Twitter and Hypertext

At the beginning, Twitter was just an interesting website. However, it did turn out to be like a vent for me. I would want to make a post if there was something funny or I don't particular enjoy. It turn out to be a place I can literally vomit in anytime.

Clearly, people who uses twitter normally complain about their life mostly. And people who post new tweets at any time of the day and about anything of the day. Such acts can be categorized by entropic time. Where peopless complex emotions and the desire to share just comes out of nowhere.

A common thing that I obersved it that when there is bad weather. Everyone would normally comment on it. Which means that at ceratain days and particular times we would share the same feelings towards the same thing. Even though we did not knew each other or at the same place it is interesting who we can connect with one or another. Such acts are closer to teleiological time, when certain events can lead to a predicted behavior.

The third I obeserved was that peoples life are normally guided by a schedule. And one things leads to another. By going to work or school we have assignments that are assigned everyday. There are goals that we all are striving to. It is like playing a game, and every so often when we have enough experience we level up and go off to a harder place to level up. Stellar time can be observed when people are talking about what they have to do all day and the day after.

Although I think my life is very orderly like any other classmates of mine, I believe my tweeter showed that my life events are leaning more towards completely random and chaotic. There are many reason that leads my life so. Firstly, I live by myself therefore life is unorgnized to begin with. My parents are in Taiwan, so basically I govern and have control of my own freedom. Secondly, I am not too good with remembering what events are happening. They usually just come up and suddenly I am jus over flowed with work. Or suddenly I have to go somewhere because I forgot about I had to go. And Finally the two compenents add up results an fun and random life that I go through.

During the week that I used tweet I found it very interesting to search peoples tweet by filtering them by the word "FML". Only people whose tweet contains the word "FML" would show up. And all the tweets that showed up were funny or sad incidents that happened to them today.

Tthe sense of continious cycle of different possiablities came to mind when I read the Forking path txt. The geocities link to the hyper txt did not work so I just plainly read the online txt version. It seemed like Borges was explaining with the story about time how time and events can be circular and free flowing. How the time forkes and there could be different outcomes in every way we look look or decided to do things. The complications with time and the future reminds me of the matrix in a way which everybody life is intertwine but set. However even though it is set if you were the one who knows about what is real or what is not you could change your future. This whole things makes me think about faith in life. Even we do not know what to expect next, and whether the choices we make in life are the right ones. The importance is appreciaiton while you have faith in what you do.

It is much easier to say than to actually do that, but I have always been trying even when the outcome was not an happy ending. Hopefully an end is a new start for something else.

Twitter and Time

Twitter is one of the most popular and fastest growing social websites around and being on twitter was at first a sort of weird experience. Here was I reading about not only what my friends were up to or doing but also about what people I’ve never met were doing or experiencing in their daily lives all around the world. What struck me most of all was the great emotional bond we all share. No matter where you are or who you are, we are after all the same. In our daily lives we go through at the same or different times the same emotions - joy, sadness, worry and we all ultimately search for love. We want to be loved. And as such we are affected by what happen in and around us. Our state of happiness and sadness are indeed depends on what happen around us. When a close relative or friend is sad or happy, I too share the sadness or happiness. And this is strongly manifested on twitter. As I go through the daily updates from my friends and close ones I experience different emotional states. Thus in a way being on twitter we are actually governed to a large extent by stellar time. Our state of being depends on the intermingling of events in our daily lives. The other day I decided to go on a picnic trip with my cousin who lives in a nearby block. I was in a very high spirit and looking forward to the trip. While waiting for my cousin I decided to browse on the net. Alas! The first update I saw on twitter was a warning for picnic goers to be more alert as a body of a girl who had gone on a picnic trip was found that very morning. My mood straight away took a downward flight. We were so upset about it that in the end we had to cancel the trip. If I had not read that piece of news at that time we’d probably have had a joyful experience that day. That is stellar time for you. One can’t escape it.
The hypertext like time is beyond a definite comprehension. It can be subjected to different interpretations. We all in our different ways give definite meaning to our times. Time in itself has no beginning nor an end as the hypertext is. Time can be our enemy as well as our friend. In the end it all depends on how best we make use of the time available to us. The designer was trying to portray the timelessness of time. It has been there, it is there now and it will always be there, irrespective of what we actually go through.

Tweeter

I read a tweet that the person didnt know what to do during the day. I beleive this person lives in Teleological Time. Why? because he probably needs something to happen to him in order to make plans for the day. He needs a motive. I beleive most of us lives in a teleological time. Many times I do things derived from others.

