Shams Kazi's English 269 Blog

Visual Assignment final

sk90 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:23:26 +0000

“America for Dummies”

sk90 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:15:06 +0000

I have to agree with much of the video, especially about how quantitative testing methods are sucking the life out of the classroom. Schools are no longer about learning and the passion for knowledge, but instead they are a series of placement exams and IQ tests. All of which should be irrelevant, or at the very least not be used as a primary quantifier.

I also loved how the person on the boat said that we’re aspirational on a materialistic level, because it’s so true on so many levels. Every year, most people I’m surrounded by are well versed how the new iPod will change their lives this Christmas, but very few are aware of peace summits and political events. I’m not much different though, although I sometimes read the Economist and browse the New York Times casually, I still take more interest in my material goods than the world around me. That’s partially attributed to the fact that I’m a technophile, and another because its very difficult to get a good source of news that it’s spewing out hype and misinformation.

The video claims we’re apathetic to find out new information, and that’s mostly because we’re never rewarded for knowing this information, except if we’re in a heated discussion with someone a bit older and wiser than us. On the other hand, if most people aren’t aware of the latest event regarding popular media, they can risk being shunned by their peers. So in reality, its not a hard choice for most people to make – the popular media wins every time.

Visual Assignment

sk90 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:03:47 +0000

In this assignment, I’m trying to show that people don’t care about the old ways anymore, its all about the new stuff.

The overall concept of this was to show that newer, faster ways of doing things thrive in today’s world and older, and slower ways of doing things are going to go away and potentially be lost and forgotten in the near future.

Audio Project Final

sk90 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:00:19 +0000

This project was about how I got my first computer, why I got my computer, and what impact it had on me.

Link: http://drop.io/sk90_eng269/asset/audioproj2-mp3

Citations:

Teru – teru_-_110_Downtempo_Electronic_1.mp3

http://ccmixter.org/content/teru/teru_-_110_Downtempo_Electronic_1.mp3

Megamart – 20727__megamart__computer_on.wav

http://media.freesound.org/data/20/sounds/20727__megamart__computer_on.wav