This past week has been a ridiculous affair for me as I've been scrambling to get all my final papers in and studying for finals. The internet has not been helpful at all, and this blog has definitely been a procrastination tool for me.

It's funny that this blog is simultaneously class-related "work" and also one of my main sources of procrastination. This past semester, whenever I am not in the mood to study or am simply in a procrastinating mode, my tools for procrastination have been the following, in this order:

1. Email
2. Xanga
3. Facebook
4. This blog
5. Our wiki
6. Youtube

In the spirit of the recent blogs about random internet sites that will provide a nice study break, I offer a quick thought on Chuck Tryon's most recent blog entry. Although his blog has been on our site for awhile (I think) I haven't had a chance to check it out until now. (Now that I am not taking a study break but just outright refusing to study for my ominously looming finals).

In case you aren't familiar with him, Chuck is an assistant professor of film and media studies at Fayetteville State University. His post from December 8 (his "birthday post") mentions how, although he is happy to have a tenure-track job, it has been difficult for him to transition from living in big cities (like DC and Atlanta) to living in the smaller town of Fayetteville. He bemoans the absence of a thriving "independent movie culture" in the small town. Yet, he says "I think I would feel even more disconnected without the internet and especially without the blog communities in which I've participated."

More in the study break category, has anyone heard of this: inanimate alice?

It’s a cool interactive fiction with sound, games (sort of, you have to check it out and read the about section), and pictures. It’s won a lot of awards in Europe and seems to be getting a lot of buzz. There is a separate author and multimedia expert (too bad I didn’t have one of those for my own project), so both sides are pretty well done. The whole thing seems just perfect for our class, the subject is a girl who we watch grow up (only the first two episodes are available) and become a game designer.