As we got deeper into the conversation about these behaviors, he told us that these kinds of
attitudes, especially in the car when there are other drivers, passengers, and pedestrians
involved, could be very dangerous and even fatal. I suddenly realized that I display a lot of
these driving behaviors. Oh no! I'm doomed!!!
Dr. James gave us a few unix commands that we could practice on like using pico and emacs
and making the ".signatures" and other things like this. Well, after the second week of class I
was already lost. I couldn't grasp the concept of what commands do what. All I could do
was e-mail people and look through the internet. I had no clue that these two things could be
related to each other, or that a whole new set of commands would have to be learned in order
for me to post my reports and database pages on the internet. What I thought would be a
"cruise in the park" has turned out to be a nightmare!!!
After the first week, since I already had my unix account, all I needed to do was get the
Netscape program from Keller Hall and install the program into my Personal Computer.
Okay, easy enough. But why didn't it run? My Netscape program is defective! So, I had to
do all of my practicing in the Clic Lab while I figured out how to get my Netscape to work
but I kept on coming up with this stupid message that said "Cannot find 'winsock.dll'" Okay,
so I look for it under the "find" icon and I find it but why isn't it working?!!! Okay, I'm
really getting frustrated now! Shut the darn computer off!
I didn't get any work done that week. I was so frustrated with my computer. This kind of
thing always seems to happen to me! Why me???!!!!!! But when I went to class the week
after that, I realized that I wasn't the only one. True novices we are!!! So, I realized, "I'm
not alone in this." I didn't feel so bad. But the more I tried to practice, and the more
commands I learned, the more I became confused. What commands go with what? In what
situations should we use them? I'm soooooo confused!!! That is exactly what I wrote when
Dr. James asked us how we felt about the internet.
It was already the third week and I still didn't get any of my pages on the Internet. Not even
the titles. By then, Dr. James was frustrated with our class, but so were we. We, as a class,
had the most difficult time trying to comprehend the commands and why we were using them.
But Dr. James cut us some slack. Okay, he went over everything again, step by step. I
swear, my notebook was getting a little messy with all the explanations I needed for each
command in order for my pages to get posted on the Internet. What exactly was this
"Internet" that was making my life so miserable?
I guess when I really thought about it, the reason why I wasn't getting the grasp of things is
because I didn't know what things were. I knew that I could learn them. I just felt defeated
because it wasn't as easy as I would have wanted it to be. I knew this was a writing
intensive class but so much time has to go into it. For me, in order to get used to the idea of
working on the Internet, I needed to be comfortable with the fact that it would take me time
to get used to. It's not like the high school courses I was used to in which I could cram
everything in and finish it the night before. No way! This takes a lot of time, patience, and
perseverance.....
a lot of time, patience, and perseverance!!!
Okay, back to class again. I guess I needed more help than I thought I would. I didn't
realize that learning all of this would be so difficult. Taking notes just does not help if you
do not practice every day. I think that I needed to take notes and go try it out right away so
that I could get the hang of it. So, after going to class and getting a little more step-by-step
directions, I learned how to do a lot more things. When I tried everything in the lab,
everything worked. I couldn't believe it! I finally accomplished making links, and I could
now focus on making my page look nice. Taking pictures and backgrounds and all of those
little pretty icons that will make my pages more appealing to look at!
Now that I knew how to do everything: make links, put backgrounds and icons, make
anchors, all I had to do was figure out how to make my Netscape work at home and then
actually do the work. It seemed easy enough. The problem was, I had no idea what was
wrong with my Netscape. I tried everything.....so I thought. So one day when I was home
and I had some time to do my work, I played around with the Winsock program and
everything that was included. I finally found out how to do it! I can't believe it! I just
wasn't turning the right things on! How dumb of me.
Now, my only problem was using the word processor and getting my work from the word
processor to my account. I never did that before. I didn't know how. So, I waited until the
next class to get more information. That was a pretty bad idea though because the midterm
deadline was nearing. I hadn't even started any of my reports and I only did a minimal job
on my other pages. The only thing I really got going was my database page. Oh no! I was
really starting to panic now.
Okay, I never really learned how to do it on the word processor correctly so I had to rely on
pico to get the job done. The only problem I had with that was I really felt bad that I was
using on-line time to do my assignments. But what else could I do? I really didn't know.
So, I tried to use the pico in the middle of the night when there would be a minimal amount
of people trying to get on-line. That way, the guilt would not haunt me. Then, I would run
into other problems like my links not working of my technical mistakes. I was just being
careless. I guess what I was trying to do was make up for all the times I never did anything.
And now, my procrastination was catching up with me!
Aside from all the other pages that we have to construct, we have to make contributions to
our classmates regarding their database topics. Actually what was really frustrating me was
getting
a lot
of e-mail on what else to do from Dr. James. I guess I was already struggling to do what was
originally assigned. Then to log on to unix and find ten e-mail messages with a few extra
assignments really got me. But, I guess if I worked on my stuff everyday, I wouldn't really
have a very difficult time. Well, not as difficult.
But getting back to the subject of making contributions. I really thought it was too much
work for us to do along with the assigned projects. But it really made me realize that I am
not the kind of driver that I really want to be. I realized that I need to change. So, when I
was writing my report 1 (I already got a hang of doing all of the commands and all that other
stuff to make it appear nice on the internet), I looked through other people's reports and
focused mostly on things that I do like tailgating and boxing people in and now, I try to
change. Try is the key word. It will take quite a while before I can actually get used to
being the "nice driver" that I really want to be. At least when I'm the passenger, I am aware
of how the driver should be driving. But, being that he is my fiance, I try not to criticize him
too much because he knows I do the same things when I drive. But at least I'm aware of it.
