Diigo meets DIY

I'm starting to use Diigo.

Do I like it? Kind of.

At first, I was kind of confused because I didn't understand why you would use Diigo instead of Pintrest. However, I have thought about it and I think that Diigo works well with article/blog finds. Pintrest directs to article/blog posts, but it doesn't allow you to highlight or "sticky note" your findings to make your research more effective.

To be honest, I tried the highlighting feature and wasn't sure how to access that afterward. I'm going to continue playing with it but I will probably look for Diigo DIY instructions for further use.

Which brings me to what I am curating: The DIY Movement

I found a list of 5 Ways to Promote DIY and it inspired me to create a brief list of information I've gathered while curating this fascinating movement.

1. History of the Maker Subculture - This article most interested me because Christ Anderson describes the DIY Movement as "what happens when the Web meets the real world."

2. Inspiration - This blog reflects the author's hope for youth to create a better world through the DIY Movement as we "face the economic conditions of our time with remarkable ingenuity, courage, and grace."

3.Skill set- Although this article focuses specifically on Home Decor, it perceives DIY for seekers of "identity enhancement, ...uniqueness, craftsmanship, and empowerment."


Reflecting on #3, how do you think DIY contributes to identity enhancement in the digital age? How does it provide empowerment to digital users?

My Conversion to DIY

As we were introduced to Exploration and talking about the "Do It Yourself" Movement, I briefly mentioned that I cut my husband's hair. And it's great! I'm going to explain how and why I became hooked on all things "DIY."

Last Christmas, my husband received a set of Wahl hair clippers. Aside from "man-scaping," he wanted to put them to good use so I decided I wanted to learn how to cut his hair. So for my birthday, he got me some essentials from Target (I know... you're thinking "practical gift much?" Welcome to marriage! :) ) So I became fully equipped with some of the things below.

Then Spencer and I sat on the couch and watched a couple YouTube videos until we found one we liked. Unfortunately, I've looked for the exact video and can't find it. Basically, it was a Hispanic woman giving a legitimate haircut to a boy in a salon with very home-grown videography. She  explained how to cut hair with clippers and then transition to scissors. So now you know that I'm no Paul Mitchell graduate!

I just gave my husband a haircut this past Sunday night so I thought I'd show you the result!

Before:



 

After:

 



Just for fun, I looked into DIY haircuts and found a trend among women cutting their own hair to make a statement. Elle's website writes an August 2013 article entitled, "DIY Haircuts -Why Women Choose to Chop." I found the following statement amusing:

"Kitchen scissors are generally the tool of choice. Medine uses "the scissors you use to cut open packaging." It's almost a badge of honor.  'I love telling people that I cut [my hair] in five minutes with my kitchen scissors,' Urbinati said.  'It makes me feel kind of punk.'"

Okay, I'll admit I don't use kitchen scissors. And I don't feel "punk." But it saves us money and gives me self-gratification and I've learned a new skill. And my husband looks dang good!

What new skills can you develop online? What is something you'd like to try?

Digital Presence of Mormon Messages

After our discussion of General Conference, I feel especially grateful to be a part of a living church that embraces the technological resources the Lord has blessed us with. 

Mormon Messages are a perfect example of digital culture moving forward, touching hearts with inspiring messages. I have witnessed the presentation of Mormon Messages in classrooms, Relief Society, elderly homes, baptisms, Facebook, and many other significant places. These videos provide wholesome looks at simple truths we believe and are appealing and effective to all audiences.

This newer Mormon Message is great because they talk about the need for face-to-face interaction, but you also see a video camera being used at the beginning of the video on the dock. We have so many resources to share and experience special moments with our families - what really matters most.

Enjoy.

Midterm 1 (Part 2)

Prewriting Ideas

 

My Idea's Main Take-Away's:

• Persona of Ishmael is revealed and developed through Melville's structure of Moby Dick.
• Ishmael's persona embodies digital culture
• Imitates various mediums available online

I'd love constructive feedback and/or ideas!

