Discourse Chronicle

[I realized again that much time passed since my last regular updates, so I thought I might share a few games keeping me busy. I am writing on Rock Band, Final Fantasy VII, and hopefully Street Fighter IV this semester. BK]

Rock Band

Final Fantasy VII

Street Fighter IV

category: Gaming, Life, Literacy, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Yesterday morning Nintendo of America announced that the latest evolution of its DS portable, the DSi, was due to hit stateside on April 5 of this year, priced at $169.99 MSRP. The device is the next system upgrade in the line of DS handhelds, and not a successor to the DS itself (much like the GBA SP or Micro releases for Game Boy Advance), though it promises to bring even more technology to the Big N’s innovative pocket platform. Adding in two cameras, internal memory for music, pictures, and downloadable software, a SD port for additional memory, a new front end inspired by the Wii’s channel system, and a pair of slightly larger screens, the DSi hopes to bring new lift into the already impressive DS hardware. –IGN Nintendo Team

[Today my students asked me about how I felt toward Nintendo’s next handheld gaming device called DSi. I remember reading about this product when its Japanese release happened and I believe its new features help the DS become more multimodal like a computer (such as a basic photo editing software), but I fear it might be trying too hard to be like Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP), which fared poorly in comparison with the DS. For me, I’ll be staying with my DS Lite because I need the GameBoy Advance slot to play my Castlevania: Double Pack. BK]

category: Gaming, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

The Post said the cartoon published in the paper Wednesday linking President Obama to a dead chimpanzee was not intended to be racist and charged that some critics of the cartoon were opportunists looking for payback.

[…]

The cartoon showed two police officers with a smoking gun standing over a dead chimp with a caption that reads, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

The image is a reference to a chimp was shot dead by police after it attacked a woman in Connecticut on Monday and Obama’s signing of the economic stimulus bill on Tuesday. –Xana O’Neill

category: Comics, Politics, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

Polaroid Instant Digital Camera

If you’re mourning Polaroid’s recent decision to stop making film for its classic instant cameras, here’s some good news. This 5-megapixel camera, due on the market in March, contains a built-in printer for producing 2-by-3-inch pictures on the go. The camera’s printer contains no ink or toner; the prints pass through a thermal heat head, activating dye crystals embedded in the print paper and producing an image.

The resulting pictures are a little grainy, but they’re ready in seconds and have a sticky-back feature for scrapbooking. And, unlike your old Polaroid, you can review the image on the camera’s LCD screen before deciding whether to print it.

“It’s not going to replace your 12-megapixel camera,” Polaroid marketing associate Michael Holmes said. “It’s fun. It’s convenient.”

The camera will retail for $199, and a 10-pack of print paper will cost about $5. –Brandon Griggs

[Jay David Bolter and Robert Grusin claim nothing is new about New Media, but rather remediations of older concepts or technology, and things like this remind me that both of them are right. From Elizabeth. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

[Theme: Eye of the Tiger (Survivor). A long time passed since my last entry and I apologize to my regular readers, but a lot happened swiftly during the last semester, with results I cannot complain about from my perspective. I believe the best way to describe this past term is change.

I changed my research interests from comics and rhetoric to video games and composition, but more drastic and with equally successful results, I changed my teaching style and students received it positively. For example, instead of a lengthy detailed lesson plan, I only come in with a few points and I roll with whatever my students contribute. The best times are when my students raise something popular culture and I “geek out” about it with them before relating things back to our discussion point.

Thomas R. Watson Recap

• I listened to many presentations about digital rhetoric and multimodal composition
• I renewed interest in an article I am preparing for submission to Computers and Composition
• I felt I handled the question and answer period confidently with professionalism during my presentation

MLA Recap

• I supported Elizabeth as she experienced job interviews for open positions next fall
• I caught up with Joel Pace (an undergraduate mentor)
• I became sick with a cold from San Francisco
• I caught Elizabeth’s cold from San Francisco after recovering from my cold

As a result of suffering back-to-back colds, a ridiculous amount of video game playing happened for me, so I am glad I accomplished one of the things I wanted to during break. BK]

category: Life    

Amy Taylor filed for divorce when she discovered her husband cheating in Second Life — an online community where players adopt personas called avatars, mingle with others and teleport themselves into a series of artificial worlds. –Raphael G. Satter

[Satter cites Ellen Helsper from the Oxford Internet Institute, whose research shows people make a personal investment with their avatars in a virtual setting, whether Second Life or another popular program like World of Warcraft (also mentioned in the article). Although personal attachment with a virtual identity is interesting, I imagine an element of addiction may also be involved, since online activities are interfering with life offline.

I question motives whenever I read stories like this one because such a personal investment is an unhealthy behavior, not necessarily because it happens since video game players often describe their gaming experiences with self-reference (“I died…”, “I saved…”, “I killed…”), but because it is a sustained investment indistinguishable from real life. Gamers love playing games for a number of reasons, but being able to oscillate between their real-life identity and rhetorical situations encourages replay. However, oscillation only seems possible as long as players identify with their avatars rather than accept them as extensions of themselves, offline or online. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

A quick listen to Irie Sol will have you coming away with a smile on your face and maybe a few shakes in your booty. Their polyrhythmic jams are always filled with enough funky bass and keyboard to give even the staunchest school librarian happy feet, but that isn’t where it stops. Pace and Matthews give heartfelt lyrics about war, protest, and living together in uncertain times while horn players Matt Rongstad and Jon Lanctin layer in cerebral jazz licks. When Pace laughs over the phone about trying to describe their influences, it isn’t condescension, it’s empathy. –Ian Jacoby

[Joel Pace is an Irie Sol band member, an undergraduate mentor, and close friend of mine. Irie Sol celebrates its forthcoming debut CD. BK]

category: Life, Popular Culture    

[A hilarious video for people familiar with the classic Mega Man video game series. From Nick. BK]

category: Gaming, Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

[No blog this week. I am presenting a paper in Louisville, Kentucky at the biennial Thomas R. Watson conference. BK]

category: Gaming, Life, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

YouTube, the world’s most popular video-sharing site, will start to sell music and video games and experiment with new advertising formats to grow revenue, executives said on Tuesday.

[…]

Visitors to YouTube.com can buy songs from music videos they watch on the site by clicking on buttons that take them either to Amazon.com Inc’s MP3 store or Apple Inc’s iTunes store.

YouTube users will also be able to buy video games, such as Electronic Arts Inc’s sci-fi game “Spore” through the Amazon link.

Amazon and iTunes will share revenue with YouTube when users buy content through the partnership. –Yinka Adegoke

category: Literacy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology