Mark Smith's "Animacules and Other Little Subjects"

I love little things. Kitties, cell phones, and not to mention those little animal shaped rubber bands that everybody is wearing now (I currently have two cows, an elephant, a hedgehog, a dolphin, and a lion). Smith's undying love for his favorite little creatures doesn't surprise me. He's obsessed with them kind of like how I'm obsessed with cats. I can't stand being away from my two at home while I'm at school so I LOVE that Hofstra has cats on campus... and if I said I haven't been to the pet store just to see the kitties (and puppies) I would for sure be lying.

Smith portrays his love for little things with the words he uses to describe them. "She is a diamond chip." (259) "Living dazzle." (260) "Perched like birds and unfolding like flowers." (261) Also, just the mere fact that Smith has a hard time explaining his love for the animacules and putting it into words reveals his absolute passion for these little creatures.

Benjamin Phelan "How We Evolve"

Human evolution... did it or will it ever happen? I'm not sure. I agree with Phelan's thought that it probably won't because we pretty much put a halt on survival of the fittest. Humans cure the sick, save the dying, and mating is no longer something that males fight over. In fact, mating has almost gone out of control because in my opinion, the world is veryy close to becoming overpopulated.

Phelan's idea of "self-inflicted extinction" is also probably as close to true as possible. Humans are literally destroying the planet. With the emissions of greenhouse gasses, oil spills that flood habitats, deforestation and as a result, global warming, it looks like planet Earth is doomed. Maybe not now, maybe not soon, but definitely sometime. However, some efforts have and are being made to prevent the further increasing demise of the planet because as intelligent beings, "we are aware of evolution, which changes our relationship to it."

Broome's Ethics of Climate Change

Climate change is not only a scientific issue, it's also and ethical one. Should we attempt to save the planet now or live today because we'll be gone tomorrow no matter what? Economists and environmentalists are faced with the decision... who is more important? People today or people tomorrow? There is no "should," because who would make that decision? But as John Broome puts it "you should not do something for your own benefit if it harms another person."

Broome argues that no matter how it is distributed, whatever can be done to increase the overall well-being of people in the future should be done. I don't know if this is really going to happen though. I think the selfishness of citizens today will out-weight their concern for the generations to come.

WARNING: this post may contain foul language.

SO pissed.

1. way too much homework/projects/papers to catch up on I'm literally pulling my hair out.

2. it's really shitty out today

3. I want to be in Denver and away from stupid people

4. my roomate pisses me off because she NEVER talks to me, it's like living with a ghost

5. fuck the guy that poured spoiled milk on one of the couches in our common room

6. this is a big one. I have a friend from home that I've literally grown up with. we were born on the same day, in the same hospital, our mothers were in the same room, and they put us right next to each other. everything I ever did, she copied, or rather, her mother copied. I took dance classes, Stephanie took dance classes. I started playing the piano, Stephanie started playing the piano. I started wearing clothes from a certain store, you know Steph was at that store the next day. so why does this bother me? because she was better at EVERYTHING. she was the valedictorian of my high school, she's going to school for dance and she plays like 8 instruments.

ugh, and she's THAT type of person. you know, the one that only likes you when 1. there's nobody "cooler" around 2. she has to (in front of family and mutual close friends) 3. you kiss her ass. doesn't she sound great? ever since we both went our separate ways to college she literally never talks to me... unless it's to tell me about another of her great accomplishments (which I congratulate her on), to brag about something good that happened to her (not very often), or if it's our birthday.

... there's so much more I could go on and on about but I need to get ready.

Danceworks show tonight @ 8... will put me in a better mood :)

how do I feel?

blogging.... is actually pretty cool. I had heard of it before this class but I never experienced it first-hand. It's like writing a journal for other people to see, which is an interesting concept. The thing I don't like is having to blog about things I wish I didn't have to blog about. I like blogging about things I like & you can probably tell what I liked and what I didn't like based on my responses.

food miles?

I think that posting the CO2 emissions on products is actually kind of stupid because Specter is right - you might actually produce more greenhouse gasses preparing the food than it took to get them into the store. I can see how some people would think it would be useful though. Definitely we are in an era of "creative destruction". As I've said in a previous blog post, generations today want what they want when they want it, and we don't care how it comes or what it took to get it there... hence why our planet is going down the tube.

