PC vs. Mac

PC VS. MAC

Semi-Charmed Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1NR7AL_9s

Third Eye Blind’s poppy, vivacious tune is meant to be perceived as such – but the happy melodies and catchy chorus is merely a disguise in which they hid a very strong message. After examination of the lyrics and detaching the cheerful melody from the song, one can come to a conclusion of its true meaning.

I’ve heard this song a multitude of times - I heard it back in the nineties when I was a small fellow in about third grade, and all the way until today. It remains popular because of its captivating air. Now, I’m smart enough to pick apart the lyrics. When I looked them up, what I found was outstanding. Obviously, the song is about drug addiction, sex, and depression. The first lines of the song say, “I’m packed and I’m holding…” – a blatant drug reference. A few measures late, “chopped another line like the Coda with a curse,” – yet another drug allusion. And if the prior drug references weren’t making a clear message to the listener yet, the line, “The sky it was gold, it was rose, I was taking sips of it through my nose” - Sips of whatever drug he is snorting. And lastly, “With a tick tock rhythm and a bump for the drop, And then I bumped up. I took the hit I was given, Then I bumped again, And then I bumped again – “bumping” means to snort a line of cocaine or meth. The song also describes the symptoms of the drug highs, and of course, the drug withdrawals – “I want something else, I'm not listening when you say, Good-bye” – he cannot quit using drugs and doesn’t want to let go because he wants something else to get him through life, and that medium is drugs. Then, “She said she was crashing…” – coming down from a high. And, “But now I'm struggling to survive…” – a reference to the depression experienced while coming down from a high. The song goes on to send a message about teeth grinding, lockjaw, insomnia, aggression, and memory loss. So, there is an establishment of drug addiction within the song, pertaining to either the lead singer, or a character in the song. To me, it sounds like a character, and the song is a story about his life.

The story within the song is about a crystal meth addict who has a girlfriend with whom he partakes in drug use with. He has a sexual relationship with the girl, and intermingling within their relationship is their drug addiction, which is getting in the way of a healthy lifestyle for the both of them. Some of the sexual references: “She comes round and she goes down on me…” – no explanation there. Then, “How do I get back there to, The place where I fell asleep inside you…” This, and the prior drug references, make the song extremely overt and risqué.

The conflict is extremely brazen and obvious; the setting is unspecified, but I imagine that it’s only set in the last few decades, when crystal meth was discovered and cooked up; and some possible resolutions: quit doing meth!

Overall, the song is one that stuck with me after finally realizing its true message. Although it’s shocking and somewhat explicit, it is a powerful and meaningful piece of music.

May Project: Final Publication

After countless hours of contemplating our society and it's fixation on technology, I finally decided to write about it. This topic is one that I'm particularly passionate about, because it's something that's very important. Here's what I wrote:

http://www.wix.com/WyattSpruck/Wyatt-Spruck

May Project

To be honest, I'm not confident of certain about which project to do. The GoAnimate video idea seems a bit juvenile - I've never been one to create children's stories or anything of the sort. I'm not sure about the whole Twitter idea either because I don't know what it entails. Maybe it's because writing a story over Twitter could be difficult seeing as you can only type 180 characters for every post. The idea of creating a long graduation video sounds a bit interesting, but it's not about writing - I signed up for this class so I can WRITE. If anything, I wish we could do another narrative. I could write narratives all day long because it comes naturally.

Here's my idea: We should learn how to use the Adobe programs to create a journalistic type piece and then publish it online. Also, we should use google docs, somehow, to create an opportunity to peer edit. But, I doubt this will happen because it wasn't even an option in the first place. Overall, the project seems a bit pointless if we aren't actually writing.

Collaborative Writing Review

The collaborative wring project was a great idea for this class. Using technology to communicate and edit pieces is an affective way to create outstanding writing. I liked the fact there is online word processers that allow other users to edit each others' writing - this makes for an opportunity to make compostitions the best they can possibly be. Overall, the project in and of itself was a great way to learn how to use technology to collaborate and communicate with the people in the writing group.


