Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Hypertext Experiment
I'm really excited to present a new experiment in hypertext that I've started - All The Myths Are True. Head over there now to check it out!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
It's the end of another semester. And...
Writing Exercise - Klaus Schultz's music
For this exercise I reflected on the end of semester. Of course, for me it's a bit delayed, but that just ties into the overall end-of-semester stress that everybody has to face one way or another. Looking at this, I see just how much trouble I've lined myself up for, and recognise that I need to confront that face on and just get on with things.
I hope that I can find it within myself to keep up this blog. I've always been a fan of freewriting, which is what this blog has tended to focus on. But I also love to comment on the things that I read about gaming and games. This blog has really filled that niche, and my aim is to try and keep it up after I've finished up all my assignments.
---
I have always had lofty plans for myself. Become a famous director, become a rich photographer, invent something everybody wants, change the world ... And here I am, 23, nearly a quarter of a century old, still in the strange in-between world of university.
And the crazy thing is that I'm about to sign myself up for another four years of it. I've had a burning desire to do a PhD for about three years now. My passion for it is so strong that I've actually convinced friends to go for postgraduate work, as well. And yet here I am, the most passionate of all of us, still stuck in undergrad.
I know that there's a lot of things that contributed to my being here - my father being diagnosed with brain cancer is a pretty big one. And I don't resent the situation, not at all. How can I? My life is what it is. But I do see it as a form of weakness within myself that I wasn't able to deal with what happened in my family and still pull off my degree. I suppose I just don't have that steel minded dedication that's required for that sort of achievement.
It's bizarre - when it comes to my family I will sacrifice anything, especially myself. But when it comes to my academic work I can't seem to get going. Maybe it's because I'm afraid that I won't be good at what I want to be? Or maybe it's because I don't really know what I'll do when I reach the end of my postgraduate studies, and so am sort of subconsciously self-sabotaging myself to prolong getting there?
Whatever the case, I've decided that this is the last time. It's why I'm now madly trying to scramble around and catch up on all of the assignments that I let fall by the wayside when I went back to the states to see my extended family. I refuse to repeat another semester. I need to move on, stop being an economic burden to my family and start being an economic resource. Or at least, make a positive step in that direction.
It's difficult though, and not just because I've gotten myself into a mire of half-completed assignments and a semesters worth of catch-up work. It's also difficult because I've recently realized how much I absolutely love film making. I used to think that I just loved film because of the analysis side of things - to look at the cultural trends at work within a narrative has always been fun for me. Strange, I know.
But recently I've had the pleasure of working with some really passionate and driven artistic people and have had a blast making some great films that I'm really proud of. At the top of the list are a documentary that I directed and edited, and a music video that I helped produce and edit. I have no problem sacrificing myself to the world of making movies, and I'm beginning to wonder if that's some sort of sign that I've signed myself up for the wrong career path. Maybe I'm meant to be a maker of things, not just an analyzer of them? And if that's the case, have I just wasted five years of my life by focusing on a secondary passion?
It's this sort of self doubt that plagues me. I know that we're living in an age where jumping between professions is easier than ever. I know that it's not necessary to sign yourself up to one particular industry or company and never ever leave it. But at the same time, it helps if you have the right tools behind you. And I'm terrified of reaching the end of my degrees - what will be nine years of my life - and discovering that I spent it all on the wrong thing.
I guess this is a reflection of my generation - we don't like to waste time. Well, we do, but not on the big things. We want to know now that we're on the right track. And I know that comparatively I still will be getting my PhD quite young - but not as young as my friends who are currently in their last years!
It's interesting - I've never really been one to plan out my life. I grew up moving countries every three years, never knowing where my next school would be or who my next friends would be. I was happy to let things happen however they might, to let life blow me along and to just enjoy the ride. But throughout that I had the certainty of a loving and supportive family. Now that my family is fracturing from stress and sickness, I find myself worrying more and more about where the future will take me.
All I can do is keep moving forwards, I guess. I've put myself on a path and I need to see it out till the end - that's just the way that I am. I've thought about calling it quits at the end of this year, but I know that if I do then I'll spend my life wondering about how things would be different if I'd gone on and done what I'd set out to do.
