Free Form Blog Narrative Final

http://geocities.com/calipnkcess/Welcome.htm

BlogAbroad

Dear Spring 06 students-

I wanted to pass this along to you in case you were interested. Let us know if you decide to apply, and/or if you become one of the BlogAbroad students!

Kristen

From: SABADVISOR@list.edudirectories.com [mailto:SABADVISOR@list.edudirectories.com] On Behalf Of John Duncan
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 10:06 AM
To: SABADVISOR
Subject: BlogAbroad.com Season 3

Dear advisors,

StudyAbroad.com is looking for four great study abroad students to take part
in http://www.BlogAbroad.com, a living, breathing study abroad handbook.
College students who are studying abroad chronicle their adventures via an
interactive weblog, or blog. Anyone can read and respond to the stories the
“bloggers” tell, and the bloggers can then respond to them, creating an
unparalleled opportunity for students to learn first hand what it is like to
study abroad before they go off on their own adventures.

We have now had two successful seasons of this advocacy project and are
about to start our third.

Tuesday we started accepting student auditions. We are looking for three
study abroad students as well as one international student studying in the
U.S. to tell the world what it is like to study abroad. If you believe you
know of a student who is perfect to do this, please refer them to
http://www.blogabroad.com/audition.html. They must answer a few questions
and write a 250-300 word essay. If we choose them to blog abroad, they will
earn $500 plus a StudyAbroad.com prize pack and will have their writings
read by thousands of people.

This is a great opportunity for your students and your program. Please help
us advocate for international education by sending your students to
http://www.blogabroad.com/audition.html today.

We are also looking for advisor articles for our bi-weekly online
newsletter. If you would like you and your program to be featured in this
newsletter as well as on the BlogAbroad.com website, please e-mail
Kim@BlogAbroad.com with an article or idea.

Thank you so much for your consistent support.


John Duncan
Product Manager - StudyAbroad.com
___________________________

E-mail: jd@studyabroad.com
phone: 1-610-499-9200 fax: 1-610-499-9205
1350 Edgmont Ave., Suite 1100, Chester, PA 19013 USA
_____________________________________

http://www.StudyAbroad.com
"Expose yourself to the world!"

Kristen J. Mallory

Assistant Director, Off-Campus Study, Claremont McKenna College

500 E. Ninth Street, Claremont CA 91711-6400

PH: 909-621-8267, FX: 909-621-8249

kristen.mallory@claremontmckenna.edu

http://offcampus.claremontmckenna.edu/studyabroad/faq.asp

http://washington.claremontmckenna.edu/

Shaviro 2

I was thinking about what Prof. Fitzpatrick said about trying to figure out what pattern or where Shaviro was going with his book. Although i cant say that i've figured out what exactly Shaviro is attempting to do with his book other than saying that we're fucked if we connect, which i dont neccessarily agree with anyway, i have noticed patterns with his "chunklets." I could totallybe off base, but i may also be on the right track.... It seems to me that what shaviro discusses in one chunklet, he continues in someway in the next. He seems to take chunks of infomation of themes of the previous chunklet and in the next one continues the theme but at the same time add new themes. what was in the previous chunklet may not be completely continued in the next, but it seems as if he recombines previous parts of chunklets to form new ideas. i dont know if i was able to accurately convey my idea but i can visualize it. ...... kind of like a brita filter that doesnt filter completey and you refill with water that has different additives in it. and then your refilter it and some bits are taken out but some are left and then recombines with different water. ok i havent slept in 3 days so im delusional. good night.

Shaviro

Upon reading shaviro's book, im finding that he doesnt really employ a traditional sense of continuity in his writing. Its more like he inserts little sections that all have an underlying theme that binds them together. Overall, I have to say that Shaviro provides an easy reading experience by making his sections shorter. its like you have to really pay attention or youll miss something important. he piques your interest.

anyway, I have to say that i completely agree when on page 5 and 6 when he talks about television as a cool medium. He refers back to McLuhan's theory of cool v hot mediums, and makes them a lot clearer. i feel that he makes a more tangible argument for why television is considered a "cooler"medium. yet, shaviro makes it clear that in no way does television make us lazy nor that we do not particiapte with televsion. i had always disagreed with McLuhan's opinion on this. I believe that television is just anotherway to for us to participate, if not very actively, at some level with our community.

another thing i found i found interesting with shaviro, although i have noticed it in other books, was the ease with which one can recontextuallize text and represent it to mean a different, or apply to a different situation.

alienation....alien nation

Sitting at lunch the other day, my friends and i were discussing our pet peeves. One of my friends brought up the fact that she detests it when people walk around with ipods around public settings. She mentioned that she felt that they were trapped in their own bubble and that this made those ipod wearers particularly unapproachable in her opinion. This just reminded me of another way that new media and techonology have continued to individualize our society. An ipod, especially with their portablity, makes it particularly easy for an indivual to customize his or her esperience in everyday life. In fact, more than anything , I believe that an ipod has become a statement. at anypoint such an indivual can be labeled as artsy, a music lover, brooding, off-putting......etc. One thing is, that accesibility to an ipod is restricted by its price. although relatively affordable, there are certainly people that cannot afford to have one. so in a way, an ipod has become a social marker. for the haves and have nots. I understand that sometiems you just want to walk around listening to your favorite tunes, but until this time i hadnt thought about the image i was projecting to others as i walked around campus with my ipod. personally i wasnt so muc interested in changing my experience but more so to have a time to enjoy my music and enhance my travels aroudn the 5cs.

orginal v. altered.

The other night my roomate and i are doing our homework in our room when she suddenly says that she can't write in the book she was reading. I asked her why, and she said she didnt feel right writing in a book that had been published in 1920. She said that it was like defacing it. And then I remembered how it hadnt always been the case that i had been allowed to write in my books. In fact, in highschool we were fined if we wrote in any of our books. This made me think about why sometimes its so important to people to preserve books in their original condition. I guess it has something to do with the possibility of inserting your own opinion into a book that you were never a part in publishing. The fact that you can actually write in a book brings with it the possibility for you to present an opinion and in a way "publish" an opinion that may run contrary to th orginal authors intent--especially if someone else gets a chance to read the book that you wrote in. and then this extends the possibility of them not experiencing the book in the way that t he author originally intend. But rather, the insertion of yours words have slightly morphed the book or text into a slighty different experience. On the other hand, i find it completely neccessary to write in books when they are used for academic purposes. my side notes help me to remember more clearly what i read. they also help my mark particularly interesting passages. forexample, in this class i often take notes on the margins when i encounter something i would like to post in my blog about. although my writing brings with it a possibility of changing of the text, it also allows for me to remember what i read and also an opportunity for me to leave my own mark and an opinionated student and potential author.

Anderson and databse narratives

“Database narrative refers to narratives whose structure exposes or thematizes the dual processes of selection and combination that lie at the heart of all stories, Kinder explains, particular data – characters, images, sounds, events – are selected from a series of databases or paradigms, which are then combined to generate specific tales.”

I was particularly interested in this aspect of Anderson’s essay because it basically captures exactly what I feel a database narrative does. Especially with the idea that Anderson suggests that a “digital artist is afforded a seeming infinitude of possibilities through the recombination of bits.”

I think that in general, new media affords the artist to recombine existing mediums in order to create new ones. New media doesn’t necessitate a completely new medium, simply reorganization according to the artist’s vision to represent such vision.

Furthermore, Dreamewaves (http://www.dreamwaves.net), uses a database to collectivize cultural realities to recreate a communal reality. Which in its own way, creates connections (although not necessarily explicit) within the participating community.

It is these ideas that I am proposing to a certain extent in my own final project. I am taking bit and parts of my life and presenting some pre-set modes of viewing in order to allow the viewer a greater variety and choice in how to perceive my narrative. By presenting my narrative, I am also adding to the collective cultural reality.

One thing I noticed that the rapid availability of media nowadays has definitely played a part on the instant availability and gratification I expect on delivery. I noticed this especially when I tried going to one of the links on Anderson’s page and it was a dead link. It frustrated me to the extent I had to laugh and realize it wasn’t even that big of a deal. Not to mention having to walk to Crookshank to have to walk, I just feel that technology has added to my sense of entitlement to rapid and unlimited access to information. When in reality, my access is limited if anything by the things I choose to access.

On a side note, why do all of these database narratives seem to have dark moods? It makes me nervous in anticipation of what’s going to happen next. I liked the automatic randomization because it’s exciting and unexpected and that it allows me to take a step back and try to imagine the connections that the database is constructing between scenes and what not. Yet, at the same time, but I’m still not at ease with relinquishing almost complete choice in what is presented to me. But if anything, this proves what Anderson says that “People are realizing that today the questions about an image are linked to the questions about databases – in other words, thinking about an image today means thinking about databases.”

