Rob’s Blog

Using the article I have completely re-arranged the format of my widgets.  I have moved the everything around so that the important things are where the visitor is most likely to see them.  As such I have moved the recent posts and archives to the top left corner and my voki avatar and blogroll over to the right sidebar.  Hopefully if this stuidies findings were correct then it should make any visitors to my site have an eaiser time finding what I have written.

This week felt really long and drawn out….

I did however get my wish (stated in a previous blog entry) and we learned more about customization of our blogs.  We all added voki avatars to our websites as “greeters”.

We also are starting our main projects with our other teachers.  Mr. Scaramella told me he couldn’t wait to see what I’m going to make. 

This new project should be fun though, I’ve already got a number of ideas on what I’m going to do, I’m in the process of sorting the ideas out in terms of what I will end up doing in the end.

 I have been wondering though when we will use the other programs we were told about like gimpshop. This project wraps up kind of late in the year so I don’t know what we will end up doing with it, if anything.

I had heard about this two weeks ago via rumours at school and I decided to find out what exactly had happened.  To my dismay I found that this is only the most recent case of this kind, another case of the same thing occured back in January and another in November. 

For the statement Mr. Stengel has asked us to give our opinion on I think that it is true that the internet provides a lure for violence to achieve fame (or rather infamy).  However I do not feel it is Youtube’s fault that this occurred and it provides and able scapegoat for angry families.  I feel sorry for the girl and her parents, I truly do, but it is not the fault of youtube that a group of people are criminally insane and desperate for attention.  The people to blame are the girls that committed this horrible crime, and to an extent their parents for not takeing care of their kids proplerly or for recognizing the signs to their children’s psycotic desires.

 If we want to make sure that the internet will not be used for such things in the future we need for greater filtering abilites in order to make sure something like this can’t be posted online.  If it can’t be posted then kids will lose intrest in this.  However electotronics are malleable and most likely some kind of work around would be developed or specific sites would open up for just these sort of things.

Spring break has been a great week.  I went out to the southwest for the week and did some very interesting things.  To name a few:

1.  Climbed a mountain - fun, but dangerous, it got rather windy during the final quarter of the ascent and I was almost blown off.

2.  Hiked the Grand Canyon - not the first time but took a different trail this time, still a fun experience

3.  Got caught in a sand storm - NOT GOOD, I was spitting out sand for the rest of the day and the red sand make me for a time a redhead

4.  Led a squirrel army - despite the absurdity of this statement, the local Kaibab squirrel is not afraid of people and will willingly crawl up to people and follow them in hopes of food.  I had about 6 squirrels at one point following me that would do as I did.

5.  Offroaded in a jeep - this was a fun time, its surprising what a jeep can do.

I did many other things as well but if I was to continue the list would go on forever…

An article we just read was on MMORPGs and their influence on human socio-interaction.  This article stated that scientists are finding that MMOs are a good form of interacting as it allows for people to build relationships.  I know from personal experience that MMOs are a good way to make friends with people all over the world and are a great way to learn about other places and cultures.