Laurie Toich Blog Log for Writing, Research, and Technology Comments Week Three In reply to Reginas post

Welcome Behind the Wizards Curtain 02/04/2014 10:21am http://reginamcmenaminlloyd.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/welcome-behind-thewizards-curtain.html) I find it interesting that your sister does not feel the need to communicate with others and the thought of poetry makes her angry. In my communications class, we learned about disclosure and how we only disclose the outermost and oftentimes physical layer of ourselves to people. The "where are you from?" "what's your major?" "how old are you?" questions. I find it interesting that she can only get past that with few people. Communication differs greatly between people and I find it interesting that two sisters have such different styles of communication; it really shows how your interests reflect this and how they affect your controlling values. In reply to Amy Souders post Whos That Hiding Behind the Screen 02/10/2014 1:33pm (http://amysouder.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/whos-that-hiding-behind-thescreen.html?) I think that our culture is moving quite fast toward a more anonymous world. We talk through texts, emails, tweets, and blog posts. Although I agree, I think that our society is not doomed. Individuals like myself and many of my classmates do not feel the threat of this and hold on to the past, but we are a dying breed. I would much rather read a physical book than read one online. I also enjoy having lunch with my friends and carrying on face to face conversations with them rather than over texting. I find myself often saying "we have to get together and catch up" rather than texting the whole situation. I think the issue of anonymity has a lot to do with what kind of environment you are in. The life gamers know is a faceless existence of pressing A then B and occasionally shouting something into a microphone to someone seas away. It can be get easy to get swept up in that kind of environment, but it is easily avoidable. Kids today are spending more time inside than outside and through this, it is reinforcing this "new society." Comments Week Four In reply to Brittany Coughlins post Challenge Authority 02/17/2014 8:44am

(http://britcoughlinwrt.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/challenge-authority.html?) I think you brought up a really good question in your blog post. I do not feel that every ending is either happy, sad, or neutral. Most readers get a different experience from each type of ending. For example, if you never liked the main character and found it hard to relate to them, would you necessarily be happy for them if they got everything they wanted? I also think that some authors may leave the ending open ended with a specific way to see it and you may not think of it that way. I know in the Nicholas Spark movie "Dear John," in the end you're supposed to feel like the two are going to get back together. In the book, the ending does not happen like that; there is no hint of their reconciliation. So, someone who read the book would have a different view of the movie ending. I think that it all depends on your perspective and how you see the story being played out. In reply to Kelly McKeevers post Permanence of Fads 02/17/2014 8:55am (http://kellymckeever.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/permanence-of-fads.html?) While I think you did a good job explaining what counterculture is in both of your blogs, I do not fully agree with you when you say that countercultures follow the rules and laws. An example would be the Nazis in Germany in the late 1930s to 1940s. They were a countercultural group that certainly didn't follow laws that were set into place. Although Hitler was not a nice guy, I do not believe he made mass murder legal even though he did it, but correct me if I'm wrong! Another counter cultural group still active today is the KKK. They burn crosses on people's front lawn and cause general havoc for people of color. Through these two big examples, not all countercultural groups do follow laws, but some do. In reply to Sarah Parkers post Juxtaposition What the Heck Is It 02/17/2014 9:02am (http://mywrtsite.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/juxtaposition-what-the-heck-isit.html) I find it interesting that you chose to juxtapose texts on one side with pictures/other media on the other side. Clever! I love juxtaposition when done correctly. I find that it provides such a better experience for the reader. I gives you a better realization at the end. "Oh yeah I remember the dog earlier in the story! So that's what that meant." If done incorrectly it can feel like it's being forced and not as organic. I don't really agree with Mamet when he says it can sometimes come across as crazy. I don't see a problem with a story being a little out there if it all blends together and makes sense. Comments Week Five In reply to Leah Feldmans post Taking a Chance

