Intro to New Media Studies, Fall 2009

Dear Medianuts,

Blog. Think. Do. Study.

Most importantly, learn.

Adaobi

P.S. I seriously enjoyed this class and gained so much insight from it. Thanks colleagues for the riveting class discussions, thanks Dr. C for coaxing the medianuts out of us, and thanks Mrs. Filgo for being our efferverscent, omnipresent virtual (and physical) librarian! Hope you all have safe, fun, and restful Christmas breaks!

Hey everyone,

Even if no one is checking the blog anymore, I’d like to thank everyone for a great class and lots of fun discussion.  I hope our paths cross again (and often) throughout our careers at Baylor and beyond.  I have a blog now, I don’t know if I’ll be faithful to it or not, but it can be found here.  Thanks again and have a great Christmas break, guys.

I Was a Teenage Meme

It is my belief that, like the common moth, memes have a lifecycle which can be divided into stages.

Stage One: Creation

The creation stage is just that: creation. Every meme must go through this stage, whether made from pre-existing content or not, and this stage affects the meme early life, particularly during propagation. Our example, Gentlemen, started on 4-chan:

The original is a picture of the Spy class from Team Fortress 2 who’s smoking problem has become greatly exacerbated with a caption of the character’s catchphrase.

It was funny, but got even more so whenever a Microsoft Paint version was posted.

And thus Gentlemen was born.

As aforementioned, it originated on 4-chan like many others. 4-chan is pretty much the meme headquarters of the internet and even those that don’t generally do a circuit around the messageboard before getting really popular.

Stage Two: Spread

After being created, the newly born meme lurches off into the sunset to search for new minds to inundate. Sometimes this can be a slow, slow process that happens after many re postings and passionate arguments but at other times proceeds rapidly when new information comes to the forum.

This was the case with Gentlemen when this humorous calendar entry was posted:

It's funny because Spy is French

Thereafter, June 5th became known as Gentlemen Day. Of course, Gentlemen was aided as Tf2 is a rather popular First Person Shooter.

The greatest impediment to becoming a successful meme is to be what is known as a “forced” meme. A forced meme occurs when someone sets out with the intention of creating a meme. Usually a meme is accompanied with a genuine story and tends to be funny. A forced meme has no story and is generally unfunny.

Milhouse is a forced meme... which fails

Stage Three: Memetic Mutation

Having insinuated itself into the group conscious the time is ripe for change. In the form of photoshops, drawings, and other manipulations of the original!

Gentlemen started out with those subjects closest to home- like most memes. Coming from TF2, the logical place to begin was with the other classes other than Spy, each saying one of their catchphrases while a class related weapon/item/beam fires from their open mouth:

Meet the Team! Heavy...

Soldier...

Engineer...

Demoman...

Sniper...

Medic...

and Pyro!

From here it spread. Instead of pertaining to the game itself, new memes could be about literally anything. You have slight alterations of the original,

combinations with other memes,

captions over Gentlemen in reality,and references to popular shows/games/what-have-you.

DnD reference is DnD

Bender is a true Gentleman

Jesus wishes to inform you that it's worship time

Stage Four: Death/Ascension

Of course, natural selection would be pointless if it didn’t… select… so, inevitably, something must die. Most dead memes are also old memes, though others could die due to a sudden change of feeling/cataclysm.

Gentlemen is not a dead meme, yet, so it won’t work as an example.

Chuck Norris jokes are an old meme, however, and dead. It will work splendidly.

The Chuck Norris Joke, for those of you who live under a rock but are not Patrick Star cause even he knows what a Chuck Norris joke is (of course, if you don’t know what a Chuck Norris joke is, you probably don’t know about Spongebob so this went right over your head),  is a joke describing the incredibly awesome power that Chuck Norris wields. In joke format. Such as “Chuck Norris doesn’t push himself off the ground. He pushes the ground down.” Now lame, these were once the slug’s mug, the bee’s knees, and many other wonderful perversions of nature. They began on Something Awful forums when a thread discussing the wonder that is Vin Diesel metamorphisized into a Chuck discussion.

So what happened? It got old. The fun of memes is their dynamics and once something gets old it’s tossed aside like an old toy. But, unlike earthly deaths, a meme can be revived after death, to serve again in zombie servitude.

Some memes take the high road, though. They become as gods and sit above mere mortal memes. These, paradoxically, are usually old memes but they are so ingrained into the internet psyche that to destroy them would be to destroy the internet as we know it.

NOTHING CAN STOP THE POWER OF LONGCAT! HE IS LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!

These memes can be considered ascended, shuffling off their electronic coil in exchange for an upgraded one with lots of RAM and memory.

Another sort of ascended meme occurs when a meme is incorporated into the item it’s based off of. This doesn’t guarantee the immortality of the previous condition as even the best games can fade from memory, but, in the case of a long, ongoing affair, it can sear itself deeply into your psyche.

Blizzard does this all the time. The most notable instance is when, in what I must assume is a fit of mad genius, the corporation included the achievement LEEEEEEEEEEROY! into the new WoW achievement system with Wrath of the Lich King. To obtain it, you had to succeed at the task Leeroy failed: killing the whelps. Then you get the nifty title Jenkins!

Also, he gets a card in the trading card game as well. AND he still has his chicken.

Relating It to Some Reading

For that rare internet denizen just drifting through, I would like to remind you that this blog is for class. As such, it has certain needs to fulfill, such as stroking my ego relating to readings done for the class. Which I shall do right about now.

The Galaxy Reconfigured from The Gutenberg Galaxy

McLuhan was a smart guy, make no mistake, and here he proves it by showing us how the electronic age changes us. For starters, everything is quick. Really quick. That takes some getting used to.

Everything’s changing, everything’s shifting, everything’s moving fast. And that’s where memes step in. They’re perfect for the everchanging electronic world. They evolve quickly, sometimes over night, they try to stay fresh and new, and they can even help us communicate.

They let you know when it's Goofy Time, for example

McLuhan describes the modern world as an “age of mass-culture.” Everyone’s interacting all the time. Vast distances mean next to nothing- Australia? Japan? Britain? All are but a moment away. So how do we communicate amongst the masses? How do we develop our own unique culture? We don’t. I don’t mean that you should surrender yourself to the hive mind (though that wouldn’t be a bad idea and it would help further our my goals…), but that we need to create something that everyone can access, that everyone can change. Does that sound familiar?

Will There Be Condominiums in Dataspace?

Aside from asking the obvious, Viola describes dataspace as a place. He draws comparison to the sand Mandala.

I'm not sure if it's made from sand, but it sure is purty

Mandalas are abstract, unifying, and not bound by physical constraint. When finished, they are often destroyed. Meme’s are abstract by nature- much of their content is implied, external, or situational. Existing only in cyberspace, they are not bound by physical constraint either. Finally, like the sand mandala, when completed, they are often destroyed, preferably with fire.

Time Frames

Scott McCloud is a comic artist and here he challenges those of you who make comics: why not try something new?

Close, but no cigar

This selection comes from Understanding Comics and it emphasizes how overlooked yet important the frame of a comic is, in an amusing comic. It can give atmosphere, add emphasis, and affect the perceived flow of time. Another topic touched on is the importance of an individual panel.

Now, I doubt many creators of memes have read this selection, but they manage to carry out his ideas. Memes are… chaotic and everything about them can be important. The frame, the passage of time implied, the atmosphere- a slight change could drastically alter the meme. Furthermore, they challenge commonly held values by giving completely unrelated and often nonsensical phrases and images meaning and value.

A Parting Shot Word

Veg-e-tab-le.

I always say it that way because no letter gets left behind on my watch

Final Words

So remember, memes are important. They may look like, and actually be, toys, but they shape the way of the fledgling net. They hold more power then you can imagine and, someday, entire classes will focus around them… classes you may teach.

The final project was at first, a difficult task, then it got easier, then harder again. The first obstacle was choosing a project; i soon decided to go with something I was passionate about, and cooking was definitely first on my list of passions. Then I had to figure out how to incorporate that into a project and I thought, “hmmm, what else am I good at?… talking!” And as you have found out in class, that this is true. I then figured out that a blog would be my best bet. So I decided to target the single audience that was left out of the Food Network scope when they were planning their shows: college students! Well, the next step was to collect the recipes and let me tell you, sorting through my mom’s organizational system, if you could call it that, to find some of our old family recipes was a ridiculously frustrating task.

Then I had to test some of my own recipes, this is where the fun and “easier” part that I mentioned above comes into play. I absolutely LOVE testing things out in the kitchen. My first experiment was the mulled drinks as I wanted to come up with my own version of the classics. My mom explained her ingredients, and that got me thinking. I then came up with the list of ingredients that I think would taste good and approximated amounts. Then as I built the concoction, I altered the recipe: a little less of that, more of that, etc.

Next I wanted to incorporate videos to better connect with my audience. This is where is gets hard again. I had to sort through learning the steps to creating a video and doing some minor editing, and then I had to figure out how and where I would publish the videos. I immediately thought that on my blog pages would be perfect, but I had a very hard time formatting the video, so instead, I posted the videos on YouTube and linked them to my blog. After about five hours of working with the videos and getting everything set, I posted everything on the internet. And due to my previous work as an editor for a newspaper and a yearbook, I was checking and re-checking my posts until the last second before class.

Next came the task of presenting the blog to the class and to the internet world. Well, most people made a slide show of their project, but creating a slide show really didn’t make sense to me for a blog. Almost everyone else was creating a project based on very new technology, or technology that the general public doesn’t know about, so a slide show would make sense for them. I decided instead to just get up and talk to the class about how I created the blog and my inspiration behind it, as that would suit my talents much more than a slide show. I made sure to find quotes to connect my work to our past readings, and then during Eric’s presentation, a specific quote hit me and I knew it would apply to my project as well, which was awesome to be able to link ours together. I was planning on showing one of my videos to the class, but the link had a kink and therefore was not cooperating, and in not wanting to waste class time to figure out the problem, I continued on ahead. I am happy to report that as soon as I arrived at my seat and started looking through the links, I found the problem and corrected it and the videos are now accessible through both YouTube and my blog.

This project challenged both my mind and creativity and inspired me to have a specific goal once I reach my dream position at the Food Network. I really learned a great deal about how to use technology to my advantage as now I have a blog, Twitter account, email address and YouTube channel all for this project which I will continue into my career. If you would like to visit my blog, the address is http://www.thecollegecookontwitter.blogspot.com and you can follow me on Twitter and YouTube at: thecollegecook1.

