getting hyper

Friday, December 26, 2003

It would not be fair to the intellectual and refined superiority of the female gender if the last post recorded here was written by a male. Hence here is a nice conclusion.

I've been reflecting a bit upon what makes honor's students honor's students, and essentially nothing does. This might seem ridiculous but it perfectly describes us as a group. We are those whom are unique, but in a truly critical manner: we think spontanesly, write freely, act immature, act sophisticated, respect authority, defy the rules of nature, and most importantly stand out as those individuals whom will either succeed or never be forgotten.

~out.
posted by Marianna Friday, December 26, 2003

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

Of course, I had to be hypocritical and delete my previous post, as it was rather impolite and inappropriate. My apologies to those who actually care (which might not be many, I'm afraid.) Anyway, I hope this further absolves me from my previous misdemeanors. I'm out.
posted by Anonymous Wednesday, October 01, 2003

Thursday, September 11, 2003

"The perciever and the percieved create each other,"

~Prof. Vitek, LP241

Ironically this raises the profound question as to the natural construct of reality. Indeed it may seem feasible that all of society, color, existance and reality are constructs of the human mind or illusions instilled by some sort of personalized, individaul perceptions of nature.

In short this realates to the existance of both the internet and the notion of this web log. If indeed both become stagnantly ignored by its inventors, would indeed its very existance be extinquished. Somehow this web log has both existed and remained non existant due to the lack of new and improved text. Will this blog eventually flee from existance as it evaporates from out minds?
posted by Marianna Thursday, September 11, 2003

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Josh:

It is much more comfortable to be mad and know it, than to be sane and have one's doubts.
~G. B. Burgin
posted by Hope Thursday, July 24, 2003

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

What kind of person would post to the HP101 blog in the summer? Oh, wait...
posted by Josh Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Friday, July 18, 2003

De rien.
posted by Anonymous Friday, July 18, 2003

Merci, Sigmund.

posted by Marianna Friday, July 18, 2003

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Just for a taste of history, Marianna, I post here for you. Enjoy it deeply, as unless I am otherwise convinced, I will not be poisting here again for a long time. However, if the blog becomes just Marianna, Professor Duemer, and myself, then is there a point? We would be better off simply holding discussions through email, or even better in person. That is a disadvantage to weblogs, but perhaps people appreciate the anti-personal characteristics...
posted by Anonymous Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Monday, June 30, 2003

Indeed I question deeply what I am doing back on the shores of Clarkson. While here at least I have realized that not another soul stirs upon the ghostly coast of "getting hyper" as it drifts stagnantly into our memories and out of our thoughts and priorities

posted by Marianna Monday, June 30, 2003

Friday, June 20, 2003

If you guys want me to, I can leave this blog up indefinitely. Marianna seems to need some company, so if anybody checks in here, IM it around that this is a place where anybody who wants to can talk about anything they want to.
posted by Joseph Duemer Friday, June 20, 2003

Wednesday, June 04, 2003

I personally don't see any reason why this blog needs to be eliminated. Except from the fact that we are all hanging on Professor Duemer's account, I think a class blog is a really great idea. In fact I often miss causing arguments to spontaneously errupt or seeing sides of class mates shrouded by setting outwardly facades. In actuality I miss taking the time to use a web log as an outlet for intellectual dabbling, and ritual writing. Without it I find myself cursing interally at the utter lack of intelligent life forms in the desolate setting of summer bordeom.
posted by Marianna Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Friday, May 23, 2003

That's like if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a noise? Same type of question.
posted by Anonymous Friday, May 23, 2003

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

If no one deletes this blog, but no one visits it either, does it still exist?
posted by dave Wednesday, May 07, 2003

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

I'll take my dollar, Norm, thank you very much. I'll buy a a little more than a hundred penny gumballs with it at Abbott's Big-M in Syracuse and I'll enjoy EVERY SINGLE ONE.

I thought I would post the essay that I was going to write but didn't, just so sombody could read it. If anyone gets something out of it, you've learned more than I have.

Computers started annoying me before I was born. My mom had a job as a software programming department manager at American Cancer. She would write $edit and Cobol programs that would work in tandem to manage the immense databases that the organization uses. The machines that she programmed filled up rooms. The hard disks would fail frequently, so the enitre system needed to be backed up twice daily on immense reams of magnetic tape. During this time I was gestating, and the clickity-clackity of nails on keyboard apparently annoyed me to no end. When my mom would type, I would kick her belly until she stopped. After a week of this my mom decided to take leave and I calmed down. I was born and she never went back.
Although it needs to be typed, I am hand-writing the first draft of this paper. Typing the first draft is impossible, distracting. After every few words on a computer, I need to stop, find out "who's on," check a few away messages, put on a new .mp3. Nothing gets done.
My first computer was the one I used to play "NumberMuncher" in the first grade. My first program involved eating the numbers before the troggles ate you. It was a fascinating introduction into the rhetoric of video games: learn and be eaten in the same game! In any event, one day my teacher rotated our desks and put mine squarely next to the computer. This put me in the position to spend all of my time watching "Troggle" rather than adding and subtracting. When my teacher called the class to pass our papers forward I would begin my addition worksheet. My grades plummetted from :) to "See me" within the day. My mom asked me why I was having so much trouble with addition, found out that I was spending all of my time next to the computer, and wrote a note to the teacher explaining the scenario; I tearfully handed it to the teacher. My crush saw me crying and it influenced her opinion of me throughout high school. In any event, I was moved away from the computer and my grades regressed to their usual :)'s.
After working in the computer industry, Apple II's didn't meet my mom's standards, so she put off buying a personal computer for years. When she started spending time in the library waiting for me to one-click-per-minute my term papers on the green-and-white screens, however, she felt a change of heart. Christmas of 1997 found a Gateway-spotted box at our door. Inside was a Gateway-spotted mug, a Gateway-spotted mousepad, and a note: "Due to the large volume of orders at Christmastime, your computer shipment has been delayed at least a week. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Please accept this free gift in apology."
A mug for a computer: Rhetoric indeed!
In due time our promised computer arrived at our house, and the sun was shining. We turned the speaker dial, broke the seal on our Encarta Encyclopedia CD, placed in right-side-up in the drive on the second try. Suddenly there was sound -- music! My dad and I smiled from ear to ear.
It took me a time to learn how to hold a mouse. At first I wanted to maneuver it with my left hand, but it only works with the right. Eventually I got used to it, but my mom, raised on a steady diet of number-punchers and keyboards, found it particularly complicated. Of course we realize now that a mouse is probably the easiest of easy-to-use tools that can be wired to a computer. It is probably as fluid and natural as any interface concievable. While we are not yet at Minority Report levels of perfection yet, thank God, we are frightenly close. I saw an advertisement yesterday for a pen that could upload everything you write to a computer. "It fits snugly into the special base / just one click of a button / stores up to four pages of text!" Incredible. Tomorrow we will wave our hand and marvellous things will happen.

Part II. The point of computers

If we desire ease of use so badly, what is it that we want to use? There is, after all, no purpose in software being usable if we are not going to use it. The answer is varied, but the tasks we perform on a computer fall into only a very few categories: We use computers to compose, uptake, and communicate information, we interface computers into control systems, we enlist computers to do our computations for us, and we use our computers simply for fun. There is a great deal of overlap, of course, but every program ever invented deals with one of the above areas. Since the list is so short, there are only a few basic programming structures that I have found:


Data entry systems, for either plain text or encapsulized data
"Control panels" for controlling real-world interfaces and other programs
Text-based controls, including computer languages, for controlling other pieces of software
Active pleasure interfaces such as console games
Passive playback programs for the viewing of information, video, audio, etc.
Person-to-person interfaces for communicating over long distances
Computational programs
I challenge the reader to find a program that does not fit readily into at least one category. All of the wide diversification of programs are merely manifestations of the above ideas, with some tailoring to the specific type of material that the program trafficks in.
The rest of the diversity is flash and pomp alone -- rhetoric.
Part III. Who uses rhetoric?

Rhetoric is important. Chefs know it: The rhetoric of a food is almost as important as the food itself. Some foods -- turkey and mashed potatoes -- are what everyone eats on thanksgiving. Crème brulée is très haute couture. Nobody makes apple pie like Mom. Friday, fish day. The right food at the wrong time remains untouched.
Computers, too, have a rhetoric all their own. Childrens' games must be bright and flashy. Programming GUI's need to be colourless and no-nonsense. Instant message clients? It depends on the person. Like the chef, the programmer must cater to his clientele.
The Disney spirit runs rampant in our country. A lot of people expect "bright" and "fun" to accompany everything they do. They expect a blinking green traffic light to start a program and require a neon red stopsign to mean "quit". It was for these people that Windows Media Player 9 was created. The program uses an enormous amount of code to do the simple task of playing sound and movies. This is because it looks good enough to eat. If listening to music wasn't good enough, now we can see it, in the form of pulsating lightning or bubbling fountain or a thousand other visualizations. The pictures dance to the beat. If that weren't enough, "skins" skins are available for download to customize a player any way one sees fit. Thousands of Disney-afflicted people download these skins every day.
In sharp contrast to the Disney folks are the minimalists. These people believe in the beauty of white space; their refrain is "less is more". Everything must be simple and easy to follow. To sell to a minimalist, a few words needs to say it all. An example of minimalist games and multimedia is sodaplay.com.
Documentationalists believe that any sort of program is useful so long as it has a well-written help menu. These people simply want to be able to use a program, and are probably the least concerned with the its rhetoric.
A company may take one core program and market in a wide variety of forms to appeal to everybody. This is usually the only effective way to sell a program. The rhetoric of our personal preferences thus influences the very fabric of our economy...



PS: I hope this blog dies slowly.
posted by dave Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Not that I would know this from experience or anything, but remember that book we all struggled through? Lanham?

