group work...

Im sure when we all heard there was a group project, im sure none of us were too pleased, but so far no problems. There is always that concern going into the project, you do not want to get stuck with a slacker, or somebody who does not pull there weight. Thankfully I have been put together with 3 responsible people, and everything is going good so far. Hopefully it continues that way, and everything goes great. Good luck to the rest of the class.

mash up link

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001612.html

mash ups...

Mash ups, combining elements of different works, are very common these days. There are mash ups of everything.You see mash ups of pictures, music, and we discussed recently in class literary mash ups. I know some people are against mash ups, and feel that its just plagerism. Some people feel that instead of copying other peopls work, come up with your own. Doing a mash up, takes some creativity. For the most part these mash ups are good too. Pictures are interesting, and musical mash ups can create amazing song from an old classic. A xbox 360, DJ hero, features a number of different musical mash ups. It features the artists from the present like jay z, and people from the past like Rick James. I really enjoy mash ups, its something new and creative, and funny.

so it is legal...

For the longest time I always thought downloading movies, and music, and ect. was illegal, but apparently it is not. Apparently it is legal to download for your own personal use, but you cant upload for the other people. It does not really change anything for me, because i use torrents and i upload as I download too, but I just found it interesting.

olympics...

As everyone knows the olympics are in full swing. I havent been watching them too much, but its been on my tv from time to time. So far it seems to have been a dissapointment. First it was the horrible accident on the luge track. The track had already been discussed as being too fast, but even after the complaints it remained unchanged. Although the track was dangerous, you cannot blame it all on the track. The luger was young and inexpirienced, and it takes years to become good, the majority of the better lugers are near there thirties. In addition to him being so young he even called his father the day before the race and told him he was terrified of the track.

http://s.foxsports.com/olympics/story/luger-told-father-track-'terrified'-him

They shortened the track after the accident, and made some changes. I just wish they would have put some kind of netting or plexi glass around the corner instead of having wide open area and metal beams right there. That in my mind was really dumb. You have to prepare for the worst, especially around a corner going 140 km/hr. In addition to that horrible crach there have been other mishaps as well. The open ceremony where one of the beams wouldnt raise, and also the ice machine stopped working so they had to post pone speed skating for a couple hours too. Hopefully Canada starts picking it up, and these games can become what there all about, the athletes.

so far..

After the first midterm I figured I would post my thoughts on the course so far, before I fall into a deep sleep over the break. I didn't quite know what to expect when this class began, I figured it would be about ethics of doing stuff online, and the dangers of it. Sometimes the class can be a little slow, but for the most part we discuss interesting and thought provoking topics. Its good we discuss topics that are relevant too. We will discuss whatever we are supposed to, but then we will relate it to something that just happened, and which I think is really good. There is usually interesting links for each class to, its good to have a laugh at 830. Overall I have enjoyed it so far, and hopefully it continues.

thank goodness for youtube, funny clips like the one below are good for a giggle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZpll4JDPGo&feature=related

your not old enough yet..

Im sure all of us have heard that from a parent more than a few times in our life. Weather its wanting to play with our elder siblings, or wanting to watch that r rated movie. We have all been through this, but im sure we have all lied about our age to do something that we were not "old enough" to do. The main thing, though is that it did nothing to hurt us, or anyone else. There is all this talk of restrictions on the internet, which we discussed in class, and putting restrictions on our childrens internet access. Im okay with monitoring like what sites they go on, but restricting access to some sites is too far. I know the internet is a dangerous place, but I think if there old enough to find whatever there looking for on the internet, they understand for the most part the dangers of it. There is no need to restrict access to your children unless something drastic happens.

text education

There was a website mentioned in class, textEd.ca. It teaches all things texting. First I thought it seemed kind of stupid, and silly. I went and visited the sight, and at first glance my feelings didnt change. There was a dictionary of abbreviated sayings or words for texting, a top 10 what you would respond to these texts, but then there was more then enough articles promoting safe texting. There was a"textual relations" area that discussed about healthy, and unhealthy relationships, and how to deal with harrassment over texting. There was a section with "guidlines to safe texting". There was also a section called "ichoose", which discussed all of the above, and how to be in control if your texting. Ill admit this website seemed pretty stupid, and its obviously not for the more mature crowd, but for a young person with a cellphone, which im sure there are plenty of, it promotes smart texting, and safe texting, and that can only help.

http://www.texted.ca/app/en/

SOS

The past week as we all know there was a snowday, and of course there was confusion. Personally my car wasnt going anywhere in the snow, and my dad was chauffeurring everybody in my family around in his truck. He was taking me to school, and halfway there we hear on the radio classes are cancelled. Now we didn't know if this was true. So anyways my dad dropped me off at school and told me to text him if classes were cancelled. I get to school and get a few texts, and not till 9:00 a little text at the top of the U of R website says that classes are cancelled. The university did a horrible job of letting students know school was cancelled. We talked in class about the ways to improve this, and a lot of suggestions came up. There was talk about texts, automated calling, and others. Im guessing the school made the decision to cancel classes kind of late, but even that I think calling would just take too much time, and text would cause all sorts other stuff. The best way, and what would make most sense would be to email, and post it on the website. The fact that it was not even posted on the website till after the first classes started, is ridiculous. I think all of us were unprepared, especially the school, but hopefully there is another snow day so the school can show us an improved way telling us that classes are cancelled.