Grand Central Terminal Tilt/Shift. Find him?

Mobile post sent by TrevorJ using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

I should

I realized tonight that two words that bounce around in my brain too much are "I" and "Should"

I should make my bed in the morning
I should clean my desk
I should finish editing the 1700
I should develop that roll of film
I should buy and hang adult curtains
I should do laundry
I should clean my bathroom bathmat
I should floss more
I should stop leaving spare change in places other than my spare change mug and old glass milk bottle
I should fix or get rid of my retro ipod
I should stop wasting energy by having both computers on at the same time
I should unpack my bag
I should get on a regular sleep schedule
I should dust
I should fix my car
I should sell my car
I should spend more time outside
I should stop censoring myself
I should learn to spell
I should worry less about money
I should worry more about money
I should vacume the livingroom
I should organize my trunk
I should edit my cousin's wedding video
I should finish my palahniuk book
I should netflix movies that don't suck
I should wear khakis tomorrow
I should work out more
I should talk on the phone more
I should deposit money into my savings
I should print on both sides of the page
I should get gloves
I should buy, fill, and hang picture frames
I should stop eating cheese and crackers right before bed
I should better stay in touch
I should buy a washer and dryer
I should continue to wonder about forks in the road
I should get toothpaste
I should care more, like stephen davis
I should learn to fly
I should go home more often
I should be a better boyfriend
I should go on a brewery tour
I should snowboard more this winter
I should paste and sand the nail holes in the walls
I should buy a convertible
I should read more blogs
I should check the mail
I should continue to love cheddar chex mix
I should read a good book
I should read the good book
I should volunteer
I should rank my top 5 songs
I should rank my top 5 breakfast cereals
I should learn how to make pancakes
I should share my blog with more people
I should be earning more by now
I should travel
I should learn to play drums
I should learn to play base
I should skydive again
I should go 100%
I should buy a good computer chair
I should get an internet connection to my PC
I should learn dreamweaver and illistrator
I should not be working on thanksgiving
I should have visited mr and mrs J more
I should throw away my yellow pages
I should organize the trunk of my car
I should hold better eye contact
I should get a haircut on a more regular basis
I should email matt back
I should send more facebook notes
I should be a better planner
I should not go grocery shopping hungry
I should cook for people more often
I should bite someone short
I should get those environmentally sound lightbulbs
I should return those dvds
I should turn on the TV less
I should stop biting my nails
I should be a better talker
I should be a better listener
I should make up my mind
I should get ride of all those old tee shirts
I should be more like kurt
I should order new checks
I should get a physical
I should get physical
I should be more social
I should seriously cheddar chex mix rules
I should be a professional.
I should get politically informed
I should get high
I should see more plays
I should write more
I should activate my credit card
I should deactivate my old debit card
I should stop cracking my knuckles
I should take more pictures
I should fully embrace going gray
I should take a multivitamin
I should buy a wok
I should eat the food i have at home
I should bring dinner to work
I should stretch
I should try spinning
I should stop hating ironing
I should whiten my teeth
I should make a to do list
I should think more
I should eat thai soon
I should like blond on blond
I should go to bed
I should stop blogging
I should brush my teeth
I should come up with a clever ending
I should reverse the order of these words
Should I?

My Gexistence

For my second post of the week, I thought I would self Google my name, and see what happens.

So here I go. I'm going to put my name in quotation marks so the results aren't all over the place... damn you Sarah Brightman!

First result - my 501 Blog, ever been there? How twilight zone, a Blog about a search about a Blog about a search about a Blog about a search about a....

Second result - Waxing. James' Blog, specifically regarding the outline for our paper, no surprise there.

Third result - CHART, a video production company in Charleston, SC where I used to freelance and was eventually on the production staff. A little outdated, but makes sense.

Forth and fifth results - Race times from road races I did out west. I suppose this could be useful for those who are serious runners and want to track their times, but I just did them for fun, and never really looked at the clock. Its been a few years, I wonder if these times will stay online forever?

Next result - This site has a newspaper article in which I was quoted. A controversial, and great professor David Marshall got into some hot water after showing some porn in class. What a surprise! I was asked to give an interview by a reporter and she used a quick line. I stand by what I said and support Dr. Marshall and his teaching habits.

Next - A my space page of my great friend Jordon Cox, and by far my favorite result so far. Miss you Jor-Cor.

Next - Another quote from the Dave Marshall controversy, this one just makes me look lazy.
"I was a little relieved because I don't have to do the work," ohh well, can't win them all.

Last, but not least, is a word document which is a schedule for the Carolina Communication's Conference in which a paper I wrote was presented on my behalf (I was on the other side of the Country). True? yes, relevant, no not really, but I suppose any professional publication is good publication.

Overall this process was interesting, some blasts from the past and some duds, but I feel better knowing what's out there.

For 502 I am creating a personal website, and hopefully a year from now it will be the top result when I self Google, but we'll see.

What about you? Any interesting results when you self google?

Please wait while we tally your results....

