Seriously, could someone make me one?

So, here's Violet's video response to the Boing Boing debacle. It doesn't give much new information, but it serves as a nice overview of what's been going on and it amused me.

In other news, there's now an Open Words forum up and running. For more info about what's going on, you can check out the development blog. Feel free to join it and start posting whatever you like (within reason, obviously). I'm hoping to get a fair amount of activity on there, so feel free to invite friends or whatever!

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 65: Something Awful's most recent Comedy Goldmine article features sock monsters made by some of the forum members. One of them is a rather awesome Jabberwocky. I want one!

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 66: I picked up the deluxe edition of City of Heroes the other day. It came with various additions, including the first three expansions for the game. The first of these is entitled "Through the Looking Glass"

A little update. Still confused.

So, yesterday I posted various bits, including stuff about the Violet Blue/Boing Boing situation. This morning I awoke to my RSS reader telling me that Violet had posted a couple of new things on her blog (which I only got around to adding to my subscriptions after posting about it on here). One of these is an update on the Boing Boing situation. There still doesn't seem to be any explanation of the goings on forthcoming (other than it could be something to do with Violet's relationship with Xeni Jardin). More interesting is the fact that more posts have been deleted, this time just being anything that has even mentioned Violet, some of them being quite important. Also, Boing Boing is apparently being very restrictive of the discussion of this issue, apparently deleting comments/questions from anyone who's (at least seemingly) pro-Violet.

Really, this issue isn't just about Violet and Boing Boing, it's about the ideas of freedom and transparency on the internet. It brings to light some important issues, such as that of who really controls/owns content on the web. It also shows how things can't be done "quietly", as there's eyes on everything online. Also, thanks to things like the wayback machine, deletion isn't the end. Even if you have no interest in what Violet or Boing Boing do, it's something to look into.

I've never been a reader of Boing Boing and I don't think I'm about to start.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 64: I just looked up the Siouxsie and the Banshees album, "Superstition", on Wikipedia and stumbled upon the fact that they also released a covers album entitled "Through the looking glass". I should've noticed this before, as I actually have their version of "The Passenger" that features on it.

Collaboration and erasure

So, a few little things I fancied commenting on today.

First is the strange case of Boing Boing and Violet Blue (be warned, some stuff on Violet's blog is NSFW). To sum stuff up, Violet recently found out that Boing Boing deleted some posts she had made there. They don't seem to wish to tell her or anyone why exactly they've done this (which apparently happened a year ago). All they've said is that "Violet behaved in a way that made us reconsider whether we wanted to lend her any credibility or associate with her." and that they "were trying to do the right thing quietly and respectfully, without embarrassing the parties involved." Violet seems to be as in the dark about this as everyone else, stating that "I still have no idea what they’re talking about — except that it seems to be personal? — and really don’t understand why I’m being attacked, nor why they’re stating they kept it a secret (and are behaving this way) out of “kindness” toward me." There's lots to read about this and even I still haven't made my way through all of it. I'm a fan of Violet's work, so I'm on her side. I'll be interested to see if this ever gets solved.

Using Violet as a link, I'm jumping to NxE's Fifty Most Influential 'Female' Bloggers, where she appears as number 28. Also on the list (at number 41) is Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv, one of my favourite video podcasts. Looking through the list, I don't recognise many of the names, making me feel a tad "out of the loop". So, if anyone wants to point me to any good web stuff, whether it be blogs, podcasts or just anything along those lines, then feel free. I don't need any funny picture sites though, thanks.

Changing direction completely now, you might have seen the new Orange adverts. Their new slogan of "I am who I am because of everyone" is pretty much a translation of what Ubuntu means. I'm guessing it's meant to encourage people (at least in some abstract way) to communicate, rather than to collaborate and work together, the way Ubuntu does. I'm thinking it could be a bit too hopeful of me to start wondering if Orange might start producing phones running Ubuntu MID.

Sticking with ideas of collaboration, one of the newest TED talks is by Clay Shirky. In it he talks about institutions vs. collaboration and gives a great explanation of why stuff like open source software works and how he sees this as the future of technology.

Alice Pacino

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 63: There's an advert on Dave currently for a film called "The Recruit" (as it's playing on one of the other UKTV channels soon). In it, they show a clip of Al Pacino talking to a group of (I'm guessing) recruits and telling them that they've "stepped through the looking-glass".

Going halfsies once more

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 61: Another one found through Stumbleupon. Contrariwise is a site that showcases people's tattoos that feature quotes from "books, poetry, music, and other sources". Of course, one of the tattoos featured is the line that gave the site its name, "“Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”".

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 62: This one was another random encounter, but not using Stumble this time. Instead a Google search led me to the Cheshire Cat car club a "Radio Control Car Racing in Congleton, Cheshire".

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 62 ½: This one's not quite a sighting, but instead an acknowledgement of an influence. I recently got a chance to play Super Mario Galaxy. In a game set in an alternate reality, near the beginning of the game you find yourself waking up and having to chase white rabbits.

