Before I get to me allow me to explain the hopefully clever title of my blog. Zeros and ones at least to me is something I think about when I think about technology and how much information is stored in such a simple way and also how vital that information can prove to be. Sixes and sevens is British slang for crazy, so i guess the title could be interpreted many ways. It's crazy how much we rely on technology, the world is crazy and technology makes it simple or that the technology we use nowadays is crazy, take your pick I suppose.
Now on to myself, Thomas Brent Rooney, I am 22 years old from Philadelphia, PA and am a fifth year senior at Penn State University studying Security and Risk Analysis: Social Factors and Risk Option. I suppose to understand how I came to be involved in SRA in general and more specifically involved with this class I need to open up with you and tell you way too much about my life. I know not too much fun for either of us but seeing as how that's part of the assignment here goes nothing.
My birthday is on tax day and who knew how much money would drive the decisions I would make later on in my life. My grandmother got sick while I was young and my dad got injured unfortunately these situations made me aware of how expensive medical care was and also a little thing I like to call life triage. There are two or three things you could really use or need and can only afford one, make your choice and deal with the other two. My father eventually left, my grand mom passed away and my mom and sister and I struggled to get by.
I was the first one in my family to come to college and then money became an even more pressing concern because we went from scraping by to heaping amounts of debt and I had to choose a major that had a good job market and I had a future in. I came across the college of IST and its high placement rate and I fell in love immediately. It seemed like the cutting edge and a place where I could get a footing, end up with a high paying job with good benefits to help my mom and sister out.
I love the variety of classes and how much different stuff they teach us but at times it feels like what we do doesn't really help anyone. It all seems reactionary and people have already been injured or hurt by something that could have been prevented if we had had the foresight to do something about it. I understand that Crisis Informatics is also reactionary but the incident that caused it was something natural and entirely out of our control. Somehow this makes me feel better about it and also makes me feel like whatever we can do will just be purely to help our fellow man in a way, there is no monetary gain out of it directly.
Sorry for the rambling I hope this explains well enough how I came to be in SRA and more specifically in this class. If not I will try to get better at this whole blog thing and don't worry you will see me in class where I can try and explain it more clearly. Thanks for taking the time to read this if you made it this far, I swear all of my posts wont be so gloomy.
Here's a happy thought to leave you on, one of my new favorite websites is http://thoughtcatalog.com/ . It is a really fun website with people posting random musings on everyday events in a unique way.
The name of your blog is interesting, associating the zeros and ones with the sixes and seven, well thought. Zeroes and ones was easy to figure out; I couldn’t connect them with the sixes and seven though. I definitely agree, it is insane how much society relies on technology. You’re right, the world is crazy and technology makes things simple, at the same time today’s technology is getting nuts.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am majoring in SRA focusing on Social Risk Factor mostly because of the demand for jobs in this field. You mentioned that you wanted to end up with a high paying job with good benefits. I share the same goal, after going a year or so without medical coverage and being uninsured; I quickly understood the importance of finding a career with good medical benefits. Those medical bills are no joke.
I agree with you, the variety of classes offered is awesome; there are so many classes with a ton of information. Again, I couldn’t agree with you more, some of the different information really doesn’t help or benefit anyone. I find myself sitting in some classes wondering why I am paying so much to listen to a bunch of nothing.
A lot of this does seem reactionary; like you mentioned, I think a lot crises are reactive rather that proactive. Each crisis is different in its own way. Nobody will really know how to prevent it or warn people about a crisis until one like it has already happened. After a crisis happens, people can study it, and then we are able to learn from and are able to help people in the future. Like you, I feel most situations are unavoidable or unpredictable; like Haiti, and all we can do is help the people after the fact and continue to learn how we can provide better more efficient help.
I enjoyed reading your blog,
Zach McManigle
http://zrm5026.blogspot.com/
Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI will be reading and grading your blog posts starting after this one, and will be posing feedback in a comment as well as a rubric.
I'm fascinated by your blog title and its meaning. Thanks for introducing yourself and I look forward to reading more posts.
Just a reminder don't forget to comment on 2 other blogs each week.
Greg Traylor
Hi Thomas,
ReplyDeleteCreative name for your blog! I remember hearing about ones and zeroes from a short fiction piece my friend once wrote in high school, but I wasn’t aware of sixes and sevens as a British slang. It’s an interesting combination as a title. I wonder how the sixes and sevens will be applicable to informatics during crisis times- would it make development efforts more decentralized and therefore more “crazy” (although it’s important to ask if decentralization in some cases necessarily equates to less effectiveness)? Or would it even have a role in somehow centralizing the vast network of non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, and humanitarian agencies which so often pursue their goals in isolation of the other groups because, as self-defeating to their overarching goal as it is, they have a “name” or “reputation” to uphold for the survival of their organization? I guess we’ll be learning quite a bit about this in the following months.
Your journey to choosing the major you now have is interesting and I hope you’re finding the area of study to be helpful. I’m really unfamiliar with the SRA and IST departments so I can’t vouch for your comments about it being reactionary, but most things seen to be reactionary. Take anti-terrorist initiatives and policies; they are in essence preventative, but usually come about after an attack or some intended tear to the social fabric. For example, this happened quite a bit with the IRA and the British intelligence, especially after the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane. But I get what you’re saying: if there’s any field of study that should be more geared toward preventative measures, especially with the help of technology, it’s this one (God knows that liberal arts majors like me just dabble in reactionary/creative interpretations and activities). Perhaps your in-class activities will differ from your job-related ones…or let’s hope, anyway.