Pseudonymity

I find I work best in the early morning. It's strange but seems to work fairly well assuming I don't grossly underestimate the time and work required or my ink supply. Today's task is from my mass media ethics class and is about...ethics. The case study specifically concerns the creation of shill accounts and their effect on society and the marketplace. I wanted to find some mention of the wikiality that takes place on Wikipedia. I can't be sure how often it takes place, but I would suggest more often than Wikipedians will admit. Perhaps ironically, on the page dealing with criticisms of Wikipedia, including inaccurate and sometimes non-existent sourcing for controversial assertions in articles there are several dead external links. It seems that the North Adams Transcript doesn't keep an active archive. Whoops.

Despite it's many flaws, I still consider Wikipedia a nobel endeavor. I have both admiration and pity for those who spend their freetime editting a free encyclopedia. I'm not sure why they do it. I'm even less sure why toast shows up on the list of most vandalized pages.

In related news, I recently went to a little seminar featuring the creator of wiki technology, Ward Cunningham. It was very interesting.

Packing

I was searching for some misplaced items when I was struck with disappointment. Not for my break, which could be considered disappointing, and came very close to be so, but is currently not considered such by myself, but rather in my family. Yesterday I went to a movie with Chris and he brought some friends to whom I am an acquaintance, which was enjoyable except during the time we lacked direction and the initial awkwardness of being in the house of someone I hardly know. We played Super Smash Brothers, which I am nominal in and will forever remain without such a constitution to support the rigorous training required to meet the skills of such players and I doubt I will ever have peers who are not of that status because who else, and why else, would someone own a Game Cube? Such proficiency is often unimpressive in the knowledge of its requisites, worsened by the un-obscured nature of such sacrifices.
At points, both before and during, we wondered what we should do. It was only because of Kirsten's suggestion that we managed to find anything at all. I find it difficult to entertain at home because of the nature of my family's sanitation. It is quite dismal. My room, which has not been organized in roughly a year, is one of the tidier sections, no doubt because its small size prevents a total saturation of sewage. Aside from that, which people seem to grow accustomed to, to our chagrin, there lies the problem of entertainment, apart from our own antics. But as I was searching I realized that there really is a lot to do here for entertainment. Or rather, there was. An air hockey table, dart board, and foosball table all lie derelict in our "Recreation Room," colloquially adapted to "Rec Room," pronounced (and functioning) as "wreck room". Realizing this made me sad. Luckily, I don't have many friends left here. One of the last ones left today for Russia. I hope the cat lasts another year;it's become a friend, even though it jumps on me and rips my pants. Until I get fleas, it's welcome to sit on my lap and purr.

Whoa. That is weird. Ethan just crawled into the green chair planted firmly in the center of the wreck room and appears to be asleep. I did not see him enter the room; alerted instead by audition. Did he sleep walk to slumber elsewhere? Does he do this often? I have never before witnessed it, but there is a disposition for unconscious oddities in our family. I have been known to sleep with my eyes open (quite painful when they dry out) and reportedly talk and snore, none of which are exclusive to me. I have uncles who have attended late birthday parties, even eating cake, with no recollection, apparently asleep. This claim, however suspect, is often reported at family gatherings. The light is on too. How odd. I don't know when I'll get to sleep, maybe not at all. I'm not ready to go back, or ever really was. I will relent from lamenting. I need to pack...

Here.. sort of.

Of the things I miss from home, one of the greatest would have to be staying up with my sister and watching Conan O'Brian each night. I had a horrible sleep schedule that summer, but my current one is pretty sweet. While fiddling around with Google Video, I found one of the best clips from one of our favorite running gags: Walker Texas Ranger Clips. Check it out. I also really liked the pilot episode for "Everybody Hates Chris." It wasn't that spectacular, but very enjoyable. Flashback narratives have never been my cup of tea.