I’ve decided to drop out of this summer project as far as doing a daily hypertext but as always, cheer on and support the Tunxis folks who will be involved in what promises to be a fun and creative endeavor. It begins on May 22nd and you can follow their progress here: 100 Days Projects
While focusing what brain power I had available in the last two weeks on linear story in another attempt to meet deadlines of lit journals, I’ve done little in the hypertext department except to put a story or two into the Tinderbox environment to compare it to the way I’ve done the same with Storyspace. I have found a funner way to work in Tinderbox, by using the colored box changes as a visual allure. Something I’ve always liked about Storyspace–particularly the Mac version–is the crisp graphics of the screens that you write into. It inspires by enhancing the tone. Tinderbox can work similarly, though I’ve not yet found the connection between Notes besides as they might contain a single story within and those Notes connected as lexias in typical hypertext narrative form. The individual stories themselves right now do not seem to have a connection but I can easily see how Tinderbox would be the more useful program in which to both make the connections, and yet provide the containers to separate them into their individual selves.
Twiddling a little with it then, but won’t be able to put more time into it until the lit journals have closed for the summer and I’ve no rational excuse to put it off.
If you’re sensitive, the new communication methods of twitter, MySpace, Facebook, et al, are no less humiliating than the face-to-face snub.
My sensitivity is limited to the opinion of those I care about and hold in high esteem or a direct attack by anyone, so this is not a personal case of complaint but rather an observation of the workings of the medium. For example, on twitter, you can opt to be notified when someone starts following your tweets, but you don’t necessarily have to follow them. Since the majority of those who follow are just looking for numbers, you can opt out, and, you can block them if like me, you don’t choose to be a mere addition in somebody’s numbered quest for fame. But what about someone you know? Well it’s pretty hard to either block or not follow because they’ll know it. There’s even (or used to be) qwitter.com that showed when someone stops following you so you can figure out time-wise what you tweeted that made them drop you like a hot potato.
I don’t have experience with MySpace, but on Facebook, it’s a constant push to add to your “Friends” listing. Based on your personal list, that list is expanded to their lists, and these folks are touted as possible friends. This works well to discover who else you might know is on Facebook, and obviously is an excellent method of expanding and connecting. But these faces, one at a time, show up in a prominent space each time you log in, with the suggestion that you add them to your list. But what if you don’t want to? What if you feel it would be an imposition and, knowing that they have to approve you, are intimidated into non-action. Or maybe you just don’t like’em.
Of course this brings you to the other side of the story; if you’re seeing them, they’re watching your image come up randomly with the same suggestion, that they add you. And they don’t. You have to figure that they’ve been given the opportunity, but have chosen not to take it. Is it intimidation or is it b) they just don’t like you? Do you wonder why they’re not picking you for their team? And meanwhile, they’re wondering the same about you. Ironically, these forms of socializing are acting as an equalizer.
You can’t be super sensitive to these things and by the same token, you can’t expect the world to want you watching them. These are, just as in real life, social situations and as technology creates new communication means the social mores will eventually be established to keep us all in a polite society where hopefully no one’s nose gets out of joint.
Like many people, I blog as well as Twitter and post on Facebook and diigo. Each has its purpose for me, and each its own circle of “friends.” In fact, I had been on Facebook to try it out and dropped out because it didn’t seem to do it for me. I rejoined under invitation from my closest high school girlfriend and folks found me there. Diigo is used only for particular new media linking, and I haven’t exercised my Netvibes circle to link in with others. The two weblogs I have are separated by topic. Twitter is a place for those random quick thoughts that don’t beg a paragraph to a page.
One thing I’ve noticed is that my circle of “friends” is repeated in the different networking systems (and I’ve avoided connecting with family on these and may start up a separate identity for them instead) and while I tried but decided against repeat posts at twitter and Facebook, I notice that many of the others do exactly that. And, if another area is merely being pointed out, i.e., a link to their longer posting at a weblog or video site, then there are three or five or more places where a single item may appear, and the question then becomes where to respond if a response is wanted.
Obviously the same response can be posted at all sites, yet this seems to just clog the atmosphere with duplication. On the other hand, the single post may induce different threads of commentary and so wander off into areas that are related, and yet not linked.
Interesting.
I’m not exactly sure how it was set up, but I was recently invited to an event by a dear friend on Facebook and after taking part, realized that it was a successful example of folks getting together momentarily in time and space.
In this case, it was as a memorial on the one-year anniversary of her mother’s passing. I received e-mail notice and checked in to see the number of people invited, who would be attending, and the request to share a story or two about her mom with the others. It was noted that the event was scheduled for a particular date and time period, in this case, April 19th, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm (Tennessee time–that’s one of the glitches, that you have to specify time zone or else everyone’s thinking differently).
This idea could easily work for conferencing or discussion that needs a rapid input of ideas from a group, i.e., brainstorming session. Despite its silence and lack of visuals–although Pat did put up some nice images of her mom and the family to add to the sense of closeness–there was a feeling of sharing and the imagination puts the attendees sitting ‘somewhere’ with their fingers on a keyboard. People drifted in and out, not all online at the same time (whereas this could and would likely be a requisite for a group discussion), and it seemed that some just left the application open and wandered back in to check new comments or add a thought.
All in all, a lovely experience to share this particular span of time with a high school best friend in remembering her mother and offering support in the grieving process. But I can also see this as a viable means to hook up a group for anything from classroom discussions to topical groups to meeting points.
Having trouble getting into the tangle of Paths and concentrating on writing in any form lately, except for blips of prose that are of the moment. Anything old seems just that–old and done already and uninviting to jump back into. Yet the new is just beyond my reach, the grapes of Tantalus, standing in a pool of words.
Maybe I need to read some hypertext and story just to get back in the groove. Maybe I’ve just lost my way. So first, of course, is to find the way to find my way.
Paths sort of stopped me cold from exporting it not only because of its unsophisticated structure but more because of its poor writing. But I do like the story concept a lot and so I’m going to spend some time on editing that and no doubt, will mess with the links and story hypertextwise as well. In other words, this is going to take some work before I present it properly.
Also looking into The Pigeon and The Shoe which I started last year, inspired by the Pittsburgh trip and Hypertext 2008. That’s got a nice idea behind it as well, all from an hour spent sitting in the park.
But there are other things that draw me too; short stories that may or may not be submitted before the lit mags close for the summer (shall I bother?); and for the first time in ten years, an idea for a novel that needs to be in that form. So there’s plenty to do, just have to get my enthusiasm for writing back into the driver’s seat.
Downloaded Aptana Studio as was suggested in the For Dummys‘ book to coordinate and doublecheck code of all sort. I’ve been using just my little Mac Textedit program but figured that maybe it would behoove me and my code to go a bit more fancy.
Haven’t opened and installed it yet because I also have the Adobe Suite with Dreamweaver and such so it would seem that I may as well make use of what I already have and something that is more compatible with the the other suite programs that I more consistently use. Besides, that’s another 139 mb on the hard drive.
New story up by Steve Ersinghaus over at Media Play: Where Would I Go?
It’s a good one.
Starting a new category because it sure looks like I’m into it up to my eyebrows anyway. First html and css stylesheets, now Javascript and that’s only because I wandered onto a new section of the book and within minutes created one of those annoying pop-ups. I won’t put it into the site code cause that’d be really annoying so I’ll see if I can just put it here:
Guess it opens up another web page also but that’s still better than embedding it into the website forever, right?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology