Raqs World

Last Minute Problems

2008-03-10T10:34:00.001-07:00

It was too easy the last couple of weeks, everything seemed to be going fine, our group page was going good, everyone was working as a group, my blog was going ok a little on the simple side, but I liked it. Then came Monday, the wheather was horrible, the teacher was not present, arguments with students that shouldn't be there, the work that I had written took forever to fit on the wiki page, then my blog went crazy as i tried to had photographs to an earlier piece that I had written. After around 2 hours of trying to fiddle around with the blog, the pictures had to be slimmed down, but I got to somewhat degree what I wanted to represent on the piece regarding Raquel Stewart Who ?. I have also been have ludacris attempts to try and set a web link to a youtube stream that was about the post that I had written on virtual couples. To be honest with you I have already linked websites before on a previous blog, and could not understand and still cannot understand for the life of me why it won't work this time. Maybe just maybe if I keep trying then I will get it to work.

Upon Refllection the end is not near its here.

2008-03-10T10:32:00.001-07:00

This project has finally reached the end of the road, I can say that ive come to sort of enjoy doing a blog, not always BUT, I do think that I will conitnue doing a blog from now on. I guess when this whole thing started I thought i was farirly confident using a computer, but what I came to realise was that although I was confident using a computer my confidence only came from me looking at websites, downloading music, movies etc on my terms, not on anyone elses, or a group telling you, you need to look at this. As for the group project I had never worked with any of the ladies before, so that was quite interesting to get to know people on a different level to what I was use to seeing them. We were slow starters to say the least, getting and Idea together, meeting up, everyone being in, all seemed to be weighing up down for production, but over the last few weeks, I believe that we have all come together suprisingly well. Suprising only because I didnt think that everyone would be on the same page so easily. When I look back the amount of work we had say 3 weeks ago to the work that we had today, I realise how far we have come as a group, and taking our group picture was the final culminations of group that were near the end of their time together.

The group wiki page has turned out better than I can ever manage, Papiya was the worker bee behind that got all our information, placed it on the page and took hours putting the colours together. Although we had already as a group decided on the layout, Papiya just got on with and in fact has been tremendous with helping us put the website together very well. She even helped me with figuring out work for my blog so big thank you to her. Jess might have missed a few lessons in the classroom, but she kept in touch and has worked hard at research and has given a great amount of information that is to be placed in outr project. Urvi was great a getting the case studies together, she was very much the one who wanted to get a move on, get it all together and I truly believe that we worked a bit quicker and harder so that we could all be up to scratch. Finally Kris was wonderful in the way that she just got on with it, although being a tad brain damaged at one stage, she lead the group and was able to set up a more clear structure of where we needed to get to for the final end result.

Reflecting back to day one and how much I did not want to stay in Uni until 4pm on a Monday afternoon suck on a computer, to being in the last week staying until 6.30 trying to fix pictures that was going on my blog, is one of the reasons that I honestly believe that you should not go into something so negative, you might just trun around and find your self always wanting to be doing that something that you thought you would never like.

I would like to just say that thank you to my group members, thnaks Nigel it was nice knowing you.

I'll BE SEEING YOU!.

Almost there, but not quite.

2008-03-08T07:11:00.000-08:00

The project is almost most over, everything has almost been completed only the conclusion left to be written, our group photo left to be taken and thats it for the rest the project to be complete. This week has been quite a task as everyone has other work due in, the foucus was for the project to be at the late stages by the end of the week. I believe that the group has truly accomplished this. The site has been layed out as imagine last week Monday, the context maybe somewhat not as loaded as what we intially had researched, but as Nigel mentioned over the course of this assignment, use the medium for what it is there for; so on that note the pictures are able to complement what the focus of what our assignement is. One last lesson on Monday to complete our group project and hand it in, hopefully all last minute plans will work out as we took so long to get started, but in the final stages have worked well to get the information together and looking like a project that we can be happy with.

Progression.

2008-03-03T05:27:00.000-08:00

As I had talked of last week, we are coming along slowly but surely. We have been given our specific jobs, as we are carrying that out the main problems that are facing the group is getting a layout that suits the needs. Our main colours that we have decided on were black and green as that gives the great technological effect. Has I am aware Papiya has been struggling with getting the colour schemes to take to what we had firstly thought we could accomplish. For the next week we have to be more productive in trying to get our layout together complete all the write up so we can go into the final week confident with what Is going to be our final product.

