Even though we had a short class and discussion today I still thought I wold post a little blurb about what I thought. Well for starters I thought that video about the reality of a firefighters life was just hilarious. It made absolutely no sense for woman to pass out when she saw that there was fire, or for the child to not wake up, and then for the firefighter to be spraying water around randomly. I guess movies back then were just supposed to be on the funny and not realistic side of things. Then we watched a glimpse of the beginning of saving private Ryan and we discussed how movies in today’s time era are not realistic. They are made to pull on the viewers emotions not portray something that is realistic. Technology has shaped us into thinking and transforming our minds to accept these movies. It was pretty cool to see the differences in movies from back in the day to now. I mean I could never sit through a movie with no sound at all. The last few moments of class we began talking about how you cant “own” us like people did indentured servants before the civil war. When you asked the question of “why can’t I own you” the first thing that came into my mind was because it’s against the law…duh. Then you started to challenge us and asked besides that why not. Honestly that is where you lost me and then began to explain the concepts of having two selfs. I’m still pondering on what that statement means to me exactly, but until I know for sure i’m just going to leave this post as it is. Until next time.

Class today was kind of a review on a lot of the basic stuff we all have been taught since we were in elementary school. The beginning of the railroad system and telegraph in 1840. The railroad industry gave hundreds of people jobs when times were tuff. With the creation of the railroad the way of life began to change and it was the beginning of a new era. I’m not gonna lie hearing about the railroad, telegraph, and electric light was slightly boring and it was hard to stay focused. It is always nice to hear about how the world became the way it is today. I did think the image with all of the telephone lines was cool to see! They had so many different lines going in every direction and in todays time we just have one on both sides of the street. The one topic in class that I found very interesting was the discussion about time zones. I guess I had always known that their just wasn’t time zones from the beginning of time, but I never really put much thought into it. If I lived back in the day it would drive me crazy having to rely on the sun to know what time it was. I guess they were just use to it and didn’t know any other way. Even though daylight savings time drives me crazy and takes a couple weeks to adjust, overall it has made life a lot easier. Our history on the world and inventions are incredibly important and I hope that they never stop teaching this in elementary school because every generation needs to know how technology, time, and space came about.

When I signed up to take this class I was just trying to avoid taking IT104. I knew the class was called the digital past but I didn’t have the slightest idea of what exactly we would be covering. We have only had two classes with Professor O’Malley but I can tell that he is going to make this semester intellectually stimulating. I come from the south so when O’Malley started playing old country music on Tuesday I knew I would like his class. I have a little background in reading music, but it has been a few years. I played violin from 5th grade to senior year. The main point of discussion yesterday in class was the concept of compression. I thought it was very cool to hear music from years ago and compare what we heard to some of today’s pop music. In Katy Perry’s Firework song she starts off by singing quietly and then at the chorus she is basically yelling, however; her actual overall volume never changed. Where as we listened to Aretha Franklin’s “Say a little prayer” and her volume changed throughout the highs and lows of the song. I personally have never thought about this when listening to music. I am one to jam out to my music in the car whether it be a sad song or a hyped up song.  I just always thought that the differences in music was a change in generations and the types of songs people sang. Towards the end of class we touch on the idea of the concept of idealism vs. realism, this is what caught my attention the most. I was raised in a christian home and am a baptist, so I guess you could say that i’m a realist. Professor O’Malley said that religious people who believe in something not in this world are classified as a realist.

Sarah White