Ict @ MindSay

Dixie currently feels:

Despairing

 

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Good things about today:

 

- We had a fire drill at break, and got 10 minutes extra because of it, hence, missing 10 minutes of Science.

 

- Science was a piss easy lesson.

 

- I got my results for my Science resit exam; an A, so I'm quite pleased.

 

- I got another bit of #1263 artwork finished in the library.

 

- I came home and played iSketch with Miraan, Adam, Ayshea and Stephen. It was fun, we had laughs.

 

- I talked to Adam for ages over MSN, sending each other really hilarious sound files.

 

- I laughed so much at a screenshot from our iSketch game, I almost crapped my pants. - Really, I was totally touching cloth. :)

 

[Though you may ask what's good about that one, I like to laugh, regardless of the consequences.]

 

 

Bad things about today:

 

- Results of my ICT exam, totally not happy. Two grades lower than I wanted.

 

- Thus, I have now given up on ICT.

 

- Thus, making only 3 out of 9 subjects that I still give a shit about.

 

- Coursework deadlines are indeed, stressing me out.

 

- I was tired throughout the whole day.

 

- I cried down my aisle after school, but Sammie comforted me.

 

- Claire is ignoring me. She seems really angry at me, and I don't know what I've done. I think she doesn't like me anymore.

 

- Emily isn't back... I haven't heard from her at all. No Mindsay comments, no emails, no anything...

 

...Where is my darling Emilpops......?

    ICTs are changing the infrastructure of our lives, leading us into a new world.  At work, computer databases create essential capabilities for information coordination.  JSTOR, the online academic journal hub, also addresses information management in education.  Yet more basic than these is the broadband communication networks which expedite this information.  In a less formal arena, the X-box more often only redirects our behavior.  And in the realm of meaning and value, systems such as YouTube.com have opened up new interpretations on publicity and identity. 

            Electronic databases such as MS Access allow one to store and process vast amounts of information about classes.  One can create a list of members with contact information, biometrics, etc. or coordinate an accounting system for the distribution of resources.  Positively, this compiler offers an efficient and accessible way to tabulate and retrieve information.  Negatively, this convenience can easily be corrupted or stolen and utilized inappropriately as in the case of sharing information without consent.

            Online journal databases such as JSTOR offer a centralized resource for identifying relevant research which avert academic diminishing returns.  Given the mass of research being published in academia, economics suggests that eventually the increased cost of more research would overtake the knowledge it creates.  JSTOR and other databases help avert this by making the background study easier.  It also helps equalize the resources of libraries by offering a relatively cheap service which largely replaces the cost of printing and storing journals.  Thus JSTOR seems a positive ICT.

            In the political realm, the momentum of information transfer is essential.  Since broadband networks carry vast amounts of information at high speeds, it allows a high momentum (mass x velocity) of information that permits politics to be more reflexive.  A broadband network can allow the politically interested to send, receive, and retrieve large amounts of information using only the time it takes to find that information.  Thus we can learn about a political platform; research the issues; and evaluate multiple candidates within a day.  This I believe is a mostly positive ICT, though negatives include sensationalism, rushes to judgment, and inaccurate information and evaluation.

            The entertainment realm seems to be the most benignly affected by ICTs because it seems that they play on already existing desires.  The X-box is an interactive platform for games.  Though it offers new variations on our range of possibilities, it relies on our preexisting demand for play.  As with all games, our use/overuse of the X-box is dependent more on our enjoyment of a particular type of play/game than the mode of that play/game.     

            Finally, YouTube.com is a new venue for representing ourselves and giving meaning to ourselves.  It is existentialist in that the videos it hosts are typically made by regular people.  We represent ourselves to ourselves.  It is also romantic in its trading rationality for camp.  The parts of ourselves we communicate through it concern exactly the miniscule decadence which we may encounter in everyday life.  This technology has been positive in opening up this venue of voyeurism for culture production and dissemination.  However, the videos often depict failure as the basis of camp, leading to the negative – fifteen minutes of shame.

            Recent ICT innovations have neither been all good or all bad.  What they have accomplished however, is a redistribution of possibilities to which we can adapt our lives.  And this is part of how activism, work, leisure, and culture are made anew.

 

Well there it is in all of its glory. 203 pages of ICT project, and it's almost finshed. Just tomorrow got to print out a few pages where I found errors whilst proof reading it, so hopefully I can catch an earlier train to have a longer break between ICT and Politics lesson at 3.

 

Work tomorrow evening as well!

 

Edit: Turned Out To Be 208 Pages In The End, Wooo!! :P

I got a series of exam results today, and I was really happy with them. Here are the details:

 

ICT 5 - 77/90 (A)

ICT 1 - 67 90 (B)

Maths Core 3 - 61/100 (C)

Maths Core 2 - 49/100 (E)

 

I was so happy I was in tears, after what has happend in the past, although I don't wish to disclose what they are on this blog, but I'm sure my close friends are already well aware what has happened and that the result is that I will have to stay a third year at college.

 

 What I can say in public however is that it is 500% better than what has happened before, although the core 2 result did spoil the day, so I think I shall be doing that exam again. (the cost of resits is of no concern to me at all, i would pay £10,000 if it led me to do something better in life)

 

After the maths lesson myself, Alex A, Vikki and James went to Zizzi's for a celebratory lunch of pizza and dessert. Shame for Lauren, she was stuck in a swimming pool doing her daily exercises during her lunch hour!

 

 I had a pizza with chicken, bacon and mozarella followed by a lemon tart and it was absoloutely delicious. We did get a shock however when the bill arrived for £60.00!

 

Finally I have some results for the amount of hard work I have put in since September, personally the core 3 result is the one that has delighted me the most, I have proved to some that I ain't a thick shit.

 

Still another four months to go though, but I can feel just that little bit confident about the future, but let's not get carried away.............................................

 

With Regards,

A very happy Alex.B