02/24/2014 7:01am (http://leahffeldman.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/taking-a-chance.html?) I definitely agree with your post. Before this class, I stuck with what I knew. I would tweet from a 'just for fun' Twitter and do all of my presentations with PowerPoint. Prior to this the only blog I had was a Tumblr which is less of a blog and more of a re-posting of pictures. Through this class, I have definitely built my online profile. Thanks Kopp! I have gotten to know how to use Weebly, WordPress, and Prezi. Although I have never used Edmodo (or even heard or it for that matter) it sounds like an excellent social media platform for schools and teachers. Through this, it can be assumed that teachers can bounce ideas off of one another and share how they teach a tougher subject. In reply to Leah Feldmans post You Dont Know What Youve Got Til Its Gone 02/24/2014 7:08am (http://leahffeldman.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/you-dont-know-what-youve-gottil-its-gone.html) I learned about the camera obscura in my one art history course and I found it completely fascinating. We completely take advantage of the technology we have today. I think if we all had to use a camera obscura we would have a greater appreciation for how easy digital cameras are today. Ebert's argument is that the beauty of art is disappearing because of how easy things are today. Going to a museum and seeing a painting or statue in real life is a completely different experience. It evokes emotions and makes you feel something. When you see a picture of the same thing you can say "oh that's a nice picture," but you do not get the same feeling by any means. I agree with you that seeing brush strokes is also another thing that is disappearing through photography. I find thick brush strokes to be a quite interesting technique and it is something that can only be seen in person. In reply to Jackson Bs post Syncopated Images 02/24/2014 7:13am (http://bairdj21wrt.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/syncopated-images.html?) Your post made me think about those pictures we are shown in school where your perspective depends on what you see. The one I remember the most is you can either see an old woman or a young woman depending upon how your eyes see it first. Seeing one or the other first is not wrong, it depends on how your brain works. This would be an example of the gray area that you were discussing in your post and I do agree with you on that. Comments Week Six

In reply to Courtney Workmans post What Makes Art 02/26/2014 2:33pm (http://courtneylworkman.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/what-makes-art.html?) I like your argument! As an art history minor, I took an entire class dedicated to the topic of "What is Art?" There is no real answer to that question. Like you said, you could paint a stick figure and call it art. A lot of what is considered high art is how famous the artist is. We see paintings by Picasso and automatically think they are beautiful and innovative just because it was Picasso. If they were labeled under a different artist, our opinion may or may not be completely different. There is an art (and literature) movement called minimalism. I went to an exhibit of these types of works and the one painting was a blank canvas with three lines drawn of it with pencil. This was on display at the Met and I was outraged. I could have done that. Who considers what art is "good art" depends greatly on the viewer and their expectations. In reply to Jade Bonders post Can You Interpret This 03/04/2014 5:57pm (http://bonderwrt.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/can-you-interpret-this.html) Excellent explanation of semiotics! I think there are so many different parts of this concept that it is hard to define exactly what it is. A dimension of semiotics that is worth exploring is the fact that we can also make assumptions about something unfamiliar. Through our everyday experiences we learn things about ourselves and other people. For example, in your childhood if you had a traumatic experience at a doctor's office you would most likely assume that all doctor's visits would produce the same effect. Going off that point, many dogs can be tricked into getting into the car to go to "the park" but wind up at the vet's office for a check up. After this, many dogs refuse to get in the car. In both instances, assumptions are based on previous experiences and conclusions have been drawn from them. In reply to Alyssa Reminis post Be Careful What You Post 03/04/2014 6:04pm (http://alyssaremini.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/be-careful-what-you-post.html) I think that people, especially kids, need to be informed that what goes on their social media sites stays FOREVER whether or not you delete it. Even if you delete your page or change your name it is still there. Someone in my class said her parents know a police officer whose job it is to track down people on Facebook. They can locate and access everything that you have deleted in the past. Scary! We often think that our privacy settings will protect us but they cannot. When watching the videocy videos, the first thing I thought of was that girl is going to be known as the girl who made the video about Asians in the library. Her reputation (professional and unprofessional) seemed worthy to