Speaker

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder,

From: students-l-manager@claremont.edu
[mailto:students-l-manager@claremont.edu] On Behalf Of Suzanne
Zetterberg
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2005 4:15 PM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ALEXA FULLERTON HAMPTON SPEAKER SERIES
Voice and Vision
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scripps College cordially invites you
to an evening with

Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook Founder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Face Behind thefacebook.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wednesday
November 9th
7:30 p.m.
Garrison Theater
Scripps College Performing Arts Center
(10th and Dartmouth)

This talk is free and open to the public on a
first-come, first-served basis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Zuckerberg, along with two colleagues founded the Facebook,
formerly thefacebook, in February 2004. The online directory is a social
networking website specifically for college, university, and high school
communities.



At the end of Zuckerberg's sophomore year at Harvard University, he took
a leave of absence to develop the Facebook with his college roommates.
The young entrepreneurs used the printed directories that many colleges
give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a foundation for the
website.



Users post profiles that can include their photos, contact information,
interests, and academic schedules. They can post messages and form
online groups centered on common interests. As of 2005, it has the
largest number of registered users among college networking sites, there
are 8.5 million users in the United States, Canada, and Europe.



The Alexa Fullerton Hampton Speaker Series is made possible through the
generous bequest of Alexa Fullerton Hampton, Scripps class of 1942.



www.scrippscollege.edu/dept/commons/index.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FMI: 909.607.9372

random technology thing....

EMI hate iPods
EMI have decided to copy control all their future UK and international compact disc releases from November 7th. Before copy control technology was only used on international and promotional releases.

Not that this usually prevents anyone from ripping their CDs, except that new software developments being implemented in these releases will mean they no longer rip to iTunes or any other iPod software.

Apparently this has been decided 'to create a return to stereo-play and steer the company further away from piracy and increase awareness of legal downloading for users of mp3 devices'.

Yes. Because that worked the first time.

Univeral recently announced it would be dropping copy control technology from all its releases, as the software was 'unreliable' and 'outdated'.

SOURCE- popjustice

------------------
This is the worst idea ever.



Athlete (Regal)
Auf der Maur
Beastie Boys (Parlophone / Capitol)
The Beta Band (Regal)
Blur (Food/Parlophone)
David Bowie (EMI America / Virgin)
Kate Bush
The Chemical Brothers (Virgin)
Marillion
Joe Cocker (Parlophone)
Coldplay (Parlophone)
The Concretes
Graham Coxon (Parlophone)
The Dandy Warhols (Parlophone / Capitol)
The Departure (Parlophone)
Dirty Vegas (Parlophone)
Doves (Heavenly)
The Duke Spirit (Heavenly)
Duran Duran
Faith Evans
Fischerspooner
Gorillaz (Parlophone)
Ed Harcourt (Heavenly)
Heart (Capitol)
Idlewild (Parlophone)
Iron Maiden
Jane's Addiction (Parlophone / Capitol)
Norah Jones (Parlophone)
Junior Senior
King Biscuit Time (Regal)
Beverly Knight (Parlophone)
Kraftwerk
LCD Soundsystem
The Magic Numbers (Heavenly)
Paul McCartney (Parlophone / Capitol)
George Michael
Kylie Minogue (Parlophone)
The Music (Hut)
Pet Shop Boys (Parlophone)
Pink Floyd (Harvest)
Beth Orton (Heavenly)
Radiohead (Parlophone)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Roll Deep (Relentless)
The Rolling Stones (Virgin)
Sigur Rós
Sparklehorse (Parlophone)
Starsailor
Steriogram
Joss Stone (Relentless)
Supergrass (Parlophone)
KT Tunstall (Relentless)
Robbie Williams

I GOT IT FROM http://www.livejournal.com/community/ohnotheydidnt/4040554.html

I was just more interested in the whole wanted to encourage going back to stereos and what not part of the argument. its interesting how they would mention that because most people seem to think that newer is better. you tend to forget tht there are somepeople who prefer older technology. not saying that that is EMIs true reasons, but in general, some people may perfer older techonology.

Thoughts I had in class

I had a few random thoughts in class. Jotted them down. Now im going to post them. Yay.

I know that we started to talk about how books can't really push the envelop in their actual form because they tend to follow the traditional codex form. And then i realized how the most experimental books are actually in the form of childrens books. You know, the kind where its a story and it has buttons on the side and when in the narrative the little symbol comes up in the story you press the corressponding button. or they have childrens books with little patches of texture, or holes, or flaps. highly interactive. the reader can choose his or her own path. i think that definitely says something about how the younger we are we are more likely and more willing to be open to experimental forms of be it literature or whatever.

Next, I think that comics are considered dangerous especially when they tend to be subversive to the accepted or dominant ideology (ie sexually explicit content) because they are in picture form. you dont neccessarily need to be literate to undertsand a comic. to get the full effect, you do. but i can see how people now and in the past would have considered them dangerous because it threatened their power by having the ability to educate and disseminate information the less powerful sector of societey.