Twitter, life, time and prospectives

Twitter! Every time I see the name of that website, it reminds me of tweety the little yellow bird that was my favorite character with when I was a little girl, and already put a smile on my face. When I was in elementary school back in my country, my life used to be in the teleological time because it was almost the same routine which is to wake up, get ready to go to school, eat my breakfast , go to school, eat my lunch, come back to school, study and do my homework, and finally go to bed. The next morning would be the same schedule. Besides certain moments with my family and friends, I was pretty much a robot repeating the same thing every day.
When I got to High School, I decided to run my life in a way that pleases me which is the chaotic time. I think that random things happening in my life is the best way for me to have a good memory of my life and not regretting anything, any decisions that I’ve made. For me the chaotic time is a fun way to live my life, therefore I usually made something exciting happening into my life. I made new friends, and did random things everyday like not doing my homework so that I could get kick out of class (that was the system in my school), or say some funny jokes that will make the whole class laugh or get in trouble as much as possible. I even had fights with the girls in my school (I attended a private catholic school). I was known as the most turbulent student in my school. Now, when I look at my past I laugh at it and remember everything because these moments are engraved in my memory. When I graduated High School I decided to do something new and explore the world. I had two alternatives either going to France or New York. But as New York is known for the party life, I decided to come over here. Now that I’ve been living in New York, I think that I could fall in the teleological time again because this is the life in New York though; most people are always rushing because they don’t want to miss the bus or they’re trying to catch the elevator to get to work on time. Most of them prioritized work over everything. Well I always told myself that “I work to live but I don’t live to work”. I’m not saying that work is not important because why do I go to school for? I go to school to gain knowledge in order to get a good job to be financially independent. But it is just part of my life, not my entire life for God’s sake. I still live in the chaotic time. I go to school, I do work but I do try to make something new happen in my life, this is why my friends usually call me the spontaneous or crazy girl. I have fun and take care of my business at the same time... However, sometimes my life goes back to the teleological and stellar time but I do something random to put just a little spice in my life. I don’t want when I’m a senior to look back at my life and asking myself what I did with it. To go back to Twitter, I think it helps people to put themselves in the chaotic time, even the stellar time, because sometimes people who are afraid to speak express themselves via this social networking site. You find very interesting things and feelings on people’s post. It’s the best way to get in contact with family, friends and other people that you have lost contact with. Twitter changes the life of people which could put these people in the stellar time because it brings those back memories and also happiness by getting in touch with family or friends. I got in touch with people that I thought I would never get in touch with. I was also affected by what peers were writing because I often was in the same situation.

For me, Borges’ garden of forking paths was a very challenging hypertext because I had to go over it many times to understand what the author is trying to explain. He emphasizes on time which is different context for everybody. It was really informative and I think that from it each and everybody can draw on conclusion on how time has affected their lives. About me, this says that life is what you make of your time and how you see the world itself according to perspectives that comes across daily life. Yes, I do find myself running in circle and having any clue where to stop or where to begin. The words which attracts me to this story is “Precisely," said Albert. "The Garden of Forking Paths is an enormous riddle, or parable, whose theme is time. These words really caught my attention.

Time of My Life

When I sit down and think of my day, its definitely in a linear fashion. I'm in the financial field; my work day is dictated by the opening and closing bells, an audible signal of the beginning and end of my work day. Because my days are so highly scheduled, racing from home to work and from work to make the train and from the train to class and back, it's hard for me to view my day as anything else. I could wax poetic about how a decision last summer has drastically transformed my everyday life today, but I would probably miss my train while my head is in the clouds.
At home, I work on something called "Michael Joseph" time. Michael is my 6 month old son. He tells us when we go to sleep, how long we sleep and when it's time to get up and play. One of the hardest things about parenting is your time is no longer yours. You play by someone else's rules. Looking at my twitter posts, I think it accurately reflects my state of mind and how I percieve time....slipping through my fingers, always trying to catch up and being pulled in a million different directions. Someone else posted something called "Twitter Time". I think these social networking sites have created their own timelines so that one could look back at their lives as an amalgum of their tweets and status updates.
Its interesting. When I look at my present day to day, as I said, it's in a linear fashion. But, when I look at my history, my life up until this point, it is in stellar time, where things blend into one another and the colors of my days blend to create the hues of my nights. I also feel like while my life feels so interconnected and cyclical, when I think of worldwide time and the time of our collective pasts, presents and futures, it does feel completely chaotic and random.

Twitter and time..