The following code, links together with this post.

#include<iostream> //this is the library that gives the program the ability to have input and output.

using namespace std; //this gives the code more readability.

void intro();         // this is a function
void menuDisplay();   //function
void createdDisplay();
int menuInterface(int &theEnd, int &option); //function
int choiceOneFunction();
int choiceTwoFunction();
int choiceThreeFunction();
int achoiceFunction();
int bchoiceFunction();
int cchoiceFunction();
int AchoiceFunction();
int BchoiceFunction();
int CchoiceFunction();
int onechoiceFunction();
int twochoiceFunction();
int threechoiceFunction();

bool theEND(int &theEnd); //function

int main()            // this is the main function, and the most important.
{int theEnd, option;  //this declares the types of the variables as integers.
createdDisplay();
intro();               // this calls the intro function.
menuDisplay();       //this function calls the menu up.
menuInterface(theEnd, option); //this function allows for the menu to be interactive.
system(“PAUSE”);         //This makes the program stop and wait for the user to enter input.
return 0;               // this ends the main function by returning the last value to be zero.
}

void menuDisplay()             //this is the function that is called and displays the options in the menu.
{
cout<<”You have just started your first semester of college ever! What is about to takeplace is the craziest semester EVER!! You will have to make the correct choices through the timeline to successfully pass through this first brutal semester. Ona Friday night, you will have to make the choice of either going out to a party with some new friends that seem really \”cool\” or spend the night away at the    library studying for the first college exam on the following Monday. This story will begin just like the example.                                                                                                                               Today is the Friday of your third week of school, and you have your first round of tests coming up next week. What is it that you want to do tonight? \n”<<endl;        //this is printed on the screen.
}

void intro()                //this is the function that is called and prints the introduction.
{
cout<<”Directions: Select the outcome by typing the desired outcome’s corresponding    number and then pressing the ENTER key.                                                                                 “<<endl;

}

void createdDisplay()
{
cout<<”Created by: Arpit Desai and Jonathan Reyes.                                               “<<endl;
}

int menuInterface(int &theEnd, int &option) // this is the function that is called and allows the interface to be interactive.
{theEnd=0;                                  // sets the variable to zero to ensure the loop continues.

enum STORY{PARTONE = 1, PARTTWO, PARTTHREE, PARTFIVE, PARTSIX, THEEND}; //this is an enumeration that makes each variable

cout<<”\n1. Go out with your friends for alcoholic fun!\n”<<endl;
cout<<”2. Go lounge about in the common room at your dorm.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”3. Go to the library and study for hours for the test you have on Monday.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;                            //identified as a number instead of a word so the user can enter a number instead of the word.

cout<<endl;                                 //this makes a linebreak for readability.
cin>>option;                                //this is the user’s input.

switch(option)                             //a switch is the menu encoded.
{
case PARTONE:  choiceOneFunction(); break;           //the user inputs the number, and the corresponding case is activated.
case PARTTWO:  choiceTwoFunction(); break;
case PARTTHREE:  choiceThreeFunction(); break;
case THEEND:  theEnd++; break; //theEnd++ will increase the variables value which will cause the loop to stop via function “bool theEND(int &theEnd).”
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl; break;        //if the user inputs a wrong value it will let the user know that.
}
}
int choiceOneFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nOkay, you chose to get drunk on that weekend, and completely bombed the test    leaving you either failing, or barely passing the class. Now you have the secondround of tests coming up, often called \”Midterms.\” It is Friday night again and your midterms are coming up next week in all of your classes. What to do now?   1. Again go out to party it up with some friends of yours, and just stay up the night before each midterm cramming for it. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. Get smarter this time and balance out your weekend between fun and library.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. Or spend every second of the weekend in the library, only coming out to      sleep, eat, and maintain proper hygiene.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely. \n”<<endl;

cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE:  achoiceFunction(); break;
case APARTTWO:  bchoiceFunction(); break;
case APARTTHREE:  cchoiceFunction(); break;
case ATHEEND: theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int choiceTwoFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nBecause of your choice of lounging about on the weekend, you don’t fail the     test, but you also dont get an \”A\” or a \”B\” on it. This has made you an average \”C\” student. Now some time has passed, and your midterms are coming up the      following week. It is Friday again. What do you want to do?                     1. You decide to try your shot at having some alcoholic fun now. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. Actually go to the library on campus and study for these upcoming midterms. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. Just go lounge about again, because it worked so well for you last time.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE:  AchoiceFunction(); break;
case APARTTWO: BchoiceFunction(); break;
case APARTTHREE:  CchoiceFunction(); break;
case ATHEEND: theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int choiceThreeFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nCONGRATULATIONS!!! You Aced the first test of the semester! Now today is the    friday right before your midterms. What are you going to do?                    1. Head straight back to the library to do what you did the first time.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. Goof off a little, by going to a party, since you have an A+ in the class,   then go study for the test. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. Study? What is that? Studying is for chumps.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE:  onechoiceFunction(); break;
case APARTTWO:  twochoiceFunction(); break;
case APARTTHREE:  threechoiceFunction(); break;
case ATHEEND: theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int achoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nOkay now you are definately failing all your courses for this semester with justa very slim chance of making a grade \”D\” in the class. The only way for this to happen is to get an A on the comprehensive final exam. Again it is Friday night except this time next week are finals. What to do?                              1. Go out with your friends again because you have given up in college and you  know there is absolutely no way for you to pass the class.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. Study your behind off this weekend for only half of your classes, so atleast you get some credit for this semester. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. Somehow study for all your classes that you have a failing grade by pulling  allnighters almost every day, getting only 3-5 hours of sleep a night. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely. \n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”I hope someone will be attending your funeral besides your family because you   have just died from the overconsumption of alcohol.”<<endl; break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”You somehow succeeded in getting A+ on two out of the four finals you had,      therfore accomplishing your goal of receiving half the credits.”<<endl; break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”WOW!! You are one amazing person. I have no idea what happened. If it was luck, so be it, you have passed all your classes with a minimum grade. Of course that also means your GPA for the semester is a 1.0, but you also have atleast 7 more semesters to get it pretty high up. It will be a pretty tough road for you.     Good Luck!”<<endl;  break;
case ATHEEND: theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int bchoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nWow, you went from a failing grade to a having a low B in the class. Now finals are coming up next week. And now its the friday night before the finals. What   are you going to do now?                                                        1. Study hard this weekend to bring up the low B to maybe an A or a B+.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. Go and get drunk again! Have a good time with no worries about the tests.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. Get lazy and do nothing except sit in bed and watch a random t.v. show on    your laptop. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”\nYou study and take the test. You did not get the grade you wanted, but your     final grade in the class is a low B. Congrats!\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”\nThe party you were at got busted for drugs, and now everybody is in jail withoutrelease unlease released into the custody of a guardian. You missed the final,  and failed the course.\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”\nThe t.v. show was actually about your final and out of sheer luck you pass with flying colors, raising your average to an A!!!\n”<<endl;  break;
case ATHEEND:cout<<”\nGame Ended.\n”<<endl; theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int cchoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nYou had a \”D\” in the class, but now you have a B+!! Woot! It is now the Friday  before finals. What are you going to do?                                        1. Get overconfident and go party!! You have a B+ and do not care at all!\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. Head back to the library to do what you did before. Your philosophy, it      worked once, it will work again. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. Lounge about not caring, and just hang out with all your friends.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”\nYou don’t get caught but you do get a concussion falling down the stairs and geta minor case of amnesia. You had to take the final not knowing anything. You arevery lucky as the final grade in the class is a C+.\n”<<endl; break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”\nYour philosophy was wrong, and you overwork yourself. You failed the course.    Tough luck. Maybe next time try to have some fun!\n”<<endl;break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”\nYou failed horribly. You don’t know what to do now. So you commit suicide.      You are the weakest link, Goodbye.\n”<<endl; break;
case ATHEEND:cout<<”\nGame Ended.\n”<<endl; theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}

int AchoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nOkay. You did not make the correct choice last time, and this time you have     failed in making the correct choice. Because of the heavy drinking that occured over the weekend, you had forgotten everything that would be on the test,       utterly failing the exam. Now you have a failing average in the class with the  finals coming up next week. It is possible for you to get a \”B\” in the class by getting an \”A\” on the final. What do you do now?                                1. You think that the test will be super easy and go out drinking again.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. Seeing as how lounging about let you make a decent break, you do the same    this time.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. You go to the library, sit down, and actually study for the class. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”\nBad choice. You have just failed the course(s) and now have to retake every     failing class next semester. I hope you don’t make the same mistake twice.\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”\n2. You have some luck on your side, lounging about got you the \”C\” on the final giving you a solid passing grade for the class. \n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”\n3. Correct choice! Your studying paid off in the long run and you aced the      final!! You recieved a \”B\” in the course. Good Luck to you in life!\n”<<endl;  break;
case ATHEEND:cout<<”\n4. Ended game. \n”<<endl; theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int BchoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nAwesome choice! You got an \”A\” on the midterm and now have a \”B+\” in the class. You are now doing great in the class, and again the fateful Friday night is     here. Your finals are next week… What to do??                                 1. GO PARTY!! WOOT! You have a B+ average and an F on the final will only bring you down to a grade of \”D\” \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. By now, you have become a professional lounger. And lounging is what you do  best. Obvious choice here is to lounge about before the final and just wing it, hoping you get lucky.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. You can now do what you did last time, and that is go to the library to studynight and day for this exam to hope to bring in your first \”A\” of the semester!\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”\nYou had it going so good for you and then you make a bad choice. The party you  were at got busted and the University expelled you for having a BAC of 0.32. Youhave failed in life. Good Luck with whats left!\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”\nYour lounging about has made you to barely fail the course. Your score on the   final was just one question short of having a minimum passing grade. Tough luck.\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”\nYou have secured your first \”A\” of the semester! Congratulations!\n”<<endl; break;
case ATHEEND:cout<<”\nGame Ended.\n”<<endl; theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int CchoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nAfter lounging again, the results of the midterms come back in. You failed. Now in the course, you are barely failing the course. Today is the Friday before    finals week, what are you going to do tonight/this weekend?                     1. Lounge again, this time thinking that the third time is the charm.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. You don’t take any chances and go straight to the library.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. You don’t take it seriously, thinking it will be like highschool and you willpass it easily.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely. \n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”\nYou Failed. Sorry. \n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”\nYou Failed. Sorry. Even though you did spend one weekend studying, the test     covered too much information. \n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”\nYou Failed. Sorry. \n”<<endl; break;
case ATHEEND:cout<<”\nGame Ended.\n”<<endl; theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int onechoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nOH NO! You spent too much time in the library and built up too much stress studying. You new average in the class is barely a B-. Now its the Friday night      before the week of finals. What are you going to do?                            1. Go out tonight to watch a movie with some friends, and come back right after to sleep. Then for the rest of the weekend it is study time!\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. You don’t think you have too much built up stress and go straight back to    library to start studying.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. You think you have too much built up stress, and just lounge about and relax the whole weekend. \n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”\nYou took the test a little stressed out, but managed to raise your grade. Your  new grade is a \”B+.\” Good Job! But remember to try and be stress-free!\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”\nYou epically fail the final, bringing your class average down below the passing line. You stressed out, now retake the class.\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”\nBecause the final was comprehensive, you did not have much to study for it in   reality. You Aced the final bringing up your class average to an A!             Congratulations! \n”<<endl; break;
case ATHEEND:cout<<”\nGame Ended.\n”<<endl; theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int twochoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nThe party helped you greatly. You went to take your midterm stress-free and now Aced this exam! Congratulations! But now the friday night before finals weeks isalready here. What will you do now?                                             1. Not care for the final because you think even if you get a 0 on this final,  you would still pass the class.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. You study for the final while you are in your own comfort zone instead of thelibrary.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. You go straight back to the library and do what you have been doing to see ifyou can Ace this upcoming exam also.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n4. End game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”\nYou sleep through the final with no second thoughts about doing so. Your        transcript comes home, and you see that you failed the course. Dont you feel    pretty dumb now?\n”<<endl; break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”\nUnforutunately, you do not ace the final, but you do get an \”A\” on the final,   therefore your average is still an A+.\n”<<endl; break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”\nCongratulations!! You don’t let all the stress get to you, and Ace this test!   This is the first time this has happened to the professor, and now both of you  are overjoyed. Congratulations again, and make sure to ask that professor to    write a generic letter of recommendation. \n”<<endl; break;
case ATHEEND:cout<<”\nGame Ended.\n”<<endl; theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
int threechoiceFunction()
{
int theEnd=0;
int option;

enum ASTORY{APARTONE = 1, APARTTWO, APARTTHREE, ATHEEND};
cout<<”\nYour attitude about studying leads to you not studying at all and then for this midterm, you failed it horribly. To barely pass the class, you will need to Ace this upcoming final. Today is Friday, the last school day before finals week.   What is that you want to do?                                                    1. You go straight to the library to start studying. You let nothing stop you   from getting to the library.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n2. Since you have experience in Acing a test, you do not worry about this       upcoming one, therefore you lounge about.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\n3. Out of no-where, you develop the theory the professor has it out for you, andfocus more on proving that theory correct, rather than studying.\n”<<endl;
cout<<”\nEnd game prematurely.\n”<<endl;
cout<<endl;
cin>>option;

switch(option)
{
case APARTONE: cout<<”\nYou sit down to take the final, and zip right through it. At first you are scared it was too easy, then grades come in. You missed one question, but the        professor believed you learned and gave it to you. Congrats! You passed!\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTWO: cout<<”\nYou lounge about and during testing time, you miss only 19 problems…out of 20.You Fail.\n”<<endl;  break;
case APARTTHREE: cout<<”\nYou failed the final, therefore the course as well. You messed up big time as   school progressed through the semester.\n”<<endl;  break;
case ATHEEND:cout<<”\nGame Ended.\n”<<endl; theEnd++; break;
default: cout<<”\nERROR. Incorrect choice.\n”<<endl;break;
}
}
bool theEND(int &theEnd)                                            //this is the function that evaluates whether or not the story is over.
{
if(theEnd==0)
{
return true;                                                    //returns true to the while() part of the loop because
//the user has not selected “The End.”
}
else
{
return false;
}
}

sorry for this super late post..i have had laptop problems since the day of my presentation.

i was planning to write this the evening of the presentation day. 12/3, but that evening after i had restarted my computer, i had gotten some weird error and windows wouldnt boot..

after sonys customer service and a whole thing of procedures..they couldnt figure out what was wrong so next week they are sending me a new harddrive, while they do that i went to the tech store down the road from here and managed to take couple of files that werent messed up off of the harddrive directly. and luckily one of them was the completed file of my code.

i will post the complete code as one seperate post after this post.

Okay, my project had started as sort of wanting to be a comic strip on an infinite canvas, where the reader can choose his/her own way around and lead to many different endings. if the reader wanted to, they could keep going in circles forever. but that could not happen. for to use C++ to program that, would have been a super long code, and very complicated.. an example of that could be found in the New Media Studies book on page 723.

