The word "meme" comes from a mimicry. It is defined as "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture". (defined by the Marriam-Webster Dictionary).
An example of a meme (and some of my favorites would be:

My favorite remix was the "Wonderland Mafia" because it is so inappropriate its funny. The song goes along perfectly with the animation.

2nd favorite- Unusual Suspects because of all the effort that must have been put into getting all those clips. There were so many clips of "the suspect was a black male" and "a black hooded sweatshirt". The author of the video makes a great point in saying how many news programs stereotype a "black male in a black hoody".

3rd- I really liked the 99 problems with Obama because it was funny and really well done. The words matched up perfectly to Obama's lips. The lines to the song was perfectly coinciding to what was going on with the politics at the time.

4th- I also liked the remix of Its Raining Men because its true how there is such a male presence in that movie. I also liked how the song matched up with the actor's actions when it was possible.

And my 5th favorite- would have to be Miss Piggy's "Fuck the Pain Away" because it really was very inappropriate but funny at the same time. In my opinion, I liked Wonderland Mafia better because it was a little less raunchy.

My idea for my research project would be working with funny quotes that Michael Scott has said from The Office. I would have his funny quotes with a bumch of clips from a seminar on how to be a good office manager.

Internet Art Introduction:

2 relavent figures mentioned:

Nam June Paik-

Paik is considered the "founder of video art". His quote is the famous quote "there is no rewind button for life". He works with many types of media and communicating through telecommunications.





Source for Picture and Information:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/Portrait_of_Nam_June_Paik-by_Lim_Young-kyun-1981.jpg



Konrad Zuse- 

Zuse was once in the German Army before he actually built a computer called the ZI. Then he made the computer called the Z3 which was the first electromechanical computer that could store data.

Source for picture and information: http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Konrad,Zuse/













Internet Art Chapter One:

2 relavent figures mentioned:

Douglas Davis-

Davis was a teacher and a writer. His writings were all about media and the science of video art and art in general. He opened numerous exhibits and is celebrated for these reasons. In the picture he in the first international satellite telecast.

Source for info and picture:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/last-9-minutes/







Olia Lialina-

Olia is an artist from Moscow that is one of the founders of  experimental film club "CINE FANTOM". She is also a "net artist". She is an author of many different books, presentations and exhibits.

Source: http://art.teleportacia.org/olia.html

(Picture is of Olia and the first cake she baked)

Chapter 2 analysis of Letters to a Young Contrarian:

In this chapter one thing stood out to me and promoted me to think under the surface. When Hitchens says "You must feel not that you want to but that you have to." This is something that I actually really agree with. You don't see people that go into the medical field to become doctors and surgeons just wanting to go through 12 years of rigorous schooling to get to their goal, the work to absolutely having to have it.

Chapter 3 analysis of Letters to a Young Contrarian:

I really liked this chapter and a few ideas stood out to me. My favorite would have to be if you are "Aspiring toward a consistent perfection [you] are aspiring toward annihilation." This is spot on. I was thinking about it and realized that there is no such thing as perfection, and striving for it will in fact ruin you. So many people look to be perfect, something they will never be because perfection doesn't exist. This whole time they are trying to be something they will never be, it would be exhausting. The author even says there is no such thing as perfection, "Wherever life exists, there also is inconsistency, division, strife."

Another relevant part would be when the author says, "in life we make progress by conflict and in mental life by argument and disputation". I take this as meaning we need to be tested to achieve process. Mentally, argument will let you see things in a new view because you are being shown the conflicting side. Conflict will do about the same thing but in a different way, with conflict you usually need to compromise and doing that is hard for a lot of people. If you are willing to compromise then you can be a little wrong, and accepting that is a good thing. He talks about the "gray area" which I believe can be reached in conflict and argument to get that compromise.

Chapter 4 Analysis of Letters to a Young Contrarian

"It is true that the odds in favor of stupidity or superstition or unchecked authority seem intimidating". After pondering this I thought that looking at it from a governmental standing: a tyranny is a very scary thing in this country. A tyrant with unlimited authority would have limitless power and no human would want to live under those circumstances...the reason that revolutions and revolts came to be. However when the author says, "injustice and irrationality are inevitable parts of the human condition". I don't agree with this. Not everyone is unjust and irrational, that is a stereotype of the human race. Hitchens can't make this statement grouping the whole human race together as unjust.

