Blogging

     So as I look back through my blogs, I am coming to an amazing realization that my writing style has well, stayed pretty much the same. I do not believe that I have made any sort of huge change in how I write. It may have taken me a few posts to realize it, but the class blog assignments are much more relaxed than any other assignments I have done in the past. I suppose that I have relaxed my grammar slightly and now I may be letting ideas flow a little more freely, and I think that this is a good thing. As far as the colloquialisms that accompany most blogs, not class blogs necessarily, but blogs in general, I am making a conscious effort to avoid them. I feel that even this is a fairly relaxed setting formal grammar rules should still apply. I want to have confidence in anything and everything that I am going to put on the internet that could potentially be traced back to me at a later time. Even on facebook, I try to keep things appearing professional, regardless of the media. I have always been told to only let things be seen that you would be comfortable with the world seeing and I intend to keep living by that rule. To me, blogs are just another way to express feelings or opinions on or about a subject and should be treated similarly to any other assignment. My theory is if you always present yourself in a respectable manner, you will not have trouble presenting yourself when it is important to be respectable.  

Peer Editing

With the start of peer editing, I thought we were going to end up doing more of the same kind of editing that I did in high school. I was wrong; we were supposed to be doing a fresh style of editing where we would comment only on content and not focus on things that can easily be changed at the end. I will say that we did focus more on content than I had in the past, but I don’t know if I set my expectations too high or what exactly my problem was but everything did not play out as I thought it would. I guess I had assumed that I would be able to make some profound comments about my peers essays and vice versa, but it just is not so. Please do not misunderstand me, everybody had very helpful things to say and tips to give, but it was just not as mind blowing as I had anticipated. Anyways, that being said, I do like the fact that we are not even really allowed to comment or correct grammatical issues. This definitely helps the writer focus on what he/she really needs to change content wise. Also, from the editing point of view, it makes it a challenge to find good points to make about the paper without the easy out of circling all of the issues and fixing the misspelled words. I am not sure how much I have learned at this point, but I feel that as the year goes on, editing will become more and more helpful from both perspectives.  

Technology and Evolution

             Oh technology, you are the future of our species, constantly improving, and I hate you. I don’t hate all technology and I realize that technology makes my life so much more convenient every day but I wish some things had never been invented or at least released to the public.

 Portable GPS is one of my least favorite things available for consumer use. It helps people get where they need to go when they do not know their way. I understand the trouble it saves some people but I honestly believe that it creates bigger problems than the ones it solves. GPS can be very useful if trying to find your way in a strange city but should not be used to find your way to the grocery store. I know people who do not know how to navigate their own neighborhood because they have become dependent on the device to get them to even the easiest locations to find. People have started to lose the ability to successfully navigate the world that they live in and rely solely on technology. I believe that someone should at least be able to find their way home no matter where they are. I still use paper maps if I do not know where I am going.

Smart phones are one of the worst inventions of all time. No more are the days of sitting around with your friends and arguing about mundane facts. Somebody always has to be the dick that pulls out their iphone and ends all the fun. Also people have become attached to their phones wherever they are. With people texting, tweeting, facebooking, and searching the internet on their phones, the roads are terrifying. I have a flip phone and have used GPS once, with disastrous results. I hate when I find myself texting and prefer talking on the phone.

With all the convenience of technology today I honestly believe people have gotten lazier. The more technology does, the less we have to do, the less we have to use our brains, and the less we know about the world. I really am not trying to say anything against people who use this technology but I think it is something to think about. I would hate to see the world get to a point where we start to lose capabilities. If you have ever seen the movie Idiocracy, you know what I am talking about. It is a bit extreme, but brings up a valid point.

(Just to be clear, this is just how my mind works. I do not take this seriously. I am not a nut.)