Open Post Time - Interviews are Scary

Interviews are scary.

As some may know, I graduate in May. I've been looking for jobs for a while, and I've applied for a few. One finally came back to me today, and I had an interview. First of all, suits are rough on me. The pants never seem to fit, the jacket never seems to be the right length. Although, I think I happen to look damn fine in a suit, they're always tough on me. I prefer jeans any day.

So, I get myself all cleaned up for it, and of course, I'm nervous as hell. As some of you have seen this week, I'm sick too. It's been off and on, and it was on today. That certainly doesn't help. So, I'm not at 100% and then I'm in a suit, trying to not get lunch all over myself. Then the time came for the actual interview.

It was with Weather Central, where I already work, but at a separate building. Of course, I didn't know where it was. After searching for the building, I went upstairs. After the interview began, I did two things wrong. With the question "What do you think is your greatest weakness?" I responded "I have a hard time explaining things to people." Of course, I'm applying for a customer service rep position that explains things to people for a living. Smooth move, huh? I was also asked "What does it mean to mount a drive?" I said it either meant to physicall y attached it to the rack or to hook it up to the computer. OF course, it meant to VIRTUALLY mount it. Terrific. Other than that. I learned some things today.

1. Always try to be yourself as much as possible. It makes life easier.
2. Don't wory... just do your best.

I'd love to expound, but I feel rather gross at the moment. Sickness is not cool.

Reading Notes Again - The Human Cyborg Paradox

Let me make this blunt: I don't think humans are cyborgs. The thought of it is seriously disconcerting to me. Humans are carbon based beings that should only use machinery on their bodies when necessary. The turning of bodies into machinery holds many moral consequences.

Humans are akin to cyborgs in theory. We are trained to do specific tasks (education) and implement them every day (work). We break down if we're not maintained (injury, sickness), and must get fixed if this occurs (Go to the doctor). But humans have totally different aspect when it comes to one thing: free will. We can choose what profession we want to do, and we can pick the places where we work. We can choose which doctor to see and when to see him when it is prudent. Humans make educated choices, cyborgs do not. The case can be made for the idea of Artifical Intelligence as a form of free will. Is free will just a set of if and for loops that our brain takes and follows, just like a computer program? This is a tough question. One argument is that of the quality known as a soul. Is there a secondary being in ourselves that is inherently objectified to free will? The soul can't be quantified, so it certainly can't be implemented into the AI of a cyborg.

My point is this: People like Stelarc are dabbling in playing God. A cyborg arm is perfect for an amputee. They certain NECESSITATE it. But for some reason, it leads me to thinking about the villian from Spider-Man 2 whose name eludes me. He had that array of arms that did his bidding, and the power of superiority was part of his problem. Something tells me that a slippery slope pattern is possible to form. Cyborg implants to a human to give them an advantages could create an arms race for the "perfect" human, and could eliminate the human all together. WE are imperfect beings, with physical shortcomings. To give implants to a perfectly healthy person would give them a superiority complex that could get out of control. Giving an amputee a new arm with full mobility is fine, because he is back of a level playing field as the rest of us.

Sports is built on a superiority complex, though. It's fine the way it is now. If everyone was exactly the same, games would end in ties. But the difference in talent is discrete comepared to the perfect cyborg control. Think of the Bionic Man. Technology, as we have seen, can get out of control. We can't guarantee that someone with malevolent tendencies can take things out of control. Don't play God. Accept who you are.

Don't Look Now It's READING NOTES AGAIN - The Online Identity

Upon reading Identity Crisis, I took a look at my own personal online persona. I take a two sided approach to my online life. Usually, I'm just me. I like to tell it like it is with logic, snarkiness, and all around attitude that everyone loves or loathes. Of course, I have a soft side as well. I like to talk about the things that really affect me in important ways, such as family life and relationships. At heart I'm an absolute nerd, and will talk about wrestling and video gaming at a moments notice, and relate all of life's experiences to a wrestling angle or video game moment. Of course, there is also my alter ego. He's derived from the nickname my best friend gave me a few years ago, JC Superfreak. Together, my friend and I formed the "Freak 'n Slack Connection" (with his nickname being Slacker Cracker), derived from the "Rock 'n Sock Connection," a WWF tag team from the late 1990s. Everything about JC is me, just ramped up a notch. Think I'm annoying now? Magnify that by 10. Loud, crass, and brash, he will tell you like it is on a moments notice. He's kind of like my evil twin/heelish side.

So, it comes as no surprise to me that this alter-ego is derived from a part of my personality that is not usually seen by everyone. Identity Crisis talks about this on page 261. It makes a bit of sense to me that my online personality alter-ego is just a part of my real personality that just manifests itself. In the real world, there is no way I'd have any sort of friendship if I told off everyone. That's be stupid. Maybe the online personality is a way for these feelings to come out.

What's scary is the people that utilize their online personality as their real personality, and make friendships with people they think that are real, but are totally different in real life. I won't go into the details, but this happened to me when I was younger. Usually, the people who make their real selves their online selves are just looking for an outlet of their personality where they think it will be appreciated. In this light, I think of the outcast high school student who just wants a friend. There's a lot of those kids out there, I was indeed one of them.

The online personality is something that can be studied further and really be something psychologist should analyze.

Guess what it's READING NOTES - Confusion about Cool

Cool is confusing, isn't it? In my previous post, someone called me on this confusion. Cool is supposed to be rebellious. Cool is predicting the next trend, and being the next trend. Cool is ahead of the curve. After thinking about it some more and reading "Coolhunt," I think I'm beginning to understand.