WTF 2

2008-02-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I watched a great show that changed my idea of what a Second Lifer was, I didn’t expect to see inside the chatroom so clearly, I didn’t expect people to fall in love, I didn’t expect people to get married on line, to be honest from my lack of expectation I should not have been really surprised at anything I saw, however I was; I was extremely disgusted at one particular woman who had gone as far as leaving her children and husband to see the man she had fallen in love with in Second Life.To me the whole idea that she wasn’t the only one, was an even more bizarre idea to me, I started to judge those people. But who am I to judge, as that was one of my new years resolutions not to be so judgemental, I instantly failed with the wonderland documentary as the situation that I was watching was so far removed from my day to day existence.

The wonderland documentary, does brings in the question what the social norms are in relations to using the internet, its ok to be on Facebook and Myspace and have hundreds of friends that you never meet, or never even talk to, moreover when you meet someone and fall in love on an internet dating site that that's normal as that's the site's main function. The more I sat and watched the programmes, and now weeks later in someway I can understand the lonely housewife, who found escapism by using a website like Second Life, and that’s probably the main people who use the site people who want to remove themselves from their day to day existence, to the point where love can be formed, friendship can be formed, money can be made. I honestly cannot say that I am in full acceptance of the behaviour of all the subjects in the programmes esp. the housewife, but on some level I have come to some understanding of why someone like her would find her self transfixed and falling in love on an Internet site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQwdK2T0Bzs

Progress

2008-02-21T07:05:00.000-08:00

I have now completed 6 weeks of this course, and have known all along that the aim was to complete your own blog, and complete a group project to pass this course, what I didn’t think was that time would fly so fast, and that outside factors form other courses would actually let my focus from this course slip. My initial excitement for bloging was somewhat lackluster, but as week three came I was gradually getting into the swing of writing a weekly blog, although its been mentioned that I should not have talked about Heath Ledger, I still believe that at that time it was ok, as the focus of the course was not ingrained in me and at that time, I honestly thought that you could write whatever you wanted, on any topic that you were interested in. Heath's blog post, also had the mention of TMZ.COM, as I touched upon however consume news today, especially people within my age group who would much rather look at the news on the internet, rather than watch BBC news at 6.

The group project is coming along, slowly with the ever present deadline looming, the realisation that we have to complete everything as soon as possible had dawned on me last week, as a group we have discussed on job roles, but none had truly been carried out apart from those doing the researching, there have been absents that have left the whole group togetherness a slight hindrance, as everyone does not seem to be on the page as to where we need to be going. As of last lesson I finally feel that we are heading in the right direction, and will be able to start putting pieces together, before we can go ahead and get the website looking wonderful.

I have every faith that we are going to complete this group project at a great level, that will be impressive to us as well as 'Nigel', I hope for the next few weeks we can pull our socks up, and get the group dynamic up to par that we can work together in our best interest.

Raquel Stewart Who?

2008-02-18T05:40:00.000-08:00

"Raquel Stewart" ,213 Hits. Occupation varies from a costume and wadrobe assistant, an English student at the University of Texas, a teaching assistant, those are a few of the roles that Raquel Stewart, those are few of my aliases out there. So far so good, I dont feel particularly awkard, or annoyed that someone else shares the same name as me, as far as I can tell there are no serial murderers, rapist, or porn star as far as I can see.

The suprising thing about this, is that no one has really offended me, I would not want to be mistaken as anyone else bar my self, however at the same time I personally can't see anyone who has gone too far within their profiles that would cause by future annoyance; I would like to say the number of hits thatI got for my name were limited unlike some of my class mates, the main Raquel Stewart my search kept coming back to, was the costume and wadrobe assistant who worked on the films including tombstone, not a bad days work to me.

Picture of the other Raquel Stewart from my Facebook

Over a year ago I was looking at my facebook, and came across a friend request by the name of Raquel Stewart, at first I was like this was awsome someone who had the same name as me, around the same age, going to University ( College for those of you who American) and seemed like a nice enough girl, I think in all fairness we have written around 2 messages to each other and thats that, no builld up of a relationship, no repore just a knowledge that there is another Raquel Stewart who share similarities with me.

To me ones online Idenity can leave a dangerous footprint, and of cousre mistaken idenitity can take place, moreover the overwhelming knowledge that I am not the only Raquel Stewart does make me feel as though I am not as Unique as I thought I was.

