Posted by elvina on July 23rd, 2010 — Posted in interests
Tags: about me, writing
Recently I got tipped about a new web site which has a tool that analyzes a block of your text, then tells you which author you “write like.”
I don’t know who could pass up a chance to play around on this web site. I hop on over and first paste a block from a recent blog entry. I have to admit, I almost feel a little bit nervous as I click the big “Analyze” button. Something like the feeling you get when you hand a finished exam to a teacher and he or she gives it a once over while you’re still standing there. My first result? Margaret Atwood. I am quite pleased with this but always a supporter of a bigger sample size, I start to paste a few more paragraphs. I intentionally choose what I consider to be a few different styles.
Second try? Cory Doctorow. This was a blog about my “identity crisis” in China. I don’t know who this Cory Doctorow is but my friend Wikipedia offers a bit of insight. Hmm… okay, I’m alright with being similar to this guy.
Third try. Dan Brown. Aaaaghh… I run screaming.
Fourth try. Stephenie Meyer. I am as annoyed as a vampire who needs blood. Or something like that.
Thankfully, my next three pieces from my blog return Cory Doctorow. I am satisfied with that at first. Then, I realize that when I write to my blog, it’s kind of a casual tone which it sounds like Cory might. So I look for the only pieces of academic writing on my hard drive. The first paragraph of my Master’s thesis reminds this analyzer of Vladimir Nabokov. Shocking. My graduate school admissions essay? Jonathan Swift. A part of a huge curriculum project I wrote is like the writing of H. P. Lovecraft. This last one is particularly hilarious because the paragraph I used described the developmental age of eight year olds.
Were there any lessons learned from the 30 minutes I wasted fooled around on this web site? I would say… 1) I have multiple personality disorder, 2) I write like Cory Doctorow 3) My thesis might be as strange as Lolita 4) This web site doesn’t really work.
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Posted by elvina on July 19th, 2010 — Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: controversies, technology, wonderings
“I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers…I think we need editorial oversight now more than ever.” – Steve Jobs, June 2010
To put this into context, Jobs said this in regards to hoping that the new iPad will be a content delivery tool. He adds, “Anything we can do to help newspapers find new ways of expression that will help them get paid, I am all for.”
I would lean more towards agreeing than not. My first life, my first “career” was in news and magazine publishing. Now, nearly a decade later I still think that content is king, even when the dollars mean nothing to me anymore. Why? Well, a blog is short for a ‘web log,’ a public diary if you will. Since blogging became easy to do and free in some cases, to boot, scores of blogs on all sorts of topics have cropped up. Of course, everyone says this is wonderful, since the media is biased, and now journalism is accessible to everyone, not just journalists. To some extent, yes. But in the generation of “if it’s on the internet, it must be true,” this can be dangerous. It’s getting exhausting seeing all these blogs that crop up posing as an online magazine. Sorry, you’re just… not.
I do think that blogs should stick to personal things – interests, experiences, etc. But it’s a big, wide open internet so the iPad probably won’t change the trend of blogging, and what is blogged.
Posted by elvina on July 19th, 2010 — Posted in interests, photos
Tags: photography
This is so funny. I used to check dpreview.com for tips and inspiration for my photography. I haven’t done so in very long time due to… well, life. It’s busy. They have this “Challenge” that I used to look at, and sometimes enter. Well, I just logged into the site after not checking it in almost a year and I see that I was #8 in the top ten runner-ups in of the challenges I entered. The challenge was “The Daily Round.” See it here. It’s not one of my best photos in terms of quality, color, etc, though.
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Posted by elvina on July 14th, 2010 — Posted in life
Tags: about me, music
I love U2, I actually do. Ever since I was introduced by my cousin to some songs on U2′s War album, I remember liking “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” and have owned every album since. For whatever reason (too young, too poor, bad timing) I didn’t get to any of their shows. I did see them recorded later on though. That all changed in 2001 when I saw my first U2 concert. I actually saw several shows on that tour, and have seen at least one show on each subsequent tour.
When I moved to China, a new album was released, and lucky me, a friend was visiting me the week of the release, so I pre-ordered it on Amazon to her and she hand delivered it to me. A tour was announced, but sadly it was in the Fall of 2009, when I would be back in China teaching. But hooray, all of a sudden a new leg was announced: late Summer 2011 in Europe. So I bought tickets for Frankfurt, figuring that we could find a way to go. Then double hooray, a North American leg was added in early Summer 2011. So I bought Toronto and Meadowlands, NJ tickets, and decided to sell my Frankfurt tickets. (It later turned out that we are starting at a new school and couldn’t go to Germany at that date anyway) Everything was working out so well.
Bad news!! It’s announced that Bono has had to have emergency back surgery and ALL North American shows are postponed. I was disappointed, but glad to hear the shows were postponed and not canceled. The only glitch would be if they scheduled the shows to dates that I’d still be teaching in China next Spring. Friends even offered to buy my tickets if that’s the case, but I didn’t want to think about that. Well today they announced their dates – both shows I have tickets to will be in July – when I can definitely make it. I’m super excited!
The band even put up a nice video message to fans. I really appreciate their thoughts. I know that refunding all the money wouldn’t have been good for them so their best option was to re-schedule, but it can’t be easy to haul around their stage again for another few months and turn this into a three year tour. So, thanks U2. 
Posted by elvina on July 12th, 2010 — Posted in interests
Tags: controversies, environment, wonderings
Growing up Asian means that not wasting (and by proxy, saving) is just second nature. Whether it is food, water, electricity, clothing or money, it was just drilled into me, waste not, want not. How convenient that when I was in high school, not only did being environmentally friendly become the right thing to do, it was also quite trendy. Of course I joined environmental activist clubs in school. Sorting your recyclable materials became the norm in the 90s, as was giving up aerosol cans (imagine that, right after the 80s big hair!) Back then, it was our way of showing we cared about the environment. Maybe a witty button on your backpack or something too. People said things like “save a tree” instead of using a piece of paper and inappropriately used the term “ozone layer.”
Years went by, and we learned there was a lot more to preserving our earth than just recycling. There was also reducing our consumption and reusing products. Then we learned about “carbon footprint” the cause to replace the ozone layer. With people still using the term wrong. It seems like it is getting harder and harder to care for the environment – maybe like being the parent of a teenager?
What I’ve started to take on as my new personal goal is: re-purposing. My reasoning behind this is that some of my actions have small benefits. I don’t know how much energy and manual labor it takes to sanitize bottles and jars for recycling, to recycle paper, or to manufacture new products. One could even loop in the carbon footprint idea here.
It has not been as easy as I thought it would be. There are lots of great ideas out there in books, blogs, and magazines. Some ideas are outright unattractive (who wants a scarf made out of an old t-shirt?) while some are functional and aesthetic. I can easily spot which items can be washed and saved but I don’t necessarily have the creativity to turn it into something useful. In my effort to try this, I’ve become more of a pack-rat than I’ve been able to help the landfills. The best I have done this year is re-use paper which had something printed wrong on the other side.
My new home resolution is to create a bin in the corner (there’s a huge junk room/closet) off the kitchen which I will use to save…. junk. I’ll need to keep up to date on web sites with re-purposing ideas and then go back to my bin o’ junk. Hopefully it will also satiate my craving to do crafts. Lastly, this re-purposing junk is a skill I should get better at, if I want to be a better early childhood teacher. I just admired some good ideas right here.
My question to you is, do you have any ideas for me? Any that you have heard about or have tried at home?
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