Internet Activity #4

I have always wanted to learn how to speak hindi ever since I saw my first bollywood movie when I was younger. My parents are both of Bengali heritage but can speak fluent Hindi and Urdu as it was mandatory in school. My mom is so good at it when she speaks to people who's mother tongue is Hindi or Urdu they are always apalled that it is not her native tongue because she is that good at it. I've always asked my mom to teach me but to be honest she is not a very good teacher and she always says no. She will throw it out randomly and ask me if I understand and I pick up on most of it but not all. So when Jamie suggested learning a language on the podcasts, I decided to try it out. The two I picked were, "Learn Hindi, Real Life Situations. Real Time Songs. Experience India" and "Namaste Dosti - The Learn Hindi Podcast"
The first one I was pretty excited to use because I thought it would use popular recent Hindi music, which I do happen to listen to. I can even memorize all the lyrics and sing them with the proper dialect but I don't understand it. So I figured this would very exciting not only would I be learning but I'd hear songs and maybe understand them in a more creative manner. As I listened to the podcast, it was not exactly what I had imagined. It sounded very low budget, I know that is something you can see but somehow I heard it too. It seemed grainy and not very clear. The music was very loud and not clear, it seemed like old songs my parents used to listen on their record player. To the ears, it was not very pleasing. I did not like the way it was formatted it was confusing and hard to understand. I feel i only propelled backward as I tried to learn Hindi. The songs being very old did not help as it did not appeal to me much since they were songs that were unknown to me. It did not have a flow that made it easier to understand as it went along it only seemed to become more confusing. The second one "Namaste Dosti" was much more better, it had a formatted layout followed every week with dialogue and still incorporated the bollywood culture by taking a popular movie and having dialogue from it and one of the popular songs and describe the meanings. The first Bollywood movie I ever watched was one of the featured podcasts in a previous week. I found this way more appealing and that I actually learned some things, as I said in previous entries when I tried out Google Chrome I haven't stopped since so maybe now I will start actually using this application in the future. I believe it is a positive and forum for those to learn that of other languages in an easy manner. I really enjoyed how it was set up and it is helpful as it is inexpensive and a good way of learning. I think its better method of providing information because reading abuot languages can be hard to absorb because it is passive you need to be more active. However being in a classroom setting or enrolling in a class can also be difficult, so being able to listen to it and repeat it is a better alternative to the latter. I can see how this information can be better than formal methods because sometimes it just helps to hear things rather than sitting and reading. If something does not interest you your mind can wander, but we use our hearing so avidly and listen to things we might not want too an audio podcast may be a better forum and more effective in that sense. 

The ida of an audiobook can be good and bad. For classroom settings and children during their formative years certain audio clips of songs, stories and games is a good way to get them to learn and listen. But when it comes to providing an audiobook of an entire novel, that is really up to the person individually. I do not think I would really enjoy that kind of literature as I really enjoy reading and I would rather be active reading than just passively listening to someone else read a  novel,  but of course thats not the same for everyone and can be interpreted differently. 

Video Podcasts

My embed Video
Spaghetti Cat - It's hilarious. This actually happend and the other day when I was in the movie theatre it was on the screen all of a sudden, it has become a cult phenomenon. 

The videos that I watched were Master MC Lupe Fiasco joins Jian Ghomeshi in Studio Q 

Lupe Fiasco born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco is a Grammy-Winning rapper. I decided to watch this video because Lupe Fiasco is critically acclaimed as being a breath of fresh air from other rappers as he is a practicing Muslim and does not swear in his raps. He seemed like a very humble person during the interview declaring how he only decides to make 4 albums as that is what he came set out to do and after that there is nothing more to produce, as other entertainers just keep producing music that is not always their best. 

My other clip was of "The Soup" with Joel McHale. This is one of my favourite shows, the host Joel makes funthigns in popular culture in his half hour show that occur during the week. In this clip he makes fun of Tyra Banks and how such a historical moment occured that Barack Obama won she still finds a way to make it about herself. Its absolutely pathetic

I enjoyed the vidcasting but I did find it easier just to get youtube videos because I have never been a fan of iTunes specifically. I think it is poorly designed as a Media Player and there are better options out there from VLC to Media Player Classic to even DivX.

It is for that reason I did not like doing the vodcasting because you had to specifically download it and I've always found iTunes to be slow on downloading. i would much rather prefer Youtube to see a bit of it and if its worth it to let it keep loading or to close it. Regarldess 

it does not take that long on that website. It was an interesting experience but it wasn't something I would continiously do as stated before partly due to the player. I Do not like the format or how the videos are played within, I find it somewhat annoying to do anything. 