We're going even further out

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 59: "Not always right" is a site where people post humorous stories about customer service. Once such story about strange requests for prizes is entitled "Tweedledee and Tweedledum".

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 60:I've been following the Phoenix Mars lander on Twitter and it just posted this message: "Will continue to monitor the first dig site (AKA Dodo-Goldilocks) while I start a new test dig in "Wonderland." Still baking samples, too." Apparently, Wonderland is "part of the larger 'national park' area named 'Cheshire Cat'" Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything about why these places have been named as such.

And once again we pass the mark

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 58: In the Kevin Smith film, Dogma, when we first meet the character of Loki, he is talking to a nun about his interpretation of the Walrus and the Carpenter as an indictment of organised religion.

In other Alice-related news, my friend Jess linked me to this video of a remix of music from the Disney version of Alice.

Please please please

So, considering this is a blog about culture and how I often focus on the connections and references inherent in culture, a TED talk on memetics is something I just couldn't pass up. Susan Blackmore's talk is stunning and it will really make you think about culture and why exactly certain things have come about. When I think of a meme, I think about things that propagate the internet. I think of images and inside jokes and references that only a select few understand. But really, memes are all around us. Every culture is built on mimicry. No wonder I've managed to be so prolific at simply spotting these imitations!



Alice in popular culture sighting no. 57: In a scene in This is England where the gang take a football from some Asian kids, Combo refers to two of them as "Tweedledum and Tweedledee".

No rest for the obsessed

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 56: At Rockabaret last night, they were showing various cartoons on a screen over the stage. Some were old cartoons, such as Felix the cat and a Betty Boop cartoon entitled "Betty in Blunderland".

LikeTelevision Embed Movies and TV Shows

I knew it the moment I picked it up

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 53: Page 196 of "The Portable Door" by Tom Holt features the lines "Sophie raised her head and stared at him. She still looked as though she'd followed a large white rabbit with a pocket watch down a hole in the ground, but some colour was starting to return to her cheeks."

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 54: Danielle Horvat (the actress who plays Taylah Jordan in Neighbours) has a picture on her MySpace of her in an Alice costume. It appears to be the same costume as worn by Pyretta Blaze.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 55: The Screaming Trees album, "Buzz Factory", contains a song entitled "The looking glass cracked". While the lyrics don't refer to Alice specifically, they revolve around themes of altered reality and "going beyond". In looking them up, I also found that there's a Babyshambles song called "Through the looking glass". No doubt it's horrible.

Here's a causal link for you

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 52: In episode 12 of the first series of The Big Bang Theory, after Raj, the third person he's tried to help with their research, tells him to go away, Sheldon mutters "curiouser and curiouser" as he's walking away from Raj's office.

Milestone reached and passed...

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 50: I picked up a copy of issue 6 of "Wonderland" by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew. It apparently follows the adventures of the various Wonderland inhabitants after Alice has gone back through the looking-glass. I'm not completely sure what's going on though, as this is the last in the series. I shall have to pick up the collection sometime.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 51: In a "flash-forward" in the most recent episode of Lost, Jack is reading Alice in Wonderland to a child. He's reading the section where Alice contemplates her identity. I'll leave it at that, so as not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen it yet...

Adventures with Google docs

Last week I had a presentation to do on my proposal for my major project. My initial plan was to use the facilities in the IOCT to create a simple presentation. Due to using Linux, I don't have PowerPoint and I didn't want the hassle of making something using OpenOffice or KPresenter and either having it not work in PowerPoint, or having to bring my laptop to the IOCT. Unfortunately, the IOCT was busy for the whole day, so I made for the library. On the way there, I came up with the idea that of trying out Google Docs, as this would solve any future problems I might have along these lines.

I created a simple presentation and while it doesn't have any kind of fancy animations or effects, it does everything I want. You can find it on my major project development blog.

After this good experience, I decided to use Google docs once more. This time I used it for my research essay on moderation systems in online communities. I worked on it at home and then I was able to simply go into the IOCT and download my document. I then cleaned it up a bit in Word (double-line spacing, page numbers, etc) and printed it off.

The final problem that Google docs has allowed me to solve is that I wanted to put my essay I did for my Digital Cultures module on here. I didn't want to simply post it as a blog post, as that would be obscenely long. I also couldn't attach it as a file as Blogger doesn't offer that service. That left me with only the option of having it hosted somewhere else. Thanks to Google docs, I'm able to simply publish it to the web and provide a link.

While I don't plan to use Google docs for everything I do in the future, it's still a very useful tool and will hopefully only get better.

Bonus points if you can tell me how this connects to other sightings

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 49: In Pulp Secret's coverage of New York Comic Con, Jeremy Love describes Bayou as "...a mixture between Alice in Wonderland and the Br'er rabbit stories...".

TED's been talking to me again

So, once again I've been watching various TED talks and there's a couple I'd like to bring to your attention.

The first is Johnny Lee's "Wii remote hacks". While the possibilities he's realised for a (relatively) cheap piece of technology are astounding, what interests me most is the end of his speech, where he talks about how the web has enabled the sharing of his ideas. He mostly talks about online video distribution and YouTube, but it relates to other community/collaborative/web 2.0 technologies that allow for the sharing and development of ideas.



