Category: Ramblings

A Not So Happy Ending

Photo: Pedro Ribeiro Simoes via Flickr
Photo: Pedro Ribeiro Simoes via Flickr

Right. I know I should have been doing homework all evening, but it was Tight Arse Tuesday at Village Cinemas and I’ve been dying to check out Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl all month. I read the novel at the end of last summer, and I have to say I was quite disappointed. I’m not sure why, I think I expected something different, something more satisfying, a happy ending maybe? Gone Girl definitely didn’t leave me feeling happy, but rather erked.

I thought it was worth mentioning Gone Girl in this blog as I found its unconventional narrative somewhat in-line with discussions we’ve had about narratives this semester.

Narrative is something worth thinking about when considering the contemporary media environment, and the idea that conventional narratives found in traditional stories and films underpin many an expectation for life, is something that’s stuck with me this semester.

For me, Gone Girl is a new kind of story that forces us to reposition narrative, with the only alternative being to resist this process. Perhaps my initial resistance to unconventional narratives is what motivated my dislike of the story to begin with? Perhaps not, but something I’ve noticed about myself after this semester’s talk on narrative is that it’s okay to accept new and different structures. After all, this is the environment we’re living in.

If you haven’t seen Gone Girl I would highly reccommend it. You can see the trailer here. It’s a little freaky (and you’ll probably be thinking “WTF?” at the end), but its’ definitely a story made for the cinema.

As for happy endings… well that’s for you to decide.

What’s Up?

Picture: Kent Clark via Flickr
Picture: Kent Clark via Flickr

Alright, so let’s take a quick look at what everyone’s been talking about this week. Yes I know, it’s week 12 and I’m struggling to keep up too but there have to be a few stragglers…

Jane writes about the Galloway reading and how the idea of ‘protocols’ in networked media somewhat mirrors that of human social relations. It definitely makes things more relatable.

Laura’s discussion on king hitting is an important one, and one that we need to think more carefully about when making choices about drinking environments. It’s not just young women who need to take caution when walking alone at night. However, essentially we need to start ‘rethinking drinking’ in order to make positive changes.

Finally, Nethaniel (ye old faithful) offers some further clarification on the concept of ‘protocols’ by pulling out a juicy quote from the Galloway reading. I often think of networked media as a busy network of wiring, like a brain! A road map is also a good analogy.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and contributions, and hang tight, we’re nearly there!

I’m Back!

Photo: Vancouver Public Library via Flickr
Photo: Vancouver Public Library via Flickr

Okay so it’s been a while, but I’m back.

I’ve been really swamped with work, homework, my birthday celebrations and if I’m completely honest I’ve had my head partially buried in the sand. So, in order to jump back on the Networked Media bandwagon I thought I’d check out what others have been ranting/thinking/deliberating about.

Nethaniel discusses the 80/20 rule whereby the idea that 20 percent of people – a smaller amount of people – make 80 percent of profits – the majority of the gain. I also found the 80/20 rule interesting in the sense that it unveils a whole new set of principals when it comes to sales. The concept of ‘the store’ is being slowly but surely forced out the door as the Internet has a limitless (okay, that is perhaps a question for another day) capacity for storage, as opposed to a store, which keeps only certain things that are in high demand by the majority. The cumulative total purchases of less popular items bought by the minority online, can now outweigh those purchases of the majority, and all because of the Internet. The graph Nethaniel presents in his most is most helpful in visualising Pareto’s 80/20 theory.

David writes an interesting post about how the media incites fear in people, thus forcing them to believe things are more of a threat than they really are? He offers a different way of viewing ideas of terrorism. I think a lot of people are afraid of thinking this way (it’s easier to stick with the flock), so good on you David for being fearless.

Ashleigh talks about the question of neutrality, and how we might consider things to be neutral until we think about how they are connected to other things. I don’t know about you Ashleigh, but I found this a mind boggling idea, one that is never ending because it seems to me that everything is connected to something else.

Getting In Early

Picture: Playing Futures: Applied ... via Flickr
Picture: Playing Futures: Applied … via Flickr

I have a stack of homework to do this weekend so I thought I’d get most of my posting done before the weekend actually starts.