I've begun to really enjoy surfing the net. I have used search engines to look up topics and
everything is right at my fingertips. I can't believe how advanced we are. I know that we
aren't the only country doing this. I mean, we can converse with people from other countries
just like that. These people who created the internet are complete and total geniuses. Their
minds are just amazing.
When I first started browsing, I thought it was just a waste of time. But now I realize that
the internet is like the opening to my future. I can do so many things through the internet
that I never thought would be possible. The possibilities are just endless. I can punch in love
and the search engines that I found such as "Yahoo" and "Lycos" are just so fascinating to
me. I can type in just a few words and when I get connected to all the subjects that I ask for,
I think to myself, how in the world could someone have thought of doing this kind of thing.
I'm just so amazed and this spark of interest just makes me want to get on line more and
more. Unfortunately, My classes and other activities prevent me from being on-line every
single day. I enjoy it so much that I sometimes find myself talking about it to my friends. I
tell them how much fun I had and the things that I found. And sometimes, I even get them
to log on and see what it's like to "Surf the Net."
One big problem that I have with the internet is the censorship issue. I was searching through
the net with my friend and, he is a nasty one. Anyway, one day he decided how much we
could go with our searches. Well, we got far enough alright! He went to a search engine and
punched in "sex." Well, we got like over five hundred hits from that one topic. And when
we got to a very explicit page in that particular hit, it came up with a message saying "If you
are under the age of eighteen, stop right here. Do not go any further. It is illegal." Or
something along those lines. Anyway, a lot of children are getting on line these days and
having one paragraph on the page saying "Stop here if you are under the age of 18" will only
cause the child's or adolescent's curiosity to rise. Who will stop them from clicking on those
buttons that are so accessible to anyone?
I believe that a lot of this material should not be censored but parents with young children in
the household should be very careful to limit what their children can do. If they have even
the slightest notion that their child can break the codes on the computer or go to someone
else's home and look at these explicit displays on the internet, they should not even access
these programs that allow anyone to search for these topics such as "sex."
I believe that what the child experiences outside of the home, and even in the home will
impact their behaviors and attitudes in life. Being exposed to this material is very detrimental
to the child. I think that the best thing for the parent to do in these situations is sit down with
their child, given that they have a good relationship, and explain to them about morals and
what is right and wrong for a child to do. I think in this way, the parent is instilling the
proper morals into the child and later, the child will learn to make the right decisions for
themselves.
During the course of this class, I had numerous problems. One of the major ones that I had
when I first started, as I mentioned before, was my Netscape. Because I couldn't figure out
how to get it to start working, I had to take time out from my schedule to go to the computer
labs on campus. This was very difficult for me to do because I have full days of classes on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. And on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I worked. So, I had
to rely on my Netscape. Sometimes I would skip work just to go to the computer lab, which
is very difficult for me because my fiance and I just bought a new car and we have payments
to make. But I finally discovered the problem. So now that particular problem is solved.
Although sometimes, the program just crashes on me. Well, actually the server does, which is
my next big big big problem.
Because I finish so late on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have such a difficult time trying to get
connected from my modem at home. I get home at about 6:00 in the evening and I'm so
tired by then that I don't have time to think about anything much. But when I do have time,
I try to log on and it takes me about thirty to forty minutes before I actually get through. It
gets very frustrating for me because that takes up a lot of time. I have to sit there in front of
my computer and listen to the modem dial so quickly and each time, well, most of the time,
the line is either busy or it won't pick up and it rings forever. Once, I even slept early in the
evening, about 8:00, and woke up at 3:00 just to get logged on. At that time, it's not so bad.
But I think the worst times to log on would be between 6:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. It's just so
frustrating!
So, aside from getting on, I have another problem. My problems are just never-ending! Is it
like this with everyone? I have problems in every aspect of my life. But what else is new?
Anyway, I get even more frustrated when I just worked so hard to log on, then my phone
rings. It's not so bad if you don't have the wonder phone on your telephone. But when you
do and your other line rings, you get disconnected automatically. Now, I heard that there is a
solution to this. There's an automatic answering thing that the calls go to so that you don't
get interrupted while you're working, but I haven't found the solution to that yet. Why me!
So, after forty-five minutes or so of waiting to get logged on with my modem, my phone
rings. And the later it gets, the more people get logged on the and tougher it is for me to
jump back on the server. It's so stressful! Why do I take these classes that make it harder on
myself????
I learned a lot just from the beginning of this semester up until now, the midterm point. I
learned that because going and surfing the internet is so fun, I can enjoy myself while
learning new things. I now feel confident enough that I am capable to learning new things.
It just took a while at the beginning because everything was so new to me. But now that I
kind of have a feel for how everything is connected with the internet and my unix and css
accounts, I feel like I can learn new things without being afraid of whether I can do it or not.
It's just the issue of making time for it.
I feel guilty for having waiting this long to do my work. But now that I know that making
time to learn the new concepts will help me to better understand the assignment. No more
procrastinating till the very last day of the deadline because so many things can happen. So
many mishaps and then when it comes down to it, your grade suffers for your behavior.
There is no blaming game here. There is no one to blame but yourself. So, I do blame
myself for waiting till the last minute but I learned from my mistakes. Next time, I'll be a
little more aggressive with my work...there's that word aggressive again! I just need to make
time to do the assignments. But other than that...................this turned out to be a really fun
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