Do I personally feel responsible? Yes and no I guess. I want all the things that normal people want and what does it take? Cutting down forests, harmful chemicals and ruining wild life. I hate that life today demands this sort of destruction. I also think that global warming was eventually bound to happen sometime, it has in the past... humans just sped up the process probably by thousands of years, awesome job, humanity.

"Do wecreate what we observe through the act of our observations?” (230)

ehh, about that. this is such an age-old question.

I think that everything in the world is there to begin with, whether or not we see it or know it's there and that everything has different qualities. People call things what they want to and, for some things, it is common knowledge. Like Roebke said, a blue couch is always blue, but what is blue? what makes something blue? Something is blue because humans say it is, simple as that.

Roebke lost me about three pages into his article. Although I liked physics when I took it in high school, most of what he said was way over my head and was uninteresting. This is Roebke's biggest weakness in his article because who wants to read what they don't understand?

Writing Center

I love going to the Writing Center, I go pretty much every time I have a paper to write. I go before I've even started the paper with some ideas and they help me outline my work. Before writing the Twelfth Night paper, I met with Scott (the Shakespearian... lucky me!!). Scott was SOO helpful because he let me in on things Shakespeare had hidden in his writing that I would have never been able to deconstruct otherwise. & according to him, I'm not half bad at decoding Shakespeare.

Need to know about "Just Add Water"

?????????

1. Is there some significance to the turtle? I feel like the turtle and Ray have some kind of similarity.

2. Why in the world would Ray take his son to Betsy's?

3. What's in the tin??

4. Ray's life sucks so bad, why is he so calm?

5. Do Ray and Nora get together?

6. Is Charlene's affair what makes her so odd?

Recall:

The scene where Ray drops off Edward reminds me of the movie, "Billy Madison" when Billy goes back to school.

What is a writer? Am I a writer?

A writer is someone who can express their ideas and thoughts clearly and put them in words. These crafts people are like artists, they literally paint with their words for the reader. They distort, confuse and intrigue their audience with their talents. In some cases, I think I am a writer but it depends on the subject I am writing about. If I enjoy and am interested in what I am writing, I may take on the role of an actual writer.

Language is a Slippery Vehicle.

Language is a slippery vehicle because it manipulates and is manipulated. Language is a roller coaster ride, twisting and turning through a sea of meaning and perception. It is a slippery vehicle because it takes the reader on a confusing, crooked, and clumsy journey.

Hass's poem, "The Problem of Describing Trees" is a perfect example of language as a slippery vehicle. In this poem, Robert Hass explains that there are limits to describing what the tree is doing because nature is a beautiful thing and there really are no words that depict the beauty it enchants. Hass also gives the tree human qualities when he says "Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will." He leaves it up to the reader to interpret his words.

Rodney Jones says exactly what he means in the first stanza of his poem, "Hubris at Zunzal," "No image like the image of language." He cannot be more right because you can show someone a single picture and they can turn it into 1000 words, but, what's more important, the picture or the words that describe it? In my opinion, the words are the most important because they are powerful and moving and can be manipulated.

Faustian Economics - Wendell Berry

I think it sad (but true... and actually pretty hilarious) what Berry says at the end of his second paragraph, "Perhaps by devoting more and more of our already abused cropland to fuel production we will at last cure ourselves of obesity and become fashionably skeletal, hungry but - thank God! - still driving." This is surprisingly possible because of the way we (humans) use our already depleting natural resources. Berry's quote paints a frightening image that could one day be the present time and way of life on earth.

"The life of this world is small to those who think it is, and the desire to enlarge it makes it smaller, and can reduce it finally to nothing."

- This opinion of Berry's is also scarily accurate. Most humans do not think that they are jailed by any type of limit because freedom is a right that everybody has. Limitlessness, Wendell says, is a godlike quality, which no living human possesses. At this point in time, thinking in such a way is inevitably dangerous because limits define our lives. Berry is right, we only get one chance at life, one world to live in. We have to make the best of it while we can.

The story of the elderly farmer who decided to "crop share" with a younger farmer is the perfect depiction of our world today. The idea that, "you have a bad year, I have a bad year... you have a good year, I have a good year" relates to the condition of our planet. This relationship between the farmers is an example of community economics, which is based on the sharing of fate. In our world, we can't control the actions of others along with the consequences of those actions. We can't change what others do to destroy our earth but we can try to prevent the consequences from becoming too great by acting now.

