So there I was on Saturday night, out with a group of the girls for a ladies night on the tiles. 2 for 1 cocktails to start, then on to a local club. Good group of girls, white wine flowing – I should have been having a great time. Instead I kept having to go and have a little weep in the bathroom and even getting tearful chatting to the girls. Now there may have been some PMT involved, but even so. Nights like that are supposed to cheer me up, not give me another opportunity to feel sorry for myself.

This is so not me. I don’t DO crying, and I definitely don’t do crying in public. I’ve had my ups and downs in life, but I’ve always remained essentially me – the bubbly one, the one who makes everyone else feel comfortable. I don’t recognise the person I am right now and I don’t think my friends do either. They’re supportive, but I don’t think they know what to do with me.

Of course, it didn’t help that one of the girls is due to marry her guy, and that they got together at the same time Hunky and I did. She’s got that whole bridal glow thing going on already, and I really am so happy for her – they’re perfect together and both deserve all the happiness they have now. But I can’t help feeling a bit wistful. I thought it was my turn this time. Finally.

I suppose it’s just a case of being patient with myself, and I’m trying to be. But I wish Breakup Me would finish up her business and move on, so Fun Me can make a return. I miss her.

Thanksgiving in my family is always done at my Aunt Sue’s house in Spencer. We all bring a salad or dessert and relax and enjoy it with family. Usually my mom, being a nurse, gets every other holiday off, so she works every other Thanksgiving, making it impossible for her to get there. This year though, my dad said that he would go to my aunt’s for Thanksgiving if he had other people to go with him, so my brother, me, and my fiancée agreed to come with him. My fiancée has never been to a Thanksgiving for my family, so it was partly introductory. Though he has met most of the family on my mom’s side there were a few cousins of my aunts that he had not met yet. These are the cousins that I usually do not see that often, so I even had some trouble remembering their names. They each had a boyfriend, though I do not think they ever introduced them, though none of them are new, but being only a boyfriend people only expected to be introduced to him if they were directly talking to them. Anyway then after having a huge Thanksgiving meal at my aunt’s house, me and my fiancée then went to my house and had a huge Thanksgiving meal with my fiancée’s parents and grandparents, though no aunts and uncles. I was already stuffed from my family’s Thanksgiving dinner, but they looked like they waited for us to eat, so I felt like I had to eat at least a little to be polite. I definitely think I’m more round though from the experience.

I feel so flustered in these last few weeks of classes what with everything being due. I still have not started on most of it, including the last fiction scene due in this class. I feel as though I am accomplishing something at least with these blogs, but after this I must write a seven to ten page paper about the INCLUDE strategy which deals with students with disabilities. That paper is due on Monday and since it’s Sunday and I have not even started it, it looks like it is going to be a close one, probably an all-nighter. This probably is not good since I have to wake up at seven in the morning to go back to Vermillion anyway so I can get to class at nine in the morning. Plus, after I get done with that paper I still have to write that last fiction scene, I have to watch a video over mental illness and do questions over it, I have to write that writerly immersion paper, I have to do a transcription over a child’s speech and write a summary over it, I have to write a language theory essay, and I have to write two child interaction reports. And that is just the beginning of it. Then on top of that I have a bunch of tests to study for and not fail at the same time. It has not helped that I have been sick this whole week, even over Thanksgiving so I have not been able to do any work or go to any of my classes.

I seem to have been signed up for a Singles Event. Not that it’s a Singles Event in the organised, speed dating, traffic light party kind of way. This one was supposed to be a Christmas dinner which I was invited to through a mutual friend. And I thought, great – different crowd, new people, should be fun. In fact, since my married friend was also invited originally, I didn’t realise that the whole point of the exercise was to meet people in order to hook up.

That is, until the menu went round this week, along with the guest list. My first hint was that one of the guests was listed only as “single naughty policeman”. The second was that next to the name of another, called Andrea, was written: “boy, in case you are worrying” (I wasn’t). Finally, there was a note saying “X can you confirm that Y and Z are definitely coming and also if you could get me three more blokes to join us that would be great for the ladies! LOL”

Whatever happened to meeting people on their own terms? I know nobody wants to be the last man standing in the musical chairs of dating, but do we really have to be so focused on meeting someone that we find ourselves “worrying” if more guys turn up at a party than girls do? Because, God forbid, we might land up sitting next to another girl instead of one of the few available men. A girl who may become a new friend (and who may, you know, have a cute brother). What about all the couples out there? Do they cease to have personalities just because they’re out of the game? Should we just not bother wasting our time getting to know them, because we’re on a schedule here people!

Ugh, I don’t get it. This whole dating thing seems to get more and more competitive as I get older. There’s nothing wrong with putting yourself out there, but I don’t want being single to define me any more than I wanted my relationship to.

Oh well, we’ll see how it goes. At least if there’s a bunfight over the boys we have a single naughty policeman to break it up…

A funny thing happened to me today. I was reading through Booshy’s awesome thankfulness project (which I didn’t participate in because I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving) (and also because I am lazy) and vaguely thinking as I read about what I would be most grateful for right now. And a surprising thought rose out of nowhere and popped into my head:

I’m grateful I’m not Hunky.

Didn’t see that coming. What an odd thing to be grateful for. Is that really true? But when I sat with it for a second, I realised that it was.

The thing is, as well as the whole end-of-relationship thing, Hunky has some stuff to work out. It’s his stuff, so I won’t go into it, but there’s stuff. And I don’t just say that in the “he left me and I’m awesome therefore he must have issues” kind of way. (Although I am awesome.) It’s real stuff, and if I’ve learnt anything recently, it’s that you have to deal with your stuff. You can try to put it away and even start again and hope it plays out differently, but it’ll keep coming back until you turn around and say “Okay, fine, I see you. Let’s tango.” Me and my stuff, we’ve done the steps. I’m good with my stuff. But I don’t think Hunky has even begun to tackle his, and I don’t envy him that. It’s been really hard to get where I am now, but at least I’m here.

Besides, it’s no fun being the bad guy. It hurts like hell that I gave it all I had and he left me. But I’ll get over that, and when I’m done I know I’m in a position to be a better partner to someone than I have ever been in my life. How much would it suck to have been loved by someone you loved back, and who you respected (and I know he did both), and then to let them down so completely? And to not have the guts to say goodbye? How do you justify that to yourself? Even if he did the best he could at the time – and I think he probably did – he still has to live with knowing how much he hurt me. Me, I know that I did everything I could, no regrets.

So there’s my random and unexpected bit of thankfulness. I’m thankful I’m not my ex-boyfriend. Can I have some turkey now?

PS Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! I still don’t really know what you’re celebrating, but I hope you had an awesome day.

Well, the IPS seems to be in a cycle of good one week, bad the next. It went a pathetic 18-28 against the line. But, if the cycle continues, hopefully this will be a better week.

Texas still a solid #1 in the IPS rankings. That’s not any home cooking on my part. The Horns simply have score more and allowed less points relative to our opponents.

I admit it. I’m a Christmas fiend.

Seriously, there’s not many things on earth that make me quite as excited as the weeks leading up to the big event and the day itself. I love everything – the food, the parties, the decorations, shopping for presents, carols, traditions. When I first saw the tree at Rockefeller Centre in New York I just about had a fit. Some examples of my Christmas mania:

• I am the only one of my friends who owns not one but several albums of Christmas music, from choir carols through Bing Crosby and right up to Mariah Carey.
• I also own a huge collection of Christmas magazines, which means that I must have access to about 20 different turkey recipes and 15 ways with gammon. Every year I buy more.
• Most years, I get so excited that I finish my Christmas shopping in November.
• My Christmas wrapping has a different colour scheme every year. Did you know there are actual trends in wrapping paper? Yep, well, there are. Selecting a “scheme” appeals deeply to my inner Martha Stewart.
• I don’t like real trees, but the fake one I bought a few years ago is so big that if we put it up in the lounge you can’t get through the door. We have to put it in a corner and leave out half the lower branches round the back, but you can’t tell the difference.

As a child, my Christmases were totally magical (which is probably where my obsession with the season comes from). My parents’ tree is HUGE and completely covered with hundreds of antique decorations from both sides of the family. My father would build an entire village of little people underneath. It’s only me, mum and dad, but on Christmas Eve my mom would cook veal, a melon and prosciutto starter, a ham, a turkey with two stuffings, and her lemon sorbet speciality dessert. In the morning, after church and pannetone, my dad would hand out each present individually because all of us take so much joy in watching each other open our gifts. And then we’d spend the day in the swimming pool.

I haven’t been home for Christmas for seven years (the flight prices just rocket this time of year), so since I’ve lived overseas Christmas has been quite different. For one thing, it’s cold, which I LOVE. I’ve been welcomed into several other families, followed the British tradition of a massive night out on Christmas Eve (and a grinchy hangover the following day), and even had snow on Boxing Day. But last year was probably my favourite Christmas since I left home. Hunky and I stayed in London, so I finally had the chance to do it my way. I planned the decorations for weeks – gold, taupe and white, with lots of candlelight and fresh flowers. I cooked us an amazing meal. I even made personalised stockings to hang by the fireplace, and (because it doesn’t work) I filled it with dozens of candles. On Christmas Eve, after our meal, we sat drinking champagne, cuddling on the couch and staring at the flickering candles. We were so excited to give each other our presents that both of us opened one then. It was romantic and perfect. All I wanted for Christmas was him, and I got what  asked for.

So you can see why this year, Christmas has suddenly lost its lustre. I know that when the day comes, I’m going to be missing him something awful. And since most of my friends have left the country, I don’t even have a lot of Christmas shopping to get me into the spirit of things. For a while there, I thought I’d have to spend the day on my own but (whew!) it turns out a group of mates are all here, so we’re doing a big lunch together which will be wonderful. But even so, I haven’t been able to bring myself to put on the Christmas music or go through the magazines. I feel like I’m losing something else I love, and it just won’t do.

So I’ve decided to take a different tack. Instead of going Christmas-tastic the minute December dawns, I am going to take it slowly, adding little elements one at a time. The tree will still be there. So will the parties. And I’ll still enjoy shopping for friends. But I’m also going to focus more on some of the real meaning of the holiday. Do something for charity. Watch It’s a Wonderful Life. Write proper Christmas cards for the first time in years, so I can let all the people I love around the world know how much they mean to me. Spend some time in reflection (I’m lazy in the church department, but I do have a great book of advent readings – one a day – which I’m digging out). Maybe somewhere along the way the carols will start to come, and the Christmassy excitement. And when sometimes the sadness creeps in, I’m going to be okay with that. I’m pretty sure this won’t be my favourite Christmas of all time, but it can still be a good one.

And there’s always next year…

Those seven-page features only confuse me. This was one page and a breath of fresh air: it had a resolution.

Aid and money may do more harm than help when it comes to Africa and other developing nations. There are books to prove it.

This author mentions several but puts weight on the important things like children going to school.

“In the 1960s, there were grand intellectual debtaes about whether capitalism was heroic or evil; today we simply worry about how to make it work. At last, we may be doing the same with foreign aid.”

There was once a rich, weird old dude with prosthetic hands who lived in France during the 18th century. He liked to eat so much that he considered himself expert enough to write a series of books on the emerging culinary trends of the time such as le restaurant.

This writer decided to use this writing as a guide on his own personal tour of French cuisine.

Though some locations were, no surprisingly, missing, some had been preserved in their splendor.

Pretty cool.

Almost 25 million is a lot of mouths to feed. This is the population of Saudi Arabia and a number that continues to grow. The upside is their wealth. Where they do not have arable land, they instead have the means to pay for it.

But they don’t just want to pay for imports. Instead, they want to use their wealth to buy the land and control the production of their food sources.

This is leading them, and others, to Africa. A land with many problems of its own, the ethical and economic dilemmas being faced are new and numerous.

Is this investment helping or harming countries like Ethiopia? More specifically, is it just the native elite who benefit or does the common man also get his share? Are they being paid a fair rate for the land?

Colonial exploitation has made many wary of new deals. Additionally, structurally created famines that exist today cannot be ignored in the equation.

But hunger can make history blurry in anyone’s mind and provide a strong incentive to seize opportunities where presented.

Coming out in clear support of needle-exchange methods, this article’s bias leaves me with many questions.

Needle-exchange programs have been proven effective in reducing the transmission of H.I.V. but are still politically unpopular for the obvious reason they facilitate further illicit drug use.

Pragmatically, I believe programs that achieve validated reduction in the infection rate of deadly disease should be supported. But in this case, I’m not so sure.

This article fails to mention one-time use needles. What are the costs? Is it feasible to replace all syringes in hospitals and at large with one-time use designs? Wouldn’t this be more effective than needle-exchange?

It also gives cursory mention to the fact that most drug users seem to have a stronger incentive to use clean needles than to wear condoms. Why is this? Have their been any studies done? If a drug user has the prescence of mind to seek out a clean needle, couldn’t they just as easily use a condom?

Programs that would offer birth control and disease reduction seem to offer more promise for support and a thus a more feasible way of attacking the problem.

Side-stepping the various angles of this issue and focusing on facts that support one position is unprofessional journalism and in the end weakens the author’s lobbying.

Question One:

Credibility comes down to two factors which are trustworthiness and expertise. According to B.J Fogg. When browsing the Internet, you always come across websites that are not authentic, and it is simple to tell the authentic from the fake judging of these factors

1 – is there alot of advertisements on the site?

2- is the site referenced?

3- what is the style of the language like?

4 – grammar

5 – font and font colours

Being a student, I am always searching the internet for information about certain topics in relation to my assignments. I continously come across sites that arent authentic, and this wastes my research time, because I then have to search for credible websites. If a student makes reference to information on a website that is not authentic, then it could result in them failing the assignment. This is becoming a major problem.

Question Two:

Wikipedia is a free enclyclopedia that anyone can edit. This is why students can not make references to this site when researching an assignment. As anyone can edit this site, defintions of subjects are not always correct. Although I must admit that when I want to learn more about something in everyday life, I type it into Wikipedia, which is a bad habit that I should change! I actually know some people that invite their friends over to get drunk and then post information into wikipedia for a laugh – obviously what they type is not the correct information. This goes to show that ANYONE can post ANYTHING!

Question Three:

As technology is growing, it is getting easier and easier to produce websites that aren’t authentic. Peoples perception of web credibility have changed since 1999-2002 because technology has changed. Its as simple as that. People are becoming more familiar with technology, therefore finding ways to hack into the online system and create websites that arent authentic. Some issues that may affect users percieved web credibility in the future consist of:

Privacy
People have to be more careful as to what information that are disclosing on the Internet. The internet is not safe, so people need to double check what company/website they are giving out their personal information to

Sites will have to establish higher security, as hackers are becoming more and more common these days

Bank sites have been hacked into in the past, with people loosing a lot of money. People need to be aware of this

Emails – SPAM and viruses are very common through emails these days. People are also recieving many hoax emails – for example , an email from someone pretending theyre from the bank and need your personal information or an email from a fake charity asking you to donate

Online Security
Online security can be improved with the likes of anti-virus programs such as Norton or Net Nanny.

Sites will have to maintain their credibility by proving that they are an authetic site

Parents will have to make sure that their children are not visiting sites where virus’s can be downloaded or hacking could take place

Credibilty
Websites that do not have many advertisements, provide users with the correct style of language, the grammar on the page is correct and the fonts and colours used are legible – will prove that the website is authentic.

In saying this, website designers will have to go to extra lengths to make sure that their site looks credible, and is easy to distinguish from sites that arent authentic

Activity One

This website is an example of presumed credibility. It is the Greenpeace website, which has a .org website adress. Which proves that it is a genuine website, because it is the Greenpeace organisation.

This is an example of an earned site. The West site is the website for The West Australian Newpaper. This is an earned site because people are familiar with this newspaper and trust this website and its credibility.

This is an example of a reputed website. As Cambridge journals is an informational site, it is used widely by people that need to research certain topics.

This is an example of surface credibility. The Nike brand is well known so obviously it is going to have a professional site. The design is very professional, with great use of colour, clear fonts, it has repitition and balance.

Activity Two

 This was the activity for week 6. We had to design different road signs using shapes in Powerpoint

 For this activity we had to edit an image using Photoshop. I distorted the image and put a cloudy effect on it. I also added text into the picture.

Assignment 1 Screen Grabs

Assignment 2 Screen Grabs

 References:

Fogg, B. J. (2003). Credibility and the World Wide Web. In Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (pp. 122‐125). Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Look at the Picasso painting, Guernica on page 1477 of your textbook.  How does this painting’s story of war compare to one of the texts we’ve read for week eleven?  Discuss some of the common themes that seem to be illustrated in the texts.  How does the painting address a specific audience?  Discuss whether or not the audience for the painting is the same audience that is addressed in the text you’ve selected.