Last, i had it difficult to be able to imagine a digital comic until yesterday in class because i had never seen on. I guess this speaks to their popularity not really ever having achieved a relatively well known status. I also had trouble with McCloud saying that digital comic could incorporate sound and movement because i think of tha as cartoons. unless he is saying that a cartoon is an overdeveloped comic in terms of animation. but then it lacks text. so. then. whedre does that leave us?

for a "comic"/cartoon i fiind amusing go to www.illwillpress.com and go to the comic section. Foamy thr Squirrel is amazing. and also close to what i imagine a overdeveloped comic sans text would be. let me know.

Reinventing Comics

I have to say that I was so stoked we read this book over break. I was a little bummed out we had to read over break, but i actualy enjoyed this. imagine that. i think ill have to go out and read the first of McCloud's books now.

Anyway....

When I first started reading this book, I thought "oooo this will be a breeze. its all pictures and just a little bit of text." Not so much. Its funny, but rather than just reading the words, I found myself drawn to his illustrations. SO instead of just reading a little, it actually took a bit longer to get through this book because i focused so much attention to his pictures. But its the same pictures that also functioned to help my memory of what i had been reading throughout the book. SO instead of fragmenting my patter of thought, i think that it just reinforced it.

Now going back to hypertext, I find that this book is very much a work of hypertext. I found myself interacting with the text jumping back and forth through the book making connections with McCloud's ideas. I also found myself actually engaging with his asterisks and going online and researching some of the comics and such that he mentioned. I also kept relating between McCloud's text and previous authors we've read.

As far as the actual content of McClouds book, I was particularly interested in the Revolutions that suggested diversification as a way to reinvent comics. I realized that diversification is basically the basic building block that will reopen public interest and pursuit of comics.

overall: good holiday fun!!

Larsen

I like the title that larsen using "Missung Rain" and allof the allusions to water (even the colors remind me of water), because it flows well with the narrative, Anna disappeared much how water evaporates. Yet, because Anna isnt water, she left traces of herself in the form of letters.

These letters reminds of how easily accesible everything you do on the internet is. NOthign that you do or write can every really be erased form the internet. and access to many things are not restricted.

Not only that, but your supposed free use of the internet today is just as policed as the earlier form of codex form books were. Yet, in many ways, i find that the internet has a greater potential for threat as pubblishing in through this medium is less costly and in general more accessible to the general public than say the publishing of a book would be. therefore, there is a greater opportunity for potentially subversive opinions to be voiced. Not that i agree on the policing of internet on many counts, but i definitely do see how those in power could become wary of allowing such a "free" use of such a powerful modem of communication. I'm also not suggesting that the internet is new in this idea of diseminating ideas, since books have been doing that, in fact any form of verbal or written communication has the ability to disemminate ideas. I just think that the internet is probably more powerful that most people realize it is. you know, the average joe. cheers

ringtoning my life

As one of my alarms on my cell phone went off, my friend commented, “Geez, you have A LOT of ringtones.” To which I matter of factly responded “well yeah, they all mean different alerts.” Like she SHOULD know. How is she supposed to know that one is for calls, one for text messages, one for my daily alarm, and one for any other reminders. And that made me think that’s aside from it being humorous how dependent I am on modern techonology to remind me of different things throughout the day, that its also pretty amusing that we also forget that not all the techonology we use in our daily lives may not be necessary in everyone else’s lives. Or even if they do use it, it may come to represent different needs and uses. In other words, how could I expect my friend to make sense of my ringtones when in reality they only make sense to me because it is a system created by me. And really only valid to me. Hey, its kind of like my own personal portable electronic language. Sweet!!!

love the game for the game not the extra toppings

So let me play devil’s advocatefor awhile.

Ok so, ,I went to the UCLA v. Cal football game at the Rose Bowl today and I was a little amazed at the digital technology (overabundant if you ask me) present at the stadium. I felt like I was at a NFL game. There were digital scoreboards and televisions bombarding you with live actions and instant replays. Which is great and all, but I felt an overload of information when I should just have been watching and enjoying the actual game rather than focusing my attention on the television screens. It really bothered me when I turned away from the field to look at the last “awesome” play, only to miss the beginning of another play. Instead of just paying attention to the whole game, I found myself relying on the ability to just watch in on the screen if I missed it the first time around. Totally making me a lazier and less involved fan. If I wanted to go to a game to be entertained by the amount of technological overzealousness I would go to Angel Stadium. (hehehehe bitterness much?) What happened to the good old days where you went to the game for the game? And food? Rather than all the fancy schmancy things huh? OH well, thank goodness for D-3 colleges like ours.

ergodic literature

A complete side note before I begin my entry, but at the end of reading this weeks reading (Aarseth’s intro), I relaized that Aarseth ‘s suggestions are exactly what my whole final project is going to touch on. Esspecially when he says that “emerging new media technologies are not important in themselves or as alternatives to older media, but should be studied for what they can tell us about the principles and evolution of human communication.” (AArseth 17).

