Our collaborative novel is open for writers. Sadly, no one has yet signed up outside of our group to help us write it. We're still hopeful, though; we have until the end of the week for the first draft to be due, and then the second and third drafts will be due on the 8th and 15th. So there's time.
After announcing on our Facebook page that it was time to start contributing, someone mentioned another collaborative science fiction/fantasy novel, Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea. I did a little research and found out Atlanta Nights was a hoax, written in response to several statements by PublishAmerica, an online publishing company. They claimed to accept high-quality manuscripts for publication. After submitting work to the site, PublishAmerica's Acquisitions staff reviewed the work to determine whether it was good enough for publication. Then they published an article that said this:
"[S]cience-fiction and fantasy writers have it easier. It's unfair, but
such is life. As a rule of thumb, the quality bar for sci-fi and fantasy
is a lot lower than for all other fiction. Therefore, beware of
published authors who are self-crowned writing experts. When they tell
you what to do and not to do in getting your book published, always
first ask them what genre they write. If it's sci-fi or fantasy, run.
They have no clue about what it is to write real-life stories, and how
to find them a home. Unless you are a sci-fi or fantasy author yourself." (Author's Market: Never Trust the "Experts.")
In response, a group of science fiction and fantasy writers decided to write the worst novel ever and submit it to PublishAmerica. They were headed by James McDonald, and each author was given minimal information about the chapter outlines, plotline, character backgrounds, etc. and were expected to write a chapter without even knowing its place in the book. It led to random changes in setting, character races and genders, and plot (one character dies and then later shows up in the action). The authors made it even worse by misnumbering several chapters (there are two chapter 12's and no chapter 38).
They then submitted the work under the psuedonym Travis Tea (as in travesty) to PublishAmerica and were actually accepted by the Acquisitions staff who supposedly only took the most high-quality manuscripts. The team of writers decided not to publish in the end, and revealed the hoax. PublishAmerica then said that on further review, they would not take the manuscript.
Our collaborative novel, Chaotic Connections, is not Atlanta Nights. We have tried very hard to inform our writers of the plot, the chapter outlines, the characters, and the game setting. It's possible that we could have done more to help our authors understand these things, but even if there are discrepancies, we have plans to make the storyline smoother at the end with final revisions.
The greatest difference between the two novels, however, is that ours is meant to be somewhat readable, and the other was meant to be awful. We know that our novel may be a little strange in the end due to the many voices we have writing, but we hope that it will still be something you wouldn't mind reading. Atlanta Nights was constructed to be the worst book ever written.
I wonder which will be the greater success in the end. It seems to me that it would be easy for many authors to create something awful. It is much harder to create something good. I hope we achieve our goal at the same level that the authors of Atlanta Nights achieved theirs.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
The Value of Beta
Last night someone came and asked me how I got into creative writing. I was kind of confused by the question, since I've been doing it since before I could really spell. It's like asking someone how they got into eating. It's just something I do. But I told him that I started out tracing pictures from How to Draw books, and then I wrote stories to go along with them. Most of those stories were never finished. As I got older and the books I read changed, I started writing Middle Grade-ish novels. Those were never finished either.
Then I got into fan fiction. Yu-Gi-Oh fan fiction. Yes, Yu-Gi-Oh. I created a character, put her in the world of the TV show, and wrote several short stories about her. After having several strange dreams, I started coming up with an idea for a novel featuring this character, and after rewriting the plot several times, I cut out any references to Yu-Gi-Oh and have been working on a fantasy trilogy ever since. There are many other ideas I have for novels which I hope to write in the future, and I actually completed the rough draft of another novel this year.
The person to whom I was telling all this said he has thought of several characters, but he doesn't want to write a book about them yet because he doesn't want to write something terrible; he wants to save these characters until he's a good enough writer to create a story worthy of them.
I can understand that; that used to be how I thought about blogging and submitting work for review by others. I didn't want anyone to see it until it was perfect, and I didn't even want to start it until I had a plan. How can I write a blog post when I'm still doing research?
But I don't see things that way any more. This post, itself, is a testament to that. I started off thinking, I wonder if I could relate that conversation I had last night to the value of beta. And then I just started on it. Beta, for me, is like practicing in front of a crowd. You're still working on it, but everyone gets to watch your progress. It's kind of nerve-wracking, but it's helpful to get feedback so you know what needs to be improved the most.
Going back to creative writing, I wrote tons of stories that never got done. I also wrote a lot of stuff that was downright ridiculous and let friends read to help me figure out what I needed to fix. Sometimes they rip it apart with criticism, but that's what I need. My fan fiction short stories will never be published formally. But all of these things had value. The novels I didn't finish and my silly fan fictions were important because they prepared me for later writing. And the criticism my friends gave me taught me to write better.
In my conversation last night, I told this person that he should just write about these characters. Put them in a situation and see what happens. You can always scrap that story and start again, and you can always change those characters and see how it changes your plot. Bad writing has worth. It teaches you. It helps you move forward. You might decide that you don't like where it's going at all and just throw out the whole thing, but you've learned and you've realized what doesn't work for you.
