I could not be happier or more excited for the future, but I’m also so sad that it’s over. I think I might be an overly-nostalgic person. I miss something as soon as it’s gone, whether it be my freshman year of college, my old house, a relationship, a vacation, or even a meal. It’s just weird to me that once that time has passed, we’ll never get it back. Even if we write down every vivid detail of our lives, we still can’t go back and experience the best (and worst) moments all over again and how we felt at those moments. It’s scary and amazing how quickly it all passes.

But enough of that.

Now it’s summer! Back to the love of my life (my dog), driving around with the windows down, the smell of grass and chlorine, playing the Sims way too much, awkward encounters with high school acquaintances, walking around Wal-Mart and Goodwill aimlessly, reading books by choice, our road trip to Indiana, and a laundry machine that’s closer than four floors away. I’m so excited. AND I’ve officially decided on an internship this summer – I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.

I’ll definitely be making lots of videos this summer. I have lots of ideas and way too much time. Prepare. AND my sister is moving to Chicago for her new job [SIDE NOTE: My roommate just woke up and I convinced her for .5 second that I slept through my final exam] and I’m going to visit her there and make some sort of video about it. You crazy people will be hearing  much more from alexistequiere in the social media world.

That is all, lovely subscribers. See you soon.

My final exams are the first week of May, and after that I’m freeeeeeee. My freshman year of college will be over. Yesterday, I started taking a bunch of decorative stuff off of my dorm’s walls (turns out double sided tape > walls… I discovered this after finding various chunks of wall missing after I took everything down…. oops.) and my whole room feels so empty now. It’s so crazy that I’ve lived in this tiny little room with someone else since August and it feels like I just moved in.

My 19th birthday is coming up – April 28th!! Now that I’m getting older, it gets harder and harder to think of things I actually want for my birthday. Do you guys feel the same way? One of the few things on my list is Scrabble. Hm.

Yep, the board game...

Leave a comment telling me what you’d ask for if you were me!

]]> http://alexistequiere.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/all-that-remains-by-rogue-wave/feed/ 1 alexistequiere Scrabble http://alexistequiere.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/silvia-by-miike-snow/ http://alexistequiere.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/silvia-by-miike-snow/#comments Sun, 10 Apr 2011 05:43:17 +0000 alexistequiere http://alexistequiere.wordpress.com/?p=98 ]]> First and foremost, I apologize for the huge lack of updates recently. Lately, I’ve taken my writing to a different place… It’s called penzu. It’s essentially a website that lets people keep secret journals. So, yeah… I may not have one sitting on my bedside table with “KEEP OUT” stickers all over it, but yes, I AM an 18 year old college student with a secret journal. However, I have decided that I will not let that stop me from updating this blog! Let the brain vomit begin.

I’ve been applying for internships like crazy this weekend. I feel like I’ve spent the past 48 hours bragging about myself in different Microsoft Word documents. As old as that gets, I’m still so excited about getting my first internship. It’s my first step into the “real world.” Pretty soon I’ll be drinking wine over lunch and chattin’ it up about politics. Well, probably not. But I might have a salary!

Anyways, it’s pretty late and I have a computer science test I should be studying for (as always). I just wanted to post a quick update and tell you all that you haven’t been abandoned.

Leave a comment and tell me what you’ve been up to!

Love,
Your favorite te queer

So. How ya been? Good? Me too. I’m in college.
AGHHHHHH COLLLEGEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love it. I love it so much. I thought that “college” over the summer was amazing, but I had no idea. Even the food tastes better in the fall. It’s so exciting. AND, I went through Rush (yeah yeah yeah, mumble under your breath about sororities) last week and that was absolutely insane. I feel like I can make small talk with a wall now. I’ve been introduced to probably over 100 people in the past week and remember a total of about 10 names. That’s good. Glad my awesome memory can help me out in social situations. [BTW - I'm gonna refrain from telling you which sorority I'm in, just cause I feel like that's a lot more specific than saying "I go to Georgia Tech"]

Classes at Georgia Tech are…. ridiculous. I am in Calculus II and I do not know what’s going on. First of all, my teacher writes like a four-year-old and uses a chalkboard. Really? A chalkboard? We are an “Institute of Technology”. You’d think we could come up with SOMETHING better than that. So I can’t see anything on the board AND he literally makes no sense when he speaks. Oh, and my T.A. can’t speak English. So that’s awesome. I will occasionally look around the room and see people literally laughing because the situation is so ridiculous. Oh, goodness. I need a tutor…. an English-speaking one. My CS class is interesting, but hard, and my other classes are alright.