Midterm 1 (Part 1)

My posts thus far:

• A Loving Intro - My introductory post aka my first blog post ever.
• The Christianity Crisis - This post probes the question of Christianity's unconventional role/purpose within Moby Dick.
• The New (A Response to Moby Dick: A Novel?)  - Relating Moby Dick's "new" form to the uncharted territory of the digital world and its new impacts on the world.
• Show us -  Exploring online identity and how we represent ourselves.
• #Structure - Relating Melville's diversified structure of Moby Dick to the various mediums available in the digital world.
• Exploration  - Relating the ways digital exploration has paved the way for my personal exploration of the real world.
• The Long Musical Tail - My way of trying to understand the long tail in the music industry through Spotify.
• Seeing Video Games Differently - My small bit of research uncovering some benefits of video games to help me cope with the fact that they're not all evil and potently addictive.
• Moby Dick's Physiognomy - Easily my favorite post. This was my amateur launch into what I understand of academic blogging. I really would like to take the topic further for more focused blog posts.
• Knowledge in Progress - After Dr. Burton's lecture on how to effectively search the web for social resources, I followed the process and did some research of my own in the posted step-by-step process.

 Reflecting on my encounters with digital culture from this course, I have found myself thinking about the connection between exploration on- and offline. Just this past weekend, my family was discussing the wonder of the "DIY" movement sweeping the web. My sister-in-law exclaimed, "You can learn anything online!" I think there's an ever-plunging depth to that concept.

This class has given me a sense of wonder as to the vastness of a literal digital "world." There's so much out there to learn and it's a collaborative world. I would venture to claim that the digital world only exists via connections. Its purpose is to facilitate varying degrees of informative communication.

My first English class at BYU started by Zina Peterson's analogy of the literary conversation being like a coffeehouse discussion. What I'm understanding now is that the whole web is a HUGE coffeehouse that involves everyone and discusses everything. It is fueled by the demand to learn and to contribute. It's about sharing and it wouldn't exist without its ability to connect others socially, emotionally, intellectually, even physically to some extent (Skype, video conferencing, etc).

One of my greatest weaknesses is my tendency to naturally avoid a digital two-way conversation but I'm learning to correct myself and try to facilitate conversation and interaction with others. I relate to Greg's post about having to push past the insecurities surrounding your opinions and contributions and establishing an appropriate identity in which connecting is relevant and possible.

I love to explore and, as an amateur, I hope to connect with people who can help me navigate the digital world in a way that inspires myself and others - because I can't do it on my own, the nature of the digital won't let me.

How is our digital experience dependent on interactions or contributions between users?

Knowledge in Progress

After our last lecture, I'm attempting to branch out and find relevant information through connecting socially. I'm still searching for connections between Moby Dick and its popularity in WWI so this post will walk you through a little of my past hour and a half of exploring.

 I found Google's blog search feature (which I, prior to class, hadn't known existed), which was extremely helpful. So about an hour and a half later the only thing I really have to show for my "research" was finding the information below:

 

If you quickly read this paragraph that popped up on my google blog search, you'll see it's exactly what I'm looking for! Unfortunately, I had to buy a subscription to read the rest of this article… no thank you. But it has given me a great head start… "myth," "psychology," "disillusionment" sound great! Now that I have a couple topics to specify my search with, I can take it to the scholars since it doesn't seem to be a hot topic within the blogging world of Moby Dick.

So you're probably wondering what in the heavens I was doing for the rest of my time trying to research. Well, I started reading the blogs! I actually found some really neat ones!

I started out with this blog. I didn't find anything pertaining to my topic, but I thought it was interesting that the author referenced a contemporary author, Nathaniel Philbrick who wrote Why Read Moby Dick?

 

 

So I looked around and found that Philbrick is definitely popular in a lot of Moby Dick blogs. I quickly found the actual radio interview with the author talking about his book!

 

 

 

Then, of course, I had to know what people though of Philbrick's book! So, below is a snip of my favorite review.

 

 

Well as un-fascinating as this may seem, I kind of really liked this train of research thing. Although my productivity wasn't at its climax in regards to my topic (Moby Dick's popularity in WWI), I really learned some interesting things about Moby Dick and got some fresh perspectives - and I didn't even include all the blogs I read through!

We talked in class about documenting the research process - the good and the bad- and I'm really glad that this class is helping me better my academic research strategy.

Here's to my knowledge in progress.

Moby Dick's Physiognomy

In attempts to give depth to my study of Moby Dick, I would like to devote my next series of posts to connections between the text and socio-political conditions during the time in which Melville's book became popular. 

A piece of Melville's technology that is especially thought-provoking includes the discussion of physiognomy in Chapter 79. Physiognomy was an emerging science that gained popularity during the era of World War I. This field of study focused on physical features of human beings being connected with their intelligence and intellectual capacity. This particularly favored "true Americans" rather immigrants. An article entitled "American Blood and Immigrant Blood" by Dr. Edward Ross states the following:

In fact, the American identity was widely controversial due to the immigration movement. Who were "real" Americans? Dr. Ross distinctly places immigrants as inferior due to their mere physical features and biological make-up.

