Stop it

People in this class keep writing these little lamentations and ending posts.

Stop it.

Seriously,

stop. Actually, don't stop.

It's not over.

We have a nice little community here.

Good presentations, good groups, a class where I actually know people's names (and then some).

It's based on being in class, yes, however it's also about these blogs. Dialoging and flyting and the like. Good stuff.

Orality doesn't end.

Keep adding crap, I gain too much pleasure from reading your words, so for my sake, keep going. Even if your posts become rare, keep checking back and writing shit. That's all I'm going to say.


Don't be an asshole, keep blogging.

Podcast!

I missed class today because I was offered a delicious free breakfast, and I haven't eaten a delicious free breakfast in a long time. I am aware that this is disrespectful to those who went today, and I apologize for that, but seriously, delicious free breakfast. Say it again, Delicious Free Breakfast.

I like a delicious free breakfast. Although, I am aware of how not free any meal is. I mean, we must always remember, "There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch". But this was breakfast, and a delicious and free one it was.

Now I shall move on to something relevant.

I want to talk about a mostly free phenomenon in the world of secondary orality, the podcast.

Now, I can hear every tech literate person sigh. We all know what a podcast does and what it is. Instead I just want to talk about how great an experience hearing a good podcast can be. A good podcast usually consists of some well spoken folk, who are passionate about whatever topic, just riffing on their subject for a bit. Sometimes they cuss and sometimes they have standards. But most of all, my favorite podcasts are very rarely scripted. It consists of three of four people in a room with a microphone. They have all the ums and uhs of real speech and their cpnversations always diverge into pointless tangents. They make inside jokes that make no sense and make fun of each other. They talk about smoking, sex, and video games while educating me in the most welcoming way possible. Unpretentious, funny, offensive. Oral.

A good way to grab podcasts is to just pay attention. Go to your favorite sites and look around. See that little link in the corner? That one that has been there ever since you wandered into this site (probably with the words, "check out our podcast!"). Click it, download it and enjoy. Also, if you use itunes or Zune software, these programs have a collected compendium of podcasts for a plethora of interests.

Here are some links for you lazy types:

http://www.podcastalley.com/
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
http://sic.conversationsnetwork.org/?gclid=COWZp4S9lpoCFShRagod_gRBNQ
http://www.apple.com/business/podcasting/?cid=WWA-SEGO-BIZ080324G-I620I&cp=WWA-SEGO-BIZ080306G&sr=WWA-SEGO-BIZ080306G

Also, Google reader is a fantastic way to subscribe to RSS feeds which usually include up to date links to various podcasts.

Grab one. They're freeish. TISTAAFPC.

Guest Poster: Bri (Summer Breeze)

I don't know what she is gonna write. I take no responsibility for the contents of this post if they are at all rambling or pointless.
Hello fellow bloggers it is Ghost Writer, a.k.a. Urania, a.k.a. Summer Breeze, I know you are all interested in what I have to say. Well, for one I don't care too much for Tai, I mean seriously what kind of name is Tai anyways? Secondly, I don't care too much for what Tai drinks, or how much, I feel AA should be recommended. And thirdly I just have to say there is a fine line between sarcasm and insult. I'm not going to refer to anything directly, I just wanted to put that out there. Now for something relivant. Earlier this year we were talking about flyting, or the act of fighting with someone in good manners. Flyting can only be done between two friends because otherwise it will be taken offensively (take my word for it, I tried flyting with a certain someone the other day and then he kicked me out of his house...alittle dramatic if I say so myself). Anywho, flyting started in the oral culture. I would like to think it started between two men from two neighboring tribes who were simply talking amongs themselves about life. This is how the conversation went (I'm almost positive).
Tribe man 1: Your wife looks like she has been eating too much Mammoth. Haha.
Tribe man 2: Unlike your wife she pregnant. Your wife ate all the dinasours.
(flyting is so much fun)
Tribe man 1: OH, good one Tribe Man 2, but seriously your wife is gaining weight and she's not pregnant because we all know that you prefer men.

And that last comment by Tribe Man 1 took it too far. That was an example of bad flyting.

Either way, the act of flyting, or sarcasm, or whatever it's called in any other country is the same in every culture. Silly fighting has been around before the print culture was able to (what's the word) print it.

Group Presentation... Boundaries

For our presentation the other day, I wrote this story. It was the one that Kevin read (as Neil Armstrong) on Uranus. The version we read was a bit truncated so included the original one here,

This is the story:

"One day the great god of the sky, Uranus, left the sky. He went not low but high- through the trees, through the clouds, through the great wall of air. He went higher than any man and sat with the stars. There he sat until he felt weary of the cold and he decided to leave. The great god of the sky Uranus went into his bag of magic dust; he found his bag to be empty. Without that magic dust he was trapped in the sky.

Uranus called to his servant, crow, and said, “Oh crow can you bring me my magic dust so that I may return to the Earth?” And crow obeyed. The crow did not have to search far for the magical dust for the thing that gives the sky its power is the dirt. For without the dirt, without the ground, without the horizon, there would be no sky at all. Gathering some sand from a beautiful beach, the crow began to fly above the trees. He flew above the clouds, and when he reached the wall of sky he flew even higher. Crossing into the boundary, the crow joined the stars, and, for a brief moment, beheld their beauty. With a croak, the crow, servant of Uranus, suffocated and died. From then on, Uranus has been stuck with the stars, and all who wish to pass the wall of air must wear special clothing. "

I started this story by brainstorming with Bri and Chris. We knew that we needed a transition from the corporeal world to the spiritual and that we also wanted to represent the style of storytelling found in Kane's examples. By doing so, we hoped to simulate some of the oral normatives taught to us throughout our time in the class as well as exhibit the precepts in the chapter. Starting with Crow and Uranus, we knew the importance of the anthropormorphized animal and the god. We decided to make crow a messenger of Uranus which allowed us to add travel which, in turn, also gave us our border element. Having already decided to use outer space as the venue for our transformation, we knew that the crow would have to go to space.

Upon writing these elements down, I remembered that the sea, sand, and firmament were an evocative reminder of the border between people, the sky, and the sea. I decided to exploit this and add a bit of meat to dem bones. The death of the crow being a reasonable extrapolation from an organic being leaving the atmosphere, we were able to inject some humor into the piece, another big component to an oral discourse. Having the structure of a story, I began writing it with the trends of the Oral story in mind.

Early on, I knew I wanted to use a paratactic voice. This proved to be harder to do than expected. As it turns out, connectors and transitionary words have become totally technologized into my head. My natural impulse, however, is to proof these aspects out. So that was a challenge. Other than that though, this means of storytelling came rather easily to me. Maybe there is a bit of oral tradition in me after all.

Ze Paper

Papar rough

This is the almost finished rendition of my paper. The last part's dialogue is in a word doc, I just need to get off my butt and write it into the speech bubbles. It will be done by the time I present. However, I might be late to class while getting it printed.

EDIT: Nevermind, Can't upload it because it is too fat...

Presentations uh

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