While this photo has been uploaded under Tess’s name, closer inspection reveals that her room has been unoccupied for at least several days. Although details are still unclear, it is believed that she disappeared shortly after returning to her room from class last Thursday–the last time she was seen by classmates.

Her floor is noticeably spotless, as in its abandoned state, there is no one available to create any kind of mess. The laptop appears to have been only partially unpacked, as it lacks its power cord for any kind of long term use. Moreover, the laptop placed oddly on the table–one end dangling over empty space as though it were jostled, or pull. The used towel still lying on the bed also indicates that the student was interrupted mid-action, raising alarming questions as to her disappearance. Certain out of place details such as the iron on top of the dresser and the pillow placed on the wrong end of the bed indicate attempts from an unknown source to clean up the room after the student’s disappearance. The most noticeable indication of abduction is the fact that the bed is made. No college student makes the bed. Foul play is strongly suspected.

Gopher Picture

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/44

This is actually a picture of two government experiments escaping from a secret test facility in the mountains. After seeing gopher enlargement experiments at a summer internship, Emil was so affected that he orchestrated an elaborate scheme to set the gentle beasts free. After weeks of smuggling in parts, Emil was able to fashion two longboards that would transport the giant gophers down the secret mountain laboratory to safety.

Bookshelf

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/60

This image is not of any simple bookshelf, but rather a book case. If one were to look closely, one would observe the fact that Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is not a real book at all. It is in fact, a lever mechanism that when used, opens a passageway to the dungeon beneath Miranda’s house. This is where she keeps the victims of her inhumane crimes, her victims being those who did not like Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Counternarrative to “Jumping!”

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/64

Hah! Last time they all got together before college/marriage, indeed! Anyone can plainly see that these people are much too young to be going to college and/or getting married! They’re still acting like kids, for goodness sake! I mean, just look at them attacking each other like that! They’re not jumping into the lake because they feel like it; the two girls in the red were chasing the girl in the white shorts and they plummeted off a dock, hardly closest cousin behavior. And there is absolutely no way they could have jumped off a boat like that; they’re too high to have jumped off a low boat, and everyone knows taller boats have all these safety rails and such, not to mention you can’t bring a boat that tall into a tiny lake! The date is clearly a lie, too. September 10? It would be far too cold to go swimming in a lake in just spaghetti strap shirts and short shorts. No, for whatever nefarious reason she has, Sara has clearly lied about this photograph. You simply can not take her at her word that this was a friendly family outing on a large boat on September 10, and that these children have all graduated high school.

Counternarrative to “Baltimore City Hall Internship”

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/82

Obviously a fake ID! There is no hologram or watermark on it. Even a child could tell you makers of real identification cards always put on those shiny stamps to prevent counterfeiting. For example, University of Maryland ID cards have a circular hologram with the words “University of Maryland” and the numbers “18″ and “56″ on the left and the right, marking the year that the Maryland General Assembly chartered the Maryland Agricultural College. So areal City of Baltimore identification badge would also have a hologram of some logo, perhaps the same one that you can see in the upper right hand corner of this fake card.

Another piece of proof that this card is a fake: the address listed on the card is 100 North Holliday Street, but if you check Google Maps and go to the street view, it brings you to 157 Guilford Avenue. 100 North Holliday Street does not exist! Jason made it up, and fabricated this story in order to fool his parents into thinking he was working this summer, when in actuality, he was scheming to rob a bank. He got an ID printer from some of his fellow conspirators and used it to create this piece and others for carrying out his infamous deed.

Alexis may lead us to believe that the essay she wrote, titled “My Time” is just that, an essay, but I have a different thought.  After reading her piece I realized that it was too good to have just been an essay, and in fact it had to be for something else, but the question is what?

After much thought I finally figure it out, “My Time” was going to be the preface for her autobiography that she was in the process of writing and finishing.  Some may wonder why she covered up the truth behind “My Time,” and here is why: it is because Alexis is a perfectionist.  She did not want us, as the public, to know that she was in the process of writing a book until it was completely and 100% done and done right.  By reading the so called essay one can tell that the author is building up to something even bigger and even better.

The potential of this piece goes above and beyond that of a college entrance essay.  It speaks to all of us on our own individual levels and has us wanting for more.  It is evident that “My Time” is a build up for the author’s autobiography.  All I can say is that the future is looking bright for this up and coming young writer.  It can only get better from here!  How will you know you ask?  Well, just ponder on this question, “Is it My Time Yet?”  Once you have the answer, the rest will fall right into place!

Response to “One of my favorite Parts of the Eleventh Grade” by Beena Raghavendran.

Beena inaccurately represents this file as a video of some students rehearsing to perform in a musical relating to Charlie Brown. But in fact, she is very very wrong. Indeed, this is a video of several students who spontaneously broke into song and dance on Beethoven day, a very arbitrarily chosen day celebrated on October 4th and set aside to explore and examine and celebrate all that is Beethoven, not the well lauded composer, but the troublesome yet lovable dog from all those 90s movies. Most students hate this day, but moments before this video was taken, five students who also just happened to be members of the MHS drama club, came upon each other and discovered their mutual love for the day and the lovably large dog who tends to mess things up. This masterpiece of musicality and dance is the result – incredibly excited about their mutual passion and no longer feeling alone in their interests in this momentous holiday, the group banded together and somehow each knew the required words, dance moves, and harmonies to fit together into a lovely song and dance routine that is truly inspired. Lucky that someone happened to be filming and captured this moment!