That's exactly what beta is. When you seek social proof in the middle of a project, you're learning. When you publish a blog post before you've done much research, you see what you need to find out. You see where your logic is lacking. You see your own thought process.
Don't be afraid of beta. It's a good thing.
Then I got into fan fiction. Yu-Gi-Oh fan fiction. Yes, Yu-Gi-Oh. I created a character, put her in the world of the TV show, and wrote several short stories about her. After having several strange dreams, I started coming up with an idea for a novel featuring this character, and after rewriting the plot several times, I cut out any references to Yu-Gi-Oh and have been working on a fantasy trilogy ever since. There are many other ideas I have for novels which I hope to write in the future, and I actually completed the rough draft of another novel this year.
The person to whom I was telling all this said he has thought of several characters, but he doesn't want to write a book about them yet because he doesn't want to write something terrible; he wants to save these characters until he's a good enough writer to create a story worthy of them.
But I don't see things that way any more. This post, itself, is a testament to that. I started off thinking, I wonder if I could relate that conversation I had last night to the value of beta. And then I just started on it. Beta, for me, is like practicing in front of a crowd. You're still working on it, but everyone gets to watch your progress. It's kind of nerve-wracking, but it's helpful to get feedback so you know what needs to be improved the most.
Going back to creative writing, I wrote tons of stories that never got done. I also wrote a lot of stuff that was downright ridiculous and let friends read to help me figure out what I needed to fix. Sometimes they rip it apart with criticism, but that's what I need. My fan fiction short stories will never be published formally. But all of these things had value. The novels I didn't finish and my silly fan fictions were important because they prepared me for later writing. And the criticism my friends gave me taught me to write better.
In my conversation last night, I told this person that he should just write about these characters. Put them in a situation and see what happens. You can always scrap that story and start again, and you can always change those characters and see how it changes your plot. Bad writing has worth. It teaches you. It helps you move forward. You might decide that you don't like where it's going at all and just throw out the whole thing, but you've learned and you've realized what doesn't work for you.
That's exactly what beta is. When you seek social proof in the middle of a project, you're learning. When you publish a blog post before you've done much research, you see what you need to find out. You see where your logic is lacking. You see your own thought process.
Don't be afraid of beta. It's a good thing.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Midterm Reflections
Let's take this step by step.
The first thing I think of when I ask myself, "What have I learned in this class so far?" is about collaboration. This shouldn't be surprising, considering my group project is devoted to writing a collaborative novel. But it's different from any other group project I've ever done. It's on a larger scale than any other I've worked on, for one. We're attempting to actually write and publish a novel before the end of the semester with the help of dozens of other people. And I think it's actually going to happen! After our meeting on Saturday, we laid out our timeline, the media we would use to get it done, and how we would get people involved, and I looked at it and thought, "Oh my gosh, this is actually possible. We're going to write a novel in less than a semester." Now, it may not be worthy of any awards, and it may be more of a novella in length, but it's happening.
Further, the level of media we're using to collaborate is different. We're on Google+ and Facebook, we have our own blog, and we're using Google Docs. I've used some of these media on other projects, but I feel like I know what I'm doing this time around. For once, I don't feel confused using Google Docs. The collaborative blog is new to me, but I'm getting the hang of it and I'm seeing the value of documenting our progress through the blog. It's like a journal of our project.
After collaboration, I think of the things I've learned from my peers. That, itself, is exciting. Much of my learning has come from other students. I first found out about Machinima from a blog by Gwendolyn Hammer. She also taught me about remix culture in another blog. In our class last Tuesday, I learned from my classmates about badges, how you can earn them, and why they are legitimate. Also, I had a great experience with the media fast, inspired by this blog by Curtis Jenkins (though I know many people were involved in making that happen). I've learned from my peers, and I've had self-directed learning experiences because of my peers. That's cool!
I want to mention briefly what I've learned about transmedia. After Dr. Burton explained this idea, I was very excited by it. Our collaborative group has done a bit of it, making twitter accounts for characters in our novel. I want to look into transmedia more in the future.
Next, I've been reading Hard Times, which I've posted about several times. I just like Dickens. Once again, I'm seeing the value in blogging about my thoughts before they're really complete thoughts. But more than that, I'm seeing connections between our busy digital age and the industrial era. I'm still finishing the book, but I'm already noticing that in order for Dickens' characters to be happy with their new industrial culture, they have to temper new ideas with the romance of the past. In the same way, we need to adapt to our digital culture by using the values and morals of our history. I've noted in other posts how the novel relates to badges and measuring quality, and to time management
The non-fiction text I read, Remediation, was a good introduction to media in general. Media should represent reality, either through hypermediacy or immediacy. I notice more often when media feels real to me, and how it's accomplishing that sensation.