Entry:

Upon reading the first, I found it esspcially difficult to understand Aarseth’s suggestion that “[i]n ergodic literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text. If ergodic literature is to make sense as a concept there must also be nonergocic literature, where the effort to traverse the text is trivial, with noextranometric responsibilities placed on the reader (for example) eye movements and the periodic or arbitrary turning of pages.” I had a pretty big problem with this. Mostly because I feel he is suggesting that there is a type of reading in literature that allows for the full relaxation and disuse of your mind.

First off, I am not okay with the suggestion that a mindless reading can exist. This would mean that certain readings and opinions based on such readings would be equally mindless. Secondly, I don’t believe a truly nonergodic reading as Aarseth suggestions is possible because I CANNOT turn off my mind. Even in sleep. I AM NOT A MACHINE.

Yet another section in Aarseth’s introduction syas that when “you read from a cybertext, you are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard…you may nmever know know the exact results of your choices, that is, exactly what you missed” (Aarseth 3). This reminded me of Joyce’s Afternoon, A Story. Our class reading of his text was dependent on the paths, or choices, we made as a class. Yet, in this type of setting many voices were muted as such a diversity of paths was not possible as there was only one computer to complete the activitiy in. So, if you choice was not the chosen path, you were dissatisfied and wondering where your path would have led to. And even if you path was chosen, how the experience would have been different if another choice had been made. Even if we pressed the “back” button for every choice the class made and chosen a different option, there is really no way to ensure that the outcome of option 2 would have been the exact result if option 2 had really been option 1.

Whew. Brain melt down. Hopefully that just made sense. Because halfway through that entry it stopped making sense. Hahaha. Its so much harder to explain your thoughts in writing because so much of the “logical” conclusions and links that you make in your mind only exist in your mind. Unless you actually make such connections explicit, then you risk confusing the reader. Cheers!

Making connections with people and course readings-experimental post

“Are you ok?” asked my best friend as I paced her apartment this afternoon. “Yeah, I’m fine.I’m just walking it off. My brain is overloaded.” This was right after I finished reading this week’s Monday’s reading. I didn’t mean overloaded due to the difficulty of the reading, although at times challenging to the point of overloading, this time I meant more in terms of how the reading for this course makes me think. I’ve begun to build myself a sort of “memex” if you will with all of the readings we’ve done so far this semester. I find myself constantly relating whatever it is I’m currently reading to whatever it is we’ve read recently and create my own little connections, or links, between articles. These connections take the form of margin notes in my own handwriting. The fact that I’m actually handwriting on the printed text brings into question how an intermingling of mediums can occur and how my notes plus the printed text come to form a sort of multimedium text. *stop to receive and send text message on my cell phone* In fact, I am writing this blog on a piece of paper before typing it out because I’m at a friends house without my laptop. I thought it would be interesting to see how my writing style changes when its on paper originally versus it being on the computer originally. I was actually thinking about using Kristen’s idea of taking a picture of my entry and posting that but I think that everyone’s vision would suffer as a result of trying to decipher my writing. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve handwritten this much without it being inclass since early highschool. I feel like my hand is about to fall off but I feel compelled to keep writing because my mind is racing. Its funny how accustomed I’ve become to typing that my hand cannot keep up with how fast my mind is thinking. Normally, if I were typing I wouldn’t be having this problem. Shakespeare must have had a tough time actually getting all of his thoughts down on paper. I guess its true that technology has really given us a break. I actually find it interesting how my life is now a never-ending web of information that is interconnected with other people’s webs. We have telephones, cell phones, computers, cameras, camera phones, Google, the internet, facebook, navigation systems, GPS tracking systems, security cameras, television, cars, and campus networks. We are all so incredibly connected to each other; yet, this technological connection also allows for physical disconnection. Sitting here, I can hear my pen as I write, my friend as she types, the neighbor’s music, my cell phone beep and I can’t help but think that because I am never totally cut off from people at anyone time, the time that I do physically spend with people may not be as in-depth as it would be if techonology were not as readily available. Its not that I’m supporting a return to a completely oral culture, but I guess its nice to think that at one point people were more deeply connected versus easily connected. So I guess I’ll cut off this blog here because its pretty disjointed as I kind of just let the pen do the writing of whatever it was my mind was thinking.