So it's time to stop letting life get in the way and get on with things. I need to catch up on my assignments, I need to cram in a semester's worth of work into a few weeks. I know I can do it -I've done it before through sheer laziness and bad planning. Sure, my reasons this time are a bit different, and I've got different responsibilities now thanks to the situation with my father, but I need to suck myself out of this mire that I've gotten myself into.
I just need to keep reminding myself that I can. And really, that's the hardest part.
I don't want any sort of recognition ...
Writing Exercise - Jamie Sieber's "Unspoken: The Music of Only Breath"
I love Jamie Sieber - her music is featured heavily in one of my favorite games, Braid. Braid is one of those fantastic indie games that really pushes your concepts of how games are meant to played. On the surface it's a linear platform puzzle game, but the player can, and must, manipulate time in order to progress throughout the game. It's a really fun play, as well as a beautiful one.
Anyways, onto the writing portion of this entry! I tried to imagine what sort of resolution my game narrative would have. I came up with a sort of cheesy "everything will be okay" one, but if there's anything a game like Braid has taught me, it's this: You can take a done-to-death idea (princess must be rescued from a monster) and twist it up to make it interesting and new again. It's this lofty goal that I am setting for myself with this game.
I've said before that I'm a gamer. I've also said before that I don't really have a cohesive online identity. I think I need to change that statement - I do, it's just not that different from my realworld identity. There's a lot of discussion these days about people spending too much time online and disconnecting from reality. I think the real problem is about having two identities and being an unified person - the trick is to try and be the same person online as you are in real life, and not to lose your identity in the information of the internet. The only way that I know how to do this is to try and balance my life between the fun escapism of games and the internet, and the fun things in the real world too. Time needs to be taken every day to go outside and glory in the sun, and the wind and so on. The real world shouldn't be a bad place with bullies and boring jobs - we should work to make it as attractive as an online existence, not just decry the internet and virtual realities.
It's this sort of happy, and utopic, medium that I think I would like to leave the players of this game aiming for. I'm not interested in making a game which portrays the internet as bad, or games as bad, but one that shows that consumerism interplaying with online identities can lead to some pretty negative stuff, and that there shouldn't be the massive separation between online and real world existences as there is right now.
--
Somewhere, there's got to be a happy medium. A way to live with the net, the addons and the programs, and not let them overcome you. Escaping commercialism is a good way to start the journey, and it's with this aim in mind that I step back into the spotlight. I begin the push to create a free net, easily accessible by all. Oh, I know it's not possible to create a completely free net - certain addons and apps are always going to be pricey and signs of status. There's no real way to combat that. But in today's world, it's fair to say that a great equalizer will be the access to the net. Freedom of information, to access it and to create it, is my main goal right now.
Luckily, this scandal with the corrupt government has opened up a lot of people eyes (both online and in reality) to the fact that the system is pretty rotten. Something needs to be done, and the corporations are realizing that they have a lot of power. I heard this morning that one has already begun offering a free information, no fixed plan option. It's a slow connection, and no equipment is included, but once the new government comes into office and starts offering basic equipment for free it's only a matter of time before the competing companies start offering free data packs. The competitive nature can only serve us well in this instance, as each company will compete to attract the largest clientele, knowing that they can at least control the advertisement spaces inside those VR channels.
So, slowly, we're pushing forwards. Some day we'll reach an equilibrium, a happy medium between living in the dirt and living in the wires. I just hope that people don't forget why we're doing it.
At first I didn't understand what I...
Writing Exercise - "IBM 1401 A User Manual" by Johan Johannsson
For this exercise I tried to think about the possible "secret" that the player has uncovered, that is causing him/her to have to hide from the government. I'm worried that this game is getting a bit heavy in terms of background information - obviously the format that I choose will have to be able to deal with a large narrative. This is where viral marketing will also come in handy - websites that belong to people who are jacked in, or to the companies who are selling contracts will help provide background information outside of the game.
---
I had been doing a routine data-sweep of the net, looking for any troublesome activities. Any data-terrorists that needed to be taken down, any revolutionaries that needed to be discouraged from targeting a server. It's an ironic thing that our world is now so wired that even those who disagree with how we use the net still need to use it themselves in order to communicate. There are always tremors on the net, before an attack is going to happen. It's just a matter of combing through the data and finding the discrepancies.
I found something, alright. But it wasn't by any revolutionaries or data-terrorists.
