Whatever. Back in the day — by which I mean the last millennium, y’all – Jen Larsen and I were part of a loose group of “online diarists” (what we called bloggers before blogs were called blogs) who chatted and sniped and busted each other up over the early Web, with Jen being one of the wittiest of us all. I never doubted that one day she’d be an author and write a terrific book, but I would not have expected that book would be the memoir, Stranger Here. But that’s all right, because as Larsen explains, it was a surprise to her as well. So the thing is, I was never supposed to be a memoir writer. Memoirs are for people who have things to memoir-ize. Who have lived rich and interesting lives of length and breadth and have something beautiful to show for it at the end. I was going to write fiction. The other thing: I was fat.
That’s the first time I remember ever thinking something bad about my body, my size, my shape. You know where this is going, right? I tried to lose weight. Ghostly underwater art gallery breathes new life to sunken ship. It's not a ghostly apparition, but one of the photographs by Viennese artist Andreas Franke, which was displayed aboard sunken ship USNS General Hoyt S.Vandenberg and only accessible to competent divers. After four months sitting at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the photos became discolored with salt stains and algae.
"The sea life had created new images. It's very cool, they almost look like Polaroids," said Franke. The pictures have now been displayed in a gallery on land; the Studios of Key West. The 12 images all feature the Vandenberg, which was a U.S. military transport ship during World War Two. Sunk in 2009, the Vandenberg is now the second-largest artificial reef in the world, boasting a diverse range of marine animals and plant life. "If you're a diver and you see a gallery down there, it's absolutely unique, something you'd never expect. More than 10,000 divers visited the underwater gallery. Strike a pose Water works Packing a punch Time travel Brave new world Divers' paradise. Trapped in the Tumblr Closet: Beth Orton. Of the thousands and thousands of micro-cultures extant today, the pursuit of bending things is a particularly niche obsession.
This is the world of Bending Steel, which follows the personal journey of Chris Schoeck as he tries to find path forward to improving his body, mind, and spirit. He locates this path via the traditions of the vaudeville strongmen of Coney Island, who were known to bend nails, horseshoes, and steel bars with their hands, legs, necks, or even their hair and teeth. As Schoeck trains and challenges himself to bend, he finds a family of sorts among other would-be strongmen – the kind of kinship and validation that had eluded him for his entire life. The story culminates in a strongman show on Coney Island where Schoeck attempts to bend a steel bar that has always defeated him before, in front of his friends and a crowd of strangers who represent all his fears and doubts. . – Chris Mohney. Transparency and the First Generation Faculty Member. Submitted by syntaxfactory on February 19, 2013 - 11:15am I've been reflecting on my spectacularly unsuccessful ethos as a professional within my department.
I'm saying "within my department" because I think that the ethos that carries me far enough in the field is one I'm thinking doesn't work well in a departmental context. And to be clear, I've been a faculty member in two departments, so I'm not complaining about my department; this is generalizable reflection across an "N" of "2.
" (Based on an "N" of "2," of me and Bill Gates, the average American earns millions of dollars a year, so caveat emptor on what follows.) A colleague-friend once pointed out that I'm basically a puppy dog in my local professional interactions -- eager to be liked. Context: like many of my colleagues and friend in rhetorical studies, I am a first-gen student. When I got my MA, I received congratulations. In any case, this taught me three survival strategies at home: 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. --db syntaxfactory's blog. The Power of Structured Procrastination. Les (Really) Miserables - I dreamed a dream. UK Lectures! - The UK Lectures at St. Andrews, Warwick, Cambridge and Queen Mary were a success! Thanks to everyone who came out, it was great to meet you! More info here! New shirt! - We have a new shirt in the PHD Store! Order it here Need a last minute gift? Click Here! THESIS FUEL MUG BACK IN STOCK!
Now shipping! 2014 PHD Calendar - is here! The Best of PHD - I'm happy to announce that we'll be publishing a run of the "Best PHD Comics" on Tapastic! The feed will be curated by me (Jorge), and will feature behind-the-scene commentary on why each comic is special to me. Tapastic is a pretty cool platform for webcomics. PHD Lectures - I'll be speaking at Penn State and Washington College this Tuesday and Wednesday (9/17, 9/18)! GOOGLE+ - Hey, PHD Comics is now on Google+! Need a Graduation Gift? UK Spring Tour - Jorge will be speaking at 4 UK Universities April 15-19! Guide To Understanding The Introverted...
A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. 8 New and Necessary Punctuation Marks. Why Oz the Great and Powerful Is A Major Step Back For Witches and Women. When it comes to adapting the wonderful world of Oz, Hollywood is, admittedly and regrettably, in a bit of a bind.
All things Yellow Brick Road and Emerald City are so tightly linked to the 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” that trying to venture back into L. Frank Baum’s mythology is treading on the memories of millions of fans. The film is such a massive piece of film iconography that it has become the definitive version of this tale, and outstripped the Baum book itself. It doesn’t matter that it’s a loose adaptation of Baum’s work, it is *the* adaptation, and any filmmaker itching to make a more authentic version has their hands permanently tied. Yet Baum’s Oz mythology didn’t begin and end with Dorothy.
In addition to Baum’s original 17 stories, there are dozens of canonical Oz tales by other authors, as well as a dizzying array of non-canonical/alternate Oz fantasies. And what does Hollywood do? Why is this sad and troubling? The reason for this is simple: Baum was a feminist. Re:Sound Bottle. One of the coolest object I’ve seen in 2013 so far is this. Re: Sound Bottle is an automatic remixing object that can record all given sounds and then automatically remix them into a music beat. Just pull the cork off the bottle, make or find some sounds to record, and this magical little bottle turns it into music!
Though the bottle is simple to use, the technical insides of the design is insanely complex and relies heavily on software to handle the recording, storing, and playback of audio tracks and the model is still a prototype. The creater, Jun Fujiwara from Tama Art University comments: ”I felt something missing in the habitual use of music reproduction media, so I thought to create an interactive music medium that changes. By using everyday voices as sources of music, the sounds that are heard all the time every day carry infinite possibilities and help us reaffirm the enjoyment of music. I hope people can experience their own music.”