**I didn’t edit my original thoughts, which is why it may or may not make sense and why there are no paragraphs. CHEERS if you get throught this little experimental entry of mine.

Bush and Borges

As I was reading Bush's "As We May Think," I found myself interested in his idea that we as humans are "being bogged down today as specialization extends." (37). I think this relates again to the idea that the more infromation we are presented with, our literate brains have lost all power to organize and utilize our brains to lead our daily lives. I think that prioritizing information becomes harder because we are just being bombarded frmo all sides with things and ideas. I have to agree with Bush when he suggests that a "catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated all about us, as truly signifiant attaintments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential" (37). I think its also possible to say that not only these attainments, but it become impossible for ourselves sometimes to form our own significant opinions about such attainments. Such bombardment leaves us disensitized or too tired to do this, so we allow for other people to bombard us with their opinions and we simply accept them as truths. this may not be the case all then time, but i believe that such acceptance of circumstances has come around.

And just when i thought that Bush was going to suggest a technology that would "help" humans increase their own memory, he suggest the memex. this has to be the biggest suggestion to aid the loss of a human created memory and increase laziness of the literate human mind. while it does create a collective memory, it seems to me that it increased the blind acceptance within society by being able to facilite the direct transfer of memory and knowledge from person to person without really allowing for the opportunity for the receiver to assemble knownledge within his own mind in his own personal way.

On a lighter tone, I though that The Introduction to "The Garden of the Forking Paths" use of "symbology" as a word was interesting (29). One would normally think os using sumbolism. Actually to quote one of my favorite movies, The Boondock Saints, in which one of the characters uses the word "symbology," another character corrects him and says "I think that the word you're looking for is symbolism. SYmbolisssssm." I guess thats just another way to prove how our minds are never alone and how different mediums and texts are always interuppting.

jet blue and kittler

I found myself reading Kittlet's article in a state of confusion. Mostly because i felt that I had more questions than anything in regards to his claims. But the section that most baffled me was when he talked about how "One is informed-mainly, unfortunately, thanks to the jumbo jets. In the jumbo jet,media are more densely connected than in most places." Now i don't know how accurate that is nowadays, but as I was reading, i remember thinking and actually writing on my margin "What? WHAT?!!!" I even read that section to a few friends who responded in the same manner.

Then the next dayJet blue incident occured. And then I found an interesting article in the Fox News website in which many of the passengers described a heightened sense of distress due to the fact that they could actually see their ordeal on the plane televisions. This immediately made me think of Kittler's article. It simply put that confusing section about the jet planes into perspective. I still disagree about it being the most densely mediated situation that one can be in today, but I defintely understand that the degree of today's mediation in planes is intense enough to provoke a sense of immediatcy or just an intensefied immediacy as in the case of Thursday's flight passengers.

From the FoxNews Website:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170076,00.html