It is better in the sense that if you miss something you can always find them and it is a broader search capability for people to find the things they like and watch it.

Youtube has become an international phenomenon I believe because back in the day there was not much to do on the internet for the average person. If you thought about it

Napster was the most profound thing and slowly one p2p sharing program would get bugs and viruses and eventually shut down. All of a sudden youtube emerged as a place where you could place

video clips online. It is a forum for this technological age to express how they feel and create a platform for their opinions where it never was before. It has become a place for people with similar intrests to find the things

they love. I belive that the video capability was the last thing availalbe really helped why Youtube because such a huge driving force in todays pop culture media.

There's nothing for me here so I will disappear,

There's nothing for me here so I will disappear,
Originally uploaded by sgs_1019

155/365 Room with a view

155/365 Room with a view
Originally uploaded by rattgrrrl

Photos

Online Generators

These are some of the favourite Photos I placed within a slideshow

View slideshow
Flicr Pics

IMG_5386 20081114 PAD
Originally uploaded by efroten

Mashups
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharid/147768998/

Flickr

I've heard of Flickr in recent years and seen how it ahs fared next to other online image programs like Picasa, Photobucket etc. I have been aprehensive to get a new account in Flickr as I already use Picasa for the most part. However I realised I already do have an account because I used to use Yahoo Images until they shut down their product I believe cause they could not compete and asked if I wanted to transfer all my pictures to Flickr. 

When I explored Flickr through their sections I found some of the most beautiful photos that I otherwise never would have seen. It was an interesting format that they used through 2.0 where if I stumbled upon this website and I was unaware of what I wanted to do or find, Flickr provides the tag clouds and the calendar for what was popular that day and other interesting things. I really enjoyed the tag clouds as I have seen them in some video hosting websites before, mainly Veoh and Dailymotion where they display the tags that were popular that day in alphabetical order, whereas the most popular are bigger in size and vice versa. I found it very helpful and easy to find what I was looking for or at least give an idea of what to find when I was unsure. 

If you look at the top of the page you can see some photos I have found. 

The photo of the purple flower I found through the Interestingness area where I checked out their Calendar for the msot popular of the day.  I could not find a way to share it other than through the slideshow I made in a previous entry

I thought the ColrPckr mashup was incredibly cool, just by clickin on  a colour scheme you were provided with very rich photos. 

Using BigHuge Labs this is the slideshow I created

Most of the online generators I really liked, their format and how easy it is to use through the Web 2.0 intereactivity. However how it was displayed

that it is really easy to provide photos from Flickr from blogs, I suppose I did not find. I found it somewhat difficult and not as easy

as I would have liked, there were numerous photos I did find, but I could not link them directly by simply displaying the photo i would need to provide the actual link to the photo isntead of being able to embed them. That was the only frustrating aspect because I wanted to showcase what I found in an easy way. I would have hoped to have developed a way to make the photos more clear and concise and displayed

clean as opposed to jumbled up. Everytime I would try to upload an image through blogger or provide the website it would say i uploaded but failed to

show an image in my postings unlike other previous posts, so I was forced to create new posts with the photos directly from Flickr or creating a slideshow using the online generator. I'm sure there is an easier way to do it but clearly I could not figure out how to do it sadly enough. Other than the problem I indicated the process was fairly easy just embedding the images within the posts where the only thing I struggled upon.

RSS Feeds- Helpful or Unecessary?

RSS Feeds, I've always seen them but have never felt inclined to use them. I have dablled in it within Firefox but found myself missing the splashes of colour on the pages and the old fashioned just going straight to the actual URL, so this was an experience to say the least. 

On my right hand panel you can find the clip I added to some of the posts that I decided to share here is the link to the public page just in case Faria's Public Page. Some of them are amusing and a little silly scroll farther down and they won't seem less ridiculous. 

I found that there are three ways to add a site on to your reader. The easiest was to go to Discover. I went through a lot of the default bundles and found a lot of weebsites I regularly go to that you can find in my previous post. The other way was to add the URL yourself and lastly to search keywords to find the feeds. I found using the search keyword function was the easiest because sometimes when I would add the URL it couldn't create the RSS feeds on its own. All in all I found a lot of the ones that I look at often and then the occasional new ones that I might just start using. 

