Sunday, December 14, 2008

Here's the post
My blogging experience was a tough time for me, because I am not someone who “blogs” a lot. I not really into as some of my fellow classmates are, however I do see where blogging can be exciting. It is exciting to me, because when you write a post, you are putting your thoughts and opinions out there for the world to see if the so choose to. The more exciting part to that is that I, the blogger, can listen to what the world if they leave a comment, or I have the right not listen if I do not want to by not allowing comments to be posted. This is absolutely beautiful, because you literally have the world at your fingertips, so the phrase “Here Today, Tomorrow France’” has to be revised to account for blogging, lol!

The essay I chose to revise is my “Why Technology” essay. I chose to revise this essay because this lowest of my essay grades. I also chose to revise this paper because I enjoy technology. The advancement of technology really excites me. I think about the evolution from Lucy, our ancient ancestor, to our present generation, the contrast is amazing. She walked around searching for food, water, and shelter from the elements, whereas men and women today search for food, refreshments, and shelter from the elements while shopping for new items of our liking. Lucy may have used a club to tenderize her meat, we use an updated version of that club to do accomplish the same goal; meat tenderizing. So from Lucy shopping with her club, to us today shopping with ours’ it is all the same, except I get to blog about it!
Here's the revised paper
Agnes Harris
Due Date October 14, 2008
Professor Yerks
Comp 106

Why Technology?

Since the beginning of time we have looked at ourselves as a society that has evolved. Down to our biped ancestor like Lucy, all the way up to the generation that is here now (the Digital Generation), we consider ourselves as progressive each day. Society wants to see themselves as going to the next level in technology. In Generational Myth by Siva Vaidhyanathan, she argues “Once we assume that all young people love certain forms of interaction and hate others, we forge policies and design systems and devices that match presumptions”. Vaidhyanathan is stating examples like the curriculum just recently pointed at elementary, middle, high schools, and even University to fit this digital age we are in. I believe there is nothing wrong with change because change is the only thing that stays constant. If someone from a different planet were to come here on earth to look at our history books, they would see how far civilization has advanced. I do believe there is nothing wrong with keeping up with technology; however that could be a down fall sometimes because the interaction with people, books, and using our own imagination is sufficient. The computer has made many things and people very accessible.
Yes, technology has progressed, in what terms does the interaction with people become more prevalent? It seems as time goes on, as a generation we decide or are even forced to use the computer to interact with individuals. Here at University of Michigan-Dearborn from the time a student is enrolled on campus they are told everything is done by via email. The professor will use the banner web to contact an individual, c-tool, and even the virtual learning center. I believe using these forms of contact, makes things very non personal or even sterile. The reason for this is instead of my interaction with my professor and talking to them, I have to do everything through email. I believe students would receive more of a professor/student relationship if the majority of the assignments were given in class. I believe contacting a student through email makes things less personal.
I believe books have been the greatest tool known to mankind because it allows us to know where we came from and possibly where the future generations are headed. In most of the classes I had in high school were more technology driven. Now I believe there is nothing wrong with people leaning away from books, however to me it would seem if students did not depend on reading books it would not give all students from different races a fair chance. Hargittai responded that women, students of Hispanic origin, African American students, and students whose parents have lower levels of education tend to have less mastery of the inner working of digital technology than other groups. It would be nice to allow technology to lead the way, but we have think logically. If society decided to use computers instead of books then everyone would have to have a computer and unlimited access to the internet. Then every book would need to be on the internet. Society would really have to evaluate, if having every book ever written on the internet is even possible. In reality we would have to say everyone could not have a computer, and reference books would not be on the internet, and the possibility of internet unpaid is very slim.
I believe the internet and even the computer have closed some of our imagination. By not interacting with people and books, it seems like individuals have a more sheltered existing. It has been shown in many studies that a group of people can accomplish a project, instead of just one person by themselves. I believe tradition is good dealing with books.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008


I wanted to add this picture to the event of Super Tuesday Tornado in 2008. This is picture of President Bush tourning the middle Tennessee area.

This was my favorite slide of my visual "isms" because it shows that the woman really believes her soul is mortal.
Agnes Harris
Due Date November 25, 2008
Comp 106

Podcast Script
Welcome to the Morning Show

Complete Show Length in Minutes: 7mins 35 sec
Episode 1: Topic- Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak
Intro Music Clip: Never Would Have Made It by Marvin Sapp Minutes: 1min 20secs
Intro: Slight touch of the Subject Minutes: 45 sec

Hello everyone, I hope your morning is going swell for you! My name is Agnes, I would like to thank everyone who has been faithful listeners every since I started a year ago on the podcast morning show. The morning show has decided to do a segment on some of the significant events that happened in 2008. One event that stood out was the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak that happened February 5 and 6 of 2008. The significance of this event in the Southern United States was it was during the plimerties of the presidential election. When we come back from break I will chat more on Super Tuesday.

