A Southern Boy in a New England Household (part two from something completely different)

I don't think Shawn believed me when I told him going to New Hampshire would be okay.

Maybe he did, but there was something that seemed very hesitant about the whole idea of me bringing him home for fall break. First there was the initial confession that he had NEVER been above the Mason/Dixon line (with a brief trip to Atlantic City... but it was for 15 hours, and that was it). The second confession was he had maybe flew twice (round trip) before, and NEVER by himself.

Well, I kept this in mind... but proceeded to bring him anyway. In reality, he would only be there for a couple days (Friday-Sunday night). Definately not enough time to see the entire aspect of New England, but at least enough to get a taste of some good ol' northern hospitality.

Friday, October 14th finally arrived. Our flight out of Baltimore was to leave at 2pm, so we managed to make the flying experience an all day affair. Stopping at Dunkin' Donuts on our way north, parking the car, checking luggage, roaming the airport, and finally sitting and reading for a bit.

At about ten after two, the plane was beginning to board (the flight was running late). The look Shawn gave me, is one that most little kids give their parents when they know they have to be brave, and they're trying... really trying, but they don't want their parents to know they're scared.

From the time we got on the plane, until we got into my mother's car in Manchester, Shawn had hold of my hand. We got in the car, and as we drove through the smaller/ country-esque towns on our way back to Nashua, he nervously squeezed my hand.

Me: "Shawn, honey, can you please loosen the grip on my hand? I think my fingers are turning blue..."
Him: "Really??? I'm holding your hand?"

His awe comments got better, as we were driving, we passed a golf course, some public buildings, some houses... and Shawn just looks over at me and grins.

Me: "What's that all about? The smiles..."
Him: "Ya'll have golf courses!!! and... and lightposts!!!"

The whole car laughed at his reaction. I knew he was expecting something completely different. I wasn't ready for him to think that we didn't have electricity.

Slowly, things started to calm down for him. Nashua seemed different, but normal. Boston was a completely different experience, because all he had ever experienced was grid shape cites. Boston, is definately not that. There is industry everywhere, things are moving, parts are old. I don't remember seeing Boston for the first time. It was awesome to share his experience in understanding truly how unique the whole thing was (Even in the rain).

Now that we're back, Shawn still tells his friends, how much fun he actually had. That it wasn't scary, just unique. Now he knows what to expect next time i bring him home with me.

Google Print

Books. More books. Lots and lots of books? According to what Google has to say about Google Print, I don't think there is a reason for a discrepancy in the law. It seems that just as long as Google sticks to it's original purpose, to bring books into greater access of the public, but still respecting the copyright laws. I also don't see a problem with Google Print since it is still possible for the copyright holder to say yay or nay to the idea of letting their book be included. Since the statement has been made clearer to the public, the controversy doesn't seem as great a threat to the program... so hopefully, it will be a useful tool in the future.

How to write a weblog-

Class 101 is in session. The Weblog Handbook, I think, are really good criteria. There are too many times that people don't know what they are reading, and they assume that it could be news. Sometimes facts aren't clear, and sometimes that misconception gets interpreted as fact. The problem seems to be that as bloggers, we can tend to be gossipers. It is so much easier to just write, and not check the facts.

But how much responsibility do we have as viewers of blogs? Is it our responsibility to not take everything as fact? Wouldn't it be our responsibility to double (or triple) check sources? How much responsibility should fall on the author, and how much should be on the viewer?

Earning your degree...

Have you heard that it is possible to earn your degree from home? Are you sick and tired of having to deal with that commute to your local college? So, here's an idea: get your degree/ masters at home.

Awesome idea. Now which college/university do you want to recieve you prestegious award? There are hundreds and thousands of possibilities out there... but how many of those places are legitimate? Database Fights Diploma Mills, tells those that are interested, exactly who is credible, and who is just taking your money.

My favorite part of the article, was where the author talks about "Almeda University, which is not accredited by a recognized agency, grants degrees based on life experience." So, how much easier would it be to get your degree under these circumstances? I think it would take a lot of stress off me... no more studying for biology, just knowing three different ways to get rid of a stuffy nose will suffice. History is replaced with being able to order a value meal at McDonalds. Okay, so these noncredited universities are probably not that bad, because they have to manage to dupe the general public to be able to continue the diploma factory. It's a good idea to have a list of these uncredited online universities, because it will only aid in the college/university searching process.

Ignorance is Bliss...

Just because we grew up using the Internet, doesn't mean that we, the technological generation, automatically knows everything about the Internet. According to one of the articles, Survey: Searchers are Confident, Satisfied, and Clueless, the majority of online users are just that. They say it is because we are doing easy searches to satisfy every day passing inquisitive knowledge. That makes sense, because how often have you come across some random question and thought to yourself, "Next time I'm on-line, I'm gonna google that!" I know I'm very guilty of it. I am also notorious for starting my research projects there. It gives me a generalization about what my topic is. However, it isn't my only source of information.

Sometimes, it is easier to be creative then to use search engines like most people do. One of my best friends had a project where should couldn't find anything that remotely looked like what she needed for information. She needed French food during a certain festival. She would either get something related to the festival or something related to the renaming of french fries. So, I suggested we search for online travel guides, and we found one with exactly what she needed. That was just incredibly convienent, and searching doesn't always work like that, but it is definately something good to try when you're having difficulty finding something.

The Internet could use a little Chlorine...

Just because the freedom of speech and the right to display images on the Internet exists, does not mean that everyone wants to see those images. Not all material is meant for innocent eyes, meaning those of minors. Okay, not all minors are innocent, but really, there are things out on the Internet that can make people uncomfortable. I wish that filtering and blocking devices weren't necessary. The text book that my CPSC class is using brought up a very interesting point about them:

"By using filters, a library would be restricting access to information when it's a library's role to provide access to information and let users choose what they want to read, hear, or see." (Ackermann and Hartman, pg. 75)

The book gives the example of people who would search for "breast cancer" or "safe sex", but the search engine's results would be altered because of the content relation of the key words. It seems that information about breast cancer or safe sex would be important additions to a library's media, but because of breast and sex, the information is kept off the rack.

"Opponents of this view say that libraries don't generally collect pornography in book or magazine form, so why should they allow this material to be accessed on the internet?" (Ackermann and Hartman, pg. 75)

The whole debate makes sense, but why punish good information because some of the resulted information is bad? Hopefully, with the advancement of the Internet and technology of computers it will be possible to filter the bad sites, but keep the informative ones accessable.

Where in the www is Kim Frost?

Search Engine: Google
Search Query: Kim Frost

...searching...

Congratulations. There are 9,380 results for "kim frost". Okay, in Germany, someone with my name has a PhD. In Portsmouth, NH there is a new junior high teacher named Ms. Kim Frost (That was a highly ironic find considering I grew up in Nashua, NH... 40 minutes away). And then there are pictures of a woman with my name on the internet, however, they are not me. But lets pretend that we have all the time in the world and scroll through those 9,380 results, and you know what? I do exist on the World Wide Web!!!

Where I exist, however, is not all that exciting. I exist on entry 30 and 33 on the google search. These links bring me back a long, long, LONG time ago. To a time when I was a synchronized swimmer. To a part of my life that for the longest time, identified who I was. These two sites are results pages from when the Synchronized Swimming team at Mary Washington went to Nationals in Ana Arbor, MI. It was a good trip with the team, the height of my synchro career, and my last nationals. Amazing what you can find on the Internet if you search long enough.

copy cats

when something is posted, published, written, drawn, created, or made accessible to the public, with todays technology, it is possible to have that media at one's fingertips within seconds. it is even easier to take that information, because according to the article, "Information is meant to be free". i have a problem with that statement: 1) what is information? and 2) just because people have access to certain information, does not make it yours to use and republish.

okay, what is information? is information just facts? what about media or music or opinions? it is all information, it is all shareable, so therefore, we as the need to know public have the right to share all of this information. i think the attitude of most people is backwards, they feel that because America is allowed to have a freedom of speech, they feel that it is okay to speak however they feel about anything. granted, i'm using that freedom right now as i babble about things that i probably don't happen to have the sturdiest of grasps on, but i'm not taking ideas from someone else and using them. i'm desperately trying to avoid offending people, but if i am offending someone, just keep in mind, i'm not singling out, i'll probably offend everybody.

the article discusses the copyright law and how it went in 1909 from dealing with the right to publish, to "prohibit the copying of others creations". i also think that the article is right in saying that as technology advances it becomes easier to have copied material. it is scary to think how easily accessible information is. now with people feeling they have the right to know everything, i think that is one of the biggest threats we will ever face.

personally, there are things i do not want to know. i do not want to know what brad pitt ate for breakfast. i could careless what diet works for jennifer aneston. these are the personal lives of people. i don't need to know everything. i need to know important things, like the weather, who's running for president, and why the light in my room makes an incredibly annoying buzzing sound. somethings are meant to be shared, somethings are not. i also think, like the article, that the copyright law should revert back to the good old days and work to protect information and creators, not so much the freedom of speech aspect. freedom of speech should be seen as a privilage, not as a demanding right. but maybe i just don't understand, and i'm the one that has it all backwards. eitherway, copyright needs to be explored a little deeper, and become a little more black and white.

ahoy!!!

