Conference

I was only able to make it to one conference today, but it was excellent and i heard some great peices of work from three students. The first was a girl who wrote a "flash fiction" piece called flies on the wall. First off I never heard of flash fiction. It is a small chunk of story that can stand alone without any background knowledge on the charecters or what led up to the story. I like this idea as sometimes I have an idea i believe is great that would just be bogged down with any additional plot points that would just be there to serve the purpose of setting up the main idea. Anyway, this was a story about an upper income family in an undisclosed point of time that on the outside looks like a well functioning family but in reality is falling apart. I thought the title was my favorite part of this story as the story was not told through the eyes of the family, but the maids and servants who work in the estate. The second story was by someone i met while playing bass in the rocky horror picture show, but we only called him by his lastname, conrad. His was called the big and was quite possibly the most moving peice of literature I ever heard from someone in my age range. The word choice, smooth transitions of thoughts, and the ability to put unexplainable emotions into action was amazing. The third was a story called sips. It is about a girl at a party who is feeling emotions that are new to her towards a friend of hers. The writer did a great job with setting up a strong visual aspect and also threw some poetry into the story which helped strengthen the feeling of love.

Chp 2

In chapter 2 he explains the first of three key factors in his equation for an epedemic to become widescale. He believes there are three types of people who possess the abilities to move along a message, trend, virus, etc. The first are people called connectors. He examined his circle of friends and realized when he traced his relationships to their origin it was not a circle, but pointed to one main person that caused him to directly or indirectly come into contact with the rest of his friends. This one person is a connector. They possess the people skills necessary for bringing something into contact with a large amount of people. The second character type is mavens who are the knowledgable type. They make it a point to have well informed ideas on a subject and while they might not be as sociable as a connector, they are a prominent figure in peoples lives. They do not usually come off as "know it alls" but instead genuinely have a care for the person they are spreading the information to. The third is the salesmans. these are the people who could convince you to not to do something stupid, or more importantly convince you into something comprimising. Even if they do not have the knowledge on the matter as mavens do, they have the ability to influence people with their unique personality type. These three types of people are the key players in any type of epedemic.

Chp 1 summary

Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point is geared towards explaining the phenomenon of "epidemics" or how mass trends come to be and function in our lives. This subject directly affects everybody, but is sort of set aside in our minds, as it happens so much that it almost feels as a given. He does a very good job in the beginning of the book setting up this notion of epidemics with real life examples, From syphillus outbreaks in Maryland, to the popularization of hush puppies all over america. After the intro, he begins talking about three key factors in epidemics. First is the law of the few. This explores the fact that in order for a trend or virus to be become wide spread it does necessarily matter how many people it affects in the beginning, but that it comes in contact with a vital player in its progress. There are people in this world that have rare and powerful traits that can put something in motion more. The second trait is the stickiness factor. A commercial can be played at prime time on the highest rated network but will not necessarily be successful. He used the example of coke being the official olympic sponsor. After the olympics people were asked if they knew who the official sponsor was, and a surprisingly few viewers knew, and even more surprisingly a handful though pepsi was. This implys that in order for something to be effective, it must have a certain appeal that will cause it to perserve. The third is the power of context. Obviously, the message or virus that is being spread must be sound enough to carry its own weight through the process of being passed along. He used the example of PCP growing into a real problem as appossed to something our bodies used to be able to handle. This first chapter sets up the framework for his very valid and sound argument.

I read alot of (infotainment), informational type literature whether its a magazine or book. I like national geographic, my parents had a subscription for as long as I can remember and I still like to read it when I see a copy out and about. I also like to read lots of reviews and previews on various hobbies that interest me. The internet makes it very easy to read unbiased reviews that otherwise may have been skewed by a seller (although I'm sure the practice of glorified reviews is still out there, the internet offers many sources to filter out the garbage reviews.) I play bass and my old amp and cabinet are on the fritz and I am very excited to purchase a new one. Before i make an appointment to try one out, the internet has helped inform me on where i should begin.