Blog Post 2: Pokemon, Technology, and Vampires

One of the ideas I really liked that we talked about in class was how Americans want everything (but maybe I just liked getting to hear the Pokemon theme song…) As an American I think this same way. When I was younger I spend ridiculous amounts of money buying and collecting Pokemon cards, as well as beanie babies. I wouldn’t say I was so into collecting as the mailman from “Vampire Lectures” though, or the people from the TV show “Hoarders.” Does these people’s obsessive desire to collect things make them the ultimate Americans than if we are talking about the desire for everything being “American?” And does this maybe connect to what Serres said about humans being the ultimate parasite? I can definitely see it in the sense of “take, take, take,” but I’m not too sure about there being any harm done to anyone else, except maybe in the case of the mailman and people not receiving their mail, or perhaps other people who live in those houses with the hoarders having terrible living conditions… Anyways, I’m not really sure where I am going with this, so I will move on….

When doing my blog response for this last week I read a lot about technology, and we have also talked a lot about it in class. It makes me wonder, with all the new technology around now is my life really that much better than when I was younger and most people did not own computers of their own and cell phones were practically non-existent? I don’t really think so. Sure, this technology is useful, but I don’t remember ever thinking when I was younger, “Dang, I wish I could Google this real quick…” or “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could send text messages on a phone from anywhere I want?” Most of the technology we have now-a-days I fills a void that never existed. We didn’t NEED laptops, it was just some persons crazy idea that we COULD own small computers that could go with us places. I don’t feel that we are that much better off because of it. In fact, I think we are worse off, because we rely on that technology now. How the heck would I get my homework done of keep in contact with friends if I didn’t have my laptop???

I must admit that I am not as far in Rickels yet as I should be (I am taking 20 credits and working – I can’t read 100 pages a night!) Anyways, from what I have read so far, Rickels has discussed a lot of different vampire movies and kind of how the image of vampires have evolved over time. But this book was written prior to the big Twilight thing. Which makes me wonder, what would Rickels have to say about the Twilight series? I am betting he would say crappy stuff about it just like most other college students. I mean what kind of crazy person would come up with an idea like shiny vampires and half human half vampire mutant children…hmmm, I guess Stephenie Meyer. Hopefully I don’t offend anyone by talking bad about Twilight. I must admit that I once loved Twilight, but for all the reasons that middle schoolers love Twilight (the age that these books are meant for in the first place). I thought that they were just the cutest books. I saw the strong love between Edward and Bella to be the same between me and my boyfriend. When I read New Moon and Edward dumped Bella I believed that if the same ever happened to me I would also never be able to recover. But, when you get dumped out of the blue by a guy you have been with for 2 years you tend to see things very differently. (Which is why the books are so perfect for pre-teens – they don’t have this experience yet). Anyways, now I know that: Edward is an asshole, Bella is an idiot, and vampires DO NOT SPARKLE. But, back to the point…I think Rickels would go crazy talking about how much Twilight does not follow the pattern of vampirism. And there are also all those other vampire TV shows out right now – True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, etc. I wonder what he would say about these (I haven’t actually seen any of them so I will leave it there).

In class last week we also started talking about the idea of a vampire having to be let in. We didn’t talk about it too much, but from my previous knowledge of vampires this is definitely what I already knew (one of my favorite examples being “Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King : ) But, in Rickels, at least at the beginning of the book, I was kinda getting the opposite idea – that vampires could automatically go after family members…Anyways, I am hoping we will keep talking about this in class, because I am still a bit lost on a lot of things in this class….

Blog Post 1

When I first came into this class I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it wasn't this. I was thinking it would be something like the English classes I took at my community college - read a book (in this case books about parasites), learn about grammar, punctuation, and all that boring stuff, and then write essays about a topic (parasites). Therefore, I was quite confused at first when this is not what we were doing. I am much enjoying this class's format, though I am still trying to get used to it since this stuff isn't really my strength.

On Friday when we watched the movie Symbiopsychotaxiplasm I was a bit confused as to how it related to anything we have talked about so far. But when I thought about it some more and continued to read Tomcat Murr it came to me that perhaps the connection between the two is the lack of plot. As was specifically mentioned in Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, there was no plot; the directors just kind of made it up as tehy went along, with no particular end in sight. Murr's story doesn't seem to have much of a plot either - just hearing from Murr certain stories about his life and childhood. Kreisler's story seems to have even less of a plot, seeming completely random at times, just like a lot of the parts they decided to film (and not cut-out during editing) in Symbiopsychotaxiplasm.

One idea from class that I have really liked so far is the stuff about toxoplasm we learned about in the RadioLab podcast. I think it's really cool to think about the idea that a parasite can make rats attracted to cats rather than be afraid of them, and that this parasite can also get passed to humans. Which also makes me wonder...what if I have toxoplasm? I LOVE cats and dislike (most) dogs. And why is this? I don't know...maybe my cat infected me with toxoplasm. I guess I will never know...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjy28zaq_NI (Toxoplasm takes over the world!)

Oh, and here is a picture of my cat :) (those are baby hamsters on him btw)















The day that Tony decided he wasn't going to talk during class, only Plurk and show random YouTube videos to interrupt us during discussion, and the whole conversation we then had about the power of written language vs. oral language also got me thinking. With the internet, I think a lot of language is getting more and more written, but it also opens up the avenues for mass spreading of electronic but still oral language, such as videos, podcasts, and music. I agree with what some people in class said about social skills decreasing with more and more written language available on the internet, which is much less threatening than talking to someone in person.


I have seen this same thing happen to me. I have always been super shy, so I have never had much social skills to begin with, but when I discovered online chatting in high school whatever social skills I did have went down the drain. For example, last year when I was in a long distance relationship with a guy I had met online (and visited during school vacations) my social life was non-existent. I think I only went to maybe 1 or 2 social events all year, because I was always online talking to him. And whenever I did try to be around real life people I felt awkward and had a hard time being part of a conversation. But, this year now that I am not with him anymore I actually have REAL LIFE friends...what a concept. So, happy ending...no more long distance crap + real life friends = social skills rising.


So anyways, like I was saying...I can see that the importance of written language is increasing a lot with technology, but I also understand that oral language (real life conversations) are also very important, even if they are more awkward sometimes than sitting behind a computer screen.



I do feel a bit like Tony is advocating for written language via the internet, with things like Plurk (which is very addicting I might add) and blog entries and responses. But really, most English classes are focused on written language rather than oral language. I guess it just feels different that this is written language on the internet rather than written language in the form of an essay you turn in to class. Which leads me to wonder...is there taht big of a difference between these two types of written language? And are we losing (hand) written language to computers and the internet? I definitely do a lot less handwriting than I did in elementary and middle school. Now just about the only time I use a pencil and paper is to take notes, although a lot of students just bring their laptops to class for note taking. Is losing handwritten language a bad thing? A good thing? I'm not really sure...

So, I guess that's all. I will leave you with this little video about another cool parasite...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWB_COSUXMw