Finally, I want to talk about my self-directed learning. Much of it has been through the videos and sites that I link to Google+ and my blog to confirm my understanding of concepts like remix culture, machinima, hactivism, etc. But lately I've been thinking a lot about blogging and vlogging, and learning how to do it better. I wrote a blog earlier about how you can make money off of your blog/vlog. And then this week, I noticed that an old blog I wrote in my digital civilization class is still getting hits. I haven't updated it since April, but it has gotten over a thousand views, many of which are from outside the US (54 are from Russia, 37 from Germany, and 32 from India). Most of the views are coming from people searching for "understanding modernism" and "for the people" on Google. I realized that my little blog actually does influence people. This excited me, terrified me, and made me want to make that and all my other blogs more appealing and useful. I can look at why people come to my blog to customize it to them and be more informative. A year ago I knew nothing about blogging, and now I'm learning how to use statistics and other tools to make my blogs better.
The first thing I think of when I ask myself, "What have I learned in this class so far?" is about collaboration. This shouldn't be surprising, considering my group project is devoted to writing a collaborative novel. But it's different from any other group project I've ever done. It's on a larger scale than any other I've worked on, for one. We're attempting to actually write and publish a novel before the end of the semester with the help of dozens of other people. And I think it's actually going to happen! After our meeting on Saturday, we laid out our timeline, the media we would use to get it done, and how we would get people involved, and I looked at it and thought, "Oh my gosh, this is actually possible. We're going to write a novel in less than a semester." Now, it may not be worthy of any awards, and it may be more of a novella in length, but it's happening.
Further, the level of media we're using to collaborate is different. We're on Google+ and Facebook, we have our own blog, and we're using Google Docs. I've used some of these media on other projects, but I feel like I know what I'm doing this time around. For once, I don't feel confused using Google Docs. The collaborative blog is new to me, but I'm getting the hang of it and I'm seeing the value of documenting our progress through the blog. It's like a journal of our project.
After collaboration, I think of the things I've learned from my peers. That, itself, is exciting. Much of my learning has come from other students. I first found out about Machinima from a blog by Gwendolyn Hammer. She also taught me about remix culture in another blog. In our class last Tuesday, I learned from my classmates about badges, how you can earn them, and why they are legitimate. Also, I had a great experience with the media fast, inspired by this blog by Curtis Jenkins (though I know many people were involved in making that happen). I've learned from my peers, and I've had self-directed learning experiences because of my peers. That's cool!
I want to mention briefly what I've learned about transmedia. After Dr. Burton explained this idea, I was very excited by it. Our collaborative group has done a bit of it, making twitter accounts for characters in our novel. I want to look into transmedia more in the future.
Next, I've been reading Hard Times, which I've posted about several times. I just like Dickens. Once again, I'm seeing the value in blogging about my thoughts before they're really complete thoughts. But more than that, I'm seeing connections between our busy digital age and the industrial era. I'm still finishing the book, but I'm already noticing that in order for Dickens' characters to be happy with their new industrial culture, they have to temper new ideas with the romance of the past. In the same way, we need to adapt to our digital culture by using the values and morals of our history. I've noted in other posts how the novel relates to badges and measuring quality, and to time management
The non-fiction text I read, Remediation, was a good introduction to media in general. Media should represent reality, either through hypermediacy or immediacy. I notice more often when media feels real to me, and how it's accomplishing that sensation.
Finally, I want to talk about my self-directed learning. Much of it has been through the videos and sites that I link to Google+ and my blog to confirm my understanding of concepts like remix culture, machinima, hactivism, etc. But lately I've been thinking a lot about blogging and vlogging, and learning how to do it better. I wrote a blog earlier about how you can make money off of your blog/vlog. And then this week, I noticed that an old blog I wrote in my digital civilization class is still getting hits. I haven't updated it since April, but it has gotten over a thousand views, many of which are from outside the US (54 are from Russia, 37 from Germany, and 32 from India). Most of the views are coming from people searching for "understanding modernism" and "for the people" on Google. I realized that my little blog actually does influence people. This excited me, terrified me, and made me want to make that and all my other blogs more appealing and useful. I can look at why people come to my blog to customize it to them and be more informative. A year ago I knew nothing about blogging, and now I'm learning how to use statistics and other tools to make my blogs better.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Measuring in Hard Times
Another theme I've noticed in Hard Times is the idea of measuring. Mr. Gradgrind
is astounded when he realizes that Sissy Jupe's worth is not
calculable. "Somehow or other, he had become possessed by an idea that
there was something in this girl which could hardly be set forth in
tabular form.... he was not yet sure that if he had been required, for
example, to tick her off into columns in a parliamentary return, he
would have quite known how to divide her" (73). Sissy has not learned
much of facts in her time at the school, and she doesn't reason
according to mathematics, but according to the dictates of her own
consciousness. That is immeasureable.
In another section, focusing on the working class, Dickens notes, "It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice, or the reverse, at any single moment in the soul of one of these its quiet servants" (56). During the Industrial Era, it was important to quantify the amount of something produced, the amount of cost, the amount of profit, the amount of time used, etc. Everything was calculated; yet the soul of man is incalculable by these means. The workers may be seen as cogs in the machine, but their value is not measurable. Sissy Jupe, though incapable of memorizing facts, does a great deal of good to Mrs. Gradgrind, and, as we see later, to everyone who comes in contact with her. People are worth more than the amount of products they produce; their true worth is not measurable by mortals.
