Eyes closed, CAN'T FOCUS.

I am apparently useless with my eyes closed.. Cool... Enjoy!



When I was younger I was known for my ability to be eloquan and express ideas in a way that was relatively sophisticat for my age. WhenI graduated eigth grade I was asked to give the speech for my graduating class and . Scratch that. When I was in seventh grade I ran for class president andnwas allowed to give really incredible speeches to the school in order to become elected. I wasyoungerthan the other candidates, and although it was a compendium. I don't remember where I was but I plan to continue somewhere.... The speech for eigth grade gaduationjs abetted story anyway. Actually, no, when I was a sophomore in high school I ran for and won preside t of my government class. We had a limit on our speech to 2 mi utes and my teacher did not make me stop speaking even after 7 minutes until I was done because he enjoyed my speech so much and thought it was so mature and eloquent t. The end. Not the end, moral of the story, I used to want to be a speech writer for the president or for some other political figure. The real end. Clearly I am not nearly as eloquent S before...

Sincerely, Cassie DeMarco.

Chaptah 2, woo-hoo-hoo

I'm running out clever titles for these blog posts...


In Chapter 2 of Writing Space, Jay David Bolter takes a look at the technology of writing. This he does not limit to computers and typewriters, but expands to include writing itself. He says "Ancient and modern writing are technologies in the sense that they are methods for arranging verbal ideas in a visual space." by this he means that the earliest forns of writing are as much technologies as the most modern forms, because they are innovations to put down thought in a way that is not inherently natural or assumed. Later he goes on to say how the act of writing and reading changes the way we think into the forms of literature. We think in sentences if we are literate, he says, and this separates the educated from the uneducated. Of the literate, he says "They speak, as they write, in a variety of styles and levels [...] They write in their mind as well as on paper or at a keyboard; indeed, they are writing whenever they think or verbalize in that methodical way characterized by writing." the technology of writing has changed the way that out minds process and relay information.


Signed,
Cassandra Rose Blaise DeMarco

Stitch Bitch Ink Shedding

"Alphabetical order is a contradiction in terms." there is no way to write 'correctly', creating a set of rules or way or organization puts unnecessary constraints on writing. How is alphabetical ordr a contradiction? Sometimes organization is needed to make sense. Yes, parts that can change randomly can be interesting, but they are parts not a whole. So we order things in an alphabetical order, ABC, but truthfully what does A have to do with B, and why can't C be first. Even though the whole is still the alphabet. Alex's response: aaabcehillp. The alphabet is a structured set in which we always rely on. We always somehow depend on it.

Like, ya know?

I would like to thank Taylor Mali for making a point to remind us to speak like we know, instead of speaking, like, ya know?

Taylor Mali's performance poem "Like You Know" as performed on Def Poetry is an effective piece about speaking with authority. A fan of his took the audio of the performance and made a video of the text being shown as it is said. The actual video of the performance shows Mali moving about the stage and illustrating his points with hand gestures. Watching him perform it brings it to life while the text depersonalizes it. It seems to just be the idea of the human contact we have when we watch him actually do it, as opposed to the barrier brought up by the text. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of closed captioning, which a lot of people do not like because it distracts them from the performance. I found the text distracting.

Take it to the Limit! (Of Language)

In Robert Hass's poem "The Problem of Describing Trees", the comfort of poetry as a guaranteed enchantress is pulled from us. In describing a view of a tree and its motions, he reaches a standstill in terms of what he can describe the tree doing. He says "And the tree danced.  No. The tree capitalized. No.  There are limits to saying, In language, what the tree did. It is good sometimes for poetry to disenchant us." In doing this, he pulls us out of the safety of his description of tree. The first "no" comes at us rather quickly, and jarringly, but then it seems to go back to the description. But, with the second "no" all hope of the enchantment is gone, and he drops the bomb "There are limits to saying, In language, what the tree did." and although we all know that there are some things that there are simply no sufficient words for, it is not common to be told that within a poem itself. Hass does something admirable in this poem, I believe, in bringing it to our attention that sometimes what is happening can't be described, even by one whose profession it is to describe. Although disenchanting, to say the least, Hass performs the important task of writing poetry that actually says something, and has a message.

Imagine All These Images

1) Image of him in mirror

When he was looking into the mirror and feeling like a hack, all of these images cover his face and he begins to choke himself. This is actually quite an accurate representation of the feeling I get when I write or act and feel stuck. it's this feeling of not knowing what you're even looking at in the mirror and just wanting to do a better job.