My roommate, Caitlyn, is awesome, and Farina, my roommate from summer, is just down the hall . It’s nice to be surrounded by wonderful people. If you’d like to see my life in pictures, check out www.alexistakespictures.blogspot.com.

I LOVE YOU ALL. And I will try to keep you updated, even though the other day, I didn’t have time to eat. Oh, and everyone close to me is mad at me for not texting/calling them back.

<3

I hope you are all doing well.

I am going to make my to-do list of stuff I want to do before I go back to college. Here it is:

• Go to the pool and read
• Finish reading The Da Vinci Code
• Sushi date with Mom
• Finish reading 3 chapters for Computer Science…. (what.)
• Buy a nice dress
• Make a video (Either “Best comments ever” or “What’s in my bag?”… both sarcastic)
• Discover new music and make a good fall college playlist!
• Sit around for an entire day and literally do nothing. Or maybe just go to the pool for the entire day.
• Have lunch with a friend I haven’t seen in a while
• Go tubing
• Buy birthday presents for two of my best friends (Their birthdays are four days apart)

I guess that’s about it! At least only a few of things are actually required. Not sure why I made a blog about my to-do list. I guess I just wanted to list everything. That’s all for today, loves.

P.S. – If any of you have any good music suggestions, pleasee leave them in the comment section. Also, if any of you are lacking good music, make a Pandora station for the artist “City and Colour”… everything it suggests is amazing. Okay, not everything. But most of it!

First of all, I would like to notify you that the English 1101 blogs are officially over. I am not going to even pretend that I am not happy. As much as I’m sure you all loved reading about copyright infringement, this blog will once again focus on the mundane daily adventures of Alexis. (The important stuff… You know.)

I actually made a picture blog. I’m doing “Project 365″, which means I’ll be taking a picture every single day for a year. Although the idea is to write a little something when I post the picture, I get a bit lazy and only write when I’m feeling extra inspired. Today, I was feeling extra inspired. [www.alexistakespictures.blogspot.com] I was honestly a little worried that taking a picture every day would feel like so much of an annoying obligation, but I love it. I like that I have to look for inspiration in daily, boring things. It’s challenging and eye-opening.

My summer semester just ended [:(] and those 5 weeks were the best of my life. They really were. As much as I complained about walking to class under the Atlanta sun, I loved every single minute of it. I think what made my summer so great was honestly the people. The people you are with are so much more important than where you are or what you are doing. I met so many new, amazing people. It’s absolutely crazy to meet so many people at once, though. It amazes me every day how different everyone is from each other. We are all completely different, quirky people. I love the process of learning these quirky things about people; sometimes I don’t exactly love everybody’s quirks, but trying to see the world through their eyes, even just for a second, is exhilarating. Think about it: everyone’s individual reality is completely formed around them. No matter how selfless we like to think we are, 99% of the decisions we make are individually motivated. We see the world through our eyes, even if we try not to. And to throw all of us, all of these people and all of their realities together.. it is crazy. Lately, I’ve been wishing I could just sit back and watch  people interact all day. Just sit back and watch the world go by. It’s so interesting.

I’m home for 10 days – I’m going to try to make the best of them. (i.e. NOT sleep until 3 p.m. and eat Chick-fil-A on a daily basis) Hopefully the next 10 days will be filled with sunshine and chlorine. Also, I need to read some books! Hoorayyyy.

That is all for tonight, non-existent readers.

<3 Me

We live in a world that is constantly transforming; right now, our physical world is transforming into a digital one. This is especially apparent within what many refer to as the “C-Generation”. The “C-Generation” is the generation of people born after 1990, experiencing adolescence after the year 2000 (Friedrich 2). Friedrich defines these “digital natives” as “computerized, community-oriented, always clicking”, a population trained to access social media efficiently. These “natives” use social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, so regularly that they have become an integral part of their realities, and in some cases, the sole means of communication with others. Because the realities of this C-Generation are so digitally centered, the infringements of copyrights becomes inevitable with the constant flow and redistribution of information. With the changes in these new technologies also may come a change in the traditional definition of a copyright and thus a copyright infringement.

