Report 1:Abe Cabuag's Travel Through G1 and G2

My Adventures Through Generation Two

Introduction: Report 1

Welcome to "Abe Cabuag's Travel Through G1 and G2" page. On this page, I will report on my journey through cyberspace (World Wide Web) viewing reports, homepages, and other files created by students from previous generations (G1 and G2). These students are former students of Dr. Leon James's Traffic Psychology class (Psy 409 or Psy 459) at the University of Hawai'i. The main goal of this report is to try to analzye the reports, homepages, and other files of previous generations. Then, to attempt to comment on the selected files preferably a psychological approach. So I would like to invite you to sit back and relax as I take you on a journey through the cyberspace world of traffic psychology.

Getting Started

Before beginning my journey, there was a lot obstacles I had to overcome. My first task was to familiarize myself with the computer language. Such language consisted of "CSS account", "ftp", "Netscape", "telnet" and many, many more. The next obstacle was to try to understand all the different computer terms and/or commands. Once I was able to accomplish these task, I was on my way. My first stop of this journey was at Dr.Leon James Homepage.To be honest, that's all it was, a stop! I didn't know what to do next since getting to his homepage was a challenge to begin with. Once I understood what to do with Dr. Leon James's Homepage, I was able to use it to visit web sites of previous generations (G1 and G2), which later allowed me to view there reports. There after, Dr. James's homepage served as a valuable tool.

My Visit to Dr. Leon James' Homepage

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As mentioned above, my first stop on the World Wide Web was at my instructor's homepage. His homepage is filled with links which takes you to other various web sites, report from his previous classes, search engine links and more which are primarily directed to the topic of traffic psychology. Once I knew what to do with the many links, I was surfing the Internet. I used my instructors homepage to visit the homepages of previous generations (G1 and G2).

My Adventure Through Generation One

JAE ISA'S HOMEPAGE

Appearance

Jae's pages wasn't too attractive to me. She used the plain gray background instead of a background with designs. I like backgrounds with designs since they represent ones creativity. Though she only used the plain gray backgroud, she did add a little flare by adding a few icons as well as colored bars. There was one advantage that she took of of was the ability to make it readable which is important for a web site to be.

Content

Jae wrote about some interesting issues. One of the issues she wrote about was on noise pollutant policies for automobles. In a way, I agree with Jae on this issue and in a way I don't. I like loud music but not loud music with a lot of base. Another thing Jae mentions that I totally agree with is the fact that cars that "pound theirs sounds" can be distracting and irritating. I can recall when I was in high school when the police department was cracking down on vehicles playing there music too loud. If only the individuals who play their stereos' knew how detremental loud music is to their ears, they wouldn't be playing it so loud.

Jae also wrote about attention defict. She used a good example of this issue by using the example of the driver on the cellular phone which I see happen far too often. When a person tries to use a cellular phone while he is driving, he is forced to divide his attention between driving and talking on the phone. I have a personal event where I almost was strucked by an on coming car. He was using the cellular phone and apparently he dropped it. He went to pick the phone up and while doing so, his car drifted across the center line. I had to weave out of his way to avoid crashing into him.

Structure

I think Jae should have used a heading for her glossary page instead of links. That way, whoever lands on it will know where they are. I also think she tended to clutter her links as well as putting them all over the place. She needed to annotate her links so visitors will know what a certain link is. Annotations are what we (Generation Three, G3) are trying to incorporate in our files we are making.

MICHELLE OTA

Appearance

Michelle Ota's homepage caught my attention when a penquin appeared on Netscape. Michelle also used some colored bars and other icons which was appealing to the eye. From here after, I knew that icons, images,and other graphics would influence my interest to venture through the many web sites I would need to visit in order to be successful in this traffic psychology class. I chose to analyze only Michelle's homepage since her other files weren't finished.

Content

After viewing one of Michelle Ota labreports, I came across advices which gives some good advice about how to do good in this class. I totally agree with her when she suggests to began on the required work as soon as possible and not to wait to the last minute. I personally can vouch to what will happen if one doesn't utilize this advice. Michelle also mentions that if you have a computer at home to buy a modem since it will allow you to do your home work at home. In a way, this is good advice. The problem with this advice is that it is super difficult to connect to the server here at UH. It may take half an hour to three to four hours to connect. Futhermore, when you do get connected, it is not garanteed that you'll stay connected. I already had a bad experience where I lost one of my reports. I was disconnected when my friend called my house. So here is an advice from me to future generation of Psy 459. If you are going to connect from home, be sure to foward your phone to another number preferably to your pager if you have one. Because if you don't and your phone rings, you will lose everything you were working on in a flash.