Waste & Greed

Waste. Greed. Selfishness. Insanity. Obesity. Consumption. Oblivion. Profit. Destruction. Spending. Foolishness. Disturbing. Corrupt. Abused. Limitless. Delusional. Monstrous. Unrestrained. Exhaustion. Claustrophobia. Desire. Efficiency. Responsibility. Spoiled. Embarrassing. Technology. Fantasy. Wealth. Hell. Inhumane.

"Fear of Writing" -Derrida

Derrida's fear of writing is not apparent at all while he is writing. In fact, he feels as though he absolutely needs to say what he has to say, like there is a sort of urgency that provokes his writing. I think that Derrida should fear what he is writing (although unconsciously) because they're his words and if people don't like them, they don't have to read what he has to say. I don't think I have ever feared what I write, that's pretty extreme. Then again, I haven't really written something with much power or importance so I can't say for sure that it's not possible. I think the opinions of others are what causes this unconscious fear that Derrida experiences in his sleep. His subconscious reveals how he should feel about what he is writing, but Derrida's personality and love for what he writes overpowers this hidden feeling. I think Derrida believes that words have the power to move, inspire, motivate, consume and change the minds of people.

Collaborative Learning

Upon reading this article by Kenneth A. Bruffee, I gained some insight as to relatively new teaching methods. It completely makes sense that medical students would learn much better when put into small groups because they can bounce their ideas and hypothesizes off of the other students in their cluster. The students actually learn better from their peers than from their teachers because they can relate to their fellow students. This type of collaborative learning can be useful in many other situations as well, not only in a doctoral setting.

It is totally understandable that students are much harder to teach in today's time as opposed to a few decades ago. My generation has been named "generation me" along with "generation princess" because of (most of) our outlooks on life and work ethic. On a recent "Dr. Phill" show, Dr. Phill interviewed a few people ranging from 18-27 in age about how they expect their life to turn out. One 18 year old's answer was that she wanted to be famous and own her own island when she is really just a regular person who expects everything to be handed to her. Another male about 26 said that his 80% effort was equal to most others 110% because he is so intelligent. This is ridiculous. American citizens thinking that mommy and daddy will hand everything to them for the rest of their lives are very sad people - they will never get an opportunity to really live.

"If thought is internalized conversation, then writing is internalized conversation re-externalized." Language is a conversation. Writing is a conversation. Everything humans do comes out of normal social conversation and thoughts and is processed and re-distributed into written words or verbal speech. Conversation is extremely important in the learning process because it gets students to really put to effect what they are taking in. This is what collaborative learning does, it takes the subject that is being taught and turns it into something everybody can understand - a social conversation between peers.

Hofstra's Twelfth Night

So, Julie and I went to see Hofstra's version of TWN tonight and I have to say... it was very different than the movie and what I had pictured in my head while reading the book. First off, Hofstra's play was set in the southern US during the Civil War Era... how weird!! Shakespeare's language sounds so awkward with a southern accent. Also, how Sir Toby and Sir Andrew were portrayed in Hofstra's version as hilarious party animals. They were definitely my favorite characters in the play. Another part of Hofstra's TWN that was way different was the fist conversation between Olivia and Cesario. It was very harsh and both characters seemed furious at each other, whereas in the movie Cesario seemed to be more playful with Olivia. Overall it was a good play, but I think i'll stick to the movie.

New Media Project

Visit Julie's blog for our wonderfullll project on music in Shakespeare's TWN. :)

FFW on the lunacy, instability and delirious musings in Illyria

Viola: "Then think you are right. I am not what I am."

Olivia: "I would you were as I would have you be." (III.i.48-49)

Viola is trying to explain to Olivia why she cannot love her. Viola (Cesario) states that he (she) is not what he (she) is. I think that this statement is very forward on Cesario's part and I don't know why Olivia doesn't get the hint that something is not right with the man she loves. I think Olivia's response to Viola's statement is very interesting. What she is saying means that Olivia will think of her lover however she wants to think of him.

FFW on the lunacy, instability and delirious musings in Illyria

Malvolio: ...and yet to crush it a little, it would bow to me... (II.v.143-145)

In this quote, Malvolio is talking about the letter "Olivia" left for him--Maria's trap. In this letter Maria wrote, she only hints at some of Malvolio's qualities and the letter in its entirety doesn't quite seem to fit him and his personality. When Malvolio reads something he can relate to he immediately thinks Olivia is talking about him. "To crush it a little" mean that if the letter was changed slightly, Malvolio would fit "Olivia's" description perfectly.

