Retirement Final?

I'm done posting on this for now, not that anyone reads this. I just don't want anyone to get their hopes up. I am, however, posting on a new page, which is titled "Potatoes and games". This is more what I want instead of school related, so feel free to visit.

My jeapordy catagories?

1: video game history
2: the industrial revolution
3: vocabulary
4: final fantasy 7
5: "The Swiss Family Robinson"
6: medieval weaponry
7: railroads

Russification

With the world's dismissal of the events in northern Asia this year, I thought I would draw your attention to the Russian invasion once more. during the middle of 2008, Russia sent troops into Georgia to claim several sympathetic city's and encountered little resistance. The official story is that Georgian forces invaded their own breakaway territory of South Ossetia and Russia reinforced the beleaguered home guard of said state. However, thousands of civilians of that semi-autonomous state were killed in Russian bombing of civilian areas. As far as we know now, the situation has calmed down considerably. The unification that this was pegged as was not as clear cut as it should have been. Many people on both sides of the conflict were dissatisfied with the manner in which it occurred.
The implications of a reunified Russia can be great or terrible and that is what I wish to examine. a stronger Russia can diffuse some of our disagreements with China and contribute more to the global community; or with the military infrastructure that lies dormant in their nation they could become a threat again(if they so choose). We lie at a turning point in the global makeup."everyone is going to be looking at Russia through a different set of lenses"(Gates)http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50816
This argument is not one that is politically motivated. I merely hope to provide some dialogue on the possibility enabled by this event. Russia can stand as protectors of their neighbors, or they can use their influence to undermine the efforts of their neighbors, as they did in Georgia. Possibly they struck at Georgia to show that they are slow to forget their past, or to prove their strength is returning.

absurdism-???

I had to put together a slideshow that used several -isms and this was my favorite:

Absurdism:which is the doctrine that we live in an irrational universe

Regressive Professionalism

This is in response to a question written for our project. the question is as thus-Are cell phones destroying our professionalism?
I have seen the trend of phones moving towards multipurpose functions. the iPhone is the herald of this trend. as that device evolves, you will see people abandon their single-function devices in favor of these multi-purpose tools. before this all-in-one trend, many people would carry a portable music player, Digital camera, and cell phone while juggling all three for their respective tasks.
the addition of a camera in many phones has left me with very direct evidence of the consequences of the "iPhone". the plethora of sites which take advantage of amateur photography is staggering. flickr, twitter, digg, and others cater to those whom are always connected. any event which occurs is now documented by hundreds of phones and the pictures will arrive on the internet within minutes. The people of the world are not passively watching events occur anymore.
Those who perpetrate events on a national scale(war, sabotage, terrorism) are going to have to take responsibility for their actions as a connected world will "call them out" so to speak. regardless of the societal ramifications of the stratification of mobile devices, the effect on photography is staggering. when everybody has a phone with a camera, the only reason to buy a real camera is for hardcore camera-nuts. the general quality of photography has suffered a telling blow.
these new phones are giving everybody whom owns one the ability to forego the trained professionals of the past in favor of doing the job themselves. It should not be surprising to hear that my family uses camera phones in lieu of the 2 year old fancy digital camera we bought for my mother. point is, when everyone has the ability to do the jobs traditionally done by trained professionals, few will bother to pay someone for something they can do on their own.

Digital Natives? yeh right

Our generational classification will die an untimely death because of the very thing that many define us by; the internet. With more people online everyday, the gaps in common experiences and cultural differences has been closing very quickly. War is not a fight against foreigners for honor and glory; it is an attack against people we’ve chatted with, IMed, emailed, and more. The world is gaining a face where before it had none, and our voices are being heard across the planet.The concept of a digital native has romanticism to it; it evokes images of The Matrix, Hackers, and other conceptions of a digital future. However, the truth is far from this perception. The internet is evolving into everything- from phone service to mapping mars, if there is a task to do, there is a PC function to do it easier. This leads into my first point: convenience breeds necessity. Anyone, and I mean anybody, can use the benefits of a PC. The amount of tasks that can be performed by these computers have made the PC almost as universal as a phone. My grandma has a PC for one thing only: to play spider solitaire and minesweeper. I kid you not, PC use has become the norm for people of all walks of life, and the diversity of the internet population is staggering.As the technology behind these changes evolves, more of the people outside of this “digital native” group become exemplary in their use of the tools us “natives” are characterized for. Many generalizations fall prey to this sort of assumption. If MTV had asked the “grunge” bands of the 90’s about their flannels, they may have learned that flannels were really comfy and altogether a means to stay warm in the cold seasons in Seattle. The problem inherent in these classifications is then one of people defining themselves and foregoing the counsel of their peers in their decision. However, this problem could be perceived as a solution. With books calling out my generation as the “dumbest generation”, I can see where excluding an opposing point could be seen as the only means to make that argument in the first place. Dead men tell no tales, and without a clear refutation of his claims, or even recognizing the opposing viewpoint, Baurlein seems to be appealing to those whom would see themselves as outside the “digital natives”. Though I do not believe this to be intentional, the result is one where those who wish to classify and generalize are being endorsed in their ignorance. Our nation has been fighting for equal rights since birth. So the dilemma I see is one where those who call others dumb or make outrageous demands of often prove themselves to be the ignorant fools they classify others to be.
In Response to Generational Myth by Siva Vaidhyanathan.

I advocate big porches

For my project, I chose to examine the negativity of detachment from current events within today’s culture. I remember the day Russia invaded Georgia, and I saw, on the internet that day, many people whom assumed that the of Georgia. This was obviously incorrect, and most of these comments were made in ignorance of the news story itself. They saw the headline and jumped at it.What I’m trying to say is that the world today doesn’t look past the external factors of a situation. I recently talked with someone (today) who hadn’t even heard about this. As I attempted to explain where Georgia was it dawned on me that I was as guilty of this as he was. On September 11^th, 2001, I played games all day and completely missed the events of that horrifying disaster. Afterward I realized the significance of the attack but I was so immersed in the world of my games that the falling of the towers left me completely unfazed at the time. Thus, when I see the community of the internet dismissing the events of the Russian invasion, I can’t help feeling sympathy towards the unlearned masses. I was as guilty of ignorance as they were, though I had less of an excuse.My family is very politically-minded and my shyness from said topics likely results for my dislike of these arguments. Thus I can only blame myself for this ignorance, but there is no excuse for the world-wide disaffection of the youth. I for one feel that the current political situation is to blame. For the last two elections, we’ve had candidates whom do not identify with the common man. The amount of scandalous media and the severity of the mud-slinging have really been working hard to take down an American institution.I am sick of constant media panic attacks and sound byte reporting. The only effect of this that I see is that the only people whom can survive the media gauntlet are those whom would have the hunger for power to so restrain themselves from and skeletons in their closets. The only people with the ability to gain political power are too ambitious to be trusted with the job. Though this inevitable fact escapes many, pay attention to this campaign and you may see what I have suggested here. Regardless, the kids (and adults) that have immersed themselves in the digital world need a wake up call (figuratively). With as many people ignoring the campaign as is, it should be no wonder that our future is up to grabs. We need to pay attention or we’re going to lose the freedoms our forefathers fought for. The digital dream may be the wave of the future, but the world is like a driver on their cell phone, and will rear end the rest of us if it can’t just call back later.

warning: this picture may be considered violent; however leaving it "bloodless" it loses the point.