not to be confused with manna

“Mana is the concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The concept is common to many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian.

In anthropological discourse, mana as a generalized concept has attained a significant amount of interest, often understood as a precursor to formal religion. It has commonly been interpreted as ‘the stuff of which magic is formed’, as well as the substance of which souls are made.

Modern fantasy fiction and computer and role-playing games have adopted mana as a term for magic points—an expendable resource out of which magic users form their magical spells.

Mana should not be confused with the Biblical manna (also spelled mana or mannah) which, according to the Bible (Exodus, chapter 16), provided sustenance for the Israelites. (…)”

via.

..and now it almost is 2009.

I have been out of joint at uni for two semesters to find a basis to continue my studies and–as one of the last mohicaines in Germany these days– write up my M.A. without B.A that is. I will pay my extra longterm student fee for the first time the upcoming semester and for personal reasons it is ok. I have taken my time. Theres more important issues about university fees than me having to pay one semester or two. For ten yrs of education. Hey.. *winks

I never heard anyone complain about one certain paragraph that is included in our university fee reform papers [edit, if its me, pls let me know]. It targets mature students above a certain age, like 50+ or so (I shall actually research taht passage and quote), who in any case must pay 500 Euros extra for each semester they take. Even if its their first take on higher education. Thats a discrimination. But that group obviously had no lobby. [To those not familiar wth the recent historical developments of the constitutional Free Access on Education Germany calls its own, this is about laws changing. And about Germany loosing something I have been proud of--at least of the idea, even if practice hasnt shown some concepts work out in one regard. The trick is to ask why did things not work out. And it rly rly rly makes me sad to face we are on the way to give up something important, step by step--allthough I wholeheartedly give those 700 bucks that upcoming semester will cost me. Now that I can count on that I will be able to pay that fee once or twice.]

ah well.. *heh

I have had so many jobs the past two yrs I shouldnt even mention it and some I wont. A surgery in April this year brought me a completely new titanium spinal disc in my neck which giveth me reason to claim I objectively am cyborg now. :p

email to a friend

(…) if-then relations are elements of a certain part of logics.

‘culture’ is a system of defined if-then relations.

there exists nothinbg that is ‘logical’.

statements can be logically true or false. thats all.

a logic system cn be characterised by what premises are considered to be true.

a premise is a pre-assumption. (…)

So. One thing about SL [Second Life] certainly is, you have musical talents performing live that for one reason or another didn’t make it into RL mainstream. Nothing about not making it into RL mainstream or whatever stream within lifetime (see Aby Warburg, e.g.)–BUT theres amazing talents to discover. AND–it enables folks who can’t afford a live concert in RL to visit live music gigs.Of course you can argue what does one need live music for. I say it enriches some’s lifes. And no–I am not the only one. I can objectify that.

so once I was called brethren

This happened when I posted a report in an online forum about successfully beating a massive spider mite invasion on plants without using azadirachtines and pyrethrine containing insecticids.

I am beginning to concretely think about creating pseudonyms for my contacts in SL [Second Life]. That’s a totally difficult part. What’s in a name. Identity. I have to create a system of meaning that encodes the meanings that those people have for me–to preserve their anonymity, to secure their privacy.

[8:19] You: o btw
[8:20] You: i have written some piece in my blog
[8:20] him: ah
[8:20] You: in december it was
[8:20] him: blog
[8:20] You: you are mentioned there so i thought u d be interested to read it
[8:20] him: i don’t have your blog link
[8:20] You: i give you

IM: [8:21] me: http://orangemcm.wordpress.com/
IM: [8:21] me: http://orangemcm.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/reality-revisited-or-come-in-see-more/

IM: [8:21] him: thanks
IM: [8:22] You: i cook anoither coffee brb
IM: [8:22] him: oh that’s long i’ll read that later xD
IM: [8:22] him: ok i read a little so

IM: [8:26] him: for talking about me you talk about me a lot and some really private stuff, so please never put my name in this blog ,-)
IM: [8:27] him: even if all the people that know us would know who you are talking about
IM: [8:27] him: but that was fun for me to read that
[...]
IM: [8:31] me: dont worry
IM: [8:31] me: i dont name any name there
IM: [8:32] me: i dont name [our home sim]
IM: [8:32] him: yes it’s ok
IM: [8:32] him: :-)

