Political Possiblities Answers

Sign an e-petition.
http://animbuse.epetitions.net/?
http://ohohaca.epetitions.net/

I signed two e-petitions. One to stop animal cruelty and the other to stop child abuse.

Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
I went to The Australian website and looked at the professional opinion blogs...
Responded to Janet Albrechtensen's Feminists screwing it up for sisters 23rd September blog.

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/janetalbrechtsen/index.php/theaustralian/comments/feminists_screwing_it_up_for_sisters/P150/

What is Barak Obama up to today?
www.twitter.com/whitehouse

"Remarks and a new photo gallery from Obama and the First Lady pitching Chicago for the Olympics
http://bit.ly/zxUh9"
-about two hours ago from web.

The White House's twitter update from today, the 16th August.

Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.
This question confused the hell out of me for soooo long! Many websites listed the "local member" as John Paul Langbroek or Paul Bell. After lots of reasearch I found the best two websites were...
http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/
AND
the PFD file from www.surfersparadise.com/pdfs/2008/sun_wrap.pdf

Local- Susie Douglas District 7
"I am proud to be the Surfers Paradise Councillor as the precinct reaches
this very important milestone."- Susie Douglas

State- State Member for Surfers Paradise, John Paul Langbroek.
Mr Langbroek is the Liberal National Party Shadow Minister
for Education, Skills and The Arts.

"I am proud to be the fifth Member for Surfers Paradise in the
Queensland Parliament. With its playful history, Surfers Paradise
has long been considered the heart and soul of the Gold Coast." - John Paul Langbroek

Federal- Federal Member for Moncrieff (The main suburbs include Ashmore, Benowa, Broadbeach, Broadbeach Waters, Bundall, Carrara, Main Beach, Mermaid Beach, Mermaid Waters, Surfers Paradise, Worongary and parts of Miami, Nerang, Southport and Tallai) is Steven Ciobo. Mr Ciobo is the Coalition Shadow Minister for Small Business,
Independent Contractors, Tourism and The Arts.

“You know you’ve truly mastered something when word
spreads so far that people from all over the world are talking
about it – and that’s Surfers Paradise" - Steven Ciobo

Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
Hansard Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Speech by
John-Paul Langbroek
MEMBER FOR SURFERS PARADISE
CONSTITUTION (FIXED-TERM PARLIAMENT) AMENDMENT BILL

Found Via http://parlinfo.parliament.qld.gov.au/isysquery/51a712e2-39df-4176-b71d-f6007adce39a/41-50/list/

Political Possiblities Questions

This week's tasks:

What opportunities can you find for political participation via the internet. How many of the following can you achieve while sticking to your political beliefs?

• Sign an e-petition.
• Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
• What is Barak Obama up to today?
• Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.
• Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
• Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.
• Read the lecture and the readings, pursue a couple of the topics that you find most interesting and then post your blog with your well-considered thoughts about the theory and practice of politics.

Adam asks:

What do you think of the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")???

What place does censorship have in a democracy?

OpenOffice Experience Week9

Ok. One of week 9 task's is to download a program from portableapps.com... Now, this would be fine, however my PC has serious issues... in fact I have a feeling that it may not return after the blue screen of death incident... Thus we just purchased a beautiful new Mac.... ohhhhhh its gorgeous... never thought i would feel this way about a computer! Hahaha But I am serious it is so quick and cooperative! And it isn't just a blue screen!!!!

In Love I tell you!

Anyway now I have my beautiful Mac I can't download programs off portableapps.com... Or more specifically I can but they wont do anything on my computer! (Yes I did try...)

Sooooo.... to overcome this problem I downloaded a Mac version of OpenOffice off the OpenOffice website! I'm hoping this still counts!!!!!

So Today I'm blogging about my experience with OpenOffice...
I have just completed my News and Politics Media Industry assessment which I wrote on OpenOffice's version of a Word document.

This is how it went...
Type-ity type-ity type type type....
Coffee...
Insert Quote..
Coffee
Type some more...
Coffee.
Now its getting late...
Coffee.
Now its really late. I'm even watching David Letterman. *Sigh* I hate American comedy! Its just NOT funny!!!
Ok. Now its really late, Ive had too much caffeine and my brain has gone to bed...
Its Synonyms Button time!!!
Oh no. Oh my. May God have mercy on our souls...
(In case you haven't guessed, I couldn't find the synonyms button.)
Trust me... its completely devastating at 2 o'clock in the morning when the only words you can think of are sleep and coffee. And they didn't really make any sense in my assessment...

Other than that i found that OpenOffice was the same as Word... The fact that i couldn't find the synonyms button probably has a lot to do with me being new to Mac's and not understanding the crazy mouse pad. (HOW THE HELL DO YOU RIGHT CLICK ON SOMETHING!) I haven't used its version of powerpoint yet, but i opened it before and it looked very similar.

Also I wanted to note that OpenOffice is compatible with Microsoft Word. Despite what i was told before hand, i checked it out and i had no problems opening an openoffice document in Word...

P.s Im loving that i didn't need to pay $200 for a program I brought (not even) six months ago before my computer decided to BlueScreenOf Death me! Not happy that you can only add it to two computers! Dumb! I paid good money for that!

Also loving that I'm about to download Gimp instead of paying millions of dollars for photoshop! (I'll let you know how my Gimp experience goes!)

Lecture Week 8

Just got out of Stephen Stockwell's lecture.
Was good but I need to read the notes on Learning at Griffith to benefit fully... all the computer stuff kinda goes over my head. It was about Cyber Politics and eDemocracy. However he is a good lecturer he manages to keep me entertained even if i get a bit lost with computer terms. Today wasn't too bad he wasn't talking about gigamefabites or anything toooo crazy! Hahaha

My to do list from the lecture is as follows:
- Read over Stephen's lecture notes because they were a bit too small for me to read in there!
- Read the suggested readings if not all of them at least the Allegory of Platos Cave and the one by William Gibson.
- Look up William Gibson via the links he provided.
- Look up the movie he mentioned "The Conversation".

Not to bad except I have to work all weekend! RRrrrr I wish I was rich so I didn't need to work!

P.S Highlight of Lecture?? Guy getting kicked out for talking on his phone during the lecture!!! Scary! Definatley wont be answering my phone in class any time soon!!!

Week 12 Assignment

Esssay Topics for your 1000 word essay due end of week 12 in your blog.

1. Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both presentdifferent views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.

2. The idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.

3. Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time. Where does this leave 'professionals' and highly-skilled artists? Choose one area of creativity and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioners vs amateurs in producing digitalcontent.

4. What are the uses/limits of the internet in terms of politics and/or democracy? Should we rethink the nature of the political? What happens to the nation/state in the age of networks that have the potential to span thewhole planet? What has happened to the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media? Discuss with an example.

5. Creative Commons is both a solution and yet another failure to deal with authorship and copyright on the internet. Discuss and give examples.

6. Any other challenging topic related to the lectures that is approved by your tutor. To be approved, your topic should be unique and be based in your own interests in the online world and the theory that relates to it.

Not sure what Im going to choose but I like the sound of 4 and 5... I'll have to start thinking and perhaps I'll make my own up...

Tutorial

No Tute for this week! University Strike! Going to the beach!! But I promise I'll do homework on the beach!!! :D Im guessing that we'll continue our video task in week 9...
Just emailed Kaya asking if we will...
Very frustrating. Stupid Samsung phone won't bluetooth to my computer!!! That would make things much easier!!

STRESS!

Completely stressing out!
Only just realised I have a 300word media industry news story due on friday!!!
300word? Easy!! I hear you say...
The word limit I can handle...
Its the interviews and quotes (that I can't make up) that I can't handle!!!
ARG!
4Days to write something interesting and hopefully decent! Its worth 20% too!!! RRrrrr
I hate my News and Politics class.
Not really but I hate assignments! :(

My Mother...

This is my mum's blog. Its beautiful. And definitely worth having a look at!

http://plumpetal.blogspot.com/

Do it! You'll Love It!

Week 8 Task

Our task for our week 8 Tute is a group task. We have to make a "fake" news story, video it and post it onto the IReport website. We are doing it for two consecutive weeks which is good. First tute was loads of fun and we managed to film the entirety of our video. A massive 30Seconds!! Hilarious though! Next week should be loads of fun. Hoping the editing goes well... not sure of the quality of either my filming ability or my camera phone! We shall soon see!!!

Pick 5 Links

The Wayback Machine
http://www.archive.org/index.php
This is kind of cool... You type in a website and it shows you what it looked like "wayback" ago... Haha I used MySpace. In 1997 it had like two pages! And it was so basic! Crazy that it could be the 5th biggest country in the world now!

http://www.polyvore.com/
I just LOVE this website!! Online shopping in style!!! No more ugly ebay buys these designs are awesome!! Not just clothes its got loads of other creative things to do! The best is being able to make your own outfits! searching by brands makes it oh-so-simple to use! And their great brands too!!

http://mashable.com/2008/05/14/17-google-maps-mashups-to-waste-away-your-day/
Not at all useful and as said "wont end world hunger" but it is a bit of fun! Just for a laugh they have 17 google maps that will give you something to do for at least half an hour (at least i managed to waste that much time on it!)

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/design/
This one is about as useful as the last one but again you can waste some time and have some laughs. I really like this one about a guy taking different photos everyday until he turns 30. What an interesting experiment!
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/how-can-you-take-365-different-photos-of-yourself/

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php
This one is abit scary! Its a map of the world and little icons to click on to let you know all the terrible disasters happening around the world! My brother is in South America were their are currently 6 erupting volcanoes, a tornadoe and two devastating thunderstorms!!!! :( I Guess the country is pretty big...

Lecture Week 7

That guy is crazy!
Just had week 8 lecture with Jason. Was good we talked about software and the website portableapps.com. Awesome site. What a good idea! I hate buying software!!!

He was telling us about OpenOffice a downloadable program which is basically the same as Microsoft Office. Definately a good idea. Im not buying the whole office suite again thats for sure!

Also told us about Gimp. I'd heard of this before but didn't really know what it was. Photoshop clone! Sounds great! Free! Even better!

The nest one he told us about was Blender. Its an animation program. Will be telling my talented mother about this one she's been saving up for good animation software for months now!!!

Overall a good lecture. Hating the 8o'clock part but a bottle of coke and large coffee later i feel tops! :)

Persona's Task

YouTube

Did You Know 2008
I watched this film in my social enterprise class today and decided to use it for this task. Its a crazy film it just blows my mind! It's so neat but also kind of scary!



The Minature Earth
We also watched this in my Social Enterprise Lecture! This one is just amazing and totally depressing but i think it's worth watching. Definatley makes you feel lucky.



First YouTube Video ever!
What a boring clip! Thought it was kind interesting though!



My Name Is Lisa
Winner of Best YouTube Short Film 2007



The Black Hole
This is crazy!! Hahha! This one was also tagged as one of the best short films on YouTube...



Reach
Owww So Cute! What an emotional lil robot! So sad though... kind of a bummer!!!

Who What When Where Why and How Task

I chose to do my "5W's and a H Task" on the TV series Dexter. I have embeded two YouTube clips from an episode of Dexter to demonstrate the WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY and HOW of the show.

The Above Clip is the shows opening credits and, in my opinion depicts so beautifully the WHO and WHAT of Dexter's character.

WHO- the first shot we see is a still image of dexter, as he lays watching a mosquito attack. Just as he does in the show, Dexter waits and watches, to be sure his prey is guilty and thus is deserving of punishment. Once he is certain, he strikes, without mercy Dexter kills the guilty, punishing them for acts of cruelty against the innocent. Ultimately Dexter makes you question your views on justice and the idea of "an eye for an eye". After Dexter slaps the mosquito dead, a smirk creeps onto his face and the audience gets an insight into Dexters cheeky and charismatic character. (P.S Is it strange that I find a serial killer so dammed attractive!?)
WHAT- I percieve the WHAT to be WHAT Dexter is or DOES, i.e Serial Killer who kills the Guilty, Thus it is reflected above as well.
WHAT is also reflected in the symbolism in the opening credits. The close up shots of Dexter as he shaves, a close-up of a razor-blade grazing the throat then slicing into the skin. Images of a knife slicing into some form of meat, cutting into a blood orange, floss wrapped tightly around fingers. All of these images gives clues to WHAT Dexter is and WHAT and how he does it.

The next clip i embeded is a clip from an episode of Dexter. This clip shows the WHEN WHERE WHY AND HOW.



WHEN and WHERE- The opening shot of this clip sets the scene and lets the audience know the setting for the episode. Another beautiful sunny day in Miami.

HOW- I took the HOW to be, HOW Dexter hides his other identity and How he associates with others. This is reflected in the next few images after the setting. We see Dexter appear wearing lab gear and blending in and associating with the crew of surrounding police officers. Thus the audience instanly recognises that Dexter is not a normal serial Killer and that he, in fact, works alongside the police. The ultimate disguise.

WHY- This is the most difficult to explain. The most obvious answer is that Dexter was born with no emotion, by technical definition, a psychopath. However i think one needs to watch or read Dexter to truely understand the motivation behind his character. He makes you question your views on justice and as the series progresses you feel empathy towards him. I think by the end of Season One you fall in love with his quirky nature and gorgeous charisma.

Sketch Cast.

My Google Map

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