There has been a government initiative to encourage everyone to jack in. There are sponsorship programs that allow the poor to join up with government funded providers. The terms are longer, the conditions more strenuous, but it allows the poor access to the net. The idea is that in the four years that you're bound to the government provider, you offer up 50% of your brain power to government processing. You become a mobile server, in a way. But at the end of your term you should have built up enough data-revenue online, written enough blogs and tweets and commented on enough pictures, that you should be receiving a pretty good income in order to sign up for your own individually chosen plan with one of the major providers.
But some people aren't making it all the way through their contracts. In fact - I research user information on some government sponsored bloggers, easy to spot because of their required logos - over 3/4's of them are abandoning their blogs before their terms are up. I do some digging. They're all dead.
Over the next few days I do some more digging. I'm not trying to be subtle about it, but I am, simply be the nature of all the work that I need to do. The search gets pushed to the bottom of my priorities, but it's still there, niggling at my processors.
In the majority of these cases, the individuals died due to some sort of brain hemorrhage. And that's when I piece it all together - the government is using their sign-ups to test out deadly software and viruses. They're mostly contained in their own networks, away from the premium data sites that need to be paid for, so there's minimal risk of a spreaded infection to people higher up the economic food chain. Besides, most people can afford some sort of protection on their plans - an extra chip or addon that filters out the nasty stuff. These charity cases can't, and their brains are wide open to being ravaged by the programs that the government is testing.
These people's brains are literally being fried.
The water drips down the wall...
Writing Exercise - "Kling Klang" by Kraftwerk
In this exercise I tried to continue with the character that I created in the previous one - the synchronised human cyborg superhero. What would make this character interesting to play? What sort of world would this character exist in? These are the issues that I set my mind upon at the beginning of this exercise.
---
They never thought that I'd go off mission - didn't even think that I could. They assumed that whoever made me programmed me to well for that.
And in one way, they're right. I'm not the traitor that everybody seems to think that I am. I'm running now because I found something out that I wasn't supposed to - isn't that always the way? Hopefully my own story follows the stereotype, and I'm able to get out of here, and publicize the information that I found. The information that is currently burning away at my processors it's so horrific.
My breathing is under control, my processors have cooled down, and I know that it's now or never. I begin to move stealthily through the abandoned building. This sort of slum is more and more common now. People just give up living, die in their sleep, and no one bothers to clean them up. They'll decompose soon enough, it's assumed. Beneath my heavy tread something squelches, and I avoid looking down, knowing that most likely I've stepped on the decomposing body of somebody who gave up a long time ago. A crack tells me that they probably died a long time ago, and that there's very little organic material left to cushion the sound of bones breaking.
This is what our thriving world has come to - decomposing bodies in abandoned buildings. But no one does anything because the only people whose opinions actually matter don't see the real world anymore. They move about in their virtual realities of choice, their eyes filtered by the environment dujour being pushed by the big companies. You can always spot these ones - their expressions aren't as downtrodden and hopeless as the people who can't afford to jack in, for one. But also, they're usually scarred with branding. Part of jacking in is signing up to a provider for a minimum two year plan. The brand gets burned onto your face or body for those two years. If you stay out the term of your plan, the brand dissolves. If you jump ship for a better offer from another provider, you have to get surgery to try and get rid of the brand. This usually goes horribly wrong. The indecisive ones are always easy to spot, their bodies are crisscrossed with competing crumpled logos.
The really rich are even easier for spot - for one, they don't have to leave their homes. They're so completely jacked in that they don't have to leave their homes to conduct their business, instead they control a robotic avatar that they send out for them. The robots gleam, their fluid casings sometimes transitioning as they glide along as their owners decide to change their appearance, either changing the chassis color or chopping off the hair or growing a tail. Even the really human-like robots are easy to spot though - there's something just a little bit off about them. Their eyes don't quite meet yours, their skin or fur or whatever is a little too reflective.
It's into this world that I step, pulling the hood of my sweater up in order to cover my distinctive hair. It's going to have to go, I think with a pang. It's been an identifier for too long, and the last thing I need now is to be easily identified. I need somewhere that I can go and hide out, and plan my next move. I need to figure out how to get what I know out there.
---
The world of the game is obviously dystopic, abandoned in favor of a virtual reality. I like the idea of incorporating different "types" of people, as the player would need to figure out how to manage each type. Could the player sort of camp out in the home of someone who is completely jacked in? Or maybe there are some activists who take the player in, people who recognize the harm that being jacked in is doing to the environment and to the lower classes of humanity and are trying to rectify it.
