Serendipity

"1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident
2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job she applied for."

"Receiving sexual gratification from having all orifices filled.
Jane is into serendipity."

This is something Erin McKean touched on. Serendipity is a wonderful thing. Things like StumbleUpon have not only relieved my boredom, but have helped me discover whole worlds of new ideas/experiences. I've used it before when deciding which beer to have in the pub (don't ask what they're like, just go for the one with the best label and see what you get) or for choosing a dish in a Chinese restaurant (names like "Singapore chow mein" or "Chicken in Peking sauce" don't tell you much about how they taste). In fact, this blog is largely powered by serendipity (all the Alice sightings are entirely serendipitous, anything I've been told to read that has included a reference has been excluded).

In the world of web 2.0, the serendipitous possibilities are growing exponentially. With things being tagged and shared all over the place, aimless wandering is becoming almost compulsory. Why not try it right now? Hit the "next blog" link up at the top and see what you find.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 14: I bought the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland on DVD yesterday and discovered a random saying I use every so often ("Button? Button? Who's got the button?") is taken from when Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee (note that their names are actual words according to Firefox).

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 14 ½: So, this doesn't quite count as a sighting, more of a connection. I noticed today that the soles of Paul's shoes are covered in white rabbits:

Alice is Alice

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 13: This image of Longcat features a playing card painting roses on part of Longcat's body towards the end as Alice watches. They are modeled on the Disney version.

A quickie

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 12: In issue 3 of Omega: The unknown by Jonathan Lethem, Alex is given the nickname "Alex in Wonderland" by some of the other students.

It was an accident, I swear...

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 11: The new Spice Girls single, Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) Opens with this verse:

"The time is now or never, to fit the missing piece
To take this on together, you make me feel complete
We fall into the future, and through the looking glass
The light shines over our heads, and so it comes to pass"

A contradiction in terms

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 10: Interesting Times, the 17th Discworld novel, by Terry Pratchett, features this passage on page 36:

'Curiouser and curiouser', said the Senior Wrangler. [...] 'You must mean "curious and more curious", surely? And even then it doesn't make much sense-'

This is especially interesting as Pratchett has openly expressed his hatred of the Alice books...

Also interesting is the fact that "curiouser" is accepted by the Firefox dictionary. As are "wonderland", "chortle", "galumph" and "burble"...

Grammar, spelling and proof-reading.

"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).

-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

So, I've been called a "Grammar Nazi" in the past, and all kinds of variations on that tired old theme. I like people to be readable. I have no qualms about people writing in different idioms and using contracted and evolved words (I regularly use words like "wanna" and "kinda" and "mo"). I positively encourage people to use "made-up" words (I love the Urban Dictionary). What I do not like is bad practice that confuses meaning and confounds expression. "ur" is not an evolution of language. "i" is very much bad practice.

The beauty of language is that you can use it to mean exactly what you want and that said meaning can be multiple. The decoding of language should not be focused on what you are saying, but on what you mean.

The internet is (mostly) a text-based medium and so you would think that people would take care to make sure it is known exactly what they are saying and what they might mean. Unfortunately, this is most often not the case. I will often chastise people about errors and encourage them to proof-read their work. I do this, not only because it encourages good practice, but because the way you write online sets the tone of how people will perceive what you are saying. In the same way that I am writing this in a somewhat formal style (without words like "gonna"), CAPITALS OVERTLY EMPHASISE THINGS, and things like (possibly intentional) spelling or punctuation errors result in the intelligence level you present dropping.

My problem is not that people aren't speaking correct English, it's that they aren't making clear what they are saying.

One thing that majorly gets to me is a lack of proof-reading. One or two errors in a piece of writing is understandable, but constant errors suggest you haven't read through what you've written. If you don't care enough to read what you've said, why should I care about what you have to say? Also, proof-reading is not only for catching mistakes. It should be used to work on how well you convey your meaning. If you don't proof-read, how do you know how your writing works as a whole? A piece of writing relies on the interpretation of the reader. If you're not a reader yourself, how can you know what that interpretation could be?

To finish this off, I'll leave you with a talk by Erin McKean. If you've read Ubuntu Music, then you should know of TED Talks. This talk is most definitely my favourite talk they have on offer. Not just because it's fun and entertaining, but because Erin has some brilliant views on the evolution and use of words.




Think of words as children. Allow them to grow and evolve and do exciting and interesting things with them. But, please, for the love of God, don't abuse them.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 8: On tonight's "Friday night with Jonathon Ross", Noel Fielding (of The Mighty Boosh) talked about Bruce Forsyth and mentioned that "Play Your Cards Right" had big playing cards "like Alice in Wonderland".

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 9: On Channel 5 tonight, a show called "Valley of the Sex Dolls" featured someone (I didn't catch her name) from S.I.R. Video Productions who had a tattoo of the Cheshire Cat (the Disney version) on her upper right arm.

-Alice

Alice is Quite Interesting

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 7: Episode 11 of QI ("Endings", shown on BBC4 on Friday, to be repeated on BBC2 this coming Friday), finishes with a quote from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The King of Hearts to the White Rabbit: "Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

I'm Batman

From Slashdot:

"Online Nicknames Google better than Real?"

I know mine certainly do. Well, obviously other than Alice, as that's rather common. It definitely doesn't help that there's a footballer with my name, as well as a character from family affairs. Hell, there's at least two people with the same name as me in Leicester, alone, according to Facebook...

I'm definitely nowhere near as high as Jess.

Another one...

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 6: From a Zendweller post on the Tabcrawler forums, talking about Tom Petty (and The Heartbreakers): "I recall a kind of freaky alice in wonderland theme to "Dont come around here no more" when I was little."

Rule 15

"There are NO girls on the internet"

This is rule 15 (though this may change, it was rule 16 last time I checked). A simple statement intended to express the (seemingly) male-dominated nature of the internet. However, the internet is not "male-dominated", not in the slightest. While the majority of internet users may be male (I apologise for the lack of statistics to back this up), female users, being (or at least considered) a rarity, will often be put upon some sort of pedestal (refer to my first link for examples).

Of course, this is most often seen in places that make up a sort of "low" internet. Communities where things like codes of conduct are irrelevant (at its most extreme, somewhere like /b/).

On the internet, everyone is reduced to text. The ultimate in a death of context. While certain signifiers will be available (avatars, signatures, personal profiles, etc), these are subject to the whims of the user and can be manipulated and mis-represented. Also, how you appear on the internet, is largely reliant on how a reader interprets these signifiers. Ergo, your identity on the internet is very different from your "real life" identity (it is also very definitely multiple). This relates back to my look into the different names I use.

This then brings up the question of gender. Of course, gender and sex are different. Sex is binary and a "real life" constraint, while gender can be seen as a nuanced spectrum relating to various things and that can be viewed very differently with regards to context, etc. For an example, take a look at The Gender Genie, which attempts to "guess" the gender of the writer of a certain piece of text. Most of my writing comes out as female.

This means that gender becomes an individual trait on the internet. Something dependent on both writer and reader. It depends on the writer's manipulation of the signifiers they use and the reader's interpretation of the signifiers they encounter. A "male" writer could be interpreted as "female" and vice versa. Writing without signifiers becomes androgynous. If all writing is androgynous and all users are reduced to text, then all users are androgynous. With a lack of signifiers, things other than gender can also be disregarded (age, race, etc).

When there are signifiers, what they are is unimportant. Whether they relate to the sex of the writer or the "culture" of where their writing is encountered (compare /b/ to Harmony Central), it still comes down to the writer and the reader. This is a culture of two. A discourse between individuals and should be treated as such. This creates a culture of individuals, judged on individual attributes.

These individuals can of course be multiple individuals on the internet, while being singular in "real life" (referring once again to "Who am I?"). This multiplicity obviously becomes more complicated when you bring in the different interpretations of readers. The internet is a meritocracy populated with anonymous and androgynous individuals, defined by signifiers as understood by other individuals. How do you be a feminist without females?

Upon reading Luce Irigaray and Rosi Braidotti, the theme that struck me was not the empowerment of women or the de-powering of men, but the definition of identity and the individual. I decided to take these ideas and apply my own experiences with regards to interaction as part of a digital or "cyber" culture. With the internet, we have the opportunity to be whoever we wish to be, male, female, androgyne, or otherwise. This opportunity gives us the ability to really be individuals and to create our own (new) cultures (more on that at a later date). This also gives the chance for equality. Not "true" equality, as individuals are different, but a sort of "pure" equality.

"I'm sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh, she knows such a very little! Besides, she's she, and I'm I"

-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 5: There is one hiding right here in the Blogger software! If you click the little "help" icon next to where you turn comment moderation on or off, one of the example pictures is this:



-Alice

Penguin-wrapper philosophy

4 years ago, while commenting on The Matrix: Reloaded, I made this comment: "Random Bible references and penguin-wrapper philosophy do not a good movie make". I then proceeded to define it on Urban Dictionary as "Philosophical phrases that everyone knows and groans whenever they hear it. Much like the jokes on penguin wrappers".

