Pictures and their meanings...

This is probably the most appropriate picture to match the term 'friends' as the group of people shown are the characters from the show which is titled "Friends" and revolves around a group of friends ( some famile) that live together in America and basicall just details their day-to-day lives.

High tech.... this word automatically gets me thinking about those little computer chips that contain billions of bits of imformation...something I just cannot seem to grasp because I think its so complex and tricky the way a centimeter-squared piece of plasctic or whatever it is can

contain so much information!

News...I think it is self-explanatory..a newspaper!
Even though with the revolutionizing world, this is still the image the springs into mind when I think of the News!

Summer... reminds me of California... ig uess I've seen too many of those corny teenage-summer-vacation movies made in California...Just like this one:

Now unconventional is a toughy...according to the dictionary it means not generally

accepted by the public etc so i think this image is quirky enough to fit an unconventional theme!

Lastly, University life: NOW THIS IS APROPRIATE. bascially because university menas stacks of paperwork and assignments that just seem never-ending! Yikes!

Scavenger hunt...

1.What is the weight of the worlds biggest pumpkin?
A: According to Lenny_G, the worlds biggest pumpkin weighs in at 1061 pounds. Now usually i wouldn't just get my answer off someone else's blog, but considering they are a student from the same class as me (ha ha!) I guess they have already done the work! :)

2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?
A:I've been searching a few of the sites, and it looks like its either sending him some fan mail or
going to where he is currently swimming. I would think you could sms the team and it would still get to him, even though he isn't competeing in the Commonwealth games...

3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?
A: Approxiamtely 20 inches long... that is alot of tongue!

4. How would you define the word "ontology"? In your own words, what does it really mean ?
A: Ontology means "The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being" which, in my interpretation is something like the act of living or existing.
http://dictionary.reference.com/

5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?
A: I'm thinking its the 1975 film Shivers
http://filmfreakcentral.net/notes/dcronenbergretrointerview.htm

6. When was the original "Hacker's Manifesto" written?
A: It was originally written in 1986, according to http://www.whitehats.ca/main/members/Ubergeek/ubergeek_manifesto.html

7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with "555"?
A: No English place names contained the combination of the letters J, K, and L -- which are all assigned to the digit "5" on the phone. So the prefix 555 wasn't used, and Hollywood was encouraged to use it so as to limit the prank-calling public.
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020826.html

8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?
A: Well i've been searching the internet...through Yahoo and Altavista and it seems that there are heaps of 'cheap' modes of transport from Crete to Rhodes, but, one of my searches came up with a previos students blog and they have commented that the cheapest way is to walk ... sounds right to me!

9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?
A: From march 20-27, in Australia the best song was "I'll Never Find Another You" by The Seekers, in the UK it was "The Last Time" by The Rolling Stones and then in America it was "Eight Days A Week" by The Beatles. Wow, i never thought all of these great bands were around at the same time as each other! Perhaps I should get out my mum's old records and have a listen hey!...get with the times!

10. Which Brisbane band was (still is?) Stephen Stockwell a member of?
A: Well well well, it seems Mr stockwell is a member of Brisbane's the Black Assassins... not just a lecturer after all! hahaha
www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/2005/content/standard.asp?name=StockwellS

Alphaville Review

Alphaville is an old, black and white film, in French, so it has subtitles.

Although this may seem unenticing to watch, the underlying concept is quite fascinating to anyone interested in (the birth and development of) communication or technology (and media).

Basically, the film explores the notion of the computer-controls-the-human concept. That is, back in the 1960's (when it was made) the whole idea of how fast the technology was growing (or soon to be growing) was thought to one day have the potentialto take over and control the human race.
However, as the storyline unfolded, it became evident that the computer could not identify emotions, as do humans and this, ultimatley was the death of the computer.

It is interesting to see just how far we have advance technologically since the making of this film. We are expanding our knowledge almost on a day-to-day basis, and it may be, perhaps, not that far away when we can get computer to do alot of work for us. It is, however, highly unlikely that they will conquer us as a rac eand take over our lives and bodies. And this is because, just as Godard has revealed in his film, humans will always have and need that intimacy and love from one-another, and this is something a computer can never understand. Although it is possible for the computer to know the meaning of love, they cannot participate in feeling the sensations that come along with it.

So, this film is highly relevant to the issues we deal with today in communication and technological practices,
and we cn use the underlying theme as a basis as to where we think we may end up in the future.

Spam Schmam!

OMG!
I totally HATE sll the spam that i seem to be getting in my email inbox. GRRRRR!

I only get it in my hotmail email though, thankfully not the uni one as well! I guess this is because there is a bigger and better firewall that comes with the University emailing system, as opposed to the hotmail one which practically lets anything and anyone in!!!

I have got a filter happening, but if i put the security up too high, i can't seem to recieve emails from friends unless they are on my "safe list". So there goes that idea...not that i get that many emails from people that aren't on the "safe list" but occasionally i get one from a friend I haven't heard from in yonks so its always nice not to reject the (few) goodies i do get!

