[toronto raptors beat minnesota timberwolves]

a bit of the game I managed to capture....

[toronto raptors vs minnesota timberwolves]

one of mum's christmas pressies to us...an yeah, row three is pretty damn close to the action.

heh heh heh, toronto won. but it was close! T.J. Ford poured in 28 points and added seven assists to lead the Toronto Raptors to a 100-97 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday.

Anthony Parker added 19 points, while Jose Calderon chipped in with 13 for the Raptors (13-16). For the remainder of this article click here.

[marvin]

one of my brother's cute kitties enjoying being draped over the heating vent

[cn tower at night]

[blog names]

I've been leafing through a few blogs - blogs that caught my attention because of their names, which proffer literary thought, suggest playful punning, or are downright snarky - and have been left wondering...is there such a thing as a blog name being too big for it's boots? Perhaps the author feeling continually compelled to exact erudition upon quotidian finds...hrm...the blogosphere and pressure to perform (next project).

[creative writing and new media lecture: reading web fictions]

Hi Creative Writing and New Media Masters' Students,

Welcome to this week's lecture on reading web fiction!

I'm adding parts of a PowerPoint presentation here so you can click along as I point out ideas and explain my theory.

As we progress I'll be sharing links of sites which I think best illustrate my points. If you have any questions, please ask.



UPDATE: Some links from the lecture

Some examples of web fictions:
These Waves of Girls

Red Riding Hood


High Crimson

Auerbach’s Mimesis: Representation of Reality in Western
Literature via Amazon.com’s website (they have an excerpt available). Turn to page 3:

Example of text/graphic


Example of sound/animation

Example of streaming video

Narrator/protagonist Tracey continually switches between different versions (ages) of herself

Tracey as 7 year old and Tracey in grade 7

Example of Multi-Mimesis in action

Example of multiple versions of Tracey

[measuring ephemerality]

I've just been asked my opinion of how I might evaluate online work (in the sense of student creative projects). Hrm. That's a tricky one. How do you measure ephemerality? An essay might be required to be 2000 words, that's easy to count. But what do you do with an online project? Do you count the lexia? Do you look at the source code? Do you take into account how long it takes the reader to navigate through the work? I wonder if there are any guidelines out there from people teaching online (new)media/literature/poetry courses. I've found a few course descriptions but not many guidelines for evaluations. I wonder if educators are finding a paradigm shift of grading/evaluation occuring now as more and more students have access to computing technology and more and more educators are employing online lessons and themes into their teaching. In online creative work (I'm thinking of hyperfictions, hypertext essays, database-driven art etc...) do we only consider the finished product or as teachers, are we to take into account the hours of coding that went on behind the scenes to create that one node? As David Silver says: "Hypermedia projects are not just read; they are viewed, heard, and felt. At the expense of employing a cliché, they are experienced." So how do we evaluate student work on all these levels?

[travels]

Where in the UK have you travelled? I have been to all the places in yellow...obviously I need to explore a bit more!

Go here for your own test.

[Lecture: New Media and New Identities]

In today's (7 Dec. 2006) lecture we are going to talk about the changing notions of identity. We'll begin with an overview of some key theorists (including Mulvey, Butler, and Haraway) and then move on to specific examples.

All the links that we'll be following can be found here, in the order that I'll be presenting them:

Judy Malloy's Uncle Roger:
http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/uncleroger/partytop.html

Caitlin Fisher's These Waves of Girls: http://www.yorku.ca/caitlin/waves/, section dealing with Vanessa where the audio reading refers to Rebecca: http://www.yorku.ca/caitlin/waves/vanessa

Friendster: http://www.friendster.com/

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/

Salam Pax Blog: http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

White Bear Blog: http://istherenosininit.blogspot.com/2006/11/heebies-paranoia-contagious.html

My Blog: http://www.jesslaccetti.co.uk/musings.htm

Flickr: Search for "Leicester": http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=leicester&w=all

YouTube video of DMU student's room in halls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ID8jVTvgA

“One of the things students do is they test out identities. Maybe that is one new thing we are seeing now – more rapid changes of identity. Online you can get feedback and you can change at a moment’s notice” (Fred Stutzman, qtd here).

[ioct seminar: click lit]

Eeek. Ok, so mildy freaking out about my presentation at the IoCT today. Look, I'm even on the front page! (Although, this will have changed when the site is updated). I was hoping no one would know about it but the IoCT site kinda gives it away, plus someone who will remain nameless...must have decided rather than not wanting anyone to come and listen to me (and thus ask me questions...eek!), I must have *really* wanted everyone and her monkey to come...well, maybe monkeys only, that would be much easier as I'm pretty sure they can't ask too many tricky questions. Although, not true if it's Steve Grand's Lucy (which isn't really a monkey anyway, but an orangutan...)


Update: Chris Joseph took a photo of me AND recorded my explaining what my talk was about.

[mixd: more social software]

Found this while surfing the 'net in search of other people's examples of web fiction (oddly, not many people using the term). mixd (notably web 2.0 without the letter "e"), claims to "Coordinate last-minute meetups, share pictures and videos from your phone, and remember last night on a website we create for you, automatically." Users can keep track of texts, videos, and photos online and on mobiles. I am surprised to read that is is Yahoo!'s project...are they trying to be cool?