Animal Activists

I have always been a huge animal lover and I hate seeing animals be tortured by idiots. If I see anybody chasing around cats, or scaring squirrels out of their trees as they gather their food I whip rocks at their tiny craniums. Luckily, I was born with a soft spot in my heart that allows me to think that animals should be treated just as equally as humans. I have heard too many horrible stories about people abusing their pets, and wild animals too. If you're going to have a pet, why would you hurt it? Pets are around to give you good company and studies show that if you have a pet you are less stressed than non-pet owners.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is an animal activist group. Although I no longer live the vegetarian lifestyle (anemia settled, couldn't be bothered taking iron supplements), I support everything else they stand for such as anti-cruelty, anti-fur, and anti-experiment. I think products should be tested on human criminals because who cares if they go blind from hairspray? They deserve to be in the slammer, so why not? Humans have been smart enough to create fake fur, so it would make the most sense to wear fake fur (which is made quite easily, and bloodless) instead of skinning animals alive.
When I read the headline "Lindsay Lohan Gets a Face Full of Flour", I thought to myself "I knew she wasn't done sniffing the white powder!" But as I read on, I became more and more amused. Turns out that an anti-fur activist doused Lohan in flour while she was at a nightclub in France. Lohan has been frowned upon in the past for wearing fur, along with the Olsen twins. My only regret is that I wasn't the person to dump the flour.
I have a cat at home. I deeply love her like I would if she was my child. If I had it my way, I would own 14 cats. Every month, my mother and I donate money to the Toronto Humane Society and the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and in return we have received really adorable Christmas cards, vegan gloves, and vegan t-shirts. It really pays off to donate to a great cause, especially ones that support animal rights, because you know that money is going towards something positive. Hopefully one day the world will wake up and see that abusing animals is not civilized and is just plain wrong.



Bartlett, Joe. PETA. November 14th 2008. November 25th 2008. <http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/11/lindsay_lohan_g.php>

Participatory Culture

As an aspiring photographer, I frequently take photographs. Everywhere I go, I have my camera. Like any photographer, I enjoy presenting my work to the public and by doing that I display my photographs in online albums, particularily on Facebook. Since almost everybody has an account on there, I receive frequent feedback from different people. As Ian said in class, we all go on Facebook for one reason: to obtain information. I never thought about it that way until he mentioned that, and then I thought about it, and that couldn't be more right. I don't only go on Facebook to get information though, I also provide information through photographs in creative ways. By doing this, I am part of a participatory culture, which is the choice of sharing creative pieces of work especially on the Internet. The Internet is a popular place for participatory culture because it is easy to access, and whatever you choose to display has the ability to reach large populations of people in a small amount of time. Flickr is one of the most popular photo-sharing websites out there. It gives people the opportunity to view people's work and also give feedback. I do not have a Flickr account for I haven't worked up the will to create a Yahoo account first, but I do visit Flickr often to marvell at the brilliant photography the world has to offer. This relates to Net Neutrality: the choice we have to view anything and everything we would like to at any time on the Internet. I have the choice to look at images of anything possible on Flickr, and that gives me a sense of freedom.
Professor Henry Jenkins said that participatory culture is beneficial because it increases participation of creating media, which also increases competition. He says it shifts the focus of literacy from one individual expression to community involvement. If one person shares his or her work throughout a community, the community is automatically involved because it addresses them to look. Participatory culture is hard to ignore. Everyone everywhere is interacting, sharing ideas, and communicating those ideas with eachother and making improvements. Even this blog represents participatory culture. My ideas+a medium+community=participatory culture.

Jenkins, Henry. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. "Digital Media and Learning". November 25, 2008.

Culture Jamming

We are exposed to 3,000 advertisements a day. Whether they are television commercials, magazine pages, flyers or billboards, marketers want to paste their ad's anywhere that is visually possible. Actually, some companies have even considered placing ad's in outer space that can be seen from earth. Should we not feel bombarded by all of this advertising? Many people let ad's affect them; they marvel, they accept, and they buy the product. Others will briefly look at ads and then go back to reading their books or listening to their ipod, feeling unmoved. And then there are participants of culture jamming; people who take action in creative ways. Culture Jamming is a form of communication that targets consumers and tries to inform them with shocking facts, images or videos that what they are buying is unhealthy and unnecessary. Practitioners of culture jamming believe that advertisements have negatively influenced people's social values, and try to bring out the real, not-so-noticeable sides of advertisers.