okay, so downloading music, downloading movies, is it really illegal when these movies are going to be on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and all the other local channels? i mean, really, how different is it than just sticking a tape in the VCR and taping it off the television? okay, so the release of these movies is sooner than it would be on television. the television version is usually edited to keep in line with television laws.

is any of this sounding familiar? lets back up a couple years ago, and revisit the same problem that the music industry faced. it was the same problem of big business music companies being cut out of profit. rockstars were getting "stolen" from, because they were not getting the profits from their work.

the article i read, was about how the movie company is now starting to see the same affects. faster computers, faster internet connections, and dvd technology is making bootlegging a reinvented industry. it tells about how cybergeeks are capable of getting movies within hours on the net and ready for download. the article also talks about how movie going is becoming less popular because of digital wide screen televisions, digital video devices, and surround sound. people are now able to remain in the comfort of their own homes, while watching their desired movie.

personally, i think this will be another courtcase that will pass through the system. court authorities will put a restriction on it, and serious bootleggers will come up with an excuse, or at least desperately try to find a loop-hole, so the whole thing will still be a continual cycle that we all will be ready to be sick of hearing and reading about in about three weeks.

have you ever seen that movie, with the kids that think they're playing a video game, but in reality, they are destroying the world? i think the movie is called War Games. unfortunately, my life isn't that interesting. i've never broken into a computer system, i've never hacked into another network, i feel accomplished if i can get the word processor to obey my wishes. luckily, i have never had my identity stolen, or have been subject of a computer hacker. probably the most exciting possible computer breech i might have ever delt with, was getting the amish virus. now, you must understand the depth of destruction the amish virus can create. the first thing that happens, is you get an e-mail from someone out of your address book. the title will be: Joke. so, you think your friend joe has sent you a funny joke, okay, so you open it. inside, there is a message, similar, if not exactly written like something your friend would write. so you open the attatchment and another window opens. the writing in the window reads:

Congratulations!!! You have just received the Amish Virus.

As the Amish have no technology or programming experience, this virus works
on the honor system. Please delete all the files from your hard drive and
manually forward this virus to everyone on your mailing list.

Thank you for your cooperation.

and you realize, you have just been duped. i didn't delete my hard drive, but i got a big chuckle out of it. i mean, when i got this, it was when the entire world was becoming infected with the lovebug. it was cute, with no side affects, but it does make me wonder, why do people send out viruses? why do people try so hard to get others information? really, what is so wrong with honest, hard work? is it to prove a point that the world is too dependent of computers? or is it really just people thinking they are funny? i'm mean these people sending out viruses, what if there was a bigger and better virus that ate up their hard drives and all their hard work? would it still be funny? probably not.

so we've all recieved viruses in our e-mail, we will most likely continue to get them until the world either: A) is destroyed because every thing has been destroyed by one, big, nasty virus or B) virus creators/ hackers decide that it's just easier to get a real job, and leave their hobbies to become obsolete like their computers...

every year, we come back to school, we move in at the earliest, two days before classes, and we struggle to get everything situated before class early on monday morning. sometimes our parents come, and they do their best to help organize our stuff, when in reality they are just driving us nuts. but there is always that excitement of putting stuff in its place, getting new things, like sheets and clothes, and getting to meet your roommate.

but after having moved in three previous times to mary wash, like many seniors, i like to think of myself as a "pro". but this year, went surprisingly well for elena and i. elena and i have been roommates for three years, and this was the first year we decided we were going to homestead. we lived in willard last year, and decided that it wasn't all that bad, so we'd stay here again this year. we also decided that moving in early on saturday would be a good idea. so, elena came back to school early, and we realized how much crap two college student can accumulate over the course of three years. it took us a good many trip up the stairs to get our stuff into the room. the plus side: having lived here the year before, we were able to put everything away as we came upstairs. we kept the same closets, beds, desks and dressers. the only thing that moved, was where it was located.

by coming back early, it gave us two days to get accustomed to our room. it also gave us time to get our books, and even get used to school food again. granted, we moved ourselves in, (with some much appreciated assistance from my boy) so that was different. but all in all, for elena and i move in went rather smoothly. i hope everyone else moved in just as easily!!!

the internet: what can you trust and what can you thow out the window? okay, so a lot of students have issues distinguishing between a trustworthy site and a bogus site on the internet. as a history major, i have come to love the internet, because it makes my hours in the library, a whole lot less. but what do researches go by to distinguish a reliable source? sometimes just looking at a site isn't enough, you have to go deeper. okay, so anyone can do a google search for "Caribbean Pirates" and get a number of different sites. what you do with that site is up to you. heres a pretty good example of a reasonably decent historical site: http://www.kipar.org/piratical-resources/index.html the site seems realtively legit.