Structure

The format of her text in her labreport was ok. It structured well as well as organized. As far as her homepage, she could have use some annotation indicating what the link was about and where this link was going. She did a pretty good job with her topical index since she did use annotations with her links. It was good that she annotated her links but some of her links wasn't working properly. This can be annoying to a visitor who finds interest in a link but they can't go to it since it doesn't work. As I mentioned earlier, her links seemed a little cluttered but overall pretty organized especially since she put them in alphabetical order.

SHANE AKAGI'S REPORT

Appearance

Shane was another student who used the simple technique, plain background wihtout many icons. Also, his link were a little cluttered. Adding some "
" which is the code for "break" I feel would have made some of his websites less cluttered and easier to follow. When I encounter a web site such as this one, I fall into an almost boring state since I think that icons, pictures, and creative background gives life to a website.

Content

Mr. Akagi basically experienced the frustration that other fellow students had experienced and some continues to experience. He talks about being completely lost during the first week which is something I can relate to. On the other hand, Mr. Akagi seems to adjust fairly quickly since he is able to find interest in several topics which were mentioned in class. The topic he found interesting was about why people speed on the freeway, and drive dangerously. He believes that people speed because they are in a rush. Also, he points out that gender plays a big difference of how people drive. He writes about several terms that I found interesting; Self Fulfilling Prophecy, Schizophrenia, Rush, and Aggression.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

One of the reasons why people speed and drive dangeroulsy, according to the observance and dicussion of Shane and his fellow classmates, is the sense of self fulfilling prophecy, that drivers feel they are "holding up" traffic, thus, to decrease such a feeling, they speed up themselves. As a result, these drivers have a fulfillment tendency to try to keep traffic moving smoothly. Shane states that the results are quite the opposite. Instead of smoothing out traffic, a potential hazard is created.


Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is another reason why people speed and drive dangerously, Shane and fellow classmates stated. Shane and company say that people who drive fast may suffer from schizophrenia, or some other types of mental disorder where these drivers may "envision or hear things (e.g. voices, or halucinations) that could cause accidents." People with these types of disorders are unstable and possess unpredictable behaviors and don't belong on the road.


Rush

Another reason discussed by Shane and company was people in our society are always in a rush. Akagi says, "people are not living in the moment and are always trying to look ahead for the future, and are always on a time schedule." Dr. James gave an example earlier this year which Akagi recalls hearing it two generations ago. This example goes as follows. "When classes get out at Kuykendall hall. Dr James quoted that normally when people move in orderly ranks through out the building, that "traffic" in the building moves very smoothly. However, when people stop to talk, those students that are in a rush are inconvenienced, and may thus become hostile. Dr. james himself quoted that he would "lower his shoulders" and bowl right through like a football player."

Aggression

The last reason discussed by Shane and company was the fact that men tend to be more aggressive driver, than a women. Akagi believe that men seem to be more aggressive than the"passive" women because men are raised to be more aggressive than women. According to previous psychology classes that I have attended, (unsure of what class it was), I can recall the instructor making a comment about the up bring of children. The instructor stated that boys are brought to be rough, aggressive, and all the other boyish qualities that a boy should possess and that girls are brought up the exact opposite, passive,shy, and so on.

Structure

Shane Akagi wrote about some interesting reasons why people speed and drive dangerously. I personally don't agree with all of them but they were interesting enough to write about. "Rush" was the one of the terms Akagi used that I could relate to. In todays world, everyone seem to be in a rush, whether to go to the store, work, or school. The idea which includes whether gender influences speeding and dangerous driving is one that I don't totally agree with since, in my opinion, it doesn't matter what sex the individual is but how that individual was raised or socialized. Sure there may be a higher ratio of males to females who do speed and drive dangerous but there must be a substantial percent of females who speed and drive dangerously. To conclude my visit to Akagi's report is to say that it was an interesting report with both pro and contriversal ideas.

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My Adventure Through Generation Two

LETITIA'S REPORTS

The person I was visited first from G2 was Letitia Lujuan. She was a classmate of mine last semester. In fact she was the one who told me about this class. She also said that this class was easy. It may have been easy to her but struggling in this class.

Appearance

I tried to view various reports of hers but some were to big to view. I had to use a special method, which I got from Sherman Lee, a fellow classmate, to view it. Letitia used a plain white background with some colored bars and some cut icons which was pleasing to the eye, especially that rainbow colored bar. She also had the words "Hafa Adai" on her homepage. Immediately, I assumed that "Hafa Adai" was a form of greeting. My assumption was correct since I was able to find out what "Hafa Adai" meant from Noreen Dorian, a classmate who is from Guam. She said it meant the same as our(Hawai'i) "Aloha". Websites with greetings in different languages tend to get my attention. It puts me in a happy mood.