An example of culture jamming is artist Ron English. Ron and his team of billboard liberationists take ads, manipulate them in their own ways by using artistic abilities or political conduct and plaster them in similar places where the originals are. What is the point of this? To inform the world that corporations are bombarding us. Ron pokes fun at food companies like Coca Cola and McDonalds, cigarette companies like Marlboro and Camel, and political figures such as Bush and Obama. Ron dedicates his life to creating these anti-advertising billboards to raise awareness about current events and social conditions, and some are just for fun to create humour without overt social commentary. What Ron is doing is illegal, so he has to be careful. He does his work during the day because if he were caught at night, it would be obvious that he is doing something illegal. Ron also does paintings in the same content.
It is important that the message gets across somehow: that we are over-consumers who cannot get enough of spending and getting, and maybe, just maybe, culture jamming will open our eyes, and people like Ron will continue to provide the public with truth and reality.

CCCE. "Culture Jamming". November 25th 2008. <http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/polcommcampaigns/CultureJamming.htm>

Ron English. "Popaganda". November 25th 2008. <http://www.popaganda.com/billboards/index.shtml>

Buy Nada Day

It is assumed that Black Friday, the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, is the busiest shopping day of the year. To kick off the Christmas spirit, millions of Americans heard public transportation or scurry into their vehicles and rush around to raid the nearest mega malls and boutiques. People are buying what they cannot afford, and they are haggling for the lowest prices. Employees are faced with never-ending line-ups, prude customers and disastrous messes. What if Americans just put down their wallets and tuned into life for one day? You know, stay at home and do activities with the family sort-of stuff. Well, there is a very special opportunity that comes around once a year that offers just that. Not only in America, but world-wide is a day called Buy Nothing Day. For 24 solid hours, people all around the world can take part in the fight against over-consumption by not purchasing a single thing. That includes no bus fair, no coffee, no gas, no alcoholic beverages and obviously no spending pretty pennies at the mall, and best of all - it is free.
We always hear talks about how Christmas has lost it's deeper meaning - spending precious time with family, sharing laughs and love, and eating a wholesome meal with loved ones. Instead Christmas is associated with spending lots of money, sharing and receiving material goods, and celebrating the long and joyous life of an important male figure - Santa.
On Saturday November 28th, take part in Buy Nothing Day by doing something other than spending money. This day is supposed to create awareness of people's insane spending habits. There are many fun things to be done. Put your wallet in a bin of toxic waste and watch it being eaten away while waving your home-made Buy Nothing Day flags and blowing into your dusty trumpet that you will dig out of your closet. In New York City at Union Square, Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir are hosting a FREE dance party called "Dance Your Debt Away". Wouldn't you much rather boogie down than stock up? There is also a Zombie Walk where you can dress up zombie style and creep out shoppers. Be one with the living dead!
Overall, this is a great excuse to save a days worth of spending, and to help out the economy which is slipping ever so quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UErPxYZb0M
Don't be a consumer monster. Participate and fight over-consumption for one day at least!


Reverend Billy. November 25th 2008. <http://www.revbilly.com/events/buy-nothing-day-2008-dance-your-debt-away>

Buy Nothing Day. November 25th 2008. <http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/>

Net Neutrality

People are faced with choices and decisions every day. What will I eat? Should I start working on my assignment or go to my friend’s birthday party? What colour underwear do I feel like wearing today? Some choices are much easier to decide than others, but all these examples express how we have the power over our own choices. Having said that, everyone would agree that we have the power to choose what websites we visit, when we visit them and what we can see on these websites.
We choose to log into Facebook daily to seek information. We choose to go on MSN Messenger whenever we want to, and we choose the people we get to talk to. Net Neutrality allows all of this to happen. Net Neutrality prevents our internet providers from building a firewall between you and the websites. For example, you are walking down a beautiful forested pathway and you see a delightful white fluffy kitten rolling around in the grass in your path. You know that kitten is dying for you to pet it, and you know all you want to do is pet the kitten. So you approach it and reach out your hand but a giant brick wall forms from the ground, making it impossible for you to pet the kitten. You now feel ripped off. The kitten represents a website you are trying to access, and the brick wall represents the firewall that the Internet service provider has set up so you cannot access the website.
Without Net Neutrality, we will no longer have a choice to view what we want to. Net Neutrality is a big issue in the United States. In November of 2007, then Senator Barack Obama discussed in Mountain View, California that if he is elected the new U.S president, he wants to continue to support Net Neutrality. “The Internet is perhaps the most open network in history, and we have to keep it that way.” Barack Obama is now the President of the United States, and if he keeps his word, which millions of Americans hope that he does, then Internet choices in the U.S will be in the hands of the users and not the providers.
Net Neutrality is evidently a serious issue that affects not only the States, but everyone world-wide. It is important that Internet users support Net Neutrality if we all still care about choice, and the freedom to browse whatever we want whenever we want.

YouTube. "Barack Obama on Net Neutrality". November 14th 2007. November 22nd 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-mW1qccn8k>

Schmidt, Eric. Google Help Centre. November 22nd 2008. <http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html>

The Walt Disney Company

When I used to think of Walt Disney, I thought of him as the mysterious and magical man behind the curtains of my favourite animated movies such as Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. I also thought of him as powerful, for his productions have caught the attention of millions of children and parents world wide. I didn't let my mind wander further then that but I've just recently learned, 10 years later, that Walt Disney and The Walt Disney Company sure do a lot more then just produce enjoyable films for children - they reel in billions of dollars from owning a variety of different things.
Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney worked together for many years to provide entertainment to the world. The brothers brought smiles to children's faces with cartoon animation through a number of movies, and television shows. The brothers also brought in a lot of money by being a major media company.
According to Robert McChesney, Disney is one of eight transnational corporations that dominate the U.S media, so if you like I, thought that Disney just created movies and opened a theme park up in Florida, then you are incorrect.
So what exactly does The Walt Disney Company own? Aside from owning Walt Disney Pictures, they also own Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Films, and Pixar. The Walt Disney Corporation is also involved with television, owning broadcast television in over 10 states and cities, and over 20 channels in cable television. The Walt Disney Company also owns radio broadcasts over 55 states and cities across the U.S. Tons of books and magazine companies are also owned by The Walt Disney Company. They also created and own 8 theme parks world wide including in the United States, Japan, China and France. Disney also owns some retail: 720 stores world-wide, filled with merchandise. Disney owns music companies like Hollywood records and Disney records and also various theatrical productions like Lion King on stage. If all of that is not enough, the Walt Disney Company also own over 16 miscellaneous companies and productions such as The Baby Einstein Company, Disney on Ice, and the Walt Disney Internet group.
So I asked myself: "How does The Walt Disney Company not feel extremely bombarded with owning all of these companies and productions?" Then I found myself my own answer: that people like us, the public, are responsible for helping and funding this billion-dollar company. Without our attention and our money, there would be no company. There would be no progress. And that goes for any company in the world, but I did not realize until now that Mickey Mouse was reeling in our money and continues to do so. In my opinion I think large corporations such as The Walt Disney Company are unhealthy for smaller companies, but I still support them by watching Aladdin once in a while, and if it keeps children - and me happy, then why not?

McChesney, Robert. The Nation. "It's a Small World of Big Conglomerates". November 11th 1999. November 18th 2008. <http://www.thenation.com/doc/19991129/mcchesney/3>

Columbia Journalism Review. The Walt Disney Company. July 30th 2008. November 18th 2008. <http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=disney>

Manipulative Schemes

"Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

Most people choose to hear the bad news first, so that the good news can act as an electric comfort blanket to drape the bad news out. It seems though, as if every time I tune in to the news on television or read about news in the newspapers, all I tend to hear and see is bad news. It's as if the good is too boring, and the bad, unfortunately, acts as entertainment. It gets the publicity. The public eye is also being hypnotized by the Public Relations industry, and their improper use of VNRs (Video News Releases)


"A VNR is a prepackaged segment that looks and sounds like journalistically reported information but is produced by either a public relations firm or a government body with a vested interest in the product or service being described" (Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer).

These are much like those weight-loss commercials where you see about 4 or 5 people saying "I lost 20 pounds with [enter various diet pills here]". It can be of great skepticism that those people didn't even try the product, even though before and after photographs are shown. If that isn't bad enough, in most circumstances, those photographs have been digitally manipulated to look real, which distorts the perception that the public has on these products.

We live in a time period where we can alter just about anything in our lives to change the way we feel. Fake breasts, fake meat, fake hair, fake smiles and now, fake news. In the book "Toxic Sludge is Good for You", the authors Stauber and Rampton elaborate on how the Public Relations industry create fabricated facts to convince the public eye to buy into their schemes. Literally. The book depicts the lengths PR Representatives will go to make sure the truth is concealed and the lies are blinding. We being the public eye need to be aware of their schemes, and "Toxic Sludge" acts as a personal hand guide for the public to recognize the strategies PR reps use to manipulate us. This book strongly suggests that we need to be more skeptical of what we hear on the news, and it elaborates on certain ways PR Representatives can blindfold us, such as improper use of VNRs.

Another work that explains the manipulation of news that feeds the public eye is Edward Bernays "Propaganda". This book is also a how-to manual, showing us how corporately funded PR firms seek public acceptance by manipulating a particular idea or product. Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud's nephew, and by writing this novel in 1928, Bernays found a way to use his Uncle's psychoanalytic theories to recognize the manipulative ways that PR firms control not only consumer behavior, but also political thought. "Propaganda" is a conceptual model for governments, corporations, and lobbying firms to show the principles behind swaying public thought and opinion and controlling the masses.

These two important works allow the public to fight for their right of knowing the truth. We shouldn't have to be lied to anymore. By reading these texts, we can obtain the knowledge needed to fight propaganda and false information.

Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer. "Probe of Non-News News Sought". Hearst Communications Inc. November 2006. October 2008. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/15/MNGB4MCURM1.DTL>

John Stauber, Sheldon Rampton. "Toxic Sludge is Good For You". Centre for Media & Democracy. 1995. October 2008.

Edward Bernays. "Propaganda". Ig Publishing. Brooklyn, New York. 1928. October 2008.

Social Uses/ Implications of Technology and Media

At one point in time, scientists and other professional researchers were the only people allowed to have Internet access, as it was and still is a life-changing invention. The global information medium "World Wide Web" speaks for itself. It is an endless world, that stretches world-wide to connect billions of users, and if you were to draw a line from each user to the next, you'd have a web-effect. Without a web, a spider couldn't capture prey and feed itself. Without people, the Internet couldn't exist. It's like saying the spider is the Internet and humans are the web.

The Internet gives shape to my daily routine in numerous amounts of ways. I wake up, and in my zombie state, I take my laptop from the chair and start using it. The bright screen helps my tired, heavy eyes become fully open. I do this before opening the blinds, which I find is a bit mental, because the sun is the main source of light that is used; it is the reason for human existence, and here I am relying on impostor lighting to get me out of bed. Throughout my day I am connected to the Internet. Even when I am not at home, I am still connected. When I am at school, in my class, I notice that almost every student has a laptop with wireless Internet. I even feel connected just because they are connected. I just invested in a 13" Macbook that I am aching to bring to class, so I can join the finger exercising, and be one voice with the ticking and clicking of keys. And when an Instructor offers an important website, I can view it right then, right there, instead of writing it down and risking it being lost in the sea of scribbles and lined paper.
The Internet replaces other technologies too. You don't have to use pens anymore. When you just don't want to hear that person's voice whining on the receiving end of your cellular device, you can send them a message virtually, and read about their issues instead. It saves you the pounding headache - not to be insensitive or anything. Other then Adobe Photoshop, I find my laptop useless without Internet. Sure it comes with a list of pretty little games you can occupy yourself with, but you can just go online and find any game you want and play it. So how about that? Yes you need Microsoft Office Tools to write your important papers, or to present your exciting new pictures in a fancy slide show on Power Point, but you need information to write papers. You need research. You need Google. You even need Wikipedia because what is a topic without millions of opinions? Yes there are books, and there are newspapers. You know what else there is? Online copies and summaries of those books you go to the library for, and you can find those articles you see in the paper, online at anytime! Another great thing about the Internet is that it is fast. People are busy. Sometimes, you don't have the time to wait in a line at the bookstore, or the money for that matter. But the Internet always makes time for you, and is generous regarding your busy schedule. It makes time for you, whenever you need it. Too bad health care wasn't online. That would save many hours waiting in the doctor's office, but you could realistically e-mail your doctor if you wanted to. I guess I can say the Internet has changed my behaviour, but not in a bad way or anything. I've become more of an observer, and a better researcher. I think the Internet is an important necessity. Why else would they have it capitalized?

Media Literacy

Being literate doesn't mean just knowing how to read or write anymore. Ever since humans began to rely on media to obtain information, the definition of "literacy" has broadened. Our communication skills have advanced, and our ability to think critically has taken new routes. Our right brains have become more expressive; with learning media literacy our creative juices have filled the glasses of thought process in interesting ways.

We all have diets. No, not those diets that always fail to work like cutting out carbs, adding more vegetables, and absolutely no dessert. We maintain "mediated diets". This can be described as the daily intake of media. Like any diet, over-indulgence can create bad habits. Like the Spice Girls said: "too much of something is bad enough", we begin to over-dose on media drugs. These addictions can apply to any form of media such as the Internet: (Facebook, MSN, celebrity gossip sites), Television: (programs, movies, celebrity documentaries), Telephones: (text messaging, incoming and outgoing calls), and many other forms. If we do not control our daily intake of media, the media consumes us, and we become robotic mediated slaves.

Being media literate is a method of treating media addiction. If you understand the concepts of media, the position media puts you in, and the power media has over society, then you can grasp the knowledge you need to analyze and evaluate media practices. My life is mediated daily. From the moment I open my eyes, I am immediately reading the clock to see if it's time to get up, or if I can squeeze some more sleep into my life. If we are looking at the clock every second of the day, we lose touch with our surroundings because we are so concentrated on those ticking hands. If we ignore the clock for just a little bit, we give ourselves more time to think about other things. This is the same for just about every kind of technology. If we just stop checking our cell phones every 2 and a half minutes, we can concentrate on more important things, and then before you know it, at the end of the day, you'll end up with a pile of messages you can get excited about. If we take a break from Facebook for a day, we learn to appreciate it so much more when we go back to it.

This post seems quite like a fantasy land on a far away planet that only wizards and leprechauns have access to. Even thinking about this from my perspective sounds impossible. Taking a break from Facebook? Not checking my phone? Not being able to follow those tiny ticking hands on the face of time? That's all I do all day! Perhaps I am not yet media literate, but knowing that you can learn to be media literate sends rainbows of comfort to my brain.

Subliminal Advertisements

The eye is incredibly complicated and powerful. Like a camera, it opens, focuses, captures images, and then processes them through our brain. Although our eye allows us to see everything on the surface, it fails to realize what lies beneath, and this can be expressed through Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory: The Conscious, Pre-conscious, and the Unconscious.
Focusing on the Unconscious, Freud used an iceberg as a metaphor to explain the human mind.
Only 10% of an iceberg is visible (conscious) whereas the other 90% is beneath the water (pre-conscious and unconscious). The Pre-conscious is allotted approximately 10% -15% whereas the Unconscious is allotted an overwhelming 75%-80%
But how does this apply to advertising?
I chose subliminal advertising, because it's the most mysterious, most influential advertising in my perspective. We don't look for the subliminal, it looks for us, and we are left with these unknown feelings that we repress in our unconscious.

Here is an advertisement I found many years ago on the Internet and looked at for a while.

This ad appeared in the British Yellow Pages. I first found it peculiar how the company used a woman with a drinking glass as their mascot. Quite unrelated if I do say so myself. I read the headline they used. "Laid By The Best" Of course, they are crediting themselves as the best flooring company around, right? I was also thrown off by the typography of the ad. There are 4 different fonts used here, and I thought that was quite unorganized. I also read the telephone number and lack of address and thought to myself "Well, where the hell is this place?" So what is going on here? Is it a joke? It could have been. Then I saw the side of this advertisement I wouldn't even dream would be published anywhere. The same site I found the ad on, there was the same ad, turned upside down to reveal:

A woman masturbating? "Laid by the Best?" Now I understand! When I saw the original of the ad, I never would have thought to re-arrange it, to find sexual messages issued by a flooring company, but my eye failed to capture the secrets. Who would read a phonebook upside down anyway? Companies can increase their sales by adding subliminal messages, and in this case, sexual messages that could make the viewer feel unknowingly aroused. This makes the ad more appealing and then? Score one more for the company! This erotic feeling goes straight to the unconscious, never to be discovered. Now that I know, I probably won't be calling D.J. Flooring to do my floorboards. Well, not DO them, but repair them. Oh, was that subliminal of me?


Planet Perplex. Stefan Van den Bergh. September 23 2008. "Interesting Illusions". October 3rd 2008. <http://www.planetperplex.com/en/item263>

Wilderdom. James Neill. April 2 2007. "Freud's Iceberg Model for Unconscious, Pre-conscious, & Conscious". October 3rd 2008. <http://wilderdom.com/personality/L8-3TopographyMindIceberg.html>

CI Advertising. Ji Young Hong. "Claims about the power of subliminal advertising". October 3 2008. <http://www.ciadvertising.org/student_account/spring_01/adv391k/hjy/adv382j/1st/application.html>

Massive Media

The term "Media" refers to communication through numerous amounts of technology such as the telephone, the television, and the internet. "Mass" refers to a large quantity or a large size, such as large amounts of people, or a large amount of space. When someone talks about large body mass, they are referring to a fat person. Similarly, when someone talks about mass media, they are still talking about fat, indirectly. It is because there is so much media in the capacity of our world that we feed off of so often and get addicted to, that we are putting on globby pounds of media from all the juicy intake. So while media is the medium, most of us fit a large.

I just tuned into CP24 because the "Breaking News" headline caught my eye, as it usually would for anyone. There's media already, shouting at thousands of people across Toronto to watch the television; to be lured into listening, because perhaps one headline can effect anyone in the world. It read: "Electrical cables fell at Eglinton subway station during rush hour leading to the stopping of service from Bloor to Lawrence on the Yonge-University line." This was at around 5:00 pm, and is still not cleared up yet, delaying thousands. Sure there are shuttle buses being provided for the huge amount of commuters, but even the back-up plan is failing, for there are so many people. People become the media. People become the breaking news stories, the hovering helicopters, the power outages, the camera footage. This is what happens when technology fails. No matter what, the media is always there to cover for it. This defect in technology tonight just interfered with thousands of people's routines and patterns. They wont be able to heat their meals on time, they wont be able to tune into the 6:00 news, they wont be able to check and refresh their Facebook pages, but at least they have their cell phones to call the ones they live with to tell them they will be delayed, and to text their friends angrily saying how lucky they are that they don't work or go to school downtown. And even these people who are not involved in the delay, are still affected by it.
Media adds, and media subtracts. And I am thankful that I was not part of this chaos, but instead, watching the chaos in the comfort of my home, from the buzzing of my television, and in between, watching commercials about Febreeze and going green.

The Ecology of Media- the Book of Faces

http://www.facebook.com

I think Facebook is exactly like Internet Explorer. Internet explorer is a world we are introduced to that links us to websites which we then find important information on any given subject in the world. Facebook is a world we are introduced to that links us to billions of people, vast numbers of cultures, and important information on any given person in the world. It invites us to learn about the lives of others through communicating, and that is how we represent one huge online community.

Facebook keeps everyone using it in touch. It keeps you up to date, it feeds you with knowledge you don't even need to know, but are so intrigued by. It allows you to contact people from the opposite end of the world and is so powerful, that you could talk to these people for hours without paying a single pretty penny on your phone bill. To know that different cultures throughout the globe are using Facebook is fascinating.

In fact, Facebook IS it's own culture. It brings people from various other cultures together to communicate under one life-impacting website. It's not only about keeping tabs with your friends, but gives anyone the opportunity to introduce new people of different cultures into your life. Facebook even notifies you about world issues through groups and events. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, yellow, pink, or turquoise. Anyone and everyone has access and the impact that a simple, fun website can have on the world is mind-boggling.

