sarahmfnjayne

Gardiner, John, and Berry West. Personal Communication: Systems and Technologies. Boston: Artech House, 1995.  This book has information on the invention and phenomenal growth of the cellular telephone. And also how it came to be a popular tool in communication.

Kingery, David W. Learning From Things: Method and Theory of Material Culture Studies. Washington: Smithsonian Instituion P, 1996.  This book has information about material culture in the history of technology, technology as it relates to gender, and dating, provenance, and usage in material culture studies. It has information on how technology has changed our culture, but the main source I am using is technology and how it relates to dating. 

Linder-Hurley, Suzanne C. Dearest Hugh: the Courtship Letters of Gabrielle Drake & Hugh McColl. Columbia, S.C.: The University of South Carolina P, 2008.  This book is a collection of letters written from 1900-1901 between to lovers who eventually get married. I am referencing this book to show how people "dated" in the 1900s, and compare it to dating techniques now. 

Merser, Cheryl. Honorable Intentions: the Manners of Courtship in the 80's. Yorktown Heights, New York: Westchester Book Composition, Inc., 1983.  This book discuss's courtship and dating as it was in the early 1980s. I am going to compare dating and relationships from then with how we date in today's society. Especailly how people communicated with the opposite sex at that time.

Nelson, Paula M., and Maxwell Van Nuys. Sunshine Always: the Courtship Letters of Alice Bower & Joseph Gossage. Pierre, South Dakota: South Dakota State Historical Society P, 2006.  This book has letters and information about a couple who wrote letters to one another as a way of courting during the 1800s. I am going to refer to this book in order to compare and contrast realtionships from then and now.

sarahmfnjayne

 I am tired of driving and looking for this star. So elusive she is. I am also so tired and hungry. Maybe I should have had one of the sisters look for her instead, but then I wouldn’t have gotten what was left of the other star. Hmmm, I see a fire ahead and it looks like the fire of a fellow sister. I will stop and hopefully, if she knows what is good for her, she will spare some food for me. Ahh.. she is cooking a fine rabbit and it is almost done. She looks like a merchant of some kind, with a bright caravan and a small bird by her side. I tell her I will not harm her, so maybe she will trust me enough to share the warmth of the fire and the food she is cooking. She does not recognize me for who I am but she does know that I am a witch, as she has pointed out that one of my goats once was human. It looks as if her bird is also human.  She tells me her name is Mistress Semele, but I know they used to call her Ditchwater Sal when she was younger. As we talk, I realize that I have told her everything about the star. Limbuss grass! Oh how unlucky she is now. I tell her exactly who I am and, as I promised not to harm her, I put a spell on her so she will never see or taste my star! Silly old witch.

sarahmfnjayne

College is a big step in a young person’s life. You move away from home, you are on your own, and you have to truly find yourself. The biggest step for me so far has been finding my own identity. Figuring out who I am and where I am in this great big world. I thought I had a good idea, but as I stepped into the large unknown, I found out I had no idea. I came here with a strong sense of self, only to lose it all in the blink of an eye. Being lost in my head is not what I intended or wanted, but now I realize it was for the better. I started writing on my own, and also through this class, and learned several things about myself. I came here thinking I knew what I wanted, I was also an ignorant racist, and I had no sense of my true feelings or how to express them. My continued writing and experiences throughout the semester has helped me to overcome all of these hindrances.

Starting school I thought I wanted to be a psychologist. I love everything about the subject and thought it would be the perfect career for me. I took psych 210 and was bored to tears. My first English class was also a disaster. I hated it all. After awhile I realized all my thoughts were trapped inside my head and I had to get away. I found a quite place and my thoughts just started flowing onto paper. That is when I truly realized I was a little lost. “I’m lost. I have no clue where I am either. Not physically, but spiritually. I have always thought I knew where I was. On a certain level. But now everything I have ever believed or known is scattered. “ (Written Journal, 11-15-07) Through my persistent writing and learning, I have overcome this mental road-block.  “School has been SOOO hectic. Busy busy busy... all the time. But hey, thats what I am here for…… I decided maybe to change my major to english. It's what I love.” (Myspace Blog 4-10-08) Clearing my head through writing has been lifesaving.

I grew up in an all white school with a bunch of “rednecks” and I always learned to hate anyone not white. I was very ignorant in these ideas. Through my blogs, and other blogs, I realized that this was not right. My first roommate is black. I hated her for many reasons, but this was the first and foremost reason. Throughout the semester I met several people and realized that the color of a person’s skin does not make them any different from me. A young African American girl in our class wrote about the struggles of being a new mom and also a student. Her writing and ideas were so beautiful and she earned so much of my respect. My ideas have changed so much from this, and I am eager to share these ideas back home with others that are still sheltered and uninformed. I realize now that even though my roommate was mean and very messy, I still love her as a person, no matter what color skin she has.

