Alex lets out the breath she’s been holding for an eternity. Gradually, the room begins to take form around her and the matrix fades to the background of her vision. She unplugs from her docking station and walks to the single window before a wave of relief pours over her.

She did it. She finished the job that will bring her within reach of her goal. More importantly, she has seen parts of Silitech to which she had never dared hope to gain access. Under all the fancy wirework and shiny chrome façade they hide a laughably simple core, child’s play compared with the Dreams’ labyrinth of silicon.

For the first time in months Alex cannot wait to get out of her dark little single flat and out into the fresh air. Usually she prefers back alleys and empty streets, anything to avoid the general population, but today she heads to the crowded Union Street with its string of Matrix supply stores, cyber bars, and shady street vendors. On the way there, she passes her father’s old office, the headquarters of ArchMatrix. Once, his business was the most prominent in or out of the Matrix. However with power comes enemies and Silitech brought a swift end to ArchMatrix while the Dreams supplied a brutal end to her father.

For eight years Alex worked to construct this new identity as a Matrix hacker, which her father taught her long ago. In eight years she managed to work her way up the ladder of power, starting with small jobs for small businesses and ending with this under the table massacre of Silitech’s rival, Urban Silicon. Of course she couldn’t have done it without the Dreams. They took her under their wing when she came to them looking like a lost puppy at the age of 13. It didn’t take Alex long to work her way to the high ranks of the organization and by age 18 she answered only to the leader, Sunshine.

She dodges the bike before the warning can blip into her vision and she turns the corner towards Tech Row, a street lined with matrix hardware stores. Her reward money is enough to finally get the new chip she has needed for the past three years. Alex still has her “baby chip”, which most people have replaced when they turn 18. Just because Alex was high up in the Dreams doesn’t mean they were willing to spend that kind of credit on a new chip for a single member. No, she had to earn this on her own. The credit – fifty thousand dollars – blinks into her bank module just as she approaches the store.

Tomorrow, with her new chip and more information than she ever dreamed of having, she will take down Silitech.

Although once under ash from the volcano Vesuvius, Pompeii has been brought into daylight through years of dedication by archaeologists and architectural historians. Now using Google Earth anyone can explore the Roman city from the sky or from the ground. I begin my exploration of Pompeii in the “little theater”, which is actually almost twice the size of the one to the east of it. The rows of seating surrounding the half-circle stage area create a textbook example of the Roman theater. I can see archaeologists continuing the work to recover and preserve the beautiful work of Roman architecture which has been untainted by modern culture. I imaging the ancient stage as it once was, with rotating stone sets, doorways for masked actors to leap to the stage, and an orchestra in front. The theater is filled with people coming to hear the great playwrights of the time perform their latest works.

I continue to a large boulevard with raised sidewalks and a center of paving stones, which was once used for carts. I can see the various building materials of the times displayed in each shop space along the road. On the right, shop walls are made of long, flat bricks or rubblestone. On the left, the wall construction is of heavy masonry and small stone. The most prestigious buildings must have been located on the left side of the boulevard with smaller shops on the right. In fact, the street may have been defined by large stoa, which were open structures for public use including shops and businesses. The street seems to go on for miles, indicating the sheer size of this decimated ancient community.

Rows of partially intact columns and architraves establish the bounds of a temple or government building. The stout structure (if in fact it was only one story) was created in the Doric order and gives the appearance of strength and dignity. The temple stood facing Mt. Vesuvius, perhaps in honor of the great volcano that would inevitable destroy the city.

Another temple or public building, which retained its structural integrity over years buried in ash and rubble, can be viewed from the interior. Even without its second story, I feel the imposing grandeaur of what this space once was. It boasts both the Ionic and Corinthian orders on the interior, with a pattern of stones in different colors as an alternative to fresco and paint. This was once a very important building to the citizens of Pompeii, possibly a meeting place for the local government or a temple dedicated to the god or goddess of the city. Now the open sky above sheds light inside the great space and creates a new reverence for the wonders of the man-made world.