They'll buy it back from you, if you were to hypothetically sell it, FOR A LITTLE MORE THAN ONE DOLLAR! It's sick. Sick and hillarious. I think that I should quit this school thing and start a textbook store in Potsdam. In three days I'll be richer than God!

It isn't worth selling back. I ought to just keep it for my future library. It wasn't that bad...I kinda liked it at the end.
posted by Norm Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Sunday, April 27, 2003

Oh, good luck on exams by the way.
posted by Marianna Sunday, April 27, 2003

Speculation:

Do any of you think that getting hyper has regular readers outside of the class/university. It would be amusing to query one and see what exactly her or his impression of our class and or discussions is. Also, it would be interesting to see if they will continue to check after this blog is essentially terminated.

Actually, that's quite sad. In essence the blog is about to DIE! Perhaps we should all conclude our semester with a Eulogy, or modeled after yesturday's picnic: an ode to our class weblog?

Any thoughts, or have you all aleady assumed that the weblog has been buried?

posted by Marianna Sunday, April 27, 2003

Friday, April 25, 2003

Well boys and girls, it's been fun. Good luck on finals and have a wonderful summer.
posted by Anonymous Friday, April 25, 2003

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Now I know you all want to read 20 pages of Bob, so...
Get to it!!! Do it now!!! I want immediate satisfaction.

Dan
posted by Dan Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Here is the link to my project; it's done I guess, I may make some small changes or additions over the next week but overall you'll get the idea.
posted by Hope Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Monday, April 21, 2003

I never understood why people got such a kick out of role playing games, but now that I am obsessed with Outwar, I sorta get it... hahaha... check it out, it's fun.
posted by Anonymous Monday, April 21, 2003

Sunday, April 20, 2003

Happy Holy Easter! Enjoy the 50 days of Easter, and God Bless!
posted by Marianna Sunday, April 20, 2003

Friday, April 18, 2003

It's Friday: you're not supposed to be thinking about hypertext.
posted by Anonymous Friday, April 18, 2003

Just an observation:

Right now hypertextual literature is a realitively new and developing art. Thus, currently it seems as though there are a few realative forms, which artist (writer's perhaps) are attempting to define inot definate styles.

Reflective thought on the issue:

Does hypertext now exist as a series of attempts to copy what forms have already been introduced, or to rebel against them?

A second reflective thought on the issue:

What is occuring in traditional text? Is literature a constant attempt to remodel or reproduce what is already present, or to ultimately create radical new forms?

Note:

These are all hypothetical questions I presume. Unless you disagree with me on this issue, it is fitting to assert that none of these questions can be answered without drifting into lofty philosophy.
posted by Marianna Friday, April 18, 2003

Thursday, April 17, 2003

I'm a big fan of Poe. Big fan. Anyway, I thought Justin did an amazing job not only interpreting the poem, but also putting the presentation together. I wish that my project could level up with that one. Very very good job!
posted by Norm Thursday, April 17, 2003

The spongebob project is sooooo, cool! While it has a childish element of pleasure (which I definately am atuned to) it illustrates yet another outlet for hypertextual narrative. Indeed, hypertextual narrative does not need to be restricted to a sophisticated format, or aimed toward adult readers. The outcomes of the technology revolutionize how children percieve literature as well. Perhaps, those who are young children now, will develop a sense of ease when gliding between traditional and modern textual worlds. It will be interesting to see how literature is percieved later in today's youth's lives (in youth I mean children, not our age gendre).
posted by Marianna Thursday, April 17, 2003

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Just some brief comments about the presentations I saw yesterday.
First, Sharon's project. I enjoyed the idea, and it certainly is an original one. There is a lot you can do with Disney, that is for sure.
Nakeeka: Far out presentation. It seems like something Professor Duemer would recommend we read ourselves. So good job.
Danielle, your idea is pure genius. Very original and "outside the box".
Finally, Justin: I love stories about dragons and fantasy stories. So I will be sure to take a more in depth look at your website. Two thumbs up.
Overall, I thought the ideas were rather innovative and interesting, and I look forward to seeing everyone elses. Well, I'll keep my promise that this post will be brief. Bye.
posted by Anonymous Wednesday, April 16, 2003

btw my aim narrative works only on my computer and my roommate's. i'm still trying to figure out why......

danielle the only thing that can be said about your project is "impressive."

posted by dave Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Here's the first draft of my narrative.
I hope that if you read it, you like it.
Comments, criticism, suggestions, etc. are very welcome.
More bulletins as events warrant!
posted by Norm Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

I finally got my narrative on the web. Unfortunately, I had to delete the guest log element because it didn't work on our server. The narrative is pretty much complete, but I might add some things between now and dead week. We'll see. I hope you all enjoy it. Also, I really enjoyed the Tell Tale Heart narrative, Justin. The emphasis element was pretty cool, because it reminded me of when my English teacher had us listen to the recording of the story back in high school. Nice job. :-)
posted by Anonymous Tuesday, April 15, 2003

I love the imagination of the HP! Sharon--I like how you captured some of Disney's tales into the first person, and logically connected them. Nadeeka, I liked your hypertext as well. It seemed to connect the sparing of two siblings at childhood nicely with that of later adulthood. For some reason, though I have never actually read the book, it reminds me a bit of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.

Finally, Dave, I like your narrative as well. At first I was progressing click by click, but I began to enjoy it more once I realized all that I needed to do was to scroll down. I suppose I'm stuck in the rut of enjoying a linear text. However, I'm confused by the aim narrative. No matter what I type in it replies

Robert BrtHisSoc: I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Could you try to phrase your request another way? Thanks!

Is this the point of the story, or just an error?

posted by Marianna Tuesday, April 15, 2003

The two last links on this page are to both versions of my project. If it doesn't work, IM me at ipenetrex.
posted by dave Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Monday, April 14, 2003

Okay, that is so much cooler than my project.. now I'm jealous.
posted by Anonymous Monday, April 14, 2003

A Beach party sounds nice, yet, considering the closest "beach" would be the Raquette, which is a tad bit chilly right now, I think we'll have to abandon that thought in dreamland.


posted by Marianna Monday, April 14, 2003

Sunday, April 13, 2003

Impressive, but very reminiscent of the stories we looked at for class.
posted by Anonymous Sunday, April 13, 2003

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Okay, I'm finally done!

At least I accomplished one thing today.

Here's the link to my project:
http://www.clarkson.edu/~worczakm/Old%20Tale.htm

If you happen to find any mistakes, or things that done't work (links I mean) please let me know. Enjoy!
posted by Marianna Saturday, April 12, 2003

About the 8 oclock class: I heard that since it's a lot of independent work, we don't always meet as a group, so we won't always have to come in at 8 am.
posted by Anonymous Saturday, April 12, 2003

Friday, April 11, 2003

There's not much to comment on today except for pure glory of the weather. Hopefully the sun will continue to shine till late afternoon when I'll finally get a chance to get out for a nice long run (might be the last long one in while--one never can quite predict Potsdam's weather). I hope you all are enjoying the smileing, sky and that you find time to get out and savor it.


posted by Marianna Friday, April 11, 2003

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

Ten-page manuscripts are not my cup of tea either. I prefer camomile.

How's this for random end-of-the-year stress?
posted by dave Wednesday, April 09, 2003

I would've much rather written a 25 page narrative than a 10 page paper.
posted by Anonymous Wednesday, April 09, 2003

*insert random cause of end-of-the-year stress here*
posted by Josh Wednesday, April 09, 2003

Okay, so I might have a solid start on my final project, but then there's that essay.......... Hmmmmmmmmm, I'd just like to reflect how impossibly hard it will be two write an non-hypertextual 10 page paper on a highly hypertextual class. I've started a couple of times now, and so far the entire process has been problematic. I've been trying to write formally, while knowing in the back of mind that Prof. Duemer is looking for something a bit creative, and not quite a formal paper. Then I try to write less formally, and the perpetual nagging of my AP English teacher begins to ring through my cranium, as though disecting everthing I'm writtting. I have to find a median--and fast! I want to have this done A.S.A.P. and make it reflective of my abilities as a reader, writer, and thinker.

I hope no one else is having similar problems, because this is the kind of stress (of course I never self induce stress now do I?) no one needs this time of year, but often finds.


posted by Marianna Wednesday, April 09, 2003

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Josh, take a look at the source code. It is a VBScript, of which I know very little.

Yes, Danielle: Ariel and Jasmine, and particularly Pocohontas are all Disney babes.
posted by dave Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Dave, take a look at the source code. It is a javascript.
posted by Josh Tuesday, April 08, 2003

i run win 2000, josh runs a mac. the coffee cup program works on everyone i know who runs xp. and it is interesting, tho u should cite ur sources. i wonder how the program works ...

marianna if u ever need neone to read ur stuff and comment on it id be glad to. i appreciate good literature :)
posted by dave Tuesday, April 08, 2003

I'm partially relieved as do to my completion of the paper version of my final project last night. Unfortunately it is only the paper version. Perhaps I will eventually learn to compose on the computer, but for now I am plagued by the eternal need to utilize a paper rough draft first.

Some comments:

If I had more time (perhaps a years worth) I fancy, an extremely elaborate hypertextual story would be enjoyable to compose. In fact, I would like to consider redesigning my current project with my spare time in the future. I've been interested in professionally writting for some time now, and have synthesized a varity of stories--novel starts--in hopes that I will one day publish. Some of these starts have amounted to over two hundred pages, before I become bored of a topic. I find that some of the fun of writting is the possiblity that the work could someday be published. Thus in a sense hypertext can be invigorating. Immediately after putting in time and effort, a work is published--but in the eyes of a random stranger to admire or criticize. At the same time a paradox develops, as hypertextual publishing does not carry the same level of honor, as do traditional methods. Finally, it is difficult to profit from writting on the web, thus shifting writting from an economical interest/income status, to a purely hobby-based mechanism.