Introduction chapter of Letters to a Young Contrarian:

This chapter wasn't very long so I only came across one point that stuck out and made me think: "Could I offer any advice to the young and restless; any counsel that would help them avoid disillusionment?" I had to look up "disillusionment" and basically found out that it means when you are let down because something wasn't as you imagined. This hit a spot with me because I do that a lot. I imagine something happening a certain way and find myself disappointed because it didn't turn out exactly how I played it out in my head. This is no one's  fault except for my own. His statement intrigued me and made me interested in continuing reading his book, something a good introduction should always do.

Chapter 1:

This chapter housed a few phrases that stood out to me. One was "by definition a single existence cannot furnish any pattern". This seems odd to me because a lot of species live by pattern. Us humans, for example, are a product our own patterns. Everyday we wake up, eat breakfast, go to our classes (adults to work), come home, eat dinner, and go to sleep. This happens everyday making it a pattern. I don't know how Christopher Hitchens can say that we can't house our own patterns, its in our DNA.

Another part of this chapter that stood out to me was when he was describing out of the box thinkers. I completely agree with his thought that society "tolerates and even admires even admires eccentricity". The ability to be creative and a cognitive thinker is admired throughout society. I am actually envious of these people because they can think of ideas for writing and projects easily. The author switches tones, however, when he describes people that think "too far out of the box"and how society will be "much less 'tolerant'". Which i agree with as well. Society deems these people on a "crazy" type of level. This is supported by all the mental illnesses that are associated with the extreme out of the box thinkers. 

After watching "Triumph of the Nerds" I realized that many things came together to make the modern day computer. It all started with "Xerox". Xerox made it so you could use a mouse and images to do actions on the computer screen. Before that you had these IBM PC computers that were very expensive and hard to use. IBM PC computers had it so you had to type in these complex codes just to do a simple task. However, IBM PC created the market for computers. So about 20 years later Windows OS came out with this "new" easy to use software. Turns out that this was just the Xerox's idea of images and a mouse. So after this Apple came to be, and Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs and his team set out to create Macintosh. This was a new computer that seemed to do it all and a lot simpler!

The finish product:

 (in the dark)

 (In the light)

Me presenting my project

Throughout this project I definitely had a few struggles to overcome. The biggest one was changing my  project completely. At first, I had the idea that I was going to put my pictures on customized M & Ms because I loved candy so much. However, that turned out to be very expensive. Then I thought about other things I loved and thought of christmas. I came to the idea that I would put my pictures on a christmas tree. But then I couldn't find a christmas tree at this time of the year. So i put the christmas lights I found on a poster board in the shape of a christmas tree and that became the winning idea.

It was also hard printing out my pictures. I went to the computer lab to print with PhotoShop but I had forgot what pixels to use and there was no lab tech. When I made an educated guess the print wasn't to my liking. So then I sent them to wallgreens to print them for me, which worked great!


The skills I gained with this project were creative thinking, problem solving, photography skills (focus, leading the image, etc), and editing skills. I still need some help with that one PhotoShop question. I am happy with my project and the skills I learned with it!

These photos are the photos I chose to be in my Instagram project! Each one describes me in a different way. 

 My dream job would be to do something with TV at NBC, my favorite broadcast network.

 SNL is my all time favorite show, I was so hooked that is the reason I wanted to work at NBC. Those are my tickets from when I got to go to a show (it is very hard to come by tickets).

 My favorite pair of shoes, they have been through so many adventures.

 This is the sunset from my favorite restaurant in my home town.

 In the summertime, one of my favorite things to do is  to kayak to this sand strip in the middle of my river.

 This was taken on the Cape  May ferry, which brought my to Avalon, NJ, one of my favorite beach towns.

 I took this picture of Rockefeller Center, my favorite building.

 My favorite drink, which was taken at the UT pool.

 Best creation!!! The cookie sandwich!!

 My sorority, Delta Gamma.

 I love to lay out by the pool!

 The city I live in most of the year, Tampa.

 All time favorite food and fruit, pineapple.

 I LOVE candy, and I LOVE skittles.

 Passion Pit is one of my favorite bands, this was taken at a music festival I went to which was one of the best days of my summer!

 I love walks down bayshore

 My favorite necklace that was given to my by my boyfriend.

 I wear a shark clip watch everyday. I like them because they are colorful.

 Favorite nail polish, plus I love glitter!

I'm from Maryland

When I googled myself in class I didn't find any results! I looked in images as well as the regular web and couldn't find me. I feel as though I have a common name so I am over looked. I am not upset by not finding myself, I actually prefer it. People post so many questionable things online (partying pictures for example) so I just rather not risk anything and stay offline completely. Professional jobs and colleges are always searching for bad things online. So, people don't realize that these questionable posts and what-not prevent them from getting jobs or into college.