On my last stop I toured the giant Roman stadium. The ellipse-shaped stadium was most likely used for foot races and other events to entertain the citizens and leaders of the city. The stepped seating that remains gives a glimpse into the past: thousands of people would come to watch the games play out below them, cheering for their favorite and throwing gifts to the winners. Three levels of seating separated into wedges by numerous staircases held the masses of spectators. In the absence of a roof, the structure allowed for the natural world to encroach on human civilization and tradition. Natural phenomenon were very important to the Romans and although they were great builders they allowed as much contact with nature as possible in every structure.

Visiting a place like Pompeii through a virtual tool like Google Earth has many advantages. I was able to see the entire city from the air, find patterns and important buildings/spaces, and view the context of the place before going in-depth. The street-level view allowed me to investigate the specific places I found using the “god’s-eye” view in greater detail. The down side to exploring the space virtually is that there is a limit to what you can do. There are many streets and buildings that one cannot access through street view at all.

I don’t play many video or computer games, but my friends often have game nights involving card and board games. Settlers of Catan is one of my favorite board games. It is a strategy game in which four players or teams play to get the most resources, roads, settlements/cities and ports.

Harm/Care:

In the game, there aren’t many ways you can harm another player or team. The robber may be placed on a tile that prevents any surrounding settlements from obtaining the resources and is moved when a player rolls a seven or uses a knight card. The best way to harm someone in the game is to take away their resources or cut off a road.

Fairness/Reciprocity

If a player is to place the robber on another’s tile, he accepts the vengeance of the other player in future turns. Basically, the person losing the resources will refuse to trade or bargain with the robber-placer until some sort of truce is made. Also, if one refuses to trade for a certain resource, he can expect the other players to refuse his trade offers for the foreseeable future.

Ingroup/Loyalty

Sometimes, two players team up against another (usually the best or most arrogant player) to prevent that player from gaining points. These two players will work together to assure the failure of the other by refusing trades and sabotaging resources with the robber piece. If one player is to break this truce, he may be subjected to similar treatment by the other player of the truce.

Authority/Respect

Although there are no authority figures, players gain authority by earning points and cards such as Largest Army. These cards are often hard won by players competing to gain the resources to build these achievements. Respect is determined by the individual players themselves rather than any game construct. The more competitive the group, the less respect is apparent in gameplay.

Purity/Sanctity

There is little to no emphasis on purity in this game. Some players pride themselves in being kind to each player and not targeting one, but most tend to gang up on people and do everything they can to win.

To compare the two presidential candidates’ views and plans regarding the issue of women in the workforce, I inserted their answers to the question posed in the second debate:

In what new ways to you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?

I included only the first time each candidate spoke about the issue and edited the stopwords to get the most accurate picture.

Governor Romney:

This image shows that the economy was mentioned more than any other word (except women, which he was obviously talking about). There are also many words relating to the economy, such as “jobs” and “work”, but some of the words are a bit questionable. He seems to be focused on the economy as the number one problem for women today, and not just any women, but mothers. Words like “kids” and “flexible” suggest that he believes that the women in the work force are the primary caretakers of their children and they need more flexible work hours than men do in order to function in the economy. From a feminist’s point of view, this word map looks pretty bleak. However, from the point of view of someone unaffected by this issue, it may look promising. More people today are concerned about the American economy than the American women.

President Obama:

This image suggests that Obama is most concerned about the people. Although some words relating to the economy are mentioned, the focus is on the people. The biggest word in the image is “we’ve”, which the president uses frequently to stress what we as a country need to do to fix this “issue” (another frequently used word). “College” and “education” are his proposed solutions for the “young” “women” who are soon to enter the working world. From a feminist’s point of view, this looks pretty darn good. One might even say that our president is…

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3rh1ao/

^^ I made that I swear! I just can’t figure out how to make it work….

actually who else would make such an awful meme? I’m sure you believe me.