I know this isn't saying much more than we've already discussed in class, but working on this final project seems to make it even more evident.
posted by Marianna Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Monday, April 07, 2003

That exact same thing was on the jolt about 3 weeks ago.. woop-de-doo..

And just to let you guys know, it opened both of my cd drives, but when i sent it to some of my friends off at other colleges, it did not work for them at all. Besides, when the jolt posted it, they included the joke that it was an instant cup holder.. which was at least amusing..
posted by Anonymous Monday, April 07, 2003

Yeah, I have a firewall... a fairly basic one, but I have one nevertheless. One thing I enjoy about owning a Mac is that a huge majority of the (known) security exploits out there (including viruses, etc) are windows based. Although, other than security, I do have a concern for privacy of information on the internet. With all sorts of info starting to be stored online, good passwords become more and more important...and on top of that, good encryption schemes. It just makes me shudder knowing that regular FTP transmits your password in plain text (which means if you password is elf then if someone snags one of your FTP packets and can examine it, they see "elf" as your password). Better encryption is definately needed. On top of that, the huge amounts of data that companies collect about us makes me uncomfortable...
posted by Josh Monday, April 07, 2003

Nothing happened on my computer... What is supposed to happen? I looked at the source code... is it supposed to open your CD ROM drive or something?
posted by Josh Monday, April 07, 2003

Sunday, April 06, 2003

Disney babes?
posted by Anonymous Sunday, April 06, 2003

I feel that the basic premise of formalism, that of assigning a basic outline to a wide class of tales, is a tremendously useful idea. This is not to say I agree with it. Formalism is a simplification of all of the complexity that is human society. It is a tendency to simplify a story so that it can be talked about in fewer words, using less thought. Thus it is a useful idea.

Cliff notes use the technique extensively to cut whichever story is being analysed in thirds: "Take the story in its full glory, stuff it into a genre (surely the "essence of fabula"), and print a brief analysis of the genre." The result is terse, brief, universally applicable non-fiction that has the unfortunate quality of reduced quality. It is as if I took a classic movie and removed all but the chiefest of frames. The story is preserved but the essence is lost.

Concerning Disney: If you have ever been to the Disney Land, you know that Disney is a moneymaking enterprise. There are profiteers everywhere. Cinderella's castle, the icon of Disneyland if there ever was one, is a gift shop. Disney is a business that markets exactly what the public wants to hear, nothing more and nothing less. By marketing to impressionable youngsters, of course, they control exactly what the public will want to hear in twenty years. Since the public wants and will pay for a constant rehashing of the same old fabula, that is exactly what they give us. Disney babes are just a side benefit.

Structuralism I am obliged to agree with more, as a technically-orientated fool. The ideas of structuralism are exactly the same as those presented in chapter two of the book C++: How to Program. Structuralism is the object-orientated paradigm applied to literary criticism, and it seems to work quite well. The basic premise seems that some ideas inherit from others, allowing for any arbitrary degree of complexity and interlinkage, but everything fits nicely into its box. I appreciate this model because it can be used to make things as simple or representative as necessary.

Of course the most interesting stories are those that refuse to fit in any box ...

That is all for now; it's a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I need to get out.
posted by dave Sunday, April 06, 2003

Friday, April 04, 2003

a.) Justin, I thought that the comparisons between literature and the music industry that you drew were very appropriate, and I agree. I especially liked what you said about writing being an artform. However, I do think that if you are writing for a purpose (such as proving a point) that there are certain "laws" that you should follow, but that is altogether different from writing detective stories and things of the like.

b.) Up until recently, (and even now) society's opinion is that you need to be married to be happy. In fact, George W. Bush proposed (I don't remember if it went through or not) giving monetary incentives to single mothers to get married. Isn't that worse than Disney portraying happy couples? Besides, in my opinion, it makes me happy when the guy gets the girl in the end of the movie or whatever. One of the things that I hated about Pitch Black was that Vin Diesel's character died and didn't get to hook up with the captain chick (sorry if I ruined that for anyone). In addition, Disney movies are geared toward children. They want happy endings. Most people want happy endings. And the job of a good business is to give people what they want. If Disney movies had morbid endings, parents would be up in arms about it. Parents are always up in arms about something.

c.) Okay, now that I've ranted enough, I won't post anything else on this subject, because I'm sure all of you have had enough of me. (No comments on that statement, please). I hope all of you have a good weekend. Have some fun. Don't sit and do homework. Go out. Do what you do. Peace, yo.
posted by Anonymous Friday, April 04, 2003

In response to Justin's comments on whether formalism is a set of laws for literature of a set of laws attempting to explain literature, I think it is a bit of both. This might sound like a weak and easy attempt to circumvent the issue, but in reality I think it is the most accurate. I think the issue boils down to the purpose of a traditional literature class. Some form of instruction is given, be it in a text book, from a teacher, or any combination as to how to disect, if you will, literature into elements such as stlye, theme, tactics, symbolism, and other literary tools. Then, attempting to group specific elements of a work into a desired mold, allows a teaching model for writting to develop. Students attempt to replicate what the have "seen" or at least one attempt of characterizing a work, into their own works. This seems to provide a standard, and rigid set of rules for writting and composing of literature. However, the really good writers are those that take what they learn, and change it. They can build upon tactics, or reject them. All the while producing a logical work, but one that is not easily defined by the same laws as the orginal. So I guess that I'm trying to put some value into the science of formalism. Perhaps, without attempting to chatergorize literature, new forms do not develop as individuals don't attempt to rebel against the so-called "norm."
posted by Marianna Friday, April 04, 2003

Thursday, April 03, 2003

My observation? This packet deals primarily with the ways in which people have tried to make generalizations about literature, and in particular, narrative. I was struck by how the very first page seems to slap us (having read Lanham) in the face with his ideas about AT vs. THROUGH. This time, however, I agreed, though the author makes a distinction that is very important, at least in my mind. Poetry is made to be different from ordinary text (by some schools of thought) in order to shake us out of our usual mode of merely taking in things without really appreciating them. The famous painting of the flower garden comes to mind. If you lived there, how many times a day would you stop and actually think about how beautiful beyond words it was?
I liked what the author said about how poetry "exploits the potential for ambiguity that language always has. I believe that that is actually a form of using language very precisely and "sophisticatedly." There is, I think a difference between looking at the words themselves and the meanings. The transportation device is still transparent, which I think is a good thing (though it would be interesting and fun to once in a while to look at that alone as Lanham advocates), though suddenly, with poetry, the transportation route becomes delightfully visible.

I believe I have found the reason we read the packet altogether. With regards to our hypertext stories: "It will immediately be obvious that one and the same fabula can give rise to a good many syuzhets." Cool.

There's a lot here about Postmodernism, etc., which is a topic that really interests me, but that is a discussion for another time. (Didn't I do a good job of using rhetoric to sidestep the fact that I need more time to figure out what I really believe about what in the genre? I don't feel educated enough to make a good argument yet.)
Greimas is just plain over my head at the moment.

Overall, I really liked what this author had to say, and the tone and ease with which he said it. ...Strange that I assumed it was a he before I just now looked to be sure... A good prep for our final projects.
posted by Norm Thursday, April 03, 2003

This is the right weblog to post responses to right?
Anyway, of course it is easy to compare fairy tales. Most fictional stories, at least in some small sense, revolve around a few major themes that are present in almost every literary work. Morals, if you will. Such themes include the triumph (or defeat) of good versus evil, the perseverance (or not) of love, etc. etc. Fairy tales are especially easily to draw this connection in because it is there goal to present a moral in a thin guise to children, who in turn may start living by said moral. I disagree that the message of the story is most important, because when you generalize enough, there are very few messages. Instead, it is the way the message is presented, and what type of impact it leaves on your psyche that is important. In this case, the book is judged by the cover.

:exclaimer: If the above message made no sense, please forgive me. I am tired.
PS: The weblog spell checker does not have the word for "weblog." There is a word for this, but, ironicaly, it escapes me.
posted by Dan Thursday, April 03, 2003

Another interesting link for those who use Google... Another example of how people can be manipulated. This seems to have a scary resemblance to the media (which can be very selective in what it reports). Now it seems the one of the most popular search engines on the web is starting to direct people to certian areas of the net, keeping them away from others.... The once "free information" now monopolized? That's the problem with the net... you know it is out there, but you have to find it....
posted by Josh Thursday, April 03, 2003

Anyone use direct connect? This article is for you... What do you think?
posted by Josh Thursday, April 03, 2003

About Mulan. He didn't reject her because she was a girl, but because she lied about being a man. He felt that she disgraced him. And you seem to be forgetting that in the end, the emperor honors Mulan as being very brave. Mulan did what she had to do to save her father. She didn't do it to prove a point or anything. She accomplished her goal. I can somewhat see your disappointment in the ending, but I don't think that the fact that she settled down into traditional roles degrades women. Remember that the man came to HER. He realized how wonderful she was. Maybe I'm a sap or something, but I think that's pretty hot. Especially because he came crawling back. Not many stereotypical men would do that.
posted by Anonymous Thursday, April 03, 2003

I'm not anti movie, nor am I anti-love. While I view falling in love, eventual marriage, and even having children as an acceptable way of life, I feel that Disney and other forms of media try to highlight this as the only acceptable end to a woman's tale. For once I would like to see a single life, or a career centered life (again not intending to make the stay home mother be labled as unemployed or anything) presented as something a woman can desire, and in the end be happy with. As far a Pochanatas and Disney's tendency to draw pretty woman, I feel that Disney is as resposonsible for the modern day girls feeling inadequetly proportioned as is Barbie herself. Yes, this is harsh, but I'm being realistic. How many fifteen year olds have waise that span only the size of their hand, and probably a cup size in the order of B-C, as in the case of the Little Mermaid? Except for in rare instances, such a thin waiste can't possible match the bust comparison.