I blink my eyes against the bright...
Writing Exercise - Stravinsky’s “The Rites of Spring”
On the topic of convergence, I'm reminded of Regina Spektor's song "Machine". "My eyes are bifocal, My hands are septjointed, I live in the future, In my prewar apartment, And I count all my blessings, I have friends in high places, And I'm upgraded daily, All my wires without traces, Hooked into machine ..."
As technology becomes more and more consolidated, it's only a matter of time before we do away with cramming more applications and possibilities into cell phones and start cramming it into ourselves, instead.
Of course, we are still human. And because of this there is a general anxiety about opening ourselves up too much to technology - there are too many cultural fears about introducing anything into our bodies, especially something which operates in a very different way to our own thought process. Still, if we were to open ourselves up completely to technology and the processes that we already rely on to make our lives easier, what would we be capable of?
---
I blink my eyes against the bright stage lights as I wait for the man to finish talking and present me with my award. This sort of thing has become boring - there is none of the excitement that recieving public acclamation used to give me. It's like a boring dream on repeat that I just want to wake up from. Every minute that I stand here, on this stage, is a minute that I could be elsewhere, doing something else. Not that I'm limited to just the here and now - that will never be the case again.
I have become the multitasker extrordinaire. I can still remember what it felt like, after each addon was implanted, after each new possibility synched in with my brain and opened me up to the world. They say that we (well, you) only use ten percent of the brain. I am what can happen if we augment ourselves with technology to utilize the other 90 percent.
A lot of it is just storage space, really. It's only through technology and run commands that the cacophony of information stored on the grey matter hard drives can be directed and utilized, marshaled by processes into orderly forms of information and productivity. I am the most productive that a human being can be. If you can still call me a human being.
Oh sure, some of you know what I'm talking about, this feeling that I am describing. With your inset mp3 players, your bifocal eyes, your daily upgrades against viral infections. But none of you has the sheer amount of addons and apps that I do. That's partly because none of you are willing to take that step - to turn yourself over to the machine. There are still too many negative stigma's attached to being this networked. It's all down to those scary scifi's of the early 80's that were made when people were still scared of technology.
You need to open yourself up to what technology can do for you. Literally. Open up your body to it and just jam those circuits and processors in. I'm standing here on this platform, listening to this man talk about my works for the good of humankind, but I'm also surfing the net, commenting on a forum (under an alias, of course, carefully routed through three different isp's so that no one can trace anything back to me, because what a PR disaster that could be), I'm organizing my music directory, I'm scouring the crowd for threat, I'm listening to the police scanner and noting down the jobs that I'll go take care of as soon as this is wrapped up. I'm also resting a small portion of my brain - allowing it to go offline and running the protocols that it's responsible for with another part. Sure, there's the possibility of overheating or overtaxing the processors, but after all this time I've got the process down pretty well, and it means I don't sleep anymore. I just allow parts of my processor to go offline and rest, accessing the data through a more circuitous route.
There's so much more that I can do now that I've been upgraded, augmented, synchronised, converged. It's why I'm more than you all - why I'm better than you all. It's why I'm superhuman, a superhero.
Sometimes I think about going evil - god knows I'd be good at it. All it would take is a little bit of coding to rewrite my processes and thought pathways and I could rule this sorry rock. But that's a lot of responsibility - if I ruled the world then I'd actually have to rule it. I wouldn't be able to let a little of myself escape into the internet, into a world where no one can recognize my face (or lack thereof). It's easier just to do this, to do what the public expects of me, and to keep upgrading and slowly escaping.
---
I like the idea of turning this character into a game character. As the player progresses through the game world, s/he would be able to upgrade the PC body by utilizing technology found. Success in the game would be entirely dependent on how innovative the player is with the material - it's one thing to attach a gun to an arm, it's another entirely to be innovative and create a repeating crossbow launcher which sets the arrows on fire before launching them out of found wood and a flint set.
It is time for the culling's to begin again...
This piece of freewriting was done to Joan Jeanrenaud's Transition. I began by writing the word "avatar" in the middle of a piece of paper, and then word associated (well, concept associated) outwards from there.
