Reflection

This was probably the best course I took all year, art coming in close second. I was interesting and I finally got to to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time: Write a blog. In my future I want to do something related to writing, that’s why I chose journalism as my degree, all in hopes that one day I’ll get the chance to write for one of the big newspapers out there. Blogging is a big step forward for me,  though I still have a long way to go I’m not about to stop. It’s a growing and learning process.

I honestly have to admit that when I took the first class I was exited. All this topics and things that I had a huge interest in were going to be discussed as the main topic of the class, I felt like I had hit the jackpot. Though there’s one thing that I think was missing that in the end had a negative effect over me. There isn’t enough of a sense of obligation.

I feel like the class needed something more to remind us that “it is a class” that there’s a score and that you CAN fail if you’re not careful. This might be because of the class being relatively easy, or because we are supposed to be responsible for ourselves being college students and all and also to test how dedicated we are to the blog, but I feel that there should be a larger sense of urgency, of “pressure” I guess you cans say; this might just be me though, I usually work better under pressure.

Then there’s the final projects. I believe the Campaign project was great, a great idea and though I usually prefer working alone it definitely put to the test our ability when it came to teamwork and team communication. Though I have a bit of a discrepancy with the Vinculacion job In this last job I think we had very little time, or at least believe that we could have done a much better job with more time, though this might just be because we got government, which is especially hard with elections coming up, but here’s an idea; What if this job was assigned and announced at the beginning. The job can be assigned early for the end of the course, that way there’s no excuse for not having the interviews, to make it fair difficulty wise more can be asked of the students, like blogging about their progress, going to the institution and taking photos, getting a tour maybe even a written part, to me this would add the pressure I need and remove my complaints, but that’s just me.

In the end I really enjoyed the class, it was eye opening in a lot of ways, I learned a lot and surpassed my expectations. I would really recommend it to anyone who hasn’t taken it, and more specifically with professor Antonio Vantaggiato so they can get the full experience.

Auto Evaluacion

This semester we participated in many actvities and posted many blog entries for the Inf 103 class. These are many of the entries required by the class:

1. A Vision Of students today

2.Creative Commons

3.La red Mundial (resumen)

4.Kony 2012

5.Enciclopedia Britanicca (resumen)

6.March 13 class summary

7.Evernote (Tutorial Vid)

8.Sumary April 24

9.Resumen Excel

10.Resumen Campana

11. Periodico

12.Reflexion

In the end of the semester I had a total of 82 View, though I don’t pan to end it there and I do plan to further open some horizons to allow for more views.

How would I evaluate my Blog? Average, or maybe a lil’ below average. Why? Well, in terms of the class I do believe I did a good job with the entries individually, they’re done well, provide as much info as I can and though I did bend the rules a lil’ with the whole thing about the pictures, they are there. Many of them have links in them.

The down side to my posts is that I should have posted more, period. There should have been more posts related to the class and there should have also been more posts related to my own subject. I believe in the end I ended up with a total of like 16 posts, very little for the past months, but at least I made sure they where quality posts.

I put a lot of heart and soul into the things I write, if they are not to the standard I set, they are simply not good enough.

Dreams, in the sleeping sense

It’s been a while since I posted anything and i decided to post something more related to my interests so I’m going to build a new post, and possibly a whole new section dedicated to dreams. No, not the dreams tha you have of your future, but rather the dreams you get when you rest your head against your pillow and allow yourself to slip away from reality.

This may seem like a strange topic of discussion but, believe me, it’s much more interesting than most people think, and there’s a lot more we know about them that than we let on.

This is all going to seem very confusing at firsts, especially with all the terminologies involved not to mention some of these thing need to be experienced to understand them, so we’ll start with the “meat” of it.This is probably one of the strangest terms you’ve ever heard, if you haven’t heard of it already; some of you might have heard the term mentioned but never payed it much mind, well, now I’m hear to teach you about it.

Sleep Paralysis

Sleep paralysis in it’s basis is the state in which our bodies have come to a complete rest and we drift into sleep, slipping into our subconscious. Pretty basic, huh? Well, not entirely, it’s called sleep paralysis for a reason. What if I told you that your body can go to sleep without your brain doing the same, while staying conscious? Yes, this is possible, I’ve done it myself; your body sleeps while you, consiuously remain awake.

It all seems odd and redundant, but it’s fully achievable and this is were the paralysis part quicks in, see when you’re in this state you loose control of all motor functions, yeah, I know , scary, right? Well, yes and no, it’s incredibly easy to wake yourself up in this state, if you get svared your heart rate will raise warning your body to wake up, so it’s actually incredebly hard to GET to sleep paralysis and then saty there. Now, you’re probably asking yourself why you would want to go ahead and do this, why you’d put yourself in that odd, uncomfortable situation, well i got two words for you: Willing dreams.

Willing dreams, unconscious control and the reason I started it; the ability to escape your nightmares.