I have to say I have been hesitant in this technology I understand the simplicity of making things easier instead of going to every single site you have it all in one convenient location. However I am a little stubborn when it comes to technology so I am aprehensive to try the new things when I am so adamant that what I have is perfect. Case in point during this class I tried out Google Chrome which I highly doubted could be useful next to Firefox and here I am posting this blog within Google Chrome. So there are some things I enjoyed about Google Reader and some things I could do without. I suppose if someone had a blog that people checked regularly I can see how it is an easy platform to share things from other sites that you use, but if its simply for you the sharing option is not absolutely necessary. My absolute favourite thing about the reader would have to be the design and how fast it was, but mostly I loved the continuous scrolling and it would keep going. There was no clicking to the next page, which was simply amazing. Sometimes I don't check blogs for a couple of days so I can go when there is a lull and find more than just a few articles when I check so regularly and the one thing that aggravates me is clicking from one page to the next. This was a great option. I also liked this cause it keeps all my blogs intact but if I do not visit them often I can occasionally wihtout going through pages and pages of stuff. 

I also could see how this is a very useful technology especially how Google has integrated that you can check this on your phone. I have an unlimited mobile browser on my cell phone and it  would be great to be able to have this on the go without going to every single individual site. Additionally for people who have slow internet connections, Google in everything they do have always been the best. When I went to Bangladesh this summer I was very sad that I could not my regular blogs, with such a slow internet connection it would take forever and then of course the power goes out regularly throughout the day. The sole reason I switched to Gmail when I was younger is I saw how fast the email program was in situations like this no matter the circumstance. Google Reader provided me with the same fast and easy service as Gmail, Google, and Chrome. I would have loved to have known about this when I was there so I could have some semblance of the on-goings in the Western world.  

The only thing I did not like was certain feeds that I guess weren't supported well but they were found in the Google bundles I did not discover them on my own. The video and visual componennt did not really transcend the same as going to a page. For videos the clip headline would be there but you couldn't click on it, so I really did not see a point in that. And a lot of ones that had photos simply had blank thumbnails and no photos provided and if I wanted to see them I had to go to the original site taht was the only thing I did not care for. 

I can see how this technology can be useful on an everyday basis for someone who is busy and doesn't care for going to every single individual site. It is a neat compact way to keep all your things in order and when you care to come and check out the feeds you can do so as you please. This is a very pleasing open source product that Google has provided much like everything else they have and from using it I can clearly see how beneficial it can be and makes blog reading easier. I have a feeling Google Reader may be my new Google Chrome of the month. 

The Art of Spoken Word

Blogging has systematically changed the use of spoken word amongst the masses in the new era. The way information has been distributed before has not been as widely accessibleas it is now. Blogging has given people a platform to promote their ideas and stances to a broader audience that is available. 

Going online now is not used simply to chat with others, send emails or to play games - blogging has definitely become one of those things you can do as well. I will admit I am a self-proclaimed closet blog reader. It started out every so often at first but when it is compelling and interesting to you it takes a life of its own. Truth be told I was out of the country this summer for 6 weeks with scarce access to the internetand yet I found myself checking certain blogs. The common things I checked when I could was: myTrent, Gmail, and sadly but surely a blog that I love reading. It has become a guilty pleasure of mine and integrated itself into my life. And I am fully aware that its not just me but many people find themselves checking everyday sometimes every hour, its somewhat of an addiction you cannot kick. 

According to Wikipedia the difference between blogging and what twitter is that, "Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or writing. This form of social media lends to an online generation already too busy to keep in touch." I did end up making a twitter account and found myself not to enjoy it as much as blogging. It seemed very similar to the Facebook application of your status updates where you can tell people what your doing at that moment. So much and so little can be written in 140 characters but nothing compelling enough to understand what one is thinking which I think is the advantage to blogging over twitter. However for family members who do not have time to email and whatnot then yes I can see the advantage of twitter. One basic disadvantage I think of Twitter is some people who become intertwined in the whole aspect of letting others know every single thing of their lives, such as getting up from bed or going to have dinner. Where a blog is a choice by the reader to invest the time in reading on the material and the impression I got from twitter that notifications were sent to the people in your friends corner. 

  Good blogs are maintained regularly by the poster and put inc hronological order starting from the newest to the oldest posts to make it easier. Many use tags so you can go back and find something more easily weeks later as opposed to a search. They can involve audio, video, images and hyperlinks to other websites as well. I have seen that some people instead of becoming a webmaster for a fansite use a blog as a way to publish their stories about the things they are interested in as opposed to creating a layout for an actual fansite. 