FFW on the lunacy, instability and delirious musings in Illyria

Viola: I am the man. (II.ii.25)

How ironic this quote is! Viola is certainly not a man, although she pretends to be in this play. What she is talking about in this quote is Olivia's love for her as Cesario. Viola goes on to say that Olivia is better off loving a dream. Viola says this because a dream is something you cannot touch, feel, or see.... just like Viola's manliness. This cover-up that Viola uses, her manliness, is a veil, disguising her true identity.

Working w/ Data from the Shakespeare Concordance

1. What thematic strands have you located?

Music, song, sing, sound, tune, verse, pitch, ear, dying fall, Illyria

2. Where is the data you retrieved found? What is happening in context when Shakespeare employs this particular theme or image?

Most of our concordance themes come from Acts I and II. The character that mentions these recurring themes the most is Orsino, probably because of his love for music in general. Orsino often demands music to be played for him and loves music so much that he wants to practically drown in it. The Duke’s obsession with music is almost violent. Instead of wanting to hear songs for pleasure, Orsino uses music as an escape from life and love.

The characters the mention these themes the next most often are Sir Toby and Sir Andrew. The reason Toby and Andrew talk about music and song is probably because their love for food and drink goes hand-in-hand with music.

Viola refers to music because she compares her love to a sort of melodic song. She says that instead of talking to someone, she will sing to them and asks for their ear. Also, Viola’s name alone resembles a musical instrument, a viola, similar to the higher-pitched violin. The musical reference with Viola’s name can be related to how Orsino plays her by sending her to tell his love to Olivia. The duke also uses Viola and vents his problems to her and gives her advice, whether or not she wants to hear it.

3. How does the data you retrieved support your first thoughts on Shakespeare’s obsessive use of a particular image? What can you argue about Shakespeare’s figuration?

Initially, I didn’t think Shakespeare meant to use music as a recurring theme in the play Twelfth Night. Upon doing more research, however, it became clearer that music, song, and singing are referenced to throughout the play. Taking a closer look into the work, Shakespeare’s use of the name Viola and Orsino, Andrew and Toby’s love for music seems to be intended.

Act 2. iii. 5

As two comical characters, Toby and Andrew bring humor to the play and talk about when to retire to bed:

Toby:

"A false conclusion. I hate it as an unfilled can. To be up after midnight and to go to bed then, is early, so that to go to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes. Does not our lives consist of the four elements?"

In the previous statement, Sir Andrew had said that they were up late so here Sir Toby is saying they are not up late, they are actually up early in the morning. Toby pokes fun at Andrew saying that he hates his logic like "an unfilled can." The can that Toby speaks of here refers to his love for food and alcohol and means he hates not having a full glass or plate. When Toby says "to go to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes" he means that they should not go to bed now because a new day has already begun. In Toby's comment about the four elements, earth, fire, air and water, he says that the world does not revolve around man and what they wish to do, it does not change and therefore, after midnight is technically a new day which reinforces his statement.

Free Write - Act 2. iii. 170

In II. iii. 170, Maria calls her scheme to manipulate and embarrass Malvolio "Sport royal..."

-What do you make of this?

I don't think it's a bad thing that Maria wants to embarrass Malvolio. Malvolio is very bossy and thinks very highly of himself - which can be very annoying to others. Maria is simply playing a joke on Malvolio to get back at him for being to conceited. "Sport royal" is like the entertainment Maria is going to get out of her scheme.

After reading Act 1 if TWN...

I can't stop thinking about all of the confusing love triangles. The duke loves Olivia and sends Viola (who is disguised as Cesario) to tell Olivia of the duke's love for her. Olivia ends up loving Cesario (Viola) when really Viola loves the duke. The character's love interests change so quickly they're hard to keep track of. I think the characters are confused and don't care who they love, as long as they are loved.

reaction to writing paper #1

When the "Small Object, Large Subject" essay was first introduced I'm not going to lie, I was dreading it. Papers in general bum me out because that means I have to actually spend time locked in my room racking my brain for hours instead of hanging out with my friends. College is way different than high school, the best part of living on campus is being able to walk down the hall to a friend's room instead of having to get all ready and drive 10 minutes across town. For me, growing up I was kind of an outcast because I lived so far away from town and couldn't walk to a friend's place.

