Justa Junkie » YouTube http://justajunkie.com Looking for My Next Fix Fri, 15 May 2009 18:20:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Acting http://justajunkie.com/2009/03/14/acting/ http://justajunkie.com/2009/03/14/acting/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:28:21 +0000 Brian Paris http://justajunkie.com/?p=105 Fun little lesson on acting from Ian McKellen on the show Extras.

Laughed my ass off after watching that. Funniest part is it is pretty much what acting is. Learn the lines and pretend to be the character.

]]> http://justajunkie.com/2009/03/14/acting/feed/ 1 Media in the Arab World http://justajunkie.com/2009/01/12/media-in-the-arab-world/ http://justajunkie.com/2009/01/12/media-in-the-arab-world/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:06:52 +0000 Brian Paris http://justajunkie.com/?p=53 Just read an interesting article written by Anne Nelson on the Carnegie Reporter website. It is entitled Arab Media: The Web 2.0 Revolution.

There were a lot of good points brought out in the article. Started off with an overview of what is happening in the Arab world today, then did a good job of telling the history of the region from a standpoint of literacy and media. There was a legacy of oral storytelling but not that of the written word. I was surprised by how late news came to the Mid-East. In some cases it wasn’t until to mid to late twentieth century. It was also interesting to see the reasons for some of the cultural divide that I have seen myself. Some countries seems to have embraced the entertainment aspect of the medium, while others see it as a way to promote their traditional values and religious beliefs.

The article continues on telling about how the satellite TV market has brought about some changes, and some backlash to the Arab world. Al Jezeera is a big part of the transformation. They brought an independent voice to a mostly Saudi controlled conservative agenda. The mention that Al Jezeera doesn’t cover much in it’s home country of Qatar, and the following aside that most people agree that there isn’t much really happening there anyway, made me smile. I am over here and most of the time there isn’t really much going on. I guess the Emir’s statement about the Palestinian conflict has made the biggest headline since I have been here.

The article finishes up by talking about how the web might change the way the media is controlled. Since the barrier for entry is so low, it brings a lot of people into the fray. Young people are taking to blogs, facebook, youtube, and other web technologies to make their voices heard. I wonder how this is going to change the world.

]]> http://justajunkie.com/2009/01/12/media-in-the-arab-world/feed/ 0 New Way of Learning http://justajunkie.com/2009/01/02/new-way-of-learning/ http://justajunkie.com/2009/01/02/new-way-of-learning/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:56:22 +0000 Brian Paris http://justajunkie.com/?p=8 I never was a big fan of college. It was hard to get excited about learning information that just didn’t have any relevance to my life. I was always learning new things, but not necessarily what they wanted to teach in class. The large classes were the hardest for me. A professor spouting information that I could easily find elsewhere just didn’t do it for me.

This professor, Dr. Michael Wesch, is one that gets it. He is doing amazing things using new technology. Prof. Wesch teaches by getting every student involved in the process. He uses wikis, netvibes, twitter, RSS and other web tech in new ways. Check out the first part of this YouTube video and your will walk away questioning everything that you assumed about a college education.

Seems like other people like what he is doing, too. He just recently was awarded the US Professor of the Year.

Additional Information: Check out Prof. Wesch’s wikipedia page, and also a lot of information on his Digital Ethnography site.

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