Scanned Picture from Page 723

what really happened to the code after i realized my original idea would have taken a VERY long time to complete. i had changed it into a time line where it has one start, and multiple ends. the best way to describe it is seen in this picture using  Microsoft Word. this new version of my idea doesnt have the twists and turns as seen in the previous, but im pretty sure with some more work and understanding of C++, it is possible for it to occur.  This picture is slightly off from what the program really reads as. the actual code reads using terminolgy from the picture, there is three different fourth events branching off of each individual third event. then the results from each individual fourth event. so instead of having 9 different results, the code that will be on the next post has 30 different results.

The current version of the code

So enough about all that, lets go to the history of C++ and what it is. C++ is a computer programming language. it’s simple. the history behind C++ is a bit more extensive though. in 1979 and early 1980s, a guy named Bjarne Stroustrup started devolping what was then called C with Classes. It was complete in 1983. Also in 1983, the name was changed to what we know it as, C++. in 1985 the first book was released about C++ for public use. now since the creation of C++ it has continously evolved, and now in the near future of one to three years, a new version of C++ is supposed to come out. the original year of release was 2009, and the rumored name of this new version was: C++09. now since the year 2009 is almost over, most people think it will be another year or two before the language is completed, and at most three years before the language is released for public use. the new rumored name is: C++0x. here are two links that give more indepth information about C++ and C++0x/C++09.

at first i wasnt sure how i could incorporate the readings into this final project, but then it hit me that i could use this as an educational tool when this code is thought of as a game. there already has been proof of games having an impact in saving a life. such as this one story i remembered. this guy in the story saw an accident occur while he was driving, and saved a guys life by performing emergency firstaid on the injured person that he learned by playing a game. the army and air force also use games to train the newest soldiers in using equipment and the airforce uses it to train pilots in flying UAV-unmanned aerial vehicles.  after remembering about this, i came to the conclusion that if video games can help save people like that, then couldnt simple text based games be used to change people?

i came to this conclusion based on what i had saw at my high school, which as much as i hate to say anything bad about it, my high school is not the best high school. while i was there, my school was filled with drugs, alcohol, sex, and pregnant teenage girls. the story i used in the code for the presentation was about someones first semester of college. and it can be easily changed. this got me thinking, if i could expand the code past just three individual events, and make it into 12 events, or even more, then the story line could be used to show what can happen to most people if they, for example, decide to get pregnant at the age of 15 or 16, if they decide to get addicted to drugs, if they decide to fail and drop out.. if the right story was given with more detail than what i had used, i could take this back to my school to have it implemented in the course loads of the students showing them the right path and hopefully get them to go to college with a decent job with a steady income of money to sustain life.

this code can also be used as a teaching tool in many classes too. in geometry it  can be used to teach students how to do proofs. in history, it can be used to show the correct timeline of anybody or anythings history. again with the right story line used with code, it can be made into anything. Illich even said in Deschooling Society that we want to learn more all the time, but what is limiting us is our current educational system. we can change it and it is very possible that this code can be used.

and that is exactly what i plan to do with this code. i already talked it over with my friend Jonathan Reyes, who helped greatly in writing the code. and he said that he would most likely help me finish this and take it back to my high school and present it to whoever we need to, to try to get it implemented. that is one possible outcome of what i can do for the code. after i thought of this, i realized it could be implemented with the story almost anywhere in society. just this one relatively simple, but long and confusing code, can potentially aid in helping lots of students, children and adults learn of what they have been doing wrong their entire lives and maybe get on the right path.

that is it. after this post and the next post, i will come back and edit it to add the link to the post of the code, and on the post of the code, i will add the link to this post, linking the two together.

*Edit*

as promised, the code that links to this post can be found here.

OI'M BACK N' OI'M MAD! YOUZE LOTZ BEST BE CLEANIN' DA MUCK FROM OUTTA YOUZE EARZ AN' LIZZEN UP REAL GOOD! CUZ OI GOTZ SOME STUFF TA TELLZ YA AN I DUNT WANNA 'AVE TO REPEAT MOISELF! GOT IT!?! GOOD!!!

And for today’s topic, I have something really, really special planned. I’ll give you a hint:That’s right, me duckies, today I’m going to rant talk about memes!

And what better place to start then before the beginning? By this I mean that we shall hearken back to the days when the memes existed but not the internet.

What’s in a Meme?

The phrase was coined by British scientist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene.

Another British scientist

He used the term to explain evolution and natural selection and all that kinds of potentially heretical stuff.

Eh, close enough

The term encompassed all sorts of cultural paraphernalia such as clothing, building architecture, building techniques, melodies, and practically anything else that could be transferred from one person to another by communication.

By using memes to explain evolution, Dr. Dawkins gave rise to the theory that culture, in the form of memes, goes through an evolution of its own the strong surviving, spreading, and prospering while the weak die.Fast forward some twenty odd years and the word gains partially new meaning.

In effect, you take the old term and just slap internet in front of it. See? It’s that easy.

At its most basic, the internet meme is any cultural phenomena spread across the internet. Sounds simple, yes? Well, that’s because it is. But it’s only the beginning. Internet Memes differ from the traditional meme in many respects.

For starters, being online they utilize only two of the five senses: sight and hearing. True, the other sort are generally seen or heard as well, but they invoke the other senses at will. The feel of a cut of cloth, the taste of ice cream, the smell of a skunk- all of these can be experienced in “real life” but not on a computer- at least not yet.

