2.) This hypertext activity reminded me of these Goosebumps books I used to read. At the bottom of every page it gave you a choice of where the story would go next. For example, the story might say, "He approached the door at the end of the dark hall. If you think he opened the door go to page 15, if you think he turned around and left go to page 36." I used to love reading these books as I love solving puzzles and mazes. This hypertext basically reemphasized Borges' belief of different times. If you select a word you might get one part of the story first but if you picked another word you got a different part first. If you didn't pay careful attention you would be running in circles with no end in sight. I was mostly attracted to the one word links such as enemy, friend, revolver, omission, dead, and died. I felt these were more abstract then the phrases and I felt the one word links would deliver more surprising results than the predictable phrases. I guess this tells me that I like to think outside the box and that I like surprises.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tweets and Mazes
1.) During the "Twitter Experiment" I really got the sense that time was stellar. Reading each post showed me how much I have in common with these people besides an English class. When Professor Milstein was talking about "Set It Off" and "Good Will Hunting", it made me go back several years since the last time I saw and enjoyed these movies. Her post made me think, "Should I reactivate my Netflix account so I can watch these movies along with so many others that I haven't seen in years?" I left a post about filling out my NCAA brackets and a couple of hours later I saw another post about brackets. Did my brackets affect his? Did the teams I picked factor into the percentages which factored into his choices? I don't know but it is certainly possible. Another post about someone going to Atlantic City made me laugh. I was supposed to go to Atlantic City for a Bachelor Party but couldn't make it because of work. I could have been at a Blackjack table sitting right next to this person without even realizing it. Maybe this person would have won or lost more money due to my presence at that table. Another post that changed my thought process were all the ones about snow. By the time I rolled out of bed all the snow was gone and the sun was shining. I thought to myself "Wow this weather is finally turning around." Then I saw all the posts and thought shit, this winter is never going to be over and I went from good mood to bad mood instantly. This experiment showed me how other people's actions affect my thought process and how I go about doing things which makes my sense of time stellar.
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Brilliant ideas Frank -- I really liked what you said about the snow comments. Had they not been there, you might not have understood the "real" effect snow was having on people in our city; instead, you might have read a newscast that was remote from anything realistic. You can see how it doesn't become too farfetched for people to start claiming something like the Holocaust never happened when we consider this snow effect issue :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about the stellar time and how it influences your life with others life. I liked the part where you have said how you missed the chance of going to Casino yet you thought your friend going there with or without you may or may not have win the jackpot. This is true of stellar time.
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