I’ll get the ball rolling this week by having a sticky beak at what my fellow classmates have been writing about. I seem to be linking to the same (reliable) bloggers all the time, so this time I’m going to pick names at random. Here goes…

Carlie appears to have done a similar thing to me (great minds think alike) in checking out what others are writing about. I’m glad I looked at your blog though Carly, because I love your theme!

Moving on, Kenton offers a cool approach to Technological Determinism. It’s like a breath of fresh air. I too get mind boggled over theories such as this. To add to Kenton’s point about Technological Determinism being independent from other sociological factors, Betty highlighted in my tutorial this week the idea that without technology (think the simple things, writing, reading, music, books) certain social factors may not exist. In that sense, perhaps technology is somewhat of a catalyst in social trends that lead to cultural change? Right, thats about enough of that on a Friday evening.

Next, Elly raises an interesting discussion about the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ that’s recently plagued social media. I’m rarely one to get involved in this sort of activity, quite honestly it annoys me. However, I feel this challenge has been affective in raising awareness for a very unknown and devastating disease. Coming from a family affected by Motor Neurone Disease, I’m pleased to see that more people know what it is, and even better is that they’re wanting to create change. Sure, there are many who just want people to laugh at them chucking buckets of water over their heads, but I feel they are the reason for this campaign’s success. Quite clever really.

I’ll finish up there, but keep posting food for thought people.

Holiday Snaps

Photo: Sophi Newman via Flickr
Photo: Sophi Newman via Flickr

So here we are, half way through the semester. I have to say I’m quite releived we’re on the home stretch.

I’d planned to do a lot more than I did during the mid-semester break, but as usual, this didn’t happen. Well, I did work every day, but homework wise I only managed to get through a few readings and this blog post.

One thing I did indulge in was the Australian series ‘Offspring’. For those who’ve seen this fantastic series, you’ll understand my solid commitment to this activity. It’s just so good! I actually feel like I know the Proudmans, intimately. Sad I know. However, it has inspired my thinking about life post-uni, which has been rather therapeutic because lately I’ve been so worried about what I’m going to do when I finish my degree at RMIT.

There’s a lot of talent behind ‘Offspring’, which has led me to thinking about how fantastic it would be to work in film and television. Over the break I did some research about this industry and how to get into it, and therefore ‘Offspring’ has opened up a whole other realm of possibilities for me. I feel quite reassured.

Perhaps when we think a little deeper about the things we enjoy, the things we do everyday, the normal, the seemingly unproductive things, we may be presented with ideas that lay the foundations of our futures. In a certain way I feel like the ‘Networked Media’ course encourages us to do this.

For those of you who’ve seen ‘Offspring’, here’s a little something to remind you of how great it is. For those who haven’t seen it, consider this an introduction to some very good quality Australian talent that you should definitely indulge in.

What’s The Goss?

Photo: BostonBill via Flickr

I thought I’d check out what my fellow students have been writing about, just to see whether or not I’m on the right track.

Ashleigh made some interesting points about high school education that were somewhat related to my last blog post. Why aren’t we given more choice as to what we learn about at school? Surely if we were given more freedom we’d have a better chance of finding out what we love.

Michael in his discussion on the usefulness of coding, says we are mostly left up to our own devices when it comes to learning code. Again, why don’t we have the opportunity to learn a little more about the internet at school? It won’t bite.

Ok, so now it’s time for something a little funny. Tilly posted this on Sunday.

Enjoy the week fellow bloggers.

The Real Way To Deal With Stress

Photo: Nathan Congleton via Flickr
Photo: Nathan Congleton via Flickr

We all know what it feels like to be stressed. Uni, plus work, plus socialising, plus family, plus internships, plus attempting to be creative on the side…the list goes on. I’ve never really worried too much about stress having passed it off as a normal part of life. But stress can have serious effects on your health and wellbeing.

At the end of last semester I got myself into such a spin. I was so stressed out that I couldn’t sleep, I was pale and I was depressed. It got worse as the last few weeks of uni came to an end and I just couldn’t pull myself out of it. Consequently, I found it hard to wind down, even after all of my assessment was handed in. This resulted in a very unrestful mid-year break indeed.

