Snark snark snark

...I think I'm becoming "the mouthy one" in my cohort.

This isn't a bad thing, it's always good to have someone who will ask the question that everyone is thinking but no one admits to not knowing, but I was leading the MST3Kanada (credit to Andrew for coming up with that!) during the Graduate Student Orientation today. In my defense, it was all pretty much stuff that people should have learned when they were friggin' APPLYING to be graduate students, and the other SLAIS students in attendance were also bored. Or at least bored enough that they didn't tell us to quit whispering commentary.

They did give us a "Welcome Folder" with some useful information in it, though -- phone numbers and so on. And the Meet and Greet part was fun. I chatted with a Ph.D student who came all the way here from Germany! And I learned from Irina that Russia doesn't have bacon. Or at least it didn't when she was living there, because her first ever bacon was bacon on a plane.

But yes. I might be "the mouthy one". We'll see how long this lasts.

It Came From The Module!

As you may or may not know, my LIBR 500: Foundations of Information Technology is an online course. We get a bunch of slides and links to read and watch, and then we have discussions in the online forum for the class. We need to make at least one "substantive" post per week.

I'm a little over halfway through all of the Module for this week (there is a BUTTLOAD of stuff to read). These were links (either required or optional) that have particularly grabbed my interest so far:

Paleofuture: A History of the Future That Never Was
Basically, it's a blog of what people predicted technology would be like in the future. It's really interesting, seeing where people thought technology was going verses where it has gone.

Obsoleteskills.com
"I don't understand -- what are we "winding" when we "rewind"? It's such a weird word!"

Information R/evolution (Link to YouTube)
This is just really cool. Though if you get motion-sick, some of the shaky-cam might make you queasy.

Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008
This video is over 16 minutes long, but I enjoyed it. I specifically enjoyed the part where he talked about how "media that targets you but doesn't include you might not be worth sitting still for". Considering that's pretty much the basis of my reasoning for refusing to consume media produced by people who poo-poo fanfiction, I was pretty effing thrilled to hear it worded so cleverly.

More links to come, undoubtedly. Enjoy these!