In the case of Mulan, I stick strongly by my disappointment in the ending. Consider the song Reflection. It's all about Mulan's desire to find herself, basically because her attempt to fit the societal demanding image of a woman has been a failure. Then after finding that her strengths are in the nature of curage, and that of intelligence associated with warfar, she comfortabley sits back into the traditional role? This is outrageous, if not uterly preposterious. Why does Disney even bother telling such a story about the transformation of a sheltered girl into a warrior, if she is only to return to the life style that she would have entered into if she had not exposed her character. Finally, the soldier which Disney pairs her with in the end rejected her intially because she was a female. In my opinion any male, regardless of time or situation who shows even a thread of disrespect of another individual on basis of the sex, is not someone who can be trusted, especially in an itimate relationship as the final scenes of the movie suggest.
posted by Marianna Thursday, April 03, 2003

Um.. I posted my response on my blog. Mine was about Disney too, but on a different wavelength than Marianna's. In fact I kind of disagree with Marianna. Jeez Marianna, are you anti-movie or something? I think its really harsh of you to bash Disney like that. What's wrong with giving Pocahontas an hour glass figure? Are you spiteful of the fact that Disney chooses to draw pretty girls? And also, what's wrong with wanting to have a prince sweep you off of your feet? I wish I was so lucky. I don't want to work. Truthfully, all I want in life is to get married and have kids. True, I will work as hard as possible, but that won't be because I WANT to work, but because I want to give my kids everything that I can. I'm sorry, but I hate self-righteous feminism. What's wrong with falling in love? Woud you prefer that in the end of Mulan, that Mulan decides that she'd like a sex-change or that she really likes women, and is a lesbian? Hmm? You can be a strong woman and still desire to be loved. I know I do. All I want out of my life is to be happy. Not to change the world. And you know? I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I like the princess treatment. I don't need it, but I like it. And you bashing it makes me think that you've never gotten it. One day you'll get it, and you'll realize that it isn't all that bad.
posted by Anonymous Thursday, April 03, 2003

Keeping up with class assignments: Here's my post on today's discussion of the handout:

This might not seem very anylitical, but I disagreed with the comment that all fairy tales are basically the same story retold with different characters, events, and settings. While numerous tales do have parallels, or are designed to teach a similar lesson, many to not. If one exams the story of Cinderella, she or he will find that the tales appears in almost any cultural language this world has fabricated. In fact, the tale of Cinderella continues to reappear in modern romance litterature and film. Yet, do all fairy tales boil down to the story of Cinderella? I guess if one was to watch Disney movie upon Disney movie this might seem to be the case. The animated disney description of fairy tale is as follows:

Once opon the time there was a single father, who was either a king, nobel, or even a common person. This man had a beutiful daughter, who despite the odds managed to overcome whatever societal barrior that was present, and fall in love with the perfect man, and in the end up with individual and live happily ever after. It seems as though Disney feels that the fairly tale is nothing more than an excuse to somehow place a female in a weeker role, and to propogate sterotypes that girls should desire a princess like state.

Not true? Perhaps you're ready to argue that Disney does nothing of the sort. Perhaps you'll claim that movies like Mulan, and Pochahantas for example place a female in a powerful, and non-stereotypical role. To that I say: WRONG! The debateably true story of Pochahantas or at least as the orgins of the legend claim (some historians argue about her existance), places her as a young girl, maybe about 12, whom never falls in love with much older John Smith, and most certaintly was not the tall, hour-glassed, large busted women of the film. In the case of Mulan, which I will admit to having no historical information on the orgins of the tale, Disney might seem to be making a heroin, but in essence, how does the story end? She falls in love with the soldier, and will probably settle into the traditional role of females in society at the time.........wow that sounds like such a happy ending..... I wonder if they eventually bound her feet, or cut her akilles tendon so that she had to crawl the rest of her life and remain, as a traditional "happy" woman would want to live.

Okay.... So I've gotten a little off topic. If you get a chance to read some of the orginal Grimm's Faery Tales, or Hans Christain Anderson, the aren't quite so wishy washy and definately don't all end with a glamorous clash. Also, exploring the realm of mythology, take what culture's you will, each myth has a different lesson, and therefore can not be forced to share the same motive of boiled down into the same mixture of themes, and plots.

I apologize for the grammer and spelling mistakes, everytime I use the spell checker on this blogg, it decides to delete what I have written, so I have given up. Oh, yes, and for those of you who are confused as to what I'm saying here's a brief explaination of my criticism of Disney's Fairy Tales : I'm a feminist, and everthing about Disney combats the notion that woman need to be viewed in a less sterotypical light. One that reflects all that we are and the potential that we hold. Let's go ladies..... show the world who we are, and that we will not tolerate being thought of as Disney type "Princesses" who desire only to get married, and live happily ever after.
posted by Marianna Thursday, April 03, 2003

I'm sick of school. I wanna go to the beach. :-p
posted by Anonymous Thursday, April 03, 2003

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Alright, maybe I should restate what I said before. I am not against genetic engineering as long as it doesnt include creating "super humans" choosing the genes/traits you want. I realize the importance of genetic engineering in the medical field as it promises, but, as always, there are downsides. Once you know you can do it... who is to stop a few people from doing, and then a few more, and it going main stream? We just have to be careful with how we proceed.
posted by Josh Wednesday, April 02, 2003

I haven't read Brave New World, but I will say this: far too many people don't understand beneficial aspects of genetic engineering, or fail to realize that genetic engineering is essential to modern medicine and advances in molecular biology. I wrote two research papers in high school about somewhat related debates. One concerned the ethics behind Stem Cell research and the other involved the medical and societal implications of the Human Genome Project. What I found from doing both projects was that society seems to automatically fear anything which suggest genetic manipulations. As far as genetic engineering is concerned I have read countless editorials, or works by public figures, which any scientist would be embararrassed to read, because of the variety of false assumptions, and misinformation taken as factual. One common misconception is that genetic engineering is in itself cloning, or holds the ultimate goal of redesigning humanity. In essence genetic engineering is not cloning, and while there is a threat of individual designing of organizims in the future (among other fears) this is not a prevelent goal in most research, nor should it be a reason to stop it. Finally, as I breifly mentioned before, genetic engineering has already made leaps and bounds in improving our world. Consider human insulin for diabetes patients, or much of the corn used to manufacture your Cornflakes and other cereals: both results of recombinant gene technology.
posted by Marianna Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Brave new world is another book that can be applied to the topics of Big Brother. (Has someone mentioned this already?) Genetic engineering is scary... too much control over something which shouldn't be controlled. Soon as politics gets involved in genetic engineering everything goes to the fan (if you know what I mean).
posted by Josh Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Another government related novel would be The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Of course, there are other issues of religion and reproduction, but barring that, it's interesting how a dictatorship tries to control how and when women reproduce. Sounds like China to me, what do you think? Just for a little taste, the main character's name is Offred. If you break that down, you see her name is "of fred" put together. She was the possession of her husband, Fred. That to me is creepy enough, but the whole book is very interesting. I had to read it for school a couple of years ago. Here is a link with more of a summary if you are interested: http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/atwood157-des-.html
posted by Anonymous Wednesday, April 02, 2003

a.) I agree with Justin about the presentation on Tuesday.. very impressive guys (both groups).
b.) If you liked Atlas Shrugged (which I haven't gotten around to reading yet), you might like The Fountainhead (same author). It's a little on the long side, but its excellent.
c.) Don't insult the film industry. That pisses me off. I'll explain why. Before books were widely distributed, there was the theater. Film, is just another variation on theater. Saying that watching movies is a mode of laziness is ignorant. Reading is important, but that doesn't mean that film is not. Take a movie like Momento (sp?) for example. You need to really pay close attention to that movie to understand what is going on. You could say that it's thought provoking. Being able to understand that movie requires being able to read into the images. True, most of it is spelled out for you in the end, but I'm sure that you all understand where I'm coming from.
d.) Comment on Harry Potter. I don't think putting Harry Potter into film form ruined it. When those books came out my brother (who hates reading) read them all. Then when the movies came out, my mother took him to see them, and they were able to bond over it. Most parents won't take the time out of their busy schedule to read those books just to bond. The movie does that. I used to love going to the movies with my mom. It was "our" time. I also used to love when she read to me. But again, it takes a lot of nights of bedtime stories to cut through one of those books. The Little Engine That Could is long enough.
posted by Anonymous Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

I think the reason why the last few chapters of The Electronic Wordseemed a bit more interesting than the rest for most of us, was that it included a comparison to the scientific realms of thought. Thus, since most of us are science or engineers to be, Lanham began to speak in our language.

