New Research

Research Outside Brain and Computer

On Monday after our first lesson, I had gone home and brainstormed like crazy. I wasn't struggling to think of book shops -I know many- I just couldn't remember the name of any! I had brainstormed about the ones I could remember then looked in the phone book to see what else there was. So many I had never even heard of. So I researched all of them online and brainstormed about the ones that had websites -or only the ones that had decent websites.

Two pages of mind maps later, I still felt I hadn't done enough. I knew I had to visit the book shops but I don't have much time after uni, with work and all that. On Friday 28th February, I walked around Wellington casually, not on a huge mission for this project but it was the best idea to have a snoop around. I had completely forgot about Graphic and Pulsar Max because I only associated them as comic/manga book shops, I wrote down notes and went in to check them out.

At Pulsar Max the guy was incredibly helpful and had a huge knowledge of his shop. I love that shop anyway and know they sell manga, comics, figurines, toys, cards and games but I wasn't sure of their schedule of their card and gaming events they hold weekly. Unfortunately he said them too fast so I couldn't remember but he said to like the page on Facebook and they post updates of their events. I wanted to note this down because not many book shops have events like these.

I collected a flyer from Pulsar Max and Arty Bees (a second hand book shop -the shop assistant was also incredibly helpful, giving me a map with other labelled second hand book shops on it). I was going to throw these away but realized while looking over my research that night, that this is part of the process and that I should also collect other book shop's flyers.

On Monday or Tuesday, I collected a Massey free magazine and found an advertisement for Bennets Bookstore. Their website in my opinion was hard to follow so I never really understood what they specialized in. But in this advertisement it states it clearly ("New & Secondhand Textbooks" and "Art Supplies & Stationary"). I stuck that in my book because it was so helpful.

I got home on Friday and asked my brother what book shops he knew in Wellington, just in case I had missed any. He wrote a list and labeled next to them which ones were the best new books book shop and best second hand book shop. I thought this was interesting as it gives an opinion which other research I did, doesn't.

Over all I felt I have succeeded well with this research. I wish I had more time to go into Wellington in the weekend to collect flyers again, but I feel I do know a lot about these book shops now.

On another note, at Pulsar Max I got tempted to buy a new deck of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and eventually gave in... I'm happy though because now I have the Blue Eyes White Dragon I've wanted for a while. I actually have two now.

G-Unit out.

I feel like a twit using Twitter

-If you pardon the pun

On Monday I decided to go onto my old Twitter account and delete everything embarrassing on it before I use it for my uni work. I don't understand anything of it -yet. I used to use it just to look at artist G-Dragon's tweets but even then I hadn't logged on in about a year. 

I managed to post a tweet with the hashtag (did you know its actually called a octothorpe?) #coca257 saying: "I really don't know how to use Twitter." and attached a photo of a sad looking G-Dragon and got a reply from Karl saying I seemed to have the idea, so I feel like he is very supportive. 

I don't know if you can "follow" a hashtag  or how to put hashtags in our blogs too... I would like to be able to see the #coca257 tweets on my homepage but I'm a long way from learning how to do that. I feel like I will get frustrated with this site quickly.

I'm still struggling to figure out how to log off Twitter...

G-Unit out.

My First Blog Experience

Changing my Mind and then Changing it Again

I never know how to start writing an essay and so when it comes to writing my first blog entry, it seems that even though this is a more informal way of writing, I find it more challenging. Maybe it's because I know everyone in my class can read this but it is mostly because I am afraid of posting something silly or something I consider "stupid". But in saying that, our tutor Karl Kane said today that what we might consider to be an idea that will take us no where, might in fact be one that could help us discover other fantastic ideas hiding in our head. I want criticism of my ideas and work to push myself to do better and the best I can - as long as along with the criticism, they discuss with me solutions or strong points of my work.

I completed my tables yesterday about the Destination/Activity set but I got confused with the forth row: "Three secondary communication points relevant to all destinations or activities within the set". What? Yes, I did listen in class on Monday but I was completely lost. I filled out the rest of the table and asked the tutor helper Phoebe Smith before class started what it meant. After an explanation I was back on track and ready to discuss my ideas in our groups. I had originally picked Gyms of Wellington but when the gyms I picked weren't different enough (Jetts, Configure Express & Lesmills) I found I wasn't as keen on the subject as I wasn't really "into" these new types of gym ideas I had been introduced into. So I discussed one on one with Phoebe again about my other ideas. She liked my idea of cinemas and I did too. The uniqueness of the Paramount Cinema showing not only Art House films but also Foreign films, really interested me because those are the types of movies my I am very much interested in. But when I found other cinemas weren't as unusual or even that different from each other I decided to go with my third idea: Bookshops of Wellington.

I am keen on this subject and my brother is also a keen second hand book buyer. So with my research I could ask him where book shops are and other queries. Tonight I researched more bookshops in Wellington and found some interesting ones. One of them included a Catholic Bookstore. I think I will go with this one because its very different and seems extremely exclusive yet they portray themselves as extremely keen to get new people into their community.

Next I will pick my final three book stores and visit them before class next week to gather more research and talk to the staff at the shops.

Gin Sparrow