I was reminded of this phrase earlier when I read a piece called "The Paradox Of Our Time". It was credited to George Carlin. Leaving aside the mis-credit, I want to look at what it says.

"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints."

These are not paradoxes. Having tall buildings does not contradict people having short tempers and the same goes for wide freeways and narrow minds. Also these are not facts. These are generalisations without frames of reference. I know of many short buildings and patient people and the same goes for narrow roads and open-minds.

Of course, this is all intended as artistic license and metaphor for saying that while we have made progress in things like science, we haven't made progress in being good people. Bullshit. You're trying to say that the foundation of charitable organisations isn't progress? The demolition of the Berlin wall wasn't progress? But then, whether I agree with these statements and generalisations is not the point.

This is what people do. They write some puns and hang them on the frame of their own moral agenda. They send it out in an e-mail and people read it and think for a second and maybe feel bad about themselves enough that they actually do something (though actually most will probably decide they've already "done something", they're a "good person"). This is a manifesto in an "Ironic" style.

This is penguin-wrapper philosophy and I'm aware that calling it such is itself a penguin-wrapper statement.

-Alice

A quick note

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 4: I'm watching the "50 greatest comedy sketches" on channel 4. David Walliams just compared Vic and Bob's MasterChef sketch to Alice in Wonderland. He was probably talking about the Disney version as he mentioned it being disturbing and "all going wrong in the end", which doesn't quite happen in the original novel.

Who am I?

So either I don't have any "self," or else I have a multitude of "selves" appropriated by them, for them, according to their needs or desires.

- Luce Irigaray, "The Looking Glass, from the Other Side"

I use a lot of different names on the internet. I expect most people do. I wonder if they all mean something? Or if any lack of meaning they all have may have some (meta-)meaning to it. Looking at my own names, I know the stories behind them and what I use them for and discern the individual personality traits of the members of this family of names that make-up my internet existence.

Let's begin with what could be considered the head of the family. The name that I use as often as possible and is the oldest that is of any significance. Shen-an-doah. Taken from a Pitchshifter song (the only variation with hyphens), it apparently has several different meanings. Often shortened to "Shen". This is the name that can be added to all the others, my "family" name (literally in some cases, such as Shen Fayray or Shen Alice (Shen is a Chinese name, so it goes first)).

Then came Doll. Originally a character created out of whimsy and a desire to "fuck with people" and see their reactions. An eternally 16 year-old girl, unsure of her sexuality. The reveal spawned Susan Dalle, who has a more concrete existence. Doll is no longer a name for me, but is used to describe an unnamed object of my affection.

Bruitist is an anomaly. Taken from a Refused song, it's a back-up name. Disconnected and without any real usage or derivatives like the others. I'm still the top result on Google though.

Finally, there's Alice. The latest and my current favourite. Given to me by my friend Kienan as "It's a female name that happens to fit you, I'm not really sure why. It's better than Susan, I know that." As with all names, it is subject to changes and derivatives such as Allison or Shen Alice/Shenalice. It has currently taken over from Shen, which may change or it may not...

That's it for now. Maybe I'll make a proper family tree one day and include all the names that have fallen by the wayside (Jerusalem, Clockwork man, and many more than have been transient and possibly forgotten) and all the derivatives of my common names. I could even include non-internet names, as some of these have crossed over and been used in place of my given name in certain situations.

The implied and the actual gender of these names is a subject for a later date.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 2: In this month's issue of "Marvel comics presents", the story about Hellcat ("The Girl Who Could Be You") features Patsy Walker referring to one of the personalities that has split from her as "Alice in Wonderland". Presumably referring to the fact that she is wearing a blue dress and hairband similar in style to Alice's. Also possibly due to this being the polite and "proper" side of Patsy.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 3: Today's Diesel Sweeties strip has Indie Rock Pete mentioning "Alice's looking glass" as an example of a strange alternate reality.

-Alice

First post!

I had a dream last night. I won't go into the specifics of the dream as that's for somewhere that isn't here. The important part is that I woke up while my brain was in mid-tirade about bits in bread. You know the stuff I'm talking about, like Mighty White (which, according to Yahoo answers, does still exist). It was a tirade on how it's an affront to all the effort that has been put into the development of the milling process that produces fine flour without leftover husks and other assorted bits of crap that would otherwise make the bread unpalatable. Who the hell was having a slice of bread and thought to themselves "This would be so much better if it was full of hamster food that could get stuck in my teeth"?

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 1: In the episode of the Simpsons that was aired on Channel 4 last night (A hunka hunka Burns in love), Mr Burns uses words from the poem "Jabberwocky" twice. Check the Wikipedia link for more details.

-Alice