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Saturday, September 23
See the turkey spin!
Why the Roberts Turkey Brand Corned Meats turkey is green is a mystery. Well, corned meats are kind of Irish, and Irish things are often green--but turkeys aren't Irish, or green. Not even corned turkeys. But, apparently, corned green turkeys do spin. Oh, how they spin.
(8:41 PM | #)
Thursday, September 21
It looks like some eeenteresting changes may be afoot at New College. It seems that after the recent events (new Dean, new structure, percieved lack of autonomy, possible actual loss of autonomy, loss of some senior professors, and I'm sure more thinks I'm not aware of) there are some proposals to increase New College's autonomy. The proposals are interesting reading. I like the sound of proposal 2a, even though the phrase 'in partnership with private developers' gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies, for a couple of reasons:1. Paradoxically, I think distancing New College structurally from the Sarasota University Program might increase interaction between the two programs (I think a lot of the distance is self-imposed by the students and faculty in order to heighten the distinction between the two, more autonomy for N.C. might allieviate the need to do that).
2. It provides for more (structured) interaction with the local community and environment, which is sorely needed. New College students (mostly) have a horrible tendency to ignore their surroundings in classic ivory tower fashion, participation with the proposed University Center would combat that.
I predict they'll end up going with one of the more conservative proposals, which would probably be sensible of them. The school, has already changed a lot since I graduated (suite dorms! what will they think of next?), it'll be fun to watch what happens next.
Here's an article from the esteemed *cough* Bradenton Herald. (pace, Matt Greico.)
(2:57 PM | #)
Wednesday, September 20
Documentary on street booksellers, found at librarian.net. I think sidewalk sales are a wonderful thing--I'd love to see someone do a comparison of East Coast vs. West Coast style selling. Also, Samuel Delany lover was a street bookseller when they met--I wonder if he's in this film? Note the statement to bookstore owners regarding fenced books.(3:06 PM | #)
Wednesday, September 13
My school page is up. Enjoy.(5:06 PM | #)
Friday, September 1
Whoa. That was a little incoherent. I think I'm going to continue to pursue it, though--it being (since I didn't exactly get to the point) that the presence or absence of narrative in a work is important, and that certain designs (and even media) can encourage or inhibit narrative. I *like* narrative, therefore I want to figure out how to encourage it and not inhibit it (through information architecture, or any other set of tools that might help).It gets even trickier when you're dealing with narrative created from multiple sources--which is why making a discussion board or a mailing list work well is even harder than creating a compelling journal or weblog (not that that's easy). Therefore, I want to figure out why certain kinds of multiple-sourced narratives (like ye olde fashioned mailing list) seem to make it easier than others, and how that might help in creating new kinds.
Oh, and I have a hunch that Scott McCloud's excellent analysis of comics (specifically on how much of their narrative power comes as much from the various kinds of transitions between panels as from the work in the panels themselves) might be really helpful in doing this.
And I have a couple of projects that have been sitting in the back of my mind for a while that would be good places to experiment with these things.
(But first I have to do a whole lot of reading and catching up on techie things.)
(11:04 AM | #)