but how do i know? well, from what i've been told this is rule number one: do your research. i've been taught to not just look for my topic, but to research the author of the site, who's hosting the site, and to even double check what has been posted on the site. the site is owned by the poster Nicole Kidar. when i googled her name, she is a historical clothing specialist. along with the clothing she has contextual research. she leads a bibliographical trail with her information, and thanks those that have helped her with information. she is credited at canterbury as the learning technologist of arts and humanities. for the most part kipar is a pretty credible resource.

but lets look at one that probably isn't.

a friend of a friend sent me to this site in reguards to baldeagles: http://baldeagle.i8.com/ there's blinking adds, there's a little bit of information, that could possibly be legitimate, because they did their research, but also, we don't know for sure, because there are no citations. infact, everything posted is a bunch of nonsense. these are two very extreme websites, but i don't blame the understanding of the internet as an unmonitored source as a means for not getting accurrate information. i blame people for being lazy. if something doesn't sound right, and if it doesn't look right, make sure you double check the information. that is easy to do.

and now, for something completely different. just imagine that you were picked up and relocated to an area that looked like home and felt like home, but there is that feeling in your stomach that something just isn't right... you know, feeling slightly sick, being that fish out of water, think its the chicken you ate for lunch sort of feeling?

now imagine having that feeling for an ENTIRE summer.

i am a new england girl born and raised. i grew up in new hampshire. i like the patriots. the boston red sox are my boys. i say wicked. i go to the bubbler (not the water fountain) for a quick drink. i occasionally drop "r"s out of words, like "car" (pronounced: cah) or superstar (pronounced: supahstah), and i add them to the ends of other words, like idea (pronounced: idear). my life had been fast paced, and always on the go. i wear a lot of black and greys, because adding color to my wardrobe would be a fashion faux-pas. i remember when school would not be cancled because of two feet of snow. i know that the trees do not have some form of rare disease when they change color.

then, three years ago, i came to mary washington, and went through a major identity crisis. i learned "ya'll" is a word. i was introduced to country music. the pick-up truck is more common than a bmw, and actually, more practical. i learned that it is okay to like grits. it's okay to put breakfast gravy on food. but my favorite thing i learned while being in the south: it's okay to just watch a lazy afternoon pass by with some sweet tea and good people. (sweet tea is probably the best kept secret in the south.)

so this being the summer entering my senior year, i decided it was time to be independent of mommy and daddy, and try the "living on my own" ordeal. i worked as a lifeguard, lived with my boss, and ate easy mac for the first three weeks of summer. but i was totally on my own. it was liberating, i could come and go as i please, and i was starting to meet new people. the hardest part to overcome with meeting these new "townies" as they like to call themselves, was a) how far back everyone had known eachother. (i'm not talking like 5 years, meeting in jr. high sort of thing... i'm refering to since birth, possibly having met at 5 years old at the latest!) b) the lifestyle these kids were leading (how easy going everyone was. time was never an issue, and if something didn't get done, it could always wait until tomorrow). and c) realizing how northern i actually was, and how out-of-place i must have looked hanging out with these very southern locals.

but then the southerness just went from a little different, to a whole new world when i went to a fourth of july bash at one of my newly accuired friend's house. i did my absolute best to go to this with a wide open mind. (my experience from the first part of summer told me to just go with everything, and don't fight it.) first off, it is the fourth of july, as seen in the picture above, the american flag is SMALLER than the confederate flag. seeing the confederate flag threw me off more than the size at first, but with careful observation, the whole picture just made me laugh. Then there was two horseshoe pits. i have only heard about horseshoes, and usually, they are found on the bottom of horses, not so much thrown at two sticks in the ground. either way, it looked fun, i tried it, and was told i should stick to volleyball.

volleyball was something that looked familliar. i actually did pretty well with that, and we had a giant game going. that was fun.

but then there was dinner. i was expecting burgers and dogs. because that's what we have in new england for the fourth. (sometimes lobster, but traditionally, it's burgers and dogs). so, when dinner comes around, there's no burgers, no dogs, (well some dogs) but theres some crabs!!! i was shocked, completely unprepared for seafood. weird. but i learned how to pick a crab... and it turned out to be pretty good too.

then there were fireworks. it was probably the best firework show i have ever seen. i mean come on, with lenord skinard playing in the background, it was great.

but after spending the summer with these kids, my perspective on how they grew up has changed. i never saw it as "wrong", just different. for a long time, pretty much up to the fourth of july, i felt like i didn't belong with them, that i was a complete outcast, and that they just thought i was weird. in reality, it was just me being insecure. i did belong, i just didn't see it. i was the one that made these kids realize that not everyone knows their friends from birth, that there is a place where things are always on the go because relaxing isn't an option, and that what they have in stafford was something relatively unique. they made me realize how special my upbringing was, even if i left because i didn't like where i was... it's made me who i am. this summer has just made me realize that.