Fire in the Hole!

Fire in the hole is a malicious stunt that hurts the victim and doesn't let go. Internet sites have ensured that whoever gets attacked by this prank will be humiliated on an enormous scale. The restaurant workers do have some power to stop it though. They can track down the video and flag is as being offensive. Moderators could read their story and take it down. The fact that they can do this in no way negates the fact that web 2.0 is being used in horrible ways.

I do believe that we could be considered the not-so-greatest generation. Pranks like this have always existed, but they have never been glorified or run as rampant as they have with our generation. I guarantee that most of the people who do these things first heard of them on the Internet. The trouble makers of previous generations have been limited to whatever they could think of or what their friends could think of, but our generation has access to thousands upon thousands of ideas flying around in cyberspace. They can not only look up how to do it, but also see how it's done. Teens can watch these videos and see the creators hysterical reaction. in a sick way, it's inspiring to them. The criticism we receive is rightly given. The media is correctly warning people about these things and is in no way over hyping them.

I honestly don't think that the television shows that glorify these stunts really care what kids do. They might have a "Do not try this at home" disclaimer, but they do nothing to back it up. When kids do these pranks and parents hear that they got the idea from TV, it probably only makes the shows more popular. It's free publicity for the shows and it only makes them cooler to the kids. The problem is that other than cracking down and editing these things off of TV, there's not much that can be done to limit our generations exposure to these things. The best suggestion I could make would be to track down Bam and publicly charge him with assault for it. I doubt the people who originally preform these stunts and all of their imitators would be inclined to do them if they saw others getting in real touble.

Use computer. Click new post. Type title.

I have found the material we were assigned to read (and play) this weekend was very satisfying. The theme appeared to be the branching paths of reality. In the first piece, "The Garden of Forking Paths", the narrator became a wanted man when his commander was captured and discovered a link to the mystery of his past. This short story really brought into question the makeup of reality. I've encountered in my life the very same theory that the narrator's ancient relative was fascinated by, the thought that with every choice we make, a hundred other realities are set into motion where other choices were made. It was a romantic monologue where a young man is asking a woman to board a train with him to see where that particular reality might lead. It's almost mind boggling to think that if this theory is true, there are billions upon billions of realities where everything is exactly the same, but you don't exist. It's also almost as mind boggling to know that this theory has exited in the minds of men for hundreds of years. We are so quick to assume that talk of parallel universes and other strange and futuristic ideas is restricted to recent years when research has allowed us to explore these possibilities. To get back to the reading, I thought it was extremely interesting that the author had used to many references to games and mazes in the passage. It was almost as though he was challenging you to try and imagine how the narrator could have done things differently. What if he had used his bullet on Madden? What if he had confronted Madden on the train? Did he have to Kill Albert? What if he got on a different train? What if he decided to give up on the message and save himself? At risk of wearing the word out, the possibilities are mind boggling!

Next we got to read a segment from the book"If on a Winter's Night a Traveler". The entire portion of the book we read was the equivalent of taking a sledge hammer and putting it to good use on the fourth wall. The author spent the entire time discussing the series of events that might have lead to the reader reading the book. I found the entire thing to be incredibly entertaining and kind of funny. I actually have a friend who has already read the book, and judging by what he told me and this passage, I think I'm going to need to buy and read it. Every detail about where they bought it to what they might be thinking about the authors style as the read the first words (which incidentally have already been read creating almost a sort of paradox) are covered. It connects to the previous reading in an obvious way, discussing possibilities about the paths life might follow. I found the excerpt to be a little less though provoking and a little more entertaining than the previous one though.

YES! On to the most entertaining thing I had the privilege of reading. Zork! Zork is an entity that is not quite a video game, but it is beyond the scope of "choose your own adventure" novels. It is a game of Dungeons and Dragons (that must have been particularly good) where you are an adventurer searching for treasure in a hidden labyrith. It allows you to explore all the options that the adventurer might take. In my first game, I explored the forest outside the house and got lost in the canyon just outside the labyrith. I decided to try again, and this time I discovered an open window on the side of the house. It led me down into the labyrith where I found a few treasures, but ran out of room to hold things, and couldn't find my way out again. I had to stop to write this blog! The game is an expression of the ideas from the readings. You can choose from tons of different options and paths to take in the world given to you. You can play the game in a hundred different ways and get a hundred different outcomes. In one you drown. In one you are eaten by trolls. In one you escape with half the treasures. In one you get away with only your life and a sandwich you found! And in one special outcome you defeat the monsters, avoid the thief, and escape with all the treasure. Now if you'll please excuse me, I have to go try to find that outcome. Don't wait up, this could take a while.

New Media? Oh, New Media!

Yes, the ever popular new media! As defined by our good friend Wikipedia, "New media refers to new forms of human and media communication that have been transformed by the creative use of technology to fulfill the same basic social need to interact and transact". Youtube, AIM, Wikipedia, even this blog itself, they all fall under the definition of new media. I personally am a big fan of this new media! I regularly post on a number of message boards and sites like facebook. It gets information from point A to point B, no matter what the distance, in a matter of seconds. Best of all, it doesn't descriminate. If someone wants to say something, no matter what it is, they can broadcast it to an enourmous audience. This does tend to create problems though. Sources can be very unreliable with the new media. I can't tell you how many times I've seen false information spread via the new media and it has been thoughtlessly believed as the truth by hundreds of people. Places like Wikipedia, GameFAQS (the most trafficked videogame message board), and facebook have all fallen victim to this problem numerous times. Thanks to the lightning quick response of the online community though, these issues are usually very quickly resolved.

My favorite part of the new media by far is the interaction between the source and the reader. The clear line has been blurred to the point where it only exists if you want it to. I am now a viable source for editorials on video games. I can provide input in thousands of polls. I can fight mis-information and ignorance and my input is received instantly. If I make a claim, i can back it up with a video. This is the first time that everyone has truly had freedom of the press and i am all for it!

This is a blog. I shall write in it.

Hello world! Err... For the time being, hello class! This blog has been created for the purpose of discussing reading assignments that will be assigned over the following months. The theme apparently being "New Media". Spiffy, but more importantly this blog will be used to spread the word on anything I deem entertaining, or possibly even hilarious! For now, I'll just post one of my favorite music videoes ever, Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim. It involves Christopher Walkin dancing around an empty hotel and then flying! How could that possibly be bad!?
Enjoy, and I'll see you later!