It is time for the culling's to begin again. You can always tell when it's about to happen - there's a sort of frission in the fabric of vreality, and then like clockwork a few days later the troops descend. There's no way to tell who they'll target, so everyone begins to prepare. They descend, dark faceless blobs, and interrogate us one at a time, in our vhomes, in our vworkplaces. They intrude into our vlives and we can do nothing but take the time to respond. They grill us on our backgrounds, on our habits and hobbies. They ask us about our children, our families, the places that we like to go when the working vday is done. No one's sure what they're looking for, so you're never sure if you're the one that they'll take - absorb into their formless blobs and disappear you. Is it a population control mechanism perhaps? But if so, then what exactly are they looking for?
A friend of mine had a theory. I don't like to talk about it much, because he told me and then during the next culling he was taken. But he has this crazy idea that we're all living on some sort of server somewhere - that we've paid in some other world to have our consciousnesses uploaded, downloaded, copied over, whatever, into a virtual reality. And that the government that comes to cull isn't actually the government at all - it's some form of system software which routinely goes through the data and deletes any obsolete or rogue information. Anyone who doesn't do their job, or who's registry doesn't line up is obliterated from the system.
I hope he's not right, but i'm beginning to believe it more and more. The only thing is, if this is some sort of virtual existence, why would I have signed up for it? How terrible must my real life have been that I would have preferred this workaday, repetitive life?
---
While I liked this music, I found it difficult to write to. Or perhaps that is just my brain rebelling against doing any work - wanting to enter the virtual world itself and take a holiday from stress and responsibility. Unfortunately, as I came to think during this exercise, if we move to a completely digitalised existence then our responsibilities and stresses will just follow us there. Digitilisation as a form of escapism only works if it is an escape, and not the norm.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Getting out there
I love computer games. I love being thrust into a new environment and experimenting with the options available to me. I love how so many games these days are really pushing limits of storytelling and interfacing. And as I work on generating my own idea for a game, the difficulty of knowing how to get it "out there", into the public eye, weighs heavily on me.
Through the aid of the internet, writers can selfpublish. They can use blogs to publish chapters and try and generate interest, and with the rise of Amazon's Kindle, they can selfpublish whole books without having to go through the process of a picky editor.
Musicians can use websites like MySpace Music, or TripleJ Unearthed to get their tunes heard.
Aspiring filmmakers can release shorts or trailers on YouTube to try and generate interest.
But what can game makers do? Obviously if you've got a huge financial backing then you can just throw money at advertising, the way that EA or Lionsgate or Blizzard do. But these companies also already have a following - gamers are waiting for the next release even before it is announced in the expectation that it will be good.
But what about independent game makers? They can provide free trials of their games on personal websites, but that doesn't really raise exposure. If you're game follows the PopCap trend, you can try to release it as a Facebook app. But what about more complicated games? What then?
I think that this is where the video game development company Valve plays a very special role. In 2003 Valve released a digital distribution platform called "Steam". It's sort of like a free portable library - you buy a Valve game, install the Steam client, register your ownership of the game .. and in future, anywhere that you have internet you can download and reinstall the game. The client does away with the necessity of holding onto a hard copy of the game so that you can reinstall it.
There are of course many criticisms about this DRM method - for one thing, an internet connection is required in order to register your purchased game. There is no number that you can call or fax through information to. Still, I think that the work that Steam does in exposing indie games is more than worth the hassle of dealing with a DRM (of which, let's face it, there hasn't been a good one yet).
Games are purchasable through Steam. As of October 25, 2009 there were 928 games available through Steam - and these games aren't all produced by Valve. In fact, many of these games are independently produced games that Valve has seen and wants to promote.
This is a screenshot of the Steam store window, focused on indie games. Currently featured is the puzzle game machinarium, which is an old-fashioned point-and-click flash based adventure. Players play a robot that must return to the city to save its robot girlfriend. This game is developed by the same company that developed the immensely point-and-click Samorost games.
Once a game is on Steam, it can become popular very quickly. Easily distributed and easy to pay for, without being too expensive to make interested buyers think twice, along with a nice demo that entices players, games released on Steam have an obvious advantage. But how do games get to this point?
Well, to be honest, I'm not really sure. This article, written in July of 2007, shows that getting a game onto Steam is actually quite a difficult process. And while I would like to believe that this has become easier, which would be evidenced by the sheer amount of indie games available, the lack of information that I'm finding online seems to say that this is still, unfortunately, the case.