Over the last few weeks I have taken it upon myself to investigate some realistic ways to combat stress as I’ve come to realise how important this is. It’s all very well and good to read health magazines that offer you many wonderful stress busting remedies, but often these are unrealistic (and so are the picture perfect humans photographed alongside them). Instead, it’s wiser to start with the simple changes you can make to manage stress.

One simple change that I’d like to share with you is learning how to say “no”.

For all the people out there who suffer from FOMO (and yes, it is actually a thing), it’s okay to miss out on things from time to time. You need to give yourself time to rest, re-group, and sometimes just to do your washing. At times when I’ve fallen behind in readings and homework it’s usually because I’ve felt too obliged to be social.

However, it’s not just socialising you need to cut back on at times. Sometimes it’s equally important to cut back on homework, but not in the way that you think. You still need to get it done, but sometimes when you’ve got a heap of work to do it’s important to have a break and allow your mind to relax so you don’t slip into an awful tunnel of stress. Exercise is one of the best ways to de-stress, but there are other options. Bake a cake, watch an episode of the Kardashians, have a bath, whatever you do just remember you need to chill out as much as you need to do homework.

On top of all this, you need to remember that you’re not perfect and there are going to be times in your life that you will experience stress. What’s most important is that you recognise stress and learn how to manage it in a way that works for you.

When I Grow Up I want To Be A Blogger

Source: Flickr
Source: Flickr

In 2013 I worked as an intern with the Brand Marketing Team at Adidas. One of my jobs as an intern was to search the net for influential Australian fashion blogs to seed product through (seeding product is basically giving away product to people who’ll blog about it and make others want to buy it), and by influential I mean, any blog with more than a thousand followers.

I found some pretty impressive fashion blogs I have to say. I was quite impressed at the amount of creativity that’d gone into making each blog stand out – note to self: a blog should have an edge and a target public if you want it to be a hit.

In the process of searching for fashion blogs, I came across some other fabulous blogs about dogs, cooking, job-hunting, gardening, DIY projects etc. Then I got to thinking; blogs are really just public diaries about people’s passions, and if others find them interesting then you could be in for some serious business opportunities.

Not only will companies like Adidas be throwing free product at you, but also if you have a service to offer and you have developed a strong relationship with your followers, you may be able to turn your followers into customers.

Fancy being a professional blogger? Here are some tips to get you started.

One more thing…

In my search for influential blogs I noticed that great blogs are built on very simple ideas. Think of something that you’d love to read about, something that’d really come in handy.

Source: Flickr
Source: Flickr

Here’s a blog I found today that I’d have loved five years ago when I was flying to New York on a regular basis; How To: NYC in a Day (Summer). In fact, this blog has inspired me to use my travel experience in a blog of my own!

Food for thought anyway.

Getting Off To A Good Start

Procrastination is like a debilitating disease; at least for me it is. I’ve only been back at uni for a week and already it’s started creeping back into my life. I must admit, I’m a lot better at getting things done these days (my high school friends can certainly vouch for that, I was a shocker in my younger years), but I still struggle from time to time.

This weekend I’d planned to spend time getting a head start on readings and assignments. Instead, I ate about 20 Tim Tams, knitted a scarf, skyped a few of my mates overseas, babysat, and then ate more Tim Tams. It’s now 11:07pm on Saturday night, and this is the first bit of writing I’ve done all day!

I know why I procrastinate (and eat way too much chocolate) at times; it’s because I feel overwhelmed and nervous that I won’t be able to keep on top of uni work, money work and everything else in my 30-year-old-life. Consequently, this anxiety causes me to think of myself as some kind of failure, who has no hope of achieving an exciting and successful career. So, instead of sitting down and writing something, I sit down and write nothing (and eat Tim Tams). It becomes easier for me to do nothing, than to try to do something.

On the up side, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only student who experiences anxiety-induced procrastination, which is my reason for highlighting it in this post. I did a bit of online research this afternoon about how to avoid procrastination, and I found some advice that really helped me to get the ball rolling. I want to share it with you in the hope that it will help you (if you need it) get off to a good start this semester. 5 Scientifically Proven Ways to Beat Procrastination

And one more thing, it’s now 11:32pm and I’ve managed to do something instead of nothing.

Small amount of weight lifted off shoulders? Check.