Things as They Are.?

Home.

In a few short hours, I'm off to Kauai, the furthest and most untouched of the Hawaiian islands, to take part in a friend's wedding. I've come down with the usual pre-trip anxieties-- whether I packed enough, whether I packed too much, whether I have enough money, whether I'll be able to stop time long enough to enjoy a moment on the island (things are going to be quite busy). Mostly, though, I feel quite overwhlemed by all the goodness and superfluity that I'm surrounded by back here in DC. Somehow, in the midst of one of the busiest years of my life, I've managed to create something I haven't had in a long time-- a home. And I'm going to miss it.



Assuming I can find an internet cafe (or that I can manage to sneak into a nice hotel), I plan to upload pictures as they come. Next stop: paradise.

Pump Up the Volume.

As if I don't have enough to do already, I've recently started entertaining the idea of starting a regular music broadcast on the web (I used to DJ and miss it quite a bit). Problem is, I have no idea where to start. Live365 seems to be the big draw for this kind of stuff, although I'm fairly certain that they deal mostly with pre-recorded uploaded files, rather than live streams (they also charge $14.95/month for the most basic of packages).

Anyone have any experience with this? Again, I'm much more interested in a live stream than any sort of pseudo-podcast recording, but I'm keeping all options open at this point. I'm also not looking for much more than an hour or two a week (Live365 seems to entail a much lengthier committment). Short of digging out my old ham radio, I'm stuck. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Blacklist.

Just noticed that, once again, there's a backlog of comments that I've neglected to approve until now. My apologies to those caught in the queue....

Reading at Risk?

Via BoingBoing, an interesting article on hyperlexia, a rare condition which entails autism-like speech and social problems as well as an innate, preternatural ability to read. Scientists are studying children afflicted with this disorder in the hope of gaining a better understanding of the neurological functions related to our comprehension of (textual) symbols and signs.

I think this is quite an intriguing avenue of research, one that could yield valuable pedagogical results. My only concern here, though, is that the texts used for the tests are strictly magazines and children's literature, as the article suggests. I think that, potential navigation issues aside (which in itself is a material issue), the inclusion of digital texts into this study would not only broaden the possible range of results, but also shed some light on the degrees to which a text's materiality plays into it's cognition.

The Teton Dam.

Never one to solicit birthday gifts, I'll instead point you to a rather outstanding collection of screenprints recently put up for sale by Stanley Donwood, the man behind much of Radiohead's past artwork.



And in case someone's in a buying mood, here's a link to a currency convertor.

I Love Xbox?!?

In preparation for the upcoming fall release of XBox2, Microsoft has launched a knockoff of the infamous I Love Bees alternate reality game titled Our Colony, which users can negotiate (by playing, among other things, an IF-inspired puzzle) in order to unlock secrets about the upcoming system (including pictures of the controller, screenshots, etc.). Of special interest to me is the incoporation (again like I Love Bees) of an Andre Has a Posse-esque sticker-based meme campaign (see below):



I haven't spent too much time on the site, but I do have to say that, although the buzz generated by a couple of car renderings have gamers going bonkers, I don't see how a game about a system could possibly be as compelling as a multi-sited game about a narrative (like Halo 2). Unless, of course, Our Colony becomes about (re)enacting certain newly-developed functions of the XBox2, in which case it could prove to be something quite different altogether.