More ranting...

I tried to post a couple of days ago with a whole thing about ...okay, I am not sure what the heck it was about, but isn't that the point of blogging?

Anyway, I went to post the damn thing and I got the internet equivalent of "Blogger is not in right now, please try again later, click...dial tone..." and so it is lost, the post that could have been my best post ever, the one that would have made you laugh and cry, the one that would have made you reconsider everything you knew about life and the perceptions of reality...ah, wtf, I should change rant subjects. This one even bores me.

I just cannot get off the schneid with my arcade project. I am trying to write in html this time, especially because I wanna use interesting backgrounds (pictures, montages, etc. from the Kaufman films), but I am running into a pragmatic problem - everytime I try to capture an image from the film I cannot; I have tried using ScreenPrint, tried my dig camera, and a few other ways. Man, Hollywood is freaky about the use of images, even from a marginally successful arthouse film from (almost) ten years ago.

This brings me to the ethical/legal dilemma: do I use any images for which I do not own the copyright? If not, I am in trouble, because I don't have the first clue how to get images that relate to Kaufman and his scripts without using ones that belong to someone else. I could always draw 'em, I suppose.

So, as much as I love to write using images, I may have to figure out how to create images using text, which is sad, because I have a "spectacular" image of a woman in a low cut red dress with Malkovich's head on it (from the scene at 1:09:41 when Malkovich enters the portal into his own head and when he arrives, everyone is Malkovich and all they can say is "Malkovich"), and it demonstrates the play with gender and subject position in the film.

Ugh. Again. If it weren't for ranting, I might never have anything to say.

Beginnings of the Arcade Project

I have decided to think through my arcades ideas here on the blog. Except that I am interested in the process I will use to create this arcade, this is for no good reason. This post may in fact be one of the entries in the arcade.

I want to know how I find my way through the project, because the process is integral to the idea, it is Sirc's "trace capturing" (138).

And then I went off to www.IMDB.com to find Kaufman's films, to www.amazon.com to order screenplays, and got lost at www.beingcharliekaufman.com. I found some interesting journal articles from the MLA search at the CSUSB website.

And I don't know exactly what I should do next, watch the films again or read the screenplays?

My second assessment of :The Blog:

I have grown to enjoy blogging. I haven't changed my mind that blogging requires emotional exhibitionism, I have learned how much to show before I get too embarassed. For example, the experience I had with my yearbook staff this week makes a good story, and I don't need to feel bad after I write it.

Somehow my Yearbook staff figured out (oh yeah, I told a couple of students that I "trusted") that this past Friday's deadline was a class deadline, not a publisher deadline, so it would not incur any late charges if we missed it. They must have forgotten, however, that they all signed contracts that require them to drop the class at the sememster if they miss a deadline. 5 of the 7 groups missed the deadline, so now I have 18 of 26 students that will have to drop the class if I enforce my rule. Included in those 18 are 3 of my editors.

There, see? The story acknowledges my own misguidedness (what the hell made me tell ANYONE that this wasn't a publisher deadline?) while venting my frustration. I have decided, by the way, that ranting is my reason for blogging.

Blogs are emotional and artisitic playgrounds (or dumping grounds) that the world can witness live. Blogging is voyeurism, Jerry Springer and Heloise's Helpful Hints, depending on where you look.

From a pedagogical standpoint, I believe strongly in stream-of-consciousness writing, and blogs are stream of consciousness. Blogging is great for reflection, and as a person who requires a lot of navel gazing to get through the day, I would suggest it to anyone who is stressed and can type more than 20 words per minute. By the way, according to that online test, I type 32 wpm and should consider a class.