Ksuzanne's Blog

just checking to see if this was still here. Ok, it is.

Wow, I just realized
I bookmarked these blogs Where is Raed and Bagdad Burning a while ago and in reading them now the power of the blog not only as a conversation tool but that it delivers an intimate participation with lives lived at crucial moments around the globe, just hit me. Reading 'Raed and 'Bagdad is much more meaningful to me than watching, hearing or reading reports delivered by traditional news media.--even when they involve personal accounts in the stories. There is a level of participation with the weblog that simply makes it more personal and immediate. I can't say that i've ever felt that way in a chat room or on a listserve. Now why that is I don't know, but I feel a connection with these individuals giving daily and sometimes even hourly accounts of history in the making. I find that they are people not really much different than me, but living their lives in such extrodinary circumstances and cultural restraints that I can't even imagine. The opportunity to offer or exchange opinions and information to someone, clear across the globe, even experience a little of their culture is a rather moving and humbling experience. It's just really awesome.

For Writer's
I like to freewrite on paper (I learned this in my freshman english class) to free me up from blocks and to generate ideas. It's a form of stream of consciousnes writing, letting ideas flow as they come. For freewriting, establish a time frame, say, 3 minutes. Set an alarm, and write whatever comes to your mind always keeping your pencil or pen moving on the surface. You write everything that comes to mind it doesn't matter if you make mistakes, draw squiggles, whatever, just keep writing. stop when the alarm goes off. you'll be amazed sometimes of the things that are on that paper. Maybe one sentence is a keeper. Go from there, or save it for future ref. To me this is like doing rapid sketches. It doesn't really matter what's there, it's a training for hand,brain and eye to work together to capture the pure essence of a thing. Eventually, you get faster and the result is better. Blogging is somewhat like the quick sketch, but I am more self-concious of what the public will see. You can free-write in a WP or Notepad application--just keep typing and don't stop.

Related are zefrank's thoughts on free association from his blog:

Free association can feel very disorganized and odd, but it is a way to experience parts of yourself you don't know that much about. It seems that this is what is at the root of a good brainstorm - talking without knowing what you are going to say next. It is having faith in yourself beyond what you can mentally grasp at that moment. You get to experience first hand what your mind consists of. Try it. Look at something and start talking. Say what the thing reminds you of and let that thought trigger another. The way you connect ideas is different from anyone else. I think its what freedom feels like.

Recomended Reading
I was bored so I checked my technorati page to fix my link at JS. I came across some fun books that I would buy & if I had money to spend. Check out the blogs as well for further recreation.

Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity
Hypergene MediaBlog

fans have been creating custom music discs and tapes for years. (via JD Lasica) Update: Of course, no discussion about these things would be complete without a reference to Lawrence Lessig’s intellectual efforts. He has made his latest book, Free Culture , available for free download (via BitTorrent, site) According to Lessig, 36 hours after the release 9 different versions were made available. There is also a fast-moving effort to create and disseminate ~

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
This Goes Without Saying...Boston, MA
conned' the world by propagating lies that turned history against goddess worshipers in favor of Christianity? In the last two millennia over 99 Billion people have been conned? Is that what they're trying to tell us?Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation , has said that his research has found that world-wide, "the Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross." A coincidence or the goal of an ancient secret society? All you need to do is look at this picture of Ronald McDonald. ~

Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
DRS's Radley weblog

and films like it. While the culture frets over the perils of high-tech erasure, we should really be worrying about the opposite: what will happen when we remember too much. Steven Johnson is the author of Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life . Click here for an overview of Charlie Kaufman's work and for links to each of his films. DRS's Radley weblog

The Zombie Survival Guide : Complete Protection from the Living Dead
[obscurity.com] journal - saturday, march 27th, 2004

they will be unable to attack or even stand, and you win. try to hook up with ving rhames because he apparently cannot be killed. makes me glad i keep the .357 in the glove box of my jeep, and the 12-gauge under my bed. also if someone will buy me this book from my amazon wishlist, that'd be awesome. i'll promise to anyone who buys it for me that when you "turn" and try to eat me i'll blow the back of your head off, cause that's the kind and considerate type of guy i am. i make no guarantees on whether ~

Word association:

1. Pitbull:: bulldog
   
2. TD:: table
   
3. Carter:: president
   
4. Japan:: fish
   
5. 50:: old
   
6. Streak:: windex
   
7. Rifle:: shot
   
8. Trap:: bear
   
9. Easter:: sunday
   
10. Mitt:: glove
    

I can't belive I associated 50 with old! That's bad.