So lately Simon has been testing out his voice. It’s more of a yell than a cry now- and he perks up his ears after making noises like he’s listening to himself. A lot of times he seems like he’s doing whatever we do- trying to say hi, or trying to sing. They say babies start “cooing” at this point in their development. I imagine cooing being a soothing adorable sound. Though Simon’s adorable to me- his yells with his mouth wide open are not quite soothing, definitely not “cooing”. But he’s pretty hilarious. Gabe and I often wonder what he’s saying. He talks the most in the morning. In the video below, I brought him back to bed with us and got him to sleep for another hour. I love love love mornings in bed with all three of us. He’s so snuggly when he’s sleepy. After we laid in bed for a while and Simon started yelling, we brought him down to his room to get ready for the day.  You’ll notice that he has a scaly scabbed up/scratched face. His dry skin is itchy and he keeps scratching himself raw. So I put socks on his hands. It’s pretty hilarious. In the middle of the night (while sleeping)  he was trying to scratch his face with his sock hands and couldn’t do it.

Obviously this video is better with sound. We don’t know what he’s trying to say here- anyone got a guess? Let’s hope he’s not criticizing our music choices. haha!

This contains assignment 1 and 2 aswell as 2 examples of work completed.

cmm1108_A2_rdassens.ppt

CMM1108_A1_rdassens

Meow

ok unfortuantly it wont let me copy the file with the caricture and i dont know why. It just comes up with a message saying that the internet will not support it. what does that mean???????????????

im sorry i don’t know how to fix it I hope I dont lose marks for this

Activity 1 different types of crediblity websites

1. Presumed website;

 www.acfonline.org.au   Australian Conservation Foundation; it is a non profit organisation. it’s url ends in .org and it claims to be an official site. It also has links to media realeses about it’s many topics.

2. Reputed Website

www.wellbeing.com.au   Health magazine on natural products contained in an actual Well Being magazine. It has subscription and contact information. It has links to related topics that would appeal to readers of the magazine, such as home renovations,green living,shopping, craft, weddings and cooking.

3. surface Website

www.interiordesignersaustralia.com.au

This is a profesinaly designed website for interior designers of australia. It is visually pleasing, updated regurly and has links to companies that support it, such as suppilers, consultants. It also has contact information and an easy to use serach guide. It alo contains a site map to help with navigation.

4. Earned website

www.amazon.com

This a well knowen website that makes online shopping easy. It has  a wide selection of products and it also sends emails confriming transcations and allows you print your recipts as evidndence of buying a product. It shows recent history of what you have looked at before and recommends items you may be intreested in, It also contains relevent press realeses and contact information.

question 3 issues that could effect web crediblity in the future

I think that some issues that could effect web crediblity in the future.

1. Advertising, as Fogg states in his article people become annoyed at advertising on the net. I agree it’s bad enough we are surrounded by advertising in the “real-world” for example, bill boards, bus stops, T.V and radio, now we are being bombared by ads on the net. its too much, it’s like they are tryiong to suffacte us in commcerlism.

2. Hackers- it’s getting easier for people to hack into websites and create spam and viruses, how are we supposed to know whether or not a web site has been effected.

3. Information overload. The falseness of what information is put up on the net is increasing just look at wikipedia, some people still think its reliable. It’s just too much at once, throwen into our faces, how do we know whats real and whats not?.  I think that information overload is one of the most cruial issues effecting the future of web crediblity, you search for a topic, click on a website and then get all this information ( half of which isn;t even relevent) just throwen in your face. We are drowning in information and it’s too much

that is what i think anyway.

Question 2. Wikipedia isn’t an accepeted source why?

Wikipedia isn’t an accepeted source because it isn’t credible. It allows anyone to post up information and calls it self an ” encylopedia”. It should never ever be used for research, because you have no idea if the information is true or not, since anyone could have put it there. How will you know if it’s correct?. Well you can’t, so stay away from it. Thats all i have to say about it.

Question 1. Importance of web crediablity

It is important to learn how to evaluate the crediablity of a website, because as a student you want to make sure that the information you are using for your research is accurate and credible. according to Fogg there are some basic guidlines that can be followed when checking out a website to see if it’s credible

( Fogg,2003) The website should show the organisation behind it and highlight the content and services that it will provide. Make sure that it has contact information, including a physical address, It should also be easy to use and helpful. Good visual design is also good. Also make sure that the website is updated regurly and should contain less ads.

Refrences

Fogg, BJ (2003) Crediablity and the world wide web In Persuasive technology using computers to change what we think and do ( pg122-125) ( pg 147-181) Amsterdam Morgan Kaufmann Publishers

http://crediblity.stanford.edu./guidlines/index.htm/    Stanford web crediblity research