The Sea of Strangers

How many times have we said to someone, or thought to say, "hey man, who are you?", especially when discussing issues of certain importance? To be "somebody" means to be a person who is held in high esteem by others and who has something important to say or to do in the world. While looking for information on the Web, as well as in everyday-life, it's always better to ask ourselves this question to avoid trusting someone who is not very reliable and thus ending up with loads of useless rubbish.

This week in class we talked about the way in which we usually surf the Web when searching for information, e. g. for an academic research study. The Web is an amazing source of information where people can take an active part by using tools like the Creative Commons (e.g. the big family of the Wikis) or by creating personal environments like blogs or websites. There we can find lots docs and links to what we are looking for and some of these even seem to be very attractive but..are they all reliable? We made a list of the parameters a document should match to be considered a good source of information. First of all its author should be someone qualified to write that article like a scientist, an academic or a student supported by a professor. It should provide enough references in order to allow people to go and leaf through other sources like books or on-line documents- when writing an academic research study students usually start from infos available on the Web and little by little narrow down the field to the old good dusty books. Then we'd better pay attention to the date it was created, since too old an article can prove to be not very useful (the world changes so fast that even today is tomorrow's yesterday!). The list could go on and on since there are loads of criteria to take into consideration and soooo many kinds of topics floating on the Websea, but luckily here they come some nice tools that help us out with our doc hunting! Google Blogs, Google Books and Google Scholar are invaluable allies in fishing out and skimming what we need! They are similar to the most famous Google search but take the searching one step further. The first Google focuses on blogs: just have to type a keyword ("language learning" or anything else) and you'll discover what people are saying on that subject! The second one again works just like web search helping you to find books and giving a preview or even showing the entire text (if out of copyright)..what a nice idea! The last one searches for scholarly literature and helps to identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.
Well guys, I think that our teacher was right on target again!
About me, what can I say? Now I have no more excuses for not beginning to work on my thesis (yes, it's high time I began writing on it!). I have all the tools I may need, I'm home and dry you'd say..well, can you tell me now where I could find a good idea for my thesis too:-)?

Anna

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Obsessions #1

Well, I think that now you all know about my insane fool love for the fruit of sin...yeah, I really have a thing about it, I can't do help it, it's not my fault:-/...damn!
I don't remember (or I prefer to forget) where it comes from...I believe it's a bit my mother's fault..when I was a child she was continually giving me apple paps and juice saying that the little gorgeous fruit was good for me - I would really shoot the one who said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away!! Anyway, things were not so bad in the past, I just had to close my eyes and swallow- simple stuff! Then one day I accidentally run into the source of all this big lovely mess..and I stop here, no need too go further.
What a curse,a long-lasting curse,I wanna free myself from it right now (shouldn't I?)!
Anyway, apples, if bad for my health, are certainly good for my learning! I want to show how this word is used in idiomatic english expressions and what meaning it has..have fun!

• "How do you like them apples"? = what do you think about it? It is an AM english idiom expressing bemusement. For more infos click there.
  
• "She's apples!" = everything is all right (okey dokey,hi hi!!) It's used in colloquial Australian . I love this one, though she's not apples for me ('specially when thinking about apples!!). Need more infos? Drop in here!


• "Everything is in apple-pie order" = everything is tidy and well-ordered. Apple-pie,yummy!
  

Now look at these entries, they're rather different in meaning (I told you, apples are weird!)

• apple sauce = "it's all talk",nonsense, rubbish.
  
  
• apple polisher = toady.

There are other expressions in which "apple" is used, e.g. when something is "as American as apple-pie",meaning that it's typically American, or when someone is "the apple of sb's eye", meaning that she/he is very important to s.o.

Well, now I it's my turn! Since one of the purposes of this e-xperience is to become more creative, I want to give birth to a new expression, a way of being: apple-junkie. I'm an apple-junkie, do you know what I mean;-)?

Anna

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A peephole on my peers' affairs

Reflecting on social bookmarking can prove very nice!
I had a look at my peers' bookmarks and found that we have quite a good deal of things in common: we all searched for websites on language learning, travelling and working.
Valentina, for example saved websites on travelling (need ideas to plan your next trip?) and job offers. Since in del.icio.us there are few bookmarked websites about job ads, I did a little research and would suggest her to take a look at this website- hope it helps!
She bookmarked the lonelyplanet page on travelling: I like her choice because this site is a on-line travel guide that helps you to choose the best destinations at a low price and gives a lot of nice tips about the place you're going to visit!
About Sara choices, she bookmarked a lot of interesting websites on music, job offers and on the UN. One in particular struck me, the playagainstallodds. This is a game hosted in the UNHCR site that simulates the life of a refugee in an oppressed country, trying to escape from the regime and to build up a new life. I enjoyed it because, besides being a funny and easy-to-do game, it is educational and reflective too. Here you can learn a lot about human rights, denied rights and read stories of people who have been prosecuted for opposing to the regime in their country.
Drop in, you'll find them nice!
Bye :-)

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