Well, that’s all I can give you for now friends, I’ll be keeping this updated as much as possible and will be coveing our next topic soon

W.I.L.D

Wake Induced Lucid Dream(ing)

The Campaign is Over

This semester one of our jobs as a clas was to work on a publishig campaign, this one centered mayorly around the class.

A group of students and I were in charge of the newspaper in this “Publishing” campaign, so I thought I might as well share it here for those of you that are in any way interested and for my fellow classmates to see too.

Here’s the link and an Image for those who are interested:

 

Resumen

We discussed how to utilize excel: it’s formulas, it’s uses and even some level of customization.

Summary 24 of April

On this day we discussed the competence of information, how important it is that when we obtain some piece of information we can be assured that it is correct.

Mostly what was discussed is where or what can provide competent information, especially in today’s time where information is a constant and is available to anyone, almost anywhere. Many sources where discussed, including encyclopedias and of course wikipedia, but we questioned the resourcefulness of these. Encyclopedias have been wrong before, and they have been until checked by professionals, meaning incorrect information might have been out in the public possibly for years. This can be extremely problematic, they cant’ take back all the editions that are out and fix them, instead the make corrections for the new editions and any books launched of the same edition. Wikipedia does not have this problem.

WIkipedia can be edited at any time. from any pace but that is not to say that it’s safe. Literally anybody has access to it and can edit it, I’m sure you can figure out why taht can be a problem.

Still theres more to Info getting than just encyclopedias and Wiki. Then internet itself is a massive source of info.

We have access to all of these websites, such an amount that they can practically make their ow country (This is pure speculation). Well, that’s the trick you see, with so much information available, how do we make sure it’s reliable. There isn’t a tried and true method for reliability but there are things that help such as: Multipe authors (Being well known helps); Editorial houses, if it’s important and sellable basically;  some form of vouching, weather it be from a well know author or another source;  and, well, checking from multiple sources. If you ever check a source that is doubtful, or any source for that matter, double check it to be safe.

And that is all I have for you on info reliabilty. Stick around and maybe, just maybe you’ll get more.

Evernote Tutorial – Screencast

This is a video screencast I did for my Inf class. It’s a tutorial on how to use Evernote, a Notebook type of application.

If you’re in need of something to keep track of your notes, thoughts, ideas in any form or format and you have a computer or mobile device, watch this video; you might find what you’re looking for.

Poll

March 13: Class Summary

Today we discussed plagiarism. It’s related to one of the things that I had covered on one of my previous entries; Copyright law. Plagiarism consist of one thing: copying the content of this author and using it for your own benefit. This is something that is strongly condoned in all mediums; no one likes their ideas stolen. Without going to far in detail, here’s a link to a video about that specifically.

Additionally we discussed identity theft and it’s increase in our society.

There’s people out there with access to the internet that are capable of stealing your personal information to do exactly as the title of these miscreants suggests: to Steal your identity. I’ll go into much further detail specifically in this last subject, so keep an I open.

Summary March 15 – The death of Encyclopædia Britannica

Today’s discusion consisted mostly about this blog and what things must be included to achieve the highest grade. the ideal way to add content would be to include links such as this one, and images. This is suppose to add a sense of attraction and a lil’bit of eye candy too.

Example:

Finally we discussed the demise of “British Encyclopedia”.

“British Encyclopedia” meets END at hands of Wikipedia

It’s pretty straight forward really. What many thought would happen, happened; Wikipedia eliminated the need for book encyclopedias.

Here’s an article about it in Wikipedia (For irony’s sake).

It’s not surprising that it happened. Much of the information that was included in the original paper/book version is already included in Wiki, with one mayor difference: 2,000 Dollars out of your pocket. The orginal version of Encyclopædia Britannica, as it is officially named, is worth around 2,000 US dollars to obtain all 30 volumes of it, and this in reality is just a rough estimate.  On the other hand you have Wikipedia; it has free information that can be freely accessed and edited at any time. Free access and the ability to edit has it’s disadvantages,but the advantages far outweigh them; such as:

• Easy access from anywhere there’s internet
• Environmentally Friendly (somewhat at least. Electricity is still oil)
• Info. on anything and everything (Even things you might not even want to know)
• Can be corrected and Edited at any time
• Quick searchabilty – Not having to search alphabetically for whatever you have to between 30 massive volumes
• but most of all, it’s free

It’s sad that such and amazing compilation of information has ceased circulation, but there’s good news for those that are heavily interested. The company decided to print what I believe where at least 2,000 more copies of the Encyclopedia, though I also assume the price will scale accordingly. If you’re really interested, or were involve with the Encyclopedia before you can visit their website, it provides a similar , if not identical service as the Encyclopedia.

For those of us that can’t afford Encyclopedia Britannica, we’ll stick to Wiki. There’s not much to loose, the one upper hand the Encyclopedia has is Authorship, but I’m sure the teach won’t mind if our Civil War paper says it happened in 1936 (Don’t worry, it doesn’t really say that). Wikipedia is a great source of information, doubtful? corroborate, search other cites, go to the library, actually read your class books or other books on the subject, Can’t do that? Well, be ready to pony up 2 grand, it hurts, doesn’t it?