Although physiognomy seems absolutely absurd and even reminds us (with a shudder) of Hitler's ideal race, it was completely accepted. In fact, this article was published in October 1914 by an esteemed scholar who had a Ph.D.  Just as we commonly accept that being tall helps one's ability to play basketball, having a high brow (not one of those immigrant low brows) meant that your brain was larger with more capacity.

Picture from Charles Davenport's article "Heredity in Relation to Eugenics"

 
I think the science of physiognomy is the human attempt to creating meaning at its finest. This is where the great white whale comes into play.

So here we are learning physiognomy as Melville describes Moby Dick's grandeur: 

"But in the great Sperm Whale, this high and mighty god-like dignity inherent in the brow is so immensely amplified, that gazing on it in forcibly than in that full front view, you feel the Deity and the dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other object in living nature" (311).

But Ishmael seems to have issued a hyperbole as he further continues, "[the sperm whale's] great genius is declared in his doing nothing particular to prove it." 

I believe the point Melville is trying ask whether meaning comes from merely having a brain or using it. 

Melville's intimated question was extremely applicable to the audience during which Moby Dick became popular. The people reading this book during its popularity were interested in eugenics and how to view immigration and how to view people in general during a world war setting.

As Moby Dick is characterized by Ishmael through physiognomy as being powerful yet dreadful, we can view a broader application of how eugenics and physiognomy proved a great yet terrible science that was relevant to the American audience of the 19-teens.

Seeing Video Games Differently

 After class yesterday, I was impressed with the discussion generated by the topic of video games. I guess you know it is a good lecture when students can't stop talking about it after class (Dr. Burton is great)!

This is one of the reasons I took this class. The world we live in is advancing at such a rapid pace and I think it's important to know what's going on and how to navigate these changes. 

Admittedly, I have always had a bad taste in my mouth for video games/online gaming. I picture this one episode of "The Big Bang Theory" where Penny... well you'll see.

 

 In the clip, you'll notice how it fully addresses the stereotyped characteristics of a  gamer. I'll have to admit that this is what I thought of when video games came up and I didn't want any part of it. My husband is not interested in video games aside from Mario Party at a friend's house once in a while and that is fine with me!

However, I want to change my attitude toward the gaming world. And conveniently, I think studying English literature gives one an open mind.

I found an article online about the positive effect of action video games.  Dr. Markman concluded that overall, those who play action video games process visual stimulants faster and come to quicker conclusions. My only question is whether or not that is a useful skill.

Personally I am much more satisfied with Dr. Burton's opinion that sophisticated modern games can broaden your perspective of the world and of philosophies within, like Bio Shock Infinite.

Although I do not intend to start personally playing video games, I am learning and open to the positive aspects of gaming, especially gamification. Who knows what video games will be like when I have kids and maybe I'm destined to raise the next Ender. 

Maybe not... but regardless, I'll be on the lookout for good articles/media promoting video games to increase my understanding.

The Long, Musical Tail

After reading Dr. Burton's latest blog post about "The Long Tail" and its effect on the market, I immediately clicked over to Chris Anderson's article and found it fascinating. 

The "Long Tail" addresses the digital wave of appeal to larger audiences by widening the variety and availability of selection. Anderson specifically mentions that success is only found where companies accommodate to the long tail, but also work with major vendors to access the entertainment "hits." Some popular  companies you might recognize associated with this theory include Netflix, Ebay, and Amazon.com.

Music is tricky because apparently record and label companies feel threatened and aren't the friendliest bunch. They think they should get more profit. So that begged the question... how is Spotify doing? 

Spotify is my music lifesaver. However, as much as I enjoy using Spotify to stream music I enjoy, I'm just a "freemium" user, meaning that I don't pay for it experience 10 second commercials every once and a while. Premium users experience streaming on-demand music on any device, any time.

 So if Spotify doesn't require pay, is it benefiting from obscure downloads for less-popular genres like Netflix? I found an article from the New York times, addressing Spotify's falling revenues (Spotify Losses Grow) and unfortunately the answer to my question was no. Spotify does not seem to be thriving as iTunes or Rhapsody.

What most interested me most from the article was "the music industry’s continuing struggle to reinvent itself in the digital age."

How does the availability of music, or lack thereof, influence music's identity and create distinct musical cultures in this digital age? Just like print versus digital books, how do we view CD's versus exclusively digital music? 