Your search for "Trevor's Reaction Blog" yielded the following results:

Displaying 1-10 of 9420

1. History
Who knew? I think the history of search engines is a lot like toothpicks. We use them all the time, and expect them to work for us, but don't really question where they come from or whose hard work went into this genius convenience. But week's reading, the futuristic and draft draft draft version of Halavais' Search Engine Society: Search Engines, Search Divides, Social Search takes us on a journey allllll the way back to those flannel wearing 1990's when the world wide web became to big to remain unsearchable. Why is it important to know about the history of cyber search? To understand how they work, of course, but also to better find what we are looking for, improve upon the current systems, and predict future trends.


2. Academics
Vertical search is discussed in this weeks reading, specifically Google Scholar. I became aware of Google Scholar a short time ago while starting the research process with my partner James. Between now and then I have used the engine about 4 or 5 times, and I would say that I am simultaneously impressed and disappointed. I'm impressed that Google has taken there grade A ease and familiarity into the academic sphere, and the overall user experience I had was good, however I feel the results left something to be desired. This could be because I'm still new to Scholar, however Halavais expresses the importance of search engines' ability to meet the expectations of the user, and in that area I feel there is still much room for improvement.


3. Democracy
We hear it all the time. The rich are getting richer, the busiest blogs are getting busier, and the best way to be popular is....well, to be popular. It makes sense that the higher you are on a search results page, the more visitors you'll get to click on your site, but as we learned earlier in this course, a phenomenon coined The Long Tail has impacted how we thing about diversity and importance. Do current search engines fuel the huge spike at the top of the curve, limiting our exposure to less popular sites? I don't know about you, but if a site isn't on the first 3 pages of Google's results page, I'm not going to see it. Does that bias affect the democratic process? Is it fair? Or is it simply a necessary byproduct of the Internets explosion of popularity?


4. One radio station
I don't drive to much, but whenever I do I listen to the radio. I have 5 presets that I switch between, and I'm never on one more that 15 or 20 minutes. The way I see it, as I'm sure many others do, diversity is good, different genres keep things interesting, and you never know what you'll you hear if you keep an open mind (and ears). Could this also be true of search engines? I use Google as a general search engine exclusively, and most of the time I am pleased with my results. But could the argument be made that I am putting blinders on to other websites and results queries by sticking to Google? Am I essentially listening to one radio station everyday?


5. Spell check
To me, Google is more than just a search engine, its a top notch spell check. Part of my job involves writing and displaying names which are often times nearly impossible to spell right on the first try, and countless times I have opened up a browser, typed those all too familiar 10 characters, and made certain the V comes before the R in Favre or the proper spelling of Bengals' WR Houshmandzadeh.


6. Fact check
Along with spell check, I use search engines as a quick fact check. But that brings up the question, what is truth? For example, you have a hunch that orange juice promotes healthy fingernails, and your Google search reviles websites you find credible which confirm this assumption, does that make it true? In this way it could be argued we have the power to distribute existing knowledge, but also to promote false knowledge. This is a phenomenon we need to be aware of as communication scholars, and as members of society.


7. Speed is King
If you could chose between a search engine that was fast and a search engine that was slow, but provided better results, which would you chose? The Internet age is one of impatience, and if a site is slow to load, often times its as good as not being there at all. Has the demand for speed compromised search engine's quality of results? Will this ever be changed?


8. Speed is not King, Google is King
This week's readings mention Google as the premiere general purpose search engine, will they/could they/should they be trumped? No I'm not suggesting The Donnald get into the search engine game, rather I ask if you can imagine an Internet without the familiar blue, red, yellow, green and white monster? Indeed it would take an Enron style catastrophe to put a dent in Google's empire, but as we all know nothing lasts forever, so I wonder who will be the next king of the search mountain?


9. What about me?
A search is comprised of entering keywords, and hitting enter. So what happens when you enter the most intimate and private keywords (your name) into arguably the most public sphere ever created? Self-googling. <---- Ironic, this link is the first result on Google when you search for "self googling", and is centered around this week's author, social architect Alex Halavais. Is this an invasion of privacy, or a liberating forum for self promotion and expression? My next post will focus more on the idea of self-googling, but any examination of public search tools should at least acknowledge this interesting and possibly controversial subject.

10. Future
What's next? How will search improve? Geographically specific searches are being developed, as well as the expansion over vertical search functions for specific fields, how will these affect our day to day lives? How will the addition of an ever-increasing number of photos and videos on the net be searchable? Could there be an algorithm which systematically scans or crawls frames of video or pixels in a photo, determining their potential relevance to a curious and inquiring user? With more and more of our life being centered around the web and sharing, will we want to limit the power of search, or grow it?


Sponsored Links:
Intro Interactive
Follow along with QU's ICM 501
as we explore the future!!!
http://introinteractive.wordpress.com/

A Thaumaturgical Compendium
Things Alex finds to be magical;
many in fairly superficial ways
http://alex.halavais.net/

Mobile post sent by TrevorJ using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Mobile post sent by TrevorJ using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Mobile post sent by TrevorJ using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Mobile post sent by TrevorJ using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Mobile post sent by TrevorJ using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Mobile post sent by TrevorJ using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Mobile post sent by TrevorJ using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3