I also found it rather insulting, though sadly true, the manner in which Lanham speaks of our generation as a sad, almost illiterate source. I often ponder how such a world can survive, I mean one where people watch TV rather than read. Along similar lines is Harry Potter. Orginally it was a great things for kids, it got them reading. Now it has also become a mode of laziness with the production of each of the novels into film form. How depressing!
posted by Marianna Tuesday, April 01, 2003

Sunday, March 30, 2003

Very well put, David. ;-)
posted by Norm Sunday, March 30, 2003

I started working on what I hope will be my final project today (the narrative) and boy can a hypertextual type of work become a mess fast. I'm trying to organize it all by writting small pieces on index cards and labeling one side so that I can understand what links to it. Somehow I still have not mastered writting directly in an electronic form without the assistance of traditional media: the pencil and paper.
posted by Marianna Sunday, March 30, 2003

Thursday, March 27, 2003

I haven't posted in a while and I feel bad... so I figured that y'all might want to see my thoughts.

today is 3.27.02 and i am feeling extremely sorry about not having posted for since spring break, but i have an excuse. that excuse is that my computers had a hangnail that refused to allow it to access the net and my comp at home is slow as molasses and wont do anything at all. in fact when i went to college i had to get a new computer rather than take the families b/c the one at home doesnt do antything. like for instance if i want to write my autodesk stuff to disk it takes twenty yeats and the n reports that the memory is full or some other similar message. usually ithere is some kind of number reference code like 'error in sector 234980428932-f. ' these are irrelevant and only mean thant the whole thing isnt working and tough cookies. so neways i havent been able to access the net and im in the erc now. jd was really nice and helped me carry my comp down from oit which was supposedly fdixed, except it doesnt work with my mouse. when i plug my mouse in it displays a simple IBM logo and nothing else which is essentiuaklkly useless for my purposes. thats b/c brooksie chewed it and frayed it and the comp eapparently needs to detect a mouse to boot up. stupidf microsoft. so neways its 19:223 amnd om on the library comp and have decided to write my thought s to the weblog auntil i get boered. of coursde that means that i have to type a s quick as possible so i dont klose my train of thought which is a losing battle. and the kid next to me has ta yelloewish t-shirt; it should be a white shirt but the lights in here make it yellow. imve been thinklingt about compression limits a lot today becuase its nice out. somehoew nice weather makes me want to take walks and think a bucnch. i do more chatting i think when its lousy out. but im a gimp momemntaritly =so that failed utterly. that reminds me of matt winter from my school. he halwayhs used to say that. in fact he signed my year book 'o well now ill def fail' meaning that he would miss me at rit. its kinda cruel how we lose track of ppl over the years. thank you im fort keeeping me in contact. i speak from experience. my mom talkes to like 2 of her high school friends. she had a whole slew of friends but only a few best friemnds kinda like me. but then she lost contact w/ them because she was lazy and didnt want to take the time to pick up the phone, call for no reason. caslling for no reason makes us feel uncomfortable but is one of the best networking techniques ever invented. for that matter id like to see someone, anyone who's successful socially - not lauded for some stroke of genius but loved socially - who doesnt make random fone calls. a waste of time my&*(%^ . so limiting information yes. the idea is that a perfect transmission has some lowest possible number of bits that will communicate a given message. we can find out how efficient a language is by how many extra characters is needed to convey a given arbitary batch of information. this gives rise to diff eq's and statistical analysis. i think i would like to do a major project on statistical analysis of language. my H% finding was interesting enough. to merit more work in the field. to be sure it will keep me occupied. i talked to ppl over break which was a plus. also went back to the high school, at kh kcm jh etc. this is not to say btw that one work cant convey a lot of information. it can; one bit is enough to triggger a long process. but if it is that process must be pre-implanted into the compiler. aka an integral sign is just a stupid shape. when discribing nouns compression is always extremely lossy. for instance the word ' book' doesnt tell anything except a rough image. further description is necessary. to describe the phenomenon perfectly requires knowledge of the exact position and momenta of all of the subatomic particles associated with the book, which according to heisenburg is impossible. related is that i think the jewish hot sdogs they offer in ro-bro are for the birds. good german franks like hoffmann's are necessary and proper. the hoffmann hot haus is the bomb. and also i hate hot dogs afgter the contest so they've got to be good. i remember see ing a german postage stamp oif heisenbug with a formula of his , uncertainlty on it. the thing was .85 dm and had a bunch of german sayings onm them so i was reminder fof german fgranks. qed. the time is now 19:42 and wordpad just wrapped over to the next line. it surprisedf me b/c i thought that i cousld simply type forever in the one line and my words would stretch on and on and on to infinisty withought the program ever stopping the procgression of the letterage. i guess i was wrong. another romantic myth exposes.d. its like oatmeal. i thought falling oatmeal would teach me a lot but it didnt excpet for that the littlee grains like the brown sugar falls to the oustside of the pile and faster. also a bnit about waves when i shook the place. stupid old results. i think that i f i had to cook something for myself i would fail utterly. leave me in a kitchen with eggs and flour and sugar and ill eat the eggs, then try on the flour-sugar mix if i get hungery enough, som uch for cookies. my incompreytance is astounding. chex ceraeal. some times i want to eat frosting straisght from the jar. somethimes i dont. on another note i just heard about a kid who would spend like 4 dollars on school food every day: a soda, a personal calzone let's say, a pizza, a cookie, a bunch of sugar. suagr was an important part of this kid's diet. it's interesting to listen to people takl;e about kids like that. two girls just walked in and sat down at the computer next to me. theyre obviouslt unrelated but theyire hair is dyed the same colour and theyre wearing basically the same clothes, def tehe same assemblage. and i found myself wondering weather they werre more than just friends. i guess thats on my mind because of the poster thats posted right outside my door in my dorm proclaiming nat'l gay and lesbian week. or maybe month i didnt read it carefully. i dont consider myself a homophove, too leftist for that, but . but. and i wish theyd move it form right next to my door so that it looks like im pormoting something. i feel confident in my sexuallity but i dont know what other ppl might think. first impressions mean a lot. and one of the girls just took off her shirt. theres a black one underneath so i no theyre no t that way. what a waste of valuable discussion time. i mean seriously. my elbow itches even thou i scratched it and . isnt it funny that when u think about scartching an itch others appear? is that because they realize that u have a propensity for scratching a the moment and theyve been supressing the urge to scream tickle me the whole time? or is it b/c the nerves area ll connected and ur body radiates itches, witchout any real clue of where the itch is. hydra biology is like that. ive always wondered why studying hydras is one of the important things that we do in general bio but never had the opportunity to figure out why. the only thing that i can think of is that its so incredibly different than ppl that the bio ppl think that if someone who takes the regents decides to design an animal a hyhdra will be particularlyhelpful. moves to a diff beat compris? regents pfff. so neways i called up this corey guy who fixed my computer and was going to give him a tongue lashing but i didnt have to b/c he told me how to fix my comp really fast over the phone. guess i had two problems? ah well who knows. a car just drove by. its dark out now, completely, but i could see the headlights through whatever it is that they put over the windows in the erc. actually i wonder why it is that they covered the windows too and also what it is. maybe a little about the company who installed them too, thao thats not terribly inmportamnt. ah yes a sustainable future in our hands. whatever happened to clarkson sustainability? i think we need a class that implements the research that the previous two classes worked on. otherwise, what was the point of their research. r&d without d makes a lot of wasted work. that r might as well stand for rhetoric for all the good its doing. sorry socrates but rhetoric is useless. so is this litttle textual string that im typing. wow that reminds me of ash. useless. Useless. YOU-seless. YOU!! for graduation my friends and i wore hats that spelled out YOU!! which was what we enjoyed screaming at unsuspecting freshmen. good times were had by all back in the day. high school was probably quite unpleasant but all i can remember about it was all of the good times we had. optimism rules. an optimistic person can turn a molehill into a mountain and then climb the mountain and enjoy the view from the top. and sing a lot. yes i remember high school as a whirlwind of a time and will probably remember college as the same.
posted by dave Thursday, March 27, 2003

David, if I might, I'll point out that the spoils system has been in existence since the illustrious President Andrew Jackson, if my history serves me. "...Andrew Jackson, a Democratic-Republican from Tennessee. His party had great support in the South and the West. Jackson changed the party's name to Democrats." - http://www.thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi

But what, exactly, is wrong with giving the contract to a company that has not yet gone the way of Enron, choosing to at least get something that our leadership trusts immediately rather than wading through a long bid war - speaking of which, aren't we all for peace anyway? ;-) :-D
posted by Norm Thursday, March 27, 2003

“Tragedy tells us that our weblogs are the playthings of the Gods, subject to the whims of fate and fortune.”

Isn’t this an incredible reflection? Yet, is it accurate? I came across this quote by linking from the course reference page, to another page, to another, until I was mildly “lost” as Hope so accurately named the situation in her project, and happened to find this incredibly interesting take on weblogs. I’d like to think that each of us has the background and, therefore ability now to formulate comprehensive, even if they are elusive, opinions as to the accuracy of this statement. To me the statement has been proven, or at least appears to maintain a moderate to highly prominent level of esteem when considering both personal weblog writing and that of our collaborative, class efforts.

In my personal weblogging experience this idea of fate, dictating the ultimate form of weblogging is intriguing. I don’t necessarily agree with the notion of this fate being in the form of a tragedy, because it seems as though the very essence and chaotic beauty of weblogging, is a result of the randomness of thought progression, and somewhat weaker bond (connections) between entries. Weblogging allows one to seamlessly chaotically order thoughts, ideas, notions, metaphors, computer links, and other areas of interest into a mesh or web of knowledge. I find myself writing on anything from frustration, to scholarly and insightful reflections. While even those writers who attempt to orderly or systematically arrange weblogs might feel that fate and chance do not shape their works, in essence the nature in which a weblog is read most certainly dictates some form of entropy, if not respects it as the ultimate glue of such literature.

Our experimentation of a getting hyper is a totally different experience, or perhaps greatly amplified example of how randomness, chance, and whim are driving forces or motives behind a liturgical work. Consider for example the variety of topics explored: politics, class readings, anger at showerheads being stolen, emoticons, weird/interesting links (aren’t they one in the same) personal experiences, cell phones, heated debate…………. It seems as if this all can not even conceivably fit. Yet, the very nature and essence of weblogging expects such a progression of thoughts, if it can be called a progression, especially considering the nature of getting hyper is collaborative. Thus the order (chaos), consistency (complete, utter and confusing randomness), and beauty (murky, mucky, and multi-tonal) consistency of our class weblog, demands reverence to the fateful and miraculous forces forging its grace.

Any other thoughts on this?