Ok, I'm getting off on a tangent, back to the paper.

Once I settled on a topic, I had a better idea of what this first paper was all about. Now whether or not I was going to be able to write it... that's a different story. It literally takes me f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to write a single paragraph, let alone a sentence. It's like I know what I want to say but can't seem to type it or write it on paper and it frustrates the daylights out of me. This is the exact reason why I love the writing center. They help me organize my thoughts and make an outline of my entire paper so all I have to do is fill in the blanks.

Actually writing the paper though was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Seriously, writing 5 entire pages about hand sanitizer isn't that easy. I found myself trying to elaborate on every single little detail and still not coming up with enough content to fill all 5 pages. I mean, I did try really hard even though I probably didn't do that great.

Act 1 ?'s

1) Why such a specific time (7 years) for Olivia to mourn for her brother?

2) Is there a significant similarity between Olivia's brother dying and Viola's brother who's state is questionable?

3) Why does Viola see the need to dress like a boy?

4) Why do the character's love interests change so quickly?

5) Why does Viola want to shield herself from everyone like Olivia does?

6) Why is the Fool so unpleasant?

Sue Halpern's "Virtual Iraq" - ?'s

1) Data drawn:

- Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been officially recognized as a medical condition since 1980.

- Virtual Vietnam was first introduced to help with PTSD in 1997.

- Albert Rizzo, a clinical psychologist, invented Virtual Iraq.

- The Office of Naval Research funded Virtual Iraq.

- No, I did not access any of this data.

2) Active verbs:

-"rush the roof" p 116

-"bullets were exploding" p 116

-"haunted by memories" p117

-"stalled at the top of the stairs" p 120

-"therapy immerses the patient gradually" p 121

-"when the ground starts vibrating" p121

3) Figuration:

-"bullets were exploding like firecrackers" p 116

-"we'd have to light them up" p 117

-"play around like a video game" p 120

-"starched military counterparts" p 121

4) Portable wisdom

-"We're a video-game generation. That's what we grew up on. So maybe we'll respond to it." p 118

-"The last one hundred years, we've studied psychology in the real world. In the next hundred, we're going to study it in the virtual world." p125

-"You never really get rid of PTSD, but you can learn to live with it." p 128

It snowed last night and...

... all of a sudden I was twelve again, hoping for a day off of school. Snow, sleet, freezing rain, anything was welcomed because a day off is like a mini vacation. Mother nature was my best friend on snow days. Just simply watching snow delicately fall from the sky is a miracle - the most beautiful things occur in nature.

To Take Wildness in Hand - Michelle Nijhuis

The changing climate and global warming have very destructive effects on both plants and animals. In her essay, "To Take Wildness in Hand," Michelle Nijhuis raises the issue of the decreasing population of a tree species that grows in the Florida Panhandle called Torreya taxifolia. The writer and naturalist, Barlow found that some of the reason these trees were struggling in their environment might be because the temperatures in that area had reached all-time highs, that disease had spread rapidly, or maybe it was because of the drought. To try and fix and/or delay this problem, Barlow decided that the species had to be moved up north and then took the responsibility and she "would (move the trees) herself."

One of the problems other scientists have with this "assisted migration" is that they are worried about the surrounding species - plants and animals alike. "You just can't do that" some of the other scientists said. Although simply restoring the landscape surrounding this species of tree sounds like a good idea, it is hardly feasible because because it is a bigger problem than it seems. Despite the set-backs, Jessica Hellmann says that "It's incredibly exciting to think that we could come up with a strategy that might help mitigate the impacts of climate change."

Personally, I think that as a people, Americans are too concerned with preserving something that is meant to die. Disrupting nature's natural course is a very risky thing to do and can cause more problems than it actually helped.

Virtual Iraq - Sue Halpern

For some soldiers, returning home from war isn't always filled with excitement and joy, but rather despair, numbness and depression. A shocking number, almost 20%, of war veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD - posttraumatic stress disorder. This condition is caused by a sequence of terrifying situations. Sue Halpern's underlying question in her essay, "Virtual Iraq," is not "How can we fix and change someone's memories," but instead "How can we help victims of PTSD live and cope with it" because, unfortunately, it is impossible to fix the past. In order to help these struggling veterans, clinical psychologist Albert Rizzo invented a very life-like virtual reality video game, "Virtual Iraq" based on the previous form, "Virtual Vietnam" of 1997. Features of this incredible healing device not only include the senses of sight and sound, but also of smell and touch. Psychologists have the power to control sounds such as IEDs exploding and gunfire as well as the smell of smoke and the sensation of the ground shaking after an explosion. This simulator is intended to "disconnect the memory from the reactions to the memory" very gradually. Halpern's character, Travis Boyd, was at first reluctant to seek help for his PTSD because he "didn't want to have it on (his) military record that (he) was crazy." However, once he received treatment, Boyd "felt more like one person" rather than the two separate lives he had been living - one being his real self and the other being the tough, numb marine. Even though PTSD cannot be cured, four out of five soldiers who recieve treatment through "Virtual Iraq" sessions have improved.

Antibacterial WHAT?

Cleanliness and sanitation has suddenly become an obsession in today's world. The most probable cause for this fascination was the outbreak of the Swine Flu, or H1N1 in 2009 because it sparked a sense of terror in most of the country as if it were another plague. The reaction the Swine Flu received from the American public was in my opinion, ridiculous.

Everywhere you go, multiple forms of hand sanitizer seem to outnumber the actual people that surround you. One of the most prominent parts on the front of a Germ-X brand hand sanitizer bottle reads "KILLS 99.95 OF GERMS!" Germs are an entirely inevitable aspect of life and although some can cause sickness, not all germs are harmful.

High-Tech Trash by Chris Carroll

"People have always been proficient at making trash." Chris Carroll's article, "High-Tech Trash" reveals some in-depth truth about the United States' "recycling" system. Carroll's claim is that the United States' dumping of ewaste on developing countries is very hazardous, dangerous, and not to mention, extremely toxic. One reason for the overflow of waste in these developing countries is the continuous manufacturing of better, faster, and more efficient electronic products. Carroll explains that when new programs or software hit the shelves, they are already "on the verge of obsolescence" (Moore's Law). Another reason for this flood of waste are the recycling companies that don't actually do what their job entitles. Many recycling corporations, instead of putting parts and materials to good use, decide to sell their unwanted products to brokers which eventually get dumped in the developing world as a sort of "out-of-sight out-of-mind" solution. Another point that Carroll makes to support his argument is that the presence of powerful chemicals has literally "saturated" these countries and according to him, "a cycle of disease or disability is already in motion." Even though Carroll's argument is very clear and reasonable, he assumes that every American cares about recycling and that all recycling companies do not fulfill their entitled duties.

"Is Google Making us Stupid?" - Nicholas Carr

The title of Nicholas Carr's essay, "Is Google Making us Stupid?" explains the main point, or thesis of his work. The question in debate: Is the use of Google's search engine dulling the edges of our brain's contemplation? Although, in general, as a people we are reading more now than we were a few decades ago, the material that we consume has taken on some new forms such as text messages and emails. Not only has our reading style changed, but the use of Google and the Internet has brought about a "different kind of thinking" as well. Another way in which Carr furthers his argument is with the example of the change in Friedrich Neitzsche's writing when he was introduced to the typewriter. Neitzsche's written language became even more complex and "more telegraphic" because sometimes, "language often depend(s) on the quality of the pen and paper." Despite my agreement with most of Carr's claims, I do not think it is easy to assume that every single person has technology readily available to them, and if they do, how do you know they are "Googling?"

Is Google Making us Stupid?

Hmm, is Google making us stupid? That's a toughie. One thing you need to know about me before I start rambling is that I'm VERY indecisive & not surprisingly, I don't have a straight answer to this question. Google is a very useful tool because the entire world is at your fingertips, which can be both good and bad - some of the good parts being practicality and availability.

In my opinion, people today are extremely lazy. Inventions ranging from the automatic, robot-like vacuum cleaner to pre-cooked, pre-cut and pre-made food that clutters most people's refrigerators were all designed for efficiency and convenience. That's exactly what Google is, a simpler way of obtaining information, fast. Does utilizing this tool make us stupid? No, I don't think so, I think it's very smart actually because with the fast pace of life today, time is really of the essence.

Just as in the case of the printing press, it has been thought that Google could dwindle the capacity and ability of the human brain. But we have to think, is Google's functionality and information more of an easy short-cut, or is it a tool to an enormous sea of knowledge waiting to be discovered? I, myself, see it both ways.