A new day has come.

Well, as I cannot find the time/energy/committment to write on a blog with any regular consistancy, and for the shear fact that few people find this worth reading, especially with this being focused towards class assignments the last semester, I am considering not writing on this again. Wow, not too big of a deal. Hear are some other blogs I tend to keep up with a slight bit of more regularity.

http://redbluejesus.blogspot.com
http://allmyawesomefreebies.blogspot.com
http://briangroves.ning.com
http://www.youtube.com/bg11390
http://adventureswithbrian.googlepages.com

and of course, Facebook.

Portfolio

As the portfolio is due in a few days, it is kinda scary to know that the semester is coming to an end. And, there is alot of work that needs to be done to finalize the portfolio that I have mostly pieced together by now. Twenty pages doesn't seem like that much, but in reality it is proving to be quite long. Hopefully my printer can muster out the final copy! I'm not sure if I quite agree with the 20 page rule. Sure it is less strict, and therefore allows for more flexible assignments instead of having a required number of essays, but it seems to be bit extreme. Twenty pages is not that hard, but over the course of one semester it can add up. I think it compromises quality when one knows that you have to add up to twenty pages in the end. It hasn't been too stressful, but that concern is still there.

Group Work

As I have looked back this year at the times we have spent doing groupwork, there has been alot of great things I have learned from reading other people's papers and having mine revised by multiple people. Many times I have noticed problems with assignments only after a classmate pointed it out to me during a group session. I also think that the group times could be a little bit more structured though. I feel that if we had set things to identify in the papers which we needed to write down, then we would be more productive. Also, it can be hard to have effective group sessions when half the group does not bring in the work necessary for class. Group time has been a huge help, but there are a few things that could be tweaked to make the time more efficient.

What I've learned this year.

Writing for me has been a burden in past years, as it was always a chore to complete an assignment, even though I never really had to push myself to develop my writing skills. I began to realize how much I enjoyed writing when I began to write without a deadline or task. Writing this year in college has become much more enjoyable for me since I have been able to write about the topics I enjoy, not topics that I had no choice over. When writing is more pleasurable, the diction and syntax flows easily, and the writing seems natural. I have found that the key to successful writing is finding a thought and then building upon it, letting the first draft flow naturally which can then be later revised.

And my project

Well, for my project I am making a website. So here's the link everyone. Hope it answers your questions on flying.

http://www.briangroves.googlepages.com/home

The Website Genre

Well, since websites are not a particularly distinct genre, there is some leeway here. Some websites are media based, and some are commercially based, and others are user-generated content. People of all walks of life are active in the online genre, as anyone with internet access can quickly post a blog or even make a simple, free website. Most all Americans and all modernized people are experienced with websites, so the genre is not too particularly foreign.

The website genre can be very anonymous, for good and for bad. This allows for websites like Wikipedia, which is surprisingly accurate but still able to be edited by anyone anywhere. The ease of creating a website lends to a discredibility of the internet in general though, as most people are more wary of internet sources than traditional media like books. The website genre is mainly informative, as people want to share ideas or products or accomplishments with large numbers of people.

For sources, I could cite sources that represent the above formats (wikipedia.org, blogger.com, amazon.com, cnn.com), or sources that show that younger people are 3x as likely to use the internet than retired people (www.pewinternet.org/trends/User_Demo_1.11.07.htm), but the above information is the result of using the internet for years, and it is a compilation of many of my experiences. It is nearly impossible to define or encompass the scope of the internet and its far reaching affects on our daily lives, so the genre is quite vast.

Audience!

For my project, the audience is the community of people that are considering learning to fly and are looking for information about the process, cost, and feasibility of flying. This audience spans a wide group of people, but they all share the common goal of obtaining a license. I will be utilizing a website to accomplish this.

I will specifically cover the following topics on the website: Why flying?, Benefits of Flying, Costs of Flying, Why it's worth it, and Resources. This will be a starting point for potential students to gain the information needed to make an informed decision on whether or not to pursue flying.

The website genre is different than other forms of media, as this medium is conducive to large amount of information that can be easily accessed, as well as pictures and videos. I plan to utilize these abilities in my project in order to have an extremely informative and interesting website.