Final reflection on blog and class

As for my reflection of the class and the work I have done, I loved the class. I enjoyed mainly the visual advocacy project because I’m a visual paper and also the Microsefs paper. I have learned so much and hope to continue learning. I’ve learned from my writing that I need to slow down and take my time looking over what I have written. Also when I write I sometimes make things to analytical and not so much emotional. I lack details in areas where they need them. I don’t put enough detail in places at which it needs to be while just jumping straight to the point. If I could revise anyone of my works it would have to be my entrepreneur paper. As professor Yerks has stated in many of the comment sections. My work is smart and thoughtful but it gets covered up by the mechanical errors and lack of attention to certain details. Entrepreneurship is the direction I wish to take in life and writing a paper is a way to show everyone else what I see and not that it’s just another piece of some boring ass business literature. I see business and entrepreneurship as a hallway of open doors and windows and all that’s required is just taking those eye-opening steps to get their. When I am done with this class I’m not sure what I will do with my blog. I think I will continue this one or add on to another one. I personally have not used any open blog website before but I found that I like designing it and posting my thoughts for others to see, and for my self to reflect on. I want to thank professor Yerks for a great year and a wonderful semester. I love writing and new technology, so what better way to get my fulfillment that to combine both of them in a class.

Microserfs Paper

Microserfs Paper:
Couplands characters speak in computer jargon, because it’s all they really know. Daniel himself describes how he wishes he had a normal life. He makes a statement of how thinking parallel is more practical than linear. Then mentions to Ethan, co-founder of Oop!, about Prozac and how this helps a parallel mindset move along. “Fortunately depression runs in my family”. “Absolutely, pal I couldn’t figure out a way of rigging my brain to work in parallel instead of linear mode-and then they invented Prozac and all the Prozac isomers and kablam!- my brain’s been like an Oracle parallel processing sever ever since.” (1, pg. 164). As for myself, language at work and home are much different. I work in an Italian restaurant so speaking little bits of Italian and screaming at each other are a must. At home things are much calmer and not so chaotic. When people speak in computer jargon it can be very intimidating to most other people. It as if they are speaking in a foreign language, and most people find it uncomfortable.
Couplands writing is well written, and humorous. He separates his chapters by weekdays as to express his life as a diary with all different characters. In his writing he uses clips of random information, for example “If I asked you, would you jump in the pool and not even bother to Strip? Would I strip you down, remove your clothing and we would fall inside the water together? It scares me.”(1, pg. 138) I see this as his personal way of putting his feeling and emotions down on paper. I also believe he is using it as literary expression to draw attention to specific details in the diary and thought processes of his characters. When Daniel has something important that he wants to convey, he analyzes it in the best way that he can, then describes it in his computer lingo or jargon. All of these people seemed to be nerds and into their into their own worlds, but the job they do has an effect possibly on millions of people. Ironic isn’t it. A group of introverted people that enjoy living in their private, isolated worlds but they really control the a large part of our society.
The binary code on page 104-105 is what Coupland uses to help define and express his character Daniel. Throughout the book Daniel seems to be trying to find himself, and live a so called normal life. In the chapter called Sunday, he and Karla were having an in depth conversations talking about real feelings and emotions. This binary code is the way to his “My Computer” or a window to a normal life because it is very uniform. Its his way of so called “Spooging”. He wishes to lay everything out and express himself, but the only way he knows how is in computer language. “I felt a jolt of energy and this sense of honor to be allowed entrance into her world-to be with a soul so hungry and powerful and needful to go forth into the universe. I want to feed her.”(1,pg.101). I think that his pessimism gets the best of him. Whenever Daniel attempts to speak to Karla sincerely his words come without deep thought or feeling. You could even say they sound machine like and methodical. He lacks normal human emotions and he knows it. The computer and codes are the only thing he knows.
Overall Coupland is living through his characters and uses the world of nerds to express them. His life as a programmer obviously had changed him like it changed his character Daniel. I personally believe that the situations we work and live in can have a lasting effect on us whether we know it or not. People who go to war are different before and when they come back. Those who are nerds, and live in a technological world are different than those who live in a simple society. But how does a couple who both are from a technological world go to a normal sate of existence?

Work Cited
1) Coupland, Douglas. Microserfs. New York: Regan Books, 1995.

Screen Capture