Our society tries to quantify worth all the time. We've talked about badges in our class and how they are a new system of measuring someone's skills and qualifications. Also, in the digital age, anyone can contribute information and art online; material that isn't reviewed by an expert leads to questions like, "How do we know whether this is valid?"
We've discussed currency in our class relating to reputation. If something online is good, we need a way to quantify its value. We can do this by looking at ratings (so many stars or likes), the number of hits it receives, or the number of subscribers.
However, Dickens points out that it is difficult to measure some things. In this way, sometimes it is more helpful to read comments and opinions from friends on social networks in order to know how valuable something is, rather than trying to calculate or quantify its worth.
In another section, focusing on the working class, Dickens notes, "It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice, or the reverse, at any single moment in the soul of one of these its quiet servants" (56). During the Industrial Era, it was important to quantify the amount of something produced, the amount of cost, the amount of profit, the amount of time used, etc. Everything was calculated; yet the soul of man is incalculable by these means. The workers may be seen as cogs in the machine, but their value is not measurable. Sissy Jupe, though incapable of memorizing facts, does a great deal of good to Mrs. Gradgrind, and, as we see later, to everyone who comes in contact with her. People are worth more than the amount of products they produce; their true worth is not measurable by mortals.
Our society tries to quantify worth all the time. We've talked about badges in our class and how they are a new system of measuring someone's skills and qualifications. Also, in the digital age, anyone can contribute information and art online; material that isn't reviewed by an expert leads to questions like, "How do we know whether this is valid?"
We've discussed currency in our class relating to reputation. If something online is good, we need a way to quantify its value. We can do this by looking at ratings (so many stars or likes), the number of hits it receives, or the number of subscribers.
However, Dickens points out that it is difficult to measure some things. In this way, sometimes it is more helpful to read comments and opinions from friends on social networks in order to know how valuable something is, rather than trying to calculate or quantify its worth.
Time in Hard Times
I wanted to talk about a theme I saw throughout the first book of Hard Times, the notion of time. Dickens refers to time as the Great Manufacturer; its products are people. Louisa and Thomas Gradgrind, Jr. enter and come out as a young woman and young man, both altered in some way or another thanks to the passage of time. Time as a factory is an interesting analogy, since time is also a very important commodity in Victorian life.
For instance, Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind continually speak of not wasting time. They call the showmen and horse riders idle because they spend their time in amusement and not in business. Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind live by idea that time is money.
Also, in Victorian England, time is continually hurrying on. There is a sense of rushing in every aspect of Coketown. The working class go to and from work, the machines whir, the trains run all day. A worker named Stephen Blackpool remarks to an older woman that Coketown is a busy place and she replies, "Eigh sure! Dreadful busy!" Only a short while later, Stephen notices the time, and quickens his pace. "He was going to work? the old woman said, quickening hers, too, quite easily. Yes, time was nearly out" (63). This is the general feeling of the Industrial Era. Everything has a schedule, and time must be used wisely to make the most out of it. People like Gradgrind and Bounderby see little use in leisure, since it profits them nothing, and is, essentially, a waste of time.
However, Mr. Sleary, who runs the horse show, says that people must be amused somehow; they can't always be working or always learning. He understands that time must be balanced, and life cannot be focused on only one thing. Then again, Sleary makes his money by amusing others, and so perhaps he would rather have people always spending their time in leisure instead of work. Still, as we will see in later books, those who do not have a balance end up falling.
Our digital age seems to be in a rush similar to Victorian England. Last year's technology is out of date. We're disgruntled if it takes a webpage longer than five seconds to load. Information is communicated so quickly, you can either be immediately informed, or you can fall behind in a matter of minutes. Check out this commercial from AT&T, where 27 seconds is enough time to distinguish those up on the times from everyone else:
Additionally, we now seem to have a similar problem with balancing our time, though instead of spending too much of it in work and learning, we spend too much on leisure. Some are addicted to surfing the internet or
playing video games. Procrastination is easy to do when there's so much to occupy our attention.
As Sleary said, we cannot always be working or learning, be we cannot always be playing, either. Balance is needed. I think that's the message for our digital age. Where we spend our time makes us into the people we'll be. Therefore, we need to balance our time on and offline, and between leisure and work.
For instance, Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind continually speak of not wasting time. They call the showmen and horse riders idle because they spend their time in amusement and not in business. Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind live by idea that time is money.
Also, in Victorian England, time is continually hurrying on. There is a sense of rushing in every aspect of Coketown. The working class go to and from work, the machines whir, the trains run all day. A worker named Stephen Blackpool remarks to an older woman that Coketown is a busy place and she replies, "Eigh sure! Dreadful busy!" Only a short while later, Stephen notices the time, and quickens his pace. "He was going to work? the old woman said, quickening hers, too, quite easily. Yes, time was nearly out" (63). This is the general feeling of the Industrial Era. Everything has a schedule, and time must be used wisely to make the most out of it. People like Gradgrind and Bounderby see little use in leisure, since it profits them nothing, and is, essentially, a waste of time.
