint and get some enjoyment out of it.  However, every now and then I get a piece of writing back with so many corrections and suggestions, that if I took them all it would no longer be my work.  Once, in middle school, I had to write a poem that was to be submitted to some publishing company to go into a book of poems.  By the time I was done making the revisions my teacher wanted me to make, there were words in it I didn’t even understand, and it looked nothing like my original poem.  The poem was actually one of a few selected to be in the book, but I barely consider it my work.

     My most recent experience was with a teacher last semester who only liked one thing I turned in the entire year, mostly because what I was writing was not simliar to his writing style.  It was frustrating, especially because there is really no polite way to tell a teacher that they are doing that.  So, if you’re a teacher or you’re going to be a teacher, always remember to read people’s work from an objective standpoint, and try not to grade based on how you’re feeling that day or if you like the story line.

 

Writing in Style

For those of us archaic folk who still employ the paper and pen as a primary writing space, it is imperative to have the proper supplies.  I took some time to browse the web and found a few sites that combine two of my favorite things: writing and shopping. Visit the below sites for ideas on customary writing tools.

Forced Writing

Disclaimer: As the semester has been completed, it should be noted that my grades should be determined based on the quality of my work, not on my opinion of the assignment.

As the weeks draw to a close, I am concerned as to what may happen to this blog. Then again, we have not had many who have chosen to comment on our works, other than spambots. Specifically, we have received only 6-7 legitimate comments from other users who were not spambots or classmates, and even then, with spambots getting more crafty, I suspect some of our human commentators may have been bots (but that’s just my paranoia). When considering how many total users are on WordPress, this is a bit disheartening to know less than even 10 decided to comment, despite our extensive tags.

If nothing else, and unless I discuss certain conditions with my group, this will be my final post, as I seem to have lost my enjoyment and further motivation for this blogging. In truth, we were forced to blog, to make one reading response to a particular reading, which I loathed, and then post 4 more blogs per week. We were told blogging was supposed to be spontaneous, whereas in this class, blogging was forced upon us. Thereby, I lost the motivation to effectively blog here without feeling as though this was a strenuous chore. Hell, I even lost the motivation to blog in my own personal spare time for my own personal pages because we blogged way too much on this website. These 5-blogs-a-week exhausted me and turned me off to blogging as a whole. I already have a blog-like journal entry which I maintain on my DeviantART page, and therefore, I have no time for this WordPress blog unless I can be sufficiently motivated to remain here. Yet, seeing as how we don’t get any significant comments anymore, I feel my motivation to stay may have run out.

I read in Zinsser’s “On Writing Well” that a student will more often than naught abandon his creativity and personal freedom of writing in order to appease an educator or professor, especially when the professor assigns work that the student does not enjoy writing or when the professor does not understand or agree with the student’s writing style. This is not to say that I was in those straits all the time, but in recent weeks, I have found myself in such a situation, and I have considered the text which I read, and discussed it with other students.

At times, academic writing can be enjoyable, but the majority of academic writing is what I like to refer to as “forced writing.” Forced writing, in my opinion, is defined as writing which is, essentially, forced upon the student, and writing the student does not enjoy carrying out. Some examples of forced writing are academic papers of undesirable subjects and material, blogs in which the student is required to write (whereas blogging should be spontaneous), and reports made concerning subjects the student detests; all of which involve the act of a student abandoning his creativity and writing dry, dull papers in a specific style or on a specific subject in order to appease his professor and earn a passing grade due to the professor’s dislike for the student’s writing style or the nature of the subjects in which the student discusses.

Blogging for a class is a viable example, as it can be greatly exhausting. In the early weeks of the class, one may enjoy freelancing on the blog site and updating it weekly on topics the student enjoys writing about. Then, when the requirement to write in response to specific readings or otherwise academic parameters are leveled upon the student, those within the class suffering under such parameters may feel that blogging becomes a chore, something that “has” to be done rather than something the student “wants” to do. The motivation to blog on time may be lost, and students may find themselves laboring in order to post blogs which are being forced upon them.

In my case, I hate writing papers, especially when it’s for a subject I dislike. I also hate being forced to write a response to a particular reading I may have undertaken and did not enjoy. Hell, I hate reading responses in general, as reading responses are “forced writing.” One might say it’s how all academic writing is to be conducted, but does that mean that we have to drudge through our academic assignments like they’re torture? Does that mean that academic institutions can’t make their academic assignments as simple as blogging about anything the student may enjoy? Why is it that academics at times are delivered to the student without any motivating fun-factor involved? I want to be motivated to blog, not forced to do it within certain parameters for a grade. I don’t want to discuss a reading, I want to discuss my writing, because I find my writing more interesting than reading, and frankly, we were instructed to blog about our reading as our subject on interest.

I don’t like being told what I can and can’t write about. I don’t like being restricted, I don’t like being regulated, I don’t like being censored, and God help me and the poor man reading my work, I most certainly hate being silenced. In the greater principle of things, an American soldier fought and died today so we could exercise our right to free speech and freedom of expression, the right to write about what we want without infringement from higher governmental authority, so let’s exercise it while we still have the chance before the Constitution is used for some senator or president’s toilet paper. My fourteen friends in Iraq who joined the National Guard while in various college are all a testament of this.

Let us seriously consider for a moment exactly how many college students read. Hell, let’s consider how many people read in the first place. Out of those, consider how many actually enjoy it. Talk to people, find out if they read. You will find the numbers are minimal. My friends don’t read, I personally don’t read, not even for “pleasure,” because I don’t enjoy it, and I most certainly don’t enjoy writing reading responses or blog responses.

Additionally, students may become infringed upon when certain classes require them to create particular web pages, which require the student to input his real name. In my class, we had a discussion about online privacy, and how to better protect oneself. Therefore, I refused to put my full name into the web pages we were assigned to create so as to better shield myself from malicious intent. On that note, I’ve got enough personal web sites to maintain already, such as my DeviantART page (which allows me to blog anyway) and my custom Wikipedia pages, as well as several message boards that I am already involved with. Those with Facebook and MySpace pages already have their hands full with their custom-made pages more so than having the time to create Netvibes and Diigo pages that I feel are useless to me since clicking a link in my favorites bar is faster than going to Diigo, and Netvibes is useless to me since I prefer my Firefox tabs.

I also considered how many students actually read assigned readings, especially when considering that the PDFs which contain the readings can sometimes number beyond 20 and even 50 pages, all on very small font. No one has time for that, not when they’d rather be doing other things, such as writing about subjects they enjoy.

I’m a writer, and I’d rather type my stories rather than read a PDF that I’m going to forget in the next two hours after reading it. This seems paradoxical, since I dislike reading, but as a writer, I expect my work to be read. Then again, I enjoy reading my own work more so than academic reading, and frankly, if one doesn’t want to read my work, he doesn’t have to, but by God, no one has a right to stop him from exercising his choice to write and read what he pleases.

Some who have written in the heated manner in which I have done so have questioned whether or not an academic official could affect one’s grade for having that student express his opinions. I’d have to say that no professor can legally lower a student’s grade even if that professor doesn’t like what that student has to say. I once had a high school teacher for a typing class give me a B as a final grade instead of an A because I finished my work faster than anyone else. I typed faster than all other students using my own style of touch-typing, which she authorized, and therefore finished ahead of all other students. Hell, I even typed faster than the teacher, and she still lowered my grade because she didn’t like how fast I completed my work! Now, things are different. No professor on God’s green earth can lower a student’s grade based on personal opinions; only the quality of that student’s academic work determines the student’s grade, and if a grade is lowered because of bias against a student’s opinions, there is going to be problems hell to pay.

So, in the end, I hate forced writing, I hate less-than-enjoyable academic writing, I hate forced blogging, I hate reading, I hate reading responses, because they are not engaging; to get me to write, I have to be motivated and inspired to write. If you force me, expect dull, bland, unmotivated or falsely-motivated results, but if you motivate me, if you let me write about what I care about, if you let me write regarding my work, hell, if you let me write my work, you will see me shine.

So Many Movies

     I had posted a few weeks back stating that I was in the middle of reading Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.  There, I admitted to not always being the biggest fan.  Now finished with the book, not only do I have a greater understanding of what King is all about, but I also discovered that, to my oblibvion, he has written the stories for so many motion pictures.  Some of the movies have been favorites of mine for a while, making me a bigger Stephen King fan all along.  I have decided to include a YouTube video that showcases each movie written by Stephen King from Carrie to 1408.

Writing Comfort

I used to think that I did my best writing in controlled conditions: by myself, with my music, in my room. This was a gross misconception.

I write best in the middle of a crowded room; in a coffee shop; in the student center; in the family room. I write best with one ear bud in my left ear as my right ear listens in on the conversations around me. I write best with the television going in front of me as I listen to 80′s music during the commercials and my sister’s iTunes playing in the next room with the dogs barking and pans slamming in the kitchen.

I write best with a headache, with a stuffy nose and a cup of Earl Grey tea with two Splendas. I write best on my bed, curled up in my pink chair, sitting properly at a desk, balancing my laptop on my knees.

I write best in a dorm room with two computers, two laptops, and a video game system playing Guitar Hero.

I write best when internally I am inspired. When the writer in me decides that this is the final plot, when I can sit and just let the words out.

I write best when no one tells me what to write, in every situation, with all sounds and sights around me. So long as I have my imagination, I will be able to write.

Videogames

A recent reading that I did, “Semiotic Domains: Is Playing Videogames A ‘Waste of Time?’” discussed the literacy value of videogames when compared to other such literary values as books. Frankly, I never considered the nortion that games could have a literature value because one does not ‘read’ a videogame as much as one does so for a book: one plays, interacts, or immerses oneself in a videogame

However, we were discussing the notions of first-person shooters in class. In our discussion, we asserted that to a degree, videogames do have a literacy value in a sense that the player must keep track of a multitude of information at any given time. Take, for example, Command & Conquer, a military strategy game. I, as the unit commander of an assembly of soldiers on the screen, must be aware of a multitude of factors, including how many units I possess, the location of my base and its weak points, my power level and financial holdings, the location of the enemy, his assets, his capabilities, and his weaknesses. At any given time, I have enough time to process this information at a slower and more calm pace compared to first-person shooters. FPS, as they are so called, are more fast-paced, and the player must be aware of his health and armor levels, radar system, locations of friends and enemies, his weaponry and ammunition, and if he throws a headset into the mix, he must be prepared to interact with his teammates and relays commands, responses, or instructions in order to better defeat the enemy.

The point is that while videogames do not necessarily envelop the idea of literacy in the same manner as a book, there is a still a requirement to involve oneself in the information intake and processing procedures of the videogames if one hopes to better learn how to operate and survive in the field of electronic gaming.

Additionally, the idea of real-world videogame applications were discussed in the forms of the game controllers. Aside from games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, which allow you to play musical instruments as controllers, the U.S. military is utilizing X-Box 360 and Wii controllers in order to pilot their Unmanned Ground Vehicles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, as today’s soldiers are familiar with such controls. It is the videogame controller which has revolutionized the manner in which we play videogames and operate today’s futuristic robot combat systems.

See, Jack Thompson? Videogames can’t be all that bad!