Analysis of Item #96: “Friends in a Dorm Room”

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/96

While this may look like a picture of Kat Averell and her friends, it is a truly remarkable work of deception. You see Kat on the left, obviously very content and pleased with herself, but when you look closer at the faces of the other girls to the right, you may see something is quite amiss. First, you may notice that her “friend” Angela is leaning a bit too far to her left, away from Kat. They are all, in fact, a little uncomfortable having her in the picture. Why, you may ask, are they so unhappy about taking a picture with their so-called friend? What you don’t know is that Kat Averell is a shifty little schemer. Behind those poor girls’ backs she holds a spray bottle of paint, ready to sabotage any girl if she dare leave the picture. She was so terrified of having nothing to put in her archive that she forced her “friends” to take pictures with her as she held them at paint-point. The smug smile upon her face and the uneasy, forced smiles of the rest of the girls say it all: this was not an act of camaraderie, but an act of desperation.

Analysis of Item #55 “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/55

This book is a fake. Look at the brown paper covering the book. It’s a grocery bag folded and taped over a high school science textbook. She carefully creased the paper at the binding so that it resembles a real book, but the quality of the paper used is much lower than what covers the true Alexander McQueen book. The picture from the front of the book is easily found throughout the internet, such as on this site http://backseatstylers.com/fashionshows/alexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty-exhibition-at-the-met-another-preview/ and many others you can find just by Googling the title. She obviously printed the image out and glued it to the front of the paper cover. Angela obviously did not use the high quality setting on her printer because the image is grainy and fuzzy, unlike the crisp image displayed on the real book’s cover. You can clearly see the uneven edges where she cut the white edges off the paper with sloppy snips on the front and right edges. The right bottom corner is also peeling off the cover despite the measures she took to ensure that they stayed intact. Although this easily fools the observer when seen via digital photograph, anyone able to see the actual book or hold it would quickly discover that it is a fraud.

September 11^th, 2001

BBC London:  9:00am

Because the event has just occurred there is very little information about what has happened except for a few eyewitness accounts and a live video stream. The female news anchor repeats the small bits of information that the BBC has gathered as they stream several different views of the burning towers. There are no statistics on deaths or injuries and very little known about emergency services. At about 9:02, just as the camera zooms out, the second plane enters the frame and collides with the south tower. The reporter with whom the news anchor speaks gives an account from a nearby café on another man’s cell phone. He elaborates on the type of airplane that hit the first building, the floors that are visibly affected, and the rush of people streaming out and away from the twin towers.

WJLA(ABC) Washington DC:  9:00am

The male news anchor remarks on the number of small airports in the area, but clarifies that all local pilots are clear on where the World Trade Center twin towers are located. The female news anchor elaborates that many commercial aircraft come close to the city, but all routes are a comfortable distance from the towers. The video is a live, close-up stream of the north tower as smoke billows out. Sirens can be heard in the background as the emergency services respond to the disaster. They confirm that it was, in fact, an aircraft and it hit between 8:40 and 8:45am as thousands of people arrived at the towers for work. The anchors remind the viewers that there is an observatory and a restaurant atop the towers in which tourists may also be trapped. They are hesitant to speculate on terrorist activity. When the second plane is seen hitting the south tower at 9:02, the male news anchor seems to label it as an attack on the World Trade center. There are sounds of people gasping and crying out in the newsroom as the plane collides. They replay the clip to confirm that it was another airplane. The emotional response is clear and they use words like “horrifying” and “helpless” to describe the feelings of those watching the clip with no way of stopping the events.

September 17^th, 2001

NEWSW(CBC) Ottowa, Canada:  7:10am

The newswoman finishes reporting the weather and comments on hockey games, adding that a local team is volunteering to assist the Red Cross by “passing the hat” to collect donations. She reports that three games have been rescheduled and a golf tournament will be played a year later due to the events on 9/11. A newsman asks a representative from New York to explain how the people of New York will be able to move on and go about their business as the wreckage stands and the search and rescue mission is underway. She explains that there could be 20,000 people that are still out of their homes due to the disaster and they may not be able to return for weeks. The city must first find a solution to that problem. They then move on to the loss of office space (the equivalent of ALL the office space in Toronto) and how business will go on. They report on the reactions of people who work/worked in the area, some of which said they want to show that terrorism won’t get them down and others which said that they can’t work somewhere that is such a target. The representative says that most people just want to get back to their lives and those who are most concerned are those who work in the Empire State Building, another potential target.

