The Friends
Week 11
Anchors and Links and Topical Indices (oh my!)
Lori N. Morita
Psychology 409
Dr. Leon James
This week was Topical Index week and How to Get My Anchors and Links Done Without Making Myself Nuts Week. I admit, it took a lot of fooling around on the Net and a lot of time spent in pico. But lo and behold, the lazy side of CyberLori takes hold and emerges!
I went hunting for an HTML editor, and found the Editor of Choice. I had been using Hot Dog Standard for awhile, but that 30 day deal interfered with the rest of my non-existant (thank you, Dr. J.) life. I liked it, but as a student, I can't afford to spend any extras. So I looked into freeware. And the Editor of Choice worked for me. It wasn't as easy as Hot Dog at first, but as I got used to it, it worked pretty well. One of the benefits was a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) background assistant, which Hot Dog lacked. And I got an image icon that allowed me to browse my diskette for images I could actually see before I committed it to the Great Beyond.
Okay, so this doesn't tell you much about links, or anchors, or that great Topical Index that I mean to one day fill up with the zillions of addresses lurking about in my books. What it does tell you is that sometimes, just getting the right program to work with can suck up a great deal of Net time. And the link to the editor I used will hopefully provide future generations frustration, time, and the all-important pico hell.
Onto more salient matters...
Found a great site to surf at:
The Friends
And another thing...link to this, bay-b
...found an area that not only rouses my interest, but is actually educational (I should tell my mom).
There's also Reeder's Egypt Page, with links to all things Egypt. He's got gallery sites, the KMT: A MODERN JOURNAL OF ANCIENT EGYPT, and more.
Click on the KMT icon to discover the land of KEMET (KMT).
Then there was this link called Pharaoh's Heart, which sounded inviting. It took forever and a final to load, so while it may have the title that launched a thousand hyperlink connections, I don't know about recommendations all around. If you're interested, go for it. Me, I've got finals.
And yes, this is all in the name of Topical Index (alleluia). Links will be forthcoming.
In the recent weeks, I've realised that I don't spend nearly as much time on my Home Page as I used to, although I am spending more and more time on the Internet. And I wonder why. To be honest, I haven't really come up with any good reason yet, except for the fact that I use the Internet to find things on other research projects, classes, and things I am just plain interested in. It is interesting to know (or at least guess) that the one thing that began my CyberAdventures (namely, the Home Page Project for psychology 409) is being neglected in favour of other adventures on the Internet. All I can say is mea culpa, mea culpa, and I hang my head. To all those who wondered if I was ever going to take care of my house, I apologize.
I could regale you with stories of how finals and all the ending pieces of the semester are running my life, or moan and groan about how Keller and the assorted labs are kicking people off the computers relentlessly, but hey...the rest of my class is still hanging in there, and because of this I admire them. I miss working on the Home Page, but it just seems to continually take a back seat once I sit at this terminal and stop thinking. The only pseudo-thougt running through my now confirmed NetHead is, "Where do I want to go today?"
I saw an inkling of this way, way back in weeks 4 or so, but thought I had actually found a way to combat my lack of focus. (Insert cynical, sad laugh here.) Goes to show you how much I understimated my habit, and how much I overestimated my willpower. Of course, I always tried to justify my jonesing for computer time: it was for class research; I was familiarizing myself with other aspects of the Internet, etc., etc. But between you, me, and the browser, it wasn't always the case.
I suspect those who argue that the Internet becomes an addiction may be onto something, but it isn't nearly as sinister as the picture they paint. The same for those who assert that the Internet creates a troll who refuses to engage in human interaction, grunting and searching a person for their hyperlink. I have my own addiction to deal with, but perhaps as with all addictions, I don't see it as a horrible, debilitating vice. As Nitsa Borries asked in class once, why does a person become addicted and what kind of personality are we looking at? Solid question, which deserves an answer.
I can't provide a blanket statement, but I did take a personality inventory, which rates me as an ENTJ. (I Junged myself.) This particular site goes on to detail the percentages of people who have taken this test on-line, and the ENTJ's are not the highest percentages, but we constitute about 7%. For those of you who remember that particular personality inventory amidst a fog of previous semesters, the ENTJ is the "field marshal", the personality loving command and taking charge. Although I have to confess that I am scoring more and more often (I take the test frequently, just for fun) as an INTJ. Interestingly enough, INTJ's make up about 8%, according to the study's percentages. And the highest group of all is the ISTJ. These guys are the people devoted to tradition, and according to the profile, " 'We've always done it this way' is often reason enough for many ISTJs." Pretty strange, when you consider that those who are surfing the Net are usually people interested in alternative communication mediums/up-to-date information. Hmmmmm...
I realise this is not to say that all NetHeads and addicts (term to still be satisfactorily operationally defined) have taken this test, nor that all those who have taken the test are people spending a specified amount of time on the Internet. But it is interesting. And I suspect that in the future, more surveys will be done to see what kind of personality is spending enough time on the Internet to qualify as a full-time job. (Hey, Dr. J., see anything here?)
Returning to the point (which is something I often forget to do, I know, I know), things should get much more up-to-date as far as taking care of my House goes. I am sorry for the slack, and I will get my nose to the Home Page.
E-mail, shmee-mail. lmorita@hawaii.edu