Blogging has really integrated itself in the current media as well. In the past two weeks I have seen it addressed on numerous shows. On two TV shows I saw fictional characters reading about themselves on PerezHilton. On the new 90210 one of the characters has a 'Perez' type blog but talks about her classmates instead and the ongoings at their school. And on two other shows I saw Perez Hilton making appearances to explain the consequences of gossip and how many things can be misconstrued. 


One of the blogs I examined was in fact one of my dedicated blogs that I read, Perez Hilton the self proclaimed "Queen of all media." Many people enjoy the trashy magazines as they are inexpensive and a way to escape reality to bemuse yourself with someone elses faults other than your own. It may not be a positive way to lead your life but nonetheless it's sometimes the little things that keep you sane. Instead of regularly buying an UsWeekly, InTouch and many other gossip rags that may only be $2.50 each, they begin to add up if bought regularly. Perez Hilton has found a way to facilitate his website as a mainstream way to find out information about celebrities that is open source. You don't even need an internet connection, if you've got a phone you could get feeds from his website, for a low cost of course. Nonetheless he has even heightened his blog to that of a syndicated radio show which includes updates from his blog if you don't have the time to read his posts. He does not use the tag functionality like most blogs do but he does have a search engine that makes it sometimes easier but also difficult as well. He also has the comment section and the permalink so you can share that particular post with anyone.

The inaccuracy of Perez's blog may be true as it is for most media outlets but compared to the sugar coated information we are fed by tabloid magazines and celebrities that have colluded with media outlets, Perez is a fresh way of getting information from another source. His information is never done in a matter where anyone is exempt from his mockery. While some gossip rags have deals with certain celebrities for advertising and many other reasons that they do not always give out the true story of what is going on. No celebrity is given any special treatment they should be open game for their visibilityas he puts it. This was best described in a weekly globe and mail article on him where he says that "his mission is to make the world a better place, to shine a light on stars behaving badly, and to castigate those who don't 'get it right' – who vomit in public, who are a mess, who flash their lack of panties, and so on." Truth be told the way he exploits people may not affect me personally and my lack of empathy may not be quite a lot as it should be but I think it is for good reason. Celebrities, actors, and musicians have been glamorized in a way that has been detrimental to our society. I think seeing them in a more public light as real people is good for society to grow. Many young girls see the glamorized pictures in magazines, TV and videos and don't see the truth behind it all. It feels as though celebrities are dehumanized and thats how we perceive them. I believe his site and many others have opened up the truth in many celebrities lives and makes it easier to understand why they do the things that they do. The difference is with those magazines they are trying to sell a story trying to make a profit, bogging is open source this man has nothing to gain by fabricating stories other than people visiting his site, but most of the time he has proof to back up his information unlike many gossip rags. Case in point much of 2007 was the downfall of Britney Spears as she failed at being a musician and a mother. The paparazzi lived for her antics and society desired to see a star fall. As sad as it is, human nature enjoys to watch people fail especially those put up on a pedestal. Many of the reasonings for why she was acting out could not be understood by anyone. On Februrary 5, 2008 Perez Hilton put up a blog that started a media frenzy. It was entire declaration to the court by Britney Spears mother about her allegations against her daughter's manager. It can be seen here. Shocking excerpts basically was said that her manager had been drugging her and feeding her cocktails containing pills these past couple months that quite possibly started to explain her bizarre behaviour. In some ways that declaration humanized a celebrity where many young teens today do not exactly see. They think their lives are perfect and no starlet can do no wrong. But many times their lives are so far from perfect that we could not even begin to comprehend.

Perez Hilton not only gives you up-to-date information at no cost but it has seemingly integrated itself into every day lives and has changed the entertainment industry. In trashy magazines a lot of the time the truth is skewed or already doctrinated by celebrities themselves to promote a certain image so that they can somewhat control the media before it controls them. When certain photos are so clearly staged, Perez is there to call them out on it. I also think its useful because he does not just report about stars he also talks about politics and ongoing national news throughout the world. There are certain pieces that are funny, bizarre and sad. At least once a week I see him report on a charity and why its deserving of our help. I find the site has a broad spectrum and cannot be pinpointed on one issue. Perez Hilton is called the queen of all media for a reason. 