MSNBC New York:  7:10am

The newsmen talk about Bush’s proposed investments for the upcoming War on Terror. This is the first time a war has been mentioned in the news so far and a ticker along the bottom mentions the Taliban. The ticker also shows the confirmed dead (hundreds at that time) and missing (thousands at that time) in the WTC attacks and a poll saying that 81% Americans would prefer that the US wait until they have proof of the perpetrators before they attack. There is a lot of talk about war, who to fight, and how to protect the US and world economies. Will companies buy back their stocks, is it a good idea, how will the US stock market stay afloat? They predict more spending on information technology and reduced spending on travel and leisure in the US stock market. There are concerns about the stock exchange that day; there are potential technical problems due to destruction of lines and slowness, but the online brokerage should be unaffected. The emphasis is on the ability of America to get its business back on its feet, if not that day, then the next.

Comparison

At 9am on the day of the attacks, the Washington, DC channel (ABC) were at first calm and collected, with some shock at the events, but their main concern was getting facts on the people inside and how the rescue was going. The London channel (BBC) had a similar reaction, but they had much less information and a harder time getting play-by-play on the attacks. At 9:02am when the second plane hit the towers on the live feed, there was shock, horror, and high emotions on the American end while the London channel remained calm and factual in their report. Both channels showed a continuous live feed of the burning towers with just audio of the news anchors. The morning of the 17^th, both the New York channel (MSNBC) and the Ottowa channel (CBC) are most concerned with business carrying on in New York. Surprisingly, the Canadian news station seems more concerned with the human side of life returning to normal while the American station was more concerned with economics. This contrasts with the reactions on the 11^th when the foreign station remained informative and factual while the home station allowed emotions and confusion to enter the newsroom. In all cases, the focus was on the World Trade Center attacks with no mention of the Pentagon or the flight 93 crash.

Megan Beveridge is a full time student and architecture major at the University of Maryland, College Park(link to UMD website). She was born in a row house in Baltimore and grew up in Harford County, Maryland. From a young age she had a love of art, colors, and anything sparkly. Throughout her grade school years and especially at Bel Air High School she expanded her love of drawing (link to page with early artwork) to include new media such as Photoshop, oil pastels, and Prismacolor pencils. Megan knew that she wanted to go into something involving drawing and creativity, but never considered majoring in art due to limited career options. Just before applying to colleges, she settled on the idea of becoming an architect and began her portfolio (link to page with portfolio work). She will soon be entering the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (link to ArchUMD site) for her studio training through her junior and senior years at UMD.

I am aware.

Black stretches into my eyes, enveloping me in darkness.

A voice in my head tells me I have eyes and it must be so. I open them and light floods in, blinding me with a white glow. I blink until the pain subsides and my vision clears.

Clouds surround me and I remain still as I absorb the colors of mist swirling in the room. It must be a room. I look around, but only swirling vapor catches my eye until I see an opening. A doorway leads out of the room.

I have legs, the voice tells me. I step from the room, clouds closing in behind me, and finally feel a dirt path beneath my toes.

The path leads from my room of mist, into the woods, and off to the unknown. As I walk between the trees, they seem to close in behind me, preventing me from returning to my clouds. I don’t like this at all. Am I imagining it? I glance behind me again as the trail bends. No, those trees were definitely not there before.

I notice that the forest is eerily quiet. I freeze. There is not a single living creature in sight. Not a bird, a squirrel, or an insect appears and certainly no other sentient beings. Am I alone?

I blink to clear my head as I continue forward.

A flash of light instantly terrifies me and I stand paralyzed. I squint into the source and a shape begins to appear. Recovering my wits, I gingerly reach out and touch the object, which cools my burning skin. I grasp it from the air, swinging it naturally as I discover what it is.

A sword. I might like this place.

The path narrows before me, the trees reaching in as I wander past. Branches seize my hair and I hear twigs snap under my feet, but no one is around to see or hear. I feel a creeping sense of desperation in this still and silent world.