Segment Music Clip: Title: Right Here by Brandy Minutes: 1 min 30sec
Segment: Episode 1: part 2 Minutes: 1 min

Welcome back everyone! For people just tuning in we were discussing the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak that happened on February 5 and 6 of this year. Some of the Southern States included Kentucky, Missouri, West Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and even Alabama. Reading different newspaper articles, residents say that supposedly when the tornado was touching the ground or even before the tornado touch the ground there was not ample amount of warning. Some resident say there was no warning at all for them. The reason why there is no warning officials say because the houses are spread so far apart the sirens could not reach some of the residents. Also some residents were supposed to notify of a tornado through television. Yes, there were things that went wrong, when the power is cut by the tornado or there is not warning because the presidential election is going on. A question is raised is there system in place for the majority type of disasters that can happen? Please email me and let me know your thoughts! We are going on another commercial break and when we come back I will have final thoughts on the tragedy of Super Tuesday.

End Segment Music Clip: Title: Better in Time by Leona Lewis Minutes: 45 sec
Ending: Episode 1 closing Minutes: 1 min 15 sec

I believe that no matter what this country may go through the situation will get better. Meaning maybe this event will show our elected officials that there needs to be certain things put in place in case of a disaster. Yes we can look back on yesterday and say the things that should have been done. All we can do as a nation is look forward to what tomorrow may bring and look further to prevention. I am sorry for everyone that lost their families, family member, husband, wife, child or even grandparents. My words of encouragement would be that time will be able to heal your pain, no amount of money or even words will be able to console you in your loss. Super Tuesday lets us know we still have a lot of work to do as a country.

Ending Music Clip Title: One Step at a Time by Jordan Sparks Minutes: 1 min 45sec
Agnes Harris
Due Date November 25, 2008
Comp 106

2008 Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak


When there is a presidential election they are mostly held on Tuesday of February 5 and 6 of each year. Majority of the states call these elections Super Tuesday because that is when the narrowing down of the candidates happens. The Southern United States has not seen tornado destruction since 1985. Well this particular Election Day there was spiked temperatures in the 70’s in Alabama with a cold front also hitting the state. The tornado was going to hit some other states like Mississippi, Kentucky, Missouri, Southern Illinois, West Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and some more Southern States. There were a lot of tornado warnings; however, I believe the Southern States had not seen such destruction since the 1985 they did not believe the damages would be so astronomical.
A lot of the towns people thought after the tornado things were pretty much ending. However to some people surprise there was a lot of flooding, cold freezing rain, school closing, government building closing, and mall closing. Some of the areas were not evacuated because the storm was not supposed to hit their area. Some of the town’s people found out later on that there was a warning that was issued for their area so some lives were lost. Not only was the loss of life there a big devastation in property damage in the millions.
The biggest problem was there was not proper warning for the tornados because the house are so spread out along the Southern States some of the tornados sirens could not reach some of the residents houses. One of the fire attendant explained that he hit the wrong button for the siren because resident complained that they did not even get a warning. So for the residents that did not get warning they did not even know until the tornado was in their living room and knew to get down. Another resident explained when the televisions go out and power goes out there is no way for official to let the resident know there was going to be tornado touch down. Some residents’ say the reason why they were not notified is because the presidential election was going on so there was no way for them to know if they could not hear the sirens or get anything from the television. There were other residents that said there should have been more precautions taken place for a big catastrophic event to happen like this. The reason for this is city officials should have planned for any tornado to hit.
So there are a lot of broken towns’ people because of poor judgment for their lives. President Bush claimed he was doing everything possible to let the Southern States know he is here in their time of loss.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Facebook?

