The Ecstacy of Influence

In the current society we live fast and don't fact check. We have become dependent on the easy access of Wikipedia, no longer searching above and beyond but only for what comes easiest. In the article, discovering what came first and what influenced what has not been a method that is widespread. If anything we only begin to research and investigate when money and or notoriety is involved. For instance Napster, offered a service that allowed people to obtain free music without giving the necessary royalties to the artists. While some felt that there was no wrong doing here others saw this as a complete disregard to personal property. This line is also true for literary plagiarism.

We are currently in an environment where we no longer respect property, language, or people. We are given the tools that allow us to use these various mediums, but in an environment where time is money, who has the time or energy. As sad as it maybe I know very few people who know how to properly use italics or quotation marks, so when it comes to quoting and giving credit so people may not give credit where credit is due. This lack of usage I believe contributes to "accidental" borrowing.

People like to believe that they are so original and they are the first to think up specific ideas but we live in a society where we don't give nor know how to give credit. We do not absorb ideas through osmosis, we instead believe if we rephrase or put our own spin on things that makes it ours. We must realize that we have to give credit where credit is due. It is when we begin to do this that creative exchanges will be more acceptable and less suspicious. We must be willing to openly celebrate our influences so they in turn we can be celebrated.

Blogging

I feel the need to write this. I am not one to consistently document my life or write in a diary. I am not a person to talk about things but instead I live them. I am having a hard time with this blogging thing but I am trying.....next week I will have more to say.

The Tower of Babel

Grammar it is a strange and funny thing. When you begin to string sentences together the last thing you think about are the technicalities. Martinsen addresses the intricacies of grammar stripping away the frightening veneer. Yet, I still find myself sucked into the world of text and abbreviations. As important as it is to be clear in thought and presentation, I find it so easy to leap into my mind's simplicities and do it my way.

In a world where the old practices are slowly being choked away, I find that in the case of grammar it holds importance but it needs evolution. The changes that have arrived over the years may spit on old tradition but it fits into the current life and times. We live fast and lose no longer possessing the time and patience to thoroughly weld the art of grammar. Who has the time to ponder a comma? I am not a person who can perfectly place a comma nor use or nor, a semi colon, or proper structures correctly. I am one to write from the heart and fly by the seat of my pants. Yet I reach the end of this message and I feel like a grammatical dork? (LOL)

Write Till You Drop

Often in my life as a college student I feel DOA (Dead on Arrival). I feel as if I am constantly searching for new inspiration and new energy in order to get through another day. As a college student I am constantly faced with assignments and deadlines, not all I am passionate about. Yet, I have to struggle to find some tiny bit of passion to pour into the many pages of every assignment. Though I am not always successful it is during the moments when I can muster up that passion and truly engage with the assignment or idea that it seems I have too much to say.

In Annie Dillard's, "Write Till You Drop," I can identify with the feeling of being truly enthralled in a subject. The feeling of being emotionally and physically attracted and moved by something leading you to drain your life force in order to express it. Having to literally write as if you are going to go braindead because if you don't put it all out there. If it seems as if you left something out you will literally go crazy or die. I can understand the passion and the struggle and yet I find myself, at the point where my idea has died and anything else would just be a half-hearted attempt at false passion. So to save the reader from ramblings and redundant statements I must cease and leave room for pondering.

The End.