By the way, I ordinarily don’t use run on sentences, but in expressing my thoughts of this entry, and any weblog entry for that matter, possibly because the importance of disorder in weblogging, I find that run on sentences consistency match and facilitate the flow of thought from my brain onto the page, as they are expressed in an electronic textual version.

posted by Marianna Thursday, March 27, 2003

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Sure it published that insignificant piece of hypertextual junk.
posted by Marianna Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Okay, so I just spent about 15-20 minuets typing lengthy and insightful entry and the computer erased it!
This is frustrating!
posted by Marianna Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

It's encouraging to claim that books will not become obsolete. Personally, I think huminity would become even lazier than it presently is if computerized literature became the essence of reading. Could literacy completely be abolished some day if electronic type text revolutionized so far that visulizations, sounds and media we can't even presently concieve replaces words? If this occured would literacy become null, or would the ultimate meaning of being literate merely change?
posted by Marianna Tuesday, March 25, 2003

For all you avid disciples of the (hyper)text debate, here is the link to my project site: http://www.clarkson.edu/~matish/Hypertext.htm
posted by Hope Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Monday, March 24, 2003

Christa... I'm glad you are agreement with me that it seems like CNN knows about new war developments even before military personel that are involved in the war... Maybe you have gone too far when soldiers are watching CNN for news updates about the war that they are part of. And another thing... Not to belittle any of the forces that are over there--I have complete respect for the situation that they are in--but the media is building mountians out of molehills. On the first night when the US hit the "target of opportunity" they talked about it for well over and hour while I was watching it.. hashing and rehashing it... they even commented on a dog walking by the camera that was stationed in Baghdad... What's the deal? I know they have up to the minute coverage, but sometimes maybe they should get away from it.
posted by Josh Monday, March 24, 2003

Saturday, March 22, 2003

I guess vacation is coming slowly (quickly??) to an end... And I promised myself I would post to the class weblog before it was over, so here goes. After Andy had presented on hyperlinks and how they interconnect webpages in a very web-like manner (well that would make sense), bringing up points about the different types of links that exist I got to thinking about that idea of any page being able to connect anywhere. More specifically I thought (more) about a "correct" link and an "incorrect" link. I think the web is very neat because you can link to anywhere else on the web, but at the same time, you need to ask yourself, do I want to? I mean I could go through my post afterwards, take key words and phrases, paste them into Google, and make it link to the first hit that comes up... But how pertinent is that? Or is it? Since the web links thoughts & ideas, wouldn't it just make sense to see where other words or phrases popped up on the net and link those ideas to/from my own? Or would linking a lot just distract too much from what I am trying to convey with hypertext? Or would it offer more flexibility to the hypertext reader to branch off from my thoughts into their own ideas? I really have no answers for this, but those are some questions that I have been considering. As a side question... what does everyone think makes a good website? (other than having a specific purpose...) Like... design features I guess. When you first go to a website, what do you want to see? What makes you immediately hit the back button? What makes you stick around and read what there is to say? Hmmm...

posted by Josh Saturday, March 22, 2003

Thursday, March 13, 2003

Well, hello again everyone~
My silence is finally broken; you may all cheer or curse according to your preference - weblog anonymity! Here's my "overwhelmingly insightful" idea for today.

On Hope's page, there is a quote by John Brunner that says, "There are two kinds of fool. One says, 'This is old, and therefore good.' And one says, 'This is new, and therefore better,'" that I like, though certainly there is a myriad of other kinds of fools. I must always remind mysel - *sigh* I'm out of inspiration already.

I feel like I'm sinking. Sinking more and more into a world where it is promised that all knowledge will be laid out for all to find and yet is held just beyond availability; a world where attention span is shortened by every single electron that pulses through every single wire that brings organized messages to an output device; a world where I cannot learn or concentrate or even read for more than thirty seconds without being distracted by someone just as bored as I am, or a new link, or some overly cheap, quaint, and sensational self-help article or advertisement.
The people we have to choose from to run our country are no kind of leaders worth considering. Their debates prove to be no more than a slugging match between two oversized, gymclass morons. Our televisions and computers (they are the same thing), however, glorified them, and we accepted it like sheep as important political debate! I'm sinking.
We live in an age where some people actually blur the distinctions that make life real, and people can clone themselves, create cyborgs - sure a Godsend for the paralyzed - and actually prefer it that way because life means no more to them than going to a dead end job every day, making money and getting laid. They take it just as easily. I'm sinking and drowning and it feels so meaningless. The Stranger, anyone?
This post has taken me longer than half an hour. How long would it take you? I'm sinking and it feels so urgent to break out, to learn and to do, but this post will go down with the rest, and some people might respond to it, and I'll read what comes next and next and next. I'll go play a computer game now because I don't really want to do my homework. What was I writing about, again? I have to break the cycyle, have to - and yet I am posting to this weblog.
posted by Norm Thursday, March 13, 2003

For those of you who didn't think I could do it before getting distracted: Introducing the Inverse Laplace Transform on Matlab, with the definition and other methods of solving it. So ha!
posted by dave Thursday, March 13, 2003

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

O.K. Here's is my project site:
http://www.clarkson.edu/~markerdf/emoticon/emoticon.htm

Keep in mind that there is a lot more explanation that is not written up (that I might eventually present) than is on the site right now. So no bashing it (yet, at least).
posted by Dan Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Just a note to anyone who may be avoiding the latest reading assignment in Lanham: I actually enjoyed Chapter 9. Seeing that this has never happened for me before with Lanham, I would highly recommend that you guys take the time to actually read the chapter. It's actually kind of amusing.
posted by Anonymous Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Justin-- awesome project! I totally agree to your interpretation of Presidential rhetoric. In a way your presentation resembles a computerized version of a political cartoon, which brings up some very interesting points. I thought your presentation was particularily affective in the manner in which certain pharases were given the exact same definition as others, indicating a uniformity in the manner of presidental rhetoric.

In another sense though, your presentation was biased, or well-- more exactly just another utilization of rhetoric to express your opinion as to the superficial context of Political speech. It would be really interesting for someones else to build upon your project by interpreting your interpretations.
posted by Marianna Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Monday, March 10, 2003

Just to go back to Saturday's conversation for a bit...
"A person is smart, but people are wild, panicky, dangerous creatures, and you know it."
-MIB

Basically what I'm trying to say with that there random movie quote is this. It is very hard (bordering on impossible) to change a single person's opinion; but it is very easy to sway the opinion of a group of people. Rhetoric is a tool which can be used to sway the masses, not so much to sway individuals. That sounds like a conflicting statement, but it's true. The most dangerous thing on the earth is stupid people in large groups.

:edit: Kyle was, is, and will always be, wrong.
posted by Dan Monday, March 10, 2003

Friday, March 07, 2003

Couldn't help but notice the negative side of rhetoric put forward in K&K's presentation on Thursday; I realize only that one side was being tackled, but...is everyone who stands behind a podium to be immediately discounted as manipulative and deceptive? Are they actively attempting to pull the wool over our eyes and sway us into accepting flawed beliefs, or are they simply trying their best to be convincing? Are we too inherently suspicious to decide?
posted by Hope Friday, March 07, 2003

Nice presentation yesturday. I think it would be interesting to look more deeply into the the rhetoric utilized by Hitler, even some specific examples. Did you guys come across any interesting resources for speech or visual examples of Hitler's rhetoric that are web based?

posted by Marianna Friday, March 07, 2003

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Just as a thought I had when Norm was giving his presentation... Or, a thought of which Norm reminded me....
Norm described a gradient of sorts in formality of writing. With a hypertext weblog "journal" of sorts being the most unstructured/free form and a "traditional" essay as the most structured. I think the one of the most unique things about a weblog is that people have no "template" for how a weblog should be... There is no right and wrong with a weblog. With an essay, you need to have particular parts--an introduction, body and conclusion (usually). However, with a weblog, you can pop in start and entry anywhere, end it anywhere, and say it in any way you want. A weblog is an excellent way (in my opinion) to open up a tap of your consciousness and your thoughts and just let them drain out for others to see. Not everything, but selected parts that you think are significant. That feature, in combination with the hyperlink allow for ideas to build on one another...maybe you dont need to write the whole paper. You can just link to someone else's idea that you are building off of.
When I sit down and write on my weblog more often than not I am writing for myself. Expressing myself, letting off some steam in some cases, addressing what is interesting to me in others. My long term goal is to look back on my weblog after I have been working on it for a few months and ask myself: does this reflect who I am? Do I see myself in my own weblog? If I can answer honestly yes, then I have been successful. The flexibility of a weblog I think has the ability to better capture all of the unique traits that make up a person...much better than the voice in any essay could...*wanders off into more thought...*

posted by Josh Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Thank you, Marianna. I appreciate it and your presentation makes a lot more sense to me now.
posted by Anonymous Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Okay, first of all: http://www.clarkson.edu/~petkodl/Exploring%20Rhetoric.htm is the URL to our project website if anyone cares. Second, I find that I am very particular with who uses certain nicknames of mine. My friend Sean at home calls me D, and when he calls me D I like it, but if anyone else calls me D, it kind of makes me shudder. I have other nicknames, such as Danielle-Michelle (which we won't get into), and although I don't like them at all, I've come to accept them from the people who originally came up with them. If anyone else calls me that, they get glared at. But yeah.. good night.
posted by Anonymous Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Think about this linkAstroids: CNN (taken from Daily Jolt)

Scary and fuel for a heated debate, I might say.
posted by Marianna Tuesday, March 04, 2003

The link between greek rhetorical philosophy and modern presidents, dealt primarily with the responsiblity of the president to use rhetoic in a moral manner, and the power rhetoric itself was described as providing. Isocrates, claimed that a greater power could be obtained by a political leader, if rhetoric was used in an ethical manner, proving the leader was the eptiome of citizenship. Likewise, other philosphers like Plato warned that rhetoric was nothing but harmful to the public, and a manipulative art. Both of these ideas directly played into the presidents' attempts to both appear ethical (Bush and Reagan) while disguising other motives, and to become like all other citizens (FDR).
posted by Marianna Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Justin: I figured out how to do your mouseover with a box. Use: a title = "text you want in a box/screen tip" surrounded by pointy brackets & close it with /a also in brackets. I can't put the brackets here because the text will be interpreted as html. There is a way to display html as html but I forget what it is & I'm too tired tonight to haul my butt downstairs & look it up.
posted by Joseph Duemer Tuesday, March 04, 2003

I think Christopher is onto something here. There's a relationship to the discussion of names, nicknames & titles, but the biz about identity is important, I think.

