Midterm 1

What is it about the Digital Humanities that I find so fascinating? Let's take a look at my previous blog posts and see if I can figure that out:

• A Few Simple Things About Me: The title says it all. I introduce a few things about myself, but not too many because I'm still nervous about posting things on the internet about myself.
• Moby Dick--Way Better Than I Expected : I had expected Moby Dick to be very boring. I was pleasantly surprised by the first 84 pages. I loved Queequeg! Although later on I did not love the whaling chapters of the book, it was still a pleasant surprise and I rather enjoyed it.
• We'll Probably Be Considered a Bunch of Idiots Too... : This post was inspired from a conversation I overheard in class. It talks about the benefits of hindsight and the need for present-day humility.
• HTML vs. XML...HTML still wins, right? : I didn't fully understand the video from Professor Burton's blog. I thought it was about the grandiosity of XML and how it had saved us from the ancient HTML. I did some research via my husband, and wrote a blog post about what I'd discovered. HTML still wins.
• The White Whale of the Digital Humanities Will Never Be Caught: I was baffled by Melville's whaling chapters and couldn't understand what he was doing with them. Likewise, we can be baffled by the digital and wonder what it is doing in the humanities. This post shows me trying to grapple with these concepts.
• Why Create Something Free? : We had talked about crowdsourcing in class, and I wanted to know why someone would create something and then put it online for free use. I explore that in this post.
• The Written Word is Evolving and We are Evolving with It : I'd just heard of an all digital library in San Antonio, Texas. I'd also just read a book for another class about the way reading can shape us individually and as a culture. I explore what digital reading could do to us in this post.
• All Things in Moderation : Video games are good. Video games are bad. It's an old debate. Here's my attempt to say "You're both right and you're both wrong," to each side.
• The Humanity of Computers: This post was inspired by Dr. Wickman's "Machinery vs. Humanity" lecture. Someone mentioned that Amazon knew she was pregnant almost as soon as she did. I wondered how that could be, and researched how computers learn. That led me to a huge debate over privacy happening right now. The debate made me circle back to machinery vs. humanity and exploring whether we are the same or still different.
• I am DONE. : This is my celebration of Dr. Burton's ebook where he argues in chapter two for a new kind of scholarly essay that breaks traditional essay rules.
• I Prefer the Term "Opportunity in Disguise" : In this post I'm stepping out and saying, "I tried, I failed, but it's not over." I talk about how online collaboration can help me fulfill one of my biggest dreams.

 As I look over my previous blog posts, Google + posts from myself and from others that caught my attention, my classmate's blog posts, and class notes, I find that the biggest question I am always asking is "How?"And after that, "Why?" 

How do the whaling chapters in Moby Dick fit in with the story? Or, how does the story fit in with the whaling chapters? Why did Melville include either?

How do computers work? How are we related to them? Why do people create things for free?

How do we accept the changes? Why are we accepting or unnaccepting? How can these changes help me?

I think what I love to do is get at the heart of things. I want to understand how something works (like, really works. E.g. How do a bunch of 0's and 1's translate into something meaningful for a computer?) and then why that something even exists..and why it continues to exist. Yet sometimes, I really struggle to get to that understanding. Often times, while getting at the heart of something, I find that while I am figuring out one thing pretty well, there are other things that also went into the heart of a computer code, Melville's book, or social media, that I did not consider before. And that is why I am so grateful that I can view others' posts and learn more.

For example, I want to understand why Melville put in those extra whaling chapters when they don't appear to contribute to the plot, but I have had a hard time dissecting Moby Dick. I can sense that it has all of these larger ideas, purposes, lessons, but I can't really seem to get past that sense to an understanding. That is why I love reading posts by others who do understand the nuances of Moby Dick. Some of my favorites have been Moby Dick--A Story to Remember by Victoria and Fast Fish and Loose Fish by Paul. Brittany also wrote a great one about Moby Dick's Physiognomy. Posts like these have helped me put my own thoughts about the book together.

Moving forward with this semester, I think what I am most interested in exploring is the idea of meaning in machinery. I'd like to explore two big questions that will culminate into one big one: How do the individual components of the Digital work to form a unified whole that we can categorize (temporarily or permanently) as the Digital Humanities? Why is it significant that we can do that?

And finally, What do these hows and whys mean for present and future humanity?