2) Image of car racing toward cliff

While, inherently, an image of fear and negativity, in the context of this movie this image represents anticipation and adrenaline. Sometimes the most dangerous things bring us benefits. He describes this as if it's a usual thing that gives him insight and inspiration. Once you get the blood pumping, it is a lot easier to feel and think and, to White, write.

3) Image of throwing the papers into a hole

After he writes what he considers bad writing, Chel White goes to an image of him, shot from below, tossing the papers into a ditch. We do not like to celebrate our mistakes, especially creative mistakes, and would rather hide them forever. The angle of this shot taken from the perspective of inside the hole makes it seem deep and permanent.

responses to sample essay

In an effort to preserve the fine spirit of cognitive dissonance, I will be arguing against my own statements in the four letter word response. Sample U, Part 5 "Visual presentations need to be ordered in a more careful manner than textual presentations. Images need to be shown in a sensible way, with sensible of time between each one to allow the viewer to establish meaning." First, this should read "with sensibility of time". Also, it presents an entirely dogmatic view of how visual arguments need to be presented. This worked for me, in the context of a narrative argument, however for the projects that did not have a narrative, the images could have told their story in different orders. And more, I don't know how the idea that visuals need to have more attention paid to order than text, but that is clearly incorrect. text means nothing without order, saying "the dog laughed" is a lot different than saying "dog laughed the".

Shelley, You are whack, son.

Well. Don't think we're going to get along, Shelly Jackson. Or whoever you are.

When I was younger and thought that I was really edgy and insightful I would write things like Stitch Bitch: The Patchwork Girl, by Shelly Jackson. But I certainly wouldn't publish them... This text is a strange philosophical venture into the idea of writing in hyperspace... I think.
Truthfully I had trouble following with the throughline. Basically, Shelley offers up several propositions as the sections of her piece. Examples include "BOUNDARY PLAY We don't think what we think we think." "AGAINST HISTORY It was not how they said it was." she goes on and on in Confusing circles about how nothing is as we believe and we must think of things as different or non existent or opposite. You know, the things that any basic eighth grader who thinks she is an existentialist or Nihilist because she doesn't know the difference or what either even means would just eat right up. Questioning beliefs! Undoing the dogmatic structures of thought! But now as a college student 5 years after eighth grade really I can't make sense of this piece of writing and I am just frustrated. Maybe I was smarter then. Or maybe this article is senseless. Probably the former, and I am looking forward to talking about this and figuring out what she actually meant in class today.

This is only a test

I'm testing out blogging from Microsoft office instead of inside my blog itself… let's see if it works?

please work...

This movie was made with windows movie maker, and it makes the argument of waiting as a potentially rewarding, frightening, and devastating endeavor.

yay!

FOUR! FORE!

for any o' y'all havin' trouble with some four-letter-word-searchin'.

A LIST!

http://www.scrabble.org.au/words/fours.htm

Making Sen(se)tences

A sentence starts out like a curtain
Closed in a crowded theater and as the lights are dimmed there is an uneasy, delicate air of discomfort.
The sentence begins too late and too soon all at once. The performance is greatly anticipated, so the ache of wait is too much in the still mist of a desirous audience. The thin veil breaks among the crowd as the curtains crack, and the fear intensifies.
It begins with a stutter, perhaps. A flub. awkward rhythm.
It begins with a need for editing but there is no going back
And the writer must work with the start they are given.
It begins with a nervous audience and a crack in confidence, and continues regardless. It gains motion and poetry. It gains itself. And in this gain, finds meaning and glory among the eyes of the world.
When in a motion of unstoppable delight, the show winds down, the sentence understands itself. A one night show, no flash photography, and the memory of the sentence and it's nuance is the duty the viewer.
And not everybody does his or her job.
So it is lost.
But for that night? The sentence gave a brilliant performance.

H.O., B.R.B., Sumbody is Txting Meh

A free-write:
Why has textual communication become the more prevalent use of phones when they were produced to transmit sound?

In many situations, speaking on the phone is considered impolite. Texting, however, is more accepted. I do not necessarily think it is easier to text as, physically, it requires more work. However, not everyone wants to hear the personal conversations of strangers and the ability to have phones outside of our homes introduces the public to our conversations. Texting is discreet, and generally considered more polite than yelling to be heard on a bus or in a restaurant. Also, in many ways, we are visual creatures. It is easy to see words or pictures in front of us as opposed to having them described. Having a textual record or an image keeps the information stored in a more concrete manner than our own memory.