As for my various facets, I'd say that we are all composed of many facets. As a blogger I speak only for myself & I tend to speak personally because the medioum seems so conversational. In the classroom, though, while you can always trust that I believe what I say, I often consider my audience. I realize that I have students with various political, religious & social views & while it is my role as a teacher to get students to think critically about their beliefs, I don't want to impose my own positions on students. It's not that I try to hide my beliefs, but I tend to keep them in the background. What's important to me is that whatever beliefs a student has, they have been arrived at thoughtfully & honestly & not merely adopted from others.
posted by Joseph Duemer Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Here is one of my favorite bloggers talking about politics & blogs. Interesting.
posted by Joseph Duemer Tuesday, March 04, 2003

I just want to write a brief entry on today's project. I felt the project was done rather well and I enjoyed the presentation. I found it interesting, especially the focuses on the deception by the two presidents. My only question is, I missed the link drawn between the Greek philosophers and today's presidents. I must have missed that, and I was just curious to learn the overall relationship between the past and present. If someone could answer my question, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
posted by Anonymous Tuesday, March 04, 2003

For those of you who couldn't get enough during today's presentation, here's the link to our site for exploration. Exploring rhetoric Also, It feels GGGGGGGGRRRRREEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to have our project done.
posted by Marianna Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Well if nicknames tell a lot about your personality (or AIM names) then what does brncrmp (Braincramp) say about me.... oh wait... :-) I think this is a neat concept. In some ways it can be how you label yourself, but in other cases, it can be how other people label you. I won't be too "manly" to admit that I have had the nickname "Joshie" since highschool... Brings out my feminine side I guess? It was given to me by my US history teacher... but that is a story for another time...
posted by Josh Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Sunday, March 02, 2003

Here is an interesting idea. More on this. (Note that the "Arete" on this page, which means "excellence" in Greek, has nothing to do with CU's Project Arete. Here is this person's weblog. Read it. (She appears to be a grad student with an interest in the web & rhetoric. I'm particularly struck by her notion that weblogs might represent some sort of merger between oral & written discourse.)
posted by Joseph Duemer Sunday, March 02, 2003

Saturday, March 01, 2003

good question........hmmm, I'll have to think about it

posted by Marianna Saturday, March 01, 2003

How about M. Worczak CUHPFRBMSCSS?

I just want to know how to pronounce it.
posted by Joseph Duemer Saturday, March 01, 2003

Here's some more information on the misuse of rhetoric, i.e., propaganda.
posted by Joseph Duemer Saturday, March 01, 2003

Interesting idea Prof. now what should my title be. How about M. Worczak CUHPFRBMSCSS.

Anyone want to guess what that means? I made it up of course: Clarkson University Honors Program Freshman Runner Biomolecular Science Constantly Stressing Student.

I don't know, what should a title signify? Who you are, how you should be treated? Or what you occupation is? Does this satisfy them all?

posted by Marianna Saturday, March 01, 2003

Friday, February 28, 2003

Here is a blogger on the rhetoric of the blog post.
posted by Joseph Duemer Friday, February 28, 2003

"I thought of something the other day. I started to wonder whether or not there was some sort of underlying meaning behind each of our screen names or handles. Take for instance, the getting hyper weblog we're keeping as a class. I've chosen to have my name as "Christopher" which sounds more intellectual and mature than "Chris". Even more obvious, Professor Deumer's title is "profdeumer", which seems to set his posts above all the rest." [from Christopher's blog]

Unintentional, but revelatory of the nature / rhetoric of naming, especially people. Having a title confers status. At least I typed it in lowercase! Maybe we should all take titles in the class. What title would you give yourself?
posted by Joseph Duemer Friday, February 28, 2003

I was reading my psychology book this evening and was struck by maybe the funniest quote I had ever seen in a textbook. The section that this comes from is the section about language and how it is understood:
"Suppose, for example, that one sees a lion in the parlor and wants to tell a companion about this. It is not enough that both parties speak English. One has to estimate the listener's capacities, motivations, and relations to oneself in order to speak appropriately. If the companion is a sharpshooter with a revolver, one might say: Quick, shoot! There's a lion in the parlor!
But if the companion is an artist, one might say: Quick, draw! Lion of a gorgeous shade of ochre in the parlor!
To a biologist, one might say: Quick, look! Member of the genus Panthera in the parlor!
And to an enemy: Lovely morning, isn't it? See you later." (Gleitman, Basic Psychology)
It just stood out as something not typically found in a school textbook: humor. This reinforces my mindset that, even though it's not my best class, it's still one of the most interesting. Well, I guess it's time to do some more reading. Yay psych! [from Steve's blog]

We call the mechanics & techniques of making such decisions . . . Rhetoric. It's about human relationships, and the techniques can be used effectively, used ineffectively & misused. Why is this important in a "computer class"? Because the computer now mediates a great deal of human communication. See Jeff's blog for the 23rd.
posted by Joseph Duemer Friday, February 28, 2003

Thursday, February 27, 2003

Short sketches of various literary theories.
posted by Joseph Duemer Thursday, February 27, 2003

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

"This is how I see the analyzation of poetry. Poem analyzers take a poem and try to find something in it that isn't visible and that you can't grab a hold of. Then they discuss it or try to convince others that what they see is real. There is no real proof and and what one person says can be challenged by any other person looking at the poem. The meaning of a poem is very abstract and open to a lot of interpretation based on circumstancial evidence. This makes it hard to know if what is deteremined from the analyzation of a poem is aof any value." [from Ken's weblog]

This goes to the heart of interpretation. And I don't disagree, actually. But aren't most things in life this way? Aren't the domains where there is "proof" pretty limited? So the question becomes, How do we come up with better interpretations or things like God & poems & friendship & beauty & etc.?



posted by Joseph Duemer Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

To those of you complaining about dial-up, broadband, and cell phone charges, be thankful for what is available. Where my house is situated it is nearly impossible to get reception an a cell phone, and cable (consequently broad ban) is not available either. Though I must say; satellite TV beats cable anyday.
posted by Marianna Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Here's an emoticon just for you Prof. Duemer, which I found in my searches.
(Somehow Kyle already saw it yesterday in the 3 seconds between when it was posted and deleted because the link didn't work. I think he's stalking me).




posted by Dan Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Monday, February 24, 2003

At home I use free dialup. The service finances itself by placing an ad banner over the bottom quarter of the screen. When I want to download a program I go upstairs for a couple of hours. It's annoying but it's doable. My parents are seriously considering getting cable, but they're worried about how much it will cost.

We live in a gorgeous house, one-and-a-half acres in the city of Syracuse, which my parents bought by cutting coupons and going to the thrift store on a regular basis. We grow vegetables. When the car breaks my dad fixes it. We've found free pipe organs, free ping-pong tables, free china hutches, all kinds of free furniture. The kind of "who-cares-about-money" Americans you're talking about enjoy leaving defective furniture by the roadside. My family fixes it and lives in it. We go on vacation every year, two weeks to the Thousand Islands and one week somewhere else. We stay in the state parks, a lot of times on Grindstone Island. To me, paying for Internet is a ridiculous suggestion.

Since I consider it essential, I propose that the government finance broadband Internet access for Americans in low income brackets across the country.
posted by dave Monday, February 24, 2003

Power of the internet to impact even more people... Currently: "U.S. Department of Commerce data from 2001 indicated that 78.9 percent of people in families making $75,000 or more had Internet access, compared to 25 percent of people from households earning less than $15,000 a year." -- But maybe it wont be this way for long according to an article on cnn.com. I think this is a great idea... giving more and more people an opportunity to get on the net.
posted by Josh Monday, February 24, 2003

Information on rhetoric.

Information on propaganda.
posted by Joseph Duemer Monday, February 24, 2003

Sunday, February 23, 2003

Pete is a member of the Whig party.

And just to add some color to the HP100 web log:
posted by Dan Sunday, February 23, 2003

Saturday, February 22, 2003

Keats was talking about desire & how beauty in this view must never be "ravished." That one can never actually possess the beloved because then the lovers would come crashing down into the temporal world. Personally, I prefer Marvell's picture of desire & beauty (see "To His Coy Mistress"). Keats view of art is that it must "stand the test of time" by standing outside of time.
posted by Joseph Duemer Saturday, February 22, 2003

War & the rhetoric of war.
posted by Joseph Duemer Saturday, February 22, 2003

Friday, February 21, 2003

Ah yes. Keats was referring to men "with prominant erections" engaging in various sexual acts in mixed groups, and the result "transcends the ages." (obv. sarcasm)

On a completely different note, O Canada is played at every hockey game. How many of you know the lyrics?
posted by dave Friday, February 21, 2003

Jeff, underlining seemed like the most obvious solution.
posted by Joseph Duemer Friday, February 21, 2003

This is what Keats was talking about in his poem. If you read the poem carefully you will understand what "unravished" means & etc.
posted by Joseph Duemer Friday, February 21, 2003

Thursday, February 20, 2003

Yes, we should always strive to see the good in things. My favourite poet, Li-Young Lee, agrees in this poem. If you want to read anything else of his work, IM me at ipenetrex and i'll lend u a book of his poems.


The Gift

To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he'd removed
the iron sliver I thought I'd die from.


I can't remember the tale,
but hear his voice still, a well
of dark water, a prayer.
And I recall his hands,
two measures of tenderness
he laid against my face,
the flames of discipline
he raised above my head.


Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy's palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame.
Had you followed that boy
you would have arrived here,
where I bend over my wife's right hand.