The next two blogs I examined are a lot different as they seem to focus on one particular aspect. This one in a sense is more of a business as it is more professional as this is her job. At E!Online Kristin Dos Santos has a blog where she talks about TV shows with the help of her reporters and interns. The site can be accessed here, titled "Watch With Kristin." When I was younger I did not consider this to be a blog as blogs weren't as fully recognized but as I later saw this was no different than any other. Every Friday she would post a lengthy blog about favourite TV shows and spoilers to come. Sometimes there would be videos with castmembers and many other tidbits. Kristin Dos Santos is actually widely known throughout the entertainment industry and knows a lot of the creators for many shows. She has many yearly staples on her blog that set her apart from other sites. When new shows begin in the fall she has the Save it or Sink It voting poll, about shows that are worth watching for the impending year. She also makes sure to blog about underrated shows that should be given the benefit of the doubt so they do not get axed so early on in the year. Furthermore every May when networks are trying to decide which shows will be granted a new season she puts up a poll asking viewers to vote for which show they think should stay. Whoever wins she ends up writing a heart-warming letter begging the creators and the network of that show to keep the show for the following year. Many times shows have been granted another season due to her letters and support from fans. In recent years her website has changed dramatially and she now updates throughout the day so the content is much more up-to-date. Since she is known throughout the industry her spoilers are always accurate and it is a open source to find out about your favourite shows. Much like any blog she uses the tags function so you can find updates by TV show name. This one is much different as it is supported by E!Online so it is different from Perez's as she does not exactly talk badly about any stars, and there is rarely grammaticallyincorrect sentences as it is a platform for TV shows to be promoted by her blog. In a way its a give and take stars take part in her blogs for free publicity pertaining to their shows. 

The third blog I examined was "Go Fug Yourself" co-written by two fashion lovers Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks. I stumbled upon this website in grade 10. I used to think it was a small unknown blog but have seen in recent years to have exponential growth of fans on the internet. Most recently I saw them in an article for the Guardian in March 2008 as regarded as one of the world's 50 most powerful blogs. The word fugly was coined by the masses in the 2004 cult hit Mean Girls. It basically means a more derogatory word of using the word ugly by pairing it with a swear word without actually saying it. When I was younger I would occasionally read the site when I was in the mood for a good laugh. The two writers known as the Fug Girls they basically mock celebrity decisions for certain outfits for what they were wearing. Simply its UsWeekly's "What were they thinking column" on a daily basis. But as opposed to just posting the picture and posting some thoughts, it is actually cleverly written, witty and very amusing. No star is safe from their "fugging" as they call it. They even have a Go Fug Yourself FAQ where they explain fugly "is not just extreme ugliness because 'ugly' is something that refers to unchangeable condition but one that which people can rise. They state the different of fugly is that a self-inflicted state where no one seems to excel at dwelling in the depths of fug quite like pretty people with money to spare and little sense of how to spend it." Their material is absolutely captivating and so amusing with a lot of thought still put in it. Its not just a random string of pictures where they mock people they have regular columns such as Ask Aunt Fugly where they tell you how you can fug your lives just as the stars do as well. Somtimes they even write an endearing letter to a starlet in a bemusing way to tell them to simply change their horrendous clothing choices because they want them to succeed but their clothing choices seem to somehow be derailing their careers. Fug the Cover is usually ridiculous magazine covers where they contemplate how did that starlet was able to rotate their head a full 360 degrees - with the help of photoshopping of course. They also have Random Fug which is usually just a slew of C,D list celebrities or unknowns. Celebrity Terror Watch is usually certain stars who refuse to get rid of their staple items, the most recent one has been Lindsay Lohan not wearing anything but leggings for the past year. The most amusing is when they have two starlets standing next to each other and they post imagined dialogues between celebrities on the red carpet that are always quite far-fetched but still hilarious. But its not all poking fun they do have the optimistic Well Played column where there has been a repeat offender by a star but has taken maybe some of their criticisms to consideration and have actually come out with a promising ensemble.  The most entertaining of course is around award season where there is just a mass amounts of outfits make fun of. There success has been across the board as they came out with a book called the Annual Fug Awards in February 2008. It has been refreshing to see a site like this as very similar to Perez. Gossip magazines most of the time commend stars for their outrageous outfit choices as they can do no wrong. Its nice to see a different take on it in a comical way. Go Fug Yourself hasn't changed the fashion industry dramatically but it is still a staple in the blogging community. 

 I found that Blogger had an easy software to deliver your content onto the web. The only thing I did not like was the box where you could write your post, I found it somewhat small and aggravating to use to look back at what you had written a couple lines before. Halfway through when Opera closed on me it was annoying but I enjoyed that they save their drafts frequently as Gmail does, so it was not that big of a concern. All in all I really enjoyed this activity because it helped me realise how much blogging really has revolutionized how media is accessible in this day and age. It was also interesting to look at different blogs on the blogger website through the Google search. I never fully realised how many blogs were active until now. I remember when we were younger there were platforms such as Xanga, Livejournal and such but I had not realised the multitude of blogger today.