Michael Wesch

Michael Wesch is a professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. He has won numerous awards for his brilliant teaching techniques, most notably, teacher of the year in 2008. His youtube videos have become quite popular, specifically the video we watched in class "web 2.0 ... the machine is us/ing us". Another video of his about youtube is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Wikiwars with roommates!

Tonight I played wikiwars with my roommates. Shockingly, one of my roommates had already played before. We only played a few rounds because we aren't very good, and it was taking a really long time. The most interesting round was when we attempted to go from testicular cancer to nylon. This one took about 10 minutes before my roommate finally found his way there. Overall, I feel that improving my wikiwar skills is worth the time invested. I hope to win some bonus points!

Technology makes us less productive

I recently heard a baby boomer refer to my generation as "The distracted generation". He described walking across a college campus and seeing every student with their heads glued to their phones. He explained that we all appear unable to handle normal social situations. We turn to our phones to avoid awkward silences and just talking in general. Overall, it destroys our ability to focus.

I couldn't agree more. I think that as long as we are unwilling to shut off our phones when we need to focus, we will always experience limited productivity. 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriabarret/2012/11/01/a-new-label-for-kids-today-the-distracted-generation/

Strange Traffic

Thus far, I have had 205 page views on my blog. I'm not sure if this is standard or not, but one of my top visitors is "vampirestat.com". It seems to be a page that evaluates different websites for their worth. I couldn't find my page on there, so I'm assuming its not worth much. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.vampirestat.com/

My early internet experiences

I, like most other young boys, discovered the internet as a means of playing video games for free. I remember it started out when I was in second grade. We were allowed to use the computers during a break time, and I had discovered a gaming website called www.alfy.com. I could play various assortments of shooter games this way. I showed this to all my classmates, and was quickly a popular second grader. However, this was short lived because my teacher was not too pleased when she walked by the computer station and heard a group of young boys shouting things like "BLOW HIS HEAD OFF!" and "SHOOT HER IN THE FACE!". Interestingly, my teacher did not know how to use the internet, and she had to get a younger assistant to help her close out of my zombie killing game.  Needless to say, my computer time was closely monitored after this event. That concludes one of my first and favorite internet memories.

p.s. If you like video games, this one is just great http://www.puffgames.com/mariogunner/

Terminator 2

This is a scene from the Terminator two. In this film, Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to "the past" to protect young John Connor. I enjoyed this clip because it shows the child trying to teach the robot (Schwarzenegger) some human qualities and feelings. For instance, Connor trys to teach the robot to say "I swear". Or on a more serious note, he tries to explain that killing people isn't socially acceptable. The robot completely lack human common sense. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuIIcN0tUp4

BLOG REPOST: thetemporarytechtemplar

Although this sounds really cool, I feel like its just another way to spend way too much time on the internet goofing off. But the circles concept is very interesting!

http://thetemporarytechtemplar.blogspot.com/2013/09/why-google-should-be-your-social.html

Tim Berners-Lee talk

In this video, World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee discusses some of his concerns with internet freedom and net neutrality. He pleas with congress to save freedom of the internet in America. He says "Mostly, the internet has thrived on lack of regulation. But some basic values have to be preserved."