Summary: “Seeing Ourselves Through Technology” written by Jill Walker Rettberg tells about how we have long since been interested in showing off who we are to the world. We want to have a better understanding of who we are, what we can improve and have a way to be remembered or standout. “Or simply to imagine someone to speak to” aka we have a far greater audience than ever before. The first chapter went into the history of the three forms of self-representation: text, image and quantitative. Today we self-represent on the internet through social media, selfies, sharing status updates or blogging. Historically writing about yourself wasn’t easy or as accepted. It became possible when literacy increased and paper became less expensive. It started with autobiographies. Then came personal diary keeping in the 1700’s. Diaries are much like today’s productivity apps where we keep track of what we need to work on or our experiences for the day. Dairies were also used by Protestant Christians to confide in God. Spiritual journals gave Jesuits a way to write about their sins to reflect on and prevent them from repeating the sins. A modern way to self-represent through writing is blogging. Another way that we represented ourselves in history was through art. Artists drew, sculpted or painted themselves. Photographers took photos of themselves with their cameras, like today’s mirror selfies. We also portray ourselves through self-tracking. Like how Benjamin Franklin measured his habits. In today’s digital world a lot of people are tracking their activity, “one in ten adult Americans now owns an activity tracker.” We track how much we spend time on apps or how much we work out, etc. Katie Warfield talks about how we look back at our Facebook memories for not just our audience’s sake but for our own sake too. We reflect on better times. We look at old selfies to see how much we have changed for better or for worse. In the 90’s people used the internet for chatting on forums anonymously. It wasn’t until the creation of Facebook/Snapchat/Instagram that we really started being extremely open about our identities with taking and sharing photos. Some apps make it harder to communicate and gives you more privacy, like Tumblr. Twitter is a mix of both: you can have conversations with strangers but yet your tweets are still accessible. You can be as open as you choose or you can be a lurker and not participate.

Commentary: I really liked this piece! It proves that humanity has always been like this. Attention seeking and wanting to showcase themselves to the world. I always knew selfies wasn’t a new phenomenon. Look up Anastasia Romanov with her camera! I never liked taking pictures of myself or using my real identity. I really miss the days where I roleplayed on online chats (Chatzy, Omegle LOL) and nobody knew who I was. Or when I played Roblox or Club Penguin and my username was dumb like, Catsrock733. Even today my Facebook rarely has pictures of myself. My Tumblr and Twitter are pretty much fandom related or history orientated. On Tumblr and Twitter I rarely update my followers about who I really am. I always felt disconnected with my peers because I hate selfies and for the longest time I didn’t even like phones! That changed lol. I use my Facebook to update people about things that have nothing to do with me, shows, history, actors, music videos, news from foreign countries, etc. When I go places (excluding my Europe trip) I take photos of the things around me like cats or scenery and not myself. I’m a weird rebel in this day and age of publicity.

Applying Reading Like a Writer to the book, Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (aka the first book of his Star Wars Trilogy)

His audience is Star Wars fans or military science fiction nerds. The genre is a novel series. It’s purpose is for entertainment. Most of his writing is environmental observation. Especially since a lot of events are battles or shifting of settings. Everything that he writes usually takes time to be explained intentionally. But it always has a meaning. He is also burrowing other characters (Han Solo, Luke, Leia, Mon Mothma, etc.) and timelines from George Lucas. So he must have done a lot of RLW himself lol

Why did he write Thrawn (his original character) the way that he did?
A villain who actually thinks and faces dilemmas like the heroes do (he’s a different species in a very xenophobic environment) Zahn also makes him intentionally hard to understand. Why does he want to do this when it could be risky? What even is Thrawn doing? Is what you’ll be asking half of the time. He sees the bigger picture and considers the endgame, unlike what most people stop to do during wartime. Zahn has a style of writing war strategies and solving them in a really interesting way that will totally surprise you. How did Thrawn figure that out? All from studying art and cultures.

Man I really like his writing. I wouldn’t be reading things if it wasn’t for his really fun writing.

Summary:

“How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn was about how RLW helps your writing skills. He says, “You are reading to learn about writing,” which means everything you read can be used as an influence or blueprint to improve your own writing. He says, “writing is a series of making choices.” He then goes into how his former students actually achieved RLW. He talked about questions you should ask yourself before and during reading. Like why a piece was written and for whom. Paying attention to the genre of a piece is also important. He then lists off other questions you can use to find an author’s style, like language, evidence, transitions, etc. And he wraps things up by giving an example using his own first paragraph.