JetBlue Flight Lands Safely Thursday, September 22, 2005

LOS ANGELES — The airliner circled Southern California for hours, crippled by a faulty landing gear, while inside its cabin 140 passengers watched their own life-and-death drama unfolding on live television. While satellite TV sets aboard JetBlue Flight 292 (search) were tuned to news broadcasts, some passengers cried. Others tried to telephone relatives and one woman sent a text message to her mother in Florida attempting to comfort her in the event she died. "It was very weird. It would've been so much calmer without" the televisions, Pia Varma of Los Angeles said after the plane skidded to a safe landing Wednesday evening in a stream of sparks and burning tires. No one was hurt. Varma, 23, and other passengers said the plane's monitors carried live DirectTV broadcasts on the plane's problems until just a few minutes before landing at Los Angeles International Airport. The landing gear trouble — the front wheels were stuck in a sideways position — was discovered almost immediately after the plane departed Bob Hope Airport (search) in Burbank at 3:17 p.m., en route to New York City. The Airbus A320 circled the Long Beach Airport (search), about 30 miles south of Burbank, before being cleared to land at Los Angeles. It stayed in flight for three hours to burn off fuel, said Federal Aviation Administration (search) spokesman Donn Walker. Zachary Mascoon of New York said it was "surreal" to watch his plane's fate being discussed on live TV while it was in the air. At one point, he said, he tried to call his family, but his cell phone call wouldn't go through. "I wanted to call my dad to tell him I'm alive so far," the 27-year-old musician said. The pilot finally brought the plane down, back wheels first. As he slowly lowered the nose gear, the stuck wheels erupted in smoke and flames, which quickly burned out. "At the end it was the worst because you didn't know if it was going to work, if we would catch fire. It was very scary. Grown men were crying," said Diane Hamilton, 32, a television graphics specialist. As the plane was about to touch the ground, Hamilton said crew members ordered people to assume a crash position, putting their heads between their knees. "They would yell, "Brace! Brace! Brace!'" she said. "I thought this would be it." Lisa Schiff, 34, of Los Angeles sent a text message to her mother in Miami that said: "I love you. Don't worry about me. If something happens, know that I am watching you and Daddy and [her brother] David." Emergency crews from across the area met the plane on the runway. Spectators gathered on buildings and stood on parked cars to see firsthand as passengers walked down a stairway onto the tarmac with their carry-on luggage. Some passengers shook hands with emergency workers and waved to cameras. One firefighter carrying a boy across the tarmac put his helmet on the child's head. "We all cheered, I was bawling, I cried so much," said Christine Lund, 25, who was traveling with her cat. She and the other passengers were taken by bus from the tarmac to the airport's international terminal. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (search), who spoke with the pilot, identified him as Scott Burke and praised him for the calm he showed during the flight. "He joked that he was sorry he put the plane down 6 inches off the center line," Villaraigosa said. Ann Decrozals, an Airbus spokeswoman at the aircraft manufacturer's headquarters in France, said the A320 was designed to be able to land with front wheel problems. JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said the airline was investigating the incident with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (search). She declined to identify the pilot and first officer. Airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said some passengers were to take a specially arranged JetBlue flight for New York after the emergency landing; others were put up in hotels and given reservations for Thursday flights. Still others simply returned home. Among the latter group was Varma, who was greeted by her parents at the terminal. "It started out just being a ghastly birthday, but now it's just fabulous," said Varma, who turned 51 on Wednesday. JetBlue, based in Forest Hills, N.Y., is a five-year-old low-fare airline with 286 flights a day and destinations in 13 states and the Caribbean. It operates a fleet of 81 A320s.

Afterthought

I just remebered something that came to me in class the other day. Well technically, I didnt "remember." Rather, I found a note I had written for myself on my notes. Ah, literacy, so helpful, yet always aiding my becoming a lazier being. or obsessive-compulsive post-it user.

Anyway, my note says "need to conquer=need to name everything." I remember thinking in class when someone mentioned Ong's thoughts on how literate cultures have the tendency to name everything how this is very much connected to how our culture operates. Oral cultures only name things that are pertinent to their lives, and everything else is a non issue. In contrast, today, and I'm making this observation with the United States in mind since its the culture I'm most acquainted with, we have names for things that we may not even know exist. Then I thought, "well, our need to name everything with such labels must surely relate to our need to know everything, to own everything, and thus, to conquer everything."

While I'm all about constantly learning new things, I do have to wonder how much of our current culture is based upon remaining on top and keeping everyone else beneath us. And if this is the case, what will that cost other cultures?

Slammed with Hypermediacy

This past week I found myself sitting in class film viewing unaware that I was about to be overwhelmed by a sort of visual, textual, and audial blend. Or as we have come to know in this class as "hypermediacy." From what I heard in class, most people were significantly perplexed by the amount of content in Natalie Bookchin's "The Intruder." Unfortunately, I didn't get this experience first hand since I had forgotten to turn on my speakers during the exercise. Luckily *note the sarcasm*, I was able to experience a jumble of information shot out at my rapid fire style during a film regarding plastic surgery of the eyelids in Asians.

The film consisted of a split screen. with black and white text scrolling on the left hand side and on the right, various consultations with plastic surgeons. The text was a doctor's in-depth account of performing frontal lobotomies. Very very descriptive. I know that we were supposed to tie in the text with the cosmetic surgery procedure, but I was completely unable to do that during the film. First off, the speed of the scrolling text made it difficult to watch and listen to the audio of what was going on in the right hand screen. Thus, completing missing out on the content of that part. Then, despite the repulsive description of the lobotomies, I simply couldn't stop reading. And then when I remembered I also had to listen to the rest of the film, I had to stop reading and start watching and listening. I felt myself overly-engaged. At the end of the film, I was completely overwhelmed and quite frankly, nauseated. The reason for the queasiness could very well have been due to the content of the text, but I'm actually more convinced that my rapid eye movements from screen to screen played a bigger part of it.

I'm honestly not quite sure of the intent of the creator, although if confusion played into the intended formula and reaction to the film, then "cheers!" They surely succeeded in creating a hypermediactic medium in which i was not able to immerse myself completely into the experience without feeling constantly jostled about by the content.