An alternative that I have seen mentioned is StarDock, which I do not personally have any experience with. But some research shows that it has a similar purpose to Steam in that games can be bought and downloaded digitally.
The conclusion that I'm coming to is that the way to market a video game online is the same way one has to market a blog or anything else - lots of exposure and getting links to your site, in order to slowly work your way up the Google search list. It's a shame that there isn't something a bit more direct or a bit more accessible for indie games freshly starting out, but at least there is the possibility of getting picked up by Steam or StarDock if the game begins to grow in popularity.
Million Dollar Homepage
I'm intrigued by the concept of the Million Dollar Homepage, and by how many companies bought into this. Because it is mainly companies, or organisations, that have spent the money to buy pixels on this homepage.
Looking through the list of buyers, I was excited to find some real names in there - until I realised that these real names belonged to people working for companies who were just trying to raise their profile.
This homepage sort of shows how extremely effective internet memes are - "There's this website that everyone is going to look at because it's a gimmick!" "Wow, what a way to get exposure!"
And get exposure they did - because the pixels are still up there, these companies are still getting advertising years after the "experiment" began. Sure, most of the links are now defunct, but it's still basically free advertising - especially when you realize that for $1 a pixel, these organisations bought ad space for FIVE years, on a website that people will still go to look at in interest.
It's rather ingenious, and it's also rather unfortunate that it's not really the sort of thing that can be succesfully redone. Maybe because people are a bit more desensitized to advertising online now? Or maybe because everyone (companies included) would just view another attempt as merely an imitation? And in our hyper mediated environment everybody would rather be "real" over "fake".
At least the creator of the page was brutally honest -this money wasn't going to charity, this money was going to cushion his university experience.
It's scary just how far companies will go just to get some focus on themselves. The internet seems to just make this condition so much worse. But it's not just companies that do this - countries do as well, as evidenced by the bidding war that goes on every four years to try and win the right to host the Olympics - or rather, the right to spend exorbitant amounts of money all for a weeks worth of events. And why? Because the Olympics, like this Million Dollar Homepage, is a sort of brand in itself that companies/countries want to buy into.
The courtship is slow. He approaches,...
Writing Exercise - Beethoven 0p.110 for Piano
I'm not really sure where this story came from - somehow I began with the image of a couple, and then the tone of their relationship followed the music. But again, not sure where the image of the couple came from, as the music begins slowly, certainly, and delicately, but not necessarily romantically.
---
The courtship is slow. He approaches, she daintily refuses. He backs off, she smiles and signals that it was just a ruse. And so their relationship begins. At first it is mostly social - they meet for picnics, go out for drinks, go and see a movie together. But as they get to know each other more and more, they become more comfortable with each other. They open up, they grow closer. When they wake up it is wishing that they were in each others arms.When they move in together, their friends smile knowingly. "This is it," the girls whisper to themselves. "You can see how much she has blossomed with him. She's so much more confident now! She's so much more relaxed!"
Over beers, the men don't really talk about the move - they simply wink knowingly and mutter "Sure, he's gone a bit soft with her, but it's only a matter of time till he comes back to us".
They buy a puppy. it is a floppy creature that falls all over itself - its paws too big for its body. it is a mongrel, which he is unsure of but she loves, squealing at every antict that the puppy does. The puppy grows into a dog, and they recognise that their small apartment doesnt have room for it. so the make the move, intertwining their lives closer together as they sign both their names to a mortgage and move out into the suburbs, into a house with a large lawn, a swimming pool, a barbeque that they can invite their friends around to enjoy. as the dog lolls in the sunlight, they know that they have made the right choice.
things don't go well though, because his job is in trouble. he didn't have a problem when they were both working, but now he feels like a kept man. he starts drinking more, walking the dog less, making love less, until one day she comes home early to surprise him and finds him with not another woman, but passed out on a poolside chair at 1030 in the morning, the dog lapping up spilled beer beside him.
The fight is huge. he is wasting his life, wasting her time, killing the dog. their words are quick, their actions sharp, and he storms out of the house to a friends place. the friend comes the next day, apologetic, and gathers up a few of the necessary things - a toothbrush, and some underwear.
she is unsure what this means. did he leave for good? are they over? she throws herself into her work, into walking the dog when she is home, into cleaning the house compulsively, preserving everything that he left behind. she is afraid to pack up his things, because what would that mean if he came back?
---And that is all I had time for! What a cliffhanger!
I have come to realize that when I'm freewriting like this I tend to write in first person, which is interesting, as this is a style that I tend to steer away form both in my own writing and in the books that I read. Perhaps it is the immediacy of free writing that steers me like this?
Interactive Television
The concept of Interactive Television is pretty interesting, but I'm not sure that it works. Well, let me rephrase that - we know that it works, but is it viable?
informITV paints a glorified picture of what Interactive Television can do/ will do. They write that the ultimate incarnation of Interactive Television is "a world of converged communications and interactive media services to connect, egnage, inspire, inform and entertain users. Digital networks are enabling new forms of integrated interactive media, combing the capabilities of the internet with the visual experience of the television to transform the provision and experience of information, communications and entertainment services." Which basically means that they view ITV as a sort of TV 2.0 - where the interconnectivity of the internet is available through the television. Which brings me to the question of - why bother interfacing these two things? Why not just go straight to the internet?
ITV doesn't really do anything for me - I much prefer the immediacy of being able to watch things on my computer in my own time. I guess this links into the attraction of the video-on-demand type of broadcasters. And while I've put some thought into subscribing to Foxtel IQ - which allows the viewer to record shows, like TiVo, I've always come to the conclusion that for less money I could just increase my internet quota and download everything I want to watch. The only real benefit to watching something on TV, as far as I can see, is the increase in screen size.
I think that ITV is really only marketable to generations who aren't as naturally inclined to turn to the internet for all of their entertainment needs. I guess things like BBC's "red button" are good incentives for viewers, as they offer extra content to those who pay a little extra money for the service. But compared to the multitude of extra content that is practically free online, it seems a bit like wasting money to me.
And I think that television companies know this - why else would they be airing "tweet-enhanced" shows? Because people are used to the interconnectedness of the internet, of being able to watch something and at the same time look up interesting background information about it. And while television is trying to compensate for this by introducing tweet-shows (which to me sound excruciating) they can't compete with the ease-of-access that the PC has. Using a TV control is just too clumsy and requires too much work!
One way to merge the interactivity that we are used to with the functionality of a TV is through touch screens - or rather, having some sort of wireless tablet that connects with your television which you could use to navigate and control the interactive TV-net.
Whatever the case, I think that the "microsoft man" who predicted that TV only has about 2-3 years to get it's act together was being a bit generous. As more and more people become more accustomed to the internet there will be less and less incentive to watch TV, no matter how many gimmicks are thrown on top of shows.
The wind is deafening - it always is,...
Writing Exercise -Thomas Koner
This writing exercise is done to the "music" of Thomas Koner. While listening to the sounds of the rushing wind, closing my eyes I felt like I was about to be lifted from my seat.
Unedited - here it is!
---
The wind is deafening - it always is, here. I think of the cozy home that I have left behind and wish that I was there, now, in the warmth. Instead of here, in the cold, and the wind blowing so hard that ift feels like my skin is about to detach itself from my face. I think that if I didnt have to come out here how long my hair could be. I love the feeling of silky hair, the decadence of it. But I saw one girl grow hers out and then get whipped in the eye by it - the wind pulling her hair so quickly that she sliced her own eye. And I can't afford the time off and the recovery that that would require.I need to be out here, every moment that I can. I drive my spikes down into the hard rocky ground, pulling myself slowly along the earth. I crawl, head bent down, so that there is less of me for the wind to catch and pull backwards. A sudden particularly strong gust buffets me and I lose my grip on the spike and begin to slide backwards. A bolt of panic rushes through me as my safety rope spools out - did I drive teh spike in deep enough? am I going to go flying off the edge of this cliff, and fall down into the canyon below? will me body smash apart on the giant shards of earth that lash out from the sides of the canyon?
no, i am safe. the rope snaps taut and my breath is forced from me. i lie, huddled, for a few moments, as i try to resume my normal breathing. the calming breathing that drives the sound of the wind from my ears and allows me to find my inner peace. i think of my son, who is hopefully right now safe at school. i think of how the work that i am doing will buy him a life better than the one that i was given. and i take a deep breath, fighting the wind to keep the air in my lungs, and begin the achingly slow crawl forwards, accross this dessert of wind, towards the plant where I will work for 9 hours, before heading back home accross the treacherous barrens to my home in the safe-bubble.
---
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)