The U.S. Government defines a “copyright” as a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. Although that is the “official definition”, we must ask: do we have to change this definition with the changes in modern technologies? These copyrights effectively “link” an author to a work. However, the Internet causes the author to be unlinked from their work and the copyrights become less effective, which leads to copyright infringement; but, what is “copyright infringement”? Copyright infringement is defined as the violation of the exclusive rights of the copyright. (U.S. government) This vague definition leaves lots of room for interpretation. Determining whether or not a copyright infringement has taken place has become an arbitrary decision; in fact, the decision of who is punished and the severity of said punishment are both arbitrary. Once the copyright infringement has been determined, arbitrarily or not, how is it punished? Depending on the actual value of what’s copyright is being violated, the punishment can be more severe. For instance, if an ancient, incredibly valuable painting’s copyright were being violated, the punishment would be worse than if a celebrity’s song were used as the background music of a YouTube video. The rate at which copyrighted media is uploaded to the Internet is much faster than the rate at which the media can be regulated. The way in which these pieces of media are uploaded is getting more and more popular and increasingly sophisticated, to a point where they poise a significant challenge to our established system of content production and monetization (Roettgers). Many copyright violations have even gone unnoticed due to the overwhelming quantity of them. Because of this, we have started to see a copyright as something that is not a legitimate offense. One reason that we don’t see it as a legitimate offense is because copyright violations are seemingly “victimless” crimes. Unless the owner of the copyright sues the violator of their copyright, the crime does not have a visible victim. There are many complex legal process involved to be harshly punished for copyright infringement. More likely, if the infringement takes place online, website moderators will remove the  “item” from their webpage. However, this typically only happens when someone (usually the copyright owner) makes a complaint. Frequently, cases go unreported because the owner of the copyright either does not notice or is unbothered by the violation. This makes us ask, if nobody is bothered by this “crime”, is the crime obsolete? These become questions we as a society need to answer, partially due to the fact that social media is such a huge part of our means of communication. These social networking sites facilitate copyright infringements.

Copyrights are incredibly prevalent on the Internet, specifically on social media websites such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Although many users have to agree that they are not violating any copyrights before they distribute any media on these websites, this process becomes so routine that it often goes unnoticed. If a copyright is violated on YouTube, the moderators take the video down without punishment to the user. One of the big problems of copyright violations, specifically in the realm of social media, is that often times, violators do not know that they are breaking the law. Because the offense is minimized, the offense happens much more frequently.

How do we fix such a prevalent problem in our new, digital world? One of the important things that need to happen is a distinction between commercial and non-commercial use (Anassutzi). Because there are so many more violations taking place, a systematic way of organizing and classifying these violations may help us determine punishments rather than being overwhelmed by the many offenses. These changes may lead to a less stringent copyright system, but also a copyright system that is organized and systemized. Unless many changes need take place in the regulation of copyright infringement violations, the idea of a copyright, a copyright infringement, and perhaps personal ownership of media may all end up dead.

Kerley shifts from writing with a completely casual tone and topic to writing about a more serious topic regarding powerful “premises” prevalent in our society. She begins the article with an incredibly casual tone (“So, um, if he could…”); she uses first person perspective, which draws the reader in and provides a sense of comfort, intimacy and trustworthiness. After she has successfully gained trust and established credibility, Kerley begins to move onto more serious topics, such as the preference of our government structure and the transformation of media in our society (“democratization of content to the audience”).

Kerley makes a connection between government and the Internet. This may be a false analogy to some extent: although the internet and the government do have many things in common, such as the vast quantity of demanding people involved in each, directly comparing the two may have dangerous implications. Kerley notes that because we as a society have declared Ashton Kutcher to be the “king” of a website, we also have the tendency to prefer a monarch to a democracy. Although the concluding statement of that paragraph (“Yep, irony indeed runs deep”) provides some comedic relief and thus causes previous claims to seem more casual, the comparison still catches the reader off-guard and may cause the author to lose credibility. Even though the false analogy is present, the comparison still stands. Because at first, Kerley uses anecdotal support (“I’ve been balking over…”) for her point and then switches to more historically based evidence (“Man against machine premise”), her legitimacy improves with the increase in formality. The reader can easily recognize the balance between opinion and fact.

Evidence of fallacious arguments can be seen in the article. For instance, referring to the competition as a “Twitter-powered popularity contest” and referencing Ashton Kutcher’s “super-sized ego” creates the straw man and the ad hominem fallacy. Kerley summarizes Ashton’s cause and competition as something different than what it is – something much more petty than it is in reality. Kerley also states that because Oprah declared Kutcher the “King of Twitter”, the rest of the American population is in agreement. Although Oprah does have some influence over the public’s opinions, she does not have the authority to determine our thoughts on which governmental structures we may prefer. Kerley’s appeal to authority is evident in this argument. The reader may recognize that Oprah declaring something may make it more legitimate, but also may realize that Oprah only appeals to a certain demographic and therefore may see her views as less credible.

The use of humor in this blog has an incredibly strong effect on the reader. Kerley unified the blog through including a humorous bit about Susan Boyle in the beginning and ending the blog with another mention of the recently popular celebrity. She even humorously concludes the blog with the proverbial proposal: “How’s about them apples?” Kerley intertwines humor into her serious points and it even seems to give those points more validity. The use of emotionally charged words and exclamation helps communicate the mostly sarcastic tone of the article. Although if employed differently, the use of such obvious and frequent humor could detract from the article’s validity, Kerley uses the humor to her benefit, punctuating her main points with humorous bits and allowing the reader to feel a sense of normality and casualty, while still viewing the argument as legitimate and credible.

Kerley concluded her blog with a strongly focused theme. The way in which she structured her blog and implemented humor allowed the reader to first see a specific example of the subject of her argument and then see how that example represents a concept as a whole. Because of this structure, Kerley was able to ease into her point without it seeming forced upon the audience. Although Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter endeavors initially appeared to be the focus of the entire blog, Kerley used that focus as a gateway into deeper subjects and the transformation of media (but not the ideals behind it). She may not support the “competition” between Kutcher and CNN, but she points out the valuable lesson inherent in the situation: New media and old media are both prevalent in our society and probably will be for quite a while; they rely on each other in order to exist and evolve. She also points out an important difference between social media and traditional media – we have direct control over social media and “there is no right way” to utilize social media. The structure implicit in “old” media is not present in new media. She helps prove these points through the use of examples, not only using persuasive rhetoric, but also providing concrete evidence. Kerley argues that old and new media are incredibly similar, or at least have similar roots in purpose. However, she notes that although the ideas behind both medias may be similar, the media itself has indeed changed. Kerley successfully makes her point, even if some slightly fallacious argumentative techniques were employed. Her validity still stood and she even provided the reader with some humor along the way.

P.S. – This was also for my English class!

Do you ever have one of those days where you just wake up happy? I do. Today was one of those days. It was such a good day. Even little things like seeing a dog stick its head out the window make me smile. Or a friendly neighbor waving at me. The suburbs didn’t seem so awfully depressing.

I woke up and ate a chicken biscuit from Chick-Fil-A. If you are not from the US and/or do not live in a location where there is Chick-Fil-A, your life is not complete yet. If you ever travel to the US and/or any place with Chick-Fil-A, you HAVE TO TRY IT. I don’t understand how people function without it. Seriously. This is a chicken biscuit:

This will change your life.

Also, Chick-Fil-A just came out with a spicy chicken sandwich. It is, to say the least, amazing.

I have such substantial things to write about. I should probably get a moleskine notebook.

-Alexis

P.S. – Spain lost against Switzerland today. It put a temporary damper on my good day. Leave me a comment and tell me: Have you been watching the world cup? If so, who are you rooting for?

Do you ever get so excited that you can’t sleep or function properly? That’s how I feel. Two weeks from today, I will be moving into my college dorm. And that is all I can think about. It’s ridiculous. These past few weeks have consisted of tons of family and lots of graduation parties. And I know – I DESPERATELY need to make a video.

Here are a few video ideas I have right now:
1. Second Grade Literature, Volume II. —-(just found an old box of all my sisters’ stuff… muahaha)
2. Top Ten Comments Ever Received (obviously sarcastic)
3. UPDATE! College news, merchandise, spring break clips, etc. (I will do this one for sure. Probably before the others.)

I know that nobody actually reads this blog – but if you do, I’d love some feedback on what you’d think of those ideas.
(Note: all of those videos actually involve me talking to a camera! I know you don’t really like the “artsyish” videos that I’ve been uploading. So THERE!)

I’ve noticed lately that I am disliking watching myself talk to a camera more and more and more. The process of talking to a camera and then watching yourself talking to a camera while you edit clips becomes a bit depressing after a while, especially when you stutter a lot and tend to sound like an idiot. (cough, me.) AND when you notice a southern accent. Oh, god.

HOWEVER, because I love each of my subscribers so dearly, I will make that sacrifice. FOR YOU. That’s right. I am so selfless.

AND, when I go to college, that doesn’t mean the videos will stop comin’. Because I know my roommate, and she’s totally cool with the whole video thing. She will most definitely be a guest star in quite a few of my videos. (Thinking about living in a dorm with a roommate just made my heart rate increase. SO EXCITED!!!!)

Okay! Not sure what the point of this blog is. Just thought I’d give a bit of an update and something for you to look forward to!

Love all of you.
-Alexis

P.S. – If you actually read this blog, could you leave a comments saying “Hey, I read this blog! You’re not doing this for no reason! “