There are some laws in australia that try to ban any unecessary emails that go around, but it seems those that want to annoy the hell out of the rest of us seem to disguise their emails well and they get through the system unnoticed by the big guys.

scavenger hunt

Q- What is a search engine?
A- A search engine is a tool used to search the world wide web.

Q- How do seach engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
A- Some search engines will rank their results by relevancy according to various criteria like how often a term is searched by other users.

Others will place the companies that 'pay' for their sites to be listed at the top most of the searches.

Q- Who, or what makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?
A- The more topic-specific your words are that you enter into the search engine, the more useful a page will be as a result of that search. Therefore, if you put in a search request for something as broad as an object, like books, the results will be in the thousands. However if you entered something more specific such as sci-fi/japanese books, your search results would come back much more narrowed and closer to what you want.

Q- What are some of your favourite search engines? Why do you like one more than the other?
A- I personally prefer google.com only only because the name is easy to remember :) and also because the homepage doesn't contain loads of advertising articles and junk. I find I almost always find what i am searching for, first go with google...whereas one such as yahoo.com tends to advertise their 'favourite' or home-sites so i have to look a little harder.

Q- Can you find some current news stories about the search engines?
A- apparently, so yahoo has just told me... G oogle News has just gone mobile! this means that certain people with the right sort of mobiles (the lucky and rich ones!) can access news from google on their mobile phones. The news articles that can go to the phones, however, are only the articles that have been optimized for mobile users.

Course Uncertainty...???...

Howdy again!

Erm, I'm so confused about this course I'm taking. I mean, I'm trying to keep up with it all by reading ahead, and trying out the tutorial tasks on my own at home but its just not helping. This week i am supposed to post a report on the topics I'm going to cover for my essay but I've had a brief look through the course readings and reallu there is nothing much there that takes my fancy so.... i guess I'm stuck.

My tutor said to find something we like so we'll breeze through the essay but what are we supposed to do it theres nothing there for us that we like???

Arrrgh! Uni schmuni! Its so confusing and daunting for us first years! This is the second time around at uni for me, i quit the last time I was here and I'm determined to hang on this time, but its so hard! Why do I seem like the only one struggling?? Is everyone else just silently chucking their tantrums or is Nocola Fawson the ONLY ONE who is actually struggling? AAAARG!

Unknown

Well, I've been informed that this blog of mine is supposed to be used to express my feelings about the comm and dig technologies class at uni i'm taking; wither that or it was just an option for the people that get stuck with ideas to write about.

Anyhow... about this class; i haven't actually had a tute for it yet, that starts tomorrow so until then... What I've seen of the class (in the 2 lectures) its pretty intense stuff. Boring too, just a tad, but then again thats only some of it... the pieces that I find relevant are those that relate to me and the world around me; We had to watch this film called "Alphaville" (and we're supposed to write about it soon too) and its so old and weird- I have no idea why we're meant to watch it. Anyway, its only halfway through so I guess it'll all come together in the end!

as for now I have to catch up on this weeks readings... its alotta reading for me so meh, off to it i am!

gumboots for gumbies!

There are no rainbows here today, literally speaking.
But, in my world, the rainbows seem to have frizzled into mere fragments of my surrounding peers imaginations!
Haha...everyone is telling me that there is a better way of living and that I should get up, out of bed and do something or go somewhere. Well I have, and still things are as frighteningly boring as they were before. I'm not keen to stay this way, however whenever an enticing idea appears i sit and ponder the outcome, and sit and ponder the outcome and sit and ponder the outcome.... until I've thought about it too much and its boring all over again. Ha, sad ha!
perhaps i should just act on instinct next time? But thats not the way I operate... I prefer to sit on the fence and watch as other people make my decisions for me, and I can do something on the spur of the moment because that would be irrational, and bad things will happen. Right?
Meh, maybe next time I will just do it. Ha. maybe

Me Me ME!

Hey ho everyone!

Well, this is my first official online blog! Yay me!
i love to keep a journal about my daily life, and i write in it religiously, so I figure why not post my thoughts and feelings online, then perhaps I can get a reply and maybe change my (sometimes determined and extremely selfish) mind on issues I should really be letting out to those around me! haha..sounds like i'm boring hey!
Well...here it is...I've been suffering anorexia for about 2 years now and it sucks! I had to quit uni half way through the first semester in 2005, when I was studying Psych. Now I'm back, and ready, but I've completely changed my goals and now I'm studying Journalism! Things are gonn abe tough for a while, just until I get myself into a rhythm and used to the pressures of uni.
I'm very far from being well, and my family thinks its best for me not to be back at uni so soon. But i'm determined to get through it all!!
So i have about 9 kg's to put on... it's a bloody long journey and its soooooooooooo hard and even more frustrating but i'm hoping there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, somewhere!
Anyways, thats is... cheers to all!