Reflection Update

2008-02-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/development/reflection.html

Good Website V Bad Website

2008-02-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

What I consider a good website
http://www.eonline.com

What I consider a not so great website.
http://www.randomwebsite.com/

WTF

2008-01-30T14:29:00.001-08:00

Wonderland: virtual adultery and cyberspace love BBC 2.

I can't believe a woman flew from America to England to visit the man she fell in love with, o by the way she’s already married with children, and she fell in love with a charming fella on the social network second life. I want to say something profound, but the emotions running through my brain after watching the programmes, is of complete confusion. On that note I'm signing off.

Guardian Post

2008-01-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

I agree with the Guardian article in most part that on websites such a facebook, Bebo or Myspace you might only be good friends with 5 people, another 20 old school friends, another 10 from the office, and maybe 5 family memebers, the rest of the people could actually be people that are helping you with whatever avenue you are interested in. Remember Lilly Allan, famous dad maybe but Myspace launched her successful music career, with over 1 million hits on her website record companies rushed to sign a new UK act. I believe that even though you might not know all the people in your buddy list, you thank them when they buy your album, you thank them when they help to create a part of your dream come true, and you thank them that you don't have to see them all the time.

Good Website V Bad Website

2008-01-28T09:41:00.001-08:00

I would say that none of the websites are my cup of tea to say it nicely, I'm probably use to different colour, great pictures and looking at content that I usally want to know about. Regardless of this fact off all three websites the first one in fact would be the one that I would keep going back to refer to. The content is the right amount, it goes into the right amount of information, the layout of the pictures helps but not that much, the second one over loaded with information and the third and final was lacking information, and was too boring for me to pay keen interest to. What makes a good website to me would probably be content and layout being clear, to the point and easy to find and comprehend the information that I am either researching, reading for enjoyment or using to complete a project on for instance my blog page. A bad website would of course do the complete opposite, plain, over croweded, overindulgent on information that would in fact put me to sleep within the first 10 seconds.

Next Week

2008-01-28T09:30:00.001-08:00

By next weeks lesson, our group needs to come up with solid idea. We will meet up to discuss the in's and out's of what topic to cover, so we can start our project.

What Is Reflection ?

2008-01-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

Christina Aguilera- Reflection Lyrics

Look at me
You may think you see
Who I really am
But you'll never know me
Every day
It's as if I play a part
Now I see
If I wear a mask
I can fool the world
But I cannot fool my heart

Who is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?

I am now
In a world where I
Have to hide my heart
And what I believe in
But somehow
I will show the world
What's inside my heart
And be loved for who I am

Who is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
Why is my reflection
Someone I don't know?
Must I pretend that I'm
Someone else for all time?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?

There's a heart that must be
Free to fly
That burns with a need to know
The reason why

Why must we all conceal
What we think, how we feel?
Must there be a secret me
I'm forced to hide?
I won't pretend that I'm
Someone else for all time
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?

Changing Of The Guard

2008-01-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

The shocking news of Heath Ledgers death was heard, seen, and talked about around the world. You may ask why I am choosing to write about such a morbid situation, like most my age have seen Ledger in 10 things I Hate About You, and remember the scene where he serenades Julia Stiles character down the school steps with "I Love You Baby" a truly unforgettable scene in a classic teen movie, to the enormous growth and risk Heath took with doing the Ang Lee's controversial Brokeback Mountain, and the up coming Batman movie has been gathering huge Buzz surround his portrayal of the Joker. Having channel surfed and found myself at Sky News to hear the shocking news that Heath Ledger had died, his vivid in my memory; as I sat there watching the coverage, changing the channels to see what coverage BBC News, CNN, Fox News was giving, and finally returning back to Sky the banner wrote TMZ.COM broke the story of Ledgers death. TMZ is a gossip website that shows celebrity at their worse, for them to break the story of Ledgers death to news station across the world, testifies to the changing of the guards. Time has changed when an infamous website can be quicker than a news channel in breaking a story, the fact that the need for speed comes with the over consumption of our society and the need for having everything now and at a mere click of a button.

Group Project

2008-01-21T06:03:00.000-08:00

My Group Entails of...

Urvi
Paps
karina
and finally Jess

Weekend fun.

2008-01-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

I guess where supposed to do this before Monday, so the last minute im doing it. Crazy weekend has been my sisters bday so weve been partying a bit too much. I need another few days to recover. X0X0 Raqs World.

2008-01-14T07:23:00.000-08:00

Monday 14th Jan, Spotted a group of students in a classroom trying to figure out how to open a blog. Until next time xo xo raqs world.