Response to “Old Rollover Animation” by Amanda Visconti

in her description of this web page, Amanda incorrectly interprets this website  as  an animated marionette version of James Joyce. Well, I suppose Amanda was half-right. But she neglected to tell the full story. This is in fact an artist’s interpretation of what happened when a bunch of English majors got together to punish James Joyce for writing “Ulysses,” a novel out of which all of them had been forced to try and make some sense. It was very unpleasant to watch, the english majors tied him to a marionette and made him read punctuation-less novel of Lorem ipsum text of the students’ own crafting, a rather symbolic gesture that can be expected of disgruntled English majors. The artist’s interpretation of the event occurred, of course, many years after the actual event occurred, because they did not have Internet during those time that James Joyce was alive. The colored beams of the marionette are artistic interpretation as well – the actual beams used by the angry students were of course brown wood. The discontented look on James Joyce’s face, however, is certainly authentic.

If you were to look at this photo and simultaneously read the caption it will lead you to believe that it is a picture of the harbor in downtown Baltimore, but is it true? No, no, NO! I am here to tell you all the truth behind the “My Home Town” image.

It is easy to claim that this was taken in Baltimore when in fact this is an image from the film The Best Night Ever.  “Why didn’t Emil just tell us that that is where the photo is from” you might ask?  Well, it may be the fact that The Best Night Ever is, well, a chick flick.  No, I did not stutter.  This beautiful picturesque image of the hazy blue night sky glistening off the harbor water and casting over the tall city buildings is a scene to remember. This is one of those scenes that ladies ohh and ahh over.  On some occasions the ladies may even lean over and place their head on their man’s shoulder.  Now, STOP and take in what just happened: “My Home Town” is claimed to be a picture of downtown Baltimore when in fact it’s a scene from the chick flick The Best Night Ever.

Hmmm…. So, with all of that said, there is only one conclusion to make and it’s that Emil has a strong hidden like for chick flicks and did not want any of us to know.  If I had not done my homework (hypothetically speaking) I would have fallen for the caption as well, but you can’t get anything by me this time! As they say, “Some things are better left unsaid!”

(Disclaimer: The Film The Best Night Ever was made up for the purposes of this assignment!)

Dorm Room

by Tess Molkette

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/items/show/17

Look at this blog post. Now look at the picture. Now back this blog post. Now once more at the picture. Did you notice that?

No?

Look closer. Not me silly, I’m just a blog post. Look at the picture. Closer. Closer.

Do you see them?

Still no?

Look at the picture

Now look at your dorm room.

Now look at the picture.

Now cover one eye while looking at your dorm room.

Now flip your monitor upside down and look at the picture.

HA!

I didn’t say Simon says.

But in all seriousness, look at the picture. Notice how this is no ordinary picture of a dorm room. What we have is a class 3B ninja invasion on a single room scale. This is poor Tess’ cry for help. She was able to capture three ninjas on film. Peer very carefully under her chair. That dark square shaped shadow is ninja number one. Because I am an expert in ninja tools and technologies (NTaT), I can recognize a cloak of shrouding almost three hundred yards away.

Ninja number two is a very stealthy one. Upon closer inspection of Tess’ apple laptop, one can spot the second ninja in the act of crawling up the webpage she is viewing. Using a ninja disk drive (NDD), a ninja can digitize himself into any device that has a USB port.

Thanks to my degree in the NTaT field, I immediately picked up on the third ninja. He is the one holding the camera. Even ninjas like to be social creatures.

Tess if you are reading this, I believe you have nothing to fear. They should vacate your dorm room by Thanksgiving. They themselves cannot resist the taste of hone hame and turkey.

White MITH mug

by Amanda Visconti

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/items/show/7

This is not just any ordinary picture of a mug. This appears to be a story of a manufacturer of cups and ceramics that has seen better days. At first glance, the mug appears to be clean and possibly brand new. Take a closer look at the lettering. The organization that Amanda works with is known as the Maryland Institute of Technology, or MITH for short. It is almost as if the mug is mocking her because it is printed backwards spelling HTIM.

As of now, there are a few theories behind the “miss-print” of this artifact. One popular theory is that an innocent intern made a mistake while operating the printing press that slapped the big bold letters onto the shipment of mugs one by one. Once the company figured out the issue, it was too late. The case of hundreds of mugs were already on their way to Hornbake Library in University of Maryland College Park. This theory is commonly referred to as the hipster mug theory.

Another common hypothesis is that during production, Amanda and those at MITH had a quarrel with Kirsten Keister, the original designer. No one can imagine what the argument was about, but many speculate that Ms. Keister was a duke fan. In order to throw salt into the wound, Keister and her team of designers decided to spell the name backwards on purpose.

There are many other theories other than these two. However, none have been completely validated.

In case you guys did not see them, here are my five artifacts that I added to the archive:

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/items/show/45 (I’m not sure if anyone commented about this one yet, but I finally added the picture after realizing that I never uploaded it)

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/items/show/37

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/items/show/43

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/items/show/44

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/items/show/27

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/19

So, Jonathan is protesting ads for the metro. Why would that be, I wonder?
In Maryland, the Metro is our method of public transportation, rather like the Subway in New York or the Underground in London. As a Marylander, then , i must assume that this startling evidence means Jonathan is against our Metro. So is his father. Jonathan included this text in his Omeka file, so he is happy with his parents, a dutiful a n loyal son to his father. By this we can infer that he is, in fact, protesting the Metro fro his father’s sake. What kind of people dislike public transportation? or possible small, underground trains? Well, obviously, those with some stock in private, above-ground transportation.
This text obviously indicates that Jonathan’s father own some sort of scenic, slow, above-ground, private transportation company. Perhaps a horse and carriage business. Jonathan and his family, then, are protesting the Metro, and probably buses, cars, and bicycles, in the hope that they will eventually go away and the age of the horse-drawn chariot will reign again. Good luck!!

P.S., please do not think that I am trying to say that protesting the metro ads makes you old-fashioned. That was kind of how it sounded on re-reading and is not at all what I mean.