However, Mr. Sleary, who runs the horse show, says that people must be amused somehow; they can't always be working or always learning. He understands that time must be balanced, and life cannot be focused on only one thing. Then again, Sleary makes his money by amusing others, and so perhaps he would rather have people always spending their time in leisure instead of work. Still, as we will see in later books, those who do not have a balance end up falling.
Our digital age seems to be in a rush similar to Victorian England. Last year's technology is out of date. We're disgruntled if it takes a webpage longer than five seconds to load. Information is communicated so quickly, you can either be immediately informed, or you can fall behind in a matter of minutes. Check out this commercial from AT&T, where 27 seconds is enough time to distinguish those up on the times from everyone else:
As Sleary said, we cannot always be working or learning, be we cannot always be playing, either. Balance is needed. I think that's the message for our digital age. Where we spend our time makes us into the people we'll be. Therefore, we need to balance our time on and offline, and between leisure and work.
Friday, October 12, 2012
New Plot
I wasn't sure whether or not my fellow group members saw this, and I want their opinion on it before I publish it to our Project CCC blog, so here it is in its beta phase.
Chapter 1: We begin with Polly in the middle of a job. She is in disguise once again, acting as a member of a drug ring. She just needs the drug lord to reveal more information (who else is involved, where they’re getting the drugs, and a clear, recorded statement that they can use in court). At last, the man says the last thing she needs, and then the special ops team comes in and incapacitates the members of the ring/arrests them. Introduce various characters and their specialties (Micro uses tech to sneak inside/prevent escape/set cool gadgets to catch bad guys, Jared tackles/throws stuff, Polly uses karate, Grant shoots and directs action, and Angelina… well, she does whatever she feels like). They cart the bad guys off to jail
Chapter 2: The team celebrates at a bar. We see some of their personalities and interactions. We also see Polly’s crush on Grant, and how she acts when around her teammates (as we see later, Polly acts differently depending on whom she’s with—comes from having to constantly change who she is as a spy). As they’re leaving for the night, Grant takes Polly aside and tells her he and Micro have tracked Dr. Herron to an address. They’ve been searching for Herron for years; they don’t know what he’s planning, but he’s a hacker who shows up every now and then online, getting into copyrighted work and stealing codes. Grant assigns Polly to go to the address and start finding out about him.
Chapter 3: Polly returns home and talks to her roommate, Jenna (Jenny?). We see that she acts differently around Jenna than around her coworkers. Then she hooks up to her online game. We see some of her life there. She meets up with James, another player in the 2nd life game who has been talking to Polly for a couple of months now. She talks to him about Grant, but of course can’t tell James about her real line of work. Perhaps we also see Angelina’s online identity (though we don’t know it’s her), who has also befriended Polly in the game.
Chapter 4: The next day or so, Polly contacts Dr. Herron. She claims to be his new neighbor (she’s renting the house next door as a ruse) and tries to become friends with him. He acts nice enough, but she’s unable to get inside the house. But she’s used to jobs taking a long time.
Chapter 5: Meanwhile, Polly is secretly commuting back to her real apartment so Jenna doesn’t get suspicious, and goes to work to collaborate with teammates about how to get Dr. Herron to reveal his secret. Micro explains more about what Dr. Herron has done in the past. They know he’s stealing codes, and that many of his activities seem to relate to the online game Polly is involved in. But they can’t tell exactly what Dr. Herron is up to. Everyone is assigned various jobs to find out what he’s doing according to their specialties. She still likes Grant, but we see that he’s not responding to her flirts.
Chapter 6: Polly continues to try to get Dr. Herron to trust her during the next week(s). Every day she talks to him just a little, then invites him for dinner at her place. He comes. There’s a dinner scene, and Polly can tell he’s beginning to see her as a friend. But when she offers to come to his house to look at a plumbing problem he mentions (she says she knows a little about that) he declines, saying he can figure it out. Still won’t let her in.
Chapter 7: Polly goes online to unwind and talk to James (she, of course, does this everyday, but this will be a scene rather than a summary). While talking to James today, Polly realizes she’s falling for him. She’s conflicted between her virtual life and reality with Grant - although Grant still doesn’t like her back, and James returns her flirts. She talks to Angelina’s avatar (again, doesn’t know it’s her, she’s just another online friend who knows James) about it, and she tells her to go for James.
Chapter 8: Polly goes over to Dr. Herron’s house to “borrow a cup of sugar.” He tells her to wait at the door. She’s frustrated with how he won’t let her in. When he returns they talk for a minute on the doorstep, then she goes to her house, with nothing to show for her work but an unneeded cup of sugar. She goes online again, and while talking to James, he says something that Dr. Herron said earlier. She realizes Dr. Herron and James are the same person.
Chapter 9: She’s conflicted between her fondness for James and her duty to work against Dr. Herron. She consults with Jenna without revealing too much, explaining that she’s fallen in love with a guy online, but she’s met him in real life, too, and he’s a jerk. How does she reconcile that? Jenna suggests she find out which part of him is his real personality—the online sweetheart, or the real life jerk. We’re different people online and offline, and one or the other can be a front. (sort of blatantly stating the theme). Tells Polly to get to know him better and then decide what do to.