Furthermore, the speed at which Internet Memes propagate is exponentially greater than that of Meme Classic. Traditional methods tend to be slow and finicky. A letter takes days to reach the recipient, telephone’s require the called to be present (though you can leave a message… or forty-three), and word of mouth requires you to be in their very presence. And don’t even get me started on messenger pigeons! In contrast, the internet is instantaneous, moving at the speed of your connection, and allows you to leave messages that can be, and are expected to be, returned or modified, depending on whether its an email to a friend or a post in a crowded message board.

Next we have the accessibility- everyone can take a part. Before hand, trying to create or change established culture was rather difficult. Sure, it was done, countless times, but most of them were celebrities or powerful.

Or perhaps both...

Aristolol’s Categories

Thanks to the marvel that is the internet, any idiot can become integral in cultivating our budding culture!

And often do- someone says something unwise, makes a stupid video, or does something so mind boggling stupid that you despair for the human race, and you’ve got yourself an inadvertent celebrity.

You’re words of “wisdom” will be posted again and again, your very name a synonym for stupidity regardless of how much you protest until, finally, the joke gets old.

This can happen to celebrities, too, and overlaps with real world memes. Everyone knows of Cheney’s prowess with a rifle, Paris Hilton is renowned as a simpering wossname, and do I even need to mention Brittany Spears?

Regardless of how true this stereotyping is, it will persist until it gets old.

The other sort of inadvertent celebrity is one who embarrasses himself in an amusing way. Unfortunately, he does this while a “friend” or “family member” has a camera and inevitably posts the mortifying film online for the amusement of the faceless horde.

Of course, I’m loathe to laugh at these videos. Not because I’m an honorable paladin, standing for justice, light, goodness, and general decency but because whenever you suffer from the level of oddness I do, I’ve got some pretty big skeletons in my closet, almost exactly like these (sometimes I have to watch the video again to ensure its not me and that I don’t have to break off all ties to civilization).

Another rich source of memes is pop culture.

If you deigned to watch the video I so kindly posted, you should get the picture. Something makes its way onto the internet and becomes wildly popular for whatever reason (in this case for incredible amounts of camp, shirtless man, and muy macho violence). Then liberal amounts of fan art and tributes are created as seen here, compiled and set to a techno remix. Certain phrases from the original may be spouted everywhere and soon you can’t move for posts explaining how this is, in fact, Sparta and it is clearly not madness.

Of course, these pale in comparison to the most popular and widespread internet meme: video/photo/sound editing. This can range from simple captions all the way to a complex and interconnected video that would make the finest of hoaxsters smash their video recording equipment in envy.

And we waste it all on CATS

How I Use Meme?

Memes serve many a purpose in the web of today.

Of course, first and foremost they’re for entertainment. Regardless of what their primary purpose is, memes are always intended for entertainment. It’s sorta what the internet does: it entertains us.

Except for trashcat. For he is not amused

Aside from this, they have a legion of uses.

One of the more popular uses is for communication. A meme can be added to emphasize your point or even replace typed communication.

For example, say you desire whatever it is that the original poster on a thread (i.e. the guy who starts a conversation on a forum) is offering, let’s make it images of potato pancakes with pickle chutney, for the sake of example.

But, instead, he only posts pictures of pan seared pork with garlic sauce. Oh horror of horrors!

So, realizing his mistake, he posts the requested images of potato pancakes- but without the chutney.

In that way, you can make your intentions known completely through images of cats with captions!

A third use is as political or social commentary. One of the most stunning uses of this is when the meme nyoron was used by South Koreans to criticize the indecisiveness of the Taliban after kidnapping 23 Korean Christians in the July of 2007.

Nyoron, in all its smoked cheese related glory

It was called Tsundeban, and mockingly held that the Taliban were actually nice people.

I don't quite know what's going on, but it's funny. Or sad. Very sad.

The hostages were returned in August so the meme may have had some impact. Or probably not. But you gotta admit that it’s pretty neat.

And that’s it for part one! Prepare yourselves for part two! And if you don’t… well,

What is fashion? According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, fashion is “the prevailing style (as in dress) during a particular time or a garment in such a style.” My preferred definition of fashion is that of Edwin Hubbel, “Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.” Fashion is a multibillion-dollar international industry that determines how we view others and ourselves in clothing.

A major theme in fashion is identity; Quentin Crisp said it best when he said that “fashion is what you adopt when you don’t know who you are.” Fashion is the medium of identity, much in the same fashion (pun intended) as avatars in Lucasfilm’s Habitat. Chip Morningstar and and F. Randall Farmer state plainly how things are to work in their virtual world: “The idea behind our world was precisely that it did not come with a fixed set of objectives for its inhabitants, but rather provided a broad palette of possible activities from which the players could choose, driven by their own internal inclinations”. Fashion doesn’t really have a true objective, but is controlled by the consumer, driven by what the ‘user’ considers fitting. Avatars in habitat, many times, will demonstrate an extension of one’s personality rather than a duplicate representation, a lot like fashion does in the real world.

