VALS Results

   Upon completing the VALS survey, I finished with the results of primary type of Experiencer and secondary type being Innovator. As far as the meaning of experiencer, essentially, it means that I am essentially one to jump at the idea of doing something new or exciting, and quickly lose interest and move onto a new experience. It also states that experiencers are those who enjoy social gatherings, which I most definitely do. I have to agree with the bit about moving onto new things after previously being very interested in something else, as I have had this occur numerous times throughout my life. I have become very interested in something and desired to pursue it, then moved on to something bigger, better, or more interesting. I also tend to spend my money on frivolous things, which is a characteristic of an experiencer. I don't really agree with my secondary catagory of innovator, as it says that this is someone who likes to take charge and be a leader. I don't really agree with this, as I would rather have someone keep me in line while allowing me to be as free and creative as possible. I do agree with accepting to change and being a very active consumer however, because I do enjoy to purchase things.

The Web at 20

     This article was very relevant to me as I use the web daily for assignments for school and checking e-mails and keeping in touch with friends and family via social networking. The point in this article that spoke to me the most was the segment about people believing the web to be a piece of "nature," essentially meaning that something that is not within the control of man to fix or preserve. I agree one-hundred percent with this article that the web should be preserved as it is an extremely valuable asset to nearly every person. I agree with the article that no one service or networking group should have a "monopoly" of sorts regarding your personal information and the services and advertisements you are exposed to. I also agree that people should be able to create their own social networking, as opposed to being subject to one main service. While I am an advocate and frequent user of social networks, I believe that they are becoming too dominant in today's World Wide Web.

3-D Art or Gimmick?

     After reading this article I have to agree with the autohor about 3-D movies. In my honest opinion 3-D is not meant to make for a more "immersive" veiwing experience, it is a marketing ploy used by film companies to sell more tickets. 3-D movies make you feel as if you are in a surreal environment in which everyday objects fly towards your face, the exact opposite of the intended so-called "realism." I am not opposed to watching a movie in 3-D, but I believe that it is a waste of money and only adds to the aesthetic quality of the movie, as opposed to adding any feeling that I am actually "in" the film. When it comes down to it, in my opinion, 3-D movies are nothing more than overglorifed pop-up books who serve to win over the eyes of their audiences, and their wallets.

Most Interesting Thing Thus Far

     The most interesting thing I have found in this class was the discussions we had about advertising and the examining of the advertisement. Advertising is very interesting to me as it has a lot to do with human psychology. I enjoyed learning about what makes an advertisement appealing to certain groups. The viewing of the blatently sexist ads made me realize just how extreme some people will get to make a point about their product. The video we watched about the selling of facial renewal products in third world countries opened my eyes to how evil some coorporations can be, as they sell something that is dangerous and known to cause problems; something that is illegal, to unsuspecting people who would rather pay for a false sense of "beauty" imposed by the media, than food for their families. So far this class has been a real eye-opener to the way that advertising works. It has been very intriguing to me.

Graphic Novel Review

     I decided to review a graphic novel I found online at  www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/1736_1.pdf known as The Last Man. This is the story of the last man on Earth in the midst of an all female population. Words in the novel are primarily used to show lapse of time and dialogue. The time lapses are present in-order-to connect different events that are occurring simultaneously. The rest of the words are in the form of character dialogue, which presents the reader with an idea that that the story is being told from a 3rd person omniscient perspective. We do not know who is telling the story, but there is definitely an unseen narrator. The pictures in this graphic novel are connected with the words and help to tell the story. They have either powerful or startling images, or dull backgrounds and color schemes that correlate with what is going on currently. The frames of the graphic novel were broken up as to show one event per page typically, except in the case of the time lapse scenarios, in which all word, picture, and frame shared a special connection. It doesn't seem to me as any aspect of the work really stood out by itself as saying more than the other. It appears is if words,pictures, and frames were all carefully constructed to keep a sense of order amongst the chaos that is this story.