And Now The End Is Near ...

... and so I face my final journey ...

Sorry, bad karaoke moment ...

This is my last post for NET11. It's been a part of my life in one way or another for two and half years now and although I'm glad that I'm finishing this subject it's going to feel like I'm missing my right arm when I do it!!!

I've really enjoyed every part of this subject and although I've had a lot of experience with the Internet, this taught me things I never thought was out there! The subject combined learning with just a hint of humour and this made all the difference in how well I learned.

A special thank you to our Convener and Tutor Cynthia who has gone above and beyond throughout all of my attempts at this subject. This isn't a ploy to get a higher grade (although if it helps ... :) ) it is the truth and you'd be hard pressed to find a Tutor who gives out her MSN address if necessary for emergencies and actually listens when you have a problems and does her best to find answers.

So, goodbye to NET11 and Cynthia (although I hope to run into you again at some time in my study career). I've learned a lot and I'm pleased that this subject is finally over!

Blogging ... What Is Blogging?

A blog is a blog is a blog. Or is it?

I'd like to believe that blogs are still, even today, used to share feelings and this is probably the main thing for which they are used in the past. The popularity of "old-fashioned" blogs are waning in some ways with the introduction of social networking sites such as My Space, Facebook and even Second Life. How really are they different from blogs just with more options and better ways to link people together?

Blogging was really the first outlet for (particularly young) people on the Internet which didn't require them to come up with a webpage or post on newsgroups which had a whole mess of problems of it's own as the list of groups exceeded 50,000 and "trolls" and "spammers" ruined many of the groups for genuine posters. So people wanted another way to express their feelings - taking the diaries of teenagers and the journals of women (mostly) and give them a voice on the Internet, quickly joined by all the geeks who wanted to have a permanent forum for everything they had in their minds as well. This not only became their outlet for their loves and woes, their daily lives and explanations of their favourite hobbies, suddenly people were "listening" to these thoughts and responding to them. People started to realise that even the most boring of lives were interesting to someone. How could this not be the beginning of a phenomenon?

Of course, as time went, on the casual bloggers of the world started enticing the "real" writers and journalists into the fray. It became a place for them to get their opinions across whereas previously they might not have been able to get their articles published in traditional media. This had the potential of them getting their names out into the public circle much more quickly than if they had to start out with small-time publications with limited readership and lack of validity on a resume. Today, a well put together portfolio that includes some (although not all) blog posts is considered as important as just about any other part of a CV.

I guess for me blogging has allowed me to open up to some extent but I do have to admit that I'm nervous about truly letting go and telling all. There are just certain things that I wouldn't want on the Internet. Even using a blog site anonymously it could still ultimately become known at some stage. So my fear stops me from being truly myself on a blog, but maybe the parts that I'm fearful of writing are things that should never be committed to paper ... errr ... cyberspace.

Plodding Along

Wow ... ever since I had my plaster off my arm I can't seem to find the motivation to keep going. I know I should be working harder on my assignment (which is due in ten days) and I should be doing more module work to put up on here, but I just can't seem to pull myself out of this funk. I'm sure it's just depression associated with the time off when I broke my wrist. I could still type but the pain and everything made it difficult to concentrate. And it was on for eight weeks and is still slightly swollen and occasionally painful even now fouir weeks or more down the track!

Then, of course, there is the Discussions. I'm just lost! I keep trying to post on there but because of my long delays I have missed so many posts that I feel like I'm treading water just trying to catch up! I'll never pass that section of my grade if I don't pick it up soon. It's also self-assessing. so I have to be able to send copies of posts to Cynthia showing that I did the right thing by the group in helping them out or imparting new knowledge. I really have to get on top of it all!

I guess I just have to lift the motivation to a new level and get stuck in. If I really feel pressured I might speak to Cynthia about an extension for the assignment. But my biggest problem right now is the module work which I find relatively easy I'm just not in a pattern now of study anymore.

Stop complaining, start working ... tonight!!!

I'm Baaa-aack!

After eight weeks in plaster (err fibreglass to be exact) I am finally free from my broken wrist! I cannot believe that it's taken so long to get it better. It's still not 100% with some swelling and a little pain every so often, but for all intents and purposes, we're back in the saddle.

So where does that leave this subject? With me catching up! I should be fine as I'm finding the module work (some of which I'll have available in links on the right hand side very soon) reasonably easy so I have to really start to concentrate on the assignment which isn't too far away from being due.

Not much to say really, just grateful to be typing without having my wrist and thumb at a strange angle and with a lot less pain!

Back to the Discussions - I must catch up!

Well, four days in and I'm still mucking about with this. I haven't started to read the Discussion Forum yet because ... well ... because I'm slack, basically. I already have the answers for most of the first Module so I am starting out on the right track, it's just that I have to get up and get started on these Discussions!

Okay, that's it, I'm outta here - off to the Discussions!

And now I'm really here!! Yay!!

At last my hosting company got their act together and I'm able to start posting.

I'll be back ...

I'm Here But I'm Not Here

Hello everyone! Well, I would say hello if you were actually here to read this. You see, I can write a post and it is uploaded to Blogger. But as I host this on my own website it takes one more step and moves over to there. However, because of a problem with my web host (grrrrrrrr) I can't actually publish anything!

:: sigh ::

In any case ... hello to all my fellow students (and Cynthia) in NET11 for SP2 2008. It has certainly been an interesting journey for me to get here and my goal is to complete this trip by striving to do my very best and really get to grip with communications as they relate to the Internet.

I'll post again once this is actually working and then you can see both of these posts at once! Wish me luck!