Week 1 Reflection

As I mentioned in my discussion post (regarding assignment 1) and in replies to others, I'm already struggling with what is seeming like the overwhelming task of tackling questions about media.  (And, I haven't even begun to thing about the 2nd word in our class title:  culture.)  I hope these questions don't come across as complaining because they're not meant in that vein at all.  I also hope these questions don't seem as if I'm looking for others to shore-up my beliefs in my abilities or to cheerlead for me.  Rather, by stating these difficulties, I'm trying to find ways to work-through the enormity of it and find paths to set-out upon.  Sometimes, I struggle with these same kinds of questions in other classes.  Sometimes, I don't.  Part of my concern in this particular class is that I'm not a rhetorician (I even had to find the spelling of that word) and as a result, I feel under-qualified and somewhat unprepared to look at these questions of rhetoric (which have already been raised, rightly so) and these questions of media/mediation/culture with rhetorical theory. 

Also, I'd like it noted that I did my best though to break out of my comfort zone and to comment on work by colleagues whom I don't *know* well already and with whom I'm comfortable.  (Hi Kim and Avery!)

Specifically regarding assignment #1, I was very pleased to have an opportunity to think about and map-out something narrow that's of interest to me (within this course) and to be able to do so in a free-form way.  I know myself and my work habits (duh, don't we all) and I know that if I made myself create a product for this assignment in anything other than free-form handwriting, I would have spent less time thinking about the content of it and more time thinking about creating perfect little boxes using some program.  (The Virgo never rests.)

In terms of others' work on assignment 1, I really liked seeing Richard's animated short -- both the content and the method/tool/technologies of handwriting and handwriting in the animation.  Note to self:  ask Richard about the software he uses for this but be careful to not get sucked-in to learning a time-sucking tool. 

Database as medium

Tomatoes

I've chosen an image of tomatoes as my background.  I love tomatoes.  Love.  Them.