Thoughts on the Poster Presentations

I must admit, when I first heard about this project I felt like it was going to be a drag. I hadn't made a poster since middle school, so I felt a bit out of practice when coming up with mine. But having it completed did feel good.

The day I had to present took me back to science fair back in high school. I was a bit nervous at first; wondering if anyone would stop by my poster, and hoping I would not screw up while trying to explain it. But I got a a good stream of curious wanderers, and they seemed to be interested in my thing (or at least were good actors).

On Friday, when I went to watch other people's things, I felt like I had an insider's view on what they were going through. A few of the project were interesting enough that I told my friends about them later.

All in all, the experience was a lot more positive than I first thought it would be. It was certainly more fun than writing an essay.

Oh No, My Parents have Facebook

There's a branch of Communication research that deals with self-image and self-presentation. A very prevalent theory in this field is that we humans have different images; and we choose which to present depending on the situation. A quick example would be the image we present to our parents as opposed to the one we present to our drinking buddies.

I find it interesting that this tendency spills into our use of social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace. It was driven home to me most the day my parents sent me a friend request on my Facebook account. Before that, I had never really cared about what I put on my Facebook. But as soon as I accepted the friend request, I started scrutinizing my profile and pictures for anything that I wouldn't want my parents to see; tightening up my privacy settings accordingly.

This all just makes me think that while honesty may be good; it is the same as everything else: bad in excess.

Pondering the Apathy-Sensibility Continuum

What do I mean by the Apathy-Sensibility Continuum?

On one extreme, you have total apathy: you do not care about anything that happens; it's all the same to you. On the other extreme, you have total sensibility: everything that happens feels directly related to you and you cannot stop yourself from caring about it.

When you're on the Apathy extreme, you're an aloof character who finds it hard to build up any emotion or motivation about anything. While this might seem like an unfavorable thing, it does comes with its benefits: it's also very hard to hurt you emotionally. As anyone who has lived for any amount of time knows, life can sometimes suck really bad. Thus, being apathetic can help prevent quite a lot of heartache.

When you're on the Sensibility extreme, you're a passionate and concerned person who feels deeply about all that happens around you. While this seems like a favorable thing, it has its drawbacks: you can be very easy to hurt emotionally. Like I said before, life can sometimes suck really bad, and being sensitive can cause you quite a lot of heartache.

To put it succinctly: Apathy makes you feel dead and secure; Sensibility makes you feel alive and vulnerable.

So, where's the best place to be? Well, I did term it the Apathy-Sensibility Continuum, so probably somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, this is not something we can really choose.

The Move from Print to Web Comics

Comics have always been a popular form of entertainment. They first started appearing in print newspapers as part of the entertainment section. Some of them have been very influential, such as Peanuts or Calvin & Hobbes. In our more recent times, however, comics in print are losing their popularity to webcomics.

Now, why would a comic be more liked simply because it's on the web rather than on a newspaper? Here are several reasons:

1. Accessibility: It's a lot easier (and free) to simply open up your favorite web-browser and visit as many webcomics as you want.

2. Availability: The usual paper has anywhere from 2 to 10 comics printed. On the internet, there's literally hundreds to choose from.

3. Censorship: Newspaper comics suffer from censorship rules; they must be kept socially safe and cannot contain cuss words. Webcomics suffer from none of these limitations.

4. Niches: Newspapers try to utilize comics with a more general perspective, as they have a very varied audience. On the internet, however, you can find many comics that deal specifically with a certain niche.

Here's two links to my favorite webcomics:

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal


The Perry Bible Fellowship

Voice-chat in Online Gaming

A popular thing for many online gamers is to use voice-chat programs to communicate with their friends. Two of the most well-known ones are Ventrilo and Teamspeak. The use of these programs is most commonly seen in first-person shooter games such as Counterstrike, but they can be used in any game where team play is a possibility.

Basically, they allow users to skip the whole typing thing in favor of simply using their voice to communicate. This has obvious advantages: not only is it much faster, it also allows one to keep the hands on the game's controls - any online gamer is familiar with the term "typing death"; which is dying or losing because you were typing out a message.

However, using voice-chat to communicate also carries some disadvantages. I think perhaps one of the biggest disadvantages is that in a moment of passion, it is much easier to say something you'll regret than it is to type something you'll regret. There's more time to think about it while typing, and you might end up just hitting backspace instead of enter. Also, hearing someone cuss you out hurts more than just reading it. This can cause hurt feelings and destroy your team's cohesiveness. Another disadvantage is that communication can sometimes be less clear due to accents or mispronunciation. Since my native language is Spanish, I have met several people online who had trouble understanding what I said; a problem never encountered when typing.

In the end, voice-chat programs are almost a requirement for higher-tier competitive play in online games. Here's some links:

Teamspeak
Ventrilo