By checking all twitters ( including mine) I do believe we mainly run our lives on Teleological time. Most people start their days knowing how they will look like, for example, I know that every Tuesday I have to go to work, school and then go home, there are not surprises on this day unless something chaotic happens which can change half or my whole schedule. Personally, I think we all need some chaotic time in our lives in order to have a balance on it. Imaging living a perfect life where everything goes as planned and nothing disturbs our schedule? It will be so boring!! People would turn into robots doing the same thing over and over; people would not know how to confront problems and little troubles can turn into something big.

As for the Garden of Forking Paths Hypertext, it is trying to convey that there is not true beginning or end in a story and that life is a circle where one action leads to another one. I agree with this concept because most people are always looking to accomplish more and more in life, for example, having a better car, education or house. Therefore, what we may think would make us happy and settle down suddenly can become the beginning of a new story; like when people finish their college education (Bachelor Degree) most people are already thinking about going for a master or some especial degrees. This is how life is a circle where the finish of a chapter is the beginning of a new one. In addition, the word that caught my attention the most was "Future." This word makes me realize how our lives revolve around our future. How our future controls our present and how we forget about enjoying the present because we are always thinking about a better tomorrow.

Tweeter-- the adventure beings

Before signing up for tweeter I was in own world, not knowing there is so much I am missing out there. Tweeter, face book and the other forms of social networking sites, i never thought of them of as a means of communication. Now i am involve i see how much i can learn for other peoples life. Through tweeter you see how people spend there time, and see what is important to them for that day or overall. we all use our time similarly in one way or another. we live somewhat of on stellar time, which sometime lead into teleological time and hopefully we try to stay away from the chaotic time which most of the time we try avoid.

The decision we make in our live some, if not most of the time, dictate the time we fall into. Has Borges explained that when we make decisions it leads into more decision so we spend all our lives making decision, our live is like a maze, never ending. We get up in the morning, we make the decision to leave the house or stay in and from that point on we are making decisions until we are back home and in bed again. So even though we live our live in differ state of time we all decide that state of time until we are a thrown a curve ball and we welcome in chaos.

what we look at has normal for us may be chaos for someone else.

The Twitter Effect

Based on the posts I've made on twitter, I realize that I mainly run my life teleological and stellar time. 6 days of the week, I am either working or going to school or both. It's pretty simple. It actually made me realize that we all need a bit of all 3 types of time (in my opinion). Chaotic time are events that are described as random or not having meaning in life. I disagree with the partial definition of not having meaning in life. I get bored easily (too easily I think at times) and the random events always that happen in my life are usually the ones I often remember the most. Think about it for a second and compare "your" chaotic time and teleological time. Which do you often talk about to your friends, family, peers? I would say it would be more of the chaotic time. Take for example Alex's anecdote in the last class about how he ran into this guy that jumped into the train tracks for a dollar bill. Alex then proceed to tell how he threw a $5 bill into the tracks just to see if he would go into the tracks for a second time to retrieve the bill. I doubt he would choose to tell the class a story of a time on the subway where nothing interesting, a.k.a. when everything went as usual, as apposed to the story of the crazy delusional IDIOT that ran into the tracks for a fraction of what his life his worth in front of an oncoming train. Luckily for that guy, stellar time was on everyone's side that had wanted to go to where they wanted to arrive without any complications on the public transportation system. If it was not on their side, it would probably read something like "IDIOT GETS HIT BY TRAIN ON TRACKS AFTER JUMPING FOR $5 BILL; OWNER OF BILL, COLLEGE STUDENT BY THE NAME OF ALEX, TAKEN IN FOR QUESTIONING. CLAIMS BILL WAS SWEPT FROM HIS HAND BY THE ONCOMING WIND OF THE TRAIN.

Twitter's forking path to social networking!

We live in the decade where information is always at our fingertips. Including what, where, when and how every single person in our live is carrying out there day to day routine. Twitter, the streamline of babble and comments, is the newest trend of the always growing social networking community. I have become a late bloomer in this trend, but found it very fun to talk to millions as a calming way of letting people know my story. In reading everyone's post, I found that I could relate to a lot of the stories. We are all students and we all are dealing with the pressures of school, work and our own social lives outside of the box. I believe that with that said that I believe there are two timelines that could take place in tweeter. I did not find my timeline altered by anyone. So in my perspective, I would find myself going through a teleological timeline. Whereas, I could see the possibilities of stellar time could happen at anymoment. I believe just the littlest thing could change our life, by hearing something on twitter.
As for the Garden of Forking Paths Hypertext, I first didn't understand the context of the story. It seemed all over the place and there was not a basic context of a story. After playing with it for a while, it came more and more compelling on how visual words popped out for me and intrigued me to click and bring another story. This, in context, showed stellar time could be placed in a story with hypertext. It was the neatest thing I have read in a while. It showed how life is really intertwined together in the long end. It was a very powerful piece. I want to find a link to the background of the author.