Chapter 10: Polly decides she needs to find out exactly what Dr. Herron’s plot is before she can figure out what part of him is his real self. She finally gets inside by going over to his house and telling him her toilet is broken and she needs to use his bathroom. He is slow to let her in, but does. She notices several areas of the house he seems to be protecting. Asks him about it, but he makes excuses. Finally, Polly reveals that she is the girl he’s been talking to online. She says she knows he’s up to something—he’s obviously hiding something (doesn’t reveal she’s with the government)—and he can trust her. James/Dr. Herron explains that years ago, he was a hacker, and he was trying to use the codes he stole to control the people who were connected to the second life game (it would have made them into vegetables, their conscious minds trapped in the game. Anyone that logged on would have been stuck, and he could have used it to get ransoms from some very important people). However, Dr. Herron’s life was turned upside down when his best friend, the only person left in his life who cared about him, was killed by a random, petty thief. (see Herron’s bio for more). After years of mourning and soul-searching, he realized that little men, men like that petty thief, can do great harm. If he was a great man, he should be able to great things. So for the past couple of years, he’s been trying to not only right his wrongs, but secretly upgrade the security on the second life game so that no one could ever do what he tried years ago. The rooms he was trying to hide are full of electronic equipment and codes meant to reverse the damage he’s done. She’s relieved, but it’s very momentary because...
Chapter 11: Angelina and Micro run inside the house. They explain they were listening in. Micro tells Polly that Grant planted a recording device on Polly (he was getting suspicious and impatient with the job) and Micro found out and hacked the bug so he could listen as well. Micro was sitting with Angelina at work this morning when they overheard Polly’s conversation. Angelina quickly understood what was really going on (Polly is the girl she’s been talking to online, James, who is her friend, too, is Dr. Herron) and they came running to warn them: Grant is on his way. As soon as he heard Dr. Herron admit to hacking into those data bases years ago, he called the special ops team members and told them to head to Dr. Herron’s address. They want to help Dr. Herron because 1) Angelina knows he’s a good guy and 2) he has to close up those security holes he created.
However, before they can act, Grant and Jared arrive. Grant orders Jared (who doesn’t know anything about Dr. Herron’s confession) to grab Dr. Herron. Polly puts herself between Herron and Jared, as a shield and Angelina tries to stop Jared by talking to him (they’re good friends and he listens to her). Grant gets mad that Jared won’t do as he was ordered, and can’t understand why Angelina is defending Dr. Herron. Micro confesses that they heard the conversation between Polly and they know the real story: Herron is reformed, and they need to let him finish his work
Grant, however, is not willing to give up on a case he’s been working on for years. He shouts that Herron is a criminal for hacking codes and needs to be punished. He orders Jared again to grab Herron and for the others to start packing up the equipment for evidence. Herron tells them he was in the middle of something before Polly arrived, however, and if they try to unplug anything there could be a lot of problems. Grant thinks that’s ridiculous, that he’s just trying to stall, and Grant decides to get the job done himself. He tries to turn off one of the switchboards, is electrocuted and falls to the floor.
Chapter 12: Herron runs to the equipment. That shouldn’t have killed Grant. While the others try to revive Grant, Herron checks the monitors, and realized Grant actually activated the code he created years ago to trap everyone inside the game. Anyone who is logged on, or who does log on, will turn into a vegetable. There is a way to reverse it, but someone would have to go inside the game and alter the internal security settings while he worked in the physical world. Polly volunteers to go in, and so does Angelina. Micro, Jared, and Herron will stay outside and try to help Herron reverse it. Polly and Angelina meet up with Jenna in the virtual world, and all of them save the day by reversing the codes (I’m still working out the details there) and everyone gets out alive.
Chapter 13: Grant does not regain consciousness. They confront James/Dr. Herron about what he’s done. He might make a valuable asset to the team. Meanwhile, Polly confesses her feelings for James, and he does the same. Micro ends up with Jenna, who has become a good friend since his girlfriend broke up with him. (Who votes Jared ends up with Angelina, since he’s the first man who is thoughtful enough to see her for the person she is?)
Chapter 1: We begin with Polly in the middle of a job. She is in disguise once again, acting as a member of a drug ring. She just needs the drug lord to reveal more information (who else is involved, where they’re getting the drugs, and a clear, recorded statement that they can use in court). At last, the man says the last thing she needs, and then the special ops team comes in and incapacitates the members of the ring/arrests them. Introduce various characters and their specialties (Micro uses tech to sneak inside/prevent escape/set cool gadgets to catch bad guys, Jared tackles/throws stuff, Polly uses karate, Grant shoots and directs action, and Angelina… well, she does whatever she feels like). They cart the bad guys off to jail
Chapter 2: The team celebrates at a bar. We see some of their personalities and interactions. We also see Polly’s crush on Grant, and how she acts when around her teammates (as we see later, Polly acts differently depending on whom she’s with—comes from having to constantly change who she is as a spy). As they’re leaving for the night, Grant takes Polly aside and tells her he and Micro have tracked Dr. Herron to an address. They’ve been searching for Herron for years; they don’t know what he’s planning, but he’s a hacker who shows up every now and then online, getting into copyrighted work and stealing codes. Grant assigns Polly to go to the address and start finding out about him.