There is a clearing ahead! In my hurry to reach the open space I nearly run face-first into a creature hanging from a tree branch. It snaps at my face as I jump back, becoming immobilized with fear and surprise.

This is a snake. No, it is not simply a snake, but a serpent so dark it seems to be a shadow. Not a single creature for miles and now a vicious shadow serpent bent on eating me alive? I do not like this place.

I close my eyes, hoping it will be gone when I open them. It’s still there. Gathering my courage, I wield the sword and strike. I miss the serpent and it lunges, barely scratching my arm. I see my opening and slash the sword across the snake’s middle, severing it in half. One part falls to the ground while the other half remains tangled in the tree.

What kind of world is this?

The sites we visited for last class introduced me to several new ways that one can use the internet to tell stories in a unique way. The use of floating text, visuals, videos, and sounds was surprising to me and I had never imagined using them to create a story. Different effects can convey feelings and create images that we cannot with traditional text on a page.

In order to make my story come to life, I would use moving text, changing contrast, and sound effects.

1. Moving text:     The text would come one sentence at a time on a white background, but the speed at which it comes and goes would change depending on the mood of the particular part of the story. A more intense emotion would be evident by a faster-moving text. The fastest speed would be little more than a quick flash of text on the page that one can just barely read. This would create the confusion and panic that the main character feels.
2. Changing contrast:     The contrast between the text and the background would get increasingly bright as hysteria mounts. As we lead up to the main character fainting, the white would get very bright to the point of discomfort as the bold black words flash upon the page. This would create the blinding effect of lights on a stage.
3. Sound effects:     The sounds would start as the low hum of a crowd as the main character walks on stage. As she begins to panic, the sound would mute to a quiet ring that grows in intensity until she falls. After that, there would be silence until she returns to her feet and the hum returns. This would show the isolation the main character feels when put in front of the huge audience.
4. Pictures and gifs:     In the middle of various sentences, there would be words linked to pages showing different pictures of what might be going on in the story or gifs showing a small action like an eye blinking. Similar to the links directing you to different parts of the story in These Waves of Girls, these are meant to give extra information and add to the emotions of the story.
5. Scrambling text:     At the most tense and overwhelming part of the story, the words will begin to separate and slightly scramble. This is meant to mimic the difficulty one might have reading a speech under high pressure and tension. In Slippingglimpse, the words were out of order and floated about randomly, causing confusion and frustration.

Just before the main character faints, the text would be flashing across the page, the screen would be the brightest and the ringing would be the loudest. Once she falls, the sounds would stop and the screen would darken and gradually lighten as she works towards getting back up. At the end, the screen would be a comfortable brightness, the low hum of a crowd would return, and the text would move at a reasonable reading pace.

The effects would mimic the actual reaction going on within the character’s mind and help the reader to imagine the emotions as they happen. They create empathetic feelings in a way that a traditional storytelling cannot.

She beckons to me from the podium with an expectant smile. I fight my feet to walk up on stage, one step at a time, careful to prevent catastrophe. My head detaches, hovering behind a mist of sheer terror as I avoid the eyes of the crowd before me. This is it; the culmination of twelve years of hard work, late nights, and pure dedication, and I know I’m about to blow it.

My mental checklist flashes as I finally take my place at the podium. Note cards, check. Smile, check. Brain… I guess I’ll find that later. I face my audience: four hundred of my fellow graduates and all of their families and friends waiting to hear what I have to say.

I can’t do this. The gymnasium warps as my tingling fingers reach out in dizzied panic. My stomach is in my throat, my heart slams to a halt, and I crash to the stage.

Nobody moves. I lay on the floor in the crumpled mess of my white graduation gown for an eternity as all those people stare. My principal stretches her hand toward me with a quizzical expression. I should probably get up now.

A laugh escapes my lips as I shuffle to my feet, not yet glancing at my anxious audience. The worst has actually happened. I’m still alive, I’m breathing, and someone took the lead out of my shoes. I perch behind the podium and face the throng below. All eyes are on me and for the first time in my eighteen years I don’t panic.

I can do this.