Since I have nothing of value to blog about and I don't think I could form an academic thought if I wanted to right now, I am going to write a farewell blog instead; a commemorative tribute if you will to my final blog of the semester and perhaps the rest of my life.

On that note I would like to take a moment to reflect on my short career as a blogger. While I have enjoyed the blog a lot more than I had originally anticipated, I hesitate to think that I would ever blog of my own volition. In terms of class discussion, I would so much rather blog than be writing reading response papers all the time like some classes require. There is just something about the blogging format that is more inviting than staring a blank word document.

Here is an e-mail the student body recently received from our technology department:

CMC Students,

Information Systems and Network Services recently gained information from the RTA’s/LTA’s that CMCNet has been less than stable. I would like to offer an explanation.

First and foremost, certain users are monopolizing the address availability on the wireless network. This leads to "limited or no connectivity" as described by many
affected students. Our staff manually cleared close to 100 addresses this morning, so things are working properly at this point.

The next thing (and most important to keep in mind) are users that aggressively use "Peer-2-Peer" programs through the wireless network. The wireless network was not built as a piracy hub, but rather an academic tool. Performing these operations makes the central server less responsive for ALL who are connected. One user alone transferred over 19.6GB of bidirectional P2P data on the CMCNet wireless network yesterday.

Here is an article y'all should read if you have the chance between finals and papers.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/05/tech/main2228159.shtml

If you are short on time, here is the gist of it.

Scented bus shelter advertisements smelling of just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies made their U.S. debut. Five San Francisco bus shelters were equipped on Monday with ads embedded with the scent of cookies in a new Got Milk advertising campaign launched by the California Milk Processor Board.

One comment on the article read "cannot imagine the smell of that mixed with urine or trash that is thrown up against billboards ads," I kind of have to agree.

So I wasn't able to come to class tonight due to a prior engagement so I am blogging to convey my sadness for not being able to attend class and hear about everyone's wonderful papers and projects. I am sure they were all extraordinarily fascinating as I would expect nothing less from such an academically gifted group of students.

Also, since I have yet to blog about my term paper slash thesis and I was unable to talk about it with you all in class today I am going to briefly blog about it instead.

Here goes... I have chosen to write my thesis about the ways in which the US media portray Latinos and how these representations fuel the perceptions of Latinos in American society and more specifically how these media images impact public opinion on immigration and border policy. Phew. That's a mouth full.

I was going to tag this on to my last blog but it was reaching that length at which 95 percent of the class takes one look and moves on to the next blog. So, I have deceivingly tricked you into reading my jazz in a separate blog. Clever huh?

Anyway, since our class seems to be very musically inclined I wanted to blog about a little gem in my life, my dear friend Rhapsody. I'm sure some of you are familiar with it but I am recent convert so bear with me.

After having to wipe my hard drive and bending over backwards trying to get the music from my ipod back onto my computer (which is a whole 'nother blog) I have been temporarily sidetracked from itunes and turned to Rhapsody for my listening pleasure.

As a self proclaimed music junkie,(bad included...I listened to Beyonce's B-Day this afternoon) I have taken a particular interest in this P2P slash music downloading versus legal buying discussion. Since some of you have posted your personal music collecting habits, I thought I would share mine since I have been curious to hear how other go about finding their groove thang.

Anyway, I have always been somewhat neurotic about my music collection aka spend hours upon hours relabeling songs on itunes, reorganize my music collection regularly, and buy the real CD when I have a burned copy because I think burned CD's are ugly. Sometimes my music habits are borderline OCD and create a serious distraction for me but sometimes that is just how I roll.

SO last Wednesday I am sitting at my computer when a friend of mine who graduated and now works for an advertising firm in LA IM's me to ask what I am doing for the evening. "Oh nothing much," I respond, "probably going to do some homework."

"Damn" she says, "Because I have four tickets to the Rolling Stones concert that I got at work and no one to go with."

Talk about my lucky day. Needless to say I accepted the invitation with little hesitation and several hours later found myself sitting off the third baseline waiting to see the Stones in concert. I don't know how many of you have seen them live, but if you get a chance to go before you die, (or before they die would be more likely), GO! Despite the fact that all four of them are 60 plus years of age, they play and perform with more energy than a group of teenage boys on Adderall. It was a sight to see.

The recently released Beatles album entitled Love has got me thinking... and blogging. Though I have yet to hear the entire album, Love is a mash-up of old Beatles songs which was created as the soundtrack for a Las Vegas stage show featuring Cirque du Soleil. The album was produced by the slicing and dicing of the Beatles catalog primarily from the years of 1963-1970 and features songs which mix elements of Penny Lane with Strawberry Fields Forever or one song that uses the guitar riff from Blackbirds as the introduction to Yesterday.

LOVE is an interesting example of the 21st century phenomenon of "mashing" because unlike most mash-ups, the record is comprised of Beatles music and Beatles music only and made with the explicit authorization of the group. But some fans are wondering if the manipulation and reconstruction of the Beatles' music is sacrilege?

I was listening slash watching the ABC news podcast on itunes the other day and there was a brief segment about a photographer by the name of Philip Toledano.

Toledano, an artist out of New York City has recently completed a series of photos taken of people playing video games. Being a huge gamer himself, Toledano said he had noticed that while people are playing video games, they display these extraordinary emotions and reactions that you don't normally see. In addition, some people exhibit these somewhat abnormal ticks when they become completely immersed in a video game.

As he so appropriately says on his website, "I wanted to take portraits of people that would reveal a hidden part of their character. So I had them play video games."

This morning I read an interesting article in the NYTimes that encompasses a number of things we have addressed in class, namely blogging, new media authorship etc. etc.

I am sure being the tuned-in, media-oriented students that so many of you are, you probably are already familiar with the blog TVNewser. If not, this is an interesting article about the kid who started it and the growing influence of the blog with in the television industry.

My favorite line from the article:
"Perhaps this is what the techno-geeks had in mind when they invented the Internet — a device to squash not only time and space, but also social class and professional hierarchies, putting an unprepossessing Maryland college student with several term papers due in a position to command the attention and grudging respect of some of society’s most famous and powerful personalities."