Look how I shave her thumbnail down
so carefully she feels no pain.
Watch as I lift the splinter out.
I was seven when my father
took my hand like this,
and I did not hold that shard
between my fingers and think,
Metal that will bury me,
christen it Little Assassin,
Ore Going Deep for My Heart.
And I did not lift up my wound and cry,
Death visited here!
I did what a child does
when he's given something to keep.
I kissed my father.



-- Li-Young Lee, ©1986. Reproduced from Rose without permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.

posted by dave Thursday, February 20, 2003

Apathy is easier than caring. According to this definition, you don't need to do anything to be apathetic. To care you need a cingulate. The cingulate is part of the brain. No brain = no caring. QED.

Honestly, we need a mandatory course on making friends here on campus. Maybe that would stop Cool Blue Jello incidents.
posted by dave Thursday, February 20, 2003

When Prof. Duemer writes about "embodying beauty and truth," he links it to a poem about a Greek jar. I'm not sure exactly what he means by this, but let it be known: Grecian urns are not my standard for beauty, nor are they (I hope) that of anyone else in the Honours Program. Heck, of anyone else in the world. Can you imagine someone lusting after ceramic? Ohhh, Renee, your eyes are like glazing; your hips like pottery! Also Mr. Duemer's urn somehow "transcends time," making it the most powerful jar I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
I know we all like to romanticize, but let's not go overboard.

Here's another ode ... one at least as powerful ...
posted by dave Thursday, February 20, 2003

You might also want to take a look at the little Literary Theory book by Culler that at least some of you have. Ch 2 in particular.
posted by Joseph Duemer Thursday, February 20, 2003

Norm posts some thoughts on the nature of literature & hypertext. Norm makes a case for a fairly traditional view of literature--that it embodies beauty & truth & that it transcends time. This is a respectable & socially sanctioned view, but are there other possibilities? [from Dr. Mary Klages, Associate Professor, English Department, University of Colorado, Boulder]

And here is some more from Prof. J.L. Lemke.
posted by Joseph Duemer Thursday, February 20, 2003

Interested in anchient greece, and some of the early philosopher's or rhetoric? If no......igore this link. If yes, click here for a few pictures of the ruins of Plato's academy in anchient greece. Sometimes it seems as though plato, socrates, aristotle and other great greeks are just faint shadows of the past, almost as tranlucent as their theories have become melted into modern literature and thought. It's kinda nice to see tangible evidence of their existance, beyond what is found in there writtings.
posted by Marianna Thursday, February 20, 2003

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

what is it??... you couldn't find a book wide enough for this one...
posted by dave Wednesday, February 19, 2003

i

think that

i

will take











































FULL
advantage of the FactThatI










don't need to pay for paper












when publishing on the




internet.
posted by dave Wednesday, February 19, 2003

If you are interested in some info on the theory of rhetoric here is a pretty good site I've come across in working on the class project:
The Rhetoric Forest. Also, if you read my personal web log, don't think I'm suicidal, I was just in a really really bad mood when I wrote my last entry.
posted by Marianna Wednesday, February 19, 2003

This is a very fine resource on propaganda. Many of your projects touch on political speech & this should be very useful.
posted by Joseph Duemer Wednesday, February 19, 2003

An interesting article which shows how weblogs might be able to track new "trends" in society (and politics I suppose). We have already discussed similar issues in class such as blogdex, but as far as I know that only shows most popular topics whereas this shows the most popular words or phrases?
posted by Josh Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

I'M MAD. Some girl was having a seizure in Ro-Bro ten minutes ago; I think she was choking on her food. In any event, they had to call in the stretchers. Now in a NORMAL place that would be reason for concern. People would form a crowd around her with worried looks. Think of what your parents would do... But in this goddamned campus, nobody cared. Nobody bothered to form a circle around her because nobody cared. It was business as usual and conversations didn't even include the girl who was passed out on the floor. In one nameless person's words, "she was blocking the cool blue jello." And so I'm angry. Angry at the overwhelming lack of human compassion in that cafeteria. EMPATHY people. EMPATHY begins with you. If you want people to worry about your pathetic lives, you've got to worry about other people. Since there wasn't one worried look in that cafeteria I know that I'm not yelling at anyone innocent.

Learn to love. Please.
posted by dave Tuesday, February 18, 2003

I always kinda thought that Superman got his power by virtue of his alienhood, but that's OK.

Information content < 0
posted by dave Tuesday, February 18, 2003

French humour is simply different than English humour. It has little to do with the language barrier; it has more to do with the type of humour that evolved in the culture. It's true that humour loses something in translation, but this is something different: it's different before translation.

Some things translate very well cross-culture, however. For instance, Bushisms. Yes, the whole world thinks pretty much the same of Dubya.

In Marianna's words, "Imagine attempting to discuss deep religious ideas, and to share experiences without a common language." I love experiences like that: no language in common, yet communication always happens. My grandparents are always having houseguests from Germany over. I can hardly speak any German at all, and yet the language barrier is never a problem. We always manage to talk to one another, share experiences, enjoy a lazy night together. Any German that I know comes from these nights.

If you want to practice listening to French, set your radio to about FM-99. A couple of minutes a day when your radio alarm goes off in the morning will keep your French sharp for the rest of your life.

Montreal is a beautiful city and you're really lucky to have a retreat like this available.
posted by dave Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Monday, February 17, 2003

I thought it might be interesting to reflect on the topic of language itself. This past weekend I was in Montreal of the Taize experience. This was a special kind of prayer involving son, group sharing, mass and an array of other reflections. I went with the Newman center, and we were all hosted by students fro McGill University. While all of our host were english speaking, most of the services, and sharing was in French. Now, I did take three years of French in jr/sr high, but my last class was when I was a sophomore. Thus throughout the experience I was constantly recalling or wishing I could recall what random words. The most difficult part of the experience was during the group sharing. I was randomly placed in a group with all french speakers. Imagine attempting to discuss deep religious ideas, and to share experiences without a common language. Fortunately one member in the group could speak a english quite well as a second language and translated for me. Still, words could not be translated with the same emphasis or amusing nature as desired. Also, when the priests spoke to the French crowds, laughter was quite common. Unfortunately the English translations lost such zest. Ultimately, the weekend solidified the idea that language is among the most integral parts of our interaction with others, and our innate social nature.

posted by Marianna Monday, February 17, 2003

Sunday, February 16, 2003

Dan, have you considered doing a study of the rhetoric of emoticons?
posted by Joseph Duemer Sunday, February 16, 2003

WHOA!!!!!

I just found new ANIMATED emoticons!!!!!
My life is now complete.
Here are just a few examples:



And MANY MANY more!!!!! Muhahahahahahahaha.

PS: This was what I was talking about Prof. Duemer.
posted by Dan Sunday, February 16, 2003

Saturday, February 15, 2003

It would be interesting if some of you chose two or three blogs to follow for several weeks, keeping track of the way they work. Use weblogs.com to look at a whole range of recently updated weblogs. Or use Blogdex to see how webs of blogs are linked.
posted by Joseph Duemer Saturday, February 15, 2003

Somebody hasnt seen Austin Powers: Goldmemeber. :-)
There are only two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.
-Nigel Powers

Any, I haven't been doing to well at getting my point across, so I'm going to say it as simply as I possibly can, then get the heck out of here for a while.
1. No war without international support.
2. Finish war on al Quaeda, they are the bigger threat.
3. Remove Sadaam Hussein. You cannot tell me that this would be oppressive manuever by the US. If Bush were to overthrow Iraq's government, he would be doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
4. I hate religious fanatics, in that they try to force their views on other people, because their God is the "right" God.

IThere, I think I'm out of this conversation for now, it's taking too much time from my Counterstrike games.

posted by Dan Saturday, February 15, 2003

Friday, February 14, 2003

Two things:

a.) I agree with Pete. We are one of the most intollerant nations ever. I won't restate what Pete has already said, but look at the racism in our country. Let's forget about the traditional racism issues (against african americans, jews, etc) and take a look at how much people in our nation hate Arabs right now. I have had people tell me that they wish every one of them was dead. I then told them what they could do with their statement, and if they wanted to help in the fight against those "horrible people" that they could start by offing me.

b.) Valentine's Day, although capitalized on quite a bit, is a very enjoyable holiday in my opinion. I like getting cards from my relatives and getting sweets from my mother even when I don't have a significant other to share the day with. The statement made earlier seemed mildly bitter. I probably wouldn't comment on the matter, but I just got through with watching one of the Valentine's Day specials of Iron Chef.. yummy.
posted by Anonymous Friday, February 14, 2003

To everyone who would like to convince everyone else that they should switch political parties - including myself:

We need to remember three things...

1.) Political parties suck. They seem to be nothing more than vehicles for the vying for power by people who couldn't care less about anything but our money. Look at the issues? I wonder when the big shots sit in a room together and carve up the pie. There is no ultimate underlying moral code for action. We are, however, stuck with them, because no one, myself included, is motivated or strong enough to right the system.
2.) We know nothing, nothing, about the world and its events save what the media feed us. We are addicted to it, and we dictate what it gives us. The media is a business. Businesses make money. Does truth retain itself if it is told in a certain way? Does it really matter, though, that things get elaborated on just a little if it will make more money, thus employing more people and prolonging the life of the system as a whole? How white does a lie have to be to be really white?
3.) The people who we put in office (we did, at least, agree to that system we know through our Constitution) are privilege to more informational sources than we are. Whether we like them or not (and if we do not, there are certain acceptable ways of doing something about it) they are in office until their term is up, and are in a much better position to make decisions than we who watch T.V.

I often think, when I look back on our conversations, that we lack any true wisdom or insight whatsoever, and that these passioned arguments are "a chasing after the wind." I think that, for some of us at least, our true object in argument is to establish ourselves in the eyes of our peers as possesing authority through superior intelligence and intellect. It might prove wiser and wiser both to show our widom by the arguments we abstain from and evaluate others by such. This post, then, is hypocricy.
posted by Norm Friday, February 14, 2003

group weblog for hp:101 / spring 2003

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