I don't think we have fully adapted to the realm of digital culture. As Spotify demonstrates, there are still many questions to be asked about profit, popularity, and demand. Consumers don't want to pay, but label and record companies still have a tight hold on what they allow into the market at what rates.

The musical realm of the digital market seems to be another whale to chase down because of its long tail.

Exploration

In the spirit of exploration and technology, I've been thinking about digital media that inspires us to try new things and document. Although this isn't as cool as sending something into space, its really neat to think about the new technology that is available to give us a different interaction with the world around us! 

I really enjoy the videos like the one I have posted below because they really capture the spirit of adventure. It motivates me to step outside my comfort zone and see the world differently. All of a sudden I want to do something that I've never done before.

Check it out!

It's not only amazing that this -shall I call it recreational activity- exists but it is also amazing that it can be seen and virtually experienced to create wonder. This spirit of adventure is alive and well in the virtual community and it's there for us. Recently, my husband and I have been into hiking and backpacking. It's amazing how I can go online, research trails and read reviews so that I can get the most out of my experience! Crowdsourcing has been so helpful to me personally I have been able to get information from people who have an interest in the outdoors just like I do!

My hope is that we can all explore the world around us a little better. Maybe explore a long-lost interest. Or maybe be like me and explore Tahoe, California. You'll be grateful you did!!

My view of Lake Tahoe this summer

#Structure

I'd like to enhance the argument that Ishmael's narrative is, indeed, technology. I really enjoyed our discussion of Moby Dick's structure being a form of technology. In summary we talked about:

• Chapter Headings
• Capitalization - aesthetics of the font
• Symbolism versus Metaphor

These tools build ideas, images, emotions, opinions. Just as these mediums form transitions in thought and significance, the digital culture we engage in offers similar opportunities. We can use more tools than ever to deliver the message, whether boldly or subtly. If a picture gives us a thousand words, maybe that day we're feeling Instagram. Maybe you found a hilarious video and YouTube is better. Maybe you need to message an old mission companion from Brazil and Facebook is easiest. 

The incredible nature of digital culture, as we glimpsed last week during Dr. Burton's prezi, is rooted in its endless resources. There are tools for just about everything we could ever wish for in regards to communication and information. Melville is extraordinarily ahead of his time as he structurally caters to the information he's providing. 

For example, we discussed the play-like manuscript portion in Chapter 40 where we find that the dialogue is portraying the lack of individual emotion and narrative that is missing when comparing a play and novel.

What an innovative way to explain something that we could've learned from a boring, straight-forward, historical paragraph. Bringing together the idea of the new and Moby Dick's structure we see that things we've never encountered before can make us think critically like we never have before.

The digital structures available to us issue us a challenge. Here it comes... with great tools come great responsibility. Let's use digital mediums uniquely to enhance what we're conveying.

Aren't you glad I wasn't structurally innovative enough to make you read my post like this?

Show us

After reading Ariel's post, let's talk about who we are. 

First of all, I'll fully admit that I'm in what Dr. Burton referred to as the typical "BYU identity crisis" - meaning that since marriage I haven't quite switched my last name in the BYU system. So I want to move beyond my so-called crisis and look at others' crises. 

 What portrayal of ourselves are we putting out there for the world to see/read/judge? What's our purpose in the online identity we've created? Are we trying to inspire our peers? Maybe we're trying to be adventurous. The point is... is that really you? 

Scenerio 1

I remember an interesting conversation with my best friends about posting pictures on Facebook. It went something like this, "This one time we went to a casual party/get together at a friend's apartment and it was pretty boring. I was there the whole time but later on Facebook I saw pictures of the same event and it looked like a super fun time even though it wasn't!" 

Scenario 2

A recent post that has caught my interest comes from a mom that stands for something. She's calling out to teenage girls who post way more of themselves than she'd like her teenage sons to see. I strongly recommend checking it out! I think it's great that this mom is starting a conversation that means something to her. But more importantly, she's raising questions about how a significant portion of teenage girls are creating an image that is not so becoming, to say the least.

Do you think these are relevant issues? Is this something worth our attention? I'd love to get your thoughts because I think these are worth digesting.

These scenarios call great attention to the question of online identity. Do we think enough about our image on social networks and other digital sites? Don't worry, I know my audience and I know that my peers are not going to be found scantily clad online. However, I believe that we can choose what we want to represent ourselves. 

Are we so focused on impressing others that we lose touch with meaningful ways to use our digital tools? 