Content

Last semester I had a class with Letitia and I remember her telling me that she rode a bike to and from school. Then this year after reading one of her reports, I find that she talks about bicyclist and her experiences with bicyclist. She said that before she became a bicyclist herself, she used try to drive really close to the bicyclist to force them closer to the curb. Now that she is a bicyclist, her driving behavior changed and when she approaches a bicyclist, she leave a lot of space when going around them instead of getting right next to them and forcing them to the curb. I found this topic of hers on bicycling interesting since I (as a driver) tend to do the same thing Letitia did before she became a bicyclist herself. Even today, I still drive close to bicyclist. I think the reason I do this is because I feel that they are always in the way. I know that they have the right to be on the road but if I'm in a hurry and their in the way, I'm going to try to past them any way I can without trying to harm them.

SHARLA SUPNET'S REPORT 1

Appearance

The next site I visited in G2 was Sharla Supnet's home page. Sharla used the same bright blue background that Alan Furukawa used. She also used the same penguin as Michelle Ota. I enjoy visiting homepages with pictures of animals or anything that is fun to look at since it put me at ease and at the same time captures my attention. It helps a lot especially when I know I need to visit more sites.

Content

After reading Sharla Supnet's Report 1: Her Initial Self-Assessment as a Driver, I noticed that she talks about Tailgating which I do from time to time. I also noticed that she talk about Shane Akagi report which led me to reading some of his reports. In Sharla's Report 1, she mentions that Shane is a careful driver who keep at least one car length between him and the car in front of him. He does this just in case the car in front of the car in front of him brakes suddenly, he'll have enough time to brake himself. I found Sharla's Tailgating topic interesting because I tend to do it myself on certain surcumstances. For instance, I do not tailgate anyone who doesn't do anything to me (eg. cut me off). But the first person to cuts me off will same me on their ass in an instant. Reading Sharla's report also gave me ideas for a report I will need to do later for this class.

Another topic of Sharla I found interest in was pedestrian traffic. When I first seen "pedestrian traffic", I thought to myself, "what the hell is this?" I thought pedestrian traffic was when a people is cross the crosswalk and they hold up traffic. I was wrong. Sharla states that it is traffic which occurs amoung people in various places like shopping centers, moving theaters, and school cafes. Once I knew what she was talking about, I could relate to it. In fact, earlier this semester, Dr. James mentioned something like this when he had an experience walking through a building soon after class got out. A UH college student would know that after classes get out in Kuykendall, the hallways get really crowded. Dr. James, like myself and many others believe that in a crowded hallway or sidewalk traffic would move smoothly if only everyone walked on the right just like the way we drive on the road. I found in Sharla's report that Kendall Matsuyoshi mentions something related to "pedestrian traffic" with his Left vs. Right ways of walking on the sidewalk.

Structure

Overall, I thought the format of her reports were well organized. She had a lot of links in her reports. The topics she chose to write about were interesting since I was able to relate to them.

BRYAN YUCOCO'S HOMEPAGE

Appearance

Brian's dark blue background is what lured me to checkout his website. Another cool thing about his site was his white-colored text. He was the first person I saw who did this. Besides looking cool, his site was fairly easy to read with that dark blue and white contrast. I was later able to use the same background and colored-text for my websites once I found out where to find it. Brian inspired me to look for pictures of cars when I seen a picture of a corvette on his homepage. Now I have a collection of pictures of cars which I used on some of my other sites.

Content

While reading through Brian's report 2, I came across one of his headings titled swearing. Him mentions some funny things about swearing. I never swore a lot but ever since I've here in Oahu, my swearing has increased. The way people drive around here in Oahu is just terrible. Brian also mentions that it is when he drives that he swears a lot. Brian talks about his plan to help him stop swearing or least lesson the amount of swearing. His plan is to give his girlfriend a quarter for every bad word he says. My high school coach used this plan on our basketball team since we had a lot of guys who swore a lot. At the end of the year, we accumilated over $200 which we used for a party.

While reading Brian's report 1, I came across a subheading calledmood swings. I found interest in this topic since I had a friend whose mood swing are quite noticable. Brian mentions that while driving, music may have an affect on ones mood swing. So after I read this passage, I decided to try it on my friend. One Sunday as we were driving out to Waianae from Honolulu, I played different types of music every so often. It was true. When I played rock music, he tended to drive faster versus when I played mellow music, he tended to drive slower. Brian also talks his Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde personality when he gets into the car. According to the way a my classmate talks of her driving behavior, I think she may have the Dr. Jekyl and Mr Hyde personality also. I'll leave her name anonymous.

Structure

Brian kept his format the same with all his reports which was good. His format wasn't the only thing he kept consistant because he also kept his background the same too. In a way, keeping the background the same is good since it looks unified but changing the background I think would add a unique flavor to each site. Adding a nice background will not get you a better grade in this class. Brian did a good with his links in his homepage by annotating each link which lets whoever visits his links know where and what the link is about. His organization in his topical index was well thoughtout and executed which made really easy to follow and made topics easy to find.

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