So...a while ago I added a new story to the bottom of the main wiki page that involved (and although it's easy for anyone to see on the wiki, it's a bit embarrassing to post this on the blog) professor (KF) as God. I don't know if people hated my addition or just didn't know what else to put after it (I kept checking and imagining cricket noises in our classroom). Anyway, since it's the last day and I've been itching to add a little more, I did. And I think I've added some sort of closure to the wiki, but I'm not entirely sure. Obviously, please edit or delete or add if you want! If you didn't like my prof=God story-line, then you probably don't like my ending. (Though, honestly I don't intend it as a full and complete ending.)

I realized I should use this blog while its is still up and running (actually, I guess it will always be up and running...i should rephrase and say while its still "frequently checked") to see if anyone knows the answer to a question I have regarding privacy and facebook. You see, I submitted a term paper on Wednesday for a journalism class at CMC that was a bit unusual (and fun). Since it's a journalism class, we had the option of writing a standard research paper, or we could write a query letter and article for any magazine. I chose the magazine option. Our professor is going to edit and give us feedback, then we will actually submit the article to the magazine and hope they accept!

Thanks for all the great presentations today! It's fun to see how varied everyone's are. This is just a short post, asking if anyone wants to give feedback on my project, you can find it here. I may not get to them immediately, but believe me...I will eventually, and they are much appreciated.

Also, I really appreciated all the in-class comments. Thanks again!

I love when, near the end of the semester, I begin see connections between materials in my different classes that I never thought I would find. This recently happened to me in my “Women’s Magazines and the Female Journalist” class at CMC when we learned about zines. Although it’s difficult to describe what zines are in one sentence, they are typically self published, not-for-profit magazines, and, in the context of my CMC class, we learned about zines written by and for girls. I knew nothing about zines—I don’t even think I had heard the term before coming to my class—but I immediately saw many intersections between them and blogs. Although zines are still flourishing, it seems like blogs are becoming the zines of today. Both pride themselves in allowing users to “speak” (or write) in an informal, unpolished, and more “natural” way. They are real voices (as much as printed words can represent a voice), and, in both, the writers are very open and honest.

As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m in a Women’s Magazines and Female Journalists class at CMC. Today KF joined our class and gave a really good, informative talk on blogs as a literary form and the creation of character through personal blogs (to name a few of her main points). At the end, in response to a student's question, KF said (and I hope, KF, that you don't mind if I share this) that she guesses that 25% of her personal blog is written for herself, with no thought of her audience. Of course, that means that about 75% of the time, she writes with her audience in mind. Perhaps this number seems high to some, but I think it's surprising low. After all, at the end of class, we talked about how personal blogs can be compared to reality TV shows: at times, somewhat scripted and perhaps representative of a false identity (though the viewer may never know if the identity is real or not). Using that same comparison, I thought that a blogger must ALWAYS be aware that she is writing for an audience. I mean, the people on MTV's Real World are certainly aware that a camera is in front of them and act accordingly, right? Similarly, I thought that personal bloggers must always be aware of a potential audience. But then I realized how my blog writing has changed over the semester; at first, I was incredibly uncomfortable writing something that would be posted to my professor, my entire class, and to anyone else who happened to stumble upon our site. However, now I’m much more at ease writing, and I don't feel as embarrassed raising points on the blog, even if they are somewhat personal.

To me, the question raised in tophat1's post and in class discussion of whether or not The Onyx Project could and should be in a more linear, movie format seems contradictory to the project itself. As much as the it previously annoyed me that The Onyx Project is so opposed to being called a movie (as tophat1 points out, there is clearly a camera, and they show it; as we discussed in class, there is background music, which is a part of the editing process; and in one of the in-between scenes where you wait to click on something, it shows David Strathairn bent over and staring at papers, which I took to be a script), I think I'm beginning to see why the creators were so adamant about its naming. The point of the project, as I see it, is to redefine the way we look at media. In other words, asking why it isn't a linear movie is like asking why Michael Joyce's "Afternoon" isn't a linear, print book. On some level, I think this is a valid question, because the format of "Afternoon" confused me, and I wanted to see it in "book" form; similarly, The Onyx Project isn't my favorite, and I was often bored or anxious from seeing and hearing such scripted, dry speeches from David Strathairn (sorry, KF : )). But I think the point of both of these projects is that they want to use new media opportunities to move away from traditions of the past and create a new way of storytelling.

The posts so far on Walking Mornings indicate that most people like the essay but some people don't follow all of his thoughts. I suppose I'm a part of both groups of readers, because I too enjoyed the piece, but I didn't understand some of his main points. Like Lulu, I think his Joyce is a good writer, and his skills came out a lot more in this essay for me than in "Afternoon", but that could have been that I was so fascinated with the hypertext form of "Afternoon" that I didn't stop to appreciate how he wrote. Anyway, some of the points in Walking Mornings that made me sit back and think "Wow, that was good writing" also made me think "Wow, I don't understand what he's talking about, but I feel like I should."

On the GAM3R 7H30RY site, there's an interview with Wark (that, oddly and appropriately enough, is made so it appears that the interviewer and Wark are in the game Halo, complete with sound effects. The form of the interview is quite amusing, so you should check it out if solely for that reason). In it, Wark says that having his book put online and allowing comments is like having people shoot at you. But, he added, the comments ended up being critical in a positive way and helped him. Because of this, he said, "It brings out what writing is anyway, which that you're sort of the DJ of other people's thoughts and ideas, and this just makes it manifest."

Although I'm not sure how well it achieves its goals of collaboration, I really like the ideas underlying the GAM3R 7H30RY project. Like Wikipedia, in theory, it allows users to rule; it privileges the voice of the common man/woman (ok...not really common. By "common", I mean the computer-savvy person reading the book), and it helps break down the boundary between author and reader. (And yes, I think I'm most fascinated with this right now because Scott Rettberg commented on my blog post.) Because of the nature of the comments (which I'll get to in a minute), like Lulu, I wanted to privilege the index cards over the comments. However, because I wanted to look at this as a piece of collaboration, I was most interested in the comments, so I made a deliberate effort to study them.

I’m in a wonderful class at CMC called “Women’s Magazines and the Female Journalist”, and yesterday our professor arranged a panel of speakers for a lunch at the Athenaeum. These four female journalists—the co-founders of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture magazine, the editor of Ms. Magazine, and a graduate of Pomona who is a staff writer for the East Bay Express—offered great advice and insight into the world of journalism. They also (and here’s why I’m posting to this) replied to a question about the future of journalism in light of the popularity of reading blogs and news online. Almost all women agreed that they don’t necessarily feel threatened by the web. As one said, ‘I think the rumors of the end of the print word are ridiculously exaggerated.” Of course, it would make sense for them to feel this way because, although their publications have websites, their careers are reliant on print.