My Commentary:

“…and by islands, I mean paragraphs” by J.R.Carpenter was a website with changeable quotes from old books. I disliked the website because the quotes kept reordering before I could finish reading. I couldn’t quite get the meaning of it all, like at all.

My experience from reading these articles:

The first article was a new concept and a totally new way of reading to me. I liked the first article’s style because it was clear and logical to follow. It was a bit repetitive though. I might try and use RLW. The second article was very challenging. It was examples to practice RLW. I just didn’t like them.

My reflection on ‘Why Blog?” by Alex Ried is mostly positive. It was really helpful in explaining why most of my English teachers decided to switch to blogging. It also explained to me what people gain from blogging and how it helps encourage writing. I remember always hating writing essays due to strongly preferring typing. I love being able to have some liberty in what and how I write. Since I ramble a lot and don’t know how to tie my thoughts together. I do not like having my writing seen unless its on a topic I totally know about. I also hate deadlines. I usually wait to post my history anniversaries, which is something I actually enjoy, at like midnight because I nearly forget. I struggle putting things in my own words too and usually just rephrase things. Or edit like crazy. Since my mind works in an incomplete nonsense. Although a good part of Reid’s article was a review for me. I heavily use the internet and have known how everything on a blog works. But on a positive side the article would be extremely useful to someone who knew nothing about running a page. Ried also gave an easy way to choose a subject. Something that is manageable but also not boring to you. For me that is royal history/biography and cultural history.

1. Rock Concerts:

Unfortunately I haven’t gone to that many concerts. I have only seen Skillet last summer which was FUN! So I am excited to announce that I will be going to Disturbed (Three Days Grace) on February 1st and Shinedown (Papa Roach, Asking Alexandria) on March 11th. Shinedown’s music has helped me through a lot and I am ready to cry tears of joy. I am just so dang excited and grateful to be able to finally have this experience. Ya’ll the best Shinedown.

2. Eurovision Song Contest 2019

I’ve been a fan of Eurovision since 2012. It has easily became my favorite time of the year. It gives me new music. It fuels my craving for foreign music. I love the community and fangroups. I’ve made a number of friends over on Facebook. I love how kind some of the participants (Naviband is my friend aaaa) are to their fans. I love how diverse the songs are ranging from ballads, country, ethnic, opera, etc. In 2018, Eugent Bushpepa, an Albanian rock singer, was my number one. I love the costumes and staging. It can be frustrating being an American fan because you don’t get to hear songs playing on the radio or in a supermarket. Nor do you get to vote for your faves when the hosts shout “Europe Start Voting Now” and the countdown begins. But it wont stop me from watching and singing and dancing like crazy.

3. Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire and Netflix’s Avatar

I love updates for dead shows. It means that it’s still relevant to someone! Including me!

4. Star Trek

I am currently loving season two of Discovery.
Additionally, I am looking forward to Patrick Stewarts upcoming series. 

5. Star Wars

The new Timothy Zahn book Thrawn: Treason and whatever Star Wars IX has in store.

6. The OA

This show means so much to me. It’s hard to describe. I have been waiting for two years…for so long. SO LOOONG. I need answers. I need it. I NEED IT. It doesn’t have a release date yet but listing it here will be a good omen amirite???

7. Continuation of my other Shows

It’s getting hard to keep up with them all…..Manifest, The Orville, The 100, 9-1-1, Stranger Things, Black Mirror, The Good Doctor, Steven Universe, The Good Place and whatever new things catch my eye.

8. Getting my drivers license

I have a big fear of driving but having the test done and over with will make me feel far better. Man am I nervous.

9. Spending time

Over the last few years I’ve spent so much time fearing, worrying, crying about my mothers death. I hate being interrupted about dark thoughts that punch me in the chest. Above all I’m sick of acting like it’s already happened. I can’t even imagine how bad off I’ll actually be when it happens. I can’t even write these words right now without wanting to stop. She survived cancer so I really must stop thinking of the worst. I have to spend time with her. Every memory counts. I’m so glad we went to a convention together and met the crew of The Next Generation, that we will be going to concerts together, that we go out to eat together, that we went to Europe together. I want to ride horseback, binge watch things, kayak or canoe, find something fun to do together. It’s so hard to not let bad thoughts win. To not let my brain get the best of me. To not think….think…think….I’m still fighting a civil war between ‘She’s old and old people die…’ or ‘She’s not as young as all of your friend’s parents’ versus ‘Yes, she’s old so spend time with her!’ Both of them make me feel like it’s the end. And trust me it would be the end. It sounds so cliche. But I swear to you…I can’t be in this world without her. Anyway, I just want this year to be fun and happy. I also want to spend more time being a better friend and girlfriend.