IM: [8.34] me: i share the link to enable the people i write about to interfere
IM: [8:34] me: on whatever way
IM: [8:34] me: comments there
IM: [8:34] me: IM email
IM: [8.34] me: or if there is something somefeels is missing
IM: [8:34] me: or to correct me
IM: [8:34] him: mm ok but i’m to shy to make comments on website
IM: [8:34] me: see?
IM: [8:34] me: yes
IM: [8:35] me: i never do that
IM: [8:35] me: but you could tell me on IM what you think
IM: [8:35] me: even never talk in forums
IM: [8:35] me: if you want
IM: [8:35] him: oh that i could for sure
IM: [8:35] me: like not wanting to find u r name there
IM: [8:35] me: or of you thjink im writing something wrong or so
IM: [8:35] me: well if you say the same things i just read no i don’t
IM: [8:35] me: or of u think u dont want something there at all
IM: [8:36] me: no you can write about me using my name, but not about so personal stuff like what happened to me
IM: [8:36] me: no i wont name anyone
IM: [8:37] him: ah ok
IM: [8:37] me: one name leads to another on the web

IM: [8:37] me: ..but its hard to create pseudonyms for real people :)
IM: [8:37] me: do you have a preference? *smiles
IM: [8:38] me: actually i wont really even name [our home sim] because [...] the term is linked on the net to people
IM: [8:38] me: yes
[...]
IM: [8:38] him: but no i prefer to let you chose a nick for me
IM: [8:39] me: as i wont link my flickr there
IM: [8:39] me: hehe dang. ok. .-)

IM: [8:39] him: ok good

fellow travellers

There is a similarity in between blog rolls and friend lists on SL [Second Life].

Some are stable and some are fluent.

The authors of the former in both online spheres do not remove an entry on their blogrolls or SL friend lists once it is there.

The authors of the latter do remove entries on their blogrolls or SL friend lists.

Over the months that I’ve been away from blogsphere I’ve often wondered about the websites that do still link to my blog over that long time of absence–especially in online terms, which means that one month is longer than one month is.

The blogroll displayed on the left is one of the first blogs I found way back in 2005 when I immersed myself into academic blogsphere whose author kept (and keeps? *smiles) his blogroll fluent.

I felt honoured everytime I clicked there and found I am still linked to–still today.

tnks, man. .-)

from e-learning to s-learning

I’ve been out of joint for a while in here although I have been sneaking in spontaniously from time to time this year. An advantage of taking a break in whatever one does is that once one “is back” one’s perspective on one’s perceptions has changed. Looking back then becomes a productive process of learning.

Something new in academicblogsphereworld to me is the term s-learning I’ve come across few days ago on I can’t remember what row of links I had followed. An eventual reader involved in educational games development may be interested in having a look at Mike Wesch’s attempts: 1, 2.

more mwesch on youtube

I was scanning YouTube for something entirely else when i ran into Mike Wesch’s latest youtube clips today. Not only he has found a brilliant way of introducing himself and the students of his Digital Ethnography class at Kansas State University to their field [Introducing our YouTube Ethnography Project], also a video of his World Simulation seminar is on [part 1, part 2, part 3]. See related Savage Minds entries here and here.

And once you’re there and you haven’t watched it yet, invest a few minutes at Wesch’s Web 2.0 … the machine is us/ing us. Meanwhile a final version has been set up and a growing number of video responses have been uploaded. (27 when I began to write this entry.)

representation follows code.

It will be another post in which I may explore a cluster of thinking I paradoxically am refusing to call myself an advocate of which is the academic reflection of causality–another is ‘constructivism’, and one more is ’relativism’.  My refusal may be rooted in my conviction of radical contextualism’s methodological tools to be _the_ keys to the reconstruction of reality so many academic branches with their approaches and methods are dedicated to. Dunno. Not yet.   

“Have you ever thought of how is the web represented to blind people? They use screenreader software that read loudly website’s text. These need linear encoding to make quoted text recognizable for a blind recipient, because all other solutions, (…) 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.”

Said I here.

.theory follows practice

Theory ontologically follows practice.  

What happens when culture becomes nature and what impact can an ethnography of what is not spoken about possibly take on academic reality?

Will my eigensinnig approach of appropriating the conditions I faced first when having been put to write a proposal in the student project that brought me here [appropriation of prescribed conditions in my case means, doing extensive "preliminary investigation", as CKelty called it, to really be able to present Informed Consent of Participants and being able to write a proposal in which I do know what I am talking about in an adequate way and "them" a little knowing me--instead of in the end being decidedly able to show why practice does not follow theory, which I happen to already know] lead me to great failure because IRBs already are revolutionized once I finish my proposal?

And what does this have to do with cyberpunk?

Fragen über Fragen.