I participate in Facebooking every chance I get, and through Facebook I have met several great people who are continuously shaping my life, and allowing me to shape theirs. With it's elegant privacy options, you even have a choice of who you do not want to contact you, like it's taking care of your safety. The power is at your fingertips. That power is accessed with Facebook.

Fashionista Alert

In the 12th chapter of Understanding Media - The Extensions of Man, by Marshall McLuhan, McLuhan indicates that clothing is an extension of our skin, just like how the wheel is an extension of our feet, the Internet is an extension of our nervous system, and the camera is an extension of the eye. It is not not a strange thing to wake up every morning and choose appropriate articles of clothing to wear, based on mother nature's choice of weather that day, or based on the visual aspects of appearance. Clothing always seems to divided into categories of aristocracy. A rich man will wear clothing that is beyond the affordable price of a middle-class man. Even though there are these boundaries, it is certain that clothing can be afforded by anybody, and even the way you wear clothes can make you look more upper-class than you are.

I am infatuated with the fashion industry. It's impossible to focus only on one aspect of fashion because all this different media collaborates to make one giant industry. Photographers, designers, journalists, stylists. All aspects of fashion represent the choices I make in my daily life. Seeing a model on television or in a magazine looking fantastic in Oscar De La Renta, or Dior, or what have you, actually influences me to make alterations on my own appearance. Media has persuaded me to include fashion in my daily routines. There are endless options to the way I can express myself because fashion is continuously changing. I know that what I read in magazines and what I see on television is accurate because every new fashion idea is filtered through professionals before being published or sold. Fashion allows my life to be mediated on a daily basis. I wake up, I choose my clothes, my accessories, my purses, my make-up all based on how I feel that day, or how the weather is. Even while out shopping, I pay close attention to advertisements. Certain people they choose for ads, and certain colours and fonts that are used for the ads influence me, and I realize that this is how they get my money, and in no way do I feel that they are stealing, because lots of thought and effort goes into selling that product. This is why I am a slave to fashion.
Ive noticed that some of the clothing that designers create, can't even realistically be worn in every day situations such as these two pieces created by designer Gareth Pugh.Realistically, I would not wear these outfits to my sister's baby shower or to my office job, but I still respect every detail. Media still allows designers to express their ideas through creativity, no matter how bizarre they might look.

How does all of this define me as a person? Because I am already participating in the world of fashion by expressing my appearance with certain clothing and accessories, and it's not even something that I need to really think about. I like to believe that is how my every day life is mediated. I would love to one day be an actual puzzle piece of the fashion industry: A fashion photographer, so I too can take photographs that will persuade others to be glamorous victims of fashion.

Blog Virginity now Taken and Sealed in a Jar Somewhere

It is 8:31 on the evening of September, 4th, 2008. As of my first day of University, I have already been introduced to a new method of writing - a new world of writing really, which I'm discovering, is a hell of a lot better than the quail feather ink pen I've been writing with for too many years. What I'm trying to say is I now have my own log called a blog. I always heard people talking about blogs, creating blogs, writing blogs and sharing blogs, but I never really picked up the excitement. Blah Blah Blog is what my thoughts whispered in my ears. I truly find the word "blog" such an odd word on its own, but to have one of my own? Now that's expanding.
I guess I wont know how I feel about my first blog post until I am actually done the post, but I'm currently feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. In an exciting way, of course. I find this blogging business very similar to a website called Live Journal which I used to partake in, except I felt succumbed to writing only about my day to day adventures, which got boring as hell after too long so I eventually stopped having one all together, which aided in preventing me from reading everyone else's lullaby posts. I actually have different topics to discuss now, for this is a school-related blog, and my teachers will be reading these words with their careful and curious eyes. I think this is a great way to do homework, because I'm so used to the traditional book to copy to pen to paper homework, but this is really letting technology rummage through your brain cells.
I am looking at the time on autosave, and noticed that it has taken me about 45 minutes to write this. With all the thinking and text messaging and pretty flowers and cats rolling around on their sides being all adorable, I have been distracted. Media = distraction. Media = expansion. And this is how I feel now that my post is ending. Fortunately, I will continue to write in my blog, since I own it, and it is all mine, and my opinions really matter now, when they were just dust particles on planet Live Journal.

Update you soon. (Now Im giving the blog human attributes)