Link to unconscious mutterings

Our little corner of the world makes national headlines

Investigators in Ohio Identify Sniper Suspect [ AKA the I 270 Sniper]
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: March 16, 2004
New York Times Online

The police in Columbus, Ohio, issued a warrant yesterday for the arrest of a suspect in a series of sniper shootings, one fatal, along highways in Ohio in the past year.The warrant charges the suspect, Charles A. McCoy Jr., with felonious assault in a Dec. 15 shooting that damaged a house in Franklin Township, said Detective James C. Clark Jr. of the Franklin County sheriff's office.

Ex-U.N. Inspector Has Harsh Words for Bush
By WARREN HOGE

Published: March 16, 2004

a few highlights From a Today Show interview as reported by the New York Times Online

"Mr. Blix said the Americans and British depended too much on defectors and exercised too little critical judgment in assessing their information. "The C.I.A. certainly is very used to debriefing defectors, so they must have had a critical mind," he said, "but they also knew what they wanted to hear at the top."

They wanted to come to the conclusion that there were weapons," he said. "Like the former days of the witch hunt, they are convinced that they exist, and if you see a black cat, well, that's evidence of the witch."
~Hans Blix, former chief United Nations weapons inspector

Who's Got it Worse, Guys or Girls--my response posted to a very active BB topic ~

[i just pasted this in with no corrections or revisions]

Whose got it worse in terms of what though? The question is too broad to answer definitively. It's all relative.

Biologically speaking--men do not risk their lives carrying a fetus inside their body or giving birth with all its complications when it's time. That is what I consider a major difference biologically--so I would say men have an advantage there.
When you start adding *social structure* to the mix though, it starts to get complicated and the scales kind of tip either way at any one point in time.

Cave Man--risks life to get food by hunting dangerous animals. Risks life when he wants to steal his cave mates wife for his own.

Cave woman--risks life to carry a child, give birth, including risk of infection or trauma after giving birth.

Around this time, there were a lot of matriarichal(can't spell that) cultures, because guys thought women were blessed by the gods--only women could magically make other people appear like that, even though they were kinda small. That i'm sure sucked for the guys so they began to revolt and repress the womenfolk. On top of that, you also had to compete with your neighbor for scarce resources and it's all downhill from there.

Oh yeah, pretty soon the men got the idea to banish women from the rest of the group during mensturation because, "well what's up with that anyway!!" Thus, the blood hut came into fashion. It turned out that was *the* place to be & guys were not allowed, the first ladies club, ha,ha,ha. So women can have it kind of rough, but they are creative and try to make things fun and nice.

I'm glad I'm female, I like being a female. That doesn't mean I have it better than guys because I happen to be happy with my sex. I enjoy my feminine aspects--the personality of it--not particullarly all the biology that goes with being a women. kst

A Warning about Plagiarism !!!

Here's a lesson for you wacky teens and college kids--don't let the temptation of 15 minutes of fame seduce you into plagiarism or God just may smite you dead!

I was all over the internet today, playing catch up from a somewhat long absence on the web and I came across the snope's site to indulge in some urban legend material. What surprised me was the seed of one particularly vapid legend known as The Room and various other titles, had germanated right my own hometown--and once it did it spread like kudzu across cyberspace. Man, where was I went all this happened? All I ever get in my mail Little Teddy Stoddard.

Anyway................

I'm reading the bittersweet story of Brian Moore, a local teen who in 1997 receives a visit from Jesus one night. Jesus proceeds to show him via a card filing system (Bruce Almighty rings a bell,here) detailing all of the things in Brian's life and then, humbled by his sins, gives himself to Christ right then and there. This inspires him, Brian, not Jesus, to write a poigniant essay about his epiphany. Regrettfully though, a few days later, he is met with an untimely death. Brian's "essay," found in his locker by students is read as a eulogy at his funeral. A year later it is printed in the Columbus Dispatch by his parents as a memorial. By this time the essay and the story of the author had swirled around cyberspace, thriving and mutating among emails and newsgroups and probably will pop up again no doubt...why, look, here it is again!

Eventually it is revealed that the teen was not the author of the "essay," but that he had filtched it from another source and claimed it as his own.

According to the Dispatch article of June 2, 1999, by Jill Riepenhoff, of which I will quote from, below, Joshua Harris was the real author. It had been previously published in 1995 in New Attitude magazine and again in Harris' book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

Brian's mother, when given the news exclaims, as you can imagine,

[from the Dispatch]
"I had no idea....I'm positive he said he wrote this. If he was here, I'd wring his neck."

And:

"I'm just embarrassed to death,"

So how did Brian meet his fate?

[Actual quote from the Dispatch]
Brian died after his car ran off a road in rural Pickaway County and struck a utility pole. He escaped without injuries but then stepped on a downed power line as he went for help and was electrocuted.

kst