Chapter 3: Polly returns home and talks to her roommate, Jenna (Jenny?). We see that she acts differently around Jenna than around her coworkers. Then she hooks up to her online game. We see some of her life there. She meets up with James, another player in the 2nd life game who has been talking to Polly for a couple of months now. She talks to him about Grant, but of course can’t tell James about her real line of work. Perhaps we also see Angelina’s online identity (though we don’t know it’s her), who has also befriended Polly in the game.
Chapter 4: The next day or so, Polly contacts Dr. Herron. She claims to be his new neighbor (she’s renting the house next door as a ruse) and tries to become friends with him. He acts nice enough, but she’s unable to get inside the house. But she’s used to jobs taking a long time.
Chapter 5: Meanwhile, Polly is secretly commuting back to her real apartment so Jenna doesn’t get suspicious, and goes to work to collaborate with teammates about how to get Dr. Herron to reveal his secret. Micro explains more about what Dr. Herron has done in the past. They know he’s stealing codes, and that many of his activities seem to relate to the online game Polly is involved in. But they can’t tell exactly what Dr. Herron is up to. Everyone is assigned various jobs to find out what he’s doing according to their specialties. She still likes Grant, but we see that he’s not responding to her flirts.
Chapter 6: Polly continues to try to get Dr. Herron to trust her during the next week(s). Every day she talks to him just a little, then invites him for dinner at her place. He comes. There’s a dinner scene, and Polly can tell he’s beginning to see her as a friend. But when she offers to come to his house to look at a plumbing problem he mentions (she says she knows a little about that) he declines, saying he can figure it out. Still won’t let her in.
Chapter 7: Polly goes online to unwind and talk to James (she, of course, does this everyday, but this will be a scene rather than a summary). While talking to James today, Polly realizes she’s falling for him. She’s conflicted between her virtual life and reality with Grant - although Grant still doesn’t like her back, and James returns her flirts. She talks to Angelina’s avatar (again, doesn’t know it’s her, she’s just another online friend who knows James) about it, and she tells her to go for James.
Chapter 8: Polly goes over to Dr. Herron’s house to “borrow a cup of sugar.” He tells her to wait at the door. She’s frustrated with how he won’t let her in. When he returns they talk for a minute on the doorstep, then she goes to her house, with nothing to show for her work but an unneeded cup of sugar. She goes online again, and while talking to James, he says something that Dr. Herron said earlier. She realizes Dr. Herron and James are the same person.
Chapter 9: She’s conflicted between her fondness for James and her duty to work against Dr. Herron. She consults with Jenna without revealing too much, explaining that she’s fallen in love with a guy online, but she’s met him in real life, too, and he’s a jerk. How does she reconcile that? Jenna suggests she find out which part of him is his real personality—the online sweetheart, or the real life jerk. We’re different people online and offline, and one or the other can be a front. (sort of blatantly stating the theme). Tells Polly to get to know him better and then decide what do to.
Chapter 10: Polly decides she needs to find out exactly what Dr. Herron’s plot is before she can figure out what part of him is his real self. She finally gets inside by going over to his house and telling him her toilet is broken and she needs to use his bathroom. He is slow to let her in, but does. She notices several areas of the house he seems to be protecting. Asks him about it, but he makes excuses. Finally, Polly reveals that she is the girl he’s been talking to online. She says she knows he’s up to something—he’s obviously hiding something (doesn’t reveal she’s with the government)—and he can trust her. James/Dr. Herron explains that years ago, he was a hacker, and he was trying to use the codes he stole to control the people who were connected to the second life game (it would have made them into vegetables, their conscious minds trapped in the game. Anyone that logged on would have been stuck, and he could have used it to get ransoms from some very important people). However, Dr. Herron’s life was turned upside down when his best friend, the only person left in his life who cared about him, was killed by a random, petty thief. (see Herron’s bio for more). After years of mourning and soul-searching, he realized that little men, men like that petty thief, can do great harm. If he was a great man, he should be able to great things. So for the past couple of years, he’s been trying to not only right his wrongs, but secretly upgrade the security on the second life game so that no one could ever do what he tried years ago. The rooms he was trying to hide are full of electronic equipment and codes meant to reverse the damage he’s done. She’s relieved, but it’s very momentary because...
Chapter 11: Angelina and Micro run inside the house. They explain they were listening in. Micro tells Polly that Grant planted a recording device on Polly (he was getting suspicious and impatient with the job) and Micro found out and hacked the bug so he could listen as well. Micro was sitting with Angelina at work this morning when they overheard Polly’s conversation. Angelina quickly understood what was really going on (Polly is the girl she’s been talking to online, James, who is her friend, too, is Dr. Herron) and they came running to warn them: Grant is on his way. As soon as he heard Dr. Herron admit to hacking into those data bases years ago, he called the special ops team members and told them to head to Dr. Herron’s address. They want to help Dr. Herron because 1) Angelina knows he’s a good guy and 2) he has to close up those security holes he created.