sacrifice just to make a point she thought was valid. I think overall we need to be much more careful about what we say online. Comments Week Seven In reply to Valerie Feldmans post We See What We Want 03/10/2014 11:40am (http://vfeldman.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/we-see-what-we-want.html) I found it interesting that you thought the picture on the left looked more cluttered and I was curious as to why. When I saw both pictures I noticed that the background was almost exactly the same and nothing had changed. We definitely have a different take on these two pictures. I noticed more of the formal elements rather than the emotional ones at first glance. I noticed the head position was different and so was what she wore around her neck. I did not notice that she was happier in the first until after I noticed the physical elements. In reply to Gary Latons post YouTube Conversations Positive and Negative 03/10/2014 11:48am (http://garylayton.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/you-tube-conversations-positiveand-negative.html) I definitely agree with you. I think that a majority of the comments on YouTube are negative and they overshadow the positive ones. The video I chose for the YouTube conversation was Celebrities Read Mean Tweets 2 which is a sketch on Jimmy Fallon's talk show. All of the celebrities in this sketch were the victim of harsh words. They all most likely have had a lot of positive comments said about them as well, but they are not the focus. I explored a similar idea in my twitterive. The thing I focused on was that "Positivity does not harm negativity; negativity harms positivity." For whatever reason, I think humans like to think negatively about most things and that is especially true when it comes to comments on the internet. In reply to Amy McKeevers post Analysis of Perception 03/10/2014 11:54am (http://amymck8.weebly.com/3/post/2014/03/analysis-of-perception.html) When I was reading that chapter I also thought of that picture right away. I find that I always see the old woman until someone points out how to see the young woman. No matter how many times I have seen it in the past, I still see the same thing. I believe that perception is reality and however we see the truth is what it actually is. Ten different people can interpret something differently but for each person, the way they saw it is what really happened. Blogged for Week Eight How We Create Meaning 03/11/2014

http://laurietoich.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/how-we-create-meaning.html Copyrighting: Friend or Foe? 03/13/2014 http://laurietoich.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/if-everything-is-a-remix-then-whatis-original.html Comments for Week Nine In reply to Sam Gilsons post Mash Smash or Pass 03/31/2014 5:45pm (http://samanthagilson.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/mash-smash-or-pass.html) You used pictures and videos in an excellent way! I think that your example with Glee having opposing songs in a mash-up together stands to be true with a lot of mash-ups. It reminds me of those videos we watched a few weeks ago. The one was a blonde girl talking about Asians in the library. Her argument was put with other people's reactions and they were mainly negative. The merit in posing counterarguments is that it makes the topic seem more well rounded and explored. I know in my argument I try and present multiple viewpoints of the same topic. In reply to Kaylee Colgans post What Makes a Story 03/31/2014 5:49pm (http://kayleecolgan.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/what-really-makes-a-story.html) I know that I often find myself predicting the ending of a movie from the beginning scenes. It probably has a lot to do with being a writer, but I am still disappointed. In John Green's The Fault in Our Stars left me disappointed in the same way. I predicted everything that happened and I felt like I cannot appreciate the story. In my opinion, out of your examples I found that The Notebook (the first time) was the most interesting. I have a great appreciation for the juxtaposition in. I also like when stories have unexpected turns and outcomes. In reply to Kaylee Colgans post Is Anything Really Original 04/02/2014 4:18pm (http://kayleecolgan.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/is-anything-really-original.html?) I did my post on a similar topic! When I read the part where you said "copying is how we learn," it reminded me of my psychology professor. He was saying something along the lines of why do we hold a fork the way we do? Because that's the way our parents did it and so on. Imitation is the biggest form of flattery is a good example of a cliche we have all heard time and time again. If we like something, we want to make it our own. Take authors for example, if you really like a book/ author, wouldn't you want to write just like them? The same goes for film makers. If something works well (in your opinion) why not do it?