Fo some reason, I would just like to say that the woman featured in this article is not what I think of as cool. Personally, I find the definition of cool here is skewed. I think sitting and shilling Converse shoes thinking they'll be popular again. THat's a fad, in my opinion. I think of cool as something that stands the test of time, like black suits. They're practical, they always look great, and they're always in style. That's cool. Functional, chic, and NEVER out of style. If things come in and out of style, they're a fad, pure and simple. While they may be all the rage for a period of time, they'll always fall out of style.

Most clothing is like this. It's ludicrous to think otherwise. What DeeDee is doing is finding the next big fad, not a cool hunt in my opinion. This leads me to the class' definition that is presented in "Writing About Cool." Cool seems to be all about finding the next big thing. Every tred has its origins somewhere. There, I will agree that the trend has cool tendencies. It's truly different, and not everyone is doing it. But, once it picks up steam, it's not cool anymore. Then, it dies once it becomes old news. That's why I used the example of the black suit. It's always in. To me, the key to cool is durability.

People, will no doubt, disagree with me, but that's how I see it. Fads die. Cool lives forever.

The "Cool" Hunt - The Coastie Culture

I really didn't have to sit in one place for my hunt to realize what I was going to write about. All one has to do is walk down the street here in Madison to see there is "cool" all around us.

We've all had that one clothing fad at one point. The Starter Jacket comes to mind. Where I grew up in northern Wisconsin, they were all the rage. If you were someone, you had the Green Bay Packers Starter Jacket in about 1995 or 1996. Akin to my previous post, I'm going to talk about things that make me shake my head in saddness. This would in deed be the Coastie. Coastie Culture is creating a war in our midst. While I am not the first person to appreciate the sense of "style" they bring, some locals have endorsed this trend. Personally, the Coastie look is a stereotype that will go the way of the Starter Jacket soon enough.

I specifically remember this all started with some celebrtiy. Exactly who I do not know, but they were wearing the Ugg boots. Those forsaken pieces of sheepskin or whatever they are made of (souls of lost children) were on the feet of this celebrity. As we were talking about in class tuesday, this was the hub of the Ugg boot frenzy to begin. Of course, acting like any fad that has come before, if one person that is cool begins wearing it, then of course, you have to have it if you want to be cool. This is no doubt how the huge sunglasses thing took off too. I think it may have been Paris Hilton that did that one. (Of course, this is speculation, and a lot of disgruntled tendencies towards Coasties are not because of their clothes but only add to the loathing I have for them.) My point is, fads, like viral videos, act in the same way. The fickle nature of man never rests on something that is purely functional, but adds to your status in society. I am not immune, I've taken part in a bandwagon or two.

All I'm saying is that the Midwest seems to be years behind the fads. The Coasties brought this fad with them. This is just like a virus. Once people get sick of the clothing, the new fad will begin. It happened with bell bottoms, it happened with parachute pants, it happened with Starter Jackets, and it will happen with the boots and the glasses. People will eventually realize they look like a moron wearing those boots with strech pants. People will realize that those sunglasses only cover most of your face. If you keep going with the fad as a virus gimmick, it's like an immunity will build for the virus. The virus will have anti-bodies built up against it. But remember, viruses mutate against the anti-bodies and become something new, just like a new fad will eventually come along. There will always be fads like there will always be new viruses.

In the frame of "cool," the Coastie look is rebellious for the Midwest. Like I said before, the Midwest gets fads 10 years too late. The Coastie look was new and different. But, at the same time, like all other fads, it's not "cool" because you begin to look like everyone else. Everyone else gets infected with the virus. So, a fad is only as cool as less than the majority follows it.

More of Them There Reading Notes - Viruses

Last week's reading really got me to thinking what a risk the internet is. I mean, seriously. Every computer that is hooked up to the internet is faced with danger. You've got viruses and trojans and hackers and phishing sites and spyware and malware and every other bad thing you can think of. Watts was correct in correlating biological viruses to the connected age. But, this also got me to thinking, computer issues of this technological age can be correlated to biological diseases.

First, you got you spyware/malware/trojans. Think of these as the STDs of the internet world. You go to a site, conenct with it, and the site infects your computer just like a nasty sorority girl would give you The Clap on a Friday Night. You have fun when you're on the site, but you certainly feel bad about it afterward. You have to go in to your compy and clean up the mess with Spybot or Ad-Aware or stuff like that. Your solution? Similarly akin to not knocking boots with your rather questionable choice in women, you could not go to the site, or, if you're a desperated, sad little man, protect yourself. Get a firewall, get your removal kits, and for goodness sake, get Firefox. I rarely have these problems anymore like I used to with Internet Explorer. And seriously, don't be a fool, wrap your tool.

Next, thinking of the email virus akin to tuberculosis. While TB is not really a threat now, a computer virus is a threat if you have no protection from it. TB can be dangerous if it becomes resistant to drugs, just like a computer virus could be a problem if it circumnavigates the current protection technology. So, stay abreast of the situation, and keep yourself clean.

I could go on, but the virus analogy is kind of grossing me out. I'm still stuck on that sorority girls one. Sick. All kidding (not really) and stereotyping (that neither) aside, the real world's danger is similar to the web on this front. The connectivity of the internet is the danger and the pleasure all at the same time. Keep yourself up to date and protected and you'll be safe.

And now, a viral video!