So, during one chapter of Hamlet's Blackberry Powers talks about how helpful our technology is.  Because if you think about it, there really are so many pros to having a cell phone, a lap top, etc... The most important being my blackberry obviously.  He describes how when he called him mom while driving he was washed over with a rush of emotions and he was very excited to visit his family.  Without this technology, it really would have been quite a process just trying to get in touch with her.

Our cell phones are much more than entertainment.  Maybe we text excessively or play games on our smart phones too much, but at the end of the day I need it to call family members, fellow students, professors, employers, and my friends.  But then again, i could have a basic phone for those purposes and instead i have a blackberry. and definitely use it excessively.

So whats the solution?  We obviously need phones for practical reasons, but we don't need to play tetris every hour on our phones. or have facebook notifications sent to our phones.  I dont know, i guess we should take a look into all simplifying our technology in a way?

ps- while i was doing this blog i was logging into what i thought was "blackboard.newpaltz.edu" and instead i found myself accidentally typing in "blackberry.com"

way to go, kasey.

Last night:


Me and two of my house mates are sitting in my living room.  One of my house mates was baking cookies so we were pumped. 


But then something happened.


My two friends had laptops on their laps and let me know that they were talking to each other through facebook while sitting literally a person away from each other.
Immediately it reminded me of what Eden was talking about in class the other day, when her house mates were doing something similar. SO i told them that story and was like, do you guys want me to take away all your shit?


needless to say.. they didn't.


just thought it was funny that this kind of stuff happens to more people than we'd ever like to believe.

weird stuff.

"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the quote that Powers opens up with in Hamlet's Blackberry.  I feel like this has so much to do with what we've been discussing in class this semester.  We have so much power at our fingertips.  We can virtually do anything we want.  The possibilities are endless but its like we are using our power for evil, not good.

It sounds cliche, but I think it's pretty accurate.  Its like, when you look back in time, people did not have nearly as much technology as we do, and they accomplished so much more than us.  Instead of coming up with kindles and blackberrys, they created the lightbulb and the television and a computer. 

Then we came along and contaminated these tools by adding more and more useless functions to them.  For example, instead of watching television once an evening for one solitary program, it has turned into necessary white noise that is always on in the background of your life.  Same goes with the computer.  Instead of using it to write and send papers easily or to access certain information, it has turned into just one more vehicle for entertainment purposes.

So basically, the quote is saying that we can do so many great things with the technology we have today... so why are we creating applications for our iphones that allow us to tweet with celebrities we don't know? weird.

remember elmo, guys?

thanksgiving has passed and it is immediately christmas time. like, immediately. i barely put my licked clean of turkey dinner dish into the sink before my mom had christmas tunes playing.  I don't mind though, i love christmas. but, i don't necessarily love the craziness it brings out in people.


I have never participated in black friday. ever. i hate people when i shop, and i'd rather go on a random day when the stores are empty and i can just get shit done.  This year was different.  my older sister, my younger sister and my mom were all down to go to Target at 4 am.  and i figured i should experience this crazy day/morning for myself in order to fully know how much i hate it. 


Literally, at 4 am the parking lot was packed and the store was full of people buying tv's in fucking bulk.  it was so weird. my mom bought my sister a wii for christmas and it was dirt cheap, so that was cool...  but it was so bizarre how many people woke up for this chaos.  


Now, thinking about it, its like, ten hours ago we were supposedly giving thanks to everything we have and appreciating our family and friends because we are lucky we have anything at all.  and now, those same people are pretending they don't hear me say "excuse me" when i am really just trying to get by them, i'm not after their fucking precious play station they've been waiting for.  chill out people.


I understand you want to make your kids happy, make your friends happy, by getting them the ultimate christmas gift, and if you can get it for a cheap price, hey,  i love a good deal too.  but come on, don't be crazy. 
...i think we all remember the "tickle me elmo" incident a few years back. 

amateurs everywhere.

I've been thinking a lot about if there is high art and low art.  I really feel like its so subjective who can say if one artist's piece of work is better than someone elses? If I have a totally different style than someone I am obviously going to have different tastes in art.  Maybe some artists have more "technique" but that doesn't necessarily mean I will enjoy it more. 

I am taking a ceramics class this semester.  I am a complete amateur.  I don't really know what I'm doing but I just wing it, and my teacher suggested me majoring in this.  So its like, even amateurs have to start somewhere.  Right?

People who post their work on blogs or facebook are amateurs but what's wrong with that?  I might be really inspired by some random artists work and I wouldn't see it unless they posted it somewhere.  

So, in my amateur opinion, I think that the idea of high art and low art is silly.  It's whatever you make of it.  The other day I totally wrecked a piece I made in class and I hated it, but my teacher came over and loved it and convinced me not to throw it away.  It was high art to her and low art to me.

Basically what I'm saying is that  amateurs can make high art to someone and experts can make low art to someone.

windows seven.

That new commercial for the Windows 7 phone kind of confused me.


When I first watched it I seriously thought it was all about how we use our phones too much and we are missing out on life because our heads are always staring into the little screen in our hands.  And then at the end of it I was like oh. this is supposed to make me want to buy a new phone? I don't know maybe I'm missing the real point but to me it just made me think about how I do use my phone too much and I should try to stop.


So.. now will I go buy the new Windows 7 phone? Nope. I actually have been seriously trying to use my phone less.  For example, I realized how fucking annoying it is when people are texting when you are trying to speak to them. So I've made a conscious effort to put my phone away when I'm with my friends. 


If I'm hanging out with my friends then who else do I really need to be texting?

desensitize this.

So I was thinking about how much the web has truly desensitized us to certain things.  For example, personally, I feel like when I hear about really vulgar stories regarding rape, drugs, murder, I am not as phased as I should be.  Its like, we hear about these things so much and in such a nonchalant manner through the web that it doesn't have the impact on us as a society anymore.

But... is that really true?  Because, then I started thinking about the recent suicides of the gay men who were bullied or made to feel inadequate because of their sexuality.  They obviously were not desensitized to the words they read through their facebooks or twitters.  Its like, we are still affected by what we read or hear through the web in such an extreme way; the web literally has the power to kill.   


That thought made me kind of uncomfortable for a second.  The same page that I visit every single day, every single hour of my life and joke to my friends, stalk strangers, procrastinate.. this is one of the sites that others are viewing and resorting to suicide because of the things they see about themselves.  How did facebook/twitter get that power?  And when did people think that they should use social media vehicles to torture and torment other people?


I change my mind.  We really aren't too desensitized to everything on the web, we are still very sensitive.