However, before they can act, Grant and Jared arrive. Grant orders Jared (who doesn’t know anything about Dr. Herron’s confession) to grab Dr. Herron. Polly puts herself between Herron and Jared, as a shield and Angelina tries to stop Jared by talking to him (they’re good friends and he listens to her). Grant gets mad that Jared won’t do as he was ordered, and can’t understand why Angelina is defending Dr. Herron. Micro confesses that they heard the conversation between Polly and they know the real story: Herron is reformed, and they need to let him finish his work
Grant, however, is not willing to give up on a case he’s been working on for years. He shouts that Herron is a criminal for hacking codes and needs to be punished. He orders Jared again to grab Herron and for the others to start packing up the equipment for evidence. Herron tells them he was in the middle of something before Polly arrived, however, and if they try to unplug anything there could be a lot of problems. Grant thinks that’s ridiculous, that he’s just trying to stall, and Grant decides to get the job done himself. He tries to turn off one of the switchboards, is electrocuted and falls to the floor.
Chapter 12: Herron runs to the equipment. That shouldn’t have killed Grant. While the others try to revive Grant, Herron checks the monitors, and realized Grant actually activated the code he created years ago to trap everyone inside the game. Anyone who is logged on, or who does log on, will turn into a vegetable. There is a way to reverse it, but someone would have to go inside the game and alter the internal security settings while he worked in the physical world. Polly volunteers to go in, and so does Angelina. Micro, Jared, and Herron will stay outside and try to help Herron reverse it. Polly and Angelina meet up with Jenna in the virtual world, and all of them save the day by reversing the codes (I’m still working out the details there) and everyone gets out alive.
Chapter 13: Grant does not regain consciousness. They confront James/Dr. Herron about what he’s done. He might make a valuable asset to the team. Meanwhile, Polly confesses her feelings for James, and he does the same. Micro ends up with Jenna, who has become a good friend since his girlfriend broke up with him. (Who votes Jared ends up with Angelina, since he’s the first man who is thoughtful enough to see her for the person she is?)
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Critique of Proposal: Remix Project
This week in my Digital Culture Class, we wrote proposals for our group projects. Here's the proposal for the project I'm participating in:
http://ourdangerouselife.blogspot.com/2012/10/project-title-crowdsourcing-creativity.html
There were some awesome project ideas, and I'm writing this post to critique the Remix Proposal. Their proposal can be found here:
http://attackofthemachines.blogspot.com/2012/10/proposal-remix-project.html
I'm very interested in seeing what this group does to remix the story of Frankenstein. I'm glad they recognize that there will have to be a great deal of research in order to do this project. They'll have to read Frankenstein, of course, and also look at some of the ways the story has already been remixed (it might be a good idea to watch the old black-and-white Frankenstein movie, along with Young Frankenstein, and/or The Bride of Frankenstein to see how the story has evolved). And they also recognize that they will need to gain an understanding of remix technology and media. I think our group can learn from this by doing more research into literary works that were done on a collaborative basis.
However, after reading through the proposal several times, I still wasn't really sure what the group is going to do. It sounds like they're making a video, but how? Are they using Machinima or will they be videotaping each other as actors in a movie, or is this going to be a vlog like the Liz Bennet Diaries? What is it going to be about? Also, I was a little confused about how the media fast connected to their idea. It sounds like it's a very important aspect, but they didn't quite explain how it related or how they're going to use it in their project.
My suggestion to the group would be to decide exactly what kind of video you're making and how you're going to do it. If you are making several videos, that's fine, but make sure you know the formats you'll be using. Be specific in what you want your final goal to be, and know what you want to happen in your video (maybe write a script/screenplay). It sounds like fun, though, and I hope to see the final product.
http://ourdangerouselife.blogspot.com/2012/10/project-title-crowdsourcing-creativity.html
There were some awesome project ideas, and I'm writing this post to critique the Remix Proposal. Their proposal can be found here:
http://attackofthemachines.blogspot.com/2012/10/proposal-remix-project.html
I'm very interested in seeing what this group does to remix the story of Frankenstein. I'm glad they recognize that there will have to be a great deal of research in order to do this project. They'll have to read Frankenstein, of course, and also look at some of the ways the story has already been remixed (it might be a good idea to watch the old black-and-white Frankenstein movie, along with Young Frankenstein, and/or The Bride of Frankenstein to see how the story has evolved). And they also recognize that they will need to gain an understanding of remix technology and media. I think our group can learn from this by doing more research into literary works that were done on a collaborative basis.
However, after reading through the proposal several times, I still wasn't really sure what the group is going to do. It sounds like they're making a video, but how? Are they using Machinima or will they be videotaping each other as actors in a movie, or is this going to be a vlog like the Liz Bennet Diaries? What is it going to be about? Also, I was a little confused about how the media fast connected to their idea. It sounds like it's a very important aspect, but they didn't quite explain how it related or how they're going to use it in their project.
My suggestion to the group would be to decide exactly what kind of video you're making and how you're going to do it. If you are making several videos, that's fine, but make sure you know the formats you'll be using. Be specific in what you want your final goal to be, and know what you want to happen in your video (maybe write a script/screenplay). It sounds like fun, though, and I hope to see the final product.
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