Along the way, we read each others' compositions and were able to edit them accordingly - this was made easy through Google Docs and, in my opinion, is the greatest feature of the site. It was interesting to see how easy it was to use.


Another aspect of this project that I liked was the opportunity to read other peoples' writing - it opened my eyes to a variety of different writing styles that I strive to acquire and utilize to adapt to my writing.


I've always believed that the best writers are the best thinkers - people that have interesting things to say, think abstractly, and are able to use eloquence to voice their ideas, are the most talented writers. By writing more and more everyday, it makes those who are eloquent even better writers; it's just like any sport - one needs to practice to gain skill. Of course, there is some natural talent involved but, it is developed over time with consistent practice.


Lastly, I enjoyed getting to know the people in my group - this was made possible by group meetings and collaboration online (Google Docs). Overall, I found that the comments they shared on each others' documents revealed who they were as people, and to understand their thought process as well as their opinions.


Overall, ths project was an outstanding idea. I really like writing, and people have always comlimented me on my writing skill, although, I'm no Hemingway or David Sedaris. I'm working on becoming a better writer by persisting in my quest to become better by consistently writing, and this project was an opportunity to do so.

Collaborative Writing Project

Personally, I've always been a 'narrative writer', meaning that I possess a writing style aimed towards short stories. Typically, I can sit down and write a narrative without any issues, and to be honest, I've never been one to write a research paper because it's just not my style. Most people will agree that not only are narratives more fun to write than any other type of writing, but they come easily. I think for our collaborative writing project we should comprise a narrative - something interesting and absolutely spectacular. Most people will find this appealing, and synthesizing it shouldn't be an issue seeing as we have the proper tools to complete the task.

Google eats Microsoft? Yeah, right.

Absolutely incredible - the Internet in and of itself is a remarkable creation, but, after watching the YouTube video about the 'ballooning' of technology, I can't help but wonder, "is this really possible?" I am perplexed by the idea of Google one day owning Microsoft - that's something I truly believe won't happen. Overall, I think the video was a bit farfetched except for the few bits in the beginning about technological advancement so far; the fact that the internet has replaced radio, TV, and such. I'm not sure how to react to the rest of the video because it seems elusive to me.

E-mail Etiquette Notes

E-mail Etiquette Notes

1. Include a meaningful subject line.
2. Use standard grammar, spelling, vocabulary etc.
3. One way to makes sure that you are writing professionally is to write in Word and then copy/paste it into the E-mail.
4. Be careful about writing jokes. Sometimes humor can be misinterpreted.
5. Respond quickly
6. It's okay to "trim"
7. Make sure that an E-mail can't alter your reputation

Our Nation's Plight

I'm absolutely floored by the steady growth of technology, especially in America. But amongst all of the perplexing statistics about social media, one aspect of our newly developing technologically-based society stands out; these developments have truly swept up the people in our nation, and, in my opinion, this will be it's plight. This is because we're all so tightly bound to our computers and phones that we will eventually become detached from any sort of face-to-face interaction. Without this personal connection with other people, forming any sort of intimate relationship will become something of the past. People need to step away from Facebook and other social networking sites, and put down their phones, instead of living vicariously.

Free Writing Activity

I'm currently in CIS Composition, a college writing course offered by the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. It's pretty enlightening, to say the least. Lately we've been working on a "trend" paper which, in actuality, is a research paper about a cultural happening or phenomenon. My friend Bradley and I have spent lots of time discussing what we're going to write about, and finally, after hours of conversing, we decided on a topic.

This will definitely be our brilliant feat, finishing this paper. We've decided it will be about sociocultural trend concerning mostly adolescents. It will be something along the lines of: The growth of technology in the past couple decades is causing people to turn away from face-to-face communication and instead use technology as a medium for conversation. This decay of social interaction will eventually be the demise of any sort of relationship development as we know it.