Monday, April 16, 2007

Hiking in San Diego, CA

I was feeling very buzzed this day because I had just finished climbing my second mountain peak of the day...

9 comments:

literaghost said...

This post looks suspiciously familiar... Have you been re-using photos or reposting, or do you just have a very sharp sense of continuity? ;)
- L. W. (Here's déjà vu to you, sir!)

Michael said...

Hey, what do you know, I did previously post this pict, but then never stopped me before--good thing someone is paying attention ;)

Anonymous said...

I ve seen that pic before, too.
Btw, Michael, something I wanted to tell you since I ve discovered your blog is that someone using screenreader software definitely is not able to distinct quotes from your own writing.
(Which happens to be hard without screenreader sometimes, too.)

Michael said...

Hi Orange,

Sorry for the confusion:

If you see a post that has an author and publication then it is their words:

Like this one

If you see a post that is free of those signifiers then it is my words:

on existentialism

Then if I am putting up links or mixing my words with reproductions of other sources, I will put my words in () .... sort of:

Like this

I hope that helps, as an academic I am sensitive to the need to give credit to people for their writings and I try to make it as obvious as possible--you will also notice that I go to great lengths to signify who refers sources or websites that I first see a source.

Having said that I can also from time to time engage in postmodernist pla(y)giaristic citational fictional writing... like this:

Thanksgiving

I do read many things and view a lot of films (I'm a literature/film professor)... inspiration sometimes strikes and I'm not sure from where :) hopefully I do my best to cite where and how my ideas come to me.

Not because I have any anxiety of authenticity of artistic production, but because I have a need to be authentic in regards to my mundane profession of teaching citational practices to college students.

Orange--I hope that clears all of that up for you somewhat...

Anonymous said...

Thivai, I don't mind you using your own code--just wanted to point to something I have not found acknowledged in the field at all yet--which is the representation of blogs by screenreader software--and which I articulate first in the comments section of your blog because you seem to be mixing up certain code the wildest way. *smile
I have noticed, practices to mark quoted text vary in (academic) blogsphere and I happen to know by some last years job experience that this takes relevant impact on the representation of online content.
Ironically this furthermore feeds certain discourse on backtrackability of authorship of and validity of conline content, too. So.. Just wanted to make sure you know what you are doing. *smirk

See, the former is something I really find important. Try reading your blog with closed eyes and screenreader software and you will know what I am talking about.

-anna.

Michael said...

Orange... I have never heard of, or used, screenreader software... can you enlighten me?

I maintain the blog mostly for my own info/writing/organization needs... that others read it and comment is a bonus... so yeah, my coding and posting is solely for my purposes :)

I like your research project and look forward to hearing more about it...

Anonymous said...

Have you ever thought of how is the web represented to blind people? They use screenreader software that reads loudly website's text. They need linear encoding to make quoted text recognizable for a blind recipient, because all other solutions, like yours, require too much acoustic backup-ing by recipient's brain. Just try it. I'm sure theres open source freeware somewhere. On the screenreader example one can easily and very well show how representation actually follows code.

Michael said...

Orange, to be honest, this has never crossed my mind, and now I'm wondering why ...

Anonymous said...

Thats exactly what was my reaction. Most probably this is because there are no blind people in our immediate social environment.
I had been hired last summer to improve a project's qualitative test method on websites accessability. The whole test process, which is open accessable online, was divided into a quantitative and a qualitative part (which had to be improved last year).
My work included consultance on writing of concept, testing of concept and consultance on further procedure. The project as such was an evaluation of the accessibility of websites that provides a meanwhile quite popular annual award.

Coincidence played on me that the interviewee's disability, who was so kind to assist us in testing our new test method, was blindness.