Show the world who you are and the positive things you're interested in and capable of. Show the world that you care about God. Show the world that you are an academic and you care about the human condition because that's why we're here. 

The New (A Response to Moby Dick: A Novel?)

My post is rather inspired from Victoria's post. What a fascinating question… why should we feel the need to categorize? Perhaps we are driven to familiarity. After all, the very interpretations we make are founded on the information we are familiar with. I feel safe in saying that I haven't encountered anything quite like Moby Dick.

In a way, it is perfect because we see how the whole book focuses on the "new."  When I address the "new" I'm referring to advancement or more generically, change. In our studies we see it directly in terms a new digital age. However, we all can clearly see how interpretations could lead us to allegories for any "new" societal development. As it is not fully an allegory (or any other literary classification per our class discussion), the ambiguous structure itself drives the content of facing the new. This is fascinating to me as I realize, we're trying to decipher the structure and composition of the work just as much as we are wrestling with themes, characters, etc. Perhaps that's why we read this years and years after its initial popularity and feel we're sailing in uncharted territory, if you will.

This book makes you think out of the box and encourages innovation. I love that in class, Kristen was talking about perspectives because right when you think you have an idea of how you're supposed to think about Christians, you look at the perspective of Queequeg and you're back at the beginning trying to find something bigger. As it is a fundamental part of literary history to classify a work to develop the trends during a period of time, Moby Dick is a work of the future. It forces us to get uncomfortable, to swap perspectives, and challenge it all. The very structure intimates the depth found within Melville's ideas and therefore, our inability to classify it means we're on the right track to understanding that this book is more about the new, or what we don't know, instead of what we know.

The Christianity Crisis

To start, I love Moby Dick! I really love the tone of Ishmael's voice because not only is it our lens to Melville and the plot but it has a certain energy that is deep yet energetic that I find fascinating.

Let's talk about religion. Does Ishmael really claim Christianity? What does he think of Christianity? How does his relationship with Queequeg influence his view of religion? These are the questions that are constantly scrolling through my thoughts as I finished the first 18 chapters.

Although I'm still working out the answers to these questions, I'm convinced that religion has been turned on its head and is extremely unconventional in the narration. Do you notice that every time we enter a church with Ishmael, we hear him reference it as hell when he walks into the room finding a " black Angel of Doom [...] beating a book in a pulpit." And if you remember, there's even wailing and knashing of teeth in this Angel of Doom's sermon.

Then as we read further, I'm fascinated by Queequeg diving in to save the sailor and Ishmael going nuts trying to get us to see that the "cannibals must help these Christians." Crazy! So everybody convert to cannibalism? I don't think so. Maybe we're looking at the hypocrisy of Christian faith.

When we see who's representing Christianity we see Ishmael, who feels obviously inferior to Queequeg the cannibal and then we see Captains Peleg and Bildad. These are the guys that interest me. They won't let Queequeg on the boat until he has documentation of Christian baptism, right? And they're constantly bickering... is Peleg bipolar? I don't know about you, but I don't think these captains are doing a good job of embodying Christian ideals, especially as they seem to ditch the rule about Christian baptism to fulfill self-interest or, in other words, employ Queequeg because of his sweet skills.

There's a reason we all love Queequeg, make no mistake about it. Christianity is being scrutinized and those who adhere to it are faulty and inconstant. To paraphrase Melville, maybe a sober cannibal really is better than an angry Christian.

A Loving Intro

Hi, everyone! I'm Brittany Hansen! 

I was married in May but still feel the tingles of new last name and am absolutely loving it! Spencer and I met at a piano lesson one day when I was around the age of eleven- or twelve-years-old. 

He was wearing a hideous pair of pajama bottoms and his dad's suit coat. Fast forward a couple years and we were completely covered in dirt on our stake pioneer trek. I was asked to bear my testimony and next thing you know, this Spencer kid likes me. Turns out he was cute and when I hit sixteen, we dated and dated and dated. And then he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the beautiful southeastern coast of Brazil and then he came home.

 

Can you tell that I love this story?

 

 

I also love hiking and the outdoors. I'm convinced that camping grounds people, literally and figuratively. I've played piano and violin ever since I can remember and thoroughly enjoyed my position at church as the primary pianist. I love literature. I am the reader that can find joy in just about any piece- which is why I have been really anxious to read Moby-Dick! Reading brings me home no matter where I am and I can't wait to participate in conversations that broaden our thinking and understanding of literature and its connection to the past and present.