The second features Tod Machover, the creator of Guitar Hero. He talks about his various other projects that bring the ability to create music to anyone. These kinds of projects were something
that we somewhat touched on in my undergraduate music tech course, but taken much further. That part of the course was something that really interested me as it really fully went against the side of the course that encouraged convoluted approaches to music creation that I really didn't enjoy.

It's such a small world

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 46: In the inside front cover of the "author's preferred text" of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, there's a quote from the Minneapolis Star Tribune that describes the book as "A dark contemporary ALICE IN WONDERLAND... Imaginative, well-crafted [and] highly visual".

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 47: In his TED talk, back in February, about finding the true face of Leonardo Da Vinci, Siegried Woldhek shows portraits he's painted. He zooms in on three specific portraits, these are of Audrey Hepburn, Saddam Hussein, and Lewis Carroll. Carroll appears to be taking a picture of Alice Liddell.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 48: I was bored the other day and started stumbling. The first page I came to was two pieces of Alice inspired art by Eva Soulu, apparently for an album entitled "Wonderland" by The Penultimate Truth.

Writing about writing about writing...

So, as some of you will know, I have a fair few blogs. One of these is documenting the development of my major project, currently code-named "Open Words". The idea behind my project is a website that allows users to post various pieces of creative writing and uses various web technologies in order to build and foster a helpful community. This community would allow users to help each other improve their writing.

As my programming/web design/etc. skills aren't very advanced, the project will be focusing on the creative side of things. This means I will mostly be working on designing the various elements rather than implementing them. For example, it will be much more important for me to design (at least conceptually) a set of tools and/or a system that would allow users to easily post and edit various pieces of writing and have other users comment on them, than it would be for me to build a database to store all the pieces/comments.

I came up with this idea after thinking about how I improved my writing. As a member of the Tabcrawler forums, I found the community of helpful users that existed in the Lyrics & Poetry section really helped me improve my pieces when I posted them. As the membership of the forums shrank, I found that the help offered on the forum dwindled (in quality as well as quantity). I also found that the forum, as well as other sites like DeviantArt, didn't work well when posting longer works (even a short piece of prose on DeviantArt is rather unwieldy).

Another thing is that on sites which cover a variety of creative work, I found that writing is often pushed to the back, as visual or audio art is more "immediate" or "accessible". There are some sites dedicated solely to creative writing, but I feel that these don't encourage enough discussion of a piece, or don't allow you to go into a lot of depth easily. Comments are stuck at the end of a piece, meaning that if you want to comment on specific lines, you either have to start referring to "line 33" or whatever, or you have to copy and paste chunks of the text into your comment. Another annoyance is edits of work. If you read a piece and then the writer updates it, how are you to know what they've done? You could be stuck reading it all again, when all they've done is added a full-stop.

Other than trying to create a site which addresses these issues, I'm hoping to build a community that values openness and collaboration. I'll attempt to create the site using open source tools and technologies and I'll encourage users to give their ideas on how to improve/enhance it (and even to help with the programming, if they're so inclined). I'll also encourage users to release their work under Creative Commons licenses. This means that not only can they give each other advice, but they can also share ideas and maybe even things like characters and whole worlds!

Further down the line, I could turn this site into some sort of business. Initially starting off making money via things like advertising and subscriptions, but then moving onto independent publishing of works (or collections of works) from the site. Sort of like a book version of CDbaby. There's probably various other directions it could go that I haven't even thought of yet.

So, if you want a more in-depth look into what I'm doing and how things are progressing, click the link over on the right. I've just started posting my initial ideas/notes on what I plan on doing. After I've finished all that, I'll start posting some of the design mock-ups I've come up with. This should be good. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 45: The Devil's Panties is a comic by Jennie Breeden about various odd things that happen in her life. The comic for the 31st March depicts her sister, Summer, stating that she's "got rocket ships on [her] undies", to which Jennie replies "I've got the Cheshire cat, see?". Jennie then proceeds to accidentally give herself a wedgie.

Edgar Allen's search history

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 44: Early today, I found an image (linked as it's pretty long) on Fukung (a site where people post random funny images) featuring the keyword suggestions given when beginnings of questions are put into Google's experimental search (such as "is it easy to...", "why am I...", and "aren't you..."). When "why is..." is entered, it comes up with "why is a raven like a writing desk?" (as shown in the picture).

It's a different book, I swear...

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 43: I've mentioned before about the "Fables" series by Bill Willingham. I mentioned how various Alice characters are featured in the books, but not Alice herself. I discovered today that this is because she is resident in The Golden Boughs Retirement Village. I found this in Jack of Fables #21, where Alice features prominently as the object of Wicked John's advances. (if she has appeared before in the series, I haven't noticed)

She'll be my final word

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 42: Once again we have a reference coming from the world of goth/alternative/fetish photography. This time, the model Pyretta Blaze in a picture for Devil Doll Photography can be seen dressed as Alice, holding a knife to a white rabbit.