1. Twitter, a place where people join in...this joining in implies community and interaction between members. What a disappointment, members join in being alone and broadcasting their thoughts and actions to an audience that may or may not be there. It is an application where all we care is "me, me, me and what I did and have to say" while claiming that we share with others but only complaining, rejoicing and expressing our indifference/opinion about things that affect us.

Entropic time affects all of us and reading the tweets, it seems that there is no connection between different posts (people). Let's take for example the latest post of our professor "drdanamilstein pardon my language, but fuck our health care system: http://bit.ly/a5GpL"; is this in any way leading to an effect on any of the readers or on her next decision regarding health care? No, because we are either too small for our voice to be heard or too busy with our own problems to do anything. The tweet is just an expression of frustration, a random event that will be forgotten if not already forgotten.

This is not to say that life is completely random, our acts influence other people but the acts themselves are random. Let's take an accident for example: we surely don't mean to crash into another car but it happens and the other driver and us are now connected and our acts influenced their life, made them late to work, damaged their car, etc. Did we know this morning when we left home that we'll be involved in a crash and affect someone's life? Is there such a thing as predetermination, was it written somewhere that we will stop at that traffic light and so be in the intersection two minutes later and hit the other car? Everything starts entropic and develops teleological or stelar.

2. The hypertext reading is trying to make the point that there is no true beginning and no end. It all revolves and we find ourselves at what we thought was the beginning, but that beginning may be the middle or the end if viewed from another perspective. Was Albert's murder the end or the beginning? To some it was the end (Dr. Yu Tsun), but to others it was the beginning of a military campaign which will cascade into another series of events. Time is a straight line from which different paths fork at every step. Dr. Yu could have informed his superiors about the location of the battery in many different ways but circumstances and choice made him do it by killing Albert and allowing Captain Richard Madden to capture him.

Based on those tweets, feeling kind of like peeping others through a window, it seems that our lives are mostly influenced by teleological time. Everybody seems busy with their work, study, family, and other colorful things which are expected from us to have particular satisfactions, usually for a better life in light of individual’s needs and wants. I do not think I have been affected by others’ tweets so far; maybe the time is not long enough, or I’m too stubborn:).

We do everything purposely, more or less, to get an anticipated result. However, if my understanding to the three types of time is correct, the influence of teleological time is often interrupted by the affect of the stellar time when something unexpected comes. Our lives usually takes other path, the forking path, like the scenarios in the movie named “Crash”. Just like in Borges’ The Garden of Forking Paths, the relationship among people sometimes are transforming as they enter to another path. According to Borges, “you arrive at this house, but in one of the possible pasts you are my enemy, in another, my friend”. Life is full of conflicts and temptations pushing us to change our paths as people are greedy and have endless desires. For my example, marrying my wife and moving to the United States are two significant path changes in my life.

Are we changing our life paths by random, are those paths already designed for us when we were born? Atheists and theists have opposite answers. If God is the creator of the earth and all creatures on it, then it is reasonable to believe that everything we do is under control. Educated by a communist government, I used to be an atheist. However, when I see the people in that society having less and less sense of guilt when doing something immoral, I think a theist society is better for human beings, though I’m still not convinced that God created everything. Now I think since law can’t stop all the immoral activities, believing in God, or gods, at least makes people hold something in awe. With this idea in mind, when our lives are facing a forking path, we can probably choose the way of not harming others or at least making the harm minimum if there is no better choice. However, on the other hand, the world is full of significant conflicts because of the various religions people believe in. It is a crucial problem if there are conflicts among Gods themselves. Whom indeed should we believe in?

Though I’m sure that I do not completely understand the underlying meaning of this story(the spy kills the researcher, dedicating himself in researching the spy's ancestor's noval and labyrinth for decades, for just informing Germany, called by himself as "a barbarous country which imposed upon me the abjection of being a spy", the city, which has the same name as the researcher, that German must attack, to just prove to the Chief that "a yellow man could save his armies"? Too crazy for me to understand), it makes me think of the meaning of life in a new way. Yes, I often find myself running in circles, though I cannot describe it clearly and theoretically, that feeling comes back to me again and again. The words which attract me to this story are just “forking path”. What path should we choose on earth?