**This thought came to me randomly while blogging this entry, but someone may find it interesting. I was thinking of Bookchin's title "The Intruder" and how we as readers of media come up with our own interpretations of given media. Well, in a way, aren't we intruders into the author's creation by creating such assumptions? Because, although I know that the content of Bookchin's "game" referred to an intruder within the narrative, I felt like an intruder who played an active role in whether or not the action continued within the game, but I also felt that I became the brothers' accomplice. Or is it that the media intrudes in my life. OOOOO!!! ;)

just found this

I just found thing on CMC's website. A little late notice. Sorry. It could be interesting though.


David Mason '79 on Regulating Blogging
Date Issued: 09/12/2005
David Mason ’79, a member of the Federal Election Commission’s Litigation Committee, will address the question Should Bloggers Be Regulated? during his lunchtime visit to the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Wednesday, Sept. 14. His lecture will begin at 12:15 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Prior to his nomination to the FEC by President Clinton in 1998, Mason–– a political science major who graduated cum laude––served as deputy assistant secretary of defense, guiding base-closing legislation. He has served on Capitol Hill and was a Republican nominee for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 48th District, in 1982. (More: http://www.fec.gov/members/mason/masonbio.shtml.)
For more information about this event, visit the current Fortnightly: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/mmca/temp_fn.asp?volumeFN=21&issueFN=01&typeFN=f.

On Orality and Literacy

On page 31, Ong goes on to say that "[f]ully literate persons can only with great difficuly imagine what a primary oral culture is like." Before coming to that statement, I had actually stopped reading and tried to imagine what an oral culture would be like and realized how entirely different my life would be if that was the case. Things that I've taken for granted my whole life like alphabet soup, books, and freeway signs would not exist. I cannot fathom how things would have to be adjusted in order to fit into that kind of culture.

Initially, when I started reading the assignment, I found myself being skeptical of how "sophisticated" or "functional" such a culture could be. As I kept reading, i was proven wrong as I realized that in many ways, an oral culture is more "formal" that a literate culture. Without intricate formulas, rhythmn, and patterns of speech, this type of culture would not work. I can only imagine the dedication it would take to be a student and master of oral culture based music and rituals. Nowadays, you can buy a "Dummies Guide to *________*" and be somewhat knowledgeable regarding a subject.

In many ways, one can argue that literacy has made modern culture lazy. We only memorize what we find pertinent and everything else, we can make a list of, write down in a journal, blog, etc. While I've always thought that the simplicity and the ability to write things down and not commit them to memory was the only way to afford permanence, I had never contemplated the idea that intricacy and oral patterning could also afford a certain type of permanence. I guess its just another way to show how condidtioned we are to think that our way is the only way. Embarassingly enough, when asked his opinion about why a person would answer differently than him, a man belonging to a culture that I had previously labeled in my mind as "unsophisticated," honestly and cleverly replied that "[p]robably that kind of thinking runs in his blood" (51). Imagine that, a diversity in thought.

Furthermore, I found it interesting when Ong said that "writing and reading are solitary activities" while "oral communication unites people" (68). How many times have we heard people say that they read as a means to escape reality and "lose" themselves in the story? While I myself enjoy a good read and even time to myself, this reading has made me consider the possibility that perhaps we have become too individualized a society. Maybe if we were to integrate more oral (communication) based activies into our daily lives, we'd become a more united community. Perhaps.

Re-mediating my original post

First off, imagine my surprise when I log on to make a new post and I notice that my first post never actually got posted. I guess if i wanted to I could blame it on something, but I suppose never having been one to take on Blogs, I'm at fault. C'est la vie.

I wish that I remembered exactly what I had originally written out, but not having committed it to mind verbatim and it having been about a week since I read the Bolter and Grusin chapters, I'll do my best to recall some key points.

*I feel that The Introduction section is the section in which B&G are able to most coherently make their arguement(s) regarding the double logic of remediation and the contradictory logic of immediacy and hypermediacy. Much (if not most) of the information in the following chapters seemed superfluous and really only worked to confuse me on what exactly they were trying to explain. I remember reading a few pages in one of the sections thinking that i understood what was going on only to get to the end of the section and be like "Wait...What??" and then having to go back and re-read it.

Thankfully, Wednesday's class discussion helped to clarify some of the points.

On page 21, B&G acknowledge that differing viewpoints exist when they say that "immediacy [hypermediacy, etc] may mean one thing to theorists, another to practicing artists and designers, and a third to viewers." Interestingly enough, upon relfection, didn't we explore exactly those opinions on Thursday's class discussion on what the terminology meant? Score!

P.S. Pomona ITS just gave a call in the middle of this post to tell me that over a week after my initial request, they finally have my password ready. Whoa hypermediatic (is that a word? or can i just make it up?) existence of mine!