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It Is Very Dark » Final Paper
A Blog, A Blorg, A Bloog: The Anatomy of A School Blog I’ve been running and reading blogs for the past several years. Starting in 2001 I ran a comedy writing blog and I’ve run it in various different iterations to the present day. I’ve had quite a few personal blogs which I’ve gone through various phases of interest with. ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » I don’t like, nor do I trust, anything I’ve ever read on the internet
And so here we are with the LAST ASSIGNED READING. This fills me more with fear than sadness because it means that I need to really get in gear on this wacky final project that I’ve heard bandied about. Once again, and even more so than last reading, I feel that this reading is there merely to serve a symbolic ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » Games are for children
One thing I noticed about this article, though I guess it was appropriate for 1984, was that the author kept bashing pinball. Better than pinball this, video games do it better than pinball that. Well its because of jerks like her that we don’t have pinball anymore. Well, that and the fact that they’re extremely easy to break, wildly expensive ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » …on the other hand, it could be a bunch of aliens playing a hilarious practical joke
I would want to liken this short story to something of a Twilight Zone episode, but the twist at the end isn’t really as twisty as a good Twilight Zone episode would be. Bishop’s revelations that he might have to go on and learn more despite his high IQ is the sort of fun little twist that, I suppose, takes ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » I am a cynical old man with a cynical old blog
First off, for anyone who doesn’t know the television show South Park now has every single episode online legally. I’m not a huge fan of the show, but I think this is pretty neat, and if you haven’t seen Make Love, Not Warcraft it actually makes some interesting parallels to some of the situations that we read about in Habitat. ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » Will there be a housing crisis in Cyberspace?
One of the interesting points he raised in the reading was about this artist who put all of his works on a tape, and after just a minute they were completely gone. It recalls the horrible anxiety that all comedians had once late night television shows and albums came out. If you did a bit on Carson or something like ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » There aren’t any good outer space themed MMORPGs and don’t talk about Eve
Here we are with the behemoth of new media, mmorpgs, one of the most lucrative gaming things ever. World of Warcraft, according to latest estimates pulls in eight TRILLION dollars a day. We start by looking at graphical mmorpg’s granddaddy, Habitat. Reading this made me think of one of the great mmorpg gaffes of all time which people are still ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » There are reasons that I loved this reading that don’t include that it had pretty pictures
Scott McCloud’s fantastic book Understanding Comics should really be read by everyone. Why is that? I went into this a little bit when I was commenting on this blog because it takes something that is largely considered a junk medium and elevates it, legitimizes it, and puts it up on a fancy pedestal for those of us who are too ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » Children are the future and the future is plastics
Here’s a fun little omission that I completely forgot for some reason and I haven’t mentioned at all in class or on this blog: my brother does this stuff professionally. I was looking at the syllabus and I noticed that it linked to the NYU ITP program, and thought “hey, Pete did that!” and then I thought, “Oh wait, Pete ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » Marshall McLuhan’s long essay about why Tom Wolfe loves wearing white suits
The most enjoyable and most obviously memorable clip in the McLuhan tape is when he’s spouting off craziness at his daughter’s wedding. I probably have said this in the last blog entry, and probably the last one too, but I don’t think it was possible to stop that man. He couldn’t help talking like that the same way that Groucho ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » We’re out of new material, so here’s a Marshall McLuhan Clip Show
Its always nice to match a face to the page, and its even nicer when you imagine that the man who seems really crazy on the text is, in fact, actually crazy in real life. Instead of being some dry old grumpypants, we have McLuhan spitting out more and more insanity as a parade of confused onlookers just sort of ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » Curses!
I found today’s reading, all this medium jazz to be perplexing, obnoxious, smart, compelling, and boggling. Its clear that McLuhan might be onto something but I don’t know if I want to cede that to him, because of his love of wacky alliterative titles (well, semi?). I think though that this medium is the message stuff is pretty smart, though ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » Lets talk some more about education
I think the best drawing in Nelson’s whole book was the drawing of the two brick walls. The teacher and the computer both as brick walls. Cuts right to the thick of it, doesn’t it? That automated grading from the textbook is one of the most terrifying ideas in education. How the heck is anyone supposed to gain critical thinking ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » Edutainment
A quick note: Is it sort of a joke that there’s a typo on page 332 when talking about how word processing units didn’t have visual displays? Nelson’s discussion of computers potentially harming education is well taken. As children’s minds are constantly branching and making connections that us grumpy old adults will probably never do, the rigid structure of most ... [Link]
It Is Very Dark » I don’t get it!
Part of our discussion last class was over how Engelbart and some others, believe that computers shouldn’t be in the hands of unwashed plebes who don’t understand computers. To waste such powerful resources on people like that is… um… wasteful. To simplify and make everything cute and adorable and like that, we’re obscuring the full potential of these machines, or ... [Link]
The house on Paper St. » Final, Finally
I’ve always been completely intimidated by everything pertaining to Alfred Hitchcock. I think there are multiple reasons for this. Before this course, the only encounters I had had with Hitchcock and his films were the brief glimpses I would get at the covers of his films before my mother would put it back on the shelf and explain to me ... [Link]
even a pencil has fear to » Moving
So…I’ve graduated. Which means, I think, that I can’t use this blog anymore. So I started a new one! There’s not much there yet, but I promise there will be. You can check it out at: evenapencilhasfearto.wordpress.com Yes, the names of my blogs are the same. What can I say, I loved this one and wanted to carry the same ... [Link]
. » the blog also rises
Instead of makin’ a new bloggawog, I’m going to ressurect my film class blog for Praxis. Welcome to .. [Link]
I'd Rather Live It. » Value P
(Pre.Script. I never explain to you what Value P is, get curious and do some exploring once in awhile why don’t you) Walker Percy’s short essay entitled ‘The Loss Of The Creature’ was a remarkable yet difficult text for me to get through. While I was enthralled by the points I was able to understand, I was at the same ... [Link]
Who ate the last of the cheese? » Pandora Last.fm Critical Metrics
Music is an art form that just about every human being enjoys. The thing about music is there are so many different genres, that there is bound to be something out there that you find enjoyable to listen to. The only thing is, it can be rather difficult to find new music that suits your taste if you are not ... [Link]
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