Blogging has helped me discover myself and understand my feelings better. Being able to vent to an audience also helps me when I am stressed, and their feedback is also very helpful when I am down and out. Serfaty points out that, “Because private events, no matter how outwardly insignificant, lay the groundwork for self-creation, they rightfully deserve the diarist’s and the public’s attention.” I feel that I can open up in my blog to others, no matter how private, extreme, mundane, or insignificant. She also says that, “…domestic events are the stuff self-identity is made of, and that self-construction is attainable for every individual. The very dailiness of one’s experience provides the basis for the construction of self and reasserts the democratic nature of Transcendentalist thinking. “(Serfaty 48) Writing for an audience, even if they are required to read it, has been so amazing. I think about what I write more than I would if it was my own personal journal. Because of this, I feel as if I am always constructing my identity; not only for myself but for others. I want people to read and see the real me. You will gain more personal insight to my life then you would if I met you face to face.

The end of the year is closing fast, and I have changed in so many ways. I have a better sense of self and what I want from life. Writing helps to clear your thoughts and when something is there for reference and referral, you get a better sense of what is going on, what has happened, and what may lie in the future. I want to help others, especially kids going through the point in life that I am going through now. I also have so much more respect for others and the world around me. I realize there is no room for hate or discrimination in this already messed up world. I have always had a hard time expressing myself to others, and every day I find it easier to do so. This class has helped me so much in my quest to know myself. “Emerson’s search… thus provides a model for online diarists who reach out to others even while writing about the most private aspects of their lives because, like Emerson, they realize they do not only construct themselves, but are continually constructed by others.”(Serfaty 51) My desire for others to read my work and to help me continue constructing my identity through writing is what motivates me to keep writing.

tennesseegirl17

It is seen daily, whether it be at the library, the University Center, or the lobby of dormitories.  People sleep in public places.  Most college students will sleep just about anywhere, as long as they get their fifteen minute nap in- where ever they are.  What if there was one certain chair that was popular among public sleepers?  Or a reoccurring pattern that occurred among those that sleep in the library.

Many researchers have tried to pinpoint the reasoning behind sleeping in  very public areas, but have yet to identify a definite explanation towards the all too often event.  However, they do offer several rationalizations for the occurrence.  It may be due to lack of sleep, a high stress level, and an immense comfort in a calming chair, dim lighting, soothing noises, or maybe it is just for leisure and a source of entertainment.  The question still remains: is the use of a chair as a tool for sleep in a public atmosphere socially accepted or publically ridiculed?  Do you gawk at those sleeping in the library or join them in another comfortable chair a few steps away? 

                    Again, researchers have tried to find the reasoning behind the private event taking place in public, but have had difficulties because of the huge number of factors involved.  I will explore the etiquette, or lack thereof,  of sleeping in a certain chair in a particular corner on a specific floor in a definite library. 

Questions:  Do you think that this is an interesting subject?  Is there anything unclear about the subject?  Is there anything else you would like to know about this particular subject?   Feel free to let me know if you are a public sleeper- I do need more participants!  THANKS!

oyier

Diaries in the olden days and at current

Diaries were written and read long before 19^th centuries. They did not only come in one form but varieties among them include letters, blogs, history and many others. It can be unanimously agreed that people kept diaries from all walks of life, both male and female, reach and poor, as Richard smart puts it, ``keeping a personal diary was a common activity among middle class women in the late nineteenth century``(p,6 the Bousefield diaries.). Also, the audience and the readership were defined, and example being, The Paston letters, dating from the 15^th century, these letters constituted a record of the events in the lives of middle class families, largely from the point of view of the women who is in many ways at its center. These letters were specifically addressed to the diarist himself or together with his children. (Bedfordshire history records p.xi)

Comparing the olden diaries and the to days` , diaries were written on the scroll  specifically with paper and pen, were us , we today write diaries and store them in computers, this is proving to be of great importance to the future generation for distorting the information in the current diaries is much harder than the olden. Also filling the current diaries is much easier as compared to the olden, due to bulk.

Having said this then, , it would be right to sum it up that, the olden diaries and the current diaries, share a lot in common. People of the olden centuries kept diaries regarding their daily lives, what they went through on day today life, the good days and the bad days. A typical example is the diary from Henry Hughes, dating January 1, 1848,…``Today I have been happy, my happiness has been as unalloyed  as is usually permitted.But a shadow of fear, a mournful assurance  that in the unceasing mutations of existence………….``