Communication is one of the most important aspects that an individual uses in order to allow another person to understand or comprehend the agenda they are trying to get across. There are a lot of ways to communicate or to keep a person in contact with others. Without communication there are certain things of a business, relationship, and partnership that would certainly fail. I believe if a person does not communicate it could be questionable on the validity of their point. In The Handbook of Communication by Owen Hargie, the author expresses, “communication…in order to make sense of, and systematically investigate, social encounters, it is necessary to employ an interpretive framework has been developed for this purpose”. Hargie is showing her readers that communication can be complicated when an individual is trying to express themselves. I believe facebook allows people to communicate in a non traditional way. I feel that facebook has brought many people around the world together who wanted to stay in contact with each other. Facebook is one of the greatest ways to keep in contact with someone. Also I use facebook over other mediums of communication because keeping in touch with certain individuals is better through via web.
Sometimes when a person is overseas there is not a lot of means to keep in contact. I believe facebook is the inexpensive way of communication. No, you can never put a price on how much a conversation is, however there should be certain boundaries that every relationship should have. I believe when it comes to a spouse, maybe the best choices are not to call them on the front line in a war. The best way could be sending them an email through facebook to let them know you love them and to call as soon as possible. Then there are situation where keeping in contact with a friend in France or even in a different state makes facebook more valid. I have a really close friend that lives in France. We dated for two years while he was here in America and he went back to France after he got his bachelor’s degree. I miss him very much; nevertheless, we know that facebook allows us to keep each other posted on our daily task, without calling each other every day. Also facebook allows us to keep a certain distance from each other because we know if it were not for the countries between us and his poor communication skills things would be a lot better. This is a situation where keeping in contact over the phone is not in either parties best interest. I love friends and family, not matter what I believe, any means of communication is better than nothing. I feel there is no excuse of not using the most simplistic way of facebook to keep in contact.
I choose to use facebook because it is less personal than other forms of communication. When putting up pictures and posting, I know who ever looks at my page will know about my life. The beauty of facebook is you can tell people who look at your page, what you want them to know about you. In the article Checking Out Facebook.com: The Impact of a Digital Trend on Academic Libraries by Laurie Charnigo and Paula Barnett-Ellis, the authors explained “… three pilot research studies have also focused on privacy issues specifically relating to Facebook…” I believe there should not be a concern with privacy on facebook because everyone that is using facebook knows the best way to keep in contact with a friend is through facebook. Facebook allows people to say this is what I did this weekend or I just got married. Facebook is the best way to let friends, love ones, and others know they can be an invitation to your birthday party through facebook. WOW! Look, you did not have to waste all of your minutes on your cell phone to let people know you are have a birthday party because sometimes talking with a friend on the phone maybe a little awkward. This could be you and the individual, who got into a verb debate, you might not want them to know I am sorry and you can still come to my birthday party.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Agnes Harris
Due Date October 23, 2008
Comp 106
Professor Yerks

Life

Sometimes I sit back and wonder does people make life cumpcilated for themselves or sometimes is life just hard. Well, I really have not come up with a solution to the issue. When different situations seems like something is too unbearable, God is there to help us along the way, like a little road map. Well I know that if a person does not like their situation they can make a change is some type of way or even fashion. I listen to Steve Harvey in the morning, he says most morning, “if you keep on doing what you been doing, than you will keep on getting what you’ve been getting”. I believe that is a very true statement. I know in life where a person just thinks there life is just so easy or so hard.
Now, is life just plain easy? I do not believe that life is just plain easy because there are going to be situations that happen in a person’s daily life and they may say I did not have to do a lot of work to get what I got. I heard a person once tell me that the things in life worth having are worth fighting for. Now I do not know which things they could have talking about, however I know the things worth having sure is not easy obtaining. Someone could say college is very hard. I know for myself college can be very changlenging, however a person knows when they receive the degree they have been working so hard for it was well worth the tears and the heart ache that they went through to obtain the degree. Maybe life gets a little easy after the degree, but life will never be just a walk in the park.
Is life just plain hard? Well I don’t think so. I believe no matter what goes on in our day to day lives, God is always there leading and guiding us along our journey! God said it in his word that he would never leave us nor forsake us or never put on us more than we can bear. I totally believe that God made us in his image and likeness, so he knows what the issues are and can fix them if we just let him. I believe there are reasons why God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, that we may have eternal life. Sometimes in any given day it seems like all of the things that go wrong seem to go wrong. I know God is in control because the things God has saved me from, I cannot thank him enough. Also God has been to omnipresent in my life for me to say that life is just way too hard.
One thing I always remind myself is that there is somebody (no matter where you are at in your life) that has a situation way worse than yours. I thank God for the good days and know when the bad days come it can only get better. Also when there is rain or a storm, there will always seem to be sun shine afterwards. I believe life is what a person makes their life to be, whether it is easy or hard. Remember when thing seem to get tough God will carry you, just call him and he will be there.