Now the appropriate question to ask would be, “What’s new media, in terms of fashion?” To understand the new media, we must first understand the old media. The ‘old’ media of fashion mostly consists of magazines and other print media. The most influential fashion magazines are Vogue, Elle, and Marie Claire, in that order. Vogue was first established in 1892 in the United States and has been published monthly ever since; on the other hand, Elle and Marie Claire were both first established in France in 1945 and 1937 (respectively). Other forms of ‘old’ media in fashion include newspapers that include Style sections such the New York Times and the Dallas Morning News. The new media in fashion has been brought about by the Internet revolution. The milestones of fashion new media are the websites of designers, e-commerce, and blogs. Websites are innovatory to the fashion industry because prior to the Internet, the only ways designers could have shown their designs were through runway shows that only the elite could attend, and ad campaigns, which run in fashion publications (and occasionally on billboards). With websites, designers can display advertising campaigns without having to pay the cost to magazines for space. Through websites comes another innovation of fashion new media: e-commerce. E-commerce is the process of buying merchandise electronically and having it mailed, rather than having to go a boutique or a department store. E-commerce is yet another way to make high fashion available to the everyday man. Lastly, blogs, the new medium of fashion I have decided to focus on, have allowed for a change in fashion. Not only have blogs also made fashion more accessible to the everyday man, but they have also turned the tables in fashion because they allow designers to get feedback, fashion outsiders to give commentary, and in general, blogs have allowed for more discussion in the fashion community. A fashion blog is just a blog that deals with fashion and merchandising. Fashion blogs are most easily characterized by the focus of the content: model/celebrity, shopping/merchandising, commentary, street fashion, lifestyle, and publication extension.

Even though blogs have seemed to make overnight changes in fashion, blogs took a long time to come to be as they are. Here is a timeline of the progression of the blog form: 1969: The Internet is invented. • 1989: Tim Berners-Lee proposes the development of the World Wide Web as a way to share information with colleagues. • 1992: Tim Berners-Lee launches the first Web site • 1994: Claudio Pinhanez of MIT publishes his “Open Diary” at the same time as online diarist Justin Hall • 1995: FrontPage, one of the first Web publishing tools, is released • 1997: Jorn Barger starts a log of Web links published in reverse chronological order, calling it Robot Wisdom WebLog. • 1998: Open Diary becomes one of the first online tools to assist users in the publishing of online journals • 1999: Peter Merholz borrows Barger’s word “weblog” and splits it into the phrase “We blog.” Blog soon becomes shorthand for weblog. • 2002: The launch of Technorati, one of the first blog search engines, making it possible for people to track blog conversations on a continuous basis. • 2004: Videographer Steve Garfield launches his video blog and declares 2004 “The Year of the Video Blog,” more than a year before the birth of YouTube. • February 2004: Flickr launches • 2005: Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman of Harvard’s Berkman Center launch Global Voices • March 2005: Garrett M. Graff becomes the first blogger to receive credentials for the daily White House briefing. • 2006: Twitter launches • 2006: Research report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project estimates that 12 million U.S. adults publish their own blogs. • 2007: Technorati reports it is tracking more than 112 million blogs worldwide.

Blogging has had such a huge impact on modern fashion, especially on fashion’s trickledown theory. This theory is essentially that the fashion elite dictate the trends that become all the rage. This cycle usually starts with New York Fashion Week, the most important week in fashion, where the top designers exhibit their collections and because this event is invitation-only, the audience is filled with celebrities, top magazine editors, and socialites. Once the designs are shown, the audience members will then buy/borrow the looks. Because we live in a culture that seeks to emulate the well known, the designs will then trickledown to everyday people. Because designs are now readily available to the public, bloggers can become ‘insiders’ through giving their commentary and even rejecting the trends that are being pushed. This is most evident in how fashion has worked for a while; America has always had style decades. The fifties called for pastels and year-round Easter Sunday clothes, the sixties were time for mod and hippie clothes, while the polyester and bell-bottoms prevailed in the seventies. The eighties were a time for bold colors and exaggerated silhouettes, the nineties called for dull colors and loose, baggy clothes, but what could be said for the fashion of this decade soon to be over? Most would answer that there are too many fashions just to say that a few pieces could define our decade’s fashion. This was all because of the Internet and its bloggers. The Internet gave bloggers the resources for bloggers and others interested in fashion to have a voice and speak forcefully with it, thus the various number of styles that the 2000s can call its own.

George Santayana once said that “fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.” Something very similar can be said about education; education is a system that is perpetuated without examination simply because it produces results and these aren’t the best possible. Ivan Illich puts it best from this excerpt from the article “Deschooling Society”: “The modern university confers the privilege of dissent on those who have been tested and classified as potential money-makers or power-holders. No one is given tax funds for the leisure in which to educate himself or the right to educate others unless at the same time he can also be certified for achievement. Schools select for each successive level those who have, at earlier stages in the game, proved themselves good risks for the established order. Having a monopoly on both the resources for learning and the investiture of social roles, the university co-opts the discoverer and the potential dissenter.” Blogs are changing the very mechanism of fashion. No longer are the ‘certified’ fashion editors determining what becomes all the rage. With the backing of the Internet, people who simply seek to become fashion experts become just that, demonstrated best by Tavi Gevinson. Tavi Gevinson is the true champion of fashion blogging. Now age 13, she started her fashion blog at age 11 and because of the depth of her fashion analysis, she was invited to New York’s Fashion Week this year. Tavi became a fashion insider simply because she used all the resources the Internet offered and now is not only following fashion but setting it as well.