Creative inspiration

For our discussion this week, I'm going to throw something at you that's a little different. I want you to go to this part of the benedict.com website. Make sure your speakers are plugged in and working, and I want you to look at three examples of copyright infringement and let me know what you think. Check out the George Harrison, ZZ Top, and Vanilla Ice examples. Listen to all songs and give me your thoughts. Remember, some of the other examples on the page are a little dodgy, so user beware.

I have heard of this issue before, an artist using a tune or riff from another artists song in their own. I understand the issue from the original artists point of view, that their creation is being taken by someone else and turned into a song that is not their own. The Queen song is definitely taken from Ice Ice Baby, and I have a hard time believing that Queen did this unknowingly. Although George Harrison states that he did not know he was taking the tune from another song and lawyers state that he may have done it subconsciously. I understand that artists get their inspiration from other artists, but that inspiration can sometimes become theft. There is a fine line between being inspired and influenced by an artist and having some style resemblance in music and downright stealing their originaly songs. 

My day via social networking

Pick a day and list how often in that day you come into contact with a computer, especially one that you think might be networked. We all have networked computers at work and at school, but where else do you see them being used?

-Wake up with alarm on my phone.

-Check for text messages or other notifications. 

-Look at instagram and catch up on the photos posted during the night. 

-Continually throughout the day I check my phone for texts and am usually involved in a conversation. 

-Open my computer and check emails, facebook, blackboard etc. 

-Catch up on the blogs that I follow. 

-Head to work, listen to my iPod. 

-Clock into work on a computer. 

-Place orders on computers at work. 

-Clock out of work. 

-Work on homework. 

-Watch a TV show on netflix. 

-Youtube videos when I should be sleeping. 

-Catch up on instagram once again. 

• Post photos from day on instagram. 
• Text friends before I go to sleep. 
• Set alarm to repeat day all over again. 

I want another blog posting from you for this week. For this one, I want at least a 250 word observation in your blog on how computers and networks affect you. If you want, I'll also take this as a podcast instead of the blog posting if you're feeling really creative.  

Computers and networks affect our lives daily, without fail. From laptops to ipads and smart phones, we can have some sort of computer and network at our fingertips anytime and anywhere. It is very rare that our culture is found unconnected in some way. We use computers and networks in every aspect of our lives it seems like, to keep up with friends and loved ones, to answer questions, to work and even to just waste time. Thanks to networking, I am able to keep up with people that I would have lost touch with long ago. Facebook keeps me in touch with people from all of my social circles past and present. Google not only helps with research, it helps settle arguments. I have had so many conversations with people where a certain subject comes into question and the only answer is to turn to google to prove one wrong. If I had a way to calculate how much time I have wasted on the computer I might be sick to my stomach. But at the time of wasting, it seems like pure bliss. Sitting in front of my computer avoiding school work and looking at funny pictures of cats is such a great and needed escape at times. 

Social Networking Runs Our Lives

give me a 250 word blog posting on what/how you use social networks. Remember this is live on the web, so be careful about how much information you hand out.

Social Networks have seemingly started to run our lives. It is how we keep up with people and provides an easy way to network. I use several social networks, facebook of course, instagram and occasionally twitter. I used to be all about facebook, posting and keeping everything current with my life. But I have started using it less and less and now I use it more for keeping up with others and only occasionally post things. I worked at a youth camp in New Mexico for two summers and it is a great way to keep up with all of the people that I have met through the years. The social media site that I most commonly use now days is Instagram. I am constantly using the app. Posting, liking and commenting on photos. It is a quicker and I think a funner way to keep up with people. There is no spam on Instagram and you only see photos from the people you want to see. Instagram is a daily part of my life. When I wake up I check my feed, when I get off of work I check my feed, when I am supposed to be studying I check my feed. It is a great way to keep up with people all over the world, near and far. I use twitter the least, if you can even say that I use twitter. I rarely tweet and I rarely check my feed. But I do use it occasionally. 

I know all of you have a website out there that you can’t live without. Give me a blog posting on why you find a particular website indispensable. I want a good solid paragraph or two from you on this one, so think hard and give me reasons why you think your particular website is so great.  Again, let me know you've given this some serious thought.

Initially I thought of a blog that I have been following for about a year now, but then thinking a bit more I realized that I really could go on without this website and that I don't need to follow this bloggers precious life with her beautiful baby and husband. So then my mind transferred to facebook, but then I realized it is the same as the blog, I can go on without creeping on the lives of those that I went to high school with or that I met once at a concert. But the one website that I find indispensable would be Google. I do everything on Google, from school work to finding out who the tallest man on earth is and wasting hours upon hours of tumbling through websites thanks to Google laying them all out in one place for me. And this does not only include Google as a search engine, who knows where I would be right now without Google Maps, probably face down in a ditch somewhere. ( I am not the best with directions) Then there is also Google Play, which is the app store for Android, which is the phone that I have. Without Google Play I wouldn't be able to have Instagram, facebook, angry birds, twitter or so many other apps that I use on a daily basis. 
Google has changed the way that people use the internet. "Just Google it" has become such a common phrase and Google has even come to be used as a verb. Google has resolved many arguments between myself and others, if there is a discrepancy in a fact then the obvious answer would be to "Just Google it" So I will definitely say that Google is the website that would be indispensable in my life, and this would be my love letter to the guys at Google. 

Technology in Communication Intro

Hello all! 

My name is Kelsey Lloyd and I am a senior communication theory major. Whooo Senior!! I am graduating in May, and I am totally not counting down the days or anything. (356) I grew up in Cedar Hill which is close to DBU. I have one brother who recently got married and had the most precious little girl the world has ever seen, and maybe I am obsessed with her. And by maybe I mean that I am completely and utterly enthralled with her. 

Whenever I am done with school I would love to be a flight attendant. I hand’t ever thought of being one until a friend and I were joking about it and then things got serious. I realized that I would absolutely love doing that after I graduate. So I have been looking into it and really think that it would be a good thing for me right now. Later on in life I would love to open my own fair trade sort of boutique. 

I have lived in New Mexico for two summers and absolutely fell in love with the mountains there and now I would love to move somewhere closer to the mountains so I can be outdoors as much as I can. While I lived there I was a rappelling instructor for a time and would be ecstatic if I could continue doing that sometime in the future. 

Well that is enough